Visible Technologies Social Media Monitoring Blog

I’ve been reading and participating in Forrester “Wave” reports for years and it’s always interesting to see how people react to the vendor technology evaluations in these reports. Sure, it’s always great to be selected as one of the companies to participate and we are certainly thrilled to continue to be ranked as one of the top providers in the industry, but for me the real value of the Wave Report goes far beyond which companies were named “Leaders” and “Strong Performers.”

The inside information and trend data collected and synthesized by the lead analyst, in this case the extremely knowledgeable Zach Hofer-Shall, is usually as valuable, if not more, than designated vendor bragging rights for the next 12 months. You’ll see all kinds of online discussion and buzz about the report, but virtually none of it will be about the key industry insights and trends highlighted by Zach and his research team. With that in mind, here are a few of the key takeaways that I found most interesting:

• the emergence of social media is helping companies transition from “Brand Listening” to “Social Intelligence,” the concept of informing marketing and business decisions with insights from social media conversations and data;
• the industry remains still very much in relative infancy and will continue to be challenged even more in the future by the ever-moving target of new social media communities, technologies and shifting online consumer behavior;
• the demand for improved text analytics and sentiment analysis accuracy will rapidly escalate in importance as social intelligence continues to infiltrate every aspect of a company’s operations;
• social business insights is fast becoming an enterprise-wide discipline and is no longer being driven mostly by only the marketing and communications departments; and,
• the winners and losers in this space will have nothing to do with how big a name they are or how much money they spend. Technology innovation combined with smart people and services will be the real winners.

As always, we welcome your comments on the industry and the “Wave” report, a complimentary copy of which you can download from our site.

Mike Spataro

This latest report from comScore, Inc. not only shows the surging popularity of social networking on mobile devices, it also reinforces the idea that social is becoming more and more intertwined into our daily lives and activities. With the release of Apple’s iPhone 4, and an ever growing list of competing products, these numbers are sure to continue to grow. Continue reading to learn about the top activities these new internet devices are being used for everyday.

comScore, Inc. recently released a report on the fastest-growing mobile application and browser content categories based on data from its MobiLens service. The report found that social networking led as the top-gaining category for both application and browser access, confirming the surging popularity of this service on mobile devices. The study also found that accessing Bank Accounts was one of the fastest-gaining categories via both app and browser, as the convenience of mobile banking continues to appeal to a growing number of consumers.

“With mobile media consumption on the rise, the discussion of how consumers are accessing content — whether it is via application, browser or both — continues to be an important factor for companies looking to invest further in their mobile brands,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “Although application access is clearly on the rise, with several categories more than doubling their audience via this method, content consumption via browser continues to be the most popular method for Americans to access mobile media.”

Smartphone Users Post Triple-Digit Growth in App and Browser Access
In terms of penetration, 78 percent of smartphone users accessed their browser in April 2010, while 80 percent of smartphone users accessed applications. In comparison, just 19 percent of feature phone users accessed their browser, with 17 percent accessing applications. Although smartphone users are driving growth in browser (up 111 percent in the past year) and application (up 112 percent) access, feature phone users still make up nearly half of all users accessing mobile browsers and apps.

“Although growth in application usage on smartphones continues to grab the spotlight in the mobile market, the audience using their mobile browser remains larger and is growing just as quickly,” added Donovan. “Brands need to remember to take into consideration the user experience across both channels when building their mobile strategies.”

*comScore defines smartphones as a mobile device with the following operating systems: RIM, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Palm, Symbian

Social Networking App Audience More Than Triples in Past Year
In April 2010, 69.6 million mobile users accessed an application on their phone, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year. Several application categories experienced triple-digit growth in the past year, emphasizing the increasing popularity of this method as a form of mobile content access. Social Networking experienced the strongest growth in app access, increasing 240 percent to 14.5 million users. Accessing News apps followed, growing 124 percent to 9.3 million users, while Sports Information apps experienced a 113-percent surge to nearly 7.7 million users. Bank Accounts apps also more than doubled their audience, growing to nearly 5 million users in April.

More Americans Still Use their Browser versus Applications
Nearly 73 million mobile users accessed their browser in April, an increase of 31 percent from the previous year. Mirroring application category growth, Social Networking ranked as the fastest-growing category accessed via browser, growing 90 percent from the previous year to reach almost 30 million users, followed by Bank Accounts (69 percent to 13.2 million users). Online Retail sites also experienced a significant increase in audience usage via browser, increasing 47 percent to 7.3 million users, as Americans continued to show adoption of the mobile retail channel.

Donovan continued, “Social networking is by far the fastest-growing mobile activity right now. With 20 percent of mobile users now accessing social networking sites via their phone, we expect to see both application and browser usage continuing to drive future consumption of social media.”

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies

An interesting report on social marketing to the Hispanic market care of friends at Hispanic PR Blog, Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA). The guide features best practices and some great discussions for leading voices about current and upcoming trends related to Hispanic social media and marketing.

I know most of the clients that we work with are continuing to optimize and expand their best practices for listening and scaling engagement for English Social Business initiatives but adding Spanish to the mix is a key based on US  demographics and an important ingredient for most Fortune 1000 brands that operate in the US.

Download the report here.

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies

Social media has exploded in recent years and many brands are realizing that this is business critical for many parts of their organization. While taking the initial ‘plunge’ into social media is not difficult, enterprise adoption, success and ROI calculation can only be achieved with proper planning, deployment, and careful measurement.

Today, Visible Technologies is proud to announce our road show series, “Achieving Enterprise Social Media Readiness and ROI.” Join us as we bring together enterprise 2.0 thought leaders to provide insights on how companies can leverage social media conversations to positively shift brand perception, increase sales and strengthen customer relationships.

We will also be taking this opportunity to present a new social media ROI calculator to help brands effectively achieve and measure success with social investments.

I will be joined by Esteban Kolsky, principal and founder of ThinkJar LLC and former Gartner Research director, as well as industry pundits and leading brands at each city location.

The road show kicks off in Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 2 and will be followed by stops in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. To register and see full schedule/specific locations, please visit our events page.

Take advantage of this opportunity to learn from fellow marketers and hear from leading experts on best practices and ways to more effectively measure social media success.

Space is limited, sign up today!

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies

Last week at the SMASH Summit, Altimeter Group partner and friend of Visible Technologies Jeremiah Owyang delivered a compelling presentation: “Four Laws of Social Business.” While he introduced the four laws with the caveat that they are not the final word in social business, we believe he introduced helpful, actionable rules to the burgeoning social business frontier.

Before discussing Jeremiah’s exact rules of engagement, it’s important to remember why these rules have even come about and why it is increasingly important to incorporate social media into a sound enterprise strategy. More and more people are networking online – meaning many of their opinions, complements and concerns about brands are available for the public to see.

Businesses that have not yet taken advantage of the new media should enter the space thoughtfully, yet earnestly: discovering where customers spend time, listening to consumer feedback and joining in practical and transparent ways. For many companies that are new to social media, this task may seem daunting and confusing, however taking the time to understand how to implement can be well worth the investment. Organizations that embrace social media can positively impact business results and improve brand reputation. Jeremiah provides some well thought out rules of engagement for companies that are looking into making their business more social.

Here is a snapshot of Jeremiah’s list (which you can also find on the SMASH Summit SlideShare page) and a few thoughts on our perspective.

Four Laws of Social Business

“Don’t fondle the hammer – Build a sturdy house – isn’t that the goal? Jeremiah recommends starting off with a blueprint of the overall enterprise goals, not just the social networking platforms you or your CEO wants to have a presence on.”

Visible Technologies’ take: Understanding your social media objectives is essential to driving positive business results. Finding out where your target audience resides online and agreeing on your social media goals beyond ‘just being there,’ will help you achieve the social ROI you’re looking for.

“Live by the 80% rule – Jeremiah advises to spend the majority of your time (80%) getting your company ready to incorporate social into the greater business structure. Figure out where it will be situated within the company, who will be creating and implementing these strategies and what kind of resources they need to succeed with social – then use the remaining 20% of your time to research and implement social media tools.

Visible Technologies’ take: Social media solutions are important (after all, we do offer the truCAST suite – shameless plug) but creating a targeted, relevant social media strategy and figuring out stakeholders will guide your organization and deliver more business value in the long run.

Customers don’t care about your department – Different companies have social media interaction living in various departments, but at the end of the day, customers want to hear your united voice.

Visible Technologies’ take: Social media is an extension of your brand and our customers are seeing success by uniting social media at an enterprise level. It is about having a holistic social strategy across business divisions that are touching the same audience.

Real time is *not* fast enough – Jeremiah agrees that reactionary PR is important – especially in times of crisis – but incorporating social in your overall business plans gives your company the opportunity to think ahead, putting you one step ahead of the competition.

Visible Technologies’ take: Your audience is talking about you online – shouldn’t you be there? If you’re still not sure where to start, our team can help guide you through the wild world of social.

I would add one more to Jeremiah’s list  and that would be to understand the total cost of being a social business. By that I mean comprehending and calculating the cost of people, process, and technology investments to capture social insights, digest them and interact with those same consumers that are talking about your brand. Separating social noise from actionable insights requires good data, enriched data, and business intelligence that one’s organization can take action upon. If one is spending all their time drinking from a firehose of unstructured or non-actionable data then it can quickly overwhelm and denigrate the valuable insights and passionate customers that you should be interacting with. Plan and invest according to scale and generate success for the firm.

You can find more stellar social media advice on Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy blog. Is anything missing from these five laws?

Blake Cahill
Visible Technologies