Entries Tagged 'Social Networks' ↓

Two of the world’s largest PR agencies - Edelman and Ketchum - have released comprehensive studies that contain numerous insights related to social media and a variety of other worldwide corporate and media trends.

Edelman’s “8th Annual Trust Barometer” takes a global look at corporate trust and credibility. Some of the more interesting findings from my perspective include:

• More people in Brazil, Russia, India and China use social media for company information than here in the states;
• Google is moving up the ranks as one of the most trusted sources for corporate information, right up there with CNN and the BBC;
• Social networks ranks among the lowest in providing credible information about a brand in the minds of most consumers; and,
• young people seem to show higher levels of trust in business than older influential consumers.

Ketchum’s Report, “Media Myths and Realities” focused more on media usage than corporate trust. It’s key findings included:

• the way professionals communicate is out of sync with the way consumers use media;
• communicators need to include focusing on connecting with individuals in addition to mass media channels;
• consumers in emerging markets are setting the pace for media use; and,
• social networking sites lag far behind other established media channels and sites in overall usage by consumers.

It’s good to see these agencies and others including social media analysis in these annual reports.

Mike Spataro

Business Week’s 2008 Customer Service Champs edition contains a variety of interesting rankings, facts and sidebar articles that underscore the new media challenges faced by those in corporate America today. Although we’ve all heard most of these customer service horror stories before, it’s still good to learn about the progress some brands made from last year to now. The trend for many brands to do more is definitely up from last year.

Unfortunately, Business Week plays the scared tactic card again (like many publications have done in the past) in its Consumer Vigilantes piece - profiling angry out-of-control consumers smashing their products to gain attention and rebates. While there is no question that some companies deserve such wrath and need to listen more closely to their customers, the vast majority of brands have exceptional customer service. If you’re in the business of honest measurement of consumer sentiment about brands like we are, then you know most companies do a pretty good job at taking care of their customers. I doubt we really need to constantly profile out-of-control consumers to gain the attention of most brands today.

Business Week was smart though to balance its coverage with a more realistic view from Jeff Jarvis called “Love the Customers Who Hate You,” that points out how and why customer service is fast becoming the new marketing of this century. Lots of others, like John Bell and Pete Blackshaw also offer their views on the new rankings.

Mike Spataro

Michael Dell’s interview with Shel Israel provides a great glimpse inside his company’s strategic approach to social media – a term you almost feel the Dell CEO doesn’t like when you read between the lines of his interview. It’s easy to see why the tech giant has gone from the poster child for not getting the blogging community to among the best in the world at it in just a few short years.

To Michael Dell, it’s all just an extension of his company’s longstanding policy to listen and learn from its customers and detractors. The only difference is it’s now through this new channel on the Web. Rather than steal Shel’s thunder, its better you hop on over to his site for the full interview. My favorite Dell quote from the piece though is, “We don’t own our reputation, we just own our actions.”

And while Dell continues to get a lion’s share of credit for its social media accomplishments, dozens of other brands are doing just as well operating somewhat under the radar and outside the media spotlight. One of those companies is Disney. Even though its been up and running for several months, very few people have noticed or written about the wildly successful Disney Moms Panel of experts who advise people about visiting Disney Parks and Resorts.

I was fortunate in a previous job to work with the PR machine at Disneyland on several major campaigns. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Disney struggled for years with its Web strategy and wasn’t the first to jump into social media. However, a lot has changed over the past year and the Moms Panel is proof positive that change is underway in the land of Mickey. Yes, Disney hand-picked the moms and trained them, but they exercise no editorial control over responses.

The fact that more than 10,000 people volunteered to be one on the panel tells you how powerful social media can be for Disney in the years ahead. It’s hard to imagine a brand that doesn’t have more to gain - or lose - based on how it addresses the new challenges of communicating with its customers online. Keep in mind, this is a brand that has a history dating back to Walt himself of controlling every single item of what has been published about its global company and image, so getting used to giving up some of that message control is definitely a bit scary. Look for more good things from the folks at Disney this year.

Mike Spataro

The good people over at PRWeek provided me with an opportunity to discuss the 2008 social media landscape in a piece published this week called “Social Media’s Impact Still Growing.” (subscription required). Full text below, and comments are always welcomed.

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This is shaping up to be another banner year for social media and a good time for everyone in marketing and PR to pay a lot closer attention to this fast evolving medium - if you aren’t already. Social media, loosely defined as consumers creating and sharing content and information online, exploded in 2007. If you’ve been waiting for this trend to go away, you’re going to have a very long wait.

Social media is now appearing in every aspect of society and form of media we consume today. Flip on the TV to the latest presidential debate and networked voters on YouTube ask questions along with Wolf Blitzer and instantaneously share their opinions across the Web. Click onto USAToday.com and reader reactions to breaking news are displayed in the header with as much prominence as stories written by veteran journalists.

There is little question anymore that social media impacts the news industry. A recent Brodeur study found that 75% of journalists say blogs and other forms of social media help shape editorial coverage. Mainstream media organizations are redefining the way they provide value in this fragmented media landscape by smartly combining citizen perspectives with their trusted brand of journalism.

Social media also permeates every corner of the Internet - not just in the well-known communities of Facebook and MySpace, where a combined 500,000 people join those two sites alone each day. A recent study concluded that 70% of Americans 15-34 are actively involved in some form of social networks. When you consider that only one-sixth of the world’s population is online today, it’s easy to see that social media is really in its infancy.

This global trend has not escaped the attention of forward-thinking companies, many of which are now listening and learning from people around the world. Over the past year, more brands began shifting some of their marketing communications and research priorities to focus on this area. It’s not just lip service.

“The rise of social media is causing companies to rethink how they allocate marketing dollars,” says Jeff Zabin, research fellow at Aberdeen Group, who also predicts that social media is quickly moving from the “fringe to the center.” Consumers are freely providing brands with an endless source of insights about their products, customer service, and competitors. Savvy marketers are identifying where customers and influencers intersect on the Web and are quickly improving their ability to listen, learn and participate. Richard Feinberg, director of the Center for Customer-Driven Quality at Purdue University hit the nail on the head when he recently stated, “Businesses that don’t participate are going to be left behind.”

The quickest way to keep pace is to be part of the communities that mean the most to your brand or clients. The PR industry’s heritage in earning coverage instead of paying for placements give it a leg up in winning the trust of a new generation of influencers.

The time is more than right to make social media a strategic priority in 2008 by elevating its importance within your organization, listening a lot closer to what’s going on and what’s being said, educating your employees, and measuring the impact of social media on your brand.

Mike Spataro

It’s always nice to have your company recognized by industry peers. More importantly, it further validates the business path we’ve chosen to take here at Visible Technologies. Being named this week by AlwaysOn as one of The OnMedia Top 100 companies of the year really underscores the great work by our management team and our TruCast, TruView and 1st Query product teams. Some of the previous winners have gone on to accomplish great things and we hope to keep that trend going in 2008 and beyond.

More important than winning awards though is the undeniable momentum around social media within the advertising community. Here are just a few of the interesting items discussed during the opening sessions of this week’s event:

• social media was labeled as the #1 area that will impact the media industry in 2008, even ahead of online advertising. And this was from a survey of executives in the advertising and media industry.
• the majority of advertising people surveyed say they still don’t know how to make social media fit within their media plans. No real surprise there. Many of them are still struggling with the whole concept of social media because they are looking at the business from strictly an old school advertising mindset.
• the Web now has about 30% of U.S. consumers eyeballs, but only 6.8% of ad spending. Expect that gap to continue for several more years before advertisers really catch up.
• Most Gen Y’ers are consuming more than 60% of content produced by someone they already know. This is obviously another impact of the social networks they belong to.

There are still plenty of sessions underway today and tomorrow that are being blogged and can be accessed via live chat and webcasts in case you want to drop in and check some of them out.

Mike Spataro