Social Media Marketing – 48 key insights from FIRST

Apr 15, 2014 | Social Media Marketing

Key insights on social media marketing

FIRST on Social Media Marketing

  1. Sales people using social media are achieving and exceeding targets at a greater rate than those who are not, and yet “50.1% of sales people who report using social media state that they spend less than 10% of their selling time on social media.” (Source: forbes.com)
  2. Interesting stat from a CEB survey: B2B brands that connect with their buyers on an emotional level will realise 200% greater “impact” compared to brands that are primarily empathising business or functional value (n=3,000). (Source: b2bmarketinginsider.com)
  3. Is short-form video something that traditional (commercial/pro) video perhaps doesn’t achieve as well? For example showing customers what happens behind-the-scenes? (Source: blog.kissmetrics.com)
  4. The LinkedIn Volunteering Marketplace: An absolutely brilliant idea, thank you LinkedIn for getting this established, what a great use of the platform for the common good of society. (Source: blog.linkedin.com)
  5. Glad to see Yelp making it to our shores. App installed! (Source: stoppres.co.nz)
  6. From comparing Facebook and Twitter revenue, monthly active users (MAUs) and avg rev/user it seems Twitter is lagging behind on the monetisation front (company lifetime adjusted). But the 75% of ad rev from mobile suggests at least that bit is working – cf 53% for Facebook per Q4 earnings report. But then again FB has nearly a Bil mobile MAUs. (Source: qz.com)
  7. Seems entirely logical: “Extraverts much more likely to share on Facebook”. (Source: marketingtechblog.com)
  8. Facebook website and app retargeting has now launched globally via custom audiences – nice. (Source: thenextweb.com)
  9. Facebook’s “Like” button is pressed on average 254,629 times per second every day across the web (Nov 13 stat) (Source: expandedramblings.com)
  10. APAC social network ad spend projected to be $3.60 USD per network user for 2014. Compare that to US (North America) where eMarketer is predicting $32.82 USD per user. (Source: emarketer.com)
  11. Facebook is phasing them out, Google is launching them, but “promoted stories” on Google will work a bit differently: The +Post ads will allow advertisers to showcase things like Hangouts – and distribution is across the entire GDN. (Source: brafton.com)
  12. A recent Infosys survey (n=1,000) has found that more consumers are interacting with retailers on Facebook than on any other platform: “The two websites most commonly selected are Facebook [first], followed by the retailer’s website.” 89% of these consumers have reported that such brand interaction has at least some impact on their purchasing habits. (Source: allanalytics.com)
  13. Dear Princeton University RE: “Facebook will undergo a rapid decline in the coming years, losing 80% of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017”, have you considered Google Trends consumer search volume for “air” has also been declining steadily..? (In fact, our projections show that by the year 2060 there will be no air left) – Love, the Facebook Data Science team. (Source: m.facebook.com)
  14. Find out how Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm ranks your friends for no other reason than to feel l33t. Go you haX0r, you! (Source: thenextweb.com)
  15. Primer on Facebook/Twitter retargeting capabilities. (Source: clickz.com)
  16. Did you know that LinkedIn is now responsible for over 60% of all visits from social media to corporate websites..? (Source: econsultancy.com)
  17. Imagine being able to beef up the profile of your B2B prospects with a psycho-analysis of their intrinsic needs: What motivates them, what they believe and what their fundamental needs are. This goes beyond “sentiment analysis.” (Source: venturebeat.com)
  18. According to its S-1 filing, Twitter’s advertising revenue per timeline view is around 7 times greater for the US compared to its international markets. (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  19. Currently CTR for Facebook FBX newsfeed retargeting is 49x greater than FBX RHS ads..! (Infographic). (Source: mdgadvertising.com)
  20. Interesting to ponder the “shelf life” of video posts on social media. On YouTube the avg. video receives 40% of total views in the first 3 weeks of publishing, 30% in weeks 4-12 and another 30% within 12 months of the publishing date. (Source: marketingland.com)
  21. Is short-form video something that traditional (commercial/pro) video perhaps doesn’t achieve as well? For example showing customers what happens behind-the-scenes? (Source: blog.kissmetrics.com)
  22. Five Vines are tweeted every second, pretty impressive for an app only launched in January. (Source: dashburst.com)
  23. Think you know what LinkedIn is? (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  24. The NSA should possibly think about it’s social media policies with respect to LinkedIn. (Source: techdirt.com)
  25. How will Facebook accelerate usage of graph search? Obviously they need query volume for search ads to attract any real $. Is graph search really the best answer to mobile+local+social? Or is the new Google Maps with strong links to G+ better suited? (Source: searchengineland.com)
  26. Has anyone’s LinkedIn account been enabled with either of these new features as yet: “Who’s viewed your updates” or “You’ve recently visited”…? (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  27. Targeting using Facebook’s Partner Categories based on Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon data. Download the category list in Excel format (scroll down). (Source: ppchero.com)
  28. Creative ways to use Pinterest: Run a campaign to benefit a charity, collaborate with guest pinners (contributor boards) or use it to tell your company’s story. (Source: socialmediaexaminer.com)
  29. Avg. e-com email conversion rates are 4 times better than social. Yet we suspect not many advertisers are using FB retargeting fully. (Source: clickz.com)
  30. Kim Dotcom invented two-step authentication? Patent looks serious enough. How bizarre. (Source: torrentfreak.com)
  31. As of May 10th Facebook Home is only in the top 500 in 19 countries, and not in the top 150 for any. Best ranking: Norway at #191 (App Annie). (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  32. FB newsfeed video ads trial starts in July? So very soon you’ll need to decide if you’ll like X brand, download Y app and watch Z video. And then check in with your friends, that is, if you can find them. (Source: techradar.com)
  33. YouTube Trends Map: See which videos are trending right now in cities across the U.S by shares and views, and filter by age, gender. (Source: youtube.com)
  34. Interesting stat: Instagram got to 100M users faster than Facebook (Zuckerberg). (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  35. Three future use cases for Facebook’s graph search: Sponsored results/query targeting (AdWords-like), display retargeting via FBX and offers/coupons in search results (Kissmetrics). (Source: blog.kissmetrics.com)
  36. Wolfram Alpha analysis of Facebook usage data: Standard population dynamics at play, but nevertheless interesting to see that the older we get, the more we talk about health – and the less we talk about fashion. Would be interesting to see that broken down by nationality. (Source: venturebeat.com)
  37. What 23% of con­tent is pro­duc­ing 66% of daily social engage­ment and 74% of viral reach on Facebook? – Video (Adobe). (Source: blogs.adobe.com)
  38. Absolutely spot on: “Just as inauthentic fans cannot create authentic engagement, neither can inauthentic engagement build authentic brand value. Asking people to spell your brand name one letter a time or share your picture of a vegetable on a unicorn doesn’t spark awareness, consideration, preference or usage.” (Source: experiencetheblog.com)
  39. Twitter keyword targeting in timeline has launched, allowing advertisers to “reach users based on the keywords in their recent Tweets and the Tweets with which users recently engaged.” (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  40. Sponsored search ads twice as trusted as social media brand/company posts; Europeans are more cynical of all types of advertising comms (Forrester, n=58,000). (Source: techcrunsh.com)
  41. Coke: Social media buzz doesn’t drive product sales (60M FB fans). We respect companies that let data dictate digital reality. If you want to drive incremental profit, optimise Search + Email channels, in the context of solid analytics and CRO. (Source: mediabistro.com)
  42. What will you do with Google+ in 2013? Decide now before being left behind. (Source: searchengineland.com)
  43. Interesting insight into LinkedIn’s online, offline and nearline systems infrastructure. (Source: gigaom.com)
  44. Interesting to read that 82 percent of Facebook’s traffic results from just 8 percent of the 240 billion (!) photos in storage. The Pareto Principle is everywhere. (Source: thenextweb.com)
  45. Still not sure about Google+? (Source: searchenginewatch.com)
  46. Certainly a good move on Twitter’s part, they do need revenue other than ads: “Tweeting a hashtagged keyword will make your Twitter account contact your American Express card account and make a purchase.” (Source: searchenginewatch.com)
  47. Got to love a good newsjack. (Source: paidcontent.org)
  48. Have you realised? Memes are naturally inclined to mutate > mutations increase social sharing > purposefully structured messages (that facilitate meme re-mixing) will take advantage of this > Profit. (Source: techcrunsh.com)