Paul Gillin's List: Social Media Research

• This year's forecast includes a B2B category that consists of business services -- like accounting firms, consultancies, and agencies, as well as the business trade elements of all other industries, like marketing between a manufacturer and resellers. This category will stay at about 9% of the overall interactive pie over the next five years, growing from $2.3 billion today to $4.8 billion in 2014 as B2B marketers adopt emerging media and improve the sophistication of existing efforts.

• What will happen when these consumer experiences are much more interesting than anything your marketers have put up on the Web?
• Smirnoff used the viral-video marketing vehicle Tea Partay to promote its Raw Tea product. The campaign was a hit on YouTube.
• Remember, though, that there really aren’t any best practices or established business models yet. For now, companies just need to get some experience—and quickly.
• Consider the way GlaxoSmithKline handled the growing consumer confusion and concern surrounding the side effects of its mass-market over-the-counter weight-loss drug Alli. The company confronted the problem directly by setting up the My Alli community site, which includes active forums, videos, FAQs, a membership plan to aid weight loss, interactive diet tools, information on diet and support groups, cobranding, links to partners (eDiets for home meals, links to Alli retailers), and a sweepstakes tie-in to TV and print advertising campaigns. This approach allows the company to address consumers in a direct, nonthreatening way and to use basic Web 2.0 features that wrap these messages in a warm and supportive experience.

2 more annotations...

• More than three-quarters of marketers surveyed said they will increase their social media spending during the next three years, according to Eloqua's "State of the Marketer" report. A full 74% said they plan to increase their direct e-mail spending while about two-thirds will spend more on mobile texting and SMS.

• EMARKETER IS FORECASTING U.S. ONLINE ad spending to reach almost $28 billion in 2008--with the market buoyed by the presidential election and the Beijing Olympics, among other factors. That's up nearly 29% from this year.
• Social media was a major focus for U.S. advertisers in 2007, and eMarketer is pegging that trend to continue, with spending on social networks slated to top $1.5 billion in 2008. According to Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer senior analyst, that 163% jump from last year's $920 million will not be solely focused on ads on sites like MySpace or Facebook.

• social media market spending
  
  
  - Paul Gillin on 2008-01-03

• Merrill Lynch predicts overall ad spending in the U.S. for 2008 will grow 2.3%, while the portion of that spending on the Web will increase 18%. Publicis Groupe's ZenithOptimedia says it expects the amount spent on Internet advertising to overtake spending on radio in 2008, and spending on magazines in 2010.

• Development #1: Advertising agency McKinney, eschewing the conventional corporate holiday card mailing, "incarerates" 24-year-old production coordinator Ben  Eckerson in a snowglobe. (12/13)

    

  Why It Matters: The snowglobe was one of the most innovative B2B viral marketing campaigns ever. In addition to creating a solid social media-optimized campaign (live video feed, Facebook page, MySpace page, blog, social bookmark links, online store) McKinney leveraged the opportunity to create an HR bonanza, linking to "Jobs At McKinney" on every page. In its third day, CBS' Early Show picked up on the story.
  

    

  Business Value: By using a lot of creativity and an even measure of social media to optimize a seemingly mundane corporate communications platform, the holiday card, McKinney made national news, dozens of blogs, and likely netted a few really creative young hires. I'll check in with them in 60 days to see if that part worked.

• Development #4: Pligg prepares the launch of Fraxi, a product that allows people to set up quick Digg-like social news aggregators, much like Ning allows users to set up social networks in minutes. (12/19)
   

   

  Business Value: Brands that aren't very tech-savvy will be able to set up vertical specific news-sites and enable community interaction, without overhauling their entire website.
  

    

  Actionable: Talk to your team about how current conversational portals are doing on your site, in terms of engagement, and see if installing something like Fraxi could increase that level of engagement.

• Development #5: Pew releases a Teens and Social Media study, updating their 2005 teen content creators study and releasing technographics data that will have a big impact.  (12/27)

      

  Why It Matters: Nearly 2/3 of all online teens in 2007 engage in content creation, and that number is up from 57% in 2004. The study also highlights some key gender differences (girls are 14% more likely to blog than boys, and also 14% more likely to post online photos)

    

  Business Value: While this news is not exactly earth-shattering, given the proliferation of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and related content platforms, seeing the numbers behind the hunches makes tactical decisions easier for marketers.
  

    

  Actionable: Tailor marketing programs that touch teen stakeholders to be in line with this technographic data.

1 more annotation...

• Snowglobe holiday card
  
  
  - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-28

• About 44% of US consumers will use social networking at least once a month. Although MySpace and Facebook will continue to dominate the market, changes are afoot that will extend social networking activities beyond a single destination site and into many other facets of the consumer Internet experience.

• - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-27
• 
  About 44% of US consumers will use social networking at
  least once a month. Although MySpace and Facebook will continue to dominate the
  market, changes are afoot that will extend social networking activities beyond
  a single destination site and into many other facets of the consumer Internet
  experience. - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-27

• Figures from market research firm Strategy Analytics show that one billion people around the world will be signed up to social media websites come 2012. - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-26

• eMarketer projects that, in 2007, 66 million adults will have shared advice about products and services and 27 million will exert influence online.

• - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-19
• - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-19

• "Consumers in the BRIC countries are  tech-savvy, they are accessing more mobile media and they deem media  outlets to be more credible than do their U.S. counterparts. As more  corporations operate globally, communicators must be aware of these  differences." Furthermore, overall media consumption in the BRIC  countries is heavier than in the U.S., and BRIC consumers generally  rate media sources higher in credibility than do U.S. consumers.
• The study reveals  that 22 percent of U.S. consumers use social networking sites, up from  17 percent in 2006, and 19 percent of consumers use blogs, up from 13  percent. Among consumers over the age of 55, use of blogs and social  networking sites more than doubled. At the same time, use of most other  media outlets slipped from a year earlier.
• Treat audiences as groupings of individuals rather than faceless  masses.
• A company's own Web site should not be the primary choice when  communicating to stakeholders.

2 more annotations...

• eMarketer says that 32% of online adults use social networks at least once a month and that the figure will grow to nearly 50% by 2011. Among teens, usage is already well over half and will near 85% by 2011. Social nets clearly offer a level of connection that conventional news and information sites don't.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Allan Cattier, Director of the
  Academic Technology Group at Emory University gave a mind-blowing
  statistic in his presentation to the Communintelligence Executing Social Media conference
  in Atlanta last month. He said Emory had surveyed its freshman class
  and found that more than 80% of the students log on to Facebook 18 or more times a day. Imagine how our institutions will be shaped by this trend in coming years. He also showed a compelling video
  called "A Vision of Students Today" created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University. See below.
  
  
  
  
  - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-17
• 
  
  - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-17

• 
  
  - Paul Gillin on 2007-12-11