Facebook is Not The Only Social Network

A lot of brands are focusing on Facebook as the primary social media channel to expend their marketing efforts and budgets on. While this is good, unfortunately it may not be offering the golden hope of social media marketing results they were hoping for. For brands that cross multiple market segments (consumer products like Adidas, MacDonald’s or Apple) this investment in a single channel may be good. But even for Adidas, they may find it more valuable to engage in social networks where their true audience is.

Some marketers may groan at this further fracturing of the budget and resource allocation and the need for a whole new set of metrics, specific content and creative that will be needed. But it could be crucial and Facebook efforts may be a good “catch-all” to re-direct consumers to more focused social networks. In our research over the past year we’ve found that in 2011 there has been a CAGR 37% increase in the rise and use of specialized social networks over the last two years – combined. This is significant.

If you’re a golfer, mom of teen kids, cruise ship enthusiast, eco-tourist, sailing aficionado, hunter or any other form of hobby passion, then you are likely spending less and less time in Facebook and more time in a social network aimed at your passion/interest. And we expect this trend to continue. If you’re thinking that Facebook Pages, Groups etc., is the answer to this dilemma, sorry, that’s not the case. Our findings also showed that when we compared a social network for golfers, hunters, sailors, knitting, running, cycling and mom issues, the comparable Facebook Group (that with the most “likes” and followers) had less than 3% of the members in a specific closed social network targeting those communities. The most popular platform for these communities outside of Facebook is Ning – not exactly an easy channel for marketers to engage in.

If you’re product or service is focused on a specific niche or segment, our recommendation would be to expend your budget and efforts there. Setting up a Facebook page is a good move, to capture eyeballs and direct them to the channel where the real conversations are taking place. Another part of our findings showed people in niche social networks are 43% more active than on a Facebook group page.

If you’re a small manufacturer or service, find where your market is really hanging out, you’ll become more engaged, improve customer feedback and loyalty and likely get a better return.

(Image Courtesy: Lori Grieg via Flickr)

The Chatty Caribbean, Naturally

Anyone who’s spent time in the Caribbean knows that the people of those splendid islands are friendly, generous of spirit, kind and very social. We recently worked on several research projects for consumer product companies looking to understand the online nature of people in the Caribbean as they developed marketing strategies. We were impressed with their online presence and the volume of chatter.

Perhaps it is natural that the more “social” a culture is that this nature should translate well into Cyburbia? It certainly does in the Caribbean. According to CARICOM (a great organization helping foster development in the Caribbean) there are just over 10 Million people online in the region or roughly 24% of the population. Facebook data indicates about 4 million online or 42% of the online population. Not bad.

Here’s some of our findings on social media use in the Caribbean;

Age Groups & Gender
The 20-39 range is the most active in social media channels. This is trending lower than the US, Canada and South America where we actually see the 30-49 segment more active overall. In North America professionals are also more active than in the Caribbean, although business discussions do feature prominently. It would seem to be almost equal with females edging just slightly above males, similar to other parts of the world.

Top Social Networks in the Caribbean
Facebook doesn’t lead the way yet, but no doubt will at some point. Or perhaps not. One thing we noticed about content in social media channels in the Caribbean is that they love to share music, video and photo’s, especially that which they’ve created themselves. Facebook doesn’t allow for much “creativity” with it’s pages like some of the social networks in the Caribbean do. Ranking is based on number of members, mentions in news and social media channels and Alexa rank.

Key Topics
Seems like Caribbean folks love to talk about dating and romance. Music closely followed discussions on dating and romance and slipping in at third place is politics. They love to discuss politics within their own countries, the Caribbean as a whole and then global issues. Travel was mostly amongst the various islands but also to other countries, most notably the US, Africa and UK.

Most Active in Social Media
Here we looked at which of the primary countries is most active in social media. We factored in overall population, Internet penetration and adjusted accordingly. The Bahamas leads the way followed by Jamaica and then Trinidad & Tobego. We did not include Cuba in this research.

Summary
The Caribbean overall represents a small market compared to the US or Europe, but when it comes to being online, they are increasingly engaged. Social media usage has only really taken off in the last two years, but they are catching up quickly. Twitter is increasingly popular and they love to blog, create and share videos and images. This is a very expressive and passionate part of the world. Median incomes are rising and there is a growing middle class meaning business opportunities will only increase for marketers. The mobile market is growing rapidly in the Caribbean as well and the people are an increasingly sophisticated market. Any marketers who think otherwise will be making a costly mistake.

Research Notes & Copyright:

The data reported here is approved for release by the respective clients and is in aggregate form. In our research we do not look at the profiles of individuals and we do not report on personal information to clients nor do we collect and store any. Information was collected using our proprietary technology, MS360 and validated by analysts and third party services. Information is subject to change and was considered accurate at the time of the creation of the work product. Data and information herein is copyright MediaBadger Public Affairs Ltd. (Canada) and MediaBadger Ltd. (UK). Please attribute ownership if using the information herein. Further information can be obtained by contacting us.

Are Behavior Awards Effective in Social Media Marketing?

I haven’t seen much evidence of success in three years of developing strategies and research for clients across a number of sectors. Yet it seems to still be happening – Huffington Post today is riding the FourSquare hockey stick upcurve of success; they’re giving out “badges” for good behaviour.

Are we secretly craving that return to elementary school days and getting those gold stars for good behaviour? Perhaps deep in our psyche we are. Or not.

Our attention for media channels is so fractured today. It would appear that when a new app comes out (i.e. Twitter) and begins an ascendancy in popularity, other Web services jump on to attempt to cash in – the halo effect.

But what are the expected and acceptable returns? A 2% uptick in traffic? Direct Mail campaigns are considered successful with a 2% return, 3% is knocking it out of the ballpark. Email campaigns have slid down to the 2% mark for a success metric.

Microblogging service Plurk gives you “Karma points” for building friends and engaging in conversation. Plurk has failed to garner the traffic and growth of Twitter. By a long-shot. I don’t know about you, but I have enough trouble managing my karma as it is without someone else messing with it.

While I see increased use of FourSquare and Yelp, they too rely on rewarding you for activity. The simple reason is creating loyalty since the more eyeballs and activity increases the value of the ads sold on the site. But is it sustainable? Games like Mafia Wars and Farmville are but fads.

The question is, will loyalty marketing behavioral promotions be effective? Modifying peoples behaviour through marketing techniques is never easy and often a losing proposition.

(Author: G. Crouch, MD)

Will Social Media Kill Marketing As We Know It?

One of Canada’s top marketing minds, Mitch Joel, rightly asks that if the big companies and marketers have truly delved into the Social Media sphere, then is Social Media dead?

I wonder if perhaps the reverse is more true? Is marketing dying as a result of Social Media? Let’s face it, marketers walk an uneasy line of stretching the truth and so it’s no wonder that only 14% of people trust advertisements. As marketers, we’ve gone and shot ourselves in the foot.

Social Media is a ray of sunshine into media channels previously controlled by gatekeepers (editors, journalists, broadcast network owners)…and don’t they say sunshine is the ultimate disinfectant?

Each company that has waded into Social Media channels with a heavyweight or heavyhanded approach has suffered; Motrin, Nestle with Facebook (just this past week!), JetBlue, Rogers and so on.

It’s still far, far too early to make any concrete predictions when it comes to Social Media (no one is truly an expert yet in this space) and perhaps all we can say is that it will change. Quite significantly. People are only just finding their voices.

I suspect Social Media will thrive, while it is marketers (I’ve been one for nearly 20 years) will be the ones to suffer and businesses will adapt in whole new ways. Eventually. In the meantime, it’s going to be a rocky road…

What do you think?

(Author: Giles Crouch)

What We Aren’t Buying in Social Media

I had the pleasure of being right in the thick of the first Internet bubble from 1995-2001 and lived through the implosion, even building a small .com and selling it off a few months later. They were heady days. Flying all over creation raising capital and so on.

We made bold statements then. Such as “we’re the leader in…” or “we’re the leading global provider of…” and “world leader of…” or “market leading…” says who? Is there an international organization that carries little gold crowns around and anoints your company saying “thou art now the global leader in…” while the clouds roil and thunder strikes shivers of terror into your competitors? No. There isn’t.

Anyone can write these statements, hey, I did, back in the day. But then it was the pioneer days of the Web. There were so few competitors so if you had three clients, well, you pretty much were the leader. Especially if they were paying clients!

I saw a new social media consulting company that launched a few days ago, I won’t mention the name. The first statement on their site was “…is the leading provider of social media marketing worldwide…” I’m impressed. Only in business a week or so and already the leader. And points for gumption in putting themselves on a timeline of social media as the next big thing…wait, I thought they were already the leader. A VC friend of mine once said “those who have earned the title seldom, if ever, have to use it.” Kind of like silly marketing statements.

I write this blog entry because the more research we do on the social web, the more we see that citizens engaged in social media don’t buy these messages anymore. Stating your “world leader in…” goes along with other inane marketing statements like “best deal in town” or “your only chance to save” they’re tired and us marketers are to blame for it. Blogger and PR pro Sasha Halima offers some great insights into similar such failures. As consumers, these statements today cause suspicion, not conviction. If you’re going to make such a statement, you’d better have proof.

What do you think? What other inane marketing statements are there that drive you nuts?

(Author: G. Crouch, Managing Director of the global market leading authority and provider of …oh, never mind…)