5 Habits of Unsuccessful Brands in Digital

Digital has fundamentally changed marketing, which means brands need to evolve their strategies to keep up.

What a $4 Mil. Super Bowl Ad Could Buy in Digital

TV ads during the Super Bowl are expensive: $4 million for 30 seconds of media,

Infusionsoft buys GroSocial to boost social media marketing presence

Infusionsoft is upping its game in social media marketing with the purchase of GroSocial and plans to integrate the platform with its small-business offerings.

The Web In 2012 - Numbers

Just in case you hadn't seen this latest report from Royal Pingdon - here is the link
http://royal.pingdom.com/2013/01/16/internet-2012-in-numbers/

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Facebook Graph Search: What it means for Google, Microsoft and business users

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg treated the world to a sneak peek at the work his firm has been doing to overhaul the way people search for information on the site last night.

During a launch event in California,Zuckerberg showed off a beta version of the site’s new Graph Search service, which will draw on the masses of data people post on the site to give users more personalised search results.

The service will expand Facebook's existing search capabilities – which let members search for people, places and fan pages – by allowing them to submit strings of queries that can be used to delve deeper into their friends' interests, photos and checked-in places.

Members can use the tool to find photos from a specific date, search for connections who like the same films as them or scour the site for friends of friends that could be single, for example.

There’s more content that we haven’t got to yet than we have.

The capability will be rolled out to “hundreds of thousands” of the firm’s one billion users during the beta testing phase, which kicked off yesterday, and will initially focus on returning results relating to people, places, interests and photos.

What it means for Google
Zuckerberg was keen to stress that Graph Search was not the same as web search, and that he didn’t expect people to start coming to Facebook to use it in that way.

Any queries Graph Search cannot answer will be handed over to Microsoft’s Bing search engine to deal with.

As time goes on, Zuckerberg’s plan is to include people’s posts, but – as he points out – that will take time to come off because of the vast amounts of data Facebook’s developers will have to sift through first.

“It will take years to index the whole map of [all our users’ data]. There’s more content that we haven’t got to yet than we have,” he said.

At the moment, there’s no firm roll out date for the service. But, when it does eventually drop, it has the potential to seriously shake up the search market, and could benefit business users in several ways, too.

This may have been an attempt by the CEO to dampen down pre-event speculation that Facebook was planning to launch a standalone search engine that would directly pit it against Google.

But, thanks to Facebook’s technology tie-up with Bing, it’s a scenario that has the potential to play out in this way, despite Zuckerberg’s protestations.

“That isn't the intent...But [if] you can't find what you're looking for, it's really nice to have [Bing]," he said.

For Google, the launch of Graph Search could be far more disruptive to its business than it first appears.

If Facebook users type in a string, such as “Find restaurants where my friends eat in London”, they’ll be presented with a list of places their connections have recently checked-in at and recommended.

A similar search on Google would generate a list of London restaurants, but – unless they’ve eaten there before or heard good things from a friend or colleague – users will be flying blind.

Given the value people place in the recommendations of friends, users may – over time – become more inclined to rely on a Facebook search to find things to do than a Google one. Especially if it means they don’t have to leave the site.

This could be a troubling development for Google, which has been striving to provide users of its Google+ social networking site with a more personalised web search experience for some time.

What Google has in its favour is that it already has the information (and possibly the algorithms) needed to deliver this, but the Google+ user base is nowhere near as large as Facebook’s.

One way Google could make Graph Search work for it is by teaming up with Facebook in the same way Microsoft has. This is an idea Zuckerberg has entertained, but he suggested the firm couldn't agree on privacy terms with the web giant.

“I’d love to work with Google...[because] we want to make search social [and more open] in general," he added.

What it means for Microsoft

There’s no denying that Facebook’s partnership with Bing could be the shot in the arm Microsoft’s search engine needs, as it has trailed behind Google and Yahoo since its launch.

According to data from internet market analyst NetMarketShare, Google currently holds more than 83 per cent of the global search engine market for desktop devices. Yahoo is in second place with a shade over 8 per cent, while Bing is third with 4.6 per cent. 

I'd love to work with Google.

On top of this, a report on US news site Daily Caller recently claimed that Microsoft is losing $2billion a year on Bing. The Facebook connection could help the firm staunch some of these losses by sending more traffic Bing's way.

This all largely depends on how long the Facebook-Microsoft partnership is forecast to last for and if the site never does manage to resolve its apparent privacy issues with Google.

At last night’s event, it wasn’t made explicitly clear if Facebook plans to make Bing a permanent part of its search service or rely on it to plug the gaps until it has the data needed to do that itself.

If it is a relatively short-term thing, it certainly won’t do the Bing brand any harm to be closely associated with the world’s largest social networking site. It could also provide it with a stay of execution, because there’s only so long any company can afford to support a business that’s supposedly not making much money.

If Facebook is planning to make Bing a permanent fixture (and users take to Graph Search in the way Zuckerberg obviously hopes they will), this could be very good news for the search engine and, at the very least, help it make a dent in Yahoo’s market share.

As for Google, the internet giant is unlikely to roll over and let Facebook encroach too much on its territory, and the site will undoubtedly remain the default search choice for most web users for a long time to come.

What will be interesting to see is, if Google does lose some share to this Facebook-Bing venture, if this might prompt the firm to come round to the social networking site’s way of thinking on privacy.

What it means for Businesses

Graph Search’s potential as a staff recruitment tool was demonstrated by Facebook’s Tom Stocky, who said people could use it to search through their friends’ networks for people who may have worked in particular industries or at certain firms.

Users could then approach their friends for more information about said person's character and suitability for a potential role, he said. 

You can only see content on Graph Search that was already on Facebook before.

Whether or not people will use Graph Search in this way is anyone’s guess. Many Facebook users tend to keep details about their work life off the site or use online resources such as LinkedIn to trumpet their professional achievements.

Where it might come in more useful for businesses is in building brand awareness, as corporations with a Facebook page stand a better chance of appearing within people’s Graph Searches if they provide somewhere for people to check-in at and Like.

Graph Search could also provide businesses with an easy way of gauging the popularity of the services they offer and find out more about the wider interests of people who like their brand.

This was demonstrated last night when a search asking what music people who support Mitt Romney like was compared to a similar one investigating the musical tastes of Barack Obama fans.

Information like this could be used to hone products or market them differently, but the success and accuracy of this depends on how many Facebook users are willing to share this kind of information, and how many friends they have.

As Lars Rasmussen, director of product development at Facebook, pointed out last night. "You can only see the content [in Graph Search] you could already see on Facebook before."

Therefore, any photos, posts or interests uses have set to private will not be included in Graph Search's results.

Zuckerberg explained that Facebook has gone to great lengths to make it easier for users to hide information they don’t want shared by introducing features, for example, that let people untag multiple items at once rather.

Ahead of the service being rolled out to users, the site will also feature a prompt on its homepage urging members to review the information they share so they can sweep anything incriminating under a virtual carpet.

This is all part of the firm’s ultimate aim to roll out a search service that was “privacy aware,” explained Zuckerberg.

“Each piece of content has a different person who can see it [and] most of the things people share with you aren’t public, so you want a search tool that lets you get access to things people have just shared with you,” he added.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Voice-based social network Bubbly launches in the UK with celebrity user Rio Ferdinand

Voice blogging service Bubbly has launched in the UK with all-new celebrity content, including football star Rio Ferdinand.

Described as the ‘Instagram of voice’, Bubbly allows users to share short voice messages – ‘Bubbles’ – with friends and followers as well as applying fun filters to their recordings.

Early adopter of the social network Rio Ferdinand uses Bubbly to update fans on his day-to-day life, and shares his pre- and post-match thoughts.

Speaking of the service, Ferdinand said: “I love showing support for my fans, and Bubbly lets me connect with them in a way that I've never been able to before. Voice updates bring a fresh way for me to have a dialogue with my fans and I've been having a lot of fun posting recordings.”

Bubbly allows celebrities, like Ferdinand, to connect directly with fans. By sharing voice messages instead of text followers know they’re getting the news direct from the stars as no one else can message on their behalf.

Thomas Clayton, CEO of Bubble Motion, Bubbly’s parent company, commented: “We're excited to bring such a fun and useful way of communicating with friends, family, and followers to Europe for the very first time.

“Having popular celebrities like Rio Ferdinand joining the service early on is great, because users will get to experience the Bubbly difference in the celebrity/fan connection right off the bat.”

On top of the UK rollout Bubbly has also launched a new version of its iOS app, which is available to fans globally. The app allows users to apply filters such as ‘Helium’, ‘Echo Chamber’, and ‘Synth’ to their recordings. Users can also now add effects, including ‘Applause’ and ‘Laughing’ to their Bubbly updates.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Google - Keep The Internet Free & Open

Starting in 1973, when my colleagues and I proposed the technology behind the Internet, we advocated for an open standard to connect computer networks together. This wasn’t merely philosophical; it was also practical.

Our protocols were designed to make the networks of the Internet non-proprietary and interoperable. They avoided “lock-in,” and allowed for contributions from many sources. This openness is why the Internet creates so much value today. Because it is borderless and belongs to everyone, it has brought unprecedented freedoms to billions of people worldwide: the freedom to create and innovate, to organize and influence, to speak and be heard.

But starting in a few hours, a closed-door meeting of the world’s governments is taking place in Dubai, and regulation of the Internet is on the agenda. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is convening a conference from December 3-14 to revise a decades-old treaty, in which only governments have a vote. Some proposals could allow governments to justify the censorship of legitimate speech, or even cut off Internet access in their countries.

You can read more about my concerns on CNN.com, but I am not alone. So far, more than 1,000 organizations from more than 160 countries have spoken up too, and they’re joined by hundreds of thousands of Internet users who are standing up for a free and open Internet. On an interactive map at freeandopenweb.com, you can see that people from all corners of the world have signed our petition, used the #freeandopen hashtag on social media, or created and uploaded videos to say how important these issues are.

If you agree and want to support a free and open Internet too, I invite you to join us by signing the petition at google.com/takeaction. Please make your voice heard and spread the word.

Posted by Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Twitter - A New Age For Customer Service

 

Photo: Courtesy of Sanda Belaire

Social media has offered a new way for businesses to interact with both current and potential customers. Sanda Belaire, a manager at Nordstrom’s flagship store in Seattle, knows firsthand how beneficial it is to form these online relationships. She has used her socially savvy skills to promote both the company she works for and herself professionally.

Utilizing Twitter, Sanda has increased social media interactions for Nordstrom and grown her own following. Check out this 1:1 interview for an inside look at how one of the largest department stores in the country utilizes social media. Sanda lends useful advice on growing a Twitter following both as a company and personally, how to best use Twitter as a customer service tool and more.

Sanda: My Nordstrom career began 25 years ago and over that time I have worked at 5 Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack stores. I’m passionate about people and fashion, which falls directly in line with the Nordstrom culture. We are encouraged to be owners of our own business and social media has been a great way to listen to existing customers as well as connect with new customers.

Q: Sanda, can you tell us a little bit about your professional background including how you got into your current profession and how you began incorporating social media into your career?

In 2009 Nordstrom employees were given the opportunity to use social media professionally. I was already using Twitter in my personal life, but as a Personal Stylist Manager, I found it was an effective way to spread the message about Nordstrom’s complimentary Personal Styling service. It quickly became my way of connecting with customers on a day-to-day basis.

Today I use Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to share anything I’m excited about throughout the store and social media has become an integral part of my day. If a fabulous Christian Louboutin shoe or Alexander Wang dress comes in, I want to share it immediately and social media enables me to do that.

On a personal note, I find that Twitter is the most effective and timely way to receive information. As a working mom, reading my Twitter timeline is the best way to know what’s going on in the world. Twitter is the fastest way to get breaking news, from the people who are there as it’s happening in real time.

Q: In many cases, Twitter seems to be an extension of a company’s customer service department. In putting yourself out there as a representative for Nordstrom, how do you handle unhappy customers?

Sanda: At Nordstrom we are empowered to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy. We listen to their problem, try to find a solution by using good judgment and respond in the best way we can.

We know that the definition of customer service is changing and today many want to be served through social media. Customers can tweet at Nordstrom or their salesperson anytime with their needs or questions. I try to respond as soon as I am able. In the past I’ve found merchandise, connected salespeople, suggested the right shoes and gifts through Twitter as well as met fabulous people.

Social media is continuing to redefine service and we are here to listen to our customers — happy or unhappy.

Sanda: It really is a team effort. We are lucky to have Jesse Codling, our FlagshipSocial Media coordinator run the Nordstrom SeattleTwitter and Facebook page. I did it for a few months and found it was a lot to balance with managing a department.

Additionally, we have engaged veteran salespeople at the Flagship such as @NordyPeggy in Designer Handbags, @NordstromBB in Designer Salon Shoes, @NordstromBryan in Women’s Shoes and@NordyErin in our Human Resources department. We all share a passion for taking care of customers and for working at Nordstrom.

In addition to working as a team with my co-workers, below are a few personal tips that I have learned through using Twitter:

1. My #1 tip is to respond to tweets quickly. People use Twitter to get real time information and it’s important to get back to questions and concerns in a timely manner.

2. Some Twitter users want to relate to a face or a person rather than a brand. I think the most compelling Twitter feeds offer more than just merchandise. I love sharing outfits, style tips and merchandise, but I also tweet about being a working mom.

3. I like to re-read tweets I have sent in the past to ensure that my tone stays consistent and I am always offering new, fresh advice.

4. Never forget with social media you’re “on stage.” Anyone, anywhere can see what you are tweeting.

5. Be thankful, humble and use the golden rule: Twitter is about engagement and connecting but listening is just as powerful as broadcasting.

Q: As a career coach, I’m always emphasizing the value and importance of mentorship in career development for women. Describe your most important mentor and how they helped you achieve success.

Sanda: I’ve been fortunate enough to have many mentors throughout my time at Nordstrom. It’s true that we work for a family and as a result are a big family. We all mentor each other and help one another grow, be better leaders and succeed. My mentors are my support group.

My special mentors are the other working mothers. We support each other’s daily balance of family and career by listening and offering not only career advice but mom advice.

My current store manager at Nordstrom Downtown Seattle, Todd Buntin is an inspirational leader and mentor. Every interaction with him ends with “How can I help you?” He’s a leader that puts people — customers and employees — first.

~ Lisa Quast

Speak up! Join me on Twitter and Facebook

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

UK Online Companies Struggle To Integrate Social Customer Service

New research has found that many UK consumers are being let down by a poor standards of customer service through website, email and social media channels.

(Tesco provide a fantastic experience - try them out @UKTesco) 

The 2012 Eptica Multichannel Customer Experience Study evaluated 100 leading companies on their ability to provide answers to 10 routine questions via the web as well as their speed and accuracy when responding to email. 

The study found that websites could only answer 53% of customer questions, while company responses to email queries had declined since 2011. Social media use had doubled, although many companies still failed to integrate social media into their overall customer service strategy.

Fashion retailers were best at web customer service, answering 75% of questions asked on their websites, whereas CD/DVD/booksellers and food retailers performed worst, answering just 40% of questions.

Researchers were unable to email nearly a quarter (23%) of the companies in the study, as they either had removed the opportunity for non-customers to contact them through this channel or email addresses were not easy to find. Just 39% of the 100 businesses responded with an accurate answer via email and on average companies took 64 hours and 33 minutes to reply to emails – 44 hours longer than a similar study undertaken in 2011.

In addition, there was a wide variation in response times with two companies replying to email questions in 19 minutes and another taking a month to reply. Overall every one of the ten sectors surveyed answered emails slower than in 2011.

The study also found a huge difference between best and worst - for example, fashion companies answered 75% of questions asked on their websites, while CD/DVD/Booksellers and food retailers replied to only 40%.

While web performance improved from the average of 50% of questions answered in 2011 to 53% in 2012, over a quarter (28%) of companies performed worse in 2012 than last year despite being asked exactly the same questions through the same channels. 

“At a time when recession is putting unprecedented strain on many companies, customer service is critical if businesses want to win and retain consumers – but this study shows that many organisations are still struggling to provide basic information or answer customer emails,” said Dee Roche, global marketing director at Eptica.

“The fact that the performance of many companies has worsened over the last twelve months is disappointing to see – poor service will simply endanger sales in today’s competitive market. Customers want to be able to contact companies through their channel of choice, so businesses need to adopt a joined-up, multichannel approach if they are to meet their needs,” Roche added.

Many companies seemed to be more successful in some channels than in others. Food retailers could only answer 40% of questions asked via the web, but successfully responded to 70% of emails.

The study also looked at how companies were using social media to engage and interact with their customers. On the positive side, social media use had nearly doubled, with 64 companies having Facebook pages (against 33 in 2011) and 70 with Twitter (up from 36 in 2011). However only 11% linked customer service to these social media channels.

Roche said: “Social media is transforming how consumers approach customer service as it provides a megaphone for them to broadcast their complaints to the world. So it is positive to see that companies are embracing this new channel – they now need to integrate it with their overall customer service strategy to deliver a joined-up approach that is both consistent and efficient.” 

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

How The Radio Stations Are Getting Social

There is something both jarring and grimly amusing about hearing aging and/or serious radio presenters talk about Twitter, hash tags and Facebook pages. At the other end of the DJ age range such talk can sound like a mass of achingly modern techno-babble. But social media is a major part of everyday life and radio stations have realised they need to be connected to all the communicating going on around them.

 

Producers, presenters, broadcast engineers and IT types are still working out exactly how to do that but in the last year Tweets and Facebook postings have joined emails, texts and the old warhorse, live phone calls, as broadcasters up their game not just to get listeners to interact with them but for them to interact with the listeners.

 

How to make this work was a feature of last year's Radio Academy Festival. In his presentation 'From TOGs to the Twitterati - Connecting Old Media with the Social Media Generation', Dan McQuillin, managing director of software developer and distributor Broadcast Bionics, argued that audiences were ahead of the radio stations in using and exploiting social media.

 

At next week's festival, to be held again at The Lowry, Salford Quays in Greater Manchester, Bruce Daisley, Twitter's UK director, will present 'Only On Twitter' and discuss how the 140 character online networking message service can bring broadcasters closer to their audiences, as well as "bringing you more of them and making them value you even more".

 

Broadcast Bionics will be at the Radio Fair exhibition within the Festival to promote PhoneBOX v4 (screen shot pictured), the latest incarnation of the company's call handling system. This builds on previous incarnations by adding management and display of relevant Facebook posts and Tweets alongside information about incoming calls, the music and artist being played and general news or entertainment information, with the ability to arrange everything into different categories, or channels, and distribute it anywhere in a station as necessary.

 

McQuillin says development of PhoneBOX v4 began 18 months ago based on the idea of going "beyond telephony" and looking a a fuller interactive experience for radio, which he calls "the Social Studio". The aim is to bring "state of the art" social media into the studio where the presenter can work with it and include the audience more in the show.

 

"We need to break down the walls between the needs of the broadcast studio and the digital/online world," McQuillin says. "The studio side doesn't necessarily need to understand the social stuff, the presenters and producers just want to make something work and talk to the people who want to talk to them."

 

As with a lot of technology today, the "backend" - how everything actually works and is put together - can remain more or less a mystery to the people using the information it provides. The key thing, McQuillin states, is presenting the information in a way the presenter can use easily. "As soon as a Lady Gaga track is playing we should be able to bring up all social media about her," he explains.

 

But this is only a part of what McQuillin and other proponents of the Social Studio envisage. "There are varying strands to it, like a series of channels," he says. "There are the different sites for the radio station and people can switch between those according to what is being discussed. The listeners are ahead of the broadcasters in terms of using social media and they don't want to just listen any more. This means there can be sub-channels with people commenting about the station, or talking about the music and the news, with the presenter also having access to feeds so that he/she can contribute to what is going on or start new threads."

 

The radio studio is unlikely to change fundamentally but, as McQuillin observes, there does need to be a shift in how it operates: "Up to now the radio studio has been the place where information is combined with audio and then pushed out at the audience. Now the process is bi-directional, with the audience getting involved because they want to do more than just passively listen to the radio."

 

Full integration is likely to pose problems but the biggest shift is likely to be one of perception, how radio people and the audience see themselves today in what has always been a symbiotic relationship, albeit with one previously passive partner. "Stations don't have listeners any more," concludes McQuillin. "The audience wants to be involved as much as possible, so the radio station needs to be the one listening, with bigger ears not a bigger mouth."

 

 

www.radioacademy.org

www.bionics.co.uk 

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

21 Rules For Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Facebook Phone Is Coming - Just Delayed...

Almost as persistent as rumours that Microsoft is building its own ‘Surface Phone’ are claims that Facebook is also developing a handset of its own. The company has issued numerous denials of this in the past; its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, even stated just over three months ago that it “wouldn't make much sense” for Facebook to build its own device, given that the social network benefits greatly from its ubiquity across multiple platforms.

But the rumour has resurfaced once more, this time via Pocket-lint, who claim that they have a “very reliable source” who’s confirmed that the oft-mooted device is more than just the stuff of hearsay, and is a very real handset that’s currently in development. Indeed, the source says that the handset is being built by HTC and is presently known as the ‘Opera UL’, unambiguously adding that “it is the Facebook phone, made for Facebook”.

A device known as the HTC Opera UL has also appeared on the online NenaMark2 benchmark test, with specs including a 1.4GHz processor of unknown build, a Qualcomm Adreno 305 GPU and HD (1280x720px) display, along with Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean.

As for when the mystery handset might be revealed, your guess as is as good as ours. The source said that “apparently, it’s been delayed”, but that obviously says nothing to help narrow down a specific timeframe.

Frankly though, this rumour’s done the rounds so many times that we’ll only really believe it when Zuckerberg confirms it himself.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Facebook Tweaks It's Edgerank - More Engaged Brands Appear More Often

Facebook released some tweaks to the EdgeRank formula last week which makes it more likely that posts from brands with high engagement get priority placement in feeds over posts with little engagement. Samuel Junghenn founder of Digital Marketing Agency Think Big Online says this change should not affect Facebook Pages with a good social media strategy.

Facebook released some tweaks to the EdgeRank formula last week which makes it more likely that posts from brands with high engagement get priority placement in feeds over posts with little engagement. Samuel Junghenn founder of Digital Marketing Agency Think Big Online says this change should not affect Facebook Pages with a good social media strategy.

“Essentially a good social media strategy will have users liking and engaging with a Page which would make their posts more prominent in users Feeds. While some people are crying out over this, it’s those people who need to start analyzing why their posts aren’t getting any engagement.” Said Mr Junghenn.

The change in the EdgeRank formula by Facebook is trying to direct users to posts and pages, which have more engagement. This is a logical change by Facebook, it’s like ranking a page in Google with more links. More engagement is a measure of a posts or pages success and as such it should achieve higher rankings.

“While some page owners are protesting the latest changes I see this as a positive step forward for Facebook in improving their user experience. The down side will be that brands who can afford to promote posts will be able to artificially inflate their engagement and get better positions. But this has to be expected, Facebook is a for profit company so they need to help their advertisers.” Said Mr Junghenn.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

How Greggs Won 2 Digital Awards For Superstar Doughnuts

Greggs has won two digital awards for a social media campaign, which helped to sell more than one million doughnuts nationwide.

The ‘Greggs Superstar Doughnut Awards’ campaign, created by digital marketing agency STEEL London, won a gold and silver award at this year’s Digita Impact Awards.

The campaign aimed to raise awareness and drive sales of a new range of doughnuts launched by the high street bakery firm, by turning the products into superstar characters on social media websites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The doughnut superstars led ‘real’ lives, with jobs, friends, back stories and they competed to be crowned the Greggs Superstar Doughnut of the Year, which Greggs’ online users had to vote on.

Moray Twaddle, marketing manager for Greggs, said: “Our Superstar Doughnut campaign provided us with an innovative and effective campaign that created record levels of engagement across our digital audiences and complemented our in-store campaign activity.

“We wanted to do something different to generate awareness of our new range of doughnuts and position them as fun and relevant products, so that people would reappraise Greggs’ sweet offer. We certainly achieved these aims – and had a lot of fun as well.”

As a result of the campaign, Greggs sold 1.5 million doughnuts from its new range, as well as selling thousands more through doughnut vouchers claimed by consumers on Twitter through a hashtag topic called #DoughnutDay.

In addition, it generated 150,000 online visits to the Greggs website and helped to significantly increase follower and page ‘like’ numbers on Twitter and Facebook.

Andy Hinder, chief executive at STEEL London, said: "The success of our campaign is stark evidence that, when done right, social media has the power to have a direct and positive impact on sales and improve financial results without breaking the bank.”

Greggs and STEEL London picked up gold in the Best use of digital in the food and beverages sector category, alongside a silver for Best use of digital in the retail sector.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

Facebook Employees Have Lost $2 Million On Average Since IPO

Facebook‘s declining stock value hasn’t just been bad for investors — it has also had a significant impact on the fortunes of Facebook employees.

Facebook employees have lost an average of $2 million each since the company went public in May, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited new data from the compensation research firm Equilar. As of Friday, the average employee’s stocks in the company were worth $2.5 million.

This average doesn’t factor in executives at the company, some of whom lost much more. Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s COO, has lost more than $700 million since the IPO. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, has lost an astounding $10.5 billion.

Facebook went public at $38 per share, but the stock quickly declined and went as low as $17.55 in early September. The stock has since rebounded slightly and closed Friday at just under $21, but it’s still well below the IPO price.

To be sure, the average Facebook employee — like the company’s executives — still has a handsome amount of money in Facebook stocks, but the larger problem is what this decline does to employee morale and talent retention. Many employees likely had dreams of selling the stock above the IPO price when the employee lockup periods expire at the end of this month. Instead, employees must either delay selling off their stock in the hopes that it rebounds, or else take a significantly lower payout — either of which may impact their personal plans.

Zuckerberg and other executives have begun to acknowledge the employee morale problem in public and in private, reportedly holding all-hands meetings to address employee concerns about the company’s falling stock price. Facebook certainly isn’t the only tech company whose stock price has fallen since the IPO — Groupon and Zynga have both seen their stocks collapse — but if Facebook’s stock continues to sag, it could distract employees, make it harder to defend against poaching and more difficult for Facebook to acquire other companies.

What’s more, there is still the question of whether and when the company’s stock price will return to IPO levels. Barron’s recently argued that the stock is overvalued even now and should be priced at $15 a share. Last month, Facebook’s own underwriters Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan cut their 12-month price targets for the stock to well below the $38 IPO price. Doug Anmuth, an analyst with JP Morgan, now has a price target of $28 for the stock.

If that proves correct, it will be a long time before Facebook employees really see their fortunes improve.

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business

11 mobile startups that will change marketing

We've all heard the numbers. More than half of the mobile phones in the U.S. today are smartphones. And according to a recent MIT study, tablets have already penetrated 10 percent of the market in less than three years. That's a faster adoption rate than we saw with smartphones -- or any other technology, for that matter.

Digital marketers are sprinting to catch up with this rapid rate of smartphone and tablet adoption. Industry observers predict that mobile advertising will grow from an estimated $5 billion today to $18 billion by 2015. And not surprisingly, scores of companies are emerging to help marketers decide where and how to allocate those dollars.

It's the Wild West out there in the mobile landscape. So which companies really deserve your attention (and, consequently, your marketing dollars)? To helps marketers cut through the clutter, iMedia is hosting the 2nd annual Next Wave Start-Up Challenge and Showcase. From a pool of 27 nominated companies, 11 of the best mobile startups in the media and marketing landscape have been selected, via iMedia community voting, to pitch to more than 300 digital marketing elites at theiMedia Breakthrough Summit. Mobile innovation experts and advisors from top-tier brands, agency incubators, and the venture community will vote on site to determine the Next Wave winner.

The 11 presenting finalists were selected within three categories: mobile campaign management and analysis, mobile entertainment, and mobile shopping and commerce. Let's take a look at the value they hold for marketers.

Mobile campaign management and analysis

Appsnack

Hungry? Appsnack creates and delivers in-app rich media campaigns for advertisers, publishers, and app developers. Based in Emeryville, Calif., the company develops mini-app creative units that launch from one-touch expanding banners and full-screen experiences on consumers' mobile phones and tablets.

Importantly, Appsnack's bite-sized creative units aren't served up willy-nilly. As a division of Exponential Interactive, Appsnack leverages Exponential's e-X Advertising Intelligence platform to provide insight into consumers' mobile context, behavior, and location. The result is a brand advertising solution that delivers relevant, high-impact advertising at the opportune moment.

In addition, Appsnack allows publishers and app developers to better monetize the display ads in mobile apps. The company provides direct access to brand advertising budgets through the delivery of mini-app brand experiences, launched directly through the existing inventory of publishers and app developers.

Media Armor

Marketers across the board have felt it: Consumers are now shopping on multiple devices and in so many channels, how do they make marketing relevant to each individual? One evening, Eric Brown and Elizabeth Zalman, chewing over this issue at dinner, decided to do something about it and created Media Armor.

Boston-based Media Armor allows brands to drive cross-channel revenue though relevant cross-channel display advertising based on who consumers are and what they are doing, anywhere. Media Armor claims, "It is the first company to unify consumer-level data across any channel (online, in-store, catalog, mobile), effectively translating CRM strategies to online, smartphone, and tablet display advertising."

For example, a consumer's smartphone, tablet, laptop, and in-store activity become linked to drive messaging. If the consumer has never engaged with a brand but "looks like" their best customers, they will see an acquisition message on any internet-enabled device. If they visit a store and purchase, a retention message is sent on any of their devices. If they visit the online site at work, they will receive remarketing instead. Because Media Armor tracks actions after messaging, the company knows exactly what message to send next, based upon past actions. As consumer behavior shifts, so should advertiser's messaging strategy. Media Armor opens the door to flexible cross-channel marketing, providing a shield of protection against irrelevant, untimely messages. According to Zalman, the platform's co-founder, Media Armor offers "the holy grail of marketing: cross-channel relevance, cross-channel revenue, consumer-level conversations."

Placed

Put simply, Placed shows advertisers the businesses where individuals are consuming their mobile content. Need a company to sift through the noisy location data created by the wide-spread adoption of smartphones? Placed analyzes location data and presents it in a clear, actionable format for advertisers, publishers, and developers.

With Placed Analytics, marketers can see the places where users are interacting with their app. For instance, as founder and CEO David Shim explains, "In less than four clicks, Placed enables marketers to understand that 14 percent of site visits occurred while a user was nearby a Starbucks, 23 percent of app sessions occurred nearby electronic retailers, and 38 percent of mobile coupons were accessed at either Walmart or Target."

With Placed, marketers are able to identify opportunities to enhance their product by understanding the locations where their content is consumed. For example, if 55 percent of an app's use occurs while users are in transit, a marketer can implement voice controls within the app to encourage safe use.

The Seattle-based company's goal is to "connect the digital and physical worlds to deliver location insights to the masses." As a result, Placed has made its solution available to marketers and app developers for free.

ThinkNear

Have you heard of situational targeting? At ThinkNear, it's the bread and butter of operations. Rather than hit people with irrelevant ads, ThinkNear leverages situational targeting to help advertisers connect with consumers based on location, behavior, and context. The Los Angeles-based company pairs precise location targeting capabilities with a variety of real-time data, such as weather, traffic, and events, to engage customers when they are ready on mobile apps and optimized websites.

According to ThinkNear's CEO and co-founder, Eli Portnoy, the company "focuses all of its time on and excels at providing the most precise location targeting available, which in turn enables an incredible amount of campaign types that were never before possible." For example, when consumers face weather delays at an airport, hotel advertisers can reach stranded users with messages regarding overnight stays.

Also, with ThinkNear, advertisers can access billions of location-enabled impressions, targetable within 100 meters, and every impression is bought individually, in real time. Meaning, advertisers pay only for the impressions that work.

So, does the company face any challenges? As Portnoy told iMedia, "One of the things holding everyone back is that the [mobile] ecosystem feels like the Wild West. This is somewhat common in the early days of a new medium." However, Portnoy remains optimistic and expects "that the leaders will emerge, and the space will become a bit easier to navigate in the not-too-distant future."

Mobile entertainment

iMediaShare

Available for iPhone, iPad, and Android, iMediaShare is a cloud-based mobile media discovery and control technology designed for the connected home. iMediaShare makes it easy for users to stream media from their mobile phone to internet-enabled TVs, game consoles, and other connected devices with no cables, syncing, or complicated set-up.

Users simply open the app, choose a connected device, enter their Wi-Fi password, and share their videos, pictures, and music with others. In addition, the app delivers thousands of on-demand options for consumers -- from popular shows to breaking news -- and media automatically adapts to the best suitable format for the screen of choice (i.e., HD, 3D, etc.).

iMediaShare's distribution technology makes it easier for content providers to be everywhere for their customers, and it enables media companies to engage millions of viewers on multiple connected devices. In addition, the company offers digital marketers an outlet for highly segmented, accurately placed ads.

Mimiboard

For centuries, bulletin boards have served as valuable surfaces for posting messages and connecting with one's community. With the rapid rise of connectivity and smartphone adoption, South Africa-based Mimiboard has taken the bulletin board and made it virtual.

Mimiboard allows users to upload announcements (texts, tweets, or shout-outs like traffic reports); news (real citizen journalism in action); and advertisements (local ads placed by the community on the board -- things for sale, services, etc.) to engage and trade with one another. Anyone can create a Mimiboard, give it a name, assign categories to it, and get the community to pin notes onto the board. Once this begins, the board can be added to the user's website, mobile site, Facebook page, or blog.

By serving as a virtual hub of social engagement, Mimiboard has great potential to solve every publisher's problem: maintaining an engaged community of followers. A digital board that is updated with local, relevant content in real time might be a strong solution.   

SeeMail

SeeMail is a photo-sharing app that adds something new to photos -- voice. Inspired by the short notes written on the back of old photos, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based SeeMail was created to add context to images, allowing the story behind the photo to travel along with it. The company claims it is "the first and only app to combine images, voice, captions, and location in a mobile peer-to-peer photo-sharing experience."  

By adding human voice, SeeMail attaches a greater level of emotion and feeling to digital picture sharing, something that can be lost online as pictures are shared without context.   

From a digital marketing perspective, SeeMail's value is in providing brands with the opportunity to personalize their offerings with voice. Brands are now able to communicate their stories on a much deeper level by showing consumers the people behind the products (or, as SeeMail might say, the story behind the photo).

Mobile shopping and commerce

good2gether

Based in Melrose, Mass., good2gether helps businesses that do good advertise by connecting them with consumers who care and the local causes they both support. Retailers, restaurants, businesses, and more can use good2gether to inform consumers about their positive impact in the local community.

How does it work? A business attaches a "DoGood" badge to a wall or window that is embedded with information such as the causes it supports and special offers the company is making to benefit nonprofit organizations. When a consumer taps the badge with an NFC-enabled mobile device, information associated with the good the business does is delivered through the "DoGood" mobile app. Users can then check in, learn ways to get involved, find deals that benefit both the consumer and local causes, or donate directly. If consumers don't have an NFC-enabled device, they can simply launch the app and a list of socially responsible businesses appears on the screen.

The company's "DoGood Corporate Social Responsibility Dashboard" allows businesses to manage their DoGood badge network by understanding how many people are checking in, what causes matter to users, how information is being shared socially, etc. Put simply: The app enables and encourages social responsibility while providing a medium through which business can reach consumers. 

Pogoseat

Have you ever snuck down to better seats at a game only to be embarrassingly escorted back by an usher? Well, Pogoseat allows fans to upgrade their seats at sporting events or concerts from their smartphones -- without all the risk. The app provides a map of the stadium or venue, identifies the empty seats, and allows users to purchase upgrades. These in-game seat upgrades are priced according to the user's original seat location and time left in the game or event, and they factor in any promotional discounts applied by the team or venue.

Pogoseat is quick and easy. Users sign in with Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn, or a Pogoseat user name; enter their existing ticket information; use the map to purchase seat upgrades using PayPal, Amazon, or a credit card; and present the original ticket and the electronic upgrade to the usher when they move to their new seats.

Pogoseat is currently working with several brands to offer free or discounted upgrades at events. With regard to the app's potential brand value, Pogoseat's co-founder Abel Cuskelly said, "Imagine, for example, a wireless service that wants to offer its customers a free seat upgrade at the next football game they attend. Pogoseat can identify every fan in the stadium who's a customer of that wireless service and automatically offer a free upgrade that fans and customers can redeem at any time during the game."

Point Inside

Based just outside of Seattle, Point Inside is a leader in mobile shopper engagement. Its Interact platform combines indoor shopper and product location technologies with shopper purchase intent data to deliver highly relevant, personalized advertising to in-store customers. With Point Inside, retailers and brands can engage with shoppers in three ways. First, by understanding shopper and product locations, the platform connects users to in-store physical assets. Second, it provides users with routes through the store while suggesting additional products along the way. Lastly, Point Inside delivers a channel for brands and retailers to reach consumers with the perfect message at the perfect time.

Discussing the service's unique value, Point Inside's CMO Todd Sherman said, "This hyper-targeted 'private ad network' has information on the shopper's current purchase intents -- through their shopping list -- as well as their purchase history and, in some cases, their location within the store (section and aisle). This deep understanding of the shopper creates the most targeted ad network for brand advertisers, where they can leverage knowledge of the shopper to determine the best combination of what, when, and how to engage and convert."

When asked about the greatest hurdle Point Inside is currently facing, Sherman explained that it's all about awareness: "The biggest hurdle had been retailers' awareness of the benefits of engaging shoppers through mobile devices. This has decreased significantly over the last 12 months." However, with platforms like Point Inside on the rise, it's hard to believe that this lack of awareness will continue much longer.

Rumgr

Rumgr is a mobile app that lets people buy and sell with friends and neighbors -- something Craigslist should have done years ago. When users open the app, items for sale appear in the app's image feed and are presented in order of proximity. Selling items on Rumgr is as simple as uploading a photo -- no descriptions, no tags, and no location details necessary. The result is a mobile shopping environment that encourages hyper-local purchases and excites users with the possibility of stumbling upon random, unique items -- just like a garage sale.

So, what unique value does Rumgr offer brand advertisers? As the company's marketing lead Ana Yoerg told iMedia, "Our platform is not and will not be ad-supported. However, we are open to brand involvement. For example, we can promote venues (e.g., Starbucks) by providing 'recommended' meeting points for the item exchange." In addition, Rumgr could offer a valuable service to brick and mortar stores by helping them manage their excess clearance items. "These deeply discounted items (50-80 percent off) would be eligible to list on Rumgr as part of the Rack program," Yoerg explains. "Buyers can 'follow' their local store on Rumgr to view items on the clearance rack in their feed, which pushes them into stores for those items and more."

Since the summer of 2012, Rumgr launched news tools for Facebook integration, faster communication, more control over items for sale, and transaction history. In addition, the company introduced "Groups," which are smaller marketplaces based around common locations, such as the workplace. 

http://SocialBusinessToday.net - The Best in Social Business