08 Dec The State of Social Media and Proof that Social Voice Drives Sales: What You May Have Missed
Two of the better studies I’ve seen in a while came out this week. Both worth reading in full and hanging on to. Here’s what you may have missed this week in the world of social media marketing.
The State of Social Media: Mobile and Pinterest Rise
Nielsen released their 2012 Social Media Report this week. It’s loaded with really good data, but here are some highlights. Unique mobile web audience is up 82% in the last year, while the unique PC audience is down 4%. Time spent on PCs, however, continues to dwarf time spent on mobile web, so look for deeper engagement on PC.
Facebook is still the leader, but it’s down 4%. Twitter is third, but it’s up 13%. And Pinterest is 6th, up 1,047%.
More than 75% of people feel positive after they participate in social networking, so the shine isn’t yet off the apple. Importantly 33% of people say that ads on social networks are more annoying than other online ads.
Lots more data included, so do review the full study. It’s worth a look.
Proof that Social Voice Drives Measurable Sales
Another really good study came out this week. The Keller Fay Group released a new scientific analysis called “Quantifying the Role of Social Voice in Marketing Effectiveness.” It’s filled with fancy terms like multivariate, multi-year analysis, and its findings are compelling. In a nutshell, the world works like this: Marketing Campaigns generate> Social Voice (online and offline WoM). Social Voice generates> Sales.
In fact, a 10% increase in marketing spend results in a 0.2% to 2.5% increase in Social Voice. A 10% increase in Social Voice results in a 0.5% to 1.6% increase in online search activity.
At the end of the day, Social Voice is 25% of the impact of all marketing efforts for beverages, 54% for an investment firm, and 27% for the auto industry. It’s worth emailing Ed Keller for the free Executive Summary.
Facebook’s Big Ad Move? MySpace’s Big Comeback Move?
I’ll finish up with two quick notes. There are reports this week that Facebook may buy Atlas Solutions from Microsoft. That would allow Facebook to have its own ad network for third-party websites. A potentially big deal, as explained here.
And finally, a bunch of us have received our invites to the new MySpace in the last two weeks. It seems like an attractive way to discover new music, but otherwise I’m struggling to see the value so far. We’re in there playing around though, so we’ve got it covered.
That’s about it. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Only a couple more left in 2012.
