Slowly Emerging Media

It takes time for brands to incorporate emerging media effectively: 28.1% of companies with two or more years of social media marketing experience say social tools have been fully integrated into their companies’ business models, but that level increases to 44.4% among those with three or more years of experience in social marketing, according to a social media benchmark report by SmartBrief.

Roughly 5.4% of surveyed companies have been using social media for three or more years. We’ll call them veterans, and we’ll call those newer to the social marketing world rookies.  The veterans are more likely than the rookiesto report achieving key success metrics, including:

• Having a solid strategy: 65.7% of veterans have a fully developed or well-developed social-media strategy, compared with 13% of rookies.
• Measuring return: 36.1% of veterans measure the ROI of their social media efforts, compared with 9.6% of rookies.

There were obviously some early innovators of emerging media in marketing, but the trend is still new to companies large and small alike.  Those companies who can be considered veterans have also grown support for their efforts within the organization.

Investing more resources: 21.8% of veterans say they devote at least two full-time staffers to social media, compared with 5% of rookies.

Having leadership support: 32% of veterans say social media is being championed by their leadership, compared with 17.7% of rookies.

For veteran users, social media applications also reach beyond marketing.  Public relations, IT, human resources, and sales are other areas where emerging media is benefiting organizations.

So the lesson here is this: If you feel that your orgainzation is lagging behind in the world of emerging media you’re not alone.  Also, we shouldn’t take for granted the strides that these veteran companies have made.  We enjoy their innovation, but as marketers we should also embrace and learn from them.

Mobile Privacy..do we really care?

I do not personally do much beyond talking and checking e-mails on my Blackberry, but I sure love to shop on-line!  What about privacy and security though?  I don’t think twice about it on my laptop, but it frightens me when I use my mobile phone.  Why is this?  Maybe it’s because I’ve read too many articles like this.  Here are some highlights:

Consumers’ privacy is highly intruded by mobile marketing. It poses serious threat on a user’s identity, location, information and choices.  Using the open directory of consumers, mobile advertisements are sent to customers’ mobile numbers. Thus sender has free access to other information regarding the customers’ identity. If the sender is a person with malicious intentions, then sender can use the identity information of customers and become sufficiently dangerous for the consumers.  With a Geographic Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile handset, a user can easily be traced.  Here is one line that I don’t agree with- The marketers approach mobile users randomly with advertisements. Users may like to be reluctant about some brands. Pushing such brands through mobile phone is a threat to taste and choice of users.  I can’t imagine that receiving an ad for McDonald’s when you may prefer Wendy’s is a threat to taste and choice.

Obviously, this author is none too pleased with mobile marketing.  However many people are:

For the second year in a row, mobile holiday shopping on eBay peaked in the United States and worldwide on the second Sunday of December—the day the ecommerce giant calls “Mobile Sunday.” I had never even heard of “Mobile Sunday”.

In the U.S. mobile gross merchandise volume (GMV) grew 127 percent over the same Sunday last year, generating nearly $5 million in GMV. Worldwide, mobile GMV grew 165 percent, generating $13 million in GMV.

Here is a quote from President of eBay, Steve Yankovich, 

“We lead busy lives and even more so during the holidays, and we design our mobile applications considering that you may in fact be mobile and only have a few moments,” he said.

Mr. Yankovich said that mobile has transformed the shopping experience this holiday season.  Clothing and accessories topped the list of most-sold items among U.S. shoppers buying with their phones. 

According to consulting firm Accenture, 73 percent of smartphone owners now prefer using their phone at retail for simple shopping tasks, rather than talking with a store employee. Doesn’t sound like the numbers of frightened or cautious consumers to me.

So, if you are new to mobile commerce check out this site for some tips.

Shop on in good faith (or just don’t think about it)!

I ‘Like’ Kohl’s

The nearest Kohl’s to my hometown is abot 45 min away so I don’t get to visit very often, but I made a stop yesterday during my last Christmas shopping trip.  I have NEVER seen such good sales (and I shop a lot), and to top it all off I received $40 in “Kohl’s Bucks” when I checked out.  Basically, I have a week to go back and shop again and Kohl’s will pick up the tab on the first $40!!!

I immediately went on to Facebook to the Kohl’s page.  The company has 3,285,470 ‘likes’.  That’s right up there with the same numebers as Top 10 ranking Facebook pages.  The company has received accolades for its Kohl’s Cares tab which showcases the charities and causes that Kohl’s contributes to.  I want to focus on the Holiday tab.  I love the Holiday Poll:

Mistletoe: Love it or hate it?

Watch out, here come the kisses!

I love it, but will only kiss my special someone.

I only dish out hugs.

I won’t go out of my way to stand under it.

I avoid it like fruitcake!

There are some grest gift suggestions based on price that link you directly to Kohl’s web site.  So, this is my unofficial plug for Kohl’s.  If you have some holiday shopping left to do, I suggest visiting this page.  Lots of great ideas and DEALS!!

Boring Facebook

So a little more than a month ago I headed up my company’s creation of a Facebook page.  I put lots of thought into it, and I had some great help.  I think it turned out well.  I had a vision for our brand – The American Beer Company.  The consumers in our six county region would visit our Facebook page to find out about new products, events happening in our area, see pics of themselves from those events, etc.  I wanted them to see our company as the local people in their communities – not the employees in a brewery hundreds of miles away.  We would have thousands of “LIKES”.  Well……..I was wrong.  To date we have 184.  Where have I gone wrong?

To begin with, I have been overwhelmed with other duties and have virtually ignored our page.  My fabulous helper left the company, and she had a humourous and youthful voice.  Her replacement is much more mature and (to be nice) dry.  My sales department has not hosted any events to showcase pics or invite consumers to the page.  Our brand’s personality has not been defined.

I still have the same vision, but I see now that the reality of acheiving these goals is a bit more challenging that I thought.  A company cannot simply create a Facebook account and “then they will come”.  We are adding the “like our Facebook page” with our address to all of the POS and signage that comes out of our art shop.  Once the holidays are over I hope we can begin some events where we hand out “We want you on our Facebook page” cards to the customers we take photos of.  I want our page to have a personality that draws people to it and want to hear what we have to say.  The American Beer Co. brand should be as fun as the products we sell.

Any advice out there on ways to develop a small company Facebook page and keep it updated and fun?

WVBudGirl

Game Girl

So when I think of video games I think of my 14 year old son and his friends sitting in front of his TV in his room all day or those annoyingly loud arcades in every mall.  I certainly don’t think of them as something that I would enjoy.  However, I found some really fun things on-line for a girl like me.

Advergaming, or the use of video game type promotion of a product, has been around since the early 1980s when companies like Kool-Aid partnered with Atari (there’s a blast from the past) to include their products in games.   Research shows that I am certainly not a part of the target market for advergaming - 30.5 percent of the online games audience is between 35 and 49 years of age, compared with 16.6 percent between 25 and 34, and 14.3 percent between 12 and 17.

And, more women are participating than you might think — many of them professionals. Also of importance to marketers, they’’ve found that about 35 percent of players on those sites earn $50,000 to $100,000 annually, while 16.2 percent earn more than $100,000.  This means that these people with more discretionary income are spending more time interacting in an intimate way with brands.  These on-line “games” are also easy for marketers to track by clicks and time spent. Advergaming is expected to be over a half a billion dollar industry.

One very interesting application I found was Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world where you recreate yourself in any form you want (your avatar) and roam around doing much of what we do here in our real lives. American Apparel even opened a store there where Second Life citizens can buy virtual clothes with virtual money. 

 In Second Life you can buy virtual land, build virtual houses, create virtual art, go to virtual parties, and anything else you can imagine. So, naturally, it’’s the next logical step for advergaming. In fact, there are already games you can play within this “game.”

Also, Gap  developed a game for Gap stores that allowed users to create their own avatar (or virtual representation of themselves), select clothing from the Gap, and then try on the clothes in the Gap dressing room. Trying on the clothing was designed as a “strip tease,” in which the player’s avatar danced around wildly while removing his old clothes before stepping into the dressing room, emerging a moment later in her new Gap outfit.

I’m waiting to find (because I’m sure it’s ou there) a site where I can scan my actual photo and change my weight, hait style, make up, etc. to find the best me!  When would I WIN that game???

Wendy

Get Social and Snag Deals at Retail

It’s that time of year…….let the Christmas shopping begin!  If you are like me I absolutely have no time to sort through all of the sale papers that come in the mail this time of year.  Not to mention the catalogs!  Then there are the countless e-mails that I receive EVERY day reminding me about my LAST CHANCE on the greatest deal EVER!  Yeah, ok, but I have work to do if I want to go home before bed time.  Wouldn’t it be great if I could find out about the lates deals for this Christmas instantly or while I’m doing something that I actually enjoy??? Oh, wait! I can.

Thanksgiving Day was not even considered a shopping day a few years ago as stores were closed, but retailers are driving customers to their websites with more specials than ever, before they have even opened their doors.  Black Friday has become a holiday in itself for many anxious shoppers. Companies like Wal-Mart and Target are now using Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites in a bid to persuade shoppers to open up their wallets. 

Twitter is a goldmine for contests, freebies and ways to interact with companies and retailers on a personal level.  Twitter even has its own Black Friday site to follow that keeps shoppers informed on deals from Amazon to Apple just incase there’s a fabulous deal from somewhere that you don’t follow.

On Facebook, you can “like” Black Friday and almost 108,000 people do!!  BlackFriday2010.com is where you can research, plan and execute the best Black Friday shopping. View pre-release Black Friday Ads for major stores as well as handpicked Black Friday Deals, commentary and tips.

So, save yourself some time.  Find the best deals through your favorite social media outlet and instantly click to your favorite retailer to do your shopping.  If you have some great shopping tips through any social media or on-line outlet let me know!

I got a new smartphone…(is it smarter than me??)

Mine is white

Ok, so I HAD to buy a new phone last week.  Let’s just say that my old Blackberry just “crashed”, and the best part……..I didn’t backup any of my contacts!  Yeah, I am really with the program.  Anyway, this time I am going to do it right with my new Blackberry Torch.  Now I am worried that I made the wrong choice – check out the chart below.  Either way, the anti-techno girl is all about her new phone, and it makes me actually WANT to be a part of the new digital marketing world.

Facebook is my favorite application on my new phone (so far).  I love being able to clearly see the pages and check in anytime.  I know that marketers are looking to Facebook as a new medium with more interactive and engaging advertising.  Marketers get to check off both the social media and the mobile marketing box when Facebook is chosen as a tool. There is even a Facebook page dedicated to digital marketing: Facebook Digital Page

But beyond Facebook, technology has totally changed how brands relate to their consumers.  Web sites and social media are well on their ways to perfection.  Digital marketing is the next frontier.  It is expected that $2.16 billion will be spent on mobile marketing this year – taking some dollars away from on-line marketing. While smartphone ownership increases, it is still a relatively small but niche market for advertisers.  One of the newest and most popular applications for mobile marketing is mixing digital GPS with branding.  Because I am in the beer business, I know that Anheuser-Busch has mobile apps that allow you find a nearby bar that carries your favorite beer from your iPhone.  Foursquare is another GPS related mobile app that is attracting marketers and consumers alike. The social media element keeps consumers engaged, and anywhere we gather our favorite brands are finding a way to be there. 

When I think about it I’m not so sure I want my favorite beer to know where I am, but I definitely like knowing where it is when I need it!  I guess I WILL have to figure out how to outsmart my smartphone.

Cheers!

Wendy

Digitally Ignorant??

Great news, people!  It is actually a GOOD thing to surf those social media sites while you are at the office.  A study by University of Melbourne shows that those of us who browse the web for less than 15% of the workday are actually 9% more productive than our diligent coworkers!  Maybe that’s just an American thing because this article in a British newspaper sites a study that says workplace social media is causing problems in the U.K.   

Twitter and Facebook costing economy £14bn a year

Social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are costing the British economy up to £14 billion a year in lost working time, a new survey has suggested.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/7924231/Twitter-and-Facebook-costing-economy-14bn-a-year.html

I’m sure there are certian on-line activities that make us MORE productive than others.  Some suggestions that I found in the article from October’s Marie Claire are 1) Joining LinkedIn (check), 2) flag keyword in Google Alert that pertain to your job (maybe), 3) visit reputationhawk.com (don’t get that one).  Anyway, all of this got me wondering if I am ditially savvy enough to survive in today’s business world. 

It is a fact that the IT world is seeing less and less female graduates – only 9%.  Katie Linendoll, a CNN tech contributor says that “Technology….is a workplace necessity….It’s a digital age; you don’t want to be left behind the curve.”  WOW!  Am I a technophobe or a byproduct of society’s socialization of making women believe we can’t enagage in technology or beacome of part of this digital era?  The article includes some success stories of “Digital Warriors” – women who have been extrodinarily successful at e-commerce or video game design.  That’s not gonna happen for me.  I am a marketer……a salesperson, so how much do I need to know about emerging/digital media to survive in my professional life?

It didn’t take very extensive research to realize that, YES, emerging media is very important in the workplace.  I will post the link to the study I found.  It has some really interesting results charts.  Here is the gist of it: sales and marketing are the segments of the business world that are most relevant for new media (blogs, podcasts, interactive websites,etc.).  Emerging media also has an affect on employee behavior and attitude. 

So it seems that social media = social marketing - growing phenomenon in business.  I have a long career ahead of me so it’s time to open the mind to the digital world.  I feel longer hours on the horizon….

cms.bsu.edu/…/~/media/…/Emerging%20Media%20Report.ashx

Later…….I’ve got learning to do. 

New Fashion or Old??

It’s impossible to deny the power of new or emerging media when it comes to the written word.  You can call me old fashioned, but there is still something sacred and powerful to me about holding that new gossip or fashion magazine in my hand while soaking in a hot bath or cuddled in bed at night. If you look at the (estimated) sales figures of the Amazon Kindle – 5 million in 2010 and an expected 11.5 million in 2012- I am obviously not in the majority.  Would the digital kindle electrocute me in the tub??  Again, I’d rather have a paperback that could dry out when I drop it in the water. 

So let’s talk digital in the sense of magazines (my personal favorite).  I use them to unwind, and I prefer mindless banter and pretty pictures for this occassion.  The newly introduced iPad offers a magzine app.  Again, I don’t feel the same about sliding my finger across a hard, flat surface to find out “the rest of the story”.  In this genre of digital media I may be in better company.  Even magazines that would one would expect to do well on the iPad because they have the same reading audience as those that may be interested in the iPad, like Popular Science or Wired, have a low download number in comparison to hardcopy sales.  When you start looking at magazines that target my demographic and psychographic the numbers are even lower – like 1% of total sales are through the iPad.  I’m not saying that number won’t grow because sales of the iPad have been lower than expected – somewhere around 5 million in the U.S.

To combat the idea that digital technology is taking over the world of print, 5 leading magzine publishers have come together to launch the “Power of Print” campaign to dispell the myth that magazines and other print media are things of the past.  Check out this YouTube video that speaks about how traditional and emerging media can work hand in hand to reach consumers.  I beleive that can both be a benefit to advertisers and marketers aswell.  At least when you have to physically flip by an ad you can catch a glimpse.  However, the benefit to digital advertising is the interactivity that it can provide for the consumer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGVniqgWSc0

I wish I could find a copy of the The Power of Print ad that caught my eye last night as I began reading my new issue of US Weekly.  It is very creatively done with a powerful message.  It states that magzine readership has actually grown over the last 5 years.  I’m sure that if you read many mags you will run across the ad yourself. So, go curl up with your favorite media until we speak again!

WVBudGirl

Hello world!

This is my first blogging experience so bare with me as I figure it all out.  I want to use this blog to explore the marketing world and how “new” and “old” media fit into it.  I am looking for all the input I can get so feel free to agree, disagree, suggest, etc.  I am looking for ideas on how to build the brand of my company and build relationships with our consumers across 6 counties in WV.  I know that to reach new consumers, I have to fight through my fears and reservations about emerging media options and educate myself on the best options to do that.

If youa re like me an new to emerging media check out this blog site http://emergingmedia.org/.  It is a great reference tool to navigate the digital world.  I just launched a Facebook page for my company last week.  It’s our first run at social media – or any type of new media – for that matter.  Our partner – Anheuser-Busch InBev is very ahead of the curve when it comes to incorporating emerging media into the marketing plans of our brands.  I want to develop our company brand in the same way.  If you too are using Facebook as a marketing tool here are some tips on what most attracts consumers to your page:

So, I am using this blog as an education tool – you can be a student with me or be my teacher.  Either way, my hope is that we have some interesting and fun conversations!  Let’s figure out how to use all of the technology that is offered us to deliver our message to a more targeted audience in the right way, at the right time, and in the right form. The fact that we are blogging puts us in the game. 

Until later…..wvbudgirl.