what's now and what's next in social media marketing
Social media ad revenues are expected to grow to $11 billion dollars by the year 2017. Facebook alone is expected to make close to $1 billion from its mobile ad revenue in 2013.
Salesforce.com put together a helpful infoG detailing the allocation of the social ad spend. Enjoy.
We all know social TV is here to stay. Well, a new online study from Accenture’s Media & Entertainment industry group, shows exactly how people’s viewing habits are changing.
The online poll of 3,501 consumers in France, Brazil, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States revealed:
Playskool found itself in hot water after the brand Tweeted a question that many dad bloggers found offensive.
As you can imagine, this sent dads into an uproar.
“Not sure where the question is coming from, but as a work-at-home Dad I’d say every day — unless the kids are actually ‘in charge,’” James Zahn, aka The Rock Father replied right away. John Wiley, whose blog is actually called Daddy’s In Charge, simply wrote, “Check out my Twitter Handle.”
The response indicates a move of dad become more vocal in social media and especially as bloggers.
Major media has reported extensively on the “daddy track,” meaning the rise of stay-at-home-dads, dads who are primary care-givers at home or whose work is purposely flexible in response to a sagging economy and high unemployment rates. Last May, The Wall Street Journal stated: “Even a casual observer of American family life knows that dads now drive kids to more doctors’ appointments, preside over more homework assignments and chaperone more playdates.”
And less than a week before Playskool’s misstep, The New York Times reported on this year’s Dad 2.0 conference, an event with the sole purpose of connecting influential fathers with marketers. The newspaper’s headline, which appeared on the front page of its business section, could not have been more clear: “Don’t Call Him Mom, or an Imbecile.”
Yet, the dad bloggers are the ones taking brands to task each day, making sure that a question like Playskool’s doesn’t go unnoticed. Before the first Dad 2.0 conference, they famously called out Huggies for launching an ad campaign based on stereotypical “bumbling dad” stereotypes, which resulted in commercials being pulled. And representatives from Kimberly Clarke, who owns Huggies, flew to Austin, Texas where the conference was held to apologize.
Meanwhile, some parents said they plan to stop buying Playskool products because of this comment.
Since the unfortunate Tweet on Friday, Playskool has been personally apologizing to bloggers and Twitterers the point of making their Twitter feed one big mess of sorry.
This certainly raises the question of clarity of humor in social media. While it is important for brands to have a sense of humor about themselves, their products and the situations their customers often find themselves in, one must also consider the context of social content and how it could be interpreted.
Ever wondered what kinds of posts on Facebook get the most Likes?
Of course, there are the usual best practices to consider: posts with images get people to stop and look; brevity gets read more than lengthy monologues, leading to more Likes; humor and relatable stories work well; and featuring your brand’s personality in a conversational way reminds people why they love your brand without feeling like you are selling to them.
Well, Track Social follows hundreds of thousands of posts made by brands on Facebook every month, and here are the most Most Liked posts from January 2013. Let’s see how many of the most liked posts hit on those best practices.
Building on their attempts to get into commerce, Facebook is testing a feature that lets users create “wishlists” by clicking an “I Want” button. The test includes seven retailers: Pottery Barn, Victoria’s Secret, Neiman Marcus, Michael Kors, Smith Optics, Wayfair and Fab.com. The feature, which Facebook dubbed Collections, could help Facebook play a bigger role in the online commerce market by encouraging users to buy flagged products for their friends directly from online stores.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the company does not receive a fee when someone purchases a wishlist item on Facebook from a retailer’s site.
The Collections feature will gradually be offered to 100% of its U.S. users and will be slowly rolled out in the UK next year. Unlike Facebook’s existing “like” button, the feature that Facebook is testing will showcase the “liked” item within a user’s Timeline profile page.
To-date, Facebook has not had much success in the commerce arena. The social network’s attempt at direct-purchases through the site failed miserably with GameStop, Gap, JC Penney and Nordstrom’s storefronts being shut down almost as quickly as they launched.
I think this could find some success, particularly when built into Facebook-organized events like baby showers and engagements/weddings, where gift registry is common. But, if the wish list isn’t tied to a specific event, I’m not sure how effective it will be in general. After all, how often do people buy gifts for each other “just because”?
I’ll keep an eye out on this for you. In the meantime, let me know what you think – would you share your wish lists on Facebook?
