At the Four State Regional Technology Conference I managed to see several presentations, but the VML showcase about the Impact of Emerging Media, presented by Joe Grigsby, was particularly insightful. Grigsby defined emerging media as the “consumer behavior trends that transform how they connect to content, to each other, and to the broader society.” He divided this into two basic categories: social and mobile.
He started off with some pretty impressive stats for social media. As of this year, two thirds of all media is digital, and 76% of all broadband users are active contributors to social media. Facebook alone has over 500 million active users. Grigsby stated, “If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3rd largest,” larger than America. He also mentioned that Facebook is overtaking Google as the “starting point” for the Internet. After learning these statistics, it is pretty obvious that social media as a profound effect on consumer behavior. Consumers participate in discussions about a product or a brand within social networking whether a company participates or not. These discussions are often more powerful than marketing acts because consumers trust other consumers twice as much.
If marketing is reach and influence, then social media has the reach, and friends have the influence. The greatest value that marketing can have is where business goals and consumer goals overlap. Social media has the capacity for listening, sharing, participation, awareness, and community. Having something of value to say can get people talking and listening. It is important to have good community management by talking about topics unrelated to products and direct advertising, talking about the idea or lifestyle associated with the business, and be prepared for good and bad feedback. Integration is important too. “Any one thing by itself will fail. He recommended linking your business website to Facebook, twitter, and other social media outlets, and share information from the website on as many sites as possible. A business should encourage activation through paid media campaigns, event invitations, on site activities, influencer outreach, social media promotions, content, and search optimization. A good example would be Facebook ads, where you can target a very specific demographic with information highly customized for them. Finally, measure social participation and track the success of your objectives.
The second category is mobile, which is no surprise with every company trying to make money releasing an iPhone app. This mass market value is growing dramatically with the expansion of increased network speeds, flat rate data plans, and device capabilities. In 2011 there will be more smart phones on the market than feature phones. About 30% of Facebook activity takes place on mobile Internet. When using mobile media for marketing, it becomes very important to understand your target audience. Know what devices are used, and how they are used. Design something that the people will want to use. Text messaging can be used for alerts, event notifications, special offers, sweepstakes, voting, and surveys.
The general goal of using these forms emerging media is to connect and activate your audience and connect the physical marketing to digital. Going into this I was well aware of how these emerging technologies could be used, but the presentation really put the true power of social and mobile media into perspective.
He started off with some pretty impressive stats for social media. As of this year, two thirds of all media is digital, and 76% of all broadband users are active contributors to social media. Facebook alone has over 500 million active users. Grigsby stated, “If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3rd largest,” larger than America. He also mentioned that Facebook is overtaking Google as the “starting point” for the Internet. After learning these statistics, it is pretty obvious that social media as a profound effect on consumer behavior. Consumers participate in discussions about a product or a brand within social networking whether a company participates or not. These discussions are often more powerful than marketing acts because consumers trust other consumers twice as much.
If marketing is reach and influence, then social media has the reach, and friends have the influence. The greatest value that marketing can have is where business goals and consumer goals overlap. Social media has the capacity for listening, sharing, participation, awareness, and community. Having something of value to say can get people talking and listening. It is important to have good community management by talking about topics unrelated to products and direct advertising, talking about the idea or lifestyle associated with the business, and be prepared for good and bad feedback. Integration is important too. “Any one thing by itself will fail. He recommended linking your business website to Facebook, twitter, and other social media outlets, and share information from the website on as many sites as possible. A business should encourage activation through paid media campaigns, event invitations, on site activities, influencer outreach, social media promotions, content, and search optimization. A good example would be Facebook ads, where you can target a very specific demographic with information highly customized for them. Finally, measure social participation and track the success of your objectives.
The second category is mobile, which is no surprise with every company trying to make money releasing an iPhone app. This mass market value is growing dramatically with the expansion of increased network speeds, flat rate data plans, and device capabilities. In 2011 there will be more smart phones on the market than feature phones. About 30% of Facebook activity takes place on mobile Internet. When using mobile media for marketing, it becomes very important to understand your target audience. Know what devices are used, and how they are used. Design something that the people will want to use. Text messaging can be used for alerts, event notifications, special offers, sweepstakes, voting, and surveys.
The general goal of using these forms emerging media is to connect and activate your audience and connect the physical marketing to digital. Going into this I was well aware of how these emerging technologies could be used, but the presentation really put the true power of social and mobile media into perspective.
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