By Nick Johnson - June 14th, 2011

Hi all, Before we get to this week's articles, a request. We're currently putting together an in-depth, 60+ page report on social media impact measurement. As part of the report, we have put togeth...

Hi all,

Before we get to this week's articles, a request. We're currently putting together an in-depth, 60+ page report on social media impact measurement. As part of the report, we have put together a (short) survey. The more responses we get, the better the report - so it would be hugely appreciated if you could spend the time to complete it. It should take you ten minutes, but any respondent will get 15% off any of our forthcoming conferences. Complete the survey here.

Anyway, now onto the content:

Nike integrate social media, gamification and social commerce for the NBA Playoffs

Great case study on how Nike put together a fantastic campaign for the recent Miami Heat v Dallas Mavericks NBA playoffs. During the games, the sportswear company converted its basketball homepage into a competition page - tracking which individual players were being tweeted about the most. The more tweets, the bigger the picture for said player.

The site also gave a link to ‘kicks’ (trainers, for our UK audience). On this site, one could see the shoes players wore during the playoffs. You could then either buy a pair yourself or tweet the players in question.

You can find out more on Mashable, here.

Are ¼ of hotel chains stupid?

One would have thought that hotel chains would be all over social media by now. They have stock that they can afford to reduce for cheap (group buying), buying decisions that are swayed by peer reviews (TripAdvisor, Facebook, etc) and customer retention across chains can make a huge impact on bottom line (better Facebook/Twitter engagement).

Yet a full quarter of all hotel chains have no social media strategy for increasing occupancy and revenue. And this isn’t simply a budgetary issue - 57% are increasing display ad spend. 20% are increasing paid search spend. It seems to be a choice.

Why?? Anyone in the hotel industry, please drop us a note in the comments with your views.

Integrated marketing: Actually, it’s a bad idea

Interesting post from Eric Brown at Social Media Explorer, which highlights something often forgotten when talking about integrating social and other marketing channels.

I think [saying you need an integrated marketing approach] is a mistake. I should be asking “What marketing venue or platform are you going to stop doing, before you start doing social media marketing?”

Eric points out that funds are not unlimited, so rather than simply adding social to your marketing mix, you’ve got to be realistic - and decide what you’re going to cut to bring in social.

And that means, surprise surprise, a clear idea of ROI.

Big questions: Social Media in the Middle East

When we’ve researched social media for the European market in the past, we’ve noted quite how varied takeup and use of social networks are across the various countries in the EU. Social media does not have a uniform landscape. The topography’s totally different in different geographical areas.

eConsultancy have just put together a post entitled “Engaging with people on social networks in the Middle East”.
Key points:

  1. There’s not much out there in terms of best practice - case studies are in short supply
  2. Middle Eastern twitter conversations aren’t one-on-one, they’re group discussions. And that means you’re reaching far more than your followers
  3. Be polite. It’s important
  4. Don’t get defensive
  5. Think before you reply

Apart from point one, which is hardly helpful, every other point could be applied anywhere in the world. So I’d like to ask you - how is social media in the Middle East different? Are there particular networks that are popular? Particular activities? Is there far more sharing of photos/video, or is text-based commentary more popular? I’ll put up a post based on responses.

Too much information: Better analysis of your social media activity

Lauren Fisher at Simply Zesty makes a good point -

“There is an inherent risk in [consuming all social media data available], in that the line between where the analysis ends and the real work starts becomes blurred].”

As social media managers, we now have access to hundreds of individual sets of data on social media activity, takeup and engagement.

In her post, Lauren gives some good advice on how to choose the right KPIs for you, and how to keep evolving your social media measurement.

That's all for this week guys.

Until next time!

Nick

 

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