By adaptive - July 25th, 2012

Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Welcome to this week's news update… Facebook safer driving campaign from Volkswagen [I]n a bid to cut the number of road accidents caused by drivers using m...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Welcome to this week's news update…

Facebook safer driving campaign from Volkswagen

In a bid to cut the number of road accidents caused by drivers using mobile phones, and to promote their latest hands-free product, Volkswagen have turned to video with the creation of an innovative marketing campaign.

After clicking a banner ad, the viewer is promoted to use Facebook Connect to make a video call a friend or colleague, activating the call with their voice. The video shows the driver behind their wheel. Placing the caller into the ad makes the campaign highly viral and shows that banner ads are far from a dead marketing platform.

 What are your Facebook fans worth?

A new survey conducted by We Are Social and Bulmers to discover the real value of a Facebook fan concluded that the value is £198.64 annually or £3.82 per week. Using a questionnaire on their Facebook page with the results compared to a sample of Bulmer’s customers, the figure is interesting as it attempts to place a commercial value on the relationship that Bulmers is developing with its Facebook fans.

More importantly, the study has shown that the value of individual fans can be very different with brand advocacy not always converting into income. A brand may have millions of fans, but which of these offer any monetary value is the big question.

FTSE 100 companies now ‘get’ social media

The Group have since November 2009 been monitoring the FTSE 100 companies use of social media. Recently the number of businesses using the social space has significantly jumped to reveal that social media is now an understood and appreciated component of these companies marketing and customer services activity. The research reveals that:

56% of FTSE100 companies now have an official Twitter account, up almost 25% in six months and 40% since this time last year.

38% have an official Facebook presence, up more than 50% since December.

44% have an official YouTube channel, a slight increase over six months but up a third since November 2009.

Nine companies are active on all four channels, up from seven companies six months ago.

30% are active on three or more channels, up 17% in six months, while 46% use at least two channels, up from 40% in December.

34% have no social media presence but that figure has dropped from 46% six months ago.

Corporate blogging on the increase

According to their latest social media research, The Group has revealed that corporate blogging has increased by over a third to the end of last year. However, in Fortune 500 companies blogging had decreased by 37%.

As The Group note: “The reason for the decline in the US is that blogging is evolving to other forms or is being replaced by communication through Facebook or Twitter. This is in contrast with the UK – we’ve seen a rise in corporate blogging as well as Twitter and a small rise in Facebook use (we’re pretty certain there will be more corporate blogs in the next few months). Having said that, corporate blogging in the US is still much higher than the 16% of companies in the UK.”

The key trends are:

• There are now 16 corporate blogs in the FTSE100, up from 12 in June (an increase of 33%).
• Six of the FTSE100 have other types of blogs.
• 598 new blog posts on corporate blogs in the last six months (an increase of 46% up from 409 in the six months to June 2011).
• 75% of Technology, Media and Telecommunications companies in the FTSE100 have a corporate blog.
• There are no corporate blogs in the Industrial, Basic Materials, Healthcare, General Financial, and Real Estate sectors.

In Brief…

Record revenues from mobile search

A new report from Juniper Research is forecasting that the revenue from mobile search will reach $15bn by 2017. This is almost three times the current market value of this sector. The key findings of the report included: Google’s domination of the mobile web search space means other players need to find ways to differentiate their products in a largely commoditised market. Augmented reality search is increasingly being deployed as an add-on feature, rather than a stand-alone product. And adoption of discovery services for apps is driven by the high number of applications on leading storefronts, but faces challenge from big brands (with Apple acquiring Chomp, and Facebook launching app centre).

Response times on social media must improve

The queries that your business receives via its social media networks are now vital to respond to, as consumers demand more interaction from the brands they communicate with. Research from the ad agency Arnold Woldwide has shown that nearly 60% of consumers that leave a comment on a brand’s social networks expect a response. Over 80% of cosumers in China and 74% in Brazil expect a response with slightly lower figures for the UK (48%) and the US (45%) being less demanding.

Twitter ads become more targeted

Brands that want to do more with their marketing on Twitter can now create ads from scratch instead of just turning an existing tweet into a promotional message. On their blog Twitter stated: “Now global brands that have different launch dates for several countries can send tailored messages at different times, customized for the users in each country. Mobile app providers who only want to reach customers on one device can do so without sending the message to desktop users.”

Twitter still the favourite among corporate users

Twitter remains the most popular social network amongst Fortune 500 companies according to a study from Burson-Marsteller. Corporate users are also clearly understanding the power of social media with 93% of Facebook accounts updated weekly.

“People want to interact and connect with these major companies, and these platforms are the bridge directly to the heart of these organizations,” according to Burson-Marsteller Chief Global Digital Strategist Dallas Lawrence. “What’s even more impressive is how much companies are engaging back with followers. Seventy-nine percent of corporate accounts attempt to engage on Twitter with retweets and ‘@mentions’, and 70% of corporate Facebook pages are responding to comments on their walls and timelines.”

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.