By adaptive - June 20th, 2012

Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of activity across the social web this week… Burberry tweets animated GIF [T]o celebrate gaining its one-millionth follower on Twitter, Burberry sent...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

Burberry tweets animated GIF

To celebrate gaining its one-millionth follower on Twitter, Burberry sent an animated thank you card to 3,000 of its followers. The animation features falling raindrops behind a simple message written by the company’s Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey, with Twitter promoting the event via a special #thanksamillion page. Celebrating their milestone seems to have gone down well with followers giving the company brand advocacy that traditional advertising simply can’t buy. This kind of simple yet highly effective engagement initiatives should be the norm and not the exception when corporations are managing their social networks.

Facebook advertising can be effective

A new report from ComScore concludes that Facebook can be ma valuable advertising platform. However, the report does reinforce the fact that markers can’t view Facebook in the same context as traditional media. There is also strong evidence that social media can have a direct impact on a brand’s performance. The reports points to Starbucks with nearly 40% of those that are exposed to a Facebook promotion will visit a branch within two weeks of seeing the campaign. The report concludes by stating that too many brands continue to focus on gaining fans and not engaging with these followers.

Twitter beats Facebook for social media intelligence

In a recent survey from Digimind reveals that the social media networks now form a core component of market research carried out by businesses to give them insight into competitors, market development and consumer trends. The research indicates that over 60% of companies monitor Twitter, nearly 70% LinkedIn, with Facebook and Google+ gaining only 47% and 35% respectively.

Digimind’s Associate Director, Patrice Francois said. “A small proportion of companies remain cautious about the potential value of social media monitoring but the vast majority see it as a complement to the full spectrum of intelligence gathering. There is a tendency for some people to view social media monitoring as something which solely benefits B2C environments but it’s fast being adopted by a wide range of businesses and organisations for unearthing valuable intelligence insights.”

Social media is going corporate

A new infographic from MBA Programs shows that 94% of corporations are now using social media networks, with 85% stating that these spaces give their businesses more exposure in the market place. Not surprisingly Facebook leads the pack. Interestingly the graphic also draws a direct link  resources spent and media traffic gained with brands that spend just six hours a week managing their social presences seeing an increase in traffic to their websites.

In Brief...

Choosing between Facebook and Google+

A new infographic from Pardot could help your business decide whether it should have a presence on Google+ or Facebook. It seems that Facebook still reins supreme for personal connections with family and friends, but Google+ is rapidly gaining acceptance and usage within the business community. Pardot state: “Our comparison of the two networks in January uncovered an interesting trend that still appears to hold true: many business pages (and particularly those that relate to technology) are thriving on Google+ – in some cases even more so than on their corresponding Facebook pages. Google+ seems to have attracted a smaller but highly tech-savvy crowd, and the conversation reflects as much.”

Users refuse to accept cookies when asked to opt in

Compiled from more than half a million users interactions through QuBit’s Cookie Consent Tool, more than 40% of users refused to accept a cookie request when asked to do so. Opting in is now necessary as the new EU privacy regulations are now in force. However, some corporate users such as M&S and Amazon are not asking for cookie opt in and just making their cookie policy prominent on their websites.

According to QuBit, behavioural advertising can generate 2.7 times as much revenue per ad as untargeted advertising and, it argues, a reduction in cookie consent would damage this technology, potentially costing up to £648m per year in lost sales.

Mini test drive campaign brings car to your door

With a little lateral thinking the latest campaign from for the Mini takes the car and the Mini store to interested customers. Ten Minis drove around Paris to meet people that had expressed an interest in taking a test drive. Making their store in effect mobile is a masterstroke and allows high levels of engagement, but many have pointed to the lack of social media integration that this campaign has – somewhat of a glaring omission by Mini France.

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.