By adaptive - September 26th, 2012

Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of activity across the social web this week… Bridging the gap [A] new infographic from Infosys is essential reading for all corporations that are try...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

Bridging the gap

Leveraging offline tactics to help online marketing effortsA new infographic from Infosys is essential reading for all corporations that are trying to integrate their online and offline marketing efforts. The infographic reveals that the efforts that are put into offline marketing have a direct impact on the conversion that is seen online.

In addition, a massive 60% of consumers are likely to make a purchase based on offline word-of-mouth, with TV still reining supreme in the offline environment. Understanding what is now a symbiotic relationship between online and offline marketing is the key to sustainable businesses with social media playing an increasingly important role.

Who is driving shopping traffic?

Social Traffic InfographicBased on 689 million shopping sessions in the US between January 1 and August 31 that used RichRelevance’s retail recommendation software, this infographic shows that Facebook continues to drive the lion’s share of socially driven shopping sessions. However, the research clearly shows that visual shopping and search are gaining ground with Pinterest leading the pack in this area.

 

By 2014 over 10% of social media reviews will be faked

Faked ReviewsThe latest press release from Gartner will make stark reading for any company that relies on reviews to drive traffic to their commercial sites. Gartner state that analysts predict that increased media attention on fake social media ratings and reviews will result in at least two Fortune 500 brands facing litigation from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the next two years.

“With over half of the Internet's population on social networks, organizations are scrambling for new ways to build bigger follower bases, generate more hits on videos, garner more positive reviews than their competitors and solicit ‘likes’ on their Facebook pages,” said Jenny Sussin, senior research analyst at Gartner. “Many marketers have turned to paying for positive reviews with cash, coupons and promotions including additional hits on YouTube videos in order to pique site visitors' interests in the hope of increasing sales, customer loyalty and customer advocacy through social media ‘word of mouth’ campaigns.”

Organizations who opt to pay for phoney reviews can, and have, faced both public condemnation as well as monetary fines. In 2009, the FTC determined that paying for positive reviews without disclosing that the reviewer had been compensated equates to deceptive advertising and would be prosecuted as such.

The dawn of mobile influence

The Dawn of Mobile InfluenceDeloitte has conducted a survey to assess smart phone usage among consumers and the influence of mobile, excluding tablets, on in-store sales. Over half (58%) of all UK consumers already own a smart phone. According to the analysis, smart phones already influence 5.8% of all retail store sales in the United Kingdom — which translates to approximately £15.2 billion in forecasted sales for 2012. That projection far overshadows the £1 billion forecasted for mCommerce sales in 2012.

In Brief…

A CEO’s guide to Pinterest

The use of social media in the business world is growing. So what’s the next site companies should integrate into their social media strategy? Try Pinterest. Why? Because it’s quickly becoming one of the main sites visited for information and is increasingly driving more traffic. Curious about Pinterest’s growth, CEO.com gathered info about its rise in comparison to other social sites.

Brand screens fans on their Facebook page

The up market mustard brand Grey Poupon has become the first company to actively screen its fans.  On the launch of its latest campaign ‘the society of good taste’ the company customers must complete an application procedure that tests their cultural sophistication. It’s well known that exclusivity works well with branding, but whether this can also backfire and alienate followers is clearly a risk, but one that this brand is clearly willing to take.

Facebook pages worth more than websites

According to an infographic from market researchers Lab42, a brand’s Facebook page is more valuable than its website to half of a company’s engaged consumers. Interactivity is seen as key today with over 80% of those surveyed stating that Facebook is the best place to interact with a brand. This affinity for Facebook is clearly a powerful marketing tool that is being turned into conversions with over 39% of a brand’s Facebook users engaging because of promotions or discounts.

The rules of calculating follower value

One of the most persistent questions that corporations ask is how they can calculate the value of a Facebook like or a follower on Twitter. A detailed blog post from Olivier Blanchard proposes a number of key rules that brand owners could use when calculating the value of their social media activity. Clearly each brand will have to look closely at their particular action and how they perceive ‘value’ in their business, but this empirical look at value calculation is still useful for all corporations no matter their market sector.

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.

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