By adaptive - May 16th, 2012

Plenty of activity across the social web this week… Ford and General Motors Twitter showdown [T]he latest showdown on the Econsultancy website pits two behemoths of the motor industry against e...

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

Ford and General Motors Twitter showdown

The latest showdown on the Econsultancy website pits two behemoths of the motor industry against each other. The presence that Ford now has on Twitter and the gains in advocacy they have received, has been credited to Scott Monty, who joined Ford in 2008 as their head of social media. It seems even traditional companies can move with the times and harness social media.

General Motors have also embraced Twitter and have used the platform to make personal connections with their customers. GM even goes as far as to name the people within their company that tweet – a major move by a large brand. As the infographic shows Ford seem to have the upper hand at the moment with more mentions per tweet.

The big data flood

Making sense of the torrent of data that is now flowing into every corporation from their multitude of social media networks is proving to be a major headache. IBM– the keepers of big data – have created an infographic to not only highlight the issue, but also provide some much needed advice that corporations can use to tackle their own data mountains.

IBM Advises that big data can be better managed by audience, content, yield and channel optimisation.

Facebook ‘likes’ come to physical stores

It had to happen sooner or later: An enterprising store has made their social media leap from the digital realm into the physical high street. Brazilian fashion retailer C&A allows anyone to ‘like’ a fashion item on their Facebook store with the resulting tally of likes being shown on specially designed hangers for each item. Whether the fact that C&A’s Facebookfans have liked and item that then sees an increase in sales in their physical stores remains to be seen. Watch this space for future updates.

New report shows continuing divide between consumers and marketers

A new report from PulsePoint has looked closely at the perception that marketers have of consumers and also the continuing challenges faced by brand and the agencies that support them. One of the major findings of the report is that marketers are still treating each marketing channel – especially social – as separate entities, whereas more integration is needed to support customer that now move fluidly from channel-to-channel.

The report concludes that more integration and unification is needed if corporations are to truly embrace the multiple marketing channels and deliver coherent messages to their customers. As the report states:

“Consumers are moving freely and easily across channels and devices, engaging in real-time. And, as they do so, they have ever-rising expectations of relevant, unified, customized and rewarding digital experiences. Like any fluid state, consumers are flowing to those companies that “get it,” and leaving dry those unable to quickly and intelligently adapt. As such, consumers are collectively setting the mark and pace for all digital marketers, agencies and publishers.”

In Brief...

More sales are now driven by Pinterest than Facebook

According to the latest stats from Boticca – a jewellery retailer – after allowing their customers to pin images to their Pinterest profiles, the site has given the company 10% of its sales compared to just 7% coming from Facebook. There is also a major commercial aspect to this as Pinterest users spent $180 compared to $85 on Facebook. The company’s CEO stated: “On Pinterest users are in discovery mode, looking for the best, most interesting products and designs the web has to offer. On Facebook, people are primarily looking to socialise with friends and consume video and photo content.”

Google+ woos more brands for adoption and engagement

A new report from Simply Measured has shown that Google is actively courting some of the biggest brands in a bid to get them onto their social network. New brands on Google+ include Nike and Xerox that join iconic luxury brands such as Ferarri and Gucci. Google+ is still less than a year old, but brands are seeing the real commercial potential the social space could deliver in the future.

Click-throughs increase on Facebook

Marin Software has indicated that Facebook CTRs are up 50% in the last 12 months. In addition, cost-per-click also increased by 26% with CPC ads decreasing by a similar amount. Conversion rates always seem to be in dispute, but Marin’s stats also show that budgets for Facebook ads have jumped from 3% to 26% over the past year indicating that brands still feel this social network is still worth investing in.

Who are the top retailers on social media?

A new infographic from Campalyst shows that Victoria’s Secret is the top social media brand with over 18m followers on Facebook. Walmart is a close second with 15m. Looking at YouTube Nike had the most subscribers at 200,000. The graphic also reveals that the top 250 retailers on Facebook have an average fan base of around 1m

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.