By adaptive - November 21st, 2012

This week we cover increasing marketing personalisation, a How To on Foursquare, and some insight on how to ready yourself for social customer service. Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of a...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

How to use Foursquare in your next campaign

With the behemoths of Facebook and Twitter grabbing much of the attention in the social media space, other networks have been quietly developing their services. One is Foursquare that doesn’t have such a high profile in the UK as it does over the pond.

Its 25 million users may seem small when compared to Facebook for instance, but brands are illustrating how location based social networking can deliver the personal connections they are looking for with their customers. The guys over at Simply Zesty have gathered together the current top ten Foursquare campaigns that all corporations can learn from.

Bad news is good!

The advent of social media has changed forever how your corporation must handle its customer services. When things go wrong, consumers now use social media to vent their displeasure at the brands that have let them down. A new infographic from the Ethical Corp illustrates that all businesses need to be ready when their corporations are criticised.

What is clear is that many corporations are simply fire fighting and do not have a structured plan for dealing with criticism of their businesses on social networks. Indeed, only a quarter of those surveyed stated their businesses were prepared for any attacks made on their companies.

Ice cream kings use personalised ad campaign

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream clearly understand the power of personalisation. In their latest ad campaign, the company has been using fan photos posted on Instagram to personalise their ads. Participants take images of what they consider illustrates ‘euphoria’ and then tag them #Capture Euphoria. Twenty images will be chosen throughout the campaign that will run into early next year.

The first winner was Megan who saw her image used in various print ads. The use of Instagram is becoming increasingly popular as brands look for new channels to connect with their customers. Ben & Jerry have a reputation of connecting with their customers. Their Capture Euphoria simply reinforces that belief in their customers.

In Brief…

Does your company have a content marketing strategy?

This is the question posed by a new infographic from BlueGlass. In the research that supported their new infographic, some 90% of respondents stated that their companies would be paying more attention to content marketing over the next year. However, only a quarter said they actually had a strategy in place. There is clearly some way to go before content marketing becomes a regular component of a corporations’ marketing mix.

2013 B2C Content Marketing Research: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends

The latest edition of this report from the Content Marketing Institute is now available. Some of the key results include: 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing, employing 12 individual tactics on average.

B2B marketers use social media more often than their B2C counterparts; however, B2C marketers consider it more effective (57% of B2C marketers think social media is effective vs. 49% of B2B marketers). On average, B2C marketers use four social media platforms, compared with the five used by B2B marketers.

On average, 28% of B2C marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing, and 55%of consumer marketers plan to increase their content marketing spend.

According to our research, both B2B and B2C marketers are still struggling with the effectiveness of their content marketing. So while we are happy that more marketers are engaging in content marketing to attract and retain customers, we also realize we have a ways to go.

The Nielsen cross platform report reveals second screen usage

According to the latest Nielsen Cross-Platform Report, Americans spent more than 34 hours per week in front of a TV set in Q2, 2012, where they watched traditional TV, DVDs and played games. Tablets and smart phones are proving to be new, novel and potentially necessary utilities, aiding Americans in connecting with the people and content they desire. These devices enable a new trans-generational community of connected consumers that crosses age, gender, race and ethnic lines to truly participate in the multitasking that used to be reserved for the young, or tech savvy elite. Smart phones now have a market penetration greater than 50%, and tablets are already in nearly 20% of US TV homes.

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.