The Top 10 Progressive Media Concepts Blogs of 2011
This weekend will mark the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012! We hope everyone had a great year and has big plans for 2012, as it is best to start the New Year off on the right foot! For those of you who have been following our work since the beginning, or even just recently started reading, we thank you and would like to recap our top 10 blogs of 2011 that were made possible by your views!
What You Should Know About Social Media Conversion and the Social Consumer
Not everyone is going to purchase your product. More times than not, a company will expect their social media campaign to be wildly successful right from the start of their campaign. Brands and companies should know that it takes time for a social media initiative to be successful. There are ways to speed up the process of course, but understand not everyone who views your product is going to buy it. The #1 question asked in regards to social media is, “What is the ROI?” Well, that all depends on what you’re trying to achieve from using social media. If you are running promotions in attempts to increase sales, the conversion rate is vital to understanding your success with the campaign.
Conversion is the percentage of visitors or users who take a desired action. To better understand what I mean, follow the example below.
You run a Facebook promotion of 50% off a particular item using the code PROMO. The Facebook promotional tab had 2500 views, yet only 100 people purchased using the code PROMO.
Your conversion ratio would be 1:25.
Your conversion rate would be 4%.
What you should know about the consumer.
Even if you offered free products, not every person will convert. Many factors play into whether the consumer will click on a link, participate in a promotional contest or purchase a product. Such factors include:
Enticement. You want to entice your customers in order to get them to click on a link that leads directly to your sale items. So how do you achieve this? You can engage them by creating attention-grabbing statuses, posting photos or videos, and asking for their opinions. When you are restricted by the number of characters that can be used, and all you have at your disposal is text and a link, you still need to be able to entice your consumer. If you’re using a platform like Twitter, make sure that the tweets contain some sort of incentive for your consumer to click on the link. Supplying proper and enticing information may help convert those who click the link into sales.
Time. In today’s busy society, time is always an issue. We are a time-conscious civilization where time costs money. If something takes too long to purchase, a person may either give up completely or say they will finish it later, which never gets finished. Making the process easy to understand and simple may increase the amount of people who complete the purchase.
Information. Companies typically ask for a great deal of information to ensure customer identification. Anyone who is shopping online understands that certain information is required and will gladly supply it. But requesting information irrelevant to the purchase may cause a person to second guess their decision, and not proceed with the purchase. People are skeptical about their online privacy, so do not make them feel like you are fishing for more information than what is needed to purchase the product.
False Advertising. Consumers hate to be tricked. How many times have you clicked on a link to what seems to be a GREAT deal, only to find out there is a catch. You may find a lot of people clicking on the link, but also find that only a small percentage of those clicks convert into a sale. For example, a link claims that you will receive 50% off of your first purchase. After you click the link, you find out that the deal is really 50% off your purchase of $3000 or more. Tricking your consumers with false advertising will most likely decrease the chances they revisit your site.
Social media is a great tool for businesses and brands to keep their consumers informed and gain new customers. When used properly, your business can increase sales and revenue with each passing day. In order to sell on social media, you must first understand the mind of the consumer and their likes and dislikes. It may take trial and error before you figure out what sort of campaign will drive the highest conversion rate, but do not give up. The higher the conversion rate and the more people are doing what you ask of them, the more successful that campaign is. Once you figure out the winning formula, you have the recipe to further your sales with future promotional events.
How to Calculate the ROI of Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Being able to calculate the ROI of a company’s social media initiatives has been a big debate within the industry. What is social media ROI? How do you know if your sales are stemming from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or your blogs? These are questions that keep many businesses on the fence of starting to use social media for marketing practices. Of course, there are returns that are not necessarily financial, but let’s face it; all Chief Marketing Officers need to see what will happen to their bottom-line figures. Today, we will take a more in depth look at how marketing executives should be measuring their ROI.
The first step in the ROI measurement process is to form a social media marketing plan that directly correlates to all corporate and branding strategies, without only focusing on the ROI. This means, figure out what your strategic priorities are. Do you want your social media marketing to increase traffic to your sites, improve brand awareness, or improve your search rankings? Do you want to see lead generations or are you planning on using social media as another form of customer service? There are different ways to measure the ROI depending on the strategies you choose. For example, using social media for customer service reduces costs associated with that department, which in turn increases the financial value of your strategy. Refer back to last Monday’s article to see how that is done correctly.
Social Media Spotlight: Floppingout.com
It’s Wednesday and on today’s Social Media Spotlight we bring you a humorous Sports News blog site Floppingout.com. Flopping Out has steadily been increasing their loyal fan following using blog tactics loved by all, comedy. Reading a plain and informative article can often times induce drowsiness, but when reading an article with a comical spin to the facts presented, you are intrigued to continue reading. Integrating not only YouTube and other well-known social sites, FloppingOut.com has also incorporated a live talk radio for their fans to hear the news. We had the pleasure to speak with Nick Spano, co-owner of Floppingout.com, about their social media initiatives, and here is what he had to say:
What social media platforms do you currently use?
N: Twitter and Facebook. There is nothing better than directly interacting with friends, family, and people who are fans and followers of your line of work. Not to mention, you can even get in touch with the President on Twitter. No joke, he is following me.
A Social Media Bubble?
Just like when anything has a rise in popularity, those sticking to their guns on the sidelines always have to raise controversy. So now that social media is the newest and hottest form of marketing and advertising, that must mean there is a bubble? A social media bubble you say? Like the dot-com bubble, right? Wrong. I mean, everyone is entitled to their own opinions on the validity or effectiveness of using social media. Most common arguments claim you can’t measure ROI, or that social media relationships are fake, or whatever people will say to negate the power of social media. The arguments are a dime a dozen and rarely backed with any good juicy information. I also read an article about this “social media bubble” on the Harvard Business Review, stating social media is creating artificial connections. This article is to those skeptics who see no true value in social media and or claim there is a “bubble” inflating…
Now I am not trying to call out this one article in particular, it is very well written with great points. The writer may just lack further insight into social media as a whole, as most of his arguments are based on opinion.
Social Media Spotlight: Welch’s
Today, our Social Media Spotlight will focus on the well-known, family favorite brand, Welch’s. Welch’s has been in the grape business since 1869, and offers a variety of 100% grape juices. Their product line also consists of other 100% juices, sparkling beverages, juice cocktails, concentrates, jams, jellies, and snacks. Let’s find out how such an established company uses social media marketing to its benefit. Erika Jubinville gives us the inside scoop on their social strategy.
