social business Archives

Instagram Video or Vine? Which Social Video Tool is Better for Business?

June 26, 2013/by Corey Padveen

To Instagram or to Vine? That is the question. Which social video tool is better for business?

The newest video feature on Instagram is one of the hottest topics in the world of social media, and rightfully so. This newly integrated social video tool means that Facebook (which owns Instagram) has taken yet another step further in controlling the social world.

A few months ago, Twitter introduced their social video tool, Vine. This was a big deal then and now everyone wants to know: which of these two platforms has more advantages for business?

Though they both possess some strong characteristics, when it comes to business, Instagram video has the edge. Below is a comparative justification for the advantages of Instagram for business.

Quality

One word: Cinema. This is the feature on Instagram’s video service that allows users to stabilize videos. This may not seem like much, but for businesses, it means the ability to create videos that appear somewhat more professional. Users can also edit videos on Instagram instead of scrapping them entirely and having to start over (which is a downside to Vine).

Second, as with it’s pictures, Instagram Video allows users to apply over a dozen filters to videos whereas Vine is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get platform (for now).

Length

You can do a lot of creative stuff on Vine in only six seconds, but imagine what you could do with twice that much (and a little bit more).

Videos made with Instagram can be up to 15 seconds long, lending businesses the opportunity to convey their message with a little more clarity. It also allows for a call-to-action to appear for an extra second or two. And in the online world, a second or two is a lifetime.

Embedding

Vine certainly has the edge here, and it is a big one.

Videos on Vine can be easily embedded while Instagram still has yet to include this feature. That’s a big plus for Vine, because it allows businesses to share their videos on different platforms, including their WordPress blog with the plugin, Embedly.

This is not unexpected. Facebook has been notoriously streamlining all of their efforts in order to, as we mentioned earlier, take over the Internet. Although it should not be long before we see some version of embedding capable with Instagram videos.

The same cannot be said for sharing, however.

Sharing

Videos on Instagram can be shared to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr and via email. With Vine, your videos can only go as far as Facebook and Twitter.

Audience

Finally, the biggest difference of them all: the audience.

Vine currently has about 13 million users. Instagram’s user-base is ten times that! With such a vast audience on Instagram, you have to wonder if Vine is still a relevant and viable option for businesses on social media.

Vine is an intriguing tool, and can be a lot of fun. (Just look at comedian Will Sasso’s Lemon Compilation on Vine.) But when it comes to the benefits of a social video tool for business, Instagram certainly has the edge.

Have you used Instagram Video or Vine for business? Which one do you think is more beneficial? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Targeted Campaigns on Social Media

June 21, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Targeted campaigns on social media provide certain unique benefits that can add significant value to your business.

There was a time when a few carefully placed television ads would reach 80% of your targeted audience. Those days, however, are long gone, and to reach those same numbers today you would, in most cases, need to spend far more than your budget.

Targeted campaigns on social media, however, provide similar capabilities at a fraction of the cost, and generate a significant degree of Social Equity.

Targeted campaigns generate Social Equity for your business in two distinct ways. First, while your reach may not be extremely broad, it is far more specific than with conventional campaigns and therefore generates higher conversion rates. Second, targeted campaigns on social media are far more cost effective than other types of marketing and advertising that generate similar results – and those are few and far between.

Value Added

As noted above, the ability to target a very specific audience leads to higher conversion rates. When you are able to tailor an ad specifically for the audience that it is reaching, you can expect that the engagement levels will be significantly higher than a case where a generic ad is shared to a mass audience.

Of course, marketers and advertisers try to do this on other media as well. Using the available data, campaigns are launched to specific audiences wherever possible. However, on social media the ability to narrow down your targeted audience is far easier and the results of a well-executed campaign will be much higher.

One example of this is a social media case study we looked at recently about Vestas, a wind energy provider. Vestas put together a very targeted campaign and sent it to 50 companies. For each executive or employee that came into contact with the campaign, Vestas had created a version of the campaign targeted specifically towards that company. The results were high engagement, significant conversion and the campaign was an overall success.

Costs Saved

The second area in which Social Equity is derived from targeted campaigns is in the costs that are saved from engaging in this type of campaign on social networks.

As noted at the beginning of this article, reaching 80% of your desired audience was easy at the dawn of television, but today the cost is far too prohibitive. On social media, however, you can still reach your targeted audience at a fraction of the cost.

The ability to launch targeted campaigns geared towards engaging your desired audience for a relatively low cost (compared to reaching the same audience with other media) is a big value. Increasing your exposure and growing your business at rates comparable to those that involve significant ad spending will benefit your business significantly in the long-run.

Often, Social Equity is as much about how much you are saving as it is about how much you are making.

Have you executed any targeted campaigns on social media? Tell us about them in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Vestas

June 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Vestas – a multi-billion dollar wind energy pioneer – used LinkedIn to combat rising competition.

Late in 2011, Vestas, a Danish manufacturer and provider of wind-based energy systems, was faced with a global recession, increased competition and an unpredictable regulatory body. The result was a decline in revenues and the burden of bringing the company back to its usual standards fell on the branding and marketing departments.

When one thinks of a social media case study, multinational energy providers are not necessarily the first companies to come to mind. What Vestas showed, however, was that social media marketing can deliver results for companies in all sorts of industries, even those where you might least expect to see an impact.

The Campaign

The Vestas campaign was among the most impressive ever put together on LinkedIn. It encompassed several parts and was tailored, effectively, to each of the 400,000 people who were reached. The campaign, titled Energy Transparency, aimed to accomplish a very specific goal, according to Morten Kamp Jørgensen, Director Brand Management, Group MarCom and Customer Insight, Vestas:

“The goal of the campaign was to start a discussion and education process for carbon conscious corporations to directly invest in wind energy rather than just buying Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). Many corporations are already investing directly in renewable energy and we wanted to encourage this and engage corporations who have sustainability targets that make them more likely to invest in wind.”

To do this, Vestas launched an InMail campaign to 622 targeted executives at 50 energy-conscious companies, created customized LinkedIn banner ads for the 400,000 employees of said companies, partnered with Businessweek for a special offer for the InMail participants and created custom landing pages for each of the 50 companies’ executives and employees.

The results were outstanding. (You would hope so with that much work!) And while this is a huge campaign – one that not every company would need or be capable of executing – there is a lot to learn for marketers.

The Lessons

Do Your Research

Vestas did not succeed because they blindly launched a campaign on LinkedIn – far from it. Months of careful planning went into this campaign, starting with research into the companies most likely to respond. Again, the 50 companies selected were chosen based on specific criteria that made them excellent candidates.

When putting together a marketing campaign – social media or otherwise – you will only succeed if your campaign is built on a solid foundation of research and data to back up your decisions.

Customize Your Campaign

The banners, the landing pages, the InMail – everything about the Vestas LinkedIn campaign was customized and tailored to fit the individual seeing the content. Adding a personal touch keeps your audience invested.

Sharing generic content leads to fewer click-throughs and, subsequently, a lower conversion. If you personalize the different features of a campaign, you stand to generate a much higher success rate than if you do not.

In with the New, But Not Out with the Old

Vestas took several marketing styles and created a huge campaign that blurred the lines between conventional marketing and new marketing. From LinkedIn, to banner ads, to magazine spreads – they covered all their bases and, more importantly, they connected every aspect of the campaign together.

It is important for marketers to remember that social media is not the end all be all of marketing. While it does present some great new opportunities, it should be looked at in unison with your conventional marketing efforts. Vestas realized that and the numbers prove that they got it right.

Which lesson do you think is most important to pull from this campaign? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Tips to Help You Manage Your Online Reputation

June 19, 2013/by Corey Padveen

It is crucial now more than ever that you properly manage your online reputation – everyone can see everything.

With the advent of social media in the business world, it has never been more important to keep an eye on and properly manage your online reputation. 140 characters may seem short, but that is all it takes to start a PR crisis that quickly spirals out of control.

Not long ago, we posted an infographic with plenty of information on the importance of monitoring and managing your online reputation. There were some important stats in the infographic. Most crucial was the fact that 70% of consumers trust brand recommendations from their friends and family, and a whopping 92% of consumers trust reviews they read online from former customers. That’s a substantial majority.

So how can you manage your online reputation and build your business? The four tips below should always be kept in mind when it comes to online reputation management.

Engage in Conversations

When people are talking about your brand, talk with them. Don’t let the conversations take place about you without showing your engaged audience that you are listening. This will accomplish two things: it will show those conversing that you care and show the same to onlookers.

Handle Every Crisis

As we noted above, one 140-character message can mean a major dent in your business. You don’t want to let anything get out of control, because in the world of social media, it is much harder to deal with the ripple effect than to deal with the one disgruntled customer.

Offer Social Care

Social Care is the new concept of offering customer service on social media channels. Currently, according to a study by Nielsen and NM Incite, one-third of online adults prefer Social Care to conventional approaches (i.e. phone). That may sound like a minority, but that’s a huge group of people!

By offering an additional service that helps your customers, you will gain an edge over your competitors, and it will certainly help build up your reputation. Just be sure to answer customers when they reach out to you!

Follow Your Brand

There are free listening tools like SocialMention and BackTweets, and high-end, highly technical, highly pricey listening tools like Crimson Hexagon and Sysomos that you should be using to listen for brand mentions. You’d be surprised at where your brand is being discussed, and you want to be abreast of what’s going on.

Using listening tools always provides you with the added option of dealing with issues that you may not have known about (i.e. extensions to your Social Care model) and can also provide you with valuable insights as to what your customers want and how you can improve your business and services.

There are several ways to go about monitoring and managing your online reputation. Putting these tips into practice is great way to start.

Do you engage in some for of online reputation management? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

How to Properly Promote Your Blog [INFOGRAPHIC]

June 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What steps are necessary to properly promote your blog and increase your exposure?

Blogs are a great way to drive traffic, build your credibility and generate leads. The problem, however, is that you are competing with billions of other pages for the attention of a niche market. That said, a HubSpot study found that companies that blog generate 55% more trafic and 70% more leads than companies that do not.

So, how do you properly promote your blog to reap some of these benefits? There are a few steps that are crucial to increasing the success of your blog and the business you generate from it. The infographic below provides an excellent checklist that you should run through every time you put together a new post until it becomes second nature.

Go through the checklist and tell us which of the steps described you think is the most important to help promote your blog. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Social Care

June 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

The concept of Social Care – customer service through social media – is growing in popularity, and the benefits it has to your business can be significant.

Today, one-third of online adults prefer to engage with a brand on social media compared to conventional forms of customer service (i.e. phone). That is a significant number. Ignoring it can mean two things: a loss of competitive advantage in your market and an increased likelihood of finding your customers dissatisfied with your customer service.

Social Care is a tactic that has been adopted by several international brands and it is a trend that is catching on with medium and small businesses as well. In addition to offering your customers a new avenue through which to engage with your brand, it also adds value to your business.

Social Equity from Social Care

There are two principle returns from Social Care that generate Social Equity for your business. First, there is the added value for your customers’ experience with your brand that maintains satisfaction and gives you a competitive advantage over competitors that are not offering the service. Second, Social Care is far more cost-effective than conventional forms of customer service.

First, let’s look at how Social Care gives your company an edge over your competitors. As noted above, not many small or medium sized businesses are offering Social Care at the moment despite the major proportion of online adults that prefer this method of customer service. This is not to say that Social Care should replace your current customer service options; it should be added to the mix to offer both clients, prospects and leads a means of reaching out to your company at any time, from any place, without having to worry about whether or not someone will be on the other end of the line right away, or leave them waiting for what seems like an eternity.

The convenience that comes with the option of Social Care adds value to the customer experience. 39% of consumers avoid further business with a brand after a bad customer experience. You can reduce the number of these occurrences by providing alternative means of reaching out to your brand, particularly one as simple as a tweet. Clients and leads can send their message and go about their day, allowing your Social Care team to read, review and respond to these messages in an efficient and timely manner.

The second area from which Social Equity is generated is in the cost-efficiency of such a program. One representative with a sufficient amount of knowledge can handle a significant amount of social inquiries in a much timelier fashion than one that must respond to clients over the phone.

When a customer is sitting on the phone waiting for a representative, it behooves the company to have that call answered as quickly as possible. In order to do that, more representatives are required. On social, however, clients can send in their inquiry, as explained above, and a single representative can handle hundreds of issues daily (theoretically, of course). This system is both a money-saver in the short- and long-run.

Social Care is a new phenomenon, but it is one that has tremendous potential to increase the value of your business.

Does your brand engage in some form of Social Care? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Sony

June 13, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Sony is not the first brand to come to mind when you think of Pinterest, but they managed to make themselves a powerful force on the network.

The logic was simple: everybody’s doing it, why don’t we? In 2011, Sony noticed the persuasion Pinterest had on purchasing mentality and decided to leverage the power of the network to increase traffic and, ideally, drive new sales.

Using a carefully coordinated strategy, Sony managed to garner 2,500 followers in the first six months of their activity on Pinterest, increase referral traffic from Pinterest to the Sony Store website by 800%, and collect more than 4 million brand impressions!

You can argue that Sony’s success came from their status as a brand on the market, but the reality is that Sony succeeded on Pinterest because of the course of action taken. The five lessons below detail what Sony did both before and after launching their Pinterest account and what marketers can learn from the strategy applied by Sony.

Do Some Research

While Sony had the added advantage of a brand that people were already talking about, it is important to do as much research as possible on your brand, competitors, industry leaders and, most importantly, your industry. Find out what people are already sharing and join an existing conversation instead of trying to start a new one. You might find it a lot easier to gain momentum.

Jump Right In

To truly succeed on social media – Pinterest or otherwise – you need to commit yourself and your team to the execution fully. Sony involved a huge part of their team when they started pinning. They did not want to ease their way into the community, they wanted to come in strong and get noticed. There are billions of conversations taking place and you need to find a way to get yourself noticed.

Mix It Up

After doing their research, Sony determined what topics were most relevant, most popular and most engaging, and created boards that fit into all of those categories. Do not limit yourself only to posts about your brand.

On the t2 Pinterest page, we share plenty of content about marketing, but we also share animal pictures, motivational quotes and healthy recipes! Be as broad as possible, because at the end of the day you want to reach as many people as you can. You never know where you might find new business!

Cross Promote Pinterest

Share your pins and promote your Pinterest page wherever you can. Sony posted their Pinterest account and their pins to other social networks, included links in email blasts and added links on their blog to drive new traffic to Pinterest. The more accessible your content is, the faster you will see eyes landing on it.

Pin It!

For Sony, the Pin It! button generated 10 times the number of clicks from the Sony Store than the Tweet This button. That means 10 times the number of links being generated on Pinterest than on Twitter and leading back to the store. Make your website Pinterest-friendly and your visitors will take care of the rest.

While we can’t all be Sony-sized brands, we can all develop strategies that lead to the same degree of success that Sony experienced. Whether your brand is big or small, your strategy is what will determine the value of your social media program.

What strategy do you incorporate into your Pinterest marketing? Has it worked? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

18 Twitter and Facebook Business Facts

June 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

At the end of the day, it all comes down to numbers, and these Twitter and Facebook business facts are some good ones.

The marketer in us wants to pursue the power of social media because we have studied and understand its potential. However, the business person in us (and those in our companies) want the cold, hard data to back up business decisions.

Social media measurement and social media ROI are still some of the most heavily debated points on the topic. We thought we would make the conversation a little easier for both the marketer and business person in all of us by sharing a few notable Twitter and Facebook business facts.

Twitter

37% of people on Twitter will purchase from a brand they follow.
79% of Twitter users are likely to recommend a brand that they follow.
67% of users on Twitter are more likely to buy from a brand that they follow than one that they do not.
In the last two years, there has been an increase of 663% of users asking for business recommendations on Twitter.
70% of small businesses in the United States are on Twitter.
33% of people on Twitter follow a brand.
40% of Twitter users use the network for information gathering.
69% of Twitter users follow brands based on recommendations from friends.
77% of online shoppers use Twitter and other reviews and comments before making a purchase.

Facebook

On average, ‘fans’ spent an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans of, compared to those that are not ‘fans’ on Facebook.
Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to be loyal to a brand.
Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a brand they are a fan of to a friend.
The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical or important to their business has increased by 75% in the last year.
77% of B2C companies have acquired at least one new customer through Facebook.
43% of B2B companies have acquired at least one new customer through Facebook.
80% of social media users in the U.S. prefer to connect to a brand on Facebook.
Local businesses’ Facebook pages average 645 million views per week.
23% of users check their account 5 times or more daily.

These are just a few stats that should get your marketing side and your business to agree that, at the very least, Twitter and Facebook are important.

Which statistics do you think is the most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

(Sources: HubSpot, Social Media Today, Social Media Examiner, The Huffington Post, Search Engine People)

5 Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints on Social Media

June 11, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There are certain ways to go about dealing with customer complaints on social media.

All customer complaints are not the same, but there are certain features that are true to every one, and certain best practices that should always be adopted when dealing with customer complaints on social media.

The most important thing to note when it comes these complaints is that under no circumstances should any customer complaint go ignored on social networks. In addition to this one universal rule, there are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to dealing with customer complaints on social media.

Always Be Courteous

A 2011 survey on Customer Rage conducted at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University found that 90% of complaining customers want one thing above all else: to be treated with dignity. Yet, only 40% said that this is the kind of treatment that they received.

At Zendesk, the philosophy is to treat a complaining customer as you would treat (or, at least, hopefully treat) your grandmother. Kindness goes a long way, because for a lot of complaining customers, they simply want to vent.

Respond Quickly

If I am a dissatisfied customer and I send you a tweet and hear nothing for days I might be tempted to take my efforts to the next level. The same survey mentioned above also found that 88% of people who had a negative experience with a brand chose to deal with their issue by telling their friends about it. In the age of social media, “friends” could mean tens of thousands. So act fast to help your customers or things could get way out of hand.

Be Knowledgable

Have you ever called a customer service line and found yourself waiting on hold every time you ask a question because your service representative doesn’t know the answer? It’s frustrating. Having answers to customer questions and complaints (both on and off social media) is your most powerful weapon, and you should always have an answer locked and loaded when an issue arises.

Be Proactive

The answers and solutions your customers are looking for should be readily available in as many places as possible. If an issue comes up once, you should always assume it will come up again and prepare for it the next time it does.

The faster you can resolve someone’s issue the happier they will be, and a proactive approach to customer service is going to help you do just that.

Use Your Experience

While this is not a method for dealing with a customer complaint directly, it is a means of using these situations for the benefit of your company. Customer complaints are a great way of figuring out where your product or service needs work. It is your product, so for you, it is perfect. For others, that might not be the case.

Adapting your product or service to the requests and complaints of customers is a great way of making your product more user-friendly, and it is going to make your job of customer service a lot easier down the road.

How do you deal with customer complaints on social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Brands on Social Media: Do You Fit In? [INFOGRAPHIC]

June 10, 2013/by Corey Padveen

When it comes to brands on social media, does yours fit in? Yes.

The importance of social media for business is no secret; more and more, brands – both big and small – are taking to the socialsphere to engage and market themselves to international networks of interested persons. However, what do the numbers look like?

In this infographic, some very interesting statistics are highlighted that showcase why it is so important for every brand or business to have a presence on social media. Some of the numbers might even make you feel a little better about competing with some of the major players.

For instance, you might be interested to know that only 0.5% of Facebook fans engage with the brands they are fans of. And for those that do engage, only about 30% of brands respond to feedback. Social media is a conversation, and in order for that conversation to generate results, it needs to take place and be given the attention it deserves.

Perhaps the most interesting statistic of those in the infographic below relates, once again, to engagement. In the Ehrenberg Institute study referenced, only one brand had an engagement level over 2%. That’s shocking!

Take a look at some of the fun facts about brands on social media below and let us know which statistics you find the most surprising/shocking/important. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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