Brand Strategy Key Findings, April 2013

Marketers Adjusting Social Media Budgets

If you’re banking on using yesterday’s branding strategies and tactics, you’re likely to go broke! When it comes to marketing, what’s past is past and should stay there. So, just where are marketers headed in the near future with more of their social media dollars? Of the 3,800 marketers asked this question by SocialMediaExaminer.com, the top five list included YouTube/Video (76%), Facebook (72%), Twitter (69%), Blogs (68%) and Google+ (67%).  A whopping 75% said they have no plans to use “daily deals,” or reduce their social media efforts. For the second year in a row, YouTube/video marketing topped this list. Businesses with 26-999 employees see this as a key growth area with at least 80% responding positively in the survey. Another top choice is Facebook, where 92% of marketers are using the social media tools and 72% plan to increase their activities. Enterprise-level businesses and small businesses with 25 – 99 employees are most likely to increase their activities on Twitter. Blogs are another strong area of focus for social media marketers where the self-employed are more likely to step up their blogging with 76% increased activity. LinkedIn came in #6 on the list with 66% planning to increase activities here; B2B companies (76%) are significantly more likely to increase activities versus 55% of B2C. Languishing toward the bottom of the social media activity list likely to see more marketing dollars were photo sharing sites (Pinterest, Instagram and Flickr) at 38%, forums (34%), social bookmarking (31%), geo-location (23%) and daily deals (12%). However, in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, things can change in a heartbeat. So, stay tuned! (www.socialmediaexaminer.com)

Bullets

• Al Pacino’s face was the original homepage of Facebook. Prior to a major homepage redesign back in 2007, Facebook’s front page used to feature a man’s face partly obscured behind a cloud of binary code. Dubbed the “Facebook guy”, it was not known who the mystery man was until it was recently revealed in David Kirkpatrick’s book The Facebook Effect that the image is a manipulated photo of Al Pacino created by a friend and classmate of Mark Zuckerberg. (mashable.com)
• More than half of Americans who own smartphones and/or tablets (55%) trust advice they find online more than advice from their parents. (Citrix; 408-790-8542)
• Tablet owners will spend $3 billion annually on purchases made in gaming apps by 2016. Juniper Research; 408-716-5483
• While 76% of marketers believe they know what their consumers want in terms of social media content and interaction, only 34% have actually asked those buyers. On the B2C side, there is a disconnect between what marketers think consumers think is important and what they actually value. Marketers believe the highest consumer priorities on social media are insights for buying decisions (59%) and customer service (58%). Consumers actually place the highest value on deals and promotions (83%) and rewards programs (70%). (estrategytrends.com)
• Despite growing interest in the concept of social business, less than 20% of U.S. companies have integrated social media with their customer service, sales, or product development processes. (eMarketer )