Social Marketing & Digital Agency

Social Media is the Icing on Top of the Marketing Cake

A new report from the Nielsen Company has quoted some incredible statistics about Social Media. Here’s just some of them.

“Three of the world’s most popular brands online are social-media related (Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia) and the world now spends over 110 billion minutes a year on social networks and blog sites.

This equates to 22 percent of all time online or one in every four and half minutes.

For the first time ever, social network or blog sites are visited by three quarters of global consumers who go online, after the numbers of people visiting these sites increased by 24% over last year.

The average visitor spends 66% more time on these sites than a year ago, almost 6 hours in April 2010 versus 3 hours, 31 minutes last year.”

It’s pretty compelling isn’t it?

However another report from The Online Publishers Asssociation carried out by Harris Interactive found that online users trust content to varying degrees according to where it’s published. Media sites come out tops (giving ongoing credence to digital PR) with portal channels second and social media bringing up the rear.

Of  course, trust translates to buying patterns as well.

In an interesting article by Jason Fell at FOLIOmag.com he discusses these issues with Joe Pulizzi and the conclusion seems to be that brand marketers are beginning to invest more time and money in developing their own content on their own sites and driving traffic to it.

We couldn’t agree more.

The line that we’ll ‘get a student to do a bit of  tweeting’ is looking even more ridiculous than ever. The reality is, is that social media has become a hugely powerful, friendly interface to your customer base – it’s the icing on the top of the marketing cake if you like. But people don’t just want icing, they want some cake, some substance – which is why it’s so important for companies to look at developing sophisticated content strategies which will be search engine-friendly and generate leads.

Social media without solid professional content behind it doesn’t work all that well. Just as well, then, that we’re very good at making cakes here as well as a dab hand at icing!

Contact us now on 0845 862 0017 or email us on hello@themediamarketingco.com and find out how we can help you market your brand effectively online or join our mailing list and get regularly tips and information straight into your mailbox.

An interesting survey of journalists has given a stark picture of how rapidly media is changing around the world.

770 journalists from 15 countries including the US, Brazil and Europe were interviewed by Oriella PR and the findings were very interesting – or potentially worrying if you are a journalist!

Looking at it from a client or agency perspective though it gives a fascinating insight into what is actually happening in the media and how rapidly it is changing. Some of the findings include:

• 40% think that the web will provide more opportunities
• 41% of publications run Twitter feeds
• 1 in 5 publications has a mobile app (rising to 1 in 3 in Germany, Italy and the US)
• 1 in 4 publishers are looking at paid-access models with 30% looking at paid-for websites and 22% looking at smart phone apps as a revenue stream

Clients must embrace these new changes into their PR and marketing plans and almost certainly use an agency with digital expertise to advise on the most appropriate strategies to leverage optimum results.

Ignore digital at your peril.

You can read more findings from the survey here http://bit.ly/ad1Fj4

Speaking at Cybermummy to Blogging Mums

So tomorrow is The Cybermummy Conference. I admit I’m excited. Not just because I finally get to meet so many familiar online friends and associates, or because I may get to tell India Knight how much she makes me laugh, or because Mumsnet‘s Justine Roberts and Google’s Technical Account Manager Eve Andersson are on my panel, but mainly because I am the moderator of the lunchtime session on ‘Influence and Statistics and how to Expand a Blog’s Audience’, ie how to increase your reach online and measure it and then apply what you learn so can do more of what works and less of what doesn’t…

…ooohhh, getting a shiver down my back just writing this, because as this is what I have spent most of my grown up life doing, and it still gets me excited!

While I would never lay claim to a tech or geek mantle, I admit to getting ridiculously enthusiastic about digital technology, always have right from the earliest days when I was at university playing around on Quantel’s paintbox and with editing suites and cameras and mixing desk… yum…, but what really – and excuse the terminology – turns me on is the application of said technology and working out how I can use it for my business or for my clients.

In fact, whatever the new technology or bit of kit, trend or gadget, my first thoughts after “Mmm interesting, how does that work then?” is…

“What does it do, and how can I use it to… [delete as applicable] produce, influence, attract attention, and make money … for [insert self or client or brand or event]”…

Quickly followed by “and how do I quantify that, measure it, analyse it, monitor it… find out whether it works and how… make it do more of what does work and less of what doesn’t…”

and then “how do I join the dots up to these other lovely technologies over here… to increase profit, brand profile, bottom line…”

Before finally “Wash and Repeat…” (well if it works keep doing it!)

Which is probably why I have ended up running www.themediamarketingco.com, and working as a digital marketing strategist – because I love it. Because it’s where the whole digital revolution really gets exciting don’t you think?

Not just the ‘shiny button-pushing, whizz bang, isn’t it AMAZING’ bit, but the fact that it facilitates so much, enables so many of us ordinary people to do more and have more influence, clout, time and money than ever before.

I mean that’s fantastic isn’t it, when you look at the bigger picture. When has that ever happened before? Never. Who of our parents’ generation would have ever predicted it? No one. How much of a force for good is this going to be and will it be in the future? Limitless.

Cheers Cybermummy and all who made it possible, and here’s to many more ‘ordinary digital gatherings’ in the future.