How Does Social Media Buzz Impact Sales?
This is a hot button issue amongst marketers today. AdAge reported in March that Coca-Cola announced that it found no statistically significant short term impact on sales based on social media buzz. Eventually, Wendy Clark, a senior marketer from Coca-Cola, wrote a follow up piece to the AdAge story about how important social media is in the overall marketing communication mix. This week, AdAge reported that McKinsey Company released data that indicated that one of their telecom clients suffered an 8% loss in sales based upon negative sentiment in the social media space. For that company, that 8% loss in Read More
MultiChannel Marketing is Not Static
Last year, Eric Jackson wrote a piece on Forbes about why Facebook might disappear in 5 years. This week, approximately one year later, he revisited that topic, and believes that the events of the past year were on track with his 2012 post and that Facebook is poised to disappear. The way Jackson uses the word “disappear” is a bit sensationalistic. He doesn’t expect Facebook to go out of business, but he is expecting that Facebook’s prominence is on pace to decline as the next 4 years transpire. While none of us can say we know exactly what will happen Read More
Setting & Managing Social Media Expectations (Part One)
This is the first is a series of posts on this post. More to come. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I could think of no truer statement to define the climate around how to appropriately set and manage expectations within the current marketing paradigm. The field of marketing has changed so much over a 5, 10 or 20 year period. It seems like every day, brand marketing teams are spending more and more time trying to keep their industry knowledge current. The pace of change accelerates more and more each year. However, at the end Read More
Distributed Social Media Marketing: A Benefit for Busy Sales Agents
By now, there should be little doubt regarding the pervasiveness of social media. We’ve shared statistics on social media multiple times in the last year in this space, and new statistics come out frequently augmenting the case for social media. Without a well devised and implemented presence in social media, a company misses great opportunities to achieve greater success. Most target audiences can be found somewhere in social media. Nevertheless, a quality presence in the social media space doesn’t occur out of thin air. Social media is something that takes a time commitment, a good degree of training & knowledge on Read More
Multi-Channel, Distributed Marketing Software a Natural Fit in Marketing to Hispanics
Two articles on Adweek’s website provided some intriguing statistics about the US Hispanic market and technology adoption. Adweek noted a Nielsen statistic that 72 percent of US Hispanics have a smartphone and watch more online video than 62 percent of white non-Hispanic Americans. They also noted an eMarketer stat that 72 percent of U.S. Hispanic Internet users will use social networking in 2014 vs. 68 percent of the total population in the U.S. The statistics on technology adoption are not tremendously surprising given basic demographics. Hispanics now comprise approximately 17 percent of the US population, as compared to 9 percent Read More
Where’s the ROI in Social Media? (Part Three)
This is the third part of ongoing series. Part One & Part Two are available. Part One of this series introduced the topic. Part Two was about setting the right mindset. Now is the time to evaluate some mathematical equations for measuring social media ROI. Special thanks to Angie Schottmuller of Search Engine Watch for writing a detailed article entitled “Social Media ROI: 14 Formulas to Measure Social Media Benefits”. I’m only taking a look at 3 of the equations she proposes today due to time & space constraints. I recommend reading her full post when you have some time Read More
Tragedy Postpones Branding
The tragedy in Boston on Monday was a horrific and saddening event. It also served a lesson in digital marketing. Monday afternoon was a challenge for marketers in the digital space. The ability to schedule social media posts and emails is a wonderful asset to marketers, and is a part of our distributed marketing software. The scheduling of social media posts and emails has become a common practice, and during the vast majority of times, it helps brands drive top of mind awareness and brand engagement. However, during a tragic event when lives are lost due to a coordinated act Read More
Counting Down to the Life Insurance Conference
The Life Insurance Conference* is right around the corner. We are only 5 days away from the start of the conference, which runs from April 15-17 in New Orleans. This blog has had a number of posts in recent weeks that have been centered around the themes of the conference. For a quick recap, I’ve listed our specific posts below. The Low Interest Rate Dilemma Solving The Low Interest Rate Dilemma No Debate: A Need to Innovate & Differentiate Social media will be touched upon some of the presentations at the show, including “E-Processing: From Application to Issue” and “Social Read More
Where’s the ROI in Social Media? (Part Two)
In February, we posted Part One of this series. Part One was meant to be just an introduction to the topic. Part Two is a more in depth look, emphasizing mindset to measure ROI. One of the thought leading pieces on this topic came from a 2010 article in the MIT Sloan Management Review. Although a number of the examples are rather dated at this point, most of the key themes touched on in the article remain true today, even with the drastic changes in social media in the 2 and a half years since it was released, confirming the Read More
SEC Approval Shows Pervasiveness of Social Media
Earlier this week, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) released a report declaring that companies could use social media channels to communicate newsworthy events. A key caveat in this ruling is that companies have to disclose where they will be breaking key news items. The SEC report highlights the pervasiveness of social media. As an institution, the SEC is not necessarily known to be on the cutting edge of marketing communication tactics. However, the SEC has observed that companies are turning more & more to social media to get messages out there as fast as possible. The key driver in Read More
