LinkedIn announced this morning that it has crossed a big threshold: a userbase of 200 million members from all around the world. VentureBeat shared the following infographic on LinkedIn stats.
View the full infographic and more details at VentureBeat.
This infographic from mediabistro takes a look at the marketing benefits of social media.
View the full infographic and more details at mediabistro.
If a user visits a website and leaves, marketers now have an opportunity to re-target these users while they are on Facebook. Econsultancy takes a look at the deep dives below on re-targeting and paid search.
Re-Targeting capabilities appear to be coming to Facebook. Huge opportunity for brands to continue the conversation with users, long after they have left your website, as displayed in the image below.
Advertisers taking advantage of Facebook’s new search ads can target searchers who are looking for specific apps, Facebook pages, and places, and they have the ability to include a link in the search results that directs searchers to their own app, page, custom page tab, or page post.
Read more details on these Facebook Marketing opportunities at econsultancy.
Twitter recently released their advertising platform for brands. Here are some details on the platform:
Promoted Tweets: Promoted Tweets is a new feature from within Twitter that allows you to promote your Tweets. You have the option promote a variety of opportunities, and can target audience. Anytime a searched (anyone) searches for a keyword, and that keyword is mentioned within your Promoted Tweet, it will show up at the top of their SERP result.
Promoted Accounts: can be very beneficial to driving website traffic. Conjure up several relevant keywords that you think others in your industry will likely use. Once this is determined – Twitter simply handles the rest, as your account is suggested to those of similar interests automatically.
Read more details on the new Twitter advertising platform at kikolani.
Altimeter Research found that most companies lack a formalized process –and even out of the advanced, only 76% had a process in place.
Business Goals: The 10 Attributes of Successful of Social Media Workflow
- 1) Alignment with corporate goals and customer goals.
- 2) Buy-in and agreement to the process from all involved business units in the organization.
- 3) Few or no overlapping tasks and resources.
- 4) Clear articulation of who will do what, when, where, and how.
- 5) Organizational alignment through training, testing, and refinement.
- 6) Integration with existing business systems, processes, and software in existing channels.
- 7) A clear, easy-to-reference document with clear labels and requires little explanation.
- 8] Scope includes all possible scenarios are included when to respond –and when not to respond.
- 9) Periodic improvements on the process as the business evolves.
- 10) Measurable business impacts report to all stakeholders on a periodic basis.
Read more details on social media workflow, process and triage at web-strategist.
A recent Altimeter report analyzed how brands must combine paid, owned, and earned media.
Report Highlights Include:
- Overview of needs, market definitions, overview of brands, agencies, and software providers.
- Three framework graphics ideal for powerpoint: Converged Media venn, use case workflow, criteria checklist.
- Checklist of 11 criteria required for converged media success.
- Four real world case studies bringing this concept to life from four leading brands.
- Pragmatic recommendations for marketing leaders for internal needs, agency strategy, and vendor deployment.
Read the full report at webstrategist.
One of the biggest challenges of being Social@Scale is finding the balance between “social” and “scale.”
Given the recent history of enterprise marketing, the default habit is more “scale” than “social” and operational guidelines such as “content calendars” and “KPIs” take over as people lose sight on the value and objective of the activity.
When it comes to Content Marketing, the objective of “create one thought leadership piece per month” tends to morph into “create one piece of content per month” as the metric (it’s easier to track that) and less on the “make sure it really is ‘thought leadership.’”
If you worry you are falling into that abyss, I cannot recommend highly enough Jason Falls’ introspective piece “If Your Content Doesn’t Excite You, It’s Time To Rethink.”
And he’s 100% right.
Being Social (particularly @Scale) is about inspiring, connecting, and stimulating passion aligned to the interests of your audience.
If you’re not fired up about it, why the heck should they care about it?
Not only is Jason spot on in this regard, but he goes even farther, demonstrating in public where he thinks he’s fallen short and how he thinks he can improve. It’s everything that Social should be. Authentic, honest, and personal.
What does all of this do?
It builds TRUST.
We applaud this commitment to being Social and are confident that this approach and the trust that comes with it are going to be highly profitable for Jason…and all enterprises that commit to the same path.
Jeremy Epstein is the VP/Marketing at Sprinklr . You can follow him on twitter @jer979.
It is the hottest summer on record and Midtown is a fancy oven in the summertime. Sprinklr is experiencing rapid growth and our offices are full of passionate, excited people who are working hard…and this raises the temperature (and our A/C bill as well).
In short, things are HOT at Sprinklr, no matter how you look at it.
So when David Factor, Senior Account Executive at Sprinklr noticed a tweet about Ben & Jerry’s offering free samples of its new frozen yogurt – the office leaped at the chance.
One simple post about the new promotion had the whole office talking about it and as a place full of social media minded folks, we went straight to Twitter for our voice. Everyone in the office was tweeting, re-tweeting, or pleading for a stop at our space!
On top of our relentless focus on our clients and increased intensity for a Ben & Jerry’s moment, they responded directly to David about driving to our office in Midtown. They scheduled to stop by directly at our office, and even scheduled a time when they would visit so could plan work accordingly. When their crew stopped by we captured the whole experience on our camera.
Here are thoughts from Terrence (@BenJerrysTruck) on how Ben & Jerry’s does Social@Scale
Ben & Jerry’s has been promoting new flavors and types of ice cream for the last 3 years over Twitter from the early stages of 2009. With a devoted crew that can monitor Twitter, Ben & Jerry’s teams throughout New York City can register where they get requests for them to stop by. This allows for free promotion for the brand on social networks, while delighting their customers with superb customer service. This allows for great free promotion within networks that people trust, and plenty of reviews for new products as they get released. From Sprinklr’s experience, they have a whole crop of new advocates for their Greek Yogurt line.
Their devotion to social has led @BenandJerrys to over 65,000 fans on Twitter, with nearly 20k followers just to their @BenJerrysTruck account that spans the East Coast.
Ben & Jerry’s has made their services social, finding a new way to incorporate the tradition of the ice cream truck, and the excitement it encapsulates. This also reinforces their social mission statement “To operate the Company in a way that actively recognizes the central role that business plays in society by initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of life locally, nationally and internationally.”
Post written by Kara Lee, lead Community Manager at Sprinklr. Find her @sprinklr
Joe Chernov, VP of content marketing at Eloqua, is widely regarded as one of the leading practitioners of Content Marketing (one of the core pillars of Marketing in Social@Scale, btw). He’s hit many homers in his day, including the mega-hit Eloqua Blog Tree.
One thing you’ll also notice about him is that has many tattoos (or maybe it’s just one really big tattoo?), so that puts him at a unique intersection to provide an analogy for how we think about Content Marketing and its impact in a Social world.
Upfront Investment is High
Lets Say, you’re the owner of a Tattoo shop. Before you put the first drop of ink on your customer, you’ve incurred a huge set of costs: the machines, the shop, the inspections, the ink, and the needles. Whether the ultimate design is
a small Chinese character or something more elaborate (see Joe’s sleeve), the upfront investment is pretty high.
The Same is true for your content marketing efforts. Sure, you can “stuff the channel with crap,” (as Joe says) and call it “content marketing,” but you can also just let my 4 year old daughter do your tattoo for you. Neither of them are going to get you the results you desire.
When you do real content marketing, you are an artist. You are committing to making something that is remarkable and which people are proud to talk about and show to their friends.
So, whether you are making a 1 page infographic or a 20 page eBook (or, say a guide to the 6 Must Haves for Any Enterprise Social RFP), you’re going to have to spend time to get the right info and money (most likely) to get the right look.
Long Term Payoff
The beauty and potential of Content Marketing done right is that it pays dividends for the long term. Great content gets shared, linked, and cited for a long time…well beyond its publication date. Its “shelf life” is far greater than a PPC AdWords campaign.
Great tattoos are the same way. They aren’t something that 3 years later you regret or have to have removed. They withstand the test of time and become a part of who you are, your identity and your brand…the way that others look at you, talk about you, and view you.
The Takeaway
Get a tattoo.
Well, you can, but the actual takeaway is that if you are looking to build an enduring brand in a Social world and you want your enterprise to be Social@Scale, then great Content Marketing is one of the best ways to do it. However, like a tattoo artist who is revered and admired for the work s/he has done, the enterprise as a whole must invest upfront in getting the right resources in place so that when the opportunity arrives, you can make art that people are proud to share and show off.
- Blog by Jeremy Epstein, VP/Marketing at Sprinklr
