By Andy Pilkington, WaveMetrix,
As social media becomes an increasingly important and influential marketing tool, more and more brands are competing for consumer engagement within the space. Whether it’s fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter, brands now recognise social media as the next big step in marketing.
There are various techniques and avenues available to help brands grow an online following. WaveMetrix took a look at the various approaches taken by different brands in Q4 2010 in order to analyse what strategies seemed to work most effectively.
• Premium brands are beginning to shape discussion around the lifestyle associated with the brand, rather than their specific products
• Other brands are encouraging product-specific discussion, which tends to drive purchase consideration, but also leads to some consumer negativity
• Campaigns that linked social media back into real world events helped drive engagement with the brand
• Tried and tested competitions and giveaways are continuing to work well
• Some brands are building on existing consumer engagement and beginning to monetise social media Read more…
by Eva Keogan, Head of Social, LBi ,
News broke yesterday that Facebook is courting the creative leads of UK digital agencies including LBi and has invited them to attend its first ‘Influencer Summit’ at its Palo Alto HQ in California. This marks an exciting shift in the stakeholder landscape as media agencies have been first at the table of the Facebook monetisation feast.
The event is essentially a brainstorm to evolve the next wave of social advertising and the shape it will take. Chris Clarke, our Chief Creative Officer, is one of the lucky ones who will attend the Facebook Summit.
‘It was an impressive invite and I’m easily tempted by fine wine.’ said Chris. ‘I’ve also got huge respect for Facebook and am intrigued to see first hand what they’re up to. As a business it’s obviously a formidable force, but as a brand it suffers from a bit of an image problem. Is this the beginning of them addressing that?’ he continued.
With the recent funding announcement and an IPO in the mix, needs to demonstrate that it has the depth and breadth of revenue streams to outlast less fortunate digital spaces which have experienced the boom and bust phenomenon; think Second Life and MySpace, if you will.
So while many of us who are running communities and getting good revenue streams from this social network may be thinking ‘How long before Facebook starts charging us for this ‘free to air’ platform?’ the Influencer Summit promises an exciting agenda and endless possibilities.
At LBi, we are increasingly aware that Facebook is fast becoming the de facto lead social network in most countries around the world. Russia, China, India and Brazil all have domestic networks which are putting up a good fight in the face of this global phenomenon but in countries like Germany and Spain, home grown social networks are shrinking in its wake.
What this means is that when global clients are making a decision about which social network to choose, Facebook is increasingly becoming the first choice. The world leading brands stay on top due to constant innovation, reinvention and pushing boundaries, so it makes sense that Facebook would aspire to do the same to court such a lucrative audience and what better way to do it than to crowdsource from the cream of the crop in the creative industry?
, Pass it On Media
As representatives of the IAB Social Media Council group-within-a-group (The Control, Monitoring and Self-Regulation sub-group no less), we always keep a keen ear out for the latest rumblings in the world of social media legistlation.
It is therefore with interest that within a few months of the impending launch of the ASA Social Media rules, there are many impassioned stories of other governing bodies and indeed legislative figures taking firm action against social media wrongdoings.
These range from high profile cases of Ryan Babel’s ’slanderous’ comments about Premier League referee Howard Webb, Courtney Love’s defamation case as charged by her fashion designer Boudoir Queen and on a smaller yet no less insignificant scale, the resurgence of the example that courts made of Paul Chambers in 2010 whom was fined £3000 for a twitter rant threatening to blow up Robin Hood airport in frustration at the delays caused by snow. Read more…
