Twitter has become the critical tool for brands. According to Simply Measured, “95% of the world’s top brands use Twitter”. Customers know this, and now expect brands to engage with them on the network, not just broadcasting advertising bumph. For some brands, this has meant creating a specialist handle for customer queries.

Simply Measured have conducted some analysis, and say that 23% of top brands now have “dedicated customer service handles”. However, only 15% of brands have dedicated customer service handles tweeting 10 or more times a day, indicating that perhaps people still go to the main corporate account to lodge their complaint. This is a problem for brands, who use dedicated handles so that they can deal with complaints without tarnishing the overall messaging.

Read More »

Social media consultancy Sociagility has published a report on the comparative social media performance of the 25 main London 2012 Olympics sponsors that has found those that performed best used social to focus on engagement not just brand awareness.

Among the key findings were that there was a significant number of brands did not appear to engage with social media at all – or only sporadically. While for some, it appeared that social media activation was undertaken in isolation or as an afterthought – or as merely an amplifier for advertising campaigns.

Given the emphasis placed on the “social Olympics” that is hugely surprising and a missed opportunity for those brands that took this approach. It serves as a reminder that some brands still don’t get social media. Read More »

After seven long years of anticipation, the Olympics are finally upon us. And, as widely noted within digital circles, London 2012 will be history’s first truly social media Olympics.

Whilst there has been much frothing at the mouth about non-official brands taking advantage of the Games, LOCOG restrictions on Tweeting sportspeople and the fact that massive media outfits like NBC are partnering with Twitter and Facebook to ensure social coverage of the games, no one has taken a step back to look at how official Olympics partners and sponsors are amplifying their prestigious (and expensive) connections to the Games via search and social media. Read More »

In the connected world of 2011 it appears that Generation Y is developing a new set of values when looking for that ideal employer.  Glancing over a recently commissioned study by Cisco (the Connected World Technology Report) it highlighted that nearly 35% of the 3000 young professionals interviewed prioritised social media freedom, device flexibility, and work mobility over salary when accepting a job offer.

They also found that more than a third of young professionals felt it was their right to work remotely and access Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.
Read More »

Twitter users now send more than 140 million Tweets a day. With more than 20% of the tweets being related to products and/or brands, this means that every day 28 million tweets potentially concern your brand or company. The microblogging sphere has undeniably become a worthwhile place for listening to customers and potentially influencing perceptions, attitudes and behaviors by engaging into their conversations.

The relevant question has therefore moved from if marketers should get involved to how they should deal with it. Not only Twitter, but social media in general poses novel challenges to brand building and management. Basically it comes down to the fact that control is handed over to consumers. Read More »

Along with Kate Warwick, the founder of PR Savvy, we are developing a social media public relations plan, and workshops, to help a number of the agency’s B2B clients prepare for how they will approach this emerging medium.

While social media for B2C companies is better defined, with terrific case studies to look at such as what Comcast, Skittles and JetBlue have achieved, we are finding that it is harder to find a lot of examples of many relevant and successful B2B social media PR campaigns. Read More »