If you’re anything like me, you’ve let a bit of dust accumulate on your once proud and shiny LinkedIn account. Outdated information, neglected networks, a CV that could use some spiffing up—it’s a classic case of LinkedIn lethargy.
Well, the website has been doing some interesting things lately, like its job application button, and is really beginning to stake its claim as the anti-Facebook.
Everyone’s got an opinion; some are just more vocal than others. As it turns out, UK consumers are far more opinionated than their US counterparts—online, at least.
Nearly half of UK consumers (47%) have reviewed products online compared to the US, where only a third (33%) go online to air their views on products, according to new research.
The UK is head and shoulders above its continental counterparts in mobile uptake, according to new comScore data, as 35% of UK mobile users access social networking sites on their phones, compared to the European average 23%.
Mobile social networking use in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK nearly doubled in the last year, with 55m mobile users accessing Facebook, Twitter, etc., in September alone, according to comScore’s MobiLens study. Read More
Blogger outreach is an interesting concept that in theory should work but often doesn’t. The idea is that brands approach bloggers and ask them to write about their products, services or initiatives. In an ideal world, this should be un-incentivised. The reality might be different, but the idea is that the opinion of a blogger, a web promoted authority o
n a subject, will be worth more than the opinion of a journalist or a glitzy write up on the company website.
It’s a great concept and if it’s managed correctly, the publicity can be fantastic. It doesn’t always work out that well. There have been many high profile examples of blogger outreach disasters. Probably the most prominent case of bad blogger outreach was the catastrophic failure of Facebook’s PR agency Burson-Marsteller. They thought it would be a good idea to offer payments to a prominent tech blogger in return for some negative press about Google and their disregard for privacy. Bad move. Bloggers don’t play by prison rules, the man approached grassed on the PR agency and let the world’s media take the story and dirty the good name of Facebook.
News, views and reviews now travel at incredible velocity online. This video reviews how social news can have a profound effect on anyone because the public has already made up its mind on the issue before you’ve even responded to it.
Think England football captain John Terry, the claimed cyber-lynching of a US Presidential candidate, the BlackBerry outage? Read More
LinkedIn have been beavering away over the past few months making subtle improvements to their channel. The two stand out innovations are the ‘Ads by LinkedIn Members’ and the company status update.
One of the most pressing conundrums in B2B social marketing is working out ways to seed the content you’re creating into places where people are genuinely interested and grateful to receive it. Creating compelling content with the right company isn’t the problem; trying to share it in an organic way without looking like you’re spamming is. The process is time consuming and very manual.
Manchester United have struck a deal with Sapient Nitro to become their global digital agency and as part of that deal, word has it they’re going to create a social media platform that will allow the club to engage directly with their global online fan base of nearly 660 million.
Ignoring the numbers, because I think they are nonsense, the concept is very interesting and very forward thinking.
This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.
When we look at examples of successful social media engagement, we can identify several distinct stages through which a campaign tends to move – a trajectory which will be of obvious relevance for any marketers hoping to optimise their strategies in this area.
Step 1: Socialising promotional activity
Word of mouth is a tremendously potent force when it comes to spreading information about promotional activity; as our chart demonstrates, the majority of consumers in the UK freely admit that they enjoy talking to friends and family members about particularly good deals or discounts they’ve managed to obtain (nVision Research). Read More
This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.
During the relatively short period of time for which they have been in existence, social media platforms have exerted an intense pressure on our industries. And given the whistle-stop speed with which a message or meme can now be transmitted across groups of friends – and, in the process, potentially transform a market overnight – marketers are increasingly focusing their energy on monetising this new platform. In a way there is an amusing touch of Magic Nostalgic about this – word of mouth is after all the oldest form of marketing.
In this post, however, I want to go deeper into the subject and look at how social media platforms have fundamentally altered the way in which we communicate with our peers – as well as how this has imbued word-of-mouth with a renewed sense of potency.
In the past, if I wanted to check up on a friend, send my parents a message or ask my brother for his recommendations about which mobile phone I should buy, I had to contact them directly. Read More
This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.
The interesting thing about using networks as a way of looking at society is that they are fundamentally different from previous sociological models. This means that they can lead to new insights and powerful new ways of describing individuals and social change – as well as uncovering information about groups of consumers that might otherwise be invisible. Take the below photo of a not-so-recent family gathering, for example.
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