Weekend Warrior: The Impact of Social Media

Michael Garrity — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Democracy reigns supreme for companies that use social networking to market themselves and their products. A new study by Performics reveals that most users agree that the voicing of opinions on social networking sites can influence the business decisions of a company or brand.

Called S-Net, The Impact of Social Media, the study found that 52 percent of the respondents either strongly or somewhat agreed that voicing opinions on various brands, companies or products on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ can influence business decisions.

Eighteen specific industries were included in the study, including apparel, appliances, automotive, education, electronics, entertainment, financial services, food, healthcare/pharma, household, magazines/newspapers, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, personal care, restaurants, sports, telecommunications and travel. Performics also discovered that educational institutions, sports and entertainment were the most discussed categories on social networking sites.

Below is a list of best practices for marketers looking to utilize social networks based on the results of the study:

Understand customer desire for brand interaction in the relevant category
The study revealed that 74 percent of people who purchase entertainment products will go back and discuss them on social networks. Hey, everybody’s a critic.

Create and adapt marketing strategies to cater to participation expectations and desires
Over half of the respondents (53 percent) admitted that they will follow travel companies or brands on social networking sites in order to get coupons or discounts. With the price of gas these days, who can blame them?

Allocate time and resources to the most relevant and appropriate social networks
Forty-two percent of those surveyed said that they will discuss automobiles on social networking sites as a way to compare prices.

Regularly monitor and measure social network activity
Thirty-two percent said that they have made a sports-related product purchase because of something they saw posted on a social network. In fact, I’ll even 'fess up to purchasing a Pittsburgh Steelers Snuggie while browsing Facebook.

Adjust strategies and tactics as necessary to optimize engagement
As with travel companies, electronics companies on social networking sites don’t have a lot of fans who like them based on personality alone. Forty-three percent of respondents said that they will follow electronics brands or companies on social networking sites for offers or chances to win points or online currency that they can redeem for products.

While social media can offer unlimited exposure and huge potential for Web marketers, there isn’t yet a perfect solution for analyzing and evaluating consumers' responses to the messages that businesses and brands are sending out. This study is a great start for those who want to get a solid, industry-specific look at how important social media interaction can be for their particular audience.

“Customers expect, and are already participating in a two-way dialogue,” says Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics. “It’s imperative for marketers to listen to customers and adopt strategies that engage them in every channel of their media mix – across all platforms, devices and screens.”

Anatomy Of a Successful Campaign

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:15:00 GMT

What does a successful Internet campaign look like?

Performics announced last week that their recent campaign for Cabela’s has been awarded the “Best Performance Marketing Campaign” for the 2009 ad:tech awards.

Performics’ campaign, “Online Traffic Makes Instore Buyers,” used online coupons through paid search to drive offline traffic to Cabela’s retail locations across the country. The results? Ten percent of all consumers who clicked retrieved a coupon, and 40 percent of the coupons distributed were redeemed at a retail location.

“Cabela’s continually generates robust sales through their aggressive online marketing efforts, and their willingness to try new things has helped them stay ahead of competitors,” said Nick Beil, CEO of Performics. “Our account team worked closely with Cabela’s to achieve some great results. We exceeded the campaign’s coupon retrieval goal by 233 percent, and the 40 percent coupon redemption rate significantly outperformed the campaign’s goal of 15 percent.”

As part of the campaign, Performics built online promotional campaigns for each store and focused on keywords for Cabela’s brand. Geo-targeted strategies were also put into place for locations within a 200-mile radius of each store, and copy specialists developed ad copy that offered in-store coupons to the local audiences. The coupon could only be redeemed at one of the store locations, and relevant landing pages were used to guide consumers through the coupon retrieval process.

“Performics has been a solid marketing partner for Cabela’s by demonstrating cutting edge paid search expertise,” said Derek Fortna, Internet marketing manager for Cabela’s. “They continually present new opportunities to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of our marketing initiatives. Their proven online experience helped successfully drive our offline business and push traffic to our retail stores.”

'Net Features : publicis

Weekend Warrior: The Impact of Social Media

Anatomy Of a Successful Campaign