As 2012 takes off, many companies have resolved to finally take the leap into social media marketing. And why not? Social media provides smaller companies with the opportunities to market themselves in the same way major, global brands do. However, for small businesses with limited staff, the task may seem especially daunting as many questions undoubtedly loom. Where should we start? How do we start? How are Facebook and Twitter going to help my business? Who will take on the responsibility? Fortunately, social media is so accessible that the only thing standing in your way is, well, you! Ready to take the plunge? (more…)

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41% of B2B marketers say that producing the kind of content that engages prospects and customers is their biggest content marketing challenge, representing a 14% increase from 36% of respondents in 2010, according to a December 2011 study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute. Data from “B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends” indicates that respondents are also grappling with two challenges that go hand in hand: producing enough content (20%), and having the budget to produce enough content (18%). A lack of buy-in from higher-ups in the company (12%), producing a variety of content (7%), and having the budget to license content (1%) are primary challenges to relatively fewer B2B marketers. (more…)

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Almost 2 in 3 companies describe the extent of their social media activity as either heavy (21%) or average (43%), representing a 21% increase from 2010, according to a November 2011 report from Econsultancy in partnership with LBi and bigmouthmedia. Data from the “State of Social 2011 Report” indicates that concurrent with this increase is a drop in the proportion of companies that say they have only experimented with social media, (down 23% from 40% in 2010 to 31% this year), indicating that more marketers are moving beyond experimentation with the channel and giving it a mainstream role within their organization. (more…)

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“Older Boomers” (age 56-66) spend the most online of all generations, according to a Forrester Research report released in November 2011. Data from “The State of Consumers and Technology: Benchmark 2011, US” indicates that older boomers have spent an average of $367 online in the 3 months preceding the report, more than double the amount spent online ($138) by “Gen Z” adults (age 18-22) in that time period. “Younger Boomers” (age 46-55) are the next biggest spenders ($318), closely followed by “Gen Y” adults (age 23-31), who spent an average of $311. Overall, 72% of US online adults purchased products and services online, spending an average of $292 over the 3-month period. (more…)

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A majority of social shoppers trust user reviews and recommendations on social network sites more than other sites, according to a study released in October 2011 by Performics and conducted by ROI Research. Data from the “2011 Social Shopping Study” indicates that among participants who use social networks at least occasionally during the shopping process, 58% trust the recommendations they find on social networks more than other sites. Shopping sites (57%) and deal sites (53%) follow closely as trusted sources of product recommendations. According to the study, about one in 2 social shoppers are positively influenced by favorable reviews and recommendations. This compares to roughly 45% of social shoppers adversely influenced by negative reviews. (more…)

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Nielsen’s recent Women of Tomorrow study highlighted not only the growing influence women have on purchasing decisions, but also provided insight into their behavior across social media. A key finding from this research illustrates that “social moms” (defined as females with at least one child who actively participate in social networking) are quite influential. A new study by NM Incite and Nielsen provides additional context on social mom’s content trends, shopping tendencies and overall social media engagement. (more…)

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As more people use the Internet in search of information, online video becomes increasingly important for reaching and connecting with followers, fans and customers. Video’s rise in power as a marketing tool is due to its attractiveness to web surfers. By adding a smile and a friendly voice, you can build rapport with your customers faster and help them relate to your business on a more personal level.

Video connects customers on a deeper level because it covers and reaches out to different types of learning styles: the visual where people learn by reading or seeing demonstrations of a product or service and the auditory where people connect by listening to audio.

Videos also help sites show up higher on the search engines. Browsers and search engines are becoming savvier and are spending less time reading endless web pages of text. Instead, they are picking up on keywords tagged on videos appearing on sites. (more…)

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Consumers are spending more time than ever using social media, as demonstrated in the Social Media Report recently published by Nielsen and NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey company. Building on this report, research by NM Incite helps uncover what impacts social media may have for marketers trying to build their brands and connect with their audience more directly.

Social media plays an important role in how consumers discover, research, and share information about brands and products. In fact 60 percent of consumers researching products through multiple online sources learned about a specific brand or retailer through social networking sites. Active social media users are more likely to read product reviews online, and 3 out of 5 create their own reviews of products and services. Women are more likely than men to tell others about products that they like (81% of females vs. 72% of males). Overall, consumer-generated reviews and product ratings are the most preferred sources of product information among social media users. (more…)

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Running real-time “live” social media campaigns is one way marketers can effectively use social networking to generate positive buzz for their brands, according to new report from WaveMetrix. Results from “Q3 2011 Benefits and Limits of a Social Media Fanbase” indicate that both Domino’s Pizza and Burberry have achieved impressive results from live social media marketing campaigns. (more…)

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