Tag Archives: social media

July 24, 2012 · 8:41 am

Painting A More Complete Picture

Two pieces from eMarketer caught my eye last week.  Both have to do with marketers’ usage of social media.  From the first, you might be tempted to short Facebook stock and wonder why Google is spending so much time on G+.  From the second, you might just realize that once again we find that getting beyond a sexy headline and into some facts can help paint a very different picture.

The first piece was all gloom and doom:

Social Media Usage Plateaus Among Marketers

Oh no!  Is this whole sector of the digital economy heading right down the tubes??:

When the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) surveyed US marketers this year, 90% said they were using social networks for their efforts—about even with last year, at 89%. While this percentage has risen dramatically since 2007, when just 20% of marketers used social media, growth has plateaued—and shifted to other new digital media platforms instead.

It goes on to talk about mobile and location-based services.  Of course, it also mentions that the investment in social was $3.63 billion in the US and over $4 billion more in the rest of the world. And that’s just paid ad spending.  Which leads to the other piece, which asks the obvious question:

What Are Marketers Spending on Social Media?

It turns out that:

most marketers have less than 20% of their marketing budget set aside for outreach on social sites—including advertising and maintaining a social media presence…While these percentages may seem small, marketers reported that budgets were increasing. AdAge and Citigroup found that 72.9% of respondents said they expected their overall social media budget to increase over the next year. This is in line with data from Useful Social Media, which, in April 2012, found that 54% of US companies planned to increase their social media budgets by up to 25% in 2012.

If 90% of marketers are, in fact, already using social (and there’s an entire book to be written on how badly most of them are doing so), of course the growth rate is slow – there’s hardly any room to grow.  If nearly 3/4 of them are expanding their budgets, the dollars flowing to social are going to be the envy of many other media.  It’s on the social companies and the marketers’ agencies (and consultants!) to help develop metrics and other criteria to assure and measure success so the investment pays off.

Interesting when we get past the headlines and start asking questions, right?

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July 18, 2012 · 9:49 am

This Is My 1,000th Post!

I posted my first bit of drivel on May 22, 2008.  It was all of 218 words and by way of introduction I said:

My name is Keith, and I’m a guy who works with companies on using media to grow their businesses. It could be that nasty old traditional stuff like radio and TV or it could be that newfangled stuff like social media. Either way, bubba. Since it’s not about the channel.

Hopefully the writing has improved a little but what I like is that the basic mission hasn’t:

You would be surprised how many folks I’ve met over the years do something because it’s cool…rather than because it ties in nicely to their business goals, strategies, and tactics.  So that’s what we’ll look at in this blog, with a particular emphasis on the emerging media business as well as sports. I’ll probably throw in a few food tips as well since we can’t be all work and no play.

Which is pretty much where we still are although I guess there’s the odd tip I’ve learned over the last 35 years about managing thrown in as well.  The technology has changed a lot in four years but business hasn’t.  We’ve committed to Friday as our food day and I probably don’t write as much about sports now as I used to.  We still generally avoid politics other than to use them to illustrate a broader point (although I’m thinking about using one day a week to focus on facts without advocacy as we hit election time – thoughts?).

Here’s the most important thing I can say to you after 999 other attempts:  thank you.  Thank you for reading, for sharing posts with others, and for taking the time to comment, both here on the screed and back to me via email (I realize some of you don’t want your thoughts quite so public – fine with me!).  Hopefully you’ll do more of each of them in the future.  I’m always surprised and grateful when someone I’m just meeting or with whom I’m reconnecting says “I like your blog.”  I can see readership numbers but it’s always better for me to meet just one actual reader.

If you had asked me a few years back if I’d still be posting every work day four years down the road, I’d have said that I don’t have that many words or cogent thoughts in me.  Turns out I was wrong.  Thank you all very much!

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July 12, 2012 · 9:56 am

Sports And Social

Some news this morning from the folks at Trendrr about social interactions with TV.

English: The iPad on a table in the Apple case

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On today’s list of not-so-surprising findings:

Sporting events continue to dominate in terms of social TV: ABC was given a boost by the NBA Finals, which accounted for more than 13.5 million social interactions. This made ABC the “most engaging” broadcast network in June.

Well, YEAH!  Sports is, and has always been, an extremely social activity.  In fact, when you think about the various ways in which people consume sports, it’s pretty obvious that without social something fairly big is missing.  The best sports viewing experience is in your living room.  Big screen TV, comfy chair, hundreds of people working very hard to make sure you see every detail of the game, supplemented with statistical insights and brilliant analysis.  Except if you’ve ever watched a game alone you realize it’s not as much fun as watching with a group.  Social is missing.

The other extreme is at the game itself.  It’s the best social sports experience.  You’re surrounded by thousands of other people who are doing almost nothing but socializing about the game, even before it begins (even before you get into the stadium in many cases).  It’s great, except you don’t have a lot of replays, you don’t get the insightful analysis, you  can’t see the perfect angle.  Social is there but obviously something is still missing.

To me, the ultimate sports experience is a sports bar.  Perfect game presentation, great social experience.  Social apps that we can use even when we’re alone help to bridge that gap and put us closer to that sports bar experience.  What Trendrr has reminded us is that the technology by itself is only part of the story – it facilitates something that has always been a major part of the sports experience.  It’s a good point to remember about your business: you can’t confuse the business with the technology.  I think activity around sports in these social areas is huge only because social has been a natural part of sports for a long time.  It doesn’t need to be manufactured.  Think about that as you contemplate using some new piece of tech.

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