Why Social media is much more than an add on.

First it was dismissed. Then the hype built. Then it was discussed in earnest. Finally it took its place on the media schedule. Now many rave about it. And despite the misguided hype of many, social media is growing. Facebook grows by more than 5 million new users per week. Twitter touts an increase of unique visitors by 1,382 percent year-over-year, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category. Meanwhile, Facebook just out paced Google.  The trend Forrester suggests that digital ad spend in the US will increase from 12% to 21% in 2014 and social media spend will go from $716 Million to $3.1 Billion in the US by 2014. We all know that South Africa lags the US but in terms of digital ad spend, this is a view on the trend we could expect to see in the next 2 to 3 years. Value in its own right Does that mean that social media will continue to be an “add on” to traditional media? Or is it possible that at some point marketers will start to see the value of social media in its own right? The typical “carpet bomb” approach to marketing done the traditional way is as follows. A company who sells ‘kid snacks’ brands is trying to reach moms. They would find out who has the biggest number of moms, apply traditional demographics and broadcast marketing, oh and add on a Facebook Page and maybe a Twitter feed. And sales roll in. Right? Wrong? Social talks loudly What the brand has missed out on by applying the traditional marketing approach is addressing the specific behaviors of consumers – and their intricate relationships online. It’s called the “social graph”. It’s the social in social media that talks (very loudly) to the fundamental human behaviors of communication, sharing and collaborating. And social networks represent a different and changed way of communicating, organising, recommending and deciding. Tap the behaviour Tapping into that behaviour means that you need to know more than demographics and broadcast profiles – you need to know the specific behaviors of your customer base. Where are they online? What are their social behaviors online? What social information or people do they rely on? What is their social influence? Who trusts them? How do they use social technologies in the context of your products? Technology makes social media social There are a myriad of different social platforms and all have their merits. Each one evolving daily. Take for example the fact that “Facebook” will now spread beyond its closed garden with its Open Graph Protocol, (Facebook will be shutting down its Facebook Connect product. In its place, Facebook has launched a new protocol and API called Open Graph, which is based on OAuth 2.0.) The fundamental purpose of Open Graph is to make integrating external content with Facebook as simple as possible and as a result what you have is a more social web. But knowing how to leverage these tools is critical and makes all the difference as social becomes more important in any marketing strategy. Pay off for going alternative Is there a return for such an “alternative” marketing approach? One - a dialogue with consumers. Sounds good doesn’t it? Two - participation with your brand (by customers ) at a fundamental level. Sounds even better, right? But even more importantly is the sense that when you first understand your customers, your marketing efforts will naturally unfold. When you understand specific behaviors of consumers - and their intricate relationships online - you no longer look at social media as an “add on” channel to your traditional “carpet bomb” campaign. You use social media to understand your customer better, to tap into understanding their behaviour better, you make your marketing budget work long after the spend and ultimately sell to your customers more effectively.

Keep an objective in mind

A campaign's single most important attribute is it's objective. This enables the calculation of ROI and ultimately determines if your marketing effort was a success. Marketer's often forget this simple rule of thumb. How does this apply to Social Media? Read on to find out... It’s about the conversation. Social media addresses the fundamental human behaviors of communication, sharing and collaborating. And social networks represent a step change in how people communicate, organize, recommend and decide. It’ not much of a surprise that social networks represent new threats and opportunities in reputation management. Nor that in terms of the ad game we’ve all had a bit of a rude awakening. Message discovery is now as important as message delivery. Everything has a tag. And it’s not about the conversation. But it’s not all about the conversation. It’s not a matter of whether you get it or don’t. Like all things, it’s finding what works, building from a foundation, measuring progress, and adapting to new situations. Chris Brogan posted on how companies can choose social media channels that are right for them. He points out that what most critical in terms of social media and the decision process is that companies need to have clear goals and ways of measuring them. So actually it’s also about getting stuff sold. So if you have an FMCG brand “what works” for you is probably what drives up brick and mortar sales, incrementally or otherwise. Let’s face it - FMCG is hardly web-friendly . I’m not going to order my washing powder, a beer or tube of toothpaste online. Especially not on a whim…. it’s just not going to happen. So if you’re into the “conversation” you’d be inclined to say - it’s great , everyone is talking about you, and you’re part of “the conversation”. But what good is that when they’re talking about you in a context (such as online) where your product isn’t readily available. After all, what’s going to push me, the consumer, away from that online conversation and out to a point-of-sale (POS) where I will make a purchase? And even if I recall the buzz around your brand when I notice your product at a POS, is that going to be enough to make me buy? And if so, will your social media campaign create enough impulse buys to cover the agency fees behind that campaign? And whether it does or doesn’t, how are you going to track it? What measurement tools do you have in place or can you get access to? Social media needs an objective. Or it's just more talk. Make social media pay its way Social media can be an excellent strategy for fostering customer loyalty, but what is its potential to do so with non-web-friendly products? Your Facebook app might get me to buy today but will it keep me coming back? Burger King got it right with their Facebook app. They didn’t try to foster a devoutly loyal customer base using Facebook groups or their own social network. Rather, they devised a delimited marketing blitz with very clear objectives and measurable goals. Every consumer that participated got a coupon that could be tracked upon redemption. This would provide them with a complete cost-benefit analysis, measuring the costs of deployment against the additional costs of fulfillment alongside increased sales during times of redemption. Another great example - Starbucks added a few hundred thousand fans in a day with the launch of their application in July of 2009. What the trick to making it work? So the trick to making social media count for FMCG it seems is that campaigns have to do three things: Drive brick & mortar sales, offer a way to track and measure those sales, and keep consumers socializing with your media long enough that their increased expenditures cover the cost of your social media campaign. FMCG marketers need to be choosing social media campaigns based on how they can meet the objectives of what FMCG ROI actually is: [Sales – (planning costs + fulfillment costs)]/(planning costs + fulfillment costs) = ROI As long as that objective is kept in mind, social media can be an effective marketing channel even for FMCG. If marketers choose a medium both based on those objectives and on their need for measurement -social media does pay.

Social Media Spend increases

The world is changing fast. Let's have a look at the state of a couple of the statistics both globally and here in South Africa to understand the latest trends and what this means for the future in terms of advertising spend on Social Media. A Global View I think it is clear that South Africa lags the US in terms of digital ad spend so this is a view on the trend we could expect in the next couple of years. In summary: Digital ad spend in the US increases from 12% to 21% in 2014 Social Media Spend goes from $716 Million to $3.1 Billion in the US by 2014 But is this spend actually validated? What we see to the left are the results of research done by Hitwise. This relates the percentage of visits to Facebook versus Google and the results are astounding. The week ending 13 March 2010 sees Facebook overtake Google for the first time. But what does this mean for South Africans? A list of the top 10 South African sites by Alexa sees global sites dominating our audience's eyeballs with only 2 local sites making the top 10. google.co.za facebook.com google.com yahoo.com youtube.com wikipedia.org twitter.com blogger.com gumtree.co.za news24.com Further more, of the top 10 sites, it could be argued that 9 are social or offer social features. But lets look a bit further at the unique visitors from South Africa using Google Trends SA Unique Vistors what we see is Facebook certainly dominating the South African Audience. You are invited to try your own searches.