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.

Social Media - Get what you pay for!

Social media is getting major attention. There’s no doubt about it. More marketers (locally and definitely abroad) are considering their media strategies and approach in terms of social media. More companies are developing social media policies for communication and more businesses understand that South African internet usage is escalating and consumer behavior is changing. “Word of friend” is becoming KING! Social Media is free? A big question on most people’s mind - does it pay? Can I get ROI? We’ll it’s hard for something to be perceived valuable if it’s also “free” and “anyone can do it” – right? Wrong! Everything can be free if you know how to do it! Google is free but companies outsource their SEO, their Google ad campaigns, and website design to name but a few - Why? Because there are expert professionals that specialize in it, do it every day all day long. Likewise with social media - It should be approached strategically, handled by professionals - people who do this on a daily basis; have cut their teeth in the grind and have concrete results to prove their worth. There are a myriad of different social platforms and all have their merits. People have different tastes and using one social network over another depends on their network and what they want to communicate or collaborate on e.g. LinkedIn versus Twitter. Each platform has many tools and mechanics that make it work. Knowing how to leverage these tools makes all the difference. This is not a part-time job and when done correctly is arguably far more powerful than traditional media. Does this resonate? The general trend is for companies to create a Fan Page or Group – the first to join are fellow employees; family and friends, thereafter fans dribble in. Companies that have a few thousand fans believe they have achieved great strides on Facebook – but have they? Your fan base should be a significant percentage of your foot traffic or customer base. To do this one needs to know what they are doing in this space. Think of it like this: You have a footprint of say 1 million customers and have a fan base of say 5000. That’s 0.5%. You have not by any stretch of the imagination, leveraged the power of social media. But if a brand had a 20% following (200,000) then you would have significant leverage and power with your customer base and what comes next would be endless. Achieving this is certainly not free! What’s your goal? Getting what you pay for is about your goal. If your goal is to have conversations then are you planning for that conversation and where it will go or just hoping you can handle it on the fly? If your goal is to sell your product then are you planning on how to talk about your product or service in a way that is relevant or just hoping you can email the brochure? If your goal is to foster a community then are you planning on how you leverage social networks to find the people you need to speak with? Or are you just putting up your Facebook page and hoping? Brands that understood their goals Dell - They knew what they were doing. They started in 2007 by posting offers and responding to questions on Twitter.com/DellOutlet—and have to date earned more than $3 million in revenue attributed directly to their Twitter activity. It is also driving interest in new products in that people come from @DellOutlet on Twitter into the Dell.com/outlet site and then ultimately decide to purchase a new system from elsewhere on Dell.com. Brands like Zain Africa, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Sun Microsytems and Burger King – they get it. Brands are missing the boat So many brands have followed advice (albeit incorrectly) and started a Facebook Fan Page/Group and have no idea how to make this work for the brand and the customer. Alternatively they have opted not to have a social media presence at all. But no presence creates a void that will in all likelihood be filled, whether a brand likes it or not. A new study released by enterprise wiki provider Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group shows that the brands most engaged in social media are also experiencing higher financial success rates than those of their non-engaged peers. Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%. More facts: Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business conducted a survey recently and documented the first evidence to support the concept that Facebook Fan Pages are an effective way to market. If a brand embraces the power of social media then it’s not about finding free tools or hiring an intern to handle the company’s most important presence (social media). It’s about adopting the right resources and professionals to create a holistic approach; leveraging all media and not comparing the cost of social media versus other media. Rather appreciate the value of the space - if done right, you’ll get what you pay for. ©2010 Popimedia on Social | PostNet Suite 366, Private Bag X1, Melrose Arch 2076

Making social media work

Four things that will make getting into social media make more business sense

It seems that everywhere you turn there is something being said about social media. According to research* the use of social networking increased by 21% worldwide in 2009. While it’s growing and more and more people are talking about it, it also seems that most businesses are still trying to understand why they should be using it in the first place. What’s that about?

1. It’s all about the bottom line

Well, the why is related to “how and what” a business does to engage in marketing with the aim of creating an opportunity for a transaction - that means sales. Why do businesses exist? Primarily to create value, attract a market who wants the value and engage the market in transaction. Again that means … yep sales.

How then does social media become about sales and not just messaging, conversations and feedback? By understanding that social media’s very point is about engagement, interactivity and completely solicited information in a friend to friend referral sense, this makes it a highly effective channel to gain solicited and qualified leads. Leads handled properly turn into quotes and quotes mean sales. All you have to do is know how to ask in the right way.

2. Replace your push with pull

The “how” of how business engages with consumers, has changed from “push marketing” to “pull marketing” via relevant and relative conversations and interaction that attract the market you seek, to you. That really boils down to the fact that digital has a quality that no other medium has – the power of viral. Most marketers want viral. Why? Because viral is really just good old fashioned “word-of-mouth” and viral means money spent to make a transaction opportunity “better bang for your buck”.

In the traditional direct marketing models you can expect a 2% to 3% conversion rate. Yep that’s right 3% is considered good. But social media done right can give you at least 20% - If not 40 to 65%! That’s what most companies want. Leads that convert to sales and as many as possible.

If you make viral your priority with any activity in social media then you easily move from the push of a static online banner ad to the pull of an interactive competition, promotion, game video, widget etc.

3. Word of mouth (still) rules

Advertising relies on cool design, creative concept, clever words and often quite an enormous leap of faith by the consumer to follow and make a transaction opportunity real. PR relies on influencing the influencers to get the message across. Social media is about one friend telling another friend. Forester’s research says that a friend’s opinion is the most trusted source – weighing in at a whacking 83% trustworthy. Well then where would you spend your buck to make a sale?



Social networks are popping up left right and centre. Social networking provider Ning hosts half a million “self made” social networks on its platform. This from Ning’s launch in February 2007. It’s tempting to think “I'll just create my own Social Network then”.

Social media means changing how you market and conduct your marketing, it’s also about giving over some power to the consumer not necessarily creating your own collection of people.

So to be effective in a space that has a different “how and what” is best to head for where you can find critical mass.

Numbers give you safety but numbers also give you leads.
The stats say that Facebook grows weekly by 5 million people. The service has gained around this amount every month starting about midway through last year, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing.

Well of course you might say- “Well that’s America where everybody is connected to the Net”. But Facebook’s market in South Africa is hardly shabby... a cool 2.4 million. Gaining access to an audience of 2.4 million Facebookers tomorrow seems like a no brainer. Leveraging that audience to interact with your brand just makes sense.

More about Popimedia Innovations

Popimedia Innovations is an Interactive Social Media Marketing Services Company providing a full-service online marketing service with a unique focus on interactive and viral marketing.
With over 100 Social Media campaigns across many industries under their belt, Popimedia Innovations’ brand of social media marketing is recognisable by its leverage of social media networks like Facebook and its definitive success in terms of lead generation for clients. Popimedia Innovation’s services deliver results for marketers venturing into the social media space.

For more information visit innovations.popimedia.com or contact us on 011-268-2640.

Facebook - beyond advertising

After two years, over 100 Social Media campaigns across many industries including Banking, Insurance, FMCG, Motor, Mobile, Airline and more, we would like to share some of our experiences, good and bad, with Social Media and Facebook in particular.

It all started with a BUZZ, yes that's right, BUZZ is what started this business, within 1 week of launching the business we had our first client. A standard banner ad campaign on Facebook it was to be. Our client said “Yes but we had 14 Million impressions and only 4300 clicks” That's 0.05% CTR (Click Through Rate) - “Facebook is not for us”… and so this was the story of most early adopters. Then came along “Social Ads”, “Fan Pages” and with the opening of the Facebook platform a multitude of applications and developers who rushed to find out what was possible.

In the meantime, within 2 months the South African Facebook user base grew from 680,000 to 880,000. We learned that in order to run a successful campaign, a simple banner ad, or social ad was not good enough even though Facebook advertising may be cheap. What is more valuable, is the fact that users share information, pictures, videos and comments - All this information is consumed by a user through their “NewsFeed” - the page that is displayed as a user logs into Facebook.

And so, to access this rich channel of communication and tap into trusted referrals between friends we launched PIActionsTM - . This enabled our campaigns to achieve between 20% and 65% conversion from click to acquisition, and in some cases a ROI (Return on Investment) that achieved multiples above any TV, Radio or billboard spend. We even launched a new car on Facebook - yes that's right no TV. no Radio, no Print, just Facebook with PIActionsTM.

But that's not where the story ends, add to this customized applications; rich media; interactive widgets; mobile; how about your own Social Network around your niche interests? (Just ask Ellen DeGeneres); giving the customer live access to campaign metrics to make real time decisions; the 2 Millionth South African Facebook User; Twitter; the iPhone; Amazon's Kindle and… and… and what you have is a battle for consumer attention in this space. So what becomes valuable in today's fast paced world is“Beyond Advertising” - An ability to navigate through the BUZZ and innovate, move with the times, conceive of creative engaging campaigns across a multitude of platforms.

Popimedia Innovations, South Africa's predominant Social Media specialist, is a full-service online media company that focuses on social media and viral marketing. From creative strategy through to campaign implementation; monitoring and live feedback, we are able to formalise your online marketing requirements and ensure your objectives are met.

Contact us to help formulate a social strategy today - act on it!

www.innovations.popimedia.com or 011-268-2640

Phenomenal digital results for Fenomenal Woman

Fenomenal Woman, underwritten by Hollard, renowned for innovative thinking, products and media campaigns ventured into the social media space through Popimedia and Wunderman with their “Insurance that Fits” campaign.

Objectives included brand awareness, building a database and a channel of communication for future offerings and driving sales.

The campaign ran for one month with a limited budget during the month of October utilizing Popimedia’s PIActions^TM system.  Facebook Banner ads and www.FrogsLuck.com were used to seed the campaign and introduce the exact target audience to Fenomenal Woman’s offering.  A prize of a two-day style makeover including a one-on-one styling workshop, professional hair styling, a R4 000 shopping spree and a professional photo shoot worth R30,000 was available for one lucky entrant.

The campaign once again proved that a sound digital strategy executed with a limited budget and the right expertise can achieve measurable results beyond expectations. Popimedia congratulates both the Wunderman and Fenomenal Woman teams for realizing that Digital and Social Media campaigns should form part of an integrated and upfront  approach to marketing and sales.

The campaign achieved over 9000 clicks in the month with 35% conversion to competition entry and a further 24% conversion to quotation.

26% of quotes were generated through PIActions^TM (trusted referrals) once again demonstrating that Social Media is carving out its place in lead generation.

For the latest Social Media trends, statistics and thinking on how to make digital work for you.

nomenal Woman, underwritten by Hollard, renowned for innovative thinking, products and media campaigns ventured into the social media space through Popimedia and Wunderman with their “Insurance that Fits” campaign.

Objectives included brand awareness, building a database and a channel of communication for future offerings and driving sales.

The campaign ran for one month with a limited budget during the month of October utilizing Popimedia’s PIActions^TM system.  Facebook Banner ads and www.FrogsLuck.com were used to seed the campaign and introduce the exact target audience to Fenomenal Woman’s offering.  A prize of a two-day style makeover including a one-on-one styling workshop, professional hair styling, a R4 000 shopping spree and a professional photo shoot worth R30,000 was available for one lucky entrant.

The campaign once again proved that a sound digital strategy executed with a limited budget and the right expertise can achieve measurable results beyond expectations. Popimedia congratulates both the Wunderman and Fenomenal Woman teams for realizing that Digital and Social Media campaigns should form part of an integrated and upfront  approach to marketing and sales.

The campaign achieved over 9000 clicks in the month with 35% conversion to competition entry and a further 24% conversion to quotation.

26% of quotes were generated through PIActions^TM (trusted referrals) once again demonstrating that Social Media is carving out its place in lead generation.

For the latest Social Media trends, statistics and thinking on how to make digital work for you.

Visit www.popimedia.com or contact us on 011 268 2640 info@popimedia.com.