Jennings Social Media Marketing Kicks Off the Holiday Season With Facebook Contest: Enter for a Chance to Win $15,000 in Social Media Services
By Allison McGown, producer of Viral Bolt Media
Jennings Social Media Marketing (JSMM), a full-service, custom social media agency, is pleased to announce its Facebook campaign in time for the holidays. Enter for a chance to win $15,000 in social media services.
ENTER NOW. To be eligible, review the contest rules.
According to Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM, the contest is designed to attract business owners, marketing professionals and digital media strategists, who want to play in social media without making a serious investment right out of the gate. ”We want to give those naysayers a chance to win with social media without investing any money. The naysayers out there, wherever you are: play the game, enter for a chance to win and see if you get to experience social media for free. Happy holidays!”
Entries must be received by Monday, December 10, 2012.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Reviews Best Practices for Managing Online Reviews
Written by: Chelsea Lewis, social media marketing manager, of Jennings Social Media Marketing
United Airlines learned a few things when sonsofmaxwell posted a YouTube video about their company. The video was a catchy song that addressed the fact that the airline had broken his guitar. The video now has over 12 million hits. United Airlines learned the hard way how important it is to manage reviews, comments and posts made about your company.
When creating a social media campaign, companies have to think about every single detail. Ranging from what kind of picture to use on a Facebook post to how to manage and review comments made about your company online. If one negative comment is over looked or not addressed it could spell disaster.
Rody Moore recently wrote an article for Mashable, detailing the top four ways to manage online reviews. The simple fact is, consumers read reviews and the more postive reviews the more success a company can reach. The top four strategies included; companies need to pay attention to what customers say, how often reviews are being posted, promote your reputation on the web and respond to every review personally. Companies need to manage and monitor their online reviews before they end up owing someone a whole lot of guitars.
Here are the key findings from the article:
When Carmen Popa opened her acne treatment center, Luminosity Acne Skincare in North Carolina, she quickly realized how valuable online reviews were to attracting new customers. “Clients often mentioned that it was the positive reviews that encouraged them to try out my business,” she says.
Research shows that online reviews strongly influence buying behavior, with nearly half of American consumers stating that they are more likely to visit a business after reading a positive online review. That makes review websites such as Yelp, Google Places, and Citysearch online archives of consumer opinions on how a business compares to similar shops.
Facebook Has Gone Public: Now What?
Posted by: Chelsea Lewis, social media marketing manager of Jennings Social Media Marketing
The Facebook IPO is all that matters right now. Facebook is officially public, what can Facebook users gain from buying or selling stock in the social media giant? In an article written by Adam Ostrow for Mashable, Ostrow details the main reason why Facebook users should be paying attention to Facebook’s IPO. This IPO has made history, but what will the future for Facebook be? Only time will tell.
Here are some key findings from the article:
If you’re in the vast majority of Facebook users that won’t be buying or selling stock when the social network goes public Friday, your view on the IPO may be an apathetic “so what?”
But there are lots of reasons that average Facebook users should be paying attention to Facebook’s IPO and what it means both now and in the future.
Let’s start with the money. Facebook will raise upwards of $15 billion in cash that it can put towards acquisitions, research and development, and hiring
Why Facebook Bought Instagram: How will brands leverage this powerful photo app?
Posted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
While I enjoy utilizing Instagram for my own personal photography like snapping photos on trips or catching my nephews or niece in a candid shot, I can see why the Instagram purchase was of extreme value to Facebook.
Facebook is about sharing beautiful, inspirational and entertaining content while incorporating the brand into the messaging. It also gives consumers an opportunity to share their perspectives, experiences and enjoyment, too. Ford has already utilized Instagram for a photo contest on Facebook, and I’m sure many other popular brands have incorporated the app into their consumers’ social media strategy as well.
Give Instagram a shot. We will be launching something new for our clients and perhaps JSMM via Instagram and Facebook.
Facebook Meets Instagram: What It Means for Your Brand
When it comes to Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, details are still coming into focus. In a public statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Instagram will continue to grow independently — but further details about how the platforms will eventually weave together have not been provided. Nevertheless, the Instagram/Facebook combo presents new challenges to and opportunities for marketers.
Instagram: Point, Click, SOLD! Facebook buys Instagram for $1 Billion!
Post by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
Instagram, a photo app, was purchased for $1 billion this week by Facebook. I don’t know what else to say: congrats! While most consumers don’t know what or how it works, I will say that the app offers a lot of value. I personally use it for fun and think it was a great move on behalf of Facebook.
Here is the story.
How Instagram’s $1 Billion Sale Helps Other Photo-Sharing Startups
When Facebook decided to acquire Instagram for a whopping $1 billion on Monday, the two companies weren’t the only ones with reason to pop open a bottle of champagne.
The acquisition has lent legitimacy to a whole genre of startups — photo-sharing apps — previously accused of being a fad.
Facebook IPO Expected to be $100 Billion, Largest of Any Tech Company in History
Posted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM
While it hasn’t been confirmed, reports are circulating that Facebook Inc. will go public this year. Facebook has kept quiet about the move, but many anticipate the IPO to hit this May. If and when this happens, it will be huge.
This article and infographic posted by Joann Pan of Mashable, projects Facebook’s IPO to be six times larger than Google’s and will be the largest of any tech company in history.
How Facebook’s Expected $100 Billion IPO Breaks Down [INFOGRAPHIC]
Rumors are flying about Facebook Inc. going public this year. So, just how much money is the world’s largest social network worth?
Reports project that Facebook will go public some time between April and June. The company itself has remained hush-hush about the initial public offering.
The infographic below shows how the company’s projected valuation of $100 billion breaks down and which Facebook Friends will be getting a piece of the pie.
Facebook’s IPO will be the biggest of any tech company in history — six times that of Google’s, according to Accounting Degree Online.
The company itself is preparing to raise $10 billion this year, according to reports, to push the company’s public value to $100 billion. More than Disney ($61 billion), Amazon ($88.3 billion) and McDonald’s ($95.6 billion).
Who will be cashing in? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder Eduardo Saverin, co-founder Chris Hughes and Sean Parker, Napster co-founder and Facebook partial owner (he owns 4% of Facebook). Zuckerberg will make an estimated $25 billion, owning 24% of the company.
And just how will Facebook reach the $10 billion excess profit by April or June? By increasing Facebook revenue from advertising, Facebook fan pages and display ads.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Launches Facebook Contest In Response to Fan Poll
Posted by: Micah Pratt, director of social networking R&D
Jennings Social Media Marketing (JSMM) announced their most recent Facebook contest, following a small poll the company posted on Facebook over the summer. Enter for a chance to win social media marketing services by JSMM just in time for the holidays by “Liking” us on Facebook and signing up via the sweeps tab.
The winner of the contest will receive a boutique style campaign which may include a social media evaluation, channel branding and designs, channel updates to social media sites and organic search engine optimization analysis.
Valerie Jennings, CEO of JSMM, said they polled their Facebook fans and asked which grand prize they would most like to receive: an iPad, Mac computer, iPod or two free months of social media services from JSMM. The two free months from JSMM won with an overall majority. “We are excited to reward our fans in time for the holidays and hope the grand prize winner really takes advantage of this opportunity,” said Jennings.
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. JSMM creates comprehensive social media marketing, mobile, Web videos and website design and development strategies. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Kansas City Car Dealer Frank Ancona Honda Launches 2nd Facebook Contest via Jennings Social Media Marketing
By Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
Enter Here
Frank Ancona Honda, a Kansas City Honda dealer, which Jennings Social Media Marketing (JSMM) has been working with for more than a year, has launched a second Facebook contest this week. The contest is a chance to win a four-course dinner for two and wine pairing at Trezo Vino and a night at the Aloft Hotel at Park Place in Leawood, Kan.
Jennings Social Media Marketing has been utilizing the NorthSocial Facebook contest application for the past five months and has been impressed by the easy-to-use functionality, results, viral sharing opportunities and ability to load original creative work. Check out the contest on the Frank Ancona Honda Facebook page.
JSMM designed the contest, worked with Frank Ancona Honda on the creative, loaded the application via their Facebook page, developed the email opt-in opportunities and hopes to see 500 or more entries. The contests typically generate hundreds of new “likes” and email addresses for future prospective marketing.
Check out the NorthSocial applications on their website to understand what they are capable of providing, but have a social media professional design the campaign to reach your audience, engage with fans, design the NorthSocial landing pages, set up targeted Facebook ads, distribute viral press releases and send email marketing to prospects and customers to enter the contest.
How to use QR Codes with your Marketing
By Sarah Newman, client services manager
Little black boxes seem to be appearing everywhere. These black boxes are popping up at your grocery stores, restaurants and even in your mail. The boxes are referred to as QR codes. QR codes are the newest tool that is assisting marketing companies in reaching smartphone users.
QR codes contain advertisements and even videos for people to view on their smartphone. In order to access this media, smartphone users need only download the QR code application to their phone. Due to the ease of access, the QR codes have gained popularity. In fact, according to the social media source, Mashable, “Fifty percent of smartphone users use QR codes on a regular basis.”
Additionally, QR codes are helping businesses create new marketing plans for their clients. Let me provide a personal example, while sitting at a neighborhood restaurant with a girlfriend, I noticed a QR code on an advertisement at the far end of the table. We scanned the QR code with our smartphones while we waited and the QR code showed a video about the desserts the restaurant provided. Viewing the advertisement helped our time pass by more quickly and also aided in turning our conversation towards the restaurant.
At the end of the video, it gave us the option to share the advertisement on our Facebook or Twitter. How convenient is that? The ability to share this video in any social media forum will help increase the restaurants online visibility. This is also a great idea for restaurants or even waiting rooms to use for the sake of parents with children. If the children were able to watch videos while they wait, they would be distracted, making both the parents and the children happy.
Here at Jennings Social Media Marketing we recently used QR codes for a race sponsored by Frank Ancona Honda. The Frank Ancona Honda cars all had QR codes on them and the runners that took part in the race received a goody bag that had the QR codes on them as well. This allowed Frank Ancona Honda to continue to market to the runners after the event was over. Jason Heard, sales manager at Frank Ancona Honda, added that the mobile initiative is a step towards engaging their customers via social media channels and into mobile. “We are excited to be the first of Jennings’ clients to incorporate SMS and QR codes into our social media marketing. Valerie has been a key advisor throughout the social media integration at Frank Ancona Honda, and we know this will be the right move for our dealership,” said Heard. We were just as excited to help Jason have a great race and continue to market his brand.
It’s exciting to see where QR codes will lead to in the future. They serve as useful tools for planning marketing campaigns with all of our clients!
InformationWeek.com Reviews Tips for Business Facebook Pages During the Holidays: 51% of Consumers Are More Likely to Buy From a Company After Becoming Their Fan on Facebook
Posted by: Micah Pratt, director of social networking R&D
The holidays are just around the corner, and businesses are finalizing their marketing campaigns to optimize the shopping rush. Here is an article from InformationWeek.com, written by Kevin Casey, about how companies can prepare their social networking sites in time for the holidays.
4 Tips: Prep Your Facebook Page For Holidays
Will your company’s Facebook page help you take advantage of the holiday shopping rush? Consider these tips for SMBs and fine-tune your strategy.
Small and midsize businesses (SMBs), like Santa Claus, should be making a list and checking it twice. But rather than sorting out who’s naughty or nice, consumer-focused concerns should fine-tune their Facebook presence in advance of the holiday shopping rush.
Among the reasons: The bevy of market research showing shoppers increasingly turning to social sites before they make purchase decisions. Consider this recent study, which found 51% of consumers are more likely to buy something from a company after becoming their fan on Facebook. With the annual flurry of capitalism known as holiday shopping looming large, it’s time for retailers and other consumer-focused SMBs to make sure they’re ready to reap the rewards.
That means doing a bit more than putting up a page and hoping it connects with customers, according to Laura O’Shaughnessy, CEO of SocialCode, a social agency that emphasizes a quantitative approach to performance advertising, with a particular focus on Facebook. The firm recently added LinkedIn to its mix, and is considering the likes of Twitter and Google+.
Socialcode itself has an interesting SMB story. The 50-person agency was born as an internal department of The Washington Post Company, which owns–in addition to the flagship newspaper of the same name–a number of media, education, and other businesses. O’Shaughnessy said that the results of Facebook programs for the company’s various brands were so strong that it began shifting money away from its Google adverting and spending more on social. Later, Socialcode was spun out as an independent subsidiary and began signing on external customers.
In an interview, O’Shaughnessy shared these four tips for optimizing your Facebook activities in the coming weeks.
1. Set goals. The businesses that get the most out of their Facebook presence are the ones that have goals behind it. “Step one is deciding: Is my goal to drive people into my restaurant, is it to drive people into my store, is it to introduce a new product, is it to get people to buy my product?” O’Shaughnessy said. Without a clear sense of what they want to accomplish, SMBs, can’t make efficient use of their resources.
2. Design a campaign with a “viral accelerant.” O’Shaughnessy said the most powerful, effective Facebook campaigns place heavy emphasis on sharing. That often means developing an application, game, or a related microsite to encourage people to spread the word–no matter what the word is. “You want to make sure you’re taking advantage of the sharing activities that are going on,” O’Shaughnessy said.
While a development-intensive application might require a bigger budget, O’Shaughnessy noted that there are sharing-oriented things marketers can do on a smaller scale. She gave as an example a nonprofit client that found strong results simply using a light application aimed at sharing badges on Facebook walls.
“The most important thing about Facebook is really perpetuating that social sharing–getting one friend to spread, in this case, a badge to another friend,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Then all of that person’s friends see that action, so you get this immediate lift.”
The Future of Google+: Integrating Brand Pages with the Social Network’s 40 Million User Profiles
Posted by: Micah Pratt, director of social networking r&d
Last Wednesday at the Web 2.0 conference held in San Francisco, Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president in charge of Google+, discussed the possible changes coming to the social networking site. One of those changes included the idea of Google+ brand pages for companies anxiously waiting to reach out to the more than 40 million users. Here is an article from Mashable.com on what Google+ brand pages could look like when made available to companies.
What Google+ Brand Pages Could Look Like [PICS]
A few weeks ago, Mashable contacted some ad agencies and asked them to imagine how brand pages on could change in light of that platform’s planned redesign.
Just as Facebook was announcing its tweaks, though, Google was on track to add brand pages to Google Plus. Though it looks like that will happen any day now, the integration hasn’t been announced yet. Meanwhile, a handful of brands, including Ford, are already enjoying the possibilities.
There are several barriers to designing brand pages for Plus. For one thing, it’s hard to stand out the way Plus looks now. The somewhat rigid format has a leveling effect. But Colin Murphy, director of social for Skinny, one of the agencies that accepted our challenge, says there are potential advantages to Plus, too. “A primary gripe among Facebook and Twitter users is that brands bombard them with messages they don’t want or care to see,” said Murphy. “In its current form, Plus doesn’t solve that problem, but Plus Brand Pages might, if they implement Public Circles.”
Skinny outlined how this might work with a hypothetical example for Mini, the auto brand. In this case, a Mini Countryman fan could join the Countryman circle and see just Countryman updates in her feed. “This level of selectivity isn’t possible on Facebook or even Twitter, unless of course you are a fan or follow the specific product you’re interested in — but there’s a major drawback to that method because the user has to seek out content streams,” Murphy says. “With Google+ it’s all in one place, and the all the admin has to do is feed pertinent content to the appropriate circles.”
In addition to Skinny, Fantasy Interactive created some fictional Coca-Cola and Starbucks brand pages. Are these on the mark? We’ll know soon enough, but in the meantime, let us know what you think of these agencies’ vision of how Google+ can accommodate brands.
Social Networking “Friends” Politics: How to Make Facebook Ads Work to Political Candidates’ Favor
Posted by: Micah Pratt, Director of Social Networking R&D
The 2012 presidential election will be like one never experienced before. Social networking sites are playing a role in these elections that wasn’t imaginable four years ago by hosting debates, facilitating the political conversation and connecting candidates with voters in the digital world. Here is an article from CMO.com, written by Kim Soth, senior vice president of business development & marketing at Jennings Social Media Marketing, on how to get Facebook ads to work in your favor.
Five Ways to Make Facebook Ads Work For You
There is much talk in social-media circles about how to build your audience organically and that, for the most part, it is the best way to build an audience. It is certainly a good way, but it shouldn’t be your only strategy. We suggest that if you are a new company or are launching a product, you can do a great job of building fans with Facebook ads, which offer a great alternative to your marketing strategy. What’s more, Facebook ads are not nearly as complex as Google AdWords—but don’t let the simplicity fool you. For our campaigns we’ve found that Facebook ads, on average, deliver a higher click-through rate than Google AdWords.
For example, we were brought in to help promote a senatorial race. After a month of struggling to gain fans on Facebook, we eventually doubled the candidate’s fans in a week by running ads: We picked up 1,500 fans for a total cost of around $1,000.
So if you think this strategy might be for you, here are five tips that will help you make Facebook ads work for your campaigns.
1. It’s about testing. Always run multiple ads targeting the same “Likes and Interests,” and keep your Likes and Interests the same while testing different ad copy, headlines, or images. What needs to remain the same as your control for a general test is your Likes and Interests keywords. You can test many controls, but the simplest is Likes and Interests. Facebook targets audiences off of two variables: Users and Likes and Interests: If you change these in two different ads, then you don’t have an apples-to-apples test.
2. Likes and Interests matter. Likes and Interests are essentially keywords you are targeting for your campaign based on what shows up for a user. You don’t want to use random Likes and Interests keywords. To make Likes and Interests work for you, it’s important to target based on what is associated with that individual in some way—associations they belong to, things they like, where they work, what they are fans of, or what they’ve written on their walls.
It’s is important not to get carried away and add a hundred Likes and Interests keywords just because it’s cool to see the numbers of possible audience continue to rise. It would seem that big numbers of audience is a good idea, but it’s actually counterintuitive. You want to choose highly targeted Likes and Interests keywords that are tightly associated with your ad copy. Don’t choose a keyword just because of its audience reach. You want to make sure it matches everything you know about the ad copy. Just because someone rides a motorcycle doesn’t mean he is interested in a Harley. One person might buy sports bikes, another might buy BMW motorcycles, while another might be really into Harleys. So it does no good to blast all of them with a message about Harley gear.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Reviews Mobile Apps’ Usage: 50% of Mobile Consumers’ Prime Time Overlaps With TV
Posted by: Eric Johnson
As the popularity of smart phones continues to rise, it was only a matter of time before the mobile screen began to catch up to the big screen in terms of usage. A new study conducted by a mobile analytics firm, Flurry, points out that approximately 50 percent of mobile consumers are utilizing mobile apps during TV’s prime time.
Flurry also reports that mobile applications currently reach more than 20 million U.S. consumers per hour and the number of active iOS and Android devices in the U.S. is estimated at 110 million. These numbers reflect a significant impact to prime time viewing habits.
For TV broadcasters, prime time is 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. In radio, programming and advertising are all about morning “drive time.” On the Web, the popularity of social networks like Facebook, instant messaging like Skype and video-on-demand services like Hulu are pushing up usage in the evening.
So what time of day do mobile apps find their biggest audience? A new study by the mobile analytics firm Flurry shows the audience for iPhone and iOS apps rises steadily during the day and peaks at about 9 p.m. That’s when half the U.S. app audience is using apps. “Mobile consumers are using apps either instead of, or along-side prime-time television and the Internet,” stated a Flurry blog post on the study.
The finding contributes to a growing body of research suggesting that two-screen viewing is becoming increasingly common while people are watching TV. The relative size of the TV audience during prime time was larger than that for mobile apps, at more than 60%. But app usage remained higher than TV from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and higher than the Internet almost all day. The Internet’s reach peaked at 7 p.m., when 40% of the audience for that medium was on the Web.
Mark Zuckerberg Reveals Major Facebook Updates at F8
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
Over the years, Facebook has been known to make small changes to how users operate on the social networking site. With Google+ becoming a threatening competitor, Mark Zuckerberg made serious changes to Facebook. On September 22, Mark Zuckerberg explained exactly what the 800 million users could expect from the new and improved Facebook at its annual developer conference including:
•Timeline: a stream of information about you
•Facebook Gestures: turning any verb into a button, similar to the “like” button. Example: Reading a book.
•Open Graph: third-party companies can connect their apps and services to Facebook using a one-time permission from the user to share stuff on Facebook
•Subscribe: subscribing to strangers or celebrities to receive posts from them without being Facebook friends
•Ticker: a real-time list of what your friends are posting
•Media: watching TV and movies, listening to music and reading news all within Facebook
How Social Media Has Changed the Game for Search Engine’s: 1/4 of Twitter’s 5 Billion Tweets a Month Contains Links to Content
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
Sharing and finding content over the Internet has become easier then ever, and now social media is changing the ways search engines track quality content. This article from Mashable.com takes a look at how social networks have impacted search engines.
How Social Media Affects Content Relevance in Search
Old school SEO pros cover your ears, or be prepared to adapt your craft: Search engines are changing, and social media is a huge part of that change.
Bing, Google, and an increasing swath of nimble little search engines like Blekko and DuckDuckGo are incorporating social data into their results. This is potentially great news for new businesses trying to achieve visibility in search. It’s less great news for sites that rely heavily on link buying (illegal, but hard to catch), producing huge volumes of borderline-useless content (long-tail, content farm approach), or just really old domains (previously an SEO trump card).
Both Bing and Google admitted in interviews that their search results are positively affected by social signals, such as tweets, Facebook Likes, and +1s.
“As ideas, thoughts, questions and answers are shared more freely and easily than ever, the increased amount of information from social sources provides great benefits to users,” says a Microsoft spokesperson for Bing (who asked to remain anonymous).
“The links that you build through social media, the references, the authority — all can have an impact in various ways on how you are ranked and listed even in ‘regular’ search results,” says Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, in an email interview. “Social media allows for people to provide more trusted signals.”
Search Engines Adapt to SurviveSince the early Internet days of Excite and Webcrawler, the principal goal of search engines has been to help people find what they’re looking for. Google rose to dominate the industry by tracking better indicators of content quality than anyone else. It developed a complex algorithm that measured which websites were “voting” for others by linking to them.
Essentially, it was social media, but for websites rather than people. If your site had lots of links from relevant sites, your Google rank climbed. Plenty of other factors, like putting keywords into headlines and titles, remained in play (and continually evolved), but the game changer of the last decade was links.
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry emerged to help webmasters play the “me rank higher” game with Google. On the one hand, website owners attempt to adhere to Google’s standards and prove they are high quality (creating relevant, high quality content and formatting it to Google’s taste). On the other hand, shadier sites try to trick Google’s secret formula, “pretending” to be good content without having to bother with creating useful stuff.
Location-Based Mobile Services Becoming Increasingly Popular: Over 25% of Americans Have Used Location-Based Services for Recommendations
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
Using location-based services to find the closest restaurant or to get directions is becoming the newest trend in mobile technology. Here is an article from The Washington Post on how Americans are using location-based services.
Over a quarter of American adults use mobile location-based services
Not many people are “checking in” using services such as Foursquare and Gowalla, but over a quarter of Americans are checking out their surroundings using location-based services.
The latest research from Pew’s Internet and American Life Project found that 28 percent of American adults have used mobile or social location-based services to get recommendations such as the best-rated nearby cafe or directions from their current location.
Only about 5 percent of those surveyed used services that post their current locations, though smartphone users were more than twice as likely to signal their location to their friends. In a similar vein, about 9 percent of all users used the location-tagging options on social media.
As once might expect, younger smartphone users are more likely overall to use check-in services, but there was no clear divide on age when it came to hitching a location-tag to a Facebook or Twitter message.
CNN: Smartphones Make Up 35% of U.S. Mobile Market
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
According to a recent story on CNN.com, smartphones still do not make up the majority of the U.S. market. However, we cannot ignore the value, power and influence of these mobile devices that are about to change the way we conduct business, review products, make buying decisions, and most importantly, interact with our friends.
Why smartphones still haven’t taken over the U.S. market
Smartphones may attract nearly all of the marketing hype and news coverage, but comScore’s latest statistics show that smartphones still comprise only a minority of the U.S. mobile market — about 35%, as of July 2011.
The other 65% of U.S. mobile handsets in use are “feature phones” — which tend to be much less expensive to buy and own. Often, these phones do not require a pricey two-year wireless service contract with hefty early termination fees.
Even though smartphones cost much more, these devices have been getting popular with U.S. consumers, even in light of the country’s economic recession. After all, a 35% market share is nothing to sneeze at — especially considering that smartphones have only been widely available in the U.S. for about five years.
At some point, a majority of U.S. mobile users will indeed own smartphones. But that shift won’t happen as quickly as early forecasts anticipated.
Back in March 2010, the Nielsen Company proclaimed that smartphones would overtake feature phones by 2011. Specifically, they predicted that by the end of Q3 2011 (about a month from now), most U.S. mobile users would own smartphones.
That ambitious prediction doesn’t seem to be panning out.
For over a year, comScore has been publishing monthly mobile-market-share statistics that show the percentage of U.S. smartphones. I’ve been tracking these figures. Based on this data, it looks like it’ll be roughly October 2012 before smartphones actually take over as a majority of U.S. handsets.
Social Media and Mobile Applications: 8 Best Practices for Deploying a Top-Ranked Mobile App
Posted by Micah Pratt: social networking research and development
The convergence of social media with mobile applications has led to cross promotional marketing, and if done correctly, can lead to major success. Here is an article by Krishna Subramanian from Mashable.com about eight ways to make sure your mobile application gets noticed.
8 Best Practices for Deploying a Top-Ranked Mobile App
Developing a mobile app is the easy part. Getting that app noticed is difficult. And getting the app to go viral is like winning the lottery. Yet many developers get millions of downloads time after time. How?
It’s all about app store SEO, and some developers have mastered it. Here are a few tips and tricks of the trade to help get your app to the top of heap.
Time Is of The Essence
The first two weeks of an app’s life are critical and will likely determine its future visibility in the app store. Top applications develop popularity within two weeks of release, and most applications have a tendency to drop in chart position over time. Remember, whatever you do — marketing campaigns, cross distribution and so on — the quicker you do it, the bigger the impact.
Jennings Social Media Marketing’s Press Release Picked Up on Major News Sites Including Businessweek.com, Yahoo!Finance.com & Reuters.com: Veterans Funeral Care Triples ROI With Jennings Social Media Marketing
Veterans Funeral Care tripled its Facebook “Likes,” organic SEO, engagement and exposure via Jennings Social Media Marketing during a promotional campaign (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Jim Rudolph, president and CEO of Veterans Funeral Care, said they hired Jennings Social Media Marketing for social media promotion of their company and for a specific event. “It should be said: I waited until the last minute. Team Jennings jumped in and in 24-hours was working magic. We had around 200 people who ‘liked’ us on Facebook in two weeks and there were more than 800 ‘likes’ shortly after that. Valerie (CEO & founder) got our Marketwire press release on MSNBC. You can put me down in the ‘very happy’ category. This is my second project with them, and I’m a believer,” said Rudolph.
The goal of the Veterans Funeral Care social media project was to create brand awareness by getting new Facebook users to “Like” the page (http://www.facebook.com/Veteransfuneralcare), generate search engine optimization (SEO) and engagement. A targeted Facebook ad ran, focusing on veterans, veterans groups and Flag Day which resulted in the Veterans Funeral Care page tripling its Facebook “Likes” in a few weeks to 815. For organic SEO, a targeted Marketwire press release was written and distributed to generate traffic, millions of impressions and get picked-up by major news websites including, but not limited to, MSNBC, Reuters and Yahoo. The Twitter strategy focused on re-tweeting, sending @mentions, tweets and following veterans’ organizations.
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and Web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Thank You to Thinking Bigger Business Media & David Conrads for Interviewing Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, On How to Handle Employees’ Online Social Media Activity
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, was recently interviewed on how to handle employees’ social media activity. The emergence of social media has given many employees the same capabilities and tools as their employers which can be both beneficial and risky. Business leaders are wondering how to control the social media activities of its employers and to what extent. Here is an article from www.ithinkbigger.com, by David Conrads, on how to handle social media in conjunction with employees.
Social Media: Handle With Care
Do you need a policy to guide employees’ online activities?
While the benefits of social media are great, there also are risks—particularly as employees have access to the same tools and audience as the company.
As with so many things having to do with technology, social media is evolving so fast that businesses are scrambling to not only grasp its full potential, but also understand the risks and to come up with a consensus on best practices for its use.
The casual way in which many employees share their personal lives online can give a business owner nightmares. After all, TMI—“Too Much Information”—is one thing when it comes to an employee’s social life, it’s quite another when it involves company business. Leaders can’t afford to ignore the potential problems.
More Questions Than Answers
What are appropriate guidelines for what company information employees can share online? What liability is the company exposed to from employee posts that flow through the company’s server? How does a company protect its reputation from offensive postings by an employee on a personal account? Even large corporations are just now exploring answers to these questions.
“It’s an ongoing management problem,” said Valerie Jennings, CEO and founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing in Kansas City. “Social media has really cost a lot of organizations time, energy and money on so many different levels. It’s a blessing to have these resources, but the risks have to be managed or they can really hurt the brand.”
Valuable Data: More than a billion opinions posted online about products & services last year
Posted by: Micah Pratt, social networking research & development
Today, more and more marketers are turning to online marketing programs because of the noticeable role that peers play in consumers’ purchasing desicions. What many of these interactive marketers are failing to realize is the volume of social data created by the influence of peers in purchase decisions. Here is an article by Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, about how to effective utilize social data.
HOW TO: Utilize Social Data More Effectively
Last year, American consumers posted more than a billion opinions about products and services online, according to data collected by my company. With peer influence playing such a prominent role in consumers’ purchase decisions, it’s no surprise many interactive marketers are tapping into that influence via viral marketing programs and influencer outreach.
However, the vast majority of marketers ignore the staggering volume of social data all this influence creates. And those who do study social data typically use it for the wrong reason: to measure the brand impact of their marketing campaigns.
Social Data Is Often Based On Small Sample Sizes
With so many opinions posted online, you might assume it would be easy to find a reliable sample of data to analyze for brand impact. But even popular consumer brands often find it difficult to collect usable social data.
For instance, I recently reviewed a listening report for a global sporting goods brand — one that sponsors leading teams and athletes around the world and has strong brand awareness. I was surprised to see that the brand was mentioned in social media only a few hundred times each week in the U.S., and less than 100 times each week in other key markets around the world.
To make matters worse, the low quality of many social sentiment analysis tools reduces sample sizes further. When listening tools can’t decide whether comments are positive or negative, they’re usually labeled as having “no sentiment.” Three-quarters of the mentions for this brand were tagged as such, leaving less than two-dozen weekly usable posts in some markets.
If you asked your market insights team or your survey provider to analyze 25 consumer survey responses, they’d tell you it’s impossible to find statistical significance in such a small sample. The same standards must be applied to social data as well.
New Smartphone Study Shows Dramatic Shift In Culture: Smartphone Users Spend More On Virtual Goods In Games
Posted by Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
A new study indicates there’s a dramatic shift to “smartphone culture,” where people are using social networks and downloading media such as games on their phones, according to Magid Media Futures: Mobile 2011. Among the findings, smartphone users spend more on virtual goods in games than social networking users do.
Here is the article which highlights the key findings from the study. It seems like we all need to understand the changes that smartphones are bringing with them. I will share more on this topic as articles circulate online. Please let me know if you see anything that we should share: valerie @ jenningssocialmedia.com.
Smartphone ownership grew 35 percent from 2010 and the installed base is expected to reach half of the U.S. population in a few years.
About 45 percent of smartphone users play games on their phones. Smartphone owners are three to five times more likely to play games, use social networks, and access the internet from their phones, in comparison to traditional feature phone owners.
Magid found that among those who play games on their phones, the majority use the phone as their primary gaming device. Of those who do not play smartphone games, 55 percent said they may start playing in the next 12 months. One third of smartphone gamers who have not spent money on smartphone games say they may start in the next 12 months.
In 2010, only 10 percent of respondents said they were interested in buying in-game virtual goods on smartphones. This year, the number is 46 percent. Smartphone users spend more money on games and they spend more money, in comparison to social networking games. About 13 percent of smartphone gamers have bought virtual goods on their phones, spending an average of $67 last year. By comparison, social networking users spend $25 a year. About 8 out of 10 social network gamers have not spent any money over the past year in social games.
The survey was conducted online and included 2,482 people, of whom 2,051 were between the ages of 18 and 64. Data were collected from April 15 to April 20.
ecommerce-guide.com Announces The 2011 Social Shopping Study
Posted by Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
Social media has changed the way consumers shop. Now, approximately 40 percent of shoppers follow social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook for special offers. Here is a recent study regarding social media and shopping that may make an impact on your next strategic roll-out.
Here is the study by ecommerce-guide.com. Thank you for the outstanding review!
3 Consumer Shopping Trends Online Retailers Need to Know
By Vangie Beal
July 14, 2011
The world of online shopping is a never-ending barrage of fads, trends and change. Just when you think you have a handle on what’s new, along comes a new (or revived) trend to negotiate.
New research published earlier this month by PowerReviews in conjunction with the E-tailing Group gives online retailers unique insight as to how consumers research, select and purchase goods online and helps to identify the best strategies for connecting with consumers.
The 2011 Social Shopping Study
The study, The 2011 Social Shopping Study, is based on a survey of more than 1,000 consumers about their online shopping habits, as well as their level of engagement with brands and retailers across various online channels.
In the survey introduction, Lauren Freedman, president, the E-tailing Group said that 2011 has been a volatile year for ecommerce with a multitude of dynamics in play from social media and community to mobile.
“This year’s survey explored consumer utilization of social media across a range of merchants and channels to understand perception, interest, and propensity to buy based on that engagement,” she wrote. “We wanted to know the implications for researching and shopping behavior, particularly as it relates to Facebook, which is the beneficiary of much of the community attention.”
Trend #1: Product Research Remains Top Purchasing Decision Tool
One consumer shopping trend the survey set out to determine was if user-generated content (UGC) continued to play a role in consumer shopping choices.
Findings suggest that consumers do invest greater time in online research before making a purchase, as 15 percent of respondents said that 90 percent or more of all online shopping time was spent researching products (compared to just 21 percent in 2010).
Respondents confirmed that search engines, like Google, are still the main starting point for research by 44 percent, followed by gathering information from retailer and manufacturer websites. To that end it is apparent that search engine optimization (SEO) is still a crucial task for online retailers.
The important take away for merchants is knowledge of where consumers start their product research. Nadim Hossain, VP of marketing at PowerReviews, said that the first step in the research process for consumers is Google.
“Google is where people start, so SEO is really important to online retailers. Our research found that product reviews are the number one factor impacting the buying decision,” explained Hossain. ”
Trend #2: Social Shopping and Customer Reviews as an Influencer
Another big question playing on the minds of many retailers is just how much influence social media has on the customer’s purchase decision.
Social shopping and social media has been a huge topic for online retailers this year, but only 2 percent of respondents used Facebook or other social recommendations as their main research starting point. Forty-nine percent of those surveyed said they have never researched products on social sites.
Where social media does shine is in Facebook Business Pages and Facebook newsfeeds, with 13 percent of respondents saying those social tools impacted their buying behavior.
“Merchants are testing social media by trying to integrate it and understand how to monetize it,” said Lauren Freedman. “Retailers typically evaluate then go first for the promotions to increase their fan base, in a way that is similar to email list building.”
When it comes to user-generated content, a number of community and social tools impact buying behavior, customer reviews (user-generated product reviews) influence purchasing the most with 59 percent of survey respondents, followed by customer Q&As (42 percent) and community forums (26 percent).
Consumers still favor writing product reviews as an activity. The survey indicated that 70 percent of respondents participated in “rate a product purchased” compared to 49 percent who engage in using the “Like” button for a retailer or manufacturer.
Trend #3: Mobile Phones Empower Consumers In-Store
Mobile phones are also a popular influence in customer purchase decisions. Usage in the retail store is also increasing as mobile phones give consumers immediate access to research, price shopping and promotional coupons for immediate redemption.
Merchants are interested in the mobile phone and the tablet audience because these are the consumers who are going to shop and consume. Lauren Freedman said that retailers see the traffic penetration coming from this demographic and online retailers view mobile shoppers as an audience ripe for business.
What’s most interesting about the mobile portion of the study is seeing the break-down of how consumers use mobile phones. In response to the question “How likely are you to do each of the following using your mobile phone when researching a product while in a physical store?” the top three answers were:
Access promotional coupons for redemption at the store (38 percent)
Look for competitive pricing at Amazon (36 percent)
Look for competitive prices on products at retailers online other than Amazon (36 percent)
Other activities shoppers use their mobile phone for include scanning bar codes, scanning QR Codes (quick response codes) or use mobile apps to receive points, rewards or badges.
“Mobile phones are the merging of the offline experience in-store, and it all goes back to pricing,” said Freedman. “Consumers use a mobile phone to check sales and specials, to look up store information pre-visit and to scan reviews for product information while in-store.”
Predictions for Mobile and Social
In the coming year both Hossain and Freedman predict that mobile phones and social tools will grow in importance as more consumers use these mediums for product research and shopping.
“The mobile piece will continue to accelerate fast but the social will be more challenging for the retailers to understand, explore and monetize,” said Freedman. “Retailers will continue investment in both areas and see continued sales growth in mobile versus exploration in social.” See Article
Yahoo!Finance.com & MSNBC.com Post Jennings Social Media Marketing Press Release: Jennings Social Media Marketing Earns Top Notch Ratings from Frank Ancona Honda
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
Yahoo!Finance.com & MSNBC.com recently posted Jennings Social Media Marketing press release: Jennings Social Media Marketing Earns Top Notch Ratings From Frank Ancona Honda.
KANSAS CITY, MO — Frank Ancona Honda, an Olathe Honda dealership, hired Jennings Social Media Marketing (JSMM) to target online car buyers, increase organic search engine optimization (SEO) via social media, enhance branding on all social networking platforms, increase website traffic and generate results (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Jason Heard, sales manager at Frank Ancona Honda, said that one of the ways that JSMM increased website traffic for the dealership was via organic search engine optimized press releases sent to search engines. “JSMM used Marketwire press releases with embedded links, tags, SEO headlines and nationally trending topics that were of interest to our buyers to generate quantifiable results. We were immediately impressed by the website traffic and news websites that the Marketwire press releases appeared on including MSNBC.com, Reuters.com, Yahoo! Finance, Bloomberg.com and more,” said Heard.
Heard added that JSMM completed an overhaul on Frank Ancona Honda’s blog, Facebook, Twitter and video channels. “Facebook is becoming even more important to the automotive industry. We have more than 500 ‘likes’ on our page and lots of engagement which JSMM is attempting to triple over the next few months. Right now, we have incorporated our 50-year anniversary promotions on the page with ads and contests that Jennings is managing. The page has been designed to promote our inventory deals and service and parts specials,” said Heard. “Additionally, JSMM is generating results via Web videos and Twitter for SEO purposes and they have customized two blogs for us on frankanconahond.com and drivegreencarsblog.com.”
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and Web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
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