As we move into December and with all the attention turning to Christmas, the social media stories that hit our headlines in November may be a distant memory to you. So in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a round-up of all the social media stories that got us tweeting in November.

The Royal Family

To some this may have been more interesting if it was about Jim and Barbara Royle, but November has been full of news stories about the Windsors. At the beginning of the month, The British Monarchy got tongues wagging when it finally signed up to Facebook. The Palace has had a presence on YouTube and Twitter for quite some time but it decided to take the next step into the world of social networking when it launched its official fan page on 8^th November.  To date, the page has nearly 300,000 fans!

And wherever the Royal Family goes, controversy follows. It wasn’t long before anti-royalists posted comments on pictures and updates about a number of controversial issues that crop up time and time again, e.g. Diana, tax payers’ money etc. Fans are unable to post on the main wall, but can comment on updates and photos/video uploads. Some have  received more than 3,000 comments must prove quite a headache for the Royals’ comms team! As a social media agency we wouldn’t usually advise our clients to do this, however the Queen’s Facebook page is a good example of how to manage such a high profile and controversial brand.

Not long after the Facebook page launch, there was another long awaited Royal announcement that got the online world talking. Prince William finally popped the question to Kate Middleton. Within a few hours of the announcement, #royalwedding was the number one trending topic on Twitter followed by Kate Middleton at number two and Prince William at number three. BlogPulse showed that Kate Middleton was the second most featured person on blogs worldwide behind Harry Potter.

The online buzz gave a good idea of the sentiment surrounding the announcement. It was mostly positive (43%) on Twitter, another 41% of Twitter users responded neutrally to the news; and just 16% of tweets about the engagement were negative. Around 32% of bloggers reacted positively, while most (63%) conveyed a neutral reaction. Comments were mostly congratulating the happy couple with others projecting anger about the tax bill.

But, this is one trend that won’t be dying down for a long time. In the days, weeks and months leading up to the big day on 29^th April 2011 there is sure to be a lot of online chatter about Kate’s dress, invitees and all things bridal.

Beatles on iTunes

While everyone was getting excited about an extra bank holiday because of the Royal wedding, iTunes had another announcement that got Beatles fans excited. The Beatles back catalogue was finally available to download on iTunes. This was a trending topic on Twitter as everyone anticipated the announcement; unfortunately it was slightly eclipsed by Will and Kate. But, it didn’t stop Simon Cowell from getting in on the act by making that week’s X Factor Beatles themed!

Christmas

It wouldn’t be November without a few Christmas stories.  Monday 29^th November was termed ‘Manic Monday’ as people logged on to start their Christmas Shopping online in earnest. It was predicted that £22 million would be spent every hour by British consumers! Our recent report into the online shopping explosion shows that customers are the new product experts. People now trust reviews they see online from people they don’t know.  So, as more and more people go online to buy gifts, it will be interesting to see if user generated reviews influence purchase decisions.

Path

Path officially launched this month, a new social network that aims to be more personal. If you’re not a fan of sharing photos on Facebook with people you can’t remember from school, then path offers a personal and convenient solution. You are allowed up to 50 contacts that you can to share your photos, videos and information with. We’ve all singed up in the office and will be keep a close eye on how our clients can get involved.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Brands on Facebook are a lot like teenagers in high school; both crave popularity.

Conventional wisdom teaches us that to be popular you need to be seen fraternising with the cool kids.

Clueless (1995)

A recent study by The Daily Beast, however, reveals the quickest way to become popular on Facebook is to do the opposite.

The Daily Beast outlines a one-month experiment into Facebook’s news feed algorithm aimed at decoding why one member’s news is more prominent than another’s.

The experiment centres around a newly set-up page, which is befriended by a select group of people, monitoring to see how much the page features in their feeds.

The Daily Beast found the Facebook algorithm favoured established members over newcomers, with absolutely none of the page’s news appearing in feeds initially.

It was only when the friends began interacting – clicking on the page, browsing through pictures, leaving comments etc. that news started to appear in their feeds; page interaction and news feed visibility was directly correlated.

The Daily Beast also found that a status update carried a much greater chance of appearing in a news feed if it included a link to an external web page. 

Throughout the experiment the ‘popular’ friends never received any of the page’s news, which meant they never clicked-through, browsed pictures, left comments or clicked on links – all of the things that fuel the Facebook algorithm.

The takeout for brands on Facebook? Start small. Friends with low-level followings are the crucial first rung up the algorithm, only once a presence has been established does it make sense to go after Facebook popularity domination.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I’m not claiming to have come up with the notion that your customers write your brand and your employees write your company culture, but it’s one I keep coming back to.

If the brand is a promise – setting the expectation of an experience – then to be fulfilled, someone needs to experience it. It is a relationship. It is a conversation.

As a social media agency, we are used to talking to organisations about where those conversations are happening. Those conversations are the myriad instances where brands are being experienced by consumers. Where once that experience happened offline and in private, now that experience is lived out and communicated online. The old notion of controlling your brand message is getting dusty.

Nowhere is there a better illustration for how brand control is an anachronism than on the current series of The Apprentice. Stuart Baggs, would have us believe that he is the future of entrepreneurship. He made millions selling conkers in the playground. Everything he touches, apparently, turns to sold. “I’m Stuart Baggs ‘The Brand’ – I’ve got a certain type of charisma,” he told us. His leadership style has got some in the blogosphere thinking - not just Nick Hewer.

What does your Twitter brand say about you?

I wanted to see what other viewers thought so I did an analysis of conversations on Twitter. Evaluating the conversations happening about him over the last week would suggest that somewhere along the line, his positive messages have not hit home quite how he was intending. On Twitter, just in the last week, of the conversations tracked by Social Mention, only 12% were positive. 32% were neutral and an overwhelming 56% were negative. Although I was tempted to add in a new sentiment category of mickey-taking as this was a recurrent theme.

Based on performance, tonight is the night that Stuart Baggs ought to get fired. But for car-crash-telly-value, I suspect he might be around for a little longer.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

I watched the Trip on BBC2 last night.  I laughed, I had a little think, I may have even drooled a bit over the Hipping Hall seven course tasting menu that formed the backdrop for Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s inspired back and forth comedy master class. Personally, I don’t think there is anything to compare to it on British television at the moment and in terms of international competition only HBO, with its outstanding output, can eclipse it. It’s wry, engaging and knowing, but at the same time touching and never afraid to be cruel or outrageous. The writing provides quiet contemplative pauses that add to the tension and the comedy, but in no way feel forced.

The Trip, putting the rest of TV to shame

This is in stark contrast to the reality TV phenomenon, typified by the audioshite that is X Factor and the celebopreening that is I’m a Celebrity Get Me out of Here. Here pauses are forced to stir fans up into even greater pre result frenzy and to provide more time for people to ring in and ‘vote.’ Now this short blog post isn’t going to be a rabid diatribe on the rise and rise of reality TV. What would be the point; it’s been written before and wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference.

But, what relevance has this for a social media agency and its clients? Why am I qualified to even offer an opinion? I thought it behoved me to analyse the way that the public were feeding back on the differing TV institutions utilising some of the free analytics tools out there. After all my profession and I were referred to as ‘blood sucking social media gurus’ by a certain Telegraph journalist this morning, maybe I can give something back.

In terms of the sheer number of Twitter conversations, #xfactor has dwarfed #imaceleb and #thetrip no great surprise there (according to Google this month there have been 1,110,000 #xfactor tweets, 361,000 for #imaceleb and just 50,400 for #thetrip.)

My faith in humanity is somewhat restored when it comes to sentiment for the 3 shows. According to the guys at Tweetfeel the Trip’s Twitter conversations are nigh on 100% positive (startling when you consider the strong language in the episode aired last night and the normally vocal nature of the BBC’s critics.) Meanwhile the reality shows’ ‘fans’ seem to be divided into lovers and haters. Is reality TV a marmite thing? Tweetfeel pumped out results of 54% negativity in tweets for #imaceleb and an impressive 69% negativity for #xfactor. Are the trolls circling reality TV, the contestants, organisers or is it just the very nature of the format that it generates the hate?

Anyway, I can but urge you to watch the Trip, in fact sack off the rest of the working day and watch all four episodes again and again and again:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00w78p8/The_Trip_Hipping_Hall/

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

It’s Christmas, so it must be time for a Beatles piece of sales and marketing activity. Yes, it seems Sir Paul and Ringo (+ Yoko and Olivia) just don’t have enough money. Last year, it was remastered albums and Beatles Rock Band. This year, the world’s most famous foursome has finally come to iTunes.

Beatles on iTunes

Far from being the beginning of a whole new era of Beatlemania, it’s all seemed a bit of a damp squib. This is going to be bad news for EMI and Guy Stevens most of all, who are undoubtedly the real instigators behind the move to take the band’s back catalogue digital during a period of massive uncertainty for the company. There is currently only one Beatles song in the iTunes top 40 (‘Hey Jude’). There was apparently a boost for ‘Yesterday’ over the weekend following Rebecca’s performance of the track on X Factor, but it seems that most people were put off by the appallingly limp and lifeless versions of an uninspired selection of tracks on Saturday night. Only One Direction (and Simon Cowell) even bothered attempting to do something a bit different with the source material.

Charles Arthur was asking on Twitter last week why people would bother buying individual tracks when the albums are so readily available, and it seems that the digital music buying public have backed him up. A look at the iTunes album chart shows the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums in at 19 and 20, with ‘Sgt Pepper’s…’ at 32 and ‘Abbey Road’ at 38. If you’re young, and new to The Beatles, those four are as good a place as any to start. In the US, there are three Beatles allbums in the chart. Others have looked at this as more of a long term investment for Apple and iTunes – as the only place to buy digital Beatles online, over a period of years they will rack up enough sales to make it a worthwhile investment.

However, coming from the brand that has set the bar when it comes to highly memorable and talked about launches, The Beatles coming to iTunes got lost in the general noise of the day. What else could Apple (and EMI) have done to make a splash and fill the chart with Beatles tracks? More teaser activity? A version of a track that had never been released anywhere before? Branded Beatles iTunes giftcards for Christmas? (I would definitely have bought one of those). Beatles Rock Band has a store, maybe a co-promotion there would have been effective, especially as it might appeal to a younger demographic. Those are just some ideas off the top of my head; for now, both Apple and EMI will have to be content with the long game and keep dreaming of those ‘Beatles back at Number One’ headlines.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Our social shopping research revealed a high propensity for influencers [and consumers] to want rewards for recommending a brand or reviewing a product/service. There is, unsurprisingly, a high demand for incentives that discount (75%). But the intriguing insight is how this is coupled with a need for recognition too. There is a long tail of demand for more experiential rewards in return for posting comments or giving feedback.

I came across the RSA’s rather compelling video animation that looks into employee motivations. It caught my attention. Why? Because there are parallels when compared to the  motivations of influencers on a given topic in social media.

The animation emphasises how money has a limited impact in motivating or positively reinforcing a message. Don’t get me wrong financial reward can be important, but as the video of the MIT study shows, it only really works for short, straightforward tasks.

When it comes to motivating the more cognitive skills, skills required by influencers and reviewers, then the relationship needs to go beyond the transactional. We are demanding more conceptional and creative thinking from our influencers and in return they want deeper recognition and collaboration.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

One of the most intriguing trends emerging from the social shopping explosion is the re-positioning of the consumer as product expert; the level of trust we now place on strangers.

A recent post on ReadWriteWeb provided some further statistical evidence of this movement with specific reference to the travel industry. Referring to Kevin May’s review of the latest World Travel Market (WTM) Industry Report, Curt Hopkins writes: “Peer recommendations have overtaken specialist knowledge as a make-or-break point for online purchases”, and highlights that online forums and chat-rooms appear to have more influence on travel decisions than travel blogs.

The inherently social nature of sharing holiday discussions and the popularity of travel related conversations across social media could offer some explanation for why these mediums are so popular; but it is interesting to see how this pattern is replicated across other product categories. Whether the experiential nature of travel means that we prefer personal accounts to professional advice; and whether there are some areas where the consumer isn’t always right.

We asked survey respondents “Who would you trust to provide you with an accurate opinion on the following products?” With 19.6% of people trusting ‘another consumer online’ over both ‘someone who works at the retailer‘ (10.6%) and ‘a professional journalist’ (4.8%) in relation to travel products, our results echoed the WTM report. And we also found that:

• On average, the only product categories where someone who works for the retailer is trusted more than another consumer online are Sporting/Outdoor equipment, DIY purchases and Property/housing. For property/housing, the difference was only 1%.
• On average, men are more trusting of other consumers online than women. Women also trust ‘someone who works for the retailer’ more in relation to financial services and cars/automotives.
• Women trust the opinion of someone who works for a retailer 7% more than they trust other online consumers in relation to DIY products. Men trust them 0.7% more.
• Less than 1% of people trust ‘A celebrity that you like’, with the exception of their opinion on health and beauty products (1.8%) and fashion (1.6%). 1.3% of men would also trust celebrity’s opinions on sporting/outdoor products.

So what does this mean?

Let the consumer speak

– the travel industry has some great travel communities for people to share travel advice, ideas and recommendations.  So make it easy for consumers to share recommendations and reviews, particularly if you operate in an area where trust in other consumers is high.

Understand the influences

– our research highlights the different sources of influence across the product groups. Understanding these can help to direct where knowledge is provided and by whom.

Collaborate with the consumer

– work with reviews and reviewers to develop your brand and extend your customer base.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

As brands adopt and implement more social media marketing in house, so the demand for enhancing social skills and capabilities is growing.

But building social capabilities takes more than a one day training course.  Perfecting your social media skills means doing it. Social media is a vocational discipline – it is best learnt with action. Simply because social is, well, social. It is about people and the nuances in behaviours, conversations and etiquette that can only be picked up by living and breathing the communication.

A chat the other day with our insights analyst, Melissa, is a case in point. We were talking about unearthing conversation trends for a client.  “It’s about instinct”, she said. And went on to explain how she reads the chatter to get a ‘feel’ for the direction of conversations, as much as she analyses the data.

Adopting a social approach to communication requires ongoing immersion. It needs a proper internal programme of mentoring, support and leadership. It needs knowledge drivers and they fall into three core areas:

Social People are Mr (or Mrs) Motivators

It suffices to say that social media is all about people. And never more so than internally where you need champions to help make the change. In any organisation you need at least two types of motivators to ensure social media uptake. The  evangelist, or better still the change catalyst (thank you @andismit), that drives momentum and inspires change. And the leaders. The senior executives who want the business to change and are prepared to lead by example.

Process at the heart of social

The social media leader also plays a significant role in ensuring business and marketing processes are evolved to meet social communication. It is the  changes in practices that create the biggest differences. People want to learn how to do things better, and processes can facilitate and liberate exploration and innovation.

Social Media Enablers

Social media needs technology enablers. Even in its most basic form, companies wanting to develop social skills need to have monitoring tools. Whether they are paid or free, someone needs to choose and someone needs to understand how to maximise them. Then there is social CRM, workflow and productivity tools and simply new and emerging platforms.

We have been delivering social media training for a few years now on the certificate and diploma for the Institute of Direct Marketing; with the Chartered Institute of Marketing; and in our work with many brands. It is clear that those students that get support – so they can go and practice and play with social media – go on to execute successful social media initiatives.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

We at immediate future feel it’s only right to flag Will and Kate’s wedding engagement this week. Over the past couple of days #royalwedding has been the number one trending topic on Twitter, followed by Kate Middleton at number two and Prince William at number three.

As the news was announced earlier this week BlogPulse showed us that Kate Middleton was the second most featured person on blogs worldwide yesterday behind Harry Potter.

Prince Charles’ Twitter account @ClarenceHouse was set up on the 15^th November, the day before the royal announcement. It therefore seems as though it was created for the key purpose of handling the engagement news.

The announcement comes as an early Christmas gift to bloggers and journalists with articles popping up every few minutes speculating wedding locations, dates, attendees and even what Kate Middleton will be wearing on the big day!

According to Mashable, online sentiment surrounding the announcement was mostly positive (43%) on Twitter, another 41% of Twitter users responded neutrally to the news; and just 16% of tweets about the engagement were negative. Around 32% of bloggers reacted positively, while most (63%) conveyed a neutral reaction. Comments are mostly congratulating the happy couple with others projecting anger about the tax bill.

Platforms such as Twitter are becoming increasingly more useful in providing a snapshot of public opinion, showing brands, organisations and in this case the Royal Family a simple way of monitoring online buzz.

The launch of @ClarenceHouse follows the recent introduction of the official Monarchy Facebook and Flickr account earlier this year. The Monarchy also joined Twitter in 2009 and established a Royal Channel on YouTube in 2007. Similar to the hype surrounding the last general election, the online buzz surrounding this story has been an online phenomenon and is likely to dominate the UK social media agenda next year in 2011.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

The conversion from “like” to purchase is currently a hot topic for brands seeking to optimise social media opportunities; and recent research from YouTube, supported by the IAB, has highlighted the magnitude of this challenge.

The iconic Facebook thumb

60% of people who “like” or share content from brands are not existing customers – despite the fact that 75% of these very same customers consequently feel more positive about the brand.

As a social media agency, we’re obviously interested in really understanding how consumers want to interact with brands on social media and how that impacts purchase.

So, what’s going on?

The research

The YouTube/IAB research explored how 3,000 consumers in the UK, Germany and France, use YouTube and Facebook. It analysed sentiment  about branded content and advertising on these platforms, and asked questions which illuminate the motivations for visiting these platforms.

The answers to these start to offer some hints towards the current gap between liking – and buying from – a brand.

Not the real world

According to the research, 50% of “users cite both sites as a break from everyday life”. Behaviour is predominantly social, particularly on Facebook where keeping up with friends is a priority (66%) and site visitors have a more open agenda (63% “see what they feel like” when they get there). Similarly, on YouTube where “a cool video” is the prime reason for sharing a brands’ video, entertainment, rather than consumption, seem to be the dominant driver.

Could it be as simple as the fact that consumers’ heads aren’t necessarily in a purchasing frame of mind at this point?

And, if so, how do brands make this link?

Getting consumers

The IAB press release highlights the importance of understanding the different “customer mindsets” of each social media platform. YouTube,  for example, is often more associated with “entertainment” or “fun”, whilst consumers are more likely to visit a brand’s Facebook page than their YouTube channel if they want to “hear about or receive a special offer”.

Our ‘Social Shopping Explosion’ report explores what attracts consumers to follow brands on Twitter, and what encourages consumers to “like” a brand on Facebook. Discounts, for example, are far more effective in encouraging Facebook likes than Twitter followers -  and, as the IAB study also notes, when you add category into the mix, the picture changes again…

Step 1 is about understanding how to operate across social media platforms and how to get the message – and offer – right.

Step 2 is about encouraging the purchase once the consumer has started building a relationship with the brand.

Getting real

Whilst social networking sites may be a break from the routine of everyday life and linked to entertainment and fun, “1 in 2 users on each site think it’s a good idea for brands to have their own pages there”. There appears to be an openness to advertising.

Our research explores the changing landscape of recognition and recommendation, and considers some of the new routes to brand affinity and then advocacy, like ideas, inspiration, and reviews. This also highlights that the the opportunity to shift a site user from friend to customer is ready and waiting – but that brands might need to work a bit harder, particularly when brand loyalty is looking like a thing of the past.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites