This week in the blogosphere we’ll take a look at four blog posts that discuss new insights now available to Facebook advertisers on the impact of “social context” in their advertisements, as well as the challenges marketers face in cross-channel marketing integration and the disconnect marketers maintain between their social media marketing and their brand marketing. Below are some of the highlights from these articles:
- Facebook advertisers can now access metrics that analyze the impact of social endorsements in their ads (meaning ads that highlight a user’s friends who have “Liked” a specific brand).
- Four out of ten brand marketers globally believe that social media has introduced new challenges for companies when it comes to protecting their brand integrity.
- While nearly 90% of U.S. marketers consider cross-channel marketing integration to be crucial, they report facing multiple challenges, with organizational structure and technology topping the list.
- Not much time has past since Yahoo began the transition to Bing-powered organic results, yet stats so far suggest that the Microsoft-Yahoo alliance has yet to make any gains on Google.
Facebook Begins Reporting on ‘Social Context’ In Ads
ClickZ | Zachary Rodgers | 9-9-10
Facebook advertisers can now measure the impact of “social context” in their ads, meaning ads that highlight users’ friends who have “Liked” that particular brand. With these new metrics, Facebook advertisers will be able to discover how many ad impressions use these social endorsements, CTRs, number of clicks and the percentage of impressions those particular ads represent. Based on this data, advertisers will then be able to leverage this insight, for example by targeting an ad to friends of users who have endorsed their page via the “Like” button. According to Nielsen, they found that users exposed to “social context” in ads are 68% more likely to recall that particular ad and two times more likely to remember the ad’s content than ads without any kind of social endorsement. Nielsen also found that users were four times more likely to exhibit purchasing intent when encountering a friend-advocated ad.
- Facebook now offers advertisers insight into the metrics surrounding ads that incorporate social endorsements.
- Nielsen’s research shows users to be 68% more likely to remember an ad with “social context” and two times as likely to recall the ad’s content when compared to ads without social endorsements.
How Social Media Is Changing Brand Marketing
eMarketer | 9-10-10
In a recent study, branding agency MiresBall and KRC Research found that four out of ten brand marketers globally believe that social media has created new challenges for them in maintaining brand integrity. At the same time, however, 52% of brand representatives said that they believe social media strengthens their new customer acquisition efforts. Respondents were pretty evenly divided when asked if social media contributed to building brand loyalty–35% of brand marketers agreed, 35% were impartial and 30% disagreed. Additionally, the study suggested that often times in an effort to achieve success via the social media channel, a brand’s social media marketing message actually ended up being inconsistent with their actual brand image.
- 40% of brand representatives reportedly believe that social media has introduced new challenges for companies in the upkeep of their brand integrity.
- 52% of marketers say that social media has opened up yet another channel for customer acquisition.
Challenges of Cross-Channel Marketing Integration
Integrated marketing solutions provider Alterian found in a recent survey that 60% of U.S. senior-level marketers report customer engagement occurring online and offline. On the customer end, almost 80% of user respondents (in a 2009 ATG survey) reported employing at least two different channels for consumer research. Many marketers recognize the significance of employing a cross-channel approach for their marketing campaigns, in order to encourage customer engagement. According to Alterian’s survey, 89.7% of marketers consider cross-channel marketing integration vital to extremely vital. In a June survey of U.S. online marketers led by Zeta Interactive, respondents pointed to various hurdles in marketing integration, including organizational structure (according to 27% of respondents); technology (23%); coordinating with several vendors and agencies (22%); lack of education on cross-channel marketing (20%).
- 60% of U.S. senior-level marketers claim to find customer engagement taking place online and offline; Nearly 80% of consumers report using at least two different channels when conducting product research.
- Almost 90% of marketers believe cross-channel marketing integration to be either vital or extremely vital.
Yahoo, Bing Start Off With Combined 25% Share
WebProNews | Doug Caverly | 9-8-10
Since their organic results transition announcement in mid-August, Yahoo and Bing have yet to gain on Google. According to Experian Hitwise, for the week ending Aug 28, Yahoo and Bing combined received a 24.6% share of U.S. searches., with Yahoo!Search earning 14.3% and Bing 10.2%. From July to August, Google continued to see a boost in their market share from 71.43% to 71.59%, Bing saw a minuscule increase (9.86% to 9.87%) and Yahoo’s share dropped from 14.43% to 14.28%. As Caverly points out, though, we can use these August stats as a reference point for Yahoo and Microsoft’s search alliance.
- Following Yahoo’s recent transition to Bing-powered search results, the Microsoft-Yahoo alliance has yet to demonstrate any real challenge to Google’s domination of search market share.
- From July 2010 to August 2010, Google saw a small boost (0.16%) in search market share, Yahoo’s share dropped (0.15%) and Bing saw a diminutive increase (0.01%).
The convergence of word-of-mouth advertising and social media marketing
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this weekly update and that you’ll share any feedback you might have with us. To get the weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. Here’s one noteworthy question we’d like to get your thoughts on:
- Much like Apple’s latest venture, Ping, Facebook appears to be looking for a way to generate revenue and encourage consumer purchases based on word-of-mouth marketing. While Apple is using iTunes as a platform for their music-centric social network, whose users are purchase-focused, Facebook users’ priorities are far more focused on social connections rather than product research or purchasing. Do you think this latest endeavor by Facebook has the potential for profit and adoption?
