Digital Marketing Stats

The 7 Personalities Every Successful Social Media Manager Has

by John Bonini

August 26, 2013 at 11:00 AM

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There aren't many instances in our professional lives where having multiple personalities is seen as a positive trait.

After all, it spawns dishonesty, deceit, and fosters a tense environment often filled with animosity.

But hold the phone there ya negative Nancy -- there are times when conveying multiple personalities is not only encouraged, but also essential to the success of your marketing efforts. We're talking social media marketing, where executing a strategy that successfully engages and proves value lies in your ability to satisfy a variety of needs and personalities. In fact, our guide on Social Media Marketing details how different platforms require different voices.

We all have very different agendas when logging in to our social platform of choice; therefore, shouldn't we as marketers possess the ability to recognize and speak to them?

7 Personalities Every Social Media Marketer Should Have

Remember Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor? In the film, he portrayed both Professor Klump, the responsible, well-respected gentleman of a scientist, as well as Buddy Love, his genetically created alter ego who was a skinny, loud-mouthed womanizer.

Completely different personalities, yet both appealed to Miss Purdy in different ways. Sometimes she wanted to be engaged intellectually. Other times, she wanted to hit the comedy club for a few drinks. 

The way in which we interact and engage with others in real life is dependent on different factors. After all, you wouldn't interact with your co-workers in the office the same way you would at happy hour on Friday afternoon.

It's for this reason that your social media marketing strategy should have the ability to speak to a diverse audience in a variety of ways in order to appeal to all of their needs. So let's dive in to the seven personalities every successful social media manager has.

1) The Informant

With so much content and information at our disposal, our first inclination as buyers is to find resources that assist in our decision-making process. It's why Google -- and sometimes even your Twitter feed -- is your Yellow Pages. Buyers are looking for information. Marketers are breaking their necks to create and provide it in high volume. And you know what else is crazy?Buyers are taking to social media almost as much as search engines in order to find that information.

Takeaway: Spend as much -- if not more -- time strengthening your social strategy as you do conducting and implementing keyword research. Focus on being an informant. Share your resources as they become available so your followers have easy access. Share other industry related resources as well, even if published by others. If it's resourceful to you, it's resourceful for your audience as well. Don't worry about directing followers elsewhere, as sharing resources builds authority and trust. After all, the outdoor cat always goes back to where they know they're being fed.

2) The Inquirer

A successful social strategy is more walkie talkie than it is megaphone. If you're always promoting something and pushing your message across, you'll drastically see a decrease in engagement and, ultimately, value. Don't be that guy who loves to tell you about his day but could give a crap about yours. Nobody likes that guy.

That feeling you get when someone asks how your day was, and genuinely cares ... well, your followers feel that too. Consider the value of engaging a large following in the form of questions in order to show you care, and also, to learn more about them. The benefit is two-fold: relationships development as well as more defined buyer personas.

Takeaway: Not sure what content your audience craves? Or what product update would make their lives easier? Ask! There's no greater resource for inspiration than by staying plugged in to your target audience. Make it a habit of working questions in on a daily basis. A great social media manager understands the importance of customer feedback and its effect on improving the product/service and/or customer experience. Start by understanding what answers your key team members would find most helpful in improving their job. Craft your questions around this. Rinse. Repeat. 

3) The Helper 

Similar to #2, this is more about answering questions than it is about asking them. Too many companies have a static social presence, which harkens back to my point earlier: Think walkie-talkie, not megaphone.

Nothing allows for direct access to a brand quite like social media. Consumers often take to social to find out answers to their questions they can't get from a website or advertisement. It's the brands supplying them with these answers that develop relationships that often will result in a purchase.

Takeaway: Actively monitor your social accounts for any questions and/or comments regarding your company, and make it a daily habit to respond to them. Focus on being friendly, responsive, prompt, and most of all -- helpful! As consumers, we're often drawn to brands that have gone above and beyond to assist us. It's why I frequent the same pizza place in my town fairly often. They always tell me to grab a free soda on the way out. You help me once; I come back for years.

4) The Thought Provoker

Aah, the elusive "thought leader." Why is it so coveted a title?

Well, for starters, it's extremely rewarding to earn the respect of followers and other industry influencers. More importantly, though, is what spawns from that type of respect: customers. We all want to do business with people who know what the hell they're talking about. Who are the best at what they do. So ... how do we find those people/companies? They're actually pretty easy to find. 

Takeaway: All thought leaders share a common trait: They don't rely on other people or resources in order to be resourceful themselves. They're simply resourceful by nature. By way of experience. Who are the leaders at your company? Keep an open dialogue -- whether it's with a lead product designer or C-level executives -- and let their expertise be the basis for some of your posts. There's undoubtedly someone at your company who knows the industry like no other. Their type of expertise should be broadcasted, not hidden on their resume some place. Start quoting them in social media updates. Conduct and post interviews. However you can, make sure you're establishing your company as a thought leader rather than a piggy-backer.

5) The Class Clown

The cardinal rule of online sharing is this: Nothing goes viral quite like funny. We're in the midst of a humanized marketing evolution, wherein consumers not only value seeing personality, but they often also prefer brands that display it over those that don't. Particularly through social media, consumers are often looking to watch or share the next funny tidbit they come across.

Takeaway: Consumers have a sense of humor. They'll buy tacos from a talking Chihuahua. The day after the Super Bowl, we're not talking about the commercial with the best message, but rather the one that made us laugh. Keep this in mind. Post funny pictures. Share funny videos or articles you may have come across that made you laugh. Nothing will humanize your brand more effectively than a small dose of humor every day. And as we've seen from mass media, nothing sticks in the minds of your consumers quite like a good chuckle. Don't take your brand so seriously all the time. Consumers aren't looking for a stiff. 

6) The Entertainer

Much in the same vein as having a chuckle, your followers are also looking to be entertained to some degree. Simply throwing all blog posts on all social platforms accompanied by nothing but a link and title will do one thing ... nothing. There's so much going on in social. It's information overload. If you're not considering how you can entertain and inform in order to stand out, then well, you won't.

Takeaway: Sharing content doesn't have to be boring. In fact, it shouldn't be. Don't share your content, present it. Can you film a quick one-minute video to accompany it through social media? An amazing infographic that sums up your new ebook? Consider a user’s mind frame when scrolling through social. Strip it down to bare bones. When you’re scrolling through social you're looking for one thing only -- something to click on.

Don't overthink it. Focus on getting people to click on your updates. Once they've done this, that's where the substance comes in. Think visually -- it's the most effective way to entertain.

7) The Go-Getter

If you're not using social media as a prospecting tool, you're doing it wrong. The best social media marketers recognize that there's an audience out there that needs their help, but hasn't found them yet. Specifically on Twitter, it's extremely easy to monitor hashtags of relevance in order to identify these potential prospects. 

Takeaway: Monitor Twitter hashtags in order to identify groups of people -- AKA chunks of your market -- who have similar questions. Answer them. Take part in the conversation (search.twitter.com or a social media monitoring tool like HubSpot's Social Inbox should be your best friend). People ask questions to get help. By reaching out, you're not only establishing your brand as a resource, but you're also positioning yourself as the likely option when it comes time to buy.

Split Personalities

The key to social media success is recognizing that your audience has varying agendas when it comes to social, and as a result, conveying multiple personalities in order to appeal to them. Being great at one isn't enough. The social media manager is quickly becoming a crucial role within any business, since it not only functions as real-time PR, but it's also quickly becoming the manner in which companies are getting found online.

The point here is not to hire seven different people. The point is to find one person who can pivot and adapt to these various personalities in order to maintain a powerful presence.

How One Social Media Marketer Can Manage Millions of Fans and Followers

by Lisa Toner

August 19, 2013 at 5:00 PM

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There are many challenges that a social media manager has to face head on in today's world. Not only do you need to educate, respond, monitor, and engage your followers, but there's also often an expectation that you will be switched on 24/7. 

That's why many of our fans are surprised when they hear that HubSpot's social presence allcomes down to the concerted efforts of just one person -- Brittany Leaning, our social media manager. In an effort to maintain the HubSpot code of transparency, we stole a few minutes of Brittany's time to pick her brain about how she manages the HubSpot social media machine, and how she is preparing for the inbound marketing event of the year: INBOUND 2013.

An Interview With Social Media Manager, Brittany Leaning, on Social Media Event Marketing

1) What's the biggest challenge of being a social media manager for you?

Having a great response time is difficult to maintain. If I’m in back-to-back meetings for 4 hours, I still need to be able to see the most important messages that need an immediate response. I use Social Inbox to manage that -- that way I don’t have to weed through tons of tweets in order to find what’s important. I can also email a sales rep directly from Social Inbox if we have someone who’s interested in seeing a demo -- the tweet will just get forwarded to them and the rep can reach out on their personal Twitter handle, via email, via phone, or whatever the preferred method is. It has allowed HubSpot as a company to provide a hugely improved customer experience and gives me back a ton of my time.

2) What have you been doing to prepare for social domination at INBOUND?

I've been spending a lot of my time setting up lists that'll make my monitoring easier. For instance, I have different ones for INBOUND attendees, speakers, HubSpotters, and the #INBOUND13 hashtag. Once I have the lists I can just monitor and measure from within one tool (Social Inbox). Doing this now will save me so much time once things really kick off tomorrow, and it'll make it easier to send really targeted, interactive messages.

3) What will life look like for you during the conference?

Well, during INBOUND I will be at the heart of the Social Media Command Center, which sounds really intense, but I hope is relatively calm. It will involve monitoring, responding, and delighting (henceforth called "MRD") people tweeting #INBOUND13, @HubSpot, and all of our company pages (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Vine, & Instagram). I will MRD our lists and update all of our social media accounts with live updates regarding our INBOUND attendees, speakers, etc.

4) That sounds like a lot of work -- any special tricks up your sleeve to make your life easier?

Well first of all, I'm anticipating a higher volume of interaction -- especially on Twitter -- so luckily HubSpot's given me some volunteer help for the duration of the conference. That coupled with the work I've been doing setting up monitoring lists with Social Inbox should have me sitting pretty. I have lots of streams set up -- hashtags, mentions, keywords, smart lists, etc. And from there we can see who we're talking to, like if they're a lead or a customer, that kind of thing. 

Because of the extra help to compensate for the increased volume, and having some good technology to back me up, I'm not that worried. But yeah, those are the two aces up my sleeve!

5) I’m sure every business would like some insight on how to keep event attendees engaged through social media. What tips would you give to them?

For #INBOUND13, I've been using the same hashtag for every tweet about the INBOUND conference. This gives people a chance to engage with each other about the conference, in addition to us. I also created a Facebook event and LinkedIn group for INBOUND so the community can engage there, as well. In these communities, I post updates about the conference (agenda changes, speaker info, etc.) and answer questions people might have. During the event we will have a list set up in Social Inbox with attendees and the social team at INBOUND will engage folks through quick replies, RTs, live updates, etc.

6) How do you get HubSpot fans who aren't at the event hyped up about it?

It would annoy people if we were only posting “had to be there” content about INBOUND on social during the event, which is why I plan to post many retweetable quotes, shareable images of speakers with quotes, and other posts that say, “We’d like to share this information with you,” rather than “Ha! Sucks to be you. You’re not at INBOUND.”

7) Events such as INBOUND are never without their hiccups. Do you have a plan in place to help you respond to emergency situations?

If someone has a technical support-related issue, we have Social Inbox streams (and email notifications) set up so those customers get the immediate help and attention they deserve. In this case, a designated support rep will reach out from his/her personal account and get more information about the customer’s issue. We can do the same at INBOUND by creating streams for anticipated issues by keywords.

Future of Community Management

Community management has come a long way since the first Community Manager Appreciation Day in 2009. We're interacting with our audiences in new formats and on new platforms, such as Instagram and Pinterest. Our online conversations have become more sophisticated with tools that allow us to curate social updates and host live video chats. Success measurement is more streamlined, and we're shaping our strategies around both organic and paid growth.
But amidst the excitement of these advancements, it seems something has gotten lost. We've forgotten why we got into this business and what, at its core, it's really all about: people.
Before we move forward in 2013, let's get back to our roots. To do so, I'm penning a new mission statement for all community managers.

Focus on a Vested Community

Much of community managers' day-to-day work involves motivating people to take action: liking, sharing, commenting, etc. The tactics we use to spark this motivation can dictate the type of community we build.
To effectively construct a community around people and user experience rather than numbers, let's look at the two different types of motivators: extrinsic and intrinsic.
With extrinsic motivators, you offer an incentive to get your community members to take action.
When it comes to community management, an extrinsic reward usually involves offering the audience a discount or chance to win a prize for liking the company's Facebook page or retweeting a tweet from a certain Twitter account. But there's a catch. In his TED Talk, Dan Pink, author and career analyst, warns:

"These contingent motivators — if you do this, then you get that — work in some circumstances, but for a lot of tasks, they actually either don't work or, often, they do harm."

"These contingent motivators — if you do this, then you get that — work in some circumstances, but for a lot of tasks, they actually either don't work or, often, they do harm."If your goal is to quickly get more followers or drive traffic to your site, the promise of a one-off discount can accomplish that.
But community managers looking to build a long-term strategy should aim higher. We want vested users. We want the people who will not only like our Facebook post but also walk into the store every weekend and make a purchase. We want fans who "@ mention" us daily and tell all their friends how much they love our product. That's what makes our job worthwhile.
Are these people doing these things because they received a small perk through social media? No.
People want to do things that matter. They have a desire to be a part of something with a larger purpose. If our goal as community managers is to acquire not just users but vested users, we need to harness our audience's drive to do things for their own sake. We need to tap into their intrinsic motivators.

Think User Experience

When I say people want to be a part of something that matters, I mean that in a proverbial way — but I also mean it in a practical way. People want to use products that provide utility. They want to get something out of their experience.
"People don’t buy your product because they like the product; they buy your product because they like themselves," Kathy Sierra, a programming instructor and game developer, said in her presentation "Building the Minimum Badass User".
This is the brand-user disconnect, according to Sierra: Community managers want users to think the brand is awesome — but users want to be awesome.
What makes users more awesome? A truly great product that helps them better do whatever it is they want to do.
As community managers, we're probably not the ones creating the product that will help our audience members reach their goals. But there are a few things we can do.

• Own the feedback loop: Community managers are great listeners, constantly in tune with what people are saying and where they're saying it online. But what good is that feedback if it's not being turned into action? Establish a system for informing those making your products, content or whatever you create.
  Google did a great job of this a little over a year ago when it asked users to provide suggestions for improving its Tasks feature. Users cast 185,000 votes on various new improvements they wanted to see.
  Not only did Google integrate the top five suggestions, the company took it a step further by communicating the changes to its users in blog posts and a video, emphasizing it was user feedback that made the updates possible.
  The key here is understanding how the teams in your organization communicate and how you can best weave the most useful feedback into their systems. Following up with users, so they know they were heard, will bring your feedback loop full circle.
  
• Foster a positive experience on all touch points: From social networks and on-site engagement platforms to in-person events and even phone conversations, community managers are in touch with their brand's audience members just about everywhere.
  While understanding your audience is the first rule of community management, understanding your medium is second. Know what communities exist on each platform and what type of communication works best for them. Track how people are responding to you in likes, retweets, sentiment analysis or whatever makes most sense for your business. Use this data to help make decisions about how you interact with your community.
  
• Share valuable content: The beauty of social networking is that it gives everyone a voice. This means your community members are constantly being bombarded with updates from not only brands but also friends, family, celebrities, schools, church groups — the list is endless. Cut through your community members' noisy feeds by offering valuable updates.
  GE's Facebook page is a great example. While its content is always branded with the GE logo, some of the company's best posts are unrelated to its products or initiatives. Rather, it focuses on what's useful for the audience, such as health tips, technology stats and news articles about innovation. More importantly, you can tell GE is paying attention. The company picks up on timely events and pop culture references, incorporating them in a way that makes sense for its audience.
  

Quit the Buzzwords

Speaking the same language as your audience requires stepping outside the community manager bubble, where you're living and breathing social media.

SEE ALSO: 10 Qualities of an Effective Community Manager

Something that might pop up as a trend in your feed could be non-existent to others. Speak to your community as humans — but don't be condescending. Consider the way you feel about the brands you follow, and how they to speak to you.
Here are a few terms to avoid:

• "Meme": The majority of your audience doesn't know what this means. Just because you hang out on the Internet all day doesn't mean that they do. To them, "Hey Girl" is just a funny "thing" about the ridiculously good looking Ryan Gosling that someone posted on Facebook.
• "Engagement": This word will never go away. It is ingrained in our day-to-day practices and overall measurement of success. Nevertheless, I encourage you to think about engagement in terms of its roots — connecting with individual people.
  

  Aim to benefit the user and the benefit to your brand will follow.

  Aim to benefit the user and the benefit to your brand will follow.
• "Brands as publishers": Many community managers talk about content as the next big industry trend. I disagree. Brands have always been publishers. They have been publishing ads, which are forms content too.
  The difference now is the types of ads brands traditionally created don't necessarily provide value to a social media user. Marketers designed traditional ads to make consumers want something they don't already have, whether it is a product, lifestyle or body image.
  This type of content is unnatural on social media because these platforms are the ultimate vehicles of self-expression. People don't need brands to tell them what they want. The power of a status update is at their fingertips.
  Overall, aim to be relatable by understanding the world your audience lives in.
  

Inspire and Be Inspired

Figuring out what motivates users, being integrated into their online experience and knowing how to relate to them all ties into understanding user behavior.
Most social networks, forums and commenting systems don't release user behavior data. This means you, as a community manager, are your company's insight into that invaluable information. By giving your organization a glimpse into how your audience will respond in an uncontrolled environment, you can help inform decisions about product launches, content strategy and any other customer-facing initiatives.
It's also important to think about how you communicate your insights internally. Represent your community by not only being an enthusiastic advocate but also an exemplary professional. Explain yourself in a way that makes sense to stakeholders.
If you hear yourself saying "they just don't get it," stop and think about how you're delivering your message — because it's your job to make them "get it." Your colleagues — particularly higher ups — will respect your community if they respect you, positioning you to help your organization make user-driven decisions.


As a community manager, it's your responsibility to make your community a better part of the Internet than where they started.

As a community manager, it's your responsibility to make your community a better part of the Internet than where they started.Don't let the siren song of clicks and likes cause you to forget that.

Top 10 mobile ad campaigns from H1 2013

By Lauren Johnson

August 9, 2013

Mobile advertising has made significant strides this year as marketers test new ad formats and get a better grasp on mobile’s role as part of a multichannel strategy, as evidenced by best-in-class efforts from brands such as McDonald’s, Unilever and Target.
Brands and marketers undoubtedly stepped up their mobile advertising efforts during the first half of 2013 with campaigns tied to solid results that are likely to continue throughout the remaining portion of the year. Additionally, a bigger focus on rich media, tablets, social media and native advertising points to marketers increasingly thinking beyond basic static banner ads.
Here are the top 10 marketing and commerce advertising campaigns from the first half of 2013, in alphabetical order.

Adidas Philippines campaign sees 1.27pc CTR with mobile game, rich media
Adidas Philippines decided to use rich media to highlight a new product launch earlier this year.
To promote its new Boost shoe, Adidas launched a rich media campaign that let consumers play a mobile game. The game was meant to stimulate the different types of terrain and conditions that the shoe can hold up in.
The athletic shoe brand partnered with iProspect Philippines and InMobi on the campaign with findings pointing towards the effectiveness of rich media in keeping consumers’ attentions.

The rich media mobile game
The average user time engagement with the ad was more than 60 seconds.
Additionally, the campaign generated a 1.27 percent click-through-rate, and the peak daily click-through-rate was 2.02 percent.
The average click-through-rate on iOS devices totaled .97 percent with the Android version bringing in a 1.64 percent click-through-rate.
The campaign generated 1,220,346 impressions with 672,054 coming from iOS devices and 548,292 coming from Android devices.
Moreover, the advertising campaign racked up 15,478 clicks.
McDonald’s showcases Instagram campaign through mobile
McDonald’s is one of the few marketers that consistently relies on mobile advertising to drive product trials and in-store traffic.
The fast food giant took its efforts to the next level in March with a campaign that encouraged consumers to snap pictures of their favorite meals and share them on Instagram as part of a marketing campaign to relaunch its famous Big Macs to a young, social media-heavy audience.
In addition to sharing pictures on Instagram, consumers could also browse through a gallery of photos.

McDonald's bets on Instagram
McDonald’s worked with Kargo and OMD Chicago to execute the campaign, and ads ran within mobile sites of publications including Us Magazine, Spin and Billboard.
A mobile ad campaign such as this one shows the growing role that mobile has played in bolstering the social media presences of brands this year.
National Geographic Channel targets tablet users to drive co-viewing
In February, National Geographic Channel took a unique approach to co-viewing with a mobile advertising campaign that drove tune-ins for a documentary about President Lincoln.
National Geographic Channel worked with Millennial Media and mediahub/Mullen on a tablet-only campaign that leveraged at-home Wi-Fi networks.
The day that the program premiered, creative began running to target at-home tablet users. Once the program began, the creative changed to give consumers a co-viewing experience.
For example, the mobile ad’s video and text dynamically updated as the show aired to reflect different scenes in the program.

The tablet-only creative
By targeting at-home Wi-Fi networks for tablets specifically, the goal behind the campaign was to reach mobile users at home who were most likely to be near a TV and to serve these users additional relevant information via their tablets.
Old Navy spurs mobile shopping through commerce-enabled advertising
Old Navy is one of many brands to try native, rewards-based mobile advertising this year.
In May the brand ran a mobile ad campaign within Session M’s network of mobile applications as an extension of its summer “Camp Old Navy” campaign.
Consumers who interacted with a call-to-action at the bottom of apps could click through to collect mPoints, which are Session M’s digital currencies.

The Old Navy landing page
From there, consumers could watch a sponsored video for 50 mPoints. Consumers then could click-through to shop the season’s top looks from a microsite on Old Navy’s mobile site.
The ad was also set up so that consumers could earn points from sharing content via Facebook and Twitter.
As marketers increasingly look to break out of banner ads that basically squish desktop copy into smaller-sized screens, native advertising has generated a lot of buzz this year as an alternative for marketers, and Old Navy is smart to jump in on the trend.
Pinkberry drives in-store product launch trial via mobile advertising
Frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry launched a location-based ad campaign that served up mobile coupons to lure nearby consumers into stores in April.
The ads ran within the Pandora iPhone app with creative that showed consumers how many miles away they were from a Pinkberry location.
When clicked on, a landing page presented an offer for $1 off of a greek yogurt product. The landing page also included directions and a click-to-call option.

Pinkberry's mobile ad
The coupon was redeemable by showing a screen grab of the ad at the point-of-sale.
As marketers increasingly look to make mobile ads more contextual and relevant to consumers, location and targeted data has been one of the biggest growth areas in the industry this year.
In Pinkberry’s case, consumers are more inclined to interact with the banner ad since it ties together an offer with a specific location.
Quiznos sees 20pc boost in coupon redemption via location-based mobile ad campaign
Similar to Pinkberry, Quiznos also banked on location this year to make a mobile advertising more effective.
Quiznos worked with Sense Networks on a campaign in Portland, OR that targeted consumers who had been at the sandwich chain’s competitors, including Subway and Jimmy John’s within the past 30 days and were within a three-mile radius of a Quiznos location.
In total, Quiznos’ campaign delivered 3.7 million new impressions and saw a 20 percent boost in coupon redemptions compared to similar nationwide campaigns.
Quiznos’ success with this mobile advertising campaign is likely to be shared by other brands through the remainder of 2013 for marketers that harness the power of location-based advertising.
Showtime propels same-day tune-ins via New York Times iPad ad
Earlier this year, Showtime Network launched a takeover ad in the New York Times iPad app to promote the “Ray Donovan” show.
Showtime ran full-page interstitial ads and expandable banners within the New York Times app, and the newspaper publisher claims that it was the first time that a campaign played video within every banner and interstitial ad within its iPad app.

The in-app Showtime experience
What is interesting about the campaign is that it featured a two-and-a-half minute trailer, which is fairly long for a mobile video effort and points to consumers willing to watch longer pieces of video content nowadays.
While the trailer played, consumers could tap on the screen to learn more about the show and its main character.
The ads were developed by Medialets with the media buy handled by OMD.
Target leverages Facebook to bolster downloads for new mobile deals app
Target has invested in mobile advertising for quite some time and is one of the brands that is taking advantage of Facebook’s mobile app install units.
To get the word out about its new mobile deal Cartwheel app, the big box retailer planted sponsored posts within consumers’ mobile Facebook feeds.
The call-to-action showed consumers if any of their friends already used the app, and a click-through pulled in Apple’s App Store where consumers could instantly download it to their device.

Target's sponsored post in Facebook
Through the Cartwheel app, consumers can sign-up for customized deals for products and show a bar code in-store to redeem them.
The more that consumers use the app, the more benefits they unlock.
Yesterday Target announced that Cartwheel has amassed one million users since launching three months ago.
Facebook is proving to be an effective way for brands to get in front of consumers who are likely accessing the site from smartphones and tablets.
In fact, Facebook claims that mobile made up 41 percent of overall ad revenue for the second-quarter of 2013 and could be on track to hit a tipping point as long as the ads are not seen as invasive for consumers (see story).
Taco Bell flaunts Happier Hour campaign through interactive iAd push
Not many brands these days fully take advantage of the interactive opportunities that Apple’s iAd presents, especially with its hefty price tag.
However, Taco Bell proved that it has a grasp on how the ad units can leverage the built-in capabilities of mobile devices if executed correctly.
Taco Bell ran an iAd campaign in April to push awareness of its “Happier Hour” promotion, which offers discounts on drinks in the afternoon.
The ad unit included several tabs to remind consumers about the promotion.

Taco Bell's iAd
For example, a location-based tab could be clicked on to remind consumers of the discounted drinks when they were nearby to a store. The ad also let consumers save a reminder to their device’s calendar or share the promotion to friends and family via an animated GIF email.
Similar to other quick-service restaurants, Taco Bell has turned to mobile advertising many times in the past to drive in-store traffic, but this campaign stands out in particular this year because it leverages a mobile device’s built-in features to actually get a consumer into a restaurant.
Unilever’s Wish-Bone campaign increases brand awareness 122pc
Unilever’s Wish-Bone wanted to try a new type of mobile advertising this year that spurs engagement by asking consumers to type in keywords associated with a brand to unlock content.
Wish-Bone was one of the first brands to work with Solve Media on a campaign to promote its line of Italian salad dressings.

The Wish-Bone ad
Full-page ads and creative played up three key words that Wish-Bone wanted consumers to associate with its product: zesty, tangy and tasty.
The media buy consisted primarily of in-app units and ran within mobile properties of Meredith Corp., Bauer and Sonza.
According to comScore, the Wish-Bone campaign lifted brand awareness by 122 percent and increased purchase intent by 87 percent.
Wish-Bone’s campaign further cements the theme of native advertising and testing new types of ad formats to see what sticks with consumers.

Where the Real Money Is Going in Online Advertising

Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo Top the List

By:

Tim Peterson

Published: August 08, 2013

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For all the hand-wringing over automated ad buying systems and mobile devaluing publishers' real estate, a number of online properties can still fetch top dollar.
The below premium placements, sourced from media buyers and sellers, span the tried and traditional to the new and so-called "native," but industry executives identified one commonality across all cited: the ability to attract sizeable audiences and justify substantial spending.

Facebook Combine online's most lucrative content type, video, and one of its most attractive properties, Facebook, and it's little surprise the site is seeking 7-figure sums -- $1 million up to $2.4 million a day -- for its upcoming in-feed video ads. That's roughly double what Facebook currently receives for its version of the home page takeover that lets brands advertise reach an entire audience segment for $500,000 to $700,000 a day.

YouTube Google's video site attracts nearly as many unique visitors each month as Facebook and has been able to translate that into similar ad rates. Advertising on YouTube's home page during holidays costs about $500,000 and includes an additional $100,000 commitment; a couple years ago that package ran around $150,000. However the real money resides closer to the content. To be the first preroll ad that plays when someone visits a video's watch page, advertisers must ante up a similar amount to the home-page package. Channel sponsorships start at around $1 million.

Yahoo Yahoo continues to garner among the web's largest audiences, which is why the portal that's considered a comeback story is able to pull $450,000 to $700,000 for each daylong home page takeover. For comparison's sake, a standard banner on Yahoo News main page costs $120,000 a day.

AOL AOL isn't as big as Yahoo, and the price of its home-page ad reflects that. The banner runs around $275,000 to $300,000 per day, though it can be had for $150,000 during fire sales.

ESPN Last year Forbes called ESPN "the world's most valuable media property." The Disney-owned company owes much of that acclaim to its TV network, but a standard box banner on the sports site's home page merits $200,000 to $300,000 a day.

Twitter Twitter's Promoted Tweets may get all the attention for popping up in users' streams, but the social network's priciest ad product sits on the side. Twitter limits Promoted Trends to one a day, and that scarcity allows it to charge $200,000 for each advertiser.

The New York Times The paper of record notches $120,000 each weekday for the pushdown ads overtaking its home page.

Vice Media The New York Times' polar opposite, the rowdy Vice Media, pulls $75,000 per day for the pushdown ads overtaking its home page

Tumblr Yahoo could get a return on its $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr by upping the number of ads running in users' feeds. The unit has only been in market for a couple months but fetches roughly $20,000 per advertiser a day as part of a $200,000 commitment.

Forbes Forbes' welcome ad that displays the first time someone navigates to the business publication's site looks simple. But a Forbes spokesperson said the unit, which is capped to pop up only once a day to each unique visitor, fetches $75 to $100 per every thousand visitors (Forbes.com receives 650,000 unique visitors a day, including 500,000 in the U.S.).

StarGreetz The video ad company charges advertisers $20,000 to $100,000 per month to run video ads personalized to each person they are served to -- the ads actually speak an individual's name and can include other personal information like where they live, provided that data is already available to the advertiser-- though advertisers have to pony up anywhere from an extra $10,000 to more than nine figures for celebrity spokespeople like country band Lady Antebellum or Nascar driver Kyle Busch to parse each branded greeting ("Hi John Doe, let me tell you about [insert brand]").

demographic portrait of Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook users

demographic portrait of Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook users

by @gordonmacmillan, posted on 21 May, 2013 at 2:55 pm, filed under Uncategorized and tagged Facebook, instagram, Pinterest, Social Media, Tumblr, Twitter. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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A useful study here from the ‘Pew Research Center’ taking a look at the demographic make-up of US social media users across Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. No data on LinkedIn of Google+, but great stats all the same.

It is no surprise how fast Twitter user numbers have grown, Pew says they have doubled since November 2010 and now has around 500 million in total with around 200 million who are active, but Pinterest is almost on a par with the percentage of internet users using it service.

Pinterest remains heavily skewed to women, it is also “whiter” and its users are better educated. Instagram also has more women users, as does Facebook. Twitter is the only network where there are more men (although LinkedIn if it were included would lead in this category).

Twitter users

The percentage of internet users who are on Twitter has doubled since November 2010, currently standing at 16%.  Those under 50, and especially those 18-29, are the most likely to use Twitter.  Urban-dwellers are significantly more likely than both suburban and rural residents to be on Twitter.

Pinterest users

Pinterest has attracted 15% of internet users to its virtual scrapbooking and with the announcement earlier this week that it is revamping its service with brand tags that could grow.

Whites, young people, the well-educated, those with higher income, and women are particularly likely to use the site.  Pinterest is equally popular among those 18-29 and 30-49 (19%).  Women are about five times as likely to be on the site as men, the largest difference in gender of any site featured in this report.

Instagram users

Thirteen percent of internet users are taking and sharing pictures with Instagram. It seems to be a fact that women like to take pictures more than men on their smartphones.

Women are more likely than men to use the site, as are those under 50.  African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely than whites to use Instagram, along with urban residents.

Tumblr users

Tumblr is significantly less popular among internet users than the other social networking sites featured in this report.  Will Yahoo be able to make it more popular now that it has splashed $1.1bn?

Just 6% of those online use the site.  It is much more popular, however, among the youngest cohort — 13% of those 18-29 are blogging on Tumblr.

Facebook users

Facebook remains the most-used social networking platform, as two-thirds of online adults say that they are Facebook users.

Women again are more likely than men to be Facebook users, and Facebook use is especially common among younger adults.

Read more: http://wallblog.co.uk/2013/05/21/a-demographic-portrait-of-twitter-tumblr-pinterest-instagram-and-facebook-users/#ixzz2bIILt8LJ 
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