Infographic: When Consumers Click on Mobile Ads

Yahoo! study uncovers how time of day and location impacts ad engagement on mobile

Thanks to my mobile phone, I'm completely done with my holiday shopping. Social media helped me unearth cool gift ideas, and mobile search helped me develop a plan of attack. And along the way, I saw my fair share of mobile ads. The Yahoo! and Ipsos study "Mobile Modes: How to Connect with Mobile Consumers" uncovered that mobile ad recall is high, with one in two consumers recalling seeing an ad the last time they used mobile Internet. Engagement is high, too, with about one-quarter clicking on mobile advertising. Yahoo! researchers also pinpointed how time of day and location influence consumers interaction with mobile ads. Find out more after the jump.

According the "Mobile Modes" study, ad interaction rates were highest during intermittent break times (55%) and when winding down from the day (45%).

As expected, personal relevance to the user boost mobile effectiveness. A user's location at the time of seeing the ad is also very important.

For more on best practices for connecting with consumers on mobile, check out http://advertising.yahoo.com/article/mobile-modes.html

It's 2012. Should My Brand Build a Social App?

Every Brand Is Not Spotify and Most Social Apps Do Not Work

By: Michael Lazerow Published: January 06, 2012

Michael Lazerow

I was sitting on a panel with my friend, Clickable CEO David Kidder, at the Business Insider Social Media Analytics conference this past November, and a conversation came up about custom social apps.
Do we recommend brands use them?
I would never recommend brands do something that I don't think will work. Custom social applications generally don't work. In fact, only a rare few do succeed.
It's always important to remember that apps are not the silver bullet to cure all social media issues you may have. Apps must be incorporated within a larger social media strategy, instead of being the sole focus.
So if you're thinking about building a custom social app, here's why you may want to think again.
Custom social apps (mostly) don't work
It's easy to look at the success Spotify has had in its Facebook integration and get delusions of grandeur about the possibilities custom social apps might bring to your brand. Reports of millions of installs on social applications for publishers, while not inaccurate, do not accurately reflect the opportunities these applications possess.
When Spotify CEO Daniel Ek appeared at f8 to announce his product's integration with Facebook, Ek had a few advantages going for him that allowed Spotify to flourish where others will undoubtedly will not.
For one, the Spotify announcement came at a time when the music platform was exploding in the United States. The tremendous growth in Spotify timed perfectly with the release of Facebook's Ticker, which began displaying the music users' friends were listening to at lightning speed. For those who hadn't already heard of Spotify, it was the last push they needed to make the jump. For those who did have Spotify, the ability to show off how cool they are for listening to that undiscovered indie band (or Phish) was enough to keep Spotify open and running. Perhaps most importantly, Spotify itself is not a two-month advertising campaign, but rather a music service that plans to stay around for a long time.
So, why won't this same strategy work across other custom social apps? For one, widespread adoption of a social app doesn't come often. The leading applications will receive traction through Facebook integration, but most users aren't going to grant access to an application just because it exists. Unless there is some very real utility to users, people will most likely reject these apps, leaving them to collect dust with thousands of other "one-off" Facebook applications. Custom social apps are expensive to build, and they can also take a lot of time to build. This makes them ineffective particularly for both short-lived campaigns and the real time nature of social media. The return on investment is often miniscule.
If custom social apps don't work, how can brands start taking advantage of Facebook's new open graph functionality that expands Facebook activity outside the 'Like' button?
Utility apps work
It's not enough to present an application to Facebook users and hope that they start using it in droves. Instead, applications need to bring value to people and should be social by design.
By creating an app that makes people's lives easier or better, the chances that buzz will start forming around the app increases. But it's not enough to simply create an app that, for instance, easily organizes a person's day right from Facebook.
In addition to creating an app that brings value to people, the app needs to have built-in social functionality. The benefit to creating apps on Facebook, of course, is that users' actions show up on News Feeds, Tickers and profiles, which helps spread the word faster and more authentically than banner ads, print ads and television commercials. When users see their friends are using something that they think might be cool, they'll want to be a part of it. That's how you see widespread adoption.
Apps are not a social strategy
If you think you can build an app, push it live, and then hope for the best, you haven't just missed the boat, but instead have spent the last few years buried beneath the ocean floor.
Powering connections with your fans and customers is a social strategy. Apps are just a tool, meant to assist in the process. When Mark Zuckerberg stood on stage at f8, it was easy to look at all of the shiny new apps and partnerships and cool things people could do on Facebook and dedicate all of your resources to replicating it all.
Yet you may have missed the first part of Zuck's speech, which focused on connections and engagements. Facebook is not nearly as concerned with how many users they have, as much as how those users are interacting with the platform and each other. I wrote about this back in September, after f8.
Your social strategy should take the same approach. It's not about the number of fans you have, but instead what you offer them. Let users tell your story by publishing content (or creating utility apps) that people will share, either directly or indirectly. As I wrote in September, "It's no longer acceptable to just build a large set of connections. You need to build for them. You need to power them up."
With that in mind, here's what to look for in any social app:

• It provides utility. How does the app make people's lives easier? What can it DO for them?
• It presents value. Is the utility derived from the app worth any hassles associated with installation and usage? Or is usage time outweighed by the benefits derived by users?
• It has inherent social functionality. If people use an app and nobody else sees it, was your development money completely wasted? The answer is yes. Make the app social by design to make sure users' friends are seeing app adoption and usage. Make them jealous that they aren't using the app as well.

As mentioned, these apps are part of your larger social strategy, which includes:

• Power connections. Always remember it's not about just about how many connections you have. It's also about what they gain from connecting with you.
• Content and experiences that people care about. Build around your customers' interests, instead of just around your business. If you publish content that becomes part of people's identities, your social strategy can actually add meaning to their lives, instead of providing an unwelcome distraction.
• Presence everywhere. You need to be wherever people are online. That means, as large as Facebook is, you can't just focus your resources on one place, or else you'll miss out on the conversations taking place all around you. We know Facebook gives brands tons of possibilities, but other platforms require love, too, or else you'll be left for dead in other huge communities.

Infographic: Social Media Statistics For 2012

Tue, Jan 3, 2012

It was a huge year for Social Media and here is a great infographic that rounds up the key Social Media Statistics to kickoff 2012. It’s pretty impressive to see that Facebook has grown to more than 800 million active users, adding more than 200 million in a single year. Twitter now has 100 million active users and LinkedIn has over 64 million users in North America alone.
A few interesting take outs for social media statistics in 2012:
Facebook Statistics 2012:

• An average Facebook user has 130 friends and likes 80 pages
• 56% of consumer say that they are more likely recommend a brand after becoming a fan
• Each week on Facebook more than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared

Twitter Statistics 2012:

• 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
• 55% of Twitter users access the platform via their mobile

General Social Media Statistics 2012:

• 30% of B2B marketers are spending million of dollars each year on social media marketing
• Nearly 30% of these users are not tracking the impact of this marketing
• 20% of Google searches each day have never been searched for before
• Out of the 6 billion people on the planet 4.8 billion have a mobile and only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush

Check out more social media statistics for 2012 below in the full infographic, via Mediabistro.

Mobile Trends for 2012

A look back at 2011

Monday, December 19, 2011 | 8:00 AM

Mobile turned a corner this year. As smartphones and tablets became a part of our everyday lives, business owners’ conversations shifted from 'Why should I advertise on mobile or build a mobile website?' to 'How do I get started?’.  

Five major industry trends emerged in 2011 that will carry us into 2012, and beyond.

1 - Everyone goes mobile
Smartphones and tablets proved that they weren’t just for the geekiest - er, ‘tech savviest’ - among us.  These devices are increasingly becoming the norm and they continue to change how people connect with each other, and with businesses, everywhere.  According to our research with IPSOS earlier this year:

• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, to finding more product info, to locating a retailer.
• 70% use their smartphones while in a store.
• 77% have contacted a business via mobile, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business.

It’s not just that more people are using smartphones and tablets (though the numbers are skyrocketing at an accelerating pace)—it’s that a huge, and fast-growing base of smartphone users, now expect to engage with businesses on mobile. The mainstream consumer got mobilized in 2011.

2 - Mobile search transforms shopping, forever   
Analyzing mobile search trends helped the industry better understand how people were using their mobile devices in 2011.  For starters, we learned a lot about the ‘timing’ of mobile and tablets.  These devices enable us to be constantly connected to the internet, as mobile usage has proven to be complementary to the desktop.  We got a clearer picture of how search is changing the ways we shop and connect with businesses.  More people are looking for deals both en route to stores and within them on mobile - in the retail category, “Black Friday” related mobile queries were over 200% higher this year than in 2010.  Users have also developed some mobile-specific shopping habits - for example, 44% of all searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms are projected to come from mobile devices this holiday season.  For procrastinators, mobile has come to the rescue!

In October, we looked at some of the newest ways marketers can build their businesses via mobile search.  But, this is only the beginning - whether people are trying to find or call a business, compare prices in a store, or visit a site or app directly from their phones, search and search ads will be the tools that shape a new shopping experience, enabling us connect with businesses, research and buy products on or offline, all via mobile.

3 - Progress with the mobile advertising pipes
As an industry, we came a long way in terms of improving the ‘pipes’ - the systems, products and technologies that advertisers use to build, serve, and measure mobile ads.  It’s still early days, but the progress with standards like MRAID and the momentum behind HTML5, are helping to rally the mobile community and make it easier for marketers and customers to connect on the platform.  Getting existing tools to ‘speak mobile’ has been another key to helping mobile advertising grow-up as quickly users and businesses want it to.  Across search and display, the tools the industry is already familiar with are getting mobilized.  There’s plenty of work still to do, but significant progress is being made - watch this space in 2012.

4 - Tablets join the mobile party
Tablets made quite a splash this year.  Usage trends sharpened - we’re seeing that people people use these devices to shop, consume media, have fun, and they do so most frequently in the evenings.  Tablets are a third screen to be reckoned with for marketers - we saw a 440% growth in traffic from tablets in November 2011 compared to December 2010 on the AdMob network.  The business potential is tremendous: not only are users more inclined to shop and make purchases on tablets, but because campaigns can be more effective running across several screens instead of one, tablets offer an incremental opportunity for marketers.  Our research with Nielsen showed that campaigns on several screens can be ‘Better Together’ - indeed, in cases like Adidas’, that proved to be true.

5 - Businesses start (actually) thinking mobile first
Smartphones and tablets aren’t small desktop computers - they’re new devices being used in entirely new ways. This year, businesses began to embrace this at scale and many saw good things happen when they built ad campaigns and websites specifically for mobile.  Ticketsnow’s success with a mobile optimized site - increased site traffic, and more ticket sales - is just one example of the benefits of building for mobile.  Initiatives like GoMo and platform-specific ad features will help businesses better connect with mobile customers in the coming months, and beyond.

It’s hard to believe, but as far as the industry has come in 2011, we’re still in the earliest chapters of mobile’s story.  The ways people connect to businesses on their mobile devices and the tools they’re using to connect from them progressed by leaps and bounds this year and soon, we’ll see the mainstream shift that changes the way mobile connects people with brick-and-mortar storefronts as well.  Mobile will be moving full speed ahead in 2012 so keep those sleeves rolled-up and those seatbelts fastened - we’ll see you then.

Posted by: Karim Temsamani, VP Mobile Ads

Social Business Planning in 2012

December 5, 2011

Originally posted on Edelman Digital

Today marks my two-year anniversary at Edelman, or what we affectionately like to refer to as an “Edelversary”. So much has changed in the industry since joining the team here—we are truly working in a real-time business environment. We’ve seen “social” move from an item to be checked off the list from major brands to something they are genuinely grappling with in terms of integrating at scale across the enterprise. At Edelman Digital, we’ve always approached social a bit differently from others—focusing on the fact that much if it revolves around human-to-human interactions (we now call this community management), but if social is to scale—it must begin to spill out of the marketing silo and truly influence how we do business. We believe a connected business is better positioned for the future than a business, which remains disconnected and non adaptive.

Today, we’re announcing a partnership with Edelman Consulting led by Mike Kuczowski, in which we are actively elevating our services around social business to meet what we believe will be the opportunity in the years to come. In order for a business to truly extract value from social initiatives, we must consider not only marketing but how it impacts research and development, human resources, innovation, business intelligence and other facets of an organization which help drive a business forward. Michael’s team has deep experience solving complex business challenges while our digital team possesses incredible savvy and a global perspective for how social-digital operates at scale (folks like Michael Brito, Zena Weist, Robin Hamman, Dave Fleet, & Chuck Hemann to name a few).
Social Business Planning

View more presentations from Edelman Insights

Together, we’re looking forward to elevating the game for companies who truly wish to push their social initiatives beyond acquiring fans and followers. As an initial gesture, we are openly putting our approach out on the social web, which outlines not only our joint philosophy on social business planning but also, the methodology we use when working with clients. We believe that over the next ten years, most businesses will move past the ROI question of social—and get to work on doing business in a connected age. This will require gradual if not steady change and a commitment to evolving business practices.  We’re looking forward to partnering with likeminded organizations and individuals who see the world in a similar fashion.

You can read more information on this initiative here.  We’re excited to play our part in moving the discussion of social business from philosophy to action.

Six Social Media Trends for 2012

Originally posted on Harvard Business Review
Each year at this time, I look forward and predict trends in social media for the coming year. But first, I look back at my predictions from last year. How'd I do? Not bad.
Social media continues to move forward toward business integration, a trend that I identified last year. In a joint study from Booz & Company and social platform developer Buddy Media, 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEO's label social as a high priority.
I was also partially accurate in predicting that Google would "strike back" in 2011. They did, with Google Plus, a formidable initiative that acts as Google's "social layer" to the Web. Part social network and part social search, Google Plus has industry observers scratching their heads, wondering if Facebook will be given a run for their money or if the service evolves into something complimentary in a highly social Web.
I had one big swing-and-miss on Facebook's intrusion in the location-based services war. While Facebook still supports location tracking in a number of ways, it has not put Foursquare out of business. Foursquare still enjoys a niche audience of highly active participants who enjoy telling the world where they are and post pictures to prove it. It is however worth noting that Facebook recently acquired location based network Gowalla, so continue to watch this space.
So what can we expect in 2012 in a world that seems to grow ever connected by the hour? Here are six predictions to ponder, in no particular order:
Convergence Emergence. For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with "real life," we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could "swipe" their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino's Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of "trans-media" experiences are likely to define "social" in the year to come.
The Cult of Influence. In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout's attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we'll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to "score" digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it.
Gamification Nation. No we're not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It's likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company's digital leaderboard.
Social Sharing. Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don't know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it.
Social Television. For many of us, watching television is already a social act, whether it's talking to the person next to you, or texting, tweeting, and calling friends about what you're watching. But television is about to become a social experience in a bigger and broader sense. The X Factor now allows voting via Twitter and highlights other social promotions, which encourages viewers to tap social networks while they watch. Another way media consumption is becoming social comes from a network called Get Glue which acts as something of a Foursquare for media. Participants can "check-in" to their favorite shows (or other forms of media) and collect stickers to tell the world what programs they love. Watch for more of this this year as ratings rise for socially integrated shows.
The Micro Economy. Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the "inventor" takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes into hotels and travelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions.
These are a few emerging trends which come to mind. As with anything, looking to the past often gives us clues for what may come in the future. Please weigh in with your thoughts: where do you see "social" going in 2012?

Overnight Facebook Posts Drive More Engagement

September 15, 2011

inShare63

Facebook posts made by retail brands during the overnight hours of 8 PM to 7 AM drive 20% more user engagement, in terms of like and comment rates, than posts made between 8 AM and 7 PM, according to a September 2011 report from Buddy Media. However, data from “Strategies for Effective Facebook Wall Posts” indicates 89% of retail brand wall posts are made between 8 AM and 7 PM.

Buddy Media analysis indicates these are “busy hours” for most consumers, when they have less time to visit their Facebook accounts. Buddy Media advises retail brands to use publisher tools to automatically schedule posts during the overnight hours.

Wednesday Best Day for Retail Posts

Fan engagement for Facebook wall posts made by retail brands spikes on Wednesdays and Sundays. In particular, Buddy Media finds wall posts made on Wednesdays have fan engagement 8% above average, followed by Sundays with a fan engagement rate 2% above average. Posts on Saturdays have a fan engagement rate slightly above average.
Conversely, wall posts made on Fridays have the lowest fan engagement of any day of the week (6% below average), followed by Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays (about 2% below average each).
Yet retailers spread out their wall posts roughly equally during weekdays, with a slight spike on Thursdays. Far fewer wall posts are made on Saturdays and Sundays, despite their relatively high rates of fan engagement.

1-2 Posts a Day Produces Optimal Engagement

The report indicates that retail brands posting one to times per day have fan engagement rates 40% higher than retail brands posting three times per day or more. Like rates for brands posting one to two times a day are 32% higher than like rates for brands posting three or more times a day, while comment rates are 73% higher.
Buddy Media advises retail brands to focus on quality of posts more than quantity, and to only post more than twice in a day if posts contain exclusive content such as highlights of a sale that changes during the day.

1-4 Posts Per Week Boosts Engagement

The report also finds that Facebook user engagement with a retail brand decreases drastically as the number of posts in a given week rises. Posting one to four times per week produces a user engagement rate 71% higher than that achieved by posting five or more times per week.

ROI Research: Consumers Prefer Infrequent SocNet Communication

The highest percentages of online consumers say products, services and companies should communicate via social networks once a month or less and once a week or less, according to an April 2011 study from ROI Research and Performics. Data from “S-Net: A Study in Social Media Usage and Behavior” indicates 28% of online consumers say social network communication should be conducted once a month or less, while 26% say once a week or less.
Only 3% say more than once a day and 7% say daily. In one piece of good news for brands who communicate via social network, only 4% of online consumers say they should never use this form of communication.
About the Data: Buddy Media analyzed user engagement of Facebook wall posts from nearly 100 global retail brands between January 1 and June 30, 2011.