Posts Tagged: competitors

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22
Apr 10

SmartBrief stats: How business leaders view social media

Nearly all of us have had to explain — and pitch — social networking to our company leadership. Hence your overwhelmingly positive response to two recent blog posts that lay out five steps to building a companywide social-media plan and a plan for selling social media upstairs . These how-to guides are handy, but they don’t address a critical element to making our collective case: knowing what we are up against. To that end, last month, we surveyed the audience of one of our most popular daily news briefs, SmartBrief on Leadership , to get a sense for the overall business climate for social media.  Our goals were to understand how company leaders view social platforms at this moment in time, what their concerns are about adapting them into their business practices and what relevant information they are hungry to know.  More than 2,700 of 100,000 SmartBrief on Leadership subscribers from a diverse set of industries responded, and the results surprised us. A view from the top: How familiar are business leaders with social media? Back to school: 75% of respondents say they were either knowledgeable or actively trying to learn about social media. Are their companies currently using social media/social tools? Getting there : 51% of respondents say their companies are actively using and exploring social media in a number of business areas.  Another 30% are in pilot test/consideration mode.  Only 27% say they are not using social media now and won’t be in the future. Is social media just a marketing fad? Social media is here to stay :  While many leaders say they see social media as somewhat “over-hyped,” 63% of respondents say they disagree with the notion that it is a marketing fad. Is it a waste of time? Good use of company resources : 55% of business leaders say social media is not a waste of time. What are the implications of ignoring social media? Missing the conversation, both good and bad : 83% of respondents agree that social media gives them a window into what their customers are saying about them, and 80% say that social media has the power to magnify negative news about a company. This is obviously a key point of concern. Falling behind the competition : 40% of respondents say they fear they are falling behind their competitors in using social media. Also, 25% admitted that they did not know what their competitors were doing in the space. Clearly, leaders believe that social media has the potential for a significant impact on their business. In the coming weeks, we’ll be digging down further with executives on an industry-by-industry basis into how companies are using these technologies across their operations. Stay tuned for updates as we learn more. In the meantime, is this the kind of feedback you are getting from your leadership? What role do executives plays in the implementation of your corporate social-media strategies? Does taking your social-media goals to the next level require more than simply CEO buy-in? Image credit, Alistair Cotton , via Shutterstock

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30
Mar 10

What are the roadblocks to establishing a mobile strategy?

Every new technology has a learning curve — and sometimes it feels like this goes double for social technologies. First, you need to learn how to use the tools, then you have learn how to use them to engage others. It can seem like an awfully long road to walk, as Dave Curry explains in today’s lead story in SmartBrief on Social Media . It might even be tempting to wait until there are more case studies and best practices for these new services. But waiting for a blueprint to magically appear has its own dangers. Three reasons to jump in now: No one can teach you but you. Social-media marketing case studies can be valuable teaching tools, but that abstract learning can only take you so far. The most memorable lessons don’t come from the triumphs of one brand or the blunders of another. They come from personal experience. You’ll never learn as much by watching as you will by doing. Your mobile strategy needs to be tailored to your company’s needs, not taken off the rack. Starting small keeps your risks low. Keep your expectations in check and your ambitions modest — at first. Fail early and often, but do it in front of a select audience. That way, you can learn in a controlled environment, where very few people will notice if your earliest efforts aren’t as strong as they could be. Once you understand what works for your brand, you can expand your efforts. If you don’t, someone else will. While you’re waiting for the technology to be perfected, for the rulebook to be written, for the blueprint to appear, your competitors are on the ground and figuring it out for themselves. The extra experience and the additional opportunities to establish a community will be difficult obstacles to surmount. Of course, not every company will end up embracing mobile — and some of the holdouts may have great reasons for doing so. But apprehension over the learning curve shouldn’t be one of them. Are location-aware networks part of your social strategy right now? What are the biggest challenges these services present? Anyone want to make the case for waiting? Image credit, HelleM , via Shutterstock

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10
Mar 10

Can MySpace make a comeback?

I love it when companies decide to buckle down and focus on what makes them great. Innovation is essential, but it has an evil twin: mission creep. If you’re trying to keep up with your competitors’ innovations — instead of concocting your own — you might end up with a diffuse, muddled brand that isn’t known for doing anything particularly well. You need to innovate on your own terms and in a way that allows new ideas to arise organically out of what your company already does well. MySpace is a textbook example of this. It saw what Facebook was doing and tried to bandwagon. That didn’t end well . Now the company is trumpeting a return to its roots, as we note in today’s SmartBrief on Social Media . That’s great, but it’s not enough to simply back away from they’re doing wrong.  If MySpace is going to survive, it needs to become a real alternative to Facebook’s way of doing things, not just an interchangeable alternate. It needs to embrace a new direction that makes sense for the brand. Some things I’d like to see: Better privacy controls . Facebook and Google are freaking everyone out with shifting privacy terms and unintended disclosures. Better multimedia . MySpace is still synonymous with music and social media. Build on that. One of Facebook’s weaknesses is the clunky way it handles photos, videos and the like. MySpace should also look into capitalizing on a resurgent interest in video chat. Better groups . I’m a fan of niche networks. I wish it were easier to create, manage and maintain those networks in the context of a larger site — that way I could have my video game community and my political news community in the same space. Facebook groups always seemed anemic to me. I think this is one area where MySpace could leapfrog. Better incentives . What MySpace needs is to give old users a reason to check back in. The site should be aggressively pursuing social-shopping features, special offers and content giveaways. To overcome its weak network and lackluster reputation, the site needs to give users a reason to reintegrate the site into their daily lives. That’s what I got. How about you? What does MySpace need to do to make a comeback? Image credit, Carsten Reisinger , via shutterstock

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9
Mar 10

Do luxury brands need social media?

The rich are unlikely to follow your company on Twitter. According to a study by Unity Marketing , 6% of affluent users use social tools to look for coupons or go shopping, while 7% were interested in using social networks to research purchases or seek out special offers. The study goes on to say that while at least half of affluent users view company social-media accounts, just a quarter will follow them. So why do companies such as Cartier , Dolce & Gabbana and Lexus bother with social media? A few possibilities: Feeding the brand’s aspirational quality . If you’ve got thousands of people who can’t afford your product raving about how great you are, it increases your brand’s value as a status symbol for the handful who can afford it. Hook them early . Just because some of your Facebook fans can’t afford you right now doesn’t mean they’ll be window shoppers forever. If you build connections with young fans now, you’ll be in a position to recoup that good will if they become more successful. Think of it as an investment in the next generation of millionaires. Your competitors are already there . If you’ve got a competitor with a robust social-media presence, you owe it yourself to fight back. Stand on the sidelines and you risk seeming antiquated or stuffy. Brands might have trouble courting the wealthy using social media right now, but that may change as social media becomes more ubiquitous. Depending on your marketplace, it may make sense to keep up with a rival’s efforts just so you’re not left flat-footed in the future. What do you think? Do luxury brands benefit from having a presence in the social-media space? Why do you think the affluent are so unlikely to connect with brands using social media? Is there anything brands can do to change this? Image credit, Pakhnyushcha , via Shutterstock

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2
Mar 10

Are you sick of social media?

The shine is off the apple. Even marketers are sick of hearing about how great social media is and how it’s going to change everything for everyone forever. I’m not quite there yet — I still delight in pulling together SmartBrief on Social Media each day — but I can understand how the constant din of the Next Big Thing could be deafening for some folks. But whether you’re tired of hearing about it or not, it’s becoming clear that social-media marketing isn’t the Next Big Thing anymore. It’s just the thing that everyone does . Grasping the important of that transition is key to the success of your marketing endeavors over the next year for two reasons: If you’re sick of hearing about it, imagine how your customers — who have never waxed poetic about mass-communication tools — must feel. They’re not just going to yawn when you proudly unveil your newest social-media account — they’re going to start rolling their eyes. Whatever novelty factor these platforms held is long gone — except, perhaps, for mobile networks. Yesterday, you needed to give your customers a reason to be curious. Today, you need to find a way to be essential. If you’ve figured it out, so has the competition. A lot of businesses, especially smaller companies, have put themselves on the map over the past few years by dominating a space their competitors ignored. You can’t count on that any longer. You don’t just have to compete with your rival’s product; you need to best their social presence, too, if you’re going to maintain your marketing edge. What other big changes does the ubiquity of social media bring to the discipline? Are you personally sick of hearing about social platforms yet? Is mobile really the exception to the rule? Image credit, Ingrid W. via Shutterstock

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