Study: 70% of Facebook and Twitter Pages from brands don’t rank in Google

BrightEdge recently uncovered with a research project that social profiles of most leading brands don’t rank well in Google. Although many companies still invest a lot of their budgets in SEM/SEO activities, most of them forget to increase their social media presence from a search results perspective.

The research reviewed 200 of the world’s top brands for their social media presence. Most of the those brands, nearly 100%, stay on top or near the top ranks for their brand names on the SERP’s. However, a high percentage of 71% did not have their Facebook pages in the top 20 results. For Twitter it showed more or less the same result: 68% of the brands surveyed were not amoungst the top 20 results of the Google SERP’s.

“Brands today are pouring countless resources into social media channels and are creating great content that will help them engage with consumers, optimizing these for SEO purposes is a crucial way to drive exposure. Brands may be missing critical customer connection points if consumers can’t easily discover their social media pages in search.” Jim Yu, CEO, BrightEdge

Interestingly enough, there seems to be no necessary correlation between the number of friends and followers and SERP rankings according to the analysis of various social media pages that the BrightEdge surveyed. For example, the Facebook page of a leading photography brand did not perform in the top 20 search results, although more than 160,000 were fans of their Facebook page. On the other hand, a leading auto manufacturer with only 17,307 fans had a Facebook page that ranked in the top 10 of search results.

The least effective brands at optimizing Social Networking sites are coming from the finance and insurance sector. Only three of the top 43 companies had their Facebook pages rank in the top 20 search results. In comparison, retailers were much more successful: 13 out of the top 23 retailers surveyed were found in the top 20 search results.

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Brands could argue it is more important to find your homepage or branded pages for products or services in the top search results. Social Media experts might see this different as some of the main brands invest a lot of their branding activities in the leading Social Media sites at the moment. Especially, under the aspect from last year’s report that some big brands reported to loose their traffic on corporate websites to Facebook, the search impact for brands might become more and more important in the future. Would you agree?

Content Marketing – Insights in an emerging digital topic for CMO’s

This week, the Custom Content Council and ContentWise released their American survey “Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Content Marketing in America for 2011” that indicates the future for a young type of branding: content marketing. The study states that CMO’s are spending an all-time high of $12.5 billion of their budgets in emerging platforms for custom content marketing with virtual events, mobile, video, and educational content.

The platforms for content marketing are still ruled by a $24 billion spent on print production and distribution. It shows the relevance of print for their marketing activities. CMO’S dedicate 29% of their average overall marketing, advertising and communications budget to content marketing activities. Those custom content products and platforms are becoming increasingly important to chief marketing officers. The study reveals that 87% see content marketing is valuable, and more than one-third of CMOs (35%) believe custom content marketing is the future of marketing, an increase by 19% in 2006.

“While print remains the choice du jour for most custom media programs, new media channels are providing more growth opportunities for the custom content industry” (…) “This year’s study underscores multiple expansion areas for content. As the economy continues to rebound, the future of content looks very promising.” Lori Rosen, Executive Director, Custom Content Council

Some further key findings of the study are that for example video content is growing: 57% of marketers will produce video, (increase of 3% to last year). Website and blogs are still on of the main topics CMO’s are focussing on next to print custom content marketing formats: Website updates of articles, blog posts and other content is for 79% the main activity.

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Consumers seem to value the custom content from brands and companies. 69% like when custom content marketing targets their interests and 67% see it is valuable. An even more important finding for me is that 61% admit they feel better about brands when these deliver custom content. AND: These consumers report to be more likely to make purchases with these brands and companies. Marketers should pay attention to this development of the power of digital content marketing, especially as content curation will affect their SEO strategies of their social web activities acording to a study by Curata. Although probably most CMO’s agree with these motivations, more than 73% also admit that creating original content is the main challenge for marketers. There’s obviously a lot that content marketing could do for brands and companies in the future. As money seems to be made available by companies, it’s just depending on the usual bottle-necks: people and time.

Salestainability – a phrase or a challenge?

No, the word did obviously not exist before… Or can a phrase come to live with Google not knowing about, nor finding it with their intelligent algorythm? If Google has not indexed one website with the phrase yet, can I claim the phrase as my innovation? Anyway… So, I just created the word today. Horray…

How did I come across it? Let me tell you how I thought about sales and sustainability…

In my eyes the word salestainability defines the future of a successful long-term strategy in business – especially in our social web world… Salestainability. The merger of sales and sustainability could become the formula for clever and intelligent business for the next generation C-level. For those managers who aim to get the balance right between the desire to use social web efficiency and to credit their own customer base for loyalty and advocacy.

Last week, I thought about the challenge for business decision makers to align their web-strategy with new opportunities that social media and social networks offer. And quite frankly, I can imagine that marketers might become kind of “greedy” when thinking about the latest studies. When Deloitte and ExactTarget find that customers are mainly following brands because they want to get benefits, coupons or discounts, nobody would be surprised, if brands are sending rather than understanding.

The social web tends to offer many opportunities to do conversation with our customers without “spaming” them. If customer become Facebook’s Fanpages they declare their open mind to brand activity, and are not only “Likes”, or brand advocates. If people accept Dell’s promotions and let the IT vendor generate 5 Mio. US dollars via Twitter accounts, we need to re-think our sales business and integrate it into our web-strategy to leverage the sales approach to the next level of SocialCRM if they are capable of doing it. And if customers respond to Groupons location-based promotions, they follow the studies results and motivate brands and companies to reach out to them.

Some might pick it up and use their old email tactics – often unpersonalized, uncustomized, unhuman… Feedback might not be valued the way it deserves to be recognized. Companies will start pushing promotions out to them. Why not, if they ask for it? Why not, on a daily basis? Why not challenge their current capabilities at high frequency, harness their brand feedback and hand out permanent sales offers? Why not…? Another study might tell them why…

So far, so good…

Sales is the key driver for business. Business can’t live without push, promotion and placement. Upsale is upscale. No gain, much pain. Companies love to take the money from their customers but do they really care about sustainability? But how can a company in a world of quarterly reporting, balanced scorecards and budget pressure pay attention and give credit to sustainability?

The value of sustainability in business from an executive management point of view was just highlighted in the study “Sustainability: The ‘Embracers’ Seize Advantage” from MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group. Managers who take the sustainability approach as a key strategic metric to their business will improve brand reputation, claims the study. And most companies are “looking towards a world where sustainability is becoming a mainstream, if not required, part of the business strategy”. Thus, having an essential impact on their sales and web-strategy…

Salestainability is where the worlds of sales and sustainability face the competition to understand which customers are the best ones and how to embrace, hug them and treat them. Who are the best…?

Those who don’t follow/fan/like and still get emails, newsletters and direct mail and don’t unsubscribe?
Those who like the brand on Facebook and do conversation around a brand but don’t buy…?
Those who buy through Groupon, take cheap offers and are one-stop shoppers, never seen again?
Those who follow and listen through Twitter for bargains and rate them with a RT or share it?

Who knows the answer? The answer might be: Find the right salestainability!

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Salestainability is not a phrase, it is a challenge. Salestainability is getting the balance right between “want” and “wish”, and thinking about diversification and respect. It is an external strategic business attitude towards training the customer on the social web capabilities around a company and brand. Internally, it is about not exhausting the business immanent SocialCRM tactics. Letting the customers breath and take their own decisions without being pushed too hard, without getting under pressure – with the approach of willing to find and give the personal touch from and to the customer. With the pleasure for social shopping leasure.

That’s what I would define as the future salesforce. That’s what I would call… salestainability!

What do you think of salestainability, it’s definition and it’s future outlook for a business that creates a powerful and still customer-centric strategy?

Study – Listening to Social Media? Brands: Not really…!

Sometimes the marketing scenary sounds unreal and bizarr… and still so realistic. Marketing budgets for Social Media and digital marketing increase but marketers admit that they don’t really listen to the conversations, and 70% don’t even have a deeper understanding of what is happening around their brands on the social web. This is the outcome of the latest study by Alterian called “How Engaged Is Your Brand?”. The survey asked 1,500 marketers, agencies, marketing services providers (MSP), and systems integrators (SI) between October to December 2010.

The study reports that 75% of marketers expect their Social Media and digital marketing budgets to grow. However, almost one-third of the responding marketers (31.4%) state that they have little or no understanding about social media conversations around their brands. Interestingly enough most of the marketers don’t even track and measure Social Media conversations properly. 38.6% say they just use a few ad-hoc tools to do so.

It seems to be a service or agency business in the eyes of marketing departments: 44% of agencies reply they report regularly to their client management about Social Media conversations, compared to 27% of marketers. If marketers see their brand at risk, 57% are taking action, 13% haven’t taken action and even 7% are seeing major issues, but have no plan how to react. 22,7% don’t see their brand at risk.

The study highlights also some other important content web-business strategy questions. In terms of email management it becomes clear that personalization is a key topic where marketers improve their tactics. Alterian focusses their questions on segmentation (which is one of their main services) and finds that 43% deliver specific email to each audience. Nevertheless, only 13% deliver emails on individual customer level engagement in real-time depths. The websites still lack attention in terms of personalization. Just 11% of marketers make a website experience a personalized visit. 55% still concentrate on pushing campaigns to generate website activity, and 34% use their company website as a corporate brochure.

Obviously, most marketers have anylytical limitations – be it because they don’t know how to connect analytics and campaign strategy (28%) or as they have basic analytical skills (29%). Other problems are often based on the gap between marketing and IT. Marketers quoted as reasons implementation issues (21%), budget (17%), prioritization (15%), and marketing tool selection (13%).

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The marketing industry continues their way from mass communication to work towards a true personalized engagement with customers. Social Media is in the centre of attention at the moment. Clients get more influence on brands and how they interact with them. Social Media should always be seen in the context of all business and brand acitivies, although many brands at the moment seem to loose the focus on all their marketing activities. However, it appears to me that companies and brands forget about the importance of the website and how it might effect a purchase decision. Personalization is only happening on a low level but Alterian is already seeing a new age called “individualization”.

Evolution by Revolution – a phrase or a case?

Yesterday, I came across a good post by Adam Singer that inspired me (as well as his comment to my comment) to finally explore a bit on the phrase: “evolution by revolution”. I don’t know whether this phrase is new, or invented by me but I would love to claim it as my invention. And as Google did not have any results on the phrase for me, I herewith put my trademark behind the phrase – maybe to make a case… “evolution by revolution”.

The phrase is one of these thesis I use for educational courses to discuss and leverage a modern social web world approach with C-level management teams in Europe. I have used it in many seminar or webinars when I was talking about the change management challenges that the Social Web, Social Networks and Social Media bring to live these days.

In the past of human kind, revolutions were often a way for the lower class or segments/departments in an organization to state their case. For them, the challenge to be heard, to get access to the higher education, to have enough food or to benefit from any other kind of wellness or upper (business) lifestyle was often only accessable by a revolution. Revolutions cost money. Revolutions are tough. Revolutions sometimes make sacrifices. Revolutions change habits, perspectives and … business objectives. And revolutions always happened publicly – via newspapers, magazines or even flyers in the streets.

Today revolutions spread faster. In our social web world today, the traditional print media opportunities are added (or replaced?) by new media formats that every individual can use to state their case. And sometimes it “pisses people off” as Adam would have put it. But it makes the case of the unhappy, unsatisfied and underdogs. Suddenly, somebody writes something that is not mainstream, not the evolution strategy of the leadership but becomes the new revolutionary fruits of growth for the management if these people listen, communicate and collaborate, if they pay attention – whether it be the clients, the partners or even employees that start the revolution.

Their voice might be found on all kinds of platforms, in a tiny revolutionary statement in a blog post, a comment in a LinkedIn group (think about the impact for B2B business) or in a Facebook fanpage. Think about it! No! Think about it! Rest…

Some companies put all their PR & marketing budgets in the effciency of search marketing but then forget about the power of blog posts, and what it could do to them. They don’t think of it as negative cases. Think positive! Think ahead! Think about how to leverage the power of social options!

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This modern world of communication is all about humans – the past, the present and the future. Evolution follows every revolution (…in my eyes). Consumer or end user buzz for positive and negative business impact always starts an evolution whilst being embraced as revolution first. It changes the mindset. And evolutions can be positive and negative. It needs to be seen as a turn around opportunity, as a business review option, and as a way to think ahead to prevent revolutions.

“Evolution by Revolution” is a (business) challenge – not a phrase! C-level management should forget that… That’s my case!

What’s yours on this topic…?

The World after Advertising & The Internet of Things

Last week, I had the opportunity to take part in (and speak about the future of targeting at) an interesting event called The World after Advertising. The well-organized day offered a full program on the future of media and web business from all aspects: advertising, collaboration and insights, insights, insights which will help us understand the new ways of monetization and how to turn our business models in the direction of a cultural change that is happening already.

For me the most inspiring speech was held by Rob Gonda, Director of Strategy at SapientNitro. Rob was giving a broad overview of the digital landscape and his interactive outlook into 2020. I liked his approach to make people understand that in principle our business stays simple. It is based on technology, media and data, and the way these will be interacting in the future. When he quoted data from Morgan Stanley that there is a global opportunity for internet advertising of 50 Billion USD, he got the right switch to the main technology that will drive these bucks: Go mobile!

Thinking about the future of the internet and the future of advertising (if the future of advertising will be advertising), I actually got two views this week: Rob Gonda’s and Dean Donaldson’s (Mediamind). Having attended a Mediamind event on Monday, the output of both speeches sounded alike: Sensors are the future drivers of the (mobile) internet and might replace (or even become?) the cookie technology at some point in the future. “Sensors are the cookies of the future,” said Dean Donaldson. And Rob showed examples like Ray Ban’s virtual mirror and Unilever’s ShareHappy (see video).

In his key-note he also talked about the Internet of Things, he mentioned that Wallmart uses RFID codes for better tracking of their inventory and expects manufacturers to put RFID codes on products before they come to their stores. Although Rob considers a “normal level” evolving and adapting from a user perspective when maschines start talking to each other. I base my view more on a sceptic user behaviour, a privacy debate which will arise from it (or people will simply cut out the labels…), and also a cultural alongside the evolution of a new generation. He made clear that he sees the tipping point of the Internet of Things (see IBM explanation video) not before 2020 – another view I share with him. Though there are many reasons of why the Internet of Things could be with us earlier than we think.

After his speech I had the option to touch base with him on the Internet of Things. Watch it…

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His six predictions were definitely something to think about. Though I rate his visions, I would doubt that all of these will become reality…
- Location-Based-Services will die – My answer: Depending on user flexibility and information overflow, and whether the user wants to receive information from things like wallpapers and the likes when they are passing by…
- Facebook own 50% of advertising – My answer: Whenever a market-leader became to popular, some new start-up or competitor took market share of them. Do I not see an advent on the horizont from the guys at Paths and Diaspora…?!
- Facebook penetrates APAC >2bn users – My answer: Defintely worth a try for Facebook, no surprise…
- Android + GoogleMe – My answer: Yep…!
- MediaTradeFloor: My answer: The danger for a jobtitle like media planer to die becomes reality, it seems…
- Media budgets will shift – My answer: Yes, the challenge will be to integrate the user in this process. If he/she voluntarily tells us their preferences, ad technology will deliver more precisely and ads/commercials will receive new conversion levels.

Looking forward to get your views on the Internet of Things or on Rob’s predictions… Share them with us! Let’s discuss…

Study: NASA and White House understand the web and social media

The NASA and the White House seem to be the leading edge on Social Media usage inside the U.S. public sectors groups. This is the result of a study released by George Washington University School of Business and digital think tank L2

The research, done by George Washington University School of Business dean Doug Guthrie, New York University professor and L2 founder Scott Galloway measured the effectiveness of web sites, Social Media, digital marketing, and mobile platform support from 100 different public sector groups as well as independent agencies, the executive branch, advocacy organizations, armed forces, political parties, industry associations, and multilateral organizations.

The key finding of the study is that most groups in the public eye are taking advantage of digital technologies to spread their content and message. Some organizations show a savvy use and strategic approach of the web and social media. Nevertheless, most groups are still stuck on traditional media tactics.

The NASA succeeded in the test in the first place with a IQ score of 184 showing an innovative knowledge in all areas the research covered. Their success metrics: Using latest technology like streaming video, 3-D visualizations and Gowalla, the location-based network. Their firgures: 3 mio users a month, 600.000 Twitter followers and 150.000 Facebook fans.

The White House finished number 2 with a score of 158. Their strategic approach puts YouTube in front to address the country with speeches by President Obama and other members of his staff. They also do online contests to balance the budget. Facebook and Twitter seem to be their main focus and offering a personal-looking conversations.

On the less successful groups 51% were branded as “challenged” or “feeble” by L2. The “challenged” group included the Tea Party Patriots, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The “feeble” list which mentioned groups of weak web and social media use included Anti-Defamation League, The Department of Commerce, and the National Organization for Women.

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“The advent of the social Web has fundamentally changed our nation’s public sector organizations. We’re likely to see a transfer in power and influence from organizations that are digitally inept to those who are digitally deft.” L2, Founder Scott Galloway

I can only agree with him and say that the use of the web and Social Media will have a much stronger effect and impact on business and organizations in the next ten years. As soon as the user gets more familiar with the Social Web, its dynamics and the power of its options peoplewill start using their influence and change the way organizations communicate to and with them.

News Update – Best of the Day

Ecommerce is developing rapidly. And although users are said to be slow in adapting new technology, they expect their retailers to embed the latest trends and technology in their websites. As this will increase the sales potential of a business, companies should carefully listen to top 10 tactical trends by Michael Piastro which will help supercharge your ecommerce strategy for the future.

Social Media is in “at” your workplace, you said? Yes, but what does top management use it today? A new comprehensive study of more than 1000 business professionals by Pierre Khawand, Founder and CEO of People-OnTheGo shows that business decision makers manage multiple “inboxes” including Social Media. Social media is already a regular part of the work day. LinkedIn is the most popular social network. More than two-thirds (63.8%) of top management and almost three-quarters of marketing (73.9%) and sales (74.2%) respondents check LinkedIn regularly. Isn’t it interesting that private email is as popular as business email for top management? Social Media or private emails… Thinking about what might affect productivity more in the future…

Are small companies spending most of their marketing funds into Social Media in 2011? No! The use traditional websites and e-mail, says a report by online survey firm Zoomerang and GrowBiz media that surveyed 751 small firms (predominantly with less than 25 employees). The survey finds that over a quarter will spend at least 30% of their online marketing budgets on their websites, E-mail coming in second (18%). Only 10% were planning to spend at least 30% of their budgets on Social Media.

The way to the real-time future of marketing mix

When you hear the term “marketing mix”, what do you think…? Pause! Think… Pause!

Does that sound familiar to you? For some of you it might. To others it blurs as they follow the hypes as new marketing topics that are shouting at them. Or did you listen to their silent tones? Isn’t it better to varify and understand the client before start creating a new marketing-mix.

Watching the latest videos on your Youtube channel, talking to “friends” on Facebook or following the latest conversations on Twitter is one thing. Drawing conclusions out of these conversations on the social web world is another. And taking actions like evaluating adwords versus email versus social network marketing or blogs versus micro-blogs) for your marketing mix afterwards is a third step.

Conclusions might also be that marketers realize that B2B people still read print preferably to online or love real face-to-face conversations. They might find out that these business decision makers think twice before they engage in conversations. Reasons might be social media guidelines or policies. Steps are needed (like social media monitoring) before you start understanding your own marketing mix could pay out (i.e. online and offline focus groups).

Other marketing opportunities have never died although social media still hypes. And there is a reason why the “marketing mix” phrase was created by Neil Borden some years ago. Not only as it is an easy to understand phrase. More as we use it in our daily business as marketers without even noticing anymore. It is in our DNA. It is a necessity. Will it ever be removed? I doubt it…

Isn’t it interesting that we never had something like “The ultimate approach to market your products and services”?

Obviously, there is none. In over 50 years nobody found one. Why that is? Well, the world is driven by human beings and their attitudes to become familiar and aware of new things is a dynamic process. Some people adapt quick, other slower. They prefer to get informed via paper. Some like online (via publisher platforms, social networks or blogs). Some still stay offline (as they are often on planes or trains). Others record TV news programs and watch them on-demand with their iPads. And then others use mobile readers or apps to stay up to date with their favorite brands.

Seeing the social hypes in our business world from an outside perspective, I sometimes get the feeling that marketers have to refocus on where users are in their “adaption of technology evolution”. And not invest all their money in one horse race. Or to use another business anology from a tactical HR point of view: Never let the whole sales team be on the same flight.

Where is the difference in marketing?
Is there one? If all your marketing budget goes on airport billboards and then an oil crisis comes up, the invest equals zero in terms of earn out. Or if you buy just one ad in a service provider catalogue on the web but the world uses Google and cannot find the provider in the first ten results, the budget might be wasted.

Some companies think investing in Twitter or Facebook saves their brands awareness in the future but forget that these sites go down once in a while. And then the data is gone or not accessible. Lucky are those who can be approached from other access points then – be it via a phone call (at most companies I am searching hours for a phone number), at an event promoted with social media maybe, at their corporate website, or the self-hosted community that is not on the popular social networks.

The cocktail of having different access points available, and those interacting with each other, is the marketing mix of the future. Although they might have a single target or focus the are aiming at, the marketing mix should be aligned to one common strategy: Engage the client.

Spot on!
As we are automizing our marketing more and more, we always have to keep an eye open which tools and trends are coming up. As technology evolves quite quickly, human beings tend to forget that they need to adapt their marketing mix accordingly. Having said that it does not mean they have to switch their marketing mix approach immediately. Watch out for the tipping point when your power buyers, your brand vangelists, start using different technology. This is the time when the “adaption of technology evolution” happens…

B2B study: Content tactics marketers are using

Content in the B2B space continues to be… king. Especially since Social Media conquers the interest of users and consumers, companies have to establish a good content strategy in order to attract the interest of their audience properly.

Junta42 and MarketingProfs, supported by American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, made a research with over 1,100 North American B2B marketers from different industries and company sizes to understand their thoughts and trends on content topics. The study “B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” is probably the most representative survey about content marketing in the business-to-business (B2B) space for now.

Most companies know the importance of content marketing and make use of it as much as possible. Nine out of 10 organizations market with content. These marketers are using eight content tactics on average. The most popular tactics are social media (excluding blogs) (79%), articles (78%), in-person events (62%) and eNewsletters (61%).

The budgets for content marketing rise. The responding B2B marketers allocate almost 26% of their overall marketing budgets to content marketing initiatives and programs. A good portion, 51% of B2B marketers, plan to increase their spending in content marketing over the next 12 months.

Still, there is no real understanding of how to measure the effectivness of the different tactics. The “confidence gap” is quite large.

Of the 79% of B2B marketers who challenge social media, just 31% of marketers think they use this tactics effectively.

The full study can be downloaded here.

Spot On!
It could be interesting to know who you think produces the most relevant content for the B2B space. Is it the publishers, bloggers, or already the companies themselves with their PR departments? And who will it be in the future? Looking forward to your statements…

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