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99% of Facebook Brand Fans Don’t Engage

posted on February 1, 2012

In an ideal Facebook marketing world, fans would like our pages, leave sweet comments on our amusing daily updates, and share their joy with their friends.

In the real world, it doesn’t work that way. You already knew that, but did you know how much it doesn’t work that way?

AdAge recently published the results of a study by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and here’s what they found.

1.3% of brand fans on Facebook are actively engaging with the brands they like. (Meaning I fudged the 99% in the headline slightly, but it’s more about the point than the number.) The study tracked the top 200 brands for six weeks, counting all of those actions that go into the “People Talking About This” number. That means shares, likes, comments, posts and tags.

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Google is Combining My Data! ….. Oh

posted on February 1, 2012

Thanks to Avinash Kaushik

Created by Kashmir Hill, Forbes.

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Win Copies of Brian Carter’s “The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook”

posted on February 1, 2012

Can you believe it’s been more than a year since we last gave away an awesome marketing book?

Yeah, time to fix that!

We’ve got 3 copies of Brian Carter’s The Like Economy: How Businesses Make Money With Facebook to give away to Marketing Pilgrim readers. Barely two months old, Brian’s book is already garnishing high praise–and 5 stars–on Amazon. If you know Brian, you know that he’s a pro when it comes to Facebook marketing and in The Like Economy, he promises to provide:

  • Clear, up-to-date answers about how Facebook can help their companies make money
  • Specific guidance on using Facebook to support and supercharge existing marketing programs
  • Detailed insights for crafting Facebook programs that reflect their unique products, services, and customers

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Search Ad Spend Continues Growth, Google Reaps Benefits

posted on February 1, 2012

Search isn’t going anywhere. Social is great and it’s important and it is likely to continue to gain momentum. In fact, those in social should enjoy these early years because you can use growth numbers that tout high double digit jumps mainly because the industry is young and those numbers are possible.

Search used to see the same numbers but as shown by a report from eMarketer the days of the big, gaudy numbers are likely over and that’s fine for two reasons. First it is unrealistic to expect 30, 40, 50, 60 percent growth. It is unsustainable as more of the market gets on board. Less people not exposed means less growth. Second, there will still be growth predicted through 2016! How many industries can say that today?!

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Report Shows Marketers Less Confident in Measurement of Efforts

posted on February 1, 2012

eConsultancy along with Experian Marketing Services has released their Marketing Budgets 2012 report and as we have seen in the recent past, most companies continue to or intend to continue to increase spending on the digital channel. That’s good news in that there is recognition that the digital channel is an effective use of marketing dollars which can often be harder to find in the current economic climate. Here are some quick data points from the study.

  • Of those companies increasing their digital marketing budgets, 79% will increase them by more than 10%.
  • Three-quarters (74%) of companies are increasing their investment in digital marketing technology this year, up from 67% in 2011.
  • More than half (56%) of companies are planning to recruit more people into their digital marketing teams in 2012, up from 52% in 2011.

There is more evidence given in the report that companies are turning more to the digital space as we move forward and we get that. It’s good news for those of us in the space but growth hasn’t been the problem.

Despite this rise in investment in the digital world the real problem comes in the analysis of this data. Whether it is in the online or offline space, marketers appear to be a getting a little less cocky about their ability to measure what is actually happening in the space. Take a look at this.

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10 Things the FBI Knows About Social Media Monitoring You Can Use to Generate Leads and Close Deals

posted on February 1, 2012

The following post comes from our Inbound Marketing Channel sponsor HubSpot.

The FBI recently posted a Request for Information (RFI) for a “social media application.” But, it was really a request for a social media monitoring application. Why? Because the FBI recognizes what many inbound marketers already know and many others are discovering: There’s gold in them thar social media data.

You can use the same social media monitoring attributes the FBI wants to use to catch bad guys to generate and nurture leads, identify hot spots (good and bad), and close more deals.

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3 Must-Take Steps to Brand Search Results for Your Name

posted on February 1, 2012

Long passed the days when we had to wonder why we should care about search results for our (brand) names. Google reputation management is a well-known phrase to anyone making a living online. Hence, you are most likely to know that in order to maintain stable presence in branded search results, one should be working continuously.

If you are blogging a lot and care about your brand name and what people see when they are searching Google for your name, here are exactly three things you need to do once to improve your Google search results branding:

1. Verify the Authorship of Your Articles

A few months ago Google got really serious about giving more credit to great content authors. As a result, you can see the author’s headshot right within relevant search results.