Marketing Pilgrim

Need a shot of the milk of human kindness? Spend a little time on a social network and your faith in humanity will be renewed.

So sayeth the majority of the 2,260 adults who responded to the latest Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project study.

“The tone of life on social networking sites” takes a look at people’s perceptions about their interactions on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

85% of adults said that their experiences were mostly kind. 68% went so far as to say that they had an experience that made them feel good and 61% felt closer to another person thanks to social media. And how about this? 39% said they frequently saw acts of generosity by others. Frequently!

No matter how you feel about Google, Plus 1′s and Google + or how you think they should or should not influence search results you have to admit that Google has created some positive social waves for the first time in its history.

So just how big is this impact? Compete calls it enormous

It is now safe to say that Google+ is becoming an enormous success, with nearly half of the unique visitors of Twitter (40,411,065 unique visitors in December). With a steep upward trend and knowledge of the power behind a Google product, expect continued growth from the unequaled search engine’s social platform known for ingenuity, creativity, and revolutionary product offerings.

Compete uses the following numbers as the support for this claim.

We often talk about how much a “like” is worth in terms of marketing. But what is a “like” worth to the consumer?

Take a look at this chart from eMarketer. The results clearly show that consumers expect to get something in return for their click. But when the CMO Council asked marketers what they thought, they said that consumers clicked out of loyalty or love for their product.

It is true that clicking the like button does imply a certain fondness for a brand, but love will only get you so far. Once the bloom is off the rose, consumers want to be rewarded for their loyalty.

You could go to Jared, or you could offer coupons, discounts, and freebies, They’re the best way to get me to like your Facebook page.

Right now, some of the top internet entrepreneurs are in New York City discussing social commerce, Facebook, the daily deal space and all things social media.

It’s all happening at the Social Commerce Summit and since we can’t all be there, Business Insider is boiling down the important points in a series of articles on their website. It’s still a lot to take in, so I’m narrowing it down even more.

Here’s my pick for the top 5 pieces of marketing advice culled from lists put together by Business Insider.

5. Like it or not — Google+

Jason John, Gilt Groupe marketing exec says:

Search is extremely important to us. Google will have its way and we will have to focus on Google+. We launched our presence on Google+ yesterday.

While Tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook generate buzz, LiveJournal has been quietly steaming along for 13 years. The service is the ultimate combination of blog and social media, connecting folks with like interests with easy friending tools and communities.

And though it may seem like blogging is on the way out, LiveJournal is looking to pump up the volume with the concept of super communities.

LiveJournal General Manager Anjelika Petrochenko talked with me about the future of the service and how it could become the next big thing for any one marketing content.

CB: Can you talk a little about blogging’s place in social media. It seemed like it was headed out but now is experiencing a resurgence.

The Integer Group and the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council understand the importance of social networking in marketing. That’s why they’ve dedicated themselves to making sense of it all, beginning with a five-part series called entitled Untangling the Social Web: Insights for Users, Brands and Retailers.

The first part is available right now (it’s free) and right off the bat you’ll find this little gem.

Comparing social media to high school isn’t an original concept, but I do like the way they’ve phrased it. It’s funny. It’s all true and it explains why social media is such a fickle beast.

Here’s another gem:

40% of social networkers log on
to a social site before they get
dressed in the morning.

No wonder General Mills is so set on making cereal boxes digitally interactive.

There is a lot talk about Facebook. The billionaires, the millionaires, the speculation, the complaining, the changes. You name it, the list goes on.

Of everything I have read, one quote summarizes it all from Wall Street Journal article. It comes from Veronica Stecker the media manager for Omaha, NE based retailer Gordmans. Simply put in just 44 words (or 255 characters including spaces according to Word’s word count function).

We still don’t have a huge correlation between Facebook fans and return on investment in an actual sales in store. Until that metric becomes a lot more solid, I don’t think our company or other brands are going to be full-fledged into Facebook advertising.

Agree? Disagree? Have an opinion? How will this observation impact Facebook as it tries to own the world?

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