Back in May we published an infographic about Top 250 Internet Retailers’ presence on social media. The infographic was perceived really well by our readers, customers and the media; thanks a lot to all the people sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and their blogs!
Now we are happy to present you with the Q3 update! Spoiler: those were two incredible quarters for Pinterest! Amazing growth in terms of the number of brands building their presence on Pinterest and the size of their communities!
Altimeter Group have released a great study on the social media ROI measurement practices, “The Social Media ROI Cookbook: Six Ingredients Top Brands Use to Measure the Revenue Impact of Social Media”. The study, which is based on the interviews with 38 social media technology vendors (including Campalyst), 15 brands and 3 agencies, as well as quantitative survey of over 70 brand and agency-side professionals, without doubt is the most comprehensive attempt to identify the practices brands apply and the challenges they face in attempting to measure ROI of social media.
As one of the key challenges in measuring social media ROI, Altimeter Group highlights the fact that “Social Data is New and Different”:
“Exists in online, offline, and across multiple screens, fragmenting data capture”. And though one can argue that measuring offline effect of digital marketing has not been solved yet even in more mature channels, such as display and search, the extensive usage of social media on mobile devices cannot be omitted, or that will lead to incomplete picture. After all, over 100 million people access Facebook solely on mobile devices in June, 2012 according to SEC filling.
“Is volatile, making measurements a moving target”. The metrics and data provided by social media networks to brands and technology vendors are in constant change. An example, provided by Altimeter Group includes the considerable changes Facebook rolled out to their APIs earlier this year. As the technology vendor, we can confirm that solely keeping up with the APIs is a skill on it’s own.
“Organizations don’t “own” social media the way they do their websites or other owned properties”. This particular feature of social media creates challenges for “pre-social” analytics solutions, that use cookies and tags for tracking, demanding the new solutions to solve the problem. There are numerous initiatives from Google, Adobe and IBM to address the challenges, but not a single solution has become a standard yet.
“Different apps and platforms give rise to different metrics, making a holistic view challenging”. While the “bottom of the funnel” metrics are still the same (visits, conversion rates, revenue, etc.), the “top of the funnel” metrics are now completely different from what they used to be. In the world of display the funnel looked simple, “banner ad impression -> click -> visit to website -> conversion”. Now try to imagine the conversion funnel for Facebook pages, “saw a ticker notification that a friend liked Page X -> “liked” the Page X -> saw a status update from Page X -> clicked the link -> visited website -> converted”. Finally, try to imagine the funnel for a Sponsored Story or Promoted Twitter Account!
The study concludes with 6 frameworks the brands use to measure the revenue impact of social media and illustrates application of those through a case study with SAP, Eventbrite and EMC (see figure below).
If you are interested in reading the full study, the report is available for download at Altimeter Group’s website. That’s a great read and highly recommended to everyone in search of the social media ROI!
On the concluding note, special thanks on behalf of Campalyst team to Susan Etlinger for including Campalyst into the study!
We are very excited to be at the Internet Week New York this week! If you are here, please visit our booth at the Startup City in HQ Building, 82 Mercer Street, New York. If you cannot make it to the event, you can watch the livestream here – and Campalyst will be pitching on the main stage at 5:30 pm EST.
We went to yesterday’s 212 NYC event - which focused on an entertaining and very current topic of using music to activate brands. The panel had two brands, represented by Pepsi Co’s Richard Cruz and Tiffany Hawkins of Ciroc (Blue Flame Marketing), and the music execs, represented by Kyle Sherwin of Sony Music Entertainment and Mike Nazarro from Type One Records. The discussion was moderated by Digiday’s Giselle Abramovic - and here are a few takeaways:
1. The world of music has obviously changed a lot over the last few years. Artists are more in control of the industry, and the brands are reacting by taking a more active role in music as well. Instead of being semi-passive sponsors of platinum artists’ world tours, brands have become an enabler of music and are increasingly diving into new ways of partnering with the musicians.
2. The “lifetime” of the artist has shortened significantly. For brands, this means that one may need to get their hands dirty and dig that latest Youtube sensation themselves – instead of waiting for the record label to go and sign them. Unsurprisingly, there are no established industry practices on the price range or terms of such partnerships, as well as no “off-the-self” solutions. Therefore, negotiating a brand partnership with an up-and-coming musician sometimes is a fairly challenging process, especially when the musician is being rapidly hyped up by increasing number of Youtube views.
3. Just like the artists, the platforms “age” faster as well. According to Pepsi, “millennials” move from one service to another very quickly, forcing brands keep up with the newest and hottest platform of the day. When you are planning campaigns for 2014, which is what Pepsi is doing, that is definitely a challenge.
4. Taking into account these changes, placing a sponsorship for a tour is not a foolproof strategy anymore. The partnerships between brands and record labels or musicians are becoming way more intimate – and also way more creative. According to Tiffany from Blue Flame Marketing, artists face a number of requirements to become brand partners, which are comparable to a record label deal. The cooperation also takes very different formats instead of just sticking a logo on the tour poster. Some examples of the latter trend are the awesome Pepsi’s Turntable.fm session with Diplo at SXSW (below), and Ciroc’s presence in a number of Rihanna’s Instagram pictures.
5. Meanwhile, record labels face a different set of issues. Since fans are increasingly reluctant to pay for music as such, monetization remains a challengeand record labels are looking towards brands as the answer. Record labels expect more closer partnerships to emerge – maybe even where brands buy music and make it an intrinsic part of their products.
Whether that happens remains to be seen. During the panel, however, Pepsi did incidentally say that their main competition is not “that other company”, but any entertainment-focused brand that can capture mindshare. And, considering the nature of music, it could actually be one of the best ways of getting into these minds!
Below: a final treat from the musical guest Tinashe at the event.
