May 9th, 2013 // Small Biz Embracing Social Marketing; Location-Based, Not So Much

Posted in // MediaPost.com

Posted by // Erik Sass

Small businesses have embraced social media marketing in a big way, but aren’t nearly as keen on location-based social media like Foursquare, according to a new survey from Constant Contact, which provides digital marketing services to small biz owners.

An impressive 97% of small business owners told Constant Contact that they are using social media channels of one kind or another, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram. And 66% said they are using mobile marketing, including ads delivered to smartphones and tablets, Web sites optimized for mobile devices, or text messages. By contrast, just 17% said they are using location-based social media like Foursquare to market their business.

Meanwhile another survey of small business owners by Staples also found that Facebook and Twitter were the most popular social media marketing channels. In terms of goals, Staples found their main purpose is engaging customers -- endorsed by half of the respondents -- followed by increasing sales (46%) and raising brand awareness (44%). Perhaps unsurprisingly, small business owners don’t consider themselves social media marketing experts by any means, with 53% characterizing themselves as novices or completely ignorant of its potential benefits. On the other hand, 40% said that social media has benefited their companies.

Staples also announced a contest that aims to encourage small businesses to adopt digital media, with $50,000 prizes for three small businesses and paid digital marketing services for one grand prize winner. Companies who want to enter the Staples “Push It Forward” contest are asked to submit a 75-word essay (that seems more like a paragraph) describing what they would do with the prize money.

Read the entire article posted by Erik Sass as it was posted on MediaPost.com HERE.
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All credits for this article are attributed to its author, Erik Sass. The MediaPost logo is a trademark of MediaPost Communications. [AgooBiz is not affiliated with MediaPost Communications.]
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Apr. 22nd, 2013 // Moms Utilize Social Media, Online Spending

Posted in // MediaPost.com

Posted by // Gavin O'Malley

Moms have long held the household purse strings, but, in the age of social media, their influence now goes far beyond the front door. The vast majority of moms (91%) make regular use of social media -- a 20% increase from 2010.

Perhaps even more remarkable, over a fifth of moms (22%) now expect a high level of social media engagement from their friends and family, according to a survey of nearly 1,500 U.S. moms, according to new research from comScore and parenting site BabCenter.com.

“Social media has become so pervasive [among moms], it’s now fundamental to the way today’s moms live their lives,” said Mike Fogarty, senior vice president and global publisher at BabyCenter. “Today’s mom is the most influential and social consumer you’ll meet.”

Yet, all this social activity doesn't seem to be interrupting moms' shopping time. On the contrary, despite making up only 18% of the total U.S. Web population, moms were responsible for 32% of total online spending in the last quarter, according the research.

Compared to the general population, moms who are also heavy social networkers are more likely to shop online for clothing (61%), portable devices (91%), baby supplies (63%), and home and garden products (65%).

Despite the popular perception of gadget geeks as young and male, moms are actually early adopters of devices.
Compared to the general population, 49% more moms have smartphones (81% vs. 54%), while, in a year-over-year comparison, mom’s smartphone ownership is up 25%, while tablet ownership is up 79%.

More to the point, 89% of moms with smartphones access Facebook on their phones, and they are four times more likely to prefer to check social media via their smartphone than the average user.

Where are moms spending their social time? Today, 91% of moms have used Facebook in the past six months -- compared to 80% of the general population -- while nearly two-thirds of moms (61%) report having used Pinterest in the last six months -- nearly double its 30% usage among the general population.

Read the entire article posted by Gavin O'Malley as it was posted on MediaPost.com HERE.
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All credits for this article are attributed to its author, Gavin O'Malley. The MediaPost logo is a trademark of MediaPost Communications. [AgooBiz is not affiliated with MediaPost Communications.]
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Apr. 21st, 2013 // Social Media Affects Purchase Decisions, ARF Finds

Posted in // MediaPost.com

Posted by // Erik Sass

Social media has a measurable impact on consumer purchase decisions, according to a new study from the Advertising Research Foundation based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. shoppers. The study was commissioned by the ARF, conducted by Communispace, comScore, Converseon, and Firefly Millward Brown, and sponsored by General Motors, Google, Kraft, Motorola, and Young & Rubicam. Technical guidance was provided by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

The study, titled “Digital & Social Media in the Purchase Decision Process,” found that roughly one-third of shoppers said they were either introduced to a brand or product, or changed their opinion about a brand or product during the buying process, because of social media. What’s more, 22% of shoppers surveyed by the ARF said that social media was “important in my final purchase decision.”

By the same token, the ARF study emphasizes that many consumers may not be fully aware of the factors influencing their purchase decisions, as “some ‘shopping’ behaviors are taking place outside of consumer consciousness, as digital and social media have infiltrated consumers’ lives…”

On this note ARF executive vice-president for primary research Todd Powers stated: “This state of constant interaction with brands through digital and social media has come to challenge the purchase funnel, as we have traditionally understood it. This also challenges the notion that consumers are aware of the influences on their purchase decisions, and that they always make decisions consciously.”

While ARF studies are something of a gold standard for advertising research, there are some other recent studies suggesting a link between social media and purchasing behavior. Earlier this week I wrote about a study by researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Management, Aalto University and Texas A&M University, who were able to correlate social media engagement with increased purchases for a large specialty firm in the northeast U.S.

According to co-author Ram Bezawada, assistant professor of marketing in the School of Management at the University at Buffalo, “Our results show that when customers engage with a business through social media they contribute about 5.6 percent more to the firm’s bottom line than customers who do not.”

Read the entire article posted by Erik Sass as it was posted on MediaPost.com HERE.
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All credits for this article are attributed to its author, Erik Sass. The MediaPost logo is a trademark of MediaPost Communications. [AgooBiz is not affiliated with MediaPost Communications.]
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Jan. 15th, 2013 // Did Instagram Really Lose Half Its Daily Users?

Posted in // MediaPost.com

Posted by // Erik Sass

Say what you want about the New York Post, it doesn’t shy away from a fight. New York City’s newspaper of discord appears to be locked in an epic statistical pissing match with Facebook over the number of active users at Instagram (note to self: try to fit “epic statistical pissing match” into more conversations).

The NYP previously reported that data from AppStats showed Instagram’s active daily users dropping by about a quarter following its terms of service privacy fiasco, from 16.4 million on December 19 to 12.4 million on December 26. Facebook fired back that the data was “inaccurate,” but declined to specify how or why this was the case.

Now the NYP says that according to AppStat the number of active daily users has actually declined by about half, from 16.35 million on December 17, when the TOS change became public, to 8.42 million this week. In case anyone has trouble connecting the dots, the NYP also quotes AppStats CEO Sebastian Sujka: “The main loss will be most likely due to the terms of service changes, given how much attention and controversy the terms of service change has brought, and seeing how clearly the Instagram app dropped after the terms of service change.”

And this is where we come to the maddening thing about Web and mobile measurement: a set of numbers might seem to clearly suggest some sort of trend, but there’s always the possibility that they’re wrong. And not just a little wrong, or misinterpreted or massaged -- they’re somehow, like, diametrically opposed to reality according to another interested party (usually the company which stands to lose by the negative publicity).

Thus, Facebook insists that “We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram.”Another good example of this is Google’s ongoing dispute with various Web measurement firms about how much traffic there is on Google+: back in April 2012 Google CEO Larry Page said he was excited about “impressive growth” at Google+, while comScore data showed that users only spent around three minutes per month on the network (which in fact isn’t a social network at all, according to Google execs -- but I’ll leave that for another time).

Anyway, I think the problem is that the science of Web and mobile measurement is still so new that anyone who disagrees with numbers can simply call “methodology” and claim to have won the argument. It would be nice to know if the number of active daily users at Instagram dropped by half following the privacy uproar -- for one thing, it would be a good warning to Facebook and other social media sites that, despite appearances, consumers do care about privacy. But instead we’re left with speculation… or not even that, actually, since Facebook has now blocked access to Instagram’s user figures via its API.

Read the entire article posted by Erik Sass as it was posted on MediaPost.com HERE.
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Erik Sass is a journalist for MediaPost-Publications.
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All credits for this article are attributed to its author, Erik Sass. The MediaPost logo is a trademark of MediaPost Communications. [AgooBiz is not affiliated with MediaPost Communications.]
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