Social Marketing

Media and telecommunications executives expect the burgeoning transition to digital and the rapidly growing mobile-related markets to supply the biggest revenue growth drivers during the next one to three years, according to the results of the annual Media and Telecommunications Industry Business Outlook Survey by KPMG LLP.

Many larger companies and brands are active on social media, but small and medium-sized businesses still lag behind when it comes to using social media and integrating it throughout the business.

The ongoing shift in consumer media usage habits from traditional to digital media will be pushing the grocery industry in a distinctly social direction, according to research from media and marketing services firm Valassis.

Content is king! Content marketing now plays a significant role across the customer lifecycle, helping marketers attract and retain customers with relevant, useful or entertaining information.

Social network users overall skew young, but when looking at specific sites, differences emerge between age groups.

A portion of social networking site users say the sites are important for some of their political activities and the way they decide how to engage with campaigns and issues. At the same time, most users of the sites say they do not use the sites for political purposes or debates.

The 2012 London Olympics showcased both the potential and the pitfalls of social TV. On the day sprinter Usain Bolt won the 100-meter dash, Bluefin Labs tracked 2.1 million social media comments related to NBC’s broadcast of the race. But the so-called “social media Olympics” also revealed significant challenges remain when it comes to integrating TV networks and social media. NBC was criticized for how it handled several aspects of the social-TV mix, while Twitter came under fire for its role in the brief shutdown of a reporter’s account.

Social media provides opportunities for brands to connect with customers and prospects, but that openness and transparency often leaves companies vulnerable to critics.

Growth in social network usage around the world is driven by emerging markets, mostly in the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific. In Latin America, growth will be slightly below the worldwide average, but still represent a healthy 18.5% increase in users this year.

Though email increasingly competes with other digital channels for consumers’ time and attention, it continues to be an effective tool for marketers, according to a new eMarketer report, “Email Marketing Benchmarks: Key Data, Trends and Metrics.”

Nearly nine in 10 US companies with at least 100 employees will use social networks for marketing activities this year, eMarketer estimates. With so many companies tapping social networks to build brand awareness, gain new customers and keep current ones loyal, how much room is left for growth?

Anxious mothers show a tendency to go online in search of answers to an endless litany of questions about raising and caring for their kids. And mothers who looked to the web for parenting advice considered blogs to be the most trustworthy social media platform, according to a July 2012 survey of US online mothers by blog company BlogHer.

Kenshoo published a new report. “2012 Social Media Advertising Global Games” evaluates nearly 65 billion Facebook ad impressions to identify eleven critical mass countries and evaluate the performance of Facebook ads in those countries across six key “events.”

Internet users in Mexico have taken to social networking sites in large numbers since 2009, bringing the country’s plaza culture to Facebook and Twitter, as well as to hi5, which got an early boost because it offered a Spanish interface.

Social networking, aided by the widespread adoption of smartphones in the US, is quickly making the jump to mobile, according to eMarketer estimates.