Social Marketing

Over the past several years we have measured technology use and adoption at the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University. We have consistently found that emerging minorities tend to lead in most areas of technology adoption. In 2012 with the cooperation of Research Now and the leadership of Ms. Melanie Courtright, we again collected an online national sample composed of Hispanics and Asians born in the US and those born abroad, in addition to African Americans and Non-Hispanic Whites. We used the country of birth as a proxy for acculturation to see if technology adoption varied accordingly. By Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D.

On Election Day 2012, the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds social media to be a significant part of the process by which voters are talking about their ballot selections, especially younger voters

Social media has been around for over ten years. My guess is that by now, your organization is probably involved in some way with social media. Maybe you have created a Twitter or Facebook account. Maybe you even have some friends and fans on those accounts, and you share things with them when you have time.

Although Hispanics overall post lower-than-average social networking penetration, online US Hispanics are social mavens. For them, the sites occupy an outsized place in their digital lives, according to a new eMarketer report, “US Hispanics and Social Networking: A Digital Space They Make Their Own.” In an Anglocentric online universe that pays comparatively little heed to Hispanic interests, social networks provide a congenial space.

As greater percentages of the population in Mexico become internet and mobile internet users, advertisers are devoting more resources to digital campaigns. eMarketer estimates that digital investments will grow by over 30% every year through 2014.

Less than a third of companies today use social media to support their corporate strategy and risk management practices, according to new research conducted by Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance, the Center for Leadership Development and Research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and The Conference Board.

The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many Americans. Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, and a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that 66% of those social media users—or 39% of all American adults—have done at least one of eight civic or political activities with social media.

As a marketer, you’re probably under constant pressure to validate your investment in social media. That means you need to be fully aware of the wide range of quantitative and qualitative benefits your social marketing delivers, both short- and long-term.

Although a lot of people may “like” or follow brands on social media, a smaller group goes beyond this, recommending products and services on a regular basis—brand advocates. Brand advocacy is becoming a critical part of the social media marketing mix, and marketers should leverage connections with these everyday influencers to amplify word-of-mouth online and increase engagement.

Major markets in Latin America have already shown a penchant for social networking on the world’s largest social site, Facebook, at least among internet users. And the region is expected to grow its social networking user population by double digits through 2014. As it does, newcomers and mavens are turning not only to Facebook but to smaller social sites as well.

From large urban areas to rural communities, Americans often report similarly high levels of interest in news. Still, a national survey shows that community differences emerge in the number and variety of local news sources people use in different types of communities, as well as their degree of “local news participation” through social media and their mobile news consumption.

Thirty-nine percent of online retail transactions by new customers start with clicks from paid or organic search results and less than 1% come from social channels according to a new Forrester report.

Learn why attracting followers is out and engagement is in, why social media strategy calls for better lemonade stands and fewer ice cream trucks, six tips for thinking outside the social media box and three essential reasons to think twice about audience engagement. Available on HispanicPRpro.com

Branded shopping apps are the strongest driver behind unplanned purchases, branded content on social networks drives people to try new products, and texts and social media are most likely to influence where people shop, according to a new study released by Ryan Partnership, an integrated marketing agency that is part of the Hyper Marketing, Inc. network.

Beverage alcohol is woven into the fabric of human socialization. And drinkers have taken that propensity online, where they are active on social media, according to a new eMarketer report, “Beer, Wine & Spirits: Engaging Millennials (and Drinkers of All Ages) via Social Channels.”

Even if, for many, current measures of social media marketing effectiveness are still basic, the goal of such programs has gone far beyond simply gaining followers and “likes,” research shows.