Social Marketing

Viral media is becoming more and more contagious across Latin America. While common viruses are often transmitted by mosquito bites, the media contagion is spreading through sound bites that exponentially amplify the volume of the conversations taking place in social networks and media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Orkut, Google, and MySpace.

The spread and the intensity of the buzz are not only confined to the most tropical areas of the region, where people tend to be very social, or in nations with high connectivity rates. Rather, it is a virus that is quickly spreading across all of Latin America and the Caribbean, differing from country to country only in how the buzz is being spread and to what end. Available at HispanicPRpro.com

There probably isn’t a single advertising or marketing communications agency today that hasn’t checked the box on “social media marketing.” Can you think of one that hasn’t? No? Didn’t think so.Available at HispanicPRpro.com

While a majority of marketing professionals and company decision makers view social media as essential to their business, most have not made any money using it according to a recent survey by R2integrated (R2i). Further data analysis suggests that companies using social media profitably are more likely to possess defined social media strategies, dedicated social media managers, and follow social media thought-leaders. Available at HispanicPRpro.com

According to the BlogHer and iVillage “2010 Social Media Matters Study,” co-sponsored by The Nielsen Company and Ketchum, social sites are now a frequent destination for nearly three-quarters of Internet users. The study found similar rates of usage among men and women, and pegged the percentage of weekly social media users at 73% of the online population.

We’ve heard from countless brand marketers about the need for guidance when it comes to measuring the value of social media advertising. It’s why we’ve made a major investment towards helping advertisers understand how to achieve their brand goals in a social context. Our joint report: Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression provides early insights from Nielsen’s BrandLift product which analyzed survey data from more than 800,000 Facebook users in response to more than 125 Facebook ad campaigns from 70 brand advertisers. AVAILABLE at HispanicPRpro.com

Beats Me, but there are a ton of things to figure out before we settle on the Answer.

So who the heck owns social?

Courtesy of Advertising Age.

As “brand listening” on the web has now become standard practice, it’s time to go deeper to unlock the value, passion and insight hidden inside the everyday chatter happening outside the context of your brand. As social media usage and time spent on these sites grows globally, the need for this deep social listening, with the proper approach and analysis, is more important than ever.

The percentage of Americans age 12 and older who have a profile on one or more social networking Web sites has reached almost half (48 percent) of the population in 2010 – double the level from two years ago (24 percent in 2008), according to the new national survey from Arbitron Inc. and Edison Research, The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio.

Social networks reach an estimated 940 million people around the world, according to January 2010 research from InSites Consulting. Most are there for personal reasons, such as sending messages, looking at pictures, and posting and responding to status updates. But interactions involving information about products and services have proliferated as brands encourage online word-of-mouth.

ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting unveiled a consumer study which looked at the effectiveness of word of mouth marketing and the profile of influencers, individuals who are more likely to talk about a product or brand to their friends and social network. DOWNLOAD REPORT.

On average, global web users across 10 countries spent roughly five and a half hours on social networks in February 2010, up more than two hours from the same time last year. While the U.S. boasts the largest unique social networking audience, Italian and Australian web surfers led the way for average time on site with more than six hours each in February.