Social Marketing

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently conducted a new in-depth and statistically significant study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations. This new study revisits the Center’s study of Inc. 500 social media usage for the third consecutive year, making it a valuable and rare longitudinal study of corporate use of these new technologies.

This just in, consumers are now spending more time on social networks than any other form of website, including porn. The time is now to make the most of this newly emerging opportunity to connect with your consumer, to shape your brand, and develop long-term customer relationships at a fraction of ‘above the line’ media costs. In “Nine Ways Your Business Could Be Using Social Media, But Probably Isn’t,” the team at North Social outlines all of the ways that you can leverage social media to achieve your branding and business goals.

With everyone jumping on the social media bandwagon, Facebook contests are the hottest thing since Facebook itself and the average consumer gets exposed to plenty of contests and giveaways when they log on to check out their friend updates. Major brands have been quick to embrace Facebook as another potential facet to engage with their customers. Yet a majority of these brands remain faceless.

Americans have dramatically integrated social networking tools into their lives. Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the world’s leading advertising and marketing agency networks, conducted a study on how people use the ever-changing options in social and online media available today. According to the study, their world is expanding and narrowing at the same time because of social media’s hyperlocalization quotient. And “cyberdisinhibition” — being more willing to behave online in ways they wouldn’t in person — has both emboldened users and led them to inappropriate behavior.

Social networking is one of the fastest-growing activities among mobile users around the world. And as one of the primary ways mobile users communicate with one another, it is proving a significant driver of Internet usage on mobile devices.

Generation Y females have redefined the idea of “peer group” to encompass online friends, bloggers and anonymous reviewers, according to the “Why Y Women?” report from PopSugar and Radar Research.

This report adds new insights to an ongoing debate about the extent of social isolation in America. A widely-reported 2006 study argued that since 1985 Americans have become more socially isolated, the size of their discussion networks has declined, and the diversity of those people with whom they discuss important matters has decreased. In particular, the study found that Americans have fewer close ties to those from their neighborhoods and from voluntary associations. Download report here.

When is a phone not a phone? In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call. Parents are getting dialed in to the social media phenomenon and beginning to understand—and limit—how children use new media.

Despite the slowing growth of Twitter after its explosion earlier in 2009, many users still cannot get enough. Crowd Science reports that in August 2009, although only 27% of Twitter users posted daily, 46% checked for updates every day. Almost one in five social media users reported using Twitter in the past week.

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service.

Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices, and younger internet users – those under age 44.

Despite the recession, consumers are still spending with companies and brands which have a social purpose. New findings released from the 3rd annual Edelman goodpurpose Consumer Study, a survey of 6,000 people in 10 countries, revealed that during this recession, 57 percent globally say a company or brand has earned their business because it has been doing its part to support good causes (with Asian countries coming in highest with China [85 percent] and India [84 percent]). Two out of three (67 percent) globally also say they would switch brands if another brand of similar quality supported a good cause, peaking in Brazil (83 percent) and Italy (74 percent).

Senior Research Specialist Amanda Lenhart’s presentation, “The Democratization of Online Social Networks: A look at the change in demographics of social network users over time,” given at AoIR 10.0 in Milwaukee, WI on October 8, 2009. Presentation download available here.