In Social Media Marketing, Content in the Right Context is King

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Random Acts of Progress

We’ve written about this topic several times before and decided to revisit it again as Social Media Marketing strategies are constantly getting refined and reiterated; and context is continuously vying for parity with content.

The above 18 minute video, Brian Solis’ June 2012 interview with Deanna Brown, CEO of Federated Media Publishing, is worth watching. According to Deanna, “Content, in the right context, is ultimately king.” If you dig into the video, pay close attention to the details. There’s some valuable but subtle information in it.

4thWeb officially replaced “content is king” with “content in the right context is king” almost four years ago. The evolution of Social Media was the driver of that change. Today, Social Media is mainstream, and “content in the right context is king” is a widely-adopted Social Media methodology mantra.

The more the context and content matches the users interests (this usually requires a longer tail), the more the content resonates with users (if it’s good of course) and drives better engagement, in dialog, sharing, and active participation. This is almost always the case no matter where the destination is; be it Facebook, a Brand site, a Blog, etc. And also within a specific sub-set of that context (e.g., a specific Facebook campaign page, Blog post, etc.).

Here’s an excerpt from our 5-part series (“The 5 Stages of Social Media Engagement”) that we wrote at the beginning of 2012. In Social Media time, an eternity.

“Full results are finally coming in. The company is completely engaged with customers. At this point, results are considered a major business breakthrough and customer satisfaction is at an all time high. Revenue increases as does customer loyalty. Customers remark that their needs are anticipated and their ideas are being used to create a better company. The company is totally immersed in social media and can’t imagine business before it. Part of the company’s main policy is social media engagement with customers. They promote themselves as a company that listens and considers customer concerns a top priority. With constant engagement, companies are able to prove that they not only listen but act on everything a customer has to say. All levels of the business are engaging customers, including top level executives. Employees are fully trained and able to anticipate customer needs. By judging customer responses to pre-promotion, companies are better able to manage financial risks, despite the difficult economic times. Companies have not only prices and profits, but live customer feedback to measure results. This allows them to constantly tailor business practices for optimal results. Social media becomes an integral part of day to day business tasks. From researching customer buzz to providing real time customer support, businesses see customers as people and employees, instead of just a way to make a profit. Engagement is tied closely to revenue with practices and services changing to meet social media needs. Both the company and its customers are happier with their new relationship. Employees are more productive and campaigns are more efficient since there is no guess work on what customers want and need.”

The above excerpt is a snapshot of a fully engaged Social Media enterprise. They’ve invested much time and treasure in Social Media and a “content in the right context is king” strategy. Not all enterprises and organizations are at this level but all should adopt “content in the right context is king” thinking. Users like and want to engage but on their own terms. They like searching, voting, playing, filtering, personalizing, creating, sharing, conversing, trying and buying; but in a context that they’re interested in, and in a way that’s comfortable and rewarding to them. And the organizations and enterprises that provide context and content (in that order) that matches users interests, and present it well, typically have high user engagement and earned media rates; the holy grail of social media.

Do you like our article “In Social Media Marketing, Content in the Right Context Is King”? If so, become a part of it … share your comments below.

Content in the Right Context is King

In Social Media Marketing, Content in the Right Context Is King

Infographic – Facebook 'Likes' Money (Behind the IPO)

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Net Neutrality, Random Acts of Progress, Visionary

Facebook was developed and launched from inside a Harvard dorm room (8 years ago)

Facebook is now on the brink of an Initial Public Offering that has the company valued at up to $100 Billion. That’s well over enough to cover the national debts of Cuba, Guatemala, and Panama put together. There are 900 Million registered users on Facebook. That makes Facebook the third largest country! The average user spends 20 minutes a day on Facebook. 900 Million users Facebooking 20 minutes each day comes to 16,000 years of Facebook in one day.

2 Billion pieces of information are “Liked” on Facebook every day.

Mark Zuckerberg and 1,999,999,999,999 others like this. Everyday. An IPO or “going public” means that anyone can now buy a piece of this company. Kind of like paying to show you “Like” them. Initial offering will price shares between $28 and $35. According to Zuck, $35 doesn’t sound like much. But it’s raised a lot of eyebrows.

Facebook’s total value is almost $100 Billion

That’s almost twice as much as Boeing and three times as much as Starbucks. At almost 1 Billion users, each Facebook user is worth about $100.00. Yelp’s users are worth about $20 each. Instagram’s users are worth about $30 each. Twitter’s users are worth about $70.00 each.

Is this company really worth $100 Billion? Some are skeptical. Zuck says: Even though we’re a $4 Billion dollar company, with a nearly 50% profit margin, we’re growing at over 75% per year!!!!! Warren Buffet says: I’m not buying it.

Facebook IPO Infographic

Infographic Source: MBA Online

Return to top: Facebook ‘Likes’ Money (Infographic)

We’d like to hear your thoughts on our Facebook IPO post. You can share them in the comments section below.

Facebook on Smartphones: Leads Mobile Engagement

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Random Acts of Progress

Facebook on Smartphones: Leads Mobile Engagement

According to comScores’s new Mobile Metrix 2.0 report, released on May 7, 2012, Facebook ranks as the most engaging media property among U.S. Smartphone users. The average Facebook mobile user engaged for more than 7 hours in March, 2012. That’s good and bad news for Facebook. The good news is that Facebook’s overall usage and engagement continues to trend up and users spent more time on Facebook in March 2012 than in February 2012 on Smartphones.

Facebook Top Smartphone Properties by Total Unique Visitors

The bad news is that Facebook users are starting to spend more time on Facebook on their Smartphones than they are on their desktops (includes laptops, pads, etc.)

Problem is, Facebook is getting pennies on the dollar for mobile ad revenue compared to desktop ad revenue. We talk about this in our recent Blog Post “Never Underestimate the Zuck (Facebook Instagram deal)”. So it seems that as the popularity of accessing Facebook on Smartphones increases, the popularity of accessing Facebook on desktops is declining.

On Facebook, the top ranked mobile media property by engagement, 80 percent of time spent in March 2012 was represented by App usage compared to 20 percent via Browser

Analysis of the share of time spent across Apps and Browsers revealed that even though these access methods had similar audience sizes, Apps drove the lion’s share of engagement, representing 4 in every 5 mobile media minutes. Analysis of the top properties also revealed widely varying degrees of time spent between App and Browser access methods. Also, the Facebook mobile App ranked within the top five Apps on both iOS and Android platforms, securing the #3 spot among iPhone users (80 percent reach) and the #5 position with Android users (68.9 percent reach). Generally, social networking proved to be a particularly popular activity on smartphones with Facebook once again leading the pack among social networking brands (Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.).

Facebook Selected Social Networking Properties

Facebook released an interesting disclaimer in its recent IPO filing document

“If users increasingly access mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected.” (Excerpt from Facebook’s Pre-IPO doc). So, Facebook is obviously tuned into the phenomenon of increased mobile usage=decreased desktop usage and is working on their mobile strategy to increase revenue from mobile. We think that at least part of Facebook’s mobile revenue will be driven from the way that Facebook re-implements Instagram and how it accesses Timeline (where some of the ads are now, and more seem likely to come). On the other hand, maybe Facebook will announce a new Facebook Mobile Phone soon. If they do that post-IPO, that announcement could send Facebook’s then public stock soaring 150%. Hmm. Sounds like a plan. We await future Facebook announcements with great anticipation (stay close to this one)!

Social Media Market Share Real-Time Statistics

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Random Acts of Progress

Social media marketing and sharing is dominated by the big five: Facebook, YouTube, Stumble Upon, Twitter and Pinterest

As of the end of June, 2012, Facebook dominates with over 900 million users who spend the most minutes per month on the site – typically over 400. Most users are ~60% female except for LinkedIn that’s ~60% male.

Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Social Media Market Share

Social Media
Stats are based on aggregate social media and other data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion pageviews per month.

Social Media Infographic: Social Networking Sites

For more articles and information on Social Media, click here.

Never Underestimate the Zuck (Facebook Instagram deal)

Posted Leave a commentPosted in Innovation, Random Acts of Progress, Visionary

Why Facebook Bought Instagram and Why That Matters?

Facebook recently bought Instagram for one billion dollars. Instagram is the fast, beautiful, fun way to share photos with friends and family. Instagram enables you to snap a picture, choose a filter to transform and theoretically improve its look and feel, then post to Instagram’s website. And you can share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s photo sharing, reinvented, and super easy to do. But, still, it’s reinvented; not exactly new or groundbreaking. So, why exactly did Facebook buy Instagram and why does that matter?

Facebook doesn’t need Instagram’s 30 million users.

It already has 850 million of its own. And Facebook’s ultra-simple built-in photo app is the most popular app on Facebook. So, why? Is Facebook predicting that its user acquisition rate will slow down? Don’t think so. They’ll likely hit a billion users sometime in the next year just on autopilot. Facebooks upcoming IPO guarantees that they’ll be spending most of their time and treasure on increasing revenues, not users. Of course, most of that is ad revenue. Instagram comes with users but no revenue and no obvious way to monetize their user base.

The Facebook Instagram deal looks like it’s a pure mobile play.

But, Facebook already has lots of mobile users. Well over 400 million users per month use Facebook on their mobile devices; and Facebook offers mobile apps on just about every platform. Problem is, Facebook is getting pennies on the dollar for mobile ad revenue compared to desktop ad revenue. In light of the upcoming IPO, Wall Street analysts are surely looking at this acquisition from the PoV of “how much revenue does the acquisition bring to the table v. the expense of keeping Instagram running and of course the one billion dollar price tag?”.

OK, this might be a bit of a stretch but maybe not. Facebook doesn’t own a piece of the image acquisition part of the mobile market. Instagram does. So, maybe Facebook is thinking that instead of Instagram users posting the images to Instagrams website, that users will start posting them to Facebooks timeline. That would result in more opportunities to serve ads to the desktop and of course that would increase revenues. I for one would like to see Facebooks spreadsheets on that one though since Facebook still has to recoup their one billion dollar investment and that will not be easy.

Maybe Facebook doesn’t have much of a choice?

Facebook wants a big piece of the mobile market and their current mobile offering may take too much time to develop into a revenue-generating service. Mobile image acquisition isn’t part of Facebook’s current mobile service but maybe that’s exactly what they need right now. The Instagram purchase, complete with business infrastructure and 30 million users, would instantly accelerate Facebook’s market share of the mobile market, and interface with Facebook in a way that increases Facebooks ad revenues on the desktop. Now this could be a Facebook mobile service that makes Wall Street happy. Right?

So, maybe the new Facebook Instagram service will enable users to quickly and easily take beautiful pictures, seamlessly share them to their Facebook timeline and friends, and Facebook gets to serve more ads to the desktop where they make their money. Maybe this is starting to sound like a match made in heaven. Never underestimate the Zuck.

Facebook buys  Instagram
Graphic created by: Online MBA Programs

Return to top: Why Facebook Bought Instagram and Why That Matters?

We’d like to hear your thoughts on our Facebook Instagram post. You can share them in the comments section below.