Erik Qualman's Blog, page 691

150,000 "Like" Pippa Middleton's Tush on Facebook

Social media discussions and posts can help predict many things from the spread of the flu to election results.

Now we can also lump in identifying a new sex symbol.  Following the royal wedding festivities a Facebook page titled Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society sprung up.

As of last night there were 90,000 people that "liked" this, while as of this post now it's well over 150,000 and growing.

This was following Pippa Middleton's appearance as maid of honor in a figure-hugging dress in which some headlines read "her royal hotness." Pippa is the younger sister of Kate Middleton.

If you are a talent agent looking for the next break out celebrity you can use social media to check the pulse of the general public.

Pippa Middleton became a social media sensation following the royal wedding of her older sister Kate Middleton

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Automotive Soon to be Gorilla in Mobile and Social

The automotive sector led all categories in media spending, topping the charts at roughly $20 Billion last year. Vehicle manufacturer's large budgets and constant need for innovation in marketing give them both the means and the motivation to test and push new channels and tactics more aggressively than other verticals.

In their highly competitive market, automakers' must be progressive in appealing to shoppers in their desired media.  Especially among the younger more technically savvy demographic.  Consumer shift to new media has led to huge double digit growth in both mobile and social media.  The European brands have picked up massive followings on Facebook and Twitter, no surprise based on their traditionally strong brand loyalty.  BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, Audi and Mercedes top the list.

 

On the mobile front, the domestics have done a much better job of getting their feet wet and appealing to the growing number of consumers on their mobile devices.  Chrysler, Ford and GM all have built awareness and messaging of their brands via mobile websites and apps.  According to Millennial, automakers' who invested in their mobile websites and applications experienced a 623 percent growth year-over-year.

 

Manufacturer's aside, dealers have the most to gain from leveraging mobile platforms and social media.  Social media gives dealers that rare opportunity to build relationships and keep in constant communication with their customers.  This is pure gold in the highly competitive, price driven vehicle market.  On the mobile front, dealers that are able to leverage location based services, SMS and shopper applications will get a huge leg up on the competition.

With the Social Media audience growing exponentially and mobile internet usage expected to take up 25% of all web traffic in the next calendar year, opportunity is ripe for the taking.  Those automakers' and manufacturers that can successfully message and leverage these emerging audiences will grow their business.  Companies that do not invest in the aforementioned will lose market share and will struggle to survive.

It seems like a no brainer to invest in mobile and improve their social media presence, but I am always surprised at how conservative and inactive companies and executives can be.

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Royal Wedding Takes Over Social Media

Royal Wedding discussions are taking over social media. According to London-based independent search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight, new research shows that in the past seven days the nuptials are getting one new mention every 10 seconds.

The aforementioned figure is expected to grow exponentially as the wedding date approaches, and has already bulked up by 700 percent since measurement levels started in March.

Within the last week, Greenlight has reported a huge increase in Royal Wedding discussions and chatter across numerous social media channels.

Greenlight has measured an average of 9,000 posts a day on online media relating to Kate and William's wedding, with positive comments outweighing negative comments 6:1. Surprisingly, Facebook and YouTube account for some of the smaller shares, just 8 and 1 percent respectively. Online news account for the largest share (30%), followed by Blogs (29%) and Twitter (17%), according to the Greenlight agency.

Kate and William (Photo: AP)

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Royal Wedding is Taking Over Social Media

Royal Wedding discussions are taking over social media. According to London-based independent search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight, new research shows that in the past seven days the nuptials are getting one new mention every 10 seconds.

The aforementioned figure is expected to grow exponentially as the wedding date approaches, and has already bulked up by 700 percent since measurement levels started in March.

Within the last week, Greenlight has reported a huge increase in Royal Wedding discussions and chatter across numerous social media channels.

Greenlight has measured an average of 9,000 posts a day on online media relating to Kate and William's wedding, with positive comments outweighing negative comments 6:1. Surprisingly, Facebook and YouTube account for some of the smaller shares, just 8 and 1 percent respectively. Online news account for the largest share (30%), followed by Blogs (29%) and Twitter (17%), according to the Greenlight agency.

Kate and William (Photo: AP)

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Obama Heckled Over WikiLeaks [Video]

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Watch video of President Obama as he is heckled at a breakfast fundraiser in San Francisco April 21, 2011.

According to Rachel Rose Hartman of Yahoo a woman in the crowd suddenly rose from her seat and said: "Mr. President, we wrote you a song," according to the White House pool report. The president attempted to quiet her, but the woman and her table of donors at the St. Regis Hotel breakfast broke into song and raised signs that read "Free Bradley Manning"–the Army intelligence specialist accused of releasing diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. Yesterday, it was reported that Manning had been moved to a less restrictive prison following pressure from human rights groups.

The protesters said they had spent $5,000 donating to Obama. "We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true. Look at the Republicans–what else can we do?" they reportedly chanted.

"We paid our dues. Where's our change?" they sang.

Hat Tip: NewsyVideos, San Francisco Chronicle, Rachel Rose Hartman of Yahoo

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Myth Buster: Social Media is Free

Many individuals who are just getting into the game of social media have heard social media is free or cheap due to the fact that many platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are free to sign up for and maintain on a daily basis. Free to sign-up, but not exactly free to maintain.

"A significant 58% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 34% are 11 or more hours weekly. It's interesting to note that 15% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media." (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner)

As the old adage says, "time is money" and time is not free. Marketers who want to increase brand awareness and engagement do not spend just 10 minutes here or there Tweeting and posting. They take the time to listen to what people are saying regarding their brand, what the competition is saying, what consumers are saying regarding the competition, and more. Then they take the time to respond, question, and comment in a relevant manner.

"Those with more years of social media experience spend more time each week conducting social media activities. For example, 63% of people with 3 or more years of experience spend more than 10 hours a week doing social media activities.Only 41% of those with 1 to 3 years experience spend that much time." (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner)

Conversation in social media is not an overnight success like winning the lottery. It takes time, effort, and in turn money, spent on the people who "manage" the brand online. Those with experience in digital marketing realize the more time and effort spend in social, the greater the reward. Newbies, take note.

 

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Dynamic Mapping of How Fukushima Influenced Tweets

Data via – Webnode.com

Map created by Vit Vrba and Dr. Gerhard Wotawa

Fukushima's milestones

March 11, 2011 A 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Japan. The earthquake triggered an extremely destructive tsunami with waves of up to 37.9 meters. (more)

March 11, 2011 – 177 million tweets were sent, while the average number of tweets is 140 million per day. (more)

March 12, 2011 A massive explosion rocks the power station Fukushima (more)

March 12, 2011 572,000 new Twitter accounts created. The average number of new accounts per day over the last month is 460,000. (more)

March 15, 2011 Seven of Germany's 17 nuclear power stations were shut down (more)

March 18, 2011 Radioactive cloud from Japan headed for U.S. west coast (more)

March 23, 2011 Radioactive cloud reached Europe (more, more, more)

March 23, 2011 Fukushima became the most expensive natural catastrophe in history, reaching $309 billion (Hurricane Katrina costs $81 billion)

(more, more)

April 5, 2011 Radioactive water from Fukushima NPP was dumped into the Pacific ocean (more)

April 6, 2011 Twitter reached 277, 559, 946 users (more)

Read more: http://www.socialintensity.org/#fukushima#ixzz1JcRT22vR

Powered by: http://www.WebNode.com

Authors

VRBA Vit

CEO and founder of Webnode.com. Founded in 2008,

Webnode is a free website builder with 30M unique visitors.

Twitter contact: @vitvrba

WOTAWA Gerhard Mag. Dr., M.A.

Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), Division for Data, Methods and Modelling. ZAMG founded in 1851, is Austria's national weather service agency.

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Post it Forward

Today as I was sipping my morning coffee and perusing the real time status updates of my friends on Facebook and Twitter, one particular post caught my eye. A good friend of mine posted that she had received a nice little surprise this morning at the drive-through Starbucks. Apparently she pulled up to the window and was informed that her drink had been paid for by the woman in the car who had preceded her. The coffee came with a note saying that since this woman had a stranger do the same thing for her last week, she wanted to pay it forward. Nice.

After reading about this exchange, I personally was inspired to do the same thing and look forward to surprising someone on their next coffee trip. And if her one post inspired me, perhaps it inspired others, and consequently a ton of folks are going to be receiving a nice surprise to start their day. While impossible to quantify perhaps, it's fun to think about the impact that starting your day with an anonymous blessing might have. Imagine starting off each day reading a tweet or post about how someone was blessed unexpectedly. For all the debate about social media, this is a prime example of why it is such an incredible force for change.

Look out whoever follows me through the drive through. Your next espresso is on me.

Post it forward.

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What's in a "like"? Not Much

While marketers have been preaching this for some time,  it is interesting to hear someone on the revenue generating side of Facebook, encourage brands to see beyond "likes".  At the most recent Social Media World Forum in London, David Parfect, the group head of agency sales at Facebook, essentially made the case for why fan engagement is far more important than a simple, passive "like".

I have seen varying statistics, but the consensus is that 4/5 people who "like" a fan page, never come back.  Many campaigns focus on accruing as many "Likes" as possible, and target all their efforts on getting people to click "like". Of course with no plan to engage with them after they have become a fan, many brands are seeing that massive number of "Fans" on Facebook does little to help the bottom line. With Facebook preaching the merits of fan quality over quantity, I think we might hopefully start to see a shift in the way these campaigns are conducted.

So to all the marketers out there, breathe a sigh of relief and keep up the good fight. The truth is out there. Find ways to get fans engaged, no more resting on the likes of yesterday.

*Click here for another great article that explores this more

 

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Salesforce to acquire Radian6 for $326 Million

Salesforce.com will pay $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock for social media monitoring company Radian6.

Radian6 started in 2006 and they are based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.   Radian6 has been able to capture many major clients including GE, Dell, Pepsi and UPS.

"With Radian6, salesforce.com is gaining the technology and market leader in social media monitoring," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com.

The following letter  went out to Radian6 clients announcing that Salesforce will be acquiring Radian6:

Effective Wednesday, March 30, 2011 Radian6 has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by salesforce.com. We expect the deal to close in early May, subject to customary closing conditions.

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that has transformed the way companies collaborate, communicate, and share customer information. For more information on salesforce.com and the company's platform and application services, please visit http://pages.radian6.com/e/3652/2011-03-30/7E2VS/141041662

Radian6 and salesforce.com share the belief that social media will play a large part in how organizations listen to and engage with their customers. We also believe that as engagement with clients becomes more and more social, there will be greater opportunities for products such as Radian6 and Salesforce to more closely integrate.

While there should be little impact on you, we'd like to share some of the current plan: we expect that Radian6 will continue to operate as an independent business. This means you will continue to work with Radian6 as you do today. The product innovation and progress that you have come to expect from Radian6 will continue, and now we will be able to accelerate those efforts as part of a larger organization.

Radian6 will continue to partner with corporate and agency clients across their organizations. Whether you currently use Radian6 as part of your marketing, communications, research, customer service, or any other initiatives you can be assured of our commitment to your business. For those of you who are also salesforce.com customers, you can expect to hear more about our future plans in the coming months.

Additional information may also be found here http://pages.radian6.com/e/3652/ampt-Regular-ampid-1544106-amp/7E2WM/141041662

"We see this as a huge opportunity. Not only will this acquisition accelerate our growth, it will extend the value of all of our offerings.""Social media has made every business recognize the value of paying attention to the voice of the customer. Radian6′s technology is built for the new norm of customer engagement – real time, two way conversations that includes social channels," said Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6. "Joining the salesforce.com team will allow Radian6 to grow faster to meet the demands of our rapidly expanding customer base."

 

 

 

 

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