What People Are Twittering About

Over the last 6 months I have gone from “Twitter is a fad” to “Maybe there is something to this thing”.  As those who know me know, I don’t rush to the latest thing and I look cautiously to new technologies — I guess after doing this for 10 years through the bubble and bust I’ve gotten a bit cynical.  This new data from eMarketer (link) breaks down what people are using Twitter for and helps paint the picture of this strange new communication platform.

This profile of what is being Tweeted is a bit different than what I have experienced.  I would have thought the self-promotion would have been much higher as every blogger (including myself) and more and more businesses are blurbing out promotional tweets.  The catagory “Pointless Babble” leads me to believe that Twitter is being used as a real social platform by real people talking to real people.    Note that 37% of tweets are people talking to each other that are not just RTs (re-tweets).  RTs made up only 8.7% in the “Pass along” catagory.  From my experience there is a lot more self-promotion and a lot more Re-tweets.

I’ve recently participated in a Twitter event that we used as a promotional communication vehicle.  The results were very impressive as we gathered hundred’s of consumers together for several hours to talk about our products.  I found the Twitter audience to be very engaged and enthusiastic about directly communicating with the brand.  I’m still not sure how this thing will evolve but the data and my experience with this event is pushing me to believe that there is something to this Twitter thing.

Emarketer

Check out these latest stats from eMarketer (link).  As marketers it sometimes feels like we are chasing the latest fad only to be dazzled by the latest-latest fad.  And I think for many of us “Social Networking” is just the latest shiny thing.  For those that do feel that way it’s time to wake up.  Social Networking is not a fade to gloss over.  The numbers tell the tale.  If you’re not geared up to leverage this communication channel than move aside.

Thoughts:

• Social Networking on the internet is NOT NEW!  Social Networking has always been the fuel that grew this beast.  Email, Newsgroups, Message Boards, Chat, Forums, Homepages, Web rings, File sharing, the list goes on and on were all forms of SocNet that has now become main stream.
• Now is the time to build your permission based marketing channel.  Email is dead.  You need to be channeling your consumers through a process that builds up your Facebook and Twitter lists.  It’s not “sexy” but it is a list of consumers that want to hear from you!
• How do you measure SocNet?  There is only one measurement — cash.  Your SocNet campaigns need to drive incremental sales by driving traffic to retail and earning additional merchandising space.  SocNet can do that through creative campaigns that leverage your retail partners exclusive assets.
• Access to information provided by your peers will continue to permeate  into every medium.  How will your product stand up against instant user feedback available to anyone during the purchase decision.

Where Who Is

Here’s another great data point from eMarketer (link):

Gen Z = 13 to 14

Gen Y = 15 to 29

Gen X = 30 to 44

So this is saying of the Gen Y’s that use Soc Net sites 65% of them use Facebook.

Internet Marketing Growth

Forrester’s predicts growth in all areas of internet marketing with the most pronounced increases coming from Social and Mobile.  (Here’s the link)

Thoughts:

• More funds will be directed to online but keep in mind that over 80% will still be put towards “traditional”.  What these top line numbers don’t show is how “Traditional” will merge with “Interactive” over the next few years.
• Social Media is predicted to grow the most over the next few years.  It will be interesting to see how this evolves as Facebook and the others look to develop revenue models.
• Search is king.  Why?  Because Interactive marketing works best for direct response efforts and search marketing is the king of direct response.  As marketers we need to understand when to use which tool and don’t try to shoehorn objectives into unsuited tactics.

This is the billion dollar question — literally.  Online display advertising is a $8B industry so the stakes are high to justify that spend.  A lot of businesses, from Microsoft to iVillage, make a lot of money on display ads.  So there is a lot of data to support the value of this online media.  But there is also a lot of data that questions the value of display ads.  Let’s take a look at the data and come up with a point of view:

1)  Do people click on display ads?

According to this article from MarketingSherpa (link here) the overall average for display ads is 0.21%.  Of course, it greatly depends on the quality of the creative and the quality of the placement.  But from my experience this is a good benchmark.  Note that this number is down from the 3% I saw in 1999 and the 1% I saw in 2002.

So for every 1000 impressions expect 2 clicks on the display banner.  Which means that a $2 CPM works out to $1 per click.

I don’t think anyone would argue that the CTR on banner ads is extremely low.  So low that you have to justify them on some other measurement….

2)  If they don’t click on them than what’s the value?

According to a ComScore study (link here):

• It’s clear that display advertising, despite a lack of clicks, can have a significant positive impact on:
  
• Visitation to the advertiser’s Web site (lift of at least 46% over a four week period)
  
• The likelihood of consumers conducting a search query using the advertiser’s branded terms  (a lift of at least 38% over a four week period)
  
• Consumers’ likelihood of buying the advertised brand online (an average 27% lift in online sales)
  
• Consumers’ likelihood of buying at the advertiser’s retail store (an average lift of 17%)

This ComScore study shows that there is value of online display ads in terms of awareness that drives future actions such as visiting the web site or increased purchase intent.  So maybe they do have value.  But let’s look at banner ads ability to influence the consumer….

3)  Does anyone notice banner ads on web sites?

According to this study by Harris,  37% of respondents found TV ads helpful while only 1% found banner ads helpful.  Pretty conclusive that banner display ads are not noticed.  Just ask yourself when was the last time you took notice of a banner ad.

TV Wins - Banner Lose

4)  So why does it seem that the ComScore study contradicts the Harris study?

These studies are done to prove a certain point.  They are not academic studies for information sake.  They should be taken with a huge grain of salt.  For instance,  the ComScore study says that banners drive future behavior.  But advertisers don’t buy online advertising in a bubble.  They are buying that advertising to promote a product or service that will also be promoted through other channels.  Of course traffic to your web site will increase during the time you are promoting your product via banner ads.  For example,  a company might buy banner ads during the Christmas season to promote a great gift.  That product might also be in print, radio, TV, PR, promotions, and other channels.  As well as the natural traffic increased driven by consumers seeking out info during the holidays.  All driving traffic up.  ComScore’s study is associating that traffic solely to the banners.  Take a look at ComScors’s business model to determine why they are motivated to make that connection.

5)  Why do TV ads work so much better than Online ads?

Why do TV ads seem to have such a bigger effect on the consumer than online display ads?  Because TV ads are delivered in a linear disruption path.  The consumer has no choice but to watch the TV spot.  They have to watch it as they wait for their show to come back on.  This is a Linear Disruption Path.

Online ads are on an  Asynchronous Disruption Path — meaning that the consumer can ignore them while they continue on their primary task of ready the article or watching the video.

6)  If banner ads don’t work what does?

I’m in online marketing for a reason — online marketing can drive business results.  Now more than ever there are huge opportunities to engage consumers and activate them to walk down the purchase path.  This post is already too long so I’ll tackle this topic next time.

Conclusion

Unless you can drive clicks from an extremely compelling banner campaign that then captures the consumer’s contact information for future direct follow up you may want to find better ways to spend your online ad budget.

ADD:  Here’s an article from ClickZ that has data around how online brand marketers are measuring (actually how they are not measuring) campaigns:

http://www.clickz.com/3634438

I started my professional career out in sales and account management.  I was terrible at it.  So the company that I worked for sent me to a ton of training.  I had it all — from Dale Carnegie to Zig Ziglar.  Some wore off on me.  So it kind of drives me nuts when agencies pitching me don’t have the basic skills to close and keep my business.  This just happened again this week so I felt compelled to provide the following 5 things agencies need to do to get and keep my business.  I have always been on the client side so this perspective might be skewed:

1)  Discover My Business Needs

Don’t come into my office and spew on for an hour about your capabilities.  I don’t care.  A better use of both of our time is to come into my office and discover, through questioning and listening, what need I have that your agency may be able to fill.

2)  Your agency is not an expert in everything

I half jokingly state that if I ask any of the agencies I deal with if they could build me a bridge I would get a proposal from each and every one of them.  Tell me what your core competency  is and prove that you have the experts on staff to deliver what you claim to be good at.  Your not good at all things — so please tell me when you actually can’t do a project.

3)  Leave the fancy “Process” slides behind

I don’t care what your process is.  Every agency seems to have some neat acronym to explain their “process”.  Like “NARB”, “VERB”, SPIN”, and “BURB”.  They always seem to be 4 letters.  Having a “process” is not a selling point.  All agencies have them and they are all the same.  So don’t waste my time telling me how special yours is.

4)  Don’t just say “Strategy” a lot

Actually provide strategies that will help me achieve my objectives.  I meet with a lot of agencies that tell me how great they are at “Strategic” thinking.  But when the proposals come in they are just a bunch of tactics that don’t build up to actual long term business value.

5)  Deliver

It’s fun to be “Creative” and come up with cool designs.  But the hard bits need to be done too.  I need solid SOWs, I need Project Management Plans, I need Wire Frames and Logic Maps, I need someone that will think through all the hard stuff so that the final product rocks.  Do what it takes to deliver.

This was a bit therapeutic.