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The Big Corporations Are Leveraging Social Media in their Marketing — Are You?

nicolem — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:49:06 +0000

As Social Media Week Toronto comes to an end, I want to again say how great it was for me to be able to attend some of the events that took place. SMW takes place is several cities such as NYC, San Paulo, San Fransisco, Toronto, London and Berlin. The aim of each event is to advance the usage of social media in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors. For those who are unfamiliar, or did not attend this past week, I urge you to add it to your calendars in the future. For more info, check out socialmediaweek.org.

On the eve of Super Bowl weekend, Pepsi (one of the big past advertisers) decided to opt out of the traditional Super Bowl TV commercial debut. Instead, they’re focussing their resources on social media campaigns. This kind of commitment from big corporations such as Pepsi, demonstrates the importance of social media as a key marketing tool. On the website Customer Think, there is a great post written by Harish Kotadia that features video’s by the CEO’s of Pepsico and Cisco—discussing the value proposition and their commitment to, and for, social media as a marketing channel. Better yet, Pepsico is one of the few big corporations that is being led by a woman: Indra Nooyi.

One of the great reasons for women focussed marketing in 2010—a target market who weilds 80% of both the decision making as well as buying power—is that women are online and using social networks. The nature of engagement is a good fit to how women connect naturally offline and have been engaging for centuries. Check out these stats on the female economy (stats from 2009 book, Why She Buys, by Bridget Brennan).

Apparel – 65% of purchases are made by women
Automotive - 52% of all new vehicle purchases, including trucks, made by women (80% of purchases influenced by women)
Consumer Electronics -45% percent of purchases made by women (61% of purchases influenced by women)
Health Care- 80% if family health care decisons are made by women
Travel - 70% of the decisions are made by women
Insurance, Investments,and Retirement Accounts - 90% of women participate in the decisions that affect their houshold’s retirement & investment accounts
Homes – 20% of purchases are made by single women; 91% of all purchases are influenced by women
Wine – 55% of all purchases are made by women
Gaming – 40% of players are women

Some convincing reasons to start reaching out to women today, if you haven’t already. Being aware and dedicated to finding ways to target and engage women via social media is sure to be a winning return on your investment for years to come!

Best Nicole

Go New Orleans Saints!

Watch this video for what three visionary CEOs have to say about Social Networking:

John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco: “Social Networking is transforming companies. Is is the future of Business Productivity, Health Care, Education and Entertainment.”

Indra Nooyi, CEO, Pepsico: “Global company with global brands and reputation can use it as a force for good.”

Jeffrey Joerres, President and CEO, Manpower: “When it comes to Social Networking, it is a major trend towards what will be a very standard everyday stuff.”

This very clearly highlights the fact that Social Media and Social Networking are not a fad, but for real, are here to stay and will become mainstream in near future. Social Business is not just another way of doing business, it is THE way business will be conducted.

I strongly recommend that all senior executives (and especially the CMOs) start taking Social Media initiatives seriously, and lead from the front when it comes to use of Social Media, as survival and growth of their business rests on how effectively they leverage emerging tech tools.

Social Networking has far reaching implications for the marketing department and I recommend that CMOs setup a Social Media Task force that will advise them on how to quickly adapt and integrate their marketing operations into emerging Social Networking tools and applications. Sooner marketing department(s) adopt and start using Social Networking for engaging their customers better for their brand(s), else performance of their business will suffer.

Ready to Engage With Social Media? Ask a Few Simple Questions.

nicolem — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:30:49 +0000

I had a phone meeting with a dear friend yesterday and we are planning a mutually beneficial business relationship. We are discussing the launch of her new website project and how I might support them through my business SHARE. Their need is to create and implement social media marketing and community into their current website infrastructure.

My anwser to her and to everyone that I speak with is – ask yourself some key questions and create a strategy that takes into consideration your target markets want, need and benefit. What are your plans for the long term? You want to ensure that you build a community that can grow with your product or service by constantly engaging and connecting all of the like minded people searching for your offering. You want them buzzing with enthusiasm and motivated with the passion to share.

Smart Blog http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/ has a post written by Andy Sernovitz that is short and to the point. He provides 3 powerful and key questions to anwer before you dive in. The answers that you get will help shape “the blueprint” that will become the strategy and plan you put in place to ensure success and sales conversion. The benefit becomes: ROI, in addition to your short and long term goals exceeding expectations.

Let us know what kind of questions you are asking as you build your blue print. We will post them and SHARE them with everyone.

Best Nicole

Social media is showing no signs of slowing down in terms of growth of both users and places to hang out. By and large, this is a good thing — except when your marketing department is always jumping on the latest and greatest new platform at the expense of building something that supports your brand and your word of mouth in a consistent, scalable way. You can avoid the shiny-new-object disease with a few simple questions.

What to ask:

Are our fans there? If your fans aren’t there yet, odds are you probably don’t need to be either.

Can we do it well? Success in a new social media space requires commitment, so always consider the resources required for a new community and how it may affect your relationship with fans elsewhere.

Is it here to stay? Your job isn’t to pioneer new technologies, your job is to find places to do great marketing and build the best relationships.

Case Study on How Social Media Builds a Brand

nicolem — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:26:35 +0000

Here you go people! Today’s post is a great example of how Social Media can help you build your brand. Josh Bernoff, VP at Forrester Research and Co-author of the book Groundswell, provides a quick case study that shows you that the “proof is in the pudding” when customers are engaged about something they are passionate about. The book, by the way, should be required reading for everyone. If you have not yet read Groundswell, I urge you to go out and get it.

This 3 minute video comes from Ad Age Digital, from which I get a daily feed. It highlights Josh Bernoff explaining how Del Monte used a social media strategy to create a new pet food. For those that aren’t sure where to start or how it works, you will receive a clear quick case study from one of the leading experts regarding this most important interactive marketing strategy.

Pass it on to all your collegues, friends and family. Better yet, what is your next strategy for building your new product?

Best Nicole

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How Del Monte Social Media Strategy Created a New Pet Food

Del Monte’s social media initiative created a new breakfast treat for dogs.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — It’s one thing to debate the potential power of social media marketing to influence product sales but quite another to watch a social media project actually create a popular new product. In his keynote address at last week’s Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Social Media Conference, Forrester Research’s Josh Bernoff explained how Del Monte Foods did that very thing in just six weeks.