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5 SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS THAT MATTER MOST IN MEASURING THE PROGRESS IN ACHIEVING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA INITIATIVES

As your business gets more social-savvy, strengthen your metrics strategy. Here's how.

As businesses get more sophisticated in their use of social networking, so too are the metrics by which they measure social business ROI.

Back in the dawn of the social networking age, organizations relied almost solely on simple, standard metrics, such as the number of Facebook fans and likes or the number of Twitter followers and tweets/retweets, to determine their success. Those metrics are still important, but organizations today are developing more sophisticated metrics to measure their progress in meeting increasingly granular social objectives.

That makes it difficult to prescribe the social metrics that matter most, because what matters will differ depending on your organization's size, industry, products, current goals for social, and so on. But some increasingly important social media metrics can be applied widely. Here are five that you should consider now.

1. Quality of fans/followers. You may have hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of fans on Facebook or followers on Twitter. These numbers still matter, of course, but it's critical to look beyond the numbers to the quality of those fans and followers.  Tassoula E. Kokkoris, who manages a team of social ambassadors for Guidant Financial says.  

"More important than the quantity of followers on the major social media channels is the quality of followers.  There are companies out there now that will allow you to purchase followers, but I don’t allow my team to do so because it will not be an effective return on investment. Sure, it may look impressive to see thousands of followers on a company profile, but other than the wow factor for visitors, what purpose does that large number serve?"

It's important to look at what your audience is doing and saying and to what they respond negatively and positively to, and to cultivate that engaged core.  Kokkoris added. 

"Maintaining a smaller core audience of interested, engaged followers will ultimately lead to more meaningful conversations and stronger sales.  By knowing your business audience and organically targeting connections that will truly be interested in your services, you’ll earn an authentic online reputation and position your company as an industry thought leader."

2. Social demographics. Related to the quality of fans and followers is knowing exactly who those fans and followers are. This will help to ensure that any social initiatives are hitting your core audience and achieving current business goals, but it will also help to uncover potential new customers and guide future marketing, advertising, customer service, product development, and other goals.  Jennifer E. Dunphy, VP of sales and marketing, Vayu Media said.

"Fan demographics--countries, language, age, etc.--is a great way to see if there are market segments that your current marketing efforts, not just social, could tap into.  If you see that you have a high concentration of Spanish speakers, for example, you may want to think about Spanish language-targeted campaigns for social media and all other forms of marketing. This can help to open up an entirely new revenue opportunity that you may be missing out on."

3. Most popular pages, posts and tweets. By now, most organizations realize that to succeed at social they need to maintain a consistent presence and dedicate resources to updating content and engaging with the audience. It's easy to measure in pure numbers which pages, posts and tweets are most popular, but organizations need to go beyond the numbers to determine why they were popular. Was it a question that prompted a barrage of comments? Was it a link to a how-to video on Twitter that resulted in a high number of retweets? Was it a how-to whitepaper that accompanied the announcement of a new product launch?  

Cindy Balon Harder, principal of Visual Data Group, which is releasing a new social media evaluation tool this spring said.

"The most valuable metrics are those indicating the most popular pages, posts, or tweets, because they serve as templates to help you broaden your prospecting net and deepen customer relationships." 

4. Page views and click-throughs. Content marketing is making everyone a publisher these days. Companies are developing white papers, how-to videos, podcasts, infographics, and other forms of content to engage existing and new customers, as well as to generate leads or sales (see No. 5). It's important to know what content gets seen and, more importantly, shared.

5. Conversion. Conversion is a long-vaunted goal, but as companies become more savvy about their use of social media, it's increasingly critical to measure what the social audience is doing as a result of the time they spend on your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social sites. Did they buy something, sign up for something, or consume something as a result of a Facebook update, Twitter post, or Pinterest pin? If so--and this is the harder question to answer--why? These are just a few in a growing list of emerging social media metrics. What are the most important social metrics for your organization? Please respond by commenting below or sending me an email at debra.donstonmiller@gmail.com.

COMMENTARY:   It should be noted that the list of the social media measurement metrics varies widely among social media brands.   As noted above, the social metrics that matter most will differ depending on your organization's size, industry, products, current goals for social, and so on. Here are some additional blog posts dealing with the subject social media measurement metrics:    

• Blog post of October 13, 2010 which is simply titled, "How To Measure Social Media ROI", which is based on research by Mashable that found that 84% of social media campaigns don't measure ROI. 
• Blog post of September 10, 2010 titled, "The Problem of Measuring the ROI of Social Media - Some Solutions and Metrics" for some valuable insights. 
• Blog post of February 10, 2011 titled, "74% of CMO's Confident Of Measuring ROI From Social Media, Plus A Dynamite Model For Calculating Social Media Financial ROI".  I think you will find this model one of the easiest models for measuring the overall ROI for social media campaigns in dollars and cents.
• Blog post dated February 14, 2012 titled, "20 Measurement Metrics To Effectively Track Social Media Campaigns."  This is general purpose listing which is a good basic starting point. 

Courtesy of an article dated April 4, 2012 appearing in The Brainyard

THE STATE OF U.S. HISPANIC CONSUMERS: YOUNG, MOBILE, BUYING POWER AND GROWING, PLUS TIPS FOR TARGETING THEM

More than 52 million strong and representing the majority of population growth over the next five years, Latinos have become prominent in all aspects of American life. A growing, evolving population, Latinos are a fundamental component to future business success, with a buying power of $1 trillion in 2010 that is projected to grow 50 percent to $1.5 trillion in 2015.

In State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative report, Nielsen has identified several unique circumstances that combine to make Hispanics the largest population group to exhibit culture sustainability—ever. Borderless social networking, unprecedented exchange of goods, technology as a facilitator for cultural exchange, retro acculturation, and new culture generation combine to enable Hispanic culture in the U.S. to be sustainable. In other words, Hispanic culture may evolve but will not go away.

For businesses, this makes understanding Hispanic consumers essential. Key findings of The Hispanic Market Imperative include:

• The overall U.S. population is graying, but the Latino population remains young and the primary feeder of workforce growth and new consumption. The median age of the Latino population is 28 years old, nearly ten years younger than the total market median age of 37 years. Given that the age for a new home buyer is between 26 and 46 years old, Latinos will become a force in residential purchasing over the next ten years.
• Technology and media use do not mirror the general market but have distinct patterns due to language, culture, and ownership dynamics. For example, Hispanics spend 68 percent more time watching video on the Internet and 20 percent more time watching video on their mobile phones than non-Hispanic whites.
• Latinos exhibit distinct product consumption patterns and are not buying in ways that are the same as the total market. Hispanics make fewer shopping trips per household than non-Hispanics, for instance, and spend more per trip.
• Rapid Latino population growth will persist. Between 2000 and 2011, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase; in other words, their 10-year increase was slightly greater than that of all other non-Hispanics combined. Hispanics will contribute an even greater share (60 percent or higher) of all population growth over the next five years.
• Hispanic culture is sustainable. A 2011 national survey of Hispanic adults found that nine out of ten Hispanic parents and parents-to-be want their children to be able to speak Spanish, even though they also want them to become fluent in English.

To download The Hispanic Market Imperative, visit nielsen.com.

COMMENTARY:   The U.S. Hispanic population is the largest minority segment and is growing at a dramatic rate towards ethnic plurality, which has already occurred in the most populous states and is beginning to occur among the U.S. baby population. Ethnic plurality refers to the coexistence of numerous ethnicities and races with no one segment in the majority. If the present U.S. economy substantially benefits from Hispanics, the future U.S. economy will depend on Hispanics by virtue of demographic change and the social and cultural shifts expected to accompany their continued growth.

It has become increasingly important to challenge commonly held misconceptions about the Latino market that undermine the importance of its size, uniqueness, and value. The topics that follow are fully addressed in the report and draw on compelling evidence of market change and the perspective of marketers who have proven success in the Latino marketplace.

• Latinos are a fundamental component to business success, and not a passing niche on the sidelines.
• Rapid Latino population growth will persist, even if immigration is completely halted. 
• Latinos have amassed significant buying power, despite perceptions to the contrary.
• Hispanics are the largest immigrant group to exhibit significant culture sustainability and are not disappearing into the American melting pot.
• Technology and media use do not mirror the general market but have distinct patterns due to language, culture, and ownership dynamics.
• Latinos exhibit distinct product consumption patterns and are not buying in ways that are the same as the total market. The information in this report confirms what many marketers have known for some time, and yet, for some this is a wake-up call about change that is here to stay

Hispanics are big business now

The United States is on a path to ethnic plurality, which is largely driven by remarkable Latino consumer market growth. The country’s vibrant demographic composition, with its healthy multicultural dynamic and youth, are a critical American asset in the global economic competition. At the heart of this asset, both now and over the next several decades, is the Hispanic population.

Over 52 million strong, Latinos are impacting every aspect of the national landscape including popular culture, the workforce, consumerism, politics and American national identity. The Hispanic market’s size, growing clout, and buying power of $1 trillion in 2010 and $1.5 trillion by 2015 require thoughtful understanding about what the market represents to a company’s bottom line. Latinos are no longer just a sub-segment of the economy, but a prominent player in all aspects of American life.

Many companies believe that significant growth opportunities come from outside the U.S., but the Hispanic market offers unique growth prospects within our borders. If it were a standalone country, the U.S. Hispanic market buying power would make it one of the top twenty economies in the world.  What’s more, the per capita income of U.S. Hispanics is higher than any one of the highly coveted BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China).  Despite the recession, U.S. Latino households that earn $50,000 or more are growing at a faster rate than total households.

Companies like Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Unilever, Coca Cola, and Walmart have made the Latino market an imperative for growth. Many have recognized that the American marketplace has changed and Latinos are a primary driver of growth, essential to future success. Similarly, major political candidates are specifically targeting Hispanics who are critical to the vote when considering Latino driven change in the electoral map and the sizeable presence of Latinos in swing states like Florida, Nevada, and Colorado. In politics or business, Hispanics can be the difference between winning and losing the battle.Based on above average consumption of many consumer products and their continued demographic growth, Hispanics will be the dominant and in many cases the only driver of domestic CPG sales growth.

Hispanic account for most of U.S. future growth

Between 2000 and 2011, Hispanics accounted for more than half of the U.S. population increase with slightly greater growth than that of all other non-Hispanics combined. Hispanics will contribute an even greater share (60 percent or higher) of all population growth over the next five years. Even though immigration is down sharply,  Hispanics continue to experience dynamic growth. In fact, Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic segment expected to grow 167 percent from 2010 to 2050, compared to 42 percent for the total population.

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The overall U.S. population is graying, but the Latino population remains young and the primary feeder of workforce growth and new consumption. Over 60 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population is under age 35, and 75 percent is under age 45. The 2011 graph demonstrates a reversal of population trends around age 45, where Hispanics are concentrated in younger segments and non-Hispanic Whites in older groups. The median age of the Latino population is 28 years old, nearly ten years younger than the total market median age of 37 years. Given that the age for a new homebuyer is between 26 and 46 years old, Latinos will become a force in residential purchasing over the next ten years.

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Because of Latinos’ favorable demographics and increasing economic buying power, IBISWorld, producer of Industry Research Reports, has identified seven economic sectors expected to benefit most from Latino demographic change: residential buying, food (grocery and restaurants), retail (especially clothing and electronics), education (higher education and technical schools), financial services, transportation (automotive and airline), and entertainment and media industries.

The U.S. population map shows continued growth in traditionally Hispanic areas and dramatic dispersal and new growth in areas where Hispanics were recently unknown. The raw growth numbers (represented by dots) show that even with very large established bases, growth persists in California, Texas, the Southwest, most of Florida, New York metro and Chicago metro. 

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Hispanics are 16 percent of the nation’s population, and have much higher concentrations in Texas (38 percent), California (38 percent), Florida (22 percent), Colorado (21 percent), Nevada (27 percent), and New Mexico (46 percent). Areas within these states contain large pockets of Latinos where marketers can analyze communities and anticipate new trends that affect a growing proportion of their business. In a very real sense, Hispanics are a bellwether for the rest of the country’s future.

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Hispanic growth in the top Hispanic DMA s is approximately two or more times larger than total population growth demonstrating their growing influence across many of the country’s major markets.

Latinos are at the intersection of language, technology and data

Latino usage rates of television, smart phones, social networking, online video and other forms of entertainment make Latinos one of today’s most engaged and dynamic targets. The distinctive combination of relative youth, community, culture and language preference positions Hispanics to become pioneers in new media trends and further accelerate technology uptake.   

Multiple platforms for television and online viewing

Due to sheer numbers, Hispanics have wielded significant influence on the media landscape, shaping programming content, dedicated channels and vehicle offerings. 

Hispanics access media from every platform available and often lead the general market as early adopters of emerging technologies. Approximately 60 percent of Latino households own at least one video- and Internet-enabled cell phone, compared to 43 percent of the general market. In monthly time, Hispanics spend 68 percent more time watching video on the Internet and 20 percent more time watching video on their mobile phones compared to nonHispanic Whites.

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Real-time TV viewing still ranks high with the Latino market. Hispanics are less likely to use a DVR player than the average household, with only 31 percent of Hispanic households owning a DVR player versus 41 percent of the general market. Interestingly, Hispanic DVR households are two to three times more likely to timeshift English than Spanish language programming. 

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Language serves as a cultural constant threading through many of the trends discussed in this report. Nielsen Universe Estimates show that 56 percent of Hispanic adults speak primarily Spanish at home, compared to 40 percent who speak primarily English. These data underscore the importance of using Spanish to reach Latinos.

Cultural influences such as family size and presence of children, as well as language aptitude determine TV viewing habits. For example, the co-viewing phenomenon is particularly prominent in the Latino community with parents and children sharing the viewing experience. In May 2011, Hispanics co-viewed 59 percent of all Spanish language broadcast prime time programming. In the same period, the general market co-viewed 48 percent of all English language broadcast prime time programming. 

Programming genre reflects culture differences as well. Latinos over-index in certain genres such as talk shows, news documentaries, daytime dramas and sports news. In contrast, general market viewers spend much more time on police dramas, situation comedies, science fiction and evening animation. This difference is tied to Hispanics’ focus on engagement in relevant information and culture-related programs more than on pure entertainment.

Technology adaption and adoption

Latinos may use the same technology as the rest of the country, but adapt it differently making it more of a culturefocused tool. The following discussion of Internet and mobile phone use addresses similarities and differences when comparing Hispanics and the total market.

Approximately nine out of ten Hispanics have access to the Internet, when extended family, work, school, and other public places are included. Hispanics are less likely to have Internet access at home compared to the U.S. average (62 percent and 76 percent, respectively).  

Over the past year, Hispanics increased home broadband use by 14 percent, which is more than double the 6 percent growth of broadband use in the general market. 

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There is an emerging segment of tech savvy Hispanics who have leapfrogged Internet home access altogether. Hispanics are three times more likely to have Internet access via a mobile device, but not have Internet at home (9 percent vs 3 percent, respectively). Overall, Hispanics are 28 percent more likely to own a smartphone than non-Hispanic Whites, which is a significant avenue of opportunity for marketers. Hispanics outpace all ethnic groups in mobile data service consumption including music and picture downloads, and at a growing rate. Hispanic dependence on mobile devices for Internet connectivity could explain why their average bill is 8 percent higher than the general market.

Latino Differentiated Consumption 

Evidence from many sources demonstrates that Hispanic product consumption is indeed unique in many respects, and well differentiated in comparison to other U.S. consumers. Hispanics do not necessarily mirror consumption patterns of all consumers and therefore it is essential to understand their needs, wants, and shopping tendencies. Across all retail channels, Hispanics tend to shop less often, but spend more per trip, and are less likely to buy products at promotional prices.

In many categories, Hispanics have different consumption growth rates than Non-Hispanics. Beverage sales trends show powerful evidence of Hispanic consumers acting as the accelerators for growing categories and the brakes for declining ones. This can be described as the Hispanic Advantage that is found in the projected Compounded Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) from 2010 to 2015 in eight of nine beverage categories, where Hispanic CAGR is equal to, and in many cases higher than the CAGR of nonHispanics. These projections mirror trends of the past several years and substantiate Hispanic’s growing contribution to future beverage business.

Hispanics spend substantially more than the total market in the top ten Hispanic product use categories which include baby products, hair care, and toiletries. These figures show a small sampling of highly personal and meaningful categories, where marketers benefit from understanding whether Hispanic category consumption differs from the general market.

For instance in the hair care category, Latinas begin dying hair at an earlier age than the total market, and purchase hair color dye more frequently. Hair color is seen as an important and inexpensive path to self-expression and beauty, which can bring light to potent consumer insights for hair care marketers. In baby care, several companies have shifted how they approach the Latino market, no longer relegating them to second tier consideration, but making Latinos a focal driver of business growth. 

Latino name brand loyalty fact check

Total retail channel data for all CPG categories shows that Hispanics are just as likely to buy name brands and private label as the general market.  

That said, Hispanic name brand loyalty prevails in three hotbed CPG categories with significant consumption - hair care, baby products, and health and beauty - where Latinos are more likely to buy name brands than the total market. In hair care, Latino name brand buying is 43 percent higher than the total market, while private label buying levels are comparable.

Latinos spend 15 percent more on branded baby products and 10 percent more on private label making baby care a win-win for all types of products targeting this segment. In health and beauty, Latinos spend 10 percent more on name brands and 9 percent less on private label versus total market. In these very meaningful categories, Latinos say they buy store brands “due to the economy,” and not necessarily because of preference.

Companies spend their dollars where they see the most potential and today they are spending $5.7 billion on Spanish media, the majority of which is spent on Spanish television. Spending in almost all Spanish advertising mediums increased from 2010 to 2011, further evidence that marketers will continue to invest in this growing marketplace as the economy recovers. While not quantifiable, there is also some Hispanic media spending allocated to English language initiatives by advertisers mindful of English speaking Latinos.

The top ten list of Spanish advertisers is made up of leaders who have made a serious commitment to this market. Companies who were on the top ten list in both 2010 and 2011 were Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, AT&T, Verizon, Toyota, General Mills and General Motors. McDonald’s says they “lead with ethnic insights,” reflective of the fact that 40 percent of their revenue comes from ethnic consumers. McDonald’s is the fourth largest Spanish language advertiser spending $131 million in this arena. Procter & Gamble has also stated the importance of using ethnic insights to lead total market campaigns in certain categories. These marketers, and many others, are intensifying and fine-tuning their Latino strategies to stay competitive in the changing marketplace.

COMMENTARY:

Courtesy of an article dated April 17, 2012 appearing in the Nielsen Blog and the Q2 2012 State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative

"DON'T BE EVIL" IS GOOGLE'S UNOFFICIAL CORP MOTTO, BUT CAN WE TRUST IT AFTER ITS NEW ALL-INCLUSIVE PRIVACY POLICY?

Google's contentious new privacy policy officially takes effect today, despite some objections from Canada's privacy commissioner and others around the world.

Google insists it had users in mind when it consolidated the privacy policies for most of its more than 70 products and streamlined the text.

The main concern being raised by most critics is how Google will now start saving user information collected from all its services in one place. For example, users who log into several different services — such as Google.ca, Gmail and YouTube — will have data about all their searches and clicks stored together.

Alma Whitten, Google's director of privacy, product and engineering, in a blog post to users said.

"Our new privacy policy makes clear that, if you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we'll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience."

Users can stop this data consolidation from happening by staying logged out when using the search engine or YouTube, or by having separate logins for each different site.

In a letter to Google, Canadian privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said the search giant's efforts to created a more user-friendly privacy policy was "a step in the right direction." But she raised several concerns. For one, she said users aren't being told enough about how to effectively opt out of Google's new plan.

She wrote.  

"We would strongly encourage you to make it clearer to users that if they are uncomfortable with these new uses of information, they can create separate accounts. This is not clearly stated in your new policy." 

"As we understand it, the policy changes do not mean that Google is collecting more information about its users than it currently does. They do, however, mean that you are going to be using the information in new ways — ways that may make some users uncomfortable."

She also said the new privacy policy isn't clear about how long it will take for personal information to be deleted when requested by a user.

Google is also facing heat in Europe over the new privacy policy, which France's privacy regulator said is a violation of the European Union's data protection rules.

A letter to Google from the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes (CNIL) reads.

"Our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection.  The CNIL and the EU data protection authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of data across services and have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing."

CBC's Ron Charles looks at the upcoming changes to Google's privacy policy. Some users are concerned about their internet use being tracked by the tech giant.

  

"Don't Be Evil," Google's unofficial corporate motto was originally adopted as a company-wide belief as well as a jab to its competitors.  However, Google has come a long way since it was incorporated in 1998, and that has some users wondering if the company's philosophy has changed. BackgroundCheck.org asks, "Mother Can I Trust Google?" in the following infographic:  

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COMMENTARY:  Google, Twitter and Facebook have been the subject of investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for numerous privacy violations.  

In a blog post dated March 31, 2012, I reported that Google and Twitter had both been placed on 20-year probation, and must undergo annual privacy audits.  

In the press release about the FTC settlements with both Google and Twitter, it states:

"A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the respondent that the law has been violated. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000".

If the FTC had imposed that $16,000 per violation penalty, it would've been sufficient to put both Google and Twitter out-of-business.  However, the feds would never impose a penalty that serious because it is not in their best interests.  The Feds depend on and carefully monitor the activities of users on social networks and other sites to compile and track down criminals and terrorists. Attorney's also use social sites to gather evidence they can use in lawsuits and divorce cases.  What a racket.     

In a blog post dated November 30, 2011, I reported that Facebook had settled with the FTC for numerous privacy violations going back into 2010.   Like Google and Twitter, the FTC placed Facebook on 20-year probation, and must undergo annual privacy audits. 

Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a lengthy post on the company's official blog on Tuesday.

"I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes." 

He said a few "high-profile" mistakes, such as changes to the service's privacy policy two years ago, "have often overshadowed much of the good work we've done."

To ensure that Facebook did a better job, Zuckerberg said the company had created two new corporate privacy officer positions to oversee Facebook products and policy.

In its complaint, the FTC said that Facebook had repeatedly violated laws against deceptive and unfair practices. For example, it said Facebook promised users that it would not share personal information with advertisers, but it did.

Also, the company had failed to warn users that it was changing its website in December 2009 so that certain information that users had designated as private, such as their "Friends List," would be made public, the FTC said.

Facebook's Timeline feature, which it rolled out for all users on February 29, 2012, has been a subject of much controversy because of the huge potential for even more privacy violations.  Also, only about 10% of Facebook users actually like Timeline.   

The new Timeline feature makes everything a person has ever done on Facebook appear on a single screen that scrolls down year by year right back to when the person was born.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described Timeline as letting you "tell the whole story of your life on a single page".

However, as Timeline makes all of a user's photographs and wall posts visible to friends, critics have warned the mandatory change could erode users' privacy.

There are also concerns that this will instantly make it easier for identity thieves and stalkers to profile individuals.

However, a spokeswoman for the site said the change would not alter existing privacy settings. 

As you can readily see, user privacy is a huge concern, and the FTC has come down hard on both Google, Twitter and Facebook.   LinkedIn maybe the subject of sanctions as well over ads using pictures of users without their permission.   

It should be obvious by now that Google broke from its motto of "Don't Be Evil," and  that controversy over privacy continues to haunt it like flies over a picnic table.  If we are to hold Google accountable, then we must do the same for all the major social networks, who have violated our privacy and continue to do so to this date. 

Courtesy of an article dated April 18, 2012 appearing in BackgroundCheck.org and an article dated March 15, 2012 appearing in Socialphy

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP IDENTIFIES SIX DISTINCT TYPES OF MILLENNIALS, AND 50% OF THEM DEFY THE STEREOTYPES

 

Mountains of research can attest to what experts say Gen Y has in common, from passion for the environment to tech love. But new research from the Boston Consulting Group breaks this massive block of humanity, some 79 million strong in the U.S., into six distinct groups. And about 50% defy the stereotypes most marketers live by.

Christine Barton, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group in Dallas and an author of its report on Millennial Consumers, tells Marketing Daily in an email.

“Our research reaffirmed the historic optimism of Millennials.”

But it would be a mistake to take that generalization too far.  She says.

“If there is an average media image of U.S. Millennials as sheltered, civic-minded, team-oriented, less consumptive, and socially conscious, that describes at most three of our segments, or about 50% of our Millennial respondents. Not all offerings and marketing images and messages will universally appeal to Millennials.”

The Boston Consulting Group survey classifies Millennials into six distinct groups:

• Hip-ennials - The largest group, at 29%, are the Hip-ennials, and are sheltered under the umbrella statement of “I can make the world a better place.” Despite that optimism, they are cautious consumers, hungry for information, and female-dominated, including many students and homemakers.
• Millennial Moms - The next-largest group is Millennial Moms, accounting for 22%. This segment is both the oldest and the most affluent, with a high online intensity, and commitment to working out, traveling, and pampering their children.
• Anti-Millennials - About 16% fall into Anti-Millennials, the third-largest group and one that runs counter to many of the generation’s stereotypes:  They’re conservative, for example, won’t spend more for green products, and are best typified by the statement: “I’m too busy taking care of my business and my family to worry about much else." 
• Gadget Gurus - And despite that the cell phone commercials would have you believe, just 13% can be classed as true Gadget Gurus. Characterized by “It’s a great day to be me,” this group is affluent, well-wired, and most likely to be male. They are also likely to be single, and to believe this is his best decade.
• Clean and Green Millennials - The most environmentally concerned are classed as Clean and Green Millennials, who account for just 10% of Gen Y. Cause-driven, green, and positive, they are also the most likely to contribute content, the youngest, and more likely to be male or Hispanic.  
• Old School Millennials - And finally, the consulting company discerns a group it calls Old School Millennials, also about 10% of the Gen Y population, that is far less tech-involved than others. They read the most, are older, and while they are also cautious in purchases, are confident, optimistic and self-directed, and would rather meet friends for coffee than over Facebook.

Overall, Barton says,

“The good news for companies is we didn't find a generation fundamentally less interested in consuming. In fact, we found a generation vocal in its self-perceived knowledge of categories and brands, of its enjoyment of spending, and of its influence on the spending of parents, siblings and friends.”

There is bad news, however, in that the research -- which included 4,000 people between 16 and 34 as well as 1,000 non-Millennials, ages 35 to 74 -- found that those in the 35-plus segment don’t like Gen Y all that much.  Barton says.  

“We saw much more negative and dismissive impressions of the generation by those over 35 years old, raising the question: If executives feel as negatively about Millennials as their counterparts, how will they bring authentic, relevant and resonant products that understand and meet Millennials' needs?”

Barton says she was also surprised by how strongly Gen Y is influenced by its generation, as opposed to lifestage. She says.  

“When we looked at the attitudes of Millennials with more discretionary income, or that were older, or that were in structured jobs, or that were married, or that had children, they had more in common with Millennials than with non-Millennials sharing their life stage.” 

COMMENTARY:    I love Millennials, because they are an illusive target to market to, and very suspicious of advertising.  Many of them are in debt up to their ears from student loans, but they are our future, whether we like it or not.  After the Baby Boomers, the Millennials are the second largest demographic.   If you want to reach the Millennials, forget just about everything you've read about marketing to Millennials, but read my blog post dated September 30, 2011.  You see folks, it takes more than just marketing.  You need to get inside their heads.

According to the Boston Consulting Group survey, " The Millennial Consumer: Debunking Stereotypes," when making purchases, 33% of millennials favor brands that have Facebook pages and mobile websites, as compared to 17% of non-Millennials. Similarly, nearly half of Millennials (47%) agree that their lives "feel richer" when they’re connected to people through social media; just over one in four of non-Millennials (28%) express this sentiment.

The report finds that Millennials and Non-Millennials spend roughly the same amount of time online, but Millennials are more likely to use the Internet as a platform to broadcast their thoughts and experiences and to contribute user-generated content. Millennials are also more engaged in activities such as rating products and services (60% versus 46% of non-Millennials); and uploading videos, images, and blog entries to the Web (60% versus 29%).

Millennials put a premium on speed, ease, efficiency, and convenience in all their transactions. For example, the survey notes, they shop for groceries at convenience stores twice as do often as non-Millennials. Millennials are also receptive to "cause marketing" and are more likely to choose products whose purchase supports a cause (37% versus 30%).

Of Millennials who make direct donations (34%), almost half donate through their mobile devices (15%), compared with only 5% of non-Millennials. More Millennials than non-Millennials report using a mobile device to read user reviews and to research products while shopping (50% versus 21%), the survey says.

More U.S. Millennials than non-Millennials report using MP3 players (72% versus 44%), gaming platforms (67% versus 41%), and smartphones (59% versus 33%).  Non-Millennials reported using desktop computers at home (80% versus 63%) and basic cellphones (66% versus 46%).

Millennials are also more likely than non-Millennials to explore brands on social networks (53% versus 37%).

For those of you conducting research on the Millennials, click HERE.

Courtesy of an article dated April 15, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Publications Marketing Daily and an article dated April 12, 2012 appearing in LifeHealthPro

USE THE 'BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS' TO MAP YOUR BM BASICS, THEN TEST AND IMPROVE IT, BEFORE EXECUTING IT SAYS ALEX OSTERWALDER

When it comes to understanding and creating effective business models, sometimes it’s just a matter of mapping the basics—and remembering that nothing is permanent.

There are a million business model tools (by our scientific estimate). The point isn’t which is best, but which are useful for you—either as built or as customized by you and your organization.

Alexander Osterwalder (Click Image To Enlarge)

Here, from business model design guru Alex Osterwalder, is another. The key is to create “a shared visual language” for your executive team.

“What is a business model?”

Osterwalder, an author and workshop leader in the field of business model design and innovation, asks this question wherever he gives talks. And he receives as many answers as there are people in the room. The differences of opinion drove him to create “a shared visual language to talk about business models.”

His creation, what he calls the Business Model Canvas, outlines nine building blocks essential to designing a proper model. The Canvas’s building blocks—foundational topics such as distribution channels, value propositions, and key partnerships—are hardly novel. But with each parameter arrayed on a single page, it’s easier to diagram and envision how a change to, say, your key resources might lead to a corresponding alteration in your cost structure. So when a patent expires, for instance, you can literally remove it from the key resources box and map out the ripple effect on the other eight building blocks.

Before you pull out your pen and get cracking, consider one final tip:  

“You never write on the canvas.”

Osterwalder, in a video on his site, says.

“For every building block, you want to use Post-It notes.”

The reasoning:  No business model is perfect—or permanent. They are ever evolving. You need the flexibility of removable reminders, not the stubborn residue of ink.

In the following YouTube video, entrepreneur and business model innovator Alexander Osterwalder discusses dynamic, yet simple-to-use tools for visualizing, challenging and re-inventing business models. Osterwalder articulates how to use the visual language of his business model canvas framework, and shares stories of how this approach helps organizations of all sizes to better create, deliver and capture value.

 

COMMENTARY:   In a blog post dated February 6. 2012, Floodgate Fund co-founder Ann Muira-Ko says,  

"Its the business model that matters the most, rather than the business plan."  

According to Miura-Ko, business models do a better job of unearthing assumptions about a company's users, customers, pricing, demand creation, sales channels, supply chain, and overall logistics - all critical components to building a successful business.  

A business model answers all the 4 W's (Who, What, Where and Why) and the all important How you are going to do it as it relates to the following: 

• Core marketing message.
• Components of your brand identity.
• Customer value proposition (CVP).
• Industry or market.
• Target customers.
• Competitive landscape.
• Industry life cycles.
• Pricing model.
• Value chain.
• Operations.   

According to Peter Drucker, the late Harvard management guru said.  

"A business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization makes (or intends to make) money."  

But, a business model is far more than this. Mark W. Johnson, the Harvard professor and author of "Seizing The White Space,"  says that a business model consists of three components:

1. It identifies an important job a customer needs to get done and then proposes anoffering that fulfills that job better than any alternative the customer can turn to--in short, the customer value proposition (CVP). 
2. A pricing model and profit formula that shows quantitatively that you can make a profit delivering on the CVP. 
3. identifying which company resources and which processes are essential to delivering the CVP.  

Use the Business Model Canvas (see below) to guide you in the preparation of your business model provides the answers to the four W's and the How.  The business model canvas is divided into nine grids:

• Strategic partners.
• Key activities.
• Value proposition.
• Customer relationship.
• Customer segment.
• Key resources.
• Distribution channels.
• Costs.
• Revenues. 

The Business Model Canvas (Click Image To Enlarge)

In summary, think of a businesss model as the DNA code for your business.  Every business has a different business model.  Like the DNA strand that makes up a human being, there are countless business model combinations.  Understanding the inter-relationships of the nine components of the business model canvas for your business startup or company are paramount to developing a successful business model that won't become obsolete quickly or end in business failure. Remember, you may have the greatest product idea in the world, but a poorly developed business model can never the less lead to failure.      

To develop your business model I highly recommend that you read my previous blog posts dated November 5, 2011, January 26, 2012, and February 26, 2012.    

Courtesy of an article dated March 25, 2012 appearing in The Build Network

comSCORE STUDY: 31% OF ONLINE DISPLAY ADS ARE NEVER SEEN, LAUNCHES AD VERIFICATION SERVICE TO IDENTIFY ADS NOT VISIBLE

 

Earlier this year, comScore revealed some key findings from a broad study of online brand campaigns in connection with the launch of its ad verification service called Validated Campaign Essentials (vCE).   Among the highlights, it found that nearly a third (31%) of online display ads are never seen, and 72% of campaigns had at least some ads running next to objectionable content.

Following up, comScore has now released the full results of its December study, which spanned a total of 18 campaigns, nearly 3,000 placements, 380,898 site domains and 1.8 billion ad impressions. Participating marketers included Allstate, Chrysler, Discover, eTrade, Ford, General Mills, HTC, Kellogg's, Kimberly Clark, Kraft Foods and Sprint.

One of the obvious implications of a third of ads not being in view -- defined as at least 50% of an ad’s pixels being in view for at least one second -- is that ad dollars are being wasted. The report found little to no correlation between CPM and value being delivered to the advertiser. Ad placements with strong in-view rates are not getting higher CPMs than placements with low in-view rates.

One of the common misconceptions it points out is that ads “above the fold” are seen, while those “below the fold” are not. comScore found that some ads delivered ‘above the fold’ were not seen because users quickly scrolled past them before the ad had a chance to load, and alternatively, many ads placed below the fold had a high chance of being seen.

This might mean that below-the-fold inventory can be priced as premium as long as the publisher can prove it was viewed. “Even publishers aren’t able to price their own inventory without having misunderstandings,” said Anne Hunter, VP, ad effectiveness at comScore.

Looking at common ad sizes, the study found visibility varied by ad size:  

• Classic leaderboard (728 x 90) had the highest in-view rate of 74%.
• Medium rectangle (300 x 250) was second with an in-view rate of  69%.
• Wide skyscraper (160 x 600), a bit lower with a in-view rate of 66%.

There was wide variation across sites, with the in-view rate ranging from 7% to 93%.

Larger sites within a given content category also tended to do a better job of making ads viewable than long-tail sites, at 77% versus 60%. And among particular content verticals, coupon and directory sites had the highest rates for viewable ads -- at 89% and 81%, respectively. By far, the worst were pet sites, at 27%.

comScore also examined campaigns based on their ability to target by demographic or behavioral factors.

Campaigns that included one demographic variable (such as 25-54 years old) successfully hit that target audience an average of 70% of the time. In cases where there were two variables (age + gender), the accuracy of targeting decreased to an average of 48%. And with three variables, the average was dropped all the way to 11%. In effect, the narrower the demo target, the harder it is to nail. 

As with ad visibility, comScore found no correlation between CPMs and the accuracy of demo-targeted campaigns. 

When it came to behavioral targeting, the average campaign reached its intended audience 36% of the time, with a range of 23% to 67%. Hunter suggested that the uneven results stem largely from the limitations of cookie-based targeting.

But the study confirmed marketers’ interest in behavioral data. Hunter noted that after a certain age range, marketers most often wanted to target a certain type of behavior -- people spend a lot of time on automotive sites or cooking sites, for example. “So the target delivery against behavioral is just as important as against basic demographics,” she said. 

On a more technical note, comScore noted that all of the ads in the study were delivered via iFrames -- an HTML feature used to wall off ad content from a page’s main content -- and 61% through cross-domain iFrames. In its ad verification guidelines issued last month, the Interactive Advertising Board advised minimizing the use of cross-domain, or “nested” iFrames because of the challenges they present to ad measurement.

COMMENTARY:    comScore presented its findings data in connection with the launch of a new tool for validating digital ad delivery dubbed Validated Campaign Essentials (vCE).  The company says it differs from similar existing solutions because it provides an unduplicated accounting of impressions across a range of dimensions, such as ads delivered “in-view,” in the right geographic market, in a brand-safe environment and absent of fraudulent delivery.

Dr. Magid Abraham, president and CEO of comScore stated. 

“The display advertising market today is characterized by an overabundance of inventory, often residing on parts of a Web page that are never viewed by the user.  This dilutes the impact of campaigns for advertisers and represents a drag on prices to publishers.” 

Furthermore, the company said impressions validated through its system can be expressed as “validated gross ratings points,” or vGRPs.

The new metric would reflect measurement of ads that were delivered and had an opportunity to impact consumers. Beyond that, comScore said campaign audience reports through vCE will include reach and frequency, comprehensive demographics and behavioral segments only for people with valid exposure.

Verifying ad delivery and placement has long been a challenging aspect of online advertising because of its complexity and inherently dynamic nature. The importance of verification in digital advertising in particular led to the rise of vendors specializing in the service, such as AdSafe and DoubleVerify, which raised $33 million in funding late last year. Last year, comScore acquired verification and optimization service firm AdXpose for $22 million in a stock-based deal.

Last week, AdSafe released similar findings, reporting that across all types of sites, some 38% of ads were never in view to a user, and nearly half were in view for less than 0.5 seconds in 2011. Among other findings from the comScore study involving “12 national premium brands,” in-view percentages varied by site and ranged from 7% to 91%.

An average of 4% of ad impressions overall were delivered outside the intended geography of a site, but individual campaigns ran as high as 15%. In many cases, ads were served in markets where the advertised product is not sold, resulting in wasted ad spend.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau in November issued a set of proposed industry guidelines for the conduct of verification systems and services. The IAB described the guidelines as an “advanced framework” designed to ensure that a common set of methods and practices are used by various ad verification services.

Courtesy of an article dated March 26, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Publications Online Media Daily

USING DEVELOPMENTAL RELATIONSHIP MARKETING (DRM), THE KEY TO TUNING YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE TO CONNECT WITH THE BABY BOOMERS

 

My friend and mentor, David B. Wolfe, passed away Dec. 3, 2011, after a long illness. David’s special interest was mature markets. He wrote Serving the Ageless Market and (co-authored) Ageless Marketing, Firms of Endearment, and his last book, Brave New Worldview, was completed just before his death and will be published in the near future. He will be missed.

More than 20 years ago, our firm was created based upon David’s research and the principles of Developmental Relationship Marketing (DRM). This is a summary of the foundation/principles of Ageless Marketing.

The origins of Ageless Marketing stem from the five basic premises of DRM that define the origins of behavior, and its general path across the lifespan. They increase marketers’ effectiveness in linking product messages to the hidden (unconscious) drivers of consumers’ marketplace behavior by revealing behavior predispositions in various periods across the lifespan.

Finally, the five premises contain benchmarks for testing the validity of what people report about their attitudes, needs and motivations. This is critical given that recent brain research indicates that all motivations are rooted outside the realms of consciousness. We can only speculate about the foundations of our behavior; thus overly relying on the literal meanings of consumers’ testimonies doubtlessly accounts for many marketing failures. 

First Premise:  Origins of behavior

A person’s worldviews, needs, motivations and general approaches to needs satisfaction are predisposed – not predetermined -- by her/his current season of life, and originate in five systems of motivating underlying values (MUV Values).  MUV systems, from which all behavior emerges, are biologically innate and constitute the basic building blocks of behavior. In effect, the five MUV systems are the DNA of behavior:

MUV Systems	Source of Needs, Motivations
Identity Values	Sense of Self, and differentiation, maximization and perpetuation of Self
Relationship Values	Connections for orientation, grounding, validation of Self, and resources for help in meeting needs; includes institutions and belief systems
Purpose Values	Commanding focus of Self’s energy output and efforts
Adaptation Values	Skills, knowledge, for fulfillment of the Self’s potential
Energy Values	Health and well-being of the Self in the physical, psychological domains

Click Image To Enlarge

Second Premise:  Origins of motivations

Urges to satisfy needs arise from root motivations that are activated by tensions between five sets of bipolar forces. The first force (objective force) in each set dominates behavior in the first half of life; the second force (subjective force) in each set dominates behavior in the second half of life.

MUV Values	First half of life		Second half of life
	Objective force		Subjective force
Identity	dependence vs.		autonomy
Relationships	materialism vs.		experiential
Purpose	egocentrism vs.		altruism
Adaptation	novelty vs.		habit
Energy		disengagement/escape vs.		engagement/involvement

Third Premise:  Domains of personal development

Personal development evolves in two domains of the self. These domains contain the roots of all developmental potential. The two developmental domains are:

• Physical domain - the organic Self, which encompasses all body systems. Primary development is completed in adolescence.  Secondary development continues throughout life in order to keep body systems and functions in healthy states.
• Psychological domain - the inorganic Self which encompasses the conscious and unconscious mind.   Broadly speaking, following infancy, the mental Self develops through three cognitive styles across the lifespan as follows:
  • Subjective style: the primary cognitive style in childhood causing children to frequently experience the products of their imagination as reality.
  • Objective style: the primary cognitive style in adolescence and young adulthood when Self is experienced as an extension of the world.  They do not experience reality as an integrated scheme of the whole.  Reality to them is unambiguous, with truth being absolute or independent of context.
  • Integrated style - the primary cognitive style of people in midlife or older.  This style reflects a complex integration of subjective and objective styles. Reality is seen in terms of relationships whose elements are in constant flux.  Meanings depend on context.  This nullifies absolutism and renders reality in “shades of gray.”

Fourth Premise: Keeping information flow to levels the conscious mind can manage

The brain resolves this problem by conducting information triage. The criterion the brain uses to determine what information will be sent to the conscious mind is the relevance of information to a person’s survival scenario, a matrix of needs whose satisfaction is vital to a person’s comfort and pleasure and avoidance of discomfort and pain. 

Click Image To Enlarge

Fifth Premise: Seasons of life – stages of personal development

There are four seasons of personal development. The first two are dominated by social (psychosocial) development needs; the last two by inner (psychospiritual) development needs.

Season	Developmental Focus Years	Survival Focus
Spring	Initial development, 0 - 22	Play (learning) Comedic mode: “everything will generally break in my favor.”
Summer	Vocational development, 18+ - 40+	Work (becoming somebody) Romantic mode: heroic – “I can do anything I set out to do.”
Fall	Shift to inner development, 38+ - 60+	Work-play (search for meaning) Tragic mode: “I can’t do as much as I once thought; who am I really?”
Winter	Integration of life experiences, 58+ - ?	Reconciliation (making sense of life) Ironic mode: “There’s good in most every bad, bad in most every good – c’est la via!”

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Ageless Marketing is an excellent primer on connecting more effectively with boomers and older adults and further exploring DRM summarized above. Knowledge gained should result in a better understanding of whole brain, true-to-life models of customer behavior and consequently more effective links with targeted populations.

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COMMENTARY:    Before you get too entangled with the concepts and terminology presented in the above material, I would like to make the following very important points which relate to the above:  

1. The marketing message is more important than the messenger.  
2. A brand is the sum total of all the experiences, both good and bad, and heiarchy of human needs that a brand represents and satisfies in the mind of the consumer.  
3. The brand experiences and heiarchy of human needs it fills become even more important as a consumer becomes older.   

Therefore, in order to fully understand the above material, we need to backtrack a bit, and you need to familiarize yourself with the science of consumer marketing, not just what you read in Marketing 101 about the four/five P's and marketing strategy and tactics.   What I am getting at, and something that I have preached for a long time, is that marketers need to understand how consumers think and what processes go on inside the mind of the consumer that will get them to trust a brand and finally make a buying decision.  This is the very essence of Developmental Relationship Marketing (DRM).  

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Armed with the above valuable points and concepts, marketers will be in a better position to fine tune their brand marketing messages so they are more customer-centric if you are targeting the Baby Boomer generation.

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Through the miracle of neuro imaging, brain researchers can now eavesdrop on the goings on between a person’s ears as thoughts are being formed and decisions made. While they don’t exactly see pictures,what they do see is radically changing our thinking about how motivations form, free will works, and information moves from our sensory receptors through the brain into the conscious mind.

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What is being learned about human behavior in brain science or neuroscience, as well as in the hotly developing field of genetics, will inevitably change how companies view those who work for them and those to whom they market and sell things. However, it is not only genetics and brain science that will be changing how companies see workers and customers. Developmental psychology, which is a treasure trove of information about human behavior, though rarely drawn on in marketing, stands to assume an elevated role in business, especially in marketing. 

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Marketing revolves around predictions of consumer behavior. The primary purpose of consumer research is to get information that enables predictions of what consumers need, want, and do. However, developmental psychology, which delves deeper into the human psyche,offers crucial insights into consumer behavior that cannot be fathomed by traditional consumer surveys, interviews, and focus groups. In fact, developmental psychology may help resolve an ironic problem present in current marketing strategies: Despite information technology that provides us with more information on customers than ever before, marketing success rates have fallen over the past decade.  Scary thought, isn't it?

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Marketers' continuing preoccupation with youth and young adult markets makes no logical sense in scores of product lines and for thousands of companies.  The emergence of a New Customer Majority comprised of people 40 and older is the answer.   This seasoned group of consumers is 45 percent larger than those between the ages of 18 and 39 (123 million versus 85 million), and will become even more numerous over the next decadeand a half. A fact overlooked by the prevailing Madison Avenue mindset is that the majority rules in the marketplace as well as in politics. This New Customer Majority, not youth and pre-middle-aged adults, is the primary source of today’s leading views, values, and behaviors in the marketplace. This historic change in consumer behavior has made much of what once worked in marketing obsolete. It has changed the rules of marketplace engagement.

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Adapting successfully to these circumstances requires a different mindset than the one that has long governed marketing. As many thought leaders in business have already recognized, marketing success increasingly depends on abandoning the traditional  quantitatively framed product-centric mind-set to adopt a qualitatively framed customer-centric mindset. However, not many yet have figured out how to do this.  

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Customer relationship management (CRM) was supposed to be the silver bullet to accomplish effective customer-centric marketing, but has failed miserably.   CRM has become a more of a sales tool to assist salespeople track and qualify leads and communite with customers. Instead  of developing into a customer-centric marketing technology, all CRM has done is build a wall between the company and its customers, while creating more work for the salespeople.

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Social media came along and has given birth to the era of brand engagement with consumers, but as you have found out from my numerous blog posts, I have often questioned the effectiveness of social media to sell much of anything because consumers view their social media pages as a very private almost holy social space, and advertising is considered very invasive and an infringement on that space.  So long as social network users continue to blockout and resist social media ads, I don't see how social network sites like Facebook will become a marketer's Holy Grail.   As I write this, social network sites like Facebook and Twitter are embarking on more aggressive advertising strategies and introducing advertising products to meet the needs of brand marketers and justify their huge stock valuations. Exposing social network users to even more ads is not the solution. When this experiment is finally over in about a year or two, I think you should revert back to this blog post and you will discover the reasons why it all happened.  

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Since the social networks began selling ads, brand managers have encountered problems measuring the ROIs of their social media marketing campaigns.  Spending more on social media advertising only exasperates this problem. It piles on bad money on top of more bad money. It represents wasteful spending on advertising that simply will not work.  The smart ones, representing roughly 49% of brand managers have chosen to use social media the right way:  to increase brand awareness, increase fan engagement and brand influence, conducting marketing research through questionnaires and polls, and improving customer service.     

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With a growing body of knowledge, evidence and new information from neuroscience with which to work, we are now able to fold back the layers of the conscious mind to reveal the very origins of customers’ needs, motivations, and behavior, a feat that is simply not possible in conventional consumer research methodologies.  In doing this, neuroscience responds to a long-standing deficiency in marketing that costs companies tens of billions of dollars annually due to misleading research and marketing blunders.

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The spectrum of refracted images that results from neuroscience makes it clearer why consumer behavior has become less materialistic (less product-centered) and more metaphysical (more experience-centered).  This has occurred because for the first time ever, most adults are in the years when the forces of self-actualization needs (see below) exert decisive influences on lifestyle aspirations, buying decisions, and overall consumer behavior.  The marketer who gains an understanding of the dynamics of self-actualization will have a decided advantage in today’s markets over the marketer who doesn’t.

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Thus far, marketing remains rooted primarily in the materialistic values (product-centered values) that generally hold the most sway over people in the pre-middle-age years of adulthood. Because of this, many members of the New Customer Majority feel marginalized by companies and their marketers. Perhaps no other single factor has done more to reduce the effectiveness of marketing.

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Here's an incredible thought that marketers should take note of:  How a brand is perceived and what a marketing message means is more subjective in the older mind than is usually the case with younger minds. In fact, the older mind tends to be more resistant to marketers’ attempts to fully define the meaning, benefits, and values of a brand.  That's another scary thought for marketers to chew.  

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Abraham Maslow, a leader in the field of human developmental psychology and developer of Maslow's Hierachy of Needs postulates that an older, more mature mind “resists enculturation” (i.e. enculturation is the process by which a person learns the requirements of the culture by which he or she is surrounded, and acquires values and behaviours that are appropriate or necessary in that culture). This disposition calls for subtler and more deferential approaches in addressing older markets. This is made more challenging by the fact that unlike the young who tend to perceive matters in more absolutist black-and-white perceptions, older people tend to perceive matters in shades of gray. Absolutist perceptions of reality are easier to play to because they are generally more closely tied to social consensus. Shades of gray perceptions are more subjective, thus pose a fuzzier target to hit among members of the New Customer Majority.

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Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs

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Empathy—identifying with and understanding another’s circumstances, emotions, feelings, and motives—is the very core of an authentic customer-centric mind-set.    The last season of life is a more fortuitous stage than many younger people believe is possible.  It comes only with maturation.  The blessings that can be one’s good fortune to experience in the mature stage of ones life at higher levels of psychological maturation include entry into a new dimension of human existence from which comes a steady flow of lofty experiences—what Abraham Maslow called peak experiences—and in which there arises enhanced coping abilities for dealing with any later life declines and losses that are inevitable. Of course, not everyone reaches such an advanced state of maturation. Nevertheless, because these aspects of self-actualization reflect perennial desires in life’s second half, the marketer who understands them is more likely to connect most deeply with the more than 123 million people who make up the New Customer Majority.

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Bottomline, if you are marketing to the Baby Boomer generation you must employ more hollistic, socially conscience, and more subtle messages that run counter to the Generation Y or Millennial and Generation X cultural marketing approach.   To market the Millennial and Generation X,  I highly recommend that you read by blog post dated September 30, 2011 in which I talk about how to reach Generation X and Generation X.  Those two demographics require a Sensory Approach and Social Approach. 

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Courtesy of an article dated March 5, 2012 appearing in MediaPost Pubications  Engage:Boomers  and the book titled Ageless Marketing by David B. Wolfe

 

HOW 'SOCIAL SNOOPING' SERVICES ARE HELPING EMPLOYERS SCREEN EMPLOYEES THROUGH THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA BEHAVIORS

Hopefully most readers of this column are aware that their social media profiles are fair game for potential employers, who may peruse the photos and updates posted to a Facebook page to gather evidence as to the character and sobriety (often literally) of a prospective job candidate. This week brings more evidence that ill-advised social media content can hurt your chances, courtesy of a survey of executives responsible for hiring decisions in Australia.

The survey of 1,255 bosses and other hiring executives, conducted by Pure Profile on behalf of Australian telecom Telestra, found that 28% of the respondents use social media to screen job candidates by doing research into their backgrounds. Within this group, respondents said they were turned off by something posted on a profile around 40% of the time. That compares to one-third who said that something posted on a profile helped decide them in favor of a particular candidate.

No surprise, one of the biggest mistakes made by job applicants in their social media profiles was criticizing their current employer:

• 44% of Australian employers who use social media for screening said they automatically disqualified jobseekers who posted critical comments about their current workplace, according to the Pure Profile-Telestra survey.
• 37% said making discriminatory remarks about your previous employer was an automatic deal-breaker.
• 31% of employers actually fired an employee who made critical remarks about them.

Again unsurprisingly, Facebook was the most popular source of information on job candidates, used by bosses:

• 41% of bosses screened applicants using Facebook.  
• 31% of bosses screened applicants using LinkedIn
• 14% of bosses screened applicants using Twitter
• 7% of bosses screened applicants using both YouTube and MySpace 

Interestingly, social media surveillance may continue even after someone lands a job:  

• 43% of Aussie employers say they accept friend requests from their employees. 
• 33% of Aussie employers say they check their employees’ social media profiles. 
• 18% of Aussie employers say they monitor their employees to make sure the employees aren’t badmouthing the company online. 
• 15% of Aussie employers say they monitor for productivity.

Back in the U.S., there’s no question employers are zeroing in on social media profiles as sources of information about job candidates -- sometimes with the help of professional background researchers. In June of this year I wrote about a decision by the Federal Trade Commission which effectively allows everything an individual puts on social media (which is publicly available under their privacy settings) to be archived by third parties for up to seven years, for the explicit purpose of background checks -- even if the individual has deleted the content in question from his or her own account.

The FTC determined that a company called Social Intelligence Corp. was operating within the bounds of the law when it created "cached" archives of social media profiles for review by employers, including potentially damaging photos and statements.

According to Social Intelligence Corp. CEO Max Drucker, the company focuses on screening social media profiles for the usual suspects -- racist remarks, sexually explicit content, pictures with guns, knives, or other weapons, and other illegal behavior (think bongs).

There are some limits on how employers may use archived social media content, however. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, companies are required to tell prospective employees (or, say, credit applicants) that they are going to perform background check and obtain their permission to do so. Also, companies must tell the applicant about any damaging information they find online.

COMMENTARY:   In a blog post dated October 3, 2010, I profiled Social Intelligence Corporation, a "creepy startup" and "truly scary" firm that screens job applicants by what they say or do on social networks for employers.    This is a quote from Max Drucker, CEO of Social Intelligence Corp:

"Once employees have been hired, their online behavior poses a possible threat to your company. Employees may criticize managers or coworkers on a social networking site, post questionable photos on a blog, or regularly update personal sites while on the clock. Therefore, it is vital that employers implement and enforce a strong social media policy. Social Intelligence offers nearly real-time surveillance of employees' online behavior (based on e-mail, SMS, and workflow) using customizable reports, summaries, and screenshots to document activity. Findings are prioritized by predefined, color-coded alerts, ensuring that employers see only the information they desire. Consistent monitoring creates awareness and strict adherence among employees, thereby reducing “cyber slacking,” fraud, and negative company publicity. Social media monitoring leads to an increase in overall productivity and a significant improvement in your bottom line."

He says employers should "implement and enforce a strong social media policy" and he calls its service "nearly real-time surveillance of employees".   

The idea that your employer can play "Big Brother" on its employees in "real-time" including screening their "email, social media sites and workflow" is "truly scary."  Does this mean that employers are eavesdropping on their employees at will?   I call that invasion of privacy.  I would like to know what they mean by "workflow."  I would go as far as to call it "employer peeping-tom"  This should be worrisome for you.

In a blog dated October 3, 2011, I again profiled Social Intelligence Corporation, I discussed the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1996, 2004 with amendments there to.  The FCRA is a fairly complex 86 page document (see below) that provides consumers with certain rights.  

Social Intelligence Corporation had been sued by privacy advocates claiming that the company was in violation of the FCRA, but the FTC dropped the case after its investigation of Social Intelligence, finding that it is in compliance with the guidelines of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. 

I became very interested in learning exactly what information Social Intelligence Corporation provides employers "using customizable reports, summaries, and screenshots to document activity," includking which social sites they were using for screening and how they determined that a particular jobseeker "presents a threat" to a prospective employer.   I sent them an email requesting this information, but I received a very lame response from one of their spokespersons that they could not provide that information unless I were a client.  

Social Intelligence Corporation provides two services to employers:

"Social Intelligence℠ Hiring is an FCRA compliant background screening service that enables employers to navigate the complicated legal landscape of social media with clear, consistent, and insightful results. Using a combination of automated and manual review processes, Social Intelligence Hiring ignores information that is not legally allowable in the hiring process, such as the “protected class” characteristics defined by federal anti-discrimination law (race, religion, national origin, age, sex, familial status, sexual orientation, disability status, and other qualities that are not allowed to be used as decision points). Therefore, job candidates are protected from discrimination based on these characteristics and, in turn, employers are protected from allegations of discrimination."

Social Intelligence Employment Solutions

"Social Intelligence℠ Monitoring enables employers to implement and enforce a strong social media policy. Using a combination of automated and manual review processes, Social Intelligence Monitoring provides a powerful, cost-effective method of alerting employers to social media policy violations, including negative publicity, fraud and “cyber slacking,” and mitigating risks posed by existing employees. As with Social Intelligence Hiring, Monitoring ignores “protected class” information to insulate employers from employee discrimination claims. Whether employees are displaying or discussing illegal behavior, publicly disparaging management online, discussing sensitive company information, or updating personal websites while at work, Social Intelligence Monitoring provides employers with the knowledge and tools necessary to protect their organizations."

The word "Monitoring" sounds an awful lot like "watching" or "spying".  If I say, "I am going to monitor you," I think you would automatically assume that I am watching you.  Yes, that's Big Brother watching over you.   

Incidentally, Social Intelligence Corporation is sponsoring a live webinar titled, "Using Social Media for Hiring Online" on Friday, December 2, 2011 between 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. (PST).  Here's what's on the agenda:  

"Attendees will learn what social media is and how to use it their advantage when hiring for their organization. They will learn its powerful way to augment traditional employment background screening using FCRA compliant social media searches. Lastly, we’ll show a demonstration how Social Intelligence and TalentWise makes a comprehensive social media screening simple and risk-free with searches that allow HR, recruiting and staffing professionals to gain deeper insight into job candidates’ personal and professional characteristics while screening candidates in a systematic way to ensure compliance with federal, state and local employment laws and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)."

I am pleased to report that I have registered for this webinar and encourage anyone interested in their invasion of privacy to do the same.  You can register HERE.   Just so you know I am in no way plugging Social Intelligence Corporation.

Courtesy of an article dated November 29, 2011 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf

FOUR STEPS FOR MAKING FACEBOOK MARKETING WORK, AND USING 'FACEBOOK INSIGHTS' ANALYTICS TO DRIVE FAN ENGAGEMENT

There aren’t many marketing opportunities that can target 800 million people in one — so it’s no surprise that 96 of the top 100 US advertisers are marketing on Facebook. But there’s a problem: Many of those companies tell us they’re not finding Facebook nearly as useful a marketing tool as they’d hoped. In large part, that’s the result of the disorganized approach many companies have to Facebook marketing. Too many raced to launch a Facebook page without ever setting clear objectives, and are now left with a handful of fans but no clear idea of how to engage those fans. Likewise, too many marketers neither understand all the tools at their disposal nor put sufficient resources into their Facebook programs.

To make matters worse, most companies aren’t getting anywhere near the support needed to use Facebook well — either from their agencies or from Facebook itself. In fact, for a company that relies almost exclusively on advertising revenue, Facebook doesn’t do much to help advertisers succeed. Its content management tools are still primitive compared to what third-party vendors offer; Facebook doesn’t give marketers the data needed to optimize and measure their efforts; and it’s constantly changing the rules for how companies can use the site.

The result? An increasing number of marketers who understand that Facebook is important, but can’t quite work out exactly what it’s useful for.

To avoid this fate, and to make Facebook work for them, marketers will need to follow four steps.

Step 1: Set clear objectives. Marketers need to rethink what Facebook can accomplish for their business. Will they use it to drive awareness and purchases? To generate word of mouth? To increase the loyalty of existing customers? Or do marketers need to help other parts of the organization, like the customer-service team or the product-development team, get the best out of Facebook? The site’s versatility lets you choose from objectives that span almost every part of the marketing mix — but to get the most out of Facebook, you need to have a clear idea of what you’re trying to get from it.

Step 2: Build a page that provides value for your fans. Most brand pages are littered with a random mix of company news, promotions, advertising, and other content focused on what marketers want, rather than what their fans want. Carolyn Everson, VP of global marketing solutions at Facebook, says.

"The brands that succeed on Facebook are the ones that give people a reason to be fans.”

Of course, you can’t provide value to your fans if you don’t know anything about those fans. But how can you learn about your audience if Facebook doesn’t provide you with much detail? One option is to get fans to offer up additional information once they hit the ‘like’ button. For instance, EMI worked with campaign-management platform Neolane to develop a Facebook app that collected opt-in customer information and then tied that data back into EMI’s customer database.

Building a valuable page for fans can also mean creating a richer experience. While a “like” allows fans to read and comment on posts, deeper engagement comes from options like games and contests that are often only feasible with an application. Target took this approach for Valentine’s Day last year; its “Super Love Sender” contest let fans vote on which charity would receive a $1 million donation from the brand. The Target Facebook app also allowed fans to send friends personalized valentines and also provided real-time updates on which charity was in the lead.

Step 3: Use the full Facebook toolkit to increase reach and engagement.  Facebook offers marketers much more than just branded pages – it also supplies a wide range of earned, owned, and paid media. For instance, consider using Facebook Ads to increase reach and sharing. Expedia used ads to increase participation in its “The Friend Trips Game” – and ultimately drove more than 1 million fans for the page. Events, location-based tools, and apps can also help you get the most out of your Facebook program.

Step 4: Integrate Facebook into your marketing mix. Most marketers treat Facebook as an isolated asset, rather than building it into the marketing mix. But there are lots of good ways to integrate Facebook into your overall marketing plan. For instance, you can make Facebook promotions the foundation for broader campaigns. Corona’s “most liked beer in America” campaign featured the faces of its Facebook fans on a billboard in Times Square – combining the reach of traditional media (signs in Times Square typically get 1.5 million impressions per day) with the value of driving 200,000 new “likes” for the brand’s Facebook page.

Ultimately, though, the most important piece of advice is the first one: You must define clear objectives for your Facebook programs. Once you do this, you’ll see more clearly how you can build value for your customers, use the entire Facebook toolkit, and integrate Facebook into your marketing mix — all of which will increase the chances that Facebook actually works as part of your marketing program.

Checkout this list of Facebook Marketing Strategies:

COMMENTARY:  In the past several years, businesses large and small have come to realize the positive impact of engaging their brand-loyal public and — more importantly — potential customers, via Facebook Pages. While fan pages are typically seen as a destination for users to remain privy to brand news, a recent comScore report shows that a Page is really just the place where content resides, as fans are 40 to 150 times more likely to consume branded material in their news feeds than on the actual fan page itself. This discovery led to Facebook’s expansion of “Page Insights,” including new metrics and analytics designed to constantly remind business owners of what truly matters: engaging content.

Facebook utilizes an algorithm that ensures the most relevant content for each user finds its way onto that particular user’s news feed. The relevancy of this content is determined by a number of factors including how many times it is liked, shared, commented on, etc. When fans of a company interact with branded content, it can then be passed on to their friends and their friends’ friends. With fan acquisition as the main motive behind the Facebook strategy of most businesses, it is helpful to learn that friends of fans are more likely to visit a brand’s store, website and even purchase a product than the average, uninfluenced consumer. In addition, the average friends-of-fans group for the top 100 brand pages on Facebook is 34 times larger than the fan group. This means that a business can often have greater influence amongst its second degree connections, and the virality of a page’s content can be directly related to the success of a business. So, ultimately there’s a need for better insights into Facebook content consumption.

Facebook’s Advertising Communications Manager Elisabeth Diana states that the “one of the purposes behind Facebook Page Insights is to provide all page admins with ways to understand how to reach and acquire new customers.” New metrics have been created in order to provide businesses with not only information about how people are interacting with a brand Page, but also a glimpse into how people are connecting with the Page’s content in other parts of Facebook.

One of the metrics added to Facebook’s Page Insights is “People are talking about this.” This set of data counts stories that are eligible to appear in a user’s Newsfeed, such as any likes, wall posts, comments, shares, questions answered, RSVPs to events, Page mentions, photo tagging and location checkins. The metric allows the page administrator to know what posts have proven the most compelling and interactive.

Another metric added to the equation is the metric of virality, which allows for insight into how viral a particular post is. Virality is determined by dividing the number of “people talking about this” by the reach (the number of people who actually saw the content). Diana notes that because virality is a percentage, whether a business is large or small, the metric “can be used to compare across all Page posts.” The virality metric allows page admins to analyze the success of individual posts and will hopefully lead to an improved page strategy through a better understanding of the audience.

Along with these new metrics comes aesthetic changes as well. “Whether you want to get into the deep end or wade in slowly,” Diana says, Facebook wants to make their Page Insights “digestible for everyone, easy to sort and actionable.” She says most of the heavy numbers have been removed from Page Insights, but “for those needing something a little more data-intense, there is always the option to export to a spreadsheet.” Either way, Diana and Facebook promise that “this is just the first step in enhancing Page Insights for small businesses and brands; there is more to come.” In the meantime, however, Facebook will continue to prompt business owners to provide their audiences with the most engaging content possible to guarantee the greater reach and better sales.

You might want to checkout the Top 10 Facebook Fan Pages for 2011 to get an idea whose pulling fans. 

Courtesy of an article dated November 28, 2011 appearing in Forbes and an article dated November 26, 2011 appearing in Mashable

 

7 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT 'SOCIAL TV', WHAT IT IS, SIZE OF THE MARKET, AND HOW TV BROADCASTERS AND ADVERTISERS BENEFIT

Bluefin Labs mapped social chatter about Mountain Dew to TV that Dew fans also buzzed about. Click here for details.

Before moving on you are probably wondering what is 'Social Television' or 'Social TV'. Here's the simple definition of Social TV:

Social Television is a general term for technology that supports communication and social interaction in either the context of watching television, or related to TV content. It also includes the study of television-related social behavior, devices and networks.  Social TV is the modern term that replaces 'Interactive Television'.  

or even simpler put...

Social Television is the state of the art -- and science -- of monitoring social-media chatter about television.

The concept of socializing around TV content is not new. But Social TV is creating the cyber-living-room and cyber-bar to enable increased interactivity around shared programming both live and time-shifted.  In an attempt to recapture the social aspects of television or the sociological influences television has had on society since its inception, lost since the advent of multiple-screen households, which discourage gatherings to watch television together, social television aims to connect viewers with their friends and families even when they are not watching the same screen. As a concept, social television is not linked to a specific architecture such as cable TV, IPTV, peer-to-peer delivery, or internet television (over the top or OTT). Nor is it necessarily limited to a traditional television screen, but could also be presented on a computer or handheld device such as a smartphone, tablet or netbook.

Social TV started in the early 2000s with limited success as the creation of the shared connections was cumbersome with a remote control and the User Interface (UI) design made the interaction disruptive to the TV experience. But social networking has made Social TV suddenly feasible, since it already encourages constant connection between members of the network and the creation of likely minded groups. The shared content and activities often relate to TV content. At the same time, the smartphone market has been growing quickly. 86% of Americans already use their phones while watching TV. A recent AC Nielsen survey also revealed that 33% of consumers regularly use mobile apps while watching TV.

The key thing to remember is that Social TV is not specific solely to your home television set, but incorporates any device that delivers television programming, films or online video content to the consumer.

In the following video, Lorie H. Schwartz, Chief Technology Catalyst, North America, McCan Worldgroup explains how Social TV is growing and exploding on multiple platforms:

 

Social TV Growing Exploding on Multiple Platforms

 

In the following video, interactive television experts gathered at SXSWi held at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas on March 12, 2011, to discuss the future of social TV.

 

Just how big is the market for Social TV? What is it?  How is it being used? Watch this video of Mark Ghuneim, CEO, Trendrr (this dude speaks from the side of his mouth) at the NBC Universal Social TV Symposium held in New York on September 14, 2011:

 

Having given you the various definitions of Social TV and a brief history, here are 7 things you need to know about Social TV right now:

1. TV owns and is driving social 

For more than two years now, AdAge.com has had an editorial partnership with Trendrr, the social-media-monitoring company. Trendrr, which was born in 2006 as Infofilter, grew out of Wiredset, a Manhattan digital-marketing agency founded by Mark Ghuneim and Tom Donohue in 2004 (the same year Mark Zuckerberg was launching what was then TheFacebook.com out of his Harvard dorm room, and two years before Twitter fluttered to life). Ad Age partnered with Trendrr to create weekly online EKG charts of rising and falling tweet volume surrounding memes that were dominating Twitter conversations. Back in the summer of 2009, we tracked everything from Sonia Sotomayor (then a nominee for the Supreme Court) to "Glee" to Major League Baseball to "True Blood."

Over time, it dawned on us that more than anything else, TV was driving social. Sotomayor would trend on Twitter only when her confirmation hearings were being televised; a specific team would trend because it was doing great (or sucking) in the game being broadcast at that very moment on ESPN; during prime-time hours in the U.S. and the U.K., Twitter's trending topics list would be all but taken over by TV-related chatter. You could get a real-time take on "Glee" viewers' level of delight over the most deliciously nasty things uttered by Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester character because fans would dutifully thumb-type their favorite bits of dialogue right into their Twitter streams. (In fact, it started to seem like "Glee" writers were writing as much for Twitter as for TV.)

Over the past couple of years, Trendrr has tightened its focus on TV -- even launching Trendrr.tv specifically to serve the TV industry. Today, 14 of the top 25 TV networks are Trendrr.tv data customers, and as the social-TV business has exploded, Ad Age has also started editorial partnerships (to generate charticles for AdAge.com) with other emerging players in the space, including Bluefin Labs a Cambridge, Mass.-based outgrowth of the MIT Media Lab that is building a broadcast-meets-social database it calls the TV Genome project, and Manhattan-based entertainment check-in service GetGlue.

Mr. Ghuneim said,

"Social TV could not be heating up more, because engagement is really starting to map to currency."

He added.  

"The networks that 'get it', are using the social graph to measure the effectiveness of their marketing spend, for real-time audience research to understand the demographics of their viewers, to be smarter about how production dollars are spent and what content will resonate. And especially to demonstrate to advertisers the value of the network off the network."

2. Social TV is, at its core, incredibly old-fashioned

Social TV is about watching TV with other people -- think of "50s-era family and friends gathered around an old Magnavox console to catch "I Love Lucy." Only now the living room has gone national. (Get your feet off the coffee table, Texas!)

3. Twitter is definitely not the only game in town when it comes to social TV 

Consider GetGlue, which launched in June of last year. This past August, it hit a high of 11.5 million check-ins, driven by partnerships with big broadcast and cable networks from ABC and Fox to Showtime and HBO. (The summer's most popular show on GetGlue was "True Blood" with 490,787 total check-ins.)

TVGuide.com, which built its own site-specific check-in service and launched it last October, recently surpassed 4 million check-ins and is averaging 20,000 per day just from its user base. General Manager Christy Tanner says that to date TVGuide.com has sold 45 sponsorships to both network and non-network advertisers -- from ABC to Starbucks -- eager to engage with a deeply engaged audience.

And more and more networks are building their own social destinations. At USA Network, says VP-Digital Jesse Redniss, more than 300,000 unique visitors came to its Character Chatter platform -- at characterchatter.usanetwork.com -- this summer to discuss USA shows including "Burn Notice" and "Psych." When USA broadcast a "Burn Notice" marathon and ran Character Chatter posts on an on-screen crawl, "That was a big "a-ha' moment for us because we saw 35,000 concurrent users logging onto the system. It was really cool to watch."

4. Social TV is a form of self-expression -- and a form of peer-to-peer peer-pressure marketing

Get Glue CEO Alex Iskold says, 

"What we've learned since launching GetGlue, is that entertainment is an incredibly emotional experience for people and the reason that people love checking in is because it's a gesture of self expression. It's people saying, 'I'm a diehard "True Blood" fan, and that's a really important thing to me, it really matters to me, and that show gets into my head and gets into my soul.'"

A network can drown you in endless promos for a new show it wants you to watch; maybe you'll succumb, maybe you won't. But the influence of social-media messaging about that show from a friend whose taste you trust can't be underestimated. An enthusiastic tweet about "Ringer" is not only an endorsement of the show but an implicit call to action; it says,

"This is what you're missing out on."

5. Social TV has slowed down time-shifting for some of TV's biggest shows

TVGuide.com's Tanner said.

"We did a survey of our 10,000-person TV-fan panel last year, and what we found is that 20% of them said they are watching more live TV specifically to avoid "social spoilers.'"

6. Social TV is not primarily about predicting hits

Some of the big shows premiering this fall already have great social buzz; ABC's "Once Upon a Time," which won't even air its first episode until October, already has more than 100,000 likes on Facebook. What does that tell us? That ABC is doing a good job promoting it and that the fantasy-drama theme conveyed in the promos is resonating with potential viewers. And that's it.

Bluefin Labs VP-Marketing and Business Development Tom Thai said. 

"Merely tracking the volume of buzz without a deeper analysis of other factors, is very rudimentary. What matters is context; once a show gets traction, what else can the viewers who are chattering about it tell us about their other preferences as consumers? If you're a CMO for an automaker vs. wireless carrier vs. laundry detergent, your audiences and needs will be different. The key next step is marrying social-TV data about the shows with data about specific brands."

7. The Couch Potato is a dying breed

Remember when TV viewers were seen as passive consumers? The minimal effort required to operate a remote control (and open a beer and a bag of Cheetos) meant that sitting on the couch and taking in a few of your favorite shows made you a "couch potato." Funny how the addition of just another small device -- the smartphone -- to the mix has transformed the couch potato into a superfan/social-marketer/programmer with the power to transform TV.

COMMENTARY:  Social TV was named one of the 10 most important emerging technologies by the MIT Technology Review on Social TV in 2010. And in 2011, David Rowan, the Editor of Wired magazine named Social TV at number three of six in his peek into 2011 and what tech trends to expect to get traction. Ynon Kreiz, CEO of the Endemol Group told a packed crowd at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in January 2011:

"Everyone says that social television will be big. I think it’s not going to be big — it’s going to be huge".

According to Gartner Research's Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies for 2011 (see below), Social TV is very much an emerging technology, at the bottom of the "technology trigger" slope of the hype cycle curve. Gartner believes it will become mainstream in 5 to 10 years, but I tend to agree with  Mark Ghuneim, CEO, Trendrr, that Social TV will attain mainstream adoption much quicker than this.  The proliferation of mobile devices, cloud computing and apps has made access to TV and digital content available anywhere on a 24/7, 365 day basis.  The developers of these technologies know what you click and how long you are watching something, and what you are saying about that content on your social network stream.   

 Click Image To Enlarge

To give you some idea just how rapidly some emerging technologies can become mainstream, compare the Gartner Research's Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies for 2005 (see below) with the Gartner Research's Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies for 2011.  

 Click Image To Enlarge

You will notice that the word "social" does not even appear on the Hype Cycle curve.  At the end of 2005, Facebook had only 5.5 million users and was being hosted out of Mark Zuckerberg's house in Palo Alto, California.   Fast forward to July 2011, Facebook claims it now has 800 million users.   

Social TV technology can integrate voice communication, text chat, presence and context awareness, TV recommendations, ratings, or video-conferencing with the TV content either directly on the screen or by using ancillary devices.  

Social TV is very active area of research and development that is also generating new services as TV operators and content producers are looking for new sources of revenue. While a number of existing social television systems are still at a conceptual stage, or exist as lab prototypes, beta or pilot versions are available commercially.

White-labeled social TV platforms have also emerged (such as Visiware's PlayAlong, LiveHive Systems and Ex Machina's PlayToTV) which allow TV networks and operators to offer branded social TV applications.

On the ratings front, companies such as Networked Insights and TrendrrTV have emerged to measure the social media activities tied to specific TV telecasts. In essence, these new companies seek to serve as the Nielsen Ratings of the social televisions space.

If you want to know more about Social TV, you might want to tune into or attend The TV of Tomorrow ( TVOT) 2011 to be held in New York City on December 5, 2011.

Courtesy of an article dated September 19, 2011 appearing in Advertising Age Mediaworks and Wikipedia