Most Businesses Still Only “Experiment” with Social Media

Social media use among businesses has grown significantly over the past year or two, but new research from E-Consultancy, in association with the Online Marketing Summit (where WebProNews is conducting exclusive interviews this week), indicates that most businesses are largely still in the experimental stage when it comes to their efforts.

There are a great deal of interesting stats to pick through in the report, but to me, one of the most striking is that 61% (nearly 2/3) say they have experimented with social media, but not done that much. Various stats suggest businesses are starting to get to the place where they view social media as crucial, however. For example, the vast majority (90%) say they expect social media to take up more time internally "in a year's time," while only 8% expect it will take up the same amount of time, and 2% expect less time to be spent on social media next year.

Some other highlights from the report:

- The majority of companies have difficulty measuring the return on investment (ROI) from social media. Almost two-thirds of respondents (61%) say their organizations are “poor” (34%) or “very poor” (27%) at measuring ROI.

- Increased traffic to Web site is the business goal that marketers are most likely to be trying to influence through social media marketing. Three quarters (74%) of companies say they use social media to increase traffic.

- Direct traffic to Web site is by far the metric most commonly used to measure the impact of off-site social media, measured by just under two-thirds of company respondents (63%).

- More brand recognition (64%) is the second most important business objective in terms of impact of social media. A similar proportion of respondents (62%) cite better brand reputation.

- Despite the widespread recognition that social media marketing impacts brand reputation and brand visibility, only a quarter of all respondents (25%) surveyed use online brand mentions and brand awareness as a metric for measuring off-site social media success. Just 15% use brand perception as a metric.

- Just over half of companies (56%) say that they try to achieve increased sales through social media activity. But only a quarter of companies (24%) use sales as a metric for measuring social media success.

Facebook is the Web property mostly commonly used in social media, with 85% of companies surveyed using it as part of their marketing strategy. This is followed by Twitter (perhaps more closely than expected, given Facebook's much larger user base) at 77%, LinkedIn at 58% and YouTube at 49%.

Over two-thirds of company respondents say that the amount of money spent on social media has increased since last year, while 30% say it has stayed the same, and 81% of companies expect social media budgets to increase over the next year, while 18% expect spending to stay the same. So while companies are still experimenting, they must be generally seeing good enough results to keep at it, or see the potential to use it on an expanded basis.

Do you have a concrete social media strategy or do you simply experiment? Discuss.

Don’t Count Out Facebook as a Competitor to Google

In case you were wondering, Facebook is pretty popular. Google is of course the undisputed king of search market share, but Facebook has the edge in some areas. Social media is the obvious area.  While Google is hoping to make some serious headway here with Buzz, Facebook is far and away the dominant being in the world of social networks.

Compete shared some data with us that emphasizes just how big Facebook is, and just how seriously it should be taken. If these stats from Facebook weren't enough for you, Compete points out that Facebook has surpassed Yahoo as the #2 site online in the U.S. in terms of unique visitors, just under Google.

In December, according to Compete, Facebook's unique visitors in the U.S. had increased by over 121%. That's pretty incredible, because I seem to recall Facebook being pretty popular in late 2008 too.

In terms of social media sites, none of the others even come close in the U.S. - not even the world's second largest search engine, YouTube: 

So Facebook is already bigger than the second largest search engine. Add to that, the fact that search on Facebook itself is rising. According to comScore, Facebook's search query percentage increased by 13% from December to January, growing to 395 million searches:

Greg Sterling notes, the numbers in the chart "are likely internal searches on Facebook for content or friends, rather than web search. This is not the same thing as people conducting searches on Google, Yahoo or Bing more generally. And 13 percent growth is certainly strong, but not "phenomenal.'"

Facebook's search feature, which has been emphasized somewhat with the latest redesign, lets users search people, pages, groups, apps, events, posts by friends, posts by everyone, OR web results. Sterling makes the case that internal Facebook searches are different from web searches one would perform on Google, but in some ways, Facebook search simply goes places that Google doesn't (while also going Places that Google does via the Bing-powered web search).

Facebook is almost like its own web in some ways, and that is becoming truer all the time as Facebook gets more of users' time spent online (which it is doing through status updates, news, apps/games, videos, music, events, and possibly email in the future...we also suggest Facebook consider adding blogging to the mix).

Look at this newly released data from Nielsen about time spent online. In January (in the U.S.), Facebook users averaged 7 hours a month on the site. As a point of comparison, Google users spent about 2 hours.

In some ways, that doesn't really take anything away from Google, because Google's job as a search engine is to get you where you need to be to find what you're looking for. However, Facebook users appear to be finding plenty of stuff they are looking for along with stuff they didn't know they were looking for, as well as just hanging out and being entertained. With Facebook's search feature, they're able to find what they're looking for without having to leave Facebook until the search result (at least theoretically).

Whether you think Facebook's search growth is "phenomenal" or not, you can't overlook the fact that more people are using the search feature, and some unknown percentage of that is pulling from Bing. Maybe this should be construed as a good reason not to overlook your Bing SEO efforts. Maybe it's also another reason why Facebook should be viewed as one of Google's key competitors (along with Microsoft, Yahoo, and increasingly Apple).  Actually, Sterling points out that Google recently listed Facebook officially as a competitor for the first time in its annual 10K filing.

Google is seemingly going after the market that Facebook dominates with the launch of Google Buzz, but status updates are just part of the big picture. Search is just part of the big picture. It's all about getting the user's attention, is it not? Here are some tips for running a good Facebook page.

What do you think? Discuss here.

Consumers Getting More Comfortable with Mobile Shopping

As you know, smartphone usage is on the rise, and that means more opportunities for businesses to sell to customers via their mobile devices. We often hear about how important mobile is to the marketing strategy and especially future strategies, but how much are consumers really into shopping from their phones?

Retrevo shared some findings with us, and concludes that consumers are increasingly warming up to the concept of shopping from their phones. Andrew Eisner, Retrevo's Director of Content says, "With the Mobile Internet becoming more available on everything from smartphones to tablet computers, we see an encouraging number of consumers researching and actually purchasing products with their mobile devices."

Not surprisingly, the mobile shopping is most popular with the young in pretty much every capacity, and the older the demographic, the less inclined they are to use mobile devices to shop.

The young also appear to be most likely to engage with mobile advertising, and even notice mobile ads at all. Furthermore, when asked about their experience when they used a mobile phone to shop, most said they searched for deals, found them, and got the best price, while nearly half also found that it made shopping easier and more fun. A much smaller percentage didn't think it was worth it and wouldn't try again.

Highlights from Retrevo's Findings:

- 59% of people said they found the shopping information they were looking for, when using a mobile phone.
- Only 8% of people said they did not intend to shop from their mobile phone
- Only 9% of people, over 35 years old, have responded to an ad on their mobile phone, compared to 20% of people under 35.
- 55% of people, ages 18 - 24, have used a mobile phone to aid in the shopping process.
- 52% of people, ages 25 - 34, have used a mobile phone to aid in the shopping process.
- 36% of people, ages 35, 44, have used a mobile phone to aid in the shopping process.
- 17% of people, ages 45 and up, have used a mobile phone to aid in the shopping process.
- 17% of people, ages 18 - 24, have made a purchase using their mobile phone.
- 15% of people, ages 25 - 34, have made a purchase using their mobile phone.
- 10% of people, ages 35 - 44, have made a purchase using their mobile phone.
- 3% of people, ages 45 and above, have made a purchase using their mobile phone.

The research indicates that the future of online shopping via mobile devices is bright. Eventually, these younger users are going to become the older ones, and the future youngsters will probably find it hard to imagine a world where shopping from mobile devices wasn't the norm.

A fitting quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt: "Today's generation doesn't call it a mobile phone; they call it a phone."

Do you shop from your mobile device? Do you purchase items from it? Comment here.

Good News for Google Buzz – Social and Email Top Mobile Priorities

An interesting study has been released by PR firm Ruder Finn, which finds that 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize, compared to only 79% of traditional desktop users. Meanwhile, Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet.

"Mobile phones have become the way people organize their lives—managing finances, connecting with friends, purchasing products—and this trend will only accelerate," said Kathy Bloomgarden, Ruder Finn co-CEO. "The mobile phone is becoming the most powerful online device, and the faster businesses can adapt their services to harness consumer mobile intent, the more rapidly they can capitalize on understanding their customers to drive growth."

The Mobile Intent Index asked respondents how frequently they use their mobile phones to go online for 295 reasons, and the results show that immediacy is the primary factor driving behavior.

"Mobile phone use goes beyond instant gratification," said Marty McGough, director, Ruder Finn Insights. "Our survey data shows that people use their mobile phones out of necessity for instant access to the Web whether it's to conduct business with the most recent information or advocate on the spot on issues of pressing concern and breaking news."

According to Ruder Finn's research, about three in five users download mobile apps at least once a month, while 36% of users download apps from social networking sites at least once a month.

"Mobile technology means that people no longer have to wait until they're in front of their computers to do their work," says the firm's Chief Innovation Officer Michael Schubert. "And people are taking advantage of that; using mobile devices to do their core work while using desktops to navigate longer format and higher bandwidth content and tools. This is resulting in huge changes – and opportunities – across industries, making mobile an essential channel in keeping businesses competitive."

The top social intents named by participants of Ruder Finn's survey were instant messaging (62%), forwarding e-mails (58%), content (40%), and photos (38%), posting comments on social networking sites (45%), and connecting to people on social networking sites (43%).

There is of course a new social player in the game with Google Buzz, which was announced yesterday. One of the primary focuses of the product appears to be on mobile, with three separate mobile Google Buzz-related announcements made by the company: the ability to use Buzz from Google.com on iPhone/Android, a brand new app, and a Maps update.

The jury is still out on just how successful Google Buzz will end up being, but Ruder Finn's findings appear to suggest that the product will meet several of the top objectives of mobile users. Buzz being present on the mobile version of Google.com, which Google says is the worlds' most popular mobile home page, could be a huge factor.


Have You Read This?

> Will Google Buzz Change the Social Media Game?

> Whose Got The Buzz: Yahoo or Google?

> Is Gmail Google's Real Social Network?

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