Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research. Show all posts

Monday, February 7, 2011

Social Media: Managing Bears

Listening. Watching. Hungry?

The world of communication is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Instead of being more comfortable with the plethora of media and marketing opportunities, clients are telling me they are more confused than ever. One guy told me last week he thinks of marketing today as a big bear.

One of my favorite lines from the Wizard of Oz sums it up nicely, “Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

The old familiars - advertising, promotions, public relations, and other marketing tools are still on the map, but the growth and integration of online marketing, both part and partial, has changed the more familiar marketing trek. It has become more complex, yet a more adventurous expedition which can land us in a more exotic and grander locale.

In some ways, the guy was correct. With the addition of social media to the marketing mix, it can seem to be a bit more of a wild and unwieldy animal. In terms of being social, many businesses to think only of the soft side of marketing, you know, going to tradeshows, placing a pretty ad, cozying up to audiences as if they are a favorite old Teddy Bear. With the integration of sales and marketing tactics, the practice has become more complex. And if the approach is wrong, it can mean coming face-to-face with Ursus arctos horribilis, aka a Grizzly Bear.

The type of bear you cross, depends on the hour, day, or even what else is happening in the world at the moment. One thing is certain, both no matter the marketing tactics, they require patience, planning, monitoring and the ability to track in one direction or another. A successful campaign, especially addressing the large landscape of social is identified with "The Art of the Hunt."

  • What is the potential? 
  • Where is the largest group?
  • How do we ensure capture?
Like the animal-human response mechanism, social media requires attention and interaction or it will die. You must play with it, nurture it, verbally respond and exercise monitoring techniques to measure weight, function, energy and even proliferation. Social media can be unpredictable, but there are proactive techniques, tips and training so you know what to do should the beast go buck wild.
  • Do you need basic training?
  • Could you use directions?
  • Can you make it grow?
From a half day intro session to developing and implementing a campaign, contact me at 407-341-9866 for training and guidance. Wherever you are in regard to the social media zoo – planning a visit soon; strolling along amused and confused; or being gobbled up as prey – together we can tame the darn beast, I mean Teddy Bear.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

News Release Images Impact

From the approach at your front door to the first thing a reporter sees when opening a news release, images count!

Continuing the post, Spruced Up Releases Spring Media To Action, PRWeb has research to back up the fact that images have impact. They took a closer look at how multimedia impacts news consumption by studying the habits of their news consumers. The research combined quantitative analysis of usage patterns drawn from Web statistics with a survey and sent out to a segment of their email opt-in subscribers.

Here are top-line takeaways from that research:

1. People spend more time on releases that contain multimedia – Images really do have an impact on how much time people spend consuming news releases.
  • Releases with no images had an average time-on-page of 2:18; and 
  • Releases that contained images had an average time-on-page of 2:47.
Since journalists receive hundreds of releases each day, every second of every eyeball spent on a page can be a huge advantage to getting a story noticed and picked up in the news.

2. Bloggers and journalists actually use multimedia – Not only does multimedia positively enhance the experience of news releases, evidenced by indicators such as increased time-on-page, but news producers (journalists and bloggers) actually use multimedia they find on news releases to help construct their ensuing stories.
  • 48% of journalists and bloggers who subscribed to receive PRWeb news releases used an image or video in a news story or blog post.
3. Bloggers and journalists favor some forms of media over others – When it comes to various types of multimedia, content producers clearly favor images.
  • 88% of producers agree or strongly agree that images enhance their experience of a news release;
  • Half agree or strongly agree that video enhances their experience of a news release; and
  • Only 28% agreed that audio enhances a news release.