Our conclusion being that if brands could find a way to recruit more high sharers more people would recommend the brand to their friends and sales would almost certainly increase.

Over the past couple of weeks, two brands have caught my eye for running campaigns designed to increase the number of high sharers interacting with the brand.

The first is Samsung which has launched Samsung Nation. This is a social loyalty program where people can earn badges (and rewards) for reviewing products, tweeting, sharing links, contributing to Samsung communities and, of course, buying a product!

It is a fantastic execution designed to tap into the exact finding of our study using a combination of gamification techniques and monetary rewards to not just recruit high sharers for the brand but to get existing sharers to start sharing even more.

The second example is right at the other end of the spectrum because it is a niche online small business: http://tirechaindealer.com/. (You guessed what they sell).

I discovered them last weekend. It was raining in San Francisco so I got excited at the prospect of going skiing again in Tahoe so I thought I would get prepared.

I purchased some chains and then on Monday morning when I got in to the office there was an email waiting for me which offered me $3 for recommending them on Google by clicking +1 and a $10 refund for taking part and dropping a link in a discussion forum (nice crowdsourced SEO) or writing a blog post.

What they are doing is really smart. Their program is definitely SEO lead but the principles are exactly the same for recruiting and activating high sharers.  After all, I did find them searching on Google so it is clearly working.

Having mentioned both of these examples at a recent company meeting lots of people had experienced similar programs. One such program mentioned by @Codyelam was from a vacation rental firm Holiday Velvet, which was offering 35 Euros for Liking them on Facebook and 50 Euros to a customer who created a video of the apartment. I know the Euro isn’t in great shape right now but 35 Euros for a Facebook like seems a bit pricey!

I am sure you have examples of other brands creating programs to incentivize sharing content so it would be great to hear about them so we can start to collate them.

If you are interested in learning more about High Sharers and how brands can identify and activate them we are holding an event in San Francisco on 13^th December to discuss this study in more detail.

source: ABC News

In the last 24 hours, a few interesting things have happened in the airline industry, but none of it should come as a surprise. Rather, the somber reality that American Airlines is filing for bankruptcy, and conversely the daring move by Virgin American to let 146 friends rent a plane and name it for $60,000 on Gilt for Cyber Monday, are simply a sign of the times.

Across all industries, there continues to be talk about brands that “get it” and those that don’t when it comes to using social tools and reaching customers via digital channels. This is no truer than among major airline companies. American Airlines, a stalwart with a hell of a name, has seen its business demise as it has stood still and watched scrappier more energetic brands like JetBlue and Virgin America fly by them (pun intended). While it is not to say that social media is the only aspect that has led to the success or failure of these businesses, a study from merely a few weeks ago that rated American Airlines the “most hated” on social media and Virgin the “most loved” can now be seen as some serious foreshadowing to where we are today.

In the case of American Airlines vs. upstarts like Virgin and JetBlue, one clear area that has led to the love/hate divide is customer service. This is one of the most fundamental elements of social media. Nothing is worse than being stuck in an airport. Except for feeling like the airline doesn’t care.

But, what JetBlue and Virgin also really “get” is the experience. Both online and offline. And, more importantly, where the two meet. While American Airlines has been stingy with the free peanuts, Virgin has been dishing out Chromebooks to its passengers.  Further, JetBlue has introduced a whole new lexicon: “jetting.” Everything they do – from booking your travel online to arriving in the terminal to taking off and landing – all comes back to “jetting.” That’s smart and it’s worked.

What also works is taking risks. That $60,000 trip with all your friends and chance to re-name a plane? Someone bought it.

source: Gilt

See the infographic we created of the study on Mashable.

We conducted a survey of over 3000 consumers in the US and UK and asked them to share their online experience of researching products that they were intending to purchase. The research covered 12 categories of brands that could be grouped into High Involvement (typically higher priced goods including consumer electronics/travel/financial products) and Low Involvement (typically lower priced goods including health and beauty/baby products/music products.)

To put the research into context, it is now over 4 years since Forrester published its Social Technographics research which showed that 13% of population could be defined as Creators (upload their own content, for example a YouTube video), 19% were Critics (consumers who had written reviews of a product or service) and only 19% had used a social networking site.

The picture is very different today. The number of people who could be classified as Creators and Critics has gone up three-to-four fold, while the number of people on Facebook (THE social networking site), we can estimate at over 64%, using Facebook and US Census data combined.

Like it or not – the social consumer has arrived.

High Sharers vs. Low Sharers

Every day, consumers are creating and sharing millions and millions of pieces of content related to brands. One of the most fascinating pieces of the research was the fact that consumers are clearly divided into two different camps.

1. High Sharers: people who actively create and share brand content across a range of different channels

2. Low sharers, people who are more passive consumers of content.

High Sharers, who account for approximately 20% of the population, are more likely to be younger, more likely to be loyal to a brand and three times more likely to recommend products to their friends.

Low sharers on the other hand tend to be older, more concerned with brand quality than image alone, and are more likely to switch brands.

Influential Channels

Another facet we looked into as part of this research was the relative influence of owned and earned media channels as well as the influence of search. It turns out that there are some very important differences when we look at the influence of individual channels for High vs. Low Involvement brands.

For High Involvement brands, their own brand web site, as well as review sites and search have a much higher relative influence. However, for Low Involvement brands, Facebook and Twitter are relatively much more influential.

Even at a category level, there are some very important differences. For example, if we look at the consumer electronics category, review sites are the single most influential channels alongside the brand web site, which also has a very high relative influence. However, for these types of products, Facebook has a relatively low influence.

What Can Brands Learn From This Research?

This research is, we believe, the first study to show that people who share content about a brand are more likely (by a factor of three) to recommend that brand to a friend. These fascinating findings are what brands need to incorporate into the way they approach their digital social strategy. Using this research, brands may identify some very specific ways in which they can turbo charge their digital social strategies depending on the product category.

To cut to the chase, if there are three things to take away form the study, we can summarize them as follows:

1. Brands need to use the data they have to understand the relative influence that each of their digital channels have on different stages of the purchase and advocacy lifecycle. Then they should optimize each channel’s respective content.

2. Brands need to identify and nurture High Sharers as these sharers hold the keys to driving brand advocacy. (The result? Sales.)

3. Brands need to make sure that both their communications and marketing teams optimize everything they create in order to drive value in organic search.

Last week Italian fashion house Versace disabled wall posts to its Facebook page after it became overrun with messages from activists railing against the brand’s use of sandblasting, a tactic that gives denim a rugged appearance. A petition started by Change.org against the “killer jeans” sparked the fiasco, where links to the campaigns ran amuck on Versace’s burgeoning 500,000-fans-strong wall.

According to Change.org, sandblasting is extremely hazardous to workers because of its high-pressure firing process, which has caused death among workers in Turkey and Bangladesh. Silicosis, a fatal pulmonary disease, can be developed when large quantities of silica dust are inhaled. Labels including H&M, Gucci and Levi’s have thus discontinued sandblasted garments from their lines.

All sandblasting-related messages on Versace’s wall have been deleted, and fans can only comment on posts put up by the label. This instance shines light onto a pressing issue: How should brands (especially luxury brands) control communication on Facebook?

Some call Versace’s move a PR mistake, where the brand missed out on an opportunity to engage with their fans and explain themselves. After all, brands create Facebook pages to interact with customers and give them a voice. It’s also a place for brands to communicate with their fans directly – not a discussion forum. Though, others claim there were so many comments on Versace’s page, censoring their wall was the only viable option.

It’s a significant debate, considering luxury brands were relatively late comers to the social media fore. Their reliance on exclusivity, the need to maintain the appropriate aesthetics and general hesitation to experiment with new marketing strategies for fear of jeopardising their image made high-end entites hesitant to all-access, visually painless sites like Facebook. Now abreast with the perks of social media, most luxury labels are on board, albeit with varying digital prowess. For example, DKNY allows fans to post on its Wall, though the messages are partially concealed in the “Most Recent” Wall tab. Conversely, fan-authored Wall posts have famously been ever-disabled by Burberry. A recent survey of luxury brands’ Facebook practice is detailed by L2, who ranked BMW, Clinique and Audi as achieving the most successful Facebook marketing campaigns.

Regardless of how Versace treads forward, the incident stresses the need for brands to have a solid social media plan before diving in.

Over the last two years online, there has been a noted decline in trustworthiness for “a person like myself,” according to the recently released 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer. However, consumer trust in company-employed technical experts and CEOs increased in this same period.

It doesn’t seem like it, but it’s only been in the last six years that we’ve really committed to this crescendoed social media zealotry of WOM! Referrals! Tribes! Friend Circles! Likes! SmallTownMentality2.0!!

We’ve been tossing around questions like, “What’s the ROR — return on relationship?” and asking each other to redefine ”engagement,” as if it really means anything other than what it’s always meant — “not boring.”

And now, ironically, we’re hearing about a burgeoning era of “Friend Fatigue.” (No, I didn’t make that up.)

People have too many so-called friends, and they fill a variety of increasingly specific roles. Some of them aren’t even really friends – just acquaintances or familiars that got mixed into our social networks. We add them, and then we filter them, hide them or block them out of our update feeds.

Our platonic ideal of “Friend” has become so broad that when breaking it down, we find even grainer classifications: High School friends (good for memories), College friends (good for comparisons), Professional friends (good for networking).

Yet despite all the friend-filtering, your company is now, more than ever, being told by marketers, PR teams and digital strategists like myself that you have to be a better “friend” to your consumers.

You have to hang out (social networks and micro-communities), work on your relationship (customized content and voice), listen and respond (open community management and commenting), support and compliment (social incentives and favors for influencers), and even play games with them.

Well, it’s true. The Internet is one giant real-time playground where the popular kids still rule the school. And if you’re not friends with those kids, prepare to eat your lunch alone.

But back to the Edelman report, and here’s what I hope inspires:  These “friends” you’re making are ready to get more serious about their relationship with you.

Chances are, if you’re doing a good job with your digital strategy and social media engagement, your friends already “Like” you. They follow your tweets, they give you feedback and they show loyalty to your products.

What this report is telling us, though, is that they’re ready to make an even deeper commitment. They want to know your CEO and who your top talent is. They want to hear your opinions on a variety of areas, and not just insights specific to your own products. They want to know more than just your financial quarterly reports, but what you’re passionate about, what innovation you hope to achieve and how you’re planning on getting there.

So how do you become “more than friends” with your consumers?

It’s all about content, and lots of it.

Your brand needs to own and amplify as much and as varied content as it possibly can. Not just about your products and where they can be purchased, but why. Why do you even produce those products? Who are the individuals working on making those products better and why are so many different skill sets needed? What does your CEO do when she isn’t working on those products? What is your passion?

All of these deep questions are just the type of intimate things people want to know about each other, and your brand in a serious, committed relationship is no different. People want to read your thoughts, watch your videos, play your games, and share all of those things of their own with you.

By creating a content-rich, multi-faceted brand experience online, you are opening up yourself to having a real relationship with your customers – giving them new information, making room for them in your narrative, showing passion for them, and, let’s be real, keeping them engaged.

(Remember? Not boring.)

Like with all committed relationships, getting serious isn’t easy and takes a lot of time, energy, patience and compromise. You’ll have to take a good look where you’re spending your marketing, advertising and PR dollars, and really ask yourself – is all of this buying me my best relationship behavior? Kind of like asking yourself, “Would I date me?”

So… would you?

We have just released our Brand Interaction Study which helps to give some insights into the dos and don’ts for brands in running a Facebook presence. In talking to PR Week they asked us what we are doing with it so, given the article couldn’t cover them all,  I thought it would be worth pulling out ten things we learnt from conducting the study which any brand can implement today.

So here are our Top 10 Practical Steps to building and engaging your community on Facebook some of which are also covered in our video produced to accompany the study:

Put together an incentive program for your loyal fans

Increase the use of images and rich media to increase likes

Use polls to increase comment levels

Aim for a ratio of brand comments to fan comments of 1:10

Funnel customer service issues into the appropriate channels and away from Facebook

Clearly signpost news distribution from within the corporate facebook presence

Ask the fans for ideas for content

Integrate your Facebook presence with all other social presences and web presence

Benchmark your Facebook presence against other brands in your sector

Let other fans handle a lot of the other negative comments

We can’t promise that this will get you as many fans as Coca Cola but we can guarantee if you follow these steps you will be well on the way to building a happy fan base.

• Social Media Case Studies Presented at Budapest Affiliates Conference by Judith Lewis

“Anyone who knows me, knows I’ve been around longer than Google. They also know I love sharing knowledge and one of the ways I do this is by speaking at conferences. I recently spoke at the BAC – Budapest Affiliates Conference. Affiliates are an important marketing channel for non-branded keywords in search and they are often able to capture sales a company might otherwise miss.”

• The Gold Rush by Nick Rappolt

“We’ve just finished a digital campaign for Amadeus called the Gold Rush 2020. The aim of this campaign was to drive traffic and downloads to the research report they created with Epoch PR and Oxford Economics.”

• It’s Nice That. What Is It? by Marley Petropoulos

“I don’t know if anyone in the audience really knew what to expect from last Wednesday’s It’s Nice That future:content event and even now they are probably still scratching their heads – well, at least I am.”

• Is Search Broken? (Part 1) by David Hargreaves

?I have had a number of discussions recently with brands about how they can increase traffic from organic search and which function is best placed to drive organic search: Comms or marketing? I would certainly not profess to be an expert on search (we have our very own Judith Lewis for that) but I know enough to be dangerous.”

• My Love/Hate Relationship With Automated Media Measurement by Seth Duncan

“The key takeaway is that the artificial intelligence that these tools offer don’t necessarily work for every brand or communications campaign and, even when they do work well, they require more human intervention than you expect.”

• The Facebook Four: What a Fan Wants by Faith Chihil

“Recently, Beyond completed a study analyzing over 14,000 posts on the corporate Facebook Fan pages of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, as well as a consumer poll of near 4,000 people based in the UK and the US.”

• Web Design: What Ever Happened to the Design Process? by Troy Chafin

“Don’t forget that design is a process, this includes web design.  Yes, I know – your client wants their site live yesterday.  And yes, your client is tech savvy enough to know that something can be pushed live on the internet in a matter of minutes and then changed 34,358 times post launch.  But that does not mean the value of design should be ignored.  This value depreciates when the process is taken for granted.”

A recent study published in Booz Allen’s Strategy+Business, point to some of the same reasons  that we have found in our research for this effect, and include much that is relevant to communications professionals. The study, authored by Young & Rubicam’s John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, and titled “The Trouble with Brands,” presents data that makes the case that brands have been losing power over time, with the exception of a handful of brands whose values are afforded a premium and financially outperform their peers. This is based on intangibles the study’s authors call “energized differentiation,” but really boil down to having an emotional connection with customers (i.e., emotional loyalty), in that the brands speak to their customers (relevance) and have a unique meaning to their customers (differentiation). Further, these brands “add up to a more exciting, dynamic, and creative experience” to use the authors’ words. These brands have built valuable equity with both customers and prospective customers, creating intangible value. Apple is probably the most obvious example of such a brand at the moment, but since we do a substantial amount of work in the technology industry,they are an inescapable example. Apple has emerged as one of the more revered brands of recent times, and in our research the brand continually elicits a share of voice and sentiment that is completely out of proportion to its share of the markets in which it competes, be it PCs, laptops, mobile phones or consumer electronic devices. If you also look at market capitalization and valuation ratios, the company is afforded a rich premium by investors (PEG ratio of 1.5 and P/S ratio of 4.15 at this moment). Customers are also willing to pay a premium (Apple has a market share of 91% for all PCs priced over $1,000 – which shows clear dominance of the premium segment). And the media loves to write about Apple. Much of that is explainable by rational factors: investors like the margins and growth rates, and customers like the innovative products and product design. But, there is an emotional connection that causes both investors and customers to be willing to pay a premium and sustains the momentum. This premium is due to the company’s ability to excite the public, the fact that the products delight the customers, and the fact that a leader like Steve Jobs can captivate journalists to the point of worship.

PC/Notebook Market: Share of Voice Vs. Market Share

While these intangibles may seem very wooly, they are in fact very measurable. As an example, in the 90s I worked on building a customer satisfaction and loyalty program for a large software company who had a dominant position in one market and wanted to extend it to another – and they needed to understand how well loyalty would extend to this market that was relatively new to them. One of the key findings from our research – based on interviewing senior-level executives at the 2000 largest companies in the world – was that our client had two types of loyal customers: those who bought because they either had no choice or logic dictated it (e.g., because of issues such as compatibility, cost, or corporate policy), or those who not only stayed loyal because of the facts, but also showed a high level of emotional involvement in the purchase. They were more likely to recommend the brand (something Net Promoter has since exploited in its simple brand advocacy model), but they also exhibited other perceptions that indicated that there was an emotional connection that shouldn’t necessarily be part of a rational purchasing decision process. In understanding these perceptions lay the key to  a successful marketing strategy.

Ultimately, in our current environment where trust is easily lost and brand value is eroding, it is more important than ever for a brand to understand the strenght of the emotional bond with their customers, and to use that knowledge to better manage their brand. And if you think about it, much of what goes into creating that bond boils down to good PR strategy: design and communicate a clear vision of the brand that is distinct, is authentic, resonates and engages its audience (aka the DARE methodology employed by Text 100). Further, the leadership of a brand is key to communicating this vision, and marketing must back this up by sticking to the same message and effectively engaging the brand’s audience. Great brands don’t create value by accident – they do it through deliberate planning, thorough research and flawless execution. So if you do not have a clear strategy on how you will excite your market, then ultimately, your brand value will suffer. And of course, if you do not measure, you won’t know.