This week on the Marketing Update, Karen Rubin, Mike Volpe discuss Patriots vs. Giants Super Bowl XLVI, P&G Fires 1600 Marketing, Linked in 277% More Effective at Lead Gen Than Twitter and Facebook, Hashtags Gone Wrong, and Inc 500 Companies are Blogging Less. Episode #186 - February 3rd, 2012 Intro How to interact on Twtter: Include #MktgUp in your tweet! On the show today is Karen Rubin (@KarenRubin) and Mike Volpe (@MVolpe) As always, all the old episodes are in iTunes. If you like the show, please leave a 5-star review! Anyone is welcome to come by the show to watch as part of the live studio audience - 4pm Friday Headlines Patriots vs. Giants Superbowl XLVI (46) http://blog.ubervu.com/whos-winning-the-super-bowl-on-social-networks-infographic.html We’ve decided to use a very important event in the entertainment industry – the Super Bowl - to show how social intelligence can help you take informed decisions and predict risks, based on the online buzz. We believe that metrics like sentiment and mentions evolution can clearly show how supportive fans are of a team, who’s the most popular quarterback and who has the most invested advocates. Quarterback Support (mentions and retweets) - BRADY Team Support (mentions, retweets, sentiment) - TIE Pick the Pats, but acknowledge it's close What about Mike's superbowl prediction from 2008? http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/3671/Internet-Marketing-Data-Predicts-the-Patriots-will-Win-the-Super-Bowl-over-the-Giants.aspx http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/3755/Humble-Pie.aspx Marketing Takeaway: Be careful with data, you can make it say anything if you are not thoughtful. P&G Fires 1600 Marketing http://www.webpronews.com/pg-cuts-1600-jobs-marketing-on-facebook-google-is-more-efficient-2012-01 the company has announced that they will be giving the axe to 1,600 “nonmanufacturing jobs” (e.g., jobs in marketing) as they turn their marketing eye toward “digital marketing.” Robert A. McDonald, P&G Chairman and CEO, said his company finds “that the return on [marketing] investment can be much more efficient” through mediums like Facebook and Google. He continued, “One example is our Old Spice campaign, where we had 1.8 billion free impressions and there are many other examples I can cite from all over the world.” McDonald stated that P&G will continue to spend 9-11% of their sales budget on advertising, but the allocation of that money may change considerably now that the company has discovered how wildly successful the right viral ad can be for them. http://mashable.com/2010/12/10/pg-social-media/ Digital media has “become very integrated with how we operate, it’s become part of the way we do marketing,” marketing chief Marc Pritchard told the Associated Press. “It’s kind of the oldest form of marketing — word of mouth — with the newest form of technology.” The company is an important advertiser that spends nearly $9 billion per year to advertise its products. The company is finding social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to be more effective channels for reaching women and has spent much of 2010 experimenting with campaigns in these arenas. Marketing Takeaway: Embrace inbound marketing for job security. Linked in 277% More Effective at Lead Gen Than Twitter and Facebook http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx In a recent study of over 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%). 1. Invest time and effort to grow that specific channel. The trick, however, will be trying to maintain a quality network as your community scales. 2. Post more of the targeted content that's working. If you notice people are specifically really enjoying blog posts, webinars, or something else -- keep offering it! How can you tell what content's working? Monitor comments, likes, shares, and clicks. 3. Find more opportunities to post relevant CTAs. Can you sprinkle more lead generation opportunities throughout your social media updates? It's quite a balancing act, but a solid mix of calls-to-action (CTAs) and other content is healthy. 4. Don't take success for granted - keep learning. It's easy to get comfortable when something is going well. Remember, there are always opportunities to improve. Keep testing, analyzing your data, and increasing results! Marketing Takeaway: Use different social networks differently, depending on the fit for your customers. Hashtags Gone Wrong http://gizmodo.com/5880887/rims-super-cartoon-funtime-experiment-already-backfiring RIM's latest marketing campaign is based around a squad of cartoon characters called the Bold Team, accompanied by the #BeBold hashtag on Twitter. GoGo Girl, The Achiever: "Saving the day with a brilliant strategy" Justin Steele, The Advocate: "Always ready to stick up for his friends" Trudy Foreal, The Authentic: "Not afraid to call it as she sees it". Max Stone, The Adventurer: "Able to jump out of a plane…" #BeBold And by the way, I've never seen a BlackBerry user who would actually look good in spandex #BeBold You are boldly running your company into the ground #BeBold. @BlackBerry R U trying to STAY in the SMARTPHONE industry or Switching to CARTOON NETWORK! WTF! Is with the #BeBold Characters. R U serious? @BlackBerry Jesus... those #BeBold cartoon caricatures are terribad, are you trying to market BB to 9 year olds? Marketing Takeaway: Know your customers! And check out the tweets for Subway's #5DollarFootLongs #5dollarfootlongs is trending... my wifey said she thought it was an advertisement for a cheap, but effective male prostitute service. #Breaking Snooki isn't pregnant; she just heard about the #5dollarfootlongs. February is the month of love! You know what that means!? #5dollarfootlongs It's too bad #5dollarfootlongs aren't referring to blunts... Marketing Takeaway: Beware of trolls and wannabe comedians. Inc 500 Companies are Blogging Less http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesandresearch/2011inc500socialmediaupdate/ http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/01/blogging-declines-across-the-i.php A new longitudinal study at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth focusing on the online activities of the Inc. 500 has found a huge drop in the number of companies maintaining corporate blogs over the past year. Only 37% of those interviewed had a corporate blog last year, down from half of those interviewed in 2010. "The use of blogging may have peaked as a primary social media tool in the US business world," she writes. "The new data shows adoption of blogging is declining for the first time since 2007 among the Inc. 500 companies." Three-fourths of the companies are using LinkedIn and Facebook and social media tools are seen as important for company goals. Ninety percent of responding executives report that social media tools are important for brand awareness and company reputation. Eighty-eight percent see these tools as important for generating web traffic while 81% find them important for lead generation. Marketing Takeaway: Do what works, not what is or is not popular. Marketing Tip of the Week Watch the Superbowl ads, pick your favorite 3 ads, and distill the emotion or feeling that they evoke, and think about how you could evoke the same emotion for your company. Less