Brand Campaigns Drive Most Social Media Following

Nice insight... Cheers Brian. Via eMarketer

OCTOBER 18, 2010
Three-quarters of Facebook fans have signed up with pages after invitations or ads from brands

Research on social media users who follow brands has shown marketers the importance of offering deals and discounts on Facebook fan pages as well as the nature of brand following as a form of self-expression, through which advocates can show support for a company they love. But what triggers Facebook users to “like” a brand is typically some form of outreach.

Most commonly, that outreach comes from the brand itself. Three-quarters of Facebook users worldwide who had “liked” a brand told DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research in September 2010 that they had been spurred to do so by an invitation or advertising from the brand they followed. More than half had also followed a brand based on an invitation from a friend. Many of those invitations are likely a secondary form of brand outreach as well, as marketers encourage current followers to become brand advocates on their behalf.

Only about half of all Facebook brand fans ended up following brands after their own research, making action by marketers critical in building up a following on social sites even though most users already know and like the brands they become fans of.

The effort brands must put into amassing fans doesn’t stop there, of course. While the top reason former fans gave for unsubscribing from Facebook pages was waning interest in the brand, complaints about the information offered on fan pages were also a major factor. Posting too often or posting uninteresting information, taken together, turned off nearly half of respondents.

“Unsubscribers, at 36%, are something to watch out for. And though the majority of fans now unsubscribe by deleting a brand from their friends list, brands, when trying to measure the value of their community, are going to need to be more mindful of those who just hide the brand's message in their newsfeed," said Catherine Lautier, director of business intelligence at DDB, in a statement.

Keep your business ahead of the digital curve. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer Total Access client today.

Check out today’s other article, “Online Video Big Draw on Health Sites for Marketers and Consumers.”

Edge Shave Gel Uses Twitter for Random Acts of Kindness

Great idea... that's actually being followed through. Via Adage

From Football Tickets to Megaphones, 'Anti-Irritation' Platform Grows

By Jack Neff
Published: October 14, 2010

ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- When a New England Patriots fan last month was irritated at his inability to get tickets to a game against the New York Jets, he tweeted his issues to the Edge shaving gel brand.

Edge has created an 'anti-irritation community' at its website EdgeShaveZone.com.

Within days, the fan, Matthew DeCoste, an interactive designer at Euro RSCG, New York, had tickets to the game as part of an "anti-irritation" campaign in which the Energizer Holdings brand is seeking to soothe some of the many gripes lodged in social media.

Mr. DeCoste had heard of the promotion from a friend at a time when Edge was giving out iTunes and Starbucks gift cards, and he thought he'd try upping the ante, he said in an email.

Of course, Edge can't solve every problem. Mr. DeCoste, who said he got tickets 20 rows back in the end zone, tweeted friends jokingly about the goal post blocking his view. "As the game started getting away from the Pats, I was getting text messages from the same Jets fans about the train schedule back to Manhattan in case I wanted to leave the game early," he said. "So, that was kind of irritating. That being said, I'm still appreciative."

Via its @EdgeShaveZone Twitter handle and #soirritating hashtag, Edge is slowly developing a following of gripers like Mr. DeCoste as part of a long-term campaign with big aspirations to own the position of irritation prevention.

Jeffrey Wolf, Edge's senior brand manager, terms it "the anti-irritation platform," which started last month via Edelman. It included releasing a ranking of the 50 most-irritated U.S. cities (Atlanta was first, thanks largely to traffic) and the Twitter campaign, which is backed by promoted tweets and e-cards to brand fans. Edge also has an "anti-irritation community" at its website, EdgeShaveZone.com.

Ultimately, the brand has bigger things in store for the effort, including as-yet undisclosed work coming later this year under development by WPP's JWT, New York, promo shop Ryan Partnership and media shop MEC.

The social-media effort has started slowly, with still fewer than 900 followers since it launched last month. But the following is likely to swell once more of the Twitterverse, a veritable cauldron of gripes, catches on to the chance of getting problems solved by adding the #soirritating hashtag in a sweepstakes for the social-media age.

Edge last month also sent a megaphone to a University of Alabama professor who said her husband wasn't listening to her and a Blu-ray disc player and the movie "Office Space" on DVD to ease the irritation of an employee annoyed by a coworker.

A few irritations are harder to tackle, such as recent ones about a neighbor's barking dog, a UPS package stolen from a porch, a ham-handed blood drawer, high Ticketmaster fees and a "power-mad boss" who's made employees cry for eight straight days.

Mr. Wolf is part of a panel of Energizer and Edelman employees who review the irritations and then decide which to address and how.

He's not sure what tangible effect the effort has had on brand sales just yet, but notes that it's part of a shift from a heavy focus on promotion under former Edge owner SC Johnson to more brand-equity-building activity since Energizer bought it last year. Energizer and Edge have continued to gain share in shave preparations since the sale (up 5.1 points for the four weeks ended Sept. 5, thanks in part to sibling Schick entering the fray earlier this year, but despite a new push by rival Procter & Gamble Co.'s Gillette Fusion ProSeries products).

"What I'm most encouraged about is where we're going to take this brand moving forward with this robust campaign we'll roll out within the next year," Mr. Wolf said.

Edge led the category with the introduction of shave gels 40 years ago, he said. "What I'm hoping to do with this brand is be the innovator or thought starter in marketing communications as well."

Now this is a service - Ticketfree

An awesome utility idea that i would so use - thanks Springwise

More than 41 million speeding tickets are issued to drivers in the United States each year, according to TrafficTicketSecrets.com. With an average cost of USD 150 each, that amounts to more than USD 6 billion lost annually by US consumers. Therein lies the motivation behind Ticketfree, a site that ensures its customers will “never pay a speeding ticket, red light ticket, photo radar ticket or traffic violation again.”

Canadian Ticketfree operates on a simple membership plan whereby an annual fee covers the costs of any tickets members get over the course of that year. A membership fee of USD 169 covers all speeding tickets for a year, up to a maximum of USD 600; for USD 299, red-light and photo-radar tickets are covered as well, up to a cap of USD 900; and a USD 449 fee buys coverage for all of the above plus parking and equipment tickets too, up to a maximum total of USD 1,200. Upon receiving a qualifying ticket, members simply visit the Ticketfree site and enter the details; the company will then pay the associated fine and send the member a confirmation email. Not covered by Ticketfree are DUI and other violations resulting from dangerous behaviour, the company says.

Ticketing is on the rise, Ticketfree notes, so a little peace of mind could go a long way for many frequent drivers. Currently, however, the company covers only those within the United States and Canada; one to emulate in other parts of the ticket-prone and lead-footed world...? (Related: Fare dodgers take Paris Métro for a ride with insurance pots against fines.)

Website:www.ticketfree.org
Contact: general@ticketfree.ca

Spotted by: Michael Henr

Gatsby: Connecting Foursquare Friends Who Like Cats and Circuses

Seems like the logical next step i'd say... Thanks Ang via Mashable

Here’s an interesting idea. The recently launched service Gatsby aims to connect locals on Foursquare who share the same interests.

The setup is simple. Sign up for Gatsby with your Foursquare () account, which will add Gatsby as a friend, and tag yourself with your favorite interests — say, “Water Polo,” or “Cranberries.” (Or, as the site’s screenshots suggest, “Cats” and “Circus”.) Then, continue on your merry way.

As you check in at your usual haunts, Gatsby will automatically determine if there are other Foursquare/Gatsby users in your area who share your affinity for cranberries, and attempt to connect you. When a potential match occurs, Gatsby sends a text message to both parties with the first names of each user and a list of the shared interests. If both agree to connect, Gatsby can also set up a temporary SMS relay so that the users can text each other (and potentially meet in person) without revealing their mobile numbers.

The idea is intriguing, and could really take location-based services to a whole new level by bridging the gap between semi-anonymous lists of check-ins and real-time, in-person social networking. However, meeting strangers face-to-face based on scant social network details is sure to turn some more cautious users away.

What do you think? Could this be the ultimate location-based ice-breaking service, or a recipe for a big privacy nightmare? Let us know in the comments.

Rob me please

Makes a lot of sense... Thanks PSFK
February 17, 2010

Aiming to highlight the potential dangers of location-based services, website “Please Rob Me” features a running list of Twitter users declaring they’re not home.

While the setup is humorous, in reality this kind of open physical location sharing could lead to trouble.

They explain:

Don’t get us wrong, we love the whole location-aware thing. The information is very interesting and can be used to create some pretty awesome applications. However, the way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information, is less awesome.

…The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet

…The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.

Wow stuff...

Been busy/lazy for much posting this week, but here are two things that made me go Wow recently...

Nokia's geolocating, Ovimaps interactive billboard (thanks @damjanov for the link to the vid)



And, the totally cool, all-in-one soccer ball, portable generator, community builder and global health tool... Soccket (Cheers Springwise)

Over 1.5 billion people—one quarter of the world’s population—live in areas with no access to electricity, according to a recent UN report. Capitalizing on a sport's global appeal to address this problem, a group of Harvard University students developed sOccket, a soccer ball that turns energy from a kick into electricity.

The portable energy-harvesting device captures the impact energy normally dissipated when the ball is kicked, storing it to charge lights, cell phones and batteries. It works with inductive coil technology, similar to that found in flashlights that power up when shaken. For each 15 minutes of play, it can store enough energy to power a small LED light for three hours. sOccket could eventually help ease the reliance on toxic kerosene lamps in developing nations, thereby reducing the associated health risks.

Currently in the prototyping stages, sOccket has been successfully piloted in Durban, South Africa, and the development team has plans to market a commercial version of the sOccket in Western countries as a high-end tech toy, possibly using a "buy one-give one" model, to subsidize the cost of distributing sOccket in developing nations. Being an all-in-one soccer ball, portable generator, community builder and global health tool, sOccket is another shining example of the functionall trend covered in our sister site’s latest briefing. sOccket has attracted several development funding grants and is now in the process of developing production and distribution partnerships. One to partner with or otherwise get involved in? (Related: Hippo water roller — Single-use toilet bag turns human waste into fertilizer.)

Website: www.soccket.com
Contact: soccket@ideatranslationlab.org

Crowdsourced company purchase

Nice idea with a lot of traction behind it: http://buyabeercompany.com/

Interesting to see what happens when they hit the 300M... will everone cough up for a round?

Taxi share

Just love how simple this is

http://www.taxi.to/

Pepsi's Stimulus Plan: Putting Up Money To 'Refresh' Communities

Thanks GENWOW for this on Pepsi's impressive take on how to engage with communities... going to be interesting to follow this one.

Call it the American Renewal and Refreshment Act.

First, Pepsi seemed to have taken its cue from Barack Obama when it refashioned its logo.

Now, it appears to be stealing a page from the Obama administration with the "Pepsi Refresh Project," a campaign designed to pay up to $20 million for projects people create to "refresh" their communities.

The whole thing gets underway in tomorrow's (Tuesday"s) Wall Street Journal and USA Today. According to the AP, the effort will fund thousands of projects, and could involve getting other businesses to participate. Consumers will list their projects online and vote on winners.

Not to be outdone, Coca-Cola seems to be taking a cue from Obama's diplomatic overtures in a campaign that will send three people - chosen by online voters - to 206 countries as part of its ongoing "Open Happiness" campaign.

How all this plays in 2010 - think about those president's-party-on-the-outs mid-term elections - remains to be seen.

Will Pepsi move past Obama to whatever's next to capture the zeitgeist?

Now that would be refreshing.

Read more, here.

‘Virtual Street Corners’ Connects Socially Isolated Neighborhoods

Cheers psfk once again... awesome project

October 22, 2009

Roxbury and Brookline are connected by the Route 66 bus line and separated by only 2.4 miles, but socially they are worlds apart. Roxbury is a poor, urban neighborhood in Boston proper and Brookline is a wealthy, suburban neighborhood just outside the city. As of today, the communities rarely interact. Thanks to an interesting project named Virtual Street Corners that is all about to change.

Scheduled to debut May 15th 2010, Virtual Street Corners takes a large storefront window located in front of a bus stop in each neighborhood and transforms it into a video screen. These video screens, which will stream a real-time feed 24/7, will literally provide a window into the other community in an effort to encourage the residents to interact. The screens will also serve as media centers for news collection and reporting, creating a ‘virtual town hall.”

In order to facilitate personal interaction and news reporting, Virtual Street Corners has organized three citizens from different areas of each town to report daily news on a scheduled basis. In addition, there will be a website that streams both live feeds and hosts podcasts/videocasts for download.

Virtual Street Corners

[via Kenji Summers]

Fluid Voice: CB Radio for the Web 3.0 Era

Thanks Read Write Web for this post on the Fluid Voice project. Could brands provide this form of utility to select groups of people in exchange for the right to be included in the loop?

Written by Richard MacManus / July 17, 2009 3:11 AM / 1 Comments

« Prior Post Next Post »

During my recent trip to MIT I met with Andrew Lippman, an Associate Director at the MIT Media Lab and a Senior Research Scientist. Lippman heads up the Lab's Viral Communications program, which "examines scalable, real-time networks whose capacity increases with the number of members." Among other things, we discussed an interesting new product his students are working on called Fluid Voice. In a way it works similar to how CB radio did for truck drivers in the 1970s - providing a mobile group communication system.

Re-Thinking Communications

First a little background. Lippman explained that his Viral Communications group aims to "symmetricize media" - in other words, balance it. He used an analogy of the radio system. The power to broadcast over the radio is still tightly controlled, spectrum is limited. So in that sense it is asymmetrical, unbalanced. The MIT Viral Communications group aims to re-think the way media works. Lippman and his group is asking: does radio have to be like this?

Lippman explained this in an executive summary a while back:

"The communication industry is in an upheaval equivalent to that caused by the advent of personal computers in the early 1980's. In that earlier revolution, traditional giants who held to mainframe technologies and centralized services were outpaced by newcomers with new ideas about individual ownership, incremental adoption and instant turnover. This will now happen with communications."

Examples of new forms of communications are sensors and open 802.11 networks, which are "renegades: unlicensed, personalized, digital, and embedded." [the guy in the glowing 802.11 detector shirt to your right is not Andrew Lippman btw]

This all brings about new types of social interactions with media, which Lippman seems particularly keen on right now. He mentioned the intersection with mobility: "It's not about you anymore, it's about you plus your context."

Fluid Voice: A Mobile Group Communication System

The theory of viral communications is a bit hard for the layman (this writer included) to grok, so I asked Lippman for some examples. One of his group's projects is Fluid Voice, a research project that has been prototyped on the Nokia N810. It runs, initially at least, using the 802.11s wireless mesh.

Fluid Voice is described in a white paper as "a proximity based mobile group communication system for opportunistic social exchanges." This makes one think of a mobile app for picking up members of the opposite sex. But being an academic project, I'm sure that's not the point of it. So what is it? Lippman described Fluid Voice to me as a new type of messaging system that engages a group. He said that it's like a telephone system that defaults to a conference call all of the time, which he termed "push to listen." It has similarities to party-line telephone systems, instant messaging chat rooms and conferencing bridges for business people. It's also like the Citizen's Band (CB) radios used by truck drivers in the 1970s.

Fluid Voice can be both a live and asynchronous experience - i.e. you don't need to be participating live to receive and leave messages. It isn't just audio and text messaging either: audio polls and wish lists are a part of the product. Here is a UI screenshot:

Fluid Voice Use Cases

The goal of Fluid Voice is to coordinate people in outdoor settings, using their mobile phones. According to a white paper, use cases include "spreading news during emergency responses and supporting impromptu social exchanges."

The name of the product, Fluid Voice, derives from the fact that "users can transition from live to asynchronous audio communication in a fluid manner depending on the wireless environment." To appreciate what this kind of system might be used to enable, here's a description from the paper of how CB radio was used in the 70's:

"CB radios enabled a cooperative social culture on the highways for friendly conversations in addition to providing road assistance and accident prevention among the drivers. As cell phones and multi-band WiFi enabled cell phones are becoming ubiquitous in the 21st century, an exciting opportunity arises for supporting opportunistic social collaboration within a local area."

One imagines that software like this may become a common feature in next generation mobile phones. I used the example of a sensor-enabled bookstore in this week's post about Cross Reality applications - the store pinging your mobile phone about a book on your wish list that it happens to have in stock. We can similarly forsee that Fluid Voice, on your mobile phone, could be used to meet like-minded people at the bookstore. You could even continue to chat with that group after you left the bookstore.

Social networking 3.0 anyone? Breaker 1-9!

Image credits: get directly down; slworking2

Want to Tweet? Do It From an Ad Unit Nearby

Thanks Adage for this post on twitter breeching the media divide

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Nestle's Juicy Juice isn't the first brand to try to integrate Twitter in to an ad campaign (see Skittles and TurboTax). But it may be the first to allow users to post tweets within an ad unit that can appear anywhere on the web.

Juicy Juice's Twitter display ad

Juicy Juice is testing the unit, from SocialMedia, for one month on mom-targeted sites BabyCenter and CafeMom. The units ask questions such as "How do you stimulate your child's mind?" or "How important are vitamin-enhanced foods to you?" and users can answer the queries as short messages, or tweets, directly in the ad.

If users are logged on to Twitter, the answers will be posted to the ad directly; otherwise users are first directed to Twitter.com to sign in. Posts, which also appear in users' Twitter feeds with a "hashtag" (the symbol #, used to group keywords or events for simpler searches on the site) are moderated by Nestle, but there's the option for that to be turned off.

Clicking on the ad unit, meanwhile, takes the user to Juicy Juice's YouTube site, which is chock-full of helpful videos, including a scary one about how many more germs per inch are on a water fountain than your average toilet seat.

The difference between this campaign, dubbed "Twitter Pulse" by SocialMedia, and other recent attempts is that it allows a conversation to be instigated by -- or occur within -- the ad unit, rather than just syndicating tweets already posted on Twitter.

"The ad unit is paid placement but the additional impressions are effectively earned media," said Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia, a technology company, noting that the hashtag then reaches the follower base of those who have entered tweets, and potentially sparks more attention and conversation.

SocialMedia is tracking a number of metrics for Juicy Juice, including traditional views and click-through rates but also number of tweets posted and the number of followers exposed to the hashtag on Twitter. Like other executions with Twitter, there is no revenue involved with the microblogging service, but, as Mr. Goldstein pointed out, it could be a potential source of new sign-ups and increased usage.

Social Media Marketing: Sears and Kmart Step It Up

Thanks Mashable for this post on some interesting social moves by some big name retailers

May 9th, 2009 | by Ben Parr10 Comments

The intersection of social media and longstanding brands is a fascinating phenomenon to study. How does a company that has been around for decades react to the fast-paced world of social media? Do they shun it or embrace it? Do they stumble or do they create a deeper connect with their customers?

This week, Sears Holdings officially launched two social networks for their customers, MySearsMyKmart. Although these social communities do have a few quirks, the initiative that they represent, coupled with their well-designed social elements, is a sign of how more traditional companies are embracing social media technology to create a better customer experience and a better brand. and

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A little on MySears and MyKmart…

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So what exactly are MySears and MyKmart? At their core, they are social networks for reviews. Products being sold by Sears are up for review by any community member, on a 1 to 5 star scale, with generally short one line descriptions or criticisms.

MySears and MyKmart also incorporate several other useful social elements. They have their own message boards and active blogs. My favorite feature, though, is the Ideas section. This is an area for submitting product ideas to Kmart and Sears, with an up-or-down voting system similar to Reddit (). It’s a great way for Sears to solicit new ideas and to start a discussion around them. They could also submit their own ideas and get some feedback from loyal customers.

Despite some great features, the two social networks do have a few quirks that raise questions. MySears and MyKmart are linked to social media accounts on Twitter (), Facebook (), and MySpace (), but the Twitter links direct you to completely idle Kmart and Sears accounts, a no-no that projects laziness. It’s even stranger when you account for the fact that there’s an active account for MySears.

One other strange issue: some reviews date as far back as 2006. MySears and MyKmart had their soft launches in 2008, so we wonder from where they are pulling these much older reviews. Yet despite these small issues, the overall implementation is great. That’s probably because Sears partnered with Viewpoints, a seasoned social media company with an emphasis on reviews, to build these community websites.

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Traditional brands and social media

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What Sears is doing is a more common phenomenon than people may think. Major brands like Ford and Comcast are using Twitter extensively, while other brands like Saturn have their own social networks for their customers.

While many older companies have yet to embrace social media technology, others like Sears grasp the advantages presented by new forms of communication. Building community creates more loyal and caring customers. Twitter and Facebook facilitate a wider discussion and can help prevent PR nightmares. And the shareability of social media helps foster the exchange of ideas between brands and consumers.

Sears now has two great platforms for collecting ideas from passionate shoppers with the Ideas section of MySears and MyKmart. These networks provide customers with useful product reviews. And finally, Sears now has people who will not only evangelize their brand, but keep them honest as well. This is how many older and more traditional companies are embracing social media, and we think it’s empowering the customer and improving the quality of major brands.

Some outtakes from the recent SXSW conference. Nothing too earth shattering, but good too se what's being discussed

Thanks Bazzarblog

Key Takeaways from SXSWi

March 19th, 2009 by Heather Brunner | Senior Vice President of Worldwide Client Services

This post was guest-written by Melissa Lipscomb, Bazaarvoice Community Manager

Spring break in Austin means SXSW, an exciting celebration of music, film and web creativity. I spent the last few days at SXSW Interactive – the portion of the conference that’s dedicated to social media and web 2.0. Here are my top 10 takeaways:

1. People expect conversations online. Regardless of the industry/type of site, end users expect to engage with brands and with other users on-line. It’s not enough to provide information to your customers, you have to allow them to interact with your site, with your brand, and with other customers. Of course, tools like Ratings & Reviews, Ask & Answer, and Bazaarvoice Stories build customer engagement and interaction.
2. Customers expect brands to participate in the conversation. There was lots of discussion at SXSWi about the importance of building relationships with customers, rather than simply focusing on transactions. Responding to feedback (both positive and negative), answering questions and taking action on feedback are an important part of building credibility and trust with your customers.
3. Customers want authenticity. Several panelists emphasized the value of brand representatives talking “like real people” not robots (or corporatebots), even (or maybe especially) in industries where we’ve come to expect corporate jargon and legalese (like financial services and insurance).
4. Online identities are converging. OpenID and Facebook Connect are enabling greater portability/sharing of online abilities between sites. Profiles are important – people are invested in their identities online and want to build their reputations and leverage what they’ve done in one community in the other places they hang out. The most social media savvy customers are aware of their personal brands and welcome opportunities to build their brands on the sites where they shop.
5. Mobile and web are converging. Many people access the web primarily from their phones, others switch back and forth with the expectation the user experiences will be identical.
6. Online and offline are converging. GPS technology brings the real world into the mix in a big way (for example, your phone alerting a social networking site of your physical location, which allows your online friends to join you in the real world). Users are less likely to draw a hard boundary between their on-line and off-line lives. MobileVoice brings online UGC into the brick and mortar store, allowing customers to view reviews on their phones.
7. Filtering and aggregating the massive amounts of data online is critical. There are too many inputs and the most valuable technologies on the web are those that allow people to personalize what they see or provide rolled-up summaries. Filtering by tag or attribute and summarizing data in tag clouds or histograms allows customers to process large amounts of information and make a decision quickly.
8. Twitter is everywhere. Some of the most compelling and interesting conversations were happening “back channel” via twitter during the panels. Panelists took questions and responded in real time to comments that were made on the twitter stream for each panel. Fast and pithy user-generated contentin real time is incredibly appealing to many people.
9. Bazaarvoice is ahead of the pack. Admittedly, SXSW Interactive is a social media conference, not one focused specifically on e-commerce, but our ability to measure the success of user-generated content and deliver proven ROI for our clients stands out in an environment where many panelists were unsure about how to monetize UGC or how to measure results.
10. Bazaarvoice has a great culture! Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) gave a fabulous speech about the culture at Zappos which was very reminiscent of the Bazaarvoice culture. In addition, Bazaarvoice CMO Sam Decker, hosted a core conversation on building a great corporate culture, which got lots of buzz and positive reactions.

This was a great conference; I look forward to seeing what next year brings!

Digital Industry Statistics

Thanks Bazaarvoice for this great online stat rundown (mixed markets, dates, etc)

Power of Word of Mouth

• "Person like me" still most trusted source for information about a company and, therefore, products. (Edelman Trust Barometer, November 2007)
• Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases, according to ZenithOptimedia. (AdAge, April, 2008)
• Recommendation is the number one reason for choosing a particular site. (Royal Mail's Home Shopping Tracker Study, September 2007)
• Users who contribute product reviews or post messages visit sites nine times as often as noncontributors do. Contributors also make purchases nearly twice as often. (McKinsey & Co./Jupiter Media Metrix study, January 2002)
• Review users noted that reviews generated by fellow consumers had a greater influence than those generated by professionals. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)
• Adult Internet users surveyed chose recommendations from friends as the one type of promotion they consider most worthwhile. (DoubleClick, May 2007)
• Consumers trust friends above experts when it comes to product recommendations (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities). (Yankelovich)
• Consumers say that word of mouth is still the number one influencer in their apparel (34.3%) and electronics (44.4%) purchases (Retail Advertising and Marketing Association/BIGresearch Study, November 2008)
• According to a global Nielsen survey of 26,486 Internet users in 47 markets, consumer recommendations are the most credible form of advertising among 78% of the study's respondents. (Nielsen, "Word-of-Mouth the Most Powerful Selling Tool", October 2007)
• The two leading reasons people contribute content to social shopping sites are the need to feel part of a community (31%) and recognition from peers (28%). (IBM Institute for Business Value, August 2007)
• Online social network users were three times more likely to trust their peers' opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions. ("Social Networking Sites: Defining Advertising Opportunities in a Competitive Landscape," JupiterResearch, March 2007)
• 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend's recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
• Two thirds of UK social networkers (66%) are more likely to buy a product as a result of a recommendation, compared to 52 per cent of non-social networkers. (Royal Mail's Home Shopping Tracker Study, September 2007)
• Tech decision makers give user-generated sites equal importance to traditional media sources when considering tech purchases. Decision makers consider their personal experience (58%) first when short-listing tech vendors, followed by word-of-mouth and industry analyst reports, tied at 51%. Advertising (17%) and direct marketing (21%) were listed as the least important information sources when short-listing possible vendors. (Study: "Tech Decision Maker," Hill & Knowlton, January 2009)

Consumer Demand for Ratings and Reviews

• Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions; user reviews are more influential than third-party reviews. ("Web users and web community," Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008)
• 81% of online holiday shoppers read online customer reviews (Nielson Online, December 2008)
• 86% of consumers read online business reviews before making purchasing decisions; 90% of whom say they trust these reviews. (Kudzu.com survey of 600 users, December 2008)
• The Trust in Advertising survey of 26,000+ found that Consumer Recommendations are the most credible form of advertising. ("Social Media Marketing: The Right Strategy for Tough Economic Times" Awareness, 2008)
• Nearly 49% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation through a social media property; respondents most relied on the following sources when making a purchase decision: 60.53% user reviews; 20.48% comparison charts; 15.41% editorial reviews; 3.58 shared shopping lists. (Razorfish, October 2008)
• Almost two-thirds (62%) of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)
• When asked what sources of information they are "very likely" to consult before making a decision about their entertainment options, 62% named Web sites with user reviews as their top choice, even beating out a knowledgeable friend (59%). (Marketing Sherpa, July 2007)
• 46% of Britons now read online reviews or recommendations on a specific product before buying it and 32% are willing and able to publish a review online - but only 19% would be prepared to write a letter to a retailer. (1&1 Internet survey of 1600 consumers, December 2008)
• Seven in 10 (69%) consumers who read reviews share them with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)
• As of October 2008, almost half of US online adults read ratings and reviews at least once a month, and 19% post them. Nearly twice as many read reviews compared with 2007. (The Growth Of Social Technology Adoption, Forrester, October 2008)
• Nearly half (49%) of shoppers intend to do their holiday gift buying online (versus in-store), and 72% are planning to research products online prior to purchasing (vs. 65% in 2007). ("Mindset of the Multi-Channel Shopper Holiday Survey," e-tailing group, October 2008)
• 74% agree-including 14% who strongly agree-that they choose companies and brands based on what others say online about their customer service experiences, the survey shows. (Society for New Communications Research, May 2008)
• 58.7% of shoppers said they used product reviews to make decisions. Reviews rated higher than clearance sale pages (56.4%) and featured sale pages (51.3%). (Shop.org, November 2007)
• Compared to a base group that didn't read or contribute product reviews at all, people who read a review were 30% more likely to purchase a product and visitors who wrote a review were 80% more likely to convert, based on analysis across several Coremetrics clients. (Coremetrics, reported in BtoB, March 2007)
• Among the 46% of respondents who had posted or planned to post reviews about their online shopping experience, 88% said those reviews either were, or would be positive. (Nielson, 2007)
• More than eight in ten (82%) of those who read reviews said that their purchasing decisions have been directly influenced by those reviews. (Deloitte & Touche, September 2007)
• 55% of surveyed Internet users consulted other people's opinions online, making reviews the #1 resource for product research. (Avenue A/Razorfish "Digital Consumer Behavior Study," October 2007)
• In a study of 2,000 shoppers, 92% deemed customer reviews as "extremely" or "very" helpful. (eTailing Group, 2007)
• 59% of their users considered customer reviews to be more valuable than expert reviews. (Bizrate, October 2007)
• 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews. (Major consumer electronics retailer/iPerceptions study, January 2008)
• 81% consider the availability of customer reviews to be "very important" (33%)"somewhat important" (48%). (Major consumer electronics retailer/iPerceptions study, January 2008)
• 86.9% of respondents said they would trust a friend's recommendation over a review by a critic, while 83.8% said they would trust user reviews over a critic. (MarketingSherpa, October 2007)
• 84% of consumers earning more than $150,000 annually visit sites where customers review and rate products and services including restaurants. (The Luxury Institute, April 2007)
• 71% of UK online shoppers seek out ratings and reviews. (NetExtract, 2007)
• 70% of online consumers said they use the Internet to research everyday grocery products. (Prospectiv, January 2008)
• 67% of UK consumers research products via the Internet before shopping in a store. (Accenture, April 2007)
• 91% of millionaires say they always or often look at reviews before buying luxury goods; 68% of ultra-affluent shoppers use consumer reviews. (Unity Marketing/Google study, reported in AdAge, October 2008)
• Mobile user-generated content will generate $5.7 billion worldwide in 2012, up from $576 million in 2007. ("Mobile Social Networking: Opportunities & Forecasts 2008-2013," Juniper Research, October 2008)
• Satisfaction for those who recalled customer reviews on the retailers' site is 10% higherLoyalty increases, too: 7% higher likelihood to purchase online, 8% greater likelihood to purchase from the retailer next time they're buying similar merchandise and 11% greater likelihood to recommend the site to others. (30 UK Online Retail Satisfaction Index, ForeSee Results, January 2008) than those who said there were no reviews offered.
• 83% of shoppers said online product evaluations and reviews influenced their purchasing decisions. (Opinion Research Corporation, an infoGROUP company, July 2008)
• In an online survey of 4,000 consumers, 70% said they had done internet research on "everyday grocery products," and 63% said they had done so for health and beauty products. (Prospectiv, 2007)
• 57.2% of U.S. toy purchasers are influenced by product reviews online. (Ad-ology Media Influence on Consumer Choice, Fall 2008)

Marketer Demand for Ratings and Reviews

• 79% of online UK retailers surveyed reported that the main benefit of consumer-generated rating and reviews was that they improved site conversion rates. (eMarketer, 2007)
• 68% of online marketers believe "media is in big trouble and will lose dollars to user-generated content." (iMedia Connection, February 2008)
• 58% of the E-Commerce Guide 100 retailers implemented ratings and reviews in 2008, up from 50% in 2007; 24 percent sell by top-rated products. (e-tailing group's 11th Annual Mystery Shopping Survey, January 2009)
• 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing's primary objective (1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April 2008)
• 43% of retailers have reviews - double in one year. (Marketing Sherpa, February 2007)
• 76% of US retailers said user-generated content would have a greater impact on their marketing goals in the near future. (SLI Systems/Zoomerang, November 2008)
• Of merchants who adopt customer reviews, 58% said improving customer experiencecompetitive advantage was the most important reason for adding reviews to their sites, followed by building customer loyalty (47%), driving sales (42%), and maintaining a (37%). (eTailing Group, June 2008)
• By 2020, 84% of marketers agree that building customer trust will become marketing's primary objective, and 82% agree that collaboration with customers will prevail over marketing. (1to1 Media survey of the 1to1 Xchange panel, April 2008)
• 11% of retailers reported a 20% or more overall increase in conversions as a result of adding reviews to their sites, 21% reported an 11% to 20% increase and 5% reported a 1% to 10% increase. (eTailing Group, June 2008)
• 81% of marketers surveyed say that their social media spending will meet or exceed their traditional advertising spending within the next 5 years. (TWI Surveys/Society for New Communications Research, November 2007)
• 56% of UK website owners say that user-generated content lifts conversion levels; 77% say it increases traffic; and 42% say it increases the average spend on site.(eConsultancy survey of 360 website owners across all sectors, November 2008)
• Dave Seifert of Bass Pro Shops noted at a Shop.org round table discussion that Top Rated Products were "the #1 merchandising technique ever utilized on their site." (Bass Pro Shops, June 2008)
• After their order, PETCO asked customers, "What online tool most influenced your purchase decision?" The #1 answer was product ratings and reviews, with site search coming in a distant second. (PETCO, June 2007)
• The Shop.org State of Retailing Online study, conducted by Forrester Research, found only 26% of the 137 top retailers surveyed offered customer ratings and reviews, but 96% of them ranked customer ratings and reviews as an effective or very effective tactic at driving conversion. (Forrester, 2007)

Consumer Demand for Ask & Answer™

• 76% of online shoppers surveyed report that content is insufficient to complete research or purchase online "always, most often or some of the time." (eTailing Group, June 2007)
• Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information. (Allurent, January 2008)
• 83% of online shoppers would make purchases if sites offered increased interactive elements. (Allurent, January 2008)
• One in four (24.5%) shoppers said they left a store because of a lack of assistance. (Shop.org, November 2007)
• 90% of UK shoppers surveyed said they wish they could communicate directly with businesses - using live chat, forums or call-me-back facilities - via their websites; one in three require it from the UK businesses they currently use. (1&1, October 2007)
• 42% of consumers said they prefer being able to find the answers they need online on their own if they had a question or wanted help while shopping online. (Harris Interactive, May 2007)
• The share of traffic to question-and-answer Web sites has more than doubled from 2007 to 2008 (HitWise, 2008)
• Yahoo Answers had 25.3 million visits in February 2008 (comScore Media Metrix, March 2008)
• 68% of consumers trust "people like me" first for product advice. (Edelman Trust Barometer, January 2007)
• 42% of 1,179 online consumers surveyed have left a site without purchasing multiple products because they couldn't get a question answered about one of the products in their shopping cart; 41% decided not to make a planned purchase because they couldn't readily find a piece of information about the product or service. (JupiterResearch, September 2007)

Conversion Results

• MarketingExperiments tested product conversion with and without product ratings by customers. Conversion nearly doubled, going from .44% to 1.04% after the same product displayed its five-star rating. (MarketingExperiments Journal, July 2007)
• 79% of online UK retailers surveyed reported that the main benefit of consumer-generated rating and reviews was that they improved site conversion rates. (eMarketer, 2007)
• Online shoppers who look at TripAdvisor reviews on the Hayes & Jarvis site book trips at double the rate of online shoppers who have not seen the TripAdvisor reviews, based on first four months after launch. (TripAdvisor, January 2008)
• Shoppers who browsed the site's new "Top Rated Products" page, which features products rated most highly by customers, had a 59% higher conversion rate than the site average and spent 16% more per order than other browsers of products. (Bass Pro Shops, June 2008)
• Shoppers who browsed the site's "Top Rated Products" page, which features products rated most highly by customers, had a 49% higher conversion rate than the site average and 63% more per order than other site shoppers. (PETCO, June 2007)
• Giving shoppers the ability to sort products within a category by customer rating led to a sales increase of 41% per unique visitor. (PETCO, June 2007)

Average Order Value Results

• Consumers were willing to pay between 20 to 99% more for a 5-star rated product than for a 4-star rated product, depending on the product category. (comScore/Kelsey, October 2007)
• Top-rated products site navigation path featuring 4- and 5-star products in each category delivered 35% higher conversion and 40% higher average order value. (Bazaarvoice, June 2007)
• Reviews usage drives higher spending: 27% of users report an increase of 5-10%; almost 7% report an increase of 20%+. (Avenue A/Razorfish "Digital Consumer Behavior Study," October 2007)

User-generated Content Beyond the Web

• 64% of Social Researchers (those who refer to user-generated content when shopping) research products online more than half the time, no matter where they ultimately buy the product (store, Web, catalog, etc.). (eTailing Group, June 2007)
• Online consumers are becoming precision shoppers. For every $1 in online sales, the Internet influenced $3.45 of store sales. (eMarketer, 2007)
• 90% of those surveyed say they have a better overall shopping experience when they research products online before shopping in-store. (Harris Interactive, October 2007)
• 92.5% of adults said they regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store. (BIGresearch, November 2008)
• Nearly one out of every four Internet users (24%) reported using online reviews prior to paying for a service delivered offline. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)
• More than three-quarters of review users in nearly every category reported that the review had a significant influence on their purchase, with hotels ranking the highest (87%). (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)
• 97% of those surveyed who said they made a purchase based on an online review said they found the review to have been accurate. (comScore/The Kelsey Group, October 2007)
• Consumers who shop online for digital cameras and TVs spend 10% more on in-store purchases than consumers who do not search online. (ChannelForce for Yahoo Search Marketing, July 2007)

Email Campaign Results

• Email study: PETCO realized a 5X increase in email click-through rates by including relevant ratings and reviews content in the campaign promotion. (PETCO, June 2007)
• Top rated product email drive 46% higher revenue per email in A/B test. (Golfsmith, June 2007)

Search Engine Optimization Results

• In a study of a major electronics retailer site of 30,000 monthly natural language search visitors, converted 60% more often, spent 50% more, and viewed 82% more pages than search visitors to other pages. (Bazaarvoice case study with major electronics retailer)
• In a study of online UK retailers, 59% reported that the consumer-generated activity leads to better search engine optimization. (eMarketer, 2007)

Return Rates and Customer Satisfaction

• During the 2007 holiday season, consumers who recalled seeing customer reviews on a Web site reported 9% higher customer satisfaction levels, were 9% more likely to make a purchase and 8% more likely to purchase the next time they came to that site. (ForeSee Results, January 2008)
• Reviews drive 21% higher purchase satisfaction and 18% higher loyalty. (Foresee Results Study, January 2007)
• Online UK retailers reported improved customer retention and loyalty by 73% once they implemented consumer-generated rating and reviews. (eMarketer, 2007)
• Products with reviews have a 17% lower return rate than those without reviews. (Bazaarvoice PETCO Case Study, 2007)
• Products with 50+ reviews have a return rate that is half of those with fewer than five reviews. (Bazaarvoice PETCO Case Study, 2007)
• One study from IBM Institute for Business Management shows that while those adults in the UK who use social networking do so to attain a feeling of community, 17% of the adults surveyed say they do so because they like to participate with brands they favor. (IBM, August 2007)

Evolution of Advertising and Media

• 75% of people don't believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. (Yankelovich)

Search

• SearchVoice study: of 30,000 monthly SearchVoice visitors, they convert 60% higher, spend 50% more and viewed 82% more pages. (Major electronics retailer case study, August 2008)
• The ability to refine site search results by customer rating led to 22% more sales per unique visitor on a same-session basis and 41% more sales per visitor on a multi-session basis. (Bazaarvoice)

Syndication

• RSS study: Burpee measured a 43% higher click-through on RSS feeds with reviews than without. (Burpee, December 2007)

Industry Articles

Positives About Negative Product Reviews. Worried about opening your company to consumer reviews? Don't be. (iMedia Connection)

Getting a Handle on Customer Reviews
These days, what the customer thinks is hardly a secret. Consumer reviews and ratings are popping up on a growing number of Web sites, sites on which users treat brands like contestants on American Idol. (Brandweek)

Online Influence Tied to Search, Social Media Use
According to a new research report by Yahoo! and Comscore, not only is social networking's influence on marketing growing, but particularly vocal individuals are having more of an effect than ever. (ClickZ)

CGM Changes Minds of Online Auto and Travel Buyers
Consumer Generated Media not only influences online consumers, it can get them to change their minds. (ClickZ)

How To Make Twitter Sound Like Music To Your Ears

Thanks TechCrunch for this list of twitter music apps. Cool stuff

by Robin Wauters on February 22, 2009

People generally love sharing things, and Twitter has made broadcasting updates to anyone who cares to care on what you’re doing, wearing, reading, commenting on, eating, using, etc. a breeze; in 140 characters or less, even. It’s only natural to see so many users also share which music they are listening to at any given moment on Twitter, as this has been a fairly popular use of status feeds on other social networking and communication services for years (Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger leap to mind).

Here’s a number of ways to use Twitter for just about anything related to music:

* Blip.fm - dubbed the “Twitter for Music” when we first reviewed the service, it got its own API in late 2008. Blip.fm enables anyone to start their own music station and broadcast tunes to Twitter and other status sharing services where people can interact with the choice of music.

* Twiturm does much of the same - upload music and share it with all your Twitter followers in a heartbeat. Intended for artists who want to share their own music, hence the name (”Twitter Ur Music”).

* Twisten.fm - Escape Media Group linked its music discovery service Grooveshark and its URL shortening service TinySong with an application that crawls Twitter for messages about music (and “then you listen to them”).

* Twt.fm (anyone see a naming pattern here?) - type in an artist, track, and your twitter username. Twt.fm will then generate a track page for you using your twitter page design and you’ll be able to tweet it to your followers.

* Tweetj - include a #tweetj tag in your tweets when you’re listening to music and it’ll be posted to a public playlist. The playlist allows you to discover new music and immediately purchase tracks on Amazon.

* A similar service is WiiZZZ (yes, that’s the actual name) - it allows you to listen to entirely random songs that have been posted and shared by Twitter users on any given day.

* Play Twitter - allows you to easily play mp3 files directly on Twitter or Identi.ca. MP3 links will automatically become playable right on the page.

* Tra.kz - this “URL shortener for all things music” was cooked up by MixMatchMusic and does exactly what you suspect it would do and therefore competes with the above mentioned TinySong and alternatives like Song.ly.

* TwittyTunes - Firefox extension that comes with another Firefox extension, Yahoo’s FoxyTunes, and allows you to instantly post your currently playing songs to Twitter with just a click.

* LastTweet - enables you to embed a widget with your latest tweets into your Last.fm profile

* Update: LastFMLoveTweet is a mashup that automatically pushes a tweet from you carrying a track’s artist and name that you’ve indicated as a tune you loved on Last.fm

* Update: Tweekly.fm will get your weekly artist data from Last.FM and send a tweet to your profile listing your top 3 listened artists for the week plus their respective play counts.

* Update: this site tracks the top music being listened to on Twitter

Also worth checking out, even if not directly related to Twitter: Nabbit (”connects your cellphone to your radio”), MuseBin (music news and reviews in 140 characters, like BlipprTwones (the “social music feed”). but music only) and

Did I miss any other apps, tools and websites worth noting?

Share them in the comments and I’ll be happy to update the post.

Update: it’s not Twitter-specific, but you can use Favtape to put together your own playlists / online mixtapes and share them on Twitter.