Biggest Trends in Social and Mobile From Nielsen CEO

At this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) conference, Adam Ostrow, the Executive Editor at Mashable, interviewed Jonathan Carson, the CEO of Digital at Nielsen, on the recent trends, challenges, and anticipated changes that Nielsen has seen in social media.

The Second Screen Experience

Carson explains that the biggest trend that Nielsen has seen is the massive adoption of mobile media and smart phone usage while watching TV, possibly driven by advancements in app development.

During the interview, Carson discussed the challenges that marketers and advertisers are encountering with the rise of corresponding mobile and TV usage. The amount of people who actively use a tablet, computer, or smart phone while watching TV continues to increase. This trend has created a challenge for companies to develop a 360 experience for viewers. One of the biggest obstacles companies face when creating a 360 experience is determining how to connect with the consumer when their attention is divided between the TV and their computer or mobile device. Continue reading

Social Media Case Studies: Twitter Successes to Learn From

Twitter can be a powerful tool for sharing information, following topics of interest, and connecting with industry leaders. However, for many businesses (both large and small), Twitter is still that “strange” social media platform that they would like to use but they are unsure how.

There are many different approaches that businesses can take when using Twitter, such as:

  • Customer service
  • Lead Generation
  • Sales and discounts for customers
  • Giveaways
  • Communicate with customers

The following are three case studies that showcase different ways that businesses have successfully used Twitter,  as well as lessons learned while implementing these different tactics. Continue reading

Social Media Case Studies: Facebook Successes to Learn From

Businesses large and small have discovered how to leverage their Facebook communities to strengthen brand loyalty and communicate directly with customers. The challenges that they have faced and the solutions they have discovered along the way are just a few of the things we can learn from the companies who are successfully using Facebook as a marketing platform.

The following are three case studies that I think offer a lot of great insights on how to use Facebook for your business, as well as a few innovative ideas about how to use different Facebook features. Continue reading

The ROI of Social Media for Retail Websites

How do you measure the ROI of social media? This is a question that continues to populate blogs, webinars, and conversations between marketers. However, there is not one single answer. The ROI of social media depends greatly on each company’s goals, such as:

  • Increase leads
  • Strengthen relationships with current customers
  • Drive more engaged visitors to company website
  • Increase total number of sales or average order amount
  • Grow the number of website subscribers

There are a vast amount of metrics to measure the success of a social media campaign, but there is still a large amount of speculation about whether social media can have a monetary return on investment. For retail websites, the traffic from social media sites can be analyzed to determine if they are driving visitors who are “ready to shop” or those who are “just here to look”.

RichRelevance, a leading company in personalized e-commerce platforms, completed a study comparing the real traffic to retail websites from Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and whether or not the visitors were completed the desired action (i.e. purchasing a given product). They compiled their findings and insights on retail site traffic driven by social media in the infographic below. Continue reading