All posts in “bloggers”

Social Media Roundup for October 7th, 2011

The Shift of Marketing

Marketing channels are shifting as more and more people are starting to realize where they can achieve the strongest effect on their target audience. Recent research conducted by Jonas Colliander and Micael Dahlen from the Stockholm School of Economics compared the publicity effectiveness of social media (blogs) vs. traditional media (online magazines). It was found that blogs can result in a special type of relationship between the blogger and the reader, called a parasocial relationship. This is the illusion of a face-to-face relationship, where readers have a feeling of closeness towards the blogger as if they were friends. On the other hand, magazine writers are seen to just be completing a job and so they are not as trusted.  It is clearly important for marketers to find bloggers that are honest about disclosure and genuine in what they write about brands and products because this is what will build that parasocial relationship and level of trust, making it more likely for readers to then build their own relationships with the brands the blogger has endorsed.

We know that agencies need to put time and effort into researching each blogger and what they are all about before pitching them to promote a product.  Build a relationship with them: get to know them, actually read their blog posts, follow them on Twitter and Facebook, send them an email to introduce yourselves and ask questions. If not, things could take a bad turn for your company and your client. Learn from “The Bloggess” about what not to do when pitching a blogger here or you could be very sorry, about 3 million people sorry. Caution: some of the language may not be SFW!

To further show the shift from traditional marketing channels to social media, check out this Infographic on the ROI of Social Media: Is social media marketing effective? Looks like companies are catching onto this shift in marketing channels, as we can see that 75% of companies plan to increase their use of blog marketing in the coming year!

Taking a closer look at the infographic, we can also see that the majority of marketers are integrating social media into their marketing plans. And not only does social media result in significant drops in marketing costs over the long term but 72% of the marketers researched said social media helped in closing business!

 

The Great Steve Jobs

This was a very sad week for Apple and everyone really, as we have lost the great innovator, Steve Jobs. My Twitter timeline was filled with tweets about Jobs, everyone tweeted, replied and retweeted until Twitter froze because it could not handle all of the updates! His products have changed our lives and I think he deserves some thanks for the growing numbers in the above Infographic of the ROI of social media because Apple products played a big role in the rise of social media. What are you using right now to read this? Your iPhone, iPad, Macbook? Of course he is not the only maker of this technology but without these devices, I don’t think I would spend as much time on social networks as I do. They definitely make checking your favorite blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts a lot more convenient! And when you like your device you want to spend more time on it.

Take a look at this incredible tribute to Jobs that Twitter employee Miguel Rios put together using all of our tweets expressing love, support and condolences.

Not only did he personally read the 1,000+ tweets in the image, he took the time to order them starting with the most retweeted ones at the top. View the original image on Flickr and  you can actually read the tweets yourself. It is quite amazing.

Ethics Of Blogging Webinar Audio Replay Available Now

I’m Lindsey McInerney and I’m the intern here at SMG.

If you missed the Social Media Today webinar last Thursday, you can check out thearchive of the audio.

Maggie moderated a great discussion with Augie Ray (@augieray), Managing Director of Experiential Marketing at Fullhouse, Daniel Tunkelang (@dtunkelang), Chief Scientist and co-founder of Endeca and John Jantsch (@ducttape), marketing and digital technology coach and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.  The webinar covered issues surrounding transparency, pay-for-play, online privacy, Astroturfing, compliance and legal for social media users.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • The FTC hasn’t updated their advertising rules in 29 years. Due to the evolving nature of the online community, they are expected to do an overhaul shortly that mirrors some sample guidelines they put out late last year. What are the expectations going to be of brands engaging with bloggers online? How much does a blogger have to disclose? What is the risk for brands engaging in this space? Do we need policing? If you truly love a product, is it ok to get paid to write about it? As a reader, do you care? Hear what the Social Media Today gang thinks.
  • As it turns out, bloggers can’t live off of cases of shampoo. They need to make money. The group navigates what compensation from brands is fair and when bloggers need to disclose. Additionally, they talk about brands taking responsibility of blogger disclosure and how to pick a blogger with care.
  • If bloggers are forced to disclose every time they receive compensation for talking about a product, will audiences ever believe they can be impartial? Perhaps paying them directly isn’t the answer. Maggie stick handles the discussion through blogger compensation. Hear the conversation about what is acceptable, when to disclose and how bloggers can financially benefit creating a win-win situation for both brand and blogger.
  • If talking about products on blogs is questionable, how much different is it than product placement in movies? Ultimately, it seems readers and brands should know the writer. If you don’t like where the writer is going with their posts, you always have the option to un-follow or unsubscribe. Perhaps this is the best policing out there.

Are you a brand? A blogger? A passionate reader? We’d love to hear what you think. So listen to the audio archive, and let us know where you stand!