Yesterday, I attended The State of Social Media: Presented by NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey Company with Tom O’Brien. It was actually fantastic. He share a ton of really great research and brought the data to life by sharing real examples of when social media has enhanced this research
Top nuggets of information from this session.
1. Tumblr has surpassed Twitter and LinkedIn in time spent
2. “What people say to each other is more important than what brands say to them.”
3. ”You don’t get to be right just because you’re the corporation.”
When it comes to demographics, the averages almost never tell the story. You have to look at the details. Tom showed a ton of graphs (which I will try to track down) but there really was no differences between race, ethnicity and age in the social space. Everybody asks who is on social media? The answer: Everyone is on social media. Soon we will not be asking this question because we won’t be looking at the social world as another world.
With the introduction of mobile phones and reasonably priced unlimited data packages, some consumers will never know what social sites look like from a computer s reenact they will only access it from their mobile phones. Marketers should take those implications into consideration when they’re planning their mobile and social strategies.
A lot of people ask who are the influencers and how do you tap into them to make them brand champions. Tom said that he thinks it’s a mistake to force or rely on your advocates “carry your water” or carry your campaign and rely upon them to make your campaign successful. Listen to them and gather insights from them. Understanding why they are advocates will reveal how you can get more people to be as passionate about your brand as the advocates.
You really have to think about it like anthropology- observe a community without disrupting. It’s like field studies you observe people in their natural habitat and take notes. Take those notes to make judgment calls. Listening is key. And just because consumers are talking about a certain topic doesn’t mean you should necessarily interject your brand/ brand’s voice not that conversation. Decide if it’s worth creating a strategy around that information without actually talking to the consumers.
Anyway, a lot of great information from this session and I’ll for sure be looking into more information from NM Incites.