Turning social media into cash 6 insights

Executives from a new generation of tech media companies, from Twitter to Tumblr, gathered in New York on Tuesday to discuss how to make money in an age of social, mobile media.

The Advertising Week event, titled Masters of Monetization 2.0, featured the usual puffery and posturing but also some useful insights into the business of ads and engagement. Here are 6 takeaways:

1. In-stream, native advertising works best

What do LinkedIn, Twitter, Buzzfeed and Tumblr all have in common?  These companies all embed sponsors in their content stream rather than laying ads on top it. This provides a less disruptive user experience and better engagement for advertisers. In-stream ads also scale well to smaller screens which, for many publishers, can be a marketing black hole

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“If you can get into the feed where people are looking and not piss them off, that works,” said BuzzFeed’s CRO, Andy Wiedlin.

2. Mobile natives are best positioned to offer mobile ads

This may seem intuitive but consider a company like Foursquare, which uses location tools to help people find friends and places. As CRO Steven Rosenblatt pointed out, a lack of “desktop baggage” means Foursquare is not tempted to try and shoehorn older ad models into the mobile environment.

A company doesn’t have to be born mobile, however, to succeed on smaller screens. Jonathan Lister, VP of Sales at LinkedIn, explained how the company had designed its mobile site for the “coffee and the couch” habits of its tablet readers. But the most striking example of a company adapting to mobile is Twitter: VP Joel Lunenfield disclosed that the company, whose embedded ads work well on a small screen, now makes more money from mobile than from the desktop.

3. Social communities aren’t created equal

Social media lets advertisers reach a “community” but that’s just the beginning of the story. Advertisers must also decide the relative value of a given company’s network of users. LinkedIn, for instance, claims that leads based on its professional profiles are three times more likely to convert than the personal ones on Facebook. They must also figure out what to do with “transient communities.”

“The interesting thing about communities is that there’s established communities and communities that just establish around an event,” said Twitter’s Lunenfield. His point is that events can give rise to a massive and passionate target audience — but that advertisers must be nimble to reach them in time.

4. Advertisers will have to spend more if they want timely, pretty ads

As Twitter points out, a passionate audience may emerge out of nowhere but the window to reach them is short. This means that advertisers need to invest more in creative teams who can whip up cool ads on short notice for mobile and social platforms.

Derek Gottfrid, a VP at Tumblr, added that the current trend for visual sharing means ad makers should invest in making their ads pretty enough to stand out.

Such arguments may be self-serving but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. In recent months, it’s become a common refrain that platforms and publishers have adapted to new media consumptions habits but that advertisers are lagging behind.

5. Engagement is great but tell them how you’re going to close the sale

“At the end of the day, a brand spends money to drive a sale … if you can prove it, you’ll win,” said Jim Murphy, a SVP at Catalina Marketing.

Murphy’s perspective is a welcome counter-point to the notion that a social media audience is an end in itself. He says that brands are skeptical of hype about engagement and would prefer to hear how a given platform will help them close a sale.

The new tech titans appear to be cluing into this fact too. Foursquare’s Rosenblatt said that companies like his are realizing that “you have to speak Madison Avenue.”

6. Facebook’s ad strategy is still a big, fat wildcard

The social network’s conspicuous absence on the panel gave the other companies a chance to say whether Facebook’s ad strategy would fizzle or flourish. Unfortunately, their predictions were just as mixed as investors and analysts; half the panel, hosted by CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, said they would buy the company’s stock and half said they would sell.

BuzzFeed’s Wiedlin summed up the sentiment by saying, “Facebook’s first gen ad product is kind of lame but their in-stream has potential”

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Knowing when to Post Updates and Links on Social Media Sites

As my fellow writers and I have recommended time and time ago, it’s a good practice for companies to use social media to supplement their other organic SEO activity. Due to the ever-increasing number of users found on networks such as Facebook and Twitter, many start-up or entrepreneur company owners are sharing their own original content effortlessly with the masses. Businesses that remain active with social media sites consistently see better traffic to their online properties than those companies that don’t retweet or post status updates. It’s an exciting time for small and medium-sized businesses to be sure, but many companies are finding that their success is somewhat limited and they don’t know why.

Although everyone touts the potential of a fully-engaged social media audience, there is also a general acknowledgement that knowing when to post a link can greatly determine the reach of one’s content. Obviously status updates about trending topics are most successful when people are not away from social media while celebrating a holiday or major event. In addition to paying attention to major events, getting a gauge on when social network users are likely online during the course of a given day is an important skill for any business owner or campaign manager to have. While developing a sense for user activity levels can be tricky, a new report released by Bit.ly can help give budding social media companies some help.

Traditional Social Media Posts Hit their Stride Early
Recent statistics from the popular link-abridging website show that popular social networks Facebook and Twitter actually see the most link activity during the earlier parts of the day. According to the site’s latest blog post, the two social media sites see their link click-through rates peak in activity starting in the morning and topping off sometime before 4 PM EST. In particular, Twitter link activity is at its highest levels between noon and 3 PM EST on weekdays, while Facebook does well during a similar timespan. Both networks see greatly diminished CTRs starting Friday and going through the weekend.

Image-Based Social Networks do well in the Evening
The Bit.ly report also states that image-centric social media site Tumblr sees the most users during the evening. From the end of the work day to around 10 PM EST, the CTRs for those links generated by Bit.ly often see their highest levels. According to the blog, Monday and Tuesday nights actually see strong activity. Friday nights are also great nights for posting on Tumblr, with heightened activity a result of the oncoming weekend.

Using these Reports Wisely
The statistics reported by Bit.ly provide more guidelines that anything else. SMB owners and social media campaign managers should always remember that the industry they work in and major events should be the prime indicators of when links should be distributed on social sites. On the average day though, the aforementioned timetables for posting should give those users who are unsure when to post their links a little extra direction.

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Social Media Trends in India [Interesting Insights]

Social Media, which has made such an impact on our lives in such a short period of time ! For e.g: Did you know that 57% of all Indian Twitter users have joined the platform in less than a year!

With such quick rise in popularity and with masses coming into fold, brands and advertisers are have to quickly adapt to the ever changing dynamics of this medium. Infact, I just read yesterday that the biggest demand for jobs in coming couple of years is going to be that of “Social Media Managers”.

Coming back to the Social Media Trends – Nielsen Global has recently concluded the “Social Media Trends Seminar” for and have come out with some numbers on Social Media adoption.

Here are some of the latest numbers on Social Media Space:

• 74% of the world’s Internet popula9on visit a social networking/blogging site
• Social Media site visits average almost 6 hours monthly
• 3 of the 7 biggest brands online globally are social media: Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube
• Facebook has crossed 500 million subscriber mark a couple of weeks back. This is more than the entire population of North America.
• Facebook has server 175 billion display Ads, more than any other platform in the world!

India Social Media Trends

Bollywood and Entertainment Forums Are attract Most Discussions in India

Twitter growth has risen rapidly in last one year

• 57% of Twitter users in India have only started using the site in the last year
• 32% of India’s Social Media users use Twitter at least once a day
• Twitter’s deal with local telecom operator Airtel enabling tweets through SMS/tex9ng is expected to bolster growth
• Celebrity twitter accounts are regularly written about in mainstream media – the new “Press Conference”

Facebook is starting to gain market share from Orkut*

Although 70% of Social Media users identified Orkut as their first social media site, 50% claimed to now use Facebook most often vs 38% for Orkut.

Most common reasons for switching include friends moving sites, preferring the look and feel of the site, and offering more features and engagement

Online product reviews are increasing their influence on purchases particularly for consumer electronics

55% of Indians that read online product reviews have purchased products based on feedback.

Consumer durables/electronics are the most common products purchased based on reviews (64% of purchases).

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