More moms use Facebook, social networks than average internet users

emarketer.com

Have you Facebook-friended your mom yet? Even if you haven’t, you probably have more than a few connections on the social network with little ones of their own, using the site as a way to communicate, stay in touch with families and exchange information about parenting, among other things.

eMarketer estimates 23 million US moms are on Facebook this year—a figure that counts women with children under 18 in the household who use the site at least once each month. That represents well over two-thirds of all online moms in the country. Overall, eMarketer estimates that just 57.1% of internet users (including children) use Facebook monthly.

Facebook, of course, is not the only social networking site moms use. Overall, 26.5 million mothers with kids in the home use social networks at least once per month, or 79.2% of online moms. This compares to 63.7% of internet users overall.

These estimates mean that as of 2011, moms will make up 17.9% of all US social network users and 17.4% of Facebook users. But the high rates of penetration reached in this group mean growth will be relatively slow, and moms will actually lose share on the sites over time. By 2013, eMarketer estimates, 16.1% of US Facebook users will be moms with children in the home, while 17.1% of all US social network users will be mothers.

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Yet marketers have concerns with the communities they’ve built on social sites

 

Social media marketers feel that having a presence on social sites is more important than advertising there, but there are still challenges related to keeping a community running online.

In July 2011,Microsoft Advertising and Advertiser Perceptions surveyed social media marketers in six countries around the world and found that 74% of them thought it was very important to have a presence on Facebook, but only 57% felt the same way about advertising there. On Twitter, presence also carried more weight, with 47% of respondents saying they thought it was very important. But in Twitter’s case, there was not as much of a difference between presence and advertising, at 42%.

Of the marketers surveyed, 72% agreed that measuring return on investment from social media was too hard, an oft-cited challenge of social media overall. More specific to having a brand page or account, 56% of marketers said turnover was too high and 52% said their fan or follower base was not target-appropriate.

Looking at social media budgets gives more insight into how marketers are keeping their communities engaged online.

Social media marketers reported that 48% of their budgets are used to attract new members to their pages, with 28% focused on social sites such as Facebook or Twitter, and 20% from off of these sites. On the other hand, 19% of budgets are used to keep current Facebook or Twitter communities engaged, and an additional 20% of budgets are spent on paid media to maintain existing fan bases.

Continually working to keep social communities engaged will help marketers reduce turnover. And as social media marketers become more mature in their outreach and social networks improve their platforms, marketers can work to better target advertising to reach the right audience and track and measure success using better metrics. Time and experience with social media will help marketers overcome the challenge of maintaining communities at social sites.

eMarketer.com

Facebook users have both positive and negative expectations when “liking” a brand

Companies are often on the hunt for more “likes” for their Facebook pages, hoping to get more brand advocates and social media fans. However only 42% of US Facebook users think marketers should interpret a “like” in that way.

 ExactTarget, “Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Meaning of Like,” which found that 25% of US Facebook users disagree that marketers should interpret “like” to mean they are a fan or advocate of the company.

Facebook users themselves have some preconceived notions about what to expect when they “like” a company on the site, and among those who do not become brand fans, many are negative. More than half of users expect to be bombarded with messages or ads (54%), while 45% do not want to give companies access to profile information and 31% do not want to push content from a company into friends’ newsfeeds. These possibilities have prevented users from making brand connections on the social networking giant.

On the flip side, many US Facebook users also have certain expectations of perks they should get after following a company’s Facebook page.

The ExactTarget study found that 58% of US Facebook users expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales after “liking” a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they “liked” in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.

Additionally, younger consumers, ExactTarget found, have fewer expectations and generally “like” brands as a form of expression, not to get certain perks. Meanwhile, older consumers want something of value for “liking” a brand. By listening to what their target fanbase wants out of the Facebook relationship, marketers can get more interaction on their page and encourage more people to “like” rather than avoid brands on Facebook.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled the company’s much anticipated overhaul of profile pages, transforming the user profile into a virtual scrapbook that digs all the way into your past.

At the company’s f8 developer conference in San Francisco, Zuckerberg laid out Facebook’s vision for the future of profiles. He described the history of the Facebook profile, starting with the original profile from 2006, when Facebook was still known as TheFacebook. He explained that through all of these iterations, Facebook profiles have been a good gauge of what you’re doing now, but they are not a good way to share what you or your friends have done in the past.

“We’re more than what we did recently,” Zuckerberg explained to the audience.

It was then that Zuckerberg unveiled Timeline, the revamped version of the Facebook Profile. It’s a way to show off who you are, what you do and where you’ve been. It’s a complete design overhaul that makes a visual history of everything you’ve ever done, all the way to when you were born.

Facebook automatically adds photos, status updates and life events from your Facebook history to your timeline, but you can also add photos and content from you past to fill out the “Way Back” section. In his demo, Zuckerberg showed how to add a baby picture to the beginning of your timeline.

“It’s fun and easy to fill out your timeline,” Zuckerberg said.

The new profiles also include a map feature that lets you see where you’ve been, thanks to Facebook Places. It maps out your travel. You can even mark your place of birth. But perhaps the most striking feature is the cover photo, which displays a giant image at the top of the new profile page.

Timeline’s purpose is to resurface all the content you have created on Facebook. The problem is simple: once a status updates leaves your profile, you are unlikely to ever see it again. Zuckerberg and the Facebook team want to make Facebook a place to express who you are while discovering who your friends are at the same time.

For more information and to sign up to receive a notification when timeline is ready, go to facebook.com/about/timeline

Everyone knows that social media is the place to go for transparency in business. Customers, clients, and other businesses expect a level of openness from the brands and companies they follow on Facebook and Twitter. But there’s another type of transparency that many businesses overlook – being open with your social media manager.

Social media managers are the people who run a business’s Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and so on. As more and more small businesses flock to the social media networks to get their brand out there many of their social media managers are facing a common problem. All too often, these managers are not kept in the communication loop as they should be and the result can lead to endless amounts of frustration. In some cases, business owners can begin to complain about not seeing enough buzz generated about their company and therefore fail to see the value in their social media outreach. The problem isn’t that social media doesn’t work, it’s that by not including your social media manager in on upcoming news, events, and branding strategy meetings you’re basically shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.

The good news is this issue is completely avoidable. It’s important to keep two things in mind when bringing a social media manager onto your team.

First, social media IS marketing. No matter how you slice it, marketing is becoming one of the top ways social media is being utilized. Yes, it can be used for customer service or just to give your company or brand a more hip and customer friendly appeal. But are you including your social media manager in every marketing meeting? Are you CCing them on the status of big clients or projects you have in the works? You should be. They are your first and instantaneous line of communication to your audience. They should be in on every conversation where strategies on branding, marketing, public relations , promotions and customer relations are discussed.

Second, social media can and should be proactive. All too often, small businesses post photos and announcements to their pages and Twitter feeds after the event has already occurred. In the world where we can get our news in under 2 seconds and an audience’s attention span is shorter than 140 characters those amazing photos of a store opening is old news. Sure, it should still be posted, people do love photos. But that’s not generating buzz about your business. The 3 weeks leading up to the opening are where the value in social media lies. Including your social media manager in all project management meetings allows them to craft a strategy and reach your fan base, and hopefully beyond, to get the word out.

When crafting marketing campaigns social media managers can also be extremely helpful. They have their eyes and ears on your clients and customers on a consistent basis. Who better to help you craft that digital ad or to tell you what share incentive will best resonate with your target audience?

By remaining open with your social media manager you can better hone your marketing campaigns and strategies as well as increase the exposure of press and news about your company and its services or products. So the next time you go to send that email on the status of that big event you have coming up be sure you CC your friendly neighborhood social media manager on it. They could be the key to boosting your marketing’s success.