Online Branding Blog – reactorr.com

Is Virtual Currency The Future of Social Media?

Social media websites have been seeking ways to monetize their system beyond serving ads for a while, and virtual currencies look to be the cash cow they’re after.

If you’re familiar with Facebook, you’ve probably come across Mob Wars or Farmville, the social network’s virtual game that allows you to purchase virtual currency to advance in the game faster, get better gear, or obtain virtual goods.

Previously, virtual economies were typically found in MMORPGs and life simulation games  like Second Life, but lately they’re showing up in Social network sites like Facebook, MySpace, Gaia, and more.

World of Warcraft might be one of the largest virtual economies to have emerged in recent years, and while paying real money for virtual goods might seem ridiculous to some, its now a billion dollar business. Virtual real estate is another market that’s had interest too.

While virtual currency exchange rates aren’t on par with real world ones (in Second Life, its about 265 “Lindens” per US dollar), advertisers are seeing it as incentive for signing up for a product or filling out a form. One example might be Netflix offering $20 in virtual currency for someone to sign up at Netflix. App developers at Facebook and other social network sites are looking to cash in, and even mobile apps for iPhone are tapping into the craze.

While it sounds interesting, is there a down side to these synthetic economies? Aside from potential fraud or money laundering, virtual currencies could pose a threat to world economies, by shifting control of the money supply from the central bank to game developers if things really caught on.

As advertisers take notice, commercialization is inevitable, and eventually lead to further growth in virtual business. In terms of e-commerce, few retailers are currently selling products directly through social networks. But the pending launch of Facebook’s virtual currency will make it far more appealing for this purpose. The Facebook currency will allow for purchasing of both virtual and real world gifts.

What I wonder is, as this evolves, will we see a universal online currency develop?  It would take a trusted and known brand (like Facebook) to take virtual currency to that level. They’d need to provide the resources, support, stability, and security it would require. Seeing as FB has the online population of a medium sized country, along with the network already in place, they might be a natural.

Image: Wired created a banknote that looks like the authentic currency of a virtual world.

Social Media Growth

No one could have forecasted the rate at which social media might catch on had you asked them just a couple years ago. Below you’ll find the top 20 sites on comScore’s social networking list. It’s not definitive, but gives you a good idea.

The one site that stands out, given the time its been around is Facebook.

To put the social media growth into perspective, have a look at this;

If you crave additional social media statistics try this post on mashable.

Personal Search Revisits

The future of search is personal. I remember hearing that from a Claria guy at Adtech. They had released PersonalWeb (now defunct). You may remember Claria from their previous brand name Gator. They had created what they called a “personalization engine” that served both Web surfers and advertisers.

Then hakia came along, but it was a short lived battle when Powerset, its main competitor, was sold off to Microsoft.

Now there is Jinni, the new video search engine. Jinni has labeled itself as the first “Taste Engine”. This based on algorithms semantic search technology and personal recommendations.

Possibly most  interesting about Jinni is their vision of the future where a search engine becomes personal and results are served based on personalized recommendations. Think how powerful that could be once tapped into social networks.

Ongoing monitoring of social networks like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc is in the works, with Jinni wanting to be part of the conversation, without actually becoming a social network itself.

Digital Marketing

The old rules of digital marketing have changed. Past performance measures of ROI differ to that of “traditional” digital media. Recent research shows that consumers can be up to 40 percent more likely to purchase a product if they have liased with that brand in a social space.

Consumers do their fair share of online research before making a lot of purchases, and online branding has a big influence when a potential customer searches a phrase and find you in the top 5 natural listings. Of course paid listings are fine, but almost 80 percent of the clicks go to natural listings. Which is why a lot of people prefer search marketing and Internet advertising over SEO. You can turn on your campaigns quick, and track them easily.

But when it comes to your best online marketing ROI, there’s no comparison to SEO. The only downfall is the initial time and investment up front. But you might look at as an investment in your online branding.

Another area of Digital Marketing that’s difficult to forecast a return on can be social media. It seems this really depends on whether Social Media is the right fit for your business, but it’s more than just Twitter and Facebook. Although if you’re new to it all you might have trouble telling. But it’s fairly important that online branding includes a social media strategy, as well as developing your presence within relevant circles such as participating in the right forums and commenting on blogs.

Although the performance measures aren’t clear cut, developing metrics beyond web traffic is a good start.

How Brands Should Prepare for the Social Web

Developing an online branding strategy is critical for today’s business, and the many businesses looking to get involved in social media should note that not every instance is right for your business. For example, should a funeral home use Twitter? Probably not, and although that example is obvious, there are dozens of other industries that are less obvious in which people still insist on trying to make social media into something it isn’t – an advertising channel. There are car salesmen out there trying to drum up leads via twitter, credit unions looking to get on Facebook, and much more.

A large part of this interest would have to do with the large influx of speakers and articles saying that social media is something everyone needs to be doing. To extent, that would be true. The best way to determine if its true might be to figure out if anyone is talking about you, and what you might actually say if you started using social media. Remember – its not about advertising!

It’s been said before – advertising is dead. Or on life support anyways.  It took a few years, but consumers no longer trust the claims from many brands.

So what should a business do to execute their social media strategy? Figure out what makes sense for your line of business. Should you be blogging? Video marketing? Or maybe Twitter or Facebook is all you need. Maybe start a group on Ning? What other options do I have?

There’s forums, blogs, video, wikis, podcasts, and more. It’s about the interactions between people. Chances are there might be a conversation about your brand already. If you’re going to become involved with social media try to find that conversation and be available to engage with customers.

Approach things by looking at what’s already happening within the social media to decide if and where you belong. Twitter isn’t for everyone. But if you are a brand that has a following it might make sense to be involved.

As you evaluate your options you should note that it really takes a dedicated person to effectively manage these new channels. And for some social media options that you’re not sure whether to use or not, it’s still a real estate grab for many of them. Consider signing up with some of the bigger social media sites and stake your claim by way of preferred username.

And sometimes, its up to you to build that community and social network. Again, it’s all depending on your business model. Dell uses Twitter to communicate by announcing deals, and created IdeaStorm as an online suggestion box to listen to their customers.

Social Media – Not For Everyone

Social Media offers less potential for some businesses…

@loafnjug – Get a gimmick! Innovate and you shall be followed. Which reminds me, did you know the first webcam was to monitor a pot of coffee?

Winnipeg Social Media

With recent social media events and speakers in town, more companies are starting to develop an interest in what social media can do for them. Winnipeg social media is on marketers lips and after discussing with a few businesses, they often understand the value and how it can help with online branding, but many feel its not the time to implement.

Here are a few considerations when thinking about adding social media to your marketing mix;

• It’s not a question of whether you do, its a matter of when. And putting it off just means that much more catching up you’ll have to do.
• There’s a very good chance your competition is doing so already
• It’s strongly recommended to have someone devoted to this role as opposed to adding it to someone’s duties. The majority that try their hand at social media fail as it is time consuming.

I’ve spoken with a few local companies (and a couple south of the border) lately and have found many to be anxious to begin but unsure where to start. What I’ve done is created two options to provide direction. One being provide an analysis and report to clients as a primer, the other being available (retainer) for strategy and direction.

With advertising slowly dying, social media is really a great way to communicate with customers.

Social Media and Online Branding

Whether its social networking or social bookmarking, social media is creating a paradigm shift in the way we consume media. This is not a mere blip on the radar, but a tsunami of sorts. But don’t mistake social media as another advertising channel. Marketer’s need to realize its more about talking to, and not talking at.

By knowing your audience you can leverage this medium. Note that its not a trend and your marketing efforts should include social media for your online marketing or branding strategy. Consider watching the following video to get a better understanding of social media’s influence.

A prime example of social media acceptance is a site you may know of called Facebook (a social media favorite) with over 250 million uers. It sees more than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on its site daily. In fact, the way we interact and socialize has undergone surprising changes, with one out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year having met via social media. Although you might be surprised to learn that the fastest growing segment of Facebook are 55- to 65-year-old females.

About 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content. With about 78% of consumers trusting peer recommendations, and only 14% trusting advertisements. Furthermore, 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. Another interesting fact – 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video… on their phone .

Social media, bookmarking, and citizen journalism may jeopardize the future of print media. Its estimated that 98% of the largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news – the news finds us.

 If you’re serious about online branding and engaging with customers, you need to include social media in your strategy.

Will Poken Catch On?

Here’s an ingenious idea from a Swiss company that could catch one. It’s called Poken, and it might just replace business cards someday. A Poken has 2 parts to it. There is the Poken itself, which reflects some side of your identity. Then there is the Poken hand, which pulls out and connects to your computer.

The way it works is when you meet someone, instead of exchanging business cards, two people would touch the Poken hands together and your Pokens exchange ID information.  When they come in close proximity a little light glows to tell you it worked.After you get home you connect the Poken USB hand to your computer and see the information from your new friends. It’s like exchanging a business card, only quicker and with a lot more info.

From their site…

“We’re not another social network. You’ve already got that.We’ve thought bigger to let you instantly bridge the gap between the people you meet in the real world and those you stay connected to online.”

On the Poken site you create an account and add social media accounts to your profile various like Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo, and many more. This might be a good time to grab your name.

Traditional Advertising versus Social Media

Forrester Research report estimates interactive marketing spending from 2009 – 2014 is on the rise. By 2014,  the online marketing budget will represent 21% of all marketing spend. This also indicates that traditional advertising is declining, but assumes overall budgets will as well.

As you’ll note by this graph from Forrester, the majority of budget is earmarked for Search Marketing, but I would think there could be changes to budgets being allocated to social and mobile in the future.

Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk alerts marketing and media professionals with a dire warning, “The cannibalization of traditional media will bring about a decline in overall advertising budgets, death to obsolete agencies, a publisher awakening, and a new identity for Yahoo!”

An interesting point to note – when it comes to search engine marketing and search engine optimization, the latter is the larger market. About 20% might click on PPC ads, but the campaign is created almost instantly. With SEO the time to rank can be from 3 months to a year or two, depending on the competitiveness of the industry and a dozen other considerations. When asked which is the best direction moving forward, I’ve always said both. Your SEM campaign can drive business until your SEO begins to work for you.

Does Social Media replace advertising? No, its just another channel to work with. Just like TV never replaced radio, and the Internet never replaced television.