Social Media and the Economy

December 10th, 2008 • Uncategorized
Tags: com.motionpoll, economy, social media marketing

The 2nd Annual com.motion-Pollara Social Media Barometer is now live.

Detail and analysis coming soon, but here are the topline results:

• Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year. That’s more than for any other marketing communications discipline, as seen in the table below.

• Canadian business leaders say it would be a mistake to cut back on social and digital spending in tough economic times, with 7 in 10 recommending increased investment.

• Facebook has established itself as Canada’s dominant social network. Among Canadians who use social media, 87 per cent say they have tried Facebook, compared with 33 per cent for MySpace and 13 per cent for Twitter.

• Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) say social media is an important tool for developing, maintaining and nurturing friendships, up from 52 per cent a year ago.

• Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) say social media tools are important for learning about products, services, organizations and brands, up from 59 per cent a year ago.

Tribune down: Will social media win or lose from economic slowdown?

December 8th, 2008 • Uncategorized
Tags: com.motionpoll, economy, social media marketing, tribune

Today’s bankruptcy filing by Tribune Corp., which owns the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune underscores that times are tough for businesses that depend on advertising – and by extension – most businesses in the marketing communications space.

But what will the slowdown mean for social media in 2009?

There are lots of opinions. And later this week there will be some hard data to add to the debate.

In our second annual social media poll, in partnership with Pollara, com.motion asked hundreds of Canadian business leaders where they expect to cut marketing spending in 2009. One of the key questions: Is an economic slowdown the right time to cut or boost social media spending.

Click here for the results of last year’s survey.

Lessons in social media from a horse on a stick

December 12th, 2007 • 2 comments Uncategorized
Tags: com.motionpoll, darrren barefoot, julie szabo, social media marketing

When I arrived at Veritas, with a mission to spread the social media gospel within the organization as well as outside, I began writing a weekly e-mail to my colleagues which I uncreatively called “Social Media 101.” I churned out two of them before I got sidetracked by other things. I hope this blog is now providing my colleagues with a bit of 101. (Inside message to fellow Veritasians: If you mention that you read this post, I’ll buy you a Sambuca shot at Friday’s Christmas party).

Now Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Vancouver’s Capulet Communications have written a 101-type ebook, which they call Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook. You can buy it for $30 here, but Darren was kind enough to send me a copy.

I haven’t had much time with it, but after a quick scan on the subway ride home, there are a few things I really like about it.

First, it looks like it has some great case studies — both the obvious and some more obscure ones.

Second, it is surprisingly up to date (there’s a long entry on Facebook Beacon).

Third, they specify that the social media techniques in their book don’t apply to kids under 16. That’s important, because I find that a lot of marketers still think of social media as something specifically intended for kids under 16. And that’s just wrong. In com.motion’s recent social media poll, we found that 71 per cent of Canadians 18 and up have used social media tools. Predicatably, the number was much higher (93 per cent) for those aged 18 to 34, but still surprisingly high (49 per cent) for those aged 55 and up.

(Daren and Julie’s book would probably make a nice companion to com.motion’s Social Media training seminars. Contact me for more information on those.)

Finally, check out Daren and Julie’s promotional video in which a horse on a stick (I think it’s a horse) says — and I quote — “this books sounds very interesting. Maybe we should buy it. Maybe for some of our friends at Christmas. Mmmm. yes. Because nothing says Christmas like Social Media Marketing.”

Happy holidays.



mcarthur (at) veritascanada.com

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com.motion Poll – Part 1

November 30th, 2007 • 3 comments Uncategorized
Tags: bloggerrelations, com.motion News, com.motionpoll

When we launched com.motion, our new social media division, we knew we wanted to get coverage in traditional media outlets. After all, breakthrough public relations is what Veritas is known for. And indeed, we received great coverage in outlets including the National Post, Marketing Magazine, CBC Radio, CFRB and the Globe and Mail.

But we also recognized that for an offering specializing in social media marketing and online public relations, it was critical to reach out to bloggers covering the space.

Since it’s always better to experiment with your own business than your client’s, we tried something new. Ahead of our official launch date, we reached out to key social media bloggers and offered them exclusive results on one or two questions in the social media poll we commissioned to promote com.motion’s launch. A couple replied that exclusives don’t matter in the blogosphere.

But about a dozen social media bloggers have covered our launch and/or the poll results. In the coming weeks, I will be digging into some of the juicier findings in the poll. But first, I wanted to take a look at how some other bloggers have covered our launch and survey.

Kristen Nicole at Mashable looks at the finding that two-thirds of business leaders surveyed don’t want employees using social media sites at work, while 34% want employees to know their way around a social media site:

That means, spend lots of time at home getting to know your way around social media so you can impress your boss with all the creative ways you’ve found to make him more money by advertising on blogs. Hop to it.

Canuckflack says the results seem to expose senior executives lying when three-quarters of them say they’re as or more familiar than their customers:

To be fair, they could be glaringly unaware how little they know about new technology. Or, they could be underestimating the extent of their clients’ knowledge.

iAnts, a blog about digital music marketing, points out that marketers don’t appear to be putting their money where their mouths are:

The good news is that one in two business leaders say social media is becoming more important than mass media. The bad news, half of them feel that employees shouldn’t use social networking sites at work. Makes no sense to me, it’s like the blind leading the naked. How do you expect your employees to understand the medium and educate themselves if they cannot participate.

And Sean Moffitt of Buzz Canuck has some very kind – and much appreciated – words about the way we launched com.motion.

…no grandiose statements on being an unsubstantiated first, an appreciated overture to seed some of the findings of the study ahead of time with resident bloggers like myself, a double barreled insight approach from polling Canadian professionals, a nice social media-friendly PR release and consumers and what appears to be a very smart extension of Veritas’ brand into a new media space.

To view all the coverage, please check out this del.icio.us page.

mcarthur (at) veritascanada.com

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