The research compiled by Figaro Digital and Lightspeed Research threw up some interesting insights into community engagement. Although not groundbreaking in depicting how you would expect a user to behave, it did raise some important questions around evaluating the depth of engagement and the relationship this has with building long term loyalty.
According to the research, 20.6% of respondents stated that the reason they’d engaged (liking, following, commenting) with a brand was because of specific discounts and offers. This was followed by the appeal of competitions (19.6%) and to a lesser …

So as to not replicate the plethora of blog posts covering social media predictions for 2012, I thought it would be worth listing the ten areas I’d like to see develop within the social media and digital comms industry over the next twelve months. In no particular order….
1. Twitter to be able to offer UK case studies for their advertising packages. To date the offering looks unsophisticated with limited results for brands outside of the entertainment industry
2. Brands to get a lot smarter with integrating their above-the-line and social strategies. What really …

Having been a little negative in the past about Facebook’s platform developments (some publicised, others, of course not), I have to say, things have really been hotting up over the past few week with a raft of new changes being introduced. Some of these changes have been in reaction (never a great place to be) to Google +’s introduction a few months back –  easier filtering of friends into specific categories (called ‘lists’) and targeting of messages.  Others, however are really starting to show the integral nature of Facebook’s ‘open …

Ever used to the 3 for 2 and BOGOF offers we see for gifts in stores over Christmas, this year it’s all about how we can make the most of our technology and online recommendations to get the best deals. Moving beyond the massively useful voucher codes sites we’re talking about geo-location, mobile coupon and crowd sourcing discount services. We are also talking about the trust people put into recommendations from friends and family (as well as general – non biased opinions) and the influence these can have on overall …

I’m sure I’m like everyone else who gets totally irritated by the torrent of notification emails you get generated by comments left on a post you’ve interacted with. When Facebook announced earlier this week that they were testing an opt-out feature for these updates, on a personal level I couldn’t have been happier but from a business perspective this seemed to me another hurdle placed in front of community managers who want to nurture conversations with their fans – basically the largest social network in the world is encouraging people …

I’m not a massive fan of social media releases (SMPR) – I have to be honest. I’ve had them pitched to me a number of times from different news agencies and to date haven’t ever issued a single one. The reps talk the talk; demonstrate the case studies (usually tech/telecomms companies –of course) and then showcase miraculous results leading to stella SEO. It looks good on paper but widespread adoption hasn’t been there because I’m not convinced bloggers want information sent to them in this way. This misunderstanding of how …

This is so funny and perfectly sums up those times I’ve been sitting in a social media/digital marketing events thinking “no wonder people think this stuff is hard to grasp…I don’t even know what they’re going on about…’ It doesn’t mean you look smarter people!!
Great video which I’m sure I’ll start including in some of my work decks moving forward

Jesse Brown – The Guru