Keep the dialogue going.

Marketers have become more than willing to start a conversation about their brands through social media. But that’s only the beginning of the marketing effort.

In late 2008, MarketingSherpa surveyed social media marketers about the effectiveness of their practices. Large majorities rated social media marketing effective at influencing brand reputation, increasing awareness and improving search rankings and site traffic.

Social media was considered less effective, but still good, for internal communications and driving online sales.

Marketers thought the best specific tactics were user reviews, relationships with bloggers and discussion groups. But they also found those tactics difficult to measure—only around 10% of respondents thought they were “very accurately measured.”

Measuring effectiveness can’t be easy, though, when companies don’t have a strategy in place for social media marketing. While one-third of larger businesses had a written policy to manage brand communications, only 13% of smaller business did.

Even among large businesses, 39% had no policy despite recognizing its importance, and 9% believed it unnecessary. Three-quarters of small businesses had no written policy.

Such a policy can be particularly valuable when it comes to responding to user feedback. Social media marketing is a conversation, and brands must be ready to respond to consumers.

“A lot of the time, brands will put up a corporate blog or Facebook profile and think that’s social media marketing,” Lou Cuming of social media marketing agency DEI Worldwide told eMarketer.

“It’s getting consumers into those environments and engaging with them online that becomes more difficult and requires more resources,” he said. “You really have to continue to nurture the conversation, otherwise it just dries up—it’s like having a one-way conversation, and if people aren’t listening, it does damage to the brand.”

All the same, around one-quarter of businesses of all sizes reported not monitoring social media commentary at all. Nearly one-half of large businesses kept an eye on discussions without responding publicly. Another quarter of all firms attempted to contact the writer of a negative comment.

Only tiny minorities of businesses posted public rebuttals to negative comments.

“You need to have resources for engaging consumers and answering questions, and an exit strategy,” said Mr. Cuming.

Found interesting by Roger, from e-Marketer

Atlanta Business Video

Videos are Watched More Often when posted on Twitter Then Facebook

According to a recent report, videos posted on Twitter keep people watching longer than videos on some social networking rivals. A new study found, on average, that audiences clicking on video links from Twitter watched a video 37% longer than viewers referred from Facebook, and 50% longer than those sent from Digg.

Twitter-referred viewers watched on average for one minute, 58 seconds, compared to 1:14 for Facebook, and :58 for Digg. People clicking video links from MySpace clocked in at 1:42. How does the service synonymous with a short attention span keep video watchers sticking around?

The reasons are unsure but researchers surmise it has something to do with Twitter's one-way following. "Digg and Facebook have a lot of noise and a lot of people that are fake friends, but your Twitter feed can be customized to exactly what you want." That, in turn, means people may watch videos linked from Twitter longer because they tend to be more relevant.

To come up with its findings, researchers recorded a sample of 6.8 million video streams referred by links from Digg, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter over three months. So if someone sent a Tweet saying "check out this video" and provided a link, the video measurement firm tracked any viewers that clicked the link.

The Twerrible Inside Numbers on Twitter

More news on the internet space from e-Marketer

The microblogging service Twitter was hacked during May 2009 and stolen internal company data was posted on French blog Korben.info this week.

Twitter founder Evan Williams confirmed the attack in an e-mail to TechCrunch, stating, “In general, most of the sensitive information was personal rather than company-related.”

Nevertheless, Twitter’s alleged internal projections were revealing.

Twitter estimated that 25 million people worldwide would be using the service by the end of 2009.

• 2009: 25 million users
• 2010: 100 million users (300% growth)
• 2011: 350 million users (250% growth)

The firm projected that it would have 100 million users in 2010 and 350 million in 2011.

“Assuming the information is legitimate, Twitter’s growth projections seem overly optimistic,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.

eMarketer calculated in April that Twitter would have 12.1 million US adult users in 2009 and 18.1 million in 2010.

“A global projection of 25 million users by year-end would assume that US users make up only 40% of the total,” said Mr. Verna. “That seems unlikely given the US-centric nature of the service.”

There are several barriers to widespread Twitter adoption.

In April, Nielsen Online found that only about 40% of the service’s new users return the following month.

A Harvard Business School study estimated that most Twitter users sent an average of only one tweet in their lifetime.

“While many Twitter users consider the service addictive, there also seems to be a growing backlash—a feeling that Twitter-mania might be a 2009 fad,” said Mr. Verna. “If that’s the case, projecting 18 months ahead or beyond seems speculative, at best.”

And then there’s the revenue question…

“Without a sizable revenue stream, which Twitter has yet to invent, it’s difficult to imagine the service growing its audience to the levels they envision—even if venture capitalists continue to look favorably on the Twitter’s prospects,” said Mr. Verna.

The question remains: Are Twitter’s alleged internal numbers overly optimistic—or do the people inside Twitter know something the rest of us don’t?

Coupons - A Great Way to Save Money

This article was purloined from todays E-marketer newsletter.

US Internet users have responded to the economic downturn by using the Web to save money. Coupons have played a large role. 

According to the “State of the US Online Retail Economy in Q1 2009” study, from comScore, online coupon services have enjoyed a huge surge in popularity during the recession. Since March 2008 year-over-year growth has been steady, and often substantial—reaching 46% in December 2008. 

ComScore also reported that searches for the word “coupons” were up 90% during the same period. And one-quarter of Internet users surveyed said coupon sites had been very important to them in the past three months. 

Unfortunately, along with the rise in coupon usage has come a rise in coupon fraud. The CIC estimates the cost of coupon fraud in the tens of millions of dollars. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Bud Miller of the CIC. 

Of course, consumers still do most of their coupon-clipping in the physical world rather than online. Nearly one-half of respondents in the comScore study got coupons from Sunday fliers. In-store coupons and coupons printed on receipts or packaging were also popular. 

About three in 10 consumers reported getting coupons either from an online service or a brand’s Website.