This document discusses the declining effectiveness of paid social media marketing, especially on Facebook. It notes that people do not trust social ads and that buying fake fans destroys engagement. While promotions can still work if done organically, the document argues that organic social media strategies are better for business results. It also notes Facebook is focusing more on mobile and less on desktop, and that the company has acknowledged users, especially younger ones, are engaging less with Facebook in favor of other platforms like Instagram.
3. About Ignite Social Media
Planning
& Strategy
Implementation Monitoring
& Analytics
Community Analysis
Engagement Plans
Campaign Strategy
Community Strategy
Social Media Monitoring
Goal Setting
Social Media ROI
Program Analytics
Community Insights
Creative & Technical
Development
Content Creation
Community Activations
Influencer Outreach
Program Management
7. Source: Nielsen: Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Grows
People Don’t Trust Social Ads
7
33%
33%
36%
36%
40%
40%
41%
42%
46%
47%
47%
47%
47%
50%
58%
58%
70%
92%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Online banner ads
Display ads on mobile devices
Online Video Ads
Ads on social networks
TV program product placements
Ads served in search engine results
Ads before movies
Ads on radio
Ads in Newspapers
Ads on TV
Brand Sponsorhips
Ads in magazines
Billboards and outdoor advertising
Emails I signed up for
Branded websites
Editorial content
Consumer opinions posted online
Recommendations from people I…
Purchase Influence
Trust Completely or Somewhat Don't Trust Much At All
8. Bought Fans Destroy Pages
8
Month Organic Reach Percent Organic Interaction Rate
(likes + comments + shares / fans
with no ad support)
Month 1 11.84% 0.21%
Month 2 12.52% 0.24%
Month 3 8.26% 0.18%
Month 4 13.41% 0.41%
PAID FAN ACQUISITION BUY
Month 5 5.97% 0.17%
Month 6 3.61% 0.08%
Month 7 4.84% 0.08%
Month 8 3.83% 0.05%
Month 9 4.37% 0.08%
Month 10 5.59% 0.10%
AVERAGE PRIOR:
11.51%
AVERAGE PRIOR:
0.26%
AVERAGE AFTER:
0.09%
AVERAGE AFTER:
4.7%
13. “Waning Interest”
13
“We believe that some of our users, particularly our
younger users, are aware of and actively engaging
with other products and services similar to, or as a
substitute for, Facebook. For example, we believe that
some of our users have reduced their engagement
with Facebook in favor of increased engagement with
other products and services such as Instagram. In the
event that our users increasingly engage with other
products and services, we may experience a decline
in user engagement and our business could be
harmed.”
17. Fan Growth is Down
18.10%
4.50%
3.70%
2.20%
0.00%
2.00%
4.00%
6.00%
8.00%
10.00%
12.00%
14.00%
16.00%
18.00%
20.00%
2010 2011 2012 2013
Mean Monthly Fan Growth
Top 50 Branded Fan Pages
Source: Ignite Social Media
26. Objective:
Leverage the media
partnership between Dodge
and the SyFy channel and
Trion video game
Defiance, which both used
the Dodge Charger and
Challenger.
Dodge Defiance Promotion
27. Strategy: A gamification sweepstakes that followed closely the events in
the SyFy show, and encouraged sharing in order to win a chance at a
grand prize.
Dodge Defiance Promotion
When I wrote this book in 2007/2008, there were very few paid opportunities, so earning our way in, as you would at a Cocktail Party, was the order of the day.
But since then, we’ve gotten drunk at that party, spending like drunks on Facebook ads. $5.7b in 2012 alone. But surely because those ads are a better alternative than online ads, right? Not at all. Click thru rates are still terrible.
In fact, Peers Influence Purchases more than another other form of communication.The bottom line here is that People Trust People; however, Ads play a different role…they drive demand.Zappos Example.
For most of my clients we can show that we’re driving more value in impressions and clicks then it would cost them if they bought the ads. So organic is cheaper, it results in better action, it doesn’t attract bots and it means you get people who care about your content. Buying fans, doesn’t make any sense. This doesn’t mean there’s no role for paid at all. It’s about balance.
You might remember that I talk about a “post-Facebook world.” I don’t mean that Facebook is going away any time soon, but let’s talk about the problems they have and where that leads us as marketers.
My 15-year old: “No, I didn’t see your picture.”My 13-year old: “No, I don’t want an account”
Research backs this up.Let me ask this group: Raise your hand if you use Facebook.Put your hand down if you find it less interesting than you did 6 months ago.
Even Facebook knows it. This is what they wrote in their SEC filing.
So we’ve talked about the lagging user experience, what about the experience we’re having on Facebook as marketers?
Everyone remembers September 2012, when Facebook tightened their algorithm. They came back in Feb 2013 and said it wasn’t so bad, we weren’t counting mobile impressions, but just about everybody I know is seeing decreased reach.
While brands are still chasing rapid fan growth, it’s just not there anymore. In fact, when you look at July 2013 alone, it was only 1.9%, so 2013 is trending even lower.
Every since Timeline, tabs have had very little traffic, so a lot of brands walked away from promotions, particularly since more and more users are engaging on mobile.
And Facebook is voluntarily giving up page views that marketers want to drive for them. They are voluntarily pushing people outside of the Facebook chrome. They’ve spent lots of time on mobile ad units, but apparently no time on making these tabs function on mobile. Again, this made most brands give up on promotions. I’m going to tell you why that’s a mistake.
I’ve talked about what’s wrong with our marketing:O buying fans doesn’t workO people are less interested in FacebookO it’s harder to get eyeballs on FacebookBut there is good news
Getting these reviews, a function of social media marketing, helps drive business results too.1-star increase on Yelp drives a 5-9% increase in revenue for a restaurantA Cornell study found that a hotel can increase rates without losing guests if they have higher review scores
And remembers those promotions that we used to do? They still work.We’ve taken them largely off tabs and off Facebook, but they drive business results.You cannot just rely on the newsfeed and Oreo style content. Trust me, it’s not enough.
explain how Defiance works
Linger here for color commentary
See what we’re getting here:O Millions of impressionsO tons of new fans that were chosen to become a fan as they engaged with usO and best of all, a 52% opt-in rate. Try that with a fan acquisition buy
To finish, the best news is that Facebook seems to be coming around to these problems, and they just might fix.
Facebook has to make the newsfeed better. Do you know they have 5x more TV show conversation than Twitter does? But it doesn’t feel that way.Their social ads promise failed. The world is too complicated. Now Edgerank is failing. They’re going to have to loosen the news feed back up. And that’s going to help all of us.
They have to do it for this 15-year-old, to get her back. They have to do it for this 13-year-old, to get her to reconsider. And they have to do it for this 10-year-old, to stay relevant. They are the canaries in the coal mine. And they have to change things for us. Because the natural progression for social promotions is to make them pan-locational. Sign in with whatever you want. Share wherever you want. Our social channels are just promotional vehicles. That’s not in Facebook’s best interest. They can make changes soon, or we’ll keep going down the multi-network path. Fine for us, bad for Facebook.
So the path to social media marketing success started in 2007. A cute analogy maybe about getting attention to ourselves like we would at a cocktail party, but I’d argue that the deviations of billions spent have argued for organic. So the path is set for us.O Get real fans, followers, circlers, pinners, that care about your brand for the right reason. Otherwise, you can’t engage them, so they’re worthlessO Put those fans to work. If you don’t do any promotions, and just serve content in your news feed and your Twitter feed, you’re not activating these bases like you could be. O And finally, get ready for a world in which Facebook is less central, and you’ll need to have a way to reach a variety of audiences on a variety of platforms.O Do all that, and you’ll have earned the attention that your brand needs to drive the right business objectives from your social media marketing.