Atomic Ideas - Helping You Sell More Stuff!

Happy Holidays!!!

Spray-on hair and Social Media.

Marketer's have long known the value of the customer testimonial and have done commercials and info-mercials based on that premise. Like for instance, Ronco's big-selling, but short lived, spray-on hair. (Click below.)

 

Now, let's face it, social media is basically cutomer testimonials on steriods. If people like you or your product or service, they will forward that 'thumbs up" to friends. The difference between social media and an infomercial is that in social media, REAL people are using the product (not paid actors) and everyone knows it. So for social media to work, your product or service has to actually deliver what is promised (and work in real-world situations). If it doesn't, REAL people will dump on it and your offering will be DOA. You won't even enjoy a short-lived success of the spray-on hair variety!

INFOGRAPHIC: 5 Companies Doing Social Media Right!

Thanks to Scott Monty, head of Social Media at Ford Motor Company, for this insightful infographic. For more awesome social media advice and info from an acclaimed master of the art and science, check out his musings at The Social Media Marketing Blog!

Created by Voltier Digital for ScottMonty.com

Where are your best customers? (Maybe not on Facebook or Twitter!)

Where your customers are is an important question. As the articles below point out, nearly 25% of Americans still don't use the Internet. Only about half use Facebook and only 7% use twitter. That's why we at Atomic Ideas continue to bang the drum for starting with a sound strategy. Even the right message is wasted if you're not using the right media. Just because everyone else is using a specific medium doesn't mean it's right for your brand...or maybe it is! 

Nearly Half of Americans Use Facebook; Only 7% Use Twitter [STUDY]

February 24, 2011 by Jolie O'Dell195

 

A new report from eMarketer finds that most adult Americans with Internet access use Facebook at least once a month, and a full 42.3% of the entire American population was using the site as of this month.

By contrast, Twitter‘s penetration rate was much lower, sitting at around 7% of the total population and 9% of the Internet-using population, according to the report.

Late last year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company saw around 250 million daily users of its 500 million-strong user base. The young exec made the point that Facebook’s products — including Photos, Places, Groups and Messages — are features that people use more frequently than they use other, more established services with similar features because Facebook’s products are inherently social.

Twitter, on the other hand, is driven largely by so-called power users, and only 21% of registered users are actually active on the site. Another interesting and related Twitter usage stat: 22.5% of users are responsible for 90% of all tweets.

One important stat to note, however, is Twitter’s year-over-year growth. Last year around this time, Twitter’s penetration rate was around 7%, and by the end of this year it’s expected to be at 11% for American Internet users, or 16.5% of the population that also uses other social networks. In terms of the overall U.S. population, the numbers are still small, but the growth is steady.

An analyst for the firm said, “eMarketer’s new Twitter usage estimates are lower than our April 2010 forecast. Since then, Twitter has continued to gain traction but at more moderate levels than we had expected.”

The microblogging service celebrated 100 million new accounts created in 2010, and a lot of that growth was due to the company’s investment in official and device-integrated mobile apps.

What do you think it’ll take for Twitter’s growth to really skyrocket and reach more of the population? Or will this service remain a niche product for the web-using elite? Let us know your opinions below.

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS

TOP 20 COUNTRIES WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF INTERNET USERS # Country or Region Population, 2011 Est Internet Users Year 2000 Internet Users Latest Data Penetration (% Population) World % Users 1 China 1,336,718,015 22,500,000 485,000,000 36.3 % 23.0 % 2 United States 313,232,044 95,354,000 245,000,000 78.2 % 11.6 % 3 India 1,189,172,906 5,000,000 100,000,000 8.4 % 4.7 % 4 Japan 126,475,664 47,080,000 99,182,000 78.4 % 4.7 % 5 Brazil 203,429,773 5,000,000 75,982,000 37.4 % 3.6 % 6 Germany 81,471,834 24,000,000 65,125,000 79.9 % 3.1 % 7 Russia 138,739,892 3,100,000 59,700,000 43.0 % 2.8 % 8 United Kingdom 62,698,362 15,400,000 51,442,100 82.0 % 2.4 % 9 France 65,102,719 8,500,000 45,262,000 69.5 % 2.1 % 10 Nigeria 155,215,573 200,000 43,982,200 28.3 % 2.1 % 11 Indonesia 245,613,043 2,000,000 39,600,000 16.1 % 1.9 % 12 Korea 48,754,657 19,040,000 39,440,000 80.9 % 1.9 % 13 Iran 77,891,220 250,000 36,500,000 46.9 % 1.7 % 14 Turkey 78,785,548 2,000,000 35,000,000 44.4 % 1.7 % 15 Mexico 113,724,226 2,712,400 34,900,000 30.7 % 1.7 % 16 Italy 61,016,804 13,200,000 30,026,400 49.2 % 1.4 % 17 Philippines 101,833,938 2,000,000 29,700,000 29.2 % 1.4 % 18 Spain 46,754,784 5,387,800 29,093,984 62.2 % 1.4 % 19 Vietnam 90,549,390 200,000 29,268,606 32.3 % 1.4 % 20 Argentina 41,769,726 2,500,000 27,568,000 66.0 % 1.3 % TOP 20 Countries 4,578,950,118 275,424,200 1,601,772,290 35.0 % 75.9 % Rest of the World 2,351,105,036 85,561,292 508,993,520 21.6 % 24.1 % Total World - Users 6,930,055,154 360,985,492 2,110,765,810 30.5 % 100.0 % NOTES: (1) World Internet User Statistics were updated for June 30, 2011. (2) Additional data for individual countries and regions may be found by clicking each country name. (3) The most recent user information comes from data published byNielsen Online, International Telecommunications Union, Official country reports, and other trustworthy research sources. (6) Data from this site may be cited, giving due credit and establishing an active link back to Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2000 - 2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved.

 

 

The 2011 CMO's Guide To The Social Media Landscape.

With social becoming more and more important in the marketing mix, we thought this chart from cmo.com and 97th Floor presents a great way to quickly review the pros and cons of the top platforms dotting the landscape. You can download the PDF at cmo.com.

It's a tool that could be useful in developing an actual strategy for social media engagement... something we find is still strangely lacking in many companies efforts. Agree? Disagree? Let us know.

 

 

 

10 Reasons to Blog When You Have Nothing to Say!

1. It keeps the spiders who search for new content happy , so your blog maintains a high ranking. 2. It keeps your fingers limber as you type out some semblance of an idea. 3. It keeps your audience,who looks to you for entertainment, slightly happier than if they had reached a blank space. 4. It allows you to fill in your time sheet with something more productive than, say, nothing. 5. It gets your brain moving (although not very far) on a gray Monday. 6. It gives you that semi-pride of semi- accomplishment. 7. Coworkers see you typing and assume you are working -- or Facebooking.  8. Keeps your audience from saying, "Hey, doesn't anything new ever happen around there" even though that is what they are still thinking. 9. Everybody else does it, so it must be okay.  10. There is no 10th reason other than research shows that people like blogs with lists. Especially lists with the number "10."  As in "10 Ways to repurpose your chewing gum" or  "10 things to do while waiting for your oil to be changed," or  even "10 ways to do lists about 10 ways."

Happy Monday!

 

Want Gen X and Y to find Your Website? New Forrester Report.

For many companies, succesfully marketing to and engaging with Generations X and Y is essential to future business growth and success. Let's face it, someday all the seniors and Boomers (sadly, me included) will be gone. So it's important to stay on top of trends and research that helps us understand how the Xers and Yers will find us (and,of course, how we can find them).

A new report from Forrester Research provides some insight and statistics. The survey says that although natural search engine results and then referrals are still driving the most traffic, younger folks (not surprisingly) are increasingly using social chanels to find websites. 

Here are some stats and a nice chart from an article on the report at the fabulously informative MarketingProfs website. Read the full monty here.

      •  Some 16% of online adults are referred to websites via social channels.

      •  Among Gen-Y adults, nearly 30% find websites via social networking sites, while 25% do so via
         email from friends and family.

      •  Gen-Y adults are twice as likely to use blog posts and Twitter as referral sources:

      •  14% of Gen-Y adults are referred to sites via blog posts, compared with 7% of all adults.

      •  10% of Gen-Y adults are referred to sites via Twitter, compared with 5% of all adults.

 

Long Way To Go For Not Much of A Real Sell

Take a look at the following video. It's somewhat funny and engaging, but at four minutes long, it takes forever to get to the resolution which ultimately feels like an over promise. That's because the resolution is made possible by a particular department store not known for it's expertise in this area. If it had been coming from a higher end retailer of this type of merchandise, it might be more believable. See what you think.

 

Hyundai offers iBribe to buy a new Equus

What do you do when you see a brand that is beloved by nearly everyone for it's leading-edge design and cutting-edge coolness factor? Sure, you could try to imitate the design and marketing strategy that made that brand great, or you could just somehow link that product to yours and hope it basks in the glow!

That's what Hyundai did. In an article this morning in the Detroit Free Press Auto Section, Hyundai has announced that they are giving away an iPad to Hyundai Equus buyers when they come back (after a few days living with the car) to learn more about the features and operation of their new Equus. There will even be an Equus App on the iPad to help buyers get the most out of their new car.

Now while I'm all for freebies and gratis iPads, the fact that I have to have to return for a training session for my car and they're giving me an App to aid me thereafter, kind of makes me a-scared. Is this car too complex? I want a car, not life-long recurrent training. To my mind, if it's that difficult to understand, the ergonomics must suck! (Think BMW radio/electronic stacks of a few years ago).

I guess you could argue that Hyundai is just trying to appeal to younger buyers by showing they understand this generation's iPad proclivities, but I think they could have just given the iPad away or announced a "fun/functional" APP instead of linking it to "understanding" the vehicle.

Just one iWriter's iOpinion. What do you think?? Hit the comment button below to let your voice be nerd...er, heard.

 

If you're boring in real life, you will be boring in social media, too!

What does your company stand for? What is it's "marketable truth"? If you haven't figured out your communication strategy in the real world, chances are, you will not be engaging in the social media world, either. That's because social media is just a tool, like a TV commercial is a tool, or a print ad is a tool. They are all used to communicate your unique selling proposition. So if you haven't figured what your unique selling proposition (or marketable truth) is, you are throwing your money away.

"But social media is free!" you say. Well, not when you do it right. It takes strategic planning, and people to implement that strategy. People and planning cost money. And without a strategy, stapling fliers to random telephone poles will likely be just as effective for you.

In a nutshell, social media is...media. As in traditional advertising, the proper message needs to be developed first, then the proper strategy for getting that message to your customers (media) needs to be developed. 

As with traditional advertising, you can't bore someone into buying your product or service, so the message has to be engaging. But no matter how slick the presentation (or the media in which it is presented) the message is what really matters. As this video so humorously demonstrates.