Macali Communications Blog

How Organizations Change Social Media Use

How companies use social media (Sm) is changing as businesses discover its value for customer engagement -- providing lead generation, immediate customer contact and consumer interaction.

This is according to a recent research by Josh Gordon for socialmediatoday, an online social media  community. 

Trends affecting these Sm changes: companies realizing that many of their customers are on Sm, that Sm can help break the ice as customers are online and dodge traditional lead generation and sales strategies and the recession is causing every company to rethink its customer engagement strategy.

Here are some of the most interesting research results:

1. Lead generation is the top business function for which organizations most want to use Sm. 

2. More organizations encourage the use of Sm than discourage it.  

3. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and blogging lead Sm and activities for businesses.  

4. As organizations look to the future, the Sm form they are "most considering" using are blogs,  affirming their power in reaching a mass audience with a personal POV and invite comments.

Gordon also refers to a Bain & Co survey that found that more than a fifth of companies in the bottom quartile in their industries jumped to the top quartile during the last recession.

Meanwhile, more than a fifth of all "leadership companies" -- those in the top quartile of financial performance in their industry -- fell to the bottom quartile.

The research also refers to an electrical company that grew its business by 500% during  the industry downturn in the late 1980s and took market leadership from a company previously twice its size.

So, now can be the time to try new lead generation and business building tools in tough times. 

   

Five Smart Facebook Strategies & Six Savvy Golf Applications

Facebook (FB) marketing can be an asset for brand building and enhancement. 

Why it matters and five proven FB strategies were presented by FB marketing expert and co-author of the upcoming Facebook for Dummies Richard Krueger in a recent Webinar. I've added golf applications after a quick FB search. You'll find them interesting:

Why it Matters  

1. 200M active FB users, twice size of Super Bowl audience and 25 times the size of US Open viewership.

2. Fastest growing segment is 35-54 demo, growing at 276% with over 55 close at 194% rate.

3. More than 6M become fan page users every day. 

4. More women (56%) than men (42%) on FB.

5. 30M active user groups created since site launched.

6. 50% of users 100M leaders log on at least once a day.

7. 4 billion minutes spent on FB daily.

Five Strategies

1. Expand Friends network through connections (alumni, former employers, clubs).  

2. Join and participate in related Groups.

3. Monitor your FB brand reputation. 

4. Take and own management of your company/brand FB Public profile.

5. Manage ad campaign to reach desired audience.

Golf Applications

Here is how golf brands and organizations are smartly using FB. 

1. Scotty Cameron has 1700 members in one fan group (and 10 other groups)

2. AJGA has 1270 fans, using FB to engage its youth audience.

3. John Daly has 5344 fans and Heavy Putter has launched a site based on their new Daly relationship.

4. Callaway Golf womens' group  has 4263 fans.

5. EWGA has 33 groups around the US.

6. Golf in Arizona has about 11 groups.

Richard, thanks for the great advice and ideas. Obviously, FB can be a very effective brand building and enhancement strategy for golf brands and organizations, so let's get started.  

Hey Golf Businesses, Social Technology Really is Growing!

Here's a followup to an insightful National Golf Foundation study about golfers' social technology participation. Summary on this recent blog post.   

It's a foreshadowing of what's to come in the golf business. Remember golfers are not in a vacuum. They are using social media in their businesses, while buying cars and electronics and are talking to their peers.

Consider this report from Forrester social media expert Josh Bernoff that reveals that social media participation is growing rapidly. Bernoff uses his Social Technographics Ladder to segment customers' social behaviors. 

The report and table below show that social technology participation "has grown rapidly," and highlights:

1.Inactives -- people untouched by social technologies -- have "shriveled" from 44% down to 25% of the online population.

2. Spectators -- those who read, watch or consume social content -- have "ballooned" from 48 to 69%.

3. Joiners (social network participants), Critics (those who react to social content) and Collectors (those who organize social content) show a "nice healthy jump."

4. Creators grew only slightly (18 to 21%) but this doesn't reflect participation interest but the reluctance to be an extrovert by blogging, creating web pages or uploading video or audio. Bernoff expects this group to grow as participation is much creater in Korea and China. 

5. Growth in online consumption is coming from "older, middle aged" people. Social activity is way up among 35 to 44 year olds, especially as they are joining social networks and reading and reacting to content. And even among 45 to 54 year olds, 68% are now Spectators, 24% Joiners and 28% Inactives. 

I love Bernoff's implications: grandmothers might read more blogs than emails; social content is going mainstream, social content ranks high on search engines because it changes regularly, gets linked more often and more online adults are becoming exposed to it, accepting it and embracing it. Check out his profile tool page for fun and free.  

So, golf marketers, no matter who you target, you better start paying attention and acting. Social media is here and growing.   

Report Shows Golfers Using Social Media

Thanks to the National Golf Foundation (NGF) for its current study on golfers' social technology (ST) participation habits.

It's encouraging to see more golfers (of all ages) participating in these important and emerging social media (SM) platforms: 

1. Most core golfers (those 18 years old + who play 8 or more rounds yearly) are online/email every day (88% using it several times daily).

2. 83% go online just for fun/pass the time.

3. Younger golfers (18-34 age) are more active; as are those aged 35-49, 50-64 and 65+ participate from 84% to 76%.

4. Five of the top 10 participation activities are in reviews/ratings; online forums/discussions; social network profile, site visits and comments; and read blogs.    

5. Specific golf related activities include: reading articles on instruction/players (82%); researching/getting equipment recommendation (76%); purchasing products (64%); researching/getting recommendation on courses/travel (57%); watching instruction/tour highlights video (50%) and posting equipment or course reviews (18%).

If you're a golf marketer, you will benefit from planning and executing a SM marketing strategy. Time to step up to the tee?

Six Best Practices to Getting Customers' Permission

Nobody wants anything jammed down their throats. Everyone wants to be asked for their ideas, insights and business. 

That's called permission marketing, and without it you risk contaminating your digital communications and platforms by alienating customers and losing their trust.

In DigiMarketing, the Essential Guide to New Media and DigiMarketing by Kent Vertime and Ian Fenwick, the authors explain that without trust, you can learn very little about your customers and can't customize marketing to them.

Without permission, alienated customers will build barriers so you can't reach them. Like any relationship, once you lose trust, it's very hard to re-establish it. 

So follow these DigiMarketing permission marketing best practices to ensure trust and success:

1. Confirmed opt-in: whenever a consumer asks to be added to your communication, confirm this via email and ask them to take a positive action to be added to a list. This assures they are legitimately opted in, and a confirmation can serve a marketing purpose, don't miss a chance to talk to your customer.

2. Easy unsubscribe or opt-out: in some countries, this is a legal requirement. And don't miss the marketing chance to gently learn why someone chooses to unsubscribe.

3. Clear recipient benefits: be clear in every communication because you are invading their space and time. Be short, to the point and relevant. Use headlines that link to additional content later in email or to blogs, websites of social networks.

4. Consistent, memorable presence: be recognized as actually having permission, so avoid being identified as a "spammer." Make your content compelling, educational and newsworthy to assure its value.

5. Don't get too frequent: one of the most important parts of direct marketing is the balance of "reach and frequency." Too high frequency can be intrusive and annoying. Too little risks being forgotten. Balance this and customers will appreciate you and your offering being there when they need and want it.

6. Maintain a relationship: successful digital communication helps customers to know you and build trust via a consistent, personable voice that reflects your brand. A recent survey showed that the most important reason recipients open emails is they "know and trust the sender."

Remember, digital marketing offers many platforms, but if your customer doesn't permit your communication, it's like the tree falling in the forest. Nobody will be listening.   

Do Work on Twitter

It's not just fun and games anymore.  With about 12 million users, and a growing number of consumer and B2B brands on it, Twitter is fast becoming a place to 'do business'.  Below I am listing a few tools that help perform key business functions on Twitter.

Trend Research. Check out TweetMeme.  It shows you in real time the most popular links posted onto Twitter.  Links are organized by categories, so this is a great place to keep an eye out on hot topics and trends in your business niche.

Networking & Lead Generation. To determine the most relevant people to follow on Twitter, use SocialWhois. You can get a list of people by typing in a keyword, like 'golf' or 'marketing'.  You can also find out about a person's history and activity on Twitter.  Also check out Twello.  Designed and organized like the YellowPage, it is easy to find people in your business niche to connect to.

Productivity. GroupTweet allows you to create a group, and let group members tweet each other privately.  Since only group members can see the group tweets, many small businesses are using this as a team communication tool.  Nice concept, but personally, I think instant group messaging with chat history turned on achieves pretty much the same thing.

Online Reviews Influence Golf Equipment Purchase Decisions

Following up on a previous post about online customer product reviews, a recent study by Golf Datatech shows that 70% of serious golfers consult online golf product review sites before making a purchase.  Furthermore, it is shown that golfers are interested in, and influenced by, both product reviews from recognized "experts" and peers.

In the past months, we have looked at a number of software applications that integrate user review features directly onto your e-commerce site.  Two services stood out as market leaders in our opinion.  Both PowerReviews and BazaarVoice provide great features in many packages of varying setup and monthly costs.  They also have a proven track record in providing reliable services to big name brands.

It is about time to evaluate the merits and risks of adding this functionalty to your online channel.  Drop us a line, and we are happy to chat with you about managing customer reviews.