What can marketers learn from Facebook’s Audience Insights?

The value of social has always been reaching consumers in a unique environment where they are deeply engaged and generating a meaningful conversation between those engagers and a brand. To do this well, we have to deeply understand the passions, preferences and interests of the brand’s audience and how these affinities relate to the brand itself.

Major opportunity lies in making sense of the social data created by the billions of consumers who willingly broadcast their affinities and brand connections daily across social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.  These social channels account for the planet’s largest and least biased focus group ever created. Affinity data holds the secret to how consumers want to be engaged, leading not only to better social media marketing, but a more engaged consumer across all channels.

A Giant Affirms Affinity

It is in this vein of thinking that Facebook recently launched its Audience Insights tool for advertisers, which was “designed to help marketers learn more about their target audiences.” To see the largest player in social bring forward a product aimed at better harnessing social media audience data is exciting and reaffirms what my company has already found to be true: social data, when harnessed correctly, is the most valuable source for consumer insight across any channel.

So, what can Audience Insights help marketers learn? Some highlights include:

• Understanding what demographic traits index highest for your page audience vs. the entire Facebook population
• Identifying the other pages liked most often by the audience that has liked your page
• Viewing the Personicx lifestyle categories that index highest for your brand page audience

General feedback on Audience Insights seems positive, and shows the hunger for a better understanding of what social data tells brands about their customers.

Next Steps

Facebook Audience Insights is a great first step for brands who want to understand their customers better through social data.  Social intelligence tools exist today that allow brands to take an even greater step forward in their social data strategy by adding value in five key areas:

1. Data Scope: Facebook is a large slice of the social media pie, but it isn’t the whole thing.  In order to have the most accurate picture of your customers, you need to look at the data they are generating across multiple social networks while being able to differentiate the affinity connections to your brand within each social network separately.  This latter part becomes increasingly important when using the data to better target marketing within each social network.
2. Data Depth:  It’s becoming more important that you look for and work with platforms that are founded in data science. “Page likes” are a weak signal for predicting future engagement and action.  People who have actively engaged with a brand socially via sharing, commenting, retweeting etc. are the best predictor for future social action and lead to the highest ROI. If a platform provider is offering you page likes in their affinity lift scores, ask for more specifics around what other metrics they employ to prove that lift.
3. Action: Data without action is like a light bulb with no switch –completely useless.  Search out a platform that identifies a brand’s top affinities and easily applies those targets to social ads across Facebook and Twitter in minutes, leading to more effective social media targeting and campaign results.
4. Competition: It’s great to understand how your brand’s affinities compare to the general population, but it is even more powerful to know how they compare to your competitors.  By better understanding the motivations of your competitors’ most engaged customers, you can more effectively grow your own audience and increase category market share.
5. Offline application: Social media has become an always-on companion that mirrors offline media consumption, especially in TV.  A huge opportunity exists in utilizing social affinity data to better understand the strongest connections between your brand’s audience and specific TV elements (shows, networks, genres, actors). Using this data allows advertisers to make smarter offline media buying choices while strengthening their social buys via alignment based on brand affinity.

The market is just scratching the surface of using social data for more effective brand advertising within social media and across offline channels.  Facebook’s new Audience Insights tool offers a great first step toward this opportunity, but more work needs to be done and platform providers are available today that can help. Look for partners that canshowcase the additional scope, depth, action, competition, and offline application and you’ll be prepared to take advantage of the power social data can bring to your marketing activities.

Grant Parker is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at 4C. 4C is powered by over 27 years of university research in big data science and predictive algorithms to help companies understand and use social data and connections. Grant’s previous experience includes positions with Ziff Davis, inPowered, NetShelter Technology Media and Resolution Media. Learn more at http://4cinsights.com/. 

Article Source http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/09/11/what-can-marketers-learn-from-facebooks-audience-insights/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InsideFacebook+%28Inside+Facebook%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Real-World Education for Modern Marketers

Marketers' Perceptions of Real-Time Marketing [Infographic]

Some 88% of marketers say real-time marketing is important to 2014, according to a recent survey by Evergage.

The company surveyed 100+ marketers across 18 countries to find out what they think about real-time marketing in 2014.

One finding is that "on average, marketers are using real-time marketing across two of eight different channel," according to Evergage's infographic based on the survey.

Some 48% of respondent use real-time marketing on social channels and 45% use it on their website.

Marketers say real-time marketing helps...

• Increase customer engagement (81%)
• Improve customer experience (73%)
• Increase conversation rates (59%)

Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/25881/marketers-perceptions-of-real-time-marketing-infographic#ixzz3BlgzX1Dt

7 Marketing Lessons From The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrates the power of social media to influence cause marketing on a national scale. The Challenge was a perfect storm of social media, celebrity and grass-roots philanthropy, producing hurricane-strength viral social engagement during the dog days of summer.

Unlike a hurricane, the Challenge showed how social media can be harnessed, directed and managed for a social good. According toFacebook, between June 1 and August 17, over 28 million people have joined the conversation about the Ice Bucket Challenge including posting, commenting or liking a challenge post and 2.4 million videos related to the ice bucket challenge have been shared on the social network.

Even if we don’t see another social storm like this again, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge holds several important lessons for marketers trying to reverse engineer the secret of the ALS campaign’s remarkable success.

Source: AP Photo/Elise Amendola

#1 Time It Right

The Challenge got underway in June and peaked in August. Its timing was perfect and it was a feel-good counterpoint to the images of violence in the Middle East and in Ferguson, Missouri that have dominated the nightly news cycle.

Summer is a popular time for vacations and many are able to enjoy a more relaxed work schedule. School is out and extended hours of sunlight allowed people to participate in the Challenge and video their super soaking after work. Plus, the nature of the Challenge matched the timing; an Ice Bucket Challenge would not have been as well received in winter. Anyone want pneumonia?

#2 Make It Personal

The idea of pouring ice-cold water on your head to raise awareness for a charity didn’t start out as an ALS dedicated awareness campaign. Yet, former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates, who has ALS, made it personal, leveraging his social network and a dedicated team of friends and family to spread the word.

#3 Mix In A Few Celebrities 

The promotion became viral after a few local celebrities and sport figures took up the challenge. Their huge following allowed the Challenge to explode out of Boston and expand nationally, organically, attracting an eclectic mix of A-list celebrities and famous faces who have risen to the Challenge.

And having some guy named Gates involved doesn’t hurt, either.

#4 KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid, or KISS, is the well-worn design principle stating that simple designs often perform better than complex ones. In the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, the rules are simple. Accept the challenge and get drenched in ice water or donate to ALS. The challenger picks who gets challenged next. The three and four word hashtags (#IceBucketChallenge #ALSIceBucketChallenge) made it easy to remember and share.

#5 Consider Street Credibility

It was the “bet you won’t do that” schoolyard tease that added a playful touch of social stigma and self-consciousness to the cause marketing campaign. Who could possibly turn it down? Now that the Challenge has gained national exposure, it’s a point of pride and social standing to be challenged, adding to its widespread appeal.

#6 Focus on the Goal 

Although there has been some criticism about the tendency for a viral cause marketing campaign like this to encourage self-promotion and “slacktivism”, the charity is the ultimate beneficiary.  The ALS Association has attracted hundreds of thousands of new and potential donors, receiving $41.8 million in donations from July 29 until August 21, compared to $2.1 million during the same period last year. With global awareness and a sizable war chest fueled by a flood of new donations, the Association is able to move one step closer to a cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease.

#7 Reputation Matters

If your business or charity is planning the next viral marketing campaign, your brand’s reputation will be the key to a successful campaign. The management team needs to be able to handle days or weeks of intense local and national media exposure. Businesses can protect their brand and take advantage of the spotlight with a proactive public relations strategy and a well-defined communications plan that precedes launching any marketing campaign.

Even if you are not able to replicate the next ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, “a shared commitment to charity and community, extending from the board room to the mailroom, can have a powerful positive impact on company reputation inside and outside the company,” explains Todd William, founder and CEO of Reputation Rhino, an online reputation management and marketing consultancy in New York City.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is/was just a once-in-a-lifetime event, right? Under the right conditions, the perfect social media storm can be duplicated. There are many actionable lessons for marketing professionals looking to create the next social media sensation.

Article Source http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/08/22/7-marketing-lessons-from-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge/