Reports

Today, we released a new POV on Paid and Earned Media: Building an Integrated Strategy.

As content across the social media landscape proliferates, it is becoming increasingly important for brands to cut through the clutter. Although brands are eager to connect with and engage consumers, industry findings estimate that fewer than 10% of a brand’s Facebook fans see content that is posted by the brand, indicating that brands can no longer rely on smart content alone to drive engagement and organic fan acquisition.  As a result, it’s important for brands to look to paid media as an integral part of overall community strategy.

This report outlines how brands can begin to think about a strategy that integrates paid and earned in order to maximize the opportunity across social channels.

View and download the full report »

Today we’ve released the second report in our Hispanic POV series, “Language Preference among Digital Hispanics.” Following the first report on Hispanic Digital Influencers, this report discusses language preferences among Hispanics in digital, and identifies innovative ways marketers can better tailor their efforts and be more discoverable by online searchers.

US Hispanics are a multifaceted and fragmented group with varying levels of acculturation, ages, psychographics, language proficiency and demos. As such, it’s important to determine exactly what target within the Hispanic audience your brand is looking to connect with and develop a campaign that speaks directly to them.

As growing population with ever increasing purchasing power and influence, Hispanics are searching for products, brands and information online in large numbers. To capture this demand, it’s recommended that marketers optimize their websites for keywords in Spanish and potentially even words that are commonly misspelled in English by Spanish speakers. These same considerations also apply to paid search efforts.

In this report, we provide insights into this growing market and take a deeper look into how to successfully reach Hispanics online.

View and download the full report »

At yesterday’s first annual fMC Conference, Facebook unveiled several platform updates that will soon impact all brands utilizing the world’s largest social network to connect with consumers. Beyond the tactical ramifications – which we outline in detail in our latest report – the core takeaway from fMC is that Facebook has entered a new terrain where earned and paid media should operate as part of a real-time, coordinated front in order to maximize engagement.

The joint introduction of Facebook Timeline for Pages as well as changes to the Facebook premium ad format reinforce the need for a unified, holistic approach to Facebook marketing that integrates community, content and media strategies.

Our belief is that earned and paid media will continue to converge, with each having a multiplying impact on the other. This creates a need for an integrated approach to managing and measuring social media across community, content and advertising. As 360i President Sarah Hofstetter told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the update will move brands to start thinking about paid advertising as part of their Facebook strategy. “It’s not just a Field of Dreams environment anymore on Facebook where ‘if you build it, they will come,’” she said.

View and download the full report »

Yesterday, Twitter launched an interface redesign with enhanced Brand Pages. The update provides a more dynamic environment in which brands can form meaningful connections with their audience and emphasize unique brand identity within the platform.

Enhanced Brand Pages are now available to brands that are spending the required $25,000 a month on Twitter media. Brands who meet the spend threshold can enjoy a streamlined interface focused on follower acquisition, engagement and two-way communication. The update provides a more visual sorting of brand tweets, creating a cleaner, more efficient line of brand-to-fan communication. The redesign also brings improved analytics to the platform, allowing for more accurate and powerful media buys while providing greater user insights.

With this redesign comes great potential for brands to enhance their presence on the platform and engage followers in conversation. Brands can get creative with the new rich media capabilities and paid media opportunities. Marketers should consider revised content strategies that aligned with the more user focused design. In this report (available to read and download below), we provide an overview of Brand Pages, take a deeper look at their implications and provide recommended next steps for marketers.

Twitter’s Enhanced Brand Pages

Today, we’re launching the first in a series of reports exploring the role social media plays in the lives of Hispanics living in the United States. Reaching and engaging this population has become increasingly important to marketers over the past decade. The growth of this population presents both the promise of reaching a dynamic and engaged audience – armed with ever-increasing purchasing power – and the challenge of understanding the cultural nuances of a demographic with unique digital behaviors.

» Download 360i’s Report on Hispanic Digital Influencers

Why a POV series?

According to the 2010 US Census, the Hispanic population rose by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010, , accounting for more than half of the nation’s population increase. Furthermore, in sheer dollar power, Hispanics’ economic influence rose from $212 billion in 1990 to $489 billion in 2000, to $978 billion in 2009, and is estimated to rise to roughly $1.3 trillion in 2014 (Selig Center for Economic Growth, Dec. 2010).

Read the full article »

Today, we published a report on The New Era of Online Listening. Over the past few years, the practice of online listening (also called buzz monitoring or social media monitoring) has gone from an obscure research concept to a rapidly growing and bona fide research methodology, adopted by many brands across industry verticals.

But with such rapid growth and with the proliferation of companies offering listening services ranging from fully automated solutions to manual, human-powered analyses of online conversations, what is the right model for incorporating online listening into your research approach? What is listening best used for? How often should it be used? Most importantly, what decisions does it help drive?

To help sort out these questions, we’ve outlined what we consider the most important considerations for listening, and how to approach setting up a listening program that is both efficient and customized to the needs of your brands and your business. Read and download our full report to learn more.

-Shilpa Brahmbhatt, Lara Hejtmanek, R.G. Logan, Lee Maicon and Danielle Mormile contributed to this report.

Google announced yesterday its long awaited Brand Page opportunity for marketers. This addition to Google’s suite of products and solutions for marketers is unlike anything previously available.

Brand Pages are not like Facebook or Twitter because they have a direct impact on search engine optimization and paid media performance. And unlike other forms of SEO and media programs, there will be ways to share content and galvanize communities. But Google+ Brand Pages are not a panacea that instantly improves all other marketing programs. Google+ will evolve constantly, often in ways brands will appreciate, but occasionally in ways that may pose challenges for some brands.

Nonetheless, marketers for the vast majority of major brands should plan to participate in Google+ Brand Pages. The potential value is too high, as is the potential opportunity loss for brands whose competitors establish strong footholds first. Our new whitepaper (available to read and download below) presents a simplified overview of what you can expect from Brand Pages.