5 Social Media Marketing Trends: New Research
Are you being asked to prove the value of social media for your business?
Do you struggle to accurately measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media marketing?
You’re not alone. Several new research studies reveal that marketing managers are under increased pressure to show measurable results from their social media efforts.
But these same managers indicate that measuring the returns is one of their top two challenges for 2012.
See how your experience compares to others in the industry. 
Trends in Social Media: Are Most People Using Social?
In this video I interview Tom Webster, vice president, strategy and marketing at Edison Research.
Tom shares insights into current trends in social media.
You’ll also discover why you need to know how research is carried out and how to interpret social media trends.
Tom gives you the questions you need to ask before following these trends to drive your business forward successfully.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
7 Reasons to Rethink Your Blogging Strategy: New Research
Is your business working with bloggers?
Do you blog?
This article examines new research that shows blogging is here to stay.
Like many social media tools, blogs have seen a steady increase in numbers and influence over the last several years.
Note the growth charted by Invesp. On Dec. 2, 2011, that number was 178,637,835 (according to BlogPulse).
Number of Blogs Grows
14 million blogs were added since July 2011 (as of 12/2/2011).
26 Promising Social Media Stats for Small Businesses
Is your small business “all in” with social media? New research shows incredible opportunity for small businesses.
Keep reading to discover why social media is changing small business for the better.
Six months ago, I highlighted many benefits of social media for small business, but several new research articles add urgency to this message.
Swiftly Changing Landscape
Social media marketing is a rapidly changing environment, as we all know. But the good news is that your customers are embracing social media as a normal part of their lives. Even the over-50 population is adapting at staggering rates.
3 Ways to Use Social Media for Product Research and Development
Are you looking for creative ideas for your next product or service?
Have you considered the wellspring of social media conversations as a source of product or service innovation?
Keep reading to discover how you can tap social media to enhance the development of your next great product.
Social Media for Product Research?
Yes, that’s correct… you can use social media-based conversations, feedback, comments, complaints and more as a source of research and development! This can be especially handy for smaller businesses that do not have big budgets for R&D.
Social media is not as planned or controlled as a focus group when it comes to research and development; however, with concentrated time and dedication you can use these channels to your company’s advantage. And, ultimately, you can benefit the very people you’re polling about improved and new products and services.
Innovation does not have to be limited to just within your company walls, so consider getting started with the following three steps.
6 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Results
How much time are you spending on social media? Can you tell if it’s helping sales?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a framework for measuring the impact of your social media efforts?
That’s where Susan Etlinger’s new research for the Altimeter Group comes into play. Susan did qualitative research with 60 social media marketers and vendors to understand how businesses currently measure their social media performance.
Her goal: to develop a framework for tying social media performance to business goals.
NOTE: Because Susan’s original research targeted enterprise-level companies, I interviewed her to add some small business insights. The following comments combine results of the research and that interview.
How HP Uses Social Media Science To Make Predictions
In this video I interview Bernardo Huberman, director of the Social Computing Research Group at HP Labs and author of The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information.
Bernardo shares why HP is studying social media as portal to understanding their customers and consumers. You’ll discover how HP is able to predict sales weeks before a product is released thanks to social media research.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
