Since Facebook went public in May this year with shares priced at $38 a pop, it has been a long slide down for the share value, reaching under $20 at its lowest point. However, new quarterly results and other research revealed this week have finally given the brand a boost, as well as highlighting some interesting data for content and brand marketers using the platform. </p> <p>CTC rising, CPC down</p> <p>According to reports out just before the financials, cost per click has fallen back to 2010 levels, dropping 40% in the US. This comes alongside a more rapid increase in click through rates, with overall rates now above 0.09%, up from under 0.06% in Q3 2011. </p> <p>Overall, Facebook reported $1.26 billion in revenue for Q3 2012, which sounds amazing until you get to the fact that they made an overall loss of $59 million, compared to a Q3 2011 profit of $227 million. This is due to a huge increase in costs over the same period. </p> <p>Mobile ad revenue is up but not sustainable? </p> <p>Especially interesting is the fact that mobile ad revenue now equates to 14% of revenues, though there is a drop in offline revenues as marketers shift to mobile. This is encouraging, showing that Facebook can make money from the billions who access the service through mobile devices, though some analysts are wary of the growth potential of mobile: an ad-cluttered page is an unreadable page, the thinking goes. Of course, no-one who bought shares at almost $40 will be happy at a 50% drop; the question is, just how long will investors give Zuckerberg’s baby to create a real return on investment?<br />

Much is made in the press of how consumer focused brands are increasingly investing in content marketing such as blogs, but B2B businesses are also jumping on the content bandwagon, often with great success.</p> <p>LinkedIn most popular social media tool</p> <p>New research from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs shows that the majority – 90% - of marketers surveyed are using some sort of content marketing, although there are differences of opinions as to the effectiveness of some of the different techniques. </p> <p>On average, the B2B marketers in the survey (based in the US) are using 12 different content related marketing tactics, up from eight last year, with the most popular (with 87% using them) being social media other than blogs. LinkedIn has the greatest adoption of social media networks, having ousted Twitter. Blogs themselves are used by 77% of businesses. Adoption of all the strategies in the survey has increased, with one, not unexpected, exception – that being print magazines. </p> <p>Mixed convictions of effectiveness persist</p> <p>Content marketing is not without its uncertainties and challenges though; 64% of respondents say that producing enough content is their biggest issue, with 44% of businesses outsourcing at least some of the creation. Interestingly, there is little consensus on the effectiveness of many tactics. For example, 59% say that blogs are effective, but 41% are less convinced. However, some 79% will be either increasing or maintaining content marketing spend next year; so the confidence is there for the long term, if businesses can get the type and volume of content they are producing just right.<br />

Pinterest, a social media site where users “pin” images and pictures of items of interest to a virtual, shareable pinboard, has only been around for a year or so, but already boasts over 10 million users. So far much of that interest has been from consumers, but there is growing interest – and success – on the part of businesses. </p> <p>Newspapers fail to offer clear pin links</p> <p>Brands such as newspapers and magazines would appear to be perfect partners for the visuals-dependent Pinterest, but a study by SearchMetrics suggests that few traditional media brands are capitalising on the opportunity. Instead, users are pinning media brands’ content themselves, suggesting the media brands are missing a trick.</p> <p>Daily Mail the most pinned UK brand</p> <p>According to the research, 25% of newspapers reviewed did not use Pinterest at all, and many of those who did simply buried a generic “share” button within a list of options. The New York Times doesn’t offer a Pinterest button on its site, yet on average their readers are pinning items from the paper nearly 46,000 times a week! In the UK, the Daily Mail was the most “pinned” brand. Of the top ten US newspapers surveyed, only the LA Times, Chicago Tribune and Philly.com enabled pinning directly from their sites, although all of the top ten titles were experiencing hundreds if not thousands of pins a week.</p> <p>Clearly, if your consumers are busily pinning and sharing your content, surely you should be out there helping, commenting, and adding to this shared content? At present, it would seem that paper brands are failing to do this, a shame given than many of them need all the help they can get at the moment.<br />

If you have a retail website you probably frequently spend time updating the product content, maybe adding a blog, changing prices etc., but do you invest the necessary time in ensuring that you have all the required consumer protection and legal content that you need?</p> <p>Over a third of sites surveyed are misleading consumers</p> <p>According to a new survey, it would seem that many retail sites in the UK do not, and are misleading consumers as a consequence. The Office of Free Trading (OFT) surveyed 156 of the top retail websites in the UK and found that more than a third – 62 of the sites in total – would seem to be flouting consumer protection law in some way. </p> <p>One of the most common issues - a problem on 24% of sites - was adding unexpected charges at the checkout – extra shipping charges for heavy goods, for example, or charging for credit card use, where consumers hadn’t been warned on product pages that these would apply. Others included unreasonable regulations around refunds (requiring buyers to send goods back in their original packing, for example). </p> <p>Failure to comply with regulations could land you with a fine</p> <p>Almost two-thirds of the sites looked at failed to provide an email address for contact, which is a breach of the e-commerce regulations. </p> <p>It’s very easy to get swept up in the excitement and challenge of creating great content for SEO purposes but that is never an excuse for forgetting the basics; it could land you with a fine, or (possibly worse) and the erosion of your customer base as visitors exit for other sites that deal with consumer rights more fully. Worth a little time to double check what you have in place. We think so.<br />

It is easy to get caught up in the latest ‘big thing’ when it comes to online marketing and social media, so it’s encouraging when proof appears that some of the more established techniques can be consistently effective.</p> <p>Blogs drive traffic and leads</p> <p>According to a new study from the marketing firm HubSpot, blogging with interesting and original content can drive both website traffic and genuine leads for both B2B and B2C marketers. The report looks at data from the 7,000 business who already use HubSpot’s tools, and concluded, amongst other things, that an increased number of monthly blog posts leads to increased traffic, especially for B2C brands. This effect was most marked for large companies (those with over 50 employees).</p> <p>Smaller operations benefit more as posts increase</p> <p>Interestingly though, it is the smaller players who really benefit from the increase in inbound sales and marketing leads that come from more posts; companies with 1-10 employees saw leads multiply by six times when moving from posting a total of 10 blog posts to having over 200. The same expansion in blogging led to an average tripling of leads for large businesses. </p> <p>Of course, this is a very simplistic view; articles do need to be top quality, interesting and original, so without putting in some real effort then leads and traffic improvements won’t materialise. However, the data should give heart to those that are continuing spending time and money wisely on the traditional online blog when all about them are getting carried away with the latest thing.<br />

With the results of the US Election out by the time you read this, it’s an apt point to reflect on the changes in online campaigning and political debate over just the last four years. The 2008 US elections were the first to really utilise social media, but then Facebook had 100 million users; now it has 1 billion. So what role is social media playing in this year’s election?</p> <p>Millions of dollars of free advertising through social media chat</p> <p>A number of researchers have issued statistics showing just how social media and online content have become integrated into 2012’s campaigning. For example, social advertising platform Ebuzzing suggests that the amount of social media conversation going on – 925k tweets, almost 160k forum posts, 75k articles and 6.6k blog posts – equates to a paid media value of over $16 million.</p> <p>Social media conversations more negative than offline </p> <p>Over on Twitter, @BarackObama has over 21.9 million followers, dwarfing the mere 1.7 million followers that opponent Mitt Romney has garnered. However, according to research from the Pew Research Center, this doesn’t mean the online world is favourable to the President; according to their analysis, over 45% of conversations about Obama on Twitter were negative (compared to 30% of mainstream media articles).</p> <p>When the dust has settled and the US has their next president, we’re sure lots of analysis will be done on the impact and volume of social media chat on the outcome. Whatever happens, candidates in both the US and Europe would do well to heed the lessons; social media is now a central part of how online consumers discuss everything, from the latest Bond movie to their next political leader.<br />

If you have a school or college age student in your house, you are probably familiar with the homework technique of googling whatever the topic of the week happens to be. Whilst teachers are well aware of the extent of online research that takes place, they remain sceptical about just how skilled students are at finding reliable information – and on the validity of the content that can be found. </p> <p>Pupils routinely use search engines for academic study </p> <p>A new study from the Pew Research Center in the US suggests that 94% of teachers think that their students see “research” as meaning making use of Google or other search engines, whilst 75% say their students are “very likely” to use Wikipedia and online encyclopaedias. The traditional sources such as Cliff Notes or textbooks are being left behind; just 41% of teachers thought their students “very likely” to use the former, and a mere 18% thought the same of the latter. </p> <p>Can content be trusted though?</p> <p>Unfortunately, only just over half (51%) of teachers think that students have a good idea of how search results are generated, suggesting the pupils are unlikely to be discerning in evaluating between, for example, paid for links and links that appear through having genuinely good, relevant content. So unsurprisingly, 91% of teachers think that teaching students how to judge the quality of online information is vital for schools. </p> <p>Of course, plenty of online content is still, unfortunately, of poor quality and is likely to mislead students. Helping pupils (and teachers) understand how search engines work and where to find the best content for their needs is now an essential skill, not only for school research but also for our working lives.<br />

The news-reading app, Pulse, established around three years ago, now boasts some 20 million readers who use the facility to read headlines from major publishers such as ESPN, GQ and Associated Press. Publishers can offer Pulse either the full article, or a snippet and a link to the article elsewhere. </p> <p>Consumer subscriptions make way for sponsored content </p> <p>Pulse started out as a paid for app, however, like many content providers and distributors it failed to get this business model off the ground and so flipped to focusing on good sponsored content. Note the word “good” there; this content has to stand alongside articles from top publications, so needs to be able to hold its own - no meaningless padding allowed. </p> <p>Content has to have worth</p> <p>Why wouldn’t they just go the paid ad route? Well, most of Pulse’s use is, obviously, across a mobile device – where size and a greater feeling of intrusion challenge traditional banners or other ad formats. Sponsored content fits far better with the activity that users are engaged in at the time – browsing for something interesting to read – as long as the content is of high quality and is relevant. For example, a piece from investment management firm T. Rowe Price (by an independent writer) addressed the growing market for coffee in China, with no mention of the firm itself in the article. </p> <p>As the mobile markets grow and as online consumers increasingly tire of intrusive marketing tactics, the need for valuable, targeted marketing content will continue to expand – as will the demand for it to be able to hold its own against professionally produced and published media.<br />

When a business that makes its money from recommending online content starts banning some of its biggest customers from buying online traffic through it, you know something is amiss in the world of online content.</p> <p>The content-recommendation engine Outbrain has just started doing exactly this, in a new stance that could, in the short term, reduce revenues by up to a quarter. However, it is banking on the move establishing more trust, and thus more usage, from readers over the longer term. </p> <p>Culling of “misleading” content to hit income</p> <p>Big online names such as CNN.com and NYDailyNews.com use Outbrain to make content recommendations to readers, pointing them towards relevant articles both on their own sites and external ones. Publishers can pay Outbrain to put links to their articles up, but it has become clear to Outbrain that some of these “content” creators are promoting "inaccurate or misleading headlines” and are being “generally deceptive or misleading.” Outbrain have already gone through a process of tweaking algorithms to better match content with individual publishers, but this move is far more sweeping, and suggests that some brands’ content was too universally poor to be dealt with by technological tweaking.</p> <p>High quality content essential to generate user trust</p> <p>Of course, having good content that is aimed at marketing your product or service is very advantageous, but what this move makes very clear is that this content has to stand on its own as an interesting read, not a puff piece or a thinly disguised advert. Consumer trust and confidence is only built on genuine, original and valuable articles, not misleading and deceitful ads masquerading as content.<br />

Have you ever Facebook “Liked” a brand’s own webpage? Well, if you haven’t, you would appear to be in the minority; according to a new study by market researchers Lab42, some 87 per cent of US social media users have done so.</p> <p>Based on a survey of 1,000 social media users, the overwhelming majority – 82 per cent - stated an opinion that Facebook is a good place to interact with brands. Out of this percentage, just over a third thought that brands take notice of their opinions more on Facebook than they do across other media. </p> <p>People “Like” because their friends often do</p> <p>Why do users indicate that they “Like” particular brands? Encouragingly for “word of mouth” strategies, two thirds “Liked” a brand simply because a friend did. Half of the users questioned thought that a brand’s Facebook presence was often more useful than its website.</p> <p>Major drivers for encouraging “Like” responses were, perhaps unsurprisingly; promotions/discounts (cited by 34 per cent as a motivator), free giveaways (21 per cent) as well as already being a loyal customer (14 per cent).</p> <p>Most users have saved money through Facebook</p> <p>Fittingly, the most common way that users interact with a brand’s Facebook pages that they “Like” is to print off coupons – it seems that any brand looking to up it’s “Likes” count could do worse than to publish some fans-only coupons, and encourage existing fans to recruit their friends using the coupons as bait. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some 77 per cent of users say they have saved money as a result of “Liking” a brand. However, this behaviour is not all positive; around 23 per cent of users say they have no intention of buying from a brand again after they have used the money off coupon.</p> <p>Conclusions? “Free stuff” sells, but it takes more than that to make a customer loyal; identifying the difference between bargain hunters and potential loyalists is, as ever, the hard part.<br />