Promoted Tweets New Twitter Business Model

Twitter will be placing ads called "promoted tweets" on the network on Tuesday of this week. First the ads will show up in search results and later in users' Twitter feeds on Twitter.com as well as within thirdparty clients such as Tweetdeck and Twitterberry.

Twitter's first advertisers are Starbucks, Bravo and Virgin America - all users already heavily engaged in Twitter along with other social media sites. Twitter COO Dick Costolo has stated that Twitter is not in a rush to profit. According to him the goal is to roll the business model out slowly to see how users react to the ads.

To start advertisers will bid on keywords on a cost-per-thousand basis although Twitter is developing a model called "resonance" that may alter the pricing structure based on impact (how much a tweet is retweeted, marked as a favorite and how much a user clicks through to a link). Ads that outperform typical tweets with a lift in resonance will stay on the network while those that do not outperform typical tweets will fall out. This ad program differs from Google and other SEM platforms because Twitter will only display one ad at a time.

Watch for the promotional tweets this week and stay tuned for more updates on how the ad program develops and performs.

Insightful Social Media Demographics

A co-worker was asking about recent social media stats this week so we did some digging. Here's the latest and greatest in terms of what social media sites are used most heavily, what age groups are dominating social media and what they want.

Most popular social sites:

• Facebook with more than 400 million active users
• Twitter with 75 million+ registered users (although we know not all users are active). Twitter estimates 50 million tweets per day are being sent by its members
• LinkedIn with more than 60 million users
• MySpace with close to 60 million users

Age Groups:

A recent study by Royal Pingdom pulled together statistics for 19 different social networks including the popular sites listed above plus some of the second tier sites including Hi5, FriendFeed, Tagged, etc. The results show the age group usage of social media as follows:

• 35-55 = 25%
• 45-54 = 19%
• 25-34 = 18%
• 0-17 = 15%
• 55-64 = 10%
• 18-24 = 9%
• 65+ = 3%

When looking at Facebook and Twitter's heavy users, the percentages of users 35 or older exceeds 60%. Bebo and MySpace as expected are made up largely of younger audiences aged 17 or younger with 35-45% falling into that age group.

Other interesting social age stats:

• Average LinkedIn user is 44
• Average Twitter user is 39
• Average Facebook user is 38
• Average MySpace user is 31
• Average Bebo user is 28

Social Content:

Online advertising network Chitika analyzed the interests of social networking sites. The results seem consistent with what we know:

• Myspace Users are generally interested in: video games (28%), Celebs and entertainment (23%), Business and Law (10%), Tech and Community (tied at 8%) and other (23%).

• Facebook Users are generally interested in: News (28%), Community and Other (tied at 17%), How to/DIY (13%), Shopping and Celebs/Entertainment (tied at 9%), Tech (7%).

• Twitter Users are generally interested in: News (47%), Other (23%), Tech and Celebs/Entertainment (tied at 10%), Movies (6%) and How to/DIY (4%).

Who Knew Paper Towels Could be So...Hip?

OMG! Love it. Who knew that promoting paper towels could be so hip and fun? I love the nerdy scientist meets inner rapper concept. Very fun way of showing off the product and reaching out virally to the younger generations.

What Happens on Facebook...Stays on Facebook!

How many of us had a wild friend or two from high school or college? Most of us will laugh and answer "I did". In the good old days those pictures of you drinking shots and giving people the bird were fairly safe from public view but in the Facebook age your privacy is...well how can I put this...nonexistant! What happens on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network you're affiliated with stays online and it can come back to haunt you. I have heard stories of people losing their jobs, significant others, friends, etc because of social networks.

So here are a few tips for keeping your public profile on social networks clean:

• Be careful who you friend. Don't allow just anyone to friend you and if you do friend someone who makes stupid comments or acts like an idiot...simply unfriend them. It's not like they will hunt you down and confront you over it.

• Watch what you post. Leave the college frat pictures in your memory box and also monitor what your friends post and if you're tagged in an unflattering photo or shot or tweet, untag or delete it. Also watch your content. If you're a professional connected to clients you should especially watch.

• Do talk about your work although be sure not to discuss confidential information to your network and do not make fun of your boss, co-workers, etc as they may be watching.

It all comes down to common sense. Think before you post and you will not have to worry if what happens on Facebook or Twitter is known to all.

In Response to Pepsi Comment

For some reason Blogger is not letting me post a comment on my own blog but I want to respond to the very insightful comment that was posted anonymously this morning.

I think that Google and other "online" companies advertising in the Superbowl says advertising in the Superbowl is still one of the best ways to mass advertise. Just that it is up to the individual companies as to whether they are seeking that mass "top-of-mind" awareness that you get during the Superbowl and the week or two after versus a longer term customer relationship strategy like using social media.

Pepsi: Refreshes its Advertising Strategy and Goes Social

For years companies (including Pepsi and Coke) have spent millions and millions of dollars advertising their brands during the Superbowl. While many companies including Coke still chose to do that this year, Pepsi was not one of them. Coke spent the money on the bowl while Pepsi made the decision to invest $20 million in its social media efforts. This decision means many things for Pepsi and where advertising is heading today.

First, the decision to not advertise in the Superbowl and to instead commit $20 million to social media says that Pepsi is still after all these years embracing its "cola of the new generation" positioning. While Coke continues to go with the tried and true Pepsi is leading the way in new media - a better place to reach its target audience of hipsters.

Second, this decision proves that the power and value of social media as an advertising strategy is growing as other companies like The Gap have made it a central part of their advertising strategy and the main media for reaching its target audience. I believe we will continue to see more consumer products brands taking this approach although it will not work equally well for just any brand.

Finally, as brands like Pepsi continue to market to the customer through social campaigns and channels, we'll see that those consumers who are not as engaged in the new media will hear about it from their friends and colleagues and quickly find that they are missing out.

Social Media ROI

I've heard many people on both the agency side and client side say that it is difficult if not impossible to measure ROI for social media. I've also heard it said that social media only works for consumer marketing. I wanted to take a few moments to put in my two cents.

So let's start with the most fundamental question. Is social media a viable marketing tactic for your business or your client's business? You can qualify this by answering a few questions: What are your goals for social media? Can you have a social media account or do you need to go through legal, corp communications channels first? Is it okay if everyone knows about the updates you'll be sharing? etc.

Now, it is difficult to simply measure buzz and translate that into ROI. You'll need to set targets: mentions in blogs or social networks, inquiries, increased links, search rankings, leads from the social media sites you're using such as Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin, more media placements, etc. The best way to go about measuring ROI is to decide what your goals are and then measure your baseline. Once you have your baseline you can continuously monitor your progress.

You can measure and track some of these goals manually and there are also monitoring tools from companies that you can utilize for tracking the more difficult areas such as mentions.

As for Consumer versus B2B. Both need to be participating in some form of social media. A manufacturing plant that makes machine tools for example may not benefit greatly from having a Facebook presence but if they have a blog, a twitter account and participate in Linkedin and industry portals the benefits would be plenty.

It's really all in the planning. As with traditional advertising you need to have a strategy and track your progress to be successful.