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100 awesome social media marketing stats, charts and graphs

Posted by Milena Regos on February 6, 2012

This excellent collection of social media marketing stats, graphs and charts is brought to you by the great folks at Hubspot.

Highlights from the collection broken down by categories are:

Inbound Marketing

• In 2011, 61% of marketers invested more in earned media compared to 58% in paid digital media and only 14% in paid traditional media
• B2B marketers are shifting their budgets towards inbound marketing with 69% investing in social media
• More than half of marketers increased their inbound marketing budgets in 2011
• The average budget spent on company blogs and social media has nearly doubled in the past 2 years
• Inbound marketing is a lot more cost effective than traditional outbound marketing with a cost per lead  62% less on inbound than outbound lead

Search engines and SEO

• Google is the new yellow pages. 20% of the monthly Google searches are for local businesses
• 75% of users never scroll past the first page! If you are not on first page of Google for your keywords, you need to improve your SEO

Social Networking

• 2/3 of Internet users regularly use social network
• The world and business is becoming more and more social
• Social media conversations actually influence purchases
• More than 1/2 of small business owners say social media sites play an important role in active sales

Blogging

• 2/3 of marketers say their blog is critical or important to their business
• Blog articles influence purchase decisions
• Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors
• B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those who do not and B2B companies generate 67% more leads

Facebook

• Facebook has become the preferred method for sharing content second only to email
• 51% of B2B marketers agree that Facebook is an effective marketing tool
• Both B2C and B2B acquire customers on Facebook

Twitter

• More than 1/2 of active Twitter users follow brands and companies on social networks
• 79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend brands they follow
• B2C companies with over 100 followers have 146% more leads/month than those with less than 100

To see the charts and graphs of these and many more stats as collected by Hubspot, check out the PDF document below. Enjoy!

 

 

Categories: Blog Business eMarketing Facebook Interactive marketing LinkedIn Measurements SEO Small Businesses Social Media Social Media Marketing Twitter Web 2.0 tools | 1 Comment »

Tahoe Local Digital and Social Media Marketing – Who’s Doing it Best Series

Posted by Milena Regos on January 26, 2012

Tahoe Local Who’s Doing it Best in the Digital and Social Media Marketing Space

Jan 2012 – Tahoe Mountain Sports

I’ve been thinking about starting this series for a while as there are certain local Tahoe companies and businesses that are doing a really good job with their online and social media marketing efforts. There’s no better time to start this series than in the month of January. Once a month, I will feature a local Lake Tahoe business who’s doing an extremely good job with their website, digital, mobile or social media. If you have any suggestions, feel free to send them my way at milena@outandaboutmarketing.com.

Our first selection goes out to Tahoe Mountain Sports and below are some of the reasons for it. In the spirit of Full Disclosure I have to say that this blog post is in no way paid or sponsored by Tahoe Mountain Sports. They didn’t give me any discounts or goodies to write it.

1. Website

Tahoe Mountain Sports website is organized and build with user experience in mind. It is my understanding they are doing all the work in-house. I wish they were using an outside agency as I would hire them right away. Kudos to the entire team at TMS! It’s great to see local talent producing high quality work like this. The website has clear call to actions, it’s easy to navigate, it’s professional looking and has integrated social networks and features really well. I love the fact that you can shop online. So many local Tahoe businesses are completely missing out on the entire ecommerce opportunity. It’s 2012 people! Start selling your products and services online. The site is well organized with items for men, women and kids, plus you can shop by brand, activity and gear. In addition, MTS provides a very detailed information on Tahoe with anything you need for your complete Tahoe adventure from weather and web cams to general information about the area. I like their gift cards availability as well so you can gift someone with an email delivered right to their inbox. I love their Deal of the Day. It’s a great way to bring people back to your website daily. Kudos to TMS for keeping this active. I’m sure it pays well in sales for them.

I decided to test their Live Chat function which integrated with my Facebook account. I asked them a question and received an immediate response. A few pleasant exchanges later, I went on to continue writing this blog post. I can keep going about their website features, like free shipping, secure check out, Amazon payments, etc. In summary, this is an excellent website and I’m sure they are seeing the returns from their efforts in real dollar signs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Blog 

TMS maintains a very active blog which shows they understand the power of search and social. The blog also shows their passion and enthusiasm for the outdoors, sports, Tahoe and their business. Their love for the outdoors is captivating. It’s an engaging blog with interesting articles, product reviews and tons of photos. One of my favorite posts was their recent Yosemite trip with the Tahoe bikini chicks. Now, this is a great way to sell some bikinis in winter and even get the guys interested. Right?

 

Photo courtesy of the TMS blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Social Media

In addition to the blog, TMS is active on Facebook (2,267 likes), Twitter (324 followers), YouTube (70,959 views to their videos so far) and Google+ (68 people). They are active on their social networks and responding to people not just blasting out messages like some other companies (won’t mention any names) are continuing to do.

I’d love to get into more details on their social media but we’ll keep this for another post. With some social media guidance Tahoe Mountain Sports can make their business even more social and connect with more people on the web in pursuit of adventure and sport clothing and accessories.

4. Mobile Site

Tahoe Mountain Sports mobile experience is not your typical scrolling website but an actual mobile site optimized for smart phones and tablets. Simple and easy you can now purchase a jacket or whatever you need directly from your cell phone.  As more and more people are using their smart phones and tablets businesses need to adapt their website for mobile devices to make user experience better. This one is a no brainer. The Tahoe Mountain Sports staff reported an increase of 113% in traffic since the mobile site launched and that’s just the beginning. Does your business have one?

5. Email Marketing

Just like one would expect seeing their website, social and mobile efforts so far, their email marketing efforts don’t disappoint either. Their emails are not overwhelming. Most include sales information, some are in an effort to get you to return as a customer. If I could sign up for even more relevant offers based on my activities and interests, that would be even better. There are currently four categories that one can sign up for.

I liked getting this offer in my inbox from Mountain Travel Sports. It’s a good way to try to convince me to go back to shopping. Plus, using a first name in an email is always a guarantee to get your attention.

6. Most importantly – store experience. 

One can argue that just because they have a strong digital, mobile and social presence they don’t necessary have a good brick and mortar store experience. I’ve been to their store a few times and I have to say they are some of the friendliest and knowledgeable people I know in Tahoe. I spent 15 minutes with the store owner Dave yesterday talking about ski helmets. He knows his products and understands how to take care of customers. I enjoy visiting and supporting his store and I’ll continue to do so online and offline.

Have you had any experience with Tahoe Mountain Store? Please, share it with us by leaving a comment below.

Do you have what it takes to be featured on our monthly series on Who’s Doing it Best in Tahoe? Let us know by leaving a comment below or send us an email to

milena@outandaboutmarketing.com

Categories: Blog Email marketing eMarketing Lake Tahoe Small Businesses | 8 Comments »

7 Best Practices for Social Media for Florists

Posted by Milena Regos on July 3, 2011

I have been introduced to flowers in a brand new light. Being connected to many floral designers on social media, I’m constantly surrounded with beautiful flower arrangements. Flowers have definitely made me a happier person. One advice I can give you is to purchase flowers on a regular basis and not just for special occasions. Flowers will always put smile on your face and bring beauty to your home.

Here are some best practices for florists on social media. You can hear me present them live on July 7th, at IMAGINE in San Francisco. It’s not too late to sign up.

1. Commit to it. You are on social media for the long haul. Building relationships takes time. Time is the biggest obstacle for many florists when discussing social media (in a survey conducted for IMAGINE 2011, 54% of people answered that time is their biggest challenge). Remember that time is a challenge for everyone no matter how big or small of a company they have. Learn what works best for your business, prioritize, use the right tools and find the time to market your store, yourself, your company. Remember that it will take time to build your followers but they will be there for you when you need them most.

2. You are the EXPERTS! In the same survey conducted, 68% of floral professionals said they have been in the industry for 15+ years. You are in a position to share your knowledge and experience with people who want to learn more about flowers.You are the best in the industry. Share your knowledge and experience online.

3. Content is KING. Stick to the 80/20 percent rule. Create valuable content for your community 80% of the time. Give them things they want – education, information, discounts and offers. Connect with your customers on an emotional basis. Florists are in the perfect position to use social media and enable people to share their happiness and smiles. Leave only 20% for self-promotion.

4. Make it easy to share. Once you have created an amazing floral arrangement or wedding bouquet, write about it, take a photo or create a video. Make it easy to share on the web. On a daily basis, we encounter 3,000 messages on average from traditional marketing, news, social media, emails. If I see something absolutely amazing, I want to share it with my network. Make it easy for me to share it with 1 (one) click.

5. Remove the obstacles. Think what’s easy and convenient for people and make it easy for them to purchase from you. If you have a captcha form on the floral website, make sure people can type in the words they see. If you have a floral mobile ecommerce shop, make sure it works well on all mobile devices. Invest in the technology and make sure you don’t frustrate people on the web. If someone doesn’t see what they are looking for in 3 sec they are leaving to go back to Google and look for your competitor. You don’t want this to happen to you.

6. Have fun! Remember to have fun on social media. Connect with other people. Use humor in your flower messages. Humor sells. If you can make people laugh, they will remember your brand name. People want to have fun online. Don’t forget that.

7. Be authentic and be yourself. Your personality will shine through on social media. Regardless of how big or small your floral company is, be transparent, be real and build trust with people. Social media is about being transparent and being real. Take out the marketing lingo and speak to people they way you talk to your friends. Your floral shop will be better off in the long run.

I’m putting the final touches on my presentations for IMAGINE 2011. Yes, I’m nervous about speaking in front of 1,000+ people. I’m also very excited to share my passion and love for Social Media.I can’t wait to meet more people in the floral industry. I’ll put my presentations online after the conference on slideshare.net/milenaregos. I will also share the results from the survey in a later blog post. Stay tuned and IMAGINE – Dream, Create, Share! Hope to see you there!

Categories: Blog Business Marketing Small Businesses Social Media Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

History of Social Media

Posted by Milena Regos on May 9, 2011

Each day, we Facebook, use Twitter, instant message, read blogs, email, share photos on Flickr and Instagram, watch videos on YouTube and Vimeo. I use technology for just about everything, from exercising and mapping to cooking and reading the news . But do you ever wonder: “How did we get here?”

What does the future hold? Quora, the people questions and answers forum may replace Google as we count on our friends recommendations a lot more than on robot suggestions. There probably won’t be any more PCs and laptops, just smartphones and iPads/tablets.

I created this short video on social media history, trying to fit the last 40 years in less than 4 minutes to put into perspective where we came from. Let me know what you think.

Categories: Blog Business eMarketing Facebook LinkedIn Marketing Photosharing Small Businesses Social Bookmarks Social Media Social Media Marketing Technology Twitter Video Web 2.0 Web 2.0 tools | 1 Comment »

Chrysler Makes Good

Posted by Milena Regos on November 20, 2010

I’m very happy to write this post and report that Chrysler Corporation offered us unheard of customer service complimented by a brand new truck to make up for their defective truck. It’s not every day that you see a big corporation like Chrysler be so receptive to a customer’s need and step up to the plate by doing the right thing in any customer’s mind, i.e replacing a defective product. Well done!

For those of you that are not aware of the situation described here, the original post is located here. After a few Tweets with the Chrysler Twitter team and the blog post, I was personally contacted by Chrysler’s Customer Service department which was definitely a step in the right direction.  A few emails and phone conversations with them later, they offered us to replace the truck, and expedited the build and the delivery. The end result is, we are back in a new Dodge truck we absolutely love and very, very satisfied with the way Chrysler handled the entire process from the initial phone call.

I would specially like to thank the Chrysler’s Twitter team and the Customer Service Department at Chrysler Corporation with one individual whose name should remain a secret for privacy issues. This person completely understands customer service and acts on customer’s behalf. Everyone we had contact with at Chrysler believes in the power of social media and how it could affect a company of their size.  I hope to be able to generate ten times more positive outreach for them than the original negative post I wrote.  Based on this personal experience, it’s clear to me that Chrysler is committed to delivering great customer service.

A few lessons learned from this:

1. Social Media has provided a new medium for people to voice their opinions and corporations now need to listen and respond accordingly in new places.

2. A company should be consistent across all channels when it comes to dealing with customers. Certainly, social media participants may expect a much faster response than a snail mail or telephone call but they should all receive the same customer service regardless of the channel used.

3. Only 2% of people will voice their opinions online. Perhaps there’s a need for more “citizen journalism” and people fighting for their rights as consumers which will put more pressure on companies to stay engaged online.

Thank you Chrysler! You kept us a loyal and happy customers. Well done!

Categories: Blog Brands I like Business Case Studies Customer Loyalty Customer service Life Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing Success Stories Twitter | No Comments »