Posts filed under ‘Social Media’
What do you reckon about the likely impact of these Marketing Trends on CRM in 2012?
Here are some more predictions of marketing trends that will impact CRM in 2012 according to Judith Aquino of CRM.COM in 5 Hot Marketing Trends (not surprisingly, mobile is at the top):
- Mobile Marketing
- QR Codes
- Voice Of Customer (VOC) Monitoring
- Social Media Marketing
- Video
Finally, she suggests an additional trend with the ‘news’ that Groupon and Daily Deals sites have fallen to earth and are no longer seen as the ‘answer’. Surely, you would have to suggest that they were only ever good for pissing of existing and loyal customers with unfocussed discounts in the guise of prospecting for new customers – BUT without gaining any personal details with which to build an ongoing relationship with those new prospects?
OK, do we finally have a RoI for CRM?
No, I am not having an annoying acronym attack, maybe a bit of alliteration though 
This is the headline that got my attention: CRM Returns $5.60 for Every Dollar Invested.
With “an average benefit of $5.60 returned for every dollar spent” investing in CRM as they say is a “no-brainer”.
They also suggest that if other capabilities like social, analytics and mobile access are added there is a further multiplier and sustainability.
The full RESEARCH NOTE is available online CRM PAYS BACK $5.60 FOR EVERY DOLLAR SPENT
Isn’t it time you looked at integrating ticketing on Facebook?
Rob Martin, Digital Marketing Manager at The Lowry, Salford explains the implementation of Facebook ticketing at their venue as reported on the AMA COMMONS. Of note is the fact that at a cost of just £500 to integrate the new service, it paid for itself in the first month!
According to Rob “On average we sell around 50% of our tickets online, with the percentages rising for music and comedy.” Google Analytics revealed how important their Facebook page was for referring traffic, so logically they explored the option of selling tickets directly from Facebook.
“Live performances and ticket inventory taken from the Box office system into the … CMS now allows the website to share that information with Facebook users. The Facebook Events Page is a web application that … retrieves the current event information from the website via an exposed web service.“
Read more about the solution that paid for itself in a month: Lowry’s portrait of a Facebook ticketing operation
Will online tools really turn fans into promoters?
FanFueled is one such ‘promoter management tool’. The “ticketing platform tracks the transactional impact of fan sharing–and lets fans earn rebates on their service fee if their promotional activities yield additional ticket sales.“
“According to Founder and CEO Anderson Bell, the sharing rate for FanFueled events is 20% — 1 in 5 ticket buyers share information with their peers — which is double the sharing rate for a ticketing platform such as Eventbrite.“
Social Event Ticketing Platform Rewards Fans for Influencing Sales
Crowd Sourcing Meets Audience Sourcing, or is it just Audience Choice?
Some interesting trends for the future in Brazilian viewers choose what gets screened in local cinemas.
Mobz, a cinema chain in Brazil, hopes to make use of digital cinema to broadcast of live events, concerts, movies and more.
There is no programmer or “central decision-maker (who) chooses what gets shown, however; rather, local consumers are invited to vote on the site for the shows or films they want to see. When enough people vote for a particular screening, Mobz negotiates the details with the content owners and theaters, and viewers can then buy their tickets through the site. Mobz promotes the screening over social networks, and provided a minimum number of tickets are sold, the event or film is then aired. If the quota is not met, then those who had bought tickets are fully refunded.“
This is a similar model to that successfully applied by the filmakers of Four Eyed Monsters to build audiences for their film outside the traditional distributor model. Social networks are used to spread the word and, in effect, consumer advocacy drives the audience development.
While this is unlikely to have immediate applicability to whole live performances, maybe we will see more audience sourced content like that on a recent tour by Rufus Wainwright (for the Baby Boomer challenged, yes the son of Loudon III). The audience could vote in advance for the choice of songs that Rufus sang on an evening.
You will note that I have not, however, suggested cast selection reminiscent of Big Brother!
Aha, so that’s the differences in Twitter vs Facebook vs Google+
Thanks to Andres Silva at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile for pointing this resource out.
The Influences of Mobile Commerce on Shopping Behaviour
Diane Greig Senior Partner @CultureSparks spotted this article: 4 Ways Smartphones Are Changing Consumer Shopping Behavior
“Two-thirds of smartphone or tablet owners have used their devices to make purchases and more than 80% have used them to help in the purchase decision.“
The L.E.K. Consulting Mobile Commerce Survey identified four trends that businesses should monitor:
- Price Harmonization:
- Deeper Customer Relationships:
- Social Media Influence:
- Flash Retailers:
Download the full Report online here>>
Apps mean that Facebook will have an active role in ticketing in the future?
It looks like we will see Facebook becoming more integrated with event marketing, as the examples below indicate:
Facebook App Suggests Concerts Based on Bands You & Your Friends Like
ConcertCrowd is a Facebook App that presents a dashboard listing all the upcoming shows in your area. You can click on “Your Artists” to see when bands that you’ve “Liked” on Facebook are playing, or “Recommended Artists” to see when your friends’ favourite bands are playing. The app also allows you to add concerts to your calendar, post events to your wall, email them to a friend and buy tickets.
The Lowry selling tickets via Facebook
The Lowry in the UK has taken “a strategic approach to social media presented as part of The Lowry’s overall digital marketing plan. Fans of The Lowry’s Facebook page have also increased by 85% in the last financial year as a result of this strategy.“
“We have worked hard to make sure that social media supports The Lowry in all of its functions, not just commercial ones. We use Twitter and Facebook in different ways to spread information about events, our community programme, insider gossip (“Willem Dafoe is eating soup in the canteen”) and, crucially, as a listening platform. Recently when we saw Facebook take over Google as The Lowry’s top referring site, we asked our developers Web Advertising in Leith to look into ways in which we might make it easier for people to book tickets directly. And they’ve done it! Now, you can book tickets right from our Facebook page for all Lowry events.” – Robert Martin, Digital Marketing Manager, The Lowry
How about a Google-Based CRM?
Insightly sounds like it may hold potential as an answer for many organisations customer and client information management needs.
“Insightly is a web based Customer Relationship and Project Management system for small business.“
It allows you to import Google Contacts, link Google Docs, export to Google Calendar and tightly integrates with Gmail. This means you can look up information with a Gmail gadget and track of email messages and it automatically associates and links each message saved with the right contacts and organisations for a complete email history.
Importantly it maintains a comprehensive history of all customer interactions including emails, phone calls, and meetings.
This is worth exploring further and they are an Austalian company!
The Tangled Web that Social Media Weaves
Theatre Bay Area commissioned Devon Smith of 24 Useable Hours (now Threespot in Washington, DC) to conduct a Social Media Audit of the arts and cultural sector.
The results have just been published and provide a valuable insight into a rapidly evolving area that seems to be characterised by enthusiastic adopters and sceptical recalcitrants, and little in between.
The study looks at 207 cultural organisations using over 20 networking platforms. I am not sure how internationally representative the sample is, but it does include a sprinkling of non-US organisations.
Two interesting top line findings are:
- The average arts organisation is active on 3 social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) and uploads 66 new pieces of content each month.
- Facebook Pages that are updated multiple times per day, use a customized URL and feature a custom Welcome tab have more fans, who interact with the page more often, than those who do not.
The full report is available online here: “The Tangled Web: Social Media in the Arts”
It is well worth a read.
