I’ve recently conducted a couple of online seminars about social media topics. The Q&A sessions at these events are almost always too short to get to the issues that are on people’s minds. So over the next few issues of this newsletter, I’ll run down a few of the best questions I didn’t get to. For a good, free webcast on this topic, check out the recent event sponsored by Listrak.
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Q: What can millennials best teach us about social networking?
A: How to infuse it into everyday life. There’s a myth about millennials that the group is completely tuned in to the use of social media tools. In fact, I find that most young people are active users of Facebook, instant messaging and text messaging, but not much else. They don’t blog, rarely listen to podcasts and don’t use Twitter. What’s more, they don’t have much perspective on the value of these tools beyond their usefulness in everyday life. They’ll learn those things through experience and training, just like everyone else. But they’re not really as social media-savvy as they’re often given credit for.
What they are exceptionally good at doing it is managing relationships online. They don’t have any more close friends than their parents did at the same age, but they have a much larger number of casual acquaintances that they keep alive through occasional and indirect communication. I think that’s something we can all learn from.
Q: Have you found that social media outlets are used by particular age demographics or does it apply to all age ranges?
A: Nearly all age groups use a media, though there are variations. If you want to go into detail, get Groundswell by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li. Their top-line observations are that the most active users are the under-25 group, but that usage is quite consistent between 25-and 55-year olds. It drops off rather sharply after that. However, there are significant variations by media and industry. For example, under-25s are more inclined to use instant messaging, text messaging and online video while podcasting and blogging are more popular with older age groups. It’s also interesting that the percentage of people under 25 who prefer instant messaging over e-mail is nearly the exact inverse of people over 25.
Q: How does the Google “Link:” command work?
A: In the Google search bar, type “link:www.gillin.com” substituting whatever URL you want. You can also access this command from Google’s advanced search page. This will give you a list of all webpages in Google’s search index that link to the specified domain or page.
Q: What’s the best way to convert your audience to make an actual purchase using social media?
A: There are many ways to do this, so I’ll give you an example of a direct and an indirect approach. A direct approach might be to offer a discount coupon to people who join your social network, fill out a form or respond to a contest. Or you might ask people to view a short video to get an access code that they could redeem on a website. The coupon could be delivered electronically as a thank-you message when visitors submit the form.
And indirect approach might be to set up an informational blog that educates visitors about your company or your area of expertise. You can then surround this educational content with promotions or offers.
Good post Paul.
I would only argue that we should not confuse social media savvy with social media brand preference. My experience with the milleniums is that they are VERY savvy about virtually any social media they bump into whether music or content recommendation sites as well as social communications sites. My 16 year old can tell me in detail about a dozen social media sites she doesn’t use in as much detail as she can tell me about the half dozen she does use.
Just like clothing or consumer electronics products they operate within a certain band of brand preferences based on style and trendiness. The best analogy is the 3 or 4 specific mobile phone models that fall into the trendy category. Are they savvy about the other phones outside this band…absolutely…Do they want to be seen in school with them…NO.
Social netwoks are giant parties for the milleniums….they want to be at the party where most of their peers (and casual acquaintences) are. They know about twitter….but the party isn’t there..it’s on Facebook because Facebook mimics twitter and does a hundred other things better all in one place.
However to your point, it’s critical for us to study where these muilleniums will diverge from Facebook and use other standalone social networking products. The only problem is that as soon as one gets critical mass, FB or iTunes (ie Genius feature) adds a similar application and they’re right back where they started.
Regarding the question:
“What’s the best way to convert your audience to make an actual purchase using social media?”
A few years ago, I had lunch with Allan Dick from Vintage Bath at a Search Engine Strategies conference we were both presenting at.
Allan has learned a lot about SEM by leading the online marketing for his company. My background is in SEO, and I asked Allan about the SEO value of his company’s blog.
His answer surprised me, but made a lot of sense in retrospect. He said (I paraphase): “The blog really doesn’t add a lot of SEO value for us, but it dramatically helps with conversions. People who read the blog are far more likely to buy.”
The secret, he said, was to blog about how to use the products. Their insightful tips inspire people.
So, for the person who asked about increasing conversions with social media, I would suggest blogging about each product (to use a commerce example), and on the purchase page include links to blog posts about the product.