With Valentine’s Day approaching, NetBase analyzed consumers’ social media conversations about eight chocolate brands over the past year (Jan. 31, 2012 through Jan. 31, 2013). Turns out that Hershey’s has been getting the most social buzz, but Ferrero Rocher’s chocolate hazelnut products are most “loved.” NetBase, an enterprise social intelligence platform, analyzed social conversations for Cadbury, Dove, Ferrero Rocher, Ghirardelli, Godiva, Hershey’s, Lindt and Neuhaus. All eight brands fell into the “like” or “love” quadrants (as opposed to the “dislike” or “hate” quadrants), based on NetBase’s Brand Passion Index analytics. Hershey's generated 30% of the overall chatter for the eight chocolate brands, and saw 84% positive chatter, but had the lowest “Passion Intensity” score (45 out of a possible 100) and the second-lowest “Net Sentiment” score (68). While online consumers chat in high volumes about Hershey’s many products, some complain about overly sweet taste or aroma, or express the sentiment that Hershey’s products will “do in a pinch.” Ferrero Rocher generated just 1.3% of the overall buzz among the brands, but showed the highest consumer social “love,” with a perfect Passion Intensity score of 100. It also tied with Ghirardelli for highest Net Sentiment score (87). Consumers “raved” about the brand’s classic, gold-wrapped, hazelnut-flavored chocolates, calling them the “perfect gift” to give and receive, according to NetBase. Buzz-wise, Hershey’s was followed by Lindt (19% of the approximately 777,000 total conversations), Godiva (17%), Dove (14.6%), Cadbury (9.3%), Ghirardelli (8.7%), Ferrero Rocher (1.3%) and Neuhaus (less than 1%). Following Ferrero Rocher, the Passion Intensity scores ranking was: Lindt (76), Dove (69), Ghirardelli (61), Cadbury (59), Godiva (53), Neuhaus (48) and Hershey’s (45). In Net Sentiment rankings, Ferrero Rocher and Ghirardelli were followed by Neuhaus (85), Dove (82), Lindt (74), Godiva (72), Hershey’s (68) and Cadbury (66). The percentages of positive buzz for each brand: Ferrero Rocher, 94%; Ghirardelli and Neuhaus each 93%; Dove, 91%; Lindt, 87%; Godiva, 86.5%; Hershey’s, 84%; and Cadbury, 83%. NetBase’s release offers some verbatim consumer comments on the various brands.
A surprising survey reveals that a non-profit tops the list of brands with the most loyal Facebook fans. LoudDoor, a Facebook Insights preferred marketing developer, compiled millions of responses from Facebook fans of over 15,000 Facebook pages to determine the Top 20 brands with the most loyal fans. The company used Brand Satisfaction, a new dashboard powered by over 1 million monthly survey responses. Brand Satisfaction tracks every major brand on Facebook and how likely fans are to recommend those brands to friends or colleagues. The top brands are: 1. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Walt Disney World 5. ALDI USA 6. Xbox 7. Starbucks Frappuccino 8. Google Chrome 9. Duncan Hines 10. Adobe Photoshop 11. Tim Hortons 12. Hershey's 13. In-N-Out Burger 14. Dove Chocolates 15. NFL 16. Portillo's 17. BRAVO 18. Disneyland 19. Dollar Tree 20. AMC Theatre Demographic and behavioral data is the cornerstone to understanding a brand's Facebook audience and powering game-changing marketing decisions, says LoudDoor CEO David Guy. “Rather than relying on highly subjective social chatter or experimental 'listening' technologies, Brand Satisfaction does the hard work of asking brands' Fans directly about their attitudes, behaviors and motivations,” Guy said in a release. “We then package this powerful data in a simple dashboard interface to empower brands to harness their Facebook asset." Starting Jan. 1, Brand Satisfaction asked consumers to rate how likely they are to recommend a brand page they "like" on Facebook. Participants also completed a demographic, behavioral and attitudinal survey. Millions of anonymous responses are summarized in a user-friendly Brand Satisfaction insights dashboard currently in limited beta release. "We'll be conducting our study every month and releasing new brand insights and tips with the goal of making marketing professionals that follow brands on the Brand Satisfaction platform the smartest people in the room about the brands they care about on Facebook," Guy said. Eligibility for the Brand Satisfaction Top-20 list requires that the brand page have at least 50,000 fans and a minimum of 300 completed surveys on the brand. Rankings are based on the brands' Net Promoter Score which is calculated by the participants' likelihood to recommend the brand on a 0-10 scale. Respondents rating the brand at 9-10 are considered "Promoters," 7-8 are "Passives" and 0-6 are "Detractors." The percentage of Promoters is subtracted from the percentage of Detractors to determine the Net Promoter Score utilized to benchmark the Brand Satisfaction of Fans of a Facebook page.
Professional networking site LinkedIn on Thursday reported that revenue increased 81% in the fourth quarter, fueled by strong growth across all three of its key business lines. The company’s net income for the quarter was $11.5 million, or 10 cents a share compared with $6.9 million, or six cents a share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, LinkedIn reported a profit of $40.2 million, or 35 cents a share. Revenue rose to $303.6 million from $167.7 million in the year-earlier period. Analysts, on average, had expected LinkedIn to report a profit of 19 cents a share on revenue of nearly $279.8 million. Sales from LinkedIn’s recruiting services business nearly doubled to $161 million and represented more than half (53%) of total revenue. Marketing solutions -- its advertising business -- saw revenue rise 68% to $83.2 million, or 27% of overall revenue, while sales from subscription services grew 79% to $59.4 million in the fourth quarter. Subscriptions accounted for 20% of total revenue. U.S. revenue accounted for the majority (62%) of the company’s quarterly revenue, at $189 million, while international contributed $114.6 million, or 38%. LinkedIn has rolled out a series of initiatives since last fall, intended to keep users coming back and sticking around longer on the site. It revamped profile and company pages, allowing members to “follow” each other on Twitter, and recommend others’ skills via the Endorsements feature. By far, the splashiest effort toward boosting engagement has been a blogger platform that debuted in October, featuring prominent “influencers” from President Obama to Richard Branson to celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. A JP Morgan analyst report suggested those moves have helped increase U.S. visitor growth to 11% in the fourth quarter from the prior quarter, while page views grew 28% compared to 15% in the third quarter. LinkedIn overall hit 200 million members worldwide in the quarter, up 39% from 2011. Like Facebook, LinkedIn has seen a growing shift toward use on mobile devices. A Macquarie Securities analyst noted in an earnings preview that advertising in the company’s mobile apps is still limited, “meaning that 25% (as of 3Q and likely growing) of visiting members are currently under-monetized for ads.” In that vein, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner disclosed during the earnings conference call that LinkedIn is testing a new ad format that allows companies to promote sponsored content in the stream of updates members see on their profile pages. It's similar to Facebook’s Promoted Posts and Sponsored Stories or Twitter’s Promoted Tweets. Weiner said LinkedIn has been internally testing the in-stream ads for the last few months. Last week, it began external testing with a handful of partners on both the desktop and iPad, with smartphones to follow. Blue-chip brands like GE, Xerox, The Economist and BlackBerry have begun serving sponsored content, including white papers and best practices guides as status updates to their followers on the site. “What we’ve seen thus far has been encouraging, and to the extent we continue to make progress, we’re going to roll out those same tests on a smartphone environment,” said Weiner. He would not say when LinkedIn’s version of native advertising would be fully rolled out, but suggested it would be sometime in the coming months. The CEO noted that 27% of unique visitors now come to the site weekly via mobile, a significant increase from a year ago. For the current quarter, LinkedIn has forecast revenue will range between $305 million and $310 million. The bullish outlook topped analysts’ estimate of $301 million. LinkedIn shares were up about 10% to $136 per share in after-hours trading following the release of fourth-quarter results that topped analyst expectations.
While there’s no denying that consumers are increasingly using social media in just about every area of their lives, they still aren’t into shopping there. A new global study from PwC, the global consultancy, reports that last year, only 12% of consumers bought anything through social media. Nor does social media buzz do much to drive sales: Only 18% of those consumers active in social media made a purchase as a result of information they got via their social-media connections. “Our survey data shows that social media will, for the near future, remain a backwater sales channel, if you can call it a sales channel at all,” the report says. “While about half of respondents say they’re checking out social media sites daily, only a tiny minority uses the sites frequently to shop. In fact, seven out of ten online shoppers who took our survey say they never shop this way. That should remain the status quo for the immediate future.” But the survey, based on 11,000 people in 11 countries, did highlight a fast-growing willingness to interact with brands via social media, with 59% saying they follow brands through social channels, up from 49% last year. And 27% say they’ve discovered brands they didn’t know about this way, compared with 17% last year. One big exception is China, where one in four shoppers has already made a purchase via social media. PwC has classified them in three different groups: *Brand lovers - This segment offers the most potential for future shopping, and includes the 38% of consumers now following brands and retailers, up from 33% last year. And they are the fiercest shoppers, with 53% going into an actual store at least weekly (compared with 45% of the overall sample), and 45% making at least one online purchase per week. *Deal hunters - Nearly half of the survey fell into this category, and will click through to online stores if they think they’ve spotted an appealing offer. *Social addicts - While the smallest group, this minority uses social media “to talk about their experiences with brands, learn what their friends like and recommend, find customer service answers, and submit ideas and product feedback to companies,” the report notes. Failing to include these evangelists “carries significant reputational risk, as these very active online users tend to have huge social media networks and wield an outsized influence.” Its slow start as a commerce channel notwithstanding, social media continues to be a critical component of brand building. “Despite its inability to lead directly to a purchase, social media activity is a pretty strong indicator of how much some shoppers will buy, both online and in stores,” the report says, “so...the impact social media has on the brand needs to be part of every multichannel strategy discussion. It’s clearly a robust marketing and communications tool for retailers and consumer product companies.”
As far as Twitter advertising goes, Promoted Tweets that appear in response to user search queries are considerably more effective than less targeted Promoted Tweets. That’s according to new data from TBG Digital, which buys Promoted Tweets on the micro-blogging platform. It found that click-through rates for those in search were 88% higher than those in Timeline, while tweets in Timeline had a 29% lower cost per engagement rate than Tweets in search. “These findings show that Twitter users are very engaged when they are searching for something. However, it’s worth noting that search volume is limited, unless you focus on key times -- for example, around big TV shows and live sporting events,” said Simon Mansell, CEO at TBG Digital. “There is a lot more volume in the timeline -- response rates are slightly lower, but still very high, as Twitter allows you to target based on the interest graph, i.e., People interested in Golf,” Mansell added. What the social media specialist does not disclose are ad costs, or the actual click-through rate of either form of Promoted Tweets. What is revealing, however, is that Promoted Tweets are sold on a cost-per-engagement basis, according to TBG. Advertisers only pay Twitter when users reply to, click, or otherwise engage with a tweet. “Promoted Tweets are offered on a Cost-per-Engagement … basis, which means that advertisers only pay when a user takes a specific action: replies to, clicks or favorites the Promoted Tweet,” according to TBG. For its research, TBG said it measured 572 billion impressions in nearly 200 countries from the first quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2012. Twitter advertising is officially big business. In fact, the company’s worldwide ad revenue is expected to reach $807 million by 2014, eMarketer recently predicted. Separately, last quarter’s Global Facebook Advertising Report from TBG showed large reductions in average cost-per-click rates on the social network -- dropping by 40% stateside. This quarter, TBG continued to see a decrease in ad costs in the five major countries analyzed where the average CPC has been reduced by 24%. In particular, the United States saw a 37% decrease, while Canada saw an 11% drop. In last quarter’s report, TBG noted that advertisers were finding lower CPC costs in Facebook’s News Feed, especially with the “Desktop + Mobile News Feed” placement. The cheaper cost-per-click values seemed to be the result of targeting both placements together opened up more inventory with less competition, according to TBG. In this quarter, the company is seeing lower CPCs for all countries analyzed, which it suggests is connected to the adoption of ads targeted to “Desktop + Mobile News Feed.” eMarketer previously estimated that Facebook’s worldwide ad revenues would approach $8 billion by 2014.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, NetBase analyzed consumers’ social media conversations about eight chocolate brands over the past year (Jan. 31, 2012 through Jan. 31, 2013). Turns out that Hershey’s has been getting the most social buzz, but Ferrero Rocher’s chocolate hazelnut products are most “loved.” NetBase, an enterprise social intelligence platform, analyzed social conversations for Cadbury, Dove, Ferrero Rocher, Ghirardelli, Godiva, Hershey’s, Lindt and Neuhaus. All eight brands fell into the “like” or “love” quadrants (as opposed to the “dislike” or “hate” quadrants), based on NetBase’s Brand Passion Index analytics. Hershey's generated 30% of the overall chatter for the eight chocolate brands, and saw 84% positive chatter, but had the lowest “Passion Intensity” score (45 out of a possible 100) and the second-lowest “Net Sentiment” score (68). While online consumers chat in high volumes about Hershey’s many products, some complain about overly sweet taste or aroma, or express the sentiment that Hershey’s products will “do in a pinch.” Ferrero Rocher generated just 1.3% of the overall buzz among the brands, but showed the highest consumer social “love,” with a perfect Passion Intensity score of 100. It also tied with Ghirardelli for highest Net Sentiment score (87). Consumers “raved” about the brand’s classic, gold-wrapped, hazelnut-flavored chocolates, calling them the “perfect gift” to give and receive, according to NetBase. Buzz-wise, Hershey’s was followed by Lindt (19% of the approximately 777,000 total conversations), Godiva (17%), Dove (14.6%), Cadbury (9.3%), Ghirardelli (8.7%), Ferrero Rocher (1.3%) and Neuhaus (less than 1%). Following Ferrero Rocher, the Passion Intensity scores ranking was: Lindt (76), Dove (69), Ghirardelli (61), Cadbury (59), Godiva (53), Neuhaus (48) and Hershey’s (45). In Net Sentiment rankings, Ferrero Rocher and Ghirardelli were followed by Neuhaus (85), Dove (82), Lindt (74), Godiva (72), Hershey’s (68) and Cadbury (66). The percentages of positive buzz for each brand: Ferrero Rocher, 94%; Ghirardelli and Neuhaus each 93%; Dove, 91%; Lindt, 87%; Godiva, 86.5%; Hershey’s, 84%; and Cadbury, 83%. NetBase’s release offers some verbatim consumer comments on the various brands.
A surprising survey reveals that a non-profit tops the list of brands with the most loyal Facebook fans. LoudDoor, a Facebook Insights preferred marketing developer, compiled millions of responses from Facebook fans of over 15,000 Facebook pages to determine the Top 20 brands with the most loyal fans. The company used Brand Satisfaction, a new dashboard powered by over 1 million monthly survey responses. Brand Satisfaction tracks every major brand on Facebook and how likely fans are to recommend those brands to friends or colleagues. The top brands are: 1. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 2. Facebook 3. Google 4. Walt Disney World 5. ALDI USA 6. Xbox 7. Starbucks Frappuccino 8. Google Chrome 9. Duncan Hines 10. Adobe Photoshop 11. Tim Hortons 12. Hershey's 13. In-N-Out Burger 14. Dove Chocolates 15. NFL 16. Portillo's 17. BRAVO 18. Disneyland 19. Dollar Tree 20. AMC Theatre Demographic and behavioral data is the cornerstone to understanding a brand's Facebook audience and powering game-changing marketing decisions, says LoudDoor CEO David Guy. “Rather than relying on highly subjective social chatter or experimental 'listening' technologies, Brand Satisfaction does the hard work of asking brands' Fans directly about their attitudes, behaviors and motivations,” Guy said in a release. “We then package this powerful data in a simple dashboard interface to empower brands to harness their Facebook asset." Starting Jan. 1, Brand Satisfaction asked consumers to rate how likely they are to recommend a brand page they "like" on Facebook. Participants also completed a demographic, behavioral and attitudinal survey. Millions of anonymous responses are summarized in a user-friendly Brand Satisfaction insights dashboard currently in limited beta release. "We'll be conducting our study every month and releasing new brand insights and tips with the goal of making marketing professionals that follow brands on the Brand Satisfaction platform the smartest people in the room about the brands they care about on Facebook," Guy said. Eligibility for the Brand Satisfaction Top-20 list requires that the brand page have at least 50,000 fans and a minimum of 300 completed surveys on the brand. Rankings are based on the brands' Net Promoter Score which is calculated by the participants' likelihood to recommend the brand on a 0-10 scale. Respondents rating the brand at 9-10 are considered "Promoters," 7-8 are "Passives" and 0-6 are "Detractors." The percentage of Promoters is subtracted from the percentage of Detractors to determine the Net Promoter Score utilized to benchmark the Brand Satisfaction of Fans of a Facebook page.
Professional networking site LinkedIn on Thursday reported that revenue increased 81% in the fourth quarter, fueled by strong growth across all three of its key business lines. The company’s net income for the quarter was $11.5 million, or 10 cents a share compared with $6.9 million, or six cents a share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, LinkedIn reported a profit of $40.2 million, or 35 cents a share. Revenue rose to $303.6 million from $167.7 million in the year-earlier period. Analysts, on average, had expected LinkedIn to report a profit of 19 cents a share on revenue of nearly $279.8 million. Sales from LinkedIn’s recruiting services business nearly doubled to $161 million and represented more than half (53%) of total revenue. Marketing solutions -- its advertising business -- saw revenue rise 68% to $83.2 million, or 27% of overall revenue, while sales from subscription services grew 79% to $59.4 million in the fourth quarter. Subscriptions accounted for 20% of total revenue. U.S. revenue accounted for the majority (62%) of the company’s quarterly revenue, at $189 million, while international contributed $114.6 million, or 38%. LinkedIn has rolled out a series of initiatives since last fall, intended to keep users coming back and sticking around longer on the site. It revamped profile and company pages, allowing members to “follow” each other on Twitter, and recommend others’ skills via the Endorsements feature. By far, the splashiest effort toward boosting engagement has been a blogger platform that debuted in October, featuring prominent “influencers” from President Obama to Richard Branson to celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. A JP Morgan analyst report suggested those moves have helped increase U.S. visitor growth to 11% in the fourth quarter from the prior quarter, while page views grew 28% compared to 15% in the third quarter. LinkedIn overall hit 200 million members worldwide in the quarter, up 39% from 2011. Like Facebook, LinkedIn has seen a growing shift toward use on mobile devices. A Macquarie Securities analyst noted in an earnings preview that advertising in the company’s mobile apps is still limited, “meaning that 25% (as of 3Q and likely growing) of visiting members are currently under-monetized for ads.” In that vein, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner disclosed during the earnings conference call that LinkedIn is testing a new ad format that allows companies to promote sponsored content in the stream of updates members see on their profile pages. It's similar to Facebook’s Promoted Posts and Sponsored Stories or Twitter’s Promoted Tweets. Weiner said LinkedIn has been internally testing the in-stream ads for the last few months. Last week, it began external testing with a handful of partners on both the desktop and iPad, with smartphones to follow. Blue-chip brands like GE, Xerox, The Economist and BlackBerry have begun serving sponsored content, including white papers and best practices guides as status updates to their followers on the site. “What we’ve seen thus far has been encouraging, and to the extent we continue to make progress, we’re going to roll out those same tests on a smartphone environment,” said Weiner. He would not say when LinkedIn’s version of native advertising would be fully rolled out, but suggested it would be sometime in the coming months. The CEO noted that 27% of unique visitors now come to the site weekly via mobile, a significant increase from a year ago. For the current quarter, LinkedIn has forecast revenue will range between $305 million and $310 million. The bullish outlook topped analysts’ estimate of $301 million. LinkedIn shares were up about 10% to $136 per share in after-hours trading following the release of fourth-quarter results that topped analyst expectations.
While there’s no denying that consumers are increasingly using social media in just about every area of their lives, they still aren’t into shopping there. A new global study from PwC, the global consultancy, reports that last year, only 12% of consumers bought anything through social media. Nor does social media buzz do much to drive sales: Only 18% of those consumers active in social media made a purchase as a result of information they got via their social-media connections. “Our survey data shows that social media will, for the near future, remain a backwater sales channel, if you can call it a sales channel at all,” the report says. “While about half of respondents say they’re checking out social media sites daily, only a tiny minority uses the sites frequently to shop. In fact, seven out of ten online shoppers who took our survey say they never shop this way. That should remain the status quo for the immediate future.” But the survey, based on 11,000 people in 11 countries, did highlight a fast-growing willingness to interact with brands via social media, with 59% saying they follow brands through social channels, up from 49% last year. And 27% say they’ve discovered brands they didn’t know about this way, compared with 17% last year. One big exception is China, where one in four shoppers has already made a purchase via social media. PwC has classified them in three different groups: *Brand lovers - This segment offers the most potential for future shopping, and includes the 38% of consumers now following brands and retailers, up from 33% last year. And they are the fiercest shoppers, with 53% going into an actual store at least weekly (compared with 45% of the overall sample), and 45% making at least one online purchase per week. *Deal hunters - Nearly half of the survey fell into this category, and will click through to online stores if they think they’ve spotted an appealing offer. *Social addicts - While the smallest group, this minority uses social media “to talk about their experiences with brands, learn what their friends like and recommend, find customer service answers, and submit ideas and product feedback to companies,” the report notes. Failing to include these evangelists “carries significant reputational risk, as these very active online users tend to have huge social media networks and wield an outsized influence.” Its slow start as a commerce channel notwithstanding, social media continues to be a critical component of brand building. “Despite its inability to lead directly to a purchase, social media activity is a pretty strong indicator of how much some shoppers will buy, both online and in stores,” the report says, “so...the impact social media has on the brand needs to be part of every multichannel strategy discussion. It’s clearly a robust marketing and communications tool for retailers and consumer product companies.”
As far as Twitter advertising goes, Promoted Tweets that appear in response to user search queries are considerably more effective than less targeted Promoted Tweets. That’s according to new data from TBG Digital, which buys Promoted Tweets on the micro-blogging platform. It found that click-through rates for those in search were 88% higher than those in Timeline, while tweets in Timeline had a 29% lower cost per engagement rate than Tweets in search. “These findings show that Twitter users are very engaged when they are searching for something. However, it’s worth noting that search volume is limited, unless you focus on key times -- for example, around big TV shows and live sporting events,” said Simon Mansell, CEO at TBG Digital. “There is a lot more volume in the timeline -- response rates are slightly lower, but still very high, as Twitter allows you to target based on the interest graph, i.e., People interested in Golf,” Mansell added. What the social media specialist does not disclose are ad costs, or the actual click-through rate of either form of Promoted Tweets. What is revealing, however, is that Promoted Tweets are sold on a cost-per-engagement basis, according to TBG. Advertisers only pay Twitter when users reply to, click, or otherwise engage with a tweet. “Promoted Tweets are offered on a Cost-per-Engagement … basis, which means that advertisers only pay when a user takes a specific action: replies to, clicks or favorites the Promoted Tweet,” according to TBG. For its research, TBG said it measured 572 billion impressions in nearly 200 countries from the first quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2012. Twitter advertising is officially big business. In fact, the company’s worldwide ad revenue is expected to reach $807 million by 2014, eMarketer recently predicted. Separately, last quarter’s Global Facebook Advertising Report from TBG showed large reductions in average cost-per-click rates on the social network -- dropping by 40% stateside. This quarter, TBG continued to see a decrease in ad costs in the five major countries analyzed where the average CPC has been reduced by 24%. In particular, the United States saw a 37% decrease, while Canada saw an 11% drop. In last quarter’s report, TBG noted that advertisers were finding lower CPC costs in Facebook’s News Feed, especially with the “Desktop + Mobile News Feed” placement. The cheaper cost-per-click values seemed to be the result of targeting both placements together opened up more inventory with less competition, according to TBG. In this quarter, the company is seeing lower CPCs for all countries analyzed, which it suggests is connected to the adoption of ads targeted to “Desktop + Mobile News Feed.” eMarketer previously estimated that Facebook’s worldwide ad revenues would approach $8 billion by 2014.