The statistics themselves aren’t that surprising to be honest – but I believe the statistics speak less about consumer preferences, and more to how brands have used social listening in an attempt to engage consumers in the past.

The numbers may be a lot different if social listening tools have been used responsibly, to engage with consumers in an authentic way. This isn’t to say there aren’t brands who do this well, many brands do. However I think that the rise in popularity of social listening tools has given a lot of companies what I like to call “shiny object syndrome” where they jump in without really thinking ahead of time.

So what do these stats say?
• Forty-three percent of consumers think brands who listen to conversations on social media are invading their privacy.
• Half of all consumers (51 percent) want to talk about companies on social media without them listening in.

But other consumers are OK with brands listening in certain situations:
• Forty-two percent of consumers expect companies to respond to positive comments.
• Fifty-eight percent want companies to respond to complaints.
• Sixty-four percent only want companies to respond when spoken to

So what’s a social media or brand manager to do? The answer is probably the most simple solution. Contribute to conversations in a meaningful and valuable way. Really, that’s all there is to it!

Remember that although conversations are happening online, they are conversations. Think of it as though you were overhearing a conversation at a grocery store – you wouldn’t just jump into the conversation unless you had something valuable to add, right?

Here is an example. Let’s say that I was at my desk, craving a delicious red velvet cupcake (which I am!). Then pretend that I decided to tweet about my desire for said cupcake to my followers. Now let’s say you were a social media manager for (I am just making this company up) 1-800-cupcakes. Would this be a great time for you to send me a tweet about your amazing selection of cupcakes that I can have delivered? Nope, not really. That doesn’t offer a lot of value to me.

What would offer value is if you created a personalized coupon code to send me, so I can fulfill my craving at a discount. Better yet, you could check my influence online – do I seem to have a lot of followers who listen to what I say? Get in touch and send me a free cupcake! Chances are good that I will take a picture and tweet about it, possibly even post it to Instagram and Facebook and mention your company while I am at it. Tons of free publicity! And you helped a consumer out!

So when in doubt, follow the following three guidelines:
• Don’t just monitor keywords, listen to the conversation.
• Engage (when relevant) with the intention of delivering value to the consumer.
• While social media listening can be automated, responses should be human crafted.

Here is the full infographic if you would like to take a peek.

Today Google announced a major change to the way they will allow advertisers on the Search Platform to reach the Mobile and Tablet Audience. Read on for information on how the new enhancements to Google Adwords campaigns may affect you, as well as some tips on how to optimize your account for these changes.

The important points from Google’s announcement are summarized below, as well as our analysis and potential impact to our advertising efforts.

Summary of changes:

• During the next 4 months, Google will phase out the ability to build unique campaigns targeting Desktop, Tablets and Smartphones.  In its place will be one campaign format that will serve to all three devices categories.
• There will no longer be the ability to differentially target between desktops and tablets (they will be considered one in the same)
• Within the one campaign format, we must set our “base bids” based what we would like to serve for the desktop and tablet environment.
• If we want to change our bidding strategy for smartphones, we must modify your base bid from the campaign by a fixed factor at the campaign level.  We may target between 0% and 300% of your desktop bid.
• If we want to serve different ads for the smartphone environment, you must create a new ad in the campaign and designate it as “mobile preferred” that will cause the ad to be selected when a search is conducted in the smartphone environment.
• Reporting granularity will stay intact, you can continue to measure performance segmented by device.
• The Google Display Network is unaffected, this change impacts only Search Campaigns

Important Implications on existing advertising:

• Today tablet traffic typically represents 5-10% of search queries.  If the performance of tablet traffic is under-performing compared to your desktop experience, this change will impact you because you will no longer be able to differentially bid for tablets, or opt out of running advertising for tablets.  If your website is not optimized for tablets, especially if your website utilizes Adobe Flash for your tablet experience – your advertising campaigns will be affected.  Note that iPads do not support Flash, and iPads represent an overwhelming majority of tablet users.
• You will not be able to run mobile only campaigns anymore.  The only way you can attempt to do this would be to run a desktop campaign, and then set your mobile bids to 300% of your desktop bids.

Market Analysis and Potential Impact on the Google Adwords Marketplace / Auction:

• We believe that this change will create additional demand and upward price pressure on mobile and tablet auction prices.  This is because users who are not very familiar with the Adwords platform or optimization, will not be able to fully realize and measure the impact of these changes and adjust their bidding accordingly.
• We believe that this change will create marginal downward pressure on desktop advertising prices.  This is because users without a lot of experience with the Adwords platform will likely deplete their marketing budgets faster by being opted into the Mobile and Tablet Marketplace, leaving additional inventory in the desktop market.  In addition, sophisticated advertisers will see pressure from being forced to run tablets, which will impact their overall KPIs.  Typically tablets do not convert as well as desktop advertising due to lack of website optimization for the tablet experience.
• We believe this move is motivated by two factors, first is to force additional participation in the Mobile / Tablet auctions (which are currently heavily underserved – according to Google, only 5% of search advertisers are currently opting into Mobile campaigns).   Secondly, this will provide additional data to create additional targeting and tracking options in the future, specifically around user based instead of device and session based tracking.  Secondly, this will provide additional data to create additional targeting and tracking options in the future, specifically around user based instead of device and session based tracking.

Suggestions going forward:

• Advertisers will need to restructure most mobile campaigns in order to accommodate this new campaign requirement.  This means new strategies will need to be developed around setting bidding for smartphones, given the loss in specific bid setting for smartphones at an individual keyword level.
• Advertisers should concentrate on improving the tablet experience. Recommendations for improving this experience varies from advertiser to advertiser.

Other studies show how investments in digital ad spending will grow by 2016.  The below chart, by eMarketer, highlights the extent to which brands intend to increase digital spending.   Worldwide digital spend is set to grow by 15.1% to 118.4 billion by the end of 2013:

Demise of Facebook? Not likely…

The chart by Gary Tan breaks down social network usage by younger age groups.  While Tumbler is largely used by both age groups, we can see that younger age groups are more active in every category:

Social landscape is increasingly mobile:

With the growing popularity of smart phones more and more people are using mobile to access social networks.  Recent research by Nielson shows that the mobile market is continuing to grow:

An additional survey by Google shows that 605 of smartphone owners access social networking sites through mobile devices daily, compared to 16% of users who never do:

LeadQual is proud to be a new member of the well-respected organization, LeadsCouncil.  LeadsCouncil is the largest independent industry organization focused on online lead generation and the common goal of promoting best practices and fostering trust across all verticals within the industry.

Ethics and transparency have always been core values of LeadQual, and we believe that a membership in LeadsCouncil’s Trusted Membership Program reflects those values.  Membership in this program means that LeadQual will uphold LeadCouncil’s 16 principles which promote ethical best practices in the lead generation industry.

Upon joining, Michael Ferree – Director at LeadsCouncil said:

“We are pleased to recognize LeadQual as a new member of LeadsCouncil as we feel LeadQual’s operating tenants mirror that of what we at LeadsCouncil look for from companies within the lead generation ecosystem.  LeadQual’s belief in quality and transparency within their call-qualify & live transfer and digital agency services allow for the confidence we try and promote within LeadsCouncil to continually set a higher standard of accountability.  LeadQual was one of the earliest pioneer’s in rapid response and their continued growth, ethics and success reflects that of what we hope for all LeadsCouncil members.”

“LeadQual is very happy to be joining LeadsCouncil and feel that our principles reflect that of what LeadsCouncil stands for.  LeadsCouncil is positioned to continue to guide the industry under the guidance of such a well respected leader like Mike Ferree.  We look forward to continually pushing quality and partnering with other LeadsCouncil members to enact positive change in the industry.” said Jason Ford, Vice President of Business Development at LeadQual.

LeadsCouncil’s active members include over 130 lead buyers, sellers, and service providers.  We are proud to be a member of an organization committed to supporting and creating industry best practices.

We are happy to report that our Connecticut office and call center are now open again and we are returning to full service.  Power and communications are still out across the region, but we had continuous operation throughout the storm thanks to our backup power and facilities.

Most importantly, our employees are safe, though we are getting a number of reports of property damage, some of them severe.  It will take many weeks for the region to return to normal, but LeadQual kept going through the worst storm in over 100 years!

Instagram, the popular photo sharing app, has generated a lot of positive buzz for use in business social media.   While Instagram is generally recognized as the foodie app, and popular among the teenage crowd, there are a lot of business benefits from its use.

Photo sharing has become an increasingly popular method of social sharing.  Sites which feature image sharing capabilities, such as Pinterest and Tumblr have exploded in popularity.  Brands are seeing increased engagement from the use of visual updates, and your fans are expecting to see this type of social sharing now more than ever.

Taking advantage of Instagram is a great opportunity to boost your presence online.  Before jumping in head first, take a moment to read through these tips so you can participate effectively, as well as generate some inspiration for upcoming photos.

Why Use Instagram?

Get the scoop on how your customers picture your company.  For many of the more popular brands, there are thousands of pictures of products already uploaded by users.  Find out which products tend to be shared more than others, and discover which words your customers are using to describe your products, company or brand.

Browsing uploaded photos can provide a wealth of insight into how your customers think, and will allow you to better reach your target customers in future advertising and marketing messages.

Like most social networks, your participation in Instagram should be genuine and interesting.  Blatant self promotion will not only turn off your users, but Instagram actively discourages using the app for this purpose.

In addition to finding more information about your users, Instagram provides you with the opportunity to highlight and share information about your company culture.  Sharing pictures of your products being used in fun ways, your employees, events, and general office pictures can help provide transparency and work to humanize your brand.

How can your business take advantage of Instagram?

Show off office life:

Take pictures of people and objects in your office, and share these on Facebook or Twitter.  Providing clients with a glimpse inside your day to day office routine, and the occasional fun or wacky happenings helps to humanize your brand and show off your company culture.

Here is an example image we took of Bagel Friday, our weekly delivery of delicious Noah’s Bagels:

View on Webstagram

Events and Conferences:

Take pictures at events you attend and upload them to the instagram app!  You can tweet these with the hashtags used for the event to gain more exposure.  If you meet anyone you know from Twitter, take a picture together and tweet the image – be sure to reference their twitter handle in the pic!

Here are some examples of Instagram photos taken at Affiliate Summit:

View full feed on Webstagram

Instagram Tips!

• Use Hashtags: Hashtags, just like Twitter hashtags are going to result in more views.  Instagrams search feature searches for keywords used within hashtags and not general text.
• Share your photos:  Share your photos on Facebook, Twitter and your blog.  This will help increase awareness about your Instagram account, resulting in more followers, and more views of your photos.
• Comment on other photos you see about your company or brand.
• Participate in Instagrams weekly photo contest – when possible, try to relate the contest to your brand.