15 Mar, 2012

SXSW from a Social POV

Posted by Kerri Driscoll | Categories: Social Networks | Tags: Social Media ROI, Facebook, Social Media Strategy

SXSW doesn’t disappoint and this year was no different.  Content abounds and everyone has a POV but we focused on the social perspectives.  Here are a few highlights, straight from the heart of Texas courtesy of Brianna Littlepage and myself:

Overarching theme - Opportunity for real time data to drive value for marketers & improve social consumer brand experience across digital touch points:  

-Marketers are clamoring for the best way to gauge “Social ROI” beyond just the amount of Facebook fans and Twitter followers

  • Marketers look to social networking platforms to provide success metrics and thereby determine best calculation of ROI

-Access to connected and real-time data allows marketers to target and deliver valuable offers based on consumer interests. 

  • Example: PepsiCo – focused on interest mining as a way to cluster consumers to garner their behavior. In the future, want to put together real time social data, click stream, scrolling behavior and beyond to make flexible adjustments to marketing programs and spend to respond to customers real time interests. 

-Data visualization is great bait for social network virality and there are many major executions currently in-market:  

  • Pinterest is a visually-based social network and the source of more website referral traffic than Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, & Google+
  • Infographics are a viral tool within social networks and a huge initiative in information-sharing channels   
  • Interest & social graphs are rapidly growing by which to digest strength of connection and make further one-to-one associations within the social realm.   

-Brands are shifting to digitally ubiquitous solutions that allow them to target cross audience, make social technology more transparent, and provide better customer experiences. 

  • Example: AmEx Sync now allows merchants to offer special offers that consumers can redeem by tweeting an offer to Twitter. Previously introduced only through Foursquare, AmEx Sync now works with Twitter & Facebook. 
  • Mozilla structured their installable web app store so apps are locked into one ID into browsers. Creates consistent privacy permissions for users and connected social data for marketers.