social media report
TRANSCRIPT
How social are you?A study looking at how the UK’s leading technology companies are using social media.
www.emlwildfire.com/tech_social_media@EMLWildfire
How social are you? 2.0
Social media dominates our online lives. More businesses than ever are turning to social networks.
But are they actually being social?
Social media is increasingly at the heart of everything we do online. At EML Wildfire, our approach focuses on using the right channel for the right audience in the
right way. And, when it comes to social media, that means engagement.
This report takes some of the fastest growing UK tech companies and looks at how they are using social media.
Is your business really social?Or do you just use social networks?
Last year, we looked at the social media activities of 50 of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies.
We found that, while an increasing number were using social networks, few of them were using these networks to be social. A year on and we’ve decided to revisit the exercise and find out what, if anything, has changed.
What did we do? We took the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 – a ranking of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies - and looked at how they approach social media. We then pooled all our findings and cross-checked them with last year.
This report reveals what we found.
Social media usage continues to grow, but we still aren’t being social
Our research has found that, while technology companies have generally expanded their use of social media over the past year, engagement levels are still low. Companies are still stuck in a ‘push marketing’ mindset rather than engaging directly.
Facebook on the upAlmost all (92%) of the companies in our study had a LinkedIn account, an increase from last year (72%), making it the most used social network in the study. Twitter remained popular, with 82% of the companies in our survey having an account, up from 74% from last year. But the biggest leap forward came in the number of Facebook accounts being used. Used by only 40% of
brands last year, Facebook seemed relatively unpopular. However in 2011, 70% of the companies we looked at had a registered account.
Interestingly, this increase came wholly from B2B businesses. While 100% of the B2C companies assessed used Facebook in 2010 and all eight B2C brands this year were also on the platform, there was a huge rise from B2B brands; up from 32% in 2010 to 64% of the 42 assessed in 2011.
Engagement shows little changeSo, while there’s been a big increase in social media usage over the last 12 months, engagement is still low. Only 31% of those with a Facebook account used it to engage with users. And of companies that had a blog, only 20%
received comments and only 8% of those comments received replies.
Twitter saw the highest levels of engagement overall. Of the 41 Fast 50 companies with a Twitter account, 68% used it to build relationships with followers. However, on average, only 14% of tweets were replies and 14% were retweets. So while a company’s Twitter account was generally used more for engagement compared to other social media sites, there is still a very low proportion of tweets that are used for two-way dialogue.
By far the most popular use of social media was sharing relevant articles and news. On the whole, most social media content contained links to other sites with news and comment about related industry news. The second most popular use of social media was for one-way marketing communications.
HOMEPAGE LINKS
Over half of tech companies link to social channels from their website homepage
In recent years, website homepages have moved from a simple shop-front to dynamic, engaging portals. Linking to your social network presence gives visitors a way to keep in touch even if they aren’t ready to buy, allowing you to build relationships off-site.
Only 58% of the companies we assessed had social media links on their homepage despite the fact that over 90% of the companies had at least one social networking site. This is, however, still a significant increase from last year, where only 38% had links.
Companies were most likely to publish a Twitter link on their homepage (58%) and this was the case for both B2B and B2C brands.
The only major disparity between B2B and B2C companies was in relation to LinkedIn with, unsurprisingly, under half (45%) of B2B companies providing a link but only 13% of B2C doing the same. But this is hardly a criticism as LinkedIn is much more appropriate for B2B brands.
Top tips for integrating social media into your website
1. Provide prominent links – clearly advertise social network accounts on every page
2. Explain what customers will be getting if they join your social network – for example, something like: “for regular service updates, follow us on Twitter”
3. Keep social network links at the top of your webpage – or at least further up the page so they don’t get missed. By your telephone number is a good place; after all, it’s just another way to get in touch
4. Use social network logos – they are instantly recognisable and take up less space
5. Add your blog to your site navigation bar – if you have a navigation bar on your website, add your blog as one of the tabs
6. Put your latest blog posts on your homepage – encourage visitors to visit your blog by pulling in your latest post on the homepage or even featuring relevant posts throughout the site
7. Feed in your latest tweet or status update on your homepage – this gives your website a real-time and dynamic appearance while demonstrating that you regularly update content and that it’s worth visiting again
8. Include links to your social media profiles on your contact page – if you are advertising your phone number and email, why not your Twitter or Facebook details too?
9. Add staff social media profiles – do you have a ‘staff’ page on your website? Add their social media profiles alongside telephone numbers or email addresses
10. Add ‘Like’, ‘tweet this’ or +1 links – adding these will encourage visitors to share website content with like-minded peers on social networks
Intamac shows how to keep social networking links simple and accessible.
Only 14% of tweets are repliesBecause of its openness, Twitter has always been the most accessible network for both B2B and B2C brands. It is therefore also the easiest way for brands to begin having two-way conversations.
Twitter was the best used of all the social media sites. While the most common use of Twitter was to provide content and articles, 68% used it as a tool for having conversations with consumers, journalists, and other companies. This was a huge leap forward from last year where 43% of brands had never replied to a tweet.
But it’s not all good. While many brands are being ‘social’ on Twitter, many still neglect their account. Of those that have a Twitter account, an average of only 14% of tweets are replies.
B2C companies were much better than B2B at using Twitter as a social tool. An average of 35% of tweets from B2C companies were replies compared to just 7% from B2B brands.
Another interesting finding was the increased use of Twitter as a recruitment tool, with 19% using it in this way – the same as Linkedin. Elsewhere, 86% of companies used Twitter for one way marketing communications, while 90% of companies tweeted about industry related articles and content.
Top tips for using Twitter to engage
1. Don’t be cryptic – with only 140 characters at your disposal, it’s often tricky to get ideas across, but being clear and concise is crucial in keeping your followers engaged
2. Give followers a reason to click your link – include a link in your tweets whenever possible and keep your tweets interesting to encourage click-throughs
3. Convey your personality through your tweets – don’t be afraid to use a lighter tone on Twitter. The more approachable you are, the more likely you are to build relationships with your followers
4. Create lists of key people in your industry or useful contacts – use Twitter Lists to put together useful groups of relevant people. This will help you build links with these influencers and will also act as a useful resource for your followers
5. Respond to replies quickly – if someone directs a message at you on Twitter, do your best to respond as quickly as possible. Even if you don’t know the answer or need to find more information, you can still set expectations
6. Link Twitter to your web analytics service – use web analytics to identify what drives traffic and how effective or likely this traffic is to convert
7. Retweet interesting content – embrace your community and if one of your followers tweets something interesting, retweet it to your followers. Add a comment for extra points
8. Ask questions – one of the best ways to encourage engagement with your followers is by asking questions. Why not get feedback on your latest product or ask for content ideas for your blog?
9. Be flexible; don’t just tweet about the same thing – the best brands on Twitter provide a good balance of different tweets – some serious and some promotional, but others that are lighter in tone and give a more human side to the company
10. Pimp your profile by using your company colours and putting together a bespoke background – keep your Twitter profile consistent with your company branding to make it feel more credible
The best example of how to use Twitter as a social tool came from LOVEFiLM. Not only did the B2C brand use Twitter to engage in general conversation, it also used it to help customers with problems and answer queries
Brands f lock to Facebook, but only 31% use it to be social
With more than 800 million people on Facebook and over 700 billion minutes per month spent on the site, the potential to use Facebook to reach an audience is clear.
There has been a dramatic rise over the last year in the number of tech brands using Facebook. In 2010, only 40% of companies had a presence on Facebook, but this now stands at 70%. A potential reason for this could be the way Facebook has opened up the network to brands in the last year with the changes to Facebook Pages.
Although the increase in brands using Facebook shows growing understanding of its importance and potential, only 14% of companies used it for customer services
and a very low percentage (31%) used it for customer, journalist and business engagement.
Facebook remains the realm of B2C brands but, over the last year, B2B use of Facebook rose from 32% to 64%. There has also been an increase in customer engagement from B2B sites moving from 5% in 2010 to 22% this time round. For most (59%) B2B companies, Facebook was used for posting related articles and content. Also popular was posting one-way communication messages with 56% of B2B companies using Facebook for this.
Tech companies have taken steps in the right direction in the past year, but Facebook still remains underused and misused.
1. Post regular status updates – as with all social networks, it is important to post useful and engaging content regularly. Don’t overdo it in terms of frequency but don’t leave it weeks between posts
2. Use other content such as videos or images – Facebook is a very visual platform (just check out an average user’s profile page) so use as much video or imagery as possible
3. Run promotions or competitions – these can be a fantastic way to increase fans and make your community feel valued
4. Respond to comments on your posts – if someone responds to a post or asks a question, make sure you get back in touch and start developing a dialogue
5. Experiment with different tabs or discussion groups – the Facebook wall is only one element that can be included on a page. Discussion groups can also be a great way to build up more interest within your community
6. Reply to criticism, don’t just ignore it – if someone does post
something negative, don’t just leave it unanswered. Consider taking it offline to prevent mud slinging!
7. Share latest blog posts on your Facebook page – if you have a blog, then make sure you share your latest posts on your Facebook fan page. You can even use tools to help you automate this process
8. Consider running Facebook adverts to increase fan base – there’s no shortcut to proper engagement, but targeted Facebook ads can be a useful way to initially help grow a relevant fan base
9. Don’t be too commercial – your fans will likely know what you do and offer so you don’t need to be overly commercial. Not every post needs to be “me, me, me”
10. Offer exclusive content to your fans – show your fans you care, by offering them something they cannot get elsewhere. This could be early access to a new product or a special discount code, for example
Top tips for using Facebook to engage with fans
Retail Eyes is a prime example of how not to run a Facebook page as, despite the page being set up months ago, nothing has been posted so far!
SkyScanner provides a fantastic example of how to use Facebook effectively. The variety of topics discussed and competitions encourage fans to return and the live chat function is a great way to provide customer service on a social network.
Blogs
Don’t forget, blogs can be social too
Blogs have long been at the forefront of the web 2.0 revolution and there are now 130 million in existence. Companies have flocked to this ‘owned media’ channel, but how many realise it can be social?
Used well, blogs can drive traffic, encourage engagement and help create community. But, if not updated regularly, they can quickly become stale and uninteresting.
Exactly half of the companies in our study had some sort of blog, which is close to last year’s findings (46%). Overall, the majority of companies updated their blog monthly and nearly all (96%) blogged about related industry news.
However, for a blog to be ‘social’ it’s necessary to encourage and engage in dialogue with readers and other bloggers. Only a tiny minority of tech companies entered into two-way conversations with their audience: just five of the blogs (20%) received comments on a regular basis; and only 2 of these had a response posted from the brand.
There is still a way to go before blogs can claim to be truly social; companies need to carefully weigh up the benefits of investing in a two-way blog strategy against the resources required to implement it.
1. Set realistic frequency targets and stick to them – don’t pretend you’ll blog every day if you know that will be a challenge. Be realistic with content goals, making it easier to stick to them and setting expectations for website visitors
2. Keep posts, paragraphs and sentences short – we read differently online so keep it short! Around 300-500 words is ideal with sub-heads to break the text and help readers navigate through your post
3. Make your content interesting and relevant – think about your audience. Who is it you are trying to appeal to? Make sure your content will be interesting and useful to them
4. Convey personality – set the right tone, but don’t be afraid to give your bloggers the freedom to convey their own individuality
5. Demonstrate your expertise and knowledge – show your readers you know your industry and make them feel they can trust you to come up with the goods
6. Always reply to comments on your blog – even if it is just a sentence or two. Make your readers feel valued and they’ll return again and again
7. Add RSS and email sign-ups – RSS feeds allow your readers to subscribe to posts without having to visit regularly. Alternatively, you can let visitors subscribe by email
8. Share your posts on social networks – ensure you remember to alert followers on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn about your latest blog posts
9. Read and respond to other blogs – as a blogger, you need to participate in the community to really reap the benefits. Reply to posts on other blogs in your sector and they may start to return the favour
10. Be controversial – make your blog stand out from the crowd by saying something different. This will help you attract and retain readers
Tips for running a corporate blog
Again, Mimecast excelled here by not only replying to posts on its blog but also trying to engage posters in further conversation.
Only 20% published job vacancies on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the social network for professionals. Research shows its members have more brand loyalty than any other network, including Facebook. Yet many brands have not yet found a way to exploit its popularity and realise its potential.
LinkedIn was by far the most popular social network with 92% of the tech companies tested having an account. However, while it was extremely popular, only just over half
(52%) of companies had an embedded newsfeed detailing their latest news and activity on Twitter.
Although LinkedIn is often seen as a tool for recruitment, only 20% of companies with an account used it to list vacancies. Most just used it as a holding page on the network for the company.
1. Fill out your company profile – your LinkedIn company (and personal) profile is likely to rank quite high in web searches, so make sure it is as up to date as your website
2. Use widgets to integrate other tools – LinkedIn makes it easy to feed in information to your personal profile, like your latest blog posts or Slideshare presentation for example, using widgets
3. Monitor and answer questions in LinkedIn Answers – keep an eye on relevant questions and submit answers to demonstrate your expertise. Give one person in your company responsibility for checking these on a regular basis
4. Update your status regularly – many people ignore the status update potential on their LinkedIn personal account. You can even link your status updates with other social networking accounts to make it easier to manage all your social networks at the same time
5. Start or help manage a group for your product, brand or industry – if there is already a popular group relating to your industry, then get involved and reply to questions and posts. If there isn’t one, consider starting one
6. Share useful articles or resources – give your connections a reason to keep listening. Share useful information and they’ll come back for more
7. Request recommendations from happy customers or clients – peer recommendation is proven to be much more effective than advertising or direct mail. If you have happy clients, make sure they write about their positive experience on your personal profile
8. Post job listings and tap into the wisdom of your community – once your community is a decent size, you can tap into this knowledge to find the perfect recruit
9. Include your LinkedIn URL on your signature and business card – make it easy for prospects, customers and acquaintances to add you on LinkedIn. Get a vanity URL and add it to your email signature and business card
10. Visit LinkedIn on a regular basis or integrate it into a third party app – you might not need to visit LinkedIn as often as other social networks, but by adding your LinkedIn account to a third party application like Tweetdeck, you can constantly stay on top of what’s going on
Top Tips for businesses using LinkedIn
DisplayLink make good use of newsfeeds in their LinkedIn site. Moneybookers increases their personnel reach by advertising vacancies on LinkedIn
Moneybookers increases their personnel reach by advertising vacancies on LinkedIn
YouTube
83% increase in the use of YouTube in the last year
Founded in 2005, YouTube quickly became the world’s most popular video hosting website, with 24 hours of video content uploaded every single minute.
YouTube has a number of social features, including the ability to share and embed videos on websites, blogs or other social networks, liking and disliking content and, of course, the ability to comment on a video on the site.
When leading technology companies like Salesforce put YouTube at the heart of their social media strategy, its potential became clear.
2011 has seen a fairly substantial rise in the popularity of YouTube for tech companies. In our latest survey, 44%
of companies were seen to have an account, up from 24% last year.
The story for the use of YouTube is similar to that of the other networks assessed; companies have an account but aren’t using it effectively. A mere 14% of videos received comments and only a third of those received a response from the company.
Most of the companies posting on YouTube provided company profile videos (82%) and 41% of companies posted videos of interviews. Only 14% of companies posted videos detailing new products.
Top tips on using YouTube to help build brand awareness
1. Think about what video content your audience will find useful and interesting – so many corporate videos end up being boring and dull, so think carefully about what will be most interesting and relevant for your audience
2. Customers or prospects? – think about whether your video is aimed at providing value to your customers or if it is more of a sales tool for prospects. The video and its message will likely be very different for each audience
3. Uploading the video is only half the job – once your video is on YouTube, you need to think carefully about where to place it and how to seed it. Would it be something that would be of interest to bloggers or journalists? Can you post it on social networks?
4. Don’t forget to reply to comments – if someone posts a comment on your video – good or bad – make sure you respond
5. Track where your videos have been hosted online – keep an eye on whether your video has been embedded on other blogs or websites. There might be lots of conversation around the video that you aren’t even aware of!
6. Add your logo and company branding to your YouTube channel – if someone views your video, chances are they might then click through to your channel to see what else you have to offer.
Unifying your channel with your own branding will make it look more professional
7. Share your videos on your other social network accounts – don’t forget to share videos you have uploaded on your other social network profiles
8. Write clear titles and descriptions for your videos to increase search traffic – video is playing an ever increasingly important role in search. So make sure Google can find it easily by including lots of relevant keywords
9. Keep them the right length – it is unlikely someone will sit through a 20 minute video – unless it’s REALLY useful – so keep the videos short and to the point. This will also encourage more people to share
10. Keep your YouTube account active – if you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a YouTube page, then make sure you keep it engaging by adding new content at regular intervals
HostelBookers provided fresh and interesting content on YouTube and the comments they got were very positive.
Time to make the most of your investment in social
It is clear that UK tech companies see the importance of social media, with usage figures soaring over the last year. But too many are still failing to make the most of this investment.
Why should they?
Social media offers a diverse range of opportunities, from learning about your audience and building a loyal customer base to nurturing prospects as they go through your sales cycle.
Social media marketing is not a black art that requires vast experience or knowledge. Indeed, it could be seen as one of the easiest forms of marketing. After all, most of us already use social networks on a regular basis to chat with friends or network with colleagues.
So why are so many of the fastest growing tech companies not using social media in a social way?
Instead of sitting down and thinking carefully, and strategically, about how to approach and use these new channels, companies are simply using them as an extension of pre-existing marketing techniques.
The companies that have scored highly in our survey show that by being social, a business can begin to build sustained relationships with end users.
5 steps to the perfect social strategy
Anyone tasked with managing social media might be tempted just to set up an account and start sending out messages. But, we’d suggest a more strategic approach:
1. What’s the objective?From customer service and engagement to driving sales, social media can be used for a vast array of different business tasks. So it’s important to think about which one/s are important to you. 2. How will you build a community?Having an objective is one thing, but if no one is listening to you, you’ll never achieve it. Building or tapping into a community is therefore crucial. So find where your audience is and begin to reach out to them.
3. What are you going to say?Content is key. You could have the best community in the world, but if you’ve got nothing to say, you won’t be able to engage in conversation.
4. Who’s going to manage it?Deciding who will run and manage your social media activity will again depend on what you are trying to achieve and who your audience is. Invest in training and find the right people – internally and externally for the job.
5. How will you measure success?As with all types of marketing and PR, if you can’t measure outputs and outcomes, you’ll never know whether it’s working. Agree metrics in advance and review them on a regular basis to work out whether it’s working.
The Deloitte fast Technology 50 2010
Autonomy Corporation plcBeaming LtdBglobal plcBiome Technologies LtdBloxxBlueGnome LtdC4LCambridge Broadband Networks LtdClinTec InternationalConcentraContent and Code LtdDisplayLink (UK) LtdExport TechnologiesFjordnet LtdFluidataFocus 4 U LtdForward Internet Group
Geo NetworksGlobal Personals LtdGradwell Dot Com LtdGreenlight Marketing LtdGrove Information Systems LtsGyron Internet LtdHeart InternetHelveta LtdHostelBookersInnovise plcIntamac Systems LtdJagex LtdLatens Systems LtdLeaf ConsultancyLovefilm UK LtdM247 LtdMarkit Group Holdings Ltd
Mimecast LtdMobile Interactive Group (MIG)Moneybookers LtdNet Media Planet LtdNode4 LtdO-bit Telecom LtdPeriscopixRehabstudioRetail Eyes (UK) LtdSaffron Media Group LtdSkyscanner LtdTranslateMediaTTG (southern) LtdUbisense Trading LtsUK GridYudu Ltd
Download this report at www.emlwildfire.com/tech_social_media
About EML WildfireBuilding awareness, engaging audiences, driving sales
EML Wildfire is a technology PR agency delivering high impact campaigns that build market awareness, engage target audiences and drive sales for technology businesses across global markets. Our technology PR approach combines sector knowledge and market insights with traditional and digital PR skills to generate measurable results that position our clients for commercial success.
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