What’s a Facebook Fan Worth?

In typical marketer fashion, marketers are always looking to tie a number to the value of social subscribers and what it can do for a brand.  e-Marketer recently had an interesting post on “What Brand Fans Are Worth.”  Digital consulting firm, Syncapse and research company, Hotspex recently came up with a formula to determine the value of a follower/fan.

The formula found that on average a Facebook fan is worth around $136.38 when it comes to the 20 biggest brands on the site (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pringles, Oreo, and Skittles).

The value was determined by looking at how much fans spend on the brands’ products, customer loyalty, recommendations and earned media.

The study found people spend twice as much on products they are Facebook fans of than non-fans spend on that product or brand.  In the world of loyalty programs, this is a very interesting number.

As you may know, customers that are part of loyalty programs visit stores twice as often as non-members and spend an average as four times a much as those that are not in the program.   This study makes a good case for why Facebook pages should be part of an overall loyalty program strategy.

Though, I would go even a step further to say not only should Facebook and other social sites be a part of the strategy but so should mobile.  After all, there are 270 million mobile phones in the US, and mobile provides one of the easiest and most direct ways to improve engagement with loyalty customers.

Is Multichannel 2010’s “New Black?”

I’m sure you’ve all noticed the recent activity like Exact Target acquiring CoTweet, Constant Contact acquiring NutshellMail and Unica Corp’s partnering with Mobile Messenger.

This leads me to wonder – is being multichannel the “new black?”

Waterfall Mobile works with many ESPs (e-mail service providers) and technology companies, and we frequently discuss the future of the business.  And the consensus from those conversations is, yes, marketers are expanding their focus to include more ways to digitally and directly reach consumers, so their vendors must follow suit.  It’s just smart business.

Nearly every major ESP has announced social media integration plans in one form or another, and most have selected a mobile partner or are building messaging into their platforms.

In general, and in particular for direct marketers, mobile continues to represent tremendous opportunity.  As we’ve seen with these acquisitions, the appetite for social and digital media technologies is growing.

As readers of Mobile Demystified know, we regularly make the point that marketers should have a multichannel strategy – one that includes email, online, mobile and social media.  The more opportunities you have to reach a customer, the more opportunities you have to engage with them.

So, yes – multichannel is the new black.  If you aren’t thinking about a comprehensive, cross-platform engagement strategy, you’re going to get left behind — see Forrester’s interactive marketing spend chart, below.

If you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know where to get started for your company, drop me a line at msilk@waterfallmobile.com.

Ski Resort Goes Social

Here’s a great example of a smart brand linking Facebook, Twitter and SMS to drive positive direct marketing results:

Alpine Meadows Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, California successfully launched a social media campaign on March 16 — and has experienced great results.

The resort kicked off the campaign by sending a message to its existing mobile database, Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Alpine is asking users to text AMPALS to 67463 for a chance to win a pair of season passes (weekday + Sunday).

To encourage visitors to spread the word, Alpine is allowing users to send friends a text to sign up and win as well.  Each referral also counts as an additional entry for the original customer.

Alpine has found its mobile list eager to pass along information about the contest.  Once fans of the resort realize that the more people they refer the better their chances of winning, subscription activity goes up considerably.

In fact, 45 percent of the entries have come from referrals, with the top referrer so far getting 20 of his friends to text in to sign up.

The campaign runs through April 15th, and Alpine is sending out periodic messages reminding people to text in to the keyword to enter the contest.

You can enter to win the passes by texting AMPALS to 67463.

Marketers Say Yes to Social Media. Or Not?

eMarketer recently posted the results to the “The Marketing Trends Report 2010” from Anderson Analytics and the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).

The report found “Marketing ROI” is currently the most important trend to marketing executives.

Social Media also made the top 10 trends for executives with 72 percent of respondents planning a social strategy for this year and 36 percent listing “Social Media ROI” as an important buzzword in 2010.

Don’t get too excited though, according to the same research, even though marketers know they need to have an overall social media strategy – they are also sick of hearing about it.

Along with being one of the most important buzz terms this year, “social media” was also found to be one of the most annoying.  Nearly 30 percent of those surveyed are sick of the phrase.  15 percent were annoyed specifically by Twitter.

That said, even if people are tired of hearing or reading about it (or not), social spending is predicted to increase in 2010 (which is not surprising).

Your best bet – look over the buzzwords and use it as a checklist for your 2010 marketing plan.  And maybe review the buzzwords and make sure you are addressing them (or intentionally not using them).

You can read eMarketer’s full post here.

Using Social Media to Connect With Students During Emergencies

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube — it’s no secret that Social Networking Sites are popular among college students.  In fact, 2009 marked the year that Facebook surpassed email as the top form of communication, according to Nielsen Online.

In response to that, colleges across the United States are stepping up their online presence to try and engage their students.  A majority of colleges have a presence in social media, as 33 percent of colleges maintain a blog, 29 maintain a presence on social networking Web sites, 27 percent maintain message- or bulletin-boards, 19 percent employ video blogging, and 14 percent issue podcasts, according to a study by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling.  Beyond engaging with their students, eighty-eight percent of admission offices believed social media were either “somewhat” or “very” important to their future recruitment efforts.

With these overwhelming stats, it’s time for colleges to link social media technologies to emergency contingency plans so the school can get news out to as many students as possible in the shortest amount of time.

Waterfall’s AlertU emergency notification system already enables colleges to send text messages to students, faculty and staff in the event of a campus emergency.  The system is integrated into current emergency action plans quickly and easily, enabling an additional communication channel that delivers vital information to registered users, students, faculty and staff at colleges across the country.

Our successful emergency notification system already has email covered – the platform can re-distribute alerts to the unlimited distribution lists the school has set up – and we have recently taken the natural step to link up AlertU to social networking sites that the students are frequenting.  For example, when a school closes due to weather or the H1N1 virus, a college administrator can log onto AlertU’s site or send the notification via SMS text.  AlertU then automatically sends the text out to users and to the school’s Twitter account.

We all know almost nobody leaves home without their phone, so combine our attachment to cell phones with our addiction to social media in your emergency preparedness and you will have your students covered.  This means students studying in the library, or surfing the web on their laptop during a lecture, are sure to receive any important campus notifications during times when they may not have access to their mobile phones.

We have a lot of exciting things going on with AlertU right now, so be sure to stay tuned for exciting announcements in the coming months.