Marks and Spencers - 50k new targeted 'fans' added to Facebook page...

Using MessageMakers unique targeting software we added over 50,000 'fans' to the Marks and Spencer Facebook page. By scanning user profiles we found users that fitted Marks and Spencers 'target profile' and invited them to join the page. As the users choose whether to join the page themselves, the 'opt in' is extremely powerful and over 75,000 target profile users viewed the Marks and Spencers Facebook page following our invitation, with the guaranteed 50,000 joining in only 6mths.

This represents Facebook being used as a pro-active targeting medium, finding and introducing new users to the brand, rather than solely relying on organic growth which engaging mostly with users who already have a brand relationship.

www.facebook.com/marksandspencer

Altitude Luxury Travel

A luxury travel brand being solely promoted through Social Media, supported by other off-line activity. MessageMakers manage all daily posts - a mixture of holiday deals and travel blog-style info, designed to provide fans with unique idealised holiday ideas. Constant monitoring and fan interaction and the launch and management of a major holiday competition, designed to spread brand awareness virally across Facebook.

Additional design work added to the standard Facebook Page format includes a landing page, contact form, email signup form, special offer tab, additional side-wall, links.

Using MessageMakers unique targeting software we scan Facebook user profiles for users in certain UK based areas, their job profiles (targeting AB social-economic groups), and an interest in 'travel' or 'holidays', inviting them to join the page. We guarantee to add a minimum of 1000 new 'fans' each month, currently 3500 Facebook users are invited monthly to achieve the 1000 minimum.

www.facebook.com/altitudeluxarytravel

50% of Online retailers have NO Facebook Presence...

Facebook recently surpassed the 400 million active user mark on the eve of its 6th birthday. With such a huge number of users it wont be a surprise to know that more than 50% of the users, who buy goods online are now on Facebook. Furthermore, amongst the shoppers who participate in social media, 81% use Facebook.

With such a wealth of online shoppers using Facebook every day, one would be compelled to think that Facebook would be the number one choice for online retailers to market their goods and services. However, a recent study by ForeSee Results, show that only 25% of the top 100 online retailers have a formal facebook presence, where as another 25% have less than 10,000 fans on Facebook.

According to Kevin Ertell, vice president of retail strategy at ForeSee, this is an gross mistake, since most of the users who interact with retailers on Social media do so to either learn about special offers (49%) or get product details (45%).

With such bleak figures, there exists examples of some extremely social media savvy retailers. Starbucks, amongst others, has used timely and localized deals, such as “Become a fan to get a free coffee at your local Starbucks”, to aggressively promote its fan page on Facebook. As of today, Starbucks fanpage on Facebook has more than 5.7 million fans and is ranked amongst the top ten fanpages on Facebook.

The study recommends brands to “Get a Facebook Page!”, and ensure that the page is monitored and continuously updated with relevant deals and information.

Facebook on its part, should also try to better promote its offerings to brands. There is a serious need for a dedicated marketing team at Facebook that should target brands and advertisers to have a professional presence on Facebook.

posted by Bilal Hameed on www.allfacebook.com
www.messagemakers.co.uk

Duncan Bannatyne: Facebook and Twitter can improve Customer Service...

As social media takes off, many employers have seen the customer service potential of social-networking websites, writes Duncan Bannatyne in the Telegraph.

Some of you will know that I am a prolific Tweeter. I have a following of nearly 40,000 on Twitter and communicate with them regularly. Most of the time it's purely for fun but I also use the service to publicise charity projects and offer advice to young entrepreneurs.

As social media becomes increasingly popular, many employers have recognised the potential of using Twitter, Facebook and similar platforms to enhance the smooth running of their businesses, especially as an extension of customer service.

The ability to reach millions of people instantly and reduce waste at the same time can be a powerful combination for any company, but the key is how you use social media.

Having thousands of followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook is worthless for employers if you're only sharing the occasional comment or rubbish joke. On the other hand, regular and relevant information can enhance communication with customers and staff, saving businesses time and improving relationships in the process.

We use Twitter at Bannatyne's to communicate with customers, inform them of special offers, competitions, and even deal with the occasional complaint.

A few weeks ago we put a post on Twitter launching a competition to win a Bannatyne Universe Voucher, which can be used in our health clubs, spas or hotels. The question was simply: "Exactly where will I be having lunch today?' The response immediate. The winner was announced five minutes later.

That sort of real-time, two-way communication with customers is priceless and very different in nature from traditional "push" marketing email efforts. I think more businesses will use social networking rather than email as their preferred method of communication in the future – for interaction with staff and customers.

There are many staff issues that can be discussed in a public forum, and encouraging internal debate and interaction is positive for morale. Employers could create a Facebook group as a place to discuss office issues and allow all employees the chance to give their own views; none of the ideas proposed has to be implemented but the discussion itself is positive and there is the prospect of improvements to business.

If and when you are faced with a complaint, access and speed of response are vital. Too often customers are forced to wait on hold for ages as they try to speak to a human on a generic phone number.

Now big corporate companies like Vodafone and Virgin Media have started using social networking as a key part of their customer service; their Twitter feeds are dedicated to resolving technical problems as soon as possible.

Similarly, Bannatyne's customers can interact with staff on Twitter, but I also make a point of posting my own name and address on notice boards in my health clubs, so customers can contact me directly. If a customer complains to me, I get it sorted, and the same principle of easy access should apply to all businesses.

One of the greatest and continual challenges facing business leaders is to optimise their customer care and make sure they know what their customers want. Increasingly, people are craving quick information and immediate interaction; and social media, when used properly, can improve communication and extend a personal touch.

by Duncan Bannatyne
Duncan Bannatyne is the founder and chairman of Bannatyne Fitness and author of bestselling books Anyone Can Do It and Wake Up and Change Your Life.

www.messagemakers.co.uk

Facebook Pages Create More Loyal Customers: Case Study

Researchers at Rice University have published a report that examines the dollar value of Facebook fans on the sales of Dessert Gallery (DG), a Houston-based bakery and cafe chain.

The study found that Facebook fans became more loyal customers.

Facebook now has more than 400 million users, 200 million of which login to the site on a daily basis. In addition to this the social networking powerhouse has more than 3 million active pages, out of which 1.5 million are of local businesses. These 3 million active pages have more than 5.3 billion fans. In short, Facebook Pages have become the center of the Facebook marketing ecosystem. Despite the popularity of Pages, few reports have been produced which measure the effectiveness of the product. So what did this latest report find?

As part of the study, an email was sent out to 13,270 customers on DG’s mailing list to gather feedback about the store. Out of these 13,270 list members only 689 responded. After collecting initial feedback, the researchers created a Facebook fanpage for DG, which was updated regularly with pictures of goodies, news about contests and promotions, links to favorable reviews, and introductions to DG employees. The initial respondents were also asked to become a fan of DG on Facebook.

Three months into the study, feedback was gathered once again both from mailing list members and DG’s fans on Facebook. The results of the research showed that:

Customers who became a fan of DG on Facebook ended up being more loyal. Although they spent the same amount of money per visit, the frequency of their visits to DG increased. On an empirical scale, fans visited DG 20% more often then non-fans.

Fans were more likely to recommend DG to friends and had an average Net Promoter Score of 75, as compared to 53% for Facebook users who were not fans, and 66% for customers not on Facebook.

Fans had a higher emotional attachment to DG, 3.4 on a scale of 4, as compared to 3.0 for other customers.

However, there are some points of caution as well. According to the researchers, only 5% of the 13,000+ customers became a fan of DG on Facebook. This indicates that it’s harder to convert existing customers into Facebook fans. We would suggest that the company use their mailing list and other promotional channels to help increase the overall percentage of existing customers who become fans.

We also foresee future products that will enable customers to become fans of companies on the spot, which means the opportunity for instant engagement will be much greater in the near future. The message is clear: brands need to reach out to their customers who are already on Facebook and engage them via the site.

by Bilal Hameed, AllFacebook.com
www.MessageMakers.co.uk

Microsoft Outlook to integrate Facebook, MySpace, and Linkedin....

Microsoft is integrating social networking services, such as Facebook and MySpace, into the latest version of its desktop email program, Outlook, used by millions of office workers around the world.

Microsoft is working with both Facebook and MySpace to ensure that the social connector includes feeds from their sites . Photo: EPA

The technology company has launched a test version of the ‘Outlook Social Connector’, which is the add-on tool developed to allow users to pull in the latest feeds from their networks.

Yesterday, the beta software was updated to allow members of the business networking site LinkedIn, to have the latest updates pulled through to their Outlook accounts.

Microsoft is also working with both Facebook and MySpace to ensure that the social connector includes feeds from their sites – which Microsoft says will be ready in time for the next version of Office 2010, going on sale in June.

Outlook Officer group product manager, Dev Balasubramanian, said, on a video posted on Microsoft’s website: “It really is about bringing friends, family and colleagues into you inbox. As you communicate with them you can see their social activities; you can see all of the folks in your social network and it updates as you are reading your email.”

The LinkedIn plug-in allows its members using Outlook to see any status changes, contact information updates and link-ups going on between members. Elliot Shmukler, the network’s product manager, described Outlook as the “professional inbox” and said it was a clear match with the professional network.

The software update will be included in the latest version of Office 2010. However, those users with Office 2003 and 2007, can download the updated ‘Outlook Social Connector’ in beta to try out before making a purchase.

It will also allow Outlook to perform more like a social network itself. For example, if an email-sender and recipient are working on the same document, they can save it in a shared place, called the Sharepoint server, and then both will be able to see whenever one of them updates the material.

However, the technology does not allow Outlook users to push information out from their email program onto their various networks.

Will Kennedy, a corporate vice president for the Office group, told Associated Press, that some of Microsoft’s business customers are concerned that this will be a big distraction for their employees. But he remains confident that such additional tools will speed up and improve office communication and not have the opposite effect.

by Emma Barnett, Telegraph.co.uk
www.messagemakers.co.uk

Facebook privacy changes rolled out

Facebook users will be asked to adjust their privacy settings to ensure they are sharing photos and personal information only with the people they want to.

The 350 million members of Facebook, the world's biggest social-networking site, will be asked to review and update their privacy settings, as part of a drive to ensure people are sharing personal information only with approved contacts.

“Facebook is transforming the world’s ability to control its information online by empowering people to personalise the audience for each piece of content they share,” said Elliot Schrage, vice president of communications, public policy and marketing at Facebook. “We’ve always designed Facebook to enable people to control what information they share with whom – it’s the reason our service continues to attract such a broad and diverse group of users from around the world. We’re proud of the latest evolution we’re announcing today and we will continue to innovate to serve users’ changing needs.”

The social networking site said it was implementing the changes in response to requests "from both users and experts". Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder, announced the company's plans to refine the site's privacy settings, and do away with geographic networks, last week.

Over the coming days, users logging on to the site will be presented with a "transition tool", which will guide them through the process of reviewing and updating their privacy settings. New users will be encouraged to learn more about privacy once they complete the registration process and will have the opportunity to view a user guide that gives detailed information about privacy settings.

“One of our primary goals is to consistently improve Facebook and expand what our users can do through the site, and that includes providing them with new tools to help control their information,” said Chris Cox, vice president of product management. “The features we’re announcing today aren’t the end point, but are simply the latest step in our iterative process. Great suggestions helped us get here, and we look forward to the feedback that will help us develop the next innovation in privacy and user control.”

Facebook has been criticised in recent weeks for its failure to include a "panic button" on the site, which would allow users to instantly report abusive or inappropriate behaviour to the relevant authorities. Facebook said it did not believe this was the best solution to dealing with the problem of cyberbullying and internet grooming, and has sought alternative measures.

Under the new privacy scheme, the visibility of content created by minors – defined as those Facebook users aged 18 and under – will be limited to only those contacts labelled as "friends" or "friends of friends", or within a user's school or work networks, even if they set their profile so that it is visible to everyone on the site.