Event Recap: Social Media Grows Up

Submitted by Anonymous on 01/30/2012 / 0 Comments

It’s clear that businesses need to be online. By August, there will be 1 Billion Facebook users worldwide; while more than 75 percent of Americans are currently active members on this social media powerhouse. Moreover, e-commerce is growing amidst economic downturn with a consecutive eight quarters of 9 percent or above growth. As marketers, we realize that it’s crucial to have a presence on social media, but is there a convergence between social media and e-commerce?

Well, last week, local social media superstar, Ponara Eng, shared his insight on monetizing social media during a morning Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association session called,
“Secrets Revealed: Social Media Grows Up”. Ponara, who serves as the resident Social Commerce Strategist at 8thBridge, Inc., answered the all-important question CFOs ask and social media specialists defend, “Is social media profitable?”

Here are some key points Ponara shared in his hour-long discussion:

- A Facebook “Like” is typically a post-purchase action; the real juice lies in the “Share.” In fact, every share is worth $530 on Ticketmaster, 252 on Eventbrite, and reviews are even higher.

- The new Facebook update, EdgeRank, has reduced impressions, so only 4-7 percent of your social networks sees a post at any given time.

- Facebook serves as a major traffic referrer.

- Open graph is “word of mouth at scale”.

In addition to sharing the value and opportunities to increase sales through social media, Ponara provided foresight into what’s next in social media e-commerce.

- Social media buttons will go on steroids.

- Social media buttons will evolve to not just “Tweet” or “Like,” but will progress to “Want” or “Need.” Open graph associations will morph into multiple adjectives --like “attended,” “wearing,” “ate,” and “stayed at.”

- Interest graphs will exceed social graphs, and businesses will tailor their marketing to meet the personalized interest and desires of users.

- Marketers will put more and more of an emphasis on rewarding authority

- Businesses will mimic Facebook’s interface on their own websites, and create micro-communities of users.

- Social media will continue to be the lifeblood of society as a social and economic platform.

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Allie Gray Freeland is Director of Marketing Communications at LuckyShot Media. Allie earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota and has more than five years of marketing communications experience. Reach her via LinkedIn.