It should come as no surprise that 97% of the top 250 internet retailers have a Facebook presence.

However, did you realise that 61% of them have a Pinterest account? Or that just 67% are on Google+?

Social analytics firm Campalyst has pulled together this infographic to reveal how the top internet retailers use social media.

It uses data for the top 250 e-tailers from Internet Retailer’s top 500 from 2011.

It includes the average number of fans and followers, as well as breaking down who is performing best on each different network.

Obviously there is more to social media marketing than simply clocking up millions of fans, but it’s certainly a good place to start.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

How Stockr Plans to Change Financial Social Media
The company is going to launch an advertising model, described by Jindal as 'Google AdSense for investor relations'. Through the use of targeted ads on Stockr – based on end-user demographic information – IROs will be able to put their companies in …
Read more on Business 2 Community

Today, LinkedIn launched its inaugural Financial Services Summit in New York which focused on the role social media is playing in the financial services industry. The first panel brought together representatives from American Express, Citi, Fidelity Investments, Prudential Retirement and Hearsay Social to talk about using social media in financial marketing.

It was curious to see a panel on social media where only two out of six individuals on the panel have Twitter accounts. One was Clara Shih, who runs the agency Hearsay Social, and the other, Frank Eliason, SVP of Social for Citi. The panelists’ lack of Twitter accounts felt like a microcosm highlighting how most financial service organizations are behind in social media.

Not that Twitter is the be all and end all of social media, it is a communication channel for 140 million active users. Saying that, in LinkedIn’s new findings released today, financial advisors are mainly reaching out to prospective clients on LinkedIn with Twitter only used by 8% of them. Even brand identity building primarily takes place on LinkedIn over Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for those working in an advisory capacity.

Though the panelists did mention communication on all platforms, a lot of the issues they are facing aren’t about where the conversations are taking place. It’s rather that financial institutions need to put customers at the center of their decisions as well as enable their employees to do the same.

Below are a few of the key takeaways from each of the panelists. These points could be taken across any organization, especially those who have to deal with compliance issues and regulatory bodies:

Clara Shih, CEO, Hearsay Social

There are two main things that Shih highlighted about how social media is shifting the way financial services market themselves:

1) Proliferation of online identity where people freely sharing what they do, who they are, etc. is very valuable for the financial world. When people get married or have a career change, these are great triggers for financial services discussion and this is when financial advisors and institutions need to reach out to customers.

2) The online social graph (social networking) shifted us from a base founded in search. Today the way we get information is discovery based with more links coming from social media than Google now. Shih stressed that Twitter is mainly used for retail, customer service, offers and deals, Facebook is a perfect place for retail cards and insurance and LinkedIn is used most by ultra high worth individuals. It’s more than a social graph, it’s a decision graph. We need to figure out how consumers use connections and rich information to make the best choice for them and give them the facility to do it.

Most importantly, we have to find a way to enable the advisors, whatever the device they are on and wherever they are. We’ve seen this movie play before many times before. There was a time when it took convincing to get employees to get computers and email. We’ve proven what can be done with technology so once we can ensure compliance, we have to look at ROI.

Kara Segreto, CMO, Prudential Retirement

Segreto is seeing a real trend to shift to more thought leadership with the generation of enough content to completely regenerate and be one step ahead. You also need to commit as a whole institute or it won’t work. There has been a shift from spending time with sales and product to spending more time with technology and tech law and compliance. There’s also been a shift in media mix and spends and financial institutions need to have an integrated approach to the market place.

Audrey Hendley, General Manager, New Customer Acquisition, American Express

Social Media has provided a greater opportunity for deeper engagement with customers at American Express. Social media amplifies brand messaging across different customer touch points and aids with customer service, engagement and retention. It is looking to engage more with small businesses and American Express puts on Small Business Saturday once a year to engage with customers and the community. Hendley stressed that it’s important to know who you are talking to and and correlate your messaging and content to that audience. The more connected customers are to the brand, the more they will use it.

Sean Belka, SVP Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, Fidelity Investments

The goal at Fidelity Investments is to help customers achieve big goals. 20 years ago meant calls and mail, then web and email. Social media is part of the large evolution to be where the customers are. We need to look at technology and try to figure out how that will help your customers. Think – is this going to help them in their financial lives? It’s less about the channel and more about what the customers need.

People want to aggregate multiple sources when making a financial decision instead of a single source like they did in the past. How do we enable that and bring that all together in a low cost way? One of the things Fidelity brought to market in the last year, was to enable customers to deposit checks through their mobile. This way the company can be where the customers are, make it easier for them and create new opportunities.

Frank Eliason, SVP Social Media, Citi

For Citi, social media shifted the control. Now the control is more in hands of the customer and the hands of your employee. This is changing the culture at all companies and we’re forced to be more open. This openness will help build the trust that is lacking in the financial world at the moment.

The huge thing that is under discussed is how we can help facilitate conversation. How can financial institutions listen in the space and understand what is happening in all brands in the marketplace. They then need to take this information to see where they can change things internally. Also how do you build that trust and build those communities? Traditionally, financial services was about community and relationships and that is what social is. Ultimately, you have to find ways to connect the dots. It’s not about the brand, it’s about finding out more about your customers.

In the financial services world, we need to shift from the product perspective and look how customers are using it and doing it. All social spaces are different. First, you need to listen in each space and then ask customers where to communicate, what they want and then keep adapting as the platform adapts. At first everything may be cool with how a platform is used and then elements may not, so you need to adjust accordingly.

A big problem is that most financial firms push messages out and no one cares. We have to remember it’s about human dialogue. When you’re dealing with compliance, traditionally it’d take 3 days to have approval but taking three days to approve something makes for really funny Twitter conversations. To help with this, Citi has 2 social lawyers.

As for trying to stop employees from speaking online, you can’t. They are speaking there and they are connecting to other people. This is not a bad thing, we just have to start doing it in the right way. Regulators are just as confused in this space as financial services are so we need to have the conversation with them. This is important as the real world has changed since the time regulatory laws were first created in 1929. Now is the time to rethink them.

Posts from the Econsultancy blog

• Identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions 
• Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs

The Overview report allows you to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from your social channels. The Social Value visualization compares the number and monetary value of all your goal completions against those that resulted from social referrals – both as last interaction, and assisted.

A visit from a social referral may result in conversion immediately or it may assist in a conversion that occurs later on. Referrals that lead to conversions immediately are labeled as Last Interaction Social Conversion. If a referral from a social source doesn’t immediately generate a conversion, but the visitor returns later and converts, the referral is included as an Assisted Social Conversion. 

Conversions Report: which goals are being impacted by social media

Social Sources – find out how visitors from different sources behave

The Social Sources report shows engagement and conversion metrics for each social network so you can see how people are interacting with your content and whether it’s leading to a desired outcome.

Social Plugins: find the content that’s good enough to share

Google Analytics Blog

Global drinks giant Diageo, custodian of iconic brands such as Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo, Guinness and Moet & Chandon found itself at the centre of a public relations storm this week after it was alleged that they unfairly intervened at an annual drink industry awards event to prevent a rival from picking up an award.

Independent Scottish brewer, BrewDog claimed that the drinks giant Diageo had brought undue pressure to bear on the organizers of the event to override the decision of the judges to give them an award, allegedly stating that ‘under no circumstances could BrewDog be allowed to win’.

According to BrewDog, despite the fact that the judges had already made their decision and had their name engraved on the trophy, a Diageo executive attending the event, on learning of the decision, threatened to pull any future sponsorship of the event if Brewdog was announced the winner.

Since then a number of sources seem to confirm BrewDog’s story and Diageo’s subsequent apology. 

The storm has left many of us working in digital media wondering what on earth the Diageo executive in question was thinking. Perhaps he or she had become emboldened by Dutch courage brought about by a drink or two during the evening’s festivities? Veterans of awards dinners know that these events can sometimes get a little ‘lively’ and this one was held in Glasgow after all…

Whatever the rationale, it seems that someone decided that presenting an award to these young upstarts was beyond the pale. What happened next is textbook example of the kind of David and Goliath spat that usually ensues when a large corporation gets caught out bullying a plucky new kid on the block in the blinding spotlight of social media.

Ever true to its often provocative and, some might argue, inflammatory house style, BrewDog posted an exposé on its blog tilted ‘Diageo screw BrewDog’ 

BrewDog are well known and in some circles openly admired for its guerilla tactics and no stranger to courting controversy.  Its 32% “Tactical Nuclear Penguin” beer caused a bit of a stir when it was released, but the truly staggering sequel “Sink the Bismarck,’ tipping the alcoholic scales at an eye watering 41%, really outraged Daily Mail readers who rather predictably thought that it was a “cynical marketing ploy that would corrupt our nations youth and put otherwise responsible citizens instantly over the drink-drive limit.”

The fact that this particular tipple is ‘something of an acquired taste’ isn’t really the point. It challenged the status quo and upset the establishment. All this is perfect halo marketing for their core business of brewing beers that are actually very drinkable. Many would agree they are also doing a fine job of promoting the craft beer sector as a counterpoint to the homogenized conveyor belt of industrially manufactured beers that line supermarket shelves and dominate chain pubs.

Poking at the establishment

BrewDog seem to revel in their ‘under dog’ status and their marketing translates much of that of missionary zeal into prodding and provoking the establishment. This is something that successful self-publicists, spinmeisters and stunt marketers know is a pre-requisite for a challenger brand bereft of the vast marketing dollars of the major corporations. 

Sir Richard Branson knows a thing or two about this sort of thing from his younger days. Just look at who came out best from the ‘dirty tricks’ affair with British Airways all those years ago or how he reacted to the BBC’s decision to deny the Sex Pistols the number one spot when they were signed to his record label, despite the fact that they were clearly selling the most records. 

These things rarely end well for large corporations once the smart guerilla marketers have painted them as the bullies. In today’s connected world, it’s never a good idea for a large and immobile conglomerate to cross swords with a brand that has so many digitally savvy brand advocates ready to take up virtual arms against the big corporations.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the hastag #andTheWinnerIsNot was trending worldwide on Twitter and within a few hours someone had already updated Diageo’s Wikipedia page with a reference to the controversy. To make matters worse, some people online had spotted, rather amusingly, that Diageo’s CEO Paul Walsh has been speaking at the Ethical Corporation’s Responsible Business Summit yesterday. Presumably his talk didn’t extend to the ethics of jury tampering.

What would you do if you were the event organizer?

Those of us suits who deal with the sordid money side of running a business might spare some sympathy for the event organizers, in particular Kenny Mitchell, Chairman of the BII. Threatened with the loss of a major revenue stream, he was under an extraordinary amount of pressure. Anyone in the events business knows how important a major sponsor is. Someone has to pay for the drinks, don’t they? 

Rory Sutherland joked about something similar in a Ted talk when said that he was flattered to be invited to speak at such a worthwhile event. He usually worked for Ted’s lesser-know sister organisation, “Ted Evil” (aka the advertising industry) that meets every 4 years in Burma but is the one that secretly pays all the bills because they have clients who actually spend money. All of which, of course, raises the question how easy is it to have an awards event that is completely free from the commercial influence from the sponsors? Money talks after all.

When Econsultancy asked BrewDog founder, James Watt for his view on the options open to the events organizers faced with the possibility of losing their major sponsor he responded:

The BII’s honesty in admitting the issue to us was refreshing – I can see they were in a very difficult position…Diageo’s actions are shameless, misguided and embarrassing. This is clear evidence of the dirty tricks used by global corporations to derail young competitors they fear. We are often criticised for suggesting big businesses do not play fair in this industry, yet this is another clear indication that some organisations feel they are big enough to be kingmakers, controllers of everyone else’s fate. It’s essential to bring this to the public attention to show Diageo’s true colours: once you cut through the glam veneer of pseudo corporate responsibility this incident shows them to be a band of dishonest hammerheads and dumb ass corporate freaks.

According to The Drinks Business, Diageo have been forced to issue an apology, stating that; “There was a serious misjudgment by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Award, which does not reflect in anyway Diageo’s corporate values and behavior.’ 

Hopefully Diageo have learned a lesson from their painful experience, although no doubt we’ll see them distance themselves from the executive in question. Apart from that person’s distasteful act of threatening financial sanctions on the events organizers, their next biggest mistake here was failing to do the due diligence on the recipient of their disdain.

Given BrewDog’s social media following and the nature of the way they have built their brand, how could they have not realized that there was a good chance that their bite would be just as damaging as their bark?

Posts from the Econsultancy blog