New Nielsen Study: Consumers trust recommendations from peers above all other forms of advertising – ZuberRants

A new study by Nielsen found that consumers are indeed losing faith in paid media and looking to their friends for brand recommendations more than ever before. It is now crucial that brands get their Advocates to venture out on the social web and recommend on their behalf.

Google+ Redesign: Here’s What’s New – Mashable

Google’s social network got a redesign that makes it prettier and easier to navigate. “It accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google,” Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra argued in a blog post announcing the redesign.

Foursquare and Tumblr Move to Capture Ad Revenue – Forbes

Nobody has Cracked the Engagement Code. As much as social networks would like brands to think that their targeting abilities will mean a greater return on investment, an 8% drop in ad engagement on Facebook in the last quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, shows us that the “secret code” to reaching the online audience in a meaningful way has yet to be cracked.

Amazon and eBay Add Pinterest Buttons – ClickZ

Retail is inherently visual, so it comes as no surprise that two of the biggest online sellers – Amazon and eBay – have added Pinterest buttons to product pages.

LinkedIn Rolls Out New Targeted Follower Tools for Marketers – Business Insider

LinkedIn will launch two new functions for companies who have followers on LinkedIn, both of which will be of interest to marketers and advertisers: “Targeted Updates” and “Follower Statistics.”

Are you a business owner? How important is Word of Mouth in promoting your products / services? Most likely your answer is VERY IMPORTANT!

And you are not alone. Three years of working with Enterprise Customers have given Zuberance enough experience and data to unequivocally state that the most satisfied customers a Business has, their Brand Advocates, are extremely important for their success; Data from a recent study tells us that:

• 30% of Brand Advocates recommend once a week or more
• Brand Advocates recommend across many categories; the most popular are Technology (25%), Restaurants (15%) Household Items (10%), Travel (7%)
• Brand Advocates have Social Networks that are larger than average (300-600)
• Brand Advocates recommend consumer (67%) and business (31%) products
• When a Brand Advocate recommends he/she prompts the recipient to consider (61%) and buy (22%)

We deeply believe in the power of Brand Advocacy and the benefits it can bring to your business. In order to make these benefits available more broadly we are releasing Zuberance Self Service (Beta).

In a nutshell: Zuberance Self Service allows any business to identify their most satisfied customers, their Brand Advocates, and then energize these Advocates to generate online reviews and share offers with their social networks. All of the activities are tracked so impact is clearly understood and messaging / offers can be optimized. Zuberance Self Service compiles best practices Zuberance has gathered through three years of catering to Enterprise Brands.

Zuberance Self Service is completely free during the Beta, after the Beta period is over Zuberance Self Service will be free for any company up to 200 Advocates identified; and then charged in a tiered subscription model based on the number of Advocates in the program.

Through the next few months we will be adding more features and capabilities, we look forward to receiving your comments and feedback (please use our online community.)

-Filiberto Selvas, VP of Product, Zuberance

Twitter Adds Embeddable Tweets: 8 Creative Ways to Leverage Them – Social Media Examiner

Embedded tweets allow you to take a tweet or a conversation and post it on your website or in a blog post. You can use this feature to share your Twitter conversation with a larger audience. Read this post to learn how to leverage this new feature in 8 creative ways.

Facebook Adds Yahoo Patent Lawsuit to IPO Filing – Mashable

Facebook updated its $5 billion initial public offering (IPO) filing this week to include the details about its patent battle with Yahoo. This is the third time Facebook has amended its S-1 form. The list of lawsuits against the company seems to grow as the company gets closer to becoming a publicly traded company, which is expected to happen by May.

Google to Launch Third-Party Commenting Platform to Rival Facebook – The Next Web

Google is about to launch a new commenting system that will tie into the search giant’s Google+ platform, web services and web search, a source close to the product’s development confirmed with The Next Web. The Google comment system, which will almost certainly rival that of Facebook, will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and most significantly, the system will be available for use on third party sites.

Twitter Rewind: Big Highlights From 2012 to 2006 – Mashable

Six-year-old Twitter is a remarkably different animal than it was when co-founder Jack Dorsey sent the service’s first tweet in March 2006: “just setting up my twttr,” he wrote. To keep the social media powerhouse intact as more people, celebrities and world leaders find their roles in the birdcage, Twitter has evolved its aesthetics, functionality and business model. In this post, Mashable gathered the best moments in Twitter’s eventful existence to help you reminisce.

New Study: Men Seek Online Product Reviews and Tell Their Friends About Their Findings – eMarketer

A new study by Men’s Health magazine and GfK Roper found that men not only compare prices online and read consumer reviews, but they also tell their friends when they learn something positive about a brand or product online. These online shopping activities are significantly higher for product categories like tech, auto, food/cooking, and more.

Facebook to Start Placing Ads in User News Feeds in January – AdAge

Facebook will feature its “Sponsored Story” ad units in users’ news feeds starting next month, giving marketers a more prominent foothold in the social network. The move is seen as an important step toward Facebook’s goal of delivering ads to its huge mobile-user base, and perhaps ultimately to third-party websites. “We really see Facebook becoming the operating system of the Internet for ad delivery in the future,” says ad executive Dave Williams.

Most Top Brands Have Google+ Pages, But Few Have Many Followers - Mashable

At this point, most of the top brands have Google+ brand pages, but only a fraction of them are getting many visitors, according to two research firms.

Foursquare Gros to 15 million Users, More Than Tripling its Community in the Last 12 Months – Econsultancy

This marks a year of strong growth for Foursquare, during which it secured $50m of venture capital funding  that put a value of around $600m on the company. A blog post by co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadural said the cash would allow Foursquare to “move more quickly”, and the new membership stats suggest it has worked.

Twitter Joins Facebook, Google, Launches ‘Brand Pages’ for Marketers – AdAge

Twitter’s existing brand pages have been under the radar, especially compared with the buildup around Google+ brand pages, which were launched last month. But Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain said that he’s spent the better part of the past year meeting with chief marketing officers, and brand pages were a recurring and frequent request.

Instagram Becomes the Largest Mobile Social Network – Socialfresh

Instagram added 2 million new users last month. Everyone seems to love the fast growing app (only available on iPhone for now).

Foursquare’s Revamped Website Could Challenge Yelp – Mashable

Foursquare announced recently it roll out a redesigned website that could challenge local review sites such as Yelp, Urbanspoon and Zagat. The company’s website has historically followed the functions and layout of its checkin-service mobile apps, but now will feature its own discovery features.

YouTube Tests Redesign Highlighting Google+ Videos, Subscriptions, and More – The Next Web

Besides the generally updated look, one of the more important changes here is the focus this redesign will put on shared content from Google+. This move should take Google one step closer towards extending the social platform more heavily into each of its products.

Like Twitter, Google+ Now Has Trending Topics - Techcrunch

Google quietly added a trending topics section to Google+ recently which now shows up when you perform a search on the social network. The new “Trends” section appears on the right-hand side of the page, and currently lists the top 10 items under heavy discussion like “Natalie Wood” and “Breaking Dawn,” for example.

Study Shows That Early Adopters of Social Media Have Captured Real Economic Value – Michael Brito’s Blog

Business consulting firm, Bain & Company, released a report in September and concluded that early adopters of social media (Dell, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, JetBlue and American Express) have captured real economic value from their budget investments. The report also give some concrete advice for companies that are unsure about their investments and the value that social media can bring.

Zuckerberg: Facebook ‘Made a Bunch of Mistakes’ on Privacy – Mashable

Facebook has agreed to a settlement with the FTC over charges that the social network had deceived its users about privacy. The FTC had accused Facebook in an eight-count complaint of not living up to its own promises. Among them: sharing users’ personal information with third parties without their knowledge or consent, changing privacy practices without informing users, and claiming to have a program to verify the security of apps when it didn’t.

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

Are Location-Based Ads on Foursquare’s Radar? - Adweek

A new option from Foursquare would, with a user’s permission, automatically report the user’s location near a designated spot or let the user know when friends are nearby. Foursquare Radar would relieve users of the need to call up the application and check in when they arrive at a destination. It could also provide a “geo-fencing” solution for businesses to reach out to potential customers in the area.

70% of Companies Ignore Customer Complaints on Twitter - Convince & Convert

Despite increasing numbers of customers using Twitter to publicly complain about brands, the vast majority of companies respond in the exact same way….with the quiet of contempt. New research from Maritz and Evolve24 of 1,298 Twitter complainants found that only 29% of those tweet gripes were replied to by the companies in question.

New Study: Consumers Go Online to Verify Product Recommendations – ZuberRants

A recent study by Cone Communications found that many consumers go online to seek additional information about products they’re considering purchasing as well as to verify recommendations they’ve received from their peers. This study truly highlights why it’s important that brands continuously drive their most enthusiastic customers to where prospects are seeking online product information.

LinkedIn’s New Features- a Lot Like Facebook & Twitter with More Opportunities for Marketers - Social Media Today

Thanks to the recent updates, admins of company profiles on LinkedIn can post real, honest-to-goodness status updates and actually include a link! This is very exciting for now all updates you make to your company status will appear on your follower’s LinkedIn home page. Your followers will have the option to Like, Share or Comment on your status update and in turn this “engagement” will also be seen by all of your followers’ respective networks, providing your company, your brand with a whole new and expanded audience.

Google+ Traffic Falls 60% From Post-Launch Highs - Mashable

Traffic to Google+ spiked 1,200% in the first few days following its public launch Sept. 20, but has since plummeted by 60%, according to a report from a data analytics company.

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

Google+ Now Lets You Share Your Circles With Others – The Next Web

Obviously if you’ve created a master circle of funny people or tech bloggers, they’re perfect to share with a friend. If you’ve created a circle of ex-girlfriends, perhaps you won’t want to share that. This is very similar to Twitter’s list feature, and of course Facebook’s latest list upgrades.

Crack the Facebook Marketing Code: How to Overcome EdgeRank – ZuberRants

EdgeRank + Facebook updates = a big time marketing headache. What’s a social media strategist to do? Instead of spending time figuring out how to crack the EdgeRank algorithm, why not focus on a more scalable and valuable approach to Facebook marketing: getting your super fans to spread content for you.

Facebook Launches “People Talking About This” Metric, Premium Ad Unit & More – Search Engine Land

Facebook is launching a new “People Talking About This” metric for fan pages this week, designed to show conversations happening about a brand or page owner across the web. It’s part of an upgraded Page Insights tool. Also released is a new Page Insights API tool.

Social Business isn’t a theory, buzz word, or “The Next Big Thing.” It’s an evoultion! – Michael Brito

Social Business is simply a natural business evolution. It’s why companies like Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG and others have been in business and profitable for several decades, and in some cases, over 100 years.  They help companies change behavior, improve processes and expand into new markets because the dynamic nature of business is consistently changing.

Facebook Users Beware: Facebook’s New Feature Could Embarass You – Mashable

If you didn’t watch Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook announcements last week — and of course the vast majority of Facebook users did not — you may be in for a surprise. Aside from the dramatically redesigned Facebook Timeline profile pages, which roll out in the coming weeks (and which I’ve grown to love), Facebook’s new system to auto-share what you do around the web may catch many Facebook addicts off guard.

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

LinkedOut: Another Social Network Opt-Out Draws Fire – WSJ

It seems that privacy questions about social-networking sites are the new black. This time, some customers are expressing concern about LinkedIn, the job-networking site that had its IPO last month. At issue, a two-month-old site tweak that can turn members from ordinary career networkers into brand cheerleaders with their profile photo and name popping up in related advertising.

Social Media Hierarchy of Effects and ROI - Social Media Today

We all know that Brand Advocates are actively promoting your brand to their network, but how did they get there? This article explains the hierarchy, or the funnel, of the social network and its effects.  If a brand nurtures the relationship through the stages in the funnel then hopefully they find a Brand Advocate who can help with positive ROI.

Foursquare Gets into the Crowdsourced Curation Game With Tip Lists – TechCrunch

Up until now your Foursquare Tips have sort of roamed free on the app, without rhyme or reason or real incentive to add more. The company is now trying to improve on the Tips experience and get users to fancy themselves local experts. After all, you must know something about some place in the city you live in right?

6 Ways Google+ is Winning (and Losing) - AdAge

PepsiCo’s Shiv Singh, shares the pro’s and cons of Google+. He’s still trying to figure out if this network will become an add-on or a replacement to his current digital habits. To him, Google+ has the best of Facebook and the best of Twitter you have the ability to broadcast and select closed groups who should receive that broadcast. So is it meant to be a bridge between the two but do we really need that?

Restaurant Groupies Are Valuable to Companies – Star-Telegram

Call it fanaticism or simply dedication, but these are the ultra-enthusiastic fans that every restaurant craves. Restaurant groupies have always been around, but they’re more valuable at a time when the economy forces consumers to choose carefully when they eat out, and a few online posts can inform thousands.

-Cara Fuggetta, Marketing Manager, Zuberance

5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts of Effective Word of Mouth Marketing  - Cara Fuggetta 
An article for the SocialTimes summarizing key takeaways from our New York Brand Advocacy Series panel discussion.

Social Media Revolution: 2011 Edition
Another Erik Qualman video that’s chock full of social media stats, 2011 edition.

Social Media Becoming Social Business - HBR- David Armano 
Social Media is turning into Social Business to most organizations.  Harvard Business Review suggests that there are areas of Social Business that are poised to explode: Organizational Design, Social Business Intelligence, and Cultures of Collaboration, Co-Creation & Shared Value.  Social Media and Social Business must be linked – the expectation for real-time responses is only increasing.

13 Startups that Wowed Us
Catalyst S+F’s Jim Nichols offers a list of companies that appear to have the stuff to move the needle for marketers.

Small Businesses That Understand Social Media
At this point, it is almost irresponsible to not have a social media presence as part of your marketing mix.  However, many businesses continue to be behind the trend.  This NY Times article highlights two small businesses who are successfully harnessing their social media.  Their approaches are interesting, inexpensive, effective, and easy to reproduce.

-Lucy Arnold, Marketing Intern, Zuberance

I have to admit I was pretty skeptical when I heard about Google Plus. I thought to myself, Google only has so many Gmail users. Will they really be able to get non-Gmail users to sign up just for Google+? Well, here are some pretty impressive stats:

• Gmail has 170M users (as of 2010). Google Plus has 10 million users and claims that 2 million of those users were new and signed up in a matter of 32-34 hours. That equates to 17 people per second.

I don’t know about you, but that growth rate is staggering.

Now consider Facebook.

• By the end of 2006 they had 12 million users and grew to 50 million by the end of 2007. Using the same math, they grew roughly 1.2 people per second.

Now, I’m not trying to predict that Google Plus may or may not grow to exceed Facebook, but the initial growth seems to indicate that Google Plus has the potential to grow like wildfire.

A logical person might argue that “joining” doesn’t necessarily mean “using”, so consider this:

1. Facebook claims over 30 billion pieces of content are shared each month.
2. Larry Page claimed on last week’s investor call that over 1 billion pieces of content were being shared and received on Google Plus every day. That’s the equivalent of Facebook with only a FRACTION of the users.

Consider the implications:

1. +1 Button: Social recommendations are going to take on a whole new life. What our friends and families recommend will proliferate one of the biggest channels we use to find information: Google. According to Page, the +1 button, with a limited release, has been clicked on 2.3 billion times a day.
2. Circles: Circles will allow us to do what we’ve really wanted to do all along. Merge our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. The fundamental flaw with Facebook? I don’t want a business contact to see how hammered I looked at my girlfriend’s bachelorette party last weekend.  The genius of Facebook? I am so ridiculously pleased to connect to friends that I would have never been able to find by any other means. If you give me that all in one place. I’m sold. As a consumer, it’s convenient. As a marketer, it’s powerful.
3. Hangouts: Page says that hangouts will allow “serendipitous interactions”.  Now I haven’t used it so I can’t say how or if it is better than either Foursquare or Facebook, but I’m fairly certain at least half of my friends don’t care that I’m at the Forrester Marketing Forum, but my “marketing” circle will.
4. Coupons: Imagine being able to serve up specific deals based on specified interests. Now I like Groupon, but segmenting based on geography isn’t exactly relevant. And for those advertisers out there, it’s just a “spray and pray” approach to offering up specials.

I don’t know about you, but this time Google has me intrigued. As a consumer I’m interested in the possibilities. As a marketer, I’m salivating.

-Angela Sanfilippo, Senior Director of Marketing, Zuberance