One of my goals this summer was to get more involved with Twitter and see how companies are using it. While I was researching the post about how a Wine Retailer is Using Twitter to reach a whole new audience I came across Rae Hoffman’s post titled “An Actual “Non Big Brand” Twitter Case Study”
Rae’s case study is about a a BlackBerry related website called BBGeeks . BBGeeks has had a Twitter account for around eight months now and has grown from zero to over 500 followers in that time. For a web site targeting a very niche market, this is pretty impressive.
Earlier this month, News Corp. said that Fox Interactive Media (FIM) generated $225 million in revenues in the quarter ended June 30, 2008, up 23% year over year. For the fiscal year 2008, FIM generated revenues of $856 million a little bit less than the $1 billion target News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch had set this time last year.
FIM consists of a number of Websites, including MySpace, AmericanIdol.com, PhotoBucket and FOXSports.com. News Corp. has never said publicly how much of FIM’s revenues come from MySpace, but the generally accepted estimate is 80%. That would put MySpace at about $685 million in revenues for the fiscal year (including both US and international).
Bin Ends located just down the road in Braintree, Massachusetts is a discount online wine and spirits retailer who has started to stream live online videos of wine tastings with pros that consumers can view via the Twitter social network
To watch a live tasting all you need to is create a profile on Twitter, then receive notifications of upcoming events via the social network. The wine tastings also are promoted on the retailer’s web site and through social networking site Facebook.
For a while, B2B social networks had struggled to get traction in a social networking dominated by B2C interactions. Well that appears to be changing according to some eMarketer projections
As more Business people are joining socia networks, more advertsing dollars are being spent on B2B networls. In the US this year, advertisers will spend $40 million to reach a business audience on online social networks, and that is just the beginning. According to eMarketer projections, that ad spending will reach $210 million in 2012.
Ben & Jerry’s is arguably the most social-conscience brand on the market today, so it is no surprise to hear that that they are venturing into the social media space. My only question is what took them so long?
Ben & Jerry’s mission has long been called “Peace, Love and Ice Cream” and their new social media campaign titled “Imagine Whirled Peace“combines the launch of a new flavor, “Imagine Whirled Peace,” and 2008’s Peace Day on Sept. 21.
Twitter uses are used top conveying their message in 140 characters or less. Well now Blippr has taken the Twitter concept and applied it to reviews of book, games, music and movies.
No longer do you have to sift through lengthy reviews to find out what someone thought about the Dark Night move. Paring a review down to 160 characters and a rating really forces reviewers to get to the essential appeal or flaw of the movie being reviewed. For instance, do you really need to know anything more about The Dark Night than “Heath Ledger… Man, he was so different than Nicholson. Not cruel and funny, but disturbing and terrifying. A great movie, great story. Can’t miss it.”.
Generation Y are those in the 18- to 28-year-old range and as you might imagine they are the most tech savvy of any generation. That means that if you are a company targeting this demographics that you need to be aware of what and how these twenty-something’s are using technology. Forrester recently released its 2008 North America Technographics Benchmark survey and here are some of the findings for the Generation X and Y group.
Generation Y Stats
- 90% of Gen Y own a computer (I would have expected it to be a little higher)
- 82% own a mobile phone
With banks struggling with rising mortgage and credit card defaults it is not a big surprise that some of them have turned to social networks as a way to attract attract younger consumers.
Information Week recently mentioned how Netherlands-based bank ING Direct has created their own social networking site called MoveOutMoveUp.com , aimed at first-time homebuyers, with community-oriented forums and advice pages under categories like “Oh Baby!” (for new parents) and “Moving in Together,” for prospective cohabitants.
