Unfollowing, Unliking & Unsubscribing – The Unholy Grail
Social media and e-mail marketing services company ExactTarget recently ran a report, The Social Break-Up, on why consumers decide to unfollow on Twitter, unlike on Facebook or unsubscribe from email communications.
As gleaned from the report by Mashable, here are a few key findings from the study:
91% of consumers have unsubscribed from opt-in marketing e-mails.
77% of consumers report being more cautious about providing their e-mail address to companies versus last year.
81% of consumers have either “unliked” or removed a company’s posts from their Facebook News Feed.
71% of consumers report being more selective about “liking” a company on Facebook than they were last year.
51% of consumers expect that a “like” will result in marketing communications from brands, while 40% do not believe it should result in marketing communications.
41% of consumers have “unfollowed” a company on Twitter.
This growing problem for marketers should be taken seriously, as all the hard work done engaging consumers with your brand can be undone with just one click. The bottom line here is that less, but more interesting communication is often far better than more, boring and unengaging tweets/updates/emails.
Read on over at Mashable.
Pics thanks to Mashable.
A Kuwaiti Blogger And The Streisand Effect
When prominent Kuwaiti blogger Mark Makhoul reviewed new eatery Benihana, he assumed he had the right to his opinions and the right to share those opinions with those who wanted to hear said opinions. Benihana disagreed, threatened to sue Mark in comment to his review and then followed through the threat with a claim for $18,000. The court date is in March.
Unsurprisingly, the story has spread across the internet like wildfire, providing far more negative PR for Benihana than one review ever could have. This is known as The Streisand Effect.
The Streisand Effect is a term coined in reference to Barbra Streisand’s attempt to sue an aerial photographer who had captured her mansion during his work photographing the Californian coast in 2003. Subsequently, the story (and therefore the picture in question) became news and hundreds of thousands of people had seen the photograph within a month.
There should be a clear and obvious message here. Unless defamatory and libellous (and perhaps even then)… just – leave – it – be. All brands receive bad press but most people won’t stumble across it, take it too seriously or even care. But give the impression that you’re overly precious, insecure or trying to silence your critics and the internet will jump all over you and cause more damage than one blogger who happened not to like your Hibachi chicken ever could.
Pic thanks to Ads2Blog.
New Research On Kids’ Online Habits
Some interesting new research has just been unveiled by Childwise about children’s computer usage, revealing that British kids spend an average of 1 hour 50 minutes online and playing computer games a day.
One of the biggest draws for young people is cited, unsurprisingly, as social networking. Stats suggest that kids are spending more time online than exercising, reigniting concerns that our nation’s future adults are turning into couch potatoes addicted to their laptops. Experts fear that children will stop playing outside with friends and will be disinterested in engaging with their families face-to-face.
The rising exposure to the internet has also been cited as a significant factor in the closure of teen magazine Sugar after 17 years, as its readers spend 75% of their time getting their celebrity and lifestyle gossip online rather than pay for it in print.
There are also fears from parents about their lack of ability to monitor what their children are looking at online. Facebook’s minimum age requirement of 13 is often ignored by parents who are happy to let their offspring have an account as long as it’s under their supervision, but with the explosion in popularity of smartphones and a massive 97% of children aged 11-16 owning a mobile, control is becoming increasingly tricky.
Check out this handy compendium of stats, c/o The Daily Mail:
Read on over at the Mail Online.
Pic thanks to the Mail Online.
Every SoundCloud Has A Silver Lining
SoundCloud, the music sharing website set up in August 2007, has continued its upward trajectory and confirmed its position as the most serious threat to MySpace’s music platform as a dynamic and agile alternative.
Recently securing a $10 million investment from VC firms Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures, SoundCloud has come far from its original, humble ambitions. The site was set up as a quick and usable place for industry types to publish their recordings and so reach their intended audience with the same, easy experience enjoyed by those sharing their photos through Flickr and those communicating their real-time musings through Twitter.
By May 2010, SoundCloud had passed one million subscribers and found itself as the destination of choice for both established and amateur producers alike, not to mention the huge number of casual users who browse the site to easily find new music they are looking for and new music they didn’t know they were looking for.
By assigning a specific URL to each upload, Soundcloud made the sharing of tracks across Twitter and Facebook a doddle and allowed the site to gain a march on MySpace. This, along with the ability to add comments to a specific point on a track or mixtape, has placed the site firmly in the ’social network friendly’ category that has been key to its success.
Revenue is only gained through the charging of premium users, so the site is able to offer an advert and cost-free experience for the majority of visitors.
Of course, this dramatic growth necessitates the issue of copyright rearing its head yet again. Expect further use of checksums (à la YouTube) to filter out blocked material, but don’t expect the increasing popularity of SoundCloud as the desired option for the music sharer to tail off just yet.
Article thanks to Music Ally.
Pic thanks to Soundcloud and SlothBoogie.
The Science Behind Getting More Retweets
Whether you’re microblogging for business or pleasure, there are few more satisfying things in Twitter land than getting a retweet. Not only does it demonstrate that what you’re saying has resonated with your followers, it also expands your reach to a much larger potential audience. So how do you go about upping your retweet count?
Well, it seems that’s a question that has interested the folks at Econsultancy too,who’ve pulled together some interesting suggestions.
Obviously the most important point is to make sure that what you’re saying is interesting enough in the first place, but there are a whole load of other factors that it’s worth considering if you want to maximise your chances of being retweeted, such as time of day (especially if you want to reach an international audience), the inclusion of links in your tweet (always good, and opt for bit.ly over tinyurl) and leaving enough space for people to add their own thoughts in (’so true’ or ‘LOL’, etc etc).
Check out the full rundown at Econsultancy’s blog
(and follow @All_Leo on Twitter too!).