metapeople Hong Kong

“You mean, there’s a face-to-face side of this whole Twitter thing?” local blogger asked me recently. Yes, called Tweetup!

What is tweetup? According to the oxford dictionary, it is a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.

Tweetup HK is basically a meetup organized for all Hong Kong Twitter users to meet and connect in real life. So basically everyone with a Twitter account is welcomed.

A shift in Social Media Measurement expectation is significant in 2010; CMOs indicate a 300% year-over-year increase in the number of companies that plan to measure social media’s impact on conversion and a 400% increase in the number of companies that will track social media’s direct impact on revenues.

According to a recent survey by retail research organization NPD Group in Canada, found consumers plan to spend no more in 2009 than they did one year ago, during the global recession. Consumers trying to do their holiday shopping on a budget are being targeted this year, more than ever before, by viral marketing through social-media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as businesses try to find new ways to connect with customers.

Chain Retailers like Walmart and Home Depot gave exclusive offers and discounts to followers of their own Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s just one example of how holiday marketing is melding with new media. Sports retailer Golf Town, has launched what the company calls its “most aggressive social media initiative to date” for the holiday season: the “12 Tweets of Christmas” campaign, featuring a dozen exclusive deals for its online followers on the micro-blogging website Twitter in the lead-up to Dec. 25th.

“Marketing budgets are smaller than they were a year ago, and social-media marketing work generally takes more time than money,” says Darren Barefoot, co-author of the book Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook. “The consumer really wants information and that’s the thing that the web does really well. . . . The best retailers are going to be using that really smartly to get people into their stores.”

In recent years the first Monday of December (now we called Cyber Monday) has become the busiest day for online shopping, with consumers scouting for the best deals over the Black Friday Sales before making their decision on the Monday. In November of 2005 the New York Times reported the name Cyber Monday grew due to the millions of American workers who returned to work after the Thanksgiving Day holiday and proceeded to flood the internet and began shopping online while at the office or when they got home.

According to industry body for online retailers - ReD (Retail Decisions in Britain), Britain has experienced its busiest online shopping day ever as part of Cyber Monday, spent a combined total of £33 million, a year-on-year increase of 21 per cent.

As online marketing & optimization play an important role in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in present opportunities to purchase wisely. Studies in US have shown that sales spike every Monday after Thanksgiving:

Silver Surfers (65 yrs old and older) spend 1 hour a day online-focusing on price comparisons

African Americans make up 89% of online shoppers spending 1 hour on the internet shopping for automobiles and electronics.

Baby Boomers search more than 75% of the time for automobiles, appliances and electronics.

“With more and more consumers taking advantage of the convenience and price savings available online, it is no surprise that today sees the highest sales ever online in a single day. As shoppers go online to bag the Christmas bargains our latest research discovered that nearly three quarters of internet shoppers would be doing half or more of their total Christmas shopping online.” Said David Smith, Director of Operations in IMRG.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia thinks the most important changes ahead will be forged by the “next billion people coming online, mainly in India and China.”

Black Friday Sales Gains Higher Online than in Stores: Internet sales increase up to 11% from a year ago to $595 million, according to Comscore. A total of five sites attracted for than four million visitors each, including tech-specific Best Buy Sites and Apple.com Worldwide Sites along with Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target.