metapeople Hong Kong

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.”

Percent of 2009 Inc. 500 Company interviewed that Monitored Brand on Social Media Sites.

2007 – 50% (- - -)

2008 – 60% (↑10%)

2009 – 68% (↑8%)

Source: UMASS Dartmouth, Social Media in the 2009 Inc 500: New Tools & New Trends

The popularity of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have led users to stop looking for coupon bargains in the newspapers, but online. In fact, people have been creating their own virtual community of bargain hunters.

Kelly Wallace, citing shopping experts, said social networking is guaranteed to save at least 15 to 20% on your shopping bill — and even as much as 30% if you’re really looking for bargains.

In these tough economic times, more and more people are using their computers to save money from all different kinds of discount/deals/offers. Last year, massive online marketing campaigns in Twitter with online deals had caused 1430% increase of Twitter users within a month. A great deal may just be a click away.

“Dell sold millions of dollars of computers using Twitter and social media, so it’s for all types of products.” The use of online coupons has jumped an astounding 172% between this year and last, according to Tiffany Ivanovsky, one of the “deals pro” who will offer tips and tricks on how to save for free in the social community portal.

30th Oct HK Bloggers night…

Bing announced a close to real time Twitter search integration, by yesterday Oct 21st, 2009. Google announced a similar deal with Twitter just a short time after. The difference between the two services is that bing is already able to search both - Facebook and Twitter. But it seems just a matter of time that Google will join the party.

However, Bing seems to be slightly ahead of Google with the integration of their web search in Facebook.

Internet executive of Microsoft, Mr. Qi Lu used the announcement to declare Microsoft’s search engine Bing would become the best way for finding out what people are saying in their “tweets.” The Bing search would be even better than Twitter’s own search with an even higher performance.

The Twitter messages consisting of no more than 140 characters can be posted from Internet-connected computers or mobile devices, enabling people to either share mundane details about their lives or intriguing news and comments from all over the world - a revolution and a challenge in Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization combination due to this announcement.

Right now, searching Twitter is probably much more informative and delivers more results because there are less Facebook users who agreed in making their account public. These security settings keep search engines from indexing private information.

Currently Facebook has an explicit agenda to change the setting due to more public Facebook activity makes deals like the one it made as Bing with Twitter much more valuable.

However, Google still needs Twitter data to combat with Facebook’s social dominance - Facebook is still five to ten times as big as Twitter is today.

Microsoft Advertising’s rockin’ annual event

Date: Wednesday 28th Oct 2009
Time: 2.30pm - 5.30pm
Location: Microsoft HK Ltd
Street: Pacific Place 3, 88 Queensway, Admiralty

metapeople is visiting the search engine startegies in New York right now. Getting the latest News from the US Market to keep you informed.