College Grads Say Salary Is Less Important than Facebook Freedom at Work

By on November 9, 2011   /   Businesses, Digital Marketing, Education, Emineo Media, Facebook, Research   /   Leave a comment
Emineo Media Cisco Survey College Students
One in three college grads said that access to social media sites like Facebook and the ability to choose their own devices was more important to them than salary when considering a job offer. This according to a study of 2,800 college students and young professionals worldwide conducted by Cisco. More than 40% went so far as to say that they would accept less money for a job that was down with social media at work on a device of their choosing if it also included telework.

The study was intended to determine what the Millennium Generation wants from employers and what they consider to be an equitable work/life balance. Not surprisingly, they overwhelmingly wanted flexible work hours and remote access, with about one-third of college students saying that once they begin working, it will be their right – not a privilege – to be able to work remotely with a flexible schedule.

But the shocker was how strongly these young adults felt about limitations on their social media time.

  • Over half of college students globally (56%) said that if they were offered a job at a company that banned access to social media, they would either turn it down, or ignore it.
  • Two-thirds said they will ask about social media usage policies during job interviews.
  • 41% of those in the workforce said their companies convinced them to take the job by offering them flexible device choice and friendly social media policies when recruiting them.
  • At the same time, almost a third of the employees (31%) said their expertise with social media and devices actually helped land them the job — employers believing that such know-how would give the company a competitive advantage.
Emineo Media Cisco Survey College Students
One in three young workers say social media freedom is more important than pay. (source: Cisco Systems)

The demand for flexibility extends to device choice as well.

  • 81% want to choose the device for their job – either receiving funds to purchase the work device or bringing in a personal one in addition to standard company-issued devices.
  • More than three-quarters (77%) have multiple devices, such as a laptop and a smartphone or multiple phones and computers.
  • One-third (33%) use at least three devices for work.
  • 68% believe their companies should allow them to access social media and personal sites with their work-issued devices.
The next workforce clearly believes that work/life balance means that they are melded together, not separate-but-equal. With that view, work spills into social time and social time into work. Social tools also become work tools. While traditional employers may view Facebook or IM as fooling around on the job, social media sites may one day replace e-mail as the collaboration tool of choice for workers. Companies that ban them or view them as evil will not attract new talent, this study suggests, and could make themselves fall woefully behind.
Source Hothardware Julie Bart
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Brands Follow the Bird

By on October 21, 2011   /   Branding, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Emineo Media, Research, Social Media Marketing, Twitter   /   1 Comment
Emineo Media follow-me-twitter-bird

A study conducted by Constant Contact and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, analyzed the behavior of 1,491 consumers ages 18 and older throughout the U.S., and revealed a number of details about how people interact with brands on the world’s beloved 140-character social network. People who follow brands on Twitter are more likely to both buy and recommend those brands’ products, according to a recent study of online consumer behavior.Emineo Media follow-me-twitter-bird

So, just how powerful is the Twitter connection between consumers and businesses? The study found that 60% of brand followers are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after following the brand on Twitter, and 50% of brand followers are more likely to buy from that brand.

These findings mirror those from a previous report, detailing how consumers interact with brands on Facebook. The study found that 56% of consumers said they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after “Liking” a brand on Facebook, and 51% of consumers said they are more likely to buy a product after doing so. The findings from both studies seem to show that customer loyalty is about the same across both social networks.

Any increase in customer loyalty is great news for brands, especially those lucky enough to make the coveted list of followed companies. According to the study, though, the chances of making that list are slim, as only 21% of Twitter users follow brands on Twitter, and of those, 79% follow fewer than 10 brands.

If your brand makes it to that highly sought-after status, you’re in for the long haul — a whopping 75% of respondents claimed that they had never unfollowed a brand on Twitter. This finding, though, contradicts a previous study, which claimed that 41% of consumers have unfollowed a company on Twitter. The trend seems to favor longevity in both studies, however. If a user opts to follow your brand on Twitter, it’s more likely they’ll continue following, rather than decide to unfollow.

When it comes to a consumer’s decision to follow brands on Twitter, exclusivity and access to promotions reign. Here are the top five reasons given by respondents:

64%: I am a customer of the company
61%: To be the first to know information about the brand
48%: To receive discounts and promotions
36%: To gain access to exclusive content
28%: To receive content/information to retweet and share with others

For the most part, brand interaction on Twitter is still largely a one-way process. While 84% of followers read tweets posted by the brands they follow, only 23% claim to tweet about the brands they follow.

The study also found that Twitter users are frequent Internet users overall — 50% of Twitter users in the study reported going online more than once per hour. Of Facebook users, only 34% of respondents reported going online multiple times per hour. Facebook and Twitter users both outpace the average Internet user, though, as only 29% of overall users that do not have Twitter and Facebook accounts reported logging on many times within an hour.

Twitter users even use Facebook more than users who stick solely to Facebook — 60% of Twitter users use Facebook more than three hours per week, compared with 49% of Facebook users overall.

The study offered one final nugget of wisdom that should inform how brands on Twitter approach their content strategies — 67% of brand followers expect unique content from the brands they follow. So get to it, social media strategists!

Source: Mashable

See the complete constant contact study here:

10 Quick Facts You Should Know About Consumer Behavior on Twitter

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How Business Pages Will Help the Growth of Google+

By on September 12, 2011   /   Branding, Businesses, Research, Resources, Social Media Marketing   /   Leave a comment
Emineo Media Google

Emineo Media GoogleIt’s no great secret, businesses are practically chomping at the bit for the chance to get into the new Google+ platform and begin experimenting with the potential new ways of engaging their audiences. The platform and its initial popularity presents a plethora of opportunities not just for businesses, but also for the network itself, I’ve outlined below a few ideas of why the introduction of brands will serve to increase the network’s visibility:

  • More content for users to talk about and engage with – any brands that develop a presence on Google+ will undoubtedly create more digital content for their audience to consume and share across all social networks. This is likely to be particularly evident in the short term as brands and businesses look towards an experimental approach to activity, and will result in a great deal of visibility for Google+.
  • More incentives for users to join – if brands and businesses create a presence on Google+ and use it to engage with fans in a similar way to the current business uses of other major networks such as Facebook and Twitter, then this will undoubtedly give non-users of Google+ an incentive to join. Whether it’s a competition to win a prize, or a contest asking passionate followers of a brand to create content, many users can be pulled in by the chance to engage with their favourite brands.
  • More visibility through brand marketing campaigns – by way of an extension of the above point, brands may begin to invest both time and money into hiring a social media agency and incorporating Google+ into their marketing campaigns, cross pollinating their presence through links from other owned media. This will result in greater visibility for Google+, effectively achieving advertising support from the brands themselves.
  • Search benefits – should consumers search for brands on Google, it’s likely that a brand’s Google+ presence will be tied in with its Google ranking too. Again, this will develop added visibility for Google+ and gives another entry point for users looking to engage with the brands that they have searched for. Any SEO agencies working on the behalf of brands will be particularly keen to push this point.

These are only a few ideas of how the growth of Google+ could be impacted by adding brands into the mix, but it’s likely that all of the above will be factors in how Google plans the functionality of Google+ brand pages. Either way, the onus will be on businesses to get into the platform early and be the first to establish best practice in their given industry.

Source

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