BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - August 6, 2008) - With the rise of social media, the speed and
reach of word of mouth with respect to consumer products and services is
increasing by orders of magnitude. At the same time, a growing number of
companies are deploying technology solutions to harness the power of word
of mouth to raise brand awareness, drive marketing improvement and,
ultimately, increase shareholder value.
Between June and July 2008, Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS),
examined the use, the experiences, and the intentions of more than 300
diverse enterprises to create a roadmap for companies that aim to leverage
social media to drive marketing improvement. The new benchmark report,
entitled "Social Media Marketing: The Latest Buzz on Word of Mouth," places
particular emphasis on how Best-in-Class companies launch successful viral
campaigns, form and participate in niche communities, and spur brand
advocacy through various other approaches to social media marketing, all
the while gleaning valuable customer insights from consumer-generated
content to inform future marketing actions.
The report reveals striking performance disparities between
Best-in-Class organizations and Industry Average and Laggard companies. For
example,
Best-in-Class organizations are nearly 18 times more likely than Laggards
to gain visibility into consumer-generated content, resulting in greater
breadth and depth of customer insights. They are also 19 times more likely
than Laggards to increase marketing effectiveness and 80 times more likely
than Laggards to increase return on marketing investment (ROMI). Given the
declining effectiveness of traditional marketing programs due to channel
proliferation, audience fragmentation, advertising fatigue, and a host of
other factors, any opportunity to drive incremental improvement in ROMI is
cause for celebration in the corporate boardroom.
"Companies are enamored with the possibilities of social media marketing as
the foundation for consumer-driven referrals and brand advocacy," said Jeff
Zabin, Research Fellow at Aberdeen Group. "The challenge lies in
identifying key influencers, engaging them as brand evangelists, and then
tracking the impact of their words and actions over time. Social media
marketing can also mean extending the reach of a brand through viral videos
or by joining the conversation. To that end, companies need to understand
peoples' motivations for having a conversation and then contextually engage
with that audience. Making marketing programs conversational and
contextualized to niche audiences that naturally gravitate around a
specific theme or shared passion is the essence of social media marketing,
and perhaps the future of marketing itself."
A complimentary copy of this report is made available due, in part, to the
support of the following underwriters: BuzzParadise, RelevantMind and
Visible Technologies. This report is also co-sponsored by the Word of Mouth
Marketing Association. To access a copy, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=5133
To access all of Aberdeen's complimentary research, please visit
http://research.aberdeen.com.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
451 D Street, Suite 710
Boston, Massachusetts 02210-1928
Telephone: (617) 854-5200
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Jeff Zabin
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(847) 328-4795
Jeff.zabin@aberdeen.com