In April, McKinsey management consultants published an article on social media with a specific focus on its value in consumer marketing and on its “consumer decision journey” model. The full article is here: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Demystifying_social_media_2958
Whilst it is not directly relevant to the professions, there are some statistics and case studies included which might help you build a case for gaining buy-in for social media at your firm:
- 39% of companies surveyed already use social media as their primary digital tool to reach customers and this is expected to rise to 47% within the next four years
- Social media still accounts for less than 1% of an average marketing budget, but reports indicate that many CMOs say they want to increase this to 5%
Case studies
- Ford’s “Fiesta Movement” campaign gave 100 social media commentators a model of the car with missions to document on social media channels. Videos generated 6.5 million views on YouTube and Ford received 50,000 requests for information – and 10,000 cars were sold in the first six days
- Pepsico used social media to gather customer insights and created new varieties of Mountain Dew – since 2008, they have sold 36 million cases.
- Levi Strauss used social media to provide location specific deals – direct interactions with just 400 consumers led to 1,600 people to turn up to the company’s stores.
- Gatorade’s “war room” to monitor the brand in real time has more than doubled traffic to online properties, length of visitor interactions and viral sharing.
- McDonald’s rapid response to a hoax photograph led to a 5% increase in its share price the following day
- Groupon and Gilt Groupe provide consumer with credit for each firt time purchaser they refer – and McKinsey research shows that recommendations from peers generate engagement rates some 30 times higher than traditional online advertising.
- The Old Spice advert featuring Isaiah Mustafa, screened at the Superbowl, received more than 19 million hits across all platforms and annual sales jumped by 27 % in six months
The main diagram in the article (see below) is helpful and summarises the main points– although it has many similiarities to the various tables appearing in the White Paper I co-authored back in December 2010 with e-consultancy. http://kimtasso.com/white-paper-on-social-media-in-selling-for-lawyers-accountants-and-surveyors.
The following blogs provide more recent information about social media and the professions –
http://kimtasso.com/blending-online-and-offline-marketing
http://kimtasso.com/twitter-use-in-top-uk-law-firms
http://kimtasso.com/growth-of-linkedin-in-the-professions
http://kimtasso.com/law-society-publishes-social-media-practice-note
http://kimtasso.com/why-should-you-blog-a-video
http://kimtasso.com/one-more-time-why-is-social-media-helpful-to-lawyers-accountants-and-surveyors
