Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Will Twitter followers want to know when their favorite local pizza joint has a lunch special? The social media site that limits posts to 140 characters or less certainly hopes so. The company is rolling out an initiative to entice small businesses to begin using ‘promoted’ tweets.

Marketers are busy studying their analytics to determine which online ad formats are delivering the best results. Are search and display still the gold standard or is social media more valuable? Columbus, OH-based ClearSaleing published findings on its analysis of 56 billion ad impressions and the company has some specific recommendations for online marketers.

Marketers have long used sweepstakes and similar contests and games to generate consumer interest and loyalty in their products and services. The most recent statistics on this industry indicate that spending approaches over $1.8 billion annually. Direct mail and coupons have been the most popular way to entice consumers to participate in these programs that offer a chance to win big prizes even when no purchase is necessary but the industry is changing.

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has tracked the social media strategies of fast-growing enterprises – those on the Inc. 500 – since 2007. For the first time, researchers detected a significant drop in the use of corporate blogs in the past year. These companies aren’t cutting back on their social communications with customers but they are changing how they reach out.

In just a few short years, consumers have made Facebook a go-to location and marketers have followed with their online ad budgets. Between 2009 and 2011, analysts believe the firm’s ad revenues grew from an annual $740 million to an estimated $3.8 billion. Despite Facebook’s popularity, marketers can turn to many other online destinations to spend their ad budgets. As a result, Facebook is using a number of techniques to keep marketers and users connected to their online universe.

Leading edge marketers may like to believe that consumers are learning about new brands through social media. But new research shows that’s not always the case. Further, consumers only occasionally mention brands in their social media posts.