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Archives for 2011

2 out of 3 Americans Use Social Networking Sites

New statistics from eMarketer reveal that in 2011, 63.7% of American Internet users (147.8 million people) are using social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. By 2012, that number will increase to 66% and by 2013, it will hit 67%. According to these statistics, the days of double-digit user growth for social networking appear to be over.

Today, social networking reaches the vast majority of Internet users in the United States, and that number isn’t expected to decline anytime in the near future. That means your customers are using social networking, and your brand needs to be there, too. Of course, the most active users of social networking are still younger generations, but the days of social networking being a fad for young adults and teenagers are long gone. Today, users come from all generations and demographic groups.

In 2011, 90% of Internet users between the ages of 18-24 will use social networks, but older generations continue to become more active in their social networking use. The chart from eMarketer above provides a detailed age breakdown.

Not only do brands need to be present on social networking sites, but they also need to produce interesting and engaging content and conversations that are meaningful to their target audiences. As social networking users become more knowledgeable about the tools they’re using, their demands for useful content and experiences will also grow. If you’re not giving them a good reason to connect with, interact with, and talk about your brand, you won’t achieve the results you need from social networking.

Don’t just create a Facebook page and leave it at that. Instead, talk to your customers and learn what they’d like you to offer on that Facebook page. Create useful applications and content that is both interesting and helpful. You have to find ways to keep your target audience coming back for more.

Again, your customers are using social networks, so if you’re not trying to connect with them on those social networks where they’re already spending time, you’re missing a big opportunity to build relationships with them. If they were standing in front of you would you ignore them? No, you’d try to talk to them and connect with them. You should do the same thing via social networking.

Image: eMarketer

Brands Launch Tablet Optimized Websites

The current hot gadget is the iPad and other tablets are launching quickly to compete with the iPad. It makes sense that brands would want to revamp their websites so they work well on tablets, but brands like MTV and VH1 are leading a new redesign trend. Instead of simply moving website elements around so they look better on tablets, MTV and VH1 have completely redesigned their websites to take advantage of touch screens, smaller screens, and vibrant screens.

For example, the new MTV and VH1 tablet-optimized websites use less text than their traditional websites. While many brands are simply releasing apps for people to access their web content on smartphones and tablets, MTV and VH1 are betting that some people will want to use apps to access content and others will want to browse the Internet on those devices and consume content in a more traditional way.

The new MTV and VH1 tablet-optimized sites allow anyone with an iPad to view those sites through their tablet web browser function without opening a separate app. For casual visitors, this is a big benefit. While all functions on the full websites aren’t available on the iPad-optimized versions, there is a good variety and one can expect more features are coming.

Currently, the content on the iPad-optimized MTV and VH1 sites are heavy on video, as you might expect from both brands. In other words, the iPad-optimized sites are excellent representations of both brands. Already, Starbucks has signed on for a rich-media ad campaign.

While many companies are focusing on creating tablet apps to deliver their content on iPads and other tablet devices, MTV and VH1 are choosing to cover all their bases and offer great content to all types of visitors. As the tablet user base expands beyond tech-savvy early adopters, this sounds like a wise strategy.

What do you think? Should companies create branded tablet apps as well as tablet-optimized websites, or do you think apps are enough? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on this tablet trend.

Image: Apple.com

Corporate Eye Summary March 19, 2011

  • Launching a Career in Corporate Communications
    Today we have a guest post from Lauren Bailey offering advice for college students wanting to get started in corporate comms. Lauren Bailey is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about online colleges. She especially loves hearing back from her readers. Questions or comments can be sent to: blauren99 @gmail.com – though we’d […]


  • Half of U.K. Population is on Facebook
    Facebook reports that the social networking site is now used by 1 out of every 2 people in the U.K.  As eMarketer reports, 30 million of the 62.6 million people in the U.K. are now on the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook. That’s up from 25.6 million in September 2010. If […]


  • Research Shows How Retail Brand Loyalty Programs Are Failing with Consumers
    Retail brand loyalty programs are created to accomplish a primary goal — to encourage repeat purchases that evolve into brand loyalty. Unfortunately, research from ACI Worldwide reports that retail brand loyalty programs have a long way to go before they reach that goal. According to the research survey, 62% of U.S. consumers join retail brand […]


  • Three tips to develop CSR Redwood
    Once in a while you come across a company name which is just sooooo apposite for their business you find it hard to believe some kind of legal name change hasn’t been involved. The best example of this I’ve ever come across dates back to my early childhood and travelling into Oxford on the Park […]


  • What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 41: Dealing With Shareholders’ Frequently Asked Questions
    In the old days, before the internet, investor relations departments operated with the telephone and paper based communications. (You remember getting letters with stamps on them, don’t you?) If you were a large corporation with a significant shareholder base, this meant that at certain times during the year, the volume of phone calls and letters […]


Launching a Career in Corporate Communications

Today we have a guest post from Lauren Bailey offering advice for college students wanting to get started in corporate comms.

Over to you, Lauren…

What College Students Need to Know About Launching a Career in Corporate Communications

Career LaunchCorporate communications is a specialty field highly sought after by numerous businesses today. It deals with all of the communication an organization makes internally and externally, blending coherency with the company’s goals and ethics. This ensures that every message being sent from the company to an audience is as accurate and positively reflective of the business as possible.

College students who desire to launch a career in corporate communications will find the field challenging and rewarding, but they should keep a few things in mind in order to secure a successful future in the field.

Most college students pursue corporate communications as a specialty during a public relations education. Public relations is a quickly growing field where students and graduates can flex their communications skills and knowledge. Public relations specialists in corporate communications may work with businesses as corporate communication officers, directors, managers, consultants, human resources, and marketing. In fact, employment opportunities for public relations specialists are expected to increase 24% during the 2008-18 decade, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Those who work in public relations have the primary objective of making sure that the image of their business or brand remains positive. They handle press releases, media contacts, public meetings, and other situations involving interacting with the public. This is why a specialization in corporate communications can be immensely beneficial. Thanks to recent business scandals, corporate communications has leapt back onto the radar for businesses across the country.

Competition for corporate communications positions is high, so college students may do well to go beyond the minimal requirement of a bachelor’s degree in the field and earn a master’s degree instead. A master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications may give recent graduates the nudge they need to stand out from other job seekers. Students should plan to take courses in communication law and ethics, media relationship maintenance, effective public writing, research and analysis skills, and strategy development. Most programs in both undergraduate and graduate studies also require students to complete a final real-world project in order to demonstrate their understanding of corporate communications and management.

Gaining plenty of in-field work experience is important as well for those looking to launch a career in corporate communications. A degree, even a graduate degree, is often not enough by itself to gain employment. Students can gain work experience by participating in part-time internships while in school, whereas graduate students may benefit from a full-time internship.

Networking is crucial as well. Most large companies do not advertise job openings for public relations positions, so it pays to make as many meaningful connections as possible to others in the industry. This way, if you make a good impression on someone, they may remember to contact you or recommend you for an unadvertised open public relations position. Go to your college’s career fairs to network, and stay in touch with your professors and fellow corporate communications classmates. You never know who may help you gain entry into the field.

Corporate communications is an exciting and prospering field. However, it can also be tough to break into due to the high level of competition for entry-level jobs. In order to stay ahead of the competition and catch the attention of employers, college students should study hard, consider earning a graduate degree in the field, participate in internships, and network with other professionals. With these tips in mind, students can almost guarantee that they will secure a successful career in corporate communications.

Thanks Lauren!

Agree? What advice would you offer to someone considering this as a career?

Lauren Bailey is a freelance writer at bestcollegesonline.com. She especially loves hearing back from her readers. Questions or comments can be sent to: blauren99 @gmail.com – though we’d love it if you commented below as well!

Half of U.K. Population is on Facebook

Facebook reports that the social networking site is now used by 1 out of every 2 people in the U.K.  As eMarketer reports, 30 million of the 62.6 million people in the U.K. are now on the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook. That’s up from 25.6 million in September 2010.

If you look at it another way, Facebook was responsible for 7.5% of all Internet visits by U.K. Internet users in January 2011, which isn’t far behind the leader, Google, which was responsible for 9% of all U.K. Internet user visits during the same time period. The website that landed in the third position during that same period was YouTube, which was responsible for just over 2% of all U.K. Internet user visits. That’s a big gap between the two leaders and everyone else.

Where are you going to invest your online marketing time, effort, and money?

Facebook growth shows no signs of slowing down in the U.K., and as eMarketer reports, advertising investments will continue to grow as well. By 2012, social networking advertising investments are expected to grow to 6% of total U.K. ad spending. That’s twice as much as the actual social network ad spending in 2010, which was just 3% of total online ad spending.

With the new Facebook social plugin updates that were launched this month, including analytics enhancements for the Facebook Like button, marketers will undoubtedly focus even more attention on building brand awareness, recall, and loyalty through branded Facebook pages and across social media tools. U.K. consumers are spending a lot of time on Facebook, and brands that want to connect with those consumers need to be on Facebook, too. However, those brands need to add value, meaning, and usefulness to the Facebook experience, or users will disregard them.

Bottom-line, brands who want to connect with U.K. customers shouldn’t ignore Facebook. It’s there waiting for you with your customers actively engaged already. You just need to jump in and join the conversation without delivering the hard sell.