1. White Paper
Social Media Comes of Age
The new “business as usual”
By Paul Kennedy,
Head of Consulting at Callcredit Marketing Solutions
plan acquire verify manage collect

2. // 01 // White Paper // www.callcredit.co.uk
There are clear signals that social media
is now being accepted as just another
element within the marketing mix.

3. // www.callcredit.co.uk // White Paper // 02
Social Media Comes Of Age
The new “business as usual”
By Paul Kennedy,
Head of Consulting at Callcredit Marketing Solutions
UK Facebook adoption
peaked at just over 30m
Every new medium eventually and Groupon (whose margins are starting
in early 2011, but July becomes ‘not a new medium’ and to slip) currently in the spotlight. Is the
numbers were lower. social is no exception. There are bubble about to burst?
clear signals that social media In June of 2011 there were a number of
is now being accepted as just news stories reporting a decline in the
another element within the mobile number of Facebook users for the first
marketing and general marketing time. This too is another sign of a level
mix. This is evident across most top of maturity or saturation being reached –
UK brands in one form or other. The Facebook fatigue? Some commentators
novelty may have worn off but the believe that as UK Facebook adoption
commercial exploitation has only peaked at 50% (give or take, depending
We see the valuation of just begun. on the level of internet access) in any
the latest generation of
In 2011, social media has become the country, growth generally starts to slow.
new media companies
single biggest category online, taking For the UK, customer analysis shows that
reaching an all time high,
with LinkedIn and Groupon over the top spot from the entertainment adoption peaked at just over 30m in early
currently in the spotlight. categoryi. Other sourcesii confirm that we 2011 according to Socialbakersiv but in
are entering an age of social business, July, the numbers were lower.
where a social way of doing business is The instantaneous and peer to peer
successfully combined with a personal nature of social communication lead to its
feel. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet. catalytic role in civil movements – most
As if to confirm that social media is no notably the Iranian Green Movement,
longer the next shiny object, we see the Arab uprising and more recently, the
books such as “How to Leave Twitter” by London Riots of August 2011, dubbed by
journalist and author Grace Dent being some as the “BlackBerry Riots”.
published. Moreover, we see the valuation
of the latest generation of new media
companies reaching an all time highiii,
with LinkedIn (who recently had to back
down on a personalised ad campaign)
© 2011 Callcredit Information Group Ltd. All rights reserved

4. // 03 // White Paper // www.callcredit.co.uk
Social networking is the most common
internet use on mobile phones.

5. // www.callcredit.co.uk // White Paper // 04
CONSUMERS
BRANDS PLATFORMS
Consumers, brands and platforms
across the UK are all showing signs
of social maturity
Take up rate of social For many brands, social media has Brands: The average company now has
networking for UK internet
become business as usual. It is just 29 Facebook pagesxiii. Even the most
users is now 46%
another tool in the marketer’s battle conservative business sectors such as
to acquire and retain customers, financial services are adopting social
especially as newer, more nimble media in innovative ways, e.g. First
players attempt to steal a march. Direct’s crowdsourcing campaignxiv and
the appointment of its social media
This maturity can be viewed from consumer,
savvy marketer, Mark Mullen, as CEO.
Platform and Brand points of view.
Barclays is one of the top 10 Financial
Consumers: In its 2011 Communications Service providers on Facebook and their
Report, Ofcom has confirmed that take up application is one of the most liked of all
For every brand post on rate of social networking for UK internet timexv. Noddle, a new consumer financial
Facebook, fans write an usersv has now reached 46%. There are service in the UK, has used social media
average of 100 comments almost 30 million Facebook usersvi in from the very beginning by interacting
in response and for every
the UK. Social networking is the most with its users on Facebook, Twitter and
fan of a brand, there are an
additional 34 friends of that
common internet use on mobile phonesvii Google+. The social media team post and
fan that can be reached and conversely mobile use of social respond to enquiries at all hours of the
with a marketing message. networks is 80% up on last yearviii. day to maintain the level of immediacy
Platforms: New merchant portals have and strong user engagement that social
been introduced by Facebook and media offers. Indeed, many UK businesses
Foursquare and will shortly be launched are now hiring social managers of various
by Google+ix. In Facebook’s own wordsx, typesxvi. According to The FTxvii, for every
they have “…invested in new ways to brand post on Facebook, fans write an
help advertisers to think beyond the average of 100 comments in response
click”. The cost of Facebook ads is going and for every fan of a brand, there are
upxi (determined partly by auction and an additional 34 friends of that fan that
partly by the network itself), another can be reached with a marketing analysis
sign of rising demand. BlackBerry message. Far from being free, marketers
Messenger 6xii is socialising the way are realising that social requires
consumers use applications. UK based investment – time and money.
company Autonomy has launched its own
augmented reality platform Aurasma,
which allows users to create their own
virtual worlds via smartphone application.
© 2011 Callcredit Information Group Ltd. All rights reserved

6. // 05 // White Paper // www.callcredit.co.uk
Facebook is important
but despite its reach, it is
not the silver bullet many
initially may have hoped for
UK financial services
firms like Twitter more Social is now a normal part of marketing
than Facebook due to
being more content
Siloed social marketing is doomed brand presence. Insight into what is best
than relationship driven to failure. Instead, initiatives for your proposition can, for example be
which have been based on clear gleaned by undertaking social profiling of
commercial objectives (e.g. data customer groups.
captured, opt-ins gained, trackable But it is about more than just statistics
customer journeys, or direct or anecdotes – there are some underlying
marketing sales measures) and a trends which confirm the arrival of social
coordinated approach across the media into business as usual marketing
business have the best probability activity. These include:
of success.
Sure, Facebook is important but despite 1. nhancing established engagement
E
its reach, it is not the silver bullet many and marketing techniques
initially may have hoped for, e.g. UK 2. Encouraging real participation
financial services firms like Twitter more
3. Transacting socially
than Facebookxviii due to being more
content than relationship driven. Some 4. Mobile displacing desktop time
advertisers are looking beyond Facebook
5. Growing role of location
to alternatives such as YouTube and
Foursquare. There is even evidencexix 6. Evolution of social monitoring
that Facebook may not be so good for 7. ntegration of social data into
I
some brand categories. Yes, it’s a good customer databases
idea to have a presence on Facebook
8. Social Relationship Marketing
for most businesses, but that alone
is not enough. You must understand
your target audience’s preferred social
behaviours and reflect those within the

7. // www.callcredit.co.uk // White Paper // 06
1. nhancing established engagement
E services (often by point solution
and marketing techniques: providers) is gradually being replaced by
M
arketers in the UK are still most service providers offering deeper insight,
reliant on email lists and targeted email evaluation (the ‘so what’ and ‘what next’)
marketing according to recent researchxx. as well as building metrics which are
Social functionality and principles are consistently trackable and aligned to
being wovenxxi into the fabric of existing existing marketing KPIs.
communications and touchpoints – from 7. ntegration of social data into customer
I
email to retail and even direct email databases:
Brands have begun to marketing. Brands have begun to puzzle out how to
puzzle out how to link 2. Encouraging real participation: link conversations, posts, blogs, check-
conversations, posts, blogs, ins and other social data elements to
In the early days, social was seen by some
check-ins and other social
as another way of pushing communications traditional offline data. For example,
data elements to traditional
out to audiences. Marketers are realising Callcredit holds over 30 fields for each
offline data.
however that social just does not work like social data record and has a range of
this and are devising innovative tactics options for matching these into customer
to tempt consumers into participating databases, and enabling analysis and
in brand activities whether it be posting informed engagement.
pictures, entering competitions or 8. Social Relationship Marketing:
providing new ideas. Within the context of CRM, new measures
3. Transacting socially: of influence and relationship are now used
The rapid rise of brands setting up alongside value. Relationship levels can
transactional applications within Facebook be calculated based on sharing activity
has been one of the strongest statements and influence measured on publishing
of commercialising social. In the UK, this frequency and social graphs, e.g. Klout
has been led by brands such as ASOS who scores.
are seeing incremental uplifts in revenues
Obstacles to using social marketing still
as a result of broadening access options
remain. They include concern about being
ahead of their traditional competitors.
able to address specific groups sufficiently,
4. Mobile displacing desktop time: ROI measurement, insufficient expertise
The boundaries between mobile and social about how to undertake social marketing
continue to blur. This together with the and worry about being able to control
boom in demand for tablet devices has consumer perceptions of the brand.
dramatically changed how consumers Through our experience of working through
across the UK are choosing to view, these issues with clients, Callcredit has
compare and shop. the experience and knowledge to address
5. Growing role of location: all of these by helping you understand
There are many location platforms offering the current social landscape, affordability,
consumers the opportunity to register at developing social strategies, piloting
venues, places and spots to interact with initiatives and scaling up engagement.
their network but also to receive special This approach makes the transition from
deals. But which location based service a series of social tactics to becoming a
has the edge – Facebook, Foursquare, business which is intrinsically social less
Google, Gowalla or Yelp? The reality is risky and more commercially interesting.
that businesses need to engage using It’s time for marketers to learn from early
all services as different consumers use mistakes and adopt what econsultancy
different platforms. callsxxii ‘fast follower’ status.
6. Evolution of social monitoring:
The cottage industry that quickly emerged
to provide stand alone social monitoring
© 2011 Callcredit Information Group Ltd. All rights reserved

8. To find out more about Callcredit’s Digital Solutions
call 0845 60 60 609. Visit www.callcredit.co.uk/digital
or email info@callcreditmarketing.com
Callcredit Information Group
Enabling Smarter Decisions
About Callcredit Information Group
Callcredit Information Group has a leading edge approach to using consumer
information in credit referencing, marketing services, interactive solutions and
consultative analytics. This enables our clients to cost-effectively identify,
engage and convert more new customers and optimise existing customer revenues.
Callcredit offers intelligent solutions across the customer lifecycle as follows:
• Plan
• Acquire
• Verify
• Manage
• Collect
Reference
[i] Figaro Digital
[ii] David Armano, HBR Blog Network
[iii] PR Newswire
[iv] Socialbakers
[v] Ofcom
[vi] Social Bakers
[vii] Ibid
[viii] comScore
[ix] Figaro Digital
[x] The Financial Times, 28th July 2011
[xi] The Financial Times
[xii] Mashable
[xiii] Financial Times
[xiv] Marketing Week
[xv] The Street
[xvi] Real Wire
[xvii] Financial Times
[xviii] DMA News
[xix] Forbes
[xx] The Drum
[xxi] See the Author’s previous paper ‘Marketing with a Digital Heartbeat’
[xxii] Econsultancy Blog
© 2011 Callcredit Information Group Ltd. All rights reserved