Oracle OpenWorld: How social drives business engagement

Digital word of mouth provides the most effective advertising, while London 2012 was 'the social event of all time'

Digital word of mouth provides the most effective advertising, and businesses with a presence on three or more social networks have 50 per cent better user engagement than others.

These claims were made today at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

"When I make purchasing decisions I look at experts' opinions, and those of my friends," said Matt Trainer, manager Facebook PMD (Preferred Marketing Developer).

He gave the example of upcoming video game XCom, which is due to be released later this year. He first saw an advert for the game in his Facebook news feed, followed by a review from a blogger.

"I went and read the review, was convinced enough to like the page, but then moved on. Then the next day in my feed I saw a YouTube video of game play. It looked nice, but I was not ready to shell out fifty bucks yet. Then the following day my news feed showed me another glowing review, then another. So now I've pre-purchased it. Facebook took me from no knowledge of the game to now a complete advocate."

Continuing the video game theme, Jarek Wiliewicz, developer advocate at YouTube, said that 40 per cent of people who purchased popular game Call of Duty: Black Ops saw it first on YouTube.

"The game integrates directly with YouTube, you can record your game footage and share it directly. As people start playing the game it shows up more on YouTube. Over 40 per cent of people who bought the product saw it on YouTube," said Wiliewicz.

"Our APIs allow products to integrate directly into YouTube, and also to perform analytics. You get data about your videos, the engagement they generate and the conversion rate. You see how it impacts purchasing decisions of customers."

Reggie Bradford, senior vice-president, product development at Oracle, explained that social works because people are influenced by the experiences and opinions of others.

"Enterprises can develop those relationships and influence those purchases at scale. Companies that have presence on three or more social networks have 50 per cent more engagement," said Bradford.

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Oracle OpenWorld: How social drives business engagement

Digital word of mouth provides the most effective advertising, while London 2012 was 'the social event of all time'

John Miller chief marketing officer of NBC Universal Television Group said that social is also key to the television industry.

"Word of mouth was always the most effective part of advertising, now it's digital word of mouth, because you get a response at the speed of light. You used to talk about the water cooler effect around shows on TV, where people talk about what they watched last night at work, but now it's all instant. So much television is now watched with a second or third screen. You watch while finding out more about a show with the iPad, and texting your friends on your phone."

While the panel agreed that social media presents an opportunity for businesses to connect with their customers, Bradford explained that the idea often falls at the final hurdle: the CFO.

"We're focused on developing the capability to enable enterprises to leverage social as their main medium to engage with customers, employees and partners, but there's a disconnect in the C-Suite. CEOs are more bullish on social than CFOs, and CFOs write the cheques.

Miller explained that the Olympics was a landmark event for the penetration of social into TV.

"Most TV is sold off targeted demographics. The best TV was thought to target women at the age of 50-plus, because they watch all day. But you miss a significant sector of the audience that way. In 2002, the IOC and their sponsors said the Olympics is an event for the younger audience too. We marketed it to that younger group, but it wasn't very effective. In Beijing, however, that changed due to social activity.

"So for London 2012 we created relationships with YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, we wanted to use those platforms to speak to a younger audience, at the 12 - 34 age group. We had over two billion page views, and over 100 million interactions with people talking about the games. It was the social event of all time. Ratings grew in the younger audience, with over 50 per cent growth among teens. Social is a great way of driving TV ratings," concluded Miller.