Two-thirds of the touch points during the active-evaluation phase involve consumer-driven marketing initiatives – something which social media excels at. According to McKinsey, more than 60% of consumers (of facial skin care products) go online to conduct further research after purchase and if a product is marketed effectively online, or has been reviewed or discussed in social media, its most useful functions and features can be discovered at this touch point. Image courtesy of McKinsey. Initial consideration. What’s happening at this stage? Active evaluation. MORE >>

They want to capture and catalogue ‘lightbulb moments’, ideas that are relevant to toys and to the market LEGO serves. Image by Kaptain Kobold via Flickr. LEGO is a brand that many people are very passionate about, a brand people love and we’ve written before about how they use segmentation to engage their consumer base from children to enthusiasts in an innovative way. Now they have continued their innovative approaches to engagement and embraced social media. In a big way. The site is designed to bring together ideas in written form, images and videos. MORE >>

decided to show this through a simple story – that of Mary (a mum) and Jack (who works in marketing for a large FMCG firm). This morning I presented on the importance of remembering the people involved in social media – who you are engaging and what they want from you. When brands struggle on Facebook or Twitter it is usually because they haven’t thought through what is in it for the people they are engaging. It is easy as a brand to decide how you want to use social media, and what you want people to do. Engaging with people in social media. Tweet This! MORE >>

Social media is not just about conversations; it’s also about collaboration.With this in mind we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the most well known collaboration tools on the market at the moment. Much like our list of social media management tools wiki, this is an ongoing project, so if you know of any others please let us know so we can add them to the list. Adobe Acrobat – Acrobat.com allows teams to work collaboratively on documents through their browsers. Options for web conferencing and screen-sharing provide additional communication channels. MORE >>

By purchasing BzzAgent, Tesco clearly want to better connect social media with product marketing. Tesco’s move to buy BzzAgent is another example of how social media is becoming a mainstream staple in the retailer marketing mix and the opportunity it represents can no longer be ignored. Whilst some big retailers are still sitting on the sidelines considering whether social media has a role in their business, one of our biggest retailers has acquired its own social media company. Tesco clearly recognise the significance of social media in influencing buyer behaviour. MORE >>