Ipsos: Social essential to business

The Internet has become a dialogue rather than a monologue and advisors had better get in on the conversation, this according to Steve Levy, president, Ipsos Reid – East.

Speaking at the 2011 Digital Day conference in downtown Toronto, Levy stressed the importance of all Canadian businesses adopting a social media strategy.

“They (businesses) need to be immersed in social media space. There is a real lack of strategy,” he said. “The general thought is social is an after-thought when it comes to engaging communities. That’s a waste, if you think about it.”

Sharing the results of the ‘Ipsos Reid Survey on Digital Marketing’ (compiled with the collaboration of the Canadian Marketing Association and Marketing Magazine), Levy said it is not technology companies who are perceived as leading the social media charge. It is financial services, fast moving consumer package goods companies and retailers who are seen as capitalizing on the benefits of digital marketing.

As far as marketers are concerned, 52% strongly agree with the view that companies who are successful are using social sites such as FaceBook to communicate and directly market to their customer base.

“Maybe this is a sign that digital marketing has become mainstream,” Levy surmised.

It seems the financial services industry in Canada has a long way to go before catching up with the social media strides made in the United States where compliance and regulatory hurdles are far more commonplace. For example, last week Raymond James announced their advisors are now permitted to communicate with their clients through the various social media tools and sites using the new company platform: Socialite, a move unheard of yet in Canada.

Although a favourite social media venue of Canadian marketers (4 in 10 claim to be frequent users), the micro-blogging site Twitter is underutilized by financial services in Canada. The Ipsos Reid survey found that 90% of Canadians are aware of Twitter, 11% are actively involved and 23% passively follow others but don’t post themselves.

“Marketers and agencies absolutely agree, Twitter has become an important part of the digital landscape, if you know what to do with it,” said Levy.

Levy suggests that Twitter can be effectively used as a customer service channel where real-time support can readily address the questions, comments and complaints of current or potential customers.

“It is one of those circumstances though where you have to be careful what you wish for,” warned Levy, remarking that if companies are going to go the customer service route with Twitter, they should be adequately prepared to respond to comments and replies they cannot edit or control.

Where financial services have made great strides is with mobile integration. With 30% of Canadians now owning smart phones, it is no wonder that financial services are finding it effective to reach out to clients in this way.

That being said, applications that offer useful services, tools or information are the best strategy as according to the responses to the Ipsos Reid survey, Canadians are not prepared to receive marketing messages through their phones just yet. It could be that Canadian consumers still see mobile phones as personal devices for personal communications, such as texts from friends and family, not companies or firms. Of the respondents, 4 in 10 consumers have received promotional texts but only 16% have responded to those messages.

“I am not sure the public in this country is ready for this,” said Levy. “I am not sure they are willing to receive information through this medium in the same way that we see with email campaigns.”

Speaking of email campaigns, the more cost-effective choice by many advisors to stay in contact or impart information to their clients seems to be a clever choice. 9 in 10 respondents say they have gotten a promotional email recently and 8 in 10 say they subscribe to such mailings.

“People who say email is dead are wrong,” explained Levy. “Email marketing in Canada is alive and healthy.”

Levy warned there has been some downward movement in email messaging this year. He speculates that is due to new blood in the sector who are not informed about the effectiveness of email communications, campaigns and the concern about overloading clients with information.

Whichever way Canadian advisors decide to send out their messaging or communicate with their clients, Levy had one piece of essential advice: Target the right audience with the right message in the right medium.

“Be consistent, be relevant, be engaging and interactive,” he said.