ComScore

One of the most interesting findings in the comScore report tells us that women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men do.  Not only do they spend more time on social networking sites each month (5.5 hours per month for women vs. 4 hours per month for men), but more women are using social networking sites then men with 75.8% of women around the world who access the Internet visiting a social networking site compared to 69.7% of men.

Not only do women spend more time on social networking sites across the globe, but the statistic holds true in specific regions as well, as shown below:

• Latin America: women 94.1%; men 91.9%
• North America: women 91.0%; men 87.5%
• Europe: women 85.6%; men 80.6%
• Asia Pacific: women 54.9%; men 50.7%

Furthermore, women spend more time online overall then men do globally.  In fact, women spend a full 8% more time online than month with an average of 25 hours per month (this includes all Web use, not just social networks use).  Women also spend 20% more time on retail sites than men, and women spend more time on comparison shopping and review sites.

Brands that want to connect with the female audience have a significant opportunity to do so online, particularly through social networking, comparison shopping sites, and review sites.  If your brand isn’t there, you’re missing a huge opportunity and leaving it open for your competitors to leverage making it more difficult for your brand to find space later.

You can follow the link to download a full copy of the Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet.

Image: stock.xchng

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Investors need to know about certain dates, particularly as they relate to dividends, earnings statements and annual general meetings. A well-organized financial calendar will help them find things quickly and with a minimum of fuss. And it will cut down on the number of calls coming into the investor relations department from investors who are interested in those dates. Particularly individual investors concerned about when the dividend is payable. More particularly, retirees living on a fixed income who rely upon the dividends.

With respect to dividends, investors need to know the record date, the ex-dividend date and the payment date. Financial results should be released according to a schedule established before the start of the fiscal year. And just as obviously, the date for the Annual General Meeting should be established well in advance of the event and published on the calendar.

A good example of how to do this is the Financial Calendar placed on the Marks & Spencer web site.

This is not rocket science; it’s just good planning and the communication of that planning to those who need to know. Take it from someone who used to run an investor relations department for a company with a high percentage of individual investors in the days before the internet – a company can save itself a lot of pain and suffering having to do with volume of phone calls if they clearly place on their web site when they expect important, but routine, corporate actions to be taken.

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Rather than using the expected top navigation bar, the new FritoLay site uses colorful buttons and a soft color palette.  The predominant links on many pages within the site highlight the same content about health, the environment, and the company’s socially conscious efforts, as you can see from the “Our Snacks” page pictured below.

I think the site is an improvement, but I think it could use a stronger focus on consumer interaction rather than speaking at consumers and telling the story.  The link to the company’s blog is buried and there are no evident links to ongoing conversations, Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, and so on (until you find the blog).  These days, this is a big miss that I hope FritoLay will rectify in updates in the near future.

Furthermore, there is no information about the brand promises, logo use, and so forth.  The company vision is accessible through the “About Us” page shown below, but a vision is very different from a brand promise, and for a company that has multiple, well-known and powerful brands, the website should include a section about branding, the history of the brand (rather than just the company history), logos and packaging through the years, and so on.  In other words, the brand stories are important for FritoLay, and they should be given the space they deserve.

All-in-all, FritoLay is on the right track.  The streamlined site that uses little flash is a welcome change in a time when most websites are still flooded with flash that does nothing to enhance the user experience.  The new design is less cluttered than many corporate sites, which is another positive outcome of the redesign.

What do you think of the new FritoLay website design?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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http://www.baesystemseducationprogramme.com/

The BAE Systems UK Education Programme website extends above and beyond the call of duty in recruitment, nurturing the next generation of engineers. In order to do this successfully, BAE Systems tailored the site to cater for the 5-8, 9-13 and 14+ age groups.

Taking advantage of interactive technology the site offers young people the chance to rate news stories, play games and watch videos to learn about the history of engineering. It adapts the BAE Systems corporate image to appeal to young people – trying to showcase its cool side. It also has educational material available for teachers to download.

BAE Systems previously offered games and educational materials but it wasn’t all together under one roof, so to speak, instead constituting a collection built up over time and spread out over different sites. The new site brings all this together in an accessible way; well-planned and easy to navigate. The new site mirrors the main corporate site in its layout but varies in its colour scheme – a slight tweak of image.

The games and multimedia section includes, amongst others, an addictive blockbuster game which requires you to answer science questions to make your way across the board. A recommendation could be to enhance this gaming experience by offering small postal rewards (key rings, model-building kits…) for successfully completing the games – providing an incentive to get involved and generating even more brand awareness.

Jumping on the education bandwagon is something that most corporations can do, as no matter what the industry is, surely there is a wealth of information on science, history and certainly business case studies that can be shared. Not only does this boost CSR credentials by giving a little back, but putting a familiar brand and snazzy website alongside learning can make it a lot more exciting for young people. Who else is going to take the time to target young people with the development of interactive educational software on engineering other than the industry leaders?

Since young people are all digital natives they are a good place to begin in using digital channels to develop not only a high level of brand recognition but also creating a long-lasting positive image.

So, should every big corporation divert a little of their funds into producing some educational material? It gets their name out their in a positive way; to customers, suppliers, investors and job-seekers of the future, as well as supporting their corporate responsibility programme. What do you think?

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The contest is fun in and of itself, but Domino’s, whose brand image has been tainted in recent years, is adding a social media element to the campaign that should spread the Domino’s brand love even further.  Not only can people submit their own proverbs, but they can also share their proverbs and the proverbs they like with a simple mouse click via Twitter and Facebook.

Judging will be based on creativity, originality and proper use of grammar.  However, the biggest miss in this contest is not allowing people to vote for the winner.  The prize is small so within a few days since the contest launched, only 535 proverbs had been submitted.  If this contest had a bigger prize and additional social media elements, it could be huge.

A few of the recently submitted proverbs are particularly favorable for the Domino’s brand image, including, “Beauty is only cheese deep, but true deliciousness comes from within.”  Others are simply entertaining, such as, “To leave the last slice is to be loved. To eat the last slice is to be happy.”

The lesson to learn is this: asking consumers to participate in events, activities, campaigns, and contests that can help to build your brand image is a great idea, but don’t be afraid to take the initiative to the next level of social sharing and interaction.

What do you think?

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