Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osborne are teamed up for the first Best Buy ad booked to run during the Super Bowl.

It targeted consumers between the ages of 8 and 65, crossing thoughts of squeaky clean teens with visions of satanic fire.

There’s a method to this madness, explain Best Buy execs. The company wants to evolve the brand and move away from the image of a typical big box retailer.

This coincides with Bieber’s efforts to break free of his one-dimensional celebrity status as a Tweenie heartbreaker.

Insiders say Bieber’s picking up a $1 million paycheck for this ad.

It wasn’t quite so clear exactly what Ozzy would be doing, and no one speculated on what he’d be paid.

The commercial has been met with skepticism.

Alissa Quart, who wrote Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, had this to say: “They are both fish out of water in what we imagine a Super Bowl ad should be: babes and beer.”

“What do we do now?”

A recent poll by Alterian showed that 33% of the nearly 1,500 marketers surveyed admit they’re clueless about how to interpret what social media users are saying about their brand.

Another 40% say they’re muddling through, using a grab bag of tricks to try to figure it all out.

These are more than missed opportunities. If marketers can’t figure out what exactly the feedback they’re getting through social media means — or how to use it — it can quickly become a wasteful exercise.

However, the lack of understanding hasn’t slowed the pursuit of knowledge.

The same poll shows that nearly 75% marketers will be spending more money on social marketing in 2011 than they did last year.

The forum, hosted by Invoke Solutions, found 75% of social media users are most interested in posts or Tweets that provide “new or noteworthy” info.

The forum also revealed:

• 69% of users gravitate to entertaining content
• 68% seek out valuable advice
• 67% like exclusive info, and
• 65% are interested in any news or offer that provides financial benefit.

One of the forum’s other key findings was that almost half of social media users seek out advice from other “friends” or “followers” when considering a major purchase or buying decision.

And a third of users said they’d be willing to follow a brand or company on Facebook or Twitter in return for a discount or coupon, and 25% of users admitted they’ve actually used a product or service they otherwise wouldn’t have because of a coupon or discount they found on Facebook.

These are all indications of what types of posts or tweets can provide the most return for companies that consistently update their social networking pages.

More to the point, it may be worth offering an incentive in return for having prospects follow your company online.

Source:“Traits of the Most Valuable Social Media Users,” by Neicole Crepeau, SocialMediaToday, 11/2/10.

The trend: social sharing.

What is it?

Social sharing is a relatively new trend that allows e-mail recipients to share copy or content on social networking pages in much the same way Facebook’s “like” button — which has started appearing on company landing pages — has. The difference being, social sharing provides an instant link, along with an icon, so other social network users can click on it and read the exact copy from one of your e-mails or special offers.

How do you enable social sharing in your e-mails?

There are two ways:

1. Provide your own website link at the bottom of each e-mail, along with a tagline like “share this offer with your friends on Facebook.” Then encourage recipients to cut and paste the link onto their Facebook sites, or
2. Use a third-party company to facilitate the process so the link at the bottom of the e-mail automatically appears on the recipient’s social networking page as soon as they click on it.

Here are two third-party sites that can help facilitate social sharing:

• ShareThis.com
• Eloqua.com

What are the other benefits of social sharing?

According to a recent MarketingSherpa survey:

• 81% of sales and marketing managers say social sharing helps them extend the reach of e-mail content to new markets
• 78% say it increases brand reputation and awareness
• 53% confirm social sharing has already increased the ROI of e-mail campaigns
• 47% say it accelerates the growth of e-mail lists, and
• 31% claim it has helped them generate more high-quality leads.

Do you think social sharing is a valuable marketing tool, or just another fly-by-night strategy that doesn’t provide much return? Share your thoughts in the Comments Box below.

Clicks don’t tell the whole story, researchers say.

What’s more important than clicks? Measuring how long a customer’s cursor lingers over individual features on the page, especially ads.

This requires digging a little deeper to uncover what catches a prospect’s interest and how much time the person spends during his or her visit.

How much eye time are you getting?

For example, say an advertisement on a site’s getting very few click-throughs. Does that mean it’s a success or a failure?

Well using current metrics, failure’s the likely conclusion.

But suppose people stopped to spend time taking it all in — looking at pictures, a video, keywords and phrases — and interacting, but not physically clicking on the ad?

Despite a low click count, many people still could be spending time engaged with the ad — eye time — which can still deliver an advertiser’s message.

It makes sense that the best way to calculate the time a customer is spending with an ad is to measure the level of engagement the customer has with that ad.

That’s where the concept of “dwell” comes into play.

Dwell measures the quality and quantity of engagement.

High dwell time shows that customers are finding your brand appealing and are willing to spend more time with it.

Marketers value this information because it helps focus efforts to convert more prospects into customers.

3 strategies

So what’s the best way to increase customer dwell time on your ads?

Based on their recent benchmarking study — Using Dwell to Measure Advertising Effectiveness — the web marketing experts at Eyeblaster offer three straightforward tips:

• Place advertising with editorial content that requires readers to spend more than a few seconds to get through
• If there’s any way possible, make video part of your ad, and
• Push harder for better visibility for your ads.

Ask any sales person or marketer if he or she is ready for economic recovery and you’ll hear a resounding “yes.” But ask if his or her company is ready to take full advantage of a sudden spike in demand due to recovery and, well …

Companies have been so busy cutting costs and scaling back on investments and expectations (understandably so) that many have put surviving the recession ahead of preparing for recovery.

That could be a very costly mistake, if we are indeed on the brink of recovery.

That’s the assertion of a recent study of U.S. manufacturers by McKinney Rogers.

Here’s how to ensure your company will be poised to come out of the recession even stronger than when it began.

Focus on growth

Of course if you ask, some of your peers will tell you they know a recession offers opportunities to grow their businesses.

Just check out what goals companies set for themselves in the current economic climate:

• Developing/launching new products (39%)
• Improving market share (33%)
• Developing new markets (32%), and
• Strengthening the brand (18%).

All smart moves — and chances are you’ve set some of these goals at your company.

Opportunities are still knocking

So how close have companies come to achieving those goals?

That’s where businesses are coming up short.

Despite spotting many opportunities for growth, a very small minority (12%) of companies have invested in either new technology and products, or even research and development. And a scant 4% have addressed strategic goals lately.

What businesses face next

The best place to start: getting every top exec to sit down and agree on where the company should be when recovery does takes permanent hold — and, more importantly, what’s the best plan to get the company there.

The folks at McKinney Rogers are warning businesses that when the upturn does happen, it’ll be a “very different and tougher market,” characterized by:

• more gun-shy prospects, and
• customers looking for additional concessions and guarantees.

In other words, we won’t return to business as usual when the unemployment rate drops and credit loosens.

It’s time to act

The time for companies to position themselves for that new reality is now.

Options worth considering: Modify or revamp customer payment options, sales reps’ compensation plans, etc.

Now’s as good a time as any to open discussions about what it’ll take to best position your business for a turnaround.