Tag Archives: Facebook

Olympics + Social = Happy Combination

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With social media becoming front and center in the digital realm, it is no surprise that the Olympics have become the ultimate social event. Dedicated hashtags, numerous athletes tweeting daily, and results being posted instantly online, various areas of social media have boomed as a direct result of the Olympics.

The opportunity to watch Olympic coverage live on various outlets (TV, YouTube, and the main NBC Olympic website) and the time lapse between event completion and normal television viewing encouraged the trend of online viewing. Once on the sites, individuals were able to share with friends via Google Plus or Facebook, tweet, or comment directly on the video. With this constant information stream, event results have been broadcast to the public faster than ever.

This instant access and social interaction can easily create a nightmare for members of teams and the Olympic Committee. However, as with most individuals that are savvy in the social world, the Olympic Committee provided all athletes with a guideline document for social media. Take a look at what the athletes have to abide by when participating in social media. Everything from appropriate words to use in tweets and comments to branding for the Olympics is included. Below are a few of my favorites:

  • ‘Blogs or tweets must be in a first-person, diary-type format and should not be in the role of a journalist – i.e. they must not report on competition or comment on the activities of other participants or accredited persons, or disclose any information which is confidential or private in relation to any other person or organization.’
  • ‘Video and/or audio must only be for personal use and must not be uploaded and/or shared to a posting, blog or tweet on any social media platforms, or to a website.’
  • ‘Participants and other accredited persons must not use the Olympic Symbol – i.e. the five interlaced rings, which is the property of the IOC – on their postings, blogs or tweets on any social media platforms or on any websites.’

(Olympic Guidelines – Social Media, 2012)

With such strict guidelines, one would question how well the Olympic committee could enforce it with thousands of athletes and individuals of the press.  Enforcement didn’t seem to be a problem as many individuals were turning in each other to ensure no one received the leg up on material. For example, NBC requested that a British Newspaper’s correspondent be suspended from Twitter until after the games due to his action online. Their request was granted and the individual was banned until the games closed (Read more here). Although the games had a few other issues, the guidelines put forth early in the process really limited the overall possibilities for content.

Another popular trend during the Olympics this year was the use of hashtags in post. The most popular hashtags included #London2012, #Olympics2012, and #Olympics. Each hashtag had its own success but the most popular one was #London2012. Below is a chart showing the last 24 hours of use for the hashtag.

(#London2012, HashTracking.com)

As you can see, it generated over 6,225,000 impressions and reached an audience of over 5,979,000 in the past 24 hours. With such a large impact, it is no wonder that social media has been so popular during the Olympics.

As the games came to a close Sunday night, twitter was aflutter with athletes and viewers tweeting their thoughts and sadness that the games were ending. A few example tweets below from a US equestrian team member and the US Olympic Team account:

(#London2012, Twitter.com)

Many others discussed the variety of musicians that were featured and the overall impact of the performance in our lives. With such a high bar set, I look forward to seeing the Rio Olympics in 2016 but, until then, I leave you with a video from the closing ceremonies and the words of John Lennon, “…I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one; I hope someday you’ll join us; And the world will be as one”.

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Attract Your Audience with Magnetic Content

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eMarketer has just released their whitepaper, “Top Digital Trends of 2012” and, as expected, it’s filled with valuable insights relevant to marketers both focused in the digital space and those that are immersed in more traditional channels. It’s well worth a download. From this paper, there are many takeaways that will prove valuable to marketers, but one of the most relevant takeaways is the concept of magnetic content.

Magnetic content – just what does that mean? It’s somewhat self-descriptive. Essentially, any content that draws in one’s attention is magnetic content. Whether you’ve got an interesting story, intriguing graphics, or another element to your content that draws in the audience, you’ve got magnetic content.

Advertisements have long been attempting to accomplish this task of drawing in the (preferred) audience to perform a certain task or desired action, but as long as content is interpreted as an advertisement, this goal cannot be accomplished. The key to magnetic content is the changing the perception to the viewer. No longer should you strive for a better advertisement, but instead work towards intriguing, engaging content that makes a consumer want to act on it.

Many marketers that are only now grasping this concept may be thinking, “Shouldn’t all content be magnetic?” The logical answer would be a resounding, “YES!” but seeing as much of a brand’s content involves advertisements, websites, free standing inserts, and so on, the best and most necessary place for magnetic content lives in the online space – particularly on social networks and in email.

Why the exclusivity? It goes back to the perception I touched upon earlier. The most talented of marketers can create the most compelling free-standing insert ever seen, but consumers have been conditioned to recognize this content as an advertisement. This alone keeps the content in this setting from being genuinely, truly magnetic. On social networks, however, and email in particular, there is the element of the opt-in. Whether a user signs up for Facebook and likes their favorite brand pages, or a person opts into an e-Club, the first step is taken by the consumer. This consumer is an audience member who is asking for the brand to create valuable, even “magnetic” content.

Stoney River Red Canoe Society Preference Center

Now we’ve established what and where – how does one create magnetic content? Depending on the channel, it’s not terribly difficult through either email or social media. A great way to begin this process through email is a preference center. Having a user sign up for your email tells you that they are interested in your brand (or the incentive promised following a successful sign up), but a preference center allows for greater insight into just who that user is. In a preference center, a brand is able to acquire both demographic and, more importantly, psychographic information from a customer. The latter allows for easier magnetic content creation because this information provides a better glimpse as to who a person is. For instance, when one is in the process of signing up for Stoney River’s Red Canoe Society*, they are not only asked their birthday and preferred location; Stoney River wants to know other areas of interest, such as wine tastings, or cooking classes.

After becoming more familiar with the definition of magnetic content, it seems only logical that one finds magnetic content to be almost synonymous with social media content – at least, successful content on social media channels. A user first opts in to a Facebook page simply by liking it, and the ease of content creation starts there. Facebook Insights provide for general demographic information, which allows you to start to tailoring content to your user base. However, the ease of magnetic content creation increases the more you engage and interact with the online audience. For instance, you can post asking your users a “this or that” question. If an overwhelming number of audience members answer “this”, content creators should take this as an indication that future content will perform better if it relates more to the “this” topic – simple, right? It’s essentially crowdsourcing topic ideas for future Facebook updates, which not only makes the job easier on behalf of the content team, but ensures that future content efforts will prove to be more magnetic.

Striving for magnetic content each and every time there is a need for content may prove difficult, but if the predicted trend continues, it may be necessary for all marketers to make this a standard in their content creation efforts.

*Stoney River is both an email and social media client at BrightWave
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Numbers Game – Why Capturing Data Is Valuable to Marketers

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Recently Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced the integration of Foursquare and Facebook check-ins into “SPG”, also known as Starwood Preferred Guest. The concept is simple; link your SPG account to your personal Facebook or Foursquare account and check-in at any participating property to earn points and “more”. The rules are basic at best – one check-in – per day, per guest, that must be tied to an actual SPG member and visit. For SPG the tactic is smart and immediately adds two additional channels to identify and target guests, allowing them to be on the forefront of Social CRM.

To less technology savvy guests the move might seem silly, but considering the SPG brand, customer demo, and increasingly competitive hospitality industry landscape, exchanging SPG points for additional data to score and target loyal guests is invaluable. This appears to be a classic case of Starwood staying ahead of the competition, offer something unique and compelling that increases the perceived value and potential point earnings of the current SPG program (a small but true differentiator for high-value and potentially influential members).

For marketers the question is simple, can this data be used to drive/increase guest loyalty? While it will take time for Starwood to determine if the initiative delivers incremental spend and visits and in-turn positive ROI, it does give Starwood something that cannot be minimized – additional data that can be used to better deliver more targeted and relevant communications to guests both online and off. Knowing that content relevancy drives engagement and ultimately correlates to revenue, marketers must be diligent in determining the best way to segment and deliver unique experiences to customers in the digital channel. This concept is increasingly important for brands on the customer service and marketing front – identifying what channels customers are active in and intelligently participating in those channels.

Viewing multi-channel customer loyalty programs through the lenses of an email marketer presents a novel concept – leverage email behavioral data to better target customers. While many email programs lack transactional data, the amount of behavioral data provides the data needed to immediately segment and target almost all customer communications. The theory is simple – a customer that has opened, read, or clicked the last 10 emails from a brand, should in theory be receiving much different content than a customer that has ignored the last 10. For many brands this goes against the “batch and blast” mentality that has plagued email marketers for quite some time. The same way Starwood is going to treat high value guests differently on-property than someone that stays once a year, almost all brands have an immediate opportunity to better speak to customers in the digital space. While the channels are distinctly different the principles are the same, treat customers based on known behavior, not assumptions.

I am sure many marketers shudder at the thought of manual segmentation, more dynamic content, or having to build out Facebook and Foursquare customer service teams. But as we can see with SPG’s social integration, speaking differently to customers based on what a brand knows can be executed with relative ease. Knowing the risk is limited, knowing you don’t always have transactional data to support a truly segmented email or social program, there is still an opportunity to subtly deliver targeted content.  Next time you load a static email campaign, send a tweet, or post on Facebook, stop and ask yourself how much more valuable would your program would be if you applied what you knew about your customers, and most importantly, what are you doing to learn even more?

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How Social Media Adoption is Growing in Kenya

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This is Part 2 in a 2-Part series about my visit to Kenya and the interesting facts I was privy to learn on my trip. Read Part 1 about Kenya and the widespread use of mobile payments here. 

Social media is a worldwide concept, so it should come as no surprise that my visit to Kenya revealed not only that citizens are online across myriad social networks, but that they’re presence on these channels are on a dramatic rise.

Facebook has found a considerable amount of adoption by Kenyans recently. Current statistics report over 1.3 millions Kenyan users on the social network. In addition to the growing user-base, Kenyan brands are faring well, too. Safaricom, the mobile service that is responsible for m-banking platform M-PESA, appears to be the top brand in the country, with over 127,000 likes on their official page.

Twitter is growing in popularity as well. This seems logical seeing as the 140-character network allows for concise and immediate updates to a large network. @KenyaRedCross sees success on Twitter by sharing news on accidents, natural disasters, safety tips, and ways in which one can donate. This account was invaluable during my stay as this was one of the first places my sister and I had heard news of the #HellsGate floods, and learned to stay away from certain sections of the park. You can read more about the tragedy here.

With the adoption rates rising on both of Facebook and Twitter, Kenya has now risen to the second largest African user-base of social media, trailing just behind South Africa. According to The Portland Group, Kenyans produced over 2 million tweets during the last quarter of 2011. This put the country only second on the continent to – surprise – South Africa, whose citizens created over 5 million tweets during this time period. 

So, how has adoption been able to take place so rapidly in Kenya? There seem to be two driving factors to drawing Kenyans to social media: access to SMS-supported mobile devices and the explicit support from the government.

The mobile revolution that has taken place in Kenya is the driver of much social media involvement, with many Facebook updates and tweets being distributed through SMS. For instance, a village chief of Lanet, Kenya, a village very close to Nakuru, informs the community of important information about the village through Twitter updates he submits through his mobile device via SMS. The chief even holds learning sessions in which he informs villagers about the importance of this social network. See below just how much the mobile access of a platform such as Twitter has helped Lanet:

(via Al Jazeera English)

The inherently mobile nature of social media provides a gateway in which the general public can access social media and networks, but the acknowledgement and advocacy of social media by government officials has helped Kenya’s dramatic rise in adoption rate as well. Even Kenya’s President addressed the importance of social networking at a recent conference.

(via KENYA Citizen TV)

There’s no denying that social media is becoming a staple of Kenyan society. So the obvious (and rather vague) question I have is…what’s next? As with mobile payments, will Kenyans set a precedent for the rest of the world when it comes to the proportion of users accessing social networks through their mobile devices? Will consumers worldwide increase demand for SMS-based marketing strategy? 

What do you think?


 

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Managing Your Brand in a Social Society

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Have you ever gotten on a Facebook page and told a brand how dissatisfied you were, or maybe how their product failed in a certain way? How quickly did you get a response from their customer care center?

In a digital media-centric society, I am guessing you’ve received a response quite quickly and it included some sort of resolution like a coupon or special offer from the brand. This concept is known as social customer care.

With the ever-changing world of digital media and the opportunity to affect a brand’s reputation with thousands of individuals by the click of a button, the concept of social customer care has played a larger part in the social practice at BrightWave.

In recent weeks, we have deployed a few large campaigns that integrate email basic practices with social interaction on the Facebook page. One in particular was a Facebook question regarding customers’ favorite dessert at Stoney River. We received responses that included simple dessert comments to paragraph stories. Email subscribers and Facebook fans increased tremendously. This opened the door for more Facebook conversations about the brand and more negative comment potential.  Our team worked fast to prep for any incoming customer issues. We created a connection between the Stoney River Customer Care team and our BrightWave team to provide the best in customer service. This integration has helped manage any customer issues on the Facebook page and make the brand more reputable. A great example of our customer care on Facebook is below for your reference.

Now you may be wondering how you can improve your internal/social customer service. Below are three simple steps to follow that will make your brand more customer-centric on your social platforms:

Step 1: Understanding the Importance

If you don’t understand the importance of social customer care, you need too! Word of Mouth and social discussions affect your brand in more ways than one.

Step 2: Create a Social Customer Care Plan of Action

Developing a plan of action that is customer oriented is the key to success. The worst thing a brand can do is be unprepared in the time of need. With a plan of action and a resolution, customers will be talking about your great customer service not their problems.

Step 3: Never Underestimate the Power of a Team

We like to think that our team works together well. When someone is out, we always have others monitoring. It’s that dedication that makes our customer care plans successful.

Once you implement the three steps, you should be well on your way to success. And finally, don’t forget that, “Your brand is not what you think it is…it’s what your customers say it is.”

 

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The Future of Paid Advertising on a Mobile Platform

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Hey everyone. I’m Andrew Carlsen, a recent addition to the BrightWave team. A little background on myself:  I managed email marketing programs at AirTran Airways and HalfOffDepot.com and have touched everything from social media to paid advertising along the way. Something caught my attention recently that I think may relate to the work we all do as digital marketers.

Anyone watching 2012 Q1 ad sales from some of the world’s biggest sellers may be seeing some interesting data.  All the major ad networks seem to be reacting a little differently as mobile gains market share, and it begs the question – How will paid advertising adjust to the mobile market?  

Google’s ad prices are dropping, while engagement is on the rise. CPC decreased by 12% year over year, and 6% from the last quarter, but engagement has increased 39% and 7% year over year and from the previous quarter, respectively.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s prices are increasing even as engagement dips. Engagement is down 8% from the previous quarter, and CPM impressions are up 41% year over year (don’t know CPC  or CPM? Pay attention to these, they may not be email marketing, but all tie in to the same goals – customer engagement and retention).

Bing and Yahoo show similarly confusing results, with their total paid search spend growing, while their clicks dipped several percentage points. As a result, the overall picture looks something like this:

Where are we headed?

This trending data seems contradictory and confusing, but I think it points to the fact that no one is sure exactly how mobile will affect digital advertising as it continues to take on market share. Here are two factors that I think need to be addressed in order to begin making sense of it all:

Fragmentation of Screen Sizes and Devices
Traditional paid advertising placements tend to get lost on a smaller screen, and many mobile optimized sites have no ads at all. What is the next step to address that?

Smarter Targeting and Segmentation  
Advertisers could be going after impulse shoppers while they’re on-the-go. They could also leverage geo-targeting for location-based ads, or a myriad of other mobile behavior-based options.

While I do not know what the answers will be, I do know one principle that yields measurable results in email marketing that would help point advertisers in the right direction: test, test, and test again.

What do you think is in store for the future of mobile advertising?

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Social Media and the Move to Mobile

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People like to say that social media isn’t going anywhere. Facebook has upwards of 800 milion users, Pinterest is gaining incredible momentum while still in private beta, and so on with the other big networks. Social media has become a huge part of the online experience, becoming the top reason people log onto the Internet. One can’t refute that strength of these online platforms.

I agree. Social media is essential to marketers, and consumers really. But it is going somewhere. Social media is going mobile.

mobile phone user

photo courtesy of gailjadehamilton on flickr

If you haven’t heard the rumors, then you’re behind the times. Internet users, meaning social media users as evidenced by the aforementioned Internet usage tidbit, are getting online while on the move. We live in a society where no person can physically stay in place for too long, so this is the logical next step, but social networking having grown to being an activity of more than 50% of mobile users? That’s a statistic worth paying attention to.

How are social networks faring in the mobile arena? The big three (how many refer to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) have gotten into the mobile arena because their audiences demand it. The mobile app market for iPhone and Android device users offers myriad social third party social networking apps that allow for greater ease of use for the tweeter, or the antsy pinner that MUST get that animated cat GIF online immediately.

Why the flood on mobile social networkers in the past couple years? Well, for businesses, it may be too late to be asking that question. At this point, it’s adapt or die get lost in the shuffle. Optimizing emails and the web experience for a customer is essential for ensuring that lead translates into a transaction, whether in-store or online. If the mobile experience isn’t a good one, customers will go elsewhere, and could very well choose not to return.

How can laggard brands get involved in the mobile revolution? Step one is adapting the marketing plan  to include mobile initiatives. Following this, there are several approaches that can be taken. Below are a three I would recommend:

  • Test your emails for mobile devices or risk losing customers. Email is one of the biggest drivers to social networking sites. If subscribers have a negative experience with reading email on their mobile device, it’s highly unlikely they will follow through with the call to action to either visit the website or head to Facebook to “join the conversation”. Litmus is a great tool to help test your emails on mobile before hitting the send button.
  • Just as with social networks, mobile marketing is not the same as traditional marketing – so don’t treat them the same. What may work on a newspaper insert – let’s say, a QR code – will fail miserably in your mobile marketing efforts. Survey the mobile landscape  and decide marketing initiatives accordingly.
  • Use mobile to provide the link between online and in-store. Mobile coupons are easy to create and easy to use. Even mobile users that don’t own a smartphone can be rewarded through mobile via text message that can provide a code for in-store redemption. Offering an incentive through mobile both increases the likelihood of in-store purchases, it also allows for easier measurement of the successes of mobile marketing efforts.

Though mobile marketing is nothing new, there’s nothing wrong with getting into the game a little late. What is a travesty is a brand denying that the necessity is there.

What brands do you see the have successfully entered the mobile marketing realm?

 

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Be Careful What You Wish For…

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Recently, I heard about an employer in Maryland who asked for an applicant’s Facebook password during an interview.  The employer, in this case, The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, indicated that they wanted access to a candidate’s social media account for use in background checks.  It has been reported that interviewers were looking specifically for gang related affiliations or activities and searched through photographs, wall postings and other personal messages to and from other members on Facebook.

Alarm bells went off.

Not because I’m concerned for the applicant’s privacy.  Excellent candidates will reply with a graceful decline and move the subject back into the territory of why their skills and abilities are best suited for the position and the company.

What concerned me was the notion that the employer never paused to think about what that password would unlock.   They were walking straight into a landmine – not a goldmine.

By using this password to violate someone’s privacy, the employer could potentially open up a whole host of EEOC claims against them even if they weren’t using this information for nefarious intent.  The EEOC specifically outlines that information obtained in the interview or “pre-employment” inquiry should be:

“…  limited to those essential for determining if a person is qualified for the job; whereas, information regarding race, sex, national origin, age, and religion are irrelevant in such determinations.”

And, really, what information could the employer have learned that couldn’t be fleshed out in a thoughtful and thorough interview?

The benefits of gaining this information certainly do not outweigh the risks of a potential lawsuit, much less the publicity it has engendered.  If you want to show a candidate how out of step your company is with social media – just ask for the password to their private accounts.

BrightWave Marketing’s social media policy encourages all staff members to engage in social media in a thoughtful and respectable manner.  Of course, proprietary information and anything that is confidential in nature simply doesn’t belong on social media.  But, BrightWave believes that engaging others in creative and conversational platforms builds brand loyalty for our clients and delivers successful outcomes across many channels.

Remember, an interview is a two-way conversation.  An employer who asks to pry into someone’s personal life may get the password – but they certainly won’t get the best candidate for the position.

 

(Photograph appears courtesy of psd on flickr)

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You Can Now Publish Tweets Directly from Facebook – But You Shouldn’t

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Third party applications have allowed for any Twitter/Facebook user to publish to both social networking platforms at once, and Twitter has allowed for this for some time as well. However, only now has Facebook decided that it, too, will allow anyone who wishes to publish their updates directly to Twitter as well. About time, right?

It’s really simple to set up, too. Here’s how:

  • Go to facebook.com/twitter
  • Click the button that reads “Link to Twitter”. You can do this for your profile page and all business pages you have administrator rights over.
  • Begin tweeting/posting all at once!

Although the new feature is something many have been looking forward to, taking advantage of this is something I would strongly advise against.

Why? A couple reasons can sum up why it’s NOT a good idea to employ Facebook’s new offering.

First and foremost, Twitter and Facebook messaging options are entirely different, and should be treated as such. Twitter’s limit to 140 characters (don’t even get me started on my dislike for deck.ly – good riddance if you ask me) was created for a reason. Updates on this platform are meant to be concise, with an intriguing message involving a call to action or other incentive for a user to continue following the account.

Facebook on the other hand has always encouraged (sometimes unreasonably) long posts. In the latter part of 2011 the social network even increased post length to now be longer than ever (somewhere in the 900-character range). This means brands can relay every detail necessary to page fans.

In addition to the difference in length of posts, Twitter and Facebook call for varying content shared through posts. Posts to Twitter have very little shelf-life because they are typically viewed by a follower in a stream of hundreds, possibly thousands, of other tweets. Links can be included, but the message should get straight to the point – again, the idea is that you give your followers an update on the latest that’s happening with your brand.

Again, Facebook allows for much more involvement in updates. Not only can your message be lengthier, but the options to attach photos and links, upload a video to the post, or even create a Facebook question means that community managers should carefully tailor content specific to the page.

These are only a couple reasons why one should stay away from the option of connecting updates on Facebook and Twitter. I could get into how the audiences vary a great deal as well – but that’s for another blog post.

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