by admin on December 10, 2009
Just because you know that you have to be on social media, you create your Facebook account in a haphazard manner without even knowing its basics. I have seen marketers integrating Social media tools without knowing what tools are appropriate for them and how to use them.
Small businesses need to realize that getting involved in Social media isn’t that easy. Paul Chaney alludes to this in his blog:
“Companies must first inculcate social media’s mindset to experience maximum benefit. It’s the same rationale behind why theory courses are taught in college before practical ones. To do otherwise is to put the proverbial cart before the horse.”
Here are a few steps to start with before you actually dive into the deep Social media ocean:
1. Authentic and Transparent approach:
Authenticity and transparency are the basis and most essential parts of Social media. Gone are the old days in which marketing professionals ruled the online world where they had the authority to publish content of their own choice. In Social media era, authenticity and transparency is the criterion for being social. You have to have a clear mindset to be willing to openly share.
2. Do not try to control and own your content:
The fact is that in Social media, your customers own your content, your brand and your services. Sad and scary, but true! David Meerman Scott, in his book, World Wide Rave, puts it this way:
“For your ideas to spread and rise to the status of a World Wide Rave, you’ve got to give up control. Make your Web content totally free for people to access, with absolutely no virtual strings attached.”
It is even sadder for marketers to know that consumers are no more just consumers. With the advent of innovative web technologies, your clients are now also the creators of the content about you. They can alter what you publish and say unbelievable things about you beyond your imagination.
3. Every participant makes a difference:
Every online person in Social media is contributing in some way. They are making difference to your organization to some extent in a long run. Let’s take the example of Susan Boyle, a tough competitor in a British programme, Britain’s Got Talent. Like me, many other bloggers are talking about her spectacular performance and millions of others are spreading her video on YouTube giving her worldwide fame in no time. That’s the power of Social Media.
These were some of the steps I have mentioned but undoubtedly, there are still many others that I have not mentioned here.
So if you are ready to accept the above bitter or sweet realities about Social media, I would suggest you should go for it but in a proper way.
What other approaches you think marketers need to follow before embracing Social media?
by admin on December 1, 2009
Brands geared up their efforts on Black Friday this year using social media. According to eMarketer stats, 17% of the total consumers are shopping via Social media for their Holiday shopping and brands are being clever with their social media strategies in ways not expected.
Toys R Us
Its time to present gifts to your friends and loved ones and Toys R Us has showed up with interesting deals at the lowest prices. The brand has released a Big Book catalog as a custom application on its fan page that is dedicated for Black Friday. The catalog has a variety of toys on amazingly low prices that only fans can avail.
Thus, to avail exclusive discounts, Becoming a fan is the condition you need to fulfill. The brand’s success story takes a start here as Toys R Us becomes the fastest growing brand on Facebook according to allfacebook.
Intel
Intel rewarded its fans on Black Friday by helping them drive the prices of the displayed laptops even lower. People can view these laptops and their respective prices after they become Intel’s fan. The more the increase in fans, the lower the prices of the laptops get that was available for purchase by Cyber Monday.
JCPenny
JCPenny is driving a charity drive this Christmas. It has come up with a generous deed this holiday season on Facebook. The brand, along with Salvation Army is helping people on Facebook to contribute for underprivileged children and seniors via their Angel Giving Tree campaign.
You can choose your Angel by entering a zip/postal code, age group and gender for whom you want to contribute. The Fan page application then presents the matching children and their holiday gift wishes. After your final selection, JCPenney will contact you through email with additional details.
These were examples of few of the many brands driving their Black Friday campaigns online via Social Media.
What other ways you think are brands using to boost their fan base?
by admin on November 25, 2009
Facebook has always been an attraction for women around the globe. Women from all walks of life are found using Facebook in one way or another. According to checkfacebook latest stats, 56.7% of the total US Facebook population is comprised of females. According to Inside Facebook’s October,09 stats, women from all age groups out-number men on Facebook.
Such demographics present interesting opportunities for brands and products focused on females.
Here is an example of two brands focusing on capturing attentions of Females:
1. Pink Ribbon:
On Facebook, Pink Ribbon is an app by Breastcancersite.com. The noble cause is focused on creating awareness among females about Breast cancer. The brand is finding Facebook conducive targeting the correct demographics in large numbers via Facebook.
To support the cause, the brand is leveraging all Facebook features. With their Facebook app, users can contribute in raising funds in various ways. Even people, who cannot contribute money, can contribute by just clicking everyday and raising funds for free mammograms for uninsured females. Users can join the 1 million fan march to donate $100,000 for the breast cancer research which is another incentive for people to join hands with the brand.
Fans can also fund the cause by shopping from the Pink Ribbon’s Fan page app, Shop the Cause. Also, there is a Contest tab and a Take Action tab for fans to be a part of the cause in one of the various other ways.
2. Victoria’ Secret
Victoria’s Secret has over 2 million fans on Facebook. It’s one of the most successful female products retailers in US. The reason for its popularity among the majority of females is its highly- attractive app, “Model Search” for the brand’s Fashion Show.
A large number of young US females desire to walk on the ramp and Victoria’s secret is where they are given the chance to prove themselves. Daily, fans share their photos on the brand’s fan page, which fans can vote for and get the candidates into the contest.
The fan base of above two paradigms isn’t a matter of fate. The two brands have worked hard on their social media strategy which is obvious from their success on Facebook.
How is your brand leveraging Facebook demographics to its advantage?
by Aisha Malik on November 17, 2009
Earlier, Facebook applications aimed to increase traffic, gain customers and sales. Now the perception has changed. Facebook applications must be entertaining and informative in order to thrive in the park of social media. Brands that are successful on Facebook have realized this fact.
It has been observed that marketers are not welcomed in social networks. Brands whose sole objective is marketing on Facebook may not be acknowledged and become fail whales. The psychological principal of social proof applies here. A significant number of fans impresses and attracts more fans to connect with your brand. It portrays the impression of an ideal brand they were just looking for.
Here is the latest from few of the competitive brands that are striving to reach the Million benchmark by integrating user-engaging and socializing applications in their fan page.
Papa John’s
Papa John’s is in 2nd place in the top 20 gainers this week chart on Inside Facebook. An increasing shift in its fan base is being observed due to its free medium -sized pizza in exchange of becoming brand’s fan. It is expected that Papa John’s will be reaching the 1 million fan milestone soon.
Outback Steakhouse
A similar strategy similar to Papa John’s is that of Outback Steakhouse, which is also among the Top 20 gainers this week’s chart on InsideFacebook. They are offering free handcrafted Bloomin’ Onion with the purchase of an entree for first 500,000 fans.
Red bull
Red bull is a big brand with already more than 1 million fans on Facebook. I visited its Fan page and came up with this finding of how they have been successful in creating the huge fan base. Though it’s not in the “Top Gainer’s this week’s Chart”, what it is doing to engage their fans with the brand is notable. They have introduced an adventurous application called Red Bull Stash in their fan page.
Here’s how Red Bull is rewarding its fans: Red Bull has hidden thousands of Red Bull energy Shots all over America. Fans have to find the clues on Facebook that lead to these hidden stashes. Those who find them can claim the stash. The winners are even announced on the fan page.
Red Bull has been smart enough to come up with an application that would engage its fans in an entirely new way. They are rewarding their fans for seeking the reward. Red Bull has smartly developed an application that gives its fans what they want.
Key Take Aways:
- Don’t look at Facebook as an advertising channel. Learn to give away for free and measure the intangible benefits. This way you can better develop brand loyalty and can expect your marketing from your fans via Word-of-mouth.
- Penetrate deep into your customer’s psychology and see what application ideas can entice them. Innovate but don’t just come up with newer versions of already popular applications. They are most likely to fail.
- Come up with simple and easy ways to help fans take advantage of the free offers. Keeping them within Facebook is better. If you put a condition of Buy and Get, not many will be attracted to the deal.
After gaining insights into latest activities of brands on Facebook, it has become clear that those that empower their fans to draw in new fans reap the most rewards.
Are you engaging the right people?
by Aisha Malik on November 10, 2009
Facebook fan pages have now been around for quiet sometime and while there are brand owners that are still unaware of how important Fan pages are, there are many brands that have learnt its importance and have joined Facebook just in time. According to recent studies, which Mark Stutzman has discussed in his blog post in detail, 86% of brands are appearing on Facebook Fan pages.
Facebook Fan pages are used to convert your page visitors to potential customers, thus increasing sales by generating user-engaging content. This is from where comes the twist in your brand marketing success story. Yes, it is your user-engaging content.
Brands have been using contests to engage their fans and entice them to visit again. They are introducing schemes that involve not only their fans but friends of their fans too – a subtle trick that affects the subconscious of the reader.
Here are few of the examples of how brands are optimizing their fan page content.
Mrs. Freshley’s
Let’s take an example of Mrs. Freshley’s, a baked goods manufacturer that has started a contest of “Who is Mrs. Freshley” on their fan page. The brand which is functioning since 1994, is looking for Mrs. Freshley and has asked Facebook users to nominate from their friends and networks who they think is their Mrs. Freshley. I learned this news from Matt Holliday’s blog post on Inside Facebook that kept me marveling at the creativity being demonstrated in this space.
Papa John’s
Papa John’s is a famous Pizza Restaurant around since 1984. Papa John’s came up with an interesting scheme that targets visitors to become their fans. The post says:
“Hey Fans! Tell your friends how to become a PJ’s Fan of the Week. Have them post a pic of themselves supporting Papa John’s in their Halloween costumes & they will be considered to be one of our Fans of the Week! Five lucky winners will be announced this Wednesday, have their photos posted in our status update & amp; win a $50 Papa Card! Photos can be posted until 11/4/09.”
Sprinkles Cupcakes
Here is an example of Sprinkles cupcakes of Beverly Hills, a company that has been opearting since 2004. Sprinkles is not old on Facebook but after reaching an impressive 70,000 fans partially due to their free cupcakes promotion strategy, Sprinkles has come up with a unique user-engaging idea called the “Sprinkles BFF Contest.” The details of the contest are as follows:
Prize details:
“When Sprinkles reaches 100,000 fans on Facebook, we will randomly choose a BFF to win an all-expenses paid trip for two to visit the world’s first cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills! Sprinkles’ BFF will dine and have a bakery tour with Sprinkles Founder and Pastry Chef, Candace Nelson, stay at the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel, and enjoy free cupcakes each day, including a 4MYBFF message box which has yet to be released in stores! We’ll send you home with 12 Sprinkles Cupcake Mixes – including Spice mix which will debut in Fall 2009 – and a Sprinkles Cupcake Tray so we can be at your special occasions all year just like a BFF should!
Prize includes:
round trip airfare for two within the continental United States
hotel accommodations at the Beverly Wilshire for two nights
$500 gift card to cover meals, transportation and even a little shopping in the heart of 90210”
Key Take A ways
The aforementioned case studies show us how brands are becoming smarter in increasing their fan base. They have now introduced a new strategy that is incentive-based to lure in new users. Earlier, only fans were participating in contests but now, brands are targeting fans’ friends and networks. Fans and non fans will have to invite their friends and networks to earn free prizes and in return, both the nominee and the one who nominated will be given the reward.
Recent research has shown that what customers want most from brands are discounts. Probably these brands have realized their customer’s demand and have started adopting more attention grabbing strategies by giving free prizes for joining the fan page. In future, probably these strategies will also become obsolete as these become common on Facebook.
I look forward to learning more about active brands’ tactics for fans engagement.
by Aisha Malik on November 3, 2009
We keep receiving calls from our clients with deep concern about the social media strategies of their competitors. Just because their competitor has started with a new social media strategy, they also want to move in with the same approach and want to get there, where their competitors are.
Another social media strategy followed by few of the big brands is to create Social network that focuses their target audience. Sean P. Aune wrote about 7 top brands that created a Social Network to engage present fans and convert visitors to fans by getting inspiration from the top social networks like Facebook and MySpace. While their approach was inspiring, it did not succeed as expected. These are:
Disney DXD,
GoRunEasy.com by Reebock,
MarthaStewart.com,
MyStarBucksIdea.com,
Pepsi.Youniverse.com,
Think.MTV.com and Toyota Hybrid.
To your knowledge, these are all big brands that are relatively successful but looks like they jumped onto the social bandwagon without any thought as to how they can engage their users.
Tom created a Facebook page for Popular, The UK’s no.1 hits. Although he knows that he needs to be on Facebook, he doesn’t know what he should use it for.
Here is what he posted:
“I have built a Facebook Page for Popular. I will freely admit that I have not much idea of what I will USE it for. I’m thinking about links to the entries, alerts to particularly interesting discussions developing on older entries, and any other material I happen to find of interest to fans of #1 hits.”
The conclusion that can be drawn from above examples is that to ensure your success, you need to focus on your goals and need to know how your company should respond to the competitor’s decision.
If your competitor has created a new online community, may be because its goal is to research responses or do survey. Your company’s goal may not necessarily be the same as your competitor’s. So imitating your counterparts just because you think their strategy is thriving, is an inappropriate reason for you to follow them.
To develop your own winning social media strategy, you need to identify your objectives and identify the reason for joining Social media. There can be hundred different ways to enter Social media. You need to identify the right way for your company. Following is a list of steps to guide you to develop your strategic goals:
1. Understand the need of your customers. Assess what they demand from you and what social activities and tools can engage them with your brand by analyzing their current activities.
2. Outline your goals. What are your objectives that you want to achieve through social media? Do you want to increase your sales? Or do you want to spread your brand awareness? Or are you interested in tapping into the minds of your customers to know their opinion about your brand.
3. In social media it’s all about relationships, not your brand. Identify what kind of relationship you want to develop with your customers and how you would utilize those relationships to your advantage. Do you want them to promote your brand through word-of-mouth? Or do you want them to stick to your brand for years? Answering to this question will enable you to change customer-brand relationship in an effective way.
4. What applications can get your users activated with your brand? After deciding the demands of your customers, your objectives and relationships, identify the technologies that can help you fulfill your goals while imparting the needs of your customers and building the relationships.
Essentially, the ultimate goal of all brands is to reach out to their customers via Social Media tools. You need to determine what way you can interact with them. This way you can define goals for your company for getting on to Social media.
by Azam Khan on October 30, 2009
Many companies create their Fan Page on Facebook as a part of their online Marketing strategy. But what does it take to create a successful fan page, without having a strong fan base? Here is a brief case summary of a brand which is the today the world’s number one consumer fan page “Coca Cola” to help you better understand how your fans can make difference to your brand.
Coca-Cola Case Summary
Coca-Cola’s Fan Page on Facebook has an interesting history. Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedrzejewski were two, average Coca-Cola fans. They were passionate about connecting with Coca Cola on Facebook but were unable to do so due to a lack of brand presence. They decided to create their own Coca Cola Fan Page and grew it to over 3 million fans from around the world.
What was Coca Cola’s reaction?
Coca Cola’s team handled the situation sensibly. Instead of annexing the entire fan page, Coca Cola honored the two fan page creators for their contributions, by inviting them to their Country head Office in Atlanta for a three day visit of Coca-Cola, to figure out how to collaborate.
The Coca Cola Marketing Team asked Dusty and Michael to broadcast their trip to Coca Cola Fans by creating a video that focused on the fun experience of direct brand interaction.
What can brands learn from Coca Cola?
Times have changed. Brands need to assess their actions and strategy carefully before plunging into social media.
The most important lesson to be learned from this is that it is better to work with fans than to strong arm them. Evangelists are the pillars of word of mouth marketing and should be empowered.
- Acknowledge your consumer’s interest in your product.
- Make them feel special by providing them special discounts
- Incentivize your fan base by giving away prizes and rewards via various methods such as contests that are held and promoted through your fan page
- Empower your fans by making them feel like a part of your company. Take them behind the scenes of your company thus creating stronger links between you and your customers, increasing trust.
Do you own a successful Fan Page? What do you think can work for creating a stronger fan base?
http://www.facebook.com/involvesocial
by admin on October 20, 2009
After all the Fan page concepts and advantages discussed in our previous blogs, I hope now you are convinced and ready to set up your own fan page. Here is a step-by-step procedure to guide you with your Fan page:
1) Set up your Fan page:
1. To create your fan page, you need to have a Facebook account. So if you are already a Facebook user, first log in. Else, sign up from www.facebook.com.
2. After logging in, scroll down on your home page and click on Advertising. On the Advertising page, click on Pages and from their click on the Create a Page button on the right.
3. The next page asks you the category of your fan page, the name for your Fan page and your certification for the fan page.
There are three categories namely:
• Local
• Brand, Product or Organization
• Artist, Band or Public figure
Category:
Be specific for your category by selecting your sub category from the drop down menu in each of the above categories.
Name:
The name of your fan page is the name of the organization, person or product for which you are creating the fan page. If you have newly set up the company and haven’t decided its name yet, think of an attractive, logical, clear and unique name that is not in use by someone else. This gives you a unique identity on Facebook.
Certification:
Here you certify that you are the true representative of the organization, person or product and that you are authorized to create the page. It requires an Electronic Signature where you have to enter the name with which you are logged in.
4. After filling in the details, press the Create Page button. Your Fan page is now created.
2) Add Details:
The fan page you created is empty and is not in a condition to be published. So you have to add details relevant to each tab appearing on your Fan page except the Wall tab which updates itself whenever you or your fans post on your wall.
Add maximum information about your organization or brand in the Info tab. The more you provide your info, the more you become reliable and authentic for Facebook users. Add photos and videos in the Photos and Videos tab respectively and make your Fan page interactive and attention grabbing.
After adding details, publish your page and get ready for the promotion of your page.
3) Integrate Applications in your Page:
Applications are though optional, but adding them on your page adds functionality to your page. What applications are suitable for your page depends on the type of your fan page. For example, a Restaurant can add an Orders tab where its fans can place orders or a Real Estate can add a Mortgage Calculator tab where fans can calculate mortgages.
If you don’t have a fan page yet on Facebook or if you already exist on Facebook but don’t have your niche specific applications, get them developed now and show your web presence to over 300 million Facebook users.
Log on to http://www.Involvesocial.com and get customized fan page applications for your Fan page.
by Azam Khan on October 5, 2009
The beauty of online advertisement is that there is no TIME LIMIT. Unlike television, where you need to make your point across in a minute or less, the online advertisement allows you to capture a storm in a bottle.
The question is: Do people actually spend time online and view the videos or do people click on “X” and close the advertisement window? Well, it all depends on how you present your product. Check out the GAP’s Facebook fan page: Born To Fit. It is not a fan page, it is a hand-shake – between GAP and customers. GAP details the theory behind its famous jeans, and presents a series of “Born to be” videos with various inspiring artists. GAP lets it customers know that it is social media savvy – available on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Iphone.
The customers on the other hand can upload photos and videos showing off their “Born to be” sides. A gap.com link allows customers access to a GAP store once they have visually checked out different jeans and their fit via interactive models. Diehard fans of GAP are going to love this new style of advertisement and newbies are going to enjoy the tour of GAP.
Planning to follow GAP? Looks like Best Buy will be spending more time on its Fan page hoping to get a buzz for the holiday season (www.adage.com). It would be nice if Best Buy could show comparison chart of TVs, laptops, cameras, or an interactive game that one can test drive before buying it in their stores. How about giveaways (right around the season), coupons, sales and news?
Even though the website of a company sells its products, the fan page sells the company. Now here is an excellent example of the above statement:
Check out all the points that Dunkin Donuts make in one fan page:
• Showing its fans that it is FAIR TRADE CERTIFIED. Who would not buy their coffee knowing that the company is making a big difference in lives of farmers all over the world.
• A quick link to Dunkin Donuts home page so that the fans can immediately find the nearest Dunkin Donut store.
• Free enrollment to Dunkin Donuts perk card that could give them a chance to win coffee for a whole year (a lucky drawing happening every week).
Companies (big or small) do not realize how much they can convey in one Fan page and how much free feedback they can get from their fans. A company is only successful if its customers are happy and heard. What better way to find where you stand with your customers than a social media app?
Television, magazine, radio advertisement will promote your product to be a household name, whereas social media advertisement will make your product a household name.
by Fauz Amir on September 30, 2009
In the year 2007, an online survey conducted by IBM, showed that the television sets were losing ground to the internet when it came to personal leisure time. 19 percent of all respondents stated that they spent six hours or more per day on the internet versus nine percent of respondents spending the same amount of time in front of the television (www.bit-tech.net).
In the year 2008, according to IAB, (in spite of the financial crisis, internet advertising grew 10% in 2008. More specifically, it was about $23.4 billion in 2008 versus 2007’s $21.2 billion (www.techcrunch.com).
For the year 2009, the forecast is that Internet advertising is expected to increase over 2% whereas newspaper ad revenue is estimated to fall by 12% and magazine ad revenue is expected to be down by 12.5% (www.lab.77agency.com).
Why is internet advertising increasing? Why do people prefer internet over television for their leisure time? What benefits do company get when advertisement is digital?
Internet advertising is increasing because we, the customers, are enslaved to our demanding schedules that no longer allow us the luxury of sitting down in front of television set and enjoy a 30-60 minutes show embedded with numerous advertisements. Our fickle nature gravitate us towards interactive, exciting and challenging applications that Internet provides. The internet advertisement becomes an intrinsic background in our world of entertainment.
The world of internet opens up search engines for us. We no longer want a product pushed on us (via persistent TV or magazine advertisement). We want to search more about the product and the company. Is the company eco-friendly? Is it keeping its employees happy? Is it selling services or products that are available at the right price? In a nutshell, is the company working for us? We are looking for an intimate relation with the company that is not possible in one-page advertisement or one minute TV time.
For example: Take a look at the fan page of Starbucks. In less than one minute you can see how Starbucks connect to its fans, how they are involved in saving lives in Africa, how they are listening to their fans and bringing in sugar-free syrups and much more. Another example is American Eagle Outfitters. Be their fan and enjoy their weekly coupons, lucky draw, giveaways, news and polls. Long gone are days when the weekly mail would bring in coupons that we would save for the weekend shopping. All you need to do now is log in to your Social Media Application, print out the coupons of your favorite store and shop whenever!
So what can companies learn from our perspective? The companies should really stay focused with current advertising media. Once you become a sociable brand by utilizing Social Media as Facebook, Twitter or Myspace, then all you need to do is show your interactive side. Don’t just let your Fan page be a one page advertisement, in fact make it a volatile and dynamic streamer keeping its fans up to date with news, discussions, sale and coupons. Once you become a sociable brand, you are no longer targeting a specific demographic area, but you are reaching out all over the world. So be sensitive to this information. Reach out to your fans and your customers all over the world. Internet advertising gives you a niche with your 21st century fans!
