Blog
A couple of months ago, we shared our favorite ways that the spirits industry is toying around with the digital world, and now, we have a whole new batch for you. From Instagram Stories to Chatbots, these four digital campaigns are worth checking out.
The landscape of social media is constantly changing. The networks are changing how they serve up content, consumers expectations are changing around the quality of content posted by brands, and the skillset of what's needed to do social media well is changing. Good job security for those in the know, frustrating for those who don't have the time to keep up. To help navigate, here are three pitfalls to avoid in 2015 on social media.
1. If you post it, they will come.
As more businesses come on board, there is more clutter than ever in people's newsfeeds. The content you create not only has to be quality to stand out, it will also need to be supported with advertising. Facebook has decreased organic reach for the last few years and has publicily come out saying: "The free ride is over in 2015." You could have 10,000 fans but only 1 - 5% are ever seeing your content. The Solution? Set aside ad dollars in this year's budget, even if it's a small amount. You can throw $5 behind a Facebook post and reach the right audience efficiently. Don't forget, Facebook knows more about your interests and life events than some of your closest friends. As a marketer you can use that information to your advantage.
2. Telling your story in words.
The brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Standing out on social starts with a great image. Once you pique someone's interest then they may read what you have to say. Be sure to line up the right partners - photo, video and graphic design, when creating content in 2015, and think about how you can tell your story in a visual manner. If budget is tight consider inexpensive stock photography on sites like canva.com
3. Being too trendy, a.k.a. jumping on every trending topic.
When social media first started marketers were told not to "hard sell" on social. They were taught to be fun, light and casual, which led to a slew of "Happy Friday" and "National Cookie Day" posts. In 2015, you need to think of social media as a series of circles - what's relevant on social (the current conversation), what's relevant to your brand (your business objectives or story) and that magical area that intersects. If talking about a certain holiday or topic is an awkward fit, don't push it. Twitter users slammed the Seattle Seahawks for tweeting out a MLK quote with a photo of one of its players, they didn't see the connection, yet revered Krispy Kreme for a tweet which read: "Ours are fully-filled" after the deflate gate episode. No matter what the hot topic, your content should drive business results and should be relevant to your brand story in 2015, if not fans will let you know.
Giving Admin access to your Facebook page is like handing over the keys to your car. There should be some level of trust, some level of mutual understanding and some knowledge that no matter how well your friend "drives" you're opening yourself up to more risk.If you are going to give someone access to your page make sure you take the following steps:
1. Select the right role:
Facebook allows you to select various levels of access from Admin (all powerful) to Analyst (simply has access to page insights but no power to post or comment as the brand).
2. Discuss expectations:
If you are going to give someone more access versus less be sure to define who is doing what so you aren't double posting or worse, assuming the other person will respond to fans / customer service issues. To a fan it is all one brand voice so you don't want to stumble over one another internally.
3. Limit access but not too much access.
You should have at least two people from your company as admins at all times in case one person quits or forgets his/her password. There's nothing wrong with giving agency partners access but once you've moved on from that relationship, be sure to remove them from the page. Same goes with an employee who quits or is let go.
You want to believe the best in people, and you should, but always remember to protect yourself and your brand identity at the same time. Too often people are too casual about admin access.
The first step in launching a social media presence is to select the right network. At the end of the day you want to be where your audience is spending time, which means taking a look at a variety of factors including demographics. The Wall Street Journal reported on a recent Pew Research study breaking down the various networks by ethnicity.
Be smart about your social presence and be where your customers are spending time.
You have your email list, you have your Facebook fans, so how do they work together? Believe it or not, there are benefits to having someone as a fan and as an email database member, you just have to get them to sign up.
One benefit of having a fan on Facebook is you can talk more often than you can email. Send me an email message every day and I'll probably unsubscribe, post a daily message on Facebook and I'll remain a fan, as long as the content is engaging.
One benefit of having an email address is you can use it to go from one social network to the next. If the popularity of Facebook wanes, you can use the email address to extend an invitation to the next social platform.
Sounds great, right? So, how do you get them to sign up?
Building your database - from Facebook to email. Want to capture the emails of Facebook fans? The easiest way is to host a giveaway on Facebook and drive fans to a website registration page where you capture their email addresses. If you are hosting an event you can also promote on Facebook and require email during the event registration process - again driving them from Facebook to a website registration page.
Building your database - from email to Facebook. Simply invite your fans to like you on Facebook via an email. Offer up a clear reason to join - perhaps you will post a fan only coupon to your page soon, or you'll be hosting a Facebook contest. Give them a sense of urgency that they need to join now in order to be a part of the action. Keep the email copy single-focused - don't bury the ask in a newsletter format.
Something else to consider is Custom Audiences, Facebook's ad product which allows you to upload a list of emails from your database and advertise directly to them on Facebook. If they like you enough to receive your emails chances are they would be open to becoming your fan.
Simple ways to drive people from Facebook to email and the other way around. What methods have you seen work?
In a world of text, tweets, chats and non-physical face-to-face conversations it is much easier to let someone down. Want to cancel dinner? Just text you have a headache. Didn't really quite enjoy that first date? He can be dumped in less than 140 characters. Recently, I watched in wonder as people took to a Facebook event wall to cancel just hours before a party started. You have to ask yourself if they would have sucked it up and come had they been forced to call and speak to someone. So admittedly, technology in all its wonders does have some draw backs, it makes it much easier to "hide" or to be in a way unreliable.For brands and companies though, the opposite seems to hold true. When a dissatisfied customer takes to technology, it is less about hiding or running and more about helping as quickly as possible. No one can be sure how fast the message will spread or how many others will see it and jump on the conversation. Some companies have a policy of answering within 24 hours, others within the hour and some get to it when they can, probably not the best approach. When thinking about your response strategy think about the following:
- What is my capacity? If you don't have someone dedicated to monitoring and responding, then make sure you try to set some standards for fans. Being up front and honest is half the battle. "We'll respond to requests within seven days. If you want a more immediate response call this number."
- Where can people go for customer service? If social isn't where you are putting your focus for customer service be very clear how people can reach you otherwise - phone, email, website. Despite having this people may still want you to respond on social. Very often people want to be responded to via the same medium they reached out on.
- What is your response? If you have a list of common questions or complaints, you can always format a library of responses, allowing even a a third party to be able to respond on your behalf. It saves you time and it satisfies the fan.
Technology may allow people to hide but it also allows people to have their voice amplified. Make sure your company is prepared.
When driving North on I-65 I came across two billboards each a mile apart. The first was for a local mom and pop diner. On it was a picture of food and a call to action - the restaurant's phone number. From what I could tell it wasn't the type of joint you would need to call ahead for a reservation, so why was the phone number featured so prominently?The second billboard was for Burger King. It also had an image of food but in big bold letters it read: Turn right at the next exit. Followed by an arrow. Burger King nailed it. Granted they probably had a support of a large agency, but they clearly understood how the medium (a billboard in this case) worked.
Whether it's a poorly placed QR code or a text heavy Facebook post, people often fail to think about how the medium is being used by their customer. Here are two key questions to ask yourself when developing a campaign:
1. What is the information your customer needs to know?
2. What is the best way to deliver that information on the particular medium you are using?
If you are using mobile use wide ranging methods to reach your customer - less QR codes and Apps and more use of mobile web and SMS. Mobile search is often searching "in the moment" or "on the go." What types of information would your customers need to know as they are heading out to shop, eat, etc?
If you are using social be conscious of which platform you are using. Twitter behaves differently than Facebook which behaves differently than Pinterest. Make sure you are in the right space to reach your customers. On social media, what social currency can you give your followers so they'll help spread the word? Maybe it's a coupon, maybe a recipe or perhaps a bit of trivia. Think about information that is interesting and useful for your fan base while still helping you achieve your business goals.
No matter what the medium, it's important to understand how people are using it and to identify the critical information they need so you can make a sale. Sometimes it's as simple as a big yellow arrow pointing toward your next Whopper.
Thanks to one of my clients – The World Affairs Council of Kentucky and S. Indiana – I had a front row seat with members of the Tunisian revolution. (This does circle back to social media so stick with me). I admit, prior to the event, I knew little about Tunisia and I certainly couldn’t pick it out on a map. I did know that the Tunisians kicked off the Arab Spring. They were the first country in the region to overthrow theirdictator and you could say gave inspiration to nearby countries.
What struck me during the cultural conversation was one comment, spoken by one of the older Tunisians – “The youth had rocks and tires which they would set on fire, but the greatest weapon of the revolution was the mobile phone.”
After hearing their story, I have to admit it was true. The mobile phone allowed the people to continue to tell their story long after the traditional media had been shut down and the journalists jailed. The youth took photos and videos sharing them on Facebook and Twitter which were then used by media around the world.
I couldn’t help thinking of Mark Zuckerberg. When he created Facebook did he have any thought that one day this platform would give people the courage to overthrow a dictator? And it didn’t stop in Tunisia. The Tunisian youths taught the Egyptian youth how to best leverage social media along with other tips on surviving and winning a revolution. It was a sharing of best practices you could say.
The Tunisians are now in the rebuilding process and will start elections in October. Oh and by the way, this country went from one dictator to 107political parties. Can you even imagine? I suppose they wanted choice.
Next time you take out your phone and fire off a tweet, give a second to think about the Tunisians and the power of social media. That phone of yours may one day be your most powerful weapon. You never know.
Many stats show that small businesses are embracing social media and plan to devote even more focus in 2011, but what these studies don't dive into is how businesses are going to staff these efforts. Right now I've seen two basic methods - do it yourself in-house, or use agency support.Here are four things to think about as you contemplate expanding your presence.
1. Do you have the skills to manage a community on your staff? The technical stuff can be learned, but the communication and creative stuff will most likely need to come naturally. Some folks are good at math, others are good at talking. At the end of the day social media is about interacting with people online. If writing, responding and listening aren't your strong points you may want to think about outside help.
2. Do you have the time? When you print an ad you can walk away and be done with it, same with direct mail. Social media is different, it requires you to respond, to monitor and to listen. Sure it is more work, but when you are building loyalty and working with your customers to make your business the best it can be, the payoff can be pretty sweet.
3. Do you have the desire? Social media is not for everyone. If you are one of those people who have said, "Why would I ever join Twitter? I don't care what someone ate for breakfast." You may want to hand social over to someone else. It's one thing to not "get it," it's another thing to "not want to get it." Somewhat similar to how I feel about football or baseball...er and hockey.
4. Do you have the funds? Sure setting a page up is free, but then what? To make social work hard for you, you need to keep the content fresh and the conversation engaging (that means spending time listening as well as talking). If you don't have the time, skills or desire to handle in-house, then ask yourself if you have the funds to use an agency. Also think about supporting social with ad buys on Facebook or special promotions.
If you believe social media is a powerful marketing tool and want to increase your presence, go for it. Just make sure you have the right resources in place before you take the plunge, and don't kid yourself that it won't take time and energy. As any business owner knows, anything worth doing takes a little effort.
I've worked with global brands who have spent six figures on Facebook advertising and seen great results, but what about a small budget for a small business? Here's what happened when I invested $50 on a Facebook ad for my company Go Social, a Louisville, Ky based communications agency.The Set Up: Creating the Ad
Some will disagree but I find the Facebook Ad system fairly easy and intuitive to use. There are multiple ways to get to the ad system - I went to my company page and clicked the Create an Ad link on the right hand side.
When you get to the Ad page the first step is to create the actual ad. Facebook will ask you to choose the page or insert a url that you want the ad to drive to (this is super important to get right because that's where people who click on your ad end up).
Choose Sponsored Story or Facebook Ad. Sponsored Stories pulls in fan activity from the newsfeeds and serves it up in an ad. If you have a small fan base and your goal is to get new fans or awareness I would keep it simple and go Facebook Ad, which are the standard ads you see on the sides of your page.
In terms of where you should send the people, I would choose Wall or Default (which is most likely your Wall). Really not sure why you would spend money on an ad to drive people to your photos tab or discussions page. I would guess most advertisers want more fans, in which case the Wall is probably your best bet.
I would put your logo or an image of your product as the picture. Remember the space is small so the more simple the picture the better. I went with my logo because it is bright and colorful, and I was hoping it would attract attention.
Facebook will put your page name as the Title. In a larger ad buy you can alter this and get more creative with the Title, guess that's one of the perks. For the body text you need to keep it simple as you only have 135 characters.
Tip: Tell people what's in it for them. My end goal was to get people to like the page so I could continue the conversation with 2 - 3 posts showing up in their newsfeeds a week. I could have said, hey hire me as your social media agency, but that's a bit obnoxious and unless someone was specifically in that moment looking for an agency, they probably wouldn't like the ad. Instead I said let me help you keep up to date with social media trends.
The next step is Targeting. I narrowed my audience finally settling on the following: live within 50 miles of Louisville, Ky., 30 years or older, college graduate, English-speaking and not already a fan of Go Social on Facebook. Again, if your goal is getting new fans, make sure you aren't serving up ads to people who are already fans as it's a waste of money.
I played around with other attributes targeting people's interests - like social media and small business owner - but it narrowed the field too much. I've worked on other ad buys which were too targeted and Facebook was unable to deliver enough impressions for the budget.
Lesson: Be smart about your targeting, pick the things that really matter. In my case, I wanted to make sure that I was reaching people in Louisville that were in a position where they may influence marketing departments or own a small business themselves. I wasn't interested in reaching people right out of college.
Budget/Distribution
Having worked on previous campaigns I've found you get more bang for your buck if you run your ad over a short time period. The idea is to take advantage of the social newsfeed aspect - more people seeing "so and so" liked Go Social in their newsfeed, the more likely they are to recall it and possibly like the page themselves. I ran my ad from 7 am on Thursday to 7 am on Saturday. Facebook will spread the money out over that period based on a bidding system. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you get charged. Remember though, you set the ultimate limit in terms of total money spent, so no big surprise bill at the end.
The Results
Long story short I received 164K impressions from my ad. Sounds impressive but I was less excited about impressions and more interested in the actual likes. If your goal is awareness then 164K impressions for $50 is pretty good. My goal was to get more likes so I could continue the conversation on a regular basis and stay top of mind over a longer period of time.
I had 45 people click my ad and out of that number 15 people actually liked my page. As a result of those 15 people liking my page I got an additional 3 people who liked the page because they saw it in their friends' newsfeeds. So 18 fans for $50 which means I paid about $2.77 for each new fan. Not bad. Prior to the ad buy I was averaging 8 new fans a month, so you could say $50 bought me two months worth of fans.
I researched advertising in a local paper and rates for a fairly small ad that would run in the back of the paper, surrounded by other ads, ran around $150. While that price did buy me a month's worth of exposure, I still find great value in getting into someone's newsfeed, especially knowing the average Facebook user has 130 friends.
Was it worth it? We'll see if any new business results, but for $50 I felt I got a good deal of exposure and 18 people who (fingers crossed) will help me spread the word to their friends.
When the American Red Cross was able to raise $200K+ via Facebook Causes in a matter of days for Japan, I was impressed but honestly not totally surprised. When the pool of people you are talking to is that big and the platform you are talking on is innately social, your ability to get a group of people to take an action is fairly likely. (Not to mention Japan relief efforts being a very worthy cause).Much in the same way that we take cell phones for granted and even the mobile web, I think the ability to connect millions of people in an instant has become the norm. I also think that's a good thing. From political uprisings to connecting people in natural disasters social has become a tool we can't live without.
And the power of this connection is built for making movements - whether that be a movement to provide disaster relief or something much lighter like getting Oreo into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most likes on a FB post.
The key to starting a movement on social is to ask people to take small, easy actions, because on social even a baby step can lead to fairly big pay-offs. Obama asked his followers to donate $25 and raised millions. The Red Cross took the same approach with Japan. They were also smart enough to realize the value of world of mouth - if you didn't want to donate you could still participate by acting as a "promoter" and getting the word out by donating your status update.
Brand movements should also ask little from their participants, knowing they'll reap much more in return. A single like of a post can result in someone's 200 plus friends seeing your brand.
Some may complain that social has infringed on privacy or caused us to rely on "fake" online connections versus making real friends, but I think social is uniting us in a way that is extremely powerful. I'm excited to sit back and watch what other good deeds we accomplish as one big social community.
It's easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest apps and games and it is also easy to work in silos within your marketing team. What's hard to do is to define what your brand stands for and then keep true to that message through the line - print, digital, pr, etc.Coke is one of those brands that just gets it. The brand is all about making people happy, spreading joy and smiles. Their tagline - Open Happiness - conveys that as does one of their latest digital plays the Smileizer. Consumers can log on to the Smileizer site and record their laughter. Coke will donate money to a charity for every laugh recorded, which is a nice touch, but what's even better than hearing your own laughter encased in a bubble is hearing everyone else's laughter recorded. It doesn't matter if you know the person or not, it is just the sound of ridiculous laughter that starts off "forced" and then erupts into something real. Before you know it, you're laughing too.
You can share your recorded laughs or others' laughs via Twitter and Facebook, and before you know it, you are spreading happiness. The whole program works because it puts a smile on your face and it makes you feel all happy and warm inside about Coke. It also aligns perfectly with their other marketing messages.
If Coke is all about happiness, what's your brand about?
