When the advertising community first discovered Facebook, a bunch of execs decided it was the next big thing and started putting ad money into the small text and video ads, sponsored gifts, banners, and dozens of other Facebook ad platforms. But what they for the most part failed to realize is that Facebook ads must be social and interactive in nature in order to have impact. Running a text ad in seemingly random profiles that links to an outside website is or even a sponsored gift without a Facebook Page linked to it is tantamount to running Google ads for laptop computers with keywords like "merchandise."
Recently, though, companies and agencies are getting it more, and that makes me happy. Here are 3 examples with my rating on a scale of 1-10:
1) Milk, the new Gus Vas Sant movie. They are running Facebook social video ads which play a trailer and allow users to comment, and also links to a pretty dynamic Facebook page currently with 2500+ fans. I like it, interactive and well-done. I'm curious about their targeting- but if it's targeted well, it's an example of a great Facebook campaign. 9 out of 10.
2) Papa John's has been all over Facebook, with a page with over 185,000 fans, "Free gift" sponsorship, and social ads. I love almost everything they're doing- but my only issue is a big one. They're advertising everywhere on Facebook for a 'free pizza', but the fine print indicates that this is only with another purchase. Wish they were more transparent. 6 out of 10 for this alone.
3)The local NY ad from Laser Cosmetica, links off of Facebook, but at least links to a dedicated landing page for Facebook users only, such as this ad here. No FB Page presence. I'll give this campaign a 4 out of 10.
The good news is, many more companies and agencies are getting Facebook and social ads much better than they were even 6 months ago. A general rule of thumb is keep ads social and interactive whenever possible, and link them to Facebook Pages and groups whenever possible, not off site.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Twitter only grew 343%?
You may assume at first glance that this post is sarcastic in nature, but I assure you it is not. According to Nielsen's report last week which measured growth for social networking sites in terms of "unique audience," Twitter is number one for overall growth in 2008, beating out Facebook by 5 places. Now, 343% is certainly not a number to scoff at by any means, but that being said, my reaction was similar to Rodney Rumford's surprise. I've seen Twitter explode from this random thing a few of my friends were playing with every other week to a valuable customer service tool and even a powerful rallying resource for charity in a very short period of time - surely 343% is a base?
One point that Rodney brings up is Twitter's mobile component, which he explains is not as easy for companies to measure. So now I'm wondering, why? Off the top of my head, I would think it's probably just because the idea of reaching out to customers directly through their cell phones is still so new and scary that there isn't much data on it, let alone demand to process said data. But with more and more people carrying iPhones and blackberries to answer their need for a constant connection to their online worlds, mobile seems to be the next logical step. The challenge, then, is to incorporate mobile in a way that isn't "spam-y" - to connect with customers wherever they are without invading their personal space, and as with other forms of social media, I would advise companies to go in with feelers first.
Getting started could be as simple as purchasing a texting number (like Twitter's 40404 and NBC's 62288) as an additional customer service "line" or as a way for customers to enter sweepstakes and other contests. As long as you keep it simple to opt-in and opt-out, it'd be difficult for anyone to argue that you're "invading" their mobile. The next step is to make sure that those who opt-in to receive texts from you understand the service. Are you going to message them regularly with information, and if so how regularly? Will the number exist solely as a text-response service where you'll only message customers in response to messages they send to you? You might want to try out a few numbers to address different needs and then see which ones merit a customer response and develop from there.
Really, the fact is that there is probably a LOT that could be done by adding mobile communication into the "social media" mix, and I'm shocked that more companies haven't taken a stab at it yet. I mean, imagine if I could text "vend 11385" to Coca-Cola and get a list of the 5 closest vending machines to get a caffeine fix? How cool would that be?
One point that Rodney brings up is Twitter's mobile component, which he explains is not as easy for companies to measure. So now I'm wondering, why? Off the top of my head, I would think it's probably just because the idea of reaching out to customers directly through their cell phones is still so new and scary that there isn't much data on it, let alone demand to process said data. But with more and more people carrying iPhones and blackberries to answer their need for a constant connection to their online worlds, mobile seems to be the next logical step. The challenge, then, is to incorporate mobile in a way that isn't "spam-y" - to connect with customers wherever they are without invading their personal space, and as with other forms of social media, I would advise companies to go in with feelers first.
Getting started could be as simple as purchasing a texting number (like Twitter's 40404 and NBC's 62288) as an additional customer service "line" or as a way for customers to enter sweepstakes and other contests. As long as you keep it simple to opt-in and opt-out, it'd be difficult for anyone to argue that you're "invading" their mobile. The next step is to make sure that those who opt-in to receive texts from you understand the service. Are you going to message them regularly with information, and if so how regularly? Will the number exist solely as a text-response service where you'll only message customers in response to messages they send to you? You might want to try out a few numbers to address different needs and then see which ones merit a customer response and develop from there.
Really, the fact is that there is probably a LOT that could be done by adding mobile communication into the "social media" mix, and I'm shocked that more companies haven't taken a stab at it yet. I mean, imagine if I could text "vend 11385" to Coca-Cola and get a list of the 5 closest vending machines to get a caffeine fix? How cool would that be?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Facebook Connect...another Beacon Program???
Facebook recently announced it will soon roll out its Facebook Connect login system to several high-profile websites, including Digg, Geni, Hulu and Discovery.com. The sites, along with a few others, will begin supporting Facebook Connect within a few weeks according to The New York Times.
Facebook Connect is the company's technology which lets Facebook users participate on other websites using their Facebook IDs. Along with an easy login, the user gets the option of re-broadcasting whatever they do on the third-party site to all of their friends within Facebook. This technology is very similar to that of the Beacon advertising program, which Facebook removed due to privacy concerns.
Facebook has been very careful about not falling into the same trap with Connect as they did with the Beacon program. They have reached out to users warning them that this information will be shared and allows users to set up their privacy settings on Facebook and apply them to other sites.
From the ads I receive on my own Facebook account, it is obvious that advertisers do not know how to advertise on Facebook. The good I see coming out of this as mentioned in the New York Times, is that ads may be able to be more targeted and personalized to our desires if Facebook is allowed to share, with our permission of course, the saved information on our profiles.
As a marketer I think the Facebook Connect is pretty interesting and will be able to give us some better insight into consumers and creates an extremely social web.
As an individual, I believe this is really strange and a bit scary to have my online activity being seen by friends. I guess I will be one of the many opting out of using Facebook Connect.
Facebook Connect is the company's technology which lets Facebook users participate on other websites using their Facebook IDs. Along with an easy login, the user gets the option of re-broadcasting whatever they do on the third-party site to all of their friends within Facebook. This technology is very similar to that of the Beacon advertising program, which Facebook removed due to privacy concerns.
Facebook has been very careful about not falling into the same trap with Connect as they did with the Beacon program. They have reached out to users warning them that this information will be shared and allows users to set up their privacy settings on Facebook and apply them to other sites.
From the ads I receive on my own Facebook account, it is obvious that advertisers do not know how to advertise on Facebook. The good I see coming out of this as mentioned in the New York Times, is that ads may be able to be more targeted and personalized to our desires if Facebook is allowed to share, with our permission of course, the saved information on our profiles.
As a marketer I think the Facebook Connect is pretty interesting and will be able to give us some better insight into consumers and creates an extremely social web.
As an individual, I believe this is really strange and a bit scary to have my online activity being seen by friends. I guess I will be one of the many opting out of using Facebook Connect.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Desperate times call for desperate measures
AdAge's Brian Steinberg wrote a piece today on the increased repetition of ads on the airwaves in recent weeks, both as a nuisance to consumers and as a result of the economy. With every advertisement he described, I found myself automatically saying, "yes! I can't stand that commercial!" I can still hear the classical music playing in the background of the Sprint commercial, just from the article having mentioned it. I don't even remember what Dan Hesse says in that spot anymore; once you've heard the same message over and over again so many times, eventually you begin to tune out. Unfortunately for these companies running the same advertisements so frequently, consumers everywhere are not only tuning out, but becoming downright resentful.
Advertisers point to the increasingly widespread use of DVR in addition to financial woes as justification for their need to run commercials focused on value over originality more frequently. More than 25% of TV households in the U.S. will have some form of DVR by the end of the year, enabling them to easily fast-forward past commercials on any show they've recorded (while the other almost 75% of us will just have to cope with the now dated art of channel surfing to bypass bothersome TV ads). It's true that in most cases, advertisers should aim for multiple impressions on their consumers in order to aid basic recall, but that number of impressions per viewer is becoming more difficult to control as the television audience continues to fragment. With so many new channels and show offerings, it's not as easy to separate your markets into NBC primetime versus CBS primetime. And according to Brian Steinberg's article, research conducted by the Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group found that while it used to take an average of 15-20 impressions for a TV spot to "wear-out" for a consumer a decade ago, nowadays it may only take as little as 8 viewings!
These TV troubles are all the more reason to put greater emphasis on social media marketing campaigns that not only reach consumers where they already are, but also reach them where they're going. For instance, if you were to create a campaign involving bloggers that are relevant to your cause, you'd be catching consumers who are visiting these sites to retrieve information. Assuming you've contacted the appropriate bloggers, you're now delivering information about your product that customers seek, whether directly or indirectly. Plus you're much less likely to annoy consumers with multiple content posts than you are by playing that same song or jingle 10 times in one night.
Advertisers point to the increasingly widespread use of DVR in addition to financial woes as justification for their need to run commercials focused on value over originality more frequently. More than 25% of TV households in the U.S. will have some form of DVR by the end of the year, enabling them to easily fast-forward past commercials on any show they've recorded (while the other almost 75% of us will just have to cope with the now dated art of channel surfing to bypass bothersome TV ads). It's true that in most cases, advertisers should aim for multiple impressions on their consumers in order to aid basic recall, but that number of impressions per viewer is becoming more difficult to control as the television audience continues to fragment. With so many new channels and show offerings, it's not as easy to separate your markets into NBC primetime versus CBS primetime. And according to Brian Steinberg's article, research conducted by the Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group found that while it used to take an average of 15-20 impressions for a TV spot to "wear-out" for a consumer a decade ago, nowadays it may only take as little as 8 viewings!
These TV troubles are all the more reason to put greater emphasis on social media marketing campaigns that not only reach consumers where they already are, but also reach them where they're going. For instance, if you were to create a campaign involving bloggers that are relevant to your cause, you'd be catching consumers who are visiting these sites to retrieve information. Assuming you've contacted the appropriate bloggers, you're now delivering information about your product that customers seek, whether directly or indirectly. Plus you're much less likely to annoy consumers with multiple content posts than you are by playing that same song or jingle 10 times in one night.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
10 Social Media Tools and Abilities We're Thankful For!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving (and #tweetsgiving of course!), we've been thinking about all of the websites, tools, and applications that help us and our clients to grow everyday. Here are our top 10 - got any others you think belong on the list?
10) Facebook - I know - OBVIOUSLY, right? I'd be willing to bet that more people could talk for a full minute about Facebook than could name the capital of Louisiana. But many still do not know how to use Facebook to benefit their business! Our CEO has already published a very nice list of ways to make the most out of Facebook here. Two of my personal favorites are the FBML application (which adds your own boxes to your Facebook page, customizable with HTML) and of course Social Ads.
9) Google - Setting up a Google Adwords campaign is still one of the cheapest and easiest ways to boost traffic to your site and get your product out there. We also have a love affair of sorts with Google Docs, which allows you to host a living document so that everyone with access to the document can update and edit it together from their own computers. It's not social media in the broader sense, but it certainly helps inside our own close-knit community!
8) YouTube - As much as Hulu seems to be taking over when it comes to licensed content, YouTube remains the easiest channel through which to upload and share your videos, no matter how amateur or professional. Frankly, I still find it easier to upload videos to YouTube and share the link than to upload videos directly to Facebook's video application, so YouTube certainly remains worthy of my thanks!
7) LinkedIn - Facebook may have over 120 million users, but LinkedIn has over 30 million professionals who have joined for the explicit purpose of networking with other professionals like YOU. Connect with current and past employees, employers, and clients to gain access to their own networks and find new contacts through mutual friends. Even if you don't forge a strong relationship through the web, should you run into each other at a conference or event, you already have a conversation starter!
6) Twitter - #hashtags and memes make it easy to join in on the conversation - just check out Twitter Search for the top "Trending" topics to see what everyone's talking about! Trending topics are all about volume of posts regarding a particular topic over a certain amount of time, so as long as you're well organized it's pretty easy to land your topic in the top 10! (though keeping it there will definitely require concentrated efforts.)
5) TinyURL etc. - TinyURL, twurl, SnipURL, and a dozen more sites are out there for one reason: to shorten your confusing, lengthy URL, making it ten times easier to share! You can also customize it with a description - after all, we're much more comfortable clicking on http://tinyurl.com/TinyURLrules than this gibberish: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd8w95bj_1hgh4cnc4.
4) Blog Widgets - Easy to use and even easier to find - Use these widgets to add RSS feeds, badges, links, or any other number of fun gadgets to add personality to your page! Most importantly, you should be using these widgets to make it as easy as possible for your readers to follow your blog, whether through e-mail subscriptions, Google readers, etc.
3) XinuReturns - Want to land yourself a place in Technorati's top 100 blogs? Figure out how your site measures up in terms of page rank, backlinks, and more at XinuReturns.com. Plug in your site's URL to see where your numbers need to improve!
2) Power to the People! - Really, our favorite thing about social media is the ability of the proverbial underdog to rise up, whether to rage against the machine (#motrinmoms) or to carry the torch for a great cause (#tweetsgiving). If a quick text to cyberspace can spring you from an Egyptian prison, is there anything it CAN'T do?
1) Offline WOM - Okay, so it isn't technically a "social media" tool.. but nothing beats good, old fashioned, face-to-face word of mouth! Regardless of what new innovations and improvements are made in the world of social media in the future, none will have the same impact as a personal testimonial or demonstration from a trusted friend.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us on theKbuzz team!
10) Facebook - I know - OBVIOUSLY, right? I'd be willing to bet that more people could talk for a full minute about Facebook than could name the capital of Louisiana. But many still do not know how to use Facebook to benefit their business! Our CEO has already published a very nice list of ways to make the most out of Facebook here. Two of my personal favorites are the FBML application (which adds your own boxes to your Facebook page, customizable with HTML) and of course Social Ads.
9) Google - Setting up a Google Adwords campaign is still one of the cheapest and easiest ways to boost traffic to your site and get your product out there. We also have a love affair of sorts with Google Docs, which allows you to host a living document so that everyone with access to the document can update and edit it together from their own computers. It's not social media in the broader sense, but it certainly helps inside our own close-knit community!
8) YouTube - As much as Hulu seems to be taking over when it comes to licensed content, YouTube remains the easiest channel through which to upload and share your videos, no matter how amateur or professional. Frankly, I still find it easier to upload videos to YouTube and share the link than to upload videos directly to Facebook's video application, so YouTube certainly remains worthy of my thanks!
7) LinkedIn - Facebook may have over 120 million users, but LinkedIn has over 30 million professionals who have joined for the explicit purpose of networking with other professionals like YOU. Connect with current and past employees, employers, and clients to gain access to their own networks and find new contacts through mutual friends. Even if you don't forge a strong relationship through the web, should you run into each other at a conference or event, you already have a conversation starter!
6) Twitter - #hashtags and memes make it easy to join in on the conversation - just check out Twitter Search for the top "Trending" topics to see what everyone's talking about! Trending topics are all about volume of posts regarding a particular topic over a certain amount of time, so as long as you're well organized it's pretty easy to land your topic in the top 10! (though keeping it there will definitely require concentrated efforts.)
5) TinyURL etc. - TinyURL, twurl, SnipURL, and a dozen more sites are out there for one reason: to shorten your confusing, lengthy URL, making it ten times easier to share! You can also customize it with a description - after all, we're much more comfortable clicking on http://tinyurl.com/TinyURLrules than this gibberish: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd8w95bj_1hgh4cnc4.
4) Blog Widgets - Easy to use and even easier to find - Use these widgets to add RSS feeds, badges, links, or any other number of fun gadgets to add personality to your page! Most importantly, you should be using these widgets to make it as easy as possible for your readers to follow your blog, whether through e-mail subscriptions, Google readers, etc.
3) XinuReturns - Want to land yourself a place in Technorati's top 100 blogs? Figure out how your site measures up in terms of page rank, backlinks, and more at XinuReturns.com. Plug in your site's URL to see where your numbers need to improve!
2) Power to the People! - Really, our favorite thing about social media is the ability of the proverbial underdog to rise up, whether to rage against the machine (#motrinmoms) or to carry the torch for a great cause (#tweetsgiving). If a quick text to cyberspace can spring you from an Egyptian prison, is there anything it CAN'T do?
1) Offline WOM - Okay, so it isn't technically a "social media" tool.. but nothing beats good, old fashioned, face-to-face word of mouth! Regardless of what new innovations and improvements are made in the world of social media in the future, none will have the same impact as a personal testimonial or demonstration from a trusted friend.
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us on theKbuzz team!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
We're kind of a big deal
I don't want anybody to forget about Tweetsgiving, but I did want to make a quick note/announcement that we are officially on Alltop!
Alltop is self-described as an "online magazine rack" of popular topics - just browse through the listings and find your subject of interest and you're likely to find dozens if not hundreds of blogs at your fingertips! The site updates its "top stories" for each topic every hour, so you have a steady stream of new content. Definitely check it out and keep a look out for us!
Alltop is self-described as an "online magazine rack" of popular topics - just browse through the listings and find your subject of interest and you're likely to find dozens if not hundreds of blogs at your fingertips! The site updates its "top stories" for each topic every hour, so you have a steady stream of new content. Definitely check it out and keep a look out for us!
Put the "giving" back in Thanksgiving!
Today is the big kick-off for Epic Change's Tweetsgiving meme - and we couldn't be more excited to be a part of it!The idea is simple: to use the power of social media (with Twitter, specifically) to spread gratitude while inspiring others to contribute to a great cause - the ultimate goal being to raise $10,000 in 48 hours to build a classroom in Tanzania.
To participate, twitterers simply tweet whatever they are thankful for (a new job, their family, the male cast of Heroes, etc.) and include the #Tweetsgiving tag along with the link to http://tinyurl.com/4thanks. The link to donate is on the site, along with a list of "Top Turkeys" to give special attention to those who give $100 or more. Epic Change also offers a great incentive for smaller donations. Namely, anyone who contributes at least $10 purchases a brick that will be used to build a wall in the Tanzanian classroom. Your own personal tweet will be painted on these bricks, demonstrating every $10 donor's unique contribution to the project!
We love this project, not only because it supports a great cause and spreads gratitude in the spirit of the holiday season, but we can see the power of social media in action! Should Epic Change succeed in garnering $10,000 (or more) in donations by spreading the word through tweets and blog posts alone, it will demonstrate the ability of social networking to call individuals to action in clearly measurable terms - something that social media marketers are constantly struggling to prove.
So what are you waiting for? Get tweeting!
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