by Matina Singh | Feb 1, 2013 | Branding, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
It wasn’t so long ago that when you ran a contest the only way people could enter the contest was to take the time to fill out an entry form and then whether mail it in or drop it off in a ballot box. The Internet has made things easier, but still, the consumer has to find their way to your website. Social Media properties such as Facebook has added a layer of ease to the process: Consumers are already on Facebook engaging and talking to their communities. More importantly, consumers have join in and subscribed to contest and promotional sites such as Red Flag Deals or Contest Forums. If the promotion looks interesting enough, clicking on a link that takes the consumer to a contest landing page and asks them to fill out an online form, isn’t that big a deal.
It doesn’t make any difference what type of business you have; running a contest on Facebook is a powerful and effective approach in building awareness, and engagement as well as generating more followers. As appealing as it may seem, Facebook contests can only be effective if it is properly promoted.
Here are 5 simple ways to get the best out of your Facebook contest:
1. Timeline photo
Your timeline photo can be used to tell people about your contest. Not only is this a ‘premium’ advertising space for your contest, there will also be an update to your fans about the changes of your timeline photo. A well-designed timeline cover is a good alternative to promote your contest.
2. Promoted post
In general, only 16% of your Facebook fans see your wall posts. Facebook enrolled the Promoted Post option, where a specific post can be promoted to reach a higher audience. If you recall that caused quite a stir in the business and corporate communities. However, it is here and the fact is that it can cost as little as $5 to reach your community target to get them engaged.
3. Advocate engagement
Have you noticed a particularly engaging fan that frequently shows support for your brand? Engaging with these fans to participate and promote your contest is an effective way to instantly build buzz. It is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that we all know can be influential.
4. Cross promote
Broadcast your contest on Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Linkedin and any other Social Media. Your audience is everywhere, so if you do not promote everywhere else, then your contest is probably not reaching its maximum potential.
5. Choose the prize that fits
Instead of offering some big-ticket prize that doesn’t relate to our business, how about giving away one of your own products? If your business is sevice-based rather than product-based, offer the winner a free month of service. The goal of a contest is to find more people who are interested in your business, not just a prize.
That said, here is a very good examples of a Facebook contest…and how you can leverage the impact and reach of Facebook.
Being Human: The Salman Khan Foundation is a registered charitable trust set up by Salman Khan (famous actor in India) for helping the cause of the underprivileged in two main areas: education and healthcare.
The timeline photo changed before the launch of the contest:
The Teaser Campaign Approach: Get your audience curious by adding some pre-promotion. Here we can clearly see the brand is trying to get engagement from their fans by asking and not telling their consumers what the was coming. They have to wait 4 days to find out….
Build and Leverage the Momentum.
In this case, each day a new count down image was posted. The Foundation got their consumers intrigued and made them come back to see the comment, what was new and that all leads to greater engagement.
The Grand Finalé… The Day of the Draw….
Finally here! A total of 31,416 likes, 1,124 shares and 6,170 comments were received! Fans were encouraged to create an outfit for the celebrity and from those comments a 3 random people would win.
Everyday another Timeline photo was posted promoting the new clothing line of Being Human.
Closing the loop… showcasing the winners:
A perfect end to show that this was not only a promotion stunt but the winners actually got to meet the celebrity.
Do you have a favourite contest that ran or is being run right now? Share with us any other great contests that you have seen on Facebook here. We’d love to know!
by christine | Nov 19, 2012 | Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Great, you now have your Facebook, linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest accounts in place. Fingers on the keyboard and ready to write and hit that submit button. Stop! So now what? Well, you may want to hold off on populating all those accounts. Why, you ask? Well, did you prepare a social brief? How do you know if your audience participates on all the accounts you have signed up for? Have you been monitoring their social media activity on different social communities? If you’re not sure, let’s step back a bit …You develop briefs for print, TV, web, and mobile, so don’t forget to write one for social. I know it can be overwhelming, but if you can create a social strategy that will keep you on point, and you have the talent to help you implement your social accounts, you will become a great social listener and your audience will appreciate it too!
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Content is King”, well before content we need to focus on developing that strategy. This will give you the means and ability to make sense of what you are trying to do, what is the purpose of your social media marketing. By creating a social listening strategy you will understand the importance of “really listening”. In social media, listening is your guide through the continuous online conversations taking place on many social media platforms, being alert and one step ahead, will keep your brand strategy fresh and competitive. Focus on these key steps for success:
1. Who is Your Target Audience(s) and which social platforms to use: Once you have determined who your audience is, it’s imperative to focus on where to engage your audience online. As said earlier, don’t just start opening accounts to social platforms that don’t reflect your brand or your target audience. This could have a negative impact on your marketing campaign and diminish your brand. Research where your audience is already active, capture this data and customize your social media accounts to adapt to your audiences’ socializing habits.
2. Identify the influencers: These are the people who follow, share or friend you. They are more important than the actual volume of traffic. Determining who your influencers are will make all the difference in your listening strategy and ultimately how affectively you have captured the information and affectively communicated with your target audience.
3. What are the keywords and trends in your social world: You want to validate the topics and conversations that matter most to your brand and document them as potential keywords. You then need to determine through social listening if these keywords reflect or resemble the “social speak” that your audience is interested in. Keywords should reflect what’s important to your brand. However, you need to compare your word selection to that of what is being used by your audience. Don’t think traditional marketing here, or specific naming conventions used throughout the industry. Look for real words, used by real people. This approach will help you communicate more successfully with your target audience.
So now that you have your social strategy in place and the talent in place. You can now start selecting your accounts and write content. Make sure you keep it up-to-date and current with specific topics that tie into your brand and relate to your social users…use your customer’s speak, not marketing lingo and always keep it fresh. This will keep your brand on target with your audience…You also need to take a pulse on your brand as it stands today, consistently monitoring social sites that talk about your brand, making sure that your online reputation is strong, active and fresh.
Also, keep in mind that socializing on the Internet is not limited to the traditional social media platforms. Don’t forget about the community blogs, forums and posts, these areas all require your focus and interaction keeping up with conversations across the web to maintain a strong brand presence online and off. Keeping up with what your customers are saying about your product or service will keep you informed and honest about your brand. Yes, this is time consuming, but in the end, the best investment for you to apply, and to keep your brand honest and on target.
Now you are ready to get back to your keyboard and write, and make your Brand a “Social” listener.
Let me know how your social listening strategy has worked for you (do’s / don’ts) and links you might want to share with us pertaining to this topic. Thanks for listening.
by Miriam Hara | Jul 3, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Social Media
Brand, like fine wine, is described as having character, essence, personality or persona. Well there’s a new adjective in Marketing Vocabulary in terms of describing a Brand. It’s called Brand Voice. With the explosion of Social Media, Engagement Brand not only has to have a “personality” it must also have a Voice. In the frenzy of not being left out and joining the social conversation, many Brands have quite literally “jumped” in the social arena. So is any voice better than no voice at all?
Marketers Beware! Pioneering the great frontier of social media does not mean leaving brand principles behind. Au contraire… Brand Voice does not negate Brand Position (PDF). No not at all. Brand Position: what sets Brand apart from the myriad of all the other “me toos” out there, has never been more important and more relevant in establishing Brand Voice and setting course to top of mind awareness and market consideration.
There are true and tried methods in establishing Brand Voice, regardless of its “newness”. Make sure that before you embark on this exciting social media journey, you’re equipped to handle the good, the bad and the phenomenal!
Here’s a quick checklist in achieving that.
1) Your Brand’s Position: Yes, it’s a motherhood statement, however, nothing replaces a solid positioning, even on Facebook or Twitter. Regardless of the ever-changing communications dynamic, suffice to say, without a clear positioning, there is little point in proceeding to obtain a brand voice.
2) Single Focused Mindedness: Let’s not be all things to all people. Have a clear understanding of the Brand’s Position; Brand’s Vision and Brand Culture is key in maintaining a voice that speaks in the same way, all the time. No matter if you tweet 5 times a day, write status reports, guest blog or engage in discussions, what you say needs to be different and the same.
3) Determine your Objectives and Strategy: Really, what Marketing initiative can be called marketing without them? A Brand needs to have a Social Media Strategy. Before you start, define what is your vision of success? Who do you want to have follow you? How are you going to achieve that? What are the timeline measurement points?
4) Guidelines for Speaking to Your Target… consistently: Marketers have always been clear in evaluating Character and Style against print ads, TV or Radio ads and their packaging. Social Engagement and Brand Voice are no different. The need for a consistent voice with a consistent approach style and message is key. And lets not forget Tone. It’s important to set the tone for all Brand communications. Like everything else that makes a good Brand into a great Brand… Consistency is King.
5) Establish an Editorial Calendar: Brand Voice is about engagement and even entertainment. It’s much more complex in doing so than a 30 second commercial. Brand now has to make friends and have people follow. It has to resonate with its core following and contribute to the conversation with meaningful content. It must allow for a loss of control in order to gain it. It’s a dynamic approach to Brand Marketing. It is fantastic, exhilarating and the best thing for brand since broadcast ads hit the airway. Brand who dialogue with their followers (no, not customers) are in a place where they can play the role of influencing behaviour like never before. Brands need to understand how to engage without selling. It has to deliver in less than 150 characters its positioning, its reason and its promise.
6) Be Authentic: Deliver on Brand Promise. Deliver on Brand Character. Deliver on Brand Experience. Listen and respond. Speak and engage. Needless to say a Brand that is not authentic has really no hope in achieving excellence in any Marketing channel. Brand must always deliver.
Brand Voice is an increasingly important element of the total Brand Experience. As such, the Social Media channel has taken its rightful place along side print, broadcast and digital media in the strategy to market Brand holistically, effectively… and successfully. How vocal is your brand?
by Qing Hu | Jun 15, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive
Is choosing the right tool to create your website a challenge? Depending on your needs and objectives, you could consider a CMS (Content Management System) as it allows you to create, control and manage the content of your web site without any programming knowledge.
There are a variety of open and closed source CMS solutions available for you to choose from. The most common open-sourced options include WordPress, Drupal and Joomla, and closed ones such as Subdreamer, CushyCMS and ExpressionEngine. These tools have a lot of similarities. Hence, it is difficult to decide which one to use.
Here is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages for WordPress, Joomla and Subdreamer.
1. WordPress
The core software of WordPress is built by hundreds of community volunteers. Thus, the most prevailing feature of WordPress is that it has thousands of free plug-ins and themes available for users to download.
Key advantages of using WordPress:
– It’s free, helps minimize your cost for start-up business
– Open-source
– It has a huge user database, drives more traffic to your site
– Allows quick and simple integration with other software packages, you can upload content directly to your website with no hassles
– Search engine friendly. I noticed that search engines love WordPress because a lot of websites displaying on the first page of search engines are built with WordPress. This is because WordPress has many outstanding SEO plug-ins available for users to download.
Comparing with the benefits of WordPress, there aren’t many disadvantages for WordPress, if I had to find one, I would say that WordPress has some security issues. Hacking and spamming seemed to exist and there are many unsecured plug-ins that may cause problem to your website, but these issues can be prevented such as disabling the unsecured plug-ins and installing spam prevention tools such as RECAPTCHA.
2. Joomla
Joomla is an award-winning CMS. Similar to WordPress, Joomla is good because:
– It’s free and open source
– Has a more simple and user-friendly admin interface than WordPress
– Great for large companies because it allows multiple users to edit the site simultaneously without causing problems
– Supports multi-language sites
Similar to WordPress, Joomla also had many highly customizable themes, templates and web modules available. One of the most prevailing features of Joomla, comparing to WordPress, is that the system itself has lots of readily integrated features (such as polls and user control). There are no additional plug-ins need to be installed, whereas in WordPress, a brand new system only contain the most basic features, all other features have to be added through plug-ins. Hence, I believed that Joomla would be more appropriate for large companies, whereas WordPress would be more suitable for small and medium companies.
Some disadvantages of using Joomla include that it is harder to learn than WordPress and it has less plugins (including free plugins) comparing to WordPress. Making changes on Joomla is not as simple as it is on WordPress because changes often require development support.
3. Subdreamer
Subdreamer is an example of good closed source system that also uses PHP and MySQL database. It is 100% rebrandable, it allows you to white label the CMS. White labeling gives the freedom to re-brand the CMS under your own name. It’s a great way to promote your company. Subdreamer also includes its own discussion forum plugin so that you can integrate your website with forums such as vBulletin, phpBB.
The reason why I list Subdreamer as a solution is because it contains most of the functions open source systems has and it is more reliable and secure than using open-source systems because most of the security issues in the open source system come from the free plug-ins that might contain unknown threats to your website. For Subdreamer, every plug-in is made and under the administrative of the Subdreamer’s development team. Many hacking and spamming from auto-generated programs could be prevented.
A typical Subdreamer CMS cost $99.95 USD. Considering this cost, I assume it will be easier to obtain support when you experience problems since the license purchased also comes with 24-hour real human technical support. However, some of the drawbacks of this system is that it will not be updated as often as the open source system due to its nature of close sourcing, only the developers of Subdreamer can fix the bugs and add features and functionality whereas in a free open source system, everyone could contribute the system.
In the process of selecting a CMS, always remember to a research before you decide to invest time and money in it. The main purpose of a CMS is to create a website that is easy to manage. As long as the CMS fits all of your needs, it will be the right decision.
by Miriam Hara | May 29, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
With mobile technology and the rapid integration of Social Media the world is speeding… no longer respecting any speed limit! In a blink of an eye the business landscape changes and many businesses are at a loss of what comes next. All business types are affected however it seems that B2B businesses are more at a loss of what solutions to employ. In a world that is speaking to each other 24/7, the lines are increasingly blurry on what is a B2B or a B2C strategy. It has been my experience that the strategies employed for B2B or B2C were always similar. It was the employment of tactics and the weight of each of those tactics that differed. In today’s environment I would say the tactics are now the same. Social Media and technology has allowed for niche marketing at a whole no new level.
Business resistant change is the symptom of change resistant individuals. Unfortunately or fortunately, a business in today’s world hinges on its ability to adapt, change and adopt new channels of communications. The market conditions have shifted and many who hold key roles in the B2B arena have no idea how the game is being played and what is the picture of success. So what to do?
1) Determine your objective. What will be your “picture of success”? How else will you measure?
2) Implement a strategy… one with a 360° degree viewpoint. Not one that does away with all traditional (classic) tactics just because everyone saying that print and direct mail are dead… but one that introduces some of the properties of social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Mobile Apps, Blogging, Twitter, etc… The key word is some and not all…. there needs to be a good assessment of what will work for your business and what won’t.
3) Assess your web site. No longer is it enough to just have a brochure type of site. Your site needs to reflect your business’ social conscious and ability. You can’t create any sort of social metric if your site doesn’t support the initiatives. Remember, your strategy must be holistic.
4) Implement a 15-month plan with built in schedule measurement reports allowing for the possibility of changing, adding or modifying the existing creative properties to ensure success. Feedback is important for resonance. You need your marketing plan to reflect your audience as intimately as possible. The beauty of these new channels is the ability to adapt… to change… quickly!
5) This may sound like a Marketing 101, but here goes…. don’t do it yourself or in-house. You’re in the business of your business. You can’t assume to know everything, that is why community reach out, tests, surveys and all those old marketing tricks are important not only for accuracy, but for the growth of your strategy and a leg up on your competition. The business of branding, advertising and social media is a profession. At the risk of sounding like a rant: Just because you speak and write English, that doesn’t make you a writer… and just because you have a Facebook Page or a LinkedIn page, doesn’t make you a social media expert. Contact a Marketing Advertising agency and leave it to them to make your business shine. Your business will be their priority as opposed to fitting it in.
For any type of business an environment of much talk that “it” doesn’t own can be pretty scary. One of my Marketing Understood biz-ims (#23) is “Get bent!”… Yes! Flexibility is a must! There’s no use burying your head in the sand. That won’t help your business. At the speed of business and of life you need to get a handle (twitter) and a pulse (social engagement) before your target stops you or pulls your business over for not keeping your business up to speed.
The Teaser Campaign Approach: Get your audience curious by adding some pre-promotion. Here we can clearly see the brand is trying to get engagement from their fans by asking and not telling their consumers what the was coming. They have to wait 4 days to find out….
In this case, each day a new count down image was posted. The Foundation got their consumers intrigued and made them come back to see the comment, what was new and that all leads to greater engagement.
