by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 27, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
Which do you want to know first? The good news or the bad news? I like to hear bad news first in order to assess damage control. And I still have something to feel enthusiastic about since the good news is yet to come. so, since this is my blog… here’s the bad news… first. The bad news is that those who study how to go viral are almost unanimous in the conclusion that going viral is a result of synchronicity, that simultaneous occurrence of events that somehow appear related but have no understandable connection. It’s about being in the right place, at the right time with the right material and a little bit of luck.
THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT VIRAL MARKETING
However, where they do agree is that you can position yourself to be in the most fortuitous place to make going viral happen.
Below are a few viral marketing tactics that can help in your quest. They may seem elementary but they are the type of tactics that build a foundation and that is always a good place to start.
VIRAL MARKETING TACTICS
Think carefully about your topic.
First, understand that not everything has the ability to go viral.
I mean, come on now did you really think your thesis on Greek Social History would go viral? That means before we start fantasizing about our success we have to consider is it reasonable to expect that your project can go viral. You need to choose your topic carefully. At the same time, in all fairness, none of us know which things can and will go viral. I find it hard to believe that a 15 minute video of a women trying to parallel park went viral but it did.
Experiment, test and then test again.
Next, be prepared to experiment.
Try different approaches. Don’t be satisfied with one idea. Put two or three or more ideas out there and if you don’t get results, or as my Dad used to say, don’t flog a dead horse. Try a different approach. Experiment, test, refine, and then test again.
Turn the ordinary into extraordinary.
I never relate to those articles that tell me how easy it is to get that killer app or that killer eBook or that killer product and all you have to do is have a unique idea, or create memorable content. Duh. That’s what having a good product is all about. Face it guys, you are preaching to the converted.
But you can borrow from a few standard marketing techniques. Techniques such as turning the ordinary into something beautiful, take Apple and their visually beautiful line of products or Dove with their real beauty campaign.
Give your idea a partner.
Here’s an easy way to get that extra push. Pair your idea with something unrelated but totally relatable. A bit of an oxymoron? Not really. Think of Maxwell House Coffee and the positive little girl who loves her house and just about everything in it.
MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT VIRAL MARKETING
Viral marketing makes your business visible.
There’s one more aspect of viral marketing that makes me want to stand up and jump HOORAY! When you create a viral marketing campaign you are creating awareness and increased visibility for your business.
Do you have any ideas on how to make a campaign go viral?
by Stephanie Fasulo | Jun 5, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Latest, Social Media
A crabby situation!
Mr. Clean seemed to have had a long day a couple of weeks ago being attacked by giant crabs. He literally had a crabby situation on his hands! I wonder which line of cleaning products he used to clean up that mess. I can imagine giant crabs leaving quite a disaster, more so for the social media manager! However appalling this jaw-dropping hacker scenario may be, it’s sadly something every company should be aware of when jumping into managing online brands.
Most marketing communications departments have a process for internal or external crisis – but how many people ever face the actuality their Twitter or Facebook account might get hacked!? Why wouldn’t you think that? It’s the internet and that’s what the “bad guys” use the internet for causing havoc and unleashing giant, man eating crabs!
There is obviously a bad side to being hacked, other than facing the humiliation of very bad advertising on a global scale, your account loses the quality and authenticity you’ve been working so hard to attain. You’ll probably lose followers or your followers will help share the hacker’s message by telling all their friends about it. I found out about Mr. Clean because my friend Tay posted that picture above on her Facebook page commenting “hackers at it again”. She was blasé about the whole thing because she’s in public relations and understands social media challenges. But the majority of followers won’t be!
So how can we, professional communications people, protect ourselves against being hacked and keeping our online brand reputations in tact?
Variety is best
It’s always best to have a very difficult password to protect the Facebook and/or Twitter account. In many cases have a log of passwords safely stored and try and make them, where possible, different for each account.
Don’t pass around passwords
If you’re managing client accounts, don’t give them the passwords. They may want it to check in on what you’re doing, but it’s best if one person has access and can maintain relationships with true followers and keep an eye on internal hackers sending inmail, or posting spam. Someone without regular knowledge about an account may open messages flagged as spam and they wouldn’t even know it!
Open an email or not
In most cases hackers access through the webpage hosting sites, but for more secured accounts such as Facebook or Twitter, internal messages sent as spam can be the link a hacker needs to break into your account. Be watchful and cautious.
When Mr. Clean was hacked imaginably it was embarrassing, however, Mr. Clean’ social media manager chose to leave the hacker’s content and make a joke about it.
Burger King was probably the most memorable hacker attack as tweets explained they had been sold to McDonalds and even changed the profile image to the McDonald’s logo! But in a strange turn of events the community of Twitter thought it was the funniest thing and the story went viral. Once back on track, Burger King shouted out to its new followers and all was well in the world again.
Hacker situations are very real and very personal. As a social media manager I couldn’t imagine being hacked but I will prepare for it. Even though some people may take it lightly, I highly doubt clients or businesses will. I think the best way to deal with a hacker is to acknowledge it and go on with the show. And for the mean time, I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for those mean, giant crabs!
by Miriam Hara | Jun 4, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Creative, Latest
What makes for bad advertising? The answer is simple.. and often it’s not in the brief, because there wasn’t one! Ultimately what consumers see as the result is often the cumulation of poor direction, bad decisions and no creative brief outlining the brand’s basic position, the reason to believe and competitive landscape.
Way too often I find print ads selling their features and not educating and concentrating on benefits; or billboards featuring paragraphs rather than clever succinct statements and visuals inspiring curiosity…. and my all time favourite, TV ads way too concerned on providing entertainment value at the expense of the brand and benefit. When ever I see any of these, I always wonder what the brief looked like to begin with.
Before going any further, let me acknowledge that I can hear it from here…. the outcry… “but it’s what the client wants!” Well, that may be true, but as Creative Professionals, I believe it is our role to accommodate our clients’ wishes but also to advise them in making the best marketing decisions possible to avoid some of the symptoms of bad advertising. If a brief isn’t provided, then provide one…before you start on creative. Only then can you direct any creative discussion rationally.
Let’s face it, bad advertising only results in unsuccessful marketing and very poor ROI. It has been my experience, when presenting to clients, that once you explain the reasons why you shouldn’t do something and yes, even invest in showing them what is being compromised, clients really do get it.
Throughout my career I have often been asked by marketing professionals what I think of an ad (no matter what channel) that they or their organization just created. My answer is always the same,“what was the brief?”. Creative must come from the brief. The brief must be accurate, clear and pertinent… If a brief was not written, the ad assessment will be dependent on a number of criteria, many of them subjective…and a moving target. When I see ads that actually get to the marketplace without a clear single focused message…. I really wonder who did it…and what happened….and why.
Advertising isn’t about pretty pictures and for it to work there are certain protocols that need to be followed. At times it can be challenging, I get that…. but isn’t that very challenge the reason we as Creative Professionals are in this particular industry… Am I right?
As Creative Professionals we are often faced and given mountains of information to decipher and create a single succinct statement that speaks to the end benefit, the reason to believe, the unique selling proposition. As designers, we are given too many visual elements AND the logo (if there is only one!), along with too much information…all to be incorporated in a layout that has to have a visual flow directing the consumer’s eyes to make sure that the main message is delivered. The challenge remains the same in each one of these instances…a single focused message.
Great creative needs a very clear message. Bad ads don’t have one… they have a few… all shouting for attention. Great ads are those that increase brand and service awareness, increase the knowledge of the brand or service benefits and inspire confidence as well. They inspire confidence because they are presented professionally and well. When a client wants to throw in the kitchen sink into the ad…. as creative professionals you do have 2 options. 1) Give in without a fight and create mediocre advertising, or 2) go the extra mile, show them the ad with the kitchen sink… and show them the single focused ad . More often than not, they will side with the value…the single
I invite you to talk to me…. Share with me your stories… the brilliant, the bad, the ugly and the win! I’d love to hear about them.
by Miriam Hara | May 29, 2013 | Branding, Latest, Social Media
It’s nice to see so many brands that were once fearful of plunging into social media finally dive in, at least on Facebook. Many brands and businesses have a Facebook page understanding that it is no longer an option to not have one. It is a “media” channel… and a way to build awareness, educate consumers and engage consumers through their buying journey.
Now that brands and business have a Facebook Page, how do they leverage it… and more importantly, how do they build a community… a strong one that will enable them to reap the benefits of this exciting social media marketing channel.
So how do you write relevant posts to build your brand community? Here are 4 rules you must adhere to.
1) Develop your brand’s voice. In the past the brand image was visual and often static. With the exception of those brands that could afford TV and radio, brand persona and character largely dealt with the visual. With Social Media, and especially with Facebook, brands have to have a dimensional brand voice so it is key to determine it before you start. Is your brand voice serious? Will it take on the one of a mentor or educator? Will your brand be personable, fun and/or dynamic? Whatever your brand’s voice style is, it’s very important to keep the tone of your voice consistent.
2) It’s not about selling. Every post doesn’t have to be about your business or brand…. actually, this may come as a surprise, but every post can’t be about your brand or business! It’s about the community your brand belongs to or rather, if created properly, owns. Understanding how your community feels, what they want to hear about is important. Let’s face it, brands and businesses have a Facebook Page because they need to be there… be seen and be part of their audience’s world. Make sure you take advantage of it in the right way!
3) Be engaging. That means that it’s not good enough to push out posts onto your Facebook Page. It’s about going to other Brand Pages or relevant pages and engaging with them. It’s about being responsive to your community and adding to their engagement. So if you have a wine store, or a winery, it would be good to like pages of boards such as chicken or beef…or other recipe sites. Maybe even “like” magazine Facebook Pages that in the past you have advertised in or plan to advertise in.
4) Be exciting. Launch a Facebook contest or better yet, if feasible, provide a determined number of free samples of your products or promote a sale that’s going on in your store. Yes, understandably, everyone loves free stuff and a contest…and more so on Facebook. However, think of it as a trial run that has 2 great benefits: 1) you can develop a very strong and current database that you then use to target on further specialty programs and promotions, and 2) This is a great way to get people to like your page! Through the duration of the contest or until they get their free sample, they get to see what your brand posts are all about. , By doing that you are showing them why they should continue to stay in your community. The only reason for them to do that is that they really really like your brand!
Once you develop a sound solid community then you can advertise on Facebook, to further build your brand’s community and build traction and excitement for your contests and your community. It would be wonderful to hear about some of your Facebook Page successes. Please share them here!
by Stephanie Fasulo | May 24, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Social Media
Have you created a Facebook page but not implemented Facebook Ads? If you haven’t, that’s okay, it probably means one of two things: you don’t need to or you don’t know how they can benefit you. In any social media platform it is important to learn the ins and outs before you leverage tools for your business. With that said, Facebook Pages and Facebook Ads go hand in hand when developed and monitored properly. Facebook Ads will literally add increased value to your overall objectives… and social community.
If you’re on Facebook regularly you probably see Facebook Ads 50 times a day. That’s because businesses use them as viral adverts; you can see them on the right side of your timeline, but more discreetly, a business can also create ads that post on behalf of its followers promoting predetermined content to those people’s friends. This is how a business online can reach outside its community and increase online growth just as you would with print ads or billboards!
The best part about Facebook Ads is how easy they’re to create. Once you log onto your Facebook, under Settings find “Manage Ads”. From there you’ll see user-friendly controls to manage and integrate your custom Facebook Ad. Design controls range from geographical location, interests, age to other vigorous targeting options. Once you’re done it can look something like this:
Currently I’m managing a couple of Facebook Pages with a strong community base for each. These communities set a strong foundation for a Facebook campaign because you can utilize your current followers “talking” about your content and recruit more potential followers when they visit your Facebook page from the Ads you put up. This just means if someone sees your ad and he or she clicks it, that person will be more intrigued to like your page if the community is exciting and vibrant.
Of course none of this is free; Facebook Ads are a paid service that allows you to set a budget for each Ad. Once your budget is maximized the Ad will end and you will be notified. Your budget does not have to be large, but just enough that the Facebook Ad algorithm can properly manage your daily hits and how much you are willing to spend for them. The budget is a very important factor to manage from your end as well, ensuring the numbers reflect the progress you want to make. At a price, governed by you, Facebook Ads also provide a detailed metrics system and billing reports to ensure you are always up to date!
These details are part of a much wider scope of what the Facebook Ads can do for your business, but having a background about some of the finer details can help ease into building your own Ad. Use these insights provided to help your online brand and Facebook Page talk! Because to me these seemingly small tactics can make a huge difference in driving tracking to your page and generating overall success.
