I had to post this article below. I don’t think I have seen a better written article about the truth when it comes to people who call themselves “Social Media Experts”.
From my last post we know that eCommerce is growing at a fairly rapid pace. The industry is expanding and branching out across the internet. The newest buzz in the industry is social shopping. A company called Curebit is even developing a social ecommerce platform. I wanted to create a post explaining social shopping is not that new. There are so many other opportunities besides Facebook and Twitter that are often forgotten every day.
In my opinion social commerce has been around since before I hit the internet (sometime in ’97). You might say – “No Way!! Social networks didn’t even exist then!” Then I would say you are 100% wrong – Social networks started their life as Bulletin Boards and Newgroups. Did we post pictures of our kids or what we ate for lunch? No, but we talked and in that talking there was advertising. At that time there were no real affordable platforms or hosting to have eCommerce so transactions were typically handled directly thru Checks or COD. PayPal came out in late 1998 and really revolutionized the ability to pay online – paving the way for future eCommerce, but that is another blog post.
Now Newsgroups are dead for most of us as it’s just the pirates and the old school guys left. So what took its place and still reigns as champion? Forums. A forum exists for every subject and typically contains the most diehard dedicated user base. Not only do these people participate in whatever the forums niche is.. they also spend their time online talking about it. You can go directly to the user base that can have serious influence on your company.
Successfully sponsoring a forum and becoming an authority can be challenging. Forum users have cliques and groups just like any social group of people. Here are a few ways to help win these users over:
Sponsorship – Contact the forum owner and see what they offer. I always ask for a ‘Sponsored Account’ that gets branded under the company’s name. This allows me to show my support and directly interact with the user base. Getting the forum owner’s permission can be a blessing in helping achieve this goal.
·Participate – Help our users, provide DIY’s, comment in their threads. Basically be a contributing member of the forum.
·Discounts – Provide a special forum only promo code. Example: 10% off anything they buy just because they are a member of the forum.
·Give Aways – Create contests; hook up members with free swag or products, etc. Give an influencer something inexpensive, but in an unexpected manner and you’ll have a promoter on your side forever.
·Don’t overly self-promote – A given in marketing, but make sure you don’t drop a link to your site in every post and have it in Font size 999 in your signature
What can you expect if you win over a forum? Here are just a few examples of what I have helped companies achieve in the past:
·True Brand Evangelists – After a few months of sponsoring our forum we noticed links and traffic coming from all different forums on the web. Users had taken our message and discounts and continued passing it along to their other circles. We could follow this because of the usernames often being the same across the forums. We would then sponsor or join in on that forum – continuing the expansion.
·ROI – If you select the correct forum then you will get orders. Forum users spend money especially when someone who supports them or the forum they post on. Often times companies I helped out were not the cheapest out there and the users knew this. Even with that fact the companies I assisted still received the order. If anyone mentioned our competitors they were rapidly shunned and told to support the company which often times they did. Reading a thread where a user cancels their order with the competition and then places an order on your site is quite amazing. Just these direct orders often paid for the campaigns 10x over.
·Links – The mystical unicorn that everyone hates to do. The forum you sponsor should provide you and link and the users will often post links to your site. Sometimes they even posted links to their own personal blogs or website. In one instance I happened to help a forum member who turned out to be a writer on Gizmodo. You can guess that we got some hefty coverage and links from there on out from Gizmodo.
Overall forums are one unique place on the internet where you can find your consumer and peers. Support, expand, and grow your niche using and supporting forums!
Have you targeted any other communities or groups online with success? Drop me a comment below.
Super Bowl XLV weekend is finally upon us. This Sunday,
millions of Americans will gather with friends and family to watch the Packers take
on the Steelers for the 45th presentation of the Super Bowl. By this
time, most of the venues have been set, the food has been purchased and the
beer has been put on ice; all most fans have to do now is show up and watch.
While the majority of us are finishing our Super Bowl preparations and getting ready to enjoy the game; social media marketers are gearing up for the culmination of some very cool and creative social media campaigns. Super Bowl XLV has been particularly “social” this year; here are some of my favorite advertising campaigns that incorporate social media with the super bowl.
Twerrible Towel (Twerrible Towel) – Not only is this really cool, but it is one of the more creative uses of social media I have seen. Twerribletowel.com features a live feed of a motorized hand spinning a Steelers terrible towel. What’s cool about this? The motor turning the towel is powered by tweets! Every time someone tweets #steelernation the towel makes one full rotation. At the time of writing this blog post the towel was on its 20,688th turn!
Mercedes Benz (Tweet Race) – Mercedes Benz is going to make the most of their first ever Super Bowl T.V. commercial by promoting their ground breaking “tweet race” social media campaign. The tweet race is the first ever auto race fueled by social media interaction.
Last Wednesday, four teams of two took off from the four corners of America in an all out race to the Super Bowl. Their progress will depend on the amount of tweets and likes they receive from Twitter and Facebook. The first team to reach Arlington for the Super Bowl will win a set of brand new C-Class Coupes.
Competition isn’t limited to the drivers only though; the most active social media users of the winning team will be entered to win a V.I.P trip to the PGA Championship, the US Open or Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
NFL & Visa Super Bowl XLV Conversation (NFL Conversation)– The NFL teamed up with Visa to develop a real-time, interactive, web site that tracks all social conversations related to Super Bowl XLV. At this specialized site you can; view trending topics, read what the players are saying, and even see which states are home to the most active Twitter users. I’ll give you a hint; its Pittsburgh and Wisconsin.
My favorite part of the site is the Steelers vs. Packers real-time battle. This pits the #steelers against the #packers in a head to head battle of Twitter mentions on the virtual grid iron. At the time of writing the packers were winning 57% to 43%.
Leave comments with social media campaigns you like and remember to join the conversation this Sunday!
July 13th to July 15th showed the world what the future of internet advertising could be. Using an ingenious social media campaign, Old Spice blended their hilarious TV spokesperson with the viral power of the internet. For about 48 hours, the manly “Old Spice Man” answered questions he received via Twitter, Face Book, YouTube, Etc. At the end of the 48 hours, Old Spice had 7,258,771 YouTube channel views, 72,329 Twitter followers, and a viral buzz that is still flooding internet content days later.
Old Spice has been widely successful with their new “Old Spice Man” campaign portrayed by actor Isaiah Mustafa. These commercials feature a shirtless Mustafa talking directly to the ladies at home reassuring them that even though their men can’t look like him, they can smell like him. The Old Spice Man doesn’t only appeal to ladies though. Creative director of the campaign, Iain Tait, explained they wanted a “woman’s man that was okay for men to love” so they came up with a character that could win over any crowd with his loveable manliness.
Recently, Old Spice kicked it up a notch with their latest segment of the Old Spice Man saga - real time internet advertising. For about 48 hours, Old Spice received thousands of questions from Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites for the Old Spice Man to hopefully answer. Answers were posted about every 30 minutes with a hysterical response to the lucky user’s question. Famous celebrities and athletes even fell for the Old Spice Man’s scent including; Alyssa Milano, Apollo Ohno, and social media great, Kevin Rose (founder of Digg). It seemed love even began to blossom between Mustafa & Milano as they exchanged seven flirtatious messages!
Celebrities weren’t the only ones to get the attention of the Old Spice Man. Mustafa thoughtfully answered the inquiries of mere commoners as well. Some of the highlights were; consulting a Doctor that Old Spice could safely & effectively replace a human heart, coaching hockey players that old spice will help them score thousands of goals (only if the opposing goalie wasn’t wearing Old Spice) and a personal favorite - engagement liaison between Angela A. Hutt-Chamberlin & Johannes S. Beales.
Unsurprisingly, the two day Q & A session has taken the
internet by storm and has gone completely viral. Hundreds upon hundreds of
users are tweeting, re-tweeting, sharing, liking & digging the videos like
there is no tomorrow. The graph below shows search inquiries for the
highlighted keywords from the last 30 days.
From Google Insights For Search
Google search engine inquiries spike dramatically the day the mini commercials started posting on YouTube. More impressively, this is not tracking any redistribution of the content like sharing and re-tweeting. This graph is solely based on Google search traffic.
Wieden + Kennedy, the advertising agency behind the Old Spice Man campaign, clearly got it right on this one. They understood the potential of the internet to quickly & efficiently distribute vast amounts of information in nearly real time. They also didn't try to re-invent the wheel and instead used well established and popular social mediums to engage users & promote their videos.
Most importantly, they designed a character and campaign that worked for all advertising mediums. The real challenge in today’s market is to develop a marketing strategy that can be applied to all the advertising outlets. Too often lately, firms have been “dumbing” down their websites to be iPad compatible or exchanging personal meet & greets for weekly chat rooms. Technology is evolving at a fantastic rate, and it’s great; but the new marketing guru will be able to synchronize internet marketing with the already established media channels. Internet marketing is the most effective when used in conjunction with traditional mediums like TV, Radio & Print. Wieden + Kennedy clearly knows that, who’s next?
Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies.
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