Social Media
March
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Discover Why Your Brand Should Focus on Earned Media
2012 at 11:27 am Posted by Sherri Sharp
The over-saturation of advertising, and an ever-increasing distrust of ads has led to a decline in the effectiveness of paid media. Conversely, earned media is gaining ground.
Check out this whitepaper from Zuberance, Top 5 Reasons to Focus on Earned Media previously offered last month, to see why earned media is so powerful and to learn how you can put it to use for your brand. In this report, you will learn:
- Earned media is the most trusted and credible form on content for a brand
- Social media has amplified the sheer quantity and reach of earned media
- Conversion rates are higher and ROI is larger
- Earned media lasts
- Earned media is measurable
(Thanks to Steve Hall at AdRants)
Posted in: Social Media
March
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How Clean and Secure Is Your Social Network?
2011 at 07:47 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
So, you've got your Facebook page launched, your LinkedIn Group started and you're a faithful Tweeter for your business social networking and marketing. Good for you! But, unless you're monitoring all those new fans and what's on their minds or their photos 24/7, do you really know what kind of content is being posted on your social world? There's a nifty little tool called SocioClean that can help. At socioclean.com, they claim to deliver great benefits and do the following for you:
• One Stop Shop - Connect to all major social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Myspace to safeguard your publicly available information.
• Clean Your Social Profile - Look for over 5000 pre-defined and custom keywords covering various categories.
• Social Analytics and Trending - Content analysis through detailed reports with visibility into areas of concern and the ability to cleanse data.
• Safe and Secure - Data handled with highest level of security with verified privacy policy.
The Socioclean platform lets users:
• Take Control: Help manage online profile with advanced monitoring.
• Maintain Social Reputation: Drive self-governance with growing social networks.
• Expand User Experience: Single portal management for various social networks.
Well, we tried it and got an "A" but were surprised at how some intentionally innocent verbage can get pegged as socially questionable. Case in point, once I posted a really cool Ambassadors program from Makers Mark on our Facebook page and SocioClean advised me to stay away from the word "bourbon". It can be a little excessive, almost like having a virtual grandma on your case, but it's a good exercise to go through to put your social marketing network through the wash and make it come out clean. Try it at http://www.socioclean.com and let us know what your grades are.
Posted in: Social Media
October
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For All My Poor Atlanta Friends - Edge Wants To Help You Relive Your Irritation
2010 at 03:05 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
It's been long time since I've lived in Atlanta - so long ago I couldn't legally drive. But after seeing this article today, I can completely relate to some of the irritating factors my friends have to put up with living there and think this is a pretty clever promotion. So, if you're irritated at work today, feel free to test your irritation level.
Steve Hall from AdRants Daily reports that in a recent study, the Edge Anti-Irritation Index, Atlanta was found to be the most irritated city. Following Atlanta were Houston (No. 2), Washington DC (No. 3) and Baltimore (No. 4) ranked Findings were based on 11 different irritating factors, including humidity levels; weather conditions; incidence of traffic delays and congestion; average commute times; frequency of flight delays and cancelations; rates of sleeplessness; underemployment; pollens and allergens; pests; and comedy clubs per capita.
The study is part of a new campaign from the brand which hopes to help stamp out iritation. Part of the campaign provides real time irritation relief to people voicing their frustrations on Twitter. Irritation Solutions Team staffers, using the Edge Twitter handle @EdgeShaveZone, monitor for annoyed tweeters and then offer a helping hand in the form of prizes, gift cards or other items that might lend a little relief. To join the conversations, people can use and search #soirritating.
Of the campaign, Edge Senior Brand Manager Jeffrey Wolf said, "We may find someone who's really irritated about the traffic jam they're in and offer to send them a GPS unit. Or maybe someone's tweeting about being stuck in the rain. Well, we've got an umbrella with your name on it. The other day we gave a guy whose hard drive had crashed a brand new one."
Visitors to EdgeShaveZone.com can reduce their stress by sharing their daily irritations. The site features a comment section and a map of the United States, showing which states are the most and least irritated, as populated through guest comments. There's also an anti-irritation tool that allows men to test their levels of irritation by measuring the pace and force of punching the keyboard's P and O keys - the harder you mash the keyboard, the higher the site ranks your personal irritation index.
Posted in: Social Media
September
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Coca Cola Takes Facebook From Virtual To Reality Seamlessly With Incredible Technology
2010 at 01:56 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
Leave it to one of my favorite brands (and an account I cut my marketing teeth on) to combine incredible technology and social media in a very innovative promotion. Daniel Snyder, writer for Information Carnivore, shares the promotion where Coca Cola Village in Israel partnered with Facebook to seamlessly allow the teens enjoying themselves at Coca Cola Village to share their experience online. The now famous Facebook “like” button became a real life reality as vacationing teenagers were given RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) bracelets which were encoded with their Facebook user name and password. When the wristband was ‘swiped’ over top of the real life thumbs up box their Facebook status was instantly updated with what they were doing at the village. In addition if photographed by one of the official village photographers, the RFID bracelet would tag everyone in the photo and upload it to Facebook automatically.
The video tells the story. The Coca Cola village holds 650 teens at one time, and in each cycle Facebook was seeing about 35,000 posts! That means every teen was posting Coca Cola branded content just under 54 times on their Facebook profile, to be seen and liked by all their friends and family.
To me, this is amazing and kind of scary at the same time and I wonder where this is headed next.
" title="Social Media Innovation">Coca Cola Facebook Integration
Posted in: Social Media
April
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The Grand Slam of Social Media Mistakes - A Lesson Learned from Denny’s.
2010 at 01:45 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
Whoever is directing the social media initiative for Denny's Restaurant is either one of the luckiest people not to get fired or a family member. Since October of 2009, the menus of 1,500 Denny's restaurants have invited customers to join the social-media conversation at Twitter. Good idea, right?. But there's a serious problem - the @Dennys account listed on the menu is registered to Dennys Hsieh—a Taiwanese individual—and not the American restaurant chain. You would think that after 6 months, someone would be taking action to correct the situation.
However, according to Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable, a CNET report states that the "menu misprint is an error that the company hopes to correct not by reprinting menus but by convincing Twitter to hand over the 'Dennys' Twitter account." O-kay.
Whatever Denny's winds up doing, there are some valuable lessons to take away from their glaring oversight. Van Grove suggests some pretty common sense basic steps that should be followed:
• Fact-check all content during the proofreading process. If there's a phone number, call it; if there's a URL, type it into a browser; if there's an email address, send a test message; if there's a street address, double-check it against secondary sources.
• Grab preferred usernames and URLs as soon as new social-media venues appear. It takes little effort to ensure you're ready for any site's overnight success.
• Respond to a social-media faux pas with social-media savvy. Companies that correct errors with flair and finesse are often lauded for their pitch-perfect response. Those that don't are frequently scorned.
If you're integrating social media into your marketing efforts, good for you, but take the time to make sure you have your bases covered so one mistake doesn't compromise your effectiveness.
Posted in: Social Media
November
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Wonder What Customers Think About Your Website? Find Out With Google Sidewiki.
2009 at 02:43 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
I ask a lot of people for their opinion of social-media tools like Twitter and I always get a lot of different responses—ranging from 100% commitment to curiosity to utter disdain. However you feel about social media, here is one simple fact: Even if you're one who considers these tools inane and a waste of time, a large number of your most influential customers do not. And that means you must at least monitor the conversation for possible signs of trouble. In a Premium article at MarketingProfs, Mack Collier outlines five such tools you simply cannot ignore. They include Google Sidewiki, a new add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. Once installed, it can open a side panel where visitors are able to read other visitors' feedback—and leave their own—on any page at any website.
"Every webpage now can be commented on," explains Collier. "Every. Single. One. Potentially, your competitor could comment on your company's website criticizing your products and services. So can your customers. Did you launch a blog and turn off comments? Now your readers can still comment 'on' your blog." "You need to familiarize your company with what this tool can do," says Collier, "so that you can react to feedback left for your company and, hopefully, become proactive in using Sidewiki to connect with current and potential customers."
In other words, you can no longer control the conversation, even on your own homepage—because for those with the Sidewiki tool, every site is a social-media site.
Posted in: Social Media
June
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Cheers! The Marriage of Social Marketing and Cocktail Party Etiquette
2009 at 04:57 pm Posted by Sherri Sharp
Many of our clients jumping into the social marketing mixer ask us where to draw the line in being too "hard sell" on their social networking sites. I recently found a great post that I believe most people can relate to. In his "Web Ink Now" blog, David Meerman Scott encourages readers to treat social networking sites as if they're cocktail parties. In other words, to interact with others in the same way you would at a face-to-face industry mixer. To make his point, he asks questions like these:
• Do you go into a large gathering filled with a few acquaintances and tons of people you do not know and shout "BUY MY PRODUCT"?
• Do you go into a cocktail party and ask every single person you meet for a business card before you agree to speak with them?
• Do you listen more than you speak?
We've all been cornered at a party to hear about Mary Kay or the sure-fire investment deal and have learned to do the duck and dodge. That approach online is just as likely to make you an unpopular guest or host. So before you say something on Facebook or elsewhere, ask yourself if you'd say it to the person standing next to you. Unless you're really obnoxious, a "yes" means it's probably okay.
Posted in: Social Media
