Monday 21 December 2009

Social Prowess Upon Us

 I have seen it in movies before, but I have never really understood the hype that goes with UK's music charts over Christmas. According to dwellers of the region, attaining the number 1 song at this time is an esteemed privilege. So important infact that the UK's version of Australian Idol - 'X Factor' has had their talent secure number 1 position for the last four years running.  The hit TV show airs the finale the week before Christmas and the winner releases an already highly popular cover song, assuring the artist high sales volume and.......... Voila, a number one song just in time for the Chrissy charts. 

Couple Tracy and Jon Morter established the Facebook Group 'RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE FOR CHRISTMAS NO.1' in order to combat the lost lustre of the Christmas charts. Tracy was noted as saying;"We just wanted the festive chart to be exciting again."The group encouraged its members, approximately 1 million, to download the track 'Killing In The Name' between the 13th and 19th of December. An astonishing 502,000 downloads were achieved and secured Rage Against The Machine the number one Christmas chart position and two new records - the first download-only track to make it to number one and the most British downloads in one week!!

Tusk has spent 2009 very excited about the viable prospects of social marketing. To view Rage Against The Machine as a brand, their success through Facebook is undeniable. In terms of brand awareness, loyalty, PR and sales, the band has reached astronomical heights through an amateur, underground social campaign. 

2009 has been a turning point in our minds as to the positive results that can be accessed via a multitude of social mediums. In 2010, we hope that each of our clients will seek to harness the power of Social Networks and implement at least one aspect into their own Integrated Marketing Campaign. 

Watch the video for RATM, 'Killing In The Name' below:

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Monday 7 September 2009

Link Facebook to Twitter

Facebook now allow for Twitter users to link their accounts together. This new integration allows for seamless updates to occur between a users Facebook page and their Twitter page. It was Twitter who first allowed for this integration to occur, however the nature of Twitter does not particularly suit the Facebook environment. For example, Twitter users update their status multiple times per day, whereas Facebook users tend to post updates far more sporadically. The primary function of Twitter is to communicate progress, changes, news and even moods on a moment-to-moment basis. Conversely, Facebook provides a means to stay in contact with friends and to share with the community. It is the difference between the functions of each that interferes with the appeal of linking FROM Twitter TO Facebook.It is therefore far more exciting to hear that users of each can now link FROM Facebook TO Twitter. As posted on the Facebook Blog, on the 21st of August:

"If you manage a Facebook Page, you now will be able to decide whether to share updates with their Twitter followers, and you also will be able to control what type of updates to share: status updates, links, photos, notes, events or all of them. If you have multiple Pages, you will have the option to link each of those Pages to different Twitter accounts."

With that said, social marketing via Twitter and Facebook can now become a more seamless process. In order to set up the link between a Facebook page and a Twitter account, follow these 3 easy steps below:

1. Visit http://www.facebook.com/twitter

2. Here you will be asked to grant Facebook access to your Twitter account. Permission can be revoked at any stage thereafter by changing your Twitter account settings. You can also unlink a page at any time by visiting the aforementioned link. The accounts will be automatically linked once access has been granted.

3. The last remaining step is to complete the checklist according to the type of Facebook content that you would like to appear on Twitter. This list will include - status updates, photos, links, notes and events. As this is the 3rd and final step, the process will now be complete and you can start enjoying the ease and benefits.

 

 

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Thursday 27 August 2009

15 Minutes of Fame



Google and YouTube are announcing that they’re rolling out the YouTube Partnership Program, an advertising revenue sharing program, to regular people like you and me. Basically, individual videos that become widely popular, amass a ton of views, and abide by YouTube’s TOS will be eligible to earn revenue share dollars.

YouTube states.....“To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetization, we look at factors like the number of views, the video’s virality and compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service. If your video is eligible for monetization, you will receive an email and see an “Enable Revenue Sharing” message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account.”

After you’ve enabled revenue sharing, YouTube (YouTube) will sell ads opposite your video and pay you via Google Adsense on a monthly basis. Note however that individual video partnerships are US-only for the time being.

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Monday 10 August 2009

10 Tips to become part of the conversations

  1. LISTEN: Always pay attention to what people are talking about in your market. You can set up alerts for this!
  2. INTERACT: Build trust around you. After you listen to people’s problems interact with them and try to offer them a solution.
  3. LISTEN SOME MORE: See if your actions were successful.
  4. PROVIDE QUALITY: Be a constant provider of quality information: either content or suggestions (tips, advice)
  5. BE READY TO MANAGE CRISIS: You have to expect that not everyone will like you and be positive about your brand. If someone is negetive, it's a good idea to already have a plan in place of how to react.
  6. BE THE STARTER: Sometimes start conversations.
  7. DONT SPEAK BADLY OF ANYONE: eventually it will turn against you.
  8. BE SINCERE: This is valid on all social networks. If you are planning to post direct sales make it clear in your profile. Otherwise people will start to ignore you.
  9. NEVER SPAM.
  10. ADD SOMETHING: If you are entering a conversation add something to it.
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Wednesday 5 August 2009

Start a Lie!

I came across this website today and it reinforced just how damaging social PR can be for brands, or in this case an industry. The bottled water industry has had a lot of negetive PR around it of late and this is just another blow for them. Start A Lie is a very simple and viral website that encourages users to start their own lie about the bottled water industry, stating "if they can lie so can you..." Users either submit their own or choose one from the list. When they submit they choose the social network of choice and its done....This is all courtesy of the people at Tappening.com
I say good on them if bottled water is as bad as they say it is then the bottled water companies need to do something about it!

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Saturday 18 July 2009

Russia ranks first in social network engagement

A report by ComScore revealed Russia is the world’s leader in online social network engagement. The report looked at 40 individual countries and their total online population and then compared that to the number of people who use social networks. Russia ranked number one with 59 per cent, or 18.9 million people, visiting a social network at least once in April.

This surprised me as I assumed the likes of the US would be a leader in social network penetration because of the prevalence of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and MySpace, into their culture. The US however ranked ninth in the study, well behind countries such as Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico and Spain.

The report shows of the 1.1 billion Internet users in the world, 734.2 million are using social networks. This means 65 per cent of the world’s online population is accessible - for free - via their social network of choice. Amazing!

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Friday 17 July 2009

2009 Facebook Demographics

According to Facebook’s demographics and statistics directly from their Social Ads platform there has been a staggering increase in the number of 55+ users - with total growth of 513.7% in in the last six month alone.

Additional top insights:

  • 70.8% increase in total users over the last six months.
  • 54.6% of users are female

Interestingly the statistics found that there are 16.5% less high school users, and 21.7% less college users. There have been rumors that these younger user groups are being aliented by their parents joining the service, and this data seems to prove it.

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Monday 22 June 2009

Shaq on Twitter

Did you know that Shaquille O’Neal’s has a twitter account? The_real_shaq Twitter account has 1.3 million followers.An article regarding the setup of the account (yes he didnt do it himself) stated that "Getting started was not that difficult. We just needed to get Shaq plugged into Twitter and set him loose. He quickly gathered a following because of his authenticity. (“Shaq has zero ability to fake anything. He’s transparent and genuine.”)" After a few months, Things got more interesting when the agency collaborated with Shaq on an idea: what if he used Twitter to give the world more than his ideas and random observations? This resulted in: “random acts of Shaqness,” in which Shaq uses Twitter to do good deeds for fans such as offering free tickets to basketball games. If you’re lucky enough to catch the right tweet from Shaq at the right time, you stand a good chance of meeting him at a food court somehwere, and you could pick up a free ticket. Great Idea!

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Thursday 18 June 2009

Kate Miller Heidke, Facebook

A bit of a rude warning about the harm that can be done by pushing the boundaries of Facebook and Twitter too far. As Kate sings of her personal facebook barriers, we examine the limits brands should also abide by in the online arena. When creating a business pressence on Facebook, companies must ensure that their interaction will be well received by the online community.

Some of the more common Social Networking mistakes, made by businesses include:

Talking the Talk

It is important to make sure you speak to suit your environment. Remember you are not speaking to colleagues, suppliers or executives... You are speaking to real people who are 'hanging out' online. If they have accepted your companies friend request, it is important to respect your consumers within THEIR environment and to employ a more casual and light tone.

A Blank Canvas Craves Attention

Think of your Facebook page as a blank canvas. It's an opportunity to show consumers the personal side to your business. The one with real people at the helm who have real ideas and passion. Your Facebook page provides you with many tools to convey a company culture, this should be embraced by your Facebook administrator.

Nobody Likes a Show Off

Sure, as a business page you should use Facebook to showcase your brand ethos and personality, but blatant boasting won't get you anywhere. I still cringe when I see friends who post photo's of themselves taken by them...arm up, camera angled down and pout....!! Unfortunately their 'blue steel' doesn't quite hit the mark. Use your page to build trust, rapport and relationships with both active and prospective consumers.

Keep it Interesting

Mix it up. Engage with your Facebook friends. Offer them something of interest via varied forms of media. Share videos, post links, send updates, create events, upload photo's, import blog notes.... the list goes on and on. Remember, users like things to be fresh and regular.

Setting off a viral reaction takes time, effort and good ideas. Persevere - the nature of the online is hit and miss however the rewards are well worth it.

 

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Thursday 11 June 2009

Carl Jr. & User Generated Content

User Generated Content (UGC) is a real buzz word among marketers and agencies so I thought Id give you an example of it in action. For their new Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar Burger ad campaign, Carl Jr. will use UGC from popular YouTube faces. This is not the first time they have thought outside the box or tried something risky (remember the Paris Hilton car wash).

In this campaign Carl’s Jr. has used nine YouTube celebrities who combined have 3.8 million YouTube subscribers, 590,000 followers on Twitter and 25,000 Facebook fans (according to Adweek). Thats a whole lot of audience to reach.

In implemeting this campaign Carl’s Jr. only brief to the YouTube stars was to mention the burger, tell viewers how they eat their burgers, and then pose the question to the viewers. This freedom allowed the YouTube stars to do the video in their fashion to reach their audience, while encouraging viewers to take part in the fun with a video response of their own truly making this a social campaign.

Now lets look at the ripple effect this could have...firstly viewers will willingly watch these video ads. Secondly, there is a good chance that viewers will then watch the other YouTube celebs’ videos (That equates to nine watched Carl’s Jr. ads per user!). Thirdly, they will then compare and discuss the ads amongst themselves. And finally some will create and distribute their own video responses...I think the you get the picture.

I am looking forward to seeing the results of this campaign and will keep you posted...in the meantime have a look at the ads yourself.

 

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Monday 1 June 2009

Visual Guide to Twitter

Click on image for larger version...

 

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Thursday 14 May 2009

Into the Twittersphere

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Wednesday 13 May 2009

Viral Marketing gone wrong

There has been alot of talk in the industry about the failure of Social Marketing / Viral activities as more and more companies get caught up in the Buzz of what it can offer. Of note is the Witchery Man Campaign. Here’s Adam from Naked explaining how they got it wrong.

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