Letting Fans Create the Product
Jan 14, 2010 by Stephanie Weingart | Contests, Social Media MarketingWhen a huge brand creates a Facebook fan page that generates an audience of more than 1 million fans, how should those fans be utilized and stimulated? Vitamin Water recently took advantage of their huge community by having them create and vote on a new flavor to be sold in stores. The contest took place on a tab within their fan page called the “Flavorcreator”. The application located on the tab required fans to create a unique flavor combination, name the flavor, write a witty description, and create a bottle design. This is Audience Participation at its finest.
However, as we commonly see on Social Media platforms, even the best contests need to be set free. Holding a contest for fans of Facebook eliminates the avid YouTube browser. This is where it becomes hugely important to Know Your Audience before asking them to participate.
5 Questions Before Asking a Brand’s Audience to Participate in a Social Media Contest
- Can the contest/ campaign be fluent on all social media platforms?
- On which social media platform does the average consumer most often spend their time?
- What is in it for the consumer?
- Will the consumer want to promote their participation on their social media profiles?
- What is the longevity of the campaign?
If all of these questions can easily be answered, it could be possible to allow a fan base of over 1 million people to choose a brand’s new product.
5 Benefits of Consumer Participation
- Consumer approval
- High ROI potential
- Increased awareness potential
- Brand Appreciation
- Increased Fans across Social Media profiles
Vitamin Water flexed their Social Media muscle by knowing exactly what their fan base wanted. The majority of the campaign existed on Facebook, while promotional videos existed on YouTube with celebrity appearances by Steve Nash and 50 Cent. However, voting for the new flavor took place across multiple levels of Social Media platforms. Every tweet, image, blog post, etc. on Twitter, Google Blog Search, FoodGawker, and Flickr were weighted as a form of voting for the winning flavor.
As a result, Vitamin Water was able to achieve popularity and recognition on huge news sites declaring them as the brand taking chances. Whether or not Social Media masses agree with the flavor choice is another question.
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This morning I tweeted this question to 10e20’s followers:
A few responses started to trickle in, and most of them followed the same train of thought:
- ChrisBennett: “When you self proclaim that you are a ’social media expert’”
- Amabaie: “A social media d-bag is someone who asks more than he gives. The rest is just details.”
- LoriBourne: “Only promote yourself and no one else; call yourself a social media “expert”; promote yourself anonymously & hope no one notices”
- Audette: “those hateful auto DMs that try to sell you something. FAIL”
- KennyHyder: “when you ask me to be a fan of your lame ass fb fan page just because we’re friends; people that straight up ask me to follow them on twitter”
I’m sensing a bit of a pattern here. It appears that many folks’ definition of a social media d-bag is someone who is too self-promotional. Social media marketing can be a slippery slope; after all, the main point of marketing is to promote yourself or your services. However, once you throw that whole “social” element into the mix, what was once “me me me” has now evolved into “me + you + everyone we know.”
Think about a party you’ve gone to. Everyone’s been in a social situation where they’ve experienced the self-absorbed person or the one-upper. They can’t wait for you to finish your story so they can immediately best it with a “better” one involving them, or they don’t bother asking you how things have been and would instead prefer to drone on about every minute detail of their lives. These types of people are really the hit of the party, aren’t they? You sneak an eye roll to your buddy and wait until the end of the night so you can complain about “that jerk who wouldn’t stop bragging about himself.” Nobody wants to be that guy in real life among a group of twenty or so people, so why would you online across a network of millions?
Constantly tooting your own horn can be detrimental to your business. Even if you’re actually a hard worker and knowledgeable in your field, you can turn off a lot of people who may think the following:
- You’re selfish (and possibly untrustworthy). Who wants to do business with someone who only thinks about himself? How is this person going to help you if he seems to be lacking in the generosity department? Are you always going to have a hidden agenda? Will you only help someone out for personal gain?
- You’re narrow-minded. If you only share content you’ve produced or spread your own advice, people might get the impression that you might not be open-minded enough to consider other points of view or share third party information.
- You’re a possible spammer. Nothing smells spammier than self-serving comments and links that always point back to your website.
Even if the above assumptions aren’t true, a lot of people may think otherwise. Take a look at how you portray yourself socially and see if you can potentially scale back the promotional stuff. Look at the following:
- Your blog. Are you always blogging about your company or your products? Try introducing some non-company related information, such as interesting industry news you’ve heard or some general tips that your readers will find helpful.
- Your tweets. Always tweeting links to your products or services? Never responding to people who tweet at you? Mix up your tweeting style — throw in tweets to your followers, responses, general chitchat and observations, interesting links you’ve come across (that aren’t from your site), etc.
- Your comments. If you’re commenting on someone else’s blog, make the remarks relevant to the post and don’t drop a link to a specific page or blog post on your site unless it’s absolutely relevant.
- Your Facebook profile. Even if you have a fan page, mix up the wall posts once in a while. Show appreciation to your fans by giving them some acknowledgment. Share some cool tips, poll them for their opinion/input, post some pictures and videos, share industry news and information, etc.
You don’t have to be afraid to promote yourself and your business, just be mindful of how often you’re bombarding your followers and peers with self-serving information. If you mix in a healthy array of information along with the self-promotions, your promotions may end up being more beneficial because they’ll stand out more and seem more important and genuine.
Do you have any other tips on how to be self-promotional without being repetitive, selfish or pushy? Share your examples and suggestions in the comments!
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The Passion of the Crust: How Enthusiasm Creates Social Media Success
Jan 7, 2010 by Rebecca Kelley | Social Media MarketingOkay, I know this is my third Domino’s post in about a week, but pushing aside my love of pizza, they’ve actually been quite relevant to social media lately. Last week I posted about how Domino’s was displaying #newpizza Twitter feedback on their microsite and that what they displayed didn’t quite match up with Twitter’s search results. Whatever the reason for the misalignment, Domino’s got a bit of heat from various sites and bloggers (including yours truly). This week, however, a friend of mine sent me a post about how a Domino’s franchise owner in Chicago went above and beyond, and then beyond the beyond, to put out a reputation management fire using social media as the bucket of water.
To make a long story short, a woman ordered a pizza from Domino’s that took over an hour to get delivered to her house, and then turned up being the wrong order. The customer complained about the mishap on Twitter, where it was spotted by Ramon DeLeon, a managing partner from seven Domino’s in the Chicago area. He acted swiftly by doing the following:
- He contacted her and apologized (presumably via Twitter)
- He sent the correct pizza over to her
- He sent her a video apology featuring him and the store manager
- He provided pizza for 350 people at the Chicago Social Media Club, an organization the customer is involved with
You could argue that this is going a bit overboard to appease one angry customer — an apology and correct order on the house would have probably sufficed. However, it’s easier to complain when someone does too little than when he/she does too much, and DeLeon proved that by going out of his way to turn a customer’s negative experience with Domino’s into a positive one.
DeLeon has a good quote about social media:
“The only way to put out a social media fire is with social media water.”
When someone takes a complaint public, it’s best to address it publicly. Even if you have to address the issue behind closed doors, a public acknowledgment of the situation and/or a public apology shows the user and his/her followers/friends that you’re listening and taking action. Silence can be deafening, especially to angry customers.
Ramon DeLeon appears to understand this and has embraced social media with open arms. He has 2,800 followers on Twitter and updates his account regularly, interacting with people and addressing customer concerns. He monitors social media activity using a variety of tools and has created video responses to different customers’ feedback. This isn’t someone who just “gets” social media, this is someone who loves social media.
It’s one thing to assign the young intern or new hire fresh out of college all of your social media tasks because “young people get social media, right?” It’s entirely another, more successful approach to find the person who is truly passionate about your brand and about social media and actually enjoys using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., and entrust him with your brand’s social presence. When you love what you do, it shines through and people notice. Ramon likes his job, and he likes social media. He’s embraced the latter so that he can continue to grow his business and reach out to his customers, and he’s successful at it because he cares.
You need to make sure the right person is handling your social media marketing, not just whoever’s available. It can mean the difference between failure and success, or even the difference between treading water to stay afloat and blasting across the sea in a speedboat. Users and customers are more savvy than you think, and many of us can pick up on who’s social because they feel they need to be, and who’s there because they really want to be.
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The January ‘10 Social Media Hot Topic List
Jan 6, 2010 by Greg Finn | Link Building, Social Media Marketing, Social NetworksHappy 2010! Hope everyone had a good holiday and is sticking to their New Year’s Resolutions! We are here to help start 2010 with a bang by dropping some hot linkbait ideas for this cold month of January. By looking at some of the topics and finding a way to relate to your field, you can harness the momentum of that topic and hopefully get more traction with your content! Here are some topics that are going to be really popular in this first month of January!
- The Super Bowl
Sure, the Super Bowl is in February, but January is the time of the year to go after Super Bowl linkbait. Break down the teams, relate it to your business… but hurry before sites get too saturated! - Things to Look Forward to in 2010
Whether it be movies, gadgets, albums releases… people love articles that lay out the good things to come. So put together the best things that relate to your blog/industry to boost your awareness. - Martin Luther King Jr.
The 18th of January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in honor of one of the most influential Americans ever. Chronicling the breakthroughs that have happened because of him, looking in on his past or any type of analysis that can be done on Dr. King will always do well in social media (and outside of social media!). - TV Shows Coming Back
A few shows came back in December, but the biggest US TV shows are coming back this month and there are plenty of opportunities to break down what has happened since the last season, how the new season is going and much more. - 2010 Predictions
This was hot last month and will remain hot throughout the month. If you have expert knowledge in a specific area, make some educated guesses as to what will happen this year in your industry. - Dubai
With the world’s tallest building opening yesterday, there is a great deal of information that can be put together around this new (financially troubled) super destination. - Golden Globes
The ‘pre-Oscar’ awards occur on the 17th and are a great indicator for the Oscars. Breaking down who wins, what they wear, winners, losers, who got hosed and who didn’t deserve to win could all be potential Golden ideas. - Lost Premiere
This gets its own bullet point as it technically launches in February and is the last season of the hit show. Lost fans are really passionate and gung-ho about the series so recaps/breakdowns/comparisons/predictions should perform well.
Have any other hot topics for the month of January? Feel free to share examples below!
…and don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.
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Empower Your Brand Loyalists: 5 Tips for Success
Dec 16, 2009 by Jake Matthews | Social Media MarketingThere’s nothing more annoying to me than going online and searching for my favorite brands on Facebook or typing in what might be a logical URL for the brand on Twitter and NOT finding my brand there!
OUCH!!!!
Further, it’s doubly annoying when you go to a preferred brand website and don’t see any way to connect socially with the brand:
Am I missing something here???
Brand managers need to empower their brand loyalists with the right destinations, experience, tools and content in social media. When brands neglect to participate in social media, they miss a major opportunity for awareness and ultimately sales. The more touch points and positive experiences that you provide your loyalists, the greater the opportunity for positive word of mouth and content to spread about your brand.
So how do you empower loyalists? Here are a couple of conceptual tips to getting started on motivating your brand in social media and making sure that your loyalists do some talking for you:
- Create Destinations: Give your brand loyalists a place to congregate. If you have not yet set up a Facebook page for your brand, consider doing so. If you are not tweeting your brand, think about whether you should start. Create exclusivity and reward the loyalists and let them mingle amongst each other to share experiences around your brand.
- Provide Ammunition: Empower loyalists with tools to help spread your brand message. Optimize your website experience for social media. This can be tools, buttons, or other social integrations that allows users to share, comment, review, save and interact on and off your site. Deliver a seamless user experience for those active social users who come to your brand site and want to bring their social experience with them.
- Display Creativity: Show brand loyalists that you are creative. Come up with remarkable creative content and awareness campaigns that wow your existing loyalists and inspire them to continue to spread the word. Don’t try to sell. Cater to their “joy points.” Provide solid content to your users and give them the social food they need to continue the dialogue for you.
- Affect Service: Your loyalists will have questions. Be there to answer them promptly. They’ll talk about that. It will pay you back.
- Display Confidence: Don’t fear the haters. Haters and trolls will minimize themselves and look silly. If you believe in your brand/product and it’s second to none, you have nothing to fear.
In today’s world it’s important for brand managers to think differently. Think organic and think of talking WITH your loyalists rather than TO your loyalists. It takes a lot of effort and pain to step out of the usual marketing mindset where brands consistently push messages out to loyalists through traditional platforms like the brand/corporate website, email and catalogs, and spread brand messaging through TV/cable, print, radio and other forms of advertising. You’ll have to harness departments including PR, Marketing and Agency. It’s not simple, and it’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
The customer and your loyalists are in control now and you should use this to your advantage. They are ready to be your mouthpiece so long as you provide them the destinations, the tools, materials and outlets to execute on it. Harness the power of your existing brand loyalists and you’ll be impressed with the positive results.
Note: In fairness to Porsche, they have a pretty strong following on Facebook.
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Social Media Pic Tip #2: Don’t Be Afraid of Simplicity
Dec 9, 2009 by Rebecca Kelley | Social Media MarketingToday’s social media pic tip is, once again, brought to you by Vivienne, our newest 10e20 employee who’s earning her keep by being adorable and by inspiring my blog posts.
A t-shirt and jeans…does it get any more basic than that? She’s not wearing a fancy or hip outfit (although she does own many — this kid has a better wardrobe than I do), but she’s happy and attracting attention with her winning smile.
How does this translate to social media? Well, a lot of people think that the glam factor is a huge part of social media success, and it can be, but you don’t need to have the most web 2.0 looking website or the most decked-out Twitter background to be great. You could have the most visually appealing site and profiles in your industry, but if you’re not active with your efforts, you’re not going to get very far just on looks. After all, a beautiful piece of furniture still attracts cobwebs if it isn’t tended to regularly
If your content is good and the effort is there, that’s all you need to worry about for the time being. Who cares if you’re using a default Twitter background or that your website is more simple and basic-looking than you’d like it to be? I’d rather have a simple, user-friendly and well trafficked website and active social profiles with default backgrounds than a beautifully designed site and customized social profiles that are never updated and attract little to no traffic.
Obviously, it’s ideal to have the best of both worlds: a visually appealing site and social presence that provides useful content to your users and solid customer service/interaction. But don’t worry if you can’t afford that designer just yet or feel like you need to constantly keep up with design trends and the newest, glossiest web 2.0 fad. If you’re keeping your users happy and cranking out updates and content on a regular basis, that’s more than sufficient. If you’ve got a winning personality, who cares if your wardrobe is a bit plain? Trends and fads will come and go, but jeans and a t-shirt never go out of style. 
6 More Social Media New Year’s Resolutions for 2010
Dec 8, 2009 by Rebecca Kelley | Social Media MarketingOur Director of Internet Marketing Greg Finn knocked another Search Engine Land article out of the park today. Titled 12 Social Media New Year’s Resolutions for 2010, the piece focuses on twelve things Greg would like to see social media work on in the coming year. I thought I’d add some more resolutions to be mindful of; after all, what’s 18 resolutions when you’ve got a whole year to work on them?
- Explore other social sites besides the big 3. Everyone chirps about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, but take some time to look into other social media sites to see if there’s a good opportunity for your business. Sites like Yelp and Foursquare are great for local establishments, and Ning allows you to set up your own social network. There are tons of sites out there, and even if they aren’t as huge or popular as the heavy hitters, they might provide more value and ROI to your business than a Twitter account would.
- For crying out loud, train your employees! Okay, admittedly this one was on Greg’s list of resolutions but it’s so important that it needs to be said twice. A recent example is the “Director of Social Media” for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who got a school employee fired for using a profanity in a comment on the newspaper’s blog. The backlash was immediate and fierce, and the director attracted severely negative attention to both the newspaper and to himself (if you search for “Kurt Greenbaum” in Google, you witness a pretty ugly reputation management issue). A knowledgeable, experienced social media employee probably would have handled the situation differently, and this incident is a sobering example of how quickly something can escalate and attract negative attention to your brand if you leave it in the hands of someone who’s inexperienced.
- Plan, plan, plan your social campaigns. If you’re looking to launch a contest or viral campaign via social outlets, don’t expect to “set it and forget it,” thinking that your audience will just take the content and run with it because that’s how social media works. You need to set aside ample time to plan your strategy and figure out what your campaign is, how you’ll promote it, which sites you’ll promote it on, how you’ll build buzz, etc. Planning is especially important if you’re new to the social sphere — you need to be familiar with the sites you’re pushing on and make sure that you’re getting the most value for your marketing attempts.
- Complement your site to the social platforms that work best for you. Consider creating social website-specific landing pages, and don’t just slap every single share button that exists onto your pages in hopes of casting as wide a net as possible. If your audience flocks to a certain social site or if you’re finding great success with a particular social profile/platform, carry that momentum over to your main website and ensure that you’re cross-promoting logically and appropriately.
- Don’t let a few bad eggs ruin the bunch. There’s been a lot of talk about snake oil social media marketers, but as Jordan Kasteler points out, there are bad eggs in every industry. A lot of people are rushing into social media marketing like it’s the California gold rush, so be mindful that not everyone is an expert and that proper research and vetting are required when you’re looking to get advice or hire a consultant.
- Stop dilly-dallying and start thinking social! Social media marketing isn’t a fad — it’s not the slap bracelet of marketing (although those were pretty cool). Sure, the term “social media marketing” is pretty hokey and a lot of people roll their eyes whenever they hear it, but don’t get turned off by the verbiage. Don’t let a few hucksters shy you away — social media marketing is becoming an important and integral part of marketing on the Internet, so to avoid or shun it altogether would be shortsighted and could leave your competitors with a clear advantage. As marketing adapts and mutates to reflect changes in technology, so too does your marketing campaign need to shift. Whether your goal is to manage your company’s reputation, strengthen awareness of your brand, or sell blue widgets, there’s a way to integrate social media at least partially into your overall marketing efforts. Make an effort to learn a little about social and how it can help you out — you’ve got a whole year to dive in and explore!
The December ‘09 Social Media Hot Topic List
Dec 4, 2009 by Greg Finn | Social Media Marketing, Social NetworksCan you believe we are already in the last month of 2009? We are here to help make it a good one by sharing the linkbait wealth and giving you all some topics to chew on for this Holiday season. By looking at some of the topics and finding a way to relate to your field, you can harness the momentum of that topic and hopefully get more traction with your content! Here are some topics that are going to be hot this December!
- Best/Worst of the Year and Year in Review
What exactly happened in 2009? What was good? What was bad? These are stories that will always be social media gold this time of year. Just get in and get your content out early as it gets pretty congested in the last few weeks of the year. - Avatar
This movie was big last month and is going to be even bigger this month. With the storyline & graphics, this is much more than an average movie and should be the talk of the social sphere for a long while so get your content created now! - 2009 Economic Outlook
This year has been up and down economically and any breakdowns or insight into 2010 will shape up would perform across the board socially. - College Football
This is the hottest time of the year for college football, especially with some of the BCS drama that could unfold in the coming weeks. - 2010 Predictions
If you have expert knowledge in a specific area crafting your predictions up for the new year is great content and should make noise in social communities. - Holiday Happenings
A good deal of holiday articles have been created already, but interesting holiday lights, shopping experiences or sales information still have a great chance of getting hot! - Sherlock Homes
Robert Downey Jr. is one of the most popular actors going, and this Guy Richtie adaptation of the popular character is sure to be huge this month. What other characters have been brought back? How well does this compare to originals? There are plenty of ideas to parlay this with for sure. - News Years Eve
Parlaying lists and content with New Years celebrations and festivities is a surefire winner year after new year. - The Decade in Review
Not only is it the end of the year, it’s also the end of the 00’s! What were the best items of the decade? The worst? The possibilities are endless!
Have any other hot topics for the month of December? Feel free to share examples below!
…and don’t forget to follow 10e20 on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS feed.
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Why You (Might) Need a Social Media Consultant
Nov 23, 2009 by Rebecca Kelley | Business, Social Media MarketingEarlier this month I came across a post on Brains on Fire called “Why You Don’t Need Social Media Consultants.” The author of the post basically says that social media is common sense and that you shouldn’t need to hire a consultant to help you essentially be yourself on social networks. From the post:
“If you listen REALLY closely to their advice, you start to realize that most of it you already know. Because you have all the basic tools you need: Your humanity. Your ability to communicate with people around you. And your intuition. Because when you think about it, using social media is just a natural extension of yourself. Asking questions. Listening. Responding. And remember, social media apps are tactics. And tactics are tools. Sure, you might need some guidance on how to use that bandsaw, but you picked up a hammer and pretty much got the gist after you hit your thumb a few times.”
I agree with the author…to an extent. I think social media is easy to grasp because I do it for a living and know the ins and outs pretty handily. However, as the post comments point out, you’d be surprised how many people have a problem with social media marketing, if not for themselves then for their business. It’s one thing to create an account on Twitter for personal use and update it with what movies you’re excited to see and what you’ll be cooking for Thanksgiving. It’s another thing to figure out the best approach and highest ROI for a company profile.
The best argument I can make pretty much echoes the one Danny Sullivan made last month when he countered Derek Powazak’s opinion that SEOs are b.s. We’ve all heard the “SEO isn’t rocket science” argument and that “all you need to do is hire a decent web developer.” In Danny’s post (read it if you haven’t yet — very eloquent), he points out various scenarios where people DO need SEO, like a real estate agent who doesn’t know how to rank for her local market, or a man who sells shipping cases and has dupe content/dynamic URL issues. Sure, all of these issues seem like a no-brainer to us, but for many business owners and webmasters, they’re hard issues to tackle without a little bit of guidance.
I think it was Danny who had a great analogy in justifying why you would hire an SEO (or SMM) consultant, which I’ll paraphrase here: “Everyone knows that you need to exercise and eat right to stay healthy and fit, so why would anyone hire a personal trainer or nutritionist?” Sure, everyone knows that in theory, but some people need the support and guidance of an expert to help them get on the right path to wellness. Other folks need a customized diet and regimen that works specifically for them and caters to their individual needs.
Look at that guy needing to hire someone to help him build muscle! What a sucker!
And that’s no different than a business hiring a social media consultant to help them determine where they need to participate and what exactly they want to say to their audience. Maybe they just need to learn the basics in order to get the ball rolling, or maybe they have an in-house social media marketer but signed on for a company-wide training led by you to help everyone else understand the importance of SMM. Or maybe they’re all well-versed with social media but need some guidance on how to roll out a contest or sweepstakes across multiple social networks. Whatever the need, lots of people still require the help of a social media consultant, whether it’s for a few quick questions or to help with a full campaign.
I argue that yeah, lots of people don’t need a social media consultant, just how lots of people don’t need SEO help to get their site ranking well, or they don’t need a personal trainer to get in shape and achieve washboard abs. But others do need help, even if on paper social media may seem like a “no-brainer.” It doesn’t mean that the company is stupid for not being able to do it themselves; if anything, it’s great that a company is able to identify an area where they’re deficient and are hiring people to help get them up to speed. Isn’t that better than complete ignorance of a situation or, worse, mishandling something because you’re too proud or cocky to hire outside help?
We work with a lot of great clients and teams of smart, successful people. Helping them with their social media efforts is extremely rewarding because we get to lend a helping hand to a variety of issues, from basic training to building customers to running advanced campaigns. Some companies and people don’t need our help, and I say good for them, but a lot of companies do need some advice and assistance, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.
My colleagues (well, mostly Chris and Danielle) share a lot of pictures of family, friends and their daily lives, so I figured it’d be fun to incorporate the occasional image into a social media pic tip. 10e20’s first SMPT, courtesy of lil’ V, is “Stay comfortable”:
What do we mean by “comfortable”? Well, if you’re creating a social presence online, whether it’s for yourself, your company or for a client, you want to make sure that all parties involved are comfortable with where you’re participating and what you’re saying. If you’re offended or put off by the comments you see on sites like Digg and Reddit, you should find someone who can stomach the remarks to share your content for you. If you’ve got someone managing your Twitter account and he’s being too colorful with his language, find a more suitable replacement. If someone asks you to share a link on Twitter or Facebook but you object to the content or disagree with it, don’t feel obligated to pass it along anyway just because you’re friends.
Ultimately, everything you post and share reflects back onto you and your business (or your client and their business), so it’s imperative to be comfortable with your messaging and the avenues where you participate. Remember, it’s your reputation. While you can’t control what others say about you, you can control what you put out and where you hang out in the social sphere. Make sure you’re happy with your messaging as well as the sites where you’re spreading these messages. For both you and your clients, a little comfort goes a long way when it comes to social media success!
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