Weekly Social Media Round-Up 3/26/12
POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:02 PM
Marketing to Moms
When Mom goes Viral from Wall Street Journal
“Some people pursue celebrity. Others stumble into it as they are rushing off to bridge club. My 85-year-old mom, Marilyn Hagerty, a newspaper columnist, is in the latter category. When she wrote a review of the new Olive Garden restaurant in Grand Forks, N.D., last week, she wasn't expecting anyone other than her thousands of loyal readers in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota to take note. She didn't worry about how her story would play on Gawker, partly because she had never heard of Gawker…On Thursday, bloggers happened on her review of the Olive Garden, where she found the portions generous and the décor "impressive." Some wrote clever notes suggesting there might be some sort of irony in writing an unironic review about a chain restaurant like Olive Garden. Others, including media and news websites Gawker and Huffington Post, chimed in. Soon news hounds from Minneapolis, New York and even Fargo were calling Mom and demanding interviews. Basically, they wanted to know whether she was for real and how she felt about being mocked all over the Internet.”
Engage Like It's 2009 from MediaPost: Engage Moms
A new day has dawned in digital marketing to moms – or should I say, yet another new day has dawned, with Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest all announcing big format changes in the last 30 days. That of course follows the sudden explosion of Pinterest, the ridiculously fast adoption of tablets and “second screens,” and, of course, the cautious, but now seemingly real, end to this economic downturn.
Marketing to Women
Why women are the Most Powerful Brand Ambassadors in the World from Social Media Today
"...there’s no one a woman trusts more for advice, recommendations and guidance than another woman in her circle.” And when you factor in that women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care, it only stands to reason that the most powerful ambassador a brand can have... is a woman.
Marketing to Gen-Y
Q&A: Gen Y's Youngest Demand Authenticity, Via Text from MediaPost: Marketing Daily
New data from DoSomething.org, a Web site that connects teens, brands, and causes, shows that this text-centric group is even less into email than many would have thunk. Nancy Lublin, DoSomething.org's CEO, explains.
Marketing to Families
Which Brands Are Best-Loved By Families? From MediaPost: Marketing Daily
No wonder Oreo is still going strong after 100 years: It's the single-most-loved brand among American families, according to a comprehensive study of 215 leading children's/family food and beverage brands.
Social Media
How Powerhouse Pinterest Can Boost your Female Audience from Social Media Today
This online pinboard has so captivated its female audience that women are spending approximately 98 minutes every month pinning images of whatever interests them, from wedding bouquets to photos of dogs wearing sunglasses. At first glance a small business might not be immediately struck by how Pinterest can be a valid marketing channel to women, but with a little insight you may find that the site is a natural fit for your company.
How Pinterest hopes to emulate Facebook from SmartBrief
To run a social startup is to exist at "the intersection of the Venn diagram of fear and joy," says Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann. Despite clashes over users who post copyrighted materials, Pinterest is the hottest social media property of the moment, with a user base that increased 52% to 17.8 million this month, despite not yet having an open registration process. Now Silbermann is overseeing a Facebook-style redesign, and has hired Tim Kendall, Facebook's former director of monetization, to help build out the business
Amazon says it may take a role in Pinterest copyright spats from SmartBrief
Amazon has said it might intervene in copyright disputes based on copy clipped to Pinterest, according to a photographers group. The tech giant, which hosts Pinterest on its cloud servers, reportedly has accepted responsibility for processing take-down notices pertaining to Pinterest content. "Amazon could respond to the copyright controversy by kicking Pinterest off its servers," although it probably won't come to that, Jeff Roberts writes.
Brands are plagued by Pinterest impostors from SmartBrief
Impersonators and squatters are using celebrity and brand names to set up shop on Pinterest, causing headaches for the individuals and companies in question. Starbucks, Tiffany and Foursquare have all seen phony Pinterest pages launched in their name, as have Mitt Romney, Michelle Obama and Beyoncé. Pinterest is handling complaints on a case-by-case basis, but hasn't yet offered a way for brands to authenticate their accounts.
What Facebook Interests Mean for Your Business Page from Social Media Today
We know Twitter has Lists, Google+ has Circles, Pinterest has Boards and now Facebook has Interests. Most users should now see “Interests” on the left side of their News Feed: These Interest lists are a way to tidy up a user’s News Feed and isolate a particular topic or grouping. The interesting thing here is that users do not have to Like a page or be Friends with a person to add them to the list. Will we see Likes becoming more and more unimportant to pages?
Employers ask job seekers for Facebook passwords from Wall Street Journal
“When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password. Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.”
Facebook Photos: The Key to a Successful Social Media Campaign from Mashable
While Facebook marketing strategies shift with every new iteration and development from the network, one thing remains the same: The stories that jump out from our Timelines and News Feeds are told with photos. If you doubt the relative importance of photos, take note of the only permanently anchored module on the new Timeline pages. This is clearly a strategic decision in light of our increasingly visually-oriented consumer culture. The role photos play in creating engaging content cannot be understated.
App lets marketers tap into Facebook users' contacts' data from SmartBrief
A Facebook application is hoping to sidestep Facebook's privacy rulebook for developers by having its users explicitly agree to share much of their personal information. Swaylo, an influence-measurement app, requires users to agree to share their profile information -- and that of their friends -- to use its service. Swaylo plans to offer anonymous versions of that data to marketers hoping to identify product-specific influencers, according to CEO Rob Goldman. That could allow brands to access data without annoying anyone along the way, says Taylor Valentine, a marketing executive who was briefed on the project.
Facebook ‘Acquaintance’ List Helps You Sort Friends, Keep Some People Quiet Huffington Post
With an update to its lists tool, Facebook is trying to improve the relevance of users' News Feeds by making it easier for individuals to sort distant friends into an "acquaintance" category. People demoted to acquaintance status will still be listed as a user's Facebook friend, but the social network will show less of their content in the user's the News Feed.
Google+
Developers See Google as Bigger Growth Area Than Facebook from Mashable
According to a new report by mobile platform company Appcelerator and analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC), developers are more interested in using Google products such as Google+, search, Gmail and the Android Market to implement their social strategies.
The survey — which was conducted among 2,173 developers worldwide — found that 39% of participants said the network effects of Google’s initiatives are more important to their social strategies in 2012 than Facebook’s social graph.
Mobile Marketing
Twitter Rolls Out Promoted Tweets for Mobile from Mashable
Twitter on Tuesday announced it was bringing Promoted Tweets to mobile devices.
The move, which Twitter had announced was coming last month, means Promoted Tweets will join Promoted Accounts on users’ mobile devices. Advertisers can also specify whether their Promoted Tweets will run on iOS, Android or other mobile platforms.
3 Ways Marketers Can Reach Facebook’s Mobile Audience from Mashable
Facebook recently revealed big plans for the mobile platform, for instance, that the new Timeline format for brands will be available on mobile. Facebook also revealed that more than 450 million people use Facebook Mobile on a monthly basis, and more importantly, that mobile is outgrowing desktop use on the social network 2:1.
Industry News
The Ongoing Agency Evolution (Society Of Digital Agencies) from CMO.com
Some of the most successful agencies embrace a "beta culture"--where they are always experimenting, prototyping, and placing small bets to learn and build on what's working--both for their client's needs as well as their own bottom line.
Maximizing Blogger Activation by Focusing on the Power Middle from Social Media Today
Working with Social Chorus, Tropicana focused on the Power Middle of relevant bloggers. For most brands, these are the true influencers, as opposed to those with the largest networks or those that may be loyal product users, but have small communities.
Dos Equis Works At Staying 'Most Interesting’ from MediaPost: Social Media and Marketing Daily
Dos Equis’s beloved “Most Interesting Man” (MIM) is busy this spring.
First, building on its “Legendary Lines” Facebook app, where myriad Dos Equis fans daily post their own witty lines about the MIM (and are rewarded by the brand), Dos Equis is now running a “Most Interesting March Tournament.”
Verizon Defends Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Congress Huffington Post
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier, announced plans on December 2 to pay Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc $3.6 billion in spectrum and marketing deals. It reached a similar agreement with Cox Communications just days later.
The cable operators would resell Verizon's mobile service as part of the deals.
Opponents have focused on Verizon's already large spectrum holdings and cross-marketing agreements between Verizon and the cable companies, while some consumer advocates have said the companies should compete against each other, not collaborate.
Digital Advertising
Viacom Bundling TV, Digital Buys from AdWeek
Surround Sound uses Adobe’s data management platform AudienceManager—which stems from the company’s January 2011 acquisition of Demdex—to surface audience segments from Viacom’s proprietary, anonymous data and anonymous third-party data.
Agency News
Banyan Branch Launches Media-Buying Unit from MediaPost: Social Media and Marketing Daily
Banyan Branch, which bills itself as a full-service social media agency, just got a little more full service. It has launched a media buying practice that will focus on paid social media ads to amplify and compliment the work on social media programs that it does for clients.
Resolution Social Launches, Optimizes Social Media Marketing from MediaPost: Social Media and Marketing Daily
Prompted by technology platform partners and clients, as well as a marketplace melding of search and social media, global search agency Resolution Media has launched a social media practice called Resolution Social. According to Resolution Media CEO Alan Osetek, the company has been planning its entry into the social media space for close to a year. “We really started looking at it after a number of the platforms we used to manage search campaigns started integrating Facebook Marketplace buying into their platforms,” said Osetek.
Insight and Studies
Marketers: Loosen Your Social Grip from CMO.com
Most companies try and contain social-customer service, whether by pushing issues to a dedicated Facebook tab or keeping a strictly segregated customer service Twitter account. Indeed, there's a lot to consider when using social media to deliver information, and fears about being intrusive are valid.
Tireless And Talkable Campaigns: Four Decisions Every Brand Can Make To Fuel The Conversation (WOMMA) from CMO.com
The insurance company for which this author is CMO took steps to shift this conversation with customers from one that was centered on a product to one that was centered on people. That strategy produced a multifaceted advertising campaign that gave us the ability to connect with consumers on a local level.
Should Small Businesses Get New Top-Level Domains from Wall Street Journal
“The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is accepting applications for the chance to create and manage new top-level domains—the part of the Web address to the right of the dot, like "com" and "org." People who manage websites will have the chance to acquire addresses at those new top-level domains, also known as TLDs. Many Web veterans argue that the new addresses are a potential boon for small companies. Businesses will be able to get TLDs that better reflect their brand—perhaps ".food" for restaurants or ".realestate" for brokers—and let them do better marketing. There's also the chance that the new TLDs may offer better security protections or even vet the sites that use the domain.
Forecast: Digital Will Outpace Traditional Ad Revenue Growth from AdWeek
Digital advertising growth will offset a slowdown in local ad growth as marketers target consumers online, specifically mobile devices, according to a new BIA/Kelsey forecast.
By 2016, local online, interactive and digital advertising revenues—including mobile—will climb from $21.2 billion in 2011 to $38.5 billion, according to the forecast released today. This growth will significantly outpace overall media revenues, which are expected to grow from $111.5 billion to $112.7 billion during the same time period.
Film Studio Marketing Tricks That Will Help Your Business Huffington Post – interesting article seeing as we’re starting to get things rolling with Mighty Fine!
Every business owner knows of the importance of a 'leave behind.' It is that business card, brochure or gift that will continue to make an impression long after you have left the room. In Hollywood, the Press Mailer has long been a staple of every marketing campaign. It is the film world equivalent of a 'leave behind.' A Press Mailer is a clever package that is sent to the news media. Included with a press release, one may find a T-shirt, a hockey stick or a Burberry bag. You can apply the concepts of a Press Mailer to your business. Create a leave behind that sends a very clear and clever message.
Fun
National Day of Unplugging Wants You to Power Down for 24 Hours from Mashable
The National Day of Unplugging — which is in its third year — runs from sundown Friday, March 23 to sundown, Saturday, March 24. With 66% of people claiming they are addicted to the Internet, the day was designed to get people back to re-connect with family, friends and oneself, away from technology.
Social Media Supports ‘Hunger Games’ More Than ‘Potter,’ Less Than ‘Twilight’ from Mashable
Social media users are more positive about the upcoming Hunger Games movie than they were about the final installment of Harry Potter, but not quite as stoked as they were for the first Twilight: Breaking Dawn film.
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