6 Challenges to Managing a Brand on the Social Web

From Mashable:

As more companies and PR firms attempt to manage their brands using social media, there are just as many opportunities for greatness as there are pitfalls.

To broaden our collective understanding of these challenges, we consulted six social media pros with extensive experience in PR, branding and marketing. Each one has gained respect in their respective spheres of work; and each one of them told us about a unique challenge and how to address it.

From being transparent to being profitable, from the tools you use today to the ones you’ll need tomorrow, here are six specific challenges to managing your brand on the social web. If you’ve got your own insights to share, please let us know about them in the comments.

1. Drew Olanoff: Your Biggest Challenge Is Transparency

You might know Drew Olanoff from his long and ballsy public “feud” with cancer. But he’s also a king among community managers — currently working for textPlus — and an all-around bright young man, especially when it comes to dissecting how social media mechanisms work in real-world business environments.

Olanoff’s advice stressed the need to “be everything to everyone.” He advises not holding back or skimping on your branding and marketing. Internally, you have to let employees know what your external messaging is going to be.

When communicating to the outside world, Olanoff said, “You have to be straight up. If your company fails, you have to be the first to call yourself on it. If you succeed, you have to message that in a way to get people’s attention.” It requires undivided attention to communicate with the social web in an honest, diligent way. “It’s a 24/7 job,” he concluded.

2. Scott Monty: Your Biggest Challenge Is Scale

Scott Monty is Ford’s intrepid and brilliant social media chief. He told us that among all the challenges facing a brand on the social web, “one of the biggest is the issue of scale. If you’re working for a successful brand, there will always be more customers than there are employees, which means there will be many more conversations about your brand than you’ll be able to participate in.”

Monty says that being able to scale your social media conversations and branding requires careful prioritization. “Exercise judgment to determine which discussions are worth spending time on. It could be engaging with a major influencer, publicly handling a customer complaint, or giving fans special access to events, information or other opportunities that would deepen a relationship.”

He also noted that you’ll need to limit how many services and platforms you use. “Decide which social networks are the most relevant to your customer base and help you achieve your broader business communications goals. Choose a small number to begin and expand your footprint based on staffing and trends that are evolving externally.”

Monty noted that half the battle is simply showing up. “It’s not just about running an online promotion or campaign and expecting results. You need to be there consistently and reliably every day, so that over time, a community will grow — and that’s when the magic begins to happen.”

3. Laura Fitton: Your Biggest Challenge Is Your Toolbelt

We love Laura “@Pistachio” Fitton. This woman is a powerhouse: Intelligent, capable, and bursting at the seams with a deeply ingrained knowledge of the apps and software that make the social web both easier and more robust.

For Fitton, the biggest challenge facing brand managers is “figuring out which tools you should use from the hundreds of tools you could use.” As the founder of oneforty, an app store for third-party Twitter applications, she knows better than anyone just how many tools are available and how much they can vary in quality.

“It takes time and effort to find tools that suit your business’ needs, your team’s work style, your data, backup, analytics and tracking requirements,” Fitton said. “The right tools can save a lot of time, money and hassle.”

4. Peter Shankman: Your Biggest Challenge Is Revenue

PR man Peter Shankman is perhaps best known for Help a Reporter Out, his amazingly cool resource for PR folks, subject experts and journalists trying to find sources. He also wrote the book on PR stunts that actually work.

While this sometimes flamboyant, outspoken, skydiving entrepreneur clearly loves making a splash, he advises brand managers to keep and eye on the bottom line. Your biggest challenge, he said, is “convincing the people actually doing the managing that it’s not about cool, but about revenue. If what they’re doing doesn’t increase revenue in some way, the powers that be won’t give a damn how cool it is.”

5. Ayelet Noff: Your Biggest Challenge Is Relationships

On the flip side of that coin, online marketing and branding pro “Blonde 2.0,” a.k.a. Ayelet Noff, reminds us that not every action will or should lead to a quick buck for brands that use the social web.

“Brands have to make the mental switch from seizing every opportunity to sell to their market and rather look for ways to engage with consumers instead,” she said. “If a customer reaches out to you, instead of pitching them, try talking to them, listening to what they have to say and make an effort to develop an ongoing communicative relationship. Such a relationship is far more valuable than any one-time sale.”

6. Brian Solis: Your Biggest Challenge Is the Future

One of the biggest names — and one of the best guys — in PR right now is Brian Solis. He is the principal at über-firm FutureWorks and recently published Engage!, a thorough and fascinating guide to online PR and branding.

When we asked him about the blessings and curses of social media for brand managers, Solis gave us the following forward-looking advice: “The greatest challenge that faces brands in social media today and tomorrow is the culture shift required to not only support engagement in social media but also adapt to become an authority within each network of relevance. In order to do so, however, businesses require a bottom-up conversation workflow that leads and responds, and also a top-down hierarchy that transforms insight into new products and services.” Essentially, businesses need to listen to their communities and embrace new ideas while having the administrative structure and openness to convert those ideas into practicable services.

“This is not about competing for the moment,” Solis said, “this is about competing for relevance and resonance for the long term.”

Marketing to Moms on Twitter? Make Them Laugh

From Social Times:

A new study says that a majority of moms (52%) like to see humor in businesses’ tweets. Further, what moms want most from businesses’ tweets are links to interesting articles/news (71%) followed by links to sales or special offers on their websites (67%) and links to downloadable coupons/discounts (63%).

Analyzing data collected from 533 moms in April 2010, Lucid Marketing and Lisa Finn find 52% of moms use Twitter to keep up with businesses they like or find out about new products. In open-ended responses describing what they like about the businesses they follow, moms say they like tweets with personality and companies that interact with them on Twitter.

“Twitter is often thought of as a broadcast medium for the latest news, but for many people it is a very personal experience,” said Kevin Burke, President of Lucid Marketing.

Retweeting harnesses the power of moms’ word-of-mouth and may be considered a measure of interest in a tweet. Links to articles of interest to moms is the top reason (76%) for moms to retweet something a business has posted. Tweets containing coupon codes or links to online coupons are also popular subjects for retweeting (67%), followed by funny tweets (60%) and links to sales on the companies’ websites (54%).

Twitter versus Facebook

When compared with the results from the authors’ previous study of moms on Facebook, moms appear to be more open to a range of interactions with companies on Twitter. Moms on Facebook use it primarily to keep in touch with friends and family, while moms on Twitter use it to network with a wider array of contacts. While moms are receptive to marketing on both sites, they’re a bit more protective of their personal space on Facebook, and a bit more focused on getting coupons and special offers there. On Twitter they’re looking for good deals, too, but they also want to be kept informed about news and articles that are relevant to their lives.

“Marketers are looking for ways to forge personal, authentic connections with consumers, and I was struck by how much moms appreciate getting a sense that there’s a real person behind the company. Not only are they open to companies showing some personality in tweets; they actively want that,” said Lisa Finn, coauthor of the report.

The full report includes findings on moms’ motivations for using Twitter, how they use the platform in their daily lives and other topics of interest to marketers.

Why We Check In: The Reasons People Use Location-Based Social Networks

From ReadWriteWeb:

Services like Foursquare, Gowalla and others make it easy to post your physical location to the Web - but what makes people want to do that at all?

Fifteen-month-old Foursquare is adding 100,000 new users every week, and Facebook has made it clear that location is a feature it is preparing to offer soon. What's the motivation for users to register where they are in the offline world online? We asked some users of these services and found that they had varied and interesting answers.

Service May Vary

Of course, location services vary widely in nature. Nick Bicanic's startup EchoEcho, for example, is a very discreet service for letting one friend know where you are at a time, emphasizing extreme ease of use. OK Magazine's new celebrity-stalking location app might represent the other end of the spectrum.

Most people who shared their experiences with us were using one of the big social location apps: Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Latitude or BrightKite. Real-world businesses are starting to make interesting use of these services. (Here's one list of 21 different examples.)

The types of places users check into are somewhat diverse, too, though the stereotype of Foursquare users as youthful bar-hoppers is largely confirmed by the numbers. According to a data visualization by the independent group BitsyBot Labs, bar check-ins on the service beat out check-ins at places of education and parks almost all last week. Bars were about equal with the arts and entertainment category. Food and shopping reign supreme, but on most days travel tops drinking, too.

Those numbers tell you something about aggregate activities, but why do individuals participate in this in the first place? It's emotional, and it's different for different people. Will location apps become far more popular once mobile coupons become ubiquitous, and people can save money by using such services? Maybe, but there are clearly other types of incentives already available.

Serendipity and Connection

San Francisco entrepreneur Pat Diven uses location-based social networks for probably the best-known reason, in the types of circumstances you might expect. He's checked in on Foursquare more than 400 times, including at the bloggers' event WordCamp, more than three times at an Apple store, and at more than 20 different pizza places. His Plancast account, where he records not where he is, but where he will be, indicates that he's the kind of guy who likes both big tech conferences, as well as things like camping in Big Sur and beer and music parties in the countryside.

"I use location for chance meetups with people I know in the city," he said last Friday afternoon via a Twitter client on his phone. "It's worked a few times." Diven also raised a common concern, articulated as a sophisticated social network user might: "Hoping for more granular control soon!" He's a good example of an active person who both exposes a lot of their activity publicly and has entirely private accounts on other services.

Diven exposes enough, though, that I was able to see a lot of information about what he likes to do just by looking around online - I didn't speak to him for this article beyond trading a single tweet. He's been doing this for long enough (his Twitter account is more than three years old) that he's sure to have decided that a certain amount of public exposure was worth it to him.

Cambridge-based experimental tech CEO Shava Nerad is on the other side of the country and has a different take on the use of location apps to connect with other people. She says for her, it's simple. "I have friends who work in coffee shops and we like to spontaneously clump to co-work," she said by iPhone early Saturday evening. "The rest doesn't matter to me."

Nerad's public Foursquare history is much tamer than many people's - though she did once win a badge for checking in after 3 a.m. on a weeknight, so apparently it's not all about working.

Portland, Ore., consultant Mike M. says he uses location services to track people more than to meet them. His son works in emergency medical services, and Mr. M keeps an eye on him using Google's service Latitude, "hoping he stays safe." (I called him Mr. M. just because I don't want to see his kid get in trouble.)

Location apps for tracking people around medical matters? That kind of thing makes many people take pause. Some of the same types of tracking technology are being incorporated into medicine and are in many cases causing a substantial reconsideration of patient privacy.

In the consumer world, it's different. Last week I showed my dental hygienist who else was checked in to the dentist's office on Foursquare at the same time I was, and her first reaction was concern about HIPPA (the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which regulates the security and privacy of health-related data). She decided no one could stop the patients themselves from exposing their own location; she just couldn't confirm to me whether or not she actually knew who those people were.

Much more straightforward, in the people-connection department, was my wife's comment left on Facebook last week when she got home and I was gone. I had checked into a coffee shop and pushed the update from Foursquare to Facebook, and she commented "there you are! I was wondering where you went."

Be it for chance or as an exercise in caution, the uses of location services for tracking other people are just beginning to become clear.

For the Win

Many of the popular location-based social networks present themselves as games. They give points to users for going to new or multiple places, then tally the points up against the user's friends. Does that really motivate people to check in? Does it motivate people to go to more or different places?

Apparently, it does. New York City author, social media consultant and mom Tamar Weinberg says, "people disagree with the concept of badges, but I think it's fun to chase after new opportunity & status." Hutch Carpenter, almost Weinberg's exact opposite as an enterprise engineering platform executive and a dad in San Francisco, says he sees it that way too. "I second that," he said of Weinberg's explanation.

That ethos of location-based public achievement may go transgenerational, too. Carpenter checked in on Foursquare at Toy Story 3 this Saturday, said it was his 6-year-old son's first trip to a movie theater, and pushed the update to Twitter.

This gameplay isn't necessarily about narcissism. Virginia-based developer Alex Stone, who says he's made several friends because of Foursquare, says of competing service Gowalla that "[its] quest for items and trip pins has led me to discover some really cool spots in my own small town."

As a Personal History

The thing that surprised me most when I asked people why they use location-based social networks is how many of them say they use it primarily to track their own personal history. It's a lazy diary, people say. I thought, naively, that I was the only one who felt that way.

Some people say they use it to help with their expense tracking on business travels.

Buffalo, NY, Web developer Adrian Roselli told me Friday that he started using BrightKite "so I could post photos in real-time while traveling and associating each with locations on maps." He says he publishes the RSS feed of his check-in history to a map he can view later, to trace his route. That's really geeky, but according to his check-ins, Roselli spent Friday night having dessert with a woman and Saturday morning on a charity bike ride. So apparently, you can push a check-in feed to a map and still maintain some connection to the kinds of things that normal people do. Several people told me they are doing technical things like that with their check-in histories for self-awareness.

When I went to New York with my wife earlier this month, she grew very tired of me pulling out my phone to check in everywhere we went. But once we got home, she admitted it was nice to be able to scroll back through the updates to Facebook I published and remember all the places we had been.

Or, as Palo Alto's Spencer Schoeben told me this weekend, "I love looking back at my check-in history and remembering the awesome things I've done." Schoeben is the 16-year-old founder of one startup company and CEO of another, so he's recording a busy young man's history with those check-ins.

Schoeben has reason to be proud of his accomplishments - and maybe we all do. The one rationale for checking in no one I talked to claimed for themselves - but that one very perceptive person quietly told me was probably more common than not - was showing off. "To non-explicitly brag about your coolness and/or importance, based on where you eat, drink, work, and travel." That makes sense to me. Heck, I'll own it myself, to some degree.

Did I feel a little cool when I checked in at Manhattan's underground Ping-Pong venue and bar called SPiN New York and wrote "Crazy place, ping pong balls flying everywhere, hitting me while I drink beer and blog"? Yeah, I did. Was I aware of what I was doing the next weekend when I checked into two mid-century modern furniture stores in a row? Yes, throw me to the type of piranhas that eat people like me! I was aware of what I was doing.

There are clearly many different reasons people use location-based social networks. Many of us use them for several different reasons ourselves, at different times.

There are, of course, other sides of the story, ranging from the very serious to the somewhat serious. Dan Tynan wrote this weekend at IT World about why you should consider not participating in these kinds of services. Tynan writes a blog called Thank You For Not Sharing, which says it includes "a fair amount of whining." (It's really quite funny.)

Presuming you're fully informed (though that's another matter), then whether these services are for you comes down largely to your circumstances and your attitude. They aren't for everyone. But they are a good experience for some people, as the stories above illustrate. If you've ever wondered why on earth someone would use a service like this - that's why.

The Most Interesting Man in the World Requires Your Help

From Mashable:

This post is brought to you by Dos Equis. For More information on sponsored posts read here.

While returning from a routine circumnavigation of the globe to collect numerous and invaluable artifacts, the Most Interesting Man’s plane experienced some technical difficulties. To preserve his curious collection, he was forced to parachute the artifacts out. While he was of course able to land the plane safely, his priceless possessions are now scattered across the country.

And you can be the person to him find them – with the Most Interesting Cargo Hunt.

Sponsored by Dos Equis, the Cargo Hunt is your chance to help the Most Interesting Man reconstitute his collection. Artifacts can be found online, in daily mini-challenges, or in specially-marked cases of Dos Equis – even hidden in plain sight at places where Dos Equis is sold.

And there’s more reward than just being the target of the Most Interesting Man’s admiration and respect (although 99.9% of the world would consider that more than enough). If you are one of the top Cargo Hunters, you could earn a chance at a position on the ultimate adventure in Mexico – complete with nighttime jungle zip-lining, exploring underground rivers and ancient ruins, and sampling the Mayan Riviera nightlife.

See for yourself, at dosequis.com/cargohunt.

Good luck, and Stay Thirsty, my friends.

50% of Companies Entering Social Media Have No Plan

Recent reports from Digital Brand Expressions (DBE) and R2integrated (R2i) indicate that companies are diving in to social media without a plan. While both reports draw this conclusion, each provides complementary findings that flesh out the statistics in interesting ways.

According to the R2i study, while a majority of marketing professionals and company decision makers view social media as essential to their business, most have not made any money using it. However, the R2i study makes a compelling case for a social media strategy. It compared the 35% of companies that reported increased revenue or profit using social media with the companies that did not report a growth outcome. Those benefiting were:

About twice as likely to have a formal social media strategy

Almost twice as likely to have a dedicated headcount for managing social media

About twice as likely to rate themselves as “proficient” or “expert”

Almost three times as likely to have read a book on social media

“The data we’ve compiled suggests that marketers clearly recognize the need for, and see the potential of, social media, but are still trying to develop models that increase real engagement which then leads to profitability — if that’s a goal for implementing a social strategy,” said Matt Goddard, CEO, R2i. “Despite the presence and popularity of social media, many companies remain relatively unfamiliar with its practices, pundits, and principles.”

Some interesting highlights from the DBE report include:

Of the firms reporting that they have no plan in place for social media, DBE found 88% agree it is important to have such a plan, suggesting perhaps the lack of a cohesive planning process is preventing the company from moving forward to adopt strategies for the social channel.

Of those companies that work from some plan, 94% say that marketing activities are included in the plan and 71% say that the Marketing Department is the group with the primary responsibility for creating and maintaining the firm’s social media presence.

Seventy-one percent of respondents with a plan (71%) indicate they use social media for public relations communications, and 55% say that they use social media for sales-related activities. Only 16% say their human resources team is using social media for recruiting, employee retention, training and development, etc. Just 26% use it for customer service.

Of those companies that don’t have a strategic plan but think it is important to create one, the number one activity rated as important to include in a social media plan is allocating resources for ongoing activities.

Veronica Fielding, President & CEO of Digital Brand Expressions observed, “I can’t say that I’m surprised by the findings of our 2010 research study on corporate social media adoption.”

The DBE report concludes that companies that have held back on adopting social media throughout their organizations would benefit from starting with a cohesive plan that involves all the key groups within the organization. Organizations that are already communicating in the social channel would benefit from making sure all employees are apprised of the firm’s social media communications policies and that department-specific protocols are in place to empower employees to communicate with confidence and to elevate conversations to the proper authorities within their organizations if the need arises.

Taken together, the two reports contribute additional insights on objectives for social media activities, self-assessments of social media marketing capabilities, perceptions of social media as a discipline and actual versus ideal distribution of responsibilities for company social media activities throughout the company.

Hulu Subscription Service Could Launch As Early As Next Week

From Social Times:

Hulu has been talking about plans to launch a paid subscription service for months now, and it looks like the new paid service will finally become a reality. According to inside sources, the site is likely to launch the new service next week. Read more after the jump and get ready to pay for your Hulu content!

CNET reported today that Hulu is now finalizing its plans to launch their new subscription service and “people familiar with the company said a beta test of ‘Hulu Plus’ could launch as early as next week.” However, Hulu Plus may only be available to a select group of people at first. According to CNET an inside source says that the beta service may be available to as few as 10,000 people.

There is currently no information about when paid Hulu service will be released to the general public. However, CNET reports that Hulu’s network owners, including NBC, ABC and Fox, are still working out rights deals for certain network shows so their may be gaps in the Hulu catalog when the beta launches, or the launch date may have to be pushed back. The launch has taken a long time and has seen continual pushbacks, as many network owners are concerned that Hulu Plus could take a bite out of their offline business, including television advertising and DVD sales.

Hulu Plus should be fantastic for the site when it comes to revenue. The site is currently turning a good profit from video advertising on the site and is likely to generate more than $200 million in revenue by the end of 2010. With the addition of a paid service the site will be able to increase their revenue a huge amount, though we won’t know for certain by how much until the new service launches and we see how many people decide to pay for it.

When Hulu Plus eventually launches will you pay for the service? What is your opinion about paying for online video content in general?

Chipotle Wants to Turn Your Junk E-mail into Healthy School Lunches

From Mashable:

It might not involve any free burritos for you and me (sad face), but restaurant chain Chipotle has launched a new campaign designed to turn your junk e-mail into healthier school lunches for kids.

The program –- called “No Junk” –- encourages people to forward their spam to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com. For every 100,000 messages received at that address, Chipotle plans to donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, a non-profit organization that provides resources to schools to help them make their food programs healthier.

For Chipotle, the project aligns with the marketing messages you’ve likely seen if you’ve eaten at one of their restaurants, which emphasize the “naturally raised” animals and organically grown ingredients the company uses in its burritos.

Of course, all of that doesn’t necessarily mean your burrito is “healthy” in a caloric sense. A burrito with steak, rice, beans, cheese and sour cream along with a side of chips puts up some pretty massive numbers in the “nutrition facts” department, as you can see in this estimate:

Nonetheless, there is a clear connection between Chipotle’s message and that of The Lunch Box, and the tie-in to “junk e-mail” — which makes up about 90 percent of all e-mail sent according to Symantec — is a clever one that should resonate with people.

HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan

From Mashable:


Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and the Social Media Director for Smashyn.com.

Many companies, startups and well established businesses are frustrated because their social media presence isn’t larger or yet benefiting their bottom line. One of the big issues is that most companies start using social media thinking it’s the holy grail. It takes time, effort, and resources before this new media will have an impact on you brand.

Here are a few tips businesses should consider.

1. Are You Using the Right Platform?

There are many social media platforms to consider when designing an online campaign. Twitter, Facebook, blogs and YouTube are some of the biggest and most important. While all the social sites should be examined, blindly signing up for accounts can be a mistake. To start, educate yourself on each platform and how they can enhance your brand.

When launching a Facebook presence, consider the various platforms within this medium; Pages, Groups and now Communities. Each have different purposes, tools and limitations. Do some research before making the commitment.

Twitter is a quick and easy way for brands to share updates and ideas with their consumers, and it’s also a good place to watch trends and listen to what your demographic is excited about. Because Twitter is always growing and evolving, it’s important to keep apprised of the latest changes.

Blogging can be a powerful tool for any brand. Unlike static websites, daily blog posts improve search engine optimization and provide a constant source of up-to-date information for consumers. Whether you use Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr, your customers will enjoy reading about your company so long as you make it interesting and current.

Video might seem intimidating, but it’s an extraordinarily powerful social medium. YouTube is one of the largest sources of search traffic, but most companies fail to include it in their social media plan. Video sites essentially operate as a brand’s personal channel and can be viewed by millions.

World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver knows the importance of utilizing video platforms. “YouTube is a great way to get Jamie’s videos out to a wider audience – in some months we have twice as many video views on YouTube as on Jamie’s site,” said Monisha Saldanha, head of online, Jamie Oliver Ltd.

Each social platform has its own “job,” and they can all be used simultaneously to boost success. “Jamie has pages on Facebook, Bebo (), MySpace (), Twitter, and YouTube — people tend to use their own favorite social networking sites, so it’s a good idea to be on all the major ones,” said Saldanha.

2. Provide Messages Your Audience Wants

Consider your brand’s demographic, who they are, and what information they want to receive. In traditional marketing there is a tendency to manipulate the consumer directly, while in social media it’s the audience who truly dictates the message. Successful social media marketing begins and ends with respect to your audience. Understanding what your audience wants to hear is key.

“I try to think of our feed from the point of view of what a fan and a viewer of the network would want, instead of what we want to tell them. If I were a viewer I’d want behind-the-scenes info, I’d want to talk to a real person, and I’d want to have some fun, ” said Craig Engler, the general manager and senior vice president SyFy Digital.

Discounts and giveaways can be useful but shouldn’t be all you do. Consider providing interesting facts on topics that coincide with your brand.

“I explain how the TV business works so viewers understand why things happen, why do we put that show Fridays at 10 p.m. or why didn’t we pick up that canceled show from another network,” said Engler.

3. Listen To Your Audience

Listening to consumers is as important as sharing messages with them. Dunkin’ Donuts makes this a priority on their Facebook Page:

“Because we have over 1.4 million fans on Facebook, we keep several sets of eyes on our Page throughout the day. We make sure our fans are clear on common confusions by selecting important questions posted to our Facebook Page to answer. We can’t respond to everything, but by hand picking those that are representative of common questions we show we’re there, listening and engaging with our fans,” said Ben Smith, their interactive marketing manager.

Consider that there are different ways for brands to monitor what people are saying in each platform.

For Twitter, try TweetDeck which allows multiple columns to be viewed simultaneously. Creating a search column for your brand is easy. Simply create a column for @mentions. This will make it easier to keep track of chatter revolving around your brand.

Facebook platforms can be monitored by watching the wall to see what people are posting, and e-mail notifications can be customized for important alerts when new messages are posted.

YouTube and blogs should also be watched closely for comments and questions. Like Facebook, there are settings that, when enabled, will create e-mail alerts when there is a new comment or connection.

4. Give Your Supporters a Voice

Consumers help define your brand and they want to feel valued. Make sure to ask questions and listen to opinions. When appropriate, implement and share your community’s ideas. This can result in not only great content but even stronger brand loyalty. Popular brands do this regularly and with much success.

Jamie Oliver’s online guru Saldanha said, “Jamie is really passionate about his work and thrives off energy and interaction. It’s very important for him to get first hand feedback from people. The recent Food Revolution in the U.S. is a perfect example where the community page on Facebook became a great place for people to share their own experiences with food and cooking.”

5. Be Fun

It doesn’t matter what business you’re in — people want to be entertained. Find fun and fresh ways to keep your audience engaged. Dunkin’ Donuts does this well through Facebook by creating fun and sharable content. For example, Maurice is a cartoon espresso bean who lives on the brand’s Facebook Page.

“Maurice was created to raise awareness about our espresso and latte category. It was done in a way that is fun and light hearted but that drives the emotional connection. Instead of straight product talk, make it fun,” Smith said.

And If you take a quick look around the social sites, you will see fun marketing is happening everywhere. On any given day you can see Syfy using Twitter in a fun and brand appropriate way. Engler said that sharing behind-the-scenes pictures of their shows or when an actor visits the office is always popular.

Brands put a lot of time and consideration into their offline media campaigns and this should also be done with online media. It’s important to have the right people with authority and creativity running these platforms to assure the voice of your brand isn’t off mark. Following the lead of brands who use social media effectively is a good start to informing yourself. If you’re using social media platforms effectively it won’t be long before you start seeing results.

“The payoff is that we have tens of thousands of viewers talking directly to us in an unfiltered way, which makes it a genuine conversation but on a tremendous scale. The byproduct of the conversation is that people will go out there and be ambassadors for our shows and our network, which is fantastic, but it’s never been the end goal. The goal for me is always the conversation itself, a real back and forth with viewers that was just never possible before,” said Engler.

Top Brands on Facebook

Here's a ranking of the top brands as measured by the size and growth factor of brand pages:

Fan Page List

5 Consumer Electronics Companies That Are Innovating with Social Networks

From Social Times:

Is there any industry that isn’t jumping on the social media bandwagon? We’ve seen politicians using Twitter, Facebook and other social networks with mixed success, business schools that are producing social media competent graduates, and a recent business-to-business use of Facebook ads. So it’s really no wonder that tech companies – with their tech savvy workforce – are embracing social media in droves. Here is a list of 5 consumer electronics companies that are using existing social networks (or creating their own) to leverage the power of the social web.

Best Buy – twelpforce

Best Buy has created a social space for their employees to tweet and blog customer support. The #twelpforce tag is added to any employee’s tweet that is directed towards a customer’s IT question, and all tagged tweets are aggregated on their Best Buy Connect website. This is meant as a central location for employees and customers to search and find answers to common and not-so-common problems.

HP – 48Upper

HP’s latest venture is 48Upper: “the first Social Collaborative IT Management solution to fully embrace social networking and the power of the community directly within the processes that run IT.” It connects IT professionals to one another and enables them to solve problems efficiently using the power of online collaboration. Some of the tools included in this multi-media heavy network are video conferencing, virtual meeting rooms, voice chats and unified messaging.

Philips – Connect Us

Philips has opted to go the internal social network route with Connect Us. Using Socialcast, Philips created Connect Us as the “employee community” in April, and has seen success in its internal virality through word of mouth and an intense educational campaign by Philips higher-ups. The network itself emphasizes collaboration and security, and has seen nearly 2,000% growth in employee adoption from April to mid-June.

Panasonic – Facebook, Twitter

More of a traditionalist company when it comes to social media, Panasonic uses Facebook and Twitter to connect with its customers and employees. From the looks of things, the wall posts on the Facebook page and the company’s tweets are similar, if not the same. There isn’t too much diversity here. However, Panasonic has created a page just for fans of the Lumix camera recently – which, apparently, is a popular enough camera to warrant one.

Epson – Facebook, Twitter

Epson’s social media campaign uses the Facebook/Twitter staples that most large brands have set up lately, and goes further with help from Walt & Company. They created video campaigns on DailyMotion, Flickr, MegaVideo and Youtube featuring how-tos designed to get customers excited about the Epson brand. This multi-media and multi-network approach is robust, and shows that the company is trying to engage with its online customers.

So which one of these approaches do you think is best? Internal social networks, like HP and Philips? Or ones focused primarily on customer support like Best Buy? Or maybe it’s better to use the networks that are already in place, like Epson and Philips?

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation

From Mashable:

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Social media is the top emerging channel for lead generation among technology marketing professionals surveyed in May 2010, according to the annual Unisfair marketing survey. Furthermore, 66% of respondents said lead generation was their top priority for 2010, with only 17% ranking brand awareness and 16% ranking customer retention as top concerns. The survey illustrated that marketers are beginning to rely on social media as a steady source of new customers.

In another study, 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, strengthening the argument that social media is one of the most important emerging channels for lead generation.

Being that social media is a great place to attract new customers, we put together a quick guide on how to use social media for lead generation.

Continuously Point Users to Your Content

The first step to engaging a community of potential customers is sharing content that showcases your expertise. A simple social media update usually isn’t enough to convey a full analysis on a topic. Include links with your updates that expand on key ideas. Keep in mind that your goal is to create value for your followers. Learn what your fans respond to and what they don’t, and then adjust your updates based on that information.

Sarah Chong, co-founder and editor of Penn Olson, a marketing blog and consultancy, told me that their company shares 100% of the links that are generated on their blog. If they write a blog post, you can bet that it will be shared via Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz and various social bookmarking sites.

Chong exclaimed, “Good content ought to be shared!” She continued, “Most readers definitely wouldn’t know Penn Olson without the help of social media. We built everything by getting involved in online communities.” In the end, 35% of Penn Olson’s web traffic is generated through social media. This wouldn’t be possible without their incessant dedication to sharing valuable content with their followers.

Promote Your Social Presence with Social Links

Once you’ve set up your social media presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Yelp, don’t forget the power of promotion. Some people have the misconception that if you create pages across all of the social sites, they’ll miraculously gain millions of followers overnight, all by themselves. In reality, just like everything else in life, gaining a following via social media takes time and effort.

If you haven’t done so already, start promoting your social media presence. Having a Twitter or Facebook icon prominently displayed on your site gives visitors a recognizable channel for connecting with you. Print links to your social profiles on business cards, flyers and letterhead. Most importantly, don’t forget to include links to your social profiles on your website or blog. Try using a service like Iconfinder to find free social media icons that best fit your website.

Take a look at Offbeat Bride or Offbeat Mama for examples of sites that have implemented social media links well. Ariel Meadow Stallings, publisher of Offbeat Bride and Offbeat Mama, shared her thoughts on designing a place for social media icons to live. She explained, “I was inspired by the social media fly-out on treehugger.com. It felt like an elegant but effective solution for getting my social media links out of the sidebar. I want them prominent, but not irritating.” Stallings seems to have found the solution to providing valuable links for readers to stay connected with her content, without coming off as a gimmick.

Stallings’ diligence in finding fitting social media links has paid off. One-third of her site traffic comes from StumbleUpon and Facebook combined. She credits social media as a critical factor in the growth of both Offbeat Bride and its sister site, Offbeat Mama.

Monitor Conversations about Your Brand and Competitors

In order for a conversation to occur, brands must speak and listen. Traditional marketing models are all about speaking. When a brand puts an ad in a newspaper, on a building or in a subway train, they are broadcasting their message, but there isn’t generally a direct method for responding. Social media is changing the ways brands approach marketing. Instead of broadcasting messages, brands are starting conversations and engaging individuals.

In an e-mail interview, Sara C. Lopez, Community Manager for 8th Continent soy milk, explained the importance of monitoring conversations and buzz on various social platforms:

“There are actually two of us constantly monitoring Twitter, Facebook and Google alerts. The other community manager and I use several Twitter clients, including Hootsuite and TweetDeck. But regardless of client, we keep columns that search mentions of “@8thcontinentsoy”, “8th Continent”, “Soy Milk”, “8thcontinent”, and competitors.

We get several benefits from Twitter. We use it to monitor consumer perception, identify opportunities for one-on-one interaction, crowd source to learn how people are using our product, drive traffic to other channels we have, and connect with influencers who can spread word of mouth.”

Lopez demonstrated the value of monitoring conversations and responding to leads. In one promotion, 8th Continent monitored mentions of Silk brand soy milk, one of their competitors, and offered trial coupons to users. Lopez explained their success, “One clear example of how it’s worked for [8th Continent] is that with coupons distributed via social media, we’ve seen a 39% redemption rate, versus the 0.7% redemption of hard copy coupons. During coupon promotions we saw huge spikes in our fan base and a lot of pass along.”

One tweeter, Weily Lang, received a coupon after tweeting about her bad experience with Silk chocolate soy milk. Lopez interjected with a coupon, which Lang redeemed that week. This example is just one success story of trials generated by 8th Continent via social media.

Once you begin listening to what consumers are saying about your brand, products and competitors, you’ll have a better sense of which platforms to monitor for certain types of feedback. To get started, make sure you’re monitoring comments that your fans, followers or subscribers leave on your social profiles. This is the first step to mastering your listening skill.

As a secondary step, monitor buzz elsewhere. Use Twitter advanced search (or Twitter clients such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck or CoTweet) to monitor key terms around your business, including your brand names, trademarks, product types and competitors. Use Google Alerts to keep up with the latest news about your company. And search mentions of your brand in blogs via Google Blog Search or Technorati.

After trying out some of these methods, you’ll begin to get a feel for your audience and their interests. Use this information to inform decisions, and don’t forget to reach out to users that have questions or feedback. Respond with more information, links, coupons, follow-up questions, or whatever is needed.

Respond to Customer Questions and Feedback

You can listen all day, but if you don’t act on your learnings, you will lose an opportunity to generate a meaningful conversation with a consumer that may be considering trying out your brand. Take action when you come across a useful comment, and make sure you clear up any customer questions when they arise.

Yelp recently interviewed Jeffrey Diamond, owner of Farmstead Cheeses and Wine on when and how to respond to a customer review on a Yelp business page. Diamond responded:

“I try to respond to every review, whether positive or negative. And if there’s something I can learn from it, then I will engage in a dialogue with the customer. And in fact, every time I’ve engaged in a dialogue with a negative review customer, with one or two notable exceptions, the review has gone from a two- or three-star review up to a five-star review.”

Customer reviews on Yelp are a great example of useful feedback from paying customers. Not only are they interested in your product, but they’ve already tested it out. Their review is, therefore, very meaningful feedback on the quality of your product and service.

Try to set aside at least a few hours a week to respond to questions and feedback that flow in via social media. When you respond, focus on delivering a valuable answer to the person or community. Try to always refer the user back to resources on your site, where they may consider using your product again. Depending on the question, useful links may include a how-to video, blog post, product description or microsite.

Use Your Offline Skills

The keyword in social media is “social”. People were social long before the Internet and social media. Take the offline skills that you’ve developed over time and put them to use online. Meet people, communicate and build relationships. Develop and foster complex relationships. As always, make sure that customers are aware of your product, understand its benefits, and have a way to purchase. Throughout your conversations with consumers, provide insightful resources and answer any questions that arise.

Lastly, treat your social media presence in the same way you treat your other customer service initiatives. Be genuine, track conversations and respond to inquiries promptly and thoroughly. The better your customer service is via social media, the more you’ll generate site traffic and leads.

Mayors of Sports Authority Get $10 Cash Cards on Foursquare

From Mashable:

Hey sports aficionados, how does saving $10 at Sports Authority stores nationwide sound? Probably a little too good to be true, but for mayors of the sporting goods retail chain on Foursquare, this discount is a reality.

On Monday, Sports Authority kicked off its Foursquare mayor special. The promotion rewards mayors at its 463 retail venues with $10 Cash Cards. Cash Cards work similar to cash, so you can use them instantly at the time of purchase, though you won’t get cash back if your purchase is under $10.

The retailer’s deal one-ups the nationwide Starbucks promotion in terms of dollar value, and should prove to be a welcome reward for those with a predilection to shop for sports-related items.

In the bigger scheme of things, Sports Authority’s mayor special serves to reaffirm the potential value of big brands providing customers with digital discounts for real-world behavior via the location-sharing application. With Starbucks, Domino’s UK and Sports Authority all on board, the notion of U.S.-wide Foursquare deals appears to be catching on.

We hear from Foursquare’s Tristan Walker that there’s more big brand deals to come; California Pizza Kitchen, for instance, recently started offering its own special at 65 southern California locations. Walker explains the emerging trend is a sales-driven experience that rewards both consumer and retailer. He says: “We’ve shown how the intensely competitive nature of mayorships can inspire changes in consumer behavior. When retailers layer monetary rewards as a signal to encourage this repeat behavior from mayors and track/measure ROI at the point of sale, things get really interesting.”

Inside Gatorade’s Social Media Command Center

From Mashable:

In the realm of marketing, Gatorade is probably best known for splashy commercials featuring some of the world’s most famous athletes. However, a new effort behind the scenes of the PepsiCo-owned sports drink maker is putting social media quite literally at the center of the way Gatorade approaches marketing.

The company recently created the Gatorade Mission Control Center inside of its Chicago headquarters, a room that sits in the middle of the marketing department and could best be thought of as a war room for monitoring the brand in real-time across social media.

Mission Control

The room features six big monitors with five seats for Gatorade’s marketing team to track a number of data visualizations and dashboards –- also available on to employees on their desktops — that the company has custom built with partners including Radian6 and IBM. Below are a few of the visualizations that we got to check out in an interview last week:


This monitor is a visualization of tweets that are relevant to Gatorade; the company is tracking terms relating to its brand, including competitors, as well as its athletes and sports nutrition-related topics.


This monitor measures blog conversations across a variety of topics and shows how hot those conversations are across the blogosphere. The company also runs detailed sentiment analysis around key topics and product and campaign launches.

This video from Gatorade shows all of the different types of data being monitored from Mission Control.

Mission Control in Action

While certainly impressive visually, the first question that came to mind when being introduced to Gatorade Mission Control was how it’s actually being used on a day-to-day basis, and if its lead to product and marketing changes at the company that might not have happened without it.

Gatorade’s Sr. Marketing Director, Consumer & Shopper Engagement Carla Hassan offered a few examples, starting with the company’s monitoring of its “Gatorade has evolved” campaign. The commercials featured a song by rap artist David Banner, which, Mission Control quickly saw was being heavily discussed in social media. Within 24 hours, they had worked with Banner to put out a full-length version of the song and distribute it to Gatorade followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.

On a day-to-day basis, Gatorade’s tools are also being used for more conventional marketing tactics –- like optimizing landing pages and making sure followers are being sent to the top performing pages. As an example, the company says it’s been able to increase engagement with its product education (mostly video) by 250% and reduce its exit rate from 25% to 9%.

While certainly impressive visually, the first question that came to mind when being introduced to Gatorade Mission Control was how it’s actually being used on a day-to-day basis, and if its lead to product and marketing changes at the company that might not have happened without it.

Gatorade’s Sr. Marketing Director, Consumer & Shopper Engagement Carla Hassan offered a few examples, starting with the company’s monitoring of its “Gatorade has evolved” campaign. The commercials featured a song by rap artist David Banner, which, Mission Control quickly saw was being heavily discussed in social media. Within 24 hours, they had worked with Banner to put out a full-length version of the song and distribute it to Gatorade followers and fans on Twitter and Facebook, respectively.

On a day-to-day basis, Gatorade’s tools are also being used for more conventional marketing tactics –- like optimizing landing pages and making sure followers are being sent to the top performing pages. As an example, the company says it’s been able to increase engagement with its product education (mostly video) by 250% and reduce its exit rate from 25% to 9%.

The Future

The goal of the project, says Hassan, is to “take the largest sports brand in the world and turn it into largest participatory brand in the world.” To that end, the company’s not only monitoring its brand on social media, but giving its fans increased access to its athletes and scientists.

During the Super Bowl, for example, Gatorade let fans interact with a number of its NFL stars through Ustream as they tested out the new Gatorade G Series Pro. More recently, Hassan told me the company has been doing more regular small-scale live events, such as having a sports nutritionist answer questions from fans through Ustream and Facebook.

If that strategy is successful, expect to see the Mission Control approach applied to other businesses within PepsiCo says Bonin Bough, director of global social media at the company. “We believe what we’re building here is an example of a sandbox of tools and processes we can use across the organization,” he said.

Twitter Considers Selling Trending Topics as Ad Space

From Mashable:

Twitter is exploring a new addition to its Promoted Tweets ad platform. It’s called Promoted Trends, a feature that would allow advertisers to insert their own terms into Twitter’s trending topics.

All Things D writes that Twitter is already discussing Promoted Trends with advertisers, but only “in vague terms, and has yet to test it out.”

If the blog’s sources are correct, Twitter plans to price Promoted Trends at “tens of thousands of dollars” for exclusive placement each day.

It appears that Promoted Trends, if implemented, would allow a single advertiser to create a term to be featured alongside other trending topics on Twitter for a specified duration. If a user clicks on the trending ad, he would be directed to a search results page with the advertiser’s promoted tweet listed at the top.

There’s still a lot of work Twitter needs to do to make trending topics advertiser-friendly. Although the company has recently modified its trending topics algorithm, spam is still a major problem — one that happens to be adversely affecting its World Cup tracking site. Still, the idea makes sense, and if Twitter follows through we’re likely to see a few eager advertisers step forward to claim their places within trending topics.

The Next Food Network Star Could Come From YouTube

From Mashable:

The new trend in cable and network television is to turn to social media sites to recruit talent for reality series. Case in point, The Food Network has put out a challenge asking YouTubers to submit video entries to be considered for The Next Food Network Star.

Entries will be accepted through July 16, and though the prize for the winning entry isn’t a guaranteed spot on the show, it’s still pretty decent: a one-on-one audition in New York City with Food Network executives.

If you’re unfamiliar with the reality series, this show challenges contestants to live in a house together and compete in food-creating challenges in the hopes of securing their own series on the Food Network. Episodes are usually filled with drama, tears and celebrity chef guests.

Obviously, YouTubers auditioning will want to show a ton of personality mixed with culinary prowess should they wish to be considered for the actual show audition.

The YouTube challenge reminds us of the Glee casting call on MySpace and the America’s Got Talent YouTube auditions, but there’s nothing wrong with emulating a strategy that works.

YouTube, HP and Guggenheim: Send Us Your Most Creative Video

From Mashable:

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Hewlett-Packard and YouTube today launched YouTube Play, an international contest to find the world’s most creative new video.

YouTube Play will accept user submissions from anywhere in the world until the deadline, July 31, 2010, 12:00 p.m PST. A jury of experts will then select up to 20 videos, which will be simultaneously presented on October 21, 2010 in Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and throughout the Guggenheim network of museums in Venice, Bilbao and Berlin. The 200 videos that make it through the first round of screening will be available on the YouTube Play channel.

The main criterion for winning the contest is creativity. According to YouTube, “submissions may include any form of creative video, including art, animation, motion graphics, narrative and non-narrative work, or entirely new art forms. YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. Participants can be art students or amateur video makers as well as creative professionals.”

Check out a short promo video below, and an introduction to the project by the managing director of Google Creative Lab Andy Berndt and Guggenheim’s deputy director and chief curator Nancy Spector.

http://www.youtube.com/play

Then & Now: How Fans Changed The Face Of LEGO’s Marketing Strategy

From Social Times:

LEGO has been a household name for over seventy years, but it has taken the company more than half a century to learn that fans can be a brand’s best marketing tool. In the earlier part of this decade, LEGO began looking beyond their target customer base of kids and learned that their adult fan base was one of the best marketing tools they could ever ask for. Read on to learn how LEGO has used their die hard fans to spread LEGO love and shift their marketing strategy in social media and beyond.

The History

At the Word of Mouth Supergenius conference in December 2009 Jake McKee, a former LEGO “Community Person” who now works at Ant’s Eye View, talked about the history of LEGO and their attitude towards their customers. Watch the video of McKee’s lecture below.

For decades the toy company turned a blind eye to their customers and fans, living by the credo “We don’t accept unsolicited ideas.” They did not talk to their customers, and they did not accept ideas for new products, comments or suggestions. Rather, they lived in their own little world, creating products based on what they believed consumers wanted.

This mentality was fine, until the Christmas season of 1999/2000 rolled around and the company’s largest sellers—Walmart, Target and Toys R Us—told the company that they didn’t know their customers. Sure, LEGO has historically been a kids’ toy. However, more and more adult fans were rallying around LEGO and the company was not paying attention to this market at all.

Adult LEGO fans were starting their own discussion groups online, creating their own online marketplaces to buy and sell LEGO, sharing pictures of LEGO creations and even getting coverage on the news. However, LEGO was stubborn– they stuck to their guns, claiming that LEGO is for kids. They wrote these adult fans off as “weird” and didn’t realize the marketing potential that was looking them right in the face.

It took awhile, but eventually LEGO began paying attention to these fans and it was one of the best things that could have possibly happened for their business. LEGO began reaching out to fans through social media as well as through LEGO brand communities.

Tormod Askildsen, Head of Community Development at LEGO, talks about the company’s realization that LEGO could benefit from their fans in an interview with Ericsson:

“At first, we didn’t really like it and we were a bit concerned about the various information that started to appear on different Internet pages. This was mainly because we weren’t used to it and didn’t know how to deal with it. But then we realized that we could actually benefit from it.

“It is important for us to build personal relationships with LEGO fans and to have a dialog with those who are really interested in our products. We obviously don’t have big social platforms with millions of users like Facebook or LinkedIn, but our LEGO brand communities are definitely an important compliment to our research and development programs.”

The LEGO Ambassador Program

The first way that LEGO turned to fans to help strengthen the company and their product was through the LEGO Ambassador Program. The Ambassador program is made up of forty LEGO fans, aged 19 to 65, from around the world. LEGO has built personal relationships with these fans and turn to them for ideas and advice.

Askildsen says, “People from my team communicate with this group more or less on a daily basis, discussing different themes, ideas or to brainstorm. The ambassadors report on our discussions on blogs, create picture galleries and have further discussions with their local LEGO group members.”

With the Ambassador Program, LEGO has opened up a channel for conversation with its biggest fans and that is one of the key things that every brand should be doing. If you don’t open up the conversation then you are missing out on helpful suggestions from the people that matter most—your customers. Social media is one of the best vehicles for opening a channel of communication between you and your customers.

The LEGO Click Community and Beyond

Earlier this year, LEGO made its official foray into the world of social media with LEGO Click. LEGO Click is a collaborative website that encourages fans, artists, designers and inventors to share their own LEGO creations. The site encourages users to share content, including photos and videos created with LEGO, with friends.

LEGO Click visitors can also read recent Tweets about LEGO, or download the free LEGO Photo iPhone application that transforms your photos into LEGO creations. Users can also login to the site using their Twitter account and fly a Mini LEGO man around the screen.

The LEGO Click community opens new channels for fans and is an innovative way to get people talking about LEGO, trying out new things and creating viral content such as videos and pictures that will spread the word about LEGO. The great thing about fan-created content is that it’s free advertising for the company!

The Outcome

According to Jake McKee of Ant’s Eye View, LEGO has never seen such tremendous success as they have in the past few years, since they began taking advantage of their most valuable resource—their fans. Not only have they received more coverage on the Internet, through the proliferation of cool LEGO pictures and fan-made viral videos, but have also turned feedback into new products. They have begun selling more products geared towards adults, such as a $500 5,000 piece Star Wars LEGO set, complete with a cool game to promote it, and an option for fans to design and purchase their own original sets. LEGO is booming as fans, kids and adults alike, are embracing the toy company’s new outlook, and as LEGO continues to embrace their fans from all ages and walks of life.

The Moral

LEGO’s story makes the necessity of opening a conversation with your customers undeniable. When you have a solid fan base in place you are only hurting yourself by not tapping into it. Open channels of communication with your biggest fans via social networks like Facebook and Twitter, ask your customers for feedback, listen to what they have to say and plan your future products and campaigns accordingly. Only then can you truly maximize your brand’s potential (and your revenue). How has your company or brand used social media to communicate with your consumers? Has LEGO’s story inspired you to do more?

Starbucks Used Social Media to Get One Million to Stores in One Day

From Mashable:

Starbucks’ Vice President of Brand, Content and Online, Chris Bruzzo, is on stage at the Mashable Media Summit today and he just revealed that last year’s Free Pastry Day was a whopping success, driving more than one million people to stores.

As we noticed, activity on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook became electric on the day of the event as the free pastry news spread in digital form. Bruzzo’s credits fans with the idea to use social media to drive new business, and his remarks confirm that the swell of social media activity drove customers to visit Starbucks stores in droves.

Bruzzo also speaks to the success of the company’s Tax Day green initiative to get customers to bring in their own tumblers in exchange for free coffee, which — like Free Pastry Day — was primarily promoted online via their Facebook Page. Also, the company’s MyStarbucks Idea has generated more than 80,000 ideas and Bruzzo credits Product Manager Brad Nelson for helping them tap into the power of Twitter.

Right now there’s no big brand better embracing social media than Starbucks. The coffee retailer has managed to dominate on Facebook, made news as the first company to offer a nationwide Foursquare deal, and was selected to try out Twitter’s Promoted Tweets ad platform before other advertisers will have the chance.

Uttermost kicks off social media campaign with iPad giveaway

From Home Accents Today:

Uttermost is marking its entry into social media with a "New Product Ideas" contest that launched today and will run through July 9, 2010, when the winners of three iPads will be announced.

The contest, conducted on Uttermost's Facebook page, invites retailers and interior designers to suggest new ideas for inclusion within the company's existing product categories: mirrors, wall decor, decorative accessories, botanicals, clocks, lamps, lighting fixtures and accent furniture.

In addition to providing a description of their product idea, entrants can choose to illustrate it by uploading a sketch or photograph of their idea or inspiration. There is no limit to the number of entries a person may submit.CEO Mac Cooper said Uttermost's social media strategy is ultimately about engaging customers in more two-way communication. "

Our goal is to develop a forum for sharing ideas, receiving feedback, and getting to know our customers better. Social media, especially Facebook, is a great channel for this." The contest can be accessed on Uttermost's Facebook page by clicking on the "Enter to Win" tab at http://facebook.com/UttermostCo.

Cooper is also encouraging Uttermost friends and fans to drop a note on the company's Facebook wall, with a link to their fan pages and/or websites, so that they can be added to Uttermost's "favorites" for future news and updates. "Clear communication and understanding of our customers is critical to great service," he added.

How Retailers Are Using Social Media to Promote, Sell, and Engage

From Sparxoo:

If you haven’t heard, the buzz word these days is “Foursquare.” A small, New York tech start-up that is on its way to becoming the next biggest thing in social media. Foursquare is a location-based service that allows users to “check in” at places they frequent in their daily lives. By encouraging users to do this simple task, Foursquare is offering a huge draw to local retailers, and helping to bring back the long-outdated promotion tool known as the loyalty program. Not long ago considered an ancient and cliche business tactic, the loyalty program is having a rebirth by way of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and newcomer Foursquare.

Retailers like Tasti D-Lite are pairing their traditional loyalty card programs with a social media initiative that rewards visitors who Tweet about the brand. Also, when customers swipe their loyalty cards at the register, a branded Tweet goes out to their Twitterverse, creating a promotional win-win for the frozen yogurt company. Starbucks has a similar program that is being implemented with Foursquare. Each time a customer “checks in” at their local Starbucks, they earn points towards free drinks, food, and other rewards. Sounds cute, right? Or scary, for those of us who don’t really like to share.

There are plenty of other social media methods retailers are using to promote, sell, and engage their more traditional customers (read: privacy paranoids). The most interesting online retail sites these days provide a shopping experience that includes blogs, contest promotions, and links that immerse the shopper in the brand’s culture and introduce them to new products that may or may not be related to the primary brand. Although blogs aren’t technically a form of social media, they do elicit users to comment and share. And if they like what they’re reading, they’ll most likely visit the site again for updates.

Making shoppers feel special and creating online communities are both major aspects of social media marketing. As a lifestyle brand, a retailer like Urban Outfitters use their Facebook page and Tweets to not only keep their customers in the know about discounts and in-store events, but to promote community-oriented things like job opportunities, sharing behind-the-scenes secrets, and divulging music employees are currently listening to. Looking to be a indie-princess or a hipster that just walked out of Brooklyn? Fan the Urban Outfitters page and you’ll get all the insider info you need.

So what makes retail and social media a perfect pair? A few things: Where traditional methods of “push” promotion were seen as invasive–here’s looking at you spam email, social media campaigns engage customers through their own voluntary participation. Whether it’s thousands of users becoming Facebook fans of their favorite brand, or following their favorite stores on Twitter to catch the latest deals, social media is what it is: social. Buyers are involved because they want to be a part of whatever the retailer has to offer. And in this age of TiVo, spam filters, and pop-up ad blockers, this type of voluntary participation is what makes social media marketing invaluable. Instead of being x-ed out and deleted, social media makes brands worthy of being sought-out and repeatedly viewed.

National Donut Day Draws 80,000+ RSVPs on Facebook

From Mashable:

Today is National Donut Day and to celebrate, Dunkin’ Donuts is giving out free pastries. Currently, more than 80,000 people have RSVP’d to the event via Facebook.

Dunkin’ Donuts launched a massive social media campaign a few months back in celebration of its 60th birthday, wherein it asked fans to “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut.”

Pastry pros were chosen based on their use of ingredients, donut name and donut story, and were awarded $1,200, a year’s supply of donuts and the chance to compete in a bake-off at Dunkin’ Donuts headquarters in Massachusetts. Well, the winner was finally unveiled today on Dunkin’s site: Rachel Davis, whose Monkey-see Monkey-donut will go on sale this fall (that particular confection is packed with Bananas Foster filling and topped with chocolate frosting and Reese’s Peanut Butter shavings — hello, heart attack).

To celebrate the winning treat, Dunkin is giving out free donuts to anyone who buys a beverage today, and apparently people are stoked — about 22,400,000 calories (that’s the equivalent of about 6,400 pounds of human fat) and 1,440,000 grams of fat worth of stoked, based on Dunkin’s Old-fashioned Cake Donut’s nutrition info.

We’ve been seeing a lot of brands turning to Facebook lately, asking fans to weigh in on products while simultaneously reaping the benefits of exposure (see Levi’s and Budweiser).