5 Reasons Web Marketers Fail With Viral Video Campaigns

From Social Times:

You’ve slaved away, put your blood and sweat into creating what you think is surely going to be one of the most popular online video campaigns of all time. You upload it to YouTube, you post it on your Facebook and tweet it to your friends and you wait. And then you wait some more. And some more. And you wonder to yourself, where did I go wrong? Why isn’t anybody watching my amazingly awesome viral video?

Unfortunately, this story is all too familiar to many online marketers and video creators. That’s why we’ve put together a list of five likely reasons why your online video campaign isn’t going viral. Hopefully this list will help you determine the problem, make adjustments or avoid creating a viral flop in the future.

Your Video Is Too Much Like A Commercial Ad

One of the biggest mistakes that advertisers and brands make when trying to market products online is that they create a video that reads as a commercial, rather than a story. When people watch videos online that look like advertisements they aren’t inclined to share these videos with their friends. People share videos that are funny, shocking or surprising. Therefore, rather than creating a commercial showcasing your product and how it works you should try to incorporate your product into something that is funny, fresh, original and doesn’t read as an advertisement.

Let’s look at Evian’s Roller Babies campaign as an example. The Roller Babies have got over 28 million views on YouTube. People know that it’s for Evian, as the video states at the beginning, “Let’s observe the effect of Evian on your body”. However, the true bulk of this video has almost nothing to do with Evian. It’s a video of babies roller skating and dancing.

Evian could have created a video in which they really educated consumers about the effects of Evian on your body—having people talk to the camera and provide facts and figures about what makes Evian so great. However, a video like that would be hard-pressed to get even a few thousand views.

Go back and look at your video. How many times do you show your product? How many times do you mention the name? Do you feel like you are watching a television commercial or like you are experiencing a funny or creative story? If it looks like a commercial ad that could be where you went wrong.

Your Campaign Is Unoriginal

There are literally hundreds of thousands of online video campaigns for consumers to watch at any given time so yours has to stand out. In the world of viral video, only the strong survive and to be strong you’ve got to be original. You want to blow people’s minds with new and interesting things they’ve never heard before, make them laugh like crazy, shock and awe or inspire your viewers with something that hasn’t been done before.

As an example, when Old Spice launched their Man Your Man Could Smell Like response campaign it received tons of attention and ultimately became the most popular web video campaign of all time. The reason this campaign was so successful (aside from the fact that it was run by Old Spice, a very well-known brand), was that it had never been done before. Many brands and people have tried to copy the Old Spice campaign since, from Cisco to politicians, but none have been able to repeat Old Spice’s success.

You Didn’t Spend Enough Time On Metadata

Another likely reason that nobody is watching your video is that you haven’t spent enough time on your metadata, or in other words, you haven’t written the best possible titles, tags and descriptions for your video. If you don’t write good metadata for your video then nobody will be able to find it when they are searching for videos in Google or on YouTube.

If you take the time to think about your metadata and utilize tools like the YouTube Keyword Suggestion Tool or guides like our own Complete Guide To YouTube Metadata to help you maximize your discoverability then you can make sure you won’t miss out on views just because people can’t find your videos anywhere. Trust us, if you put some time into coming up with great, popular keywords and phrases for your titles, descriptions and tags it will pay off.

You Aren’t Promoting It Right

A great video campaign on it’s own isn’t enough to go viral. You’ve got to promote it if you want people to find out about it. You can share your video with your own network via your Facebook and Twitter accounts, but unless you’ve got thousands of influential friends and followers then odds are this won’t be enough.

If you are promoting your video on your own then you should be doing everything you can to get your video out there and start getting views, from contacting influential bloggers to show them your video to posting it on your company blog or website, and asking everyone you know to share the video with their friends.

If you work for a big company or brand that has the budget for it then you may want to bring in an expert to help you market your campaign. However, if you bring in an outside promoter it’s important to ask them to see their previous work and how many views the video campaigns they have worked on in the past have gotten. After all, you want results!

Great Idea, Bad Execution

One possible reason that your video campaign didn’t go viral could be that you had a great idea but just didn’t do a good job of putting it together. Maybe your video failed on production quality, perhaps your actors were unattractive or not engaging. Perhaps you didn’t have a big enough budget to carry out your initial idea so you did the best you could.

Unfortunately, doing the “best you could” usually isn’t good enough in the world of viral video. For this reason you should come up with an idea that fits in your budget and then do everything you can to make it as good as possible. Don’t have money to pay professional actors? Put out a casting call for student actors who will work for free in order to get work for their reel. Need a video editor or graphic designer? Crowd source to find the best creatives for the lowest prices.

You should also ask your friends and co-workers for advice and suggestions along the way. Do they think that you are carrying out your idea to it’s fullest potential? If not, how do they think you can make it better?

Finally, if you’ve read through these five likely reasons that your online video campaign didn’t go viral and still don’t understand what happened then you just have to deal with the fact that tons of views just weren’t in the cards for this specific video. To some extent, the success of every viral campaign is based a little bit on luck and there is no avoiding that fact. Just come up with a new idea and try again. However, if you make sure to avoid the five common mistakes that were outlined here then you can greatly improve your odds of creating a video with viral potential. Good luck!

Top 5 Emerging Brand Trends on Facebook

From Mashable:


This series is supported by the Buddy Media Platform. Seven of the world’s top 10 brands drive their brand on Facebook with the Buddy Media Platform. What’s your plan? Visit buddymedia.com today.

Field of Dreams may have popularized the notion that, “If you build it, they will come,” but in today’s Facebook generation, brands are beginning to go where the masses are, instead of relying on the masses to come to them. With 500 million members, Facebook represents real-time access to the online mainstream.

For years, brands have been using their Facebook Pages to connect with customers. As Facebook blossoms, so does brand ingenuity, and in recent months we’ve seen a surge in campaigns that inspire Facebook giving, incorporate Facebook Places and feature Facebook as a prominent part of product reveals and fan exclusives. Application makers are also building tools that small and big brands alike can use to sell their products and offer Facebook-tailored customer support.

What follows is a deeper look at how and why these five emerging brand trends are bubbling up on the world’s largest social network.

In researching this piece, we solicited input from Facebook, several app makers and even our own Twitter followers. We encourage you to use the comments to share your thoughts on these brand trends on Facebook, as well as other trends we may have overlooked.

1. Facebook Exclusive

Risk-taker brands and agencies are adapting their product release cycles and marketing campaigns to account for the opportunity that Facebook’s platform promises.

Big brand names including Ford and Nike are going so far as to release on Facebook first. In Nike’s case, the athletic wear company opted to debut its three-minute World Cup () advertisement on their Facebook Page before they released it anywhere else. The ad then went on to break viral records.

You also probably recall Ford’s ambitious 2011 Ford Explorer Reveal. The car maker decided to forgo the auto show and reveal its new car on the web, with Facebook as the centerpiece of the company’s online reveal strategy.

The campaign proved to be more successful than anticipated. On reveal day, Ford produced the number one trending topic on Twitter in the U.S.; the Explorer was the number two most searched for term on Google; Ford’s YouTube reveal video garnered 11,000 views; more than 50,000 Ford Explorer Facebook “Likes” flooded in; and, perhaps best of all, 25,000 potential car buyers built and priced new Explorers on the company’s website.

Other brands including Vitamin Water and Papa John’s have handed over new product creation to Facebook fans.

Vitamin Water cooked up the “flavor creator lab” and invited Facebook users to dream up a new flavor and label design for the company’s next flavor release. Sarah, a Facebook member from Illinois, won the $5,000 grand prize for her help in bringing Vitamin Water Connect to life.

Papa John’s used Facebook to host the Papa’s Specialty Pizza Challenge. Pizza fans were encouraged to mastermind the chain’s next great specialty pizza recipe using an application custom built for the purpose. Of the more than 12,000 entries, three Facebook finalists were chosen — Blair Dial, Barbara Hyman and Kendra Chapman — and their pizza creations were featured as a part of Papa John’s menu during the month of August.

VEVO is exploring its own Facebook-exclusive opportunities, as well. The service recently launched an original web series, dubbed “ASK:REPLY,” designed to connect Facebook fans to big name artists. VEVO uses its Facebook Page to ask fans what they want to know about a top notch artist. Fans respond, and VEVO posts the artist’s video response.

“One of VEVO’s core strengths is our access to many of the world’s top artists. We’re able to let fans share in that access and peek behind the curtain with concepts like ASK:REPLY. Fans seem to get a huge kick out of watching their favorite artists call out their names and directly answer their questions. Plus, the fans come up with much better interview questions than we do,” says VEVO General Manager, Fred Santarpia.

2. Facebook Places Experimentation

The Facebook Places location product is just weeks old, but because Facebook’s checkin features integrate so tightly with the entire Facebook experience, Facebook Places is a business opportunity in the making.

One early adopter is the Westfield Valley Fair mall. The business is offering a checkin special to its Facebook members who promote their shopping behaviors through Facebook Places. The special in question offers a coupon — powered by Fan Appz — for 15% off at Betsey Johnson in exchange for a checkin. The special may resemble the variety we’ve seen on Foursquare, but it’s still an ingenious effort to turn Facebook fans into offline buyers.

Social marketing software provider Context Optional is exploring how they can serve burgeoning brand interest in Facebook’s location offering.

“Marketers have been struggling with making global brands local. Brands that have been early to the game with Foursquare, Loopt and other location-based services are now realizing that Facebook — with its population of 500 million plus — offers an invaluable marketing opportunity in the form of Places,” explains Context Optional CEO Kevin Barenblat.

To meet demand, the social CRM company released the Facebook Places Check-in Leaderboard application (as seen in action on their Facebook Page). The application is designed to help brands create their own personalized ranking system for their Facebook Place Pages. Once installed, guests who check in will have the chance to claim ownership — a feature obviously inspired by Foursquare’s mayor system. With Context Optional’s leaderboard solution, a brand can then reward top fans, based on checkins, with special deals and offers.

3. Facebook Commerce

Facebook’s brand-friendly Pages () are proving to be more than just wall-centric places for fan and brand comments and photos. Businesses of all sizes are finding that they can make their page double as a store front, and in so doing sell their products and goods to window-wall-shopping Facebook users.

Huge corporate entities like Disney and Delta are in the business of selling on Facebook. Disney, for instance, built the Disney Tickets Together Facebook application so that fans could pre-order tickets to Toy Story 3 without leaving the social network.

Even more traditional businesses are anxious to hook customers and get them to book through Facebook. Delta Air Lines released the Delta Ticket Window Facebook application in August to do just that — sell plane flights to patrons without ever forcing them to leave Facebook.

Alvenda is the application maker behind Delta’s Ticket Window. They also help power the Facebook commerce experiences for 1-800-Flowers, Brooks Brothers, Mark by Avon, and Hallmark.

The big guys aren’t the only businesses capitalizing on Facebook’s sales-friendly platform. Small businesses are enlisting the likes of Wildfire and Payvment to help them create and manage their own Facebook store fronts and deal centers.

With so many sales opportunities out there, some brands are finding that Facebook is fast becoming a shopper’s paradise and the new mall of America (and the world).

4. Facebook Support Centers

Social media has long been touted as a vehicle for brands to provide better customer service. The challenge is that so many customers are social media savvy, which means complaints and requests can get lost in the fray.

Once, a brand’s Facebook Page was a less trafficked place for a customer to get one-on-one service. Today, customers are lucky if their comment is ever seen. The customer still has the expectation of personalized service on Facebook, which makes it the brand’s responsibility to find a customer service solution that scales.

In recent months, Get Satisfaction () and Parature have stepped in to help businesses tackle this new challenge. Both companies are reporting rapid adoption for their inside-Facebook customer service platforms.

Get Satisfaction’s Social Engagement Hub, built by Involver, extends the functionality of its popular customer support service to Facebook and offers full-featured support that integrates with the client’s existing dashboard.

“Get Satisfaction has 122 clients using the Facebook integration, reaching an aggregate of hundreds of thousands of users and fans,” reports a spokesperson for the company.

Parature is a bit newer to the space, but the Parature for Facebook customer service application is already getting traction from brands hoping to channel Facebook for direct customer engagement. Recently, the company announced that 25 clients have signed on since launch to purchase Parature for Facebook. A company representative details that some of those brand names include H&M, Konami and Rosetta Stone.

5. Facebook Giving

Even for-profit businesses have an interest in the greater good, and one of the bigger trends is for them to solicit fan action on Facebook to ensure their charitable causes get greater exposure. The social good trend obviously extends beyond Facebook and to social media sites in general, but Facebook Pages and “Like” buttons are doing their part to inspire collective action.

Last year, Target launched the “Bullseye Games” Facebook application and let fans choose where the discount retailer should spend its weekly $3 million charitable contributions.

More recently, Kohl’s started the Kohl’s Cares Facebook initiative to give away $10 million to 20 schools; nearly 2 million Facebookers voted for their schools. Chase also gravitated towards Facebook to distribute $5 million to charities through the Chase Community Giving campaign.

In furtherance of the donation by action concept, Yahoo enlisted Facebook for a massive charitable undertaking designed to raise funds for Stand Up To Cancer earlier this month. Yahoo pledged $1 for every “Like” to their OMG! Facebook Page. In just nine days, Yahoo surpassed their goal, attracting more than 112,000 “Likes” and committing $100,000 to help fight cancer.

What “Like” Buttons Mean for Web Traffic

From Mashable:


The new-this-year, yet somehow-already-ubiquitous Facebook Like button has been around just long enough to generate some interesting numbers relating to Facebook users and web traffic.

The button, which launched in April at f8, Facebook’s developer conference, is now present on roughly 2 million sites around the web, from sports sites to news organizations and many other kinds of publishers.

A media analytics lead on Facebook’s Developer Network Insights team crunched some numbers and found that Facebook Likes don’t just generate interesting data about the “likers” (a.k.a. Facebook users who are also active on your website) themselves; this data also speaks volumes about clickthrough rates, time on-site and other engagement metrics.

Stats About People

On average, a Facebook user who “likes” your content has more than double the number of friends than does a typical Facebook user. This could mean the user is more “social” or more influential, but on the other hand, it could mean the user is an attention-seeking narcissist. While it’s fatuous to read too much into that statistic, the number does show that the average “liker” is more active from a social-web standpoint.

An even more interesting stat about the likers is that they click on five times more links to external sites than the typical Facebook user. If clickthroughs are what you’re looking for from your social media strategy, this is good news.

Here’s a stat just for news sites: The average Facebook user who “likes” content on a news website is 34 — that’s about two decades younger than the average newspaper subscriber. We’ve known for some time that the future of journalism and social media are, at this point, inextricably linked; this stat provides a little hard evidence for that conclusion.

Stats About Traffic

Most website owners are aware that Twitter refers a ton of traffic. It’s meant to be a content-referral network, so link-sharing and clickthroughs are a given in many cases.

The Facebook “Like” button, however, might be bringing Facebook closer to competing with Twitter in the area of referral traffic. Since the button launched and was integrated on millions of sites, many publishers are reporting large increases in traffic specifically due to this kind of social plugin. ABC News reported a 190% increase; Gawker’s traffic shot up by 200%; Sporting News said their site traffic was up by a shocking 500%; and NBA.com said that Facebook had become their second-largest referral source.

Facebook relays messages from publishers saying that these users “are more engaged and stay longer when their real identity and real friends are driving the experience through social plugins.” As an example, NHL.com reported that pages per user was up by 92%, time on-site was up by 85%, video viewing increased by 86% more videos and overall visits went up by 36%.

Clearly, Facebook is only part of social media referral traffic, but it’s becoming a larger part as the network grows and users become accustomed to interacting with third-party and external content from within the comfort of their social graph.

Social Media Promotion: It’s About ‘Stickiness’

From Social Times:

We all know that content is the most important thing when it comes down to having a REALLY successful viral campaign. Sure, you’ll need some promotion to help with the initial push of the campaign but as your campaign gets more popular, you’ll notice the increasing power of content to retain your readers, users and buyers. How do we classify what content works versus that which doesn’t? Well, according to Dan Heath in his book Made to Stick, it’s all about stickiness.

Personally, I’m shocked by the amount of garbage advice on social media, the self-proclaimed ‘social media gurus’ who have virtually n0 experience in getting viral on some social media/bookmarking website (Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon). As for me, I’ve been featured on many of those sites so I I must be doing something right, no.

What’s stickiness? In his book, Made to Stick, Dan Heath describes several principles that make ideas spread and ‘stick’ to peoples’ minds. I found it amazing how powerful those principles were and yet, nobody bothered to translate them into the online world and see how they can be applied . I’ll try to do that here:

Some of the most important principles there are:

CONCRETENESS. People. Animals. Things you can imagine. Love is not concrete, nobody can clearly imagine love. But everyone can imagine sex (now, which is more likely to spread, love or sex? If you take a look at most viral videos you’ll see they involve something concrete…and object or a person. Something easily imaginable.

UNEXPECTED. My viral article on Stumbleupon was unexpected..pulling Google Analytics data and analyzing it to get a conclusion of the ‘average StumbleUpon user’. I bet that many commercials you remember had something unexpected happen while you were watching.

How do you create something ‘unexpected’? By breaking expectations. Psychologists have shown many times that peoples’ tendency is to try to predict how something is going to fold out in advance.

A good example of breaking expectations are those studies you see in the media like:

• Study Shows That Mobile Web Will Rule by 2015
• Study Shows Women Attached to Men in Red
• Study Shows People Eat Less when They Know More

I bet you’ve seen a ‘study’ of this type on some friend’s Twitter/Facebook. Although I can’t guarantee how accurate they are, I can say for sure I was surprised when I read those headlines.

- EMOTIONS. This has some touching points with concreteness. People care about things that make them experience some emotion. Now, the hard part is answering the question: “What emotion should I elicit in my viral campaign?” The real answer is, it depends.

Here are some tips though:

• People respond to people. There’s been various studies that have shown that people are more willing to donate if they see a particular person having a problem (like a hungry kid in Africa) then a statistic of people being hungry (eg. 60% of people in Ethiopia face hunger). Empathy is the key word here.

• Associations. Politicians are masters in this. They associate some major events during their mandate with their campaigns. So what happens? If these events brought joy previously in peoples’ eyes, people are likely to associate those events with the political party and have positive emotions about them as well. You may have seen hot girls standing next to cars, why is that happening? The advertisers hope you associate the beauty of the girls so you perceive the car as more beautiful than it actually is. This actually works pretty well, although not many people are willing to admit it (probably because they do the association on unconscious level).

STORIES. If you think about stories, you’ll see that many good stories are concrete, have a dose of un-expectancy in them, and almost always elicit some emotion at the end.

There’s an interesting theory of why stories have those attributes. Some people claim that over the years, stories contained some abstract information as well. But as time went by and the stories were transferred from generation to generation, people didn’t focus on the abstract things but only left the concrete parts. The concrete parts ‘sticked’, while the abstract didn’t.

Explaining your core message using stories is a powerful and proven concept of making ideas stick (and getting them viral).

REMEMBER: These are only principles and using all of them won’t guarantee your message will go viral. However, they dramatically increase the probability people will remember and spread it. The evidence for this comes from the introduction of the Made to Stick book (which I highly recommend you read if you’re interested in learning more on this topic).

I can summarize the whole evidence in few sentences. Chip is a professor at Stanford University and has a huge passion for education. Back in 2004, he began analyzing hundreds of famous stories/urban myths and finding common characteristics. He also took stories/urban legends that didn’t took off and analyzed those too. So the principles he devised were from hundreds of hours of research.

And if you think about it, most of these principles will be common sense to you after you read them. But remember, common sense is not common use.

New Deals in Every Aisle with Shopkick Geolocation Shopping

From Social Times:

Whether you’re a shop-a-holic or an avid anti-shopper, Shopkick says it has something for you in its geolocation shopping service. Rolling out now in a handful of major US retailers, Shopkick promotes window shopping, browsing, and even just stepping inside a store by automatically downloading Kickbucks onto a shopper’s smartphone. Using ultra-sensitive geolocation technology, Shopkick gives out Kickbucks when a shopper goes down a particular aisle, scans an item, or walks by a daily deal. Shopkick’s trial run began yesterday and is expected to have a high profile over the next few months in the storefronts of several of the largest retailers in the US.

Yesterday, iPhone owners could download the Shopkick app to their phones and begin getting Kickbucks (the Android app comes out in the fall). The app gives users the ability to earn points by checking in to certain locations, using a mechanism similar to Foursquare. But what’s really neat about Shopkick is in its automation. Customers can get Kickbucks just from walking into a store that uses Shopkick, or by scanning the barcodes of certain items. And in American Eagle, for instance, customers will get Kickbucks just by walking into the changeroom to try something on.

Currently, Shopkick is being tested at Best Buys, Macy’s, American Eagle and Sports Authority stores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, as well as a few scattered elsewhere in the country.

Stores that are testing out Shopkick have a device installed that emits a high pitched sound that can only be picked up by the Shopkick app. That’s how the app knows when a user has actually entered a store, as opposed to just standing nearby. Users will get significantly more points for entering a store than for checking in nearby, in an effort to get more foot traffic through the door. After racking up enough points (and according to the New York Times, you’ll need quite a lot), customers can trade in their Kickbucks for gift cards at a participating retailer or exchange them for music downloads or Facebook credits.

There are some privacy debates surfacing about the fact that Shopkick will have consumer data on individuals – where they shop, what they buy. Others claim that Shopkick is a great marketing tool and will encourage people to spend time inside a store, leading possibly to more sales.

Groupon Smashes Sales Records with Nationwide Gap Deal

From Mashable:

Groupon launched its first national deal today, partnering with Gap to offer $50 worth of apparel and accessories at the low price of $25.

The site is known for its local daily deals, often offered by small businesses including restaurants, gyms and spas. With a $1 billion valuation and more than 9.4 million Groupons sold since its launch, it has become one of the most recognized group buying sites on the web.

The company has had great success selling local deals, but this experimental partnership could be the first step towards larger, national partnerships.

We spoke with Julie Mossler, a spokeswoman for Groupon, to get some insights into Groupon’s motivations for testing out the national market. She explained:

“Local ‘brick and mortar’ businesses are the foundation of Groupon, and that isn’t changing. Many of our customers have asked for a national deal, so we’re testing the waters with Gap. It’s a perfect back-to-school deal, and a great way for us to reach subscribers in Gap cities where Groupon hasn’t yet launched. Customer feedback (positive or negative) will be taken into consideration when we determine if we’ll do partnerships of this scale in the future.”

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason expanded, “We’ve worked with plenty of national brands, but this is the first time we’ve featured the same business in every city simultaneously. We’re constantly experimenting with new types of deals and stick with whatever our customers like! They seem to like this deal.”

As of about 5 p.m. ET, the Gap deal has already triggered nearly 300,000 purchases — that’s about 10 Groupons per second, making it Groupon’s bestselling deal since its launch in November 2008. The previous bestseller was a $12 75-minute architecture tour by boat in Chicago (valued at $25), which sold 19,820 Groupons (although, it’s not exactly a fair comparison, as the boat tour deal was only offered in one city rather than nationwide). Mossler remarked:

“Although, it’s important to note we haven’t offered one at this scale before. Customers are getting their Gap on with Groupon because it’s such a compelling offer for back to school. We attribute the rate of sale to Groupon promotional handles on Facebook/Twitter, distribution via @earlybird, a blast to Gap’s newsletter subscribers and word of mouth from our 10 million subscribers in North America.”

The discount is also being promoted via Twitter’s Earlybird Offers account. Mossler commented, “We’re looking to get as much exposure for the deal as possible, and @earlybird is one strategy we hope will prove to grab Twitter users who haven’t yet given Groupon a try.”

Gap has been stepping up its social game as of late, making headlines earlier this week when it announced a 25% discount for Foursquare users who checked in at one of its retail locations in the U.S. or Canada. Olivia Doyne, Director of Engagement Marketing at Gap gave us a bit of insight into why the national retailer decided to host a Groupon deal:

“We’re always looking at new and innovative ways to connect with our customers, and we know many of them are Groupon subscribers. We thought the timing of our exclusive Groupon offer would be ideal as people begin to build their back-to-school and fall wardrobes.”

Although the deal is clearly a success on Groupon, Augustine Fou, the chief digital officer at Omnicom’s Healthcare Consultancy Group, commented that this is a prime example of “when NOT to use Groupon” as an advertiser. He commented, “Groupon is great for restaurants who have the margin to do it and who need publicity because people are not aware, but not for a big brand like Gap. It is simply a waste of money for them.”

Gap is receiving a lot of word or mouth and press, sending more buyers to the deal. This may seem like good news for Gap, but Fou argues, “The more press they get, the more money they lose.” With the current sales of around 300,000 Groupons, that translates into a $7.5 million revenue loss for one experimental campaign. That’s a hefty lump of cash, and the deal isn’t even over. “It’s still a better use than wasting $7.5 million on TV ads.” Fou added, “At least they did capture the other half as ‘money spent [by customers],’ and consumers will eventually go into the stores. For TV advertising, there is never proof anyone ever saw it, let alone went to the store.”

When asked if Gap had expected such a huge response to the deal, Doyne responded, “Since this is the first time Groupon has done a national deal of this size, it was hard to estimate the outcome. We’re really pleased with how many people have taken advantage of the offer.”

5 Tips for Dealing with Complaints on Twitter

From Mashable:

Megan Berry is Marketing Manager for Klout, the standard for online influence. She also blogs at The Huffington Post and Brazen Careerist. You can follow her on Twitter at @meganberry.

Every business, blogger, and the rest of us on social media have experienced it: someone just called you out on Twitter or in a blog. It’s all too easy to get frustrated and respond with something that will just make the situation worse (“I’ll give you a refund right away… oh wait, you didn’t actually pay for this!”) or to take it personally and get upset.

While there is no magic formula for dealing with complaints in social media, I do have a few tips that have helped me.

1. A Quick Response Goes a Long Way

I can’t tell you how many complaints I’ve seen turned around with a quick reply. If someone has an issue with your product or misunderstood your point of view, reach out and explain it to them. Most of the time when they realize that you’re actually paying attention and care, that makes all the difference (for the rest of the time, see number five).

Of course, this assumes you are actually paying attention. So if you’re not, you might want to look into ways to monitor your brand on social media.

2. You May Have To Respond As You, Not Your Company

When someone has a legitimate complaint, I’ve found one of the most effective things to do is reach out from your personal account. In my experience, when they realize they’re dealing with a real person who’s trying to help, people are more open and willing to listen. This shouldn’t be done for every complaint, as some people will never be turned around, but I’ve found when there’s a real, resolvable issue this method often works much better.

3. Give Yourself More Than 140 Characters To Respond

At times, it’s just impossible to help someone in 140 characters. Or it’s possible, but you would have to be really terse — which is definitely not going to make you seem understanding. Instead, ask them how to connect off Twitter (shocking, I know). Shoot the complainant an e-mail or even give them a call and you’ll be surprised how far a little outreach goes.

4. Let Someone Else Respond For You

If there’s no way you can respond in a helpful way — e.g., if it would make you seem self-serving or maybe you’ve already tried and failed — it can be helpful to have someone else speak up for you.

If you have haters, you probably also have fans, and they’re probably very willing to spring to your defense. Maybe they’ve even already done, in which case, their response might be much more effective than yours and you can just leave well enough along.

If they haven’t already responded, consider bringing the issue to the attention of a few of your fans. Do so carefully and cautiously. Only do it with people you have actual relationships with and only in a lightweight, non-pushy way. I find the best way is actually just to privately ask for feedback on a complaint — maybe it has merit and you don’t realize it or maybe they can help you understand what’s going on.

5. Know When To Let It Go

The truth is, you simply won’t be able to turn everyone around. The trick (I’m still working on it) is to not let it get to you. No business or person is going to make it without having a few haters — so if you have some, you might just be doing something right. Just don’t take that line of thinking too far!

Bottom line, the complainers won’t go away, but you can choose how you deal with them. Some of them will be legitimate complaints from reasonable people that will be touched when you reach out quickly and earnestly to help them. Others… well you know what they say: “Haters gonna hate.”