If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.
-Don Draper, Mad Men
Category Archives: Strategy
Retweet After Me: Week of Feb. 11, 2014
What brands should know about Facebook’s Paper by Courtney Gordner
The Internet has changed the way we communicate. This became increasingly true with Facebook’s announcement of its new app, Paper. Paper will allow users to view Facebook in a way that is more like reading a newspaper (with short updates, news stories, photos and videos) than scrolling through a social media feed. [Read More]
Content Marketing a Struggle from Start to Finish by Jennifer Stalzer
Digital is transforming the way brands are communicating with their customers. The most recent Nielsen’s Trust in Advertising report confirms that branded web sites are now the second most trusted format, a jump from fourth place in 2007. As communications and marketing professionals, how do we seize this opportunity without mucking it up? [Read More]
Top 8 Reasons Why Men and Women Use Facebook by Matt Petronzio
Facebook turned 10 on Tuesday, and with 1.23 billion monthly active users, 37 offices worldwide and more than 6,000 employees, it’s something to celebrate. But how are Facebook users actually using the social network after a decade? [Read More]
Instagram Video Done Right: 10 Inspiring Brand Examples by Katherine Leonard
Instagram video burst onto the scene in mid-2013, and in the months since we’ve seen good, bad and ugly video efforts from brands. The good news is that when companies do get it right, Instagram video efforts seem to pay off — according a study from Unruly Media, 40% of the most-shared Instagram videos are from brands. [Read More]
TV after-shows tap social media by Patrick Ryan
Like the ravenous zombies they tune in to watch each week, fans of AMC’s The Walking Dead have voracious appetites. But instead of gorging themselves on human flesh, fans get their fill with behind-the-scenes content and social-media interaction — two key components of after-shows such as Talking Dead (Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT), which returns tomorrow following The Walking Dead’s midseason premiere. [Read More]
Retweet After Me: Week of Feb. 5, 2014
Great Social Media Idea: Bringing Social to the “Real World” (Part 2) by Joe Kuffner
A few months ago, I highlighted a wonderful article by Matthew Anderson of Western Washington University, in which he discussed a small, yet powerful thing he did with WWU’s Twitter – hand-delivering coffee to a student who had just a few minutes prior tweeted about being tired and not having time to get coffee before class. [Read More]
Content Marketing a Struggle from Start to Finish by eMarketer
59% of marketing professionals will increase efforts this year. Content marketers are looking to shift efforts to include more curation, research suggests, but every step along the journey is a struggle. [Read More]
3 Ways to Use Google+ to Increase Search Rankings by James Thomas
Do you want to increase your search rankings? Did you know your Google+ page and profile could help? Google+ can help you increase search rankings for your website, but you have to take the time to optimize your page, profile and content. [Read More]
The New Link for the Mobile Ad Era by Tom Simonite
Being able to easily link to content inside mobile apps could make them easier to use and also boost the mobile ad industry. In the beginning there was the Web, a thicket of virtual pages connected by hyperlinks that enabled blogging to flourish and companies like Google to make piles of money by directing people where advertisers wanted them to go. Today mobile apps increasingly rule our free time and require us to dive into separate, walled-off digital containers that don’t link up. [Read More]
The Confluence Of Content And Social Media: Insights For Success In 2014 by Jayson DeMers
One study has suggested that as many as 90% of American small businesses are on social media today. Social media has taken hold in the business world: it’s one of the easiest ways to reach new customers, and one of the three pillars of SEO in 2014. It’s also low cost and has a fairly low barrier to entry. The accessibility of social media sites is a boon, especially for eCommerce sites that need to constantly reach new customers and stay connected with existing customers about new products and sales. [Read More]
J.C. Penney’s #TweetingWithMittens: Super Bowl Winner or Loser?
By now we’ve all heard about it. During the Super Bowl, J.C. Penney appeared to either have a hacker tweeting from their Twitter account, or had someone on staff drunk tweeting from it.
Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 2, 2014
Toughdown Seadawks!! Is sSeattle going toa runaway wit h this???
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014
But J.C. Penney pulled a fast one on the entire Twittersphere. Apparently they were #TweetingWithMittens.
Oops…Sorry for the typos. We were #TweetingWithMittens. Wasn't it supposed to be colder? Enjoy the game! #GoTeamUSA pic.twitter.com/e8GvnTiEGl
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014
So let’s evaluate. How did this tactic do for J.C. Penney?
Brand
J.C. Penney has been making a shift in brand over the last couple of years (technically a couple of different shifts), and I think has definitely been trying to move to a more hip feel, attracting a younger clientele, and making it more than “just another department store.” Unfortunately, I’m not sure faking drunk tweeting or a hacked account is the right way to accomplish this brand image. As a consumer, this doesn’t give me the confidence in the brand that I would expect to have. Especially among all the hacking going on with credit card data recently, I’d like the reassurance that the store can keep it’s Twitter account from being hack at the minimum.
On the other hand, if you read through J.C. Penney’s tweets, this type of humor does fit in with what they post. So they are not completely off the mark, but I now definitely feel a difference between their social media personality, and what I know J.C. Penney as.
Audience
I feel like these kinds of Tweets don’t fit well with who J.C. Penney is talking to. I’ll be honest, I could be wrong on this, but I think J.C. Penney’s audience is diverse across many age groups, and that this may not resonate with that audience. Even if it was a joke, I’m not sure everyone got it, and I’m just not sure it didn’t leave a bad taste in customer’s mouths.
Reach
If you look at the retweets and favorites of the three tweets above, the first misspelled tweet received 19,874 retweets and 8,724 favorites, the second had 23,188 retweets and 10,365 favorites (at time of posting). The tweet with the brand message and contained the punchline received 3,838 retweets and 2,139 favorites. There is a huge difference between these! Way more people saw that J.C. Penney made mistakes on their Twitter account than saw that it was a joke. I know that there will always be more engagement on the “mistakes” than the punchline, simply because people would much rather see a train wreck, than a social media stunt, but that is a risk you take with this kind of posting. In this case, I think the difference is huge, and I wonder how many people still don’t know that J.C. Penney was just #TweetingWithMittens.
Content
J.C. Penney has been pushing these Go USA mittens for a little while now to support Team USA in the Sochi Olympics. But, they tweeted this joke during the Super Bowl. Both teams belong to the USA, so it didn’t quite make sense to me. They could have attempted the same joke during the Opening Ceremony or another big Olympic event, and I think the content would have resonated much better. Instead, personally I was confused. Maybe it was J.C. Penney’s way of not rooting for a specific team, but if that’s the case, they didn’t do a good job of staying impartial, since they “said” “Go Seahawks” in one of their tweets.
Followers
J.C. Penney’s #TweetingWithMittens did have a very evident positive, 8,824 new followers. They have definitely been acquiring new followers over time, with a recent large spike in addition to the Super Bowl spike. Time will tell if this spike of followers were worth it, when we can see if those followers remained, or unfollowed after the joke was up.
Winner or Loser?
Personally, I give kudos to J.C. Penney for taking a risk during a huge Twitter traffic time. Part of social media is finding out what your audience will react to, and you have some go tos that you know will accomplish what you need to, but you always have to be trying to find the next thing, and attract new audiences. The only way to do that is with a little trial and error. Unfortunately, I’m not sure this risk paid off.
What do you think? Did J.C. Penney make the right move?
Retweet After Me: Jan. 29, 2014
At U. of Illinois, decision to keep classes going leads to racist and sexist Twitter attacks on chancellor by Scott Jaschik
Students (and plenty of professors) love snow days. But when they can’t get what they want, is that any reason for a blizzard of hate on Twitter? That is among the questions raised by the reaction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when Phyllis M. Wise, the chancellor, opted to keep classes as scheduled Monday, despite extremely cold weather. That some students would take to Twitter to gripe is not shocking. But a flurry of comments focused either on Wise’s status as a woman, as an Asian-American or both. The hashtag of choice: #fuckphyllis. [Read More]
Social Media Usage for Crisis Communications by Mike Richwalsky
Wondering what works and what doesn’t for your Facebook page? Or are you overwhelmed with all of the Facebook tactics you read about? No matter how long you’ve had a Facebook page, it’s good to review some of the basics for creating a page for your business. [Read More]
Facebook Is Stuck in Limbo … and It Makes My Job Easier by Bryan DeSena
Twitter has become the social platform for communicating and discovering what’s happening in the moment. Many think that this what fast-tracked its surge to prominence and a successful initial public stock offering. Meanwhile, Facebook, once the darling of the Internet, is now chasing Twitter by introducing new features to grab a share of the real-time marketing budget pie. [Read More]
9 Ways Social Media Marketing Will Change in 2014 by Scott Gerber
From the decline of Facebook use among teens to Twitter’s IPO, if there is one thing we know for sure about social media, it’s that few trends hold on for long — so marketers need to stay on their toes. [Read More]
18 Ways to Improve Your Facebook News Feed Performance by John Haydon
Are you frustrated with Facebook’s frequent changes to the news feed algorithm? Do you feel like you’re being forced to buy ads to reach your audience? While Facebook change is the rule rather than the exception, this article gives you 18 ways you can improve your Facebook news feed performance—and gain the upper hand. [Read More]
Retweet After Me: Jan. 14, 2013
(Some of) What I Learned From My Years on NPR’s Social Media Desk by Kate Myers
Monday starts a new road for me at NPR. After several great years, I’m leaving the Social Media Desk and moving on to work in Business Partnerships. I am proud to leave the social media desk in the more-than-capable hands of Wright Bryan and Melody Kramer, not to mention the hundreds of journalists that make social media at NPR a fantastic place to work. As I make this shift, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the many things I’ve learned working in social media as it made a huge impact on journalism. [Read More]
6 Facebook Marketing Tips for Managing Your Facebook Page by Jim Belosic
Wondering what works and what doesn’t for your Facebook page? Or are you overwhelmed with all of the Facebook tactics you read about? No matter how long you’ve had a Facebook page, it’s good to review some of the basics for creating a page for your business. [Read More]
How to Build a Content Calendar (Plus a Free Template for 2014) by Jamie Griffiths
Creating a content calendar for your company from scratch is one of those tasks that seems ridiculously complicated at the outset but which, with a systematic approach and no scruples about stealing other people’s methods, can actually be fairly straightforward. [Read More]
Why Social Media is Getting Even More Expensive by Steve Radick
For a long time, there was a perception that social media marketing was free, or at least very inexpensive. Starting a Facebook or Twitter account was free, and hiring a part-time intern to manage them didn’t cost much. [Read More]
Facebook Set to Eliminate Sponsored Stories in April by Kurt Wagner
If you want to purchase a Sponsored Story on Facebook, you’d better do it fast. The social network will retire Sponsored Story advertisements beginning April 9, according to a blog post. [Read More]
Retweet After Me: Week of Nov. 19, 2013
Brand Snapchats: Worth It? by Christianna Giordano
Did everyone just think to themselves, “Hell, no?” Let me convince you otherwise. At first glance, Snapchat might seem irrelevant to brands; it has a disappearing content, a reputation for dirty photos, no direct ROI, so many are thinking, why bother? One word: engagement. [Read More]
Pew Social Media Study: 30% Of The U.S. Gets News Via Facebook; Reddit Has The Most News-Hungry Regular Users by Ingrid Lunden
The Pew Research Center is today releasing comparative numbers looking at how U.S. adults use social networking sites to read news (a follow-on from earlier research focusing on two specific sites, Facebook and Twitter). [Read More]
‘Popular Pins’ Now Available on Brand Websites by Kurt Wagner
Pinterest is opening its API to retailers who wish to embed pins directly on their websites, the company announced Thursday. A handful of Pinterest partners now have the option to surface their most popular pins directly on the homepage of their websites. Initial Pinterest partners include major brands like Walmart, Disney, Random House, Zappos and Mashable. [Read More]
Klout.edu? Sumpto Grabs $350K To Measure The Influence Of College Students by Rip Empson
When Sumpto launched in 2012, founder Ben Kosinski made a smart move, coining his startup as “the Klout for colleges.” At the time, the polarizing social currency company was still grabbing headlines, and the analogy made sense. Today, the analogy arguably has a little less relevance and perhaps a bit more baggage, but Sumpto continues to soldier on as a platform aimed at helping to measure the social influence of college students. [Read More]
Red Cross Apologizes for Tweeting False Typhoon Haiyan Image by Fran Berkman
The American Red Cross has patched up a mistake it made Monday. The organization used Twitter to share an image comparing the size of Typhoon Haiyan, a storm that killed an estimated 10,000 people in the Philippines over the weekend, to the continental United States, in which the typhoon dwarfed the nation. The tweet (embedded below) read, “A storm the size of typhoon Haiyan would cover nearly the entire continental U.S.” [Read More]
Shazam Provides Direct Engagement and Metric Possibilities
That song comes on the radio, the one you really like, but you haven’t been able to figure out the artist of, and you immediately reach for your phone, open the Shazam app, wait for it to listen and tell you every bit of information you could ever want to know about that song. We all do it. Personally, I’m quite thankful for it. Shazam keeps me from having to search for a song without knowing all the information, which is extremely difficult. But Shazam has jumped from being all about music, to finding its way into TV commercials, and more recently the X-Factor.
Shazam has found a way for users to easily engage with TV content that comes natural, since more than 375 million users already use the app. I’ve noticed the icon with instructions on a number of commercials over the last year, but as an X-Factor fan, I couldn’t help but notice that the app had made its way into voting for the singing-contest show.
You can now Shazam a competitor’s song during the show, and it will bring up a “Vote Now” button, along with telling you the artist and the song. This is a newer way for audiences to engage with television. We’ve all seen the hashtags in the corners of a TV show, but this is more than talking about it, this is a direct sign of engagement, in an innovative way.
I think the piece of this that is the most important is the analytics available through this technique. You have a direct way of knowing how your user continued through content, and that they converted, or didn’t. This is a challenge with TV, because you provide a web address many times, but don’t have any way of knowing for sure that someone arrived from TV, rather than another channel. This depends on how exactly you set things up, but I can recall a number higher education TV ads with a generic .edu address as the call to action.
Shazam even has an engagement metric for TV, called the Shazam Engagement Rate, which tells you how many times an ad was tagged during an airing divided by the Gross Rating Point (provided by Nielsen) of each airing. Applying this to X-Factor, you then have a second level of metrics, the vote button, to show how much the user engaged with the content. As you can imagine, this is extremely valuable data.
I see valuable opportunities within television as a whole, but I can also see some possibilities for higher education, especially those with large TV ad buys.
Do you have any interest in using Shazam within your TV ad campaigns?
Retweet After Me: Nov. 12, 2013
This week’s Retweet After Me is all about Twitter! With the announcement of custom timelines today, I just couldn’t help myself!
Introducing custom timelines: create timelines of Tweets for everyone by Brian Ellin
Today we’re introducing custom timelines to give you more control over how Tweets are organized and delivered on the Twitter platform. Custom timelines are an entirely new type of timeline –– one that you create. You name it, and choose the Tweets you want to add to it, either by hand or programmatically using the API (more on that below). This means that when the conversation around an event or topic takes off on Twitter, you have the opportunity to create a timeline that surfaces what you believe to be the most noteworthy, relevant Tweets. [Read More]
Custom timelines in TweetDeck by Sara Roncero-Menendez
Starting today, we are introducing the ability to create custom timelines in TweetDeck. Custom timelines, which were just announced, are a new type of timeline that you control by selecting the Tweets you want to include. In this post, we’ll describe everything you need to know to create and share custom timelines. [Read More]
Expectations of a brand’s social media manager by Christopher Kerney
When I see brands on social media, I have expectations. I expect that if I tweet something to a brand, someone will respond. It doesn’t have to be within two minutes—I am overjoyed when it is—but I do expect a response. [Read More]
How to Generate Twitter Leads With Their New Lead Generation Cards by John Bonini
Are you struggling to generate leads on Twitter? Wondering how to display richer data in a tweet? In this article, I’ll show you four steps to getting more leads with Twitter lead generation cards. [Read More]
Are Twitter Ads Useless? by Larry Kim
Twitter rocked markets this week with a spectacular initial showing. But how do Twitter ads measure up against Facebook ads? Is it worth spending your ad dollars on Twitter? When it comes to direct response marketing, AKA lead generation and/or Ecommerce, Google really takes the cake in terms of ad performance. However, if you’re set on creating a social media ad campaign, you’ll want to see how Twitter ads and Facebook ads compare. [Read More]
YouTube Comments Make Google+ Pages Even More Important
YouTube comments recently received a big upgrade, and there are quite a few changes, and definitely some that may alter brand management. YouTube is now much more connected to Google+, and that has implications, and hopefully opportunities!
Top Comments
While there has been a top comments section on YouTube, the comments listed aren’t always the most relevant to the video. But now comments on YouTube are personalized to you! Comments that are moved to the top are those by the video creator, YouTube “celebrities,” engaging discussions, and people in your Google+ circles. This helps to bring the most relevant comments to the top, and push the others down.
I also discovered that when you post a video to Google+, it automatically adds it as a comment on YouTube. Talk about an easy way to increase your chances for more engagement! I can definitely see how this would help conversations grow. I’m excited to see if it works!
Moderating
YouTube has caught up with the times on this front. Comments can now have auto-block for certain words, there are new tools for reviewing comments before they’re posted, and you can pick certain people to have comments auto-posted. Many more options available, to hopefully make moderating a bit easier! The auto-block feature is probably the one I’ll be implementing first, it’s a no brainer to me.
Merging Accounts
The catch: you must have a Google+ profile or page attached to your YouTube account. You can make this change in the settings of your YouTube account. If you want to connect a Google+ page, you’ll need to make your YouTube account a manager of the Google+ Page. If both are under the same account, you should be good to just connect them. This is where I ran into issues, as Texas Tech’s Google+ and YouTube weren’t under the same account. I found a glitch while trying to connect the two accounts, and my awesome Google+ Education Team rep assisted with the merging.
So what do you think? Are you excited for the accounts to be merged, or do you want Google+ to stay out of your YouTube?