Dec 12
by alex
Increasingly, Facebook happens in ad breaks, whereas Twitter happens throughout a programme.
I was having a conversation this week about the future of Facebook for brands, and how their new ‘Facebook is a reach platform’ strategy will affect brands’ objectives. Aside from the wider question of whether Facebook is losing relevance in the youth market (it is, and becoming more business-focused and less user-focused can only accelerate that) it made me think about how we use the various platforms as consumers. (more…)
Nov 28
by Mark Carroll
A majority of us spend our days in offices surrounded by the same people. If one day you turn up with a snazzy new haircut, those closest to you will probably notice. They won’t care but they’ll notice. That’s because they’re used to you. Babs in finance, up on the third floor who you might only get a fleeting glance from every third Tuesday in the corridor on the way to lunch probably won’t notice your haircut, she only just about knows your face and hasn’t had the chance to learn your name yet. You could have changed hairstyles 5 times in the last two weeks and Babs would be none the wiser.
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Nov 25
by alex
As marketers, we’re obsessed with numbers. The biggest one of the moment is the 400 million photos that Snapchat users are currently sharing per day, easily surpassing the number of images shared on Facebook and Instagram put together.
Which is irrelevant. (more…)
Sep 28
by Mike Phillips
Automatic posting, or frictionless sharing as Facebook is calling, essentially means Facebook automatically sharing updates of what a person is doing. Whether that activity is listening to a music track or trading an article on a website.
There are two problems with this new approach to sharing. The first is that this essentially equates social networking with life streaming. Facebook goes as far as to rename profiles as timelines. It assumes we want people to know everything about us, that we want our lives to be public, our lives to be lived in the public domain. But not everyone wants their activity broadcast across the web, certainly not all of their activity. Not everyone wants to be a celebrity, sacrificing privacy for slightly more attention. The functionality is, for now at least, opt in. Meaning the user has to allow Facebook permission to auto share, and in the instance of reading updates, the site must also have the functionality enabled. (more…)
Jun 29
by Mike Phillips
Google’s latest effort to enter the world of social, Google+ launched today. Possibly the most interesting thing about the launch is the number of people who have passed comment without even trying the service. ”Google doesn’t get social – this will fail” they cry. (Invites certainly are scarce, I haven’t yet had a chance to have a play, hence why I shan’t be going into specific features.) (more…)
In the rush the “engage” fans, and grow fan numbers, hundreds of brands are being very quick to give away fantastic prizes in competitions on their Facebook pages. The problem is very few of them actually think any more beyond this point. They get a prize, create a tab with the competition (those have read the guidelines and know not to use the wall etc for promotions) and think their job is done. In the race for fans very little thought is put into how people will find it and why people will actually want to enter this competition if they find it.
Unsurprisingly this results in hundreds of competitions a week being started by brands that only get a handful of entries. I’ve seen competitions giving away cars with less than 1,000 entries, and holidays to New York with less than 50 entries. With a one in fifty chance of winning a trip to New York you’d be silly not to enter.
This glut of competitions is resulting in a new breed of Facebook user, the semi professional competition entrant. They scour Facebook brand pages, hunting down competitions, prizing the lacklustre ones. And they’re doing it methodically, liking the pages where they have to, and promptly unliking once the competition is over. I’ve seen the same names popping up in competitions for a range of different brands. With the sheer number of competitions launched every week, giving away anything from iPads and TVs to holidays and cars these people must be doing quite well for themselves.
There is of course nothing wrong with these individuals (unless they are breaking the rules to try and win), who wouldn’t try and win a TV if only four other people had entered? But they are symptomatic of a broader problem, an obsession of quick wins in social. Want to get some fans? Throw up a competition behind a ‘like gate’. Sure you may get a few more people liking your page, but are they really fans of your page? Until brands start taking social seriously they will continue to put out these kneejerk competitions.
Now if you excuse me, I’m going to try and win an iPad.
UPDATE: Today I actually did win a car on a Facebook competition. Well, the use of one for 6 months. I think at last count I had 11 votes for my entry. I don’t even want the car.
Social media allows brands to communicate with new ways and on new levels with their customers. Facebook for example allows you to create a brand presence in a social space, allowing fans a deeper connection with the brand than ever before.
However, this new opportunity also brings with it challenges. What if fans of your brand speak more than one language and live in more than one country? Obviously you can’t communicate with people in a language they don’t speak, and also, it’s difficult to be relevant to users when you are trying to talk to users of multiple territories at once. (more…)
A handy set of guidelines to help to navigate the social media ocean without being a dick
Contrary to popular belief it is not a good idea just to jump in to social media. It’s not important to “just be there” – you need to know why you are there. You need to have a clear understanding of what you want to put into your online presence, and what you want to get out. In other words you need to have a clear strategy for your online activity. (more…)
One of the biggest problems to face social media marketing is that due to it being a relatively new area there is little in the way of “text book” theories. That’s not to say that there aren’t books on the subject, there are hundreds. But, whilst many share similar ideas, the field just isn’t as developed as traditional marketing.
As such, the industry tends to suffer from buzzword mentality, jumping from one buzzword theory to the next. One term in particular that has stuck is community marketing, upon which many other loosely developed theories have been built. In fact, the term has become fundamental to how many in the social media industry think about their work and sells it in to clients. “You need to engage your community!” self pronounced social media experts (read social media douchebags) decry, probably because someone writing for Mashable has told them so. (more…)
Facebook today rolled out notices at the top of the news feed section encouraging users to use their automatic friend finder tool. If you haven’t logged in yet today, you’ll be prompted to try out the tool with the notice that many of your friends have already successfully found friends using the tool. (more…)
