Hubspot wrote last week that Ben & Jerry’s would be putting the kibosh on their email campaigns in favor of social media efforts. Always a counter-culture brand, they signed off in their final email by inviting their customers to connect with them on Facebook and Twitter. Why will Ben & Jerry’s succeed with this bold plan?
Because their brand is already very well established within the social media sphere and delivering value to both the brand and its consumers; the Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page has over 1.3 million Likes and their Twitter accounts (@cherrygarcia and @benjerrystruck) have over 11,500 Followers combined. Those growing numbers, coupled with a consumer-centric culture bent on delivering value and community service, create a veritable social media monster, and it’s no wonder that email, the one-way messaging go-to tactic of the ’90s, no longer suits the ice cream maker.
Costs associated with email service, such as contracting an email service provider, can be greater than expected, and the negatives of an email campaign, like noise contribution and brand fatigue, are very often not considered or is underestimated. While eMarketer reported recently that email is still the preferred delivery method for online marketing, Ben & Jerry’s realized that its consumers weren’t connecting with the email campaigns, but were connecting extremely well via social channels.
They’ve reacted to their customers’ preferences (and saved some money, to boot), and more brands should take note of this seemingly evolutionary shift from traditional online marketing to a more conversational approach.
Posted in strategy by .
Jul 10
16
How Not To Approach Facebook PPC
I feel like this should go without saying, but it doesn’t. Social media isn’t like any other marketing channel you’ve ever worked in. It isn’t like PR; it isn’t like direct mail; it isn’t like email; it isn’t like affiliate networks; it isn’t like comparison shopping engines; and it certainly isn’t like paid search.
So you can’t and shouldn’t approach social media like any of these other channels. People seem to often get hung up on the success (or, rather, failure) of their Facebook PPC campaigns. Why isn’t Facebook conducive to PPC ads the same way that a search engine, like Google, is? I mean, in 2009 alone, Google made $23 billion on AdWords. Isn’t some of that success transferable to social networks?
The short answer is no; we know that people have different goals on search engines versus social networks. People are in completely different mindsets. On Google, a search mindset might be, “buy circular saw,” and we probably know that they’re about ready to buy a circular saw, possibly just looking for the best price. On Facebook, a search mindset might be, “I wonder how Jenny’s vacation in California is going? Let’s see if she posted any pics,” (ie. they’re almost never trying to buy anything!). To go along with that, people’s eyes are drawn to different parts of the page on Facebook as compared to Google (thanks Mulley Communications). See how the first sponsored Google ad gets burned right through immediately while the Facebook ad gets little love? And since you know what blog you’re reading, here’s an analogy to explain:
It’s 5pm, you’re at the grocery store, and you see an attractive member of the opposite sex. You go up to him or her, and what do you say? If you were a Google PPC ad, you would probably say “Would you like to go out with me? I’ll give you 50% off Dinner and Drinks.” Late afternoon at a grocery store, this direct approach probably isn’t going to work. That person is thinking about what they’re making for dinner, and you’re not involved.
Flash forward. It’s 1:30am at McFadden’s. You see an attractive member of the opposite sex, and now what do you say when you walk up to them? Your Google PPC ad might work this time, because that person isn’t thinking about grocery shopping – they’re in a different kind of shopping mode.
If in the first scenario, you were a brand on Facebook, is it better to walk up to the person in the grocery store and offer them dinner and drinks with a promo code, or is it better to strike up a conversation about that new organic salad dressing that he or she is inspecting. “Oh I tried that one last week, it’s really great! I put it on salad and chicken, but the label says you can put it on just about anything!” That will probably get you a better response, or at least a request for more information (ie. a click).
Now back to 1:30am at McFadden’s. Try striking up a conversation about how “I just tried this awesome salad dressing last week; you NEED to try this stuff,” (insert any unrelated conversation there) and you’ll most definitely get ignored.
This may seem like a very convoluted analogy (and it is), but the idea is that Google is like a crazy bar right before they kick everyone out, and your request for a date in this setting is very much like a Google PPC ad. You can be very direct; they are in buying mode. Facebook is like the grocery store, and your ad will most likely fall on deaf ears, especially if it’s an ad to buy something (ie. a date) because their mind is on dinner, the last time they cooked, who they were with, etc. Much better to subtly offer value about something they’re already discussing or thinking about – in this case, the salad dressing – and engage them, rather than hitting them with a PPC ad which asks them to do something for you.
That said, here’s a phenomenal post from All Facebook that relates to Facebook PPC multivariate testing.
Whew, I need to go work on my analogies now, that was pretty awful.
Have a better AdWords v. FB PPC analogy and want to share? Toss it in the comments or tweet it @jedsinger.
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In two weeks, the Facebook Gift Shop will be closing its virtual doors; a move that has some relieved, some surprised, and others excited. Many are relieved that they won’t be pestered with virtual (read: fake) gifts that Facebook suggests users purchase for their friends and which clutter everyone’s profiles. The move is also a bit surprising for a number of reasons, namely that the Gift Shop has virtually no overhead costs and is considered a $100 million revenue driver for Facebook.
Also, at the f8 Developer Conference a few months back, Facebook was expected to make a big announcement about the evolution of their Credits system, which not only didn’t happen, but they then turned around and signed a huge 5 year deal with Zynga, the popular gaming application network, which lead some to believe that Facebook was turning away from a redesigned Credit system and focusing on other functionality.
Now that we see that Facebook is committed to the evolution of their Credits, we’ll be getting a much richer experience. Businesses won’t be worried about creating branded gifts that will go largely unnoticed by users, but will instead focus on developing immersive and engaging campaigns within the apps of their Facebook pages. Facebook’s recent acquisition of nextstop, a mobile location service, may also play a hand in the new Credits system, as more users, developers, and brands begin to invest in richer mobile experiences.
Posted in social networks by .
Ready? Nothing. My Google Reader (I know, “why do you still use a Google Reader??” I like my Reader, chill out) has been inundated with chatter about the new Google social network, “Me,” that is supposed to rival Facebook, and, while it does seem like big news, really is not what I want to be reading about.
Why is Google trying to make another foray into the social network biz? Not sure. Orkut is great (if you’re Brazilian), I use Wave at work (great for collab’ing), Buzz is awful (nobody needs another noisy aggregator), and Google Universal Search, itself, is already a sweet social aggregation tool as far as Personalized Search and Results From People In Your Social Network. Is Google nervous that Facebook’s internal search (confusing semantically and from a user experience, narrow in scope, and overall poor) will rival their own? (never say never, but this is pretty much a “never”)
I used to be a huge Google advocate (I voted for them in the 2008 Presidential Election and made plans to name my first daughter ‘Googleplex’), but now I’m on the fence. After their stint making phones (not going so well?), their attempt at imitating Twitter (Buzz) with no real user value, and this nervous nelly move at a legit social network, Google “Me” (don’t get me wrong, I like the pun; I Google myself weekly) is another chink in the armor of the search juggernaut. While I am sick of reading about it at the moment, I will definitely be tuned in when Google “Me” actually rolls out (and praying that it isn’t another huge bomb), but until then, there’s nothing to talk about.
(And I may have set the record for most extensive use of parentheses in under 300 words…)
Posted in social networks by .
Jun 10
23
Crushin’ It With Gary Vee
Just recently finished Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It! and feeling motivated. The message isn’t new: do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life. Easier said than done. Gary does a great job of highlighting shifts in technology – the advent of the Web, instant publishing, and social networking, to name a few – and giving the reader a blueprint to not only achieve their goals, but to attack a niche that you’re passionate about and blow it out of the water. A die-hard business developer, Vaynerchuk runs WineLibraryTV and vodcasts constantly on his site about new business ideas, social tips, speaking gigs, and a general stream of (valuable) consciousness. The book is about 140 pages, and you’ll blow through it in a day; the only question is, what will you do with what you learn when you’re finished? If you plan on just reading the book to find some interesting tidbits or to learn some social media tactics, don’t even bother. But if you’re ready to REALLY get motivated, watch this keynote from Web 2.0 Expo NYC 2009 (it’ll get you acclimated to his style) and then go out (or to Amazon, Audible, Vook, or iTunes) and grab this book.
Other Fun Facts:
- I just signed up for Gowalla a few weeks ago, and I picked up the Crush It! book somewhere. Very cool!
- A small group of Drexel Alums are going up to the Wine Library on July 12th, and it’s going to be awesome.
Posted in book reviews by .
Jun 10
22
Social Media Day Philly!
Hey all you social medialights, guess what next Wednesday is?? Yes, it is the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Independence Day (they separated from Belgium in 1960), but more importantly, it’s Social Media Day in Philadelphia! On June 8th, Mashable announced that the 30th would be forever declared Social Media Day, a holiday celebrating the revolution of media becoming a social dialog.
We thought this was an awesome idea, and jumped right on the bandwagon, opting to organize the Philly meetup. Chevy joined in as a sponsor, we worked with the Field House on 11th and Filbert near the Convention Center to plan the event, and other groups clamored to join in on the festivities. Mashable updated their original post and event featured Social Media Day Philly as one of the cooler Meetups taking place!
This year’s Social Media Day Philly is shaping up to be the best one EVER (technically, it’s the first ever, so it will be the best ever by default, but regardless!), and we have lots of fun stuff planned for the nearly 100 people who have already RSVPd, including Twizzo! So grab your friends (even if they don’t have a blog and aren’t on Twitter), because we’re going to have a blast on the 30th. RSVP Here!
And don’t forget to follow @smdphilly on Twitter for details about the event and for a chance to win more drink tickets from Chevy!
Posted in events by .
Jun 10
15
World Cup Twitter Tchotchkes
With the World Cup in full swing, Twitter, being a truly global social network (by now, less than 50% of tweets are in English), has been adding in fun little tchotchkes into the stream including soccer balls when you tag tweets with #worldcup and flags when you use country hashtags. It’s a great way to keep things fresh – Google has been doing it for years for historical events and birthdays with their doodle.
Look for more of these little guys as the World Cup progresses. Also, users can “checkin” at the World Cup by tagging their tweets with specific stadiums. This is being rolled out globally, and it’ll be interesting to see how it plays with the geolocation services:
What do you think? Is it a matter of time before brands start paying for Twitter tchotchkes on their tags? Will #coke show a bottle of Coca-cola in the tweet? How about the specific geolocation of the tweet? What will the effect be on Foursquare and others?
Posted in social networks by .
About a month ago, Techcrunch announced that Facebook would be rolling out location-based checkin functionality for their mobile app, and that it would most likely be dubbed the “Places” tab. Geo-location is all the rage now, with Foursquare nearing 1 million checkins a day and Gowalla at a quarter million users, and while it’s no surprise that Facebook is looking to jump on the bandwagon, it is surprising that they would dub their new checkin feature “Places…”
Enter Google Places allows business owners to list tons of information about their locations, offer discounts, display photos and videos, and offers analytics and insights all for free.
Why would Facebook choose to name their latest feature “Places,” the same name that their biggest share-of-web competitor, Google, has given to its local business search?
Possibly because they don’t have much of a plan going into anything (difficult when your leader has never run a business and is only 27) and they have the hubris to believe that they can be late to the game rolling out a feature that many other businesses are already implementing extremely successfully (being the biggest player in the game doesn’t mean you can get sloppy; look at AOL), and their short sightedness in making confusing changes for their users has been well documented (see: tons Privacy Changes and the new Like Button, among the most recent). As a matter of fact, “Places” would be the perfect name!
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Just finished Sun Tzu For Success by Gerald Michaelson (and Sun Tzu) at the recommendation of one of my colleagues and I have to say, it’s a fantastic motivational tool. As the title suggests, it’s about applying the general’s military wisdom to help you accomplish the goals that you’ve set in life.
The first section of the book is about personal success characteristics; be moral, listen well, practice discipline, etc. The main takeaways of this first part, for me, were two fold: seek sound counsel, and know yourself. While these both may seem obvious, they’re worth stressing.
I always like the idea of having a personal advisory board, like a Jedi Counsel, at my disposal; those who have experienced similar career paths, those who have done what I want to do. What motivated them to make the choices they made? What made them want to make changes in their career paths? A Jedi Counsel is invaluable.
Even more important is the concept of knowing yourself. “Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are sure to be defeated in every battle.” This is key; who are you as a person? What motivates you? Without having a “self” compass, how can you track your progress?
Sections Two and Three are titled Strategies for Success and Tactics for Success and are applicable to industries across the board. In Strategies, my two favorite chapters were Avoid the Avoidable, which speaks to preparedness, and Go for a Breakthrough, which is very Seth Godin, Purple Cow-esque. Go for a breakthrough, be different, be amazingly unique; it’s the only thing that will keep you relevant.
Tactics for Success contains more great chapters including Move Rapidly, which warns against analysis paralysis, Occupy the High Ground, which insists on a positive state of mind, and Build on Your Successes, my favorite chapter and the one that I feel is the most actionable take-away. The idea behind Build on Your Successes is that each individual victory allows you to leverage it into another victory, and that one into another victory, and so on as you approach your ultimate goal. How can I leverage this great news into the next step towards the end game? Once you stop leveraging these small victories, you lose all your momentum, and it makes getting to the next level all that more difficult.
What does this post have to do with marketing? Nothing really, but this is a marketing blog, and I get to name the posts whatever I want. Sun Tzu For Success is a valuable read for anyone with goals. That sounds like you, doesn’t it?
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Initially, all the changes announced at the f8 Conference made me really excited. As the weeks go buy, though, I keep finding little things that irk me. Have we decided whether or not we’re migrating to the “Likes” on Facebook/the entire Internet, or if we’re still using “Fans” occasionally? We know why Facebook went with the wording overhaul; they were looking for more interaction between users and brands across the Web (especially on Facebook), and people are supposedly more likely to click “like” than “become a fan” because it’s implied that there is less commitment (even though there isn’t – a bait-and-switch which, in and of itself, seems to be a moral decision Facebook is okay with).
That’s fine. I’m okay with that. I’m enjoying the idea of “liking” things across the Web – my favorite places on foursquare, my favorite restaurants on Yelp, my favorite movies on IMDB, etc. – and having them show up both on the sites and on my profile for my friends to see. My problem is with the semantics of the new system. On the back end, if you manage a page, you’ll see in the analytics that Facebook is still calling them Fans. Why? Well they don’t have much of a choice.
They’ve now created a situation where “likes” mean two different things on the same page. On a brand’s page, you can see “likes” that are people (where “Fans” used to be) and “likes” that are on-page actions (eg. “7 people like this” thing that you’ve posted to your wall). In your page’s Facebook Insights, Facebook can’t say that you’ve gotten 18 “likes” this week, because does that mean you’ve gotten 18 new people or 18 new actions from people? That’s why they’re still saying you’ve gotten 18 new “Fans” and 18 new “interactions.” How long will the front- and back-end have different terminology? I’m not sure they know. Facebook has kind of dug themselves a hole here. Shouldn’t this be a big deal?
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TrueAction and GSI Commerce
Jed Singer is a Search Engine Optimization Analyst at TrueAction, an interactive marketing agency owned by GSI Commerce, and the opinions expressed in the Socialight Media Blog are in no way a reflection of the views of TrueAction or GSI Commerce.