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Advertising goes social

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Looking to make your Facebook promotions more effective? Facebook advertising, thanks to its highly targeted nature, can be one of the most effective ways for you to kick-start your promotion and ensure its success. In a recent survey, it has been found that Facebook Advertisement is the number one way of informing potential fans about your page and promotions running on your page.

What it holds?

Facebook advertising is still a relatively new offering and marketers are just beginning to understand how to use these advertisements most effectively. Like any other advertising, Facebook ads also target people in order to get them to react to the communication and visit the brand’s Facebook page. Where Facebook ads score above the other form of advertising is that it is more personal, more flexible and almost always comes with a friend’s recommendation.

Why Facebook Ads should be used?

Facebook is about relationship marketing, not direct sales. Facebook Ads can help transform existing advertising into messages that are tailored to the individual user based on how their friends interact and affiliate with the brands, music artists, and businesses they care about.

More importantly, Facebook Ads give the brand a borrowed voice of a friend which can help build a long lasting relationship for the brand.

Where You Find them?

When users log on to Facebook for the first time in a while, they will see the most important stories that they missed while they were away. This is where Engagement ads are posted and get the maximum eyeballs since there is no other ad on the page.

Engagement ads

Engagement ads are above-the-fold home page ads that integrate naturally within the user’s experience. Engagement ads appear in the right-hand column and can generate social stories in Feed. The ads allow your brand to share and connect with users on the home page. These ads are generally floated by a Facebook Media Buying agency.

Since there is a premium attached to these ads, a lot of smaller organizations opt for self serve ads.

Rest-of-site Ad/ Self Serve Ads

Facebook rest-of-site ads appear throughout the site, but not on the home page. Facebook rest-of-site ads for Pages and Events allow users to engage with ads in the same way they interact with other content on Facebook without leaving the page they’re viewing. Actions taken within the ad can generate organic stories in friends’ home pages. These ads can be developed and posted by anyone.

How they look?

The Facebook Ads give the advertiser the options of generating different types of ads based on the feature integrated in the ads.

Video Comment Engagement Ad

Watch video and comment. The ad unit allows users to leave inline comments on the video without leaving the home page. What’s more, users can also like the brand inline, without interrupting the video.

Event Engagement Ad

RSVP and invite others to join. The ad unit expands to invite friends to the event when one of the 3 RSVP options are selected. Friends who are attending the event are listed within the ad unit, as well as the total number of Facebook attendees. This increases the trust and likelihood of the user to engage in the ad. The act of RSVP-ing to the event is public and may appear in friends’ home pages. After RSVP-ing to the event, the user has the option to like the brand.*

Like Engagement Ad

If the user’s friends already like the brand, the ad unit provides relevant social context. This endorsement increases both the user’s trust in the brand and the likelihood that the user will engage with the ad unit and like the brand themselves. If none of the user’s friends currently like the brand, the ad unit displays the total number of people who like the brand at that time.

Poll Engagement Ad

Answer a poll and see how others voted. The ad unit asks a question with 2 or 3 responses. When the user selects a response, the poll results appear. These results reflect the answers of all Facebook users who have answered the poll. The user can also click to see how their friends voted or like the brand.*

Facebook’s Ad revenue hit $1.86B in 2010. Worldwide spending on social networks is expected to rise 71.6% in year 2011 to $5.97 billion, of which $4 billion will be spent just on Facebook Ads!!! This surely is a very potent medium which has great scope of growing to one of the biggest medium.

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 5 Comments »

The virtual world gets a new currency

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

It is often said that if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in terms of population behind China and India. For a country of this size, it is but natural to have a currency of its own. No wonder, Facebook Credits are fast becoming the dollar equivalent in the virtual world.

The new world economy

Facebook Credits are a virtual currency that users can use to buy virtual goods in many games and apps on the Facebook platform. Currently users can use Facebook Credits to purchase premium items in popular games and apps like CityVille, FarmVille, Cafe World, EA Sports FIFA Superstars etc.

The new banking system

You can purchase Facebook Credits using your credit card, PayPal, or a mobile phone. The Facebook Games Dashboards displays your available balance. You can directly purchase credits from the dashboards also. A lot of games also have the option to let you purchase directly.

The goal with Facebook Credits is to give people that use Facebook an easy, convenient and trusted way to buy premium items in games and applications, while creating unique opportunities for developers to build successful, sustainable businesses. Facebook Credits are now used in more than 200 games and applications on Facebook from more than 75 developers.

The global impact

What this means is, with more than 500,000 applications on Facebook, and millions of virtual goods within those applications (particularly games), applications have become an increasingly valuable part of the user experience. And Facebook Credits is the currency that makes purchasing these virtual items across applications possible in a fast and simple manner.

Generally it’s free to play the games on Facebook but users can get ahead if they pump in actual money to buy virtual goods. With 200 million people playing games on Facebook every month, according to the site’s own figures, it only takes a small proportion of paying customers to generate healthy revenue.

With the likes of Zynga, the biggest social game company and developers of Cityville and Farmville, signing to deal in Facebook Credits in their games, it has cemented Facebook Credits economic strength. Industry estimates say that Zynga has brought in between $500 million to $700 million in revenue this year from the sale of virtual goods. That is a lot of money spent in a virtual world. And if Zynga is to make Facebook Credits as its official currency for these games, Facebook Credits can soon become the desired currency world over.

Emerging Trend

This has already led to Facebook Credits debuting  in real world. Facebook began selling Facebook Credit gift cards at Target stores earlier this year, but with the holiday season approaching, it decided to land on the shelves of WalMart and Best Buy. Facebook Credits have been on store shelves from September 2010 and were ranked as one of the most desired holiday seasons gift.

Opportunity for engagement

With more and more people spending time on these games and purchasing virtual world gifts using the Facebook Credits, this could be good bait for brands to attract more fans to their pages. It is a given fact that a lot of people join brand pages for deals and offers. A lot of them join in order to win the contest run by these brands. While they are on these pages, these users are more active on the social games. With their favourite brands giving Facebook Credits as gifts for various contests that run on these brand pages will only make them more loyal fans of the page.

(source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/study-reveals-why-consumers-fan-facebook-pages/)

Not only that, with Facebook Credits easily becoming available for users, brands can look at adopting FB Credits as a viable ecommerce solution on Facebook. Though this system is not yet in place, a real world and a virtual world economy tie up cannot be ruled out. Knowing that a certain amount of FB Credits are worth a specific amount, the same conversion can be used to sell real products through Facebook.

The idea may sound radical but the growth of Facebook has lead to many changes in the brick and mortar structure of our society. More and more people are becoming citizens of the Facebook country. It is not just an imagination that soon there would be a virtual world with real transactions happening with Facebook Credits.

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Answers to a successful Online Brand Relation

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

In today’s fast paced world, virtual social networking has always strengthened existing relationships, and continues to provide a foundation for border-less communities based on common areas of interest.

Some people like to share with others what they know. Some people like to learn by reading questions and answers. Q&A sites offer that kind of information from experts or from everyday people. Q&A sites have grown immensely in the last few years. People are, more than ever, turning to the internet to get quick information about any topic through these Q&A sites.

It’s kind of asking your neighbour, coworker or friend a question and getting a written answer. There are some questions that cannot be answered by even the best reference books or encyclopedias. They need a human expert that can understand a complex relationship.

Opportunity for Brands to be Human.

This provides a great opportunity for Brands to participate in conversation with people who are looking for information about products they manufacture or services they provide. Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions.

Brands are driving leads using Question and Answer forums like LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo! Answers and Answers.com. LinkedIn Answers dominates the category usage, claiming 59.2 percent of use for companies participating in at least one Q&A forum. Yahoo! Answers is a distant second at 37.1 percent.

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help Brands in the following ways:

  • Direct customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.
  • Connect with people in the market, build reputation, and generate leads.
  • Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

Also, the Internet has a reputation for being shady. You need to let readers know why your answer is reputable and why you’re the right person to answer it. This gives Brands a greater credence and integrity to the response, and a higher likelihood for a recommendation or a vote up. It is this process of informing and educating the general audience that can help the brand establish “Thought Leadership.”

Who is listening to the Brand?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. Among those who use Q&A forums, 92 percent say they are at least somewhat useful with 25 percent claiming them to be “very useful.”

(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question & Answer Forums. Business.com)

How do Brands use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

  1. Help others
  2. Build relationships
  3. Push your products and services while answering somebody’s question or request.

In Q&A sites, the starting point is that somebody asked the question that you’re answering.

Specifically you shoul:

  • Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.
  • Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and / or link to a relevant page on your site.
  • Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.

Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

In essence, the best practices is to be helpful first, don’t go in trumpeting your sales pitch and focus on long-term relationship building and benefits rather than seeing a sudden influx of leads. An answer should simply touch on all prominent points that deliver a comprehensive, well structured response to a question.

The best part of the Q&A sites is that, they are Search Engine Optimized. This helps in increasing the visibility of the brand. More importantly, it is a credible way of highlighting your product range without sounding like advertising. And finally, Q&A sites are helping Brands become more human. It has allowed a Brand to be the friend you turn to when you have a query. Objective Achieved!

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Posted in Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Target Audience, Windchimes Comm | 5 Comments »

Going places with Foursquare

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

If you have been tracking the social media scene globally then it is very likely that you might have heard of Foursquare which is a location based social network mobile application. International blogs have been going gaga over Foursquare and some have even gone to the extent of labeling it as the next twitter.

What is foursquare?

Foursquare is a mobile phone app that’s rapidly getting quite popular. It is a “geo-social” networking app that allows you to tell the world exactly where you’re out to eat, drink and/or be merry, and what you think of it. And you can check out other people’s recommendations to plan your revelry. You can also use it to find the new interesting places in the city, like restaurants, or museums, or whatever else your friends are interested in; and you can use it to get reviews of any place that you want to know more about.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

How does it work?

You “check-in” to places you visit by letting the app know where you are. Friends who use the app then know where you are, and can come party with you. Users earn points & unlock badges for discovering new things. It also doubles up as a game where you compete for the Mayor-ship of a store based on the number of times you visit or check in to the store.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

As simple as that, you may say!

What makes it most interesting is that Foursquare is primarily a technology to be used on your mobile phone. The exploding use of mobile internet in India is another reason to think that foursquare can be big in India. And looking at what brands have been doing across the world, Foursquare can be used in India to reach out to potential customers. Here is a look at how brands have used this platform as a marketing tool.

A real treasure hunt:

Jimmy Choo, a world-renowned footwear brand, organized a real-time treasure hunt around London via Foursquare. A pair of Jimmy Choo trainers checked in at various locations and those who followed the campaign and were lucky enough to arrive at a venue before the trainers left got to pick a pair in the style and size of their choosing. The pair of sneakers checked in at trendy spots such as Lounge Lover, The Hummingbird Bakery and the members-only Mortons. The campaign was Jimmy Choo brand’s first foray into social media marketing; a rep said they wanted to use Foursquare to engage fans both online and off. Apparently this was “the first time Foursquare has been used to check in an object (rather than a person) at locations.”

Click on the image for an enlarged view

Brewing up some loyalty rewards:

Loyalty rewards are the fundamental offerings that most brands offer using Foursquare. But with Starbucks, loyalty rewards was redefined on Foursquare. Instead of just offering one regular check-in special and the regular Mayor’s discount for its customers, Starbucks has gone to a national level. Now anyone who is a mayor of any Starbucks store across the country can claim the special Mayor’s discount in any of the store across USA. This has led to increase in sales of however-you-want-it Frappuccino and a drastic rise in the number of followers of Starbucks on Foursquare.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

There are a number of reasons why the Starbucks nationwide mayor reward was significant. It was a first for both Foursquare and the coffee retailer, and brought mass attention to the marketing possibilities of the location-sharing trend.

Loving it on Foursquare:

McDonald’s used Foursquare to increase check-ins to its stores by 33% in one day with a little Foursquare ingenuity. McDonald’s total cost for the successful campaign was a measly $1,000. McDonald’s opted to try and take advantage of Foursquare Day (4/16) to bring in more business. The company used 100 randomly awarded $5 and $10 gift cards as check-in bait to lure in potential diners. The bait also worked to attract the media’s attention and resulted in more than 50 articles covering McDonald’s Foursquare special, which was the true measure of their campaign success.

The campaign worked in both digital and real world capacities. Patrons flocked to McDonald’s restaurants for the chance to win gift cards in exchange for check-ins, and 600,000 online denizens opted to follow and fan the brand on social media sites.

Click on the image for an enlarged view

A company of McDonald’s size spends millions on advertising every year, and yet a simple $1,000 Foursquare campaign netted the company measurable success.

These are just a few brands that have had tangible success with Foursquare. What foursquare also offers is a more important intangible benefit of word of mouth promotion by the patrons of a particular store. When a Foursquare user checks-in and leaves a tip or to do listing or even gives a positive review of a store, the benefits are way higher than a traditional Advertising or PR campaign.

And it is not just brands that are moving onto Foursquare. Universities like Harvard are using Foursquare to enrich its alumni’s return to campus and establish a deeper relation with them. This model is being replicated by many tourism boards and retail chains to establish a more engaging relationship with its audience.

How far this journey goes is anybody’s guess. But right now, check-ins are coming thick and fast. Book yourself an account soon. Your feedbacks would be vital for us, so do drop in few words.

Posted in Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments »

Six keep-in-minds while devising a social media strategy

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Having been in business development for a specialist social media agency for a fair amount of time, there are certain caveats we keep reminding clients of. This is probably because social media is unlike any other marketing medium including the sir-please-try-our-website-since-the-model-is-very-different, which is at the end of the day, just a different form of display advertising.

So six caveats I’d like to give clients, agencies and social media enthusiasts or planners are…

1. What’s so great about you anyway?

While a statement like that is suicide as far as an agency is concerned, reflect on what it means. What IS so great about your brand that would make people want to put off watching pirated IPL videos on YouTube, stop chatting on GTalk with an old friend, stop scouring social networking sites for random profiles to make ‘franship’ with… And come talk about your brand? Now that I’ve put this question in perspective, it doesn’t seem as offensive, does it?

Let me put it this way: Look around you and search for a brand you have no professional affiliation to. Why would you become a fan voluntarily of that brand? Your answer to this will help you answer what your own brand should be doing on social media.

2. Great, you’ve got your fans. Now what?

In the craze to have a ‘presence’ on Facebook, companies often resort to buying fans, using FB ads. That in itself is not an evil thing, but what a brand needs to be clear on is what to do with these fans. We’ve seen many fan pages which the marketing team of companies opened frenetically, paid a sufficient amount to get 500 fans, post a few current-campaign-related updates, and then, once the campaign and budgets are over, lies inactive. What happens of the fans? Think of it this way: fans have, on their own volition, chosen to become fans of a brand. Which is as good as a footfall. And just like a footfall, you can never ignore a fan of a fan page.

3. Not everything’s for everyone

Telling a brand manager that a blog is not right for his brand is like finally telling your girlfriend that you’re not the right person for her. OK, almost. But you know what I mean. The ease with which social media platforms can be activated leads many to believe that their brand should be everywhere. Wrong. A presence on Twitter, a blog or even a FB fan page is a long-term effort. If your brand is in it for the ‘wham bam, thank you ma’am’ equivalent on social media, a quick application and some FB ads is what you should be looking at.

4. Time lagega, boss!

It is unrealistic to expect something like 1000 followers, fans or subscribers to get to your page in one or two months. Social media growth should be organic and growth will be exponential in nature. Which means, the first few months may have very few people coming in. But after that it’s like compounding. Think of it this way. A personal blog starts off with five loyal readers coerced to reading it (the industry equivalent being co-workers and your agency!) before merit alone decides whether more people start coming in on their own. It’s pretty much the same thing for your fan page, corporate blog or Twitter page.

5. Can you pass the cricket score test?

I’ve mentioned this before. But it needs to emphasised again. People are online to surf porn, plant virtual strawberries, chat with friends, check the latest gossip, read their friends’ blogs and most importantly in India, check cricket scores. The Cricket Score Test is what I call the process of someone actually deviating from this schedule, distracted by something else. Why do I say this? Because this is the same guy you’re trying to convince to play your application. Or read your corporate blog on your latest AGM. Or follow your Twitter handle of 3 updates. You get my drift, I hope. Remember, buying out fans is the only shortcut you can take. Then what?

6. Never attempt policing

It’s a free, democratic medium. It’s open. People can say anything they want, there is no point trying to suppress them, you’re only going to get lots of backlash. Anyone who followed the Nestle episode will know what I’m talking about. For a quick guide on what NOT to do on a Facebook page, click here.
And so there you have it. A few keep-in-minds for social media. All points are fairly debatable (That was the intention, honestly) and I look forward to your feedback on the comments.

Oh, and I blog here.

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Posted in Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Is advertising on Facebook called Social Media Marketing?

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Unless you have been living in the caves of Afghanistan, it is likely that you would have heard, if not become a registered member, of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 24 year old boss of Facebook opened up advertising on Facebook last year taking the approach of ‘social actions’ of its users. He explains it in his press release that “The core of every user’s experience on Facebook is their page and that’s where (all) businesses are going to start as well. Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people. It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. Social Ads can appear either within a user’s News Feed as sponsored content or in the ad space along the left side of the site.”

A lot of people believe that this might take web advertising to its new generation fourth phase. Basically Internet advertising has three proven advertising categories. The first is the banner or display ads; I guess it’s the most used by Indian marketers. The second is the online classifieds (eg. Craigslist); I can’t think of a successful Indian example in this case. Third is the widely spreading ‘search advertising’ that has been largely driven by Google.

As a marketer myself, I find the search related ads as the safest bet where I might put my monies. I haven’t found many banner ads so compelling or memorable enough to click on them. Search ads appear at right time and also I have to pay for them only if the consumer responds by clicking on it.

Although Facebook Ads is a step forward from earlier forms of advertising it cannot be considered as social media. It is still advertising. The message will still be more like brand speak rather than consumer speak. I give this example every time I have to explain the difference between speaking with and speaking to. Think of speaking to someone as standing on a podium with audience facing towards you while speaking with as coming down from that podium and standing together with the people and discussing with them. Social media is all about dialoguing with people, participating in their conversations and generating value for the group

We have reached a stage where Cluetrain Manisfesto needs to be revisited as its implications are being felt more than ever. It is important to preserve the sanctity of conversation economy even more. As social media marketer you have to ensure that you are creating value for your reader. Brian Solis has added his own unique perspective in his post Conversational Marketing Vs Market Conversations

I particularly like what Doc Searls has written on his blog about conversational marketing.

  • The purpose of conversation is to create and improve understanding, not for one party to “deliver messages” to the other. That would be rude.
  • There is no “audience” in a conversation. If we must label others in conversation, let’s call them partners.
  • Conversations are about talking, not announcing. They’re about listening, not surveying. They’re about paying attention, not getting attention. They’re about talking, not announcing
  • “Driving” is for cars and cattle, not conversation

To sum up, placing ads in Facebook may at best be termed as advertising in social media platform. It will always be one way street. It is not correct and complete manner of consumer engagement. It will make the marketer feel happy to see the brand next to a conversation but rest assured it is getting ignored by the consumer just as ever.

Read more about Social Media Marketing and how Facebook can be used to promote brands

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | 18 Comments »

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