If you are looking for arguments to convince management that social media is worth it, this Series is for you. My next few publications will aim to highlight – from a marketing perspective – advantages and disadvantages of popular and emerging social media channels so that you can choose the arguments that best fit your situation and build a strong case to get the buy-in from your executives. You may also use this information to request additional resources that can help you strengthen your current social media initiatives. Alternatively, you may use this information to adjust or drop current social media programs that are not working.

FACEBOOK

As we all know, Facebook is the social media channel that has the most users thus far (according to Wikipedia, as of February 2012, Facebook had over 845 million users worldwide). It is therefore, the first social media channel that comes to mind when thinking about a social media presence. But, is it for all brands?

Advantages of Facebook

- As with other social media channels, Facebook can help marketers humanize their brands. By creating a Facebook page, brands can build a social media profile that people can identify, engage and interact with. Facebook offers a variety of options that can help brands develop their ‘social’ personas (e.g. pictures, videos, links, posts, etc.). These tools can also be easily leveraged to engage with fans and provide them with an extraordinary experience that will motivate them to visit your Facebook page repeatedly.

- Facebook makes it very easy for fans to share your content. Given that is a biggest social network, the potential for increasing brand awareness is huge. This is also an important element in building a community around a brand. The possibility of sharing the brand experience with people worldwide can extend the reach of the brand to places that marketers may not have thought of before.

- Having a Facebook page will allow marketers to get a good idea of the way people see and understand their brands. It gives companies the opportunity to initiate and influence/facilitate conversations that would otherwise still happen but under different circumstances. Marketers can choose to participate or simply observe what goes on on their company’s pages knowing that they have a little more control or influence over what is being said. The information captured from comments and people’s reactions will help marketers modify strategies and tactics in order to increase success rates.

- What happens on Facebook has a long-term impact that can directly influence the positioning of the brand in the future. This gives marketers an opportunity to develop a social media personality that can support the brand’s goals in the long-term.

- Facebook can help marketers spread news fast. It also offers the possibility of news and information going viral which will surpass the reach of any of the traditional media options. If done correctly, it could increase the relevance and awareness of the brand bringing in more customers and business opportunities.

- Facebook offers marketers the possibility of running targeted ads. These ads show on the pages of people that show an interest for your product or service. These ads are more likely to perform better since they are relevant to the target audience.

- Facebook’s platform is opened to developers who can build a variety of applications that can help support the company’s business and marketing goals. Developers can add subtle marketing messages to the apps without diminishing their usefulness. Marketers can also work with developers to develop custom apps that help them differentiate their brands.

- Facebook pages are indexed by search engines such as Google. This gives marketers another avenue to improve the visibility for their brands as well as their rankings in search engine results.

Disadvantages of Facebook

- The unexpected is always a possibility and this is probably the main concern of executives. Marketers don’t have control over how things may develop in the social media space. At any time, someone may post a complaint or a comment that may have a negative impact on your brand. But, keep in mind that with all the social media channels out there, a person that is not happy will let the world know one way or another. In this case, having a Facebook presence will give marketers an opportunity to be proactive, turn things around and show how the brand cares and values their customers.

- Promoting a brand or marketing initiative through Facebook requires a great deal of time as this is not a ‘one-time’ type of media. Initiating and engaging in conversations requires time and careful planning. In many cases, this process may require additional resources that may not be included in Marketing budgets.

- It may be difficult to quantify ROI and see tangible results. However, there are other metrics that may help support your social media initiatives and that may have a long-term impact on your sales goals (e.g. customer references, improved SEO, increase in RSS subscriptions, etc.).

When planning an influence campaign that focuses on bloggers, it’s important to know who they are and what motivates them so you can effectively reach out to them and see if a partnership is possible for your brand or marketing initiative. Here is some information about bloggers that might help you shape up your reach plans.

Who blogs?

According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2011, bloggers are:

• 3/5 are male
• The majority are in the 25-44 age range
• The majority have a bachelors or graduate degree
• The majority are married
• The average number of blogs is three per week
• Almost 1/3 of bloggers have worked for traditional media
• Nearly 4 out of 10 bloggers report being actively courted by brands to write about or review products
• 9 out of 10 bloggers say its important that advertising on their blogs align with their values
• 70% of bloggers use their blog to share their expertise and experience

What motivates them to blog?

I have identified four different types of bloggers (non-corporate) based on their motivations to blog. These categories are:

1. Hobby: these are bloggers that write about the things and activities that they like the most. They find inspiration on their every day routines. They like to share what’s in their mind. All their content comes from their personal experiences. Examples include people that blog about cooking, surfing, photography, movies, etc.
2. Inspiration/Support: blogs in this category are meant to inspire and encourage readers. Bloggers in this category share new ideas that may help inspire readers. They share their mistakes so people can learn from them. Examples include bloggers hosting periodic weight-loss share your accomplishments tips, how to make a positive change in your life, etc.
3. Money: bloggers in this category focus on Search Engine Optimization, keywords and other tactics to increase visibility in the search engines rather than on the content of their blog. Advertising and money are their main objectives. Examples include blogs that help sell products, market services, etc.
4. Value: the main purpose for writing blogs in this category is to provide valuable information through high quality content. Bloggers in this category care about offering tips, insights and advise. They want their readers to get something actionable out of their posts. Examples include people who make recommendations from professional experience such as financial planners who provide advise on how to budget and plan for retirement, etc.

From these categories, and from a marketing perspective, the first and the last offer the most opportunities for engaging in a successful influence campaign that can help a brand generate awareness while building a community around its products or services.

Can you think of any other type of blogger category that may be considered for an influence campaign?

Videos allow you to grab people’s attention quickly and tell your story in a dynamic and engaging way. If you already decided that videos are going to be a central part of your marketing strategy in 2012, depending on your marketing and business goals, there are different kinds of videos to consider:

- Promotional: these videos provide an overview of your product or service. They help people get familiar with your offering and set preliminary expectations about the benefits or advantages that they can expect.These videos are usually short and to the point – think ‘elevator pitch.’

Example: HubSpot Product Overview

- Demonstrations: these videos show your product or service ‘in action.’ They help viewers understand how the product or service works, its capabilities, and how it is going to solve their needs.

Example: Demonstration video for the NEX-5 ultra compact digital cameras by Sony

- Tutorials: the main purpose of these videos is to educate, to transfer knowledge so that the audience can learn how to use or take advantage of a product. These videos provide step by step instructions and tips that customers can use or apply right away.

Example: Add Dramatic Color to Photographs: Photoshop Tutorial

- Customer testimonials: the power of word of mouth, these videos showcase actual customers talking about their experience with your product or service. These videos are powerful as they show real customers sharing their stories and providing evidence that you offer a good product or service.

Example: Walmart MoneyCard Customer Testimonials

- Behind the scenes: these videos provide a sneak peek behind the curtains. The ‘exclusivity’ aspect of this kind of video helps people get a better understanding of the product or service while adding a personal touch and engaging with the audience in a deeper and lasting way.

Example: Old Spice | Behind the Scenes

- Thought Leadership: these videos are the result of conference speeches, presentations, webinars, etc. They show experts talking about relevant topics in your industry, your products or services, best practices, etc. These videos allow you to build trust and credibility in the marketplace.

Example: PL/SQL Best Practices with Steven Feuerstein

- Viral videos: these are tricky as they require a special talent to get them right. These kind of video tells a story that elicits a strong emotion and motivates the audience to share. Viral videos usually offers stories that are original, unusual, unexpected, funny, etc. and have the potential of generating a tremendous amount of awareness for your brand or situation promoted in the video.

Example: A Day Made of Glass… Made possible by Corning

Edited 02/20/12

After attending some sessions during Social Media Week last week, I learned about a new type of video: the social video. The idea behind it is to offer the viewer an opportunity to actively participate in the development of the film story through social media interactions.

The first film of its kind was called The Inside Experience and was developed for Intel and Toshiba. The story focused around a girl that was trapped in a room and needed help to get out. The girl was given access to the Internet and through clues and tips found in social media channels, people were able to communicate with her and help her get out. Here is a quick preview and description of the video:

To see the full video, you need to subscribe to The Inside Experience channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheInsideExperience

I never really thought about widgets until last week when I had to do some research about pop ads, banner ads and widgets and how companies are taking advantage of them. As it turns out, widgets are actually cool little tools that provide highly targeted information. Let’s take a look.

What are widgets?

Widgets are stand-alone, task-oriented applications that you can easily download to their desktops or embed in a webpage (no technical expertise is required). The applications provide information that you are interested in, without you having to surf the web. Widgets can be anything from a Facebook message alert to a weather forecast to a game to a voting poll. Widgets are usually visually attractive and can take the form of a picture, graph, summary, numbers, etc.

An additional characteristic of web widgets is that they allow you to pull information from many different online sources (using different widgets) into one page and share it with the world. For instance, if you want to integrate your Twitter feed with your blog, you can do so easily by adding the Twitter widget to the page so when people land on it, they can follow your conversations.

Why are widgets relevant to marketing?

Widgets are becoming so popular that they are supported by tons of services, especially social media applications (e.g. wordpress, typepad, myspace, etc.) There is even a new term – Widget Marketing – that represents the potential of widgets as a marketing tool. Some of the benefits that can be expected from using widgets for marketing purposes include:

1. Brand awareness: widgets offer another way for companies to extend the reach of their brand in a practical way by offering value-added content in the form of user specific information, extra functionality, and even games.
2. Viral distribution: if done correctly, widgets have the potential of going viral tapping into the massive social media audience.
3. Engagement: widgets are interactive in nature ensuring that users spend a lot of time with them. The ability of widgets to push information as it happens ensures that engagement remains high.
4. Personalization: widgets are becoming a tool for expressing identity by enabling people to personalize their web pages through content that is relevant to them.

Widgets are changing the way content is published, shared and promoted. They are also changing the way customers engage with brands. Ensuring that your content is relevant, can be personalized and allows engagement will go a long way as customers share and endorse your brand through their web page, blog or social media profiles.

Here is a quick tutorial with more information about widgets: http://youtu.be/QIn-8s_yYHs