Captico » Marketing

Lessons Learned through Big Name Social Media Mistakes

Nick Burnett — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:00:24 +0000

Twitter has brought a new phenomenon to the social media/micro blogging world. Companies, large and small, have been using Twitter and Facebook as marketing channels to run their campaigns. Some have greatly benefited from the use of these tools and others have destroyed the public’s opinion of their company. Loads of companies have made highly publicized mistakes, and here we will address three of them:

1. Chrysler’s F-Bomb

In March of this year, a tweet emerged from the Twitter account held by Chrysler, that read as follows:

“I find it ironic that Detroit is know as the #motorcity, and yet no one here knows how to (expletive) drive.” (Image taken from Forbes)

The Story: An employee of the marketing firm that managed the Chrysler account had posted content to the account earlier in the day from his phone. Later, having forgotten to log out, he unknowingly posted to the company’s account thinking it was his own.

The Repercussions: The backlash was intense. The marketing firm fired the employee responsible and Chrysler firing the marketing firm the next day.

Lesson Learned: The world is watching your every move when you market through social media. These new social media tools are out there to connect people, and to allow everyone to post things that are important to them. When you post something on Twitter it is ‘out there,’ so be mindful of what you are writing. Don’t post things that you wouldn’t want your boss or employers to see because those types of things have a way of coming back around. With a few clicks or retweets your content can be seen by millions of people.

2. Kenneth Cole Offends the World

The Story: In an effort to create a clever advertising campaign Kenneth Cole capitalized on globally trending topics (often around tragic situations) with tweets like this, sent out to his nearly 13,000 followers:

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available” (Image taken from Mashable)

The Repercussions: Facing an overwhelmingly negative response, Cole later apologized for making light of a bad situation.

Lesson Learned: It is never okay to base your advertising schemes off of unstable current events, they will blow up in your face and you will end up making a public apology like Mr. Cole. If something like this does happen the best way to handle it is to face the facts immediately. You were wrong and you must apologize as quickly as possible. Many times the press generated by a big mistake, coupled with a quick turn around, and truly remorseful apology will help build your company’s image back to what it was before the comment. History has shown that sometimes this technique even leads to a boost in public opinion of your brand. The worst thing that could happen is if you try to hide something from the public, or to act as though you were right. In these situations types of situations you can never be ‘too quick’ to apologize.

3. Honda’s Secret Agent

The Story: Honda took to advertising through social media in late 2009 with the release of their Crosstour CUV (crossover utility vehicle). They created a Facebook fan page for the vehicle and then released several photos in an attempt to introduce this new car into their fleet. What they received in return was a slew of negative feedback from less-than-impressed fans. In response to all of this feedback, Eddie Okubo decided to write a comment stating his positive view of the car – how he found it novel and useful. (See image to left – taken from CNN Money) The only problem was he did not disclose the fact that he was the manager of ‘Product Planning’ for Honda, and more importantly, participated in the development of this vehicle. Needless to say his opinion was skewed.

The Repercussions: Within two minutes of his posting, Okubo was being outed in comments on the page. People even linked to his LinkedIn profile and called him out on his purposeful lack of disclosing who he was. Honda ended up deleting his comment and releasing a press statement diverting attention from his comment stating there would be better pictures of the vehicle out soon.

Lesson Learned:

Never let the success of a product be overshadowed or influenced by your own personal ego. Okubo thought it was about him and forgot that he represented a brand. As marketers, it is not our job to try to boost our own self-image and ego through our jobs; we are supposed to boost the image of our product and brand, always. The moment this is forgotten is the moment a mistake of huge proportion can be made. Okubo could have simply disclosed his position at Honda and stated his positive comment and it would have been taken for what it was worth, but instead he tried to deceive to create positive feedback about something he was invested in and it didn’t work.
Do not delete comments. Face the music and accept criticism – it can be very helpful. When you make a mistake as a marketer don’t try to hide it – use the negative feedback and respond to it. Most of the time there is some good that you can take away from the feedback. The minute you start deleting comments or try to hide the negative is when your brand and/or product looses all credibility.

Social Media Lessons Learned: Summary

Do not forget that the world is watching you as a marketer, with every ad or promotion you run be sure it represents the company in a positive way.
If a mistake is made in a marketing promotion you can never be too quick to admit it and apologize. The faster you do this the faster you can go back to marketing the actual product instead of doing damage control.
Never let the success of a product be about your own personal ego. When that happens you are unable to see clearly what is usable criticism, it becomes all about you and not your product.
Finally do not delete, or try to hide from the public eye, mistakes that you make. Simply admit them and move on, deceitfulness will never take you far.

Lady Gaga and Zynga Team up to sell Unicorns and Music in Farmville

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 17 May 2011 13:50:06 +0000

Just when you think you’ve seen it all…

If the idea of grown adults playing an online virtual farming game (and often shelling out real cash to do so) doesn’t surprise you, then check out FarmVille‘s newest neighbor: Lady Gaga. Yup, the Pop Princess of Weird has partnered with online social gaming wizards Zynga to bring you the future of cross marketing. And it hurts so good.

If you are unfamiliar with the FarmVille sensation (which boasted 11 million players in August 2009 one month after its release, 33 million in September 2009, 80 million in February 2010 and now numbers are in the hundreds of millions worldwide), it is a virtual online game available on multiple platforms now including: Facebook, MySpace, iPhone, Android, Farmville.com, MSN Games, and Yahoo!. As the name implies, players build a farm complete with crops that need planting, watering, and harvesting, animals that need tending, and buildings that offer unique benefits. Players (or “neighbors” as they are called in the game) can visit each other’s farms helping out and giving virtual gifts. While the game is free to play, in-game items can be purchased to enhance game-play or give certain advantages.

In a cross-marketing play, Zynga has partnered with Lady Gaga to promote her newest album “Born This Way” through the game. One leg of the promotion is that if you purchase a $25 Game Card (like a gift certificate for in-game “money”) from Best Buy, you will receive Gaga’s new album and other game items as a free download upon redeeming it in FarmVille. Not a bad deal if you play FarmVille and had planned on buying “Born This Way” anyway. [See banner ad above.]

FarmVille players can also visit a Gaga-themed farm titled “GagaVille” featuring crystals, unicorns, and colorful trees where they can unlock and listen to songs from “Born This Way” after completing tasks. The music streams are powered by radio giant Clear Channel’s digital radio service iHeartRadio, marking the first time they have partnered with a social gaming firm. “In addition, Lady Gaga will announce codes that unlock exclusive Lady Gaga-inspired limited edition virtual items on 148 Clear Channel stations on May 17, including New York’s Z100 and LA’s KIIS-FM.”

“I want to celebrate and share ‘Born This Way’ with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before,” said Lady Gaga. “Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album.”

That “magical place” comes complete with a Gaga-themed shopping experience. Players must spend real money to buy virtual items like the unicorn “Purple Ponytail”, a “Fame Sheep”, “Sparkly Glasses”, other outfits for your character, a “Crystal Stage” and fountain. (But don’t worry – items like the “Bedazzled Tractor” and “Violet Gem” can be bought with coins earned in the game.)

The promotion also reaches across other Zynga games and platforms. Words With Friends (basically Scrabble), the popular mobile social game available iPhone, iPad, as well as Android devices, will feature a daily “Words with Gaga” contest, giving players a chance to win Gaga prizes including tickets to an upcoming concert and a signed copy of “Born This Way.” Zynga is also rewarding players with limited edition Lady Gaga virtual items on RewardVille.com.

This is the second time Zynga and Lady Gaga have teamed up. In March 2011, the two entertainment icons teamed up to raise more than $3 million for Japan relief efforts.

UPDATE: 5/19/11

I just ran across a banner ad for the Gaga/Zynga promotion on YouTube. The video insert features a farmer and his family planting real crystals and brushing pink haired ponies – pretty funny actually….

Guidelines and helpful tips for running a contest on Twitter

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:33:49 +0000

Twitter is a great social channel to interact with your customers and followers. It empowers you to reach out to individuals directly as well as facilitates real-time customer service conversations. Your marketing team loves it because, like Facebook, its also an easy way for your followers to share your messages with their friends. Hosting a contest is a fun way to get your followers to do this, as well as reward them for their loyalty and attention.

There are a lot of different contests you can run on Twitter – giveaways being the most popular – you can offer prizes for tweeting a particular update (like a product launch), for following a particular user (to build your company’s following), or for posting updates with a specific hashtag (to advertise an upcoming event). (See Twitter Promoted Trends and Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign for an example of a Twitter Contest) But before you jump in and arbitrarily start tossing ideas and prizes out, you’ll want to take a look at some of my and Twitter’s recommendations:

Have your rules, deadlines, and information ready – You will get questions from your contest entrants and whoever is handling your account needs to be prepared to answer them. When is the deadline? How many times can I enter? How are winners chosen? If its a prize, will it be mailed or does the winner have to pick it up? Make sure you think through how the contest will be run, how the winner(s) will be chosen, and how prizes will be awarded.

Ask users to include an @reply to you in their update so you can see all the entries – Trust me, you don’t want to have to dig through search results and mentions of your company/brand name to determine entrants to your contest. Make sure that including your Twitter @username is part of the requirements so that you can track the entries. This will also be better for your advertising reach as every tweet will link back to you directly.

Consider establishing a hashtag specific for your contest – A hashtag will make sure contest entries stand out from normal @replies and @mentions to your account as well as raise awareness around your target goal. The hashtag should be relevant to your content, and you should encourage entrants to keep their messaging related as well.

Discourage the creation of multiple accounts – If you’re giving away something really awesome, users may be tempted to set up duplicate or dummy accounts in order to enter your contest multiple times. You’ll want to make sure you address this in your rules and contest announcement.

Discourage posting the same tweet Repeatedly – This is straight from Twitter: “Posting duplicate, or near duplicate, updates or links is a violation of the Twitter Rules and jeopardizes search quality. Please don’t set rules to encourage lots of duplicate updates (like saying, “whoever retweets this the most wins”). Your contest could cause users to be automatically filtered out of Twitter search. Plus, instead of their followers seeing your cool contest, their followers might start getting annoyed by your contest. You might want to set a clear contest rule stating that multiple entries in a single day will not be accepted.”

A Study of Fan Engagement on Facebook Pages by Visibli

Corrie Davidson — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 00:16:28 +0000

Toronto-based “Engagement Bar” company Visibli recently analyzed over 200 million Facebook Fans to determine their engagement habits across different Fan Page types. By tracking the number of Likes and Comments that each post received over time, they found some interesting statistics about how long before content goes stale and who gets the most attention on Facebook.

Visibli calculated that Facebook posts receive 50% of their likes in the first 1 hour and 20 minutes, 80% in the first 7 hours, and 95% within 22 hours. Compare that to Twitter where 95% of ReTweets occur within the first hour!

In a review of Pages with over 100,000 Likes, Visibli gives car manufacturer Audi the crown for most engaged fans. Each Audi post received over 225 Likes per 100k fans, surpassing even the most popular Artists – like Justin Bieber (2nd) and Lady Gaga (4th). This is particularly interesting because Pages for Artists scored notably higher than Pages for Media or Brands. On average, artists’ posts receive 92 Likes per post, which is almost twice the number of Likes for media organizations and brands – who receive an average of 57 and 54, respectively. “Surprisingly, the same is not true for Comments. Media organizations receive significantly more Comments per post (43 per post) than artists (17) or brands (only 9). While people are more likely to comment on current news, they will simply Like an artist’s post and then move on.”

Jack Daniel’s hopes to garner buzz on Twitter and Facebook with new Honey Liqueur

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:25:02 +0000

How do you generate buzz around your new line of booze from bees? Turn to social media. Famous Tennessee whiskey makers Jack Daniel’s have launched a new Honey Liqueur blended with their well known whiskey. To get the word out, they’ve turned to Twitter and Facebook. Let’s look at their campaign…

Jack Daniel’s on Twitter

By purchasing a Promoted Trending Topic for the day, Jack Daniel’s is guaranteed eyeballs on the new product launch and are generating enough responses to be trending worldwide. Promoted Tweets are an excellent way to get people aware of your product/brand/service and get people talking about it – if only to ask “what is _____??” The #JackDanielsHoney hashtag from their promoted tweet is being used pretty aggressively and shows up in my local (Washington DC) trending topics as well as for the United States and Worldwide. (For another example of a company using Promoted Tweets recently, check out Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign.) [UPDATE: Three Promoted Trends were actually purchased in a seven day span and appeared on April 16th, 21st and 22nd.]

Clicking the hashtag in the Trending Topics section takes you to a search results page with all of the tweets utilizing the hashtag appearing in chronological order (newest first) but witht he most ReTweeted and sponsored Tweet appearing at the top. Here you can see what people are saying about the topic, what they think, and how they are interacting with the brand and each other. Though the whiskey maker does not appear to have an official “Jack Daniel’s” twitter account, they did set up an official @JackHoney account to specifically advertise the product. (There is an unofficial @JackDanielsFans account though with over 16,400 fans. Do you think JD is a little late to the party here?)

If you visit the @JackHoney twitter account you will notice that where you normally link to your website in your profile, they are linking to the Jack Daniels Honey facebook page instead of the official Jack Daniel’s website. In fact, a visit to their website showed zero sign of the new honey liqueur. I even did a search for “honey” which if I hit the Enter/Return key on my keyboard after typing in my query, simply booted me back to the default page – showing no results whatsoever- not even a message saying “No Results Found”. If I click their “Search” button after entering my query, I am taken to a results page only showing a link to cocktail recipes (which after clicking I am taken to a list I have to scroll way down for to even find a recipe calling for honey – which hasn’t even been branded with the Jack Honey yet) and a link for grilling, where I again have to scroll all the way down to find a tiny mention on the last article about using honey teriyaki in a BBQ recipe (again – unbranded). If there is ANY official Honey presence on their website, I cannot find it nor do they link to it anywhere I can see. Branding Fail? I think so.

*A special last thought on Twitter. I think its very interesting how in EVERY tweet that @JackHoney sends out, they include “(Msg 4 21+ only. JD Distillery, Wsky Spec)”. I’m not sure if this was a requirement imposed by twitter, a mandate by JD’s legal team, or just part of their “Responsible Drinking” philosophy, but it’s a nice (albeit useless) thought. [UPDATE: ClickZ reports that "Alcohol brands had previously been restricted from buying ads on Twitter as its audience consisted of too many users below drinking age. Over 70 percent of the network's audience is now over 21 years of age, according to Nielsen and comScore, satisfying self regulatory requirements put in place by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS.) ...In line with DISCUS regulations, all promoted tweets for the product also had to include a disclaimer, which stated, "Msg 4 21+ only. JD Distillery, Wsky Spec.]

Jack Daniel’s on Facebook

If you want more information on the Honey liqueur, your only recourse is to follow the trail to their Facebook Page where you are greeted with what we are calling a “Like Wall”. A Like Wall is like a paywall, but instead of having to shell out your credit card to gain access to the content you have to “Like” the page. I’m not sure who in their design department thought it would be a good idea to make the graphic so ridiculously vertical that you have to scroll twice the length of the page just to see the branded product bottle, but its a good looking image regardless. (I had to blow up my browser window on my second monitor and then zoom way out to capture it all one screen!)

After “Liking” the page you have to click one of the tabs in the left hand navigation or you will be stuck staring at the oversized image forever. I clicked on the “Info” tab first which has some odd content itself… In the product section (among other items) they say: “If you would like to contact us directly, please email us at: jackdaniels_facebook@lynchburg.jackdaniels.com” but in the Email section they say: “@jackhoney on twitter: reply to our DM within one hour to continue receiving tweets.” First of all, I have no idea what THAT means, and second… why not put the email in the email section as well? Just some odd stuff going on with JD here…

As far as content, they have some photos and videos. Their Wall is pretty standard – they allow their fans to comment on their wall publicly which is great, but unlike on Twitter, they don’t seem to be replying to any questions or comments from some very enthusiastic fans which is a shame. They have a Recipe tab which has the branded honey-including recipes missing from their official site. (I may have to try some of these actually – they look good!)

Jack Daniel’s does have an official Facebook Page – boasting over 1 million fans – which is integrated with their website (if you are logged in to Facebook and visit their website it shows who of your friends already “Like” Jack Daniel’s). (With so many fans on Facebook it makes me again wonder why they don’t have an offical presence on twitter.)

Conclusion

Overall I think Jack Daniel’s has the right idea and will most likely get a great return on their Promoted Tweet investment. They seem to be struggling slightly in some areas, but as long as they continue to adapt and embrace these new marketing channels, I think they will see successful results. My advice to them on this campaign would be: Revisit your Facebook profile; Start engaging with your Facebook fans more; Create a presence for the product on your website to complete the circle; and, Its time to add Twitter to your website and marketing channels.

What do you think of the Jack Daniel’s approach? Do you have comments or advice for them? Does the Honey liqueur sound like a smart, forward thinking move? Or are they betraying their roots? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

5/3/11 UPDATE on Jack Daniel’s Campaign

ClickZ just published an article about last month’s Jack Honey Twitter campaign and had some new information that readers may find useful. They quote Marjorie Dufek, interactive marketing director at Brown-Forman (who owns Jack Daniel’s) as saying ”Twitter reported ‘significantly higher than average’ engagement rates for the campaign, as well as greater use of the brand name within tweets than its advertisers usually experience… The advantage for us is that people see Jack Daniel’s as a friend, it’s a very social brand by nature. We have an unprecedented opportunity to have real conversations with our consumers via social media.” Though Brown-Forman works with agencies for some of its marketing functions, Dufek said the majority of its social media activity is handled by in-house teams, which it views as an extension of its 50-year old consumer relationship program. (Thanks for the interview ClickZ!)

Is Your Business Ready for the New Consumer? – Takeaways from Mitch Joel’s Keynote at Radian6 2011 Event

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:45:48 +0000

Author, Speaker, and Twist Image President Mitch Joel, the so-called “Rock Star of Digital Marketing”, gave the keynote at Radian6‘s Social Media 2011 Conference in Boston, MA. You can watch the full 51 minute Ustream keynote here, but below I have taken some notes from it that I found particularly interesting.

• “I believe whats presently happening in business and social media and how people are connecting is fundamentally changing everything we know about business.”

• Question posed to Google’s “Analytics Evangelist” Avinash Kaushik by a senior retailer marketer: I believe everything you’re saying about this whole Web 2.0 and social media… We tried it. We hired a 24 year old person just out of university, we brought them in… they had tattoos, earrings – theY really looked the part – it was perfect. We put them in charge of everything. They were in charge of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, everything and… Nothing. “I’m sitting there thinking to myself, these changes are so huge and so dramatic, are you really telling me that you took a 24 year old and put them out by themselves in charge of all this? Its crazy!… The social web is over ten years old… but people make the miss-assumption that you need to be young and someone who’s on Facebook to understand how this works… we have to change our perceptions and the idea is not to hire and initiate a bunch of digital natives into your organization, the idea is to get a transfusion!”

• “The Web has been around forever and yet it is not in the blood of the executives who staff the top echelons of companies. Make no mistake, the are smart, they are successful and they want to do better. But the Web is such a paradigm shift that if it is not in your blood it is very difficult to imagine its power and how to use it for good. How do you demand innovation and creativity and radical rethink if you can’t imagine it?” – Google’s “Analytics Evangelist” Avinash Kaushik

• “Last year, last quarter, there were more smart phones sold than PCs.”

• The biggest thing is the humanization of technology. Swipes, touch, move, feel [like on an iPad] – these are human gestures that create a humanization of the web. As social media humanized the interactions that people have, the devices are catching up and humanizing the experience and taking away the technology. Its a game changer when we make technology simple and easy to use.

• “When I hear people talking about the social WEB or your WEBsite, in my brain I’m going ‘we need new vocabulary,’ because we are no longer in that world when it comes to social or understanding what people are saying anymore… See we live in the world now of ‘Web,’ ‘Mobile’ and ‘Touch’ and they are three very different experiences. And if you are creating content for it and you are listening to what people are saying about it and how they are talking about it, they way the interact with and use things on these platforms is fundamentally different too.”

• “We will never have an opportunity like this as marketers again, to literally remap what it is people do with our products, brands, and services and how to push these ideas forward.”

• We all agree that no one buys anything any more without researching it online and reading reviews, but how many of you allow reviews (good and bad) on your company’s website? Whats wrong with you? You’re scared. You’re scared someone will say something negative about you, how you will respond, etc…. According to Bazaarvoice out of 150 billion online product/service reviews, average review rating is 4.3 out of 5. Statistically, if you open up and allow anyone to say anything about you, they say nice things. But with the star caveat: You can’t suck. If your products or services suck, social media can’t save you. Marketing can’t save you. Advertising can’t save you. Only you and your desire to not have a sucky product can save you…

• Bazaarvoice data showed that a negative review converts more effectively to a sale than a positive review. How?? 1) When consumers see you confident enough to allow a negative review they find you trustworthy and have faith in your product and will buy from you. 2) Just because the negative reviewer didn’t like you, their negatives may be a positive to someone else.

• Its not just monitoring and responding. Other stuff happens. Communications and engagements are highly distributable. Paradigm shift in not “How many people am I reaching?” but instead “Who am I reaching?”. You have to have real interactions with real human beings.

• “Who’s better to talk about your product or service: you, your brochure, or a really satisfied customer? …And thats the real story here.”

• “Your brand isn’t what you say it is, its what Google says it is.” – Chris Anderson

• Treat every page [on your website] as your home page. People use direct links – especially through Google searches.

• Being on Twitter and Facebook isn’t enough, you have to leverage these channels in a unique and interesting way… Theres an opportunity here; an opportunity to connect, to create these real interactions between real human beings. And the brands that actually evolve are the brands that understand these relationships and do what they can to bring their consumers together and connect them.

• Digital Marketing is a “with” not an “instead of” in regards to traditional marketing.

• “Don’t write checks with social media that your website can’t cash.” - Avinash Kaushik

• We aren’t really “marketing” anymore, we are publishing. Emphasis needs to be on authenticity and honestly – not on “sales”.

• Don’t ask “WHAT are we doing on Facebook”. Ask “WHY are we using Facebook”. What do you MEAN by social media? What are your goals? You must have a strategy.

• Your customers don’t care about flashy technology, they want a good experience. They want simplicity.

Goodyear and Google battle over Blimp Supremacy

Corrie Davidson — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:15:28 +0000

With the recent launch of Google’s Airship Advertising, famous tire makers “Goodyear” are scrambling to close sponsorship negotiations with existing contracts, terrified of being locked out in favor of what may be a more profitable money maker from Google.

“We tend to take our time signing deals with stadiums as there just isn’t really any competition in the blimp messaging business,” says Bill Pmilb, Director of Dirigible Marketing at Goodyear, “We just never saw this coming – especially from an internet-focused firm like Google. They really caught us with our pants down on this one.”

Google’s new mobile advertising delivery platform, or gBlimps, as they are being called, promise to offer clients even bigger audiences for their AdWords campaigns. If you already have an existing AdWords account, you don’t have to modify your listings at all, as gBlimps are designed specifically to display your existing text ads in their original format.

Google isn’t limiting customizability options either. Just like with other display ads, you can specify the height and location of the blimp, as well as the time you want the ad to run. You can even target special events like football games, outdoor concerts, meteor showers, and more.

While this may be great news for advertisers, Goodyear is contemplating a lawsuit. “I just don’t know why they would do this to us,” says Pmilb shaking his head, “We’re a good client of Google’s – we pay for ads and listings and everything… It may be the end of an era here at Goodyear.”

UPDATE

The Goodyear Blimp has come out with an official statement: “Contrary to some reports (cough, cough, Captico), we welcome the search giant to the aerial advertising world we pioneered more than 85 years ago. There are more events than we can cover. Colorado, for example, doesn’t see many blimp visits.”

To learn more, visit the Goodyear Blimp Facebook Page or Twitter account.

Twitter Promoted Trends and Keurig’s Coffee and a Cruise Campaign

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:47:04 +0000

The latest marketer to embrace Twitter’s Promoted “Trending Topic” ad space (at the estimated/rumored cost of $200k a pop) is single-cup-of-coffee brewing magnate Keurig (or more precisely Green Mountain Coffee Roasters who owns Keurig and many other popular coffee brands).

What Are Twitter Promoted Trends?

As we mentioned at their first launch (Twitter: Promoted Tweets and Trends… They’re Heeeerrreee), Twitter’s Promoted Trends gives advertisers a highly visible and coveted space on users’ Twitter home pages in the “Trending” category. Topics that appear here normally, do so because a lot of people in that city, country, or the world (depending on your settings) are talking about a particular topic. If a celebrity dies, for example, they are almost always a trending topic for a day or two as people tweet and share news and remembrances.

Hashtags and memes are also often dominant Trends as people jump on board participating in game-like posts or live-tweeting from a large event. In the image above actor Jackie Chan is listed as a rumor went around that he had died and then the correction that he was in fact very much alive followed. The AMC show “Mad Men” is trending as a lot of people are discussing the delay in the next season’s production due to contract negotiations. At the top of the list we see the “Love Keurig?” Trend next to a “PROMOTED” graphic – letting everyone know that this trend was started by and paid for by a company. The image above is from Captico’s homepage which has its Trending City set for Washington, DC (this is changeable). Here are other Trend Lists from other cities… you can see that some Trends are the same, some are different, but all of them have the Promoted Trend “Love Keurig?” at the top.

What is the “Love Keurig?” Campaign?

Clicking on the “Love Keurig? Trend will take you to a Search Results page (as if you had typed the phrase into the search box) listing everyone using the phrase “Love Keurig” in their tweets.

As you can see the top tweet is from icedkcups whose account is primarily being promoted with this campaign. Brew Over Ice K-Cups is the newest Keurig product and so to launch it, Keurig and Green Mountain turned to Twitter, trusting their rabid fans would be eager to spread the coffee love. And for non-keurig users, theres always the cruise. Yup. They are giving away an Alaskan cruise to one lucky winner. See the landing page they link to below:

So in what turns out to be a huge social media campaign, the promoted trend leads you to the product’s special twitter account, which takes you to the giveaway landing page. The first 2000 people who enter get a free “Brew Over Ice” tumbler. 1000 of those people win a 2nd place prize of a sampler pack of Brew-Over-Ice K-cups (only useful if you have a Keurig). 100 people win a 1st prize os a new Keurig brewer. 1 grand prize winner receives an Alaskan trip for two with roundtrip airfare. Sounds pretty awesome, but they make you follow all 7 of their Twitter or Facebook accounts to enter. I actually had a lot of trouble with the iframes on their site, so I didn’t enter, but its a straightforward enough approach. Sure you could go back and unfollow all of the accounts after the contest ends, but I imagine they are hoping most people are too lazy to go back and do so, meaning an immediate and big audience for all of their news and product releases in the future.

Conclusion

This is a great use of Twitter’s Promoted Trend feature. By choosing something simple and inviting to add onto like “Love Keurig?” it encourages people familiar with the brand to engage it, sharing the tweet and thus promoting the topic, as well as hooks in curious users who have no idea what Keurig is. They are immediately drawn into the conversation, reading reviews, and seeing people who love the product. On top of all of it they offer a lot of great giveaways that people will want to try to win. Would you follow (perhaps temporarily) 7 accounts with one click for the 1/2000 chance of winning a cruise? Keurig is betting you will.

What’s Next DC Conference 2011 – Wrap Up: Marketing Best Practices and Social Media Takeaways

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:27:54 +0000

Monday marked the inaugural “What’s Next DC – Your Marketing Communications Roadmap” Conference. Marketers, PR Specialists, Web Development Companies, Technology Experts, Associations, Government Organizations, Social Media Addicts, and more converged on George Washington University in Washington, DC to listen, learn, share, and network. Whats Next, the brainchild of Tod Plotkin of Green Buzz Agency in Arlington, VA, was born of Plotkin’s frustration with the fluff and sales pitch-iness of typical events, and so he set out to create something different. His goal was to keep people engaged constantly with good information and make sure they got any questions answered that day. While not quite an “unconference” like Nonprofit 2.0, it was a veritable assault of information lined up with no breaks (except for a quick lunch) in short bursts with scheduled “niche conversations” and “floating experts” on the side. Captico sent 3 emissaries: our Lead Developer, Todd Fisher; a Project Manager, Bob Wolfe; and New Media Coordinator, Corrie Davidson (me). (Photo to left and all presenter photos by Nakeva Corothers)

Whats Next DC 2011 – The Good:

Quality information
Great speakers
Excellent incorporation of Twitter – Attendees knew and utilized the hashtag #whatsnextdc
Live Twitter feed displayed up front was fun
Fast paced – the day flew by
Beautiful signage and program (designed by Citizen Creative)
Fantastic book given to attendees “The Big Book of Social Media” by @bobfine
Good niche discussion groups
Wi-fi
Good location

What’s Next DC – The Bad:

We were asked to tweet feedback after each presentation, but there wasn’t time to do that before the next speaker came up.
Lunch needed to be about 20 minutes longer, and expedited somehow – the line was so scary, some people went out for lunch despite the free boxed one provided.
A couple presentations were more sales pitches than beneficial presentations.
It was frustrating to know one-on-one Q&As with the previous speaker were going on in the room next door – along with niche discussions – and not wanting to miss the primary speakers to go to them… Tough choice.
With the tight time frame, there wasn’t any time between speakers to finish up notes or collect your impressions before the next subject began.
No breaks in the afternoon meant many in the audience had to skip presentations just to get a break or stand up.

What’s Next DC – The Presenters:

Paul Williams of Idea Sandbox served as the day’s energetic emcee and kept things moving, despite the tight (sometimes uncomfortably so) schedule. His coat even spawned its own hashtag at one point: #paulsjacket, much to the entertainment of the audience who was following the live Twitter stream which was projected on a screen in the front of the room (as shown in the picture above). With free wi-fi, I spent most of the day live tweeting as I listened. The day proceeded with the following presentations:

Brian Halligan, CEO & Founder of Hubspot, opened in one of the two long time slots of the day (45 minutes) with ”Inbound Marketing to Grow Your Business”. It was a fantastic presentation on actionable steps businesses can use to take advantage of modern inbound marketing techniques by optimizing their websites to get found by more prospects and convert a higher percentage of those prospects into paying customers. Read our takeaways here: Actionable Steps to Better Inbound Marketing Success by Brian Halligan, Hubspot Or you can View his slidedeck here.

Bryan Eisenberg, Managing Partner at Eisenberg Holding, held the other 45 minute time slot with “The Future Shopper, How Offline is the New Online”. It was a great presentation on how the convergence of communications, logistics, and financial technology continues to evolve to reduce the friction in the customers’ buying process. Read our takeaways here: The Future Shopper, How Offline is the New Online from Bryan Eisenberg. View a video with Bryan here.

Darell Hammond, CEO & Co-Founder of KaBOOM!, was up next sharing thoughts on “Play as the Best Natural Resource in a Creative Economy”. He tried to show that creativity, wonder, joy, and partnerships that change lives and communities. Some takeaways include:

“We need to re-introduce the concept of play.”
Could an increasing lack of imagination skills caused by technology overdose among young people be a key contributor to bullying & obesity? Darell says, yes.
“When better is expected, good is not enough.” Play is intrinsic motivation rather than external rewards.
Ice cream gods Ben & Jerry’s love Kaboom, but couldn’t afford to give them $75k to build a playground. So Kaboom became the first nonprofit org to get an ice cream flavor named after them: KaBerry KaBOOM!
“If you want to be remarkable, do remarkable things!”

Paul Williams, Founder of Idea Sandbox, took a break from his emcee-ing to speak on “Remarkability, Standing Out From the Crowd”. He wants you to discover (or create) what sets you apart from your competition and differentiates your products, company, or brand in the minds of your customers. View a video with Paul here. You can view his slidedeck here. Some takeaways were:

Take risks. Embrace change. Be remarkable. Start asking why not? Stop trying to change people. Find champions.
Stop trying to change people. People aren’t opposed to change, they’re opposed to BEING changed.

Ogi Kavazovic, the VP Marketing & Strategy at OPOWER, served up a disappointing presentation entitled “Marketing can Save the Environment”. It was shilled as a talk about how marketing can be leveraged to motivate the masses and preserve the planet, but was really a thinly veiled sales pitch about OPOWER and its mission. Good mission? Yes, of course, but not the right venue. A real shame as OPOWER is a great company and I was really looking forward to hearing from Ogi.

Debbie Weil, Founder & President of Wordbiz, presented “Finding Your Social Media Sweet Spot”. The theme was stealing from those who’ve come before you. Debbie definitely knows her stuff, but had too much information and activities to pack into her tiny time slot (15 minutes). You can view her slidedeck here. Some takeaways were:

To really get the most of social media, you have to get in the right mindset – “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs
“I am a pioneer. I am awesome. I will steal great ideas.” Debbie wants you to make it your mantra.
Debbie says the “Live Strong” yellow band from Nike was a perfect congruence of emotional connection with an ad and a brand.
The Pepsi Refresh Project has gotten more votes than a presidential election. “Pepsi has found a social media sweet spot of buzz & validation.”

Matt Goddard, CEO & Co-Founder of R2Integrated, shared “Activating Communities of Interest on the Real Time Social Web”. According to Matt, the web is a decision engine (Bing anyone?) and communities of interest are where its at for brands looking to influence customers and build advocacy. Some takeaways were:

Will Twitter be the next Borg hive mind? “They were actually human beings once” – referring to the Borg. They overdeveloped communication tools. Too much shared info. They forget how to make decisions and rely on the collective mind.
80% of buying decisions are made on “communities of interest” like CNET, not on your facebook or twitter stream. If YOU’re researching a product to buy are you going to the manufacturers facebook or twitter? No. You go to review sites, etc.
Content exists in the digital world forever. Make sure it’s good, optimized, & integrated.
Campaigns have a lifespan – a beginning & an end. Not what we should be doing in a networked world. Think evergreen engagement.

Rand Fishkin, the CEO & Founder of SEOmoz.org, managed to stuff an inspiring presentation on “Advanced Tactics to Maximize SEO Opportunity” into 25 minutes. With organic search results becoming increasingly competitive, Rand’s specific tactics supplemented with examples and case studies had me raring to go and pimp out our website. You can view his slidedeck here. Read our takeaways here: Advanced Tactics to Maximize Your SEO Opportunities from Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz. View a video with Rand here.

Reggie Bradford, CEO & Founder of Vitrue Inc., gave the other company-profile-disguised-as-a-presentation talk. His “Getting Your Facebook Message Into the End Zone” sounded good on a paper, but rather than the promised actionable guide to social media best practices and innovations, it quickly derailed into “these are all the things Vitrue does”. He did share an interesting statistic: “Global time spent on social media increased 82% between 2008 & 2009.”

Shonali Burke, Principal at Shonali Burke Consulting, got up to applause and much anticipation for “Redefining PR in the 21st Century”. With only a 15 minute time slot, Shonali hit the ground running. And she didn’t disappoint. True PR is about building relationships with stakeholders to benefit your business. Her main point was that the customer is the medium. View a video with Shonali here. You can view her slidedeck here.

Social Media is changing business and PR: From “Selling” to Connecting with your audience; From large campaigns to small acts; From controlling the message to transparency; From hard to reach to available everywhere.
Because of our “networked world”, Social Media is changing how we look at and how we practice PR. We’re not just focusing on one way messages, we are trying to go to where our audience is, trying to make sure there is conversation, and to make sure we are accessible.
“Public relations is still about relationships… We now have better ways to reach individuals.”
Lesson of sales experience with @eidialush: Her order was delayed constantly, despite her communication through emails. Offers of additional coupons before she ever saw the shoes were not helpful. So she reached out through twitter, CEO got in touch with her immediately, was honest, and they worked it out. Moral of the story? Consumers are forgiving if you respond well and care about their concerns and needs.
Go to where your customers are. Build up relationships. Take advantage of the social channel we have access to.
Your customers are asking “What’s in it for me?” If you can’t answer that, you’re done.
Where is PR going? You have to use social channels to tell your story.
Integration! We can’t afford to work in silos anymore.
Measurement – not just monitoring.
Everyone is in customer service – regardless of what your job title may be.
The customer is your media. Let them tell your stories for you. At the end of the day, the customer us who you want to reach.

AJ Gerritson, a Founding Partner of 451 Marketing, provided several case studies of B2B/B2C companies and their digital public relations campaigns in “Building a PR Campaign for the Digital World”. You can view his slidedeck here. View a video with AJ here.

75% of US web users get news online, but TV is still the most trusted source of news and information (newspapers and radio tied for second; internet comes in third).
In June 2009 in Europe time spent on the internet overtook Time spent watching TV.
There are 4.6 billion cell phones in world.
AJ doesn’t think the press release is dead because of how it plays into search and SEO.
Essential Digital PR Tools: Social Media Channels/Platforms; Search marketing; Profnet, HARO; SEO/PR, Social Media Release; Web 2.0 Monitoring; Online surveys; Email; Electronic Newswire Services; TRAACKR.
Overall, Americans consume info: 31% TV, 22% Radio, 22% Newspaper, 14% online. Must have well-rounded marketing effort.

Bill Lake, EVP & Co-Founder of ClicFlic, cranked out a great piece on “Intelligent Media/Video Marketing” in 15 minutes. You can view his slidedeck here.

Intelligent media adapts to each viewer.
Adding videos to product pages = more sales. Period. Even if they don’t watch it!!
(not from Bill) Video Marketing Niche group is shocked that no one is talking about qr codes, also, Among Latinos, after Google, YouTube is the most visited site. Consumption of online video is huge in the Latino community.

Goldy Kamali, Founder & CEO of Fedscoop, presented “Strategic Government Marketing, Targeting Decision Makers” which had some really great insights for those working (or hoping to work) in the government space. You can view her slidedeck here.

Steve Ressler, President & Founder of Govloop, had 15 minutes to share “Online Community Building and Why My Sociology Degree Wasn’t A Waste of Money”. You can view his slidedeck here.

Tammy Gordon, Senior Advisor at AARP, had 15 minutes to educate everyone on the Boomer Generation with “Woodstock to Facebook: How to Engage the 50+ Online”.

Kevin Alansky, Senior Director Marketing at Blackboard Inc., closed out the day with “How to Keep Prospects Engaged Throughout the B2B Lead Lifecycle”. You can view his slidedeck here.

Whats Next DC – Statistics:

301 registered attendees including 37 from way outside the DC/MD/VA area and 6 from the West Coast.
115 attendees from companies with revenue over a million
64 attendees from companies with revenue north of 50 million, including members of Coca-Cola, Geico and Sears Holdings.
Top five industries represented – 1) Agencies 2) Software & Internet 3) Media & Entertainment 4) Business Services and 5) Government.
Attendees were most interested in learning more about 1) Facebook Marketing 2) Mobile Marketing.
Attendees were most knowledgeable in 1) PR 2) Advertising 3) Web Design 4) Word of Mouth Marketing.

Stay Engaged:

Follow the #whatsnextdc hashtag conversation on Twitter
Follow the Twitter list of attendees/speakers/sponsors/etc
Follow Captico’s Twitter Account
Connect with Captico’s Facebook Page

A Project Manager at What’s Next DC: The Good, The Bad and My Hopes for Next Year

Bob Wolfe — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:29:47 +0000

Yesterday I joined my fellow Captico mates on a trip down to DC to attend the What’s Next DC? Conference. Overall the event was a good one – my applause to Green Buzz Agency and others who helped put the event together.

Overall I had my likes and my dislikes for this year’s events as well as my hopes for What’s Next 2012:

Liked:

Niche discussions – it was good to share thoughts, questions and solutions with other attendees.
Speakers hung around after their presentations for Q&A and from what I saw the presenters appeared to be very personable.

Dislikes:

Q&A was separate from the presentation. I don’t know about you but I learn as much from Q&A as I do from the presentation itself.
Too many presentations in too little time. There were some presentations that could have gone deeper not to mention the tight schedule made it hard to discuss any of the presentations with a neighbor.

Hopes for What’s Next DC 2012:

It would be really cool to have the niche discussions follow the presentations a bit more closely. For example Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz fame could give his presentations and answer questions (for the entire audience). Then after his session, he could have led a discussion on SEO. This flow could be scheduled in groups of three – three short presentations with time for Q&A for an hour followed by 30 minutes of networking or one of three niche discussions based on the earlier presentations.

Overall, a good experience and congrats to all who played a hand in What’s Next DC and be sure to look out for the Captico team at other DMV events. (If you know of any events worth attending, share them below and maybe we’ll see you there.)

Bob Wolfe is a Project Manager at Captico working on web development and SEO projects. Photo by Nakeva Corothers.

Actionable Steps to Better Inbound Marketing Success by Brian Halligan, Hubspot

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:08:56 +0000

Brian Halligan, CEO and Founder of Hubspot, was the first presenter at yesterday’s inaugural “What’s Next DC – Your Marketing Communications Roadmap” Conference. Brian opened in one of the two long time slots of the day (45 minutes) but gave a fantastic presentation on actionable steps businesses can use to take advantage of modern inbound marketing techniques by optimizing their websites to get found by more prospects and convert a higher percentage of those prospects into paying customers. (Photo by Nakeva Corothers) View Brian’s Slidedeck. Takeaways included:

The current playbook is fundamentally busted. Everything we’ve learned as PR Marketers over the last 10 years (renting email lists, hiring sales people to make cold calls, google ad words, etc) is broken. Traditional marketing is dead and doesn’t work anymore. We are sick and tired of being sold to. We are sick and tired of being marketed to. We have trained ourselves to block it out, to ignore ads and spam. Example: When did you last read the spam email you get? Do you answer the phone when you see its a marketer or someone you don’t know? Do you read your physical junk mail?
People are no longer subscribing to the paper they are subscribing to their fav blog. They are consuming info in a radically new way. (People are getting their news in real time, wherever they are, from a variety of sources.)
Instead of spamming your way into peoples lives through email blasts and cold calls and advertisements, pull them in through the natural way people are shopping and living now. Instead of outbound interruption-based marketing, do inbound modern marketing.
With Modern Marketing, your success is a function of the width of your brain, not the width of your wallet. You don’t need a lot of money to be a successful marketer today. But you have to be interesting.
Marketers rent email lists, or adwords, or space on websites – temporary keywords that go to the highest bidder. Modern marketing is more about an ownership model than a rental model. Modern Marketers are really asset managers: Twitter followers, Facebook fans, back-links. You want to grow these assets.
Google Adwords was genius 3 or 4 years ago, but now too many people are buying compared to those who are searching.
Create lots of content!! Blogs, videos, slide presentations, anything! Content is the magnet that draws customers in, that boosts you in search rankings. And content lasts forever!
Social Media Optimization: People are scanning- content must be catchy, and have a brilliant title optimized for social media to get their attention and have a shot at being re-shared by them.
6 Steps to Marketing Success: 1. Create good content. 2. Optimize it. 3. Pimp it out everywhere. 4. Have strong call to action on website. 5. Nurture your leads. 6. Analytics.
Contribute unique, interesting content, and share it with everyone.
99% of websites don’t have a strong call to action. Its not a beauty contest, its about the quality of the content.
Websites have 2 purposes: to draw people in and to convert them in an efficient way.
Nurture your leads!
Measure! Conduct simple analytics, look at your funnel by channel to best optimize it.
Hubspot has the brochure site sure, but they really focus on landing pages/properties that they pull people in to. Transforming the top of the funnel will grow all other parts of it.
“Get found and convert.”
Video Content: You can’t create a viral video. You can create a video, and hope it goes viral. Maybe 1 of 10 videos you create will go viral and work – but that’s worth it for the people they attract.
Modern marketing is publishing, creating content, and pulling people in.
Social media policy at @hubspot – use common sense. Get everyone involved blogging & tweeting! It brings people in!
“Let 1000 flowers bloom.” Having more bloggers on your site, means you will have more reach! Make it competitive & get everyone involved in content creation!
Eliminate comment approval/moderation on your blogs! People want to/need to be able to comment in real time. If they post a mean comment, leave it! Respond to it publicly and professionally.
In the ’90s the sales rep had all the power, customers had to go through them to get info. Today, all that leverage is gone, the customer can find all that info online. No marketing is all powerful!
Don’t measure quarterly – you should be measuring daily. Measure often, so that you can evolve fast. No more annual planning. You should have monthly or weekly meetings to plot out new ideas and initiatives. Look at whats working and whats not. Have monthly sprint meeting and daily standup meeting to keep everyone up to date.
Experimentation is key in marketing! Marketing is non-linear and you need to take risks and try new things. Monthly cycle, fast iterations.
Are you still putting out press releases? Generation Y says “F*%$ That!” to press releases. They want to read a CEOs twitter or blog. They want to talk to you directly, no more barriers. Be more transparent! Be more authentic! Speak like a human, don’t use “marketing speak”.
If you want to be successful, commit. You have to jump in, not just dip your toe.

You can follow Brian on Twitter at @bhalligan

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What’s Next DC? Tomorrow’s Conference hopes to address that.

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 02:00:33 +0000

Tomorrow several members of the Captico Team will be joining social media, new media, and technology experts from across the country (and perhaps the world!) for the “What’s Next DC” Conference in Washington, DC. The event promises to be jam-packed full of real data, case studies, real experts (no fluffy “gurus” here), networking opportunities and roving discussions. Conference organizers say:

“There are no sales commercials masquerading as presentations here, or sleepy Q & A sessions where only 1 of 8 questions apply to your business. What’s Next DC is about brainstorming, case studies, energy, networking, strategy and – best of all – personalized solutions to your company’s most important challenges.
How will we accomplish this? By jamming as much information into the day as possible. We’ll have floating experts in a variety of fields available, so if you hear something you like and want to bounce ideas around right there on the spot, you can! We’ve scheduled group brainstorming/strategy sessions and niche learning sessions where you can discuss your areas of interest and expertise. There will also be an area dedicated solely to networking all day long.
This is not just a conference, it is an experience. Come prepared and energized to learn and share with other Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, and Communication Professionals!”

Well if that doesn’t wake you out of your boring conference malaise, I don’t know what will! If you want to register or get attendee info, click here.

WHEN: Monday, January 24, 2011 from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM (ET)
WHERE: The George Washington University, Marvin Center, Grand Ballroom - 800 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052
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Checking in with Facebook Places now has incentives with Facebook Deals

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:44:43 +0000

Facebook is looking to encourage user check-ins through their Places feature by providing brick and mortar stores with a new (and currently free) viral marketing opportunity through “Deals“. Deals allows you to create special deals on Facebook through a claimed Facebook Place – meaning you have to have claimed a Place to begin with. It can be managed through your Fan Page, and there are different types of deals you can create based on your needs. Read on for a visual walk through on how to create a Deal.

What Types of Deals are there?

From Facebook:

Individual Deal: You can offer this type of deal to both new and existing customers. You may create Individual Deals when you want to launch a new product, get rid of excess inventory, offer seasonal incentives, or simply get more people into your store.
Friend Deal: Friend Deals allow you to offer discounts to groups of up to 8 people, when they check in together. Friend Deals are a great way to build even more exposure for your business because more stories are generated when multiple people check-in.
Loyalty Deal: To focus on rewarding your most loyal customers, create a Loyalty Deal. These deals may be claimed by customers only after a certain number of check-ins. Depending on your business, the number of check-ins may vary. Please note that you must create a deal that is redeemable after no fewer than two and no more than 20 check-ins.
Charity Deal: Create a Charity Deal to make a donation to the charity of your choice. This is a great way for your business to give back to the community while adding a human touch to your business.

Who can use Facebook Deals?

To claim a Deal, you have to be able to check-in to a location using Facebook Places. Currently you can only use Places through the Facebook for iPhone/iPad app or through touch.facebook.com web site on a compatible mobile device. (Suffice to say, you are only reaching the technologically inclined portion of the population.) To redeem a Deal a user will need to click on the name of the Place on their touch device. They will then see the deal offer and terms for claiming the deal:

For individual deals, check in to view the deal redemption screen.
For friend deals, check in and tag friends in your check in to view the deal redemption screen.
For loyalty deals, check in the number of times required and you’ll see the deal redemption screen.
For charity deals, check in to see the charity redemption message.

When the user sees the redemption screen, they show it to the cashier, customer service representative, or other sales associate to claim it. Redeeming a Deal follows the same privacy settings as any check in with Places, and users will be able to share it with their friends.

Creating a Deal is available to a limited set of Facebook Places. To see if you are eligible, be sure to claim your Facebook Place. (To claim your Place, search for your business name on Facebook via the normal Search bar. If your business’s Place already exists on Facebook, click on it to visit its page. At the bottom left side of your Place there will be a link that says “Is this your business?” Click on the link and you will be directed to a claiming flow.) Facebook Places is free. Click here for more info.

Where can I find Facebook Deals?

As a user, you can see current Deals by viewing Places on your device. Available Deals will pop up as a yellow coupon or a green icon (for a charity donation) next to a Place. I imagine any business running a Deal will also be promoting it with signage or through their Facebook page, Twitter, blog, and website…. or at least they should be.

How Do I Create a Facebook Deal?

The good news is that Deals are currently free to create! They are vetted through a review process by Facebook (within two business days) though to ensure it is a high value deal that fits within their formatting guidelines, and you are notified by email once your deal is approved. You can only offer one deal at a time right now, but you can set expiration dates, end, and delete a deal at any time.

At the top of your Facebook Page you may have noticed an image like the one above this section prompting you to Create a Deal. If not, Visit your Facebook Place and if you are part of the initial Beta testing group, you’ll see a “Create Deal” button at the top right of your place. The screenshots I will share here were captured by clicking through the graphic at the top of the Gutter Helmet Systems Page. By clicking “Create A Deal”, you are taken to the Create A Deal page (as seen to the left).

The form is easy to fill out and gives you plenty of examples of what things should look like, and even displays a preview of what you have so far on the right.

1. Choose a Type of Deal

2. Define Your Offer

3. Add Details and Restrictions

4. Preview your Deal

5. Create Deal!

After clicking Create Deal, you are taken to a dashboard (as shown below) which gives you final controls over editing, stopping, deleting, and creating a new Deal. This Deal is shown as “Pending” because it hasn’t been approved by Facebook yet.

Facebook Places has definitely launched a soft attack on foursquare and other geo-location services with Deals by providing an easy to use and free application coupled with a built-in audience on a platform most businesses are already using. With a limited user base due to technology restrictions, and the slow adoption of Facebook Location check-ins, we’ll have to see how Deals fares, but it looks like a great idea to me to drive foot traffic to stores.

GoPromoIt.com – Discounts for sharing with your social network.

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:28:39 +0000

A new social marketing tool was launched over the Thanksgiving holiday – just in time for the shopping frenzy that is the Holiday season. And as today is “Cyber Monday“, (or the monday after “Black Friday”) I thought it would be a good time to do a write up to introduce you to the fledgling site and clever tool that is GoPromoIt.com.

Full Disclosure Alert: Captico created GoPromoIt. Yup. Our brain trust came up with it, our coders coded it, our designers are designing it, and I am talking about it. That said, I do hope you read on, if for nothing else than my thorough explanations and witty commentary. ….Ok, so maybe just read the walk through and give the thing a try…

What is GoPromoIt?

For sellers: GoPromoIt is a magic button that sits wherever you paste it on your website and encourages visitors to post about your company, your service, or your product to their friends.

For buyers: GoPromoIt is an awesome coupon code generator that gives you discounts for sharing a link with either your Twitter network or your Facebook network.

How does GoPromoIt work?

For sellers: After you sign up (which is free right now, by the way), you will be guided through creating your first promotion. Don’t worry – you can make lots of them and delete them and edit them. You have ultimate control over what you offer, where the button goes, and how long its available. After you create your first promotion, the code for your button will be automatically generated. Just copy it and paste it wherever you want it on your website (the checkout process is a good place to start). Users will see the GoPromo button, click it, share the link, and then receive the coupon code to apply to their purchase.

For buyers: Click. Share. Save.

Why should I use GoPromoIt?

For sellers: Viral advertising. Like a ripple effect, your link and name will be spread through out people’s social networks as well as promoted on GoPromoIt.com – increasing sales, SEO, brand awareness, new customers, and a new way to connect with those customers on Twitter and Facebook directly.

For buyers: Discounts. Yeah, baby. Discounts. Its like foursquare… for your wallet.

How do I get a GoPromo Button?

For sellers:

Create an account (quick an painless – just a username and email address).
Create a promotion (very simple – we guide you through)
Copy & Paste the html code onto your website (we will help you with this as well – just contact us if you need to)
Let us know what you think! How can we improve it?

For buyers: Um… sorry… become a seller and see above!

Whats next for GoPromoIt.com?

We will continue to develop and tweak the site. Your feedback is crucial which is why it is free. This is a beta testing period which means everything works, but it may not have certain options or features that you may think up, the design may change, development packages may be added, etc. GoPromoIt might eventually move to having paid price plans (but it might not), but rest assured, if you are a company that participates in this beta testing period GoPromoIt (at least this version of it) will ALWAYS be free to you.

You can find GoPromoIt on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch a Video Walk-Through of Getting Started!

About Tour & Tweet Fall 2010 @ NASA Goddard

Corrie Davidson — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:07:26 +0000

In a move to garner buzz and media attention, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD is hosting a ” Tour ‘n’ Tweet” this wednesday, October 27, 2010. The event promises to offer an exclusive opportunity to tweeting multimedia journalists, granting access to tour facilities of Goddard that are usually closed to visitors. [EDIT: Read our full Recap of the NASA Tour here] If selected, participants are asked to:

“Bring your camera and mobile devices to share your view of Goddard with the world via Twitter. Chosen photographers will tour state-of-the-art Goddard facilities that are typically beyond visitor clearance. Participants will get to experience Goddard first hand and tweet about it along the way.”

The “Tour & Tweet” event is a part of the larger weeklong About A Week in the Life of Goddard program running Oct 23-29, which is a photojournalistic group effort showcasing employee lives at Goddard Space Flight Center. All Goddard employees are encouraged and invited to take photos during this week.

You can follow live tweets from the event by following the #tourntweet hashtag, follow the Twitter List we created, or just follow Captico’s Twitter feed.

Agenda - Wednesday, October 27, 2010

9:15 a.m. – 9:55 a.m. Registration and Badge Pick-Up @ Goddard Visitor Center
9:30 a.m. Introduction to Goddard and Science on a Sphere
10:00 a.m. V.I.P. Campus Tour
11:00 a.m. Science Visualization Studio presentation at the Data Exploration Theater
11:45 p.m. Return to Visitor Center Exhibits, Rocket Garden, Displays and Gift Shop

Goddard Space Flight Center (8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD)

The Goddard Space Flight Center was established on May 1, 1959, to honor Dr. Robert H. Goddard, known as the father of modern rocket propulsion. The Greenbelt campus is the hub for scientists, engineers and technicians building instruments and tools for space study and travel. In addition to the offices and labs, there is a visitors’ center that is free to the public, filled with informative and interactive exhibits on climate change and even a Gemini capsule model. Check out the gift shop after your visit for space-related educational materials and postcards.

Who doesn’t love Shwaag? A New Website is All About It

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:55:39 +0000

[10/12/10 UPDATE AT BOTTOM] While perusing the Captico Twitter feed this morning, I ran across a tweet about a pocket projector being promoted by our friend @bullseyevideo (actually 3 tweets… but that just means he really wants it, right?). And since pocket projectors are AWESOME, and shwag is usually free (also called: swag, schwag; its the stuff companies hand out at trade shows with their brand name on it) I decided to investigate.

Tweet about Shwaag from @bullseyevideo

What I found was a(nother) startup company trying to monetize word of mouth marketing on social networks. Shwaag.com, which is currently in Beta, says:

The Shwaag movement is all about everyday people becoming Champions of Social Goodness by utilizing their social networks to spread the word about great companies doing great things. In turn, these companies not only get recognized for their amazing products and services, but their work with charities, environmental causes and within their own communities.
The generous companies we work with also give back to Shwaag members. Their contributions of 100% FREE products and services called Shwaag, is just one more way of saying “thanks” to the Shwaag community. These products and services are distributed to our members who, in turn, can choose to keep their Shwaag or Pay It Forward.

What that means: “Hey, tweet or share our message, and we MIGHT give you something really cool for free!” Of course, when I say really cool, I mean it. Recently “shwaag’d” items include:

They also tell you what current and upcoming stuff will be, and who has won the recent stuff.

Screenshot of Shwaag.com Current and Recently Shwagg'd Stuff

The odd thing about the site is their tagline “Get It. Give It.” The folks at Shwaag spout a lot of fluff about good will and charity and the joy of giving…

“…we encourage everyone in the Shwaag community to enjoy those things that they are given, but to also spread that joy by giving to others. Giving Shwaag™ is meant to be an open expression of generosity. Our system will ultimately allow you to give Shwaag in a variety of ways: to friends and family, to random strangers or to charities. At times, you may even be given the option to keep Shwaag for yourself, AND give Shwaag away to someone else!”

…but ultimately, I’m left a little confused by the whole plan… honestly, if I’m going to spam my friends with a link promoting a product (I have yet to see anything relating to charities or the contributions to humanity that these companies are supposed to be making) its because I WANT THAT PRODUCT. I don’t want to send it off to a stranger. Call me selfish, but… lets be realistic here. No fund to provide firefighters with better equipment and resources is being helped by handing out an Amazon Kindle. Amazon is getting tons of tweets talking about its product and Shwaag is making money ($99-$599 + the product – though they seem more eager to sell their idea or at least license it than anything else).

Shwaag claims to be a better way to distribute products directly to consumers than by companies themselves – a claim I can see both sides of. Shwaag will have access to a diverse group of free-hungry fans ready to tweet anything you ask them too. A brand with its own following will also have rabid fans who already like the product line and will retweet any freebies as well. Both will really rely on the ancillary readers to continue retweeting and garnering exposure for the brand. In the case of Shwaag, they are promoting themselves in addition to the product. But if a company launches the campaign, they focus all the attention on their product/brand and drive traffic to their website (Shwaag doesnt even link to a product/company’s website).

If you read through the Terms & Conditions (who does that?) you will learn a little more about the site that is currently not viewable to non-members – like the other ways to enter to win shwaag:

“…sign in using your username and password. After reviewing the “Featured Shwaag” or “Shwaag of the Day” Giveaway, Click on the “Shwaag Me” button. You will then be taken to a landing page that will display the details for that day’s Challenge, including, but not limited to; a traditional random drawing; a series of multiple-choice trivia; and chances to increase odds by posting to social media sites such as Twitter and/or Facebook. The number of options in each Giveaway may vary, depending on the design of that day’s Challenge.
Traditional Random Drawing: A Traditional Random Drawing Trivia Challenges: The content of the questions and multiple-choice answers for any particular Giveaway may vary from Member to Member. Use your mouse to click on the answer you wish to submit. For each correct answer you submit for a question about that day’s Featured Shwaag, you will receive (1) Entry. All submitted answers are final. After you have finished playing, the amount of Entries you earned will be displayed and automatically credited to your Account.”

Since the website is still in Beta, you have to request an invite to be a member, so you can’t sign up immediately if you have your eye on that projector. Right now they are focusing on their home state of Arizona, and so some shwaag items (like restaurant gift certificates, services, and experiences) are limited to what state you live in. You also have to have a Twitter and/or Facebook account, duh.

Shwaag Request Invite

So what do you think? Will you be sending a request for invite? (I did.) Do you know of other sites like this? Do you think this would be a valuable tool for your product / brand? Leave a comment and let me know!

You can find out more info and connect with Shwaag both on Twitter and on Facebook.

10/12/10 UPDATE:

So I did eventually receive my invitation to join Shwaag.com, the email read “Hi Corrie, We got your request for a Shwaag Invite Code, and immediately broke into a “Happy Dance!” Now we’re even happier, because we have new member availability. We know it may have been awhile, but that’s because of all the hard work we’ve been doing behind the scenes to make sure we were ready for you! We’d like to welcome you to the Shwaag Movement!” -They also told me they opened up an invite code for me to share with a friend, but as I don’t see a code anywhere or anything on the site to indicate that, I assume they just want me to tell all of you about it and invite you to request an invitation like I did originally.

Once you are signed in and have created your basic profile, you get started by clicking the red “Get Shwaag’d” button under the featured product. You are then taken to a product page of sorts.

You can see the product on the left (in this case, the pocket projector) and the description on the right. In the top right corner is a blue box showing your number of Entries. If you REALLY like the item, Shwaag gives you the option to “Buy Now” which when clicked, takes you to an Amazon.com product page where you can buy the item in question.

After clicking the red “Shwaag Me” button, you just have to agree to their rules to be entered to win – this is the “Traditional Drawing” way to win described in the post above.

Now we get into the social media side of this whole process. To earn BONUS entries (and increase your chances of winning) you can post about this shwaag item to your Facebook and/or Twitter account. The blue box in the top right hand corner tracks how many entries you have based on your activity. I imagine this is also where any games or quizzes or surveys would be where you could also win extra entries (as described in the post above.)

–Oh, and just fyi, when it comes to high end items (like those available on Shwaag.com, federal law requires you to pay taxes – whether you bought them or not. So Shwaag will send you a 1099 form for “any Shwaag given out to any one individual over the course of our tax year, if the combined retail value of that Shwaag exceeds $600″.–

In addition to my invite to Shwaag.com, I also received my first newsletter which addressed my initial query as to where the so-called charitable causes were… Overall, I’m still not convinced that the chance at free stuff (albeit cool stuff) is worth the effort and spam that these kinds of promotions entail… What do you think?

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Twitter’s Earlybird Tries to Monetize Tweets While Providing Value to Users

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:35:49 +0000

Disney is really into Twitter. Or so one would think based on their embracing of Twitter’s latest attempts at making money. They jumped on the Promoted Tweets opportunity with the Toy Story release and are now following that as the premier launch deal of @EarlyBird which grants followers special deals and discounts.

@DisneyPictures is offering 2-for-1 tickets to their new movie “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice“. By clicking on a link and entering a code at checkout, followers of @earlybird (and @disneypictures) can save some cash at the theatre (though I think we all know Nicolas Cage could use that $$).

While brands and companies often use Twitter and other social media sites to issue discounts and coupons, Earlybird may eventually offer a broader demographic base than advertisers don’t have already as well as attract purchases from users who may not be a “fan”.

BP, the oil spill, and Twitter

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:14:33 +0000

While BP battles the ever increasingly disastrous oil spill in the Gulf, their PR department is trying to conduct a brand cleanup through traditional and online media. You may have seen the TV ads featuring Darryl Willis, the VP of Resources at BP America, featuring him as a Louisiana-born “volunteer” eager to help citizens file their claims. (Apparently CEO Tony Hayward wasn’t quite cutting it, and so a new “face” for the company was chosen.) But BP is also embracing new media methods such as Search Engine Marketing and Twitter. In this article, we take a look at how BP and its detractors are using Twitter to connect with the world.

You may have heard about or come across the darkly funny (and fake) BP Twitter accounts that have been popping up since the April 20th, 2010 disaster occurred and hijacking and proliferating the #bpcares hashtag…

BPGlobalPR is by far the most infamous (and actually ranks ABOVE the real BP account -which is verified- in a people search for “BP”) posting such tweets as: “We have begun the process of collecting our crude oil in biodegradable spill-proof containers: pelicans. #bpcares” and “Cleaning up oil spills is expensive. Buying judges so we can keep drilling? Relatively cheap. http://ow.ly/21W3b” .
Then there is BPCares with regularly entertaining tongue-in-cheek commentary including: “There are rumors that people are upset with #BP. We would like to dissolve those rumors at this time. #bpcares” and “We will remove the oil from the ocean once we find a use for it. #bpcares”.
BPcleanUpCrew is in the same vein, and there is even an account dedicated to poking fun at CEO Tony Hayward - Real_BP_CEO sharing things like, “For the record we did not hide information about the oil leak. We never bothered to gather the information in the first place.” and “Had a rough week so to cheer myself up I bought a Ferrari”.
But not all of the BP accounts run by people other than BP are satirical. There are several protest accounts as well, including: BoycottBP, BeyondBP, and Boycott_bp_oil.

As it stands now, fake account BPGlobalPR has 175,533 followers, dwarfing the official BP Twitter account, BP_America, who has 15,713.

So how is BP responding to all of the “Twitter BP” competition? While many companies (and celebrities) might shut down a false twitter account (as it is a violation of Twitter’s terms of service), BP (knowing that the last thing they need is negative press for spending time and resources prosecuting a twitter user instead of focusing on oil cleanup) seems to be letting the whole thing slide. A BP spokesman simply commented, “It’s a shame, but obviously people are entitled to their views,” adding that the company is taking the spill “very seriously.” Toby Odone, a spokesman at BP, told Ad Age: “I’m not aware of whether BP has made any calls to have it taken down or addressed. People are entitled to their views on what we’re doing and we have to live with those. We are doing the best we can to deal with the current situation and to try to stop the oil from flowing and to then clean it up… We’re looking at it and it seems to have a different logo on it now [formerly @BPGlobalPR used the standard BP logo, but then changed to a Black and White version]… People are frustrated at what’s happening, as are we, and that’s just their way of expressing it.”

To follow BP’s official Twitter news outlets, you can view: BP_America and Oil_Spill_2010. BP and others are using the hashtag #oilspill which you can also use to follow updates from anyone utilizing the tag (though at the moment, the top tweets containing #oilspill are all about dead birds…).

Digital Capital Week 2010 – “A Slice of DCWEEK”

Corrie Davidson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:08:37 +0000

DCWEEK has finally come to an end for creatives in the Nation’s Capital and now its time to recap the bits of knowledge gleaned by roving reporter yours truly. Digital Capital Week (DCWEEK) is a 10 day festival in Washington DC focused on technology, innovation and all things digital. It took place from June 11th to June 20th, 2010 in venues across the city with the mission of strengthening the capital region’s digital economy via events focused on creativity, technology, entrepreneurship, marketing, content creation, and innovation.

One of the unique aspects of DCWEEK is its openness. Anyone can participate, host, sponsor, lead a project, or just throw a party. Most sessions were free, though some events did require you to purchase a ticket.

I personally attended Media 2.0 Day and Gov & Org 2.0 Day on June 15th and 16th, 2010 respectively, live tweeting, note-taking and recording audio, in addition to snagging a couple of quick video interviews with various event attendees, including: Audrey Matthias of istrategylabs, Angela Hausman of Hausman & Associates, Lauren Garcimonde-Fisher, Allyson Kapin of RAD Campaign/Women Who Tech, Carie Lewis of The Human Society, Eric Lewis of The Bivings Group, Kathy Dunne of Exponent Partners, Caitlin Currie, Connor Turner of Armadillo Studios, Inc., Tyler Gray of The Bivings Group, Sukumar Ganapati of Florida International University.

You can view the video here: A Slice of DCWEEK – Digital Capital Week 2010

You may also be interested in Digital Capital Week 2010 – Quotes from DCWEEK Gov & Org 2.0 Day and Digital Capital Week 2010 – Quotes from DCWEEK Media 2.0 Day.

Twitter: Promoted Tweets and Trends… They’re Heeeerrreee

Corrie Davidson — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:29:45 +0000

Forgive me if you’ve already run across “Promoted” Tweets in your Twitter stream as they did launch in April of this year. Perhaps I don’t follow or search for enough major brands, but regardless, I’m seeing them now- largely in part because they are now testing out “Promoted Trends”. And sadly (or luckily?) its to promote something I love. The Toy Story franchise. (You may remember me talking about Toy Story and Twitter about a year ago and how Director Lee Unkrich was using Twitter to troubleshoot screenings of Toy Story 1&2 in 3D for followers.)

When Twitter first announced Promoted Tweets, they described them as “ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users”. They would “be clearly labeled as ‘promoted’ when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.”

As far as functionality goes, the Promoted Tweet in question from http://twitter.com/DisneyPixar seems to be “sticky” to the top of search results (when searching that topic) regardless of its chronological entry point (Think AdSense for Google). You can get to this Tweet by clicking on the ”Promoted” Trending Topic. While I’m sure Toy Story 3 would trend naturally at some point, having an official Tweet sticky to the top of search results ensures that the first tweet people see is positive. (Which can be really good if your movie sucks and is getting negative feedback.)

Another interesting comment from the Twitter-ups back at launch was this: “There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.” This calls to mind Facebook‘s feature of “x-ing” out an ad and then asking you to provide feedback as to why you closed it off your page (which they claim to use to serve you better ads). Its a feature I like though and hopefully Twitter will stay on top of this Promoted Tweet feature to keep our Twitter streams from turning into spam boxes.

______________________________________

Additional Reading:

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets: What You Need To Know

Twitter tests new Promoted Trends feature with ‘Toy Story 3′ from Disney’s Pixar

Twitter Again Apologizes for Outages, Bugs

Twitter Inserts Promoted Trends in Trending Topics

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