Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

Now is the Time to Razzle Dazzle with Video Marketing

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

Videos are extremely engaging. The proof is in how your husband stares at the television behind you during dinner instead of listening to how your day went. With that, marketers have been tapping into the potential of videos for some time now. Since Google’s purchase of YouTube, the benefits of adding videos into your marketing strategy have increased for businesses of all sizes.

35 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube per minute, according to Social Media Examiner. With so much competition, marketers need to focus on how to stand out from the crowd and draw in an audience. The best way to go about creating content for your brand’s videos is to focus on your customers’ needs. Focusing on your customers’ needs allows you to create content that is most relevant and valuable to them. Business 2 Community reports that customers who view videos are 174% more likely to make a purchase than those who don’t. Relevancy can lead to larger profits.

Chances are slim you will make a video as viral as “Charlie Bit Me,” but you can expand your videos’ reach. First off, always include your brand’s URL in the description of your videos to drive traffic, and also include several tags on your video if using YouTube. These tags will make your video more likely to turn up in a local search. Google’s purchase of YouTube also cannot be overlooked. Now, videos appear at the top of search results. In order to secure a featured spot for your videos, include keywords in the title. These keywords will link your content to the search engine.

Social Media Today states that marketers need to “utilize the social media infrastructure,” meaning connecting your content to other social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr all support YouTube videos and offer different paths to consumers. Three out of five consumers will watch a video for a product to educate them about it so they make a more informed decision. The more social networks featuring the video, the more ways to persuade your customer base.

Consumers watch videos to gain greater insight into a product or a brand. The shorter and more concise a video, the better. The end of a video should include a call to action. Give your customers a direction instead of leaving them hanging on what to do next. A specific direction will increase the likelihood of a customer following through on a purchase.

Videos are more important than ever in your marketing strategy. Compose a plan that is most relevant to your audience and put it into motion.

Tags: facebook, google, marketing, pinterest, Tumblr, twitter, video marketing, YouTube
Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 1 Comment »

Instagram is in Command

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Acquired by Facebook last year, Instagram has skyrocketed in popularity (even with #nofilter) and is beginning to command the attention of major brands.

In an increasingly visual world, Instagram is a powerful brand marketing tool. We aren’t saying that you need to go out and create a photo campaign of images that look like they could be used on billboards. The power and beauty of Instagram is the casual air it gives off. According to MarketingProfs, consumers are looking for a more relaxed approach on this social media site, and in turn are more receptive. Instagram should not be used solely for advertisements since consumers can find that anywhere. Instead, brands need to utilize the app to cultivate relationships with their customers.

Brands can still show off their products on Instagram, but in a more natural and beautiful setting. For instance, a restaurant chain can post a photo of a customer eating a meal outside on a spring day. With a wide array of filters to enhance the image, posting a photo that is made beautiful and depicting people enjoying the services can elicit a higher level of engagement.

Aside from showcasing products and services, Instagram is a great way to bring your consumers behind the scenes of the brand. Images posted can pull away the corporate mask to show your employees as everyday people having fun with their jobs. You can show your followers the beginning stages of production, meetings, products being used around the office and employees helping people just like them. Adrienne Erin of MarketingProfs states, “Instagram is a great platform for highlighting what is unique or special about your company—like show-and-tell for grownups.”

Speaking of highlighting, Social Media Examiner suggests that you also highlight consumers. These consumers are the people who keep your brand going, and we already know how powerful peer influence is. We also know about the importance of brand advocates, so why not highlight them in a new way? Showcase your top advocates by posting photos of them. Brand advocates are crucial and their levels of engagement have been growing on Instagram. By showing them off, they’ll show you off by liking, sharing and re-tweeting your photos to their peers and offering a glimpse into your brand experience.

Another advantage of Instagram for brands is that it can be linked to Facebook and Twitter. Cross promotion is extremely important in this social media dominated society. An astounding 98% of photos on Instagram are posted to Facebook with an estimated 274 people engaging with the photo in some capacity. ”Integration between Facebook and Instagram has allowed users to have photos they ‘like’ appear in their Facebook feeds,” Simply Measured says. “The result has been a continued increase in per post engagement and a greater share of brand photos posted to Facebook.” Twitter sees a lower share rate at 59% with 22 tweets per photo. Still, cross promoting images allows your brand’s visibility to increase along with its reach.

Instagram offers a new path to consumers for brands. By engaging with Instagram, you can engage with your consumers.

Tags: consumer engagement, cross promotion, facebook, Instagram, Social Media, twitter
Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 1 Comment »

What’s Up With the #Hashtag?

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

What wonder the pound symbol, #, holds in today’s world. By simply placing this tiny majestic symbol in front of a word, we can make our thoughts searchable and more viral than ever before. The hashtag is so revered that even social media giant Facebook is in the beginning stages of adding it to its very own site. For such a simple symbol we typically just hit to access our voicemail, why is it so powerful in today’s social media?

In March, Facebook announced that it was working on incorporating the hashtag into its site. A long-term, larger rival to Twitter, both sites compete for the same advertisers and mobile users. The Wall Street Journal points out a stark difference between the two: “While Facebook was the home of close friends and family, Twitter was the real-time broadcasting device for the rest of the world.” It appears that Facebook’s goal of incorporating hashtags is to “prod” users to make their posts more open to the public. Posts will be more searchable and can compiled into one central location. Since Twitter has become more aggressive in acquiring advertisers, it has pushed Facebook to make changes. The hashtag seems to be the most logical for the social networking site because of the power and multitude of opportunities that it can offer.

Hashtags have proven their use over time. Forbes stated that a study recently performed by RadiumOne found 58% of respondents use hashtags on a daily basis. Promotions, unification, conversations, targeting and innovation are 5 reasons why Forbes believes businesses need to get wise and start utilizing hashtags. 51% of survery respondents claimed they would use hashtags more if there was a promotion or reward involved. Hashtags also make it easier to track a promotion, enabling unification. There are now media boards that track the use of a hashtag across multiple platforms while keeping it all in one place. Hashtags pool conversations together and make it easier for brands to begin conversations and track their activity. By tracking conversations, brands can see trends among their consumers and target them accordingly while also innovating products based off of feedback from consumers.

The hashtag seems to only being growing in usage. Facebook’s pending implementation of the symbol is sure to add quite a large amount of fuel to this social media fire.

Tags: facebook, hashtag
Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 3 Comments »

Let’s Get Visual! Facebook Update Means New Changes for Marketers

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Last week, Facebook unveiled the newest version of its News Feed. The main source of information for users, the News Feed is key to Facebook’s success. The redesign features several new ways to filter content as well as taking on a more visually focused approach. With the largest overhaul of its News Feed since 2006, Facebook has subsequently changed the game for marketers on their site.

MediaPost reported that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated the redesign was inspired by 3 factors: allowing for richer “stories” to be shared, a choice of feeds and a cohesive look across all media platforms. Zuckerberg said that the new design was made to reflect the ever-changing face of news feed.

As reported in the past, we well know that over half of Facebook posts are visual and that visual posts are the most engaging for users. The redesign will created a more engaging experience for users by making the focus of posts the image rather than the text. Captions for photos will no longer be shown above or below the image, but will overlay them in the top left corner. Marketers posting pictures should keep this in mind when drafting captions. The short the caption the better since the focus is now the image. In an increasingly visual world, marketers will also need to post images that tell the story without having to really write about it. The challenge presented here is to make sure each image is as engaging as the next. Perhaps the most important image for all brands will now be their cover photos. Each time a user likes a brand’s page, the cover photo will appear in their friends’ feeds. With increased visibility, it is key for marketers to feature an image that encompasses the entire brand while enticing new users to potentially engage with them.

Facebook users are also able to choose what types of feeds they want to view. For brands, there is a new Following Feed that will feature posts from all of the pages a Facebook users “likes.” Posts will appear in chronological order, a positive change. Facebook has been criticized for decreasing the visibility of organic posts in favor of showcasing paid, or “sponsored,” posts. The Following Feed could mean good news for brands as it has the potential to increase visibility and engagement with consumers. While some may worry that users will not check it, have no fear. Consumers loyal to brands will and, in turn, can share brand’s posts with their friends, increasing the post’s reach.

The final update to Facebook’s News Feed is creating a consistent look across all media platforms. From phones to tablets to the web, Facebook has designed its feed to appear in the same fashion on all screens. The design was inspired by mobile devices as they require a more minimalistic approach due to the devices’ limited screen size.

Overall, Facebook’s News Feed redesign will have an impact on brands. With the company slowing rolling out the new design, only time will tell just exactly how it will change the way marketers approach the social networking site.

Tags: consumer engagement, facebook, News Feed
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Creating a Whole New Ball Game

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

Facebook has finally given us an even more solid excuse to spend hours on the social networking site with its launch of Graph Search. The company has taken personal information shared by Facebook members and compiled it to create a searchable database. Users will be able to search for photos, places, people and things they “like” on the server with only publicly shared content from Facebook users.

Facebook is partnering with Bing to bring this content to the search engine. Bing will sync relevant Facebook information in the sidebar of a search results page. Search Engine Land expects this has the potential to add 5X more Facebook content to the site. With this new development, Facebook has upped the ante.

Facebook’s Graph Search will be of significant importance to companies. The site knows more about the relationships consumers have than any other. In today’s marketing industry, targeting consumer relationships has a more powerful effect in generating sales. According to Forbes.com, this criteria encompassed by Facebook offers a clear “valuable and sustainable advantage.” The search engine will pave the way for greater peer influence in purchase decisions. OMG! I Totally Need That Too! addressed the topic of peer influence in today’s market. Currently, 81% of consumers are influenced by their peers in purchases though this figure is now bound to expand with the integration of Graph Search. BzzAgent already uses consumers to generate sales through word of mouth. The benefits of Graph Search will allow for a greater reach among our Agents as they make information about a product available and now more searchable.

With this exponential increase in available shared content, MediaPost reports that marketers will have to find the balance between making this information useful to them and becoming “creepy.” Companies will need to configure a way to use the new data available to them while making consumers feel as if it’s for their benefit and not invading their privacy. Anna Banks, VP of strategy at Organic, says the ability to mine the new data will help create potential customers and cultivate stronger relationships with old ones who have “similar attributes to a brand or product’s core audience.” This development means brands will need to have even stronger Facebook pages with the most recent information, updates and photographs to draw in consumers. Facebook has now made it crucial for brands to have a strong presence on the social networking site.

In another smart move on Facebook’s part, Graph Search utilizes images in its results. As we reported in What’s in a Photo That’s so Engaging?, 89% of the site’s high activity posts contain an image. The use of images in its new search engine has the prospect of a high rate of engagement among users. With the social context provided by images, click and conversion rates could increase for a brand’s page.

The use of Graph Search among consumers could give them more control over a brand and its products than they already have through the greater use of images and the resulting conversations. While some companies may be leery of this, BzzAgent has already been using that approach since our inception. We’ve encouraged our Agents to have conversations and generate content for brands. The implementation of Graph Search could have a positive effect on the word of mouth methods we use at BzzAgent.

Facebook’s announcement of Graph Search may have just changed the face of social marketing.

Tags: Bing, facebook, Graph Search
Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 1 Comment »

What’s in a Photo That’s so Engaging?

Friday, January 11th, 2013

As children, we appreciated seeing a photo because it was pretty, or there might have been a puppy in it. Our adolescent selves loved to see photos in textbooks because it meant the less we had to read for Biochemistry the next day. Our world has become more visual than ever before. Looking at past inclinations, it’s not surprising that 89% of high activity posts on a brand’s Facebook page are photos.

Hubspot conducted a study that found Facebook photos generate a higher level of engagement compared to the average text post. Online users are more likely to look at a photograph than read a block of text. Both options may make the same point, but the visual component offered by the image is more stimulating for consumers. The rise of the photo sharing app Instagram exemplifies the virality of images. Back in November, we told you about the benefits of the app and how to engage consumers. Since being acquired by Facebook in April of 2012, usage of Instagram has increased by 1,179% in just six months.

In the study, Hubspot analyzed 8,800 B2B and B2C businesses to determine whether the use of photos made an actual impact upon a company. They found that photo posts on companies’ Facebook pages received 53% more likes and 104% more comments than the standard post. According to Hubspot:

This percentage difference is substantial, and it emphasizes a huge opportunity for businesses to use photos and images as a means to increase Likes and comments, and thus EdgeRank. EdgeRank is Facebook’s visibility algorithm based on users’ interaction with your Facebook Page content.

Boosts in Likes helps increase EdgeRank, which can then cause a page’s content to appear in News Feeds more often, increasing visibility.

The visibility provided by photos increases website traffic exponentially. However, Hubspot found that 60% of their subjects’ photo posts did not include a link. By implementing a link, photo posts received 84% more clicks than link and text posts. According to MarketingDaily, 70% of all interactions involving social media contain an image. Photos are a powerful and necessary component to digital marketing in today’s visual world.

Images are capable of carrying an entire consumer’s experience. Online users are able to better connect with a product when they view it in an everyday setting or use. The identification with a product through an image generates likes and shares on Facebook resulting in traffic to the brand’s website.

It is not enough to post a generic photo to your brand’s page. Consumers find it cold and are looking for more fresh and innovative images. Photos now have the ability to be interactive, like with tagging. If consumers tried a new product, make a collage and allow them to tag themselves. They’ll share it with their friends who can do the same, making the image more viral than it would be.

Photos tell a story. Through the use of images, brands can compel consumers to buy their product.

Here are a few photos from our agents we really love…

Tags: Digital Marketing, EdgeRank, facebook, hubspot, Instagram
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Making Facebook More Social

Friday, June 8th, 2012

An interesting new study from Admap looks at the level of engagement fans have on the Facebook pages of 200 brands. It’s not that much. An average of only 0.50% of fans interacted with the brands on Facebook in a given week. Admap used Facebook’s “talking about this” stat to determine these engagement benchmarks. (This metric shows the number of people interacting with the brand as a percentage of their total fans)

You may thinking that this is an average and a handful of companies are weighing it down. It’s not really the case. Few do much better. 10% of the brands had engagement levels of 1% or more, and only one company out of the 200 in the study had engagement levels over 2%.

Product categories didn’t make much of a difference. On the high end, car brands had engagement rates of 0.98%, followed by alcohol brands at 0.85%. The categories with the lowest engagement were finance/insurance at 0.17% and retailers at 0.20%.

There wasn’t much difference in what the researchers considered to be passion brands. 11 passion brands were identified form the sample and only 6 of them averaged higher engagement. Tiffany & Co. led the group with 1.14% . Luis Vuitton and Ferrari were in the 0.95% range. Even the brand most people think of first when discussing passion brands, Harley Davidson, fell below the industry average.

We’ve always said that “Likes” are not a measure of social media marketing success. This is part of the reason why. They aren’t a reflection on sales and they don’t represent high levels of engagement either. Many marketers put their Facebook URL in their TV ads and driving Likes is the primary focus of their social media strategy. But they aren’t doing enough to activate conversations, especially the meaningful ones that inspire others to get involved. These are the conversations that attract others, spread across the web and influence the opinions and purchases actions of many others. If there isn’t much meaningful social participation on your brand’s Facebook page, it isn’t much more than another brand website.

For a great example of Facebook fan engagement, take a look at what BzzAgent Jono is doing on our Facebook page. This page currently averages a 6-7% overall engagement week over week – 12 times the industry average. Individual posts often hit 20% to 25% levels. That’s how to get your bzz on.

Tags: facebook, Jono, study
Posted in Making BzzAgent Work | 14 Comments »

The Pinification of Facebook

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Photos have always been a part of social media content, but they always seemed to be more of an accent. With Pinterest, and now the new Facebook brand pages, that’s changing. Now they are the story.

Pinterest has been a phenomenon. comScore said that Pinterest became the fastest independent website ever to hit 10 million unique monthly visitors. Brands are rushing to the set up their pages and everyone has a point of view on how to do it right. It’s nothing short of Pinsanity.

Consumers are pinning photos of the products they love. We are seeing a lot of that on the BzzAgent Pinterest site. Agents are submitting pictures of the products they are reviewing, the dishes they are preparing and the crafts they are creating with the products from our clients. It’s a great shareable experience, and when it’s done right, it’s a lot more compelling than a page of text links, likes, or up and down arrows and/or thumbs (eg Reddit/Digg).

And now there are stats to prove it works. Shareaholic found that Pinterest drives more referral traffic to e-commerce sites than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.

At this point, Pinterest is a female dominated network. AppData claims that 97% of the site’s users are of the female persuasion. Experian Hitwise says it’s more like 60%. But either way, the people making most of the purchase decisions in the home are embracing storytelling with photos.

Facebook just announced they are rolling out new timeline pages to brands. While this is accompanied with several new ad offerings, the big emphasis is on photos. Brand pages are becoming much more visual. Photos from the brand and from followers will dominate the page and become the primary way for brands to communicate their story.

Facebook’s Product Director of Ads Gokul Rajaram told Techcrunch about the shift to storytelling with pictures:

“the goal is to symbolize what an organization is all about. For a restaurant it could be a popular menu item, a band could display album cover art, and a business could show a picture of their customers using their product.”

Here are some examples of the pinification of the new Facebook brand pages:

Cover image. Brands can use a larger picture, as big as 850 pixels wide, at the top of the page to communicate their brand. So brands aren’t tempted to turn these into banner ads or microsites, Facebook stipulates that these images can’t contain links, price information, offers, or any call to action. Let’s hope they really do patrol that.

Featured images. Photos will automatically appear at the top of the timeline.

Pinned content. Brands can pin a post at the top of the timeline for a week. Direct users to an important post or feature a photo that will take up a large portion of the page.

The opportunity for brands will emerge as these changes are rolled out. Here are three that jump out right now:

1. With a page structured around a timeline, gaps in interaction will be glaring. Marketers will need to make sure their interaction occurs on a regular basis. Regularly occurring posts will keep your page from looking like a neglected blog.

2. Historical comments are easier to find. Users can click on dates in the timeline to instantly jump back to see what was being said about your brand at any point in time. Negative comments are less likely to just fade away so it’s even more important to encourage widespread consumer participation on a regular basis so the voices of your best customers can be heard.

3. Get shutter happy. Now’s the time to emphasize customer submitted photos. Nothing is more effective at telling the story of your brand. Photos of people using your product and showing it off to friends is the type of meaningful content that gets others excited about trying it themselves.

Tags: facebook, pinterest
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On Facebook, Brands are from Mars and Consumers are from Venus

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Like the metaphor from the famous relationship book from the 90’s, sometimes it seems brands and consumers communicate so differently, it’s like they are from different planets. Especially when they connect on Facebook.

Take a look at some of the findings from the “Social Brand Experience” report from the CMO Council. They interviewed both brands and consumers about their use of social media and some of the differences are eye-opening. It seems that Brands are still very preoccupied with themselves on Facebook. They are missing the real reason people visit them on Facebook, and more importantly, they are missing a tremendous opportunity to recognize and cultivate their very best customers who are looking to deepen their relationship with the brand.

When brands were asked why they believe customers “Like” their brand on Facebook, most said it was because of all the great content they put on the page. “The content is agreeable” was the top response with 57% of respondents. Loyalty and advocacy are afterthoughts. It’s not until you get down to the bottom of the list do you find things like “loyal customers” and interest in connecting and helping with other customers.

When it comes to responding to “likes”, marketers know its about engagement and continuing the conversation. Although, it is funny that more that 20% of them have no idea. And it’s scary that more companies think this means they can deliver more advertising (10%) than think they should be rewarding advocacy and brand champions (7%).

Here’s the eye-opener. When consumers were asked why they like brands on Facebook, the number one reason was “I’m a loyal customer”. Where’s the love for agreeable content? It’s 5^th on the list.

Facebook is a great place for brands and consumers to connect. But marketers need to look at what consumers are telling them in these charts. Company Facebook pages aren’t about you. Many following your page don’t care as much about all the content on the page as you do. That’s what your website is for. Your loyal customers are seeking you out on Facebook, and many of them are eager to advocate for you by sharing their opinions and by helping others with their purchase decisions. Don’t treat them like freebie hunters.

With dunnhumby, we’ve got some exciting ways for you to identify loyal customers who are also active in social media so you can give them exactly what they are looking for – personal attention and new products to share with the world.

Tags: cmo council, facebook
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