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Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

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The Sky Is the Limit for Innovation

In Social Media on 11/19/2011 at 11:36 pm

Major airlines have increasingly adopted social media to keep up with younger, higher-income, and more tech-savvy consumers, who are the most frequent users of sites such as YouTube and Facebook, and the earliest adopters of new mobile location–based concepts.  Some of the most cutting-edge innovations in social media marketing have emerged from the smaller carriers that struggle most to be noticed.

Here are some of the most-innovative social media marketing campaigns in the airline industry:

Virgin Atlantic keeps its Facebook page fun and entertaining.  Last week, Virgin partnered with Facebook to launch its very first global social media marathon involving Virgin groups in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, engaging with millions of fans worldwide.  As part of the marathon initiative, Virgin launched a Facebook app called ‘First Times,’ which highlights Facebook “firsts” with friends, such as one’s first post, first tagged photo, first event, among many others.  The friend a user selected for their “firsts” will then be notified and a collage of information created via the app will be dropped in to the creator’s “Virgin First Times” photo album and the friend’s Facebook wall.  Virgin offered various prizes to fans through Facebook on every hour of the social marathon, ranging from flights and getaways to various Virgin merchandise.

Southwest’s strategy is to use social media to listen to its customers and then interact in a way that’s personal. Southwest instructs team members who post on Facebook to sign their names, effectively putting a real face on the brand. The airline encourages localization, with 20 different Facebook pages covering specific Southwest airport operations groups. Southwest also reaches out specifically to opinion leaders, including travel bloggers, brand fanatics, and avid travelers. To involve its own employees in the social media experience, Southwest sponsors an internal social media club. It also organized a social media conference in January 2011 that offered training on content creation for contributors throughout the organization.

In January 2011, Airlinetrends.com highlighted the creative use of social media by Air New Zealand, which allows users to upload their own videos to the airline’s YouTube channel, and then shows selected videos on flights. The company also leverages social location service FourSquare, offering passes to its elite lounge to users who become the “mayor” to certain airports and terminals.

The approach of larger major airlines toward social media has been more conventional, which is in line with what major corporations in other industries have done (eg, Facebook fan pages). However, in 2010, Delta became the first airline to allow travelers to book tickets entirely through Facebook. Without ever leaving the Facebook site, users can simply select “Book a trip” from a menu of options on Delta’s Facebook fan page.  From there, they are redirected to Delta’s Facebook application, creating a seamless experience for users who consider Facebook a home base for web surfing.

The sky is the limit for innovation in the airline industry.  Most recently, Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport announced that they will now allow passenger check in via Skype video call.  It is exciting to see how far the airline brands will fly in the social media space.

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The Social Nature of Human Beings + Sharing 2.0

In Digital Media, Social Media on 09/10/2011 at 5:37 pm

Social context shapes the human behavior and sharing information is innate to who we are.  We’ve been sharing information for centuries as a means to communicate, entertain, and pass on our cultural values from generation to generation. Today, as we are no longer bound by the physical realm (pencil and paper), the Information Age allows us to share more content, more often with more people, and more quickly.

In order to understand and take advantage of the two-way dialogue between brands and consumers today’s social media technologies enable, it is crucial to understand why people share, the different personas of online sharing, and most importantly, how we, marketers, can influence this sharing of information and generate earned media about our brands and products.

A recent three-phase study, titled “The Psychology of Sharing,” published by The New York Times Customer Insights Group explores the answers to these very questions.

Why do people share?

  • to bring valuable and entertaining content to others
  • to define ourselves to others
  • to grow and nourish relationships
  • for self-fulfillment
  • to market causes or brands

Six personas of online sharing: 

Altruists are helpful, reliable, and thoughtful.  Many altruists stay connected with email and pass along information in attachments and links. 

Careerists are intelligent web users who have been quick to see the immense value of social networking.  Careerists use websites like LinkedIn and FaceBook to build professional profiles and relationships. 

Hipsters are young, popular, creative, and prefer the cutting edge of technology.  They’re less likely to email, opting for newer, quicker methods of communication, like text, Twitter or Skype message.

Boomerangs share content for validation and reaction.  Empowered with information, Boomerangs use social websites like Twitter and Facebook to post thoughtful questions and comments to engage other users.

Connectors are creative, thoughtful, and relaxed.  They are likely to make plans via email and Facebook, hook up online discounts, and take advantage of freebies and promotions. 

Selectives are resourceful, thoughtful, and careful about the information they share.  Someone who is a Selective sharer may prefer to send an email or private message to communicate, rather than a social update or post.  These intelligent sharers understand the permanence of everything posted to the web, knowing that every message is indexed, even if you delete it or move it to your desktop trash bin.

Key factors to influence sharing:

If you appeal to the motivation to connect with each other — not with just your brand — you will encourage sharing.  Here are some tips to remember when soliciting replies, posts, or other online content. 

  • keep it simple
  • have a sense of humor
  • create a sense of urgency

Once you determine what online sharer persona your target audience is and understand what and why they share information, you can create more relevant and appealing content that will inspire ongoing sharing and word-of-mouth buzz.

Download the complete study here.

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Beyond Search: Promoted Tweets Arrive to Users’ Timeline

In Social Media on 07/10/2011 at 10:36 pm

If you’re an avid Twitter user, you probably know how fast-paced Twitter is and have looked into several third-party apps like Tweetdeck to help you organize your tweets and keep up with your followers.  As a marketer, you more than likely asked yourself how many of your followers actually see all of your tweets.

Here is where the new Promoted Tweets come in, but first, let’s  briefly review the history of this paid Twitter offering.  Twitter first introduced Promoted Tweets, tweets called out at the top of Twitter.com search results, last April with ten select partners.  Up until now, Promoted Tweets  have heavily relied on Twitter’s search volume, which was relatively low, and did not generate nearly as many impressions as Promoted Trends that serve as a 24-hour roadblock. 

To provide more visibility to Promoted Tweets, Twitter is introducing Promoted Tweets in users’ timeline as BETA at the end of this month, available to a select few advertisers, including HBO and Discovery Channel.  The new offering is expected to roll out to the community at large in September. 

What does this mean for marketers?

Similar to Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, Promoted Tweets in users’ timeline (or as Twitter calls them, “Promoted Tweets to Followers”) will surface branded tweets to the top of the user’s timeline in order to ensure that your followers catch a glimpse of the message in a fast moving pace of Twitter.  Moving selected tweets to the top of your handle’s timeline will help optimize engagement with your brand’s most compelling and important messaging. 

If the brand is interested in geo-targeting its paid tweets, then the regular Promoted Tweets are the way to go, but if the brand wants to reengage their followers, the Promoted Tweets to followers/within the users’ timeline, work best.

How does it work?

The Promoted Tweets will appear at or near the top of the followers’ timelines based on relevance and resonance, and like with any Promoted Tweet, advertisers pay only when a follower engages (i.e. retweets, favorites, or replies at).  The number of Promoted Tweets that will appear in a follower’s timeline will be limited.  Consumers will never see an organic Tweet and the Promoted version of that Tweet in their timeline at the same time.  Like the regular Promoted Tweet product, the new offering is an auction-based CPE (cost-per-engagement) model. 

 If you’d like to learn more about the new Promoted Tweets or any of Twitter’s promoted products, let us know.

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Key Takeaways from the 140 Character Conference

In Social Media on 06/16/2011 at 9:57 pm

The two-day 140 Character Conference just wrapped up! Amazing speakers from all walks of life, from CMOs, startup CEOs and news anchors/producers to ex-convicts, musicians, lawyers, daddy bloggers, the homeless, and educators, have all graced the stage at 92Y.  The reoccurring themes at this year’s conference included crowdsourcing, social good, authenticity, innovation and transmedia. I’ve compiled key marketing-related takeaways (each) in 140 characters or less:

  • Customer Engagement
    • Two-way conversation and authenticity are crucial in being successful in social media
    • Engaging customers in physical activities engages 60% of the brain, not just 10%
    • Scale relationships, not audiences
    • It’s not about you, it’s about them. Start talking to customers who love you & learn about them, & they’re more likely to listen
    • Playboy’s key to success in social media is exclusivity! They use social to provide an inside look at Playboy, feedback, and more
    • Consumers will purchase from companies who invest more in customer engagement
    • Emotionally relevant content creates customer engagement
    • Engaging consumers with content is no longer enough; creating intimate relationships is more important now
    • Brands must have an open mind and share things about the brand with consumers in order to impact their decisions
  • Customer Service
    • Customer service is all you got. You have to learn about the likes and dislikes of your customers and cater to that
    • 68% of Turbo Tax customers are more likely to complete their taxes after getting help from their Twitter handle
    • Only 10% have heard from the brand after remarking on negative shopping experience
  • Location-based Networks
    • Foursquare is still trying to answer the question, “How can Foursquare can be used with consumer brands?”
    • Foursquare hints that the location-based network will begin experimenting with daily deals
    • The future in 4sq is unlocking real tangible goods based on influence with masses
    • What’s the worth of badges on 4sq? Having social media icons on billboards? Ridiculous! So what if you’re on FB? So is everyone
  • Social TV
    • 56% use the Internet when they watch TV, 40% use social networks
    • It’s nice to have Facebook fans, Twitter followers, but if that does not translate into viewers and Nielsen ratings, nothing matters.
    • There are roughly 1.65 billion likes on tv shows
  • Internal organization
    • Brands need to be openly organized and invest in their own employees–the cheapest media you can buy

Fun stats:

  • 40% have remarked on negative shopping experiences while 46% remarked positive experiences, 18% used Facebook, 8% use Twitter
  • Facebook reaches 73% of the US online population per month

Great quotes:

“Be one thing. Let your cause be one thing, one story and let people share that one thing” – @lizstrauss

“You want your ‘onlinelity,” personality and your brand to be cohesive.” – @alissasheley

“Don’t be honking just to honk; ask yourselves what you can be initiator of, the father of the big idea” – @themarketingguy

“We need a different kind of CMO now, not a chief of marketing officer, but like Seth Godin says, ‘a chief movement officer’” – @hankwasiak

“We used to buy consumers’ eyeballs, now we are buying consumers’ minds, souls & friendships.” – @hankwasiak

“Top 100 people on Twitter are TV! Producing compelling content on Twitter is not enough!” – @tijuanajackson

You can catch more information on the #140conf by following me on Twitter @irinaskaya

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Three Riveting Startups You Should Know About

In Digital Media, Social Media on 05/21/2010 at 4:09 am

Ah, home, sweet home! It’s been a long and tiresome day, but very rewarding.  After work, I headed over to a Digital Flash NYC event that featured two Mashable panelists, a diverse set of questions from the audience, and an open bar. Hopefully, the open bar liquor had something to do with the ditzy question from the back of the room–“Why would I read Mashable? I’m interested in fashion; who is wearing what”–asked by a former teacher.  Either way, I met some amazing, new start-ups that I just couldn’t wait to write about. So here it goes…

  1. Catchafire.org connects volunteers within the areas of design, social media, advertising, legal, public relations, marketing, and others, with non-profit organizations. If you are a volunteer, you simply select your skill areas and the social cause you’d like to support, integrate your LinkedIn profile, and select a project of your choice. If you are a non-profit organization, pick a project from the project menu, and wait to see who your match is.
  2. Pixable aggregates your and your friends’ photos from multiple Web sites, including Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, SmugMug, and Photobucket into one central site and allows you to create and print photo books.
  3. EZTexting, founded in 2006, provides a simple, affordable text messaging platform for small to medium-sized businesses. The company allows businesses within the education, hospitality, religion, politics, non-profits, and technology industries to develop and execute a text messaging campaign within minutes.

What are some of the newly launched startups you’ve stumbled upon? Let me know.

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Emerging Social Media Moms

In Social Media on 05/09/2010 at 8:43 pm

Like many social media moms, Irene Bernshteyn, a New York stay-at-home mom, turned to Facebook and blogging to gain exposure for her hobby-turned-small-online-business, Baby Chic.

Mommy bloggers have become a strong online force, helping marketers to reach mothers, a powerful demographic that often controls household spending. With over 30,000 mom bloggers and their strong following, they are capable of activating an online network of thousands of people within their community who quickly interact through a number of viral channels, including Twitter and Facebook.

“Facebook is a huge exposure. There is a movement called “Link Love,” where I check the fan pages of some jewelry makers I like, and then I can post my links on their discussion board. In turn, they “like” my store’s fan page and post their links–it’s like free advertisement of their business,” said Bernshteyn.

While some social media moms still rely on one another to cross-promote their Web sites and prompt online participation, many seek out and cultivate powerful relationships with brands that seek to reach a similar audience. In light of Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate social media moms and their impact on social media marketing.

Four emerging social media trends for mommy bloggers:

  1. Oversharing – more and more moms are moving beyond blogging and are joining location-based networks such as Foursquare, and other sharing-based sites such as Plancast, which allow moms to share their plans for the future, and Blippy, which allows them to discuss their purchases.
  2. Blog sponsorships - while many brands recruit moms to generate buzz about their products through blogger outreach or place traditional display ads, more are beginning to sponsor individual mom blogs that align with the brand. Participating bloggers are already customizing content, contests, and giveaways.
  3. Self-owned communities – mommy bloggers will expand their efforts beyond individual blogs and fan pages into self-owned communities, built using white label forums/social networking platforms and plug-ins. Pioneer Woman has already paved the way for this trend.
  4. Campaign consultants – According to Mom Blog Magazine, brands will soon hire mommy bloggers to consult on campaigns in the ideas and planning phases instead of after a social media crisis hits the fan that requires reactionary advice.

Here is a list of top 25 influential moms in the Twitterverse according to the Mom Blog Magazine.

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How NYC businesses are using Foursquare to drive more customers

In How-to's, Social Media on 04/18/2010 at 4:50 pm

New York resident, Rob D’Asaro, checks in whenever he has a cup of coffee at Starbucks, takes out cash from Citibank, or has a need to dry clean his suits at Youme Cleaners.

Users get points participating in various activities, such as checking in at a location for the first time, traveling a certain distance between check-ins, or checking in often at the same location over time. A user with the most-check ins at any given venue is granted “mayor” status. A user can also earn “badges,” which reward a combination of behaviors. For example, one earns the “Local” badge if s/he checks-in at the same location three times in the same week. One can also earn the “Far Far Away” badge if s/he checks-in at NYC locations above 59th Street.

Although earning badges means nothing more than having the right to brag to your friends, those badges that are officially supported businesses across the country, such as Pinkberry offer Foursquare users discounts and/or tips when they check-in at their venue. Many businesses, such as Atomic Wings in NYC award “mayorship” with special discounts. Atomic Wings gives the mayor of its venue an extra 15 percent off. Others may award those who check-in at the venue using Foursquare a free product or an upgrade. For instance, Xoom Juice, a New York smoothie bar offers users a buy one, get one free smoothie. It’s East Village neighbor, Butter Lane cupcakes, offers a free cupcake every day to the first ten people to check in to Butter Lane on Foursquare. The Lite Choice of Gramercy Park rewards Foursquare users with free upgrades to a larger size cup or cone.

With Foursquare declaring April 16th an official FourSquare Day, the largest, global social media holiday, even more businesses have jumped on the location-based network’s bandwagon, offering its customers the sweetest deals! For a list of FourSquare Day events and participating local businesses around the nation, visit http://4sqday.com/cities.

Here are five ways NYC businesses are leveraging Foursquare that you can apply to your own:

  1. Re-award your most-frequent customer/”mayor” with free or discounted products. For example, a worthy promotion may be, “If you’re the mayor, you drink for FREE on Thursday nights.” Not only will you be strengthening your customer relationships with a potential brand advocate, but you will also spur some friendly competition amongst Foursquare users to de-throne the current mayor and take their place.
  2. Offer first-time customers a special discount in order to keep them coming back.
  3. Offer a complimentary product with a purchase of another. For example, Bogota Latin Bistro at 141 5th Avenue, New York, NY offered a complimentary “Bogota Promo” drink with purchase of a main entree for all Foursquare check-ins on Foursquare Day.
  4. Make Four Square users feel special. For example, New York Vinters offered a two-hour complimentary class with Executive Chef Chris Meeker who taught Foursquare users how to make delicious, gourmet pizza, in the comfort of your own home on Foursquare Day.
  5. Attract new customers with “specials near by.” Notifying users who check-in at a nearby venue of special discounts can be a great way to drive new customers who may have otherwise not known about your business.

Is your business utilizing Foursquare? If so, leave a comment and let us know how you are leveraging Foursquare to drive new customers and engage existing ones.

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Five cost-effective new media technologies for small business owners

In Digital Media, How-to's, Social Media on 04/10/2010 at 7:50 pm

New media is evolving at the speed of light. Small business owners want to embrace it and all of the advantages it offers, but are often afraid to break away from the norm and use new media technologies in new and innovative ways. Many business owners believe that establishing a branded online presence across social media platforms and optimizing the business Web site to show up in search results is highly technical and complicated. Although learning about these affordable and interactive Web 2.0 technologies and how to use them effectively requires a bit of time investment, the outcomes of effectively promoting products and services to a targeted audience will pay off tremendously. Get started with these five innovative, multi-channel (audio, video, events, and mobile) new media technologies and strategies.

  1. Build your credibility with podcasting – create podcasts on iTunes or have your own radio show on www.BlogTalkRadio.com while interviewing experts in the field and establishing your credibility. Customers can download the podcasts into their MP3 player and hear your message on-the go, while driving to work or running on a treadmill.
  2. Foster customer-relationships with video – Create your own channel on a live streaming video channel such as Ustream and invite your Facebook fans, Twitter followers, blog readers, or email subscribers to meet you there. You can use video capture tools such as theflip.com, logitech.com, or jingproject.com to create video product demonstrations, Webinars, how-tos, and allow your audience to ask you questions, while you learn about their needs and challenges. This is also a great way to get instant real-time feedback on any new products and/or services.
  3. Increase natural search traffic to your Web site with offline activations - host an event and invite bloggers, where they will write about it and shoot YouTube videos, helping you spread word about your business. Leverage offline meetup.com and/or tweetup groups in order to generate online buzz about your events to people who may have common interests. Meeting with people offline is the best way to develop meaningful relationships.
  4. Drive sales and repeat business with mobile SMS - leverage text messaging to announce store events and on-the-go discount coupons. The use of text messaging allows the business owner to instantly communicate information of value to those you wish to engage, and learn more about your customers. It also builds up the business’s CRM database, allowing for lead generation and repeat business. People love discounts, and in turn, businesses must offer them an incentive to give up their information. A free service like www.Jott.com allows business owners to create and send text messages via a voice message, which the Web site will then translate into text and send out on their behalf.
  5. Transform customer service with iPhone apps – Square iPhone application allows any merchant, from store retailer to a concert ticket seller, to accept credit/debit card payment using the Signature Swiper. Developed by the creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, the Square iPhone app costs only $1 and includes the card swiper. The person paying for the transaction can then sign for the items right on the iPhone screen, and choose whether or not to receive the receipt via email or SMS message. When you receive the receipt, it will show you the GPS location of where the transaction is made. This is very helpful for fraud prevention.

Do you have success story examples of small businesses that drove sales, increase brand awareness and loyalty with new media technologies? We want to hear from you!

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Fashion Week Gets Social

In Social Media on 02/11/2010 at 11:53 am

By Irina Skaya

Today marks the first day of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City.  In addition to reducing its carbon footprint by adopting low-carbon technology this year, many designers are also taking advantage of social media and what it has to offer.  Designers including, Lacoste, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs will live stream their shows on the Web, giving the fashion-week obsessed fans a virtual front row seat.

While most of the designers are streaming their shows on their Web sites, three of the designers, Lacoste, G-Star Raw and Calvin Klein, will stream their shows on their Facebook pages. Calvin Klein is leveraging the “Fashion Week” live stream tab on Facebook for fan acquisition, providing non-fans with an incentive to become a fan.  Unlike the Calvin Klein show, which will broadcast on both, its Web site and the Facebook page, Lacoste features an exclusive broadcast on its Facebook fan page only, providing non-fans with even more of an incentive to join in.  G-Star Raw will also broadcast its show live on their Facebook fan page as well. In addition to live streaming, the brand is inviting fans, also called, Raw Reporters, to live blog and tweet at their event.

Fashion week has been democratized—attendance is no longer by invitation-only for celebrities and Hollywood socialites—anyone can join in the fun from the comfort of their own home or iPhone.  As a matter of fact, designers like Marc Jacobs are banning celebrities from attending their shows and are pointing them to live stream! 

I will be sure to tweet live from Lacoste and Thuy, and will post my exclusive interview with designer Tibi here.  Stay tuned!

Here is a compiled list of the shows that are streaming live:

PORTS 1961
Thursday, February 11 at 3PM
http://www.Vogue.com/

G-STAR RAW
February 16 at 7 p.m.
http://facebook.com/gstar

ALEXANDER WANG
February 13, 22:00 GMT / 17:00 EST
http://live.showstudio.com. Be sure to tune in early.

CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION MEN’S
February 14, AIRS 2PM EST
http://www.facebook.com/calvinklein

MARC JACOBS
February 15 at more or less 8 p.m (check site)
http://www.marcjacobs.com/#/en-us/home

RODARTE
AIRS 16 FEB 2010, 17.00 GMT / 12.00 EST
http://live.showstudio.com. Be sure to tune in early.

CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION Womenswear
3:00pm EST on Thursday, February 18th
http://www.facebook.com/calvinklein

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Applying Your Dating Etiquette to Social Media

In Social Media on 02/03/2010 at 12:52 pm

By Irina Skaya

Prior to diving into the Facebook and Twittersphere social media networks, marketers must have a strategy (goals) in the space as well as be prepared to communicate with, and listen to their fans or followers on a daily basis.  The more I think about how to best describe social network monitoring and management, the more I think how similar social media communications etiquette is to dating etiquette.  I recently stumbled upon, “Dating Etiquette and Rules to Follow” on Topdatingtips.com.  Below is a list with top five dating rules that can be as easily applied to social media in order to win over the hearts of your customers.

  • Dating should always be fun, and it’s as much your responsibility as it is your partner’s to ensure that it is. Just like dating, social media is about engaging potential consumers in conversations and building relationships with them.  And of course, social media is a dialogue, not a monologue, so the brand must actively participate in the online conversation associated with it.
  • Always show up for a date, unless you’ve given notice and let the other person know you have to cancel. Standing someone up is not acceptable. Often times, brands say, “It’s only one person who complained.  If this becomes an issue where we receive numerous complaints, then we will address it.  Otherwise, let’s just not ignite the fire.”  I am not saying a brand must respond to all of the comments fans/followers post—some are just better left alone, especially if the person seems like the type to pick a fight.  The best advice I can give is all brands must have an escalation policy in order to have set rules and guidelines about how to respond in various, “What if…” scenarios.  Nonetheless, I strongly believe that each fan/follower is equally important, and the brand must pay attention to all of its fans.
  • Always be on time, and never keep your date waiting. So now that you have an escalation policy and know when and how to respond, be sure that you post your comments in a timely manner.  Whether the fan/follower has posted a question, a compliment or a complaint, the brand should respond as quickly as possible, almost instantaneously.
  • Dress well.  In this day and age, there is absolutely no excuse for looking shabby. Dress your page up; first impressions are everything.  Customize the channel with a branded skin, logo, profile photo, etc. Put your brand “in clothing” that is unique to its character, meaning include interesting and engaging functionalities, such as games, coupons, photos, videos, etc.
  • Be a good listener, and don’t talk your date to death. Don’t just broadcast promotions and self-served information about the brand.  Listen to what your customers are interested in, learn more about them, and focus your conversations on their interests.

Follow these five tips to win over your date and your fans/followers!

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