How many ‘likes’? Does your business have a place on Instagram?

 

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The social media revolution has created various platforms for brands to communicate with consumers, and vice versa (Mangold & Faulds 2010), with huge potential to transform e-commerce from a product-centric environment to a social and cuscomer-centred one (Wigand et al, 2008). As of March 2015, Instagram has more than 300 million active users. With 90% of these users being below 35, many brands choose the platform as an ideal way of reaching out to their target audience (Collins, 2015). At just 5 years old, having been launched in 2010, Forrester Research has placed Instagram amongst the most effective marketing tools, alongside Forbes contributors suggesting that it is ‘the world’s most powerful selling tool’. However, in spite of this, just one-quarter of top brands are currently using the platform (Clancy, 2015). With this in mind, does your brand have a place on Instagram?

So, which brands are using Instagram effectively?

Benefit 

Benefit often feature photos of their customers wearing the brand’s products, consequently increasing consumer engagement and building brand-consumer relationships. For example, by using the tag #realsies to promote their ‘They’re Real Mascara’, users submitted more than 12,000 ‘selfies’ via Instagram, to which Benefit created a mosaic on a design microsite leading to the product’s page. The brand’s initiative to encourage consumers to tag themselves wearing a new eyebrow product with #benebrow also gathered over 5,000 photos. Perhaps the most successful of all, and in partnership with the anti-bullying ‘Love is Louder’ movement, was #InnerBeauties, in which Benefit enlisted celebrities to spread daily challenges such as ‘post positivity’ and ‘lend a hand’. Benefit’s immense success shows optimal use of Instagram as a platform,  inviting other brands to step up to the challenge.

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Lancôme

Lancôme’s #bareselfie campaign, encouraging women to post photos of themselves without makeup, generated 50% of the sales for its new DreamTone serum. This showcases how the correct and efficient use of social media can have a direct impact on brand’s revenue. With more than 500 photos were posted under the #bareselfie hashtag, this campaign adequately proves how your campaign and/or contest can effectively increase your brand’s visibility on social platforms.

Bare Selfie

Starbucks

As one of the worlds most well known brands, Starbucks boasts an admirable 4.1 million followers. Using the hashtag #WhiteCupContest, the company encouraged fans of the brand to customise their iconic white cups and tag their submissions, to which the winning design would be created and used as a limited edition cup. Receiving more than 4,000 submissions in 3 weeks, Starbucks highlighted the fact they have both loyal and creative customers. Consistently posting photos which capture the brand’s ethos and encouraging their customers to ‘Tag [their] coffee photos with #Starbucks!’, you can presently find well over 20 million photos relating to the brand. With consistent, authentic, and interesting posts, Starbucks is, rather unsurprisingly, at the top of the Instagram game.

White Cup

 

Other success stories include Red Bull with an impressive 2.5 million followers and Burberry, following suit with 3.5 million followers. However, it is pertinent to note that mere followers alone do not guarantee success, your must actively engage with your audience to ensure a collaborative brand-consumer relationship and consequently benefits to your business. 

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And one brands who haven’t quite got the hang of Instagram…

eBay

With a mere average of 653 ‘likes’ per post, eBay is drastically behind the likes of Starbucks, Red Bull, and Burberry. Their lack of filters, interesting content, and showcasing of products is likely to contribute to their minimal engagement. Additionally, they provide no regular updates on Instagram, with some of their posts being not only days, but weeks apart. Their audience will quickly become tired and disinterested, as there is no authenticity or consumer-brand relationship.

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Other considerations:

Which filter?

Normal or #nofilter are by far the most popular ways to upload on the platform, but they are by no means the most effective (Harris, 2013). With its filters being arguably the most unique function, it is vital that you choose the correct one in order to give you the highest chance of consumer engagement. As per the graph below, Mayfair attracts on average 23.044 likes and comments, whereas Normal attracts a lower figure of 18.009.

FiltersGraph

 

Which day should you post?

While platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have optimal days to post, Instagram is rather the opposite, with all days receiving similar interactions. By a small majority, Monday attracts the most interactions per 1,000 followers, yet the most frequent day to post is a Thursday. With its mobility, Instagram is inherently a ’24/7′ platform (Harris, 2013) allowing your brand to be present at all times, as the likelihood of your audience receiving and reacting to the content is high.

 

Posting-Day-of-Week-Graph

Which #hashtag to use?

Choosing an effective hashtag is crucial to improved engagement. For example, more than 877 million Instagram posts include the #love hashtag. Additionally, a popular acronym across all social media platforms is ‘tbt’, or Throwback Thursday, commonly used in hashtag form and amounting to over 272 million posts. Unsurprisingly, #happy  and #smile also fall high on the list, with 289 million and 212 million posts respectively. As shown above by #bareselfie, #benebrow, and #whitecupcontest, hashtags are a useful tool in creating a viral post, whether it be a contest, promotion, or campaign. Starbucks recently tagged one photo with #Mornings and #SnuggledUp, amassing over 97k likes purely because it advocated the day as ‘national drink your coffee in bed day’. Simple, yet very, very effective. According to a Simply Measured study of the Interbrand 100 (shown below), 83% of all posts by top brands include at least one hashtag, and 21% include more than 5. Importantly, the use of the hashtag allows for an effective and optimal long tail search (Enders et al, 2008).

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So, what can you do to ensure your brand’s success on Instagram?

 

  1. Create a short, sharp, and easy to remember username – something that truly represents your brand and it easy for potential followers to identify.
  2. Add a suitable profile photo which adequately reflects your brand’s image.
  3. Link your accounts. For example, if you have Twitter and Facebook, you may share your photos across all platforms in order to take advantage of cross-marketing.
  4. Showcase your products, including the correct use of the #hashtag in order to increase engagement.
  5. Co-ordinate promotions by promoting exclusive previews of new products or allowing followers to purchase it before the general public (Mangold & Faulds, 2009).
  6. Consider which filter to use, with the knowledge that certain filters gain more engagement than others.

 

As an ideal way of promoting customer relationships (Huang & Benyoucef, 2013), Instagram is certainly an effective platform for your business in 2015. Despite many users being of a young demographic, it should be noted that the growth of social media is not limited teenagers, are members of Generation X are increasingly populating the ranks of joiners, spectators, and critics (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). With a heavy aspect of personalisation and the opportunity to converse with consumers, Instagram provides a fantastic way of gaining feedback, offering promotions, and heightening excitement about a particular brand or product. Building your brand on Instagram may take time, but the rewards will soon come flooding in, as highlighted by the many examples above.

Instagram

 

References: 

Austin, C. These 20 Brands Have Mastered The Use of Instagram. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-20-brands-have-mastered-the-use-of-instagram-2013-1?op=1&IR=T [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Clancy, H. Just one quarter of top brands use Insagram: analysis. [Online] Available at: http://fortune.com/2015/03/23/few-brands-use-instagram-report/ [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Collins, M. How To Use Instagram To Promote Your Business. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/how-to-use-instagram-to-promote-your-business/1821 [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Enders, A et al (2008) The long tail of social networking. European management journal. Vol 26 (Issue 3), p199-211.

Gibson, R. 14 Best Instagram Campaigns of 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.postano.com/blog/the-14-best-instagram-campaigns-of-2014 [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Gillett, R. How The Most Successful Brands Dominate Instagram, and You Can Too. [Online] Available at: www.fastcompany.com/3029395/bottom-line/how-the-most-successful-brands-dominate-instagram-and-you-can-too [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Huang  Z  & Benyoucef, M (2013) From e-commerce to social commerce: A close look at design features. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications,12(4), 246-259.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, 59 – 68.

Longacre, K. 5 Brands with Highly Successful Instagram Marketing Strategies. [Online] Available at: http://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/enterprise-marketing/5-brands-with-highly-successful-instagram-marketing-strategies/ [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Mangold. W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2010). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons52(4), 357-365.

O’Connor, C. Starbucks And Nike Are Winning Instagram (And Your Photos Are Helping). [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/02/13/starbucks-and-nike-are-winning-instagram-and-your-photos-are-helping/ [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Pilon, A. Top 25 Brands You Should Follow on Instagram. [Online] Available at: http://smallbiztrends.com/2014/11/top-25-brands-you-should-follow-on-instagram.html [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Shapiro, A. #BareSelfie: Lancome Asks Its Insagram Followers To Bare All For Beauty. [Online] Available at: http://www.bustle.com/articles/4256-bareseflie-lancme-asks-its-instagram-followers-to-bare-it-all-for-beauty [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Walter, E. 5 Brands Using Instagram to Interact and Build Fan Relationships. [Online] Available at: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2299432/5-brands-using-instagram-to-interact-build-fan-relationships [Accessed 20 March 2015].

Wigand, R. T., Benjamin, R. I. and Birkland, J. L. H. (2008) Web 2.0 and beyond: implications for electronic commerce, Electronic Commerce ACM New York.

Is your business using the power of Facebook to its full potential?

successful-facebook-marketing

 

Social media platforms are becoming an ever more important feature of an organisation’s media mix (Peters et al, 2013) and The Washington Post has recently commented that Facebook has almost as many users as the entire population of China (Dewey, 2014). I’m not sure what Mark Zuckerberg envisioned when he started the now-social-giant whilst at Harvard University, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that. The important thing to take from this is the likelihood of your potential and current customers having an account, which based on that bold statistic is rather high. As the number of social media users continues to climb, many businesses are looking to establish more than a simple profile, but an effective one (Schulze et al, 2015).

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Facebook allows users to post various types of content, including:

  1. Images
  2. Text
  3. Videos
  4. Websites and blog posts, and;
  5. Repost other people’s content by ‘sharing’

With so much choice, it’s inevitable that some businesses will miss the mark when implementing Facebook into their overall digital marketing strategy. So the question stands – what types of posts will generate the most engagement from Facebook users?

Images

Facebook posts containing an image consistently outperform those without by 120%, whereas whole photo albums outperform the average post by 180% (Campbell, 2013). So, from those percentages, it all seems quite simple. Images generate more engagement; in fact, a lot more. On a site so highly saturated with text, of course an image is going to stand out from the crowd. Despite photos creating more buzz, what you choose to put out there must still be carefully considered. Is it relevant? Is it high-quality? Is it interesting? All of these questions are extremely important to the user and absolutely vital to the company posting them.

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Text 

As noted above, textual posts hold the risk of getting lost within the overloaded timelines on Facebook. In a bid to act on its users actions and preferences, the social network’s News Feed Ranking Product Manager, Chris Turitzin, declared these posts as ‘undesirable’ in 2014 and vowed to keep text updates to a minimum within the News Feed. If accompanied with a photo or video, text posts are valuable tools, but without, the likelihood of a high engagement-rate is slim.

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Video 

Although Facebook allows for YouTube videos, the social giant recently launched a few updates, including video playlists and featured videos. With a two-fold advantage, these videos look more professional and can be featured in an extra-large format. Most importantly, Facebook videos are proven to generate more engagement than competitors such as Vimeo and YouTube (Baldassarre, 2015). This isn’t to say you can’t make use of cross-marketing between Facebook and Youtube, as many brands do (and do very well at that).

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Which brands are making the most out of their Facebook profiles?

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Starbucks

With 36 million likes and an average of 47,000 interactions per post, relationship marketing is at the heart of Starbucks’ marketing strategy. Their Facebook page allowing consumers to manage their loyalty card and enter competitions, amongst other strategies. With varied content including videos, surveys, and coupons, Starbucks offer a diverse range of posts for their followers to engage with, keeping it fresh and interesting.

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Coca Cola

With 90 million followers and roughly 4,500 interactions each day, Coca Cola holds the top spot in Facebook popularity. A prime example of their success is the SuperBowl, during which time the brand achieved 40,000 interactions. However, contrary to the usual marketing strategies, Coca Cola will occasionally go weeks without uploading a post. With the advantage of social media being able to transfer content to a more diverse range of people compared to the mass media (Newman, 2003), Coca-Cola have managed to create a network of followers where content is easily distributed to a large number of people, therefore not requiring constant updates in order to reach an audience.

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McDonald’s

With 56 million, the brand are a fierce competitor in the Facebook marketing world. Adopting a ‘less is more’ approach, McDonald’s rarely shares more than one post per day. With 80% of the brand’s followers residing outside of the US, McDonald’s regularly share photos or videos, allowing followers with little or no English a chance to engage with the content. What’s the message here? The more people that can access your content, regardless or geographical location or language, the more it will be read, liked, and shared.

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Red Bull

This brand have an exceptionally interesting marketing strategy, as it is extremely rare to see their actual products being advertised, and more common to see posts about extreme sports. Videos within this content sends users to YouTube, through which their channel has amassed over 1 billion views. This is an ideal example of social media platforms providing an opportunity to connect with consumers by using richer media with a greater reach (Thackeray et al, 2008). Being such a visually exciting page, Red Bull engage their users with interactive content and regular updates, creating a loyal mass-following.

 

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And finally, what not to do…

dont do it!

London Luton Airport 

Shortly after a Chicago flight slid of off the runway and killed a 6-year old boy onboard,  London Luton posted the below text and image on Facebook. Unsurprisingly, a grovelling apology came soon after. What does this teach us? Think before you post. Always. 

luton_airport

 

Facebook itself recommends that to make your business ‘come alive’ on the platform, you must aim to be authentic, responsive, consistent, and make successful posts into successful promotions (Facebook, 2015). Additionally, Facebook states the ‘recipe for success’ is to create posts and adverts that are ‘interesting and valuable to your customers – and to target your messages so that the right people see them.’

There are various ways in which you can create a loyal following, as articulated by LaPointe (2012);

“Fans can come to the brand through many different pathways. Fans can be earned – through good content, good media or both. Or fans can be bought through discounts, points, miles, or other ex-brand value drivers.”

 

So, what can we gain from all of this?

  1. Embrace images
  2. Make the most of your cover photo, it’s ‘prime real estate’!
  3. Highlight your best posts. Facebook no longer works in a chronological order, as you can opt to ‘highlight’ a post, drawing more attention to it. Red Bull highlighted a month-old video, taking it from 10,000 likes to 12,000.
  4. Run contests to boost engagement.
  5. Embrace your fans by posting their photos and posts. It will create a brand-consumer relationship and encourage others to do the same.
  6. Don’t make jokes about planes crashing (Take note, London Luton).

 

Bewertung

 

References: 

Baldassarre, R. 8 Ways Businesses Can Benefit From Facebook. [Online] Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244837 [Accessed 22 April 2015].

Burney, K. Case Study: Top Content From The Most Engaging Brands on Facebook. [Online] Available at: http://trackmaven.com/blog/2014/06/case-study-most-engaging-brands-on-facebook/ [Accessed 22 April 2015].

Campbell, K. 3 Most Engaging Types of Facebook Posts. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/3-most-engaging-types-of-facebook-posts [Accessed 29 April 2015].

Dewey, C. Almost as many people use Facebook as live in the entire country of China. [Online] Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/29/almost-as-many-people-use-facebook-as-live-in-the-entire-country-of-china/ [Accessed 22 April 2015].

LaPointe, P. (2012). Measuring Facebook’s Impact on Marketing. Journal of Advertising Research. pp. 286-287.

Lee, K. We Tested All the Best Advice to Get More Clicks on Facebook, Here’s What Worked. [Online] Available at: https://blog.bufferapp.com/facebook-marketing [Accessed 22 April 2015].

Newman, M. (2003), “The structure and function of complex networks”, SIAM Review, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 167-256

Peters, K., Chen, Y., Kaplan, A. M., Ognibeni, B, and Pauwels, K. (2013) Social Media Metrics – A Framework and Guidelines for Managing Social Media. Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 27, Issue 4, p 281 – 298.

Schulze, C., Scholer, L, and Skiera, B. (2015) Customizing Social Media Marketing. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 56, No. 2.

Thackeray, R., Neiger, B.I., Hanson, C.L. and McKenzie, J.F. (2008), “Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of Web 2.0 social media”, Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 338-343.

Van Grove, J. Facebook to show fewer text posts from Pages. [Online] Available at: http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/facebook-to-show-fewer-text-posts-from-pages/[Accessed 22 April 2015].

From personalised design to infinite content, is Twitter an effective platform for the 21st Century business?

twitter-bird-announce

 

So, what’s all the buzz about this social network platform which limits posts to 140-characters? Surely, with other options such as Facebook and Google+, the thought of having to conjure such concise posts may seem a hassle, or unnecessary? It would appear this isn’t the case at all, as Twitter has been hailed ‘a brilliant tool for communicating with consumers’ (Moth, 2013). With approximately 58 million tweets are sent per day, Twitter can be accessed through a website interface or a mobile app, in addition to tweets being sent and received via SMS. When looking at digital marketing strategies, it is important to note that the tools for communicating with customers have changed rather significantly with the emergence of the phenomenon known as social media, sometimes referred to as consumer-generated-media (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). 

Before we look at how your business can benefit from the use of Twitter, let’s have a look at some brands maximising their social opportunity in interesting and innovative ways.
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Starbucks

Boasting 101,000 followers, Starbucks have an air of professionalism surrounding their Twitter, whilst at the same time remaining cool (in both senses of the word), calm, and collected. Not only do they market their products with ease, they also promote goodwill and can often be seen offering customers free drinks, with the reward being the support of a good cause. As if that wasn’t enough, Starbucks are masters of the #hashtag, using them consistently and authentically. A clever social marketing strategy that is only gaining more and more momentum.

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ASOS 

With 838,000 followers, ASOS run a highly popular Twitter account. Tapping into their target audience, they can often be seen using acronyms such as #FOMO – or ‘Fear Of Missing Out’. Not only that, but they’re using them in such a way to promote important causes and events. Much like Starbucks, ASOS can often be seen offering the chance to win competitions. An appealing tweet to see by anyone’s standards, I’m sure.

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Innocent Drinks 

Innocent perfectly markets itself with humour to its 207,000 loyal followers. Let’s be honest, they’re just tweeting what we’re all thinking, right? Innocent manage to create a seamless rapport with their followers by being personable, articulate, and just very, very funny. Perhaps not the greatest strategy for say, the likes of Burberry or Harrods, but nevertheless this strategy hits the nail right on the head when it comes to pitching their products and creating a following. Innocent also communicate with their audience on a regular basis, often re-tweeting, liking, and replying to tweets. Not only does this build a brand-consumer relationship, it also keeps the brands image present.

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Now for the bad…

 

British Airways 

As the flag courier of the UK, you would assume British Airways would be on top of their game when it comes to social media marketing, especially in the customer service department. Unfortunately, (albeit back in 2013), they were not. This Twitter user contacted them on the 2nd September, only to hear no response until the 3rd. Granted, only a day later, but such is the fast-paced life of Twitter where customers expect instantaneous responses. With 654,000 followers, you would expect fast(er) responses, as Easyjet often demonstrate.

wpid-ba

wpid-baa-2

 

Kellogg’s 

Quite honestly, just dull. Thankfully, it would seem that Kellogg’s have revamped their social media strategy since the tweets below and now have a far better rate of engagement with their followers, and perhaps most important, exciting tweets that people may wish to read and go on to like, retweet, or respond to.

 

kellogg_s_twitter-blog-full-blog-full

 

 

Now we’ve considered the good, the bad, and the ugly, let’s take a look at the strategies you could adopt to ensure your business is at the top of that list.

1. Use Twitter to build your brand 

Google’s Matt Cutts’ believes this shouldn’t be about building links, but instead building your audience. Twitter provides the opportunity to get your brand out into a greater social conversation, but this isn’t a responsibility to be taken lightly. You must consider your activity when building your brand:

  1. Vet the content you share for quality
  2. Is your Twitter handle and basic profile compliant with your brand’s visual image
  3. Are you ‘injecting personality, perspective, and insight’ into your tweets? (DeMers, 2014)
  4. Have you created a branded hashtag? / Are you using hashtags to highlight campaigns? (E.g. Domino’s Pizza UK have enjoyed success with their #letsdolunch hashtag, which sees the price of pizza dropped by 1 pence each time someone uses it. After 85,000 tweets, the price dropped from £15.99 to £7.74) A warning for hashtags – if you exceed two hashtags in a tweet, your chances of engagement drop by 17% (Pindoriya, 2014).

Brand

2. Integrate visual content 

If your Twitter is dull and lifeless, you won’t enjoy and high follower count, nor will people be engaged by your tweets. In order to create a buzz, you must consciously include visual and video content, perhaps even using cross-platform promotion with others such as Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

Jason DeMers, columnist for Huffington Post, suggests the following:

  1. Choose compelling images
  2. Use individual photos to communicate your brand
  3. Increase interactivity by using Twitter as a platform to showcase your video content
  4. Connect your infographics to the larger industry social conversation

As tweets including images are 94% more likely to be shared than those without, it is vital that you consider the above in order to allow your brand image to travel further within the Twitter platform. (Zarella, 2013).

visual-content

3. Engage your audience 

A brand may have an astronomical number of followers, yet their actual engagement is surprisingly low. The two don’t always go hand in hand; you must work effectively to engage your audience, as they don’t just come to you. A high level of organic engagement is a good indication that your strategy is effective.

Gary Vaynerchuk, legendary marketer, is a Twitter engagement whiz; checking social feeds and responding to questions. There are a few things that you can actively do to gauge your audience’s engagement:

  1. The more interested your audience are, the more retweets, comments, and likes your content will receive. However, we should note that only 22% of engagement with tweets are replies, with 78% being retweets (Pindoriya, 2014).
  2. If people are leaving comments on your content or asking questions, this is indicative of a good brand-image, as your presence is naturally cultivating interaction opportunities.

Engagement

4. Provide exclusivity

People like to feel as though they will gain something from following your brand. This can be achieved by offering information, products, or special deals they are available exclusively to those consumers who engage with your brand on social media (Mangold & Faulds, 2009) offering an incentive for people to follow and increase engagement. For example, Roadrunner Records allows online participants to subscribe to weekly e-newsletters and to pre-order albums. 

 

exclusive

 

And what about followers? 

 

Screen Shot 2015-05-16 at 12.59.39

 

 

Social media is perceived by consumers as a trustworthy source of information when looking at products and services, in fact, more so than corporate-sponsored communications transmitted via the more traditional elements (Foux, 2006). More frequently, consumers are now turning to various types of social media in order to conduct their searches and make decisions regarding purchases (Lempert, 2006; Vollmer & Precourt, 2008). So, to answer our original question, it would appear that yes, Twitter is an effective platform for the 21st Century business, and by implementing the above your business could benefit from the success of brands such as Starbucks and ASOS.

References: 

Cutts, M. Gadgets, Google, and SEO. [Online] Available at: https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/ [Accessed 23 April 2015].

DeMers, J. How To Build A Winning Twitter Strategy in 2014. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/04/01/how-to-build-a-winning-twitter-strategy-in-2014/[Accessed 23 April 2015].

Foux, G. (2006, May 8). Consumer-generated media: Get your customers involved. Brand Strategy, 38—39.

Lempert, P. (2006). Caught in the Web. Progressive Grocer, 85 (12), 18.

Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons52(4), 357-365.

Moth, D. Five good and four bad examples of brands using Twitter. [Online] Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/62639-five-good-and-four-bad-examples-of-brands-using-twitter/ [Accessed 23 April 2015].

Pindoriya, V. How To Effectively Use Hashtags For Maximum Engagement. [Online] Available at: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/effectively-use-hashtags-maximum-engagement-0960602 [Accessed 23 April 2015]. 

Schiff, J. 14 Ways to Use Twitter to Market Your Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.cio.com/article/2380667/twitter/14-ways-to-use-twitter-to-market-your-business.html [Accessed 23 April 2015].

Smiley, M. Microsoft adds aired during shows with social buzz saw five times more Twitter mentions than less social shows. [Online] Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/04/20/microsoft-ads-aired-during-shows-social-buzz-saw-five-times-more-twitter-mentions [Accessed 23 April 2015].

Vollmer, C., & Precourt, G. (2008). Always on: Advertising,marketing, and media in an era of consumer control. NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

Zarella, D. Use Images on Twitter to Get More ReTweets. [Online] Available at: http://danzarrella.com/use-images-on-twitter-to-get-more-retweets.html [Accessed 23 April 2015].

Choosing the right social media platform to promote your business: One, Two, or all of them?

Social media buttons

The concept of social media is at the top of the agenda for many businesses today (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). The use of social media marketing can be a brilliant way of promoting your business to a wide range of potential consumers. The list is now endless, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube being a small selection, and perhaps some of the most well known. Receiving immense levels of traffic on a daily basis, these platforms are the perfect way of promoting your brand, but which do you use? One, two, three… all of them? Choosing which outlets to use is critical to your brand as each have varying purposes and, perhaps more importantly, audiences. It should be noted that there is no one-size-fits-all for social media marketing and companies must further tailor their strategies to their particular brand (Schulze et al, 2015).

1. Facebook

Facebook_Logo

This platform boasts around 1.4 billion users, up 170 million in one year (Kiss, 2014), and predicted to rise to 4 billion by 2017 (Zachariadis, 2014). To put this in perspective, the population of the USA and Russia are only 322 million and 142 million respectively. Facebook is at the forefront of social networking in terms of user consumption. According to Scott Galloway, Facebook is the platform people of all ages spend the most time on. Additionally, Facebook boldly states that it can ‘help you to reach all of the people who matter most to your business’.

 

The good…

 

Innocent

This brand are reaching their target audience perfectly by creating authentic, eye-catching, and interesting content. They tap into user’s sense of humour by occasionally adding the odd joke, which seems to go down very well with their audience as they often boast ‘likes’ in the thousands per post. By creating a positive brand image, brands can effectively develop and enhance their relationships with customers (Bartlett, 2010 and Monseau, 2009).

 

 

… and the bad.

 

 Costa Coffee

To be frank, who wants to read this? Most likely not very many people. We already know that text posts don’t do as well as those including photos of videos, but it’s taken another step down when that text post is dull. One disadvantage of social media is that of the frequent and rather unpredictable situation regarding negative Facebook comments made by users (Dekay, 2012). All posts are open to receive these comments, but dull posts such as this are perhaps more prone to it, consequently damaging the brand image.

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 2. Twitter 

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With 288 million users, Twitter is far from Facebook in terms of usage. However, as noted by Dean Ronnie, Content Marketer with Micromedia.co.uk, ‘if you can tweet, you can advertise on Twitter.’ With instantaneous information sharing, Twitter allows companies to engage with others users in a concise fashion, keeping within the character limit. With the added option of visual content, Twitter is at the forefront of social media, allowing for  exciting and professional digital marketing strategies to be considered. With a direct correlation between social media engagement and revenue, Sony announced in June 2012 that they had earned a three million dollar increase in sales from their presence on Twitter (O’Flynn, 2012).

 

The good…

 

ASOS

This brand are social media leaders when it comes to interacting with their audience. Not only do they converse, but they do so in a way that is fitting to their target social demographic. Everyone likes to feel as though a brand has put a little effort in now and again, and ASOS show just that. With humour and kindness, they really put the message across that their brand is committed to their digital marketing strategy and as a consequence, their customers/users.

 

asos-blog-full

 

… and the bad.

 

Kellogg’s

One key to success on social media is simply to be interesting (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m sure that I’m not alone when I say that I’d rather not see these tweets on my timeline.

kellogg_s_twitter-blog-full-blog-full

 


3. LinkedIn

linkedin

Having a self-confessed 300 million users, LinkedIn is most commonly known as the ‘professional social media platform’, used to discover business opportunities, deals, and new ventures (LinkedIn, 2015). According to Reid Hoffman, 27% of LinkedIn subscribers are recruiters, making it the perfect platform for reaching out to a corporate audience.

 

The good… 

 

IBM

Back in 2012, IBM topped the LinkedIn rankings with 1.8 million interactions and they certainly haven’t stopped since, with over 2.3 million followers as of 2015. The technology giant share varying posts on the site, from around the web and their own content-hub. Having a range of sub-groups certainly doesn’t harm their brand, such as IBM Big Data and Analytics and IBM Cloud Computing. With these specialist sub-sites, users can automatically tell how much thought and effort IBM have placed on their social media strategy, and it is certainly paying off.

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… and the bad. 

 

ICT Hotels Ltd

With an array of out-of-focus photos and minimal interaction, ITC Hotels are falling far behind with their social media strategy, or lack thereof.

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4. Google+

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With 300,000,000 users, Google+ is a social network and social later for Google services. Google itself has implied that activity has a positive impact on where a company ranks within their search engine (Rider, 2015). Whether or not your company actively engages in Google+, it is important to partake in Google My Business; listing your location, opening hours and contact details in Google’s search results.

 

The good…

 

Hugo Boss

As one of the top high-end fashion retailers, Hugo Boss’ expertise lie in visual design. They’ve managed to carry their clean image onto this social platform seamlessly, with in-turn reads like a glossy magazine. As a result of this success, they have well over 3 million followers to their name on this platform alone.

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… and the bad.

 

Kodak

Given that Kodak are a brand all about visual products, their Google+ page is largely inundated with text. Empty of any eye-catching ‘Kodak Moments’, those who visit the page are met with quite a dull, lifeless timeline of unappealing posts.

 

 

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5. Instagram

Instagram

Primarily a visual sharing platform, with both photo and video features, Instagram holds an impressive 300,000,000 users. With features similar to Twitter (and now Facebook), you can use hashtags and include other user’s handles as a direct route of connecting to others, who may in turn ‘regram’ your posts, allowing for additional views. With 90% of users are under 35 (Collins, 2015), Instagram is an ideal platform if your business intends to reach out to the younger generations, with Forbes contributors suggesting that Instagram is ‘the world’s most powerful selling tool.’

The good…

 

Nike

Without a doubt one of the top brands on Instagram, Nike use the social media platform to converse with its audience in an authentic and effective way. Out of the Interbrand Top 100 Brands, (coming in at #22), Nike has the most followers on Instagram, with just over 8 million. In 2013, Nike ran one of the most successful social media marketing campaigns to date, ‘Nike PHOTOiD’, allowing followers to use their own Instagram photos as inspiration for a pair of personalised trainers. Not only did this encourage social engagement, it also created a buzz about the brand’s products. Continually supplying users with brilliant content and showcasing its products in a creative way, Nike is at the forefront of social marketing.

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… and the bad.

 

Domino’s

With this rather strange, out of focus photograph, Domino’s are certainly doing themselves no favours in the world of Instagram. The use of filters is practically a must nowadays, with research telling us that certain filters will most certainly gain more engagement. Now only does this look like it’s been created rather lazily on PowerPoint, it totally misses the mark regarding any type of decent marketing. Being such a big brand, you would think Domino’s would implement a more strategic and creative strategy which would eliminate faux pas such as this.

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7. Tumblr

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Similar to Twitter and Instagram, Tumblr is a customisable visual blogging site, which ‘effortlessly lets you share anything’ (Tumblr, 2015). With customisation options from colour to your theme’s HTML, it is the perfect option for companies looking for authenticity which some of the other platforms lack. As a  ‘part microblogging, part social networking site’ (Aamoth, 2013)  Tumblr is perhaps less rigid in its professionalism than other platforms, yet with 41% of their audience between 18 – 34, this is hardly surprising. For a refreshing outlook with plenty of choice, Tumblr is an exciting platform, although arguably not necessarily for the business-savvy amongst us.

The good…

… and the bad.

 


 

8. YouTube

YouTube_logo_2013.svg

 

With over 1,000,000,000 users and 300 hours of video uploaded every single minute, YouTube is by far the most popular video network in the world. With advances in technology, filming has become so professional that any brand with the correct equipment can create high-standard content for their audience, gaining an extraordinary amount of views.

 

The good…

 

Louis Vuitton

Known for their beautiful products, the offering of a visual platform is an excellent opportunity for the brand, as it can show its wonderfully crafted products off to its heart’s desire. Using a specific strategy, the brand choose to tell the story behind the brand and its products in a seamless and professional fashion, one particular video of which has earned over 4.5 million views. Beautifully constructed and shot, the brand’s YouTube channel is a real credit to them, showcasing their products in a flawless fashion.

… and the bad.

 

PETA

Timed to be released on Valentine’s Day, this video suggested that guys who embrace a vegan diet suddenly have the energy for endless sex – leaving their partners bruised and battered in the process. Domestic violence activists absolutely hated the video, as did practically everyone else.  This is a prime example of how social media can go very, very wrong and leave a lasting effect on a business, whether it be a non-profit organisation or not.


 

Looking at a KISSmetrics study focusing on 18,000 e-commerce sites, Facebook and YouTube come out on top for the average time users spend on the platforms, as do they for pages per visit.

 

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Among 2,000 brands analysed by the marketing services company Yes Lifecycle Marketing, 80% manage Facebook pages, 82% are active on Twitter, 23% own Instagram accounts, and 60% engage with YouTube. If you do choose to use more than one platform, ensure your message is consistent and professional. While having a presence on every single outlet, it may be wise to focus on a select few, of which you can create a strong relationship with consumers (or ‘followers’) and guarantee regular updates.

 

References:

Aamoth, D. What Is Tumblr? [Online] Available at: http://techland.time.com/2013/05/19/what-is-tumblr/ [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Bartlett, M. (2010), “How to use social media to develop realtor relationships”, Credit Union Journal, Vol. 14 No. 39, p. 4.

Butlion, J. 8 Important Stats Gathered from Analyzing Over 18,000 Small to Medium Ecommerce Sites. [Online] Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/8-important-ecommerce-stats/ [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Clancy, H. Just one-quarter of top brands use Instagram” analysis. [Online] Available at: http://fortune.com/2015/03/23/few-brands-use-instagram-report/ [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Collins, M. How To Use Instagram To Promote Your Business. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/how-to-use-instagram-to-promote-your-business/1821 [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Dekay, S.H. (2012), “How large companies react to negative Facebook comments”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 289-299.

Denning, S. The Future Of Amazon, Apple, Facebook And Google. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/09/the-future-of-amazon-apple-facebook-google/ [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Facebook. Facebook can help you to reach who matters most to your business. [Online] Available at: https://www.facebook.com/business/overview [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, 59 – 68.

Kiss, J. (2014). Facebook’s 10th birthday: from college dorm to 1.23 billion users. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/04/facebook-10-years-mark-zuckerberg. [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Monseau, M. (2009). Social media initiatives help build relationships. [Online] Available at: www. docstoc.com/docs/44023184/Social-media-initiatives-help-build-relationships/ [Accessed 20 April 2015].

O’Flynn, A. (2012). Using social media to increase sales and brand awareness. [Online] Available at: http://logicpath.com/blog/general/using-social-media-to-increase-sales-and-brandawareness/ [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Rider, B. Choosing the Right Social Media Channels to Communicate Your Brand. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/choosing-the-right-social-media-channels-to-communicate-your-brand/1757 [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Ronnie, D. How can Twitter Advertising Boost your Brand Presence? [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-advertising/how-can-twitter-advertising-boost-your-brand-presence/517 [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Schulze, C., Scholer, L, and Skiera, B. (2015) Customizing Social Media Marketing. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 56, No. 2.

Whatley, J. (2014) Brands on social media in 2-14: the good, the bad and the ugly. [Online] Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2014/dec/10/brands-social-media-marketing-strategies-celebrities [Accessed 21 April 2015].

Zachariadis, Dr M. The Future of Facebook. [Online] Available at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/the-future-of-facebook/465 [Accessed 21 April 2015].

The secret behind Viral Video Marketing and how your business can do it too

Viral-Video-Marketing

What is a Viral Video?

The term ‘viral marketing’ devised by Steve Jurvertson in 1997 has become an exceptionally powerful internet buzz-word (Grifoni, 2013).By using social media to their advantage, brands can spread a message to thousands, or even millions of people in a matter of hours. It is simply the ‘spread of an idea’ (Ciotti, 2013) and has been described as ‘creating a buzz’, ‘leveraging the media’, and ‘networking marketing’ (Wilson, 2013). Viral videos play an integral part in the sale of products, the opinion consumers may have on particular brands, and more recently, providing information on health conditions and charities.

Examining the definition of viral marketing isn’t necessarily a simple task, as various interpretations have been discussed. Put simply, viral marketing is the broadcasting of a message which is shared multiple times, attracting numerous views.

What makes a video go viral? 

Johan Berger and Katherine Milkman published a joint-paper titled ‘What Makes Online Content Go Viral?’, in which they proposed three elements:

1. Positive content, dwelling on positive issues or topics.

2. Evoking strong emotional reactions. E.g. Fear, joy, anger, etc.

3. It was practically useful.

Additionally, in Berger’s book ‘Contagious: Why Things Catch On’, he outlined a more comprehensive system, including the headlines (i) social currency, (ii) triggers, (iii) emotion, (iv) public, (v) practical, and (vi) stories; all of which expand on the above 3 elements.

Perhaps the most comprehensive of all is that of Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, a pioneer of internet marketing and e-business, in which he adopts a six-stage strategy:

1. Gives away products of services

2. Provides for effortless transfer to others

3. Scales easily from small to very large

4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours

5. Utilises existing communication networks

6. Takes advantage of others’ resources

 

Viral Marketing Examples 

Below are a few examples of brands using successful viral marketing techniques, bearing in mind the above suggestions; some gaining millions of views on YouTube, whilst also taking account of other video sharing platforms.

GoPro 

This video simply shows a fireman rescuing a kitten, all recorded with a GoPro camera. As a starting point, this video evokes human emotion, in keeping with Berger’s system. However, GoPro have been extremely clever, as this is the perfect opportunity to market their camera, whilst putting out content which is likely to be shared numerous times.

Air New Zealand  

To celebrate the release of The Hobbit film, Air New Zealand released this safety briefing, whilst at the same time gaining 12.3 million views. Upon this success, and to celebrate the final movie, they released ‘The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made‘, gaining over 13.1 million views. Not only does this make use of others’ resources, as Dr. Wilson suggests, it includes positive content, as listed by Berger and Milkman.

LG Elevator Prank 

In an attempt to promote its new ‘lifelike’ features, LG released this YouTube video, securing over 22.9 million views. Since the success of this video, LG have filmed numerous videos, including ‘Ultra Reality: What would you do in this situation?

Evian (Baby and Me) 

With over 96 million views, this is arguably one of the most successful attempts at viral video marketing out there. A multi-faceted campaign including an app for users to create their own baby image caused this to be a huge triumph. By evoking emotion, publishing positive content (Berger and Milkman, 2011) , and utilising existing communication networks (Wilson, 2005), this video has paved the way for others to follow in its exceptionally clever marketing tactics.

Always #LikeAGirl 

With the rise of feminism and gender equality in the media during 2014, the Always #LikeAGirl campaign has gained over 53.3 million views on YouTube. With the clever use of the hashtag (Patel, 2015), this campaign has also earned success on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, amongst other platforms.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge 

Finally, by getting celebrities involved, viral videos can take on a whole new found fame, so to speak. This video by Anthony Carbajal a man recently diagnosed with ALS , was both hard-hitting and very important. Gaining over 1.7 million views on YouTube alone, with over 2.4 million videos uploaded to Facebook (BBC News), the campaign raised over $98.2 million for the ALS Association (US) and £2.7 million to the MND Association (UK). For what it’s worth, I would say that this illustrates a viral video at its best, both raising awareness and funds for a lesser known cause.

Finally, what not to do…

Microsoft

Perhaps the most exciting part of this video is the comments, including ‘I just threw up in my mouth’ and ‘Epic fail’. Not just is it awful and awkward to watch, it completely missed the mark when attempting to promote the brand in a serious manner.

A viral video can build a brand up as fast as it can knock it down (Brooks, 2012), and with social networks, word-of-mouth now spreads at the speed of thought (Ferguson, 2010). However, Kate Cooper, Managing Director at Bloom Worldwide, says “No brand should be putting together online content purely with the goal of going viral… It’s too hit and miss.’ With traditional marketing techniques becoming less appealing, digital communication most definitely is something for your to consider (Chen, 2014), should you think your brand can benefit from it. After all, the way in which people communicate has completely changed. By utilising viral marketing techniques brands can reach their consumers imaginations, creativity, and interactivity (Kalpaklioglu and Toros, 2011).

References: 

Botha, E. and Reyneke, M. (2013). To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(2), 160 – 171. 

Chen, T. (2014). Why do we share?. Journal of advertising research. 10 (4). 

Ciotti, G. (2013). A Scientific Take on Viral Marketing (with 7 Classic Examples). [Online] Help Scout. Available at: https://www.helpscout.net/blog/viral-marketing/ [Accessed 15 March 2015].

Crimmons, L. (2014). The Top Viral Marketing Campaigns of All Time. [Online] Available at: https://www.branded3.com/blog/the-top-10-viral-marketing-campaigns-of-all time [Accessed 16 March 2015]. 

Evans, B. (2013). The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribewise.com/blog/bid/359393/Viral-Marketing-The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly [Accessed 16 March 2015]. 

Ferguson, R. (2008). Word-of-Mouth and Viral Marketing: Taking the Temperature of the Hottest Trends in Marketing. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 25(3), 179-183.

Fox, J. (2010) The 5 Most Awful Viral Video ads of 2009. [Online] Available at: http://onemarketmedia.com/2010/01/13/the-5-most-awful-viral-video-ads-of-2009/ [Accessed 16 March 2015]. 

Grifoni, P., D’Andrea, A., & Ferri, F. (2013). An Integrated Framework for On-Line Viral Marketing Campaign Planning. International Business Research. 6(1), 22-30. 

Kalpaklioglu, N., & Toros, N. (2011). Viral Marketing Techniques with Online Social Network. Journal of Yasar University. 6(24), 4112-4129. 

Wilson, R. (2000). The six simple principles of viral marketing. Web Marketing Today, 70(1).