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link A Year In Review: 2009 Social Marketing Trends

From Jeremiah Owyang’s latest column in Forbes:

This year, consumers are more connected, and moving faster than brands. It’s essential for senior marketers to use the past to plan for the future, and these four trends indicate that people are connecting and sharing with each other–at an increased pace. Brands need to develop a strategy and a plan to respond–not simply react–to the latest technology.

(via brittanybelt)

2 months ago

December 29, 2009
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reblogged via brittanybelt
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Restaurants and social media

Appetites, one of my favorite New Orleans food blogs, shares some tidbits for restaurant marketers who want to reach customers online but don’t really know how.

It’s always better not to do it than to do it the wrong way (by being inauthentic or spammy), but when done well, social media can be a powerful tool for a small business to drive traffic and to build relationships with its customers.  While most restaurant professionals don’t have the time to invest in blogs or online message boards, using Twitter, for example, can be an easy win for these busy folks.

The Appetites post didn’t mention Yelp, though.  Yelp still seems to be more of a gray area for restaurateurs and other small business owners.  Many ignore it, some freak out about it, a small minority use the wisdom of the crowd to their advantage.  I have been contacted by a handful of small business owners after posting reviews about their establishments on Yelp, and this small gesture on their part has the power to transform my opinion of the place.  For many people, this personal communication is far more effective than advertising, and definitely something to consider as a restaurant or small business builds its marketing communications plans.

4 months ago

October 25, 2009
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link Death to Email?

But the speed and ease of communication cut both ways. While making communication more frequent, they can also make it less personal and intimate. Communicating is becoming so easy that the recipient knows how little time and thought was required of the sender. Yes, your half-dozen closest friends can read your vacation updates. But so can your 500 other “friends.” And if you know all these people are reading your updates, you might say a lot less than you would otherwise.

While it’s easy to get excited about novel forms of communication, I wouldn’t be so quick to kill off email just yet.  Some types of communication, like promotion, lend themselves well to the “stream” analogy, but there will always be a need for private, one-to-one communication, however it’s delivered.

4 months ago

October 12, 2009
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photo marketingbarista: A Gorgeous Chart: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace [Stats] Nice infographic that puts these 3 social networks (and their funding) into context. I’m surprised MySpace has held on as well as it has.

marketingbarista:

A Gorgeous Chart: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace [Stats]

Nice infographic that puts these 3 social networks (and their funding) into context. I’m surprised MySpace has held on as well as it has.

5 months ago

October 8, 2009
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reblogged via brittanybelt
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link 10thousanddoors.org

Like libraries, churches are not typically what comes to mind when it one thinks of marketing campaigns.  In an increasingly commoditized world, however, organizations outside of corporate America are using traditional and emerging marketing tools to achieve their strategic objectives.

The United Methodist Church launched the “Rethink Church” campaign back in May (around the time KFC was trying to get us to “unthink” chicken):

“What we’re going to try and get across is the idea that ‘church’ doesn’t just happen on Sundays, and ‘church’ isn’t just a building,” said Kerry Graham, president of Nashville-based Bohan Advertising/Marketing, which developed the “Rethink Church” campaign.

The 10thousanddoors website is the hub of the “Rethink Church” campaign, and it builds on the UMC’s previous positioning, “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.”  The site seeks to engage consumers with bold text, active verbs, and the presence of a small but growing community using Google Friend Connect.  It encourages people to get involved and to take action.

I can’t help but wonder, though, if a social networking site with a few community-building tools is enough to change the hearts and minds of the younger demographic they’re trying to pursue.  There were some PR-related events to support the campaign’s launch back in May, but it hadn’t popped up on my radar until recently.  Other basic integration best practices, like linking to the 10thousanddoors website from the UMC home page, already seem to have fallen by the wayside.

I’m also curious to know how older Methodists feel about the church re-branding itself as a social change organization to attract young people.  Is it just a matter of repackaging, or does the campaign represent a fundamental shift in the church’s direction?

7 months ago

July 21, 2009
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BRING IT BACK: The Real Power of the Chipotle Community

On the surface, MyChipotle.com seems innocent enough.  It’s yet another attempt to engage consumers to join the community, in this case the community of Chipotle lovers, by submitting content for the next ad campaign.

But make no mistake – MyChipotle has nothing to do with loyal consumers engaging with the brand.  It’s about using the power of the community to advance a new marketing strategy that is focused on new customer acquisition, and in its efforts to woo a new kind of consumer, Chipotle risks losing everything that made the brand special in the first place.

This campaign is part of a larger effort to broaden the brand’s appeal.  Initiatives currently being tested in Denver, the chain’s home, include a new “low roller” menu with lower-priced options, a kids’ menu, and a handful of menu options with pre-selected ingredient combinations – along with a new brand identity. (source)

MyChipotle.com communicates to these new value-oriented consumers that there are more than 60,000 menu-item combinations in the seemingly limited menu, which doesn’t matter to Chipotle fans (myself included) who actually like getting the same item every time.

In fact, some Chipotle regulars in Denver are already incensed by the flurry of marketing initiatives from one of their favorite restaurants, adding an ironic twist to Chipotle’s choice to harness social media in its latest campaign.  Local blog The Denver Egotist launched Cheapotle, a scathing send-up of the current strategy using the familiar brand iconography that the new campaign has abandoned.

Cheapotle Plea

Before the site’s comments board was apparently hacked by spammers, Cheapotle seemed to be engaging consumers in a different sort of community, united by their new hatred of the brand.  Chipotle has chosen to ignore this point of view, rather than starting a dialogue about the reasons for so many simultaneous changes.

Value menu, kids’ menu, new logo… Is it too much, too fast?  It might still be Food with Integrity®, but for some fans, Chipotle’s changes are a little too “fast food.”  That’s a charge that over the long term may be hard to digest.

8 months ago

July 6, 2009
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link Marketplace: Celeb tweets help push Anvil to success

There’s no real way to quantify the value of Twitter media. That is, when you buy a banner ad on RollingStone.com, you know you’re going to get X-many impressions. But it’s just not the same thing as someone who you follow and maybe are deeply, deeply interested in. When they tweet something, that’s like a tap on the shoulder.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a film that I decided to see based entirely on word of mouth.  A traditional ad campaign for this movie would not work, just as a Twitter-based campaign for studio movies probably wouldn’t, either.

There is something very sticky and appealing about this film this interview doesn’t mention, nor does Akner ever put hard numbers to the film’s “success,” but it’s another good example of the power of social media to amplify compelling stories.

9 months ago

May 31, 2009
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The Race to Quantify Twitter

No matter which class, Twitter has come up over and over in our marketing courses this term.  It’s fitting, given its status as the flavor of the moment, but beyond that, it reflects the dual excitement and anxiety that marketers have about using - and measuring - this new communication medium.

Last week, an executive from Omniture gave us a great overview of a Twitter metrics tool that he built himself.  Rather than having an employee scrolling through TweetDeck all day, this tool attempts to apply quantified precision to conversations about companies and brands taking place on Twitter in real time.  One could apply the same functionalities, including daily reports, of website analytics tools, to the public content shared openly online — with the added advantage of seeing exactly who is saying what about you or your company.

Omniture isn’t the only player in the race to quantify Twitter.  Among other competitors, a new start-up, Viralheat, aims to provide a similar service at a low price point.  It will be fascinating to see how long it takes for a clear winner to emerge - and also to see how Google, the leader in free online metrics, will get involved.  It’s only a matter of time.

9 months ago

May 25, 2009
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