According to Facebook’s latest 2012 website statistics, on any given day about 50% of their 800 million users interact with the site and approximately 350 million users access FB with a mobile device. Over 7 million apps and websites are currently connected to FB which is now available in 70 languages. See http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics. For perceptive business owners, these stats should get the marketing juices flowing. In years past, word of mouth marketing was the purest, most meaningful, long lasting, and effective form of promoting a brand. Facebook is “word of mouth marketing” turbo-charged and ready to go for a ride.
A well-planned marketing strategy that helps you get “liked” boosts your brand recognition and has the potential to drive up sales faster than you could ever imagine. Putting the creative effort into a marketing campaign that increases your “likeability factor” offers many sweet rewards. Consider the following:
Who Can Resist an Irreverent Puppet?
Ford’s homepage teaser states: “See the Focus through the eyes of Doug. Think of it as a unique perspective on the car’s features or a case study on why you probably shouldn’t hire a puppet as your spokesperson.” http://www.ford.com/cars/focus/gallery/videos-and-demos/doug-fords-spokespuppet. Easily viewable on mobile devices, the ad campaign for the 2012 Ford Focus, features Doug, the big orange puppet and offers a unique perspective on the product. The puppet rides shot gun on test drives with the human driver, John who corrects Doug’s misguided commentary and infuses product information.
Each ad in this viral marketing campaign runs in less than two minutes and depending on the way the viewer accesses the ad, users can engage through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. While you may not have the resources to invest in a mobile marketing campaign as comprehensive as this one, you can take away a few lessons that you can apply to your own product.
- Do your market research, then take a creative risk
- Use humor
- Make viewer engagement easy
- Respond to feedback
- Keep track of views
- Make your message as clear as possible
- Be aware of legalities before launching
Trade Friends for Whoppers, Anyone?
Humorous campaigns can sometimes push too far as in Burger King’s 2009 Facebook-based campaign where users who “unfriended” or “sacrificed” ten friends were sent a coupon for a free whopper. With an unconventional approach and a humorous slant, the campaign issued 23,000 coupons. Whopper ended the campaign early when Facebook voiced privacy concerns regarding BK’s “unfriend” notifications, but two years later people are still blogging about the campaign. Even when an outcome is unintended, social media campaigns can still be effective.
See http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/whopper-sacrifice-de-friended-on-facebook/
Despite the challenges, here are some additional advantages of a cutting edge social media marketing campaign aimed at getting you “liked” faster than you can blink an eye:
- Customers respond well to innovative campaigns with an off-beat delivery
- Social media campaigns have a world -wide audience
- Tracking, listening, and responding to your audience consistently can also be done remotely on mobile device providing flexibility to business owners
- You can make immediate adjustments in accordance with viewer feedback
- Calculating and executing creative risks often results in the catchiest campaigns with positive ROI
Social media advertising campaigns can drive your brand popularity up with interactive feedback from viewers even if the campaign takes an unexpected turn. At the same time, reviewing a variety of case studies can help you clarify the qualities that made other campaigns memorable. The point is to get started, be creative and have a multi-tiered integrated plan that utilizes a variety of social media venues.
Making it easy for viewers to engage your campaign, and endorse you with a “thumbs up” will boost your Facebook “likeability” and increase brand recognition. To convert likeability into sales requires a comprehensive social marketing campaign implemented by a team that has done the research to create a campaign that matches the profiles of the target audience. Even with the best research and ample resources, there is still an element of chance. It is that particular aspect of the process that makes social media marketing interesting and keeps it engaging as it continues to evolve one “thumbs up” click at a time.
This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco. USF offers online marketing courses including SEO training, search engine marketing, social media training, mobile marketing and more. To learn more about USF’s certificate programs visit www.usanfranonline.com
Related articles
- Social Media Spotlight: Jahmar Amani Photography (progressivemediaconcepts.com)
- How can social media marketing benefit online marketing? (marketing.yell.com)
- How To Get From CRM To Social (informationweek.com)
Hi Larry
Great article. You are so right, doing good research, good sense of humor and be responsive are among the key ways to succeed in the social media,
Thanks for sharing
Eric
Really awesome points for successfully using social networking sites for your promotion purpose. Social Media is quite useful in building your brand, and you have to use it with clear strategy. Users visits on social media sites to have fun and enjoyment and that’s what you have to keep in mind while making your strategy. Don’t ask to buy your product and so on rather offer something useful information and share some humorous posts so that people want to follow you and interact with you.
I love to read this! You are right! Having best content and fresh strategies to become liked on social media is very simple. Just have your own simple way on how to put up your goal.