Social Marketing

Over the past few weeks Twitter has been gathering news reports like birds sitting on a wire. Whether it is overpowering super injunctions, launching photo sharing services or gaining around 600,000 new users a day, Twitter has been creating a colossal swell of activity recently.

Twitter has proved to have tailored an unbeatable formula which is original, evolving and, as it has proven recently, above the law. This recent hive of press has seen Twitter gain record numbers of sign-ups, from both individuals and businesses alike. But with new companies and businesses joining Twitter every day, how can you stand out from the crowd? Here is a look at a few brilliant campaigns of late… more…

As traditional (TV, print, etc) marketing budgets continue to be transferred online Facebook has a fantastic opportunity to become the TV of the future in terms of advertising reach.

This post was inspired by a piece written by Tim Bradshaw (@tim) in the FT last week (Thursday March 31 2011) named ‘The fickle value of friendship’.

Tim’s article discussed the ever elusive value of a Facebook fan. Companies have been trying to assign a value to the Facebook fan for some time now, but why? Facebook is about the collective audience not the individual. You cannot apply the same value model to Facebook fans as you would to other channels like search (Google).

Facebook’s core value is the social graph (sets of friends connections). The platform was designed to bring people closer together and share their experiences. At its core are friends connections, to even think of breaking that down to the individual is the wrong approach. Companies should be looking at their fans as a whole. The collective audience is the real value and a brands inclusion in thier day to day lives can be more powerful in the long run than any search campaign. more…

Facebook has recently announced that it is now offering a new version of Insights for Websites, which includes more in-depth analysis in to how users are interacting with sites that use the like button and other social widgets. Designed to monitor social plug ins and the traffic they are driving to a site, Insights have given marketers valuable information about the behaviour of their audience. Facebook has enhanced five key features on the site which include; more…

Latest developer tweak from Facebook branded by bloggers as ‘evil’ , ‘criminal’ and ‘unjust’ as the giant social network exploits users personal information.

On Friday evening Facebook was first to announce its latest developer tweak via its blog which claimed that Facebook were now making users’s home address and mobile telephone number accessible to developers. more…

Ok, everyone has written about it but we don’t like to be left out, so here is our ten pence.

I was brave enough to venture out on a Saturday night and go and see the eagerly awaited Facebook film ‘The Social Network’.  The reason for seeing it a little later was because I genuinely thought it would be rubbish, I only went to prove this theory to a friend who was singing the film’s praises.

So, settled amongst the hordes of children who had also chosen this particular Saturday night to see the film, I prepared for a nice two hour nap.  I would love to now use this opportunity to slate the film and give you something new and interesting to read, but I can’t.  I thought it was brilliant. more…

Once again Facebook has been at the height of social media news in October.  The new “Groups” feature has been critiscised for privacy issues after a loophole in the settings allowed what was designed to be a private group to have “friends of friends” added by anyone in the group. The media has also drawn upon a recent study and claims that heavy Facebook users are narcissists.  My personal reaction was as follows …

Facebook Groups

So Facebook introduced a new “Groups” facility on 6th October.  What has been the response?  Very mixed.  Whilst some people love it, others hate it, which seems to be the typical “Marmite” response to Facebook and what it can offer. more…

Malaysians are reported to be the biggest users of social networks, accumulating more online friends than any other country. Whilst their close counterparts over in Japan are reported to have the least number of friends on social networks like Facebook. Despite being renowned as one of the most technologically advanced nations, it seems the Japanese are way behind when it comes to making digital friends!

This revelation is part of a wider group of findings from a new study named the Digital Life research project. The study explores people’s online activities and behaviour and claims to the largest of its kind. The global study was undertaken by popular custom research company TNS, who announced their findings on the10th October 2010. more…

The latest ‘I like it’ status innuendo, which is supposedly an unofficial marketing tactic to increase Breast Cancer Awareness during its October campaign month, is really starting to irritate me. The status tactic is old news and disappointingly uncreative. Come on people, we can do better!

I logged onto my Facebook page today only to find half a dozen or so of my girlfriends detailing a little too much personal information!

My best friend, Lauren, likes it on her kitchen counter; my school friend, Lisa, likes it on floor; and my Auntie Jane likes it on the coffee table!! more…

Google recently announced that it has designs on Facebook’s social media crown by launching its own rival site.  In spite of rumours that it’s going to be called ‘Google Me’, we’re not sure how much of a chance it has.

Since February 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, Facebook’s early predecessor, few could have predicted the speed or the level of impact it would have on the online advertising community. With the imminent launch of ‘The Social Network’, it seems interest will continue to grow, but now, a mere 6 years since it has been available to the public, how do we feel about it?
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The worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean in 200 years struck Haiti on Tuesday 12th January 2010. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck near the Haitian Capital of Port-au-Prince, where it devastated the tiny nation, causing an unknown number of deaths and widespread destruction.

Social Media was the first to tell the story

Despite being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti’s Internet connected devices were key implements in telling the rest of the globe about the emerging crisis.

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Picture this;

Whilst I am watching some week night TV with a glass of red wine after a hard day at work, I browse at my Facebook status update feed on my Blackberry. The topic choice seems to be inundated with one word statements of colour. Yes, a substantial amount of my Facebook friends are quoting different colours as their status updates. The majority are partial to ‘white’ at least that is what I noticed.

I assumed these bizarre actions were symbolic of the British nation’s fascination with the snow we have been receiving in the last few days… white being the colour of snow etc….
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Yesterday Rage Against the Machine (RATM) become the first UK Christmas number one from downloads alone. The Facebook group “Rage against the machine for Christmas no.1” boasts 975,476 members and was the catalyst to the most exciting chart battle for years. The Facebook campaign directly challenged the X Factor’s dominance for the Christmas No 1 slot – X Factor winners have dominated Christmas number ones for the last four years.

Over the last ten years we have witnessed a communication revolution. The rise of online shopping, the blogging phenomenon, iPhones and smart phones and online advertising spend overtaking TV advertising. The rise of social media has shaken up the marketing and advertising industry by introducing new dynamics to communication.

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If used correctly, Twitter can be a great communication tool for your company to get its message out to clients and customers.  It can also have a negative effect if not used correctly, especially if you don’t check your profile regularly and post frequent tweets. In this article I will give you a simple guide on how to set up and successfully manage a Twitter account for your business. more…

We have just published a video for Magicard to help explain how their unique ID card security printers work. It might not be the best video on YouTube but the 16:9 aspect ratio now used as standard and the white background definitely help the video to sit well in the page.

The brief was to explain how the printers frost a security hologram identity onto the ID cards and how it will benefit businesses. After much collaboration we decided that video was the best format to communicate the message and also target customers through the second biggest search engine, YouTube.

The video is part of the online Holokote Tool which we recently built for Magicard.

The Holokote tool is a unique way of encrypting a company logo onto an ID card. The watermarked logo is frosted onto the card creating a secure hologram. It is a really neat tool which we wanted to reflect in the ordering process.

So we built a truly bespoke application which allows customers to upload the background image for their card and their company logo. Once both images have been uploaded customers can alter the threshold of the logo to ensure it is pixel perfect and then play around with sliders to position the logo on the card. The preview stage shows how your card will look, fantastic!