A little boy fidgets his way impatiently through the countdown to Christmas. We assume he’s just another bratling wanting a new Xbox game, but all he really wants is to give his mum and dad their present. Love it or hate it, it’s been hard to avoid the John Lewis Christmas ad. What’s really interesting is the mixed reaction the brand has received on different social media channels.
As well as airing on television, the ad was also posted to YouTube and the John Lewis Facebook page prompting a significant amount of online buzz. While responses have been varied, it is worth noting that opinion has been noticeably different on the two networks. A glance through the official John Lewis Facebook wall reveals a remarkably positive response to the advert, while comments on YouTube and news sites appear more sceptical and critical.
Clearly observable, the marked difference in responses has been confirmed by detailed research from social media monitoring agency Wave Metrix. The results aren’t altogether surprising. YouTube is a well-known home of cynicism, sarcasm and debate. Facebook Pages, meanwhile, generally attracts a loyal fan base and establishes communities likely to show support and feel comfortable praising their chosen brand. More »
“Before the rise of social media, public relations was about trying to manage the message an entity was sharing with its different audiences. Now, PR has to be more about facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world”.
So said Adam Lavelle, chief strategic officer, iCrossing US, speaking at a meeting of America’s chief PR associations, including The Public Relations Society of America, for the industry has decided to devise a fresh definition for itself.
Social media, including blogs, Facebook and Twitter have unquestionably and radically transformed the relationship between the public and the organisations communicating with them.
Traditional PR involved a one-way monologue that usually went in one direction – from the top down. Now, we are seeing a new-fashioned PR that embraces two-way conversations. The industry has been shaken up and introduced to new terms such as earned media, word of mouth marketing and buzz marketing.
A search for a new definition of public relations seems long overdue. An updated level of standardisation might help both PR practitioners and the public to get to grips with PR in the age of social media, and may have helped to prevent some of PR’s most memorable recent blunders. Anyone remember BP’s mishandling of online reputation following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? Or ChapStick repeatedly deleting negative comments about its ads from its Facebook page, a move which backfired to the extent that complaints actually soared? More »
Letting your brand’s content “run free” on social media by thinking beyond Facebook marketing will increase site traffic and revenues by 12.89%. So promised Michael Lazerow, founder and CEO of Buddy Media, speaking at the Mashable Media Summit 2011.
With 50% of the global population logging in daily and actioning 12 billion likes and comments per month, it is clearly essential to crack this immense platform. A whopping 94% of brands list Facebook as their top social media marketing priority – but what should they be doing to maximise traffic and revenue? Here is Lazerow’s recipe for breaking down the content barriers of social networks.
1. Set up and optimise your social presences
Use content to your advantage on Facebook, using it to crowdsource, offer free gifts and collect information. However, also focus on your content outside of Facebook. Your own websites and online stores are ultimately more important than your Facebook page.
2. Socialise all content to eliminate dead ends
A dead end occurs where a user does something then nothing happens. Small social hooks have the potential to drive a lot of traffic, so don’t waste them. For example, don’t run a poll on your website without also running a feed on Facebook. NFL did this and invited 43,336 votes. Also…think of Facebook’s Ticker as a free pay-per-click channel, sending free viral traffic to your website. More »
London’s weather was reliably grey and damp, but the conversation inside Furlong PR’s London PR taxi was anything but.
For Episode 3 of its London PR Taxi series, Furlong PR invited Simon Crofts, creative director of video production agency ST16, to share his expert insights into video content.
Successful viral video can increase website hits by up to 1200% and drive people to follow calls to action. If you are a marketer wondering how to make video work for your brand, be sure to read these key takeaways after watching Simon’s interview:
1. Users are four times more likely to follow a call to action at the end of a video clip than with any other form of media. Results are even more powerful when the clip comes from a friend or colleague.
2. For content to go viral, it is essential to understand your target audience. Use focus groups, conduct online and offline research and only post video where your audience is already likely to be online. More »
While small business owners use social media on a personal level, there is a significant gap between how much they believe social marketing impacts on business and actual levels of activity and investment.
A study of small business owners by Social Strategy found that 73% said they access social networks, yet 67% are waiting to invest in social media for business for a variety of reasons
Some of the obstacles specified include a fear of sharing sensitive information (cited by 51%); too many sites to manage (50%); and a fear of “information overload”.
However, 60% of the 343 respondents surveyed say that they do want to implement a social media strategy; they just don’t know where to start. It can be daunting for small companies without the weight of a well-known brand or TV campaign behind them, so Social Strategy offered three tips aimed specifically for small businesses taking their first steps beyond digital marketing into social:
1. Find your customers online
There’s a world beyond Facebook and Twitter online, where people, including potential customers, are already commenting, linking and sharing content.
2. Set up to listen
Establish feeds to extract relevant insights continually. Everything tells you something about what really matters to the people a business intends to serve. More »
There are only 44 days left until we pop the champagne, sing Auld Lang Syne (badly) and listen to Big Ben chime us in (or out) to 2012. Which gets us thinking…what is going to set the social media marketing agenda next year?
Here at Furlong PR, we are big believers in the pivotal role of expert content coupled with intelligent SEO on the bottom line. We have seen first-hand how content marketing can drive tangible results.
The gurus at Social Media Explorer (socialmediaexplorer.com) have already taken to their crystal balls, placing content marketing atop their social marketing trends for 2012.
So what’s new about content marketing? Social media pundits have been talking about this marketing discipline for years, but what has changed is buy-in at board level. Executives seem to have started to appreciate the positive impact that quality blog content, viral videos, white papers and the like can have on SEO and lead generation.
Content marketing requires quite a drastic rethink for many CMOs or CEO’s, in the sense that it asks brands to ‘be the media’ rather than feature ‘in the media’. The knee-jerk reaction has traditionally been that media=expensive=no thank you. But now that social media departments can begin to demonstrate the real business benefits of a strategy that incorporates content, budgets seem to be adapting to allow them to develop more sophisticated content strategies. More »
Last week Google+ unveiled its own take on brand and business pages: Google+ Pages. While Google may claim its network is not a Facebook competitor, its latest social marketing offer is a clear parallel to Facebook marketing tool, Facebook Pages. The question is, which brand page offers the most value to both users and advertisers?
Over at ReadWriteWeb.com, we found a comparison of Pages efforts from two leading luxury car companies: BMW and Mercedez-Benz. The verdict is that while Facebook has a first-mover advantage in terms of user numbers and its “comparatively advanced develop platform”, Zuckerberg and co. should not get too complacent just yet.
Engagement is the golden ticket to social marketing success. Let’s look at the BMW Pages as an example. Over on Facebook Pages, user numbers are high. BMW’s Facebook Page had 6.7 million fans as this article was written, compared to 394 BMW followers at Google+ (obviously, this is a fairly unfair comparison, given Google+’s recent entry to market).
Interactivity for BMW on Facebook is also high, with all fans invited to create their own customised BMW and to post to the BMW Page wall. BMW’s Google+ Page, still has a remarkably clean wall by comparison, since fans can’t post directly to it. There is less interaction, but on the plus side, the wall is clean and focused with little spam or irrelevant content. More »
PostcardMania, a Florida-based DM postcard marketing business, has revealed that it can attribute at least 24 fresh leads per week directly to LinkedIn.
This amounts to around 600 leads in the past year, more than either Facebook or Twitter are delivering for the company – and bear in mind LinkedIn’s high quality, business-focused user base; leads from this source are more likely to convert.
Joy Gendusa launched PostcardMania in 1998 with just a computer, a phone and a powerful philosophy. Mendusa wanted to offer free, valuable marketing advice that companies might pay through the nose for from an agency.
Such a content marketing strategy, regularly serving up compelling information, works a dream on social media channels.
LinkedIn, serving a business community where PostcardMania could build a contact base of advice-hungry marketing professionals, has proved the ideal platform on which to execute Gendusa’s philosophy.
PostcardMania shared its top LinkedIn marketing tips on socialmediaexaminer.com, which are adapted here: More »
Why do some business blogs create a buzz, while others fail to get their community engaged and talking? Top quality content is obviously key, but a well thought-out social optimisation strategy should be just as high a priority.
Everybody gets the importance of SEO to drive traffic to your blog; adding keywords is standard practice. But in a persuasive article for Clickz.com, Lee Odden argues that it is possible to become blinkered in the pursuit of top keywords.
Social media optimisation (SMO) – essentially optimising social content to drive direct traffic to blog content – can also push up search engine rankings for blog web pages.
But before you embark on making your blog (and website) social media friendly – here are six questions Odden suggests considering:
· Who is the blog intended to influence? Are you trying to reach prospects, customers, employees, industry analysts, reporters or fellow bloggers within your sector?
· What blog content will you offer to meet the needs of your target audience? More »
Australian airline Qantas has been rapped for its ineffective social media response to the recent grounding of its fleet over a pay dispute.
Tweets posted by the company have been slammed as wooden, corporate and lacking in empathy, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Qantas will reimburse the difference between the cost of the new ticket (in same cabin of travel) and value of the refunded Qantas ticket,” read one remarkably concise tweet, failing to offer a human voice at a time of major chaos and upset for many customers.
Word has it that although Qantas generally demonstrates successful Twitter marketing, the social media team had been effectively “gagged” by senior Qantas staff with a corporate message to deliver, yet little experience of using Twitter.
In response, numerous Twitter accounts have surfaced with the sole aim of blasting Qantas, with chief executive Alan Joyce bearing the brunt of the flack. More »
A little boy fidgets his way impatiently through the countdown to Christmas. We assume he’s just another bratling wanting a new Xbox game, but all he really wants is to give his mum and dad their present. Love it or hate it, it’s been hard to avoid the John Lewis Christmas ad. What’s really interesting is the mixed reaction the brand has received on different social media channels.
Letting your brand’s content “run free” on social media by thinking beyond 
While small business owners use social media on a personal level, there is a significant gap between how much they believe social marketing impacts on business and actual levels of activity and investment.
Last week Google+ unveiled its own take on brand and business pages: Google+ Pages. While Google may claim its network is not a Facebook competitor, its latest 
