We’d like to thank the SoMe Awards for a night we’ll never forget! Music, drinks, PhotoBlasting, hosting by Stephanie Stricklen – and if that wasn’t enough, Mambo won two SoMe Awards!
The SoMe Awards celebrate innovative and effective social media projects, programs and campaigns. For the third year in a row, Mambo Media won the Agency of the Year award!
Mambo’s entry was an organization-wide social media restructuring, which included conducting an analysis of the client’s market, giving thorough training and building consensus among the organization’s departments.
The Agency of the Year award was given for having demonstrated:
- the ability to achieve desired client objectives, on time and on budget
- a unique approach to overall strategy and tactics (innovation and creativity)
- industry impact (writing, speaking & related thought leadership; community engagement, constituent feedback and ability to outpace market and competitors)
Mambo Media also won the “Moneymaker: Best ROI Under $10k award” by replicating the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital/The Wolf 99.5 radio campaign in social media, broadening their audience, introducing an online giving channel and developing an integrated channel strategy with their radio station team. As a result, there was an increase in charitable donations for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in their annual “Hunt for a Cure” campaign.
Our thanks to everyone who donated their time and effort to make the SoMe Awards an unforgettable good time!
Mambo Media was chosen as a 2012 SoMe Awards Finalist in six categories, including Best Social Media Agency and Brandbuilder: Awareness & Engagement!
The SoMe Awards honor the best social media projects, programs and campaigns of the year. This year, there are 19 finalists, with 10 organizations from the Northwest and one from as far away as Israel!
The SoMe Awards ceremony this year features Stephanie Stricklen from KGW as emcee, DJ Gregarious spinning alternative 80s music and industry-leading judges Jason Keath, Amber Naslund, Cindy King, Jonathan Fields and Liz Strauss.
The SoMe Awards will be held the evening of the eMarketing Summit, which is next Thursday, May 3rd. Join us at the Fez Ballroom to celebrate creativity in social media, and join us in the tweet stream at #SoMeAwards. There will be libations, red-carpet interviews and some of the best networking in town!
In March I attended the engrossing Q + A with Kristina Halvorson on Content Strategy. A recurring topic of conversation was the tension between repurposing content across multiple channels versus creating channel-specific user experiences with rich content.
Content strategy is an odd beast since a cross-section of Information Architecture (IA), Copywriting, User Experience (UX), and Interactive Design are involved. Marketing strategies in this framework take a back seat. So as a marketer, it was of interest to learn the challenges of this hybrid role and see that marketing tenets can serve as solutions.
The crucial question, “Can I use the same content on one platform – a website vs. Facebook for instance – on the other?” riddled the discussion. Especially given limited time, head count and budget. The short answer is “No”; but not for the reasons you may expect.
I often advise that all content should work to enhance brand, by channel, and be “repurposed” for that channel’s features in support of an overarching strategy. An example: a sale on a footwear product would be expressed as follows with a supporting channel campaign:
- Facebook: Contest featuring a giveaway of the item
- Microsite: Abridged catalog of sale items, thematically unified
- Twitter: Two tweets per day regarding item on sale and features
- Pinterest: Board devoted to user-generated photos wearing the footwear styles
- Blog: Expository piece on the message behind the sale – Customer Appreciation Days? A simple “Surprise and Delight” campaign? Overstock?
- Online Banner Ads: Best-selling product in keywords that drive users to microsite
What was discussed surprised me. Because so many consumers can smell a cut-n-paste job a pixel away, and are often aficionados of a given channel, marketers or content strategists should take their channel efforts to the extreme and create optimized campaigns and messaging that truly leverages a given platform.
So, that same footwear sale example would be optimized with a content strategy as such:
- Facebook
- A contest
- An f-commerce application
- An email sign-up form
- Poll questions, status updates, photos and videos all tagged with sale items
- Encouraging consumers to share their purchase and experience
- A tab that allows consumers to submit product reviews
- Twitter
- Multiple pre-scheduled Tweets with links to microsite
- Identifying and engaging with discount/sale consumer influencers or category enthusiasts
- Leveraging and testing category and #sale hashtags
- Participating in a weekly Twitter Chat
- Repurposing assets (not copy) via Tweetpic or linking to YouTube
- Retweeting consumer product reviews
And so on. At Mambo Media, we stay abreast of the latest channel trends and evolutions to tailor marketing programs. “Channel Optimization” is the typical terminology we use, but given the abundance of content I prefer “Channel Maximization!”
Hi-Tec is an outdoor shoe and apparel company with a focus on adventure, family, and outdoor living. Hi-Tec has was founded in 1974 in Shoeburyness, England introducing Britain’s all-time best selling sports shoe model, and has since flourished into an international company with a unique audience in multiple markets. Mambo Media created a dispatcher role to assist the Hi-Tec USA Marketing team to listen, monitor, engage with fans and thought leaders, create content, and drive e-commerce sales. Other goals included consultation for the optimization of the brand’s social media properties, and the timing dovetailed perfectly with the release of Facebook Timeline for brands.
One promotion platform to rule them all
While Hi-Tec had run a number of successful contests and giveaways from their blog, they had yet to execute a contest or sweepstakes directly from their Facebook page. The reasons for their hesitancy included the legal hurdles, restrictions and guidelines associated with running a promotion via Facebook. Enter Agora Pulse, a Facebook Marketing and CRM Platform whose founder’s background in law supported the creation of a platform with bulletproof compliance to meet all Facebook requisites. The platform simplifies and streamlines the promotions process to provide step-by-step instructions for worry-free management of a variety of promotions including contests, quizzes, sweepstakes, and photo contests.
What do your fans actually care about?
Hi-Tec wanted to leverage the visual and narrative updates that Timeline permitted to tell the brand story and provide content that was both valuable and interesting to their audience. The latter additions are key to actually getting your fans to engage and take the first steps to engage and interact with the brand on a deeper level. It is so easy for many brands to remain entrenched within their own internal perspective hyping their own fabulousness. While messages touting the greatness of your brand are of high-value, it should be your customers and their networks sending out those messages in an organic fashion! In an effort to balance the outbound messages, the quiz theme that was selected was a combination of Hi-Tec company milestones or “firsts” in the industry, and remarkable achievements and accomplishments of individuals and teams dedicated to outdoor and adventure living. Embodying your fans passion through powerful imagery is imperative for success. Social media analytics tool Simply Measured recently conducted a study of brands who had implemented Facebook Timeline and recorded an increase of 46% more engagement per post with Timeline integration. Their study identified photo updates post-timeline as the content type that saw the highest increase in engagement.
Quiz Details
The “Inspired by Life” quiz consisted of 10 questions that could be answered after finding the 10 clues which were “hidden” within the “Highlights” sections of the Facebook Timeline. The clues included a number of multimedia assets comprised of photos, sponsorships, milestones, and videos. One of the videos that was included was the wildly successful viral video phenomenon of the sport of Liquid Mountaineering which has garnered over 11 million view on YouTube to date. The number of quiz questions and the effort involved in collecting all of the quiz clues required a high level of engagement and asked a lot of the participants for a chance to win a free pair of the unreleased Sierra Lite i WP hiking boots.
Facebook Timeline + AgoraPulse= Success
The introductory Hi-Tec Facebook status update that merely hinted at the quiz to come garnered over 30 likes, and more importantly over 40 shares, which was an increase in engagement of over 600% from previous Hi-Tec Facebook status updates. The teaser quiz update (and subsequent supporting updates) made use of the new image dimensions to showcase the prize, the not yet released Sierra Lite I WP hiking boots in their full glory. In addition to the improved visibility of the posts, Agora Pulse has a viral component option built-in, which rewards fans for sharing the contest with their personal networks encouraging additional and repeated engagement beyond the quiz.
Potential Barriers to Entry
In the post-mortem wrap up, we evaluated potential barriers to entry and potential opportunities for improvement in future campaigns. The items of discussion for re-evaluation included:
- Reduction in the number of quiz questions- less effort involved to participate
- Instant Win/Sweepstakes App vs. Quiz App- lower level of engagement required
- Multi-platform contest- viral component integrated into Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and other social media platforms (not currently available via Agora Pulse, which is currently Facebook only)
- International promotion- the contest was limited to U.S. residents only. Despite having multiple Facebook properties segmented by country/continent, there were still a number of fans who follow, participate and engage with multiple Hi-Tec social media properties
The most notable opportunities for improvement were reduction in quiz abandonment (approx. 10%) and permission for international submissions. While it was clearly stated in the entry rules that participation was limited to U.S. residents, it is safe to assume that a number of participants did not read the rules, or overlooked that qualifier. While the number of entrants may have been reduced, the quality of the level of engagement was quite high, with each fan sharing an average of 4 times amongst their network and spending a significant amount of time on the Hi-Tec Facebook page collecting clues and learning more about the brand history, milestones and values.
Overall, the campaign was regarded as a success garnering incredibly positive feedback about the release of the new shoe, excitement from learning more about the brand, and a dramatic increase in the number of “Likes” to reach and supersede the 5000 Like mark. Agora Pulse was an integral component of the success of the quiz and will be further utilized to collect user data for ongoing marketing initiatives.
How have you leveraged the updates of Facebook Timeline? Have you noticed an increase in the level/quality of engagement?
I’ve been asked to teach a Social Media Marketing course at Portland State University! We will be covering case studies about the Mambo Media methodology that we use with our clients every day, so the students will get an idea of how our methodology works in practice.
Here’s the course description and a list of certificates this course applies toward:
WM403 Social Media Marketing
The proliferation of social media platforms and applications has changed the marketing landscape significantly, impacting how we buy and sell products, and how we reach customers, interact with friends, and talk about things we like (or hate). Understanding this fast-changing landscape and the opportunities available is critical to effectively leveraging social media marketing. In this class, we introduce a best-practice methodology, cover award-winning strategies and techniques, and give you the guidance and tools that help you create successful programs and campaigns.
This course applies toward these certificates:
I’m excited about this course and the opportunity to interact with the PSU students!
Mambo Media has spent the last 15 years amassing deep experience in the digital marketing world. Our team has developed industry-leading, award-winning methodologies for analyzing marketing opportunities, creating breakout strategies and executing effective campaigns.
While you may not be ready to engage Mambo on a full-fledged project, you and your network can still benefit from our experience and expertise. Mambo’s founder Siouxsie Jennett is available for speaking engagements to share her unique insights and actionable recommendations with your company, executive team or trade organization. She can explain to C-level execs what digital marketing is and why it’s important, or dive into the details of implementation with marketing teams. She can bring compelling case studies and real-world examples that illustrate how and why social media must be taken seriously by any enterprise looking to stay relevant in the 21st century.
Siouxsie has recently spoken at the Unified Grape & Wine Symposium, the Portland Vistage CEO Group, the Congress of Chiropractic State Associations, and Portland State University’s Digital Marketing Conference.
You can see an example of Siouxsie in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4ZyS80QHs
Please contact Siouxsie to learn more about her speaking schedule and availability.
Need a two minute overview of the changes to the new Facebook Brand page? Jeff Bullas breaks down the 5 key changes that every marketer needs to know.
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/03/05/5-key-changes-to-the-new-facebook-page-marketers-need-to-know/
Social media maven Lisa Peyton dives deeper into the pros and cons of Facebook Timeline to review the 13 most talked about updates and their impact for brands.
http://socialfresh.com/facebook-timeline-pro-con/
Brands with a rich history are taking advantage of the timeline to help tell their brand story. Others are leveraging the playful exploratory nature of Timeline to develop quizzes and informational treasure hunts with prizes. Mashable shares 10 innovative uses of Timeline for Brands.
http://mashable.com/2012/03/09/facebook-timeline-brands-examples/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29#530799-Ford
While traditional Like Gating may be a thing of the past, Nate Riggs offers three Like Gating alternatives with the new Facebook Timeline.
http://www.nateriggs.com/2012/03/06/3-tactics-to-employ-as-an-alternative-to-like-gating-on-facebook/content-marketing-consulting
One of the biggest changes to accompany the Facebook Timeline update is the emphasis on large visuals. Whether you’re developing a custom app or optimizing the design of your brand page, having the exact dimensions for each opportunity is essential. Facebook application developer SkandNet released their list of guidelines to keep you looking your best.
http://www.allfacebook.com/timeline-images-2012-03?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allfacebook+%28Facebook+Blog%29
With the flurry of commotion surrounding the changes, it sometimes helps to go straight to the source. Facebook has developed an interactive course to get you up to speed.
http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/
If you’re interested in using LinkedIn to recruit employees, there are many ways to approach this process. We’ve found that our Before, During, After methodology helps organize and clarify the steps, from optimizing your Company LinkedIn Page to building relationships with potential candidates. Below are our recommendations for 11 steps that you can choose from to create a successful LinkedIn recruitment campaign.
BEFORE
Before you begin to recruit, follow these steps to build your Company Page LinkedIn followership and make it easier for candidates to find and apply for your open positions.
1. Company Follow Button
Increase your company LinkedIn connections by embedding this button on your website. When you post a vacancy, it will be automatically emailed to your followers.
2. LinkedIn Profile
Make sure your company LinkedIn profile is SEO keyword rich, with new updates (similar to updates on your Facebook Page) posted at least weekly.
Complete your Products and Services tab with eye-catching graphics and SEO keywords, and ask your clients and fans to write recommendations.
3. Apply with LinkedIn
Add this banner to your website and other properties to make it easier for candidates to apply for jobs using their LinkedIn profiles. The interface can be customized by color and logo and the link can include up to 3 questions.
  4. Jobs You May Be Interested In
Passive candidates may already employed and happy at their current organization. But if they go to your website, they will see your open positions (personalized for them, if they’re logged in to LinkedIn):
  DURING
5. Advanced Searches
Actively search for candidates among LinkedIn members by searching:
- on keywords for people with the required qualifications listed in their LinkedIn profile
- for employees by past or current employer (consider competitors or other companies in the same vertical)
 6. LinkedIn Ads:
The biggest advantage of LinkedIn Ads is its option to narrowly target your audience by LinkedIn Groups they’re members of, companies they currently work for and job functions or titles.
7. Work With Us
Use “Work With Us” ads to advertise on employee profiles. These ads can appear on the profiles of your company’s employee profiles and target available opportunities to anyone who sees those profiles.
 8. Post a Job
There’s a cost, but you may choose to use the paid job postings within LinkedIn.
 AFTER
The next step is to create and organize some of your top employees into a Subject Matter Expert (SME) team to participate in the recruitment process.
9. LinkedIn Groups
Build relationships with prospective candidates by asking your SMEs to add relevant content to the discussions. If candidates are familiar with the SME, they will be more comfortable replying to his/her posting about open positions.
 10. LinkedIn Answers
Assign your Subject Matter Experts to participate in relevant LinkedIn Answers conversations. This will allow them to build relationships and find potential candidates.
 11. InMail
Assign your SMEs to use Inmail to ask their networks if they have ideas for qualified candidates.
Which of these 11 options should you use to recruit employees using LinkedIn? Your strategy should be based on:
- The number of hours that you and your team members (Subject Matter Experts) have available to work on this campaign
- Whether you have a media budget for the paid options (LinkedIn Ads, InMail, Work With Us ads, Post a Job)
- The type of employee you’re looking for (search LinkedIn Answers for technical talent; consider using InMail for executives)
LinkedIn is an ideal employee recruitment channel, as long as we are educated about what options are available and which options are best to utilize for each campaign.
Which LinkedIn options have given you the most (or least) success for employee recruitment?
In Youngme Moon’s captivating book Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, she posits that product categories have augmented benefits beyond the average consumer’s ability to tell the difference between any two brands.
For example, take toothpaste. When in the toothpaste isle at the grocery store a consumer sees whitening, tartar control, natural, anti-cavity, fluoride, and bad-breath-fighting as  advertised product benefits.
The myriad of choices and attributes leaves one of two options for the inundated consumer – either consider and weigh all the products and morph into a “category connoisseur,” or be apathetic. Demanding that the consumer become a connoisseur of a category is untenable, especially given that every category demands the same attention and deliberation – pens, toilet paper, sneakers, ad nauseam.
Is forcing the average consumer to be a specialist interfering with a marketer’s ability to turn them into a brand advocate? Are marketers depleting the pool of possible brand advocates by 1) making it difficult to appreciate a brand or 2) demanding that they hone-in on minor differences between competitors?
If answers to the above are “yes,” I wonder if marketers are culprit or if brands aren’t producing truly differentiated offerings?
Are We Killing or Cultivating the Brand Advocate?
The ultimate goal of any marketing program is to create, nourish and retain brand advocates, who will market on the firm’s behalf as well as repeat or upgrade purchases.
The book, however, made me re-examine brand advocacy and question if the usual methods of engaging them need to be reassessed. As a consumer, I identify with the phenomenon Moon outlines. As a marketer, however, I believe we should find new methods to test, or better yet, measure our overtures to apathetic consumers vs. category connoisseurs vs. brand advocates. Are marketers expending resources on select advocates who appreciate minor differences, rather than the entire market who does not? All heady questions.
Have you considered a new approach to engaging brand advocates? If so, how? How’d it work? I look forward to seeing your responses in the comments section.
Catch up on Part 1 and Part 2 of Siouxsie’s 4-part series on 2012: The Year of Business Realities.
REALITY 3 – Smart Integration of New Tools
We so often see organizations paralyzed by the implementation of a new technology where so much time and energy was put into researching just the right solution and then somehow the actual implementation and training was treated as an afterthought. With the best of intentions, decisions were made, large budgets were spent, and now it’s up to the “doers” to implement and ensure the new solution is optimized to the highest level. You know that level – the level of efficiency your software salesperson swore you would achieve with this plug-and-play, cloud-sitting, automated gizmo you just spent a gazillion dollars on. No matter how big or small the investment is, maximizing a tool’s effectiveness requires planning, training and a commitment at all levels of the organization that it will be embraced.
TIP: Write down all the new tools and/or technology your organization invested in the last three years and assess the success of the implementation. Are you still using the tool? Why or why not? Did it live up to the great expectations of efficiency, automation and productivity?
TIP: The next time you’re planning a new tool implementation, ask your account rep if you can talk to a product developer and ask him/her how to best prepare for the integration. They’ll know best; they built it.
REALITY 4 – Embrace “Test, Measure, Learn” Methodology
So many organizations work from the gut. Big or small, anecdotal evidence far outweighs actual data when strategic decisions like budget, marketing mix, competition and key market opportunities are made. With an encyclopedia of best practices and competitive intel within a few keystrokes on Google, how can this be? With unbelievable analytics available for FREE (again, thanks to Google), how can this be? With pay-per-click and hyper-targeting advertising tools (I’ll give this one to Facebook), how can this be? I will proffer that it’s because we’re doing more with less, we’re expecting people with the wrong skill sets to synthesize the information available, and we aren’t fully leveraging our technology and the reporting of data that comes with it (see Realities 1, 2 and 3 above).
2012 Resolutions:
With a marketer’s dream of information and intelligence in hand, make the following resolutions for your strategic team:
- Establish KPIs (key performance indicators) for your business goals
- Develop a test-and-learn environment where you can measure success and failure, and then adjust for more success
- Commit to quarterly evaluation of KPIs with your key team
- Look very critically at your existing business model and marketing mix – does it need some modernizing?
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