Archives for October 2012

October 9, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Tweet Your Own Comeback!

The fast-working action of Twitter marketing never stops amazing us. From Big Bird to the prime minister of England, Twitter can put names, brands and personalities back into the cultural pantheon in the blink of an eye. Remember Stacy Dash? Probably not… but thanks to Twitter, you might have been talking about her this week — and that’s nothing short of a marketing miracle.

Stacy Dash played Dionne to Alicia Silverstone’s Cher in 1995s mega-hit movie comedy Clueless. Dash was an “it” girl for a few moments in the ’90s but since has only really popped up on cable sitcoms and reality shows. Yet Dash experienced something of a resurgence this week, and it’s all because of an innocent tweet that endorsed Mitt Romney for president. On Monday, Dash tweeted “Vote for Romney. The only choice for your future.@MittRomney @TeamRomney #mittromney #VOTE #voteromney“ along with a sexy, patriotic photo. Within moments, a firestorm of tweets attacking and supporting the actress flooded Twitter.

By mid-afternoon, Dash had become a story on the nightly news. Her critics made the Twitter battle dirty by bringing race into the game, tweeting messages like, “You’re an unemployed black woman endorsing @MittRomney. You’re voting against yourself thrice. You poor beautiful idiot” and “Still Clueless.” Soon the man himself spoke up, coming to Dash’s defense.

The winners here are Stacy Dash and, as usual, Twitter. Did the actress intentionally tweet her endorsement of Romney to get noticed? Who knows? But even the most clueless among us know that Twitter is the perfect platform to share controversial opinions in exchange for a little publicity. On the flip side, however, Dash has certainly realized that in TwitterLand, with great big opinions come great big criticism. Attacks aside, she’s faired just fine and could leverage some interviews and more PR out the whole thing if she’s smart.

Will Dash be the last celebrity to use Twitter to mount a marketing comeback? In the words of Cher and Dionne, “as if!”

October 8, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Blog Like the Big Brands: The Four Seasons

In these pages, you’ve seen us bow down to those who create blogs for specific audiences. Tailoring our blogging for business efforts to a certain demographic of clients and followers can truly make a corporate blog feel more thoughtful. Big brands wanting to change-up their images are using blogs to reach out to new customers. The Four Seasons, for example, is a world renowned-hotel legendary for its luxury, celebrity clientele and exotic locales. So when the hotel chain’s management wanted to appeal to families, the company created a clever blog campaign perfect for mommy bloggers and luxury vacationers alike.

There are Four Seasons hotels in nearly every glamorous destination on Earth. VIPs, movie stars and world leaders are always welcome at any of the hotel’s locations. But families? Yep. Turns out the Four Seasons wants the elite and their rug-rats to come stay the night. In an effort to appeal to a families who love the good life, Four Seasons launched Have Family Will Travel. This brilliant blogging initiative features blog posts by real families who have stayed in Four Seasons resorts all over the world. Here moms and dads praise the service and amenities at the Four Seasons and share photos of their vacations. Even Punky Brewster herself recently blogged about her family’s trip to Mexico!

Four Seasons is still fabulously luxurious, but it’s now friendly and approachable, too. Have Family Will Travel’s posts from families give readers ideas for their own getaways and probably inspire a little more than a few daydreams. The blog also features recipes from the hotels and “postcards” from kids who stayed at Four Seasons. Getting specific has given Four Season a whole new persona as a brand — and it can do the same for your company.

Writing posts, creating series and using different contributors for target audiences is a simple switch up for your company blog. Talking to specific groups is something every type of business can do. Clothing companies have blogs specifically designed to show off new or sale items (and attract huge readerships), as do cooking blogs that devote a day of the week to certain diets or cuisines.

So, readers, here’s our question for you on this Monday morning: What niche audiences can your blog target? And do you currently write for a certain type of buyer or follower? Share your blogging successes in the comments section below!

October 5, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Five Things You Might Have Missed!

Hooray for Friday! We’ve got a week’s worth of Twitter marketing trends, digital engagement news and viral video goodness to help you celebrate.

1.) Unlikely Appleogies: Topping our list this week is Apple’s sincere and not mumbled apology for the overall suckiness of iOS 6 Maps. Universally hated and panned, the Maps mess up was hard to ignore… but Apple could have chosen its usual “let them eat cake” marketing policy. Instead, this new dose of humility shows a truly new era of PR at Apple. Tim Cook penned a heartfelt and honest apology that was still sprinkled with enough of that signature Mac cockiness to make us remember where the message came from.

2.) TwitterFeed Me: You might have missed this clever magazine ad for the CW’s new batch of fall shows — and that’s too bad because it’s pretty smart. Luckily, the folks at AdWeek were nice enough to show us how it works. In new issues of Entertainment Weekly, full-color CW ads come equipped with tiny LED screens which feature video clips and a live Twitter feed from the CW! This is a super cool bridge between traditional and social media marketing sporting some impressive tech.

3.) Gifts with a Click: And speaking of social media innovations, how cool are the new Facebook Gifts? When a friend’s birthday comes up, you’ll soon have the option to send them flowers, cupcakes or gift cards without ever having to leave Facebook. The future online retail and marketing possibilities of something as simple as Facebook Gifts is truly endless. Facebook has struggled with bridging social and shopping in the past, but we think Gifts might be just the thing to bring social shopping to the forefront.

4.) Cat + Etch-a-Sketch: Equals amazing! This very short but very sly spot for Etch-a-Sketch is bound for viral glory. Why? Because it’s simple, fast and really funny. We don’t want to give away the ending, so we suggest that you check it out for yourself!

5.) Wipe Your Feet: Finally, maybe you missed this hashtag campaign from Sorel Boots and Daily Candy. Using #getyourbootsdirty, the brand and the online fashion juggernaut profiled women who “aren’t afraid to get their boots dirty” and asked Twitter followers to use the hashtag to celebrate the women in their lives who do the same thing. The campaign, which launched on September 27, has been a huge hit and its simplicity should inspire social media marketers from all kinds of business to get their own boots dirty, so to speak, by using hashtags.

October 4, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Slow and Steady: Why Blogging isn’t a Quick Fix (but it’s Worth the Wait)

Wouldn’t it be swell if every content marketing plan worked right away? Jumping through the appropriate hoops and planning blog marketing takes a lot of time and effort, so is a little immediate gratification so much to ask for? Alas, that’s just not how the blog creation cookie crumbles. Blogging for business takes time, energy and patience. But fortunately it’s worth the wait.

Recently, we met with a client who needed to fix a bad content problem right away. Her business had been pummeled by a few bad reviews which seemed to dominate the first page of an Internet search. Couple it with really, really old web content — including a wrong address and bios of folks who no longer work there — and girlfriend had a hot mess on her hands. Once the necessary info was corrected, it was our turn to get in there and create blogs that showed how great her company is. We did this and we waited for her online juju to change.

It didn’t. Well, not for a while. We’re sharing this story because blogs and articles are just the beginning. We then have to put them in front of the right eyes who will want to read them. This can happen through social media and a few clever search engine marketing tricks. But, again, it takes a minute. The other thing is that one blog and/or article won’t change your entire content destiny. In the beginning, you’ll have to blog a lot and consistently to get results. We call it blogging because it’s a presently happening action that keeps going and that’s what you have to do if you want it to work. Keep blogging and don’t stop.

But there’s good news for “I want it now” types, too. Although your total online presence won’t be transformed with just one blog, there are some changes you can see almost right away. First off, blogging fills in holes on an otherwise empty site so your site should feel more full and rewarding to read after you’ve started blogging. Also, blogs will help you get found faster online and this happens pretty rapidly as well. Lastly, if your blog is telling the story about your brand that you really want people to read, you’ll feel empowered and proud of your web presence nearly immediately.

This is what has happened for our client we told you about at the start of this post. The negative comments are still there, but there slowly getting buried with positive blogs about her brand. Meanwhile, her new content has slowly erased the old dated digital image her company was saddled with. None of it happened overnight… but the point is that it happened.

October 3, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Twit Pic Dos and Don’ts for Every Brand

While handling the Twitter management for your company, it might be tempting to tweet pictures of every little funny or intriguing thing you find on your daily outings. Oh, sure, these Twit Pics start out innocently enough: “Here’s Janice in accounting eating frozen yogurt!” or “Look at the new shoes we just got in.” And why shouldn’t we snap photos and tweet them? Followers love images and if we’ve happened to tweet something amazing, we could create Twit Pic viral gold.

However, not everything needs to be shared. Last weekend, after vomiting on stage, Justin Bieber took a picture of himself shirtless. In a word, eww. The post-barf photo shoot, to us, seems like a touchstone in bad Twit Pic etiquette. Brands, personalities and individuals have apparently lost their filter and are now tweeting photos of all kinds of things their followers never in a million years wanted to see. The gashes on heads of CEOs, bland photos of airport runways taken by execs and reality stars getting pedicures are just a few of the images sure to be framed and hung on the wall in Twitter photo Hell. Yikes.

To avoid becoming a Twit Pic tragedy, we’ve come up with a few priceless dos and don’ts.

DO tweet photos of new products, new offices, new employees. Twit Pics work wonders as visual press releases to announce exciting developments in your company. Don’t be afraid to use them as such.

DON’T tweet photos of any ailments of any kind. Ever. This sounds like common sense, but the number of professional people who post “Live from the ER” photos is horrifying. This means no busted ankles, no bloody foreheads, no post-surgery shots of any kind. It’s unprofessional, uninteresting and, worst of all, gross.

DO tweet pictures of events. Not all of your followers are going to make it your parties, fundraisers and openings. Let them in on the action by posting fun photos of your latest shindigs.

DON’T tweet tired memes. Regardless of how funny you think that picture of the llama is, trust us: someone has already tweeted that photo. A good rule to remember for branded tweeting is unless you came up with that clever meme, leave it alone.

DON’T tweet pictures of coworkers, anonymous partygoers and bosses without permission. Especially if there’s been a Happy Hour involved. We know… This, too, should be common sense but you can never be too safe.

DO use your Twitter gallery as a clever way to display photos of your logo. Lots of companies are strategically tweeting pics of logos and campaigns to create a cool visual look on a Twitter homepage. The results are thoughtful and super creative.

DO tweet photos often. Now that you’re not tweeting pictures of roadkill or bunions on your feet, feel free to snap and tweet away! Appropriate tweeted photos enhance your Twitter feed and hugely increase your chances of being retweeted.

October 2, 2012 By Dawn Walnoha Leave a Comment

When a Newsletter Becomes a Nuisance

If you have a business and you own a laptop, chances are good you publish an email newsletter. Newsletters have become an essential part of content marketing strategies for all types of business. It’s no mystery why, either. With services like Constant Contact and the dozens of others, creating and distributing desktop newsletters can literally take minutes. Plus, thanks to smartphones and tablets, recent research finds that people are actually reading and interacting with newsletters. But newsletters can quickly become a nightmare if not handled correctly.

Last week, Twitter announced it was going to start sending a weekly “People You May Know” newsletter. Twitter described it like this:

This weekly email highlights a handful of people you may know who use Twitter. You can choose to follow any of the suggested people and you can find more people you may know on twitter.com. Suggestions are based on signals like who your friends follow and the contact information imported by people you know. For example, if several people you know follow someone, you may also know them and want to follow them too. There’s no telling who you might find on Twitter, so open this weekly message for an ongoing source of great accounts to follow.

Twitter subscribers, judging by blog comments, are less than thrilled. Twitter already notoriously sends its users tons of email newsletters and the arrival of yet another one seems like total overkill. Sure, you can go through and edit what type of email notifications you receive from Twitter and that’s easy enough to do. But an email newsletter shouldn’t be the kind of thing our clients and followers find to be a pain in the neck. The email newsletters that get opened and devoured like those from Fab, Amazon and LivingSocial are rich in content and filled with the kind of products, photos and articles that make readers open before deleting.

In short, we don’t want to create more cyber garbage and we really don’t want to tick our clients off, so why not make newsletters that are a joy to read instead of a nightmare to see in our inboxes?

So, dear readers, tell us which newsletters you get from brands that you love? And while you’re at it, tell us the ones that drive you crazy, too!

October 1, 2012 By Alex Guerrero Leave a Comment

Sample Post With Image Aligned Left

Heres a sample caption, with a sample image aligned left.

Here's a sample caption with an image aligned left.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like.

October 1, 2012 By Alex Guerrero Leave a Comment

Sample Post With Image Aligned Right

Here's a sample caption with a sample image aligned right.

Here's a sample caption with an image aligned right.

This is an example of a WordPress post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like.

Archives for October 2012

Tweet Your Own Comeback!

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Blog Like the Big Brands: The Four Seasons

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Slow and Steady: Why Blogging isn’t a Quick Fix (but it’s Worth the Wait)

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When a Newsletter Becomes a Nuisance

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Sample Post With Image Aligned Left

Follow Us

Sample Post With Image Aligned Right

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