Archives for 2012

December 7, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Five Things You Might Have Missed!

Go inside a blip that caused mega nightmares for blog marketing specialists! See how one brand is trying to make scrapbooking cool again! And oh-so-much more in this week’s Five Things You Might Have Missed.

1.) 20 Years of Texting: This week SMS celebrated two decades of “OMG” and “K”. The first SMS (short message service) or text was sent in 1992 and it read simply, “Merry Christmas.” Since then, text messaging has exploded and opened the doors for mobile marketing. While some wonder if the SMS days are numbered, the anniversary tops our list for creating a platform that has truly changed the way we communicate and market.

2.) Tumblr Typhoon: If you conduct your company’s blog writing and blog creation primarily on Tumblr, then Monday was probably not your favorite day. In case you missed it (and be thankful if you did), a major worm knocked Tumblr out, causing the popular blogging platform to disable posting. Tumblr urged users to reset passwords while it got things ironed out. The culprit for this blogtastrophe? Tumblr’s re-blogging feature. The worm spread from post to post each time Tumblr users innocently re-blogged posts.

3.) The Scrapbook Comes Back: Leave it to the digital engagement masterminds at IKEA to make the scrapbook cool again. KLIPPBOK (which actually means scrapbook in Swedish) is an inventive iPad app which lets users clip things they like from IKEA (furniture, paint swatches, meatballs, etc.) and create endless decorating combinations. It’s a little bit Pinterest, a little bit old school and a lot of amazing. We’re thrilled to see companies like IKEA take tablet marketing and apps to a more imaginative level.

4.) For the birds: “What would happen if real birds used Twitter?” you ask. The creative folks at Voldemars Dudums advertising created this fun, time-killing video to find out. You’re welcome!

5.) Jason____: And finally, if you thought the guy who wrangled brands to pay him to wear their t-shirts couldn’t come up with a crazier marketing idea, you thought wrong. Jason Sadler announced last week that he was auctioning off his last name. For an entire year, Sadler will now change his last name to the highest bidding brand name. The winner? At $34,500, JLabAudio is the winning new last name… but Jason and his company, IWearYourShirt.com, score millions of dollars in free press coverage.

December 6, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Quick Content Ideas for Busy Bloggers

Save the story… we’ve heard it before: You want to throw yourself into content marketing because your business desperately needs it but you just don’t have time to sit down and whip up stunning blog creation. Blah, blah, blah. The truth is that fantastic blog posts don’t take that much time. In fact, recent data suggests that readers respond to and comment on blog posts that are shorter and more concise in length (under 700 words) than ones that drone on and on. Personally, we think great blog posts can happen in 30 minutes or less. But if a half an hour is still too time-consuming for you, Mister Busy Pants, we’ve come up with a handful of quick blog post ideas that could be even faster (provided you don’t dilly-dally).

Survey Says: What do your followers think of your new layout? How do your customers rate your services? What would your readers like to see in your blog? Don’t ask me! Ask them. Posting a poll or survey in your blog isn’t just a fast solution to the “What the !@#$ am I gonna blog about?” question, it also helps you get to know what your readers are thinking. The interactive nature of polls makes them a favorite with blog readers, and posting one could even bring in new fans. Plus adding a poll on WordPress-based blogs is super easy!

The Hot Seat: Let your inner Barbara Walters come out and post an online interview in your blog. Send email questions to a person you and your readers would like to get to know more about. Publish said questions along with their witty answers and voila! You’re a journalist! When it comes to picking interview subjects, go for people you know (because they’re nice and less likely to tell you “no”) and individuals whose answers will be entertaining to read. Keep the interview short — no more than 10 questions — and edit the answers to keep the piece a tight and compelling read. Best of all, your subject does the heavy lifting by being charming and interesting.

Reheat the Leftovers: As a huge fan of cold pizza, day-old pasta and Thanksgiving stuffing on Black Friday, I highly approve of “reheating” old blog posts. There’s an artful way of doing it, of course. Creating a “greatest hits” week, reposting a blog from the past that mirrors news happening today, adding brief updates to popular posts or running an old blog to celebrate a company milestone are ethical and fast ways to turn old things new again. Just make sure you reanimate your leftovers, even if only slightly. Google doesn’t love crusty old blog posts trying to be passed off as something new.

Phone a Friend: Still have no time but still want that blog taken care of? Well, get some help, for Pete’s sake! We blog content management types do what you’re putting off all day long. The best part of using a blog content agency is that it leaves you time to handle everything else in your busy, busy world.

December 5, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

How to #Hashtag Like a #Hero

Non-profits, individuals and big brands alike rely heavily on hashtags to help play the Twitter-for-business game. Skillfully created and pumped out, hashtags can literally create a brand’s presence on Twitter. This week, we’ve seen hashtags at their most powerful. Since the announcement of her pregnancy on Monday, the hashtag #Kate has dominated Twitter trends worldwide. The charitable answer to Black Friday, #GivingTuesday, also was getting Twitter action way before December 4th even came around. And as always, hotly-discussed reality shows like #TheVoice trended like nobody’s business. So how does a small business get in on the hashtag action? Here are some easy hashtag hints to help make your tweets more fun and memorable.

Hashtags are a great way to get in on whatever conversation is burning up the headlines. Attaching trending hashtags to your tweets can help your brand hop right in on the discussion while serving as a fantastic introduction to this invaluable tweeting tool. To start, peruse the list of trending hashtags and topics and see if any of them work with your brand. Don’t see anything? Think again. Pop culture, like movies, music and television shows, make for great hashtags and as long as they apply to your brand, we say go for it. Same goes for news headlines and current events. If you still don’t find anything, why not create your own hashtag campaign? Recently, Sharpie capitalized on the runaway success of boy band One Direction by using the hashtag #SharpieHELLO. Fans could tweet “hello” to One Direction; random tweeters were selected to be featured on a billboard in Times Square. The result? Thousands of people who weren’t thinking about Sharpie used the hashtag, giving the brand visibility.

But you don’t need to work with a boy band or use flashing billboards to make your own hashtag campaigns work. When starting a new hashtag, make sure you use it consistently. Turn product categories like #HighHeels or specials like #HalfOffSale into hashtags and use them again and again. Specific events or seasonal happenings are perfect for hashtags, too. Tag your event to promote it and then retire the tag once your event is done. If, perchance, you have a witty repartee with your Twitter followers, hashtags can also provide a few laughs. Recent tags like #LesserKnownHolidaySpecials and #WorstIdeasEver are amusing time killers and can be used to introduce yourself to new followers who might be game for playing along.

Regardless of how you use them, it’s important to remember that hashtags,like everything in Twitter marketing, only work if you’re diligent about them. So keep hashtagging until something sticks… and don’t give up. The more you use hashtags, the better you’ll understand how they work — and likely have more successes, too.

December 4, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

The Purrrfect Facebook Marketing Scheme

We comb the industry journals and insider blogs to get great ideas for Facebook marketing. Outside ideas that nail the platform are always welcome, because even though a billion or so folks use Facebook all day long, it isn’t always easy getting them excited. Nor are the marketing muckety-mucks always the ones cooking up the fabulous Facebook campaigns. For simple yet brilliant Facebook marketing, perhaps the family up the street is a better place to look.

A few months ago, the Urbano family was a house divided. Seven-year-old Remi and his 3-year-old sister Evelyn desperately wanted a cat, and while their mom Marisa thought it was a good idea, dad Dan wanted the family home to remain cat-free. After some negotiating, dad caved and came up with a compromise. He told the kids that if their cause could get garner 1,000 ‘Likes’ on Facebook, then the family would adopt a cat from a local shelter. A long with some help from mom, the kids posted a photo of them holding a sign with the following message: “Hey Facebook! My sister and I really want a cat. Our papa promises we can get one if we can get 1,000 likes.” The Urbanos expected folks to be touched by the two kids’ plea for a feline friend, but they never expected that the darling duo would get their 1,000 likes in just two hours. The photo went on to collect more than 100,000 likes and the story made national headlines. More importantly, Remi and Evelyn got their kitty and saved a shelter cat’s life.

The amazing thing here is that this family’s Facebook campaign is totally on trend with the things we’ve seen work for big brands. Oreo, Levis and H&M all have had huge success with photo-driven Facebook campaigns. When it comes to brands, the ones that get talked about on Facebook are the ones with memorable images — and the Urbano family nailed it. The photo also garnered thousands of shares. Having your following like something is one thing, but having them like it so much that they share it is the kind of gold Facebook management gurus are eternally hunting for. Lastly, the Urbanos’ campaign knocked it out of the park by including a call to action. People responded to the Urbano kids not only because they’re cute, but because they get followers involved in the post by asking them to do something.

Whether it’s starting a conversation, posting a photo that segues into a “love it or hate it” poll or asking for Likes, photo posts that aren’t just passive live longer lives on Facebook. And in this case, nine of them.

December 3, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Blog Like the Big Brands: UPS

One of the incredible benefits of custom content like that offered by corporate blogs is that a brand gets a daily opportunity to communicate company beliefs and mission statements in interesting and fun-to-read ways. Blogging-for-business campaigns remind readers what a business is all about. UPS, a massive shipping powerhouse which will distribute some 527 million packages during the holiday season, recently ranked No. 27 on Interbrand’s Top 100 Best Global Brands List for 2012. For a business that sends out more gifts than Santa, reliability is a value UPS tries to impress upon consumers over and over again. With a revamped ad campaign and lightening quick responses on social media, the company also uses blogging to remind users that when it comes to dependable shipping, UPS is a brand that delivers.

Upside, the official UPS blog, has the challenging task of making the world of shipping sound interesting. With ideas on sending luggage, tips on applying for part-time work at UPS and creative solutions to shipping problems, Upside meets that challenge head-on — and succeeds. Naturally, UPS’ signature brown color palate and recognizable branding pepper the blog’s layout. But where Upside really succeeds is in making consumer feel secure in choosing UPS. Through posts written by real UPS employees and customers, readers get a glimpse at how UPS works. A recent guest post, for example, illustrated how Appalachian State University Football ships 10,000 season tickets to alumni, students and fans. Steven White, Athletic Ticket Manager at Appalachian State University, blogs about how UPS makes keeping those fans happy a lot easier. Post after post on Upside reminds users that UPS can make their lives easier, too.

Using your blog to simultaneously establish yourself as an expert in your field while pushing your company’s values and mission statements is a great idea, whether you’re a global shipping magnet or a spunky little independent business. UPS proves that knowing what you’re talking about and being proud of your company’s values can, indeed, make for interesting blog posts. Customer-written posts are also a great idea. After all, who better to toot the horn of your company than the folks who are already happily patronizing it?

November 30, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Five Things You Might Have Missed

What do Honey Boo Boo, a Facebook marketing faux pas and some really dumb toys have in common? They’re all part of this week’s five things you might have missed list, silly! Sit back and get ready to be edumacated on new and notorious stories from the online marketing universe that may have passed you by.

1.) The Year in Bing: ‘Tis the season for the onslaught of year-end lists, and it’s actually impossible to read them all. But if you missed it, we highly recommend glancing at the top searches for 2012. Search engine marketers love this sort of thing — it help predict trends — but the list itself is predictable. Honey Boo Boo, the election, the 2012 Olympics and Kim Kardashian all topped the list. Still, it’s worth a gander for the most searched social networks. Facebook topped the list, with retro-surprise MySpace holding at No. 3. 2012’s social media darling Pinterest didn’t even crack the top five.

2.) Twitter Tangle: Absolutely no one missed the hilarious copyright infringement hoax on Facebook but you might have missed the very real proprietary battle brewing over at Twitter. A courtroom tussle between Twitter and PeopleBrowser could very well define who actually owns your tweets… do you or does Twitter? We’re sure to find out more; the case heads to court this winter.

3.) Scary or Snoozy: Here in the U.S., zombies are so 2011. Even most advertisers have moved on. But in Norway, the undead can still scare up major headlines. In fact, a recent viral ad had parents organizations screaming for a boycott. But you tell us, you marketing geniuses, is this spot scary or a little sleepy? Discuss!

4.) Speaking of Boycotts: By now, we know that when it comes to Facebook, Australia does not mess around. The country does not put up with branded post that are offensive, sexist or spammy. So it’s not shocking to learn that this sophomoric photo from men’s magazine ZOO weekly got banned. While the photo is forgettable, the controversy around it brings to the surface enough interesting social media marketing conundrums like censorship and misogyny to make marketers anywhere in the world think.

5.) Trashy Toys: For some major branding fails, look no further than the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’s list of nominees for Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children Award. Pastel-colored Legos that set women back about 50 years, a shamelessly sugary Slurpee machine and scary stuffed monkey with an iPad on its stomach are among this year’s nominees. We’d prefer coal.

November 29, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

A Hard ‘Hobbit’ To Break: Social Media Marketing from the Shire

Some of the best social media marketing lessons and trends come from Hollywood. While we may not always remember the last movie we saw, nearly all of us online marketing junkies can recall a memorable YouTube trailer, effective Twitter marketing campaign or Facebook contest pushed out by the biggest movie studios in hopes of scoring a box office hit. The holiday season is big business for movies, and this year all eyes are on one movie with a little hero.

The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey is the first of three new films which take movie fans back to Middle-Earth, the setting of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga. A lot has happened in the world of marketing since the last film, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, came out in 2003. Since then, Hollywood has relied increasingly heavily on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to help drum up interest in the latest big-budget films. Judging by Facebook, though, it looks like The Hobbit will have no trouble finding an audience.

With way over 800,000 “likes,” The Hobbit’s Facebook page is a regular Shirepalooza. From photos of die-hard fans decked out in Hobbit couture and the latest in ticket information to sneak peeks of posters and extended clips, Facebook is a one-stop-shop for fantasy junkies. This week, the page featured live coverage from the film’s premiere in New Zealand. Opening stateside on December 14, the movie has yet to generate the much-coveted Twitter buzz that new movies drool after. Excitement from Twitterland is a must for pop culture products like movies and television shows, but thus far the response to The Hobbit has been a little “meh.” 37,285 followers on Twitter is nothing to sneeze at, but pales in comparison to the nearly 2 million Twilight followers and the close to 40K followers for Les Miserables, which opens on Christmas day. Tweets from the Shire are less dynamic and more commercial than the Facebook posts, suggesting that the team maybe doesn’t quite have its footing when it comes to connecting with Twitter users.

Despite being a global brand with an iconic following, The Hobbit might have a bit of an uphill battle when it comes to get social media users excited. Marketers for the movie essentially have to reintroduce the world of Tolkien to new fantasy fans and filmgoers while trying to reignite the core audience. This could be a tall order in a notoriously slumpish box office year — not to mention during this packed holiday season filled with players who really know how to play the social media marketing game.

November 28, 2012 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

The Ninja-style Advertising of Tumblr

For image-rich blog marketing that reaches a younger demographic, it’s hard to beat Tumblr. Terrific to look at, easy to set up and filled with users in the magic 18-24 demographic, Tumblr is a blog content management for the meme generation. Making it even more attractive is that it’s free to use and not filled with advertising.

Or is it? Tumblr’s consultant on marketing and revenue Rick Webb raised more than a few eyebrows yesterday when he claimed that Tumblr is rolling in advertiser dollars. We just haven’t noticed — and that’s totally the point.

Unlike traditionally-monetized social media accounts like those found on Twitter and Facebook, Tumblr, according to Webb, is doing it all on the down-low. Massive brands like Coke and Nike are using Tumblr to pimp products, but not in the flashing “click this ad” type of way. Webb claims that Tumblr began selling ads this spring.

“We have people say ‘don’t ever advertise,'” Webb said at the Business Insider’s IGNITION conference, adding “(but) we already are.”

He notes that ads on Tumblr are done in creative and engaging ways which speak the language of Tumblr so much so that they appear to be free posts.

“It’s not in your stream, not in display ads,” he says.

From what it sounds like, Tumblr is aiming to help brands create photo sharing blogs that sell products without beating users over the head.

“I think a lot of photo sharing sites never tried to monetize through advertising. I don’t think it will be impossible for us,” he said.

Tumblr’s new social media advertising model is one that could turn the platform on its head, if it’s successful. Marrying photo sharing, blog marketing and social media marketing with more dynamic and less spammy posts is brilliant. This shift is social media advertising could force marketers to up the creativity… and that’s something we’d love to see.

Archives for 2012

Quick Content Ideas for Busy Bloggers

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How to #Hashtag Like a #Hero

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The Purrrfect Facebook Marketing Scheme

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Blog Like the Big Brands: UPS

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Five Things You Might Have Missed

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The Ninja-style Advertising of Tumblr

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