Having some message (video, photo, app., whatever) related to a product or company go viral has been the Holy Grail for marketers for several years now.  Despite countless attempts and millions of dollars spent there is still not a science to making the exponential spread of a firm’s message over the ever-growing universe of web, mobile, and yes, personal platforms.  Very few have had the success at attempts at “virality” as say, Carlton Draught’s “Big Ad,” but the handful that do tend to have a handful of things in common.  As noted by my friend Mark Rogers of Dolcinema.com an ad needs to be:

·         Creative, in a way consistent with the brand’s image

·         Released by a company that is committed to being part of the “conversation”

·         Easy to share

·         Complete with a hook that resonates with the target audience

You’ll notice that Cartlon’s ad hit all the high points here.  As an exercise in sorting out what makes a video viral, I like to give my student a few ads, some that have clearly gone viral, and others that are also-rans and ask them why a particular effort was or was not successful, and relate their thinking back to principles of marketing that they are studying.  Once they seem to have a grasp on this, I’ll send them to an innovation monitoring website like www.likecool.com and ask them to conceive a viral campaign for one of the interesting new products that are highlighted there.  (I have them do a storyboard or script, but if you’ve got the time and hardware actually producing something would, obviously, work too.)

You’ll be pleasantly surprised as to the quality of the teaching moment this provides.  And, yes, it works for adult students as well as traditional 18-21’s.


From:
 http://www.pearsoninsideguide.com/marketing/dashboard

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Thank you Brian Solis and JESS3
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Twitter is in the midst of launching its new format.  While it is clean and, in my opinion, a lot more user friendly that the old version, I am starting to doubt the long term viability of the pioneering micro-blogging platform.    Twitter is attractive because it allowed me to not only build and connect with an audience in the tweet-realm, it gave me an easy way to broadcast a message through my social media universe.  For example, when I post something to my blog I tweet an announcement that shows up on my personal Facebook page, my book’s Facebook page, on LinkedIn, Plaxo, on my Wall Street Journal Page, on my Amazon page…. You get the idea.

Obviously, I am a Twitter user (@gaetang) and a fan, but I have noticed my behavior along with many others changing over the last few months.  Recently, I have been using Ping.fm to do my broadcasting.  Twitter is included in the Ping broadcast, but Twitter is no longer my primary distribution channel.  Additionally, the emergence of applications like status.net that allow for the incorporation of micro-blogging into a person’s or company’s overall web presence with the option of keeping some conversations private and allowing others to be public will leave plain vanilla Twitter in the dust.

Considering this changing landscape, I have found it very productive to give my PR & Social Media students a tour of the current and emerging technologies in micro-blogging, and ask them to predict the future of this class of application based on their perception of consumer and business desires to use such a service.  This is not only a great discussion starter, but helps me to bridge the gap between thinking about social technology as consumer and understanding its uses as a business person and marketer.

From:
 http://www.pearsoninsideguide.com/marketing/dashboard

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Tea Time 04/06/2010
 
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“We just don’t have anything newsworthy.”  That is the cry I hear from so many companies that have products that are in crowded markets or products that seem somewhat mundane.  This is what Salada Tea, makers of one of the world’s oldest products could have said, but they didn’t.  Realizing that their ancient beverage stands at the intersection of several modern trends, they set out on their “Unbottle Your Tea” campaign with the assistance of marketing communications agency, Pinckney Hugo Group.

In the last several years environmental stewardship, frugality, and healthy living have been some of the hottest topics in the media and blogosphere, and Salada realized that “unbottled” tea reduces the amount of material in the waste stream, by eliminating bottles and saves money as brewing tea from tea bags is much less expensive than buying bottled, ready-to-drink tea.  In addition, there has been lots of recent scientific evidence that tea (especially green tea) is good for you.  A PR goldmine-if executed properly, and Salada and Pinckney Hugo did just that.

The goals for their campaign include:  increasing the sales and awareness of
Salada teas; stimulating trial and usage of their products; promoting new green tea flavors; and building an online database of consumers for future promotional efforts.  The primary target market for this campaign was women over the age of thirty-five.  To achieve these goals they reached out to traditional media as well as bloggers; used YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook extensively, conducted a media tour where a brand spokesperson went on the road visiting media outlets; extended the integrated marketing campaign  to include media sponsorship with Prevention Magazine for fitness-oriented events (and to distribute samples), and held in-store promotions.

The results were outstanding and exceeded their optimistic expectations.  A few of the measurable highlights of this campaign were:

·        Initial coverage by New York Times’ Media & Advertising, PR Week and AdWeek

·         Media coverage reaching nearly 600 stories and nearly 80 millionunweighted media impressions

·         More than 2,200 consumers visited the Unbottle Web site

·         The Media tour landed 17 TV interviews with Salada spokesperson  along with supporting print and online coverage

·         Increased sales in target markets followed tour appearances

·         More than 98,000 samples of Salada were distributed at sponsored health events

·         More than 4,000 people requested a free sample in response to an e-newsletter sponsorship

·         New flavors were highlighted in all TV appearances and blog reviews

·         Awareness was generated prior to in-store availability driving demand for new flavors

·         UBYT Web site has attracted more than 355,000 unique visitors, 547,000 page views and 2.8 million hits since its launch

·         Salada and UBYT campaign were featured in more than 100 audience-appropriate blogs

·         Salada collected more than 120,000 e-mail addresses from promotions and giveaways

Wow, and this is just a sample of what this campaign achieved.  Here is a sample from their YouTube site.  Be sure to check out their sample of media mentions and list of blog coverage in the “News” section of the Unbottle Your Tea microsite. Their Facebook fan page, and Twitter site are also worth a look.  Doing PR right is crucial in any business.  Use this as an example and please share it with your friends and colleagues.
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There is no question-social media has changed the way that we interact with our fellow human beings.   The potential for communicating with others, and finding groups of people with similar interests, no matter how obscure, has increased exponentially.  It has also affected the way we write.  (To my great consternation, students of mine will occasionally submit a paper that includes “text message English.”  In such cases I am not LOL.) It has also altered the way that we identify ourselves by giving use the ability to create a fresh persona in the communities in which we interact, as well as a new name. For example, I get my wine buying advice from a guy that goes by @garyvee, and I just read a blog post on marketing psychology by @psychodude.   

While I am steadfast in my belief that social media, in all its forms, is just an addition to the myriad of ways that we interact and sell to each other, I also believe that its terms and traditions have imbued themselves into our culture.  To support this hypothesis, I’d like to introduce you all to Survival of the Hippest.  They make custom jewelry with your Twitter handle or hashtag on it. This is to make it easier for people to put a tweet with a face when meeting in the real, non-virtual world.   As co-founder Phoebe Jonas told me:

“Survival of The Hippest began when my co-founder, Ashley, realized that many of her 7000+ followers on Twitter knew her as @pluckypea, and not as her proper name. What better way to signal her virtual self in the real-world at Tweetups and conferences than a piece of Twittername Jewelry! (as the front-woman and mastermind behind the critically acclaimed rock band for kids, the Jimmies, Ashley is out and about a LOT!)  As a social-media enthusiast with a fine-jewelry background and a hankering to Twitter, I was the perfect partner for our venture. Survival of The Hippest launched in Sept '09 --we're the original Twitter Jewelry company--and we've been adorning hundreds of Twitterfriends ever since.”

I speak about the importance of creating content as well as community when planning a social media presence.  When real and virtual communities begin to blend and symbolism is brought into that mix I am confident that we can declare social media an enduring cultural phenomenon.

Oh, by the way, I am not getting compensated by Survival of the Hippest in any way.  I found them while searching for best practices in social media/ word-of-mouth to write about, and I think they are cool.

You’re invited to join the Marketing Public Relations community and read this blog on the MPR Facebook fan page.  See you there.
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This blog post by Lee Odden in his “Online Marketing Blog” is a great introduction to some great social media analytics.  It is worth a little exploration.

Also, I have posted a video of Lee talking about the use of social media and search by journalists to the MPR Facebook fan page.  Check that out.

Thanks Sally Falkow for introducing me to Lee’s work.
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If I had a nickel (ok, maybe a quarter) for every time someone said to me, “Yeah, Twitter is interesting, but I don’t see the marketing value in it,” I would be quite well off.  Well, here I have an outstanding example of a business using Twitter to its benefit-Kogi Korean Barbeque.

This is a mobile restaurant based in southern California that announces its location by tweeting.   Yes, they deliver a good product, but they add to the mix by making the meal an adventure, because you have to find them.  This creates a type of scarcity, which we know from Robert Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice that can make a product seem even more valuable to us.  In addition, they have used this new marketing format to drum up lots of MPR.  They have been featured on the Food Network, you can be one of their 50,000 plus followers on Twitter, read over 1200 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Yelp, and even read more about their next venture in the Wall Street Journal.

This, my friends, is Twitter done right.

(Become a fan of the MPR Facebook page.)

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This is normally the sort of thing that I’d just re-tweet, but I want to have a record of this so you know where to find the link when you need it.  Thanks to Mark Flavin for this post.

You're Invited.  Join the MPR group on Facebook.
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Crush It! 10/17/2009
 
It was late last year when I first heard about Crush It! (Harper Studio, 2009) I was interviewing author, Gary Vaynerchuk for my book.  The Crush It! may not have had its title at that point but he spoke with passion and enthusiasm about the value of authenticity, hustle, and following your DNA.  He really believes that someone can follow their passion and live the life of their dreams.  I am happy to say that the sharp wit, business savvy, and zeal that I experienced in my conversations with Gary come across in Crush It!

The book is both a motivational speech and a how-to manual for budding Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, and really anyone who wants to take charge of their lives by doing what they love.  Despite being a brief 142 pages, he makes his point strongly without wasting a lot of ink.  He discusses indentifying a personal passion, and using social media to build a personal brand that will, through hustle and patience, reward the entrepreneur with happiness and cash. (He stresses the former as the primary goal.)  Clearly, anyone new to the world of social media will find this book informative, instructive, and easy to read.  Those with more experience in the world of Web 2.0 will also find Crush It! worth a look.  I suppose I am a great example of the latter, I live the subject and have written a book, keep a successful blog, teach it at the college level, regularly speak to business and professional groups, and use these techniques every day and I have a page of notes that I made while reading this book.

If I have any criticism it is that Gary does not give much time to using traditional media ( I am talking about PR stuff, not advertising) to create the personal brand that stems from the entrepreneur’s DNA.  He mentions it briefly in Chapter 11, “Start Monetizing,” but doesn’t give us the depth he could have.  He is a master of the traditional media too.  He has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, on the Today Show, and on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, just to mention a few of his traditional media appearances.

So, whether you’re just getting started or have already made a mark for yourself I will say that you will find a pretty strong return on investment for the $19.99 you spend on Crush It!
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Ping! 10/16/2009
 
Ok, I know I may be a little late to the party on this one, but I just started using Ping.  I am finding it to me a great way to broadcast a status update to all of my social media platforms.  Yes, I know, you can do a lot of the same with Twitter, but this just seems more user-friendly to me.  Plus it updates LinkedIn easily.
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