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Social Media Listening & Relationship Building

I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak.” To me, this applies to social media listening and when a brand does it right, it’s #amazing and quite frankly thrilling to the customer. Listening and responding is still one of the most confounding aspects of social media to brands and I don’t really know why they have so much trouble. They often seem seized by indecision: “Do I respond?” “Do I know what to say?” “Is this worth my time?” The answer is, yes, yes and yes. When a brand organically reaches out to a consumer it creates a relationship. It’s more than a wave or a head nod it’s a “Can I buy you a drink?” and who isn’t flattered by that? Over the last few weeks, I’ve been on a mission to test brands I personally love to see if they would offer to “buy me a drink” and I was thrilled when two of them did.

What follows are two great examples of how brands can build customer loyalty and create a direct relationship with someone, in this case me. My first experiment was with Fitbit. I was feeling lazy, my Fitbit died and I did what any person committed to exercise avoidance does. I tweeted. Take a look at my interaction.

What did Fitbit do right? They were listening! They were seeking people mentioning their brand and when someone did they reached out them. I was slightly joking about my Fitbit problem but the support team was right on it. It made me feel and a brand that makes a buyer feel is doing social media right! #AllTheFeels, am I right?!

So after charging my Fitbit and taking a walk, I was hungry for a snack. I simply mentioned @AnniesHomegrown in a tweet about their fruit snacks. The next day they replied with a cleverly worded response, again making me feel special.

My point of this story isn’t to brag about how these brands wanted to “buy me a drink” or encourage me to snack more but it’s to show you how much of an impact listening and responding has. I am now a Fitbit wearing, Annie’s Homegrown eating advocate. These brands can count on me. They built a relationship.

Is it worth it? Heck ya!

Follow me at @KelleyMcLees for more about social media and my life at @BeEverywhere.

Kids As Brands’ Ambassadors

August 5, 2014/1 Comment/in Blog, Content Marketing, Society /by Lina Skandalakis

Having launched my career at Cartoon Network, I’m pretty familiar with the in’s and out’s of kids marketing. What’s really interesting to me is how kids are beginning to be marketed to on social media. The minimum age that Facebook says kids can join is 13, but the truth is that kids at the age of 9 are jumping on the social media bandwagon. It’s not just to chat with friends – They’re there to interact with brands too. To put this info into perspective with numbers: 55% of parents of 12 year olds say their child is on Facebook, 81% of online 9-17 year olds say they visited a social networking website within the last 3 months, and more than 25% of Facebook’s users are under the age of 10 (1).

No matter how you feel about social media marketing towards kids, let’s take a look at how some brands are using the medium to interact with youngsters. Note: I’ll shy away from Cartoon Network, since I’m a little biased towards them. 😉

Angry Birds
By engaging its customers on a variety of platforms and deepening the presence of its new brands, Rovio took Angry Bird’s social media presence to the next level. On Facebook, you can play two versions of it against your friends. While on Twitter, the brand engages fans in a variety of ways including product giveaways (which not many kids brands do), videos clips for upcoming game or level releases, retweets of user generated content. My favorite way that they engage their fans is by posting images of kids’ fan mail they’ve received. Why does Rovio do this? My hunch is they are showing kids that they care about what they say. They’re also developing “loyalty,” essentially making their kids fans ambassadors for many years to come.

Nickelodeon
Using social media to poll one’s audience is red hot right now. And Nickelodeon is no stranger to the game. They activated their Facebook page with over 32.1 million likes to join in and vote on the Kid’s Choice Awards (2). They also incorporated both Twitter and gamification into their Kid’s Choice campaign strategy. Leaderboards showed “fan armies” supporting the nominees – fans could track who was winning and losing. Facebook/Twitter fans contributed to their favorite nominees’ placements on the board, creating the ever-elusive ‘engagement’. Nickelodeon extended its viewing audience beyond the channel, keeping fans engaged for weeks before the awards show, compared to previous years where consumers would only vote once. What I love about this strategy is that it engaged fans as true brand ambassadors. While I don’t know how it affected their viewership, I can imagine that fans who engaged on Facebook and Twitter so actively would want to tune in to find out who won.

Lucky Charms
While Lucky Charms may not be magically nutritious, it is magically smart when it comes to their social marketing strategy. General Mills created a webisode series on YouTube depicting the animated adventures of Lucky the leprechaun, linking them back to the Lucky Charms website, which states “Hey Kids, this is advertising” in the bottom corner. The site creates an immersive experience in Lucky’s world and asks kids to join the Adventurer’s Club, which houses their game stats and gems to be used in the flash games they offer on the site. Furthermore, they’ve got a load of comics depicting Lucky’s adventures. If you’ve ever eaten a bowl of Lucky Charms you know the intrigue of those marshmallow pink hearts or shooting stars. General Mills brought those marshmallows to life in a way that kids will surely share it with friends.

Disney
I admire Disney’s use of YouTube (3). They jumped on the beauty vlogging bandwagon and created a Disney Style account to convey tips, tricks, and how-to’s from top beauty, fashion, and DIY vloggers. Why is this a relevant way for Disney to spend its marketing dollars? The page posts tutorials on how to do you hair and make-up like Elsa or create a costume inspired by Miss Piggy; the videos are tied to recent releases and encourage fans to take their love of the brands offline and into the real world, sparking brand ambassadorship in these kids and making them walking, talking billboards.

So what does this all mean? Kids are on social and brands are there too, interacting with them. We can’t turn back the clock on social media and stop kids from joining and interacting. What brands should think about is what are the right channels to use and what’s ethical when it comes to younger kids who may not realize they are being marketed to. What’s interesting to me is that there are clever ways to reach out to kids and build brand loyalty without doing so in a devious manner.

Sources
1. http://www.guardchild.com/social-media-statistics-2
2. http://lostremote.com/why-is-spongebob-is-so-popular-on-social-nickelodeon-talks-about-social-tv-strategy_b30281
3. https://econsultancy.com/blog/64550-how-disney-uses-social-media-vine-youtube-pinterest-instagram-and-more#i.cts9cm1edxepb1

The One True King of Social Media

April 18, 2014/0 Comments/in Blog, Society, Uncategorized /by Kelly Leveille

Five kings may have tried to rule Westeros, but in the land of social media, there is only one.

Game of Thrones, First of Its Name, premiered its fourth season Sunday, April 6^th to some 6.6 million people. To put it in perspective that’s 1.5 million more viewers than its third season premiere and exactly triple its debut in 2011.

These numbers seem huge until you compare them with HBO-legacy The Sopranos who bowed out with nearly 12 million viewers, and AMC’s Breaking Bad who finished with a respectable 10 million. Yet for a show whose ratings haven’t broken any records, its presence in the media is nothing short of astounding.

As a former HBO brand ambassador myself, it’s true that I might be a little bit biased when I rave about the various HBO media campaigns over the years. But even if I am biased, it’s nice to know that I’m in good company. The network’s efforts and campaigns to promote Game of Thrones Season 4 were fantastic, but they weren’t nearly as important as what came from their audience on social media.

The night of the premiere brands flocked to Twitter to capitalize on the popularity and cult following of the show. Brand giants such as Delta, Pringles, Mentos, and even fellow political-drama House of Cards decided to pay homage. Some of these campaigns were relevant, several were clever, and most were silly; but they were all united in one thing: they all proved that there is a lot of digital traffic working for Game of Thrones.

In fact, the @GameofThrones Twitter handle proudly boasted that the fourth season’s premiere created the most social activity of any HBO original series episode ever, and I believe it. This stands in stark contrast to the premiere of AMC’s last (well, sort-of last) season of Mad Men, which according to Nielsen debuted to only 2.3 million viewers. In fact, it too got a shoutout from Delta on the night of its premiere, although despite having more favorites than Game of Thrones‘, people were curiously less likely to actually retweet it to their feed.

To be fair, Mad Men has done well digitally, just perhaps not as well as its peers. It’s been around longer than Game of Thrones and the Council for Research Excellence found that social media is proving to be twice as effective at attracting viewers to new shows than returning shows. Mad Men did manage to generate a trending topic on Facebook, which has been shown to be the most popular way of socially connected viewing, but it fell short of the buzz surrounding the shocking and now infamous “Purple Wedding” from Game of Thrones.

In Tweets alone, Game of Thrones saw 251,000 mentions while Mad Men brought in less than a fourth of that with 60,000. This might seem arbitrary until faced with the fact that, according to the same CRE study, 42% of viewers planned to watch a show after seeing it mentioned in a Tweet and 33% immediately change the channel to watch it live. So what does this mean? Being in its final season, Mad Men was surely expecting more hype from the digital stratosphere, but maybe it’s time to ditch the briefcase and invest in some dragons.

Internet Fat Cats: Memes and Marketing

July 8, 2013/5 Comments/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Molly

By Molly Daly

I’d wager to guess that almost every Facebook user has seen a meme in their day. There’s a decent chance that those memes feature cats. The Internet has had a long lasting love affair with felines and many cite the ancient Egyptians as unknowing inspiration to future generations.

The concept of Internet memes has spread from culture sites such as Reddit and 4Chan and worming its way into the mainstream and life as we know it. For “meme management” pioneer Ben Lashes, it’s a way of life. After success with perhaps one of the oldest cat memes, Keyboard Cat, Lashes left his job as a music distributor and started managing memes full time. Keyboard Cat has made several television appearances, and his likeness was even used in a Pistachios commercial, with over 2.5 million YouTube views on the ad alone.

Photo courtesy of YouTube.com

Lashes manages other popular memes such as Nyan Cat, and Grumpy Cat, among others. There’s a bit of a feline pattern here, but that’s no surprise to a Redditor or a cat lover. (Or in my case, both.) Therefore, I am pleasantly surprised by the recent leaps Internet cats have made towards television and film.

Photo courtesy of GrumpyCats.com

Grumpy Cat, who was boosted to extreme popularity thanks to Reddit, has hailed many accolades. Voted Meme of the Year at the 2013 Webby Awards, she now has over 1 million Facebook likes under her dwarfish belt, was a star at SXSW – and just scored a movie deal. I can only hope the proposed Garfield-style family film lands on its feet.

Photo courtesy of LilBub.com

Another figure in the feline field is Lil Bub, who won big at the Tribeca Film Festival with her documentary on cats and the Internet, titled Lil Bub and Friendz. If this blog post caught your cat fancy, I definitely recommend checking out the trailer.

There’s no question that the popularity of Internet memes affects marketers in a big way. So how can brands catch the breaking memes before they become too mainstream? “Become a nerd about memes,” says Ben Lashes, in an interview with Big Think. “Watch culture websites like the stock market.” For me in particular, this advice is not hard to follow.

Reflections on Haiti

June 5, 2013/19 Comments/in Blog /by Kelly

By: Kelly Heisler

There were signs of progress in the crowded streets of Port Au Prince: Less tents and less rubble. Less evidence that Haiti is the victim of nature’s fury time and again. The people there have lived through the earth shifting beneath them, the rains unrelenting and the unforgiving outbreak of foreign disease.

I recently visited Haiti for the second time. I returned to the country to make good on a promise our group made 18 months ago. We had promised to return and to teach a group of small business owners and artisans skills in technology. Armed with a contribution of laptops from Microsoft and a group of writers, journalists and well-meaning individuals, we ventured back to the small island that never seems to catch a break.

During a round table waiting for dinner one night in Jacmel, I listened to the stories of the dozen women embarking on our adventure. Their tales ran the gamut from sneaking across the border to help women in Afghanistan to losing one’s family to a hostile political regime.

I am a born and bred American girl, who went to college and grew up on middle class means. I work at a marketing agency in Atlanta and live what could very rightly be called “a charmed life”. I had never crossed the Tiber River, I don’t have deep cultural roots and traditions and I don’t have stories that move people to tears over the triumph of the human spirit.

What I do have is compassion. One of the women at dinner very wisely stated, “All anyone can do is make use of the talents and opportunities they have. Do what you can.” What I can do is marketing. So what does that mean for the people of Haiti?

It means that I can find ways to spread the word about Heart of Haiti, a trade not aid line of products made by Haitians to create sustainable income. It means I can teach artisans how to use the tools available to them to reach the American market and connect with customers. It means I can use my work in Social Media to connect with other organizations and people that feel the need to bring progress to those less fortunate.

These tools and skills are something that can grow a business and by result help feed a family. It’s what little I can do. No matter one’s profession, or inclination there is always something you can do to contribute to the world, community or individual.

I am thankful for the people that sat at that table. They inspire me with their remarkable stories and accomplishments. Despite our different backgrounds and culture, there was no denying the common thread that tethered us all to that circle. We all wanted to do something and we are all devoted to doing what we can.

Keep it ‘Pinteresting’: Secret to Pinterest

May 31, 2013/2 Comments/in Blog /by Leighanne Ferri

By Leighanne Ferri

I’m sure many can relate when I say that after spending an hour (or five) on Pinterest, I often feel a strong urge to work out, bake, craft or shop. On our personal Pinterest pages, we pin things that apply to our own interests, lifestyles and hobbies.

On the consumer side, we want to see things we are interested in from the people, and companies, we follow. We want ideas on how to put an outfit together, how to bake the perfect birthday cake or plan the ideal vacation. Brands can, and should, use this to their advantage. In order to create advocates for your brand, you must actively engage your consumers. After reading up on some creative ways of how brands are using Pinterest, I’ve come up with a few of my own.

Promote your Brand’s Lifestyle

Free People, a popular boho-chic fashion brand does an impeccable job promoting not just their brand, but the lifestyle they represent. The Free People woman is free-spirited and in tune with her mind, body and soul. One of their boards entitled ‘FP Movement’ boasts gorgeous photos of women in yoga poses, inspirational quotes, health tips and beautiful photography. The ‘Festival Fashion’ board highlights style trends from booming music festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo. This is all a part of the FP lifestyle, and thus, the FP brand.

Image courtesy of styleblazer.com

Limit the Clutter

The next thing a brand should do is limit the clutter. As a consumer, I want to hop on a company’s Pinterest page and immediately see boards that stand out to me and push me to explore further. Although Walmart is a huge, well-known company, they have 80+ boards that seem repetitive to the buyer. A good example of pinning brevity is the Nike Women page, which has 10 concise boards with relevant content that supports current campaigns, as well as workout graphics and motivation pins.

Be Relatable and Relevant

The Whole Foods shopper is typically a health-conscious individual who appreciates being kept up-to-date with current health trends. Whole Foods Market does a fabulous job relating to its consumers and staying relevant. Their ‘#HealthYeah’ board provides an enthusiastic outlook on getting healthy while tying in the trendy use of the hashtag. Boards labeled ‘Summer Vacation!’ and ‘Savor Summer’ are seasonal and valuable to the follower.

Stay consistent (if it makes sense)

For brands that have a distinct voice or social media presence (like us), it is recommended to carry that presence into your Pinterest boards. Take our example. Everywhere brands its boards by remaining consistent, with titles including ‘Everyday Everywhere’, ‘Infographics Everywhere’ and ‘Events Everywhere’. Notice a pattern? Consistency makes your brand easily recognizable and accessible. This example aside, some companies may benefit from changing up their boards to appeal to different consumers; it’s all about what works for your brand.

Image courtesy of hongkiat.com

As a Pinterest fanatic, I can vouch for most consumers when I say that utilizing these methods to keep your brand’s Pinterest page up to par would definitely appeal to me. Executing these tactics engages viewers and can immensely benefit your social media and real life presence in the mind of the consumer.

Everywhere has a robust internship program and we invite our interns to participate by writing on our blog. Leighanne Ferri is an intern from Florida State University. She authored this blog post.

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Streaming Music: And The Beat Goes On

April 12, 2013/4 Comments/in Blog /by Molly

Music brings people together, connects them. So it’s only natural that the music scene would move to a digital venue.

This month, music streaming giant Pandora reached 200 million users, 100 million of which registered in less than two years! Upon this achievement, founder Tim Westergren stated that “radio is changing,” and he couldn’t be more correct.

Pandora has yet to implement major social features, but Swedish streaming service Spotify has made a huge splash in the US market after a successful launch in June 2011. The service is heavily integrated with Facebook and Twitter, at one point requiring a Facebook log-in to create an account.

We’re guessing Twitter caught wind of Spotify’s success, since today marks the launch of the Twitter Music app, confirmed after longtime rumors (and Ryan Seacrest blabbing about it!). TechCrunch speculates that this weekend’s launch coinciding with the Coachella Music Festival is no coincidence and is on the lookout for marketing at the festival.

It’s rumored that Twitter Music will be split into four tabs: “Suggested,” which consists of music based on who you’re following; “#NowPlaying,” which features songs tweeted by your friends with that hashtag; “Popular,” which displays trending songs throughout Twitter; and “Emerging,” which shows up and coming new music.

Someone had better let MegaUpload’s Kim Dotcom know about Twitter’s big plans. His disembodied head made some big claims at this past SXSW in regards to music services – going so far as to claim he could take down iTunes.

Everywhere’s office playlist is a big deal, so we’re looking forward to trying out the new Twitter app! Check out some of our past 5:00 p.m. jam sessions here.

Brands Pity the Fool

April 5, 2013/0 Comments/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Kelly

By Kelly Heisler

For many of us April Fool’s day brings back heinous flashbacks of Vaseline covered phone ear pieces and saran wrap covered toilet seats. Turns out in this digital age, pesky brothers aren’t the only ones having a laugh as brands have come out of the woodwork to show off their pranking ingenuity.

It was truly a day of marketing chaos. Retailer, American Eagle, fooled us with the ironic Skinny, Skinny jeans, while even brand giant’s like P&G had Scope plaster its new “bacon flavored” mouthwash all over it’s Facebook page. Virgin was flying high with ads featuring glass-bottomed planes and Redbox confused and intrigued customers by announcing sales of lunchmeat from their kiosks.

Tricks were not kept strictly to products as social media platforms and search engines joined the games. Twitter introduced a no vowel option on tweets and YouTube created chaos with the announcement they were shutting down. Google, a longstanding participant in April Fool’s Day, had not one but two gags releasing both “Google Nose” and blue Gmail.

Question is, as a consumer what is the consequence of these types of interactions? When brands pull the wool over your eyes, do you find it humanizes them or does it seem like a cheap trick? Is it worth the risk of backlash to be timely?

As pressure for brands to actively respond in real time increases, we are bound to only see more brands hop on the bandwagon. Mark your calendars for next year!

Let’s Hear It for the Boys!

February 8, 2013/4 Comments/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Kelly

A lady marketer makes a foray into the world of dad blogging at the phenomenal Dad 2.0 Summit.

by Kelly Heisler

At Everywhere, we are a female owned and mostly female staffed agency. Over the four years we’ve been in business our “We are Woman, Hear Us Roar” war cry has formed an empire in the social space predominantly ruled by estrogen.

We love mom bloggers. We get them. We know what they like and we know what resonates with their audience. We’ve collaborated and succeeded with these lovely ladies, hosted Wise Women Wednesday sessions and supported women empowerment initiatives in our community.

As our client list continues to expand we have found ourselves in unfamiliar territory. One in which some of our brands are better, if not equally suited for a man. It seems in our lady power party, we may have neglected a segment of very influential writers who just so happen to have a Y chromosome.

It wasn’t until my maiden voyage to Dad 2.0 Summit that I realized not only were men suitable for super manly products like shave gel, lawnmowers and shoeshine, but there is an increasing number of men taking the majority role or equal control of rearing their children and heading up the household.

Andy Hinds (Beta Dad), Random Photo Bomber, Kelly Heisler (Everywhere), Trina O’Boyle (Happy Family Brands)

Dad 2.0 Summit was filled with talented writers, businessman and entrepreneurs. In between evenings of raucous karaoke and whiskey tastings, we heard painfully funny, vulnerable and relatable stories of fatherhood. Speakers like Ted Rubin brought the crowd to tears with stories of fighting for a relationship with your children in the face of controversy. Black Hockey Jesus, spoke with poetic eloquence bringing a resounding depth to the often-bumbling stereotype portrayed by dads in the media. These men are sharing their stories and building communities that spread much further than just their fellow fathers.

As brand managers these authentic and genuine voices are just the sort of people we need. As an agency, in order to truly be “Everywhere” we absolutely must include everyone. So bring it on boys, we’re ready to share our clubhouse.

Click here for more recaps from of Dad 2.0 Summit.

Okay, so maybe the backpack isn't that lousy.

I Went to CES and All I Got Was This Lousy Backpack

January 16, 2013/1 Comment/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Kelly

I was pretty excited to attend the ultimate geek arena to discover the multitude of new gadgets and toys to be hitting the market this year. Problem was…I arrived a day early. Thinking I could get some great behind the scenes insights I went to register anyway. Two hours later after missing names, lost shoes (don’t ask) and mixed up credentials, I managed to get myself a Press Badge. Feeling like I was a “pretty big deal,” I awarded myself with this free backpack. It came with a Gibson T-shirt.

CES Behind the Scenes

I took this lovely photo the day before CES began, an empty waste land of shiny lights and surfaces. Alas, I never made it to the floor to fullfil my dreams of meeting Snooki and seeing a self-driving automobile, partially because of my devoted work to my client and mostly because Las Vegas is a giant labyrinth of which I cannot navigate.

Things I Will Keep in Mind Next Year:

There are in fact not one, but four bell desks at The Wynn Casino and Hotel.
The Chandelier Bar at The Cosmopolis actually has a 1 1/2 Floor. Oh yeah, and EVERYTHING in that hotel looks like a chandelier.
If someone tells you to take a left at the casino, ask for more detail.
Just because you are at a large fountain, does not mean you are actually at the front of a building.
Walking towards the EXIT in your hotel hallway means stairs, not elevators ahead.

Perhaps, I will bring a tent and camp in the parking lot of the Convention Center next time.

Okay, so maybe the backpack isn’t that lousy.