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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.

Meerkat and Periscope: What’s the Hype?

April 6, 2015/0 Comments/in Blog, News, SXSW /by Lina Skandalakis

Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock this past month has heard about Meerkat and Periscope, a competitor created by Twitter. As the “breakout app” of SXSW being used by Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on a selfie stick walking around Austin and Julia Louis Dreyfus during her VEEP panel, Meerkat was hard to ignore. Now Periscope pretty much does the same thing and has stolen all of Meerkat’s thunder. So what do these apps do actually?

Remember when Charlie Sheen went all crazy with #winning and strippers and held a Ustream of him ranting? I remember – I am ashamed to say that I watched. If Meerkat or Periscope were around back then, Charlie likely would have used that instead. It is the mobile version of Ustream, allowing its users to live stream on the go. So why then is it so ridiculously popular if there was already a similar service? Well, first off they’re integrated with Twitter (Periscope is obviously more so integrated). In a nutshell, when you start streaming, a Tweet goes out. With Periscope, you have the added ability to be able to see reactions to your stream from Twitter embedded in the app. Also, if you think about it, no one has really improved upon the ability to live stream until now. Improvement, you ask? Meerkat allows you to record and schedule your stream for a later time, while Periscope allows users to save videos to replay them later.

So what’s all the hype about? Well, if you’re an everyday person who isn’t a celebrity, politician, or reporter, you aren’t likely to have a big viewership with Meerkat or Periscope. No one really cares what you have to say in real time. If you do happen to fall into one of those popular people categories, it’s the compelling content that is going to keep followers coming back (or maybe not? Here’s a live stream of a fridge at the Washington Post that’s quite popular. Maybe it’s just the big brand that keeps people watching… or the novelty?).

A big challenge for both Meerkat and Periscope as I see it (if either or both stay alive), is that in order to succeed, they really have to encourage the top-level influencers to keep the everyday user tuned in. Periscope may be the present day cool-kid app (Sorry Meerkat), but it’s more time consuming than a simple tweet or Instagram. So if the influencers get bored and don’t use it, the everyday user is going to peace out.

While the live video concept of Meerkat and Periscope is compelling and dramatic, the apps can only continue if both the influencer continues to stream interesting content and the user is available to consume it.

My final thought that I just can’t get around when it comes to streaming-type apps like this is this – who has time to watch live programming anymore? Didn’t God invent the DVR to get around what these apps offer? Even if it’s programmed content (from Meerkat) or a stream that you can save to watch later (from Periscope), I’m still not compelled to tune in at a certain time to be able to view or save the content.

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

Brands Capitalize on Facebook Shutdown

June 19, 2014/0 Comments/in Blog, Social Media Best Practices, Society /by Audrey Proa

We all remember the Super Bowl XLVII Blackout. It served as quite the spectacle for viewers. However, it was a time for brands to capitalize on an event so huge that it would reach even non-consumers. Oreo took advantage of the opportunity to exploit the blackout. It was a huge win for their brand.

Early Thursday morning, Facebook’s shutdown for thirty minutes caused an uproar in several countries around the world. While many every day consumers were frustrated, brands that participate in real-time monitoring of social platforms took advantage of this opportunity to attain an Oreo success story. Kit-Kat, Nissan, and Red Bull all took capitalized on the shutdown to gain attention for their brands.

While real-time marketing can be a great opportunity for a brand – there are a few cautionary thoughts to keep in mind before jumping on board.

1 – Remember, There Is Upkeep

There’s irreverence and fun in participating in real time marketing, but you also have to spend time monitoring platforms. If your brand does decide to participate and sees an increase in followers and engagement, understand that your new followers might now expect you to continue providing this type of commentary. Do you have it in you to maintain this?

2 – Approval Process Is Key

It’s important to know that in order to participate in real-time marketing, your social media team must already have an existing content approval process to prevent potential backlash. Let’s not forget, the awkward Delta World Cup tweet of the giraffe in Ghana that was only a couple of days ago. If you don’t have an internal social media approval process…we need to talk.

3 – Obviously, It’s All About Timing

Make like a bread truck and haul buns - get that approved content out the doors! If your approval is laborious and involves your CMO, good luck getting traction on your social post. Chances are the moment will have passed.

This article was written by Everywhere Agency’s Summer intern, Audrey Proa.

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.

Confessions of a Creeper and Other Reasons I’m Single

September 20, 2013/2 Comments/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Lindsay Price

My name is Lindsay and I’m a creeper. Specifically, a social media creeper.

In this day and age, I view social media creepiness as more than a weird compulsion- it’s a survival tactic. I can very efficiently discover if ‘what’s his name’ from the bar has a girlfriend, or if ‘so and so’ actually graduated from college. And let’s not even talk about the seemingly commonplace act of catfishing.

This compulsion has been fairly longstanding, but it really came to a head last month. I’d met a very cute guy at a concert and everything was rosy until I lost him in the crowd. Armed with just his first name and college alma mater I used the mighty powers of Facebook Graph Search and found him in a matter of seconds.

Did I feel like a terrifying person? Yes. Did I stop there? No.

Due largely to peer pressure and my inability to forget this boy, I friend requested him. It was in this moment that I realized I had a problem.

Our ability to have someone’s entire internet personality at our fingertips has broken down a very important reality: We don’t actually know these people. I can look at your LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all day long and, yet, I’m no closer to knowing who you actually are.

This infinite information presents a real problem in relationships. We feel as if we know all of these little facts about people without even having a conversation with them. “Oh, I don’t need to ask you about your siblings on this date, I looked at their Facebooks yesterday.” We’re forging opinions about people and stunting the longevity of potential relationships. Instead of finding out about past relationships on date 3, we’re creeping on their exes after date 1 and canceling date 2 based on our findings.

Very recently, a Tinder chat (a story in itself) grew into an actual chance to grab drinks. I fought every impulse to creep on this guy.* I wanted for once to go on a date without any extra information. And believe it or not, it went well. I didn’t prompt him with questions based on his Facebook interests and yet we still had plenty to talk about. The freedom of a clean slate helped me gain actual interest in this person and who knows, maybe there will be a second and third date.

I’m Lindsay. And I’m trying to get better.

[jwplayer mediaid=”4029″]

*Okay. I admit it. I looked at his Facebook. I don’t need some catfish swimming into my life.

We Can’t Stop Talking About Miley

August 26, 2013/0 Comments/in Blog /by Lindsay Price

By: Lindsay Price

As I woke up, got out of bed and sipped my morning coffee I was riddled with thoughts, questions and concerns surrounding Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance. Wait, how old is she? Why were the pink bears particularly sad? Doesn’t Robin Thicke have a wife? How uncomfortable were those booty shorts?

Upon turning to my Twitter stream I realized that the rest of the nation was also suffering from a serious case of PTSD from watching our beloved Hannah Montana fall oh so far. The tweets, status updates and memes had not slowed down over night and seemed to actually be picking up some serious momentum this morning.

The trauma has given way to criticism, defenses, feminist diatribes and some of my favorite reaction GIFs of all time. It seems to also have given way to a flood of social discussion. According to Twitter, Miley was tweeted about 4.5 million times last night alone. To give you some perspective, this eclipsed my close friend Justin Timberlake’s mentions by almost 2 Million. Not only is Miley running the Twitter chatter, she’s also at the top of Google Trends with 10 Million + searches of her name. Not to mention two of her songs working their way into the iTunes top 5 in the last 12 hours.

Sentiment, trauma and general motherly concern aside, her very public display of desperation was certainly memorable. As we continue to reflect on what our eyes, psyches and hearts experienced last night let’s remember that with every tweet the experience lives on.

P.S. Something that I believe deserves much more chatter: JC Chasez’s inability to let go of his brief moment in the spotlight. Visit minute 11 of this video to experience the discomfort. I’m still blushing for him.

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.

Vine: Will Instagram Kill the Video Star?

June 21, 2013/4 Comments/in Blog, Uncategorized /by Meredith Lorch

By Meredith Lorch

Photo Credit: Gizmodo

All the foodie photos and selfie snapshots on your Instagram feed are about to be brought to life. Vine has largely dominated the video-sharing world in recent months, but Instagram has just added video features to its iPhone and Android apps, creating quite the buzz. The question is clear: does Video on Instagram mean the downfall of Vine?

Only time will tell whether Video on Instagram will outcompete its rival. Some continue to see real potential in Vine. Gary Vaynerchuk, a brand consultant and industry thought leader, is even creating a talent agency for Vine stars, called “Grape Story.” Despite this, it’s hard to believe that Vine will amount to anything more than a fad. While its novel six-second looping video format is initially charming, Vine’s brief, repetitive nature quickly becomes overwhelming. Add in the effect of camera shake and erratic Vines can be dizzying.

Photo Credit: Tech Crunch

Both Vine and Video on Instagram employ a simple tap-and-hold-to-record feature, but Vine fails to capitalize on post-production features. The beauty of Instagram lies in the 13 brand new filters created exclusively for video—not to mention an image-stabilization tool called Cinema for capturing crisp, shake-free video. Users can also browse Instagram videos on a website—unlike Vine, which solely allows for video exploration within the app. Overall, Instagram’s new 15-second video capability allows users to share the adventure and splendor of their worlds unlike ever before, posing a serious threat to competitors.

Photo Credit: ABC News

So what’s on the horizon? Rumor has it Instagram has potential for Google Glass integration. The possibilities are seemingly endless. With its latest update, Instagram has solidified its place as a classic sharing tool that is here to stay—and not just for the foodies.

Everywhere has a robust internship program and we invite our interns to participate by writing on our blog. Meredith Lorch is an intern from Emory University. She authored this blog post.

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.