Our Thoughts

This Week in Digital Marketing 16 – 20 May: Bing Improving Social Search, Aveda Avoids Backlash and Google Sponsored Business Photos

May 19, 2011 by Joanne North

This week Bing announced a host of changes around social search. New survey data reports that only 33% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy (which may not necessarily be a bad thing). We look at using Facebook PPC advertising from a social point of view, and a case study involving Aveda who avoided a backlash after a Facebook app went wrong. And, would you like Google sponsored photographers to photograph your business? Businesses in 7 New Zealand cities can apply now (just scroll to the bottom).

---

Bing’s Deeper Integration with Facebook

With the arrival of Google’s new +1 button drawing near, Bing is upping its game in the social search department. Bing announced its partnership with Facebook last year, and now its working to implement Facebook and ‘Likes’ data even further. There are three new components to Bing social search: ‘Trusted Friends’, ‘Collective IQ’ and ‘Enabling Conversations’. You can read more about each of these components here.

---

33% of Companies Have a Mobile Marketing Strategy

Mobile marketing might be a hot topic, but how much mobile marketing is really going on? This week, KingFish media released new survey data on mobile marketing. The report reveals that 33% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy, and that 62% plan to have a mobile marketing strategy within the next 12 months. The report revealed that social networking tops the list of current and planned mobile marketing activities. It’s not quite the significant percentage you’d expect!

---

What’s Different About Facebook Pay-Per-Click (PPC)?

Facebook PPC advertising operates a little differently to its counterparts (i.e. AdWords). Facebook is designed for social interaction, and its users aren’t actively searching for products and services as they may be with a search engine. Facebook ads benefit when they take advantage of this fact, and the most successful campaigns tend to be the ones that acknowledge that. This article has a few tips to keep in mind when running an ad campaign on Facebook from a social point of view.

---

How Aveda Avoided a Social Promotion Backlash

This case study examines how Aveda, a plant-based makeup and lifestyle product company, avoided a backlash after their use of a Facebook sampling application went wrong. The problems were twofold. Firstly, the app continued to confirm that samples would be sent after set 5,000 cut-off, and secondly a glitch prevented the company from discovering who the first 5,00 participants had been. Transparency was key in the actions that followed to provide a resolution to campaign participants.

---

Enhancing Your Facebook Page With Photos

Are you using photos to enhance your Facebook page? Using photography with social media is a great opportunity to showcase your brand in a unique way, and the response from photographs can be much stronger than from text alone. However, businesses shouldn’t forget that they are businesses, and that each and every photo must be considered for its role in extending the brand. This article has six tips to keep in mind when using photographs with social media.

---

Google Sponsored Business Photos

Recently, Google introduced ‘Google Business Photos.’ With Google Business Photos business owners can apply to have a Google-sponsored photographer come and take pictures of their business. These pictures can then be added to their Google Place Page, enhancing their listing and showing potential customers exactly what their business looks like on the inside. Google photographers are currently visiting businesses in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Invercargill, Blenheim and Nelson. Click here for more information and to apply.

---

On A Lighter Note

Have you ever played Angry Birds on a mobile phone? How about playing it in real life? A life size version of the game has been constructed in Spain as apart of Deutsche Telekom’s “Life is for sharing” campaign.

This Week in Digital Marketing #8: Travel & Tourism, Real Time Facebook Beta, Integrating offline & online, +1

May 18, 2011 by Joanne North

This Week in Digital Marketing #8: Travel & Tourism, Real Time Facebook Beta, Integrating offline & online, +1 from Ben Young on Vimeo.

In this podcast Ben Young & Duncan Shand of Young & Shand (youngshand.com) sit down to talk the latest digital marketing stories from around the world.

We talk:
- Travel & Tourism using Facebook
- Real Time Facebook Advertising
- Integrating online & offline
- +1

And of course our general banter! (more…)

Podcast: Download (69.2MB)

This Week in Digital Marketing 9 – 13 May: Microsoft Acquires Skype, Twitter Chat for Pharmaceuticals, and Website Quality Tips

May 16, 2011 by Joanne North

Last week Twitter acquired TweetDeck, this week Microsoft acquires Skype. Facebook is about to launch the ability to tag Facebook Pages in photos. Social media is becoming more important to small businesses, Google shares tips on creating a quality site, and how to search for local Twitter users. We also look at an interesting case study around how a pharmaceutical company implemented a Twitter chat campaign to create awareness around one of its programmes, and to find insights into how they might market that programme in the future.

---

Tagging Pages in Facebook Photos

Facebook is about to launch the ability to tag Pages in Facebook photos. This means that you could tag anything from a can of Coke, to celebrities. This move could be extremely beneficial to brands, with the example of clothing brands being a notable exception. Imagine if your customers could tag your clothing in their photos, instantly allowing their photos to show up on your page? For brands wishing to prevent user tagged photos showing up on their Facebook Page, Page owners will be able to uncheck a ‘Users can add photos’ option.

---

Social Media More Important for Small Businesses

Small businesses are continuing to increase their use of social media as a marketing strategy. A recent survey on small business practices found that the use of social media marketing was up over previous years. The leading reason for using social media was to increase the exposure of the business, with more small businesses turning to social media for customer acquisition. More than a third (35%) of US small businesses reported using online social networking for marketing, up from 15% in autumn 2009.

---

Case Study: AstraZeneca Hosts First Twitter Chat

For large pharmaceutical companies, engaging in social media requires a careful footing and continuous regard for government regulation. This case study examines the goals, strategy and results of AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies’ social media programmes. The goals for the programme were two-fold, raising awareness of its prescription saving programme, and interacting with patients, healthcare professionals and industry advocates about the best ways to promote the programme. The strategy involved using a ‘Twitter Chat’ which caught the attention of both bloggers and those in the industry. The volume of people who got involved with the chat meant AstraZeneca was able to absorb a wealth of information, and obtain insight as to how it could market to its customers in the future.

---

Tips On Building a High Quality Site

In recent months, Google put into effect a few changes to its algorithm that determines who holds the top raking spots in its search engine. A core driver of those changes was improving search ranking quality, and quality search results are at the core of Google’s business. Here, Google has offered some insights and suggestions for ranking well in its search engines, following the toughening up on quality.

---

5 Ways to Use Twitter to Connect With Local Customers

Twitter is the ideal tool for connecting with local customers and increasing the visibility of your business in your neighbourhood. This is because it can help you to pinpoint people who live and work nearby. There are a few different tactics that you can employ to search for people locally, but for the most part you find local people by searching tweets for things in or near your business location. Click through for a detailed ‘how to’ on searching for local tweeters.

---

Microsoft Acquires Skype

The big story this week is Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion in cash. We’re all wondering what this will mean for the future of Skype, but there haven’t been any changes for the status quo as of yet. Skype has retained its existing CEO, who now reports to the Microsoft CEO. Microsoft has pledged to ‘continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms’. From a technological point of view, the acquisition makes sense as Skype gives Microsoft direct access into new mobile communications technology.

---

On A Lighter Note

A Russian agency specializing in augmented reality solutions teamed up with TopShop in Moscow to create virtual fitting rooms. The technology enabled shoppers to select a garment, and then see themselves on screen with a 3D copy of the dress rather than trying it on. The technology isn’t perfect, but it does illustrate the future possibility of bringing together augmented reality and fashion (particularly online).