Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

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Facebook Grows Again

Depending on where you fall on the scale with Facebook—whether you love it or hate it—yesterday’s announcement of a new Comments plugin will either please or bother you. One of the changes is that comments will be sorted based on social relevance; if a particular comment receives a lot of attention through likes or replies, it’ll move up the list. But what’s more intriguing (or possibly, annoying) is that your comments on a partner site can now be shared on your Facebook Wall.

A Broader Way of Sharing

What does this mean? Let’s say you post a comment in response to an article you’ve read at The Economist (one of Facebook’s partner sites). This action will now get posted to your Facebook Wall for all your friends to see. Now they’ll have an opportunity to either read the article—which they may never have seen—or even participate in the conversation. And here’s another feature: if they respond to your comment on Facebook, that can/will (?) appear on the partner site as well.

So Who Benefits?

Well for one, the partner sites, with increased traffic and potentially new, repeat visitors. Facebook, of course, will grow its sphere of influence across the web and integrate even more with sites beyond its own URL. And finally, if you’re into sharing your experiences with the internet, then you too could gain from this new model. But I must say, I hope Facebook puts some filters into place. I’m sure there’ll be times when you don’t want your comment to be shared with others. After all, everyone has a little something they like to hide, don’t they?

Posted: March 2, 2011 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Not Everyone

Playing Angry Birds on a Blackberry, courtesy of @tanlines

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I read an awesome article by Tracy Gold called What I learned About Social Media from Angry Birds. What made the piece so good was the different approach; I read social media-related articles every day and it’s all starting to blend together as more and more people chime in. What Ms Gold managed to do was broach the subject using a hook that everyone could understand.

Well, almost everyone.

When I suggested to my business partner that he should read the article, his first question was: “What are Angry Birds?”

“Seriously!?” I asked, befuddled. It turns out he’s never heard of the game. Despite it being the number one game on iTunes for months, despite it being available for iPhone, Android and even desktop computers, despite it even getting air time on television; he’d never heard of it. This whole conversation reminded of Mitch Joel’s Market of One blog post where he eloquently discusses the idea that you “can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

Indeed you can’t. And that’s something, we as marketers, are up against all the time. Do you sacrifice one market for another or do you lower the bar so far you alienate the others? Questions that will garner different answers depending on the client and the circumstance.

All I know is that my partner is in the market for a new mobile device and he’s been contemplating a smartphone. Now that he’s aware of Angry Birds he’s just a step away from late night battles against the pigs.

Posted: January 27, 2011 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Back to Work

Welcome to 2011! Don’t worry, this isn’t one of the posts that predicts what 2011 will bring to the world of marketing; there are enough of those already if you care to look. We at One On One are, however, looking forward to more and better integration between the worlds digital and traditional marketing and I, for one, will keenly be watching the continued growth of mobile. We’re also curious to see what new technologies and features will pop up this year. Already, Quora is making a lot of waves in the Twittersphere with pundits tripping all over themselves to claim whether or not it’s the next Twitter or Facebook.

The gang here is also looking forward to seeing how marketers will come up with creative and innovative ways of connecting with their customers. Why just yesterday I saw a great little SMS campaign from Starbucks where they send you text message reminders (provided you sign up) to take advantage of their half-price tea latte promo. Clever stuff!

Anyhow, let’s get back to work and make this a great 2011!

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Posted: January 7, 2011 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Enough About ROI Already!

Since One On One ventured into the digital landscape these past couple of years, we’ve had numerous clients ask how they could move their own brands into the space. Inevitably, the question of “is it worth it?” always crops up.

It’s understandable to be wary of something new; after all, we all have businesses to manage and failure is a good motivator to keep things as they are. Lately, there’s been a big push to uncover the ROI of digital marketing. If you read as many blogs as I do, you’ll find daily postings looking for or touting “tried and true” ways to deliver ROI. My question is, are you toiling as much over the ROI of your newspaper campaigns?

It’s All The Same (but Different)

Look, digital marketing is still marketing. Talking to a client on Facebook can be similar to talking to them through a radio spot. The difference? One approach can be more conversational. Note, I said can be, not is. That approach is up to you. The exciting thing is, we have more choice and more ways to engage our audience. It behooves us to try them out.

The Good and the Bad Sides of Measurement

What gets a lot of people excited is how measurable everything can be. Facebook insights, Google analytics, Twitter stats. Each serves to give you a better picture of who you’re interacting with and what these people are doing. But, you can get lost in a sea of measurement and none of it will actually tell you what to do next. That’s where your marketing savvy comes in. And frankly, that’s where the hard work comes in too. Is Twitter perfect for all businesses? Absolutely not. Is Facebook great for some? Without a doubt. Will Search work for you? It depends.


Conversation on Twitter

So What About that ROI?

Let me ask you this: what’s the ROI of a golf game with a client? Can you effectively say those 9 or 18 holes resulted in the sale of x-more widgets? How about those newspaper ads? You got your message in front of 2 million potential customers, but did they see the ad? Did they remember it? Did they act? What’s the ROI of that newspaper ad?

I can’t tell you what the ROI of Twitter is but I do know this.
It can work very well.

I’m the Marketing Director for a local, not-for profit cinema—a pro-bono client for One On One—which has no budget for any traditional marketing. Instead, I try everything I can to communicate with our customers–Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, e-News, and a slew of other technologies. Do all of them work? Some better than others. But they all require work, and patience and time.

A few days ago I tweeted what was playing at the cinema that evening—this is just one of the ways we let people know what’s happening. One of our followers replied that she was excited to see a particular documentary. I tweeted back, hoping she enjoy the show and suggesting she bring a friend to this important documentary. She later replied she had “persuaded” a couple of friends to tag along.

How’s that for ROI?

Posted: December 14, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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Finding Your Groove

I’ll admit, we’ve been struggling to keep this blog going. It’s not that we don’t want to, it’s simply finding the time to do so. Ironically, we’re always telling clients who are thinking of starting a blog that they’ll need to commit to it and continually create content. And that it’s hard to do so. Alas, for us it’s like that story of the cobbler’s son having no shoes.

The first stumbling block—at least as we’ve come across it—is figuring out how often you should post. However, there’s no right answer.

Personally, I follow quite a few blogs (and write my own, personal blog). Some are written daily, others every few days and others still, once a week or more. But when you’re immersed in a world of information that’s shooting 140-character snippets at you every second, with RSS feeds that stack up with dozens (or more) of full-page blog posts every single day, it’s easy to feel like you need to hurry up and contribute to the noise. But that’s where you need to step back and take stock of what it is you’re trying to accomplish.

Do you know who you’re talking to? (Yes) Do you know what to say? (Mostly) Is it relevant? (We hope so) The “how often” is less important. Having something to say and saying it consistently is more important. So whether you post every day, or once a week, just keep at it and it’ll work out in the end.

Posted: November 25, 2010 by mcharbonneau | View Comments
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