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Marketing Darwinism - by Paul Dunay
Advertising, Branding, Social Media

Social Media Gone Wrong … and How to Avoid Making the Same Mistakes

We’re all human. We all make mistakes. However, when your mistake involves social media, it’s not that easy to make amends. Take, for example, the case of the (now) infamous KitchenAid tweet about President Obama’s dead grandmother.

If you somehow missed it, it went a little something like this: During the first presidential debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, Obama credited his tenacious grandmother who helped raise him and passed away three days before he was elected president.

Moments later, @KitchenAidUSA, the company’s official Twitter account, sent this:

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president.” The insensitive tweet not only went to the company’s 25,000 followers, but also included a hashtag to make it a part of NBC News’ social debate conversation. KitchenAid hastily deleted the tweet, but the damage was done. Even after the head of the KitchenAid brand, Cynthia Soledad, offered an apology, many still expressed outrage and announced boycotts of the brand.

Of course, KitchenAid isn’t the only company who has fallen victim to social media gone bad. There is a plethora of marketing campaigns to choose from that all ended with disastrous results. Here are a couple listed below along with the lessons we can learn from each of them.

Toyota Camry

During last football season’s Superbowl, Toyota launched a major Twitter campaign meant to promote the Camry. Creating a number of Twitter accounts labeled @CamryEffect1 through @CamryEffect9, Toyota intended to engage users by directly tweeting them. However, this had the opposite effect: users accused Toyota of bombarding and spamming them with unsolicited messages. To their credit, Toyota quickly suspended the accounts and issued an apology, but by then it was too late.

Lesson learned: Not only is mass-spamming your social media audience an awful campaign plan, but in order to truly engage your community, tweets should be interesting and engaging. In the case of the Camry, it came across as nothing more than self-serving spam.

Qantas Airlines

Last year, Qantas faced huge backlash over a very poorly timed Twitter competition, inviting followers to win a pair of first class pajamas by tweeting their idea of a luxury experience. The promotion was arguably already in poor taste given the global economic downturn, but was also acutely insensitive given that at the time of the contest, the airline’s labor relations was at a standoff with the unions representing its pilots, engineers, baggage handlers and caterers. Qantas had grounded their entire domestic and international fleet, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The competition turned into an opportunity for angry customers to share their gripes and jokes at the company’s expense.

Lesson Learned: Timing is everything.

Durex South Africa

Durex caused quite a controversy when they sent out this terrible tweet in South Africa: “Why did God give men penises? So they’d have at least one way to shut a woman up. #DurexJoke” The tweet certainly made an impression with tweeters, bloggers, and mainstream media picking up the story with the sole intent of trashing the brand. Durex later issued an apology of the offensive, misogynist tweet which was apparently sent out by their PR company.

Lesson Learned: Just because you have a hashtag joke does not mean anything goes, and sex does NOT always sell.

Now, for a couple examples of social media done right:

Canlis

A couple years ago, Canlis, a restaurant in Seattle widely regarded as the best in the city, celebrated its 60th birthday, and to mark the occasion, it ran a Facebook and Twitter contest where the winners were able to dine at 1950’s prices. From a restaurant where the average entree can set you back over $60, that’s a pretty good deal. Brothers (and founders) Mark and Brian Canlis personally signed 50 restaurant menus from 1950 and hid them around the Greater Seattle area daily for the 50 days leading up the Canlis’ 60th birthday. The “scavenger hunt” started anew every day, as the restaurant posts a clue to the menu’s whereabouts, via their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The first person to unravel the clue and find the hidden menu won the dinner.

This was a genius social media marketing campaign and I love the creativity that went into it. The contest duration was long enough to give it lasting interest and participation, it encouraged repeat visitors to their social media sites, the prize was worth playing for, and there were MANY winners.

Proctor & Gamble

We all know the infamous ‘Old Spice’ viral video campaign by now (which earned itself over 43 million views on YouTube), but what you may not have heard of is the follow up to the video. Proctor and Gamble’s brand agency, Wieden + Kennedy, put Isaiah Mustafa on the Web and invited fans to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets to pose questions that he quickly answered. The questions poured in–even celebrities asked a few–and Mustafa responded in more than 180 Web videos shot quickly over a few days. The real-time effort was the first of its kind, but it won’t be the last.

QuestionPro

Lastly, let’s take a look at a social media campaign going on right now that you can take part in: QuestionPro, a provider of online survey software, is currently running a contest on their Facebook page, asking users to ‘burn their comment cards’. The idea behind the contest is that the era of paper feedback is dead, and that hospitality needs to move to a more digital solution, such as QR codes, digital feedback surveys, and iPad and tablet based research tools.

This campaign works for a few reasons — it’s funny without being offensive, it relates to their product strongly enough to send a message but without going overboard, and most importantly, it’s easy to enter. Yes, there are lots of examples of super-innovative contests that attract plenty of attention, but there are even more examples of innovative contests that flop because they are too complicated for the user.

Head over to the contest page to check it out.

October 31, 2012by Paul Dunay
Commerce, Customer, Facebook

10 Reasons Brands Fail to Convert Facebook Fans into Paying Customers

According to HubSpot, ninety three percent of adults on the Internet are on Facebook, yet only 1% of a brand’s Facebook fans will ever make their way to the company’s main website. Many blame their low conversion rates on Facebook: “Facebook ads don’t work.” “I have a ton of likes but it doesn’t mean anything because I’m not making money.” “I keep posting things but I’m not getting many views.” Few, however, look to their own efforts for answers. And even fewer put a strategy in place to convert this highly active audience into highly engaged website visitors.

Upon learning these statistics, we did a little—actually, a lot—of digging to find out who/what is actually to blame for these disproportionately low conversion rates. We know, after all, that Facebook users are a highly active and engaged audience. So, why aren’t brands able to capitalize on that? It simply can’t be Facebook’s fault…

Below are the 10 most common reasons brands aren’t getting enough love from Facebook users, along with recommendations for better using the tools at their disposal. (In order to determine which methods work best, try them out and then test each one using the same online testing methods you use to measure your brand website’s effectiveness.)

1. Failure to Get Past the First Step

Most fans won’t ever come back to a brand’s page unless they feel they have good reason to. This is not totally different from how they interact with their friends’ pages when you think about it. Unless the new friend has great content to go back to, there’s not much of a reason to go directly to their page very often, if at all.

What does this mean for marketers? It means they’ve got to use that first “viewing” wisely, offering immediate and easy ways to engage visitors further upfront:

  • Email list
  • Blog subscription
  • Gift download

Test: The various methods listed above to determine which ones actually have a positive impact on conversion rates.

2. Poor Text and Visuals

A successful Facebook page must have concise, engaging text that’s relevant to both the brand and the fans’ interests. Overly long, humdrum copy will fail to capture fans’ attention. Crisp, eye-catching, hi-resolution visuals (photos, videos, illustrations) that clearly speak to those things visitors like about the brand in the first place, will draw them in for more.

Test: Copy length and content; image quality and subject matter.

3. Stagnant Page Content

If fans stop by more than once only to find the same old Facebook page, they might assume the page is outdated—or worse, abandoned. It’s important for marketers to give fans new ways to connect and advance their relationship with the brand or product being promoted. Keep to a consistent schedule with fresh content and ever-improving offers, using the results from the testing mentioned above.

Test: Update frequency.

4. Inconsistent or Sloppy Branding

If there’s no stylistic connection between a company’s Facebook page and its main website, visitors may not trust that the page is legit. Brands often spend a disproportionate amount of time, money and effort on website branding efforts, in comparison to the relative pittance reserved for complementary Facebook efforts. Keep branding consistent across all channels, so that visitors know exactly where they’re going and whom they’re dealing with.

Test: logo variations, cover photo options, and other brand elements.

5. Confused Calls-to-Action

Once fans arrive at a brand’s Facebook page, they should have a clear idea of what to do and what’s available to them. Offers and calls-to-action should be prominently displayed, and any associated instructions should be easy to follow. Be aware, however, that Facebook has guidelines concerning calls-to-actions, offers and anything else resembling blatant advertising on company pages, so it’s important to make sure you’re current on usage guidelines.

Test: Calls-to-Action and offer variations—in terms of design style, content, placement, and ease-of-use, to see which combos bring the most fans.

6. Too Many Clicks

People are impatient—especially on the Internet—and want immediate gratification. If visitors have to jump through too many hoops or fill out too many forms in order to get what they want, they’re likely to click away. Make sure the desired destination can be reached in the fewest amount of clicks possible. Also, if there are forms to fill out, keep them short and simple.

Test: length of forms, number of required fields, number of clicks necessary to get to target content.

7. Mystery Visitors

One of the most important aspects of Facebook marketing is finding out who’s using it to access the company website. Anything in a fan’s Facebook profile—age, gender, location, name, relationship status, “Likes,” and more—can be captured, depending on the level of authorization granted by that fan. With the right tools, marketers can compile user profiles using that authorized data as well as previous site behaviors, to get a better sense of the users they’re reaching on Facebook. Those profiles can then be tested to see what offers, content and/or experiences are most effective in attracting fans, “Likes”, website traffic or any other relevant conversion metric—as well as applied to other marketing efforts.

8. Preconceived Notions

As excited as marketers may get about shiny new objects—especially social media objects—they‘re often reluctant to spend money on developing new efforts for them. Dipping your toes in too slowly, however, can be ineffective. Once you’ve decided to “do” Facebook, you may as well do it right. Step out of your comfort zone and try new efforts for specific customer segments. An even crazier idea—consider developing Facebook-specific campaigns rather than repurposing ones created with a different platform in mind.

Test: Campaign effectiveness in terms of user receptivity by various demographics—age, location, interests—to gauge interest from potential untapped markets.

9. Ineffective Plugin Use

If Facebook plugins aren’t integrated into the main company site, a great deal of potential traffic—and revenue—is being lost. Plugin tools turn consumers into brand advocates, making it easy to share site information with Facebook friends. Some examples of plugins are:

  • “Like” button: lets visitors share main site pages back to their Facebook profile with one click.
  • “Like” box: enables visitors to “Like” the company’s Facebook page and directly view its stream from the brand site.
  • Recommendations: gives personalized suggestions for pages on the main site visitors might like, based on what other people are sharing.
  • Comment box: allows comments on any site content, such as a webpage, article, or photo. The visitor can share their comment on Facebook by posting it to their wall and their friends’ streams.

Test: Plugin types and the effectiveness of each for meeting your program goals.

10. Sticking to Stand-alone Metrics

Getting just one side of the story isn’t enough. Marketing programs need to be set up so that Facebook stats and user profiles are fully integrated with all other online and offline shopping channel information to create rich, detailed, and fully comprehensive user profiles. Profile reports should be updated on a regular basis, so the most recent user information is always available.

With the proper attention to detail and willingness to dedicate the same energy to Facebook efforts as they do to other initiatives, online marketers will no doubt find that their 1% conversion rate is something they can control. And that it’s not Facebook’s fault their customers aren’t more engaged.

October 3, 2012by Paul Dunay

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Welcome to my blog, my name is Paul Dunay and I lead Red Hat's Financial Services Marketing team Globally, I am also a Certified Professional Coach, Author and Award-Winning B2B Marketing Expert. Any views expressed are my own.

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