Robert Douville

Social media and the elusive ‘demand fulfillment’

Google’s AdWords product rules the digital world of ‘demand fulfillment’ but Facebook and Twitter are eager to get a piece of the pie.

Facebook has launched Graph Search ads but they aren’t targeted to your queries. Currently Graph Search ads are targeted in the same manner as most of Facebook’s other ad options: biographical characteristics like age, gender, current city etc. 

Since Twitter just introduced keyword targeting for advertising, meaning that you may see Promoted Tweets based on stuff you have tweeted about, I’d imagine that Facebook is going to roll out similar capabilities for Graph Search. This could allow Facebook to break into the ‘demand fulfillment’ portion of the purchase funnel which is pretty darn exciting for social media marketers! 

Retro design

Social media poster by Aaron Wood that is designed with a Russian propaganda style

Flat design for mobile devices

The small display on mobile devices will push a lot of web designers to move toward a flat design that reduces clutter. Clean and simple, just how I like it. 

When today’s graphics are too busy — layered with gradients and elaborate typography — people are forced to try to navigate a clutter of information in a very small space. On a smartphone screen, for example, a flat icon of a musical note can tell a story much quicker than an intricate picture of a shiny sparkling CD.

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Building a Presence on Twitter

     The digital world is rapidly increasing and is a forum for business marketing that can’t be ignored. Twitter is an essential platform for any social media campaign and is valued by communities for its immediacy and intimacy. You’re engaging consumers in a conversation and developing real relationships. Here are some basic tips on how to run a successful Twitter account:

• Once you’ve created your account, use Twitter Search to see what people are saying about your brand and competition. Social listening is a great way to see what you’re getting yourself into. Once the account begins to scale and search results become excessive, it may be time to switch to a tool like Radian6 or Visible Technology to mass monitor.

• Engage your followers by asking questions and responding. This doubles as a consumer research and polling tool.

• Tweet interesting content that is relevant to your brand and followers, they will expect more than just daily updates on the benefits of your brand.

• If a follower asks a question, respond directly and in a timely manner. Twitter is excellent for customer service. Customers that don’t receive a response are less likely to engage with the brand in the future.

• The use of a hashtag connects your tweets to a larger conversation that goes beyond your own network. A hashtag can also be used to organize a group or provide a forum for discussion on a specific topic.

• Following the right people, such as community influencers, will help lead to a stronger base of followers. Tweet Adder is a tool that will automatically follow people based on keyword and location targeting. The act of following someone often leads to a reciprocal follow. 

• Establish yourself as a thought leader within your community and then leverage your followers to drive traffic to your blog or website.

• A call to action is okay! Ask your followers to retweet/donate/subscribe.

     The fundamental difference between Facebook and Twitter is Engagement vs. Timing. EdgeRank, a Facebook algorithm, assigns your Facebook presence a grade of relevance based on user’s past interactions with your posts. EdgeRank uses that grade to determine whether your content should appear in a user’s Timeline. Therefore, each Facebook post must incentivize engagement, or you lose EdgeRank and nobody will see your content. Twitter has no filter. However, the lifespan of a tweet is short and the signal to noise ratio is high. Thus, brands on Twitter prioritize the mass production of relevant content during peak hours. Retweets and other engagement is valuable, but not critical. 

Getting Intimate Via Timeline

On March 30^th all brands on Facebook will be switching to Facebook Timeline. The switch will provide an opportunity for newcomers to join the social media party or offer a chance for Facebook veterans to do a little spring-cleaning. Strategist will be evaluating old methods and mending past mistakes in preparation for the upcoming facelift. It would be difficult to find a marketer that would disagree about the importance of storytelling for a brand, and I can’t think of a more capable and intimate platform for telling that story than Facebook Timeline.

Brands are able to go as far back as the 1000’s to document the history of their company. Historic brands like Ford are taking full advantage of their history by unearthing vintage photographs of car models from past generations. This provides a personal connection to their brand as fans take a stroll down memory lane and see what granddaddy was driving. Unfortunately, not all brands are privileged with long captivating histories. For example: a brand dedicates weeks to polishing and fine-tuning their Timeline, but who will feel compelled to look at the history of a less than glamorous brand such as a toilet paper company? Not many.  

So, Charmin is your client. That’s okay! It’s time to get creative. We’re already seeing social media rock stars like Red Bull using incentive strategies to reward the detailed exploration of their Timeline, i.e. the history of their company. I’m not particularly interested in the history of Charmin but I do enjoy a little trivia. Charmin creates trivia questions with answers that can be found throughout their Timeline and rewards correct answers with a promotion or interesting content. An incentive does NOT need to be monetary. Interesting or entertaining content will often suffice. It is not the reward that is important but that your fan feels rewarded or valued. Fan acknowledgement is essential.

Why do I care if fans are familiar with the history of my brand? It’s ancient wisdom that familiarity leads to loyalty. As consumers learn more about your brand the intimacy of that relationship increases. Use Timeline to highlight the positive qualities of your brand, incentivize fans to become familiar with your Timeline, and suddenly your formerly cold corporation becomes warm and personable. Through posts and fan interactions a brand can be funny, share common interests or unite with fans against a common obstacle. Simply apply the same strategies you would use in a person-to-person relationship to foster a brand-to-person relationship.