Saturday 25 February 2012

♔ Using Social Media To Drive Your Brands Top-line


Clearly the social media space has inherent potential risks, and seemingly endless potential rewards. Equally clear is that achieving success is not as simple as most people originally assumed. Brands must provide audiences today with compelling reasons to interact with their company and each other.  What many social media strategists miss however is the need to link their efforts to their client’s actual business objectives.

Now don’t get us wrong, we love new trends and technology, however what is ultimately required to ensure return on investment is a shift in perspective.  Aligning marketing activities with your brands core business objectives may mean forgoing a flashy cross-channel marketing initiative and focusing on initiatives that increase customer demand, sales, prospects, conversions and market share - - so step away from the Pinterest for a second. ;)

There is a fundamental difference between planning how a brand talks to customers (traditional brand planning) and how a brand earns the right to participate with customers (social brand planning). When we develop and deliver an overarching social strategy and implementation roadmap, our goal is to fulfill the company’s overall brand, marketing, and business strategies.

It may be easier to simply look at the role your brand plays.  Instead of thinking of it as a communications tool only, recast it as a management tool, as well; instead of thinking of yourself as the CMO, act like the CBO with responsibility for the brand’s implementation across the organization.  Instead of looking only at marketing metrics as the measure of success, consider employee engagement and culture strength.  Instead of thinking of brand as a psychological heuristic, reconsider it as a tangible asset whose growth in value can be financially measured, and can add strength to the balance sheet.

What do we know?  Having designed and deployed well over 100 Facebook experiences, pages, applications, tabs, connect integrations, and games - Goodbuzz has a rich portfolio of experience creating social applications and experiences across all major social media platforms. Our programs amplify, extend, and enhance the core conversations your company is having with your customer base, achieving engagement with unprecedented reach and scale.  Beyond Facebook, we have significant experience with mobile applications, socially connected microsites and websites, and inherently social “real world” events.

We have been fortunate enough to deliver social solutions, drive social brand engagement, and deliver meaningful social insights for the world’s largest companies and most valuable brands.  What can we do for you?  Contact Goodbuzz today to get started.

Friday 24 February 2012

♔ Social Media Case Studies (GB_V.71)


Ford promoted their new Fiesta vehicle on Instagram with a seven week contest that highlighted the car's new, high-tech features -  Simply Zesty

Hotels.com has created a new Facebook application that encourages collaborative online bookings with friends from all over the world -  Facebook

Mitsubishi "Live Drive" - The World's First Online Test Drive. 180 worked with B-Reel and robotics expert Dr. James Brighton to create the system of onboard video cameras, user interface, GPS mapping and the servo-motors necessary to translate the user's computer controls to an on-track driving experience – Video


For the release of their new Twisted Metal game, PlayStation created a live social installation that allowed fans to digitally fire a machine gun at a set full of explosives through Facebook and Twitter - Goodbuzz

Samsung is launching the U.S. Olympic Genome Project -- a multiplatform social media campaign that will let Facebook users discover and share how they are connected to athletes competing on the U.S. team -  MediaPost

How the U.S. Army is differentiating between social media platforms and finding success on Pinterest -  The Atlantic Wire

One day U.K. rocker Tim Burgess (frontman of the Charlatans) jokingly tweeted that he would love to have his own cereal called "Totes Amazeballs," which apparently happens to be slang for "Totally Amazing." Kellogg's got word and now the cereal is actually in limited production – Article

The Increasing Value of Augmented Reality (AR) for brands – Article

Burberry knows that if the brand is to remain relevant it needs to leverage emerging technology and culture (and not simply rest on what may have worked years ago.) After the success of last season's 'Tweetwalk' in which key looks were shared via Twitter, this year the fashion brand shared animated GIFs of pre-show activities with Twitter followers before the show (which took place yesterday) – More

Plan UK, a charity that helps young girls in developing countries, is running an interactive outdoor campaign that contains content only women can view. The bus shelter ad uses facial recognition software with an HD camera to determine whether a man or woman is standing in front of the screen (claims the technology is 90% accurate), and shows different content accordingly. Men are denied the choice to view the full 40-second ad in order to highlight the fact that women and girls across the world are denied choices and opportunities on a daily basis due to poverty and discrimination.  (See picture below)

Hostess is helping fans celebrate a personal win by creating personalized "Snackisode" videos on Facebook for them to share with friends -  Trend Hunter

The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest - Everything you wanted to know about Pinterest including how the idea came about, What’s the big deal?, Stats, facts and demographics, and getting started – SlideShare

Infographic: Did you ever wonder what Facebook might look like in 2025? – Overview

Brands Face Stream Fatigue as Consumers Look Beyond Gimmicks in Social Networks – Brian Solis

How to Remove Your Google Search History (Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect) -  Goodbuzz   

Here’s the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) 2012 Report (formerly the Digital Marketing Outlook) – Report

Pharma brands Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, and Bristol-Meyers Squibb are experimenting with social games and YouTube videos as a way to benefit patients while still adhering to the FDA's social media guidelines -  ClickZ

Mattel's Barbie brand has launched BarbieWow.com -- an online fashion destination where fans can share their experiences styling and trying on the doll's digital wardrobe. The site also encourages fans to post their own inspired fashion designs to Polyvore and Pinterest - The New York Times









NOTE:  FOR MORE ARTICLES AND POSTS FROM THE LAST WEEK PLEASE VISIT US ON TWITTER @GOODBUZZ.  IF YOU HAVE INFO, ARTICLES, CASE STUDIES, OR OTHER EXAMPLES OF (TTL) PARTICIPATORY MARKETING BLISS - PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EITHER POST VIA FACEBOOK OR SEND VIA E-MAIL AND WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT FOR YOU. ;) PLEASE IDENTIFY IF YOU FIND A DEAD LINK (AS THEY WERE ALL LIVE AT THE TIME OF THIS POSTING)


 

Wednesday 22 February 2012

How to Remove Your Google Search History (Before Google's New Privacy Policy Takes Effect)


On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data that Google has collected on you prior to March 1st, 2012 (as well as data it collects on you in the future.) Our thanks to the EFF for sharing this.

Until now, your Google Web History (all Google searches and sites visited) has been cordoned off from Google's other products.  This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and much more.

Therefore, if you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in all their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus - you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.

Here's how you can do that:

1.) Sign into your Google account.
3.) Click "remove all Web History."
4.) Click "ok."
Note: Removing your Web History also pauses it.  Web History will remain off until you enable it again.  If you have several Google accounts, you will need to do this for each of them.