Ask The Experts: agency:2 interview with MDC Magazine
February 28, 2011
As part of their Ask The Experts feature Mike Filsaime of Marketingdotcom.com interviewed agency:2’s Joel Davis for MDC magazine. The interview covered a range of topics concerning social media marketing, including how to successfully utilise social media, best practice and the future of the industry. Here are Joel’s answers:
1) What should an online marketer’s primary goal be when utilising social media?
The primary goal when creating a successful social media strategy must be to maximise ROI. Social media is uniquely positioned to provide businesses with measurable results – allowing them to spend less and invest smarter. At agency:2 we believe that driving ROI must be at the heart of all social media activity.
Another fundamental principle of social media is the need to follow strict legal and ethical practices. Being honest and open is not only ethical and legal but will protect the client’s brand and online reputation. That is why all the social media marketing campaigns that we run are completely transparent.
2) What, in your opinion, is the most effective way for online marketers to use social media?
We are obviously big believers in what social media marketing can help brands achieve. It means we can provide businesses with unique insights into their customers so that they have a clear picture of how they relate to their brand.
There are a range of highly effective ways in which online marketers could – and should – use social media to interact with consumers at every stage of the buying cycle. By listening and engaging in a timely and useful manner with the target audience, brands can enhance their proposition and drive leads.
3) Facebook and Twitter are often cited as the two primary social media sites that online marketers should use. What other social media sites are also worthy of attention?
If you have an international brand with a global reach then an understanding of the social marketing landscape within each country is crucial. Whether it’s RenRen in China, Mixi in Japan or Orkut in Brazil and India, you need to know the big players in each country so that you can reach these netizens in the most effective and efficient ways.
4) What tools and software would you recommend for assisting with social media management?
We use a mix of our own in-house tools together with best of breed monitoring tools to ensure that we know exactly what is going on. Workflow and project management tools are also vital in streamlining your processes and ensuring that you are able to track and respond to all opportunities.
5) What new social media opportunities can we expect to see over the next 12 months?
With social media continuing to grow and develop so rapidly, and in so many directions, it is always difficult to predict whether there will be a new, big start up just around the corner. However, recent developments suggest that the existing industry leaders – such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – will refine and develop their offering, incorporating new technology, such as geo-location, into their existing offering and cementing their dominance of the market. Facebook’s development of Places and a messaging service, together with other innovative features, are prime examples of this.
Social Media and the ASA Cap Code
February 25, 2011
March 1st 2011 will be a significant day in the history of digital and social media marketing and advertising. That’s because from this date the ASA’s (Advertising Standards Authority) remit will extend to cover all brand owned websites, their social media pages as well as video and mobile campaigns.
What does the Cap Code mean for your brand?
The ASA now has the power to regulate all online and mobile marketing communications and ensure compliance with the Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (The CAP Code). This covers all businesses, regardless of size, and extends to other non-paid-for space online under your business’ control (e.g. messages you post on social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook).
At agency:2 we feel this is a very important and significant step forward. As one of the Founders of the DMA, we have constantly adhered to strict ethical guidelines. We are proud of always working ethically and legally for the good of our clients. Our aim as a Social Media Council member has always been to focus on legislation and social media best practice.
Being honest and open is not only ethical and legal but also adds value to brands and, most importantly, the audience. That is why all the social media marketing campaigns that we run are completely transparent. We believe the new remit will ensure that the same high standards which exist in other media published in the UK will now consistently be adhered to in digital marketing communications right across the board.
The rules in the current CAP code will now apply to digital communications and the ASA will be able to use these powers to ensure that misleading and falsified marketing and advertising communications online by any business within the UK are removed.
How will they implement this?
- Current practice includes unfavourable publicity arising from an ASA adjudication as well as the withdrawal of trading privileges, including media space.
New sanctions:
- The ASA will provide details of an advertiser and the non-compliant marketing communication on a specifically designed ASA microsite, which draws public attention to the offending piece of communication.
- The ASA will also work in conjunction with search engines to remove any paid-for search advertisements that link directly to the page hosting the non-compliant marketing communication.
- They will also place paid-for advertisements on search engines highlighting the continued non-compliance of an advertiser’s marketing communication, linking through to the ASA microsite.
We are extremely hopeful that this will have the desired effect and that all online communications become more transparent and ensure people reading online are receiving honest and truthful messages.
March 1st then – a date to put into your iCal.
New media: Quora
February 23, 2011
The rise of the Q&A site, Quora, seems almost inexorable if you believe reports. The premise is a simple one. The site describes itself as “a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it”.
In some ways Quora is a social search engine. It allows you to ask a question to real people, instead of a search engine, and then wait as users provide answers using their knowledge, experience and opinions. The ultimate goal of Quora is that each answer page becomes the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about that specific question.
Who will use it and why?
Quora opened from private beta to the public in June 2010 and in the last 8 months it has grown extensively.
It has been claimed that Quora has broad enough appeal to rival Facebook and Twitter. However, despite these assertions, at the moment it does not seem to be proving attractive to the average internet user and it is still dominated by those in the tech, media and social media industries.
It is these groups that Quora is proving most useful to – journalists looking to gain insights on topics they are researching as well as those in the tech industry who need answers to specific questions. Recruiters will also be able to make great use of Quora as, by following their chosen industry and topics, they can find candidates more quickly than they can on LinkedIn.
This is the great benefit of Quora – the ability to search through a vast collection of previous answers and track the responses. This allows you to see who the experts are in your industry.
This functionality means that companies can use it to track what people are saying about them and to answer questions about their business. Following questions allows you to keep up with the conversation, keep track of the competition and monitor the responses publicly. It also means that you can establish expertise in your field and mark yourselves out as the number one in your industry.
The future
Some have claimed Quora will be bigger than Twitter, others that it has the potential reach of Facebook. However, Quora does not currently have a mainstream audience and cannot come close to rivalling either of these platforms at the present time.
2011 should see the focus of the site shift due to the growth of the site and the subsequent arrival of a lot more non-technological users – there will be a broader range of topics and the site will be less tech-centred. It certainly has the potential to provide a platform for discussions that many other social networks have found difficult to achieve and in this way can be much more useful to the average internet user than platforms such as Twitter.
The competition
It does have rivals. StackOverflow has established itself as the best site in terms of problem-solving-for-programmers and gains sixteen million unique visitors a month. Since then StackExchange has been launched – a collection of sites, each based on answering questions for different categories. In addition to this there are also Yahoo Answers, Cloudy, Answers.com and ChaCha, LinkedIn Answers, not to mention Facebook Questions which has been tagged the ‘Quora killer’.
So can 2011 be Quora’s year? Well, the SEO benefits are good, with results already starting to show up in Google. The high expectations and buzz around the site have seen a raft of new users. However, with more people signing up there may well be an increase in the volume of answers – but perhaps not in the quality and value. It will be interesting to see how Quora grows and whether it can deal with the clout of Facebook.
What you need to know about the new Facebook Pages
February 16, 2011
Facebook Pages
Last week saw Facebook roll out the much anticipated new look Pages. There are many new features: some good, some bad. Here are the main things that you need to know:
Facebook Images
The most striking changes you’ll notice when clicking on to a brand’s page are visual – they now feature 5 photos along the top. You may have seen personal profiles make the most of these by creatively taking advantage of this (as seen in Mashable). However, unfortunately for brands this isn’t possible. Unlike personal profiles which are ordered chronologically the Facebook Pages images are now selected randomly.
This means that brands must use this as a place to showcase images of products or promote themselves in other ways – the new layout provides businesses with the ideal way to do this.
Facebook Tabs & the importance of iframes
The navigation of the Brand Pages has also changed. The content that was previously accessed by clicking the tabs at the top of your Brand Page can now be found in the column underneath your Brand Page profile picture. Tabs have traditionally been central to the user experience. Moving them to the side could be detrimental to brands’ Pages – with the tabs not so prominent it could see a reduction in how many people click on tabs that are not the Wall or the default landing page.
However, it is not all bad news. When news of the new Facebook Pages was announced last year there were rumours that with the change in the style of the tabs brands would no longer be able to create custom landing Pages. However, this is not the case and it is still possible to have a customised landing page that promotes the USP of your business or incentivises people to Like your Facebook Page.
The demise of FBML
There is one significant change, however, that will have a profound effect. The Static Facebook Mark Up Language (FBML) App is to be pulled on 11th March 2011, so tabs will need to be created using iframes, not FBML.
Here’s what Facebook said on their Developer Blog:
With our recent launch of Requests and the support for iframe on Pages Tabs, we are now ready to move forward with our previously announced plans to deprecate FBML and FBJS as a primary technology for building apps on Facebook. On March 11 2011, you will no longer be able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app. While all existing apps on Pages using FBML or the Static FBML app will continue to work, we strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible.
This means that if you already have the Static FBML application (which allows you to create customised tabs) added to your Page before 11th March 2011 then they will continue to work – whether you will be able to create new tabs after this date is another question. However, it seems that sooner rather than later Facebook will really start pushing the use of iframes on Pages Tabs.
This will make it a harder to create a tab than it has previously been. One of the major benefits of the Static FBML application is the minimum amount of HTML knowledge required to create custom tabs without having to hire a developer. iframes are a lot harder to use – you need to be familiar with HTML, CSS and be comfortable troubleshooting technical issues that may arise.
Facebook Pages get social
One of the major benefits of the new Facebook Pages is the fact that you can log in as a business rather than a personal profile. By selecting ‘Use Facebook as a Page’ you will be able to run your Page like your own personal Facebook profile. This opens a whole host of new networking opportunities and makes the whole brand experience more social.
What does it mean in actual terms? Well, you will be able to receive notifications for your Brand Page, view a News Feed for your Page and ‘Like’ and post on other Pages as your Brand Page. You can also opt to receive notifications when people post or comment on your Brand Page. This makes it a far better customer service tool than it had previously been.
It also allows brands to become more social. The ‘mutual connections’ function means that when people visit your Brand Page, they will be able to view friends who also ‘Like’ your Brand Page, as well as other Pages that both they and your Brand Page ‘Like’. This enhances a sense of community and broadens the reach of your message. This knock on effect, with more and more people seeing your brand name is invaluable.
In addition to this the opportunity to comment and post as a brand throughout other Pages within Facebook means that you can get your brand noticed by very targeted and niche audiences. It greatly increases your reach by allowing you to take your brand name throughout Facebook, interacting with other brands, ‘Liking’ content and posting comments.
Add to this is the rumoured third party comments platform that can be integrated onto any site. This will provide an additional way of engaging with customers.
What this means for brands
Overall, the changes to Facebook Pages both give and take away power from brands. On the one hand, the changes to the navigation mean that bespoke tabs that have been used to push brand messages will (in all probability) prove much less powerful and significant to their Facebook marketing activity. However, businesses have the chance to be truly social, visit other Pages and get their brand name noticed by targeting brands and users who are interested in what they are saying. On a social networking platform that has over 600 million users this is an amazing opportunity.
agency:2 and Pepsi for Breakfast
February 9, 2011
This morning (Feb 9th) in the fantastic setting of Wahaca we hosted our Breakfast Seminar on How Social Media Can Influence the Buying Process and Drive ROI for Social Media Week.
The event proved to be an overwhelming success and we would like to thank everyone who helped make it happen. Most notably we would like to thank Josh Karpf, Senior Manager of Digital Media Communications for PepsiCo, and Adam Paulisick, founder of Qriously, for joining Joel in what was an illuminating discussion on the ways social media can help brands influence decision making, manage their reputation, manage crises, as well as the all important issue of how this activity can provide measurable success.
Chaired by Adam, the event saw Josh and Joel share their experience and expertise on social media best practice. The session took in discussions of where the industry is heading, what ROI means for brands and how it can be achieved. With a vast amount of combined experience in the digital and social sectors they were able to share examples of successful campaigns they have worked on and how best to measure the success of these campaigns.
It was a hugely productive and enjoyable session and we thank everyone who made it for attending as well as the SMW 2011 team who helped us make the event so successful.
Pepsi Max-imising ROI
February 7, 2011
agency:2 have an exciting announcement for our How Social Media Can Influence the Buying Process and Drive ROI event this Wednesday as part of Social Media Week.
We are delighted to tell you that we will have a special guest speaker at our event.
Josh Karpf, Senior Manager of Digital Media Communications for PepsiCo, will be presenting alongside Joel Davis at our Breakfast Seminar this Wednesday at Wahaca.
Managing all digital communications for a $60 billion global beverage and snacks company with a portfolio of iconic brands including Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Gatorade and Quaker Oats, Josh has a vast amount of experience in managing successful social media programmes. He will be dispensing his expertise at our Breakfast seminar.
The event for SMW 2011 will be an interactive question and answer session where Joel and Josh will share their knowledge and experience on how to create social media campaigns which both build brand loyalty and maximise ROI. So please come prepared with your questions in order to make the most out of this event.
New media: Qwiki
February 2, 2011
Qwiki boasts that it is a new ‘information experience’. In simple terms, it is a video encyclopaedia; a multimedia experience which mixes heavily read Wikipedia-sourced articles with photos and videos.
Qwiki would say that they are working to “deliver information in a format that’s quintessentially human – via storytelling instead of search”.
Who will use it and why?
Qwiki claims to offer a new way to consume information – whether you’re planning a holiday, evaluating restaurants or doing research for school – this is a tool that will help everyone.
The platform presents data about millions of topics in a highly visual way. It has about 3 million reference topics at the moment and, according to their press release, hundreds of thousands of users.
Whether you enter the name of a famous person, place or thing, Qwiki will bring up a unique narrated slideshow with a voiceover detailing facts pulled from a range of media sources. From this page you can then click on sub-topics or related topics to access more Qwikis. Users can also “Improve this Qwiki” by recommending a photo or a YouTube video, making it a social experience.
The future
Since its initial soft launch Qwiki has already added features in the public alpha including “Share” or the ability to post, tweet, email or embed Qwikis as well as a text-based Contents section that includes all the information in a given Qwiki.
Qwiki plans to build on the initial buzz around its service by utilising new content sources, building an iPad app and eventually releasing a custom publishing platform which will allow publishers to transform their own content into a Qwiki.
While it is not a competitor to Google or Wikipedia at the moment, the whole idea behind integrating text, pictures and video into one entertaining, easy to consume package is what makes Qwiki so unique.
The 3 types of social media user
February 1, 2011
Over 600 million Facebook users, around 200 million people on Twitter (with 25 billion Tweets sent in 2010), 5 billion photos hosted by Flickr and over 150 million blogs – it seems very clear that almost all internet users now interact with social media and that it has had a huge impact on how brands can communicate with people.
However, in order to utilise social media platforms in the most effective ways, it’s vital to segment and target your audience and gain a clear understanding of how these different groups interact with social media.
Classifying user behaviour – frequency of use, variety of use and content preferences – into meaningful categories ensures that brands can maximise their social media presence.
Here, then, is our guide to the different types of social media user:
The Social Spectator
The Spectator is a passive type of social media user who is content to simply view the information that they are interested in without a high amount of interaction on their part. This group has a ‘just’ kind of attitude. They ‘just’ visit social networking sites and maintain their profiles. They will selectively like fan pages, only when they feel that it will bring them useful information such as special offers.
They will also read the occasional blog, view YouTube videos, and in particular search for user reviews and ratings when making purchase decisions. Despite their lack of interaction they will expect brands to have a presence and will be disappointed if they don’t. They are spectators – but spectators who expect a lot.
The Social Connector
The Connector likes social media because it’s very convenient to connect with people. They allocate significant time every day on social media sites to look around and comment on their friend’s status, chat and interact with brands. In this way marketers can understand their personality and easily target them.
They will engage and share their views if they are passionate about the brand (or if prompted by engaging content), but they won’t take the lead. They will enter competitions, they’ll tag photos on Facebook, post comments, reviews and ratings of products and services, comment on some blogs and forums and will use LinkedIn as a tool to broaden their professional network. They may have a Twitter account where they will follow more than participate (this explains why 90% of Tweets are written by 10% of Twitterers) and will have probably created a blog but long since forgotten about it.
However, there are pitfalls. These people will turn off if they are not engaged by brands – unfollow, unlike, stop listening. They know that social media provides useful tools to keep in touch, share information and find out about interesting things that are happening – more importantly they also know that social media has given them a voice and that brands need to listen to them.
The Social Extrovert
On most social platforms, 10% of the top content producers account for 30% of all content produced. These are the Extroverts, the creators, the people who produce social media and want everyone to know about it. This type of user will create lots of content for multiple channels. They will publish blog posts or web pages, upload videos/images/podcasts and share this content online through ever channel they have at their disposal. As early adopters they will also sign up for each new social media platform which emerges.
It is these users who were the early adopters for Facebook and Twitter (interesting fact – Twitterers are 3 times more likely to be ‘creators’/’extroverts’). They will have developed large amounts of followers on these sites so it is crucial that brands try and create and nurture a relationship with these people through an outreach programme. The ability to amplify your brand’s voice through engagement with influential social media users who speak to large like-minded groups is one that can’t be missed.
