Killer Content: Kmart #ShipMyPants

Posted: April 15, 2013 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Content, Content Marketing | Tags: advertising, business, facebook, kmart, multichannel content, ship my pants, social media, social media marketing, underdog, youtube | 2 Comments »

There are amazing businesses and brands producing absolutely killer content every day. This post will highlight the awesome video, ‘Ship My Pants’, created by Kmart to raise awareness of their free online shipping, what makes it so amazing, and present a few strategies and tactics that can be applied to your business.

What they did

Kmart found an entertaining way to introduce a relatively dry offering – free online shipping – with video content that will play well on traditional media and online.

Why it’s killer

Whether you find this video humourous, crass, smart, or just downright stupid, you can’t deny that it has injected Kmart into the consciousness of consumers who probably didn’t even realize they were still in existence.

With the onslaught of noise that advertisers and marketers spew out each and every day, Kmart found a way to get noticed and generate conversations on social media in the meantime. As of now, the official ‘Ship my pants’ video has reached over 6.7 million views in just five days on YouTube, which is pretty killer.

What can be applied to your business?

Try something new

Opportunities in social media and content marketing are abundant, but if you’re not ever willing to try something new, you’ll never know how just how effective your efforts could be. A beautiful thing about social media and content marketing is that even if you try something new and it flops, you can cut it, learn from it, and move on. This is the worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario is that you try something new and your audience loves you for it. So, why not try something new?

Behave like an underdog

A funny thing happens to many businesses when they’re leaders in their category. They get complacent. They stop pushing themselves. They stop reinventing themselves. They leave themselves open to the competition changing the game on them. You should do everything possible to push your business to behave like an underdog, even if you’re on top. If you can gain a leadership position within your category but you keep pushing yourself to be better, your competition will always be playing catch-up.

Don’t let greatness be a one-off

It’s easy to get high on success, even if it just strikes once. When you’ve done something amazing, it’s important to enjoy your success, but you can’t stop pushing. You need to figure out how to continue adding value to your consumers, or the effects of your success will quickly subside, and you’ll be right back where you started.

Create multi-channel content

Maximize your investment in both time and resources when creating content, and consider all of the channels on which that content can add value to your audience. If you’re creating video content, consider how it will work for your YouTube, Facebook, digital advertising, and mass media advertising audiences. With a bit of forethought you can more efficiently produce your content, feed your content pipeline, and fill your paid media.

What do you think of Kmart’s ‘Ship your pants’ video content?

Have you seen any killer content recently that you’d like to share?

It would be great to chat with you about this more in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial

Invest In Traditional Media To Produce Non-Traditional Social Media Results

Posted: March 14, 2013 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Advertising, Marketing, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, community growth, content, content promotion, marketing, media, social media marketing, traffic driver | 1 Comment »

I’m noticing a bit of a trend;

What I’m noticing is that with an increasing number of business owners and marketers buying into the power of social media, that there is also a bit of a trend away from traditional media.

And by traditional media, I’m including online ads, mobile ads, and other similar media options, not necessarily just newspaper, print or other such archaic media.

Are you noticing this as well?

Clearly, there are some really simple explanations for this occurrence. Budgets are budgets, so if you increase your spend toward your social media efforts, you’re going to have fewer dollars for traditional media. Also, you have limited capacity to think about and focus on your business – there are, after all, only 24 hours in a day – so if you’re focusing your attention on social media, you have less attention to give to media and advertising. I’m sure there are more, but I’ll stop there.

This said, planning and investing in social media and traditional media shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. In fact, there can be huge benefits to planning the two in tandem. Even if your focus has dramatically shifted toward your social media and content marketing efforts, I urge you to consider how traditional media and advertising can help you achieve your social media goals, which remember, should be linked to real business goals.

Promote your content

You can be producing the best, most relevant and meaningful content imaginable, but if nobody consumes it, it will have literally zero impact. Promoting your content with traditional media can drive incredible traffic to your content, and can probably be more targeted and efficient than you might think.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: When developing creative to fill your media placements, be sure to showcase or clearly indicate the value that you are offering in the specific piece of content you are hoping to promote. Pair this with a compelling call to action and you’ll be well on your way to generating a huge influx of traffic to your content.

Establish your business’ positioning and grow your communities

Advertising through traditional media can be an amazing way to establish your business’ positioning. If your positioning is meaningful to your targeted consumers, this can increase the conversion of your media impressions to social media community growth.

Additionally, a result of the investment required to purchase media space, for many businesses a proportionate investment in advertising creative is also justifiable. The benefit of this is that with a few dollars at your disposal, you might find that you’ve got production options available that will help you further solidify your business’ positioning, thus increasing the aforementioned conversion even further.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: Try to think of your business’ advertising in the same way you think about social media content. Make sure it adds value to your consumers by making them feel something, think something, or learn something. If you can accomplish this with your ads, you are again going to be able to increase your conversion of media impressions to social media community growth and exposure.

Increase the ROI of your social media efforts

Social media marketing is an investment. For many businesses, they are lured to social media with dreams of overnight international fame and wild success. The reality, as you know, is that it takes an incredible investment of time and resources to build and sustain meaningful activity on social media.

Driving traffic to your social media properties with traditional media can be a great way to put the growth of your audience into overdrive, which will give you more people to engage with, to share your content, to provide their input and feedback, and generally it will make it easier to accomplish your goals. Yes, you will be making an investment in traditional media, but your existing investment in social media will yield greater returns.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION: Ensure that your traditional media dollars are being spent wisely by creating a media plan that is laser focused on your target demographic. You can broaden the reach of your media, but if the audience you are advertising to falls outside of your target demo, overall efficiency will be low and returns on the influx of traffic to your social media properties will be hurt.

So, don’t discount the value of traditional media and advertising just because you’re having a bit of success with your social media marketing. As discussed, traditional media can contribute significantly to your social media efforts by promoting content to broader audiences, establishing your business’ positioning, and can increase the ROI of your social media marketing efforts.

Don’t think of social and traditional media as being mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, incredibly complimentary, and when used together properly, can yield results greater than what will be possible independently.

How do you use traditional media and advertising to enhance your social media marketing efforts?

It would be amazing to discuss this with you further in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial

It’s About Time For Your Print Advertising To Be More Social

Posted: November 22, 2012 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Advertising, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, digital marketing, foursquare, rgb social, rgbsocial, social media, social media marketing | 3 Comments »

Reality today is such that social media should be considered when executing virtually any corporate communications program. Opportunities to drive traffic to your social properties, promote your content, integrate technology, and more, should not be overlooked.

Despite this, my experience has shown that there are some media channels, such as print, that seem so antiquated that marketers don’t think about how social media and technology can be influenced by the medium, or vice-versa.

Well, lets aim to make this a mindset of the past and start encouraging our coworkers, clients, leadership and partners to think ‘social’, even when producing print ads and printed collateral. Following are a number of ways that your print advertising can be more social and be better integrated with technology:

PROMOTE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTIONS

Print advertising can drive a huge amount of traffic to your social media promotions. If you’re running a photo or video sharing contest, print advertising can be particularly effective because you’ll be communicating with your consumers while they are away from their computers living life in the real world, which is probably where you’ll want them taking photos or video for your contest.

GET CREATIVE AND INSPIRE SOCIAL AMPLIFICATION

Dazzle your consumers with print ads that are so incredibly creative that they feel compelled to share their experience with your ad with their social networks – Carlsberg created the print ad bottle opener, Volkswagen gave you a virtual test drive, and Lexus amazingly added audio and video to their print ad. Argue all you want about how many readers actually interacted with these ads, but without a doubt those that did, found them impactful, were left with a lasting impression, and shared their experience with their friends.

PROMOTE FOURSQUARE CHECK-IN SPECIALS

You can significantly increase redemption and participation with your Foursquare check-in specials by promoting them in print advertising and collateral. If your offer is compelling enough, you might even convince non-Foursquare users to register an account. Also, because of Foursquare’s increased commitment to cross platform integration, consumer check-ins, reviews and tips are going to be seen by an increasing number of people on other social media networks.

GRANT ACCESS TO EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

There is an inherent perceived value in just about anything that is exclusive, or gives people the sense that they have insider knowledge; so tap into this. If you are creating compelling content for your print advertisements or advertorials, you might want to consider granting access to exclusive bonus content to your consumers on social media, only available to those who have seen your print-based advertising.

DRIVE TO A COMPLIMENTARY MOBILE WEBSITE

If you’re able to successfully create an emotional response to your print ad, or feature compelling enough communications, think about how you can extend that experience or further educate with a mobile website. Consumers are never far away from their mobile devices, and after engaging with your print ad could be a perfect opportunity to drive to your mobile site, that should feature social integration.

INCLUDE A COMPELLING CTA

All too often I find that advertising features a social media call to action that really falls flat. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Find us on Pinterest. Come on, give consumers a reason to get involved with your brand on social media. Give them a sense of the value that you will provide them in exchange for taking time to hunt you down on their computer or mobile device. Tell them how you’ll educate them, entertain them, or provide utility in your CTA.

When creating print advertising, do you think about how you can make it more social friendly?

How have you used print advertising in support of your social media marketing?

Have you effectively integrated technology with your print advertising, or seen a particularly great example that you’d like to share?

Let me know in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial, it’d be great to hear from you.

Photo Credit: Veer (Photoshopped and put in layout)

One Simple Step For a Stronger CTA

Posted: October 22, 2012 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Advertising, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, call to action, CTA, digital marketing, rgb social, rgbsocial, social media, social media marketing | 1 Comment »

It’s common for businesses and brands to add a call to action on their advertising collateral in hopes of driving traffic to their social media and digital properties. By doing this, you can raise awareness and bolster the growth of your communities, which will mean there are more people to view your content, interact and engage with, and amplify your brand’s story to others.

If you’ve ever included, ‘Like us on Facebook’, or, ‘Follow us on Twitter’, on any of your advertising collateral, you could be missing an opportunity to achieve better results.

Telling consumers to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ you is akin to saying ‘buy my product’. If the only thing you communicated in your advertising was a message that essentially said, ‘buy this’, nobody would. Consumers need to have a compelling reason to make a purchase decision, and they might even be put off by your boldness if you fail to give them any supporting information. The same goes for a social media call to action.

In your call to action, give people a reason to check out your business or brand on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or blog, such as:

Like us on Facebook to learn about how you can save on insurance.
Follow us on Twitter to find out how to get the most out of your smart phone.
Follow us on LinkedIn to check out our latest job postings.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for weekly fashion tips.
Check out our blog to learn everything you need to know about mortgages.
Follow us on Pinterest for home renovation inspiration.
Follow us on Google+ to ask the pros how you can be a better hockey player.

Making this small adjustment to your call to action can yield fantastic results. By giving people a reason to follow, interact or engage with you on your social media and digital properties, you can experience many benefits including attracting a more relevant consumer group, decreased community churn (unlikes, unfollows, etc), increase your conversion rates, and increase interaction, engagement and amplification rates.

The next time you’re producing advertising collateral, remember to include a relevant and compelling call to action, giving consumers a solid reason to check out your social media properties, instead of a shallow plea.

How do you drive traffic to your social and digital marketing channels with advertising collateral?

If so, have you had success doing this?

Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @RGBSocial

Photo Credit: Veer (Photoshopped and put in layout)

Who Are You?: The Importance of a Complete Profile

Posted: September 10, 2012 | Author: Matthew | Filed under: Blogging, Social Media, Social Media Marketing | Tags: advertising, blog, blogger, blogging, facebook, google+, marketing, pinterest, rgb social, rgbsocial, social media, social media marketing, twitter, wordpress, yelp | 3 Comments »

I spend a good amount of time looking at digital and social media profiles for individuals, businesses and brands for both my profession, in the advertising industry, and for this blog. Something that never ceases to amaze me is how many incomplete profiles I come across – missing profile pictures, no link to a website, no textual information, no contact details, basic visual elements missing, and so on.

While maintaining an up-to-date and complete profile might seem like a frivolous detail, it is actually critically important. I liken it to walking into a business meeting with your fly down; if you’d remembered to zip up, you’d look exponentially more professional. The same thinking applies to completing your digital or social media profile. It is critical to have a complete and up-to-date profile on all of your digital and social media properties.

Following are 15 of the numerous benefits that can be experienced by having a complete profile:

Appear more professional
Convey your competency of having strong attention to detail
Give a greater sense of credibility
Evoke greater trust from your consumers and connections
Provide a better sense of your motives and what you stand for
Convert digital and social media traffic into real-world foot traffic by providing your location
Increase the relevance and value of followers and fans by letting them know what to expect from your content
Sociability will be heightened if people know who you are and what you look like
Drive traffic to your website
Generate sales by driving traffic to your e-commerce store
Cross promote your other social media and digital properties
Generate leads, sales and connections by providing contact information
Demonstrate your dedication to creating relationships via digital and social media channels
Achieve your digital and social media goals and KPI’s
Demonstrate the value you place on design and aesthetics