Human head with brain which consists of social networks

Facebook Updates

December 10, 2015 Andrea Rowan

Facebook is continually making adjustments, and things will be forever changing, but I wanted to share with you some of the recent updates I find exciting. So what are the changes, you ask?

Instagram Ads
A Fundraising Tool

Let’s start with the Instagram Ads. As most of you know, Instagram is a visual platform that has completely captured the millennial generation. Everyone has heard the phrase “an image is worth a thousand words,” and truly this app makes that statement hold more value than ever.

From fashion to travel to food, this platform has really taken off and will continue to grow in 2016. With that said, Facebook is getting in the game at the perfect time. The recent launch of Instagram Ads on Facebook allows business pages to connect their Instagram accounts directly to the platform.

What does that mean exactly?! It means that when creating an ad driving people to your website, you can now have the option to also have that ad shown on Instagram. The ads will feature the same call-to-action: Shop Now, Donate, etc. Plus, when linking accounts, the Instagram ad will show your Instagrams account (not your Facebook image/account) so people can click on your Instagram handle or icon and go directly to your business’s account which will hopefully result in more followers. Pretty neat, right?!

Landscape/Square Formating:

Untitled

*Images via Facebook

One of Facebook’s newest features to roll out is the Fundraising Tool. As this is the season of bell ringing, think goodwill outside of your grocery stores, being asked to donate to charities is a hot topic at the moment. This tool has rolled out just in-time for “giving” season and allows charitable and nonprofit organizations the ability to visibly create a donation campaign that tracks the amount donated towards the goal and the number of people who have donated. The direct link to ROI, or “return on investment,” will hopefully ensure that organizations use this tool effectively to help with special projects.

You may have seen a “Donate” button before, as it’s been around for quite some time, but these new additions and features will now make the process more straightforward and allow you to donate with only a few clicks. After clicking “Donate,” you will be taken to a single form fill out that allows you to donate via paypal, debit or credit card.

Untitled3

You’ll be seeing a lot more of both of these tools in the near future. Whether your business will adapt them into their marketing plan, well, that’s up to you.

All Day Breakfast: An Example in Listening to Your Target Market

October 13, 2015 Andrea Rowan

On October 6, 2015, after years of injustice for those who are not ‘morning people’ and can’t summon the energy to get out of bed before 10:30 a.m. to hit the nearby drive-thru, McDonald’s started serving its version of All-Day Breakfast.

Once the inevitable malaise of the McGriddle not being available passes, we will have a better understanding of just how successful the All-Day Breakfast campaign has been for McDonald’s.

A giant in the fast food industry, McDonald’s has been suffering from an array of what can be best described as identity problems as they tried to look toward the present and future and the fact that they’re losing younger customers who see them as more of a last resort option and not a destination.

Listening to your customers is crucial, and never before than in the age of social media have customers provided so readily almost instant feedback for you to use to improve your position. Social media platforms provide the perfect arena for you to engage with your customers on a meaningful level.

The move to All-Day Breakfast wasn’t a sudden development for the brand, and the collaboration between management and marketing teams in launching the campaign has been quite strong. They went back as far as 2006 to uncover social posts of customers who were blatantly telling McDonald’s exactly what they wanted: All-Day Breakfast.

And McDonald’s listened, creating GIFs and other social elements to let those customers know their voice was being heard. The impact of the social element on this campaign is even evident in the corresponding television commercials, as McDonald’s has taken to showing the Tweets and Facebook posts of customers along with their branded response to promote their new All-Day Breakfast offerings.

It really is a savvy attempt by a globally recognized brand to embrace the crowd-sourcing mentality that social media provides. So many social posts have been written over the years by customers disappointed they were not able to buy breakfast after the old 10:30 cutoff that McDonald’s actually decided to change the game in hopes of bolstering sales.

The move is bold for a variety of reasons, at its impact could trickle down to other similar fast food chains like Burger King and Carl’s Jr. who, like McDonald’s, have a cutoff time between their breakfast and all-day menus. In addition, Taco Bell, who earlier this year jumped into the fast food breakfast game for the first time, might even be compelled to extend the availability of its breakfast offerings, or get out of the breakfast game all together–

If you listen to what your customers say, they will tell you what they want.

A Lesson in Audience Segmentation, with the help of Mean Girls

September 28, 2015 Andrea Rowan

In the film Mean Girls, lead character Cady comes upon her first day at a new high school with aplomb but soon runs into a defining dilemma at lunch: who does she sit with?

Her decision is made easy for her in a couple of ways. First, she’s invited to join a table. And second, it just so happens to be the table for a new student seeking acceptance.

This decision of who to sit with at lunch is of such paramount importance because it not only will define Cady’s identity to everyone else, but subconsciously it requires her to be honest with how she sees herself. Does she fit in with the jocks, the nerds, the cheerleaders or any of the other groups who have systemically divided themselves?

Now, imagine each table as its own distinct target audience, for advertising purposes.

If you think back to your own time in school, how did you determine whom you sat with during lunch? If things were as segmented as they were at North Shore High School (the fictional school from the film) or were things a little less black and white and more grey at your school?

Whatever your personal experience, if you reflect on the way groups naturally divide, you can begin to explore the vast similarities and differences in self-identity. Then, use that as a basis for building target audiences for your company’s digital advertising strategy. In digital, it’s almost always best to view your targets in shades of grey rather than black & white.

Of course, your ideal audience(s) will depend almost entirely upon what your goals are. For Cady, immediate acceptance was at the top of the list. For your company’s digital presence, you may want to be accepted by the masses, but it’s also important to get the best bang for your buck.

Imagine Cady is a potential customer at your business. She’s standing in the center of the lunchroom trying to figure out where to sit. As a brand, you could leave the decision up to chance, or you can boost your odds of conversion by simply offering an invitation. And all it took to help her decide to sit with “The Plastics” that first day was an invitation.

Your digital advertising campaigns are the invitation. Invite your audience to join in the conversation throughout your media strategy—the easiest way to extend your invitation, social media my friends!

You Are Your Business in the Digital Forum

September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 Andrea Rowan

Every so often on social media, a story will start trending that follows this basic narrative: Patron doesn’t tip their waiter, waiter snaps a photo of the blank tip line and posts it online and people console the person for having to deal with such a callous and ungenerous person or group. It’s an understandable reaction to a disappointing night at work, but I would guess that the disappointed waiter isn’t thinking about the potential impact their actions might have on their employer’s digital reputation.

In a world where your digital persona is paramount, doing something individually can have a much wider impact. Protecting the digital reputation of your business is extremely important in today’s world – it’s important for business owners to learn to recognize personal behavior can also drastically impact a brand.

71% of customers say online reviews make them more comfortable purchasing a product or service. For your business, the individual behavior of one employee can lead to a massive upheaval with your brand’s digital reputation.

There are steps every business owner can take to protect their online reputation. Ensuring all your online listings are updated and accurate is a great first step and has far reaching benefits to your online and search presence. Next, subscribing to new review alerts will help you take action immediately when a new review pops up. Look—not everyone is going to have a 5 star experience with your business, every time. Recognizing reviews where customers may have visited your business when not at its best is critical—then do what you can to rectify the experience with the client and respond, professionally (aka without emotion)! Finally, encouraging new (and existing) customers to write reviews and promoting positive reviews is a great way to further your digital persona. Who doesn’t like to read good news about their business? Let your customers be your online megaphone!

Proactively taking control and managing your online reputation can not only maintain current business – it can also help you grow new business through a strategic, integrated approach. Find out what your customers are saying about your brand by signing up for an analysis with a team of professionals today.