By Ben Pickering, CEO, Strutta

Originally published on Social Media Examiner

Are you planning to run a social media contest (like this one)?

Today it’s possible for anyone to achieve success engaging consumers online, thanks to the growing popularity and relative ease of execution of social media promotions.

The fact that anyone can run a promotion doesn’t mean that everyone should, and it certainly doesn’t mean that a promotion guarantees social media success. However, if executed as part of a comprehensive social media strategy, social media contests can produce tremendous results no matter how large or small your business.

So if you’re thinking of running a contest or sweepstakes, here are some key considerations.

Start With the End in Mind

Before jumping into a social media promotion, there are several important questions to ask:

• What are your marketing objectives? Be clear and realistic about what you hope to accomplish. Are you looking to generate leads or Likes, engage or activate your existing user base or reach a new audience?
• What is your budget? Yes, social media promotions can be executed at a relatively low cost. But budget considerations should guide your decision on the type of promotion you choose to run and will impact your ability to achieve certain outcomes.
• Where are you on the consumer engagement pyramid? Assess what type of promotion is right for you based on the level of engagement you expect from your users.

Consumer Engagement Model for Promotions

At the base of the pyramid is the traditional enter-to-win format. This is a tried-and-true contest model and can be a great place to get started online. Whether you have 100 or 100,000 fans on your Facebook page, running a sweepstakes is an easy way to increase the number of Likes on your page. This expands the audience for your Facebook communications and builds a fan base for future promotions.

As you move up the pyramid, you’ll see a decrease in the number of participants but a deeper level of engagement and richer content. It’s also important to remember that the number of entries is not a sole benchmark of your promotion’s success. If you run a promotion with public voting, you’re likely to see at least 10 times the number of voters as entrants.

Using terminology originally coined in Forrester’s Social Technographics report, there are three distinct audiences that will engage with your promotion: Spectators, Joiners and Creators. All three groups should be accounted for.

• Spectators may see a shared link from a friend and click through to your site but their interaction will likely stop there. For these people, you want to ensure you have a well-designed user interface and clear messaging, whether they ultimately choose to engage at the next level or simply leave with your brand top of mind.
• Joiners are likely to participate in a low-barrier format such as a sweepstakes and may engage further up the pyramid through voting, commenting and sharing.
• Creators are the people who are the target for any user-generated content contest. The percentage of online users who are content creators is significantly higher now than it was just a few years ago. Still, you must make it as easy as possible for people to participate.

Knowing your audience is essential when selecting the type of promotion you wish to run. Once you’ve determined the type that’s right for you, it’s important to communicate the what, why and how of your promotion: What is it all about? Why should I participate? And how do I enter / win?

Plan, Prepare and Prepare for the Unplanned

With social media promotions, you can reap the benefits of viral or word-of-mouth marketing, but it’s still essential to have a well-thought-out marketing plan to support your campaign. It may sound obvious, but when launching your promotion, you must drive traffic to your destination. I often remind our clients not to fall victim to the “Field of Dreams Fallacy”—the idea that “if I build it, they will come.”

Utilize the channels available to you, be that social media, paid media or promotional partners. Don’t overlook any opportunities to get the word out. Do you have a regular email newsletter or a point of sale display?

Participation at the outset will generate the ROI that comes from social sharing. And remember that your existing customers are most likely to engage. By targeting them first, you can build momentum that will spread through their social networks.

While we all hope our promotion will “go viral,” it’s not something you can bank on. Nevertheless, it’s important to plan for the scenario in which it does. If you’re running a photo contest and plan to moderate all of the submissions, are you prepared to handle the potential volume? If you’re running a contest on Facebook, are you prepared to manage the community dialogue?

One of the biggest topics people get concerned about when it comes to planning a contest is rules and regulations. This topic is worthy of a blog post of its own, but the short version is that with some foresight this should not pose a major obstacle to launching your promotion.

For those looking to run a promotion on Facebook, it’s important to be familiar with Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines and/or work with someone who is. This article by Mari Smith provides a good overview of what you need to know about Facebook promotions.

Execution Over Concept

Why do so many businesses still have a container at the register to drop a business card in for a raffle? Because it’s easy to participate and administer. Don’t get me wrong; I love cutting-edge promotional concepts. But I have seen time and again that too much of a big idea can take focus away from what’s really core to the promotion. Keeping it simple often yields better results.

When running a social media promotion, the first rule is ensure that it’s easy to enter and easy to share. While it’s possible to accomplish this on your own, there are companies that provide tools to ensure the mechanics of a successful promotion are in place. That frees you up to be creative. Avoid overcomplicating what you’re asking users to do when they visit your promotion. Make it fun, personal and accessible.

Listen, Engage and Learn

Running promotions must be part of your overall social media strategy and not approached as a one-off event. Because promotions today are inherently social, take advantage of that to engage and gather consumer insights. Add a survey question to your entry form, encourage conversation on your Facebook page, gather feedback and apply what you learn to future campaigns.

What are your experiences with online contests and social media promotions? If you have questions that you would like to see addressed in a future blog post, feel free to ask them below.

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Ben Pickering is the CEO of Strutta. The company offers tools for businesses to build and manage promotions and is a Facebook Preferred Developer. Twitter: @bpicks

Dr. Hamada, President of WOM Japan

About WOM Japan

WOM Japan is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing in Japan.

Over 40 companies and about 30 researchers and individuals are involved in this organization.

WOM Japan was first founded for organizing study sessions and reception parties for bloggers and journalists and later became non-profit organization in July of 2009.

Currently, WOM Japan mainly focuses on analyzing of the effectiveness of domestic and global case studies and the creation of a social media disclosure guide.

Also, WOM Japan annually hosts Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in order to advance and advocate the discipline of word of mouth marketing in Japan.

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Interview with Dr. Hamada, President of WOM Japan

How would you compare US brands and Japanese brands and their use word of mouth marketing and social media?

I have not paid particular attention to the difference between Japanese and US brands.

Since every brand that is competing in the Japanese market would use Japanese for word of mouth marketing, I believe this is a trend that is assimilating into the local business culture.

Which word of mouth marketing practices and tools do you see the most activity and interest from Japanese brands?

I think the Highball Campaign by Suntory, one of the top whisky makers in Japan, is one of the first successful example of word of mouth marketing.

Through careful coordination of mass media and social media, the Highball cocktail, which was previously unknown, came to be served and enjoyed in most restaurants in Japan.

A popular technique is to form a base of supporters through blogging relationships, improve consumer recognition through TV ads, attract users to product websites through search engine advertisements, and achieve large scale viral marketing through YouTube and blogging. There is also a common word of mouth trend to attract customers to visit a B&M store location through listing the store location on the official website and advertising the B&M experience through word of mouth social media such as Twitter.

In one year’s time, how do you see word of mouth marketing strategy changing in Japan?

As a result of the massive earthquake which took place in March, the general welfare of the mass media industry, including TV and news publications, has been in decline. On the other hand, social media has been enjoying an increase in users. In the case of Facebook, which has been one of the largest beneficiaries in this trend, the user population in Japan has increased 5.6 fold since last August.

As a result, many companies in Japan have become increasingly interested in word of mouth marketing. However, word of mouth marketing is a trend that has only started to be recognized in Japan, and local companies are still in the stage of testing the technique.

I personally think that marketing strategies that integrate word of mouth marketing and social media will become increasingly employed.

What are WOM Japan’s plans, as a trade association, to advance the word of mouth marketing industry in Japan during the coming years?

By introducing methods and case studies in Japan, we want to share both the positive and negative sides of word of mouth marketing. By establishing a guidelines and identifying issues, we want to contribute to the development of word of mouth marketing.

word of mouth marketing has been gathering attention from not only those who are well-versed in social media, but also from the conventional marketing-centric world, which has had less interaction with social media. I think this phenomenon is proof that spreading information out to society via social media is becoming increasingly important.

What advancements are occurring in Japan that are not yet occurring in the States?

In Japan, a mobile phone internet service called “i-mode” became popular from 1999, and a diverse mobile marketing industry has developed from this invention.

In these past years, iPhone and Android users have been increasing and many companies are taking the mobile phone marketing knowledge that they have gained through i-mode and integrating this knowledge with these new platforms.

There is also a flourishing domestic social media and location-based online services industry in Japan, and usage of these services are on the rise. These services include niconico doga (niconico video), mixi, and Locatouch.

By John Ellett, CEO, nFusion

There has been a lot of “ink” recently about Google+. Is it the next big thing? Is it just another social network? Did Google finally get something new right? All common questions. My answers are “Not sure yet,” “Not exactly” and “Looks like it.”

So here are three things marketers should do next week:

1. Learn more about it. Chris Brogan wrote a nice post “10 Things CMOs Need To Know About Google+”.  Start by reading it.
2. Set up your profile. Nothing helps you get a better understanding of a new tool than using it. Go to plus.google.com to get started. If you need an invite, let me know and I’ll send you one.
3. Add +1 to you website. It will make it easier for people to share your content and improve your SEO results. Not sure how to do it? Click here for details from Google.

So what is your take on Google+? Will it be the next big thing? Is it just another social network to manage? Did they actually get this one right?

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John Ellett is CEO of nFusion Group, LLC, a digitally-focused marketing agency based in Austin, TX. He has a passion for encouraging and supporting marketing leaders who have the courage to be change agents in their organizations.

Written by SymphonyIRI, using BzzAgent data

When analyzed during a 13-week period, the BzzAgent analysis markets saw a volume sales lift of 17%

The Challenge

When one of the world’s leading consumer packaged goods companies re-launched its flagship hair care line, it had an essential message to convey: that with these latest formulations, women could repair their hair from the inside out for fantastic-looking results. The brand team knew this was a passionate topic for women, and many are eager to try – and share products that help them look their best.

Personal recommendations are a main purchase driver for health and beauty products. And with women willing to share their preferred brands, the brand recognized that social marketing accelerates purchase impact at launch.

The brand team included a BzzAgent campaign as part of its integrated media plan and tasked the program with driving consideration and sales.

The program followed a turnkey process designed to catalyze recommendations:

• Engaged 10,000 women from BzzAgent’s consumer network of influential brand advocates
• Selected targeted consumers—18+ with a household income of over $80,000
• Provided an exclusive product experience—a full-size bottle of conditioner and pass-along samples—to spark trial
• Guided activities to get out the word via in-person conversations and dialog in social media

As sales were the key success criteria, the client needed a proven analytics model to measure results. BzzAgent and SymphonyIRI collaborated to measure the sales impact attributable to the campaign.

The SymphonyIRI Approach

SymphonyIRI conducted a Matched Market Analysis to isolate the campaign impact relative to other media. In collaboration with BzzAgent and the client team, SymphonyIRI selected analysis and control markets. The analysis markets included BzzCampaign participants and the brand’s other national media, while the control markets did not include a BzzAgent presence. By comparing analysis versus control and adjusting for efforts of non-test variables, Symphony-IRI could determine the relative sales impact of the program.

The Results

The campaign generated a reach of more than 900,000 people via in-person and online conversations. And, these recommendations were influential in informing consumer purchase decisions.

SymphonyIRI Group determined the BzzCampaign was highly effective at driving sales. When analyzed during a 13-week period, the analysis markets saw a volume sales lift of 17%.

Client Benefits

The brand used the results from the Matched Market Analysis to prove the value of its investment in social marketing and that peer recommendations effectively increased sales.

Additionally, the brand understands the strength of the medium relative to its other marketing tactics and has a clearer view into how to build and execute a media plan to maximizes sales results.

Originally posted on The Content Lab

See Alissa live in Chicago at WOMMA’s Talkable Brands Exchange on Sept. 22. She’ll present Google+…What Brands Need to Know!

Key Takeaways

• Understanding Key Google+ Features
• Why Should Marketers Care about Google+
• How will Google+ Affect SEO Efforts?

Watch on YouTube

Google has created more than a social media destination with Google+ – but also an opportunity for marketers to enjoy stronger synergy between search and social media.

In the video featured here, iCrossing thought leaders Tarah Feinberg, Matthew Gagen, and Alisa Leonard discuss how marketers will be able to use Google Plus to learn more about their customers with highly refined insights and then improve their search marketing campaigns.

Google Plus is not yet formally open to brands – but as Tarah Feinberg states, it’s important that marketers start learning from Google+ now.

“Understand what’s going on with this platform,” he asserts. “Everything on a personal level can be transferred to a professional level.”

This video is the first in new iCrossing thought leadership series known as iCrossing Real-Time Insights. Through Real-Time Insights, iCrossing provides advice on topical issues to help chief marketing officers build connected brands and businesses. Real-Time Insights are created by the iCrossing Live Media Studio. — David Deal, vice president of marketing, iCrossing

By Allen Bonde, Co-Founder of Offerpop, and CMO of The Pulse Network

Originally posted on The Pulse Network

This is part one of a five part series between Tyler Pyburn, host at The Pulse Network, and Allen Bonde, Chief Marketing Officer at The Pulse Network, as they determine how storytelling drives social media marketing. Read parts 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Telling a good story is essential to reaching your target audience.

This is especially the case in social media marketing.  In fact, I’ve always thought that good marketing is good storytelling.  But in social media marketing, the trick is getting your customers to tell these stories for you!  We can break down the formula that makes this work on social channels into three parts: content, connections, and lastly participation (and influence of participants).

The goal for those of us in social media marketing is to package up the appropriate content and then translate it into the language of the specific channel.  For instance, on Twitter you need to keep your story very short, but can also use links and hashtags to make it easy to learn more and share your content.  The way you format your story to fit the language of each social media channel determines your audiences engagement and also how effectively you generate word of mouth and take your audience down a path where they’re expecting to hear the next story – and maybe even an offer or pitch!

I lay out some of these ideas in my conversation with Tyler, so check it out:

So, what do you think?  Which brands do the best job with storytelling?  Add your thoughts in the comments, and look for part two of this series, when we’ll explore how content can be used to build communities.

Allen Bonde is the CMO of The Pulse Network and can be found on Twitter or email, abonde@thepulsenetwork.com.

Tyler Pyburn is a host at The Pulse Network and can be reached on his twitter or e-mail, tpyburn@thepulsenetwork.com.

Originally posted on Visibly Intelligent, the official blog of Visible Technologies

By Jackie Kmetz, Director of Community Educational Outreach, Visible Technologies

It makes me ask the question—is the preponderance of negativity in social media having an effect on the face-to-face customer service we receive? Maybe it’s just a fluke series of unfortunate customer service experiences I’ve had, but lately I’ve been wondering if having online social venting outlets has had a serious trickle-down effect on the in-person customer service we’re getting. A number of my friends and coworkers have lamented about the similar incidents this week. While there certainly are a number of positive, productive online posts, forum discussions, “likes” and the ever popular tweets about store, brand and product experiences, anyone who has poked around even for a minute in the social arena knows there’s plenty of “witching with a capital B”, as my mom used to call it, going on.

On one side of the coin I think it is healthy and useful that there are places to share problems and information to help buyers beware. But on the other side, maybe all of this public negativity is starting to have a detrimental effect on the brick and mortar side of the business. It feels to me like store clerks are feeling deflated and making less effort than before. Bad news does travel faster than good in most organizations, and like it or not, a complaint, online or otherwise, is going to be shared with employees faster and with more emphasis than a kudo.

The most dramatic example I can share was during a recent purchase I made at a clothing retailer. During checkout I was asked if I wanted a free issue of a magazine. I said yes and assumed she put it in my bag. Turned out I was automatically signed up for an annual subscription, with one free issue, that would be automatically charged to my credit card. I happened to catch the fine print on my extra long receipt at home and immediately went online to vent to my Twitter and Facebook friends and then send a complaint to the company through their various corporate website channels. I of course was looking for the social validation from my digital friends of how I had been wronged.  It’s what we do now right?

The retailer did the right thing and cancelled the billing and their corporate response and follow up were very reassuring, keeping me as a customer. A few weeks later I happened to be back in the store and the same gal was there ringing me up and openly begged me to go to this link on the receipt and give a positive review of my visit to their store and her service. She openly explained how this store had received some negative reviews and complaints and they needed to boost their store rating and as the manager she would really appreciate my positive feedback. I had no doubt I was the cause of her store’s pain and was counting my blessings she didn’t recognize me!

My experience with this is not common, thankfully, and most companies would be horrified to hear of the inappropriate over-share of information to a customer. So how would you answer the question—is the preponderance of negativity in social media having an effect on the face-to-face customer service we receive? Have you had similar experiences? Is there a backlash? I’d like to hear what you think.

By David Rabjohns, Founder & CEO, MotiveQuest

Originally posted on BarryMoltz.com

Anyone who’s ever jumped in the middle of a conversation at a cocktail party knows they run the risk of making a huge social gaffe – so why don’t brands understand the importance of hearing the whole conversation?

While you may be listening to your customers through social media, to truly hear them, you must dig deeper. Traditional social listening tools collect brand mentions, but only about 5-10 percent of conversations in most product categories actually include a brand mention. That means that 90 percent of the most valuable online conversations are happening without a brand attached to them. So while you may be listening, you probably don’t hear the whole conversation motivations, severely limiting your ability to make sense of the consumers real motivations.

The real value for marketers is not necessarily what is being said about your brand online, but what isn’t. This is where the real understanding of what motivates your customers resides. With this knowledge, marketers can understand how to lasso what really matters in order to turn brand associates into brand advocates – passionate, motivated, believers. Listening to consumer-to-consumer conversations allows marketers to directly observe consumer behaviors and develop a deep understanding of not only what they care about, but also why. We call this “online anthropology.”

Consumers’ social discussions revolve around passions. Instead of making up stories and pounding them into people’s heads; we believe you should first figure out what people are passionate about – and then connect to those passions in credible, authentic and compelling ways.

Details are persuasive, but in the marketplace of ideas, context is king. Without seeing how details relate to the big picture you won’t know the difference between the thoughts that are fleeting and the ones forming the next big thing. Great Social Media Research digs more deeply into conversations that make no mention of brands or products.

It is critical to remember that consumers go online to talk about what matters to them; their kids, their cars and their waistlines. Typically, brands are mentioned in a small fraction of these conversations because the brand itself is rarely a key part of the social interaction between two (albeit digitally enhanced) human beings. Brands that are willing to explore the full landscape of consumer conversations are able to better understand the true depths of human motivation and behavior and attract more people to the brand cause that they truly believe in it. Just like the socialites at the party that started this article, we like to cluster around the people with something interesting to say..

David Rabjohns, founder and CEO of social intelligence company MotiveQuest, has more than 20 years of experience in strategic consumer insight research.

By Tara DeMarco, Marketing Writer, Bazaarvoice

Originally posted on Bazaarblog

For millions of people, social networking has become a constant part of daily life, accessible at all times through various devices. A new study from Edison Research finds that 33% of American social networkers now use social sites several times a day – that’s 48 million people. As mobile internet access becomes more ubiquitous, more and more consumers will join this group of habitual social networkers.

And still, many businesses treat social as a channel, developing siloed strategies for individual networks and devices. To engage users consistently, and deliver consistent brand experiences at every customer touchpoint, companies should view social the way habitual networkers view it: woven into the fabric of experience, not sewn on.

Want to understand how these über-networkers view social? Here are some of the most enlightening findings from the research.

Social is habit-forming

Ninety-eight percent of these habitual social networkers (those who use social sites several times a day) are on Facebook, and 23% are on Twitter – making habitual networkers nearly three times as likely to use Twitter as the general population (8%).

These habitual networkers are more likely to interact in other ways as well. Forty-three percent of them follow brands on social networks, compared to 25% of all social networkers. Habitual networkers are also more likely to have used mobile to engage with a video display, such as to access a coupon or play a game (18% vs. 8%). Another study found active Twitter users five times more likely to blog, three times more likely to review products, and six times more likely to publish online articles than the average person, monthly.

Don’t tie them down

Habitual social networkers aren’t likely to be tied to one device. On average, they routinely use 3.5 different devices to access the internet – 35% of them use four or more, which includes 20% who use five or more. They’re more likely to be “cord cutters” – 36% of them use only their mobile phones and have no home phone, compared to 24% of Americans age 12+. Habitual networkers are avid technology owners in general – more likely to own MP3 players, smart phones, tablets, and other technology than the general population.

Similarly, habitual networkers aren’t tied to their homes – they tend to be out-of-home consumers. The study found them more likely than the general population to do many common out-of-home activities like dining out, going to movie theaters, and going to coffee or sandwich shops. Another study found social network users to be highly social offline, with 82% of them involved in offline group activities.

Mobile phones become the primary screen

As people who don’t like to be tied down, it makes sense that habitual social networkers love their mobile phones. Ninety-one percent of them own one, and 56% own smart phones, compared to only 31% of Americans 12+. Sixty-four percent of these habitual networkers say they’d rather give up their television than their mobile phone.

Habitual networkers aren’t just more likely to check social networks on their phones – they’re more likely to do most smart phone activities, like send text messages, browse the web, and listen to music.

Siloed channel marketing tied to specific social networks or devices won’t effectively reach habitual users, who float freely from social network to social network, channel to channel, device to device. Start thinking about social the way its biggest users do, and make it an ubiquitous, integrated part of your business to deliver a seamless customer experience.

Dave Kerpen, CEO, Likeable Media

By Dave Kerpen, CEO, Likeable Media

Originally posted on PROMO

In the last few years, brands have quickly gone from seeing social media as frivolous to including social media as a necessary part of any marketing and communications plan. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks hold great promise to quickly and widely spread the word for promotions, contests and sweepstakes. But while there is great promise, when it comes to promotions, many have struggled with how to go about it.

Here are 7 simple steps to launching a successful social media promotion:

1. Build a community first. Too often, companies think that if they create an exciting contest or sweepstakes, it’ll “go viral” and bring them lots of Facebook fans or Twitter followers. That may happen, but you’re much more likely to succeed with your social media promotion if you already have an established Facebook or Twitter and blog community.

2. Define your goal carefully. Are you looking for increased targeted likes? Website traffic? Leads? Buzz? Sales? Your goal will inform what kind of promotion you put together, the budget and length of the promotion, and success metrics.

3. Create a simple experience. Elaborate contests can be fun to envision, but too often are complex and ask too much of consumers to enter. It’s a lot to ask people to create videos, for instance, but easier to ask them to upload photos and even easier to ask them to answer a question.

4. Understand the laws of the land. When you run a contest or sweepstakes, you have to make sure the t’s are crossed and i’s dotted in your rules. In social media, it’s even more complicated, as Facebook has its own set of ever-changing Promotions Guidelines to plan around.

5. Choose a great tool to help you. Two of the best-known social media promotions tools are WildfireApp and Strutta, but there are lots of social media promo companies worth looking at. When setting up your promotion, keep in mind not only how easy it is to enter, but also how easy and compelling it is to share across social networks.

6. Include a social network media budget to support the promotion. You wouldn’t host an offline sweepstakes without a media budget to support it, so don’t expect to host an online promo without an advertising budget. Ideally, the media should be spent on the social platform where the promotion resides. So if it’s on Facebook, run Facebook ads. On Twitter, run Promoted Tweets.

7. Track results and iterate for the future. Unlike offline promotions, which may take a year to plan and execute, social media promotions can be planned and executed a lot faster, giving you more time to look at the results and make changes for the near future. Whatever success looks like to your brand, it can always be better, so the more you track, the more you can analyze and improve.

Above all else, take off your marketing cap, put on your consumer cap, and ask yourself, “Would I be excited to enter this contest and tell all of my friends about it? Is this easy enough to enter? Is the prize right?” If the answers to these questions are all “YES”, you’re well on your way to launching a successful social media promotion.

A hurdle that most run into, however, is ensuring that their audience is actually seeing their content and promotions. In addition to a 2010 study that revealed that posting early in the day is more engaging, one of the most important techniques a brand must learn is how to optimize posts to make them more “likeable,” or worthy of clicking “like.” There are many ways to do this, but the method that is by far the most mysterious to brands is the often misunderstood News Feed, how it works and how to optimize it.

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Dave Kerpen is CEO of Likeable Media. He is also the author of Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (and other social media.) He can be reached at Dave@likeable.com. Likeable Media is a Governing Member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.