| TRENDING STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING | | | | | | | ALL STORIES IN BUSINESS & MARKETING | | |
| Shoutz Connects You to the World, One 15-Second Video at a Time | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 10:47 PM | Veena Bissram |
|  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Shoutz Quick Pitch: Shoutz is a free social video network. Genius Idea: Mobile-to-mobile platform for recording and sharing personal videos or 15-second "Shoutz." Shoutz, the social mobile video network, is a free mobile app for recording and sharing personal videos. Users can watch, record and share 15-second "Shoutz" directly from their phones, giving the world an opportunity to see exactly what they see when they see it. The app provides a personal way of communication by helping users connect with their friends, family, fans, consumers and the rest of the world through videos. Shoutz partners with sports teams, celebrities, companies, artists and advertisers to enhance the interaction between their fans and consumers through channels. The app requires an iPhone or Android 2.3 or higher device. Once the app is downloaded, users can sign in with their Facebook accounts or create their own profile, which also acts as their own channel. Whether you're a fan of Nascar, tennis, the outdoors, etc., choose a channel that interests you and select the stars or celebrities you want to follow within that channel. Then click on the user's profile to see their 15-second Shoutz, which you can comment on, reshout or rate. The app also provides the number of public views for each Shoutz. 15-second Shoutz. Users can upload their own 15-second Shoutz to their channels and share them directly from the app to Facebook, Twitter or via email. Shoutz also gives users the option to create a list of groups to share videos with. For example, if a user records a video of themselves fishing, they can share their video only with their group of friends who enjoy fishing. Shoutz also has a feed that features the trending videos of the day, the channels you follow and Shoutz from the individuals you follow. To help its partners manage their campaigns and build their brand strategy, Shoutz provides them with a "Channel Activity & Earnings Report" which analyzes the demographics of their channel's fans. The report includes information on platform ads, generated revenue, and the time, date and location of Shoutz views. The detailed report can help, for example, a beverage company target their campaigns to the specific audience that views their Shoutz. "A lot of celebrities don't know enough about their fans," Jim Mueller, CEO of Shoutz, told Mashable. "Shoutz provides real-time analytics that adds value for advertisers and makes it easier to manage campaigns, build brand strategies and target effectiveness." Red McCombs, co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, is one of Shoutz's primary investors. Developed in 2010, Shoutz's business model is based on advertisements. The company shares its revenue with its partners, and channels and stars share the ad revenue from their profile pages. Shoutz is currently in public beta and will completely launch in early 2012. Image courtesy of Shoutz, Shoutz Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today. |
| 8 Ways Digital Will Improve B2B Sales in 2012 | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 7:19 PM | Guy Nirpaz |
|  Guy Nirpaz is the CEO and co-founder of Totango, which analyzes user actions on SaaS applications, providing sales teams invaluable information in qualifying prospects and prioritizing people to contact who are most likely to buy or renew. How B2B products and services are purchased and sold is rapidly changing. Some call it the consumerization of IT, but perhaps it's the consumerization of B2B in general. Buyers are demanding cloud-based products that are user-friendly as well as social and mobile capabilities, with as little sales involvement as possible. A good example is purchasing from iTunes: web-based self-service with instant gratification. Below are eight predictions for B2B sales in 2012. 1. Social Selling Will Go Mainstream ??Ninety-two percent of prospects almost never book a meeting from a cold call or email, according to a study by UNC's Kenan-Flagler School of Business. In 2012, rather than make cold calls, sales executives will first seek connections through social media networks, and then increase response rates with warm introductions. Aside from personal networks, sales managers will also find ways to leverage the networks of colleagues, partners, customers, executives and former employees during the sales process. ?? 2. Companies Will use Facebook as a Sales Channel
Facebook was originally viewed as a network for personal communications in which direct selling was frowned upon. In 2012, more companies will experiment with the social platform as a sales channel, beginning with employees who sell or advocate to their friends. Home Depot has already asked store associates to post helpful do-it-yourself tips on their personal pages. Farmers Insurance encourages local franchisees to build relationships with customers via Facebook; the company won a Guinness World Record doing so.?? 3. Sales Executives Will Adopt Big Data In 2012, sales leaders will embrace big data to increase sales performance. Some will use it to identify the most profitable customers and find more leads with the same characteristics. Others will analyze customer usage patterns during trial and production to find the hottest prospects and to up-sell targets. Combining analytics and sales automation, B2B companies will target prospects and customers with personalized offers triggered by specific behaviors. 4. Customer Engagement Becomes a Top Priority ?Sales managers will no longer be able to drop off software and drive away. With the rise of subscription-based pricing models, unhappy customers who are not actively using a product or service will simply cancel their subscriptions. This will align organizations behind their customers' success, and encourage them to increasingly monitor engagement throughout the customer lifecycle. Some B2B companies, like Yammer, will even appoint a dedicated VP of customer engagement, also responsible for up-selling and renewals. 5. Outside Sales Reps Will Use iPads ?The iPad is finding its way into the enterprise. Some are calling it the most important new sales tool since the invention of the cellphone. In 2012, most outside sales reps will start to use an iPad or other tablet for work. They will use it for shipping, product documentation, demonstrations, to capture leads at a trade shows or to quickly research a prospect before a meeting. ?? 6. Most Sales Tools Will Move to the Cloud The average sales organization already uses more than 24 software tools in the sales process, based on a poll conducted by Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power magazine, at the 2011 Sales Strategies in a Social & Mobile World conference. This number is growing every year. In 2012, the majority of these applications will move to the cloud. Many companies, for example, will adopt cloud-based versions of subscription and billing software. This is a boom for sales executives, who will now have more visibility into a customer's billing cycle, which is helpful when growing or renewing an account. Also, the more applications to move to the cloud, the more streamlined the process.?? 7. Sales and Marketing Will Converge ??The sales process is becoming more self-sufficient, and customers are driving the pace. Outside sales are becoming inside sales, partly because of online conferencing tools. Inside sales is being replaced with self-serving website resources. As this happens, the lines between marketing and sales continue to blur. In 2012, more organizations will appoint chief revenue officers in recognition of this trend. Overall, there will have to be closer collaboration between the sales and marketing chiefs.?? 8. More Companies Will Offer Free Trials More organizations will offer free trials or completely free versions of their products. Prospects and customers are increasingly demanding self-service, which provides instant access to a free trial of products, before deciding to talk to a sales rep. Companies that offer a free trial will get more buzz and word-of-mouth referrals, and their sales costs will lower when fewer live touch points are required. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mbortolino |
| Google Is 2011's Top Web Brand [VIDEO] | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 5:29 PM | Mashable Team |
|  Google is the top digital brand for 2011, followed by Facebook and Yahoo, according to recent research tracking unique monthly visitors per month. A Nielsen study shows Google is the top digital U.S. web company, with more than 150 million visitors each month. The search giant's nascent social network Google+, however, is not to credit for the majority of that traffic. What website do you frequent most regularly? |
| HP Wants to Print Your Twitter Wishes On Balloons and Set Them Free | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 4:57 PM | Sarah Kessler |
|  Would you be more likely to stick with your New Years resolutions if they were printed on balloons and set free in the Middle Eastern sky? Thanks to a festive marketing campaign from HP, you now have the opportunity to find out. HP is printing tweets about New Year wishes on helium balloons and letting them go near its Middle East headquarters in Dubai. It's calling the project the TwitterWisher, and only tweets submitted through the TwitterWisher website will be considered for flight. People who find a freed balloon can enter its ID number at the same website in order to plot it on the map. Anyone can watch the balloons take off through a live video stream. The company seems to be aiming for a modern-day message in a bottle, complete with a sense of global connectedness. "The HP TwitterWisher lets people spread good cheer and wishes and connect with people all over the world as we cross over into a new year together," Suad Merchant, a HP Middle East marketing manager told Middle East business website AMEinfo.com. Here's hoping no birds choke in the process.
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| Most U.S. Small Businesses Plan to Buy an iPad in 2012 [STUDY] | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 3:33 PM | Peter Pachal |
|  The iPad is certainly the top tablet as far as consumers are concerned, but businesses strongly prefer it, too. That's the word from the industry analysts at NPD, who just published the results of a survey that shows nearly three-quarters of small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are looking to buy tablets for their workers in 2012, strongly preferring the iPad over competitors. The survey found that the larger the company, the more likely it was to want a tablet, and the stronger the preference for the iPad. Among businesses with fewer than 50 employees, the intent to purchase a tablet was a solid-but-not-overwhelming majority of 54%. As the companies grew, however, so did their desire for tablets, with 89% of companies between 501 and 999 employees planning to buy them. Of all the businesses considering a tablet, 73% were targeting the iPad. "You're really dealing with two different types of business," Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, told Mashable. "When you look at really small business, under 50, there's a lot of crossover between things consumers want to use and what's useful in a small-business environment." The study is lousy -- if unsurprising -- news for Apple's competitors. The only tablet to seriously challenge the iPad so far is Amazon's Kindle Fire, but that device runs a customized operating system that's highly catered toward consumers, so it makes sense that businesses aren't interested. Even if business-friendly software were developed, the Fire lacks some key hardware features, such as a camera, that many companies would need. A seemingly business-friendly alternative to the iPad is the BlackBerry PlayBook. But that device has suffered from a troubled spring launch that saw the tablet debut without a native email client. Users are still waiting for a software update that will add one, and its QNX-based operating system has little developer support. "There really isn't another product that has any kind of headway that the iPad has," says Baker. "It's probably not as much about the iPad as the product type. Employees are using them, and they want to find ways of using them in the business." Although the NPD study doesn't include large companies, the iPad has been making inroads in the enterprise market as well. Following the "consumerization of IT" trend, a study released in May by Model Metrics showed 83% of IT departments at 448 companies planned to deploy iPads by the end of 2013. Those numbers may shift, however, as Microsoft makes its big tablet push late next year. Windows 8 should start shipping in fall 2012, and the entire operating system has been tailored from the ground up to be tablet-friendly. Businesses that are reliant on Microsoft software (read: the vast majority) will have good reason to consider a Windows tablet once they become available. Are you a small-to-medium-size business owner or manager? Tell us about your tablet plans in the New Year: Are you going to get one for your company? Which one and why? Let us know in the comments. |
| How to Launch a Social Ambassador Campaign | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 2:31 PM | Curry Smith |
|  Curry Smith is affiliated with NOLAbound, a unique program that immerses 25 professionals in New Orleans business to discuss the city's entrepreneurial and social media influence. You can apply to be considered for a spot in the program at www.benolabound.com/apply. As long as brands want to improve and increase social media engagement and fellowship, they'll need authentic, relevant, community-oriented content. One solution is to give consumers the chance to serve as brand representatives. Social media ambassador campaigns can fit a wide range of industries and products. They succeed by targeting popular bloggers and "super users" of networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. This type of partnership can be a successful strategy for all parties. The brand wins if the selected ambassadors have strong voices to discuss the brand within relevant online communities. The ambassadors win if the brand partnerships yield access to greater resources. Also, successful partnerships can help establish ambassadors as authorities in their fields. The brand audience wins if content both online and offline becomes more relevant and exciting. The ambassador's audience wins if the ambassador introduces audience members to something that excites, educates or entertains them. But watch for challenges and pitfalls along the way. For instance, simply giving ambassadors an all-access-pass to your brand is inadvisable. The transparency and immediacy of social media means that any brand considering a social media ambassador campaign must first make some careful decisions about control, access and overall brand strategy before deploying a successful program. We have identified what we think are the five most critical considerations before launching a brand ambassador program. 1. Populate the Candidate Pool The first step in any ambassador program is to generate a pool of possible candidates. The process of finding, managing and maintaining the "talent" has yet to be simplified on a large scale, though companies like Business 2 Blogger have begun to develop solutions. In most cases, brands will opt to find the ambassadors themselves, preferring to have total control. This process usually works like a web 2.0 version of the traditional talent search: researching people who might be good fits, compiling a list of favorites, approaching them, negotiating, and moving forward with the "talent." However, brands can also open the curtains on the process by employing elements of crowdsourcing. For example, Fila sought six real-life women for its Fall 2011 Body Toning collection. The brand chose five winners live via webstream, and the sixth was a "people's choice" winner, accessed via the FilaToning Facebook Page. A crowdsourcing campaign can drive awareness and engagement before brand ambassadors are even selected. In the case of Fila, influential fitness bloggers applied and drove their audiences to the FilaToning Facebook Page to vote on their behalf, which drove more Likes for the company -- before the ambassadors had even been selected. Of course, crowdsourcing can also have its drawbacks. It lessens brand control, and could thus propel undesired candidates to the forefront. Each company will have to weigh its own long-term needs and short-term campaign elements to decide which approach is best. 2. Select your Ambassadors Once a brand has built a pool of potential ambassadors, the hard work is narrowing down the list to the few individuals who best match its needs and values. Employing real people to be living, breathing extensions of a brand requires selection criteria far beyond that of a print ad model or paid spokesperson. Here are four key considerations. Reach: How big is this person's existing audience? Does it align with the target audience? Perspective and voice: How does this person's viewpoint reflect on the brand? Is his or her voice complimentary to the brand's voice? Authority: Is this person's opinion valued on the subject? For example, T.J.Maxx selected fashion blogger Lindsey Calla to post and make appearances on behalf of the brand because her authority on fashion mattered to consumers. Media fit: Consider whether this person is a good fit for planned media extensions across multiple media formats. Not all bloggers are great on camera, and not all YouTube stars can tweet. 3. Manage those Ambassadors After choosing the ambassadors, companies need a plan to manage their access and activities. While professional talent often comes with an agent, everyday people do not - meaning that the obligation to train, inform, assist and manage the ambassador falls to the brand. Ambassadors will use creative decision-making. This should be embraced and encouraged - it's why they were selected. To channel and pace this enthusiasm, brands need to plan appropriately. The biggest consideration in managing ambassadors should be clear, timely and concise communication. Companies must plan ahead and convey any needs and desires to participants frequently. Do not assume anything. 4. To Edit or Not to Edit Real people have bad days. They curse. They cut and dye their hair. They have tattoos. They over-share. How will this affect the campaign? Deciding up front what sorts of filters to put in place is a key safeguard - and a unique process for each campaign. Giving free reign to ambassadors to share their impressions is a risky move. Projects that encourage participants to candidly post their impressions of the brand - on Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs - can result in rich, candid conversation. For the right effort, authenticity can pay off. On the other hand, some brands require a higher level of control because they cannot be associated with certain content. In that case, editing ambassadors can be done through legal contracts and nondisclosure agreements, or by restricting or limiting social media posts. 5. Leverage the Content for Posterity With a completed ambassador program, brands are faced with the challenge of longevity. How does an immediate and instant communication medium turn into one with lasting impact and influence? Solutions are as varied as the campaigns themselves. Consider recording film footage of the ambassadors' experiences and uploading to YouTube. Fila also created print ads featuring their real-life ambassadors. Coupon Cabin has created a blog corner for Kate Gosselin to post directly to their website. When done correctly, long-term content planning can foster a partnership with social media ambassadors that will continue adding value long after the partnership officially ends. Images courtesy of Flickr, miuenski, jurvetson, Mr. Wright |
| Who Are Your 10 BFFs on Facebook? This App Will Tell You | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 2:12 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  A Facebook app created by Visa in conjunction with the NFL will help you assemble a team of your 10 closest Facebook friends for a Super Bowl-themed video designed to promote a contest run by the credit card brand. The "You+10 Draft," which went live on Thursday, scrapes your Facebook Page to analyze your most recent interactions and then creates a list of your 10 BFFs. After that, it churns out a video featuring the 10, who are assigned roles like "commentator," "No. 1 fan" and "photographer" and are highlighted with a mock-heroic football-style voiceover. The 10 people chosen are friends who you would presumably bring to the Super Bowl if you won a sweepstakes from Visa. That contest offers a cardholder the chance to attend Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis on Feb. 5 with 10 friends and family members. The sweeps, promoted since November, randomly award a Visa cardholder who made a transaction between early November and Dec. 27 with the card. (You could have also entered via snail mail without buying anything.) Alex Craddock, head of North America marketing for Visa, says the app and the sweeps are based on one insight: that 88% of people who watch football do it with others. "It's very social to the core," Craddock says of football. There's a potentially viral component built in to the app, which Visa developed with its ad agency, AKQA. As with other Facebook app-vertising campaigns that play on users' narcissism, this one beckons consumers with the promise of learning more about themselves. But in this case, there's a strong incentive to send the video to some of the 10 who made the cut. (You can also sub in others if you didn't like who the app picked.) However, going strictly by Facebook data has its disadvantages. The list the app created for me, for example, included a few people I barely know. Still, this is an interesting Super Bowl tie-in for a brand -- especially given that Visa is not planning to run an ad during the big game. Did you try the app? Is it an effective promotion? Sound off in the comments. |
| How the Social Media IPOs of 2011 Fared [STUDY] | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:34 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Social media continued to thrive in 2011 as it fomented revolutions in Egypt, Libya and Bahrain. But investors appeared to be a lot less enthralled. Looking back over the 19 social media IPOs of 2011, Kevin Pleines -- an analyst with Birinyi Associates, a stock market research firm -- found new social media stocks were generally a bad investment, as 82.4% were trading below their opening-day prices. In fact, as of Wednesday, only three were trading above the price they opened on their first day of trading. This, however, may say less about the social media sector than about IPOs in general. An analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that there were fewer IPOs in 2010 and that the amount raised was 6% less as well. As of the last week of the year, two-thirds of companies are trading below their IPO price. In that regard, social media IPOs performed slightly better. Going by the IPO price, rather than the price the stocks opened on the first day of trading, Pleines found that 57.9% (11 of 19) of social media stocks were trading below that level. Below is Pleines's assessment of the 19 social media IPOs of 2011. What do you think? Will Facebook's looming IPO give the market a shot in the arm? Sound off in the comments. |
| Facebook 2012: What the Future Holds for the Social Media Powerhouse | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 1:09 PM | Josh Catone |
|  What do you do after your site grows to 800 million users and expands to 1 trillion pageviews per month? Why, plan a $100 billion IPO, of course! Going public is clearly the biggest thing on tap for Facebook in 2012, but the world's most populated social network and its users have a lot to look forward to over the coming year. From the maturation of Mark Zuckerberg as a leader to Facebook's growth as a media platform to a looming collision with the world's biggest tech companies, 2012 is poised to be one of the most important years in the company's short history. Read on for our predictions for Facebook's upcoming year, and be sure to add your ideas in the comments. The IPO It's safe to say that Facebook's long-rumored IPO will be the biggest public offering of 2012. It could also potentially be the biggest of the current decade, if rumors of a reported $100 billion valuation and $10 billion raise are accurate. That would put Facebook in the top-three American IPOs for highest amounts raised. Of course, an astronomical target does not mean a guaranteed blockbuster IPO for Facebook. Zynga's unspectacular debut on the public markets in December has some investor's worried that social media IPOs will generate less enthusiasm going forward, and that could affect Facebook in 2012. "It's a very telltale sign of how people feel about social media IPOs in general," Jeffrey Sica, owner of Sica Wealth Management in Morristown, N.J., told Mashable. have become very shortsighted. There's a lot of fear in the market right now." Furthermore, today's tech companies are raising larger rounds of private money more frequently before going to IPO, and are allowing private investors to trade shares prior to going public. That's adding up to less opportunity for public investors once the offering hits the market. This is another reason why there was lower-than-expected interest from retail investors for Zynga, and could also be indicative of a lackluster future debut for Facebook, which has raised a whopping $2.3 billion from private investors. It's unclear what this trend of raising mega-sized rounds of private equity means for public capital markets long term. However, it is clear that entrepreneurs and early employees of the few tech companies attracting this sort of attention are reaping the benefits. And aftermarket stock sales have allowed some early employees and investors to cash in, pre-IPO. Facebook has already minted a number of on-paper billionaires that way. If the company's IPO in 2012 is as successful at the rumored $100 billion valuation, Reuter's estimates that Facebook will be home to at least 1,000 new millionaires. The Next Steve Jobs? Shortly after Apple's iconic co-founder Steve Jobs died in October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook profile, "Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you." Mashable executive editor Adam Ostrow wrote following Jobs's death, "Although Apple and Facebook have had a contentious relationship, it's hard not to draw comparisons between Jobs and Zuckerberg, both of whom dropped out of college and founded their iconic companies in their early twenties." Indeed, even before Jobs died, there was a sense that his retirement from Apple as CEO was a symbolic passing of the mantle to unofficial Innovator in Chief in Silicon Valley, and to the tech world in general. But to whom? Many pundits have prognosticated on that question and the answer usually comes down to one of four choices: someone we haven't heard of yet, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg. When people ask, "Who is the next Steve Jobs?" they mean, from where will the next giant of the tech industry emerge? Who will be the next larger-than-life figure to drive innovation in tech, design and business for the next few decades? It might not necessarily be anyone from the current crop of big company tech CEOs, but of the candidates, a good case could be made for Zuckerberg. That has a lot less to do with Zuckerberg's potential as a Jobs impersonator (though he is getting better at channeling Jobs' confidence on stage), and more to do with his place among the next generation's influencers. Zuckerberg's performance at the f8 Developer Conference this year, which included an on-stage lampooning from Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg, illustrates Zuckberg's generational advantage. Even though he clearly tries to match Steve Jobs's charisma, his style is clearly not a one-to-one emulation -- and that's okay. In fact, that's exactly why Zuckerberg might be the next Jobs: He understands his consumers in ways that competitors have yet to grasp, and that edge has helped him to win the innovation war in social networking thus far. Facebook vs. The World Facebook has been on a collision course with the world's biggest tech companies for a long time, and that could all come to a head in 2012. The company will fight Apple in the mobile space, where a focus on HTML5 and a recent acquisition of mobile platform developer Strobe (makers of SproutCore) is positioning Facebook to be a powerhouse in the mobile space, ideally by delivering a rich user experience across hardware platforms. One big advantage Facebook can offer that other platforms can't? Massive amounts of social data and one of the biggest installed user bases on the planet. Facebook will fight Amazon and eBay in the consumer space, with the continued expansion of Facebook Credits, which are already being used to sell all sorts of digital content, from in-game items to movie downloads. For now, Credits can't be used in the purchase or sale of physical goods, but as retailers like Amazon expand their footprint into digital, they'll start start to bump into Facebook. And Facebook credits are already sold in stores. Therefore, using them for physical purchases might not be far behind, especially as they get added to mobile payment systems. And they'll fight Google on virtually all fronts. Both Facebook and Google are advertising-driven businesses, but Facebook's revenue is a drop in the bucket compared to Google's. That could significantly start to change in 2012, as Facebook rolls out new ad formats and more agencies shift traditional media buys to online advertising. Yet Facebook does face an uphill battle when it comes to convincing big brands to pay for advertising products when they're accustomed to free Facebook Pages . Facebook Becomes the Media Somewhat lost amidst Facebook's new Timeline buzz, three other developments in 2011 fueled Facebook's aspiration to become the destination for all media. First, Facebook launched an update to its Open Graph protocol called Gestures, which essentially allows users toany Or in other words, websites are no longer constrained to just allowing users to Like items. Now users can read, watch, listen or perform any other action around the web. Second, Facebook launched a new Subscribe feature, allowing users to let fans follow their public updates (and it's coming soon for websites). Third, Facebook offered an update to the News Feed called Ticker, that serves as a real-time feed of activity away from Facebook. Taken in tandem, these updates indicate Facebook's growing desire to be to discovery what Google is to search -- that is, the market leader for the new dominant form of currency on the web. In the previous decade, the link was the main way to pass information around on the Internet. Google figured out how to harness that information and turn it into a highly useful search engine. In today's social media-driven world, the link is being replaced by the social recommendation (and more broadly, by the social action), and Facebook is attempting to build a discovery engine around that idea. In other words, Facebook isn't going to be a creator of media, but it will be the ultimate curator. The Future of Timeline Of course, that hoopla for Timeline was warranted. Facebook's radical redesign of the profile page marked a huge departure from the traditional design, which in spite of numerous changes and updates, had maintained the same basic UI concept since Facebook launched. The new Timeline is about storytelling. "Timeline is the story of your life," said Zuckerberg at the f8 Conference. It's a "new way to express who you are." That, of course, gets to the heart of Facebook's oft-stated goal to make the world "more open and connected." Here is a new profile that encourages you to share even more about your life by documenting and organizing everything you do. (Not coincidentally, that also plays right into Facebook's advertising-fueled business model.) What happens to Timeline in 2012 would be as difficult to predict as Timeline itself would have been this time last year, but it's safe to assume that Facebook's recent acquisition of Gowalla will have an impact on the future of the site's profile design. With Gowalla, Facebook acquired a team of designers and developers that had created an unquestionably beautiful location-based social network with the stated purpose of helping users document their travel (both locally and abroad). Put another way, Gowalla was made for telling stories about the places you went. Facebook didn't specifically acquire the technology behind Gowalla, but it did say that it was "sure that the inspiration behind Gowalla will make its way into Facebook over time." Smart money is that parts of that "inspiration" will find its way into Facebook as improvements to the storytelling functionality of Facebook Timeline and Facebook's mobile applications. Special thanks to Brian Carter, author of "The Like Economy," who helped me codify my thoughts about the future of Facebook. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Oxford, Flickr, Andrew Feinberg, Kewei SHANG |
| 7 Tips for Marketing to Moms | | Thursday, December 29, 2011 12:26 PM | Lauren Drell |
|  The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, a relentless digital marketing agency focused on search, social and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download our free digital marketing magazine, The Merge, and our bonus gift to you, "Drinks and Grub from the Digital Hub" cookbook. Mothers are the gateway to sales -- women make 85% of purchasing decisionsin a household, and often that women is a mom. She's not just buying for herself; she's also buying for the baby, the toddler, the teenager and for the entire soccer team. And she's not just buying Cheerios and baby wipes -- she's purchasing electronics and other household items, sometimes even from her smartphone, since 70% of moms now own smartphones. Many moms used to stay home and watch soap operas while they cleaned the house, taking in ads for Dove and Johnson and Johnson (hence the "soap"). But today's moms are much more dynamic: they have access to online tools, and they use them to fight feelings of isolation and maintain relationships -- the rise of Facebook, Twitter and blogs have given moms a place to congregate, share opinions and build friendships. So, for brands, earning a mom's attention and trust can be a gold mine and a path to other moms. But how do you do it? Mashable spoke with several experts with plenty of experience marketing to moms: Catherine Connors, director of community and social good at Babble Samantha Cescau, strategy director at BBH Kevin Burke, founder of Lucid Marketing, who's worked with Disney, AOL, baby brunch, tinyprints Stacy DeBroff, founder of MomCentral Read on to find out what moms love, what they hate and what you should do to win their approval and loyalty. 1. Look at What Works There are always commercials that get people talking -- pay attention to what it is that makes people love them so much. Cescau says BBH routinely asks women what advertising is resonating with them. She says that recent wins in the mom sector have been Google Chrome's Dear Sophie spot ("It really hits home" for moms, she says), and Volkswagen's The Force ad (above) gets a lot of votes. Even though it's old, the Toyota Swagger Wagon still appeals to moms, and Best Buy's "Game On, Santa" spot did well in recent weeks. Look at what these have in common -- there's a theme of family and sentimentality, but there's also humor and a depiction of mom as a do-it-all badass. Moms aren't so busy that they're averse to humor, so don't be afraid give them a chuckle. "To some extent, you're looking for entertainment, so ads that break through and are entertaining are appreciated," Cescau says. 2. Tug at the Heartstrings The Dear Sophie Chrome ad (a BBH client) touches on "true parenting insights that strike an emotional cord," says Cescau. It plays on the "they grow up so fast" mantra of parenthood, features an adorable baby and evokes nostalgia. The 92-second ad helps moms relive parenthood milestones, like when their babies took their first steps, giggled with glee and spent the night with a fever. Hallmark recently ran a spot that featured a soldier opening up a book that records your voice so the kid can listen to the parent reading it. But Hallmark "flipped the script," says Burke. Since dad's away from the family for the holidays, the kids recorded their voices reading the book. 3. Make It Snappy We know, moms are busy. Therefore, if you're looking to engage a mom, keep it brief. It's better to have a 30-second spot than a minute-long one that she turns off halfway through. "Moms appreciate and value efficiency," says Burke, adding that brands should respectful of a mom's time on all platforms -- advertisements, Facebook games, online and on the telephone with customer service. Better yet, make it snappy and useful. The website Tinyprints let moms send cards from Santa Claus -- they would go on the site to buy cards, personalize them with the kids' name, and then a few weeks later, little Joey gets a card from Santa. "There was a real surprise element" when the cards arrived, says Burke, who's worked with Tinyprints. 4. Don't Stereotype Soccer moms. Helicopter moms. Wired moms. Boomer moms. Gen Y moms. These are some of the terms marketers use to define their target market. But would a mom ever describe herself as any of these? Probably not. So don't pigeonhole them. Too often, advertising depicts moms as either a frazzled, frenetic mess or a Desperate Housewives-esque model of perfection. In reality, moms lie somewhere in the middle of this continuum. "There are probably a million stock photography images you can dig up of a mom feeding a baby with a bottle while at the computer doing work in a suit," says Cescau. "But I personally find that much of the portrayal of moms in advertising and in media is really stereotypical and a bit of a turn-off." Burke agrees: "Too many marketers don't appreciate the diversity of moms out there ... and things can go awry in the creative process" if you focus on one particular angle. 5. Be Real Moms put up with a lot of crap throughout the day, and the last thing they want to do is come across an ad that presents them with more crap. "Mothers appreciate honesty and realism in communications, and they want to be treated as intelligent and smart and more than just a mom," says Cescau. A mom is a wife, a sister, a coworker and more -- and she wants to be acknowledged in each of these roles. Lastly, realize that, in most cases, dad isn't just bringing home the bacon while mom takes care of the kids. Often, the parents work together, and Cescau advises brands to be respectful of that partnership and not portray dad as "the dumb fall guy." 6. Make Plays on Facebook Social media connect moms (and mom bloggers), leading to a snowball effect that will help a brand find success, says Burke. Facebook is the social platform where moms tend to spend the most time, and often where they go to share or consume information about brands and products. Therefore, Cescau says Facebook is best for a mainstream audience, while Twitter targets a more affluent, tech-savvy mom. This high-tech mom can be used as an influencer (see "Moms Talk" below), but Twitter might not be the best way to get to an average mom. But while social media is a cost-efficient way to engage consumers, it doesn't come without risks. You don't want to reach out to more consumers than you can handle, or else you're setting yourself up for failure. "It's important to understand the risk profile -- you don't want to inadvertently spread negative word of mouth," says DeBroff. 7. Moms Talk, So Talk with Them "Anything that comes from a brand is inherently bias," says DeBroff. "Even if a brand brings on a celebrity or a medical expert, moms don't feel like this person is genuine." But if they hear it from another mom, whether it's one you know and trust or one who wrote an Amazon review, a mom will be more compelled to purchase (or not purchase, depending on the review) the item. And, DeBroff says, these recommendations really do translate into purchasing behavior. So the challenge for brands is getting moms on your side, getting them to talk to other moms about your product and helping these other moms "distether" from their current brand loyalties to come on board with your brand. And mommy bloggers can be a great tool for doing so -- they're a huge force in the marketing world. But don't think you can just cold call a mommy blogger and expect a sales increase. Mom bloggers are all about building relationships, and brands can't think of their work with mommy bloggers as a "campaign," per se -- it needs to be viewed as a mutually beneficial relationship. Don't just focus on Klout score -- try to work with the people who are most relevant for your brand. "There's a whole ecosystem, and these moms are connected to each other," says Burke. "Influential moms are linked, and when a brand resonates with her and her audience, that shows up on the radar of other influential moms." So, instead of focusing on one-way conversation that marketers have traditionally done, you have to focus on having a conversation and building a relationship. "Look at it more as a holistic relationship from a communications standpoint than 'which mom should we work with today?'" says Burke. Connors says mom bloggers are always looking for something new and fresh. Which is why the Land's End Swimsuit Confidence Week was a success. "It was a great contest that encourages body confidence, and it didn't play on the usual stereotypes of moms who are frumpy and ones that want to be milfy," says Connors. "It engaged the bloggers in a very effective way by getting them into a swimsuit, which is interesting, because it asks them to do something risky." What campaigns have you seen that have marketed well to moms? Let us know in the comments. Series supported by Oneupweb
The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, a relentless digital marketing agency focused on search, social, and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download our free digital marketing magazine, The Merge, for ideas to ignite your strategy sessions for the new year, and as a bonus gift, you'll receive our "Drinks and Grub from the Digital Hub" cookbook. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, scottyh |
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