Social Media by the Numbers: Jan 30 – Feb 10

• Feb 10th, 2012
• Posted by Cody Goins
• Posted in Munchin', Social Media, Social Media by the Numbers

They say (and by they, I mean the Illuminati) that a picture is worth a thousand words.  But did you know that a number is worth like six pictures?  That being said, please enjoy this 84,000 word blog post.

• Number of bears seen outside of the Spring Creek Group Global World Headquarters this week: 1
• Number of acronyms in the title of the latest post from our blog series explaining social CRM:  2
• Percentage that Inc. 500 companies’ blog use has decreased since 2010: 13%
• Number of iconic logos that were recently remade using Comic Sans as a primary font: 12 
• Number of iconic logos that look terrible when Comic Sans is used as a primary font:  at least 12
• Number of Global Social Networks you should know about in 2012: 20
• Percentage of focus that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says the company will be directing towards advertising: 100%
• Number of user accounts compromised when Zappos was recently hacked: 24 million
• Number of security experts who propose “hacking” your own company to increase security: at least 1
• Number of Spring Creek Group employees who think that this news could lead to a remake of the 1992 film Sneakers, and are understandably excited: at least 2
• Amount, in dollars, of Facebook’s IPO:  5 billion
• Likelihood that the immediate effects of this announcement will make the average person exponentially richer:  0%
• Amount of characters added to the new IPG Mediabrands Twitter handle: 3
• Number of brand scorecards we helped create for this year’s Super Bowl: 1

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Facebook Photo Theater Ads

• Feb 7th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in Facebook, Uncategorized

If you clicked a Facebook friend’s photo recently, you may have got a surprise – a new theater view of that photo… complete with ads!

Facebook’s latest update not only increases the ease of interaction with content, it also gives them another place to serve advertisements to users. The only question remains: how are they targeting these ads? Are they targeted at uses viewing the content? Could ads be targeted based on keywords in the description or brands/users tagged in the photos?

Do you see the new theater view or the ads? What do you think?

We’ll have more for you soon.

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Brand Blitz: Mediabrands Agencies Score Super Bowl XLVI Ads and Brands

• Feb 6th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in #2012, advertising, Analytics, BMW, Friends of SCG, Global social media, Graphs, Hashtags, Industry Insights, Infographic, Pepsi, Samsung, Social Media News, Social Media Technology, Social Tools, Spring Creek Group, Super Bowl

Being a part of a team is something special. The New York Football Giants probably know a thing or two about that. We’re also fortunate to be a part of a great team within IPG Mediabrands – MAP (Mediabrands Audience Platform). This year, MAP agencies Ansible, Cadreon, Reprise Media, and SCG teamed up with MAGNAGLOBAL, the IPG Mediabrands’ global intelligence unit, and our friends at Simply Measured to watch the game within the Big Game – the ads.

This year’s Super Bowl was one of the most interactive yet, with Twitter saying that the final three minutes of the game saw 10,000 tweets per second (TPS). The highest TPS came after the Giants sealed their victory (12,223 TPS) and Madonna’s halftime show saw 8,000 TPS for a full five minutes. While those are great facts, we were more interested in how people were talking about brands.

We looked at on-air spend, buzz in social, and other advertising efforts (paid search and mobile) to pick some of the greatest (and worst) ads and brands from Super Bowl Sunday and put them all in infographic form, just for you:

Click the image to see larger sizes and to embed

Brands definitely brought their A-game this year with brands like H&M, GE, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Audi, Volkswagen, Kia, Chevrolet, Pepsi Max, Bud Light, Coca Cola, Doritos, and more joining the battle. NBC did a gigantic push for their own show, “The Voice” which included live performances from Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton, as well as a commercial cameo from comedy maven Betty White.

Thanks to all the teams that worked hard throughout the night pulling, analyzing, and visualizing the heaps of data that it took to make this year’s scorecard happen! See you all next year!

Note: This report and infographic include references to brands which are clients of Mediabrands and the larger IPG family, including Hyundai/Kia – however, this is not meant to be an endorsement or advertisement and no compensation was made for their inclusion.

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Global Social: Virtual Payments

• Feb 2nd, 2012
• Posted by Lily Croll
• Posted in Friendster, Future, Gaming, Global social media, hi5, Hyves, P2P payments, Social Media, Virtual payments

Virtual Payments and Social Networks – A Brief History

Custom Avatars: Social Networks Start Selling

Older social networks like Habbo and Gaia Online which feature customizable avatars or rooms were among the first to create a virtual currency. Typically users were gifted a small amount of the currency upon joining, or could gradually earn a nominal amount through everyday activities on the site. Similar to today’s Microsoft (#client) Xbox LIVE avatar marketplace, the items available to users were geared towards showing off a special interest or just getting a “cool” thing – ultimately these items didn’t offer any additional perks to the user.

Though both Gaia Online and Habbo have largely exited the spotlight, they should be recognized for setting the stage in making users comfortable with:

• Purchasing decorative virtual items that serve no practical purpose, but are just for fun
• Using a proprietary site currency (purchased with real-world money)

Gamers: Laying the Foundation from World of Warcraft to FFXI

While Habbo and Gaia Online were tackling virtual payments inside social networks, similar developments were occurring in the gaming world.

With the rise of MMORPGs in the 90s users were increasingly exposed to complex virtual markets. Games like Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (FFXI), Origin Systems’ Ultima Online and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft featured in-game marketplaces where users could purchase virtual items using in-game currency from official stores or from other players. These markets exclusively accepted in-game currency and users could only earn additional money by completing in-game tasks. Unsurprisingly, a grey market system quickly sprouted up, where users could purchase (using real-world money) in-game items from other players. Concurrently, a subset of users took advantage of the opportunity to “gold farm” – creating characters simply to gain in-game currency, which is then re-sold using real-world money.
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WTH is Social CRM? Part 3 – Social Product and Service Design

• Jan 30th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in Global social media, Industry Insights, Influencer Engagement, Influencer Management, Measurement, sCRM, Social CRM, Social Media, Social Media Business Models, Social Media Consulting, Social Media Technology

Products aren’t always things you can touch. Sometimes a product is a line of service a company provides, like an agency or a professional services firm. Today, in a time where social is at the interaction point between brands and consumers, sCRM is taking lead in information gathering, classification, and sharing across organizations that definitely leads to the creation of smarter products and services.

Collecting Feedback

Social businesses already into their maturity cycle are likely running listening and monitoring campaigns, which in turn feed in to their sCRM systems – the next step is then plugging that sCRM or content management system into their existing sCRM system.

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How To: Run a Successful Twitter Promotion

• Jan 27th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in contests, Promotions, Twitter

Twitter, because of its propensity toward sharing, makes it a great platform for running promotions. While simplistic in nature, Twitter can be truly useful in taking promotions to the next level, when done correctly. The following piece outlines best practices and tips (including links to SCG published materials and client examples) for launching, running, and reporting on successful Twitter promotions. A short version of content covered in this post can be found in a post written by the agency on Mashable.

Prep Work: 5 Things to Do Before You Launch

Many contests owe their success (or demise) to the work done prior to launch of the campaign. The work you do before the first Tweet ever hits the Web can help you avoid pitfalls and plan for success.

Define Your Marketing Goals

Goals are your destinations. Without an end marketing or business goal, contests would be flashes in the pan that don’t truly affect the bottom line. That might have been able to fly in 2008, but in today’s world, where social marketing is showing true impact on sales, a little more is at stake. Know your top business goals and how any contest will feed into these goals. Do you want to increase awareness of a product or brand? Grow a community to increase sales leads? Knowing your end goal and the key performance indicators that lead to those goals will help you establish measurement guides (but we’ll talk about those later).

Bring In the Barristers

Legal considerations are usually the second step in most contest processes. When dealing with global social networks, the constraints on marketers to fulfill and even solicit participation can get increasingly harder to understand. Enlist the help of your group legal counsel at an early stage to make sure your contest is legal in areas where you wish to run said contest, and that you have a clear set of official entry rules. These rules, once finalized, should be posted in an easily-found place – preferably in the Twitter bio while the contest is running. More info can be found in the Legal Considerations section.

Evangelize Internally/Externally

Your internal audience can often be the hardest to energize. Start your internal awareness campaign a few weeks ahead of your actual contest. Don’t be afraid to specifically ask employees to help spread the word. Even with minimal participation, employee support can give contests that extra push toward virality that every company seeks. Partners (internal and external) can be incredibly important in pushing content during the early stages of a new Twitter contest. Reach out to partners (via DM or email) to ask for their help well in advance of the actual launch. Microsoft’s Social Team alias is an incredible asset in helping get contest information into the content pipeline of social teams. Create packaged Tweets that can easily be copied/pasted in order to help lessen the burden.

Set Up Tracking/Monitoring

Being able to track and report on the success of Twitter contests and campaigns is essential to not only tracking participation and ensuring that all fulfillment is taken care of in an above-the-board fashion, but also helps justify Twitter contests to management based on business goals. Twitter moves fast and searches done even a couple days after content hits the Web can yield inaccurate results. Use a tracking tool such as SimplyMeasured to track hashtag mentions associated with your contest and capture clicks on contest-specific trackable links in order to show traffic and tie actions to larger business goals. Doing this in advance of launching provides a full data set that can mean the difference in success and failure in the eyes of management.

Plan for Fulfillment

You’ve got a great contest going where winners receive the latest product from the hottest brand around – yours! That’s great, but how are they getting it? In many cases, in-house fulfillment may be tasked with taking care of shipping information and fulfillment, but in case they aren’t there are a number of companies available that can handle all your fulfillment needs. Plan ahead and work with your fulfillment team to make sure your winners get their prizes on-time and all in one piece.

So, You’re Ready to Run a Contest

You’ve done your prep work and now you’re ready to run your contest. OK, great. How do you exactly do that? The following are 5 tips to make sure your contest goes off without a hitch.

Announce and Inform

Make sure all your social channels, not just your Twitter channel are talking about your contest. Blog posts work well for housing long-form information like the Windows team did during their #WinWin7 campaign. Promoted Tweets are an efficient way to make sure your contest gets off the ground. For more information on using Twitter paid advertising, check out our post on Search Engine Watch.

Stay Flexible

“Stuff” happens. The key to being able to handle the stuff is having all your plans already laid out. When you have a clear plan of action for your contest, the little bumps in the road are only setbacks, not disasters. The online world is full of bumps, but by being flexible and having a plan, you can easily navigate the contest road.

Be Unique

Give your contest a unique, but not hard to understand or use, phrase or hashtag that users must include in their Tweets in order to be eligible. This not only helps you collect and vet entries, but also gives extended visibility – exactly what you’re looking for. Beyond that, you can give away creative prizes that aren’t exactly cost-heavy, like these from the #WinWin7 campaign.

Be Helpful

Large numbers of people on Twitter are really just getting going on the platform. Remember to be very clear in your directions and always be available to help users through the entry process. This will not only help with entrants, but will bring good karma your way post-contest.

Don’t Go Silent

Contests are great and can definitely raise the profile of your Twitter account, brand, and products. However, contests aren’t the end of the engagement loop. Once you have new fans accumulated, you need to continue nurturing that relationship and adding value to their experiences. The worst result of a contest is increased accumulation of fans because of a giveaway that then results in a community that is uninterested in the content or, worse yet, just leaves.

A Note About Hashtags

As you’re looking at what content to add to your Twitter contest, the obvious use of hashtags will definitely come up. Hashtags are a great way to drive brand awareness and to help categorize content for your contest. For more information on hashtags, including general guidance that goes beyond this, check out our post.

Be Mindful of Length

You’re hoping to be retweeted and those characters take up space. Know how much space you need to accomplish this (hint: take 140 and subtract the number of characters in your handle + 6. That’s the number you need to hit for Tweets to be retweetable)

Capitalize

When combining multiple words, the most-accepted convention is capitalizing the first letter of each new word. Example: #HappyHolidays.

Do Not Hashtag Spam

This is the practice of including popular hashtags in tweets simply for the purpose of being included in those searches/conversations. (Example: Tweeting about the #GRAMMYs if your brand has nothing to do with the GRAMMYs and your Tweet is not related).

Limit the Number

#Not #everything #needs #a #hashtag.

Our Lawyers Made Us Write This

Like with any contest run on social media, the legal aspect of Twitter contests can be tricky (as we mentioned before). However, there is a wealth of information available on the subject – even some from Twitter itself.

The following are a couple high-level legal points to think of as you’re going through the contest process:

Sweepstakes, Contest or Lottery?

While they all sound fun, the difference between the three are slight, but important. Here are some guidelines to help:

• Sweepstakes: a promotion in which a prize is awarded on the basis of chance rather than skill.
• Contest: a promotion  where a prize is awarded on the basis of skill
• Lottery:  a promotion in which all three of the following are present: 1) prize 2) chance 3) consideration. Note: lotteries are illegal under most state and federal laws with the exception of state-run lotteries and authorized raffles.

Local or Global?

Whether or not you open the contest to users outside the United States impacts the prizes and guidelines you’ll have to work with. Work with your legal counsel to set parameters.

Know the Laws

While tax and sweepstakes laws can vary by country, they also vary by state inside the U.S.  Most notably, Florida, New York, and Rhode Island sponsors are required to register all sweepstakes where the total retail value of the prizes exceeds $5,000. A general rule of thumb is to keep prizes under $500 to avoid winners paying taxes on their winnings. For more information about sweepstakes in these states, contact:

Do Use Not Language

When writing the rules of the contest, use exclusionary statements to help users determine if they are eligible for the contest. Example:

You are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, and are 18 years of age or older; and

You are NOT an employee of MadeUp Corporation or an employee of a MadeUp subsidiary; and  You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes; and

You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a MadeUp employee, an employee of a MadeUp subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes.

Note: Microsoft Windows is a client of SCG

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Global Social: Kicking off with 20 Networks to Know in 2012

• Jan 23rd, 2012
• Posted by Lily Croll
• Posted in Global social media, Social Media, Spring Creek Group

When you think about social media, what are the first social networks that come to mind? Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Google+? For most professionals, those are the foundation for any program- they allow marketers to reach the bulk of their audience and the sites are mature enough that they’re a (relatively) safe investment for time and resources. There are even a brave few who have expanded their social programs to include emerging niche networks like Pinterest, Tumblr and Quora. Especially for those focusing on a U.S.-centric program, a combination of the traditional and emerging sites is more than enough to build a vibrant and engaged social community.

But what about those brands and marketers who want to reach global users on their local market sites? We know the global social environment is just as dynamic and rapidly-evolving as what we see in the U.S.. From giants like Renren and V Kontakte, to regionally entrenched players like Mixi and Nasza Klasa, the market’s simultaneous fragmentation and saturation has further complicated the daunting task of evaluating global sites.

This eBook kicks off a bi-weekly blog series here at Spring Creek where we’ll dig into different facets of the global social landscape. To get us started, we’ve profiled 20 of the largest social networks from around the globe to illustrate how diverse the space is and to spark marketers’ consideration of the quickly changing social landscape. Though this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the global networks, we strive to strike a balance between the massive sites whose glory is fading but still wields power, and the nimble up-and-comers who are threatening (and often succeeding) to steal market share.

The largely unspoken, if often hinted at, challenge to each of these networks is the continued expansion of those foundational sites addressed above. Facebook is the clearest potential giant-killer, as witnessed by its recent win in surpassing Orkut as the most popular social network in Brazil. Facing a similar threat in Japan, Mixi’s recent strategic partnership with Twitter is largely perceived as an attempt to stave off Facebook’s potential growth in that market.

Over the next few months we’ll continue to explore the successes, challenges and innovations the global social landscape faces. We’d love to hear from you if there are certain areas you’d like to explore, or to share your own experiences with these networks.

 Note: Our research is based on publicly available information, in-market third party analyst commentary and, when possible, firsthand experience with the networks. All figures are based off the most widely reported and commonly accepted figures for the end of calendar Q3 2011. 

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CES 2012: Part 2

• Jan 18th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in #2012, #MBWWCES, CES, TECHNOLOGY

The CES show floor is incredibly daunting when you walk in and look at the sprawling maps with each section marked off. I made it my goal to see every single booth on the floor – and I did it. Here are a couple more trends that I saw during my time in Vegas:

AutoTech

The auto industry has plenty of their own industry shows, but that doesn’t stop top automakers from trekking to Vegas for CES. In-car auto technology was a big part of the show with Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Ford showcasing how technology is powering the next generation of autos.

Kia’s new Uvo system, made by Microsoft (both clients of SCG/Mediabrands) was one of the coolest in-car systems I saw in Vegas. The new system pairs with smartphones to identify drivers, making the experience completely personal. For parents with new drivers, the system allows users to set up things like speed limits, curfews, and geo-fences that notify the car owner if/when these limitations are broken by the driver. That’s one piece of tech I definitely am glad didn’t exist when I was 16. The system also goes beyond the car and uses augmented reality to help drivers find their car once they’ve parked. No more wandering around aimlessly hitting your key fob in hopes of hearing your car honk.

SocialTV

There’s no doubt that people come to CES to see the next generation of televisions. However, this year wasn’t totally about screen size (although there were some huge ones) or crazy bells and whistles (there was seriously a TV that you could see through), but rather about how connected TVs could make users. Connected to content. Connected to their friends. Connected to just about anything.

Now, apps like Miso and GetGlue have brought a social aspect to TV and movies, but they require a user looking away from the screen to interact. While that’s not always a bad thing, the continued appification of televisions is bringing social interactions right to the set – and making them part of the experience.

Users can now Tweet or Facebook directly on their televisions while still watching content. They can join chats and discuss plots, characters, and developments in their favorite shows and movies. Look for this seamless integration to be a big part in network and motion picture companies’ push for social interaction around their titles in 2012 and beyond.

Social Everywhere (but No Connectivity)

I think one of the biggest fails of CES, besides the lack of available food/restrooms (which always happens), was the lack of connectivity in the exhibition halls. While yes, many companies aren’t really relying on me to pump their newest products out to the world, but rather a writer from Engadget who has guaranteed bandwidth, the space just wasn’t social friendly. QR codes were everywhere, but the content they accessed was nearly unobtainable in the conditions.

TMobile sponsored a contest (using Klout) to crown the king of social at CES. The only problem was, I’d guess most people actually being able to tweet about CES were not in Vegas, or had already left the show to go back to their rooms. Also, the screens showing content were kind of hard to find.

Weird Stuff

I’ve been to a fair number of trade shows in my day, but I have to say there was one thing I was really sad to see at CES in 2012… the continued use of “booth babes.” BBC did a piece on this which I think accurately depicts their use at the show. Notes the completely oblivious answer from the head of CES.

If you owned an iPad, iPod, iANYTHING, you could seriously spend the whole time looking solely at products made to connect to, hold, enhance, or otherwise augment your iANYTHING. These little weirdos were iPod speaker docks (iThink). I actually kind of like the ones that look like the ghosts from Pac Man.

Celebs were everywhere. Yes, some of them were there because they were launching a new headphone line (Luda/50), but others were obviously there just to get a check. Justin Beiber was there talking about robotics. Snooki was there, and unless she was talking about tanning beds, I’m going to guess she has no connection with the product she was there to support.

See Ya, Las Vegas

Overall, CES still is one of the greatest events I’ve ever been to. I’m not going to say that everything there relates to social – because it doesn’t. However, if we’re not keeping track of the consumers’ use of technology in accessing information, connecting with each other, and consuming media, then we’re missing the point. There’s so much more to marketing that happens outside the person-to-screen world that we often forget that there are opportunities in just about every aspect of daily life.

Check out our full gallery of SCG CES 2012 pics here.

Disclosure: Some photos and descriptions of products may reference clients of Spring Creek Group’s parent companies, Mediabrands and IPG. These are not meant as advertisements or endorsements and no compensation has been made to this blog or the author for their inclusion.

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CES 2012: Sin City Goes Techy

• Jan 12th, 2012
• Posted by Ron Schott
• Posted in #2012, #MBWWCES, CES, TECHNOLOGY, Uncategorized

All Las Vegas cliches aside, this show is absolutely incredible. I’ve been to CES before, but haven’t ever stepped foot on the show floor – instead being stuck in dark press briefing suites. After only a day on the floor, I can say that this is absolutely the craziest thing I have ever been a part of.

Besides the endless rows of iAccessories (seriously, if you can put it on or put your in something, it’s here), there is a lot of innovative tech at CES this year – and some of it might actually be useful.

MommyTech (FamilyTech)

Mommy bloggers changed the way the internet world looked not only from a content perspective, but from a marketing perspective as well. Now, a whole new sector of tech is aimed at providing an enriched family experience  to consumers – not just moms.

From companies that are offering geo-fencing technologies for cell phones so parents can keep tabs on their teens to prenatal learning technology, it’s all here and it’s all interesting. Gamification is definitely in play as parents look to reward healthy lifestyles and development. There are pedometer-based technologies that look more like toys than a boring pedometer, which could lead to envy among some kids if their pedometer isn’t as cool as the next.

Look for influences in the MommyTech to start changing the way families not only interact with each other, but how they interact with technology. The more apt consumers are to input and share information, the more likely they are to interact with brands using new technologies.

Health + Fitness

This was probably the most-interesting part of the floor that I saw today. United Health Group, an insurance agency, had an incredible booth that not only showcased some of their technologies that are helping companies create healthier employees, but it also was just really well done. The health and tech worlds have long been friends, but up until recently that friendship was purely functional as technologies pushed forward and brought data management solutions and patient care advancements to the health field.

What United Health Group and others in the area bring to the table now is a truly enriched experience for users that puts them in control of information and support for their health needs. Throw in some game mechanics that can be shared with friends/coworkers and you’ve got a modern day recipe for healthy living.

One of the companies in this space that’s been making headlines recently is FitBit. Their pedometers which are crazy-tiny and not ugly at all are being used in offices across the U.S., but their recent product – the Aria scale is almost too pretty to keep in your bathroom. The scale, which connects wirelessly to your home network, allows consumers to track progress, share stats, and connect with friends through their online interface. When paired with FitBit’s pedometer, consumers have an integrated solution that (hopefully) leads to a healthier life.

Motorola, fresh off the heels of their acquisition by Google, launched their fitness-focused product – MOTOACTV. The watch-like device is hyper-tuned to keeping people motivated, while tracking and logging their progress. The device is the same size as a watch and comes running a variant of Android. As my colleague from IPG Media Lab said today “stuff’s going to get crazy when people start rooting these.” The possibilities are endless.

Again, this is a space where people wouldn’t have dreamed about being in 5-10 years ago. Sharing weight loss and fitness information didn’t happen – or at least not outside of Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers groups. Today friends are sharing their runs with apps like Runkeeper, tracking calories with MyFitnessPal.com, and using Nike+ like it’s no big deal. Imagine what’s next.

Up Next…

Car tech, more TVs than you can shake a stick at, social everywhere, and the weirdest things I’ve found at CES.

Disclosure: Some photos and descriptions of products may reference clients of Spring Creek Group’s parent companies, Mediabrands and IPG. These are not meant as advertisements or endorsements and no compensation has been made to this blog or the author.

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Social Marketing Trends for 2012

• Jan 5th, 2012
• Posted by admin
• Posted in Uncategorized

As 2011 was coming to a close, the team at Spring Creek Group was already running headlong into 2012. This next year will be an incredible time in digital media, that’s a given. The deck below takes a look at the coming trends and how they will impact consumers and marketers alike in 2012.

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