My Exclusive Interview with So and So of You Know Where!!

So it just so happens that my housemate is a Digital Marketer. I can't tell you her name or who she works for (social media policy and all) except that it is a fairly succesful Australian retailer.

The interview went something like this...

AP: So how long have you been a Digital Marketer for?

So and So: I have been a digital marketer for the past three years but I've been working with websites for maybe the past five

AP: And have you always used social media in that role?

SS: In my current role, so for the last three years, yes I've always used social media

AP: And how do you think it's changed over time?

SS: So when I started in my role the only social media we really used actively was Facebook and now we use 5 or 6 different social media channels so I think there's been a huge amount of new social media channels that people are using. I think the way people use social media also changes all the time ... just their willingness to interact with brands and how they want to interact with brands has changed. A lot of people use social media to complain and for sales and things like that rather than anything else

AP: So you said you use 5 or 6 platforms, which ones do you use?

SS: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and we have a blog... I think that's everything

AP: And which one do you find the most effective for your business?

SS: So Facebook we've obviously got the most followers cause Facebook has been around for so much longer and we've been actively using it for so much longer. Definitely when we put a promotion or anything on Facebook it gets the most traction. But we've just recently, like this year, started using Pinterest and that's been really effective for our brand because our brand is very visual so yeah that's been really good for us and then also we find Twitter is quite good our following is a lot smaller but it's quite effective as well

AP: Do you look at how it translates into sales, like the conversion and in terms of which platform is better conversion-wise?

SS: Yeah so we look at mostly just using analytics, just look at how many people are coming from different social media platforms and actually then shopping on our site so yeah looking directly at how much revenue we generate from each social media platform on a monthly basis and yeah Facebook is the biggest but then it's... it used to be Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest has just taken over Twitter

AP: And how do you manage negative comments?

SS: Negative comments we always respond to and we never delete them or hide them or anything like that so basically our strategy to any negative comment is to acknowledge it, apologise and direct them to our customer service team so get them off of social media as soon as we can cause people just tend to rant and the longer you've got them ranting on your page the worse it is

AP: Do you have like a set list of dialogue that you use?

SS: We don't have like a set dialogue but we definitely have like a language that we speak in but I suppose cause I've been working there so long it's just quite natural for me but if I was to get a really difficult, negative comment on Facebook I would probably write up a response and then take that to our PR person or our Marketing Manager and say do you think this is ok? and then respond to them

AP: And what about over the weekend, do you have anyone monitoring over the weekend?

SS: Not really but the people above me say my manager and the Marketing Manager would occasionally look on our Facebook page so I think they sort of have it on their radar a little bit and if we've got some sort of special promotion or something going on, like you know we had this campaign that ran over two weeks and it was every day and so then we'd have someone checking it over the weekendbut other than that no

AP: Do they have like alerts set up on their phone to keep an eye out for bad comments?

SS: Oh not necessarily for bad comments but they'd just constantly be logged in on their phone and just check our page

AP: Well thank you very much So and So

THE END

Spotify Rocks!!

So just as I quasi-predicted a few blogs ago, my love for Pinterest has somewhat fallen by the way side...
But I now have a new love and it goes by the name Spotify - only this time I don't think I'm going to fall out of love so easily (don't worry Pinterest I still think you're great I just haven't had much need for you of late).

EXCEPT that I'm trying to spice this blog up with a little bit of music c/o Spotify and I can't seem to get their 'Spotify Play Button' feature to work - can anyone help me???? Does it have something to do with the fact I'm using Blogger??? Spotify appear to be affiliated with Tumblr but there is nothing to say that it won't work with other blog hosting programs. Hm...

But it's ok Spotify cause you've redeemed yourself with pretty quickly with the 'Clean up your MP3s' feature i.e. your collaboration with Gracenote. How good is this!!! I am horrified every time I look at the list of songs I have in iTunes - and now those days can be a thing of the past - I'm a little bit excited right now!!

So now to the point of this blog (sorry I promise I had every intention of getting to the point quickly this time round but I keep finding new things I want to talk about).

Point no. 1 - Spotify and Advertising
Despite their best efforts to convince companies to advertise with them http://www.spotify.com/au/work-with-us/advertisers/ they're not really selling it for me. Yes Spotify is popular and it can offer all of the great little targeting techniques that a lot of other social media can offer but from what I can see all you get is a banner ad when you login, albeit a big banner ad smack bang at eye level, but still just a banner ad. Their partnerships on the other hand seem to offer a more attractive marketing opportunity because it gives companies the opportunity to associate Spotify with their brand and that means some of Spotify's great image can rub off on the brand. Apps are another good way that companies can leverage off Spotify's success but these only appear to be good for companies/brands that are either music related and/or working in the digital realm.

Point no. 2 - Spotify and Artists
Unless your the Beatles and Led Zeppelin (not on Spotify), an artist would be crazy not to want their music on Spotify. On second thoughts I think the Beatles and Led Zeppelin are crazy too - they may not need any help in getting their music heard (or extra cash for that matter) but unlike music piracy, they'll continue to get the royalties they so rightly deserve for their music. Now back to everyone else - Spotify offers a really easy to use platform for people to access and listen to music, all the while paying royalties every time a song is played.  Furthermore, the ability to post songs on Facebook, share music with friends and follow friends on Spotify means people are spreading the word about an artist's music i.e.the holy grail of eWOM that all brands (and that inc.artists too) strive for. Features such as Top Lists, Related Artists, Artist Radio and some of the available Apps all help in getting an artist's music heard.

So I guess the verdict is Nay for non-music related brands and Yay for music related brands. What do you think - Yay or Nay??

To Tweet or not To Tweet??

 SM Experiment - Observations Pt 2 (final - I'm bored already!!)

Ok so the second part of my experiment didn't quite go to plan. Why? Because I had absolutely no idea what to tweet!!

I tried easing into it with a retweet and then followed it up with a "what I ate for breakfast" type tweet... and then nothing.

I considered using it to have a go at Officework's Same Day delivery policy until I reliased the order was placed at 11.34 and their cut off time is 11.30am (sorry Officework's call centre guy...)

In desperation I even considered replying to one of @Coca-Cola's "What made you smile today?" posts, but then quickly came to my senses.

I thought my experiment had failed miserably until I realised - perhaps I'm not alone. Perhaps people aren't using Twitter to tell everyone about what they had for breakfast and sure there are people who respond to @Coca-Cola and @Red Bull's post but are they just a minority? So perhaps the real question I'm supposed to answer is How do people use Twitter?

Here in bullet points is some of the info I found (from various sources) to help answer this question.

• Twitter has 500M registered users but only 200M are active
• 40% of users don't actually tweet, they just use it to follow what's going on in this big crazy world of ours - told you I'm not alone
• 36% tweet at least once per day, with an average visit time of 11:50 minutes
• Only 8% of all adult(18-65)internet users use Twitter on a typical day
• One in five smartphone owners (20%)are Twitter users, with 13% using the service on a typical day
• 55% of all Twitter users use the service to share links to news stories, and 53% retweet others
• 92% of retweets are based on “interesting content.” Only 26% are due to inclusion of “please RT!” in the tweet

So what does this mean for marketers??? Well just my opinion, but I tend to think marketers should leave the engagement/conversational stuff to the likes of Facebook and use Twitter as more of a support/broadcast medium. But use those 140 characters to their maximum potential to encourage users to want to follow you, to increase the chances of the message being retweeted and to lead them to wherever it is you want them to go (e-commerce site, instagram, facebook etc.)

What do you think?

Twitter never sleeps...

SM Experiment - Observations Part 1

Setting up your Twitter account to get push notifications on your mobile from all the brands you're following, and then forgetting to put it on silent before going to bed, not so much fun on a  Saturday morning at 8am. It seems to be a hot time to tweet.... perhaps on a weekday (people on public transport making their way to work checking their smart phones)... but on a Saturday - another hour or so please!!

Aside from that my first week of Twitter has been ..... how shall I put it.... non-stop!! Tweet after tweet after tweet after tweet.  Admittedly more irritating thanks to the push notifications but particularly irritating if brands are tweeting for the sake of tweeting.... I'm looking at you @redbull. 

Probably the most active of all the brands I chose to follow in my first week of Twitter, it's as if their Twitter person purposely trawls the Internet looking for material (non-brand related) to post that they're fans might appreciate and is in line with the brand - some of it gets a reaction and some of it doesn't. Then when they can't find anything they'll send out some inspirational line to get a conversation happening.  To their credit their followers seem to respond and before you know it the Twitter person is now spending his time replying to each individual response but it all feels a little TOO contrived, repetitive and ultimately boring for my liking.

Now take @karenwalker for instance, their tweets include broadcasting pics of celebrities who have been spotted wearing their fashion pieces, and in light of their upcoming appearance at New York Fashion Week, have been posting tweets about their journey. Sure their marketing team probably sat around a boardroom table and came up with the idea to post tweets about the journey, just as celebrities wearing their merchandise isn't always by accident but the timing of the posts is a little more scattered and they're broadcasting  news about the brand that is worth shouting about at the time that it happens. The overall feel - a little more spontaneous and interesting to follow.

Am I being a little biased because I clearly have a greater interest in what @karenwalker has to say over what @redbull has to say? Perhaps... so let me know what you think. Check out their twitter feeds here and post a comment below.

http://twitter.com/redbull
http://twitter.com/karenwalker

My SM experiment...

No it's not a YouTube video/blog, and it's not an ad on Facebook. It is ... wait for it....

(scroll down)

(keep scrolling)

I'VE JOINED TWITTER!!!!!!!!

Something I once vowed never to do - after all it was just another place where people could toot their own horn - at least that's what I thought. I've since learned (and not through experience) that it can be a really useful tool for staying in the loop - whether it be headline news, or news from your favourite brands, people etc.

So I've joined and carefully selected a range of brands to follow; from the ones we love to hate and always seem to talk about(Woolworths and Wesfarmers), to big brands (Coca Cola, Red Bull), to brands I like (Karen Walker, Gorman). I even threw in richardbranson out of curiosity. 

Over the next week, with the help of mobile push notifications, I'm going to observe what these brands post and report back in next week's blog. 

I have also opted in for Twitters tailored suggestions - a new function it is currently testing - and monitor how well this function works.

Then next week I shall begin tweeting - in response to posts, referencing brands, re-tweeting etc. I have also opted to Tweet with my location as I am interested to see what location-specific tweets I get in response.

So that's my "experiment". I guess the only question I have before I get started is - are there any other brands that I should be following?

Is Viral the be all and end all???

So online video isn't exactly new to me but as I delve into the world of YouTube to explore it further it turns out I now have a YouTube profile - thanks Google c/o Blogger - and I can create my own channel!!! Hmm perhaps not just yet - baby steps - but maybe one day - after all if Natalie Tran can do it????????

I also found that there is more to YouTube than trying to get your video to go viral.

Whilst I do believe that 'going viral' is great for low involvement products that have a broad target market and where reach and frequency needs to be high (and if it's the earned media type - even better), but where a brand is targeting a somewhat more niche market then I don't think viral is the be all and end all - but that's not to say that online video still can't be a great tool for your brand.

Video can be a great platform for your brand whether it be about providing information e.g. show your product in action

making announcements e.g. launch new products

or simply an alternative or additional channel for your advertisements (ok so this example isn't exactly niche but I couldn't resist after last week's discussion)

The tough part is driving people to your videos/channel in the first place and ensuring that it is relevant and engaging enough for them to want to share it - not necessarily with everyone but those who count. Here is a great post that recently appeared on MarketingMag.com.au - I found the part about understanding your objectives and more importantly distribution particularly interesting

Finding the magic formula for your online video strategy

What are some other ways your brand, or brands you know of, have used online video as a media channel?

Pinterest - where have you been all my life?

Ok so the title is a bit of an exaggeration... I am loving Pinterest at the moment because I'm finding it an extremely useful tool for decorating my first home, but really how long is this love affair going to last? Will I get over it once my apartment is furnished or will I create more boards and continue to use it as a space to bookmark the things which I like so that I can refer to them when I need/want to. I guess only time will tell!

Regardless, it did take me a long time to get to this point. In fact I only found out about Pinterest a few months ago from a guest speaker in my Direct Marketing class last semester and even then it wasn't until last week (after registering for it straight after class) that I actually started using it.

Now getting straight to the point this week - Pinterest & Marketing - how/can/do they go together?

Well this guest speaker (whose name I haven't stated or the company she works for as I have not sought permission) seemed to think so and so it seems should we if this infographic (c/o Mashable) she shared with us is anything to go by:



Just to reiterate - Buyers referred from Pinterest are 10% more likely to buy something and spend 10% more on average than visitors who arrive from other social networks - with stats like that is Pinterest the Pinnacle of Social Media for Marketers???

Perhaps from a product pushing perspective - like Kikki K have succesfully done here http://pinterest.com/kikkik/ - companies can create boards for different collections and Pinterest users can nominate to follow these companies and stay in the loop on all of their latest products.

And from an ROI perspective - from the company's boards individuals can either click straight on through to buy or pin it and come back to it later (either intentionally or thanks to repeated views on thier Pinterest boards). Either way thanks to all those clever measurement tools companies can see how much people are buying thanks to Pinterest. Of course, it doesn't capture the in-store purchases thanks to Pinterest but if the online is doing well then the in-store is a definite bonus.

And finally whilst I can't see how it can open up a direct dialogue like some of the other forms of social media, it can serve to give the company/brand personality - by having a board not only of their products but related products and interests shared by their consumers i.e. things they have pinned from other sites - and in turn give it credibility (see Lidia's comment to my last blog) and perhaps even a different form of engagement (see Wags comment to last blog)i.e. if a person re-pins their pins then they've made a connection!!

Ah Pinterest ... I'm starting to like you more and more...
Anyone else a fan?????