Future Implications of Social Media

The use of social media has exploded in recent history with the big players  like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest being integrated into everyday life for the majority of the planet.  Companies have been able to utilize social media to connect with their customers on a level that was never before available with real time “face to face” communications.  The brands that have embraced social media as a major factor in their marketing strategy have taken a leap ahead of their competitors who have not.

Being an early adopter requires a company to constantly evolve and adjust their tactics to keep up with emerging social media.  Pinterest seemingly took off overnight and garnered a huge user base and brands that were able to utilize Pinterest for their product were one step ahead of the competition.  With new apps, services and platforms being introduced to the market daily there is a wealth of effective ways to communicate with your customers but also a large number of them will not succeed.  The ability to know which developing social media outlets will prove beneficial as well as being able to successfully utilize them for their brand is a skill that all companies will need to learn master to succeed.

Viral Marketing Initiatives

What do you think makes a marketing initiative go viral? Write a blog post around your choice of top five characteristics of a viral campaign (your opinion).

Having your marketing campaign go viral can be an instant ticket to success these days but it doesn’t just happen for no reason … ok sometimes it does and those are the gems that you need to look out for however there are a few characteristics that can work together to help garner that elusive “gone viral” title.

Content – Content is King!  Without quality content that people are genuinely interested in you will have a tough time getting “everyone” to share it.  The key to content is that people want to feel the need to tell everyone in their social feeds that this is something you have to see.  Some people think their BLT is something that the world needs to see but unless that BLT is jumping over a speeding Aston Martin then I don’t think I need to see it.

Humor – When you have a humorous video or post there is a better chance that it will be shared amongst friends and throughout social media outlets.  I can count how many times people have sent me links and said “hey check out this video, it’s horrible and your day will only get worse after having watched it”  That number thankfully is 0!  You can get lost in the rabbit hole spending time on website like CollegeHumor or FunnyOrDie and if you can capture the attention of viewers with funny content then its off to the races.

Originality – The funniest content in the world will sink like a rock if it’s been done before.  You need your content to be original and something that no one has ever seen.  Although it is not intended to be humorous by the poster, Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday was an overnight explosion due to its . . . uniqueness?  Just the third video on his YouTube channel posted 6 years ago, Chocolate Rain was different enough to get the world to say “you HAVE to hear this song” and 93 million views later you could say it was a viral success.

Excitement – Viewers need to feel excited about your content or they will move onto the next best thing.  The Red Bull Stratos freefall jump with Felix Baumgartner was an event like no other.  Jumping from the edge of space and freefalling to Earth all while the entire planet watched was just the thing to get eye glued to the monitors.

Sharing – The ability to spread the funny, original and exciting content that you’ve created is the single most important mechanic for your marketing initiative.  Creating content that is easily shared across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media outlets is integral to it going viral.  One person shows two people, who show four people, and one of those 4 people shows their 300,000 twitter followers and the sharing pushes your content out faster than you could ever do yourself.  Soon enough it will reach Kevin Bacon’s doorstep in no time flat!

There are the flukes out there that go viral with absolutely no planning such as Charlie Bit My Finger which is just a pair of kids chewing on each other which garnered 535 million views  then there are staged viral videos like the Gillette commercial where Evan Longoria bare hand catches a ball before it hits a reporter.
Either way if you want to go viral and have it be in a positive way the 5 characteristics listed above are a great starting point when you want to infect the internet with your content.

 

 

References

http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/

http://mashable.com/2013/07/09/jonah-berger-viral-content/

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/viral-marketing-cheatsheet/?wide=1

http://www.t2social.com/social-media-case-study-old-spice/#sthash.rRUOcULw.2gBKKRQi.dpbs

Differentiation

Recently a wave of frozen yogurt dealers setup shop in Rhode Island.  Yes I am calling them dealers because this stuff is addicting!  Pinkberry moved in just over a year ago and Orange Leaf has just opened up more recently.  Although Pinkberry got their hooks into me early I want to just to step back and compare the social media presence of both companies to see which would be most effective in enticing an unknowingly future froyo addict into their grasp.

Pinkberry utilizes four of the big social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram.  Starting at their Facebook page which boasts over half a million “likes” which is littered with images of their yogurt in all configurations to try and catch the eye of everyone with a different taste palette.   Each post has anywhere between a few thousand likes and tens to thousands of comments.  This shows they have active followers consistently watching their Facebook activity,

The Pinkberry Twitter feed highlights many of the same images in hotlinks as well as promotions for events and new products.  With just over 46,000 followers the posts are not re tweeted very much so it does not have the same “sharability” as their Facebook posts.

Pinkberry recently ran a promotion with Foursquare and Twitter as people would check into Pinkberry locations with Foursquare and then tweet their location.  The city with the most check ins got Pinkberry gift cards which combined the user base for two social media outlets for cross promotion.

Orange Leaf also takes advantage of the same major social media sites.  One thing that stands out is that they may not have secured “Orange Leaf” for some of the sites as they use the moniker of “MyOrangeLeaf” for their @ Twitter handle as well as their Instagram feed.  Maybe a certain Laura V’s single post as @orangeleaf back in 2009 of “having breakfast and browsing on the internet” was too much for the company to try and follow up!  The other option is they named the sites to match their My Orange Leaf program and if that is the case they are building brand unity across all mediums even if it may take someone a few extra clicks to find them.

Orange Leaf’s Twitter feed is a little more one on one as they are responding directly to a lot of their 9,700 followers.  This gives a more personalized feel to the feed as they are communicating directly with their customer base.  Similar to their Facebook page, the Orange Leaf Twitter page sports info on all of their other social media links giving viewers all of their information within reach.

One thing that both companies have are mobile apps for Android phones and iPhones.   They can be used to locate the nearest store, show what flavors are available and even track your rewards card status for your Pinkberry card and Orange Leaf Ounce Back programs.  Seeing the major increase in mobile phone usage in the United States it is an easy choice to create an application that yogurt fans can have on them at all times to get updates on new flavors or find a new store when they are out.

Overall both Pinkberry and Orange Leaf are utilizing their social media outlets in effective ways but each of them seems to be hitting certain aspects differently.  Pinkberry uses catchy one liners to draw attention to their Twitter whereas Orange Leaf  spends more time communicating back to their followers.  Pinkberry is more established and had a three year head start on Orange Leaf so they are in a better position to maintain their current customer base as well as grow it.  Orange Leaf is looking to expand their footprint as they focus their store on being a fun experience and their social media portrays this with family photos and children running through the stores.  If pure numbers  determine who is mnor successful, Pinkberry has more eyes on their social media accounts as Facebook has half a million likes which is a six to one ratio and their Twitter has a five to one ratio of followers compared to Orange Leaf’s 9,200 followers.

Pinkberry and Orange Leaf both push a great product and they use similar tools with somewhat different approaches to get more people into their stores.  The main goal is to get as much froyo into as many faces as possible and they both are leveraging social media to their advantage to do just that.