While the promoted topics weren’t really targeted regionally at first, over the last year they’ve started to become a great place for regional and local marketing to get the word out in a major city for a major event very soon.  In the next year Twitter will make some huge strides in making themselves accessible to local businesses.  They’ve talked at length about just how in depth their targeting can be, and unlike Facebook and Myspace, it can change up to the minute.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter is a great place for short term and event marketing.  With Facebook you have to take some time to build up your event page, maybe even a few weeks.  With Twitter’s promoted items you can have your event scene and get a following built in a few days or even a few hours (although you should still give it some solid time to build).  Twitter has taken its big advantage, the fact that their feeds move a lot faster than other social media sites, and developed an infrastructure that takes full advantage of the fact.  The result is that Twitter is one of the best places on the web to promote a marketing event.  I’ve talked a lot in the last few weeks about what the major video game retailers, like Gamestop, have been doing on social media.  That’s because, more than any industry I’ve seen, they’re taking advantage of the new things Twitter has to offer for businesses.  Twitter is offering a level of demographic targeting unheard of before, and they’re able to do it in a timely manner.  Once they really start rolling out the regional advertising and promoted topics they could very quickly unseat Facebook as the place to spend your time and advertising dollars.

Another advantage of Twitter in 2012 is that they are working to overcome the idea that they tend to skew toward a younger demographic.  In the past, advertisers had a difficult time advertising toward kids largely because they aren’t the ones who control the cash flow.  A lot of big companies eschewed advertising directly to kids and instead focused those ads on the adult women demo (i.e. Mom). They’ve forgone advertising to kids altogether, the logic being, to “cut out the middle man” and not rely on kids to convince their parents to fork over their cash.  Thanks to social media and digital streaming this has started to become antiquated thinking.  By targeting specific demos with ads that are easy to vary and easy to send to different people virtually whenever you want you give kids something they can take to their parents directly instead of relying on them to sell your message on their own.  Also, just like with Facebook, the Twitter audience will start getting a bit older and more and more of the over 25 crowed will join in.  In 2012 Twitter could find itself the far and away most diverse social media platform as far as age groups go.

One thing I talked about at length some time ago but I haven’t mention in a while is the notion of a Flash Sale.  Basically you tell your social media followers you have a deal going on in the next “x hours” (or minutes if you want to see who is really paying attention)  It’s a great way to spread your message virally and will establish your Twitter as the place to go for awesome deals.  With Twitter being friendlier to advertisers and growing in demos in a big way it would be a great time to try one out.  You could also get a great gage on how much your customer base is online and just what kind of audience you have without all that expensive and time consuming focus grouping.

The 5 Hottest Social Ad Trends of 2012

On social sites, tune the message to the medium

Online advertising budgets: 5% for Facebook in 2012

The biggest change coming that missed 2011 by just a tick is Digital Streaming Integration.  They had some stumbling but 2012 could very well be the year that digital streaming takes over some portion of your local cable.  With the number of people relying on their X-Boxes, Playstations, Internet ready TVs and Blu ray players instead of traditional cable is growing daily. (Myself included) It’s hard to ignore the notion that cable is old fashion.  This year the NFL, ESPN, Major League Baseball and Fox Sports are all making deals where you can watch all their content via subscription. HBO and other major networks are putting the majority of their content on Hulu.  Digital streaming will cement itself as a viable alternative and more.

Twitter Targeting is getting more and more specific and will become a great place for regional business to get into this year.  The major video game companies have used it to great effect over the Christmas season so it shows that Twitter can be even more of a hub for niche marketing than Facebook if used right.  Soon regional and local business will use Twitter to target specific demographics in their specific region.  This could make Twitter the perfect place to do flash sales (something I’ve been a huge proponent of for small businesses wanting some big social media traffic).  They’ve already expanded their profile pages in anticipation.  Keep an eye out for big Twitter news in the beginning of 2012.

Don’t count Google + out just yet.  They still have 65 million users and 20% of those were in the last few months of 2011.  It’s also emerged as a great place for business-to-business marketing and more adult oriented consumer products.  Twitter’s problem is that they’ve always seemed young and that makes it harder to market to them considering, ultimately, kids don’t control the purse strings. (Ever notice how kids movies tend to play during shows women 35 and over enjoy. They’re targeting mom).

Foursquare is another one to watch.  Here is a fact for you; roughly 10,000 smart phones go active everyday.  With all those new users, mobile marketing is now as important and necessary as having your social media and SEO up to date.  One mobile site that would be good for a small business to follow is Foursquare.  Foursquare has actually been around for a few years but it didn’t have the mobile Internet to get things going until smart phones really blew up.  Now even Facebook is trying to adapt its model as one of their features but that hasn’t really taken off just yet.  Foursquare is getting more and more fans everyday and could rival Twitter in social media use if they play their cards right in 2012.  Start some exclusive giveaways for people with a high number of check-ins and encourage people to talk you up and you could be at the front of a site that’s really exploding next year.

QR Codes have been a prickly area for a lot of business.  I worked with one in April that wanted to put them on their tray tables and displays in their restaurant.  The reality is that it wasn’t easy to scan and view them online.  It doesn’t take an ad wizard to know that people don’t want to work to see your advertising.  But with some new tech springing up and mobile Internet getting faster and faster it’s a lot easier.  QR Codes are going to be a huge deal very soon.  They can also be a great way to gage your customer’s mobile marketing potential.  Use them to reward loyal customers that use your Facebook and Twitter.  Remember the more you give them the more likely they are to talk and the better your SEO will be.  (See, everybody wins)

Not for profits on social media are also on the verge of getting some big boosts in the coming year.  With sites like Kickstarter making national headlines it’s only a matter of time before Facebook, Twitter, and other sites make special considerations for charities using social media to raise funding. I’ve actually been working with some non-profits on social media for years and I’ve been a little annoyed with the lack of consideration on the part of some of those sites.  But 2012 looks like a great year for non-profit groups to get what they need using social media.

Facebook Will Take Over The World In 2012

5 Social Media Facts For 2012

Tips For Your 2012 Social Media Strategy

It was the great entertainment mastermind Justin Bieber who openly came out against one of the many huge copyright infringement bills threatening to cripple sites like YouTube and Daily motion.  In all seriousness, even though he might not fully grasp what he’s saying his people sure do.  They understand that videos that might use unlicensed material are the bread and butter of YouTube.  (And without YouTube they wouldn’t have a client or a fan base.)  They might not want to admit it but that’s the main reason people come there, not the small array of TV shows, tie in exclusives, and movies they have.  If bills like that are passed it will set streaming video back to the 90s and cripple the new developing tech that is replacing cable.  (Of course there are some people who want that to happen.)

In a lot of ways, just like how piracy was a growing pain on the music industry’s way to massive changes the same can be said for the piracy of TV and video.  Making it illegal now would take away a huge portion of the content that these sites have and the bulk of people’s reason to come there.  In the next few years people will accept these sites as the place to go for the newest stuff and they will pay for them. Similar to how people accepted iTunes very easily as an alternative to the free illegal download sites.  It will come and it will happen in the next few years and if they let some of this piracy go they will make money off things in the long run, similar to the kind of money apple is making now.

Obviously I’m not advocating piracy.  Stealing is wrong but sometimes, not always, it’s necessary for new mass communications technology.  If the case of Napster v. iTunes isn’t enough for you then you can go back just a bit further to another industry that was plagued by pirates and emerged a few years later stronger for it.  For a long time the Adult Entertainment industry has been the canary in the coal mine for new mass communications technologies.

Before the major film studios started putting things out on home video, adult entertainment was there.  Before Sony pictures became the first studio legally allowing people to buy and download movies the adult entertainment industry did it across the board.  They also had major piracy problems but because they embraced new technology instead of sticking with the antiquated versions they came out the better.  Both these examples show (Yes I know that sounds like a term paper transition) that piracy is actually less about getting something for free and more about getting things that are convenient.  It’s about the path of least resistance and if they can settle on a reasonable price point for streaming video services they won’t have to worry about piracy, those customers will come back.

Ultimately this does effect what happens to your advertising dollars.  If everything keeps going up the way it is, soon the streaming sites will become friendlier to regional advertising.  Justin.TV is already doing some of that and they are also getting some interesting exclusive content from sites like Geekweek.com.  (Making them a great site to watch for niche advertising)  If this kind of legislation gets through it could make YouTube look like MySpace very quickly.  If you have a YouTube channel that is a pretty big part of your digital marketing you might want to take a look at some other streaming sites or just keep a look out for this sort of thing.

Game consoles credited with video streaming explosion

Justin Bieber Is the Voice of Reason Concerning Online Streaming?

Verizon Could Invest Billions in Netflix in Streaming Video Play

Nobody does social media for sports fans like Buffalo Wild Wings, even going as far as to create a holiday for them, complete with special offers and incentives to keep them coming back (Happy Footballica!), little things like that are a great way to bring in this kind of niche audience that is always looking for some new giveaways.  They even coincide their sweepstakes (they refer to them as challenges, never miss a chance to get your audience in the right mode, every word counts even if you have unlimited space.) with whatever is going on in sports.  Their challenges end on Sundays during football season, meaning that people on their Facebook pages are checking them out at the same time they’re watching the Bears game.

One great thing you can do with social media marketing to sports fans that you can’t do with other forms of marketing is time everything to the minute.  You can’t schedule a radio or tv commercial specific to what is happening but you can do a social media update talking about specific details.  Log on to Facebook at halftime or sporadically during the game and you could very well get people who view your page as unmissable game time material.  Just like Buffalo Wild Wings, you can easily convert Facebook fans to loyal customers if they think you’re an indispensible resource for up to date info.   It doesn’t matter if it’s at the local or national level.  Sports fans will find a good page and go there with a passion.

One thing that has really blown up on social media for sports fans over the last few years is fantasy leagues.  Running a fantasy league is easy and you can really just use NFl.com’s page and link it to your Facebook.   Even though you can’t gamble through Facebook you can still give prizes for your leagues winner at the end of the season (word your rules very carefully when you post them to avoid problems) post some updates and news about your fantasy league, even if it’s just with your employees.  People will get into it and start talking and within a year or so you could have a huge following for your fantasy league and make your draft a huge in house event.

One company doing something similar is EA Sports.  They have updates every week on the latest sports stories and post all the predictions before the games start.  EA is setting themselves up as the Fantasy Footballers dream site and it’s paying off big in SEO and eyes going to their official site.

Ultimately there are many different ways to get the social media savvy sports fan to your page.  The good news is they are looking for the newest stuff and are always hungry for more deals, giveaways and info.   The bad news is that you have a lot more competition.  It might take some time but if you make a genuine and enthusiastic attempt to give fans stuff to do on your page they will stick around and give your product a boost.  Don’t be afraid to get your employees involved at first.  If your page looks busy it will entice people to join in.  Be aggressive, these people want more info, you aren’t going to scare them off easily.

Social Media in Sports and Entertainment: Three Mega Trends in 2012

5 Tips For Marketing To Sports fans

Rejuvenating the Muppet brand started with building buzz on Twitter.  They didn’t just create a page for the brand, they created one that embodies it.  They did it from the point of view of the characters (see here my personal favorites Statler and Waldorf). Potbelly Sandwiches did the same thing, instead of just using their brand name they have it come straight from the VP of marketing.  They give it a real voice instead of just a faceless brand with a megaphone.  This plays great on Twitter and it’s really surprising that not a lot of people get it.  The second you treat Twitter like a department store P.A system is when you start losing followers.  Take a lesson from the Muppets, use it to interact, have fun and the people who are loyal to your brand will spread the word for you.  Once you have established that, then you can launch an entirely different twitter for special advertisements and offers just like Disney did (Muppet Central)

So the Muppet Twitter took off pretty steadily to the point that it attracted a good and loyal fanbase.  The fanbase was so loyal they started creating offshoot twitter accounts.  The Muppets for Oscar Host Twitter took off in a huge way and got some national TV buzz, without Disney having to lift a finger.  This just shows what can happen when you take the time to build a loyal fanbase (And not go crazy with protecting your trademarks, but that’s another issue). This can happen on a global level like Disney and the Muppets or it can happen on a regional level like with 5 Guys Burgers or Play N’ Trade.

Along with Twitter, Disney launched a great Youtube and viral video campaign. Even smaller business shouldn’t underestimate the value of a good viral video.  Sometimes the cheapest ones are the ones that catch on the most.  Even the Muppet ones couldn’t cost more than what a small business could do.  Commercials like The Johnson Automotive Badger are a fun easy way to get some great SEO with some videos.  The more people watch them, the more you show up in search engines. As with Twitter, start with getting eyes and then worry about pushing your brand.  The push will come naturally – getting people to look at your stuff is the hard part.

I did some work for a riverboat casino launching their social media.  We did a hard launch email blast and got a solid thousand out of that.  Then the first thing they wanted was a way to get people into their place.  The mistake made was putting together a hasty coupon promotion that didn’t boost our fan count and didn’t go over well.  The lesson from that and the example you should take from the Muppets is that if you push your brand on your customers too early, you could lose your momentum. But keep in mind there is also a expiration date to push your brand. If you wait too long you could lose that momentum and lose the interest of the people who want to look at you every day.  Take a lesson from the Muppets, give your audience something to talk about and build from there.  If things get going, your audience will create content and build your SEO for you. The car dealership above did the same thing as Disney, they just did it on a regional level.

Muppets Social Campaign

Analzying The Muppets Marketing Campaign

As we’ve seen in the past with some pretty big regional and national brands (i.e Hot Topic, Five Guys, Threadless, etc.) have blown up because of their shrewd use of social media.  Just like how smaller video game retailers have started hitting it big in the wake of blockbuster scaling back their stores. There is now a lot of room for independent and smaller bookstores to make a real impact if they use social media sites right.  Social media is, after all, nothing if not a great equalizer among retailers.  Mom and Pop’s books gets roughly the same amount of Twitter and Facebook space as Barnes and Noble.  Independent book retailers on a budget can do big things with social media.

Books are really the world’s largest niche market.  There is a massive market out there looking for the next great thing to read.  The goal for any small book retailer on social media should be to build up that excitement right on your page.  Build yourself up as the place to go to find the next big thing and keep up with what’s coming out soon.  As with all social media niche marketing, you are building a hub for people to talk to each other and build buzz for things like in store events.  Ask more questions than anything else and try to respond with statements that continue conversation. (Use the phrase “yes and…” in all your posts.)

One thing niche marketing businesses, particularly indie bookstores, can do is build events on social media.  A digital launch party is a great way to get some fans and establish yourself and maybe even get some free press out of it.  Make it an event both in store and online.  Give them a coupon or some small gift for being your fan and coming in.  The best social media events build interest in both the fan page and the physical store.

One site that is great for indie bookstores is Kickstarter.  No, I’m not saying you should go ask people to give you money just for opening but if you word it right you can get some good press and sell some merchandise too.  Kickstarters like Uncharted Books are offering great stuff for supporting them.   They’re basically building a following and hyping their launch date.  If you can get that buzz from Kickstarter over to a Facebook page you could have a pretty big following as you open your doors.  A dedicated social media following is like a perpetual motion machine for SEO.  The more they talk the more you show up on search engines.  Keeping people talking isn’t that difficult, it’s getting them there that can be tricky so taking advantage of your momentum from things like Kickstarter is crucial.

One more thing for niche market indie retailer to remember is that your audience is looking for you.  They’re hungry for the next big thing.  The good thing is that you have a dedicated group to take advantage of.  The problem is you have to compete with all the other niche market indie retailers too.  Don’t be afraid to do something aggressive to spread word of mouth and get some people talking.  Your audience wants what you have and you aren’t going to scare them away by running a promotion that asks them to repost on their own social media pages.   Ask them to bring friends and give them coupons for bringing people in.  The more people talk about you the more you people will see you.

I’m not always huge on the paid ads on social media.  I usually hold off until I have something huge or I’m not where I want to be as far as fan interaction but with a niche market audience getting momentum right on the outset is crucial.  If you can’t get a good social media crowed with Kickstarter or an in store promotion you might need to do a paid campaign.  You could also ask other groups or stores to cross promote with you.  Again, a niche market audience is an audience that likes to talk so take advantage of that whenever you can.

Barnes & Noble takes control of Borders’ social media pages

Social Media for Small Businesses – A Modern Day Essential

Social Media — 4 Trends To Watch in 2012

It wasn’t that long ago that Blockbuster was being talked about in the same breath as Tower Records, a relic of a bygone era. Heck, it was probably earlier this year. But with a new deal involving Dish Network (another brand struggling to find a hole to fill in the cable TV/digital media world.) comes renewed interest and the potential to overtake their rival, Netflix. Blockbuster made a huge push into social media and made itself into what Netflix wasn’t, a place for people who loved movies (and by extension places to rent them). They were able to utilize their niche audience to grow their fan base virally. They re-branded themselves as a place on the cutting edge instead of a dying breed. Criterion is also a similar brand that is using the same model as Blockbuster. They’re both using social media as a platform to build goodwill and to host giveaways and let word spread from there.

Marvel Comics is another brand that has made huge pushes to rebrand via social media. In the last decade, they’ve been victims of skyrocketing printing costs and piracy. Instead of trying to downplay and ignore the issues that print publishing is going through, they made a genuine attempt to use digital and social media to reach a new audience. They’ve promoted social media-heavy events like “Free Comic Day,” and built up their digital publishing in a way that enhances their print side and doesn’t detract from it. If you only read their print publications you’d be o.k. and if you only read their digital media and followed their social sites you’d be o.k. But if you did both, you’d see how they complemented each other – and that’s what we ad wonks like to call “synergy.”

Domino’s Pizza launched a huge campaign on television attempting to change their image, but they also made huge moves on social media. They built up a solid group of funny videos on YouTube that caught on virally. Domino’s sunk major cash into getting a load of Facebook followers before that TV campaign even started. All those Facebook followers lead to some great online reviews on sites like Yelp and Google Places. So when all those people saw those commercials and went online they found a huge assortment of reviews leading them to their local Domino’s phone numbers. They showed that the best way to build a bigger customer base is to let your dedicated social media followers do it for you.

Pro Elite MMA isn’t a well known company right now. They were running shows on Showtime and CBS while the UFC was struggling to gain ground a few years back, but for various reasons they came very close to bankruptcy at one point. Now they’re on their way back and they owe it all to using social media and digital streaming. They created events around social media chat sessions and Facebook giveaways while at the same time building toward their shows which just happened to be a click and few bucks away from their Facebook page. Like Marvel, Pre Elite discovered that niche market customers are all about the path of least resistance.

Old Spice knew to never underestimate the value of a great spokesperson. They found some unique voices and built social media followings around these personalities. It didn’t hurt that their videos were really funny too. I’ve always said making some well made funny videos is easy for small business. There are always young talented artists in any community willing to work for experience and a sandwich. Put an ad in a local college paper and get some talented kids to make videos for your brand and you have the makings of a great viral marketing campaign.

Blockbuster Is Back From the Doldrums — Netflix Finally Has Competition

ProElite Readies for Second Life

Social Video Marketing Tips With Domino’s Pizza Chicago’s Ramon DeLeon

Netflix had the opportunity to learn from both TiVo and MySpace mistakes.  They could have been prepared for the likes of Blockbuster/Dish Network and Hulu.  They chose to go another way and in the span of a few months they’re in danger of falling behind Hulu and other streaming video sites.  The problem is they’re unveiling products and add-ons like they’re Apple or Microsoft.  What they don’t realize is that at 5 years into their runs those companies were still branding one or two products.  Netflix needs to narrow its focus away from video games and such and focus on streaming video and mail order.   One reason Hulu made great strides in the last few years even though they raised prices is because they made a lucrative deal with X-Box.  (Actually they raised prices from zero which some saw as the kiss of death, making their success even more remarkable.) Netflix missed a golden opportunity to make a deal with Playstation and get some great press and strengthen their streaming video division.

The problem with TiVo, and the problem that Netflix is facing, is that, in the end, they really don’t own anything.  They rely entirely on the contacts they’ve made with their content suppliers.  The moment they start creating their own stuff the content suppliers will turn on them and the moment they find a way to squeeze more money out of streaming video they’ll move their support elsewhere. Hulu is looking like a more attractive place every day.  Then again, something could come up that draws there attention and Hulu and Netflix could be on their way out.

Streaming video needs to be stable for lots of big things to happen.  Social Media was a very unstable market when Facebook started blowing up and it caused a lot of big advertisers to sit out a while.   If streaming video is going to be a viable place for you to put your advertising dollars there needs to be an industry leader that you know is going to be there a year or two from now and there just doesn’t seem to be one yet.

There are a lot of major things on the horizon that can’t really happen until we get a viable marketing model for streaming video.  We are on the verge of 24/7 connectivity, where everything from your phone, your computer, and your TV is connected to the internet and accessing the same user data (what Apple calls “iCloud”). With both Cable and Network losing viewers to things like streaming video, and still struggling to monetize and stabilize in a realistic way, they are bleeding viewers and losing money at a time when they should be introducing new and exciting technology.  Your TV and your digital video streaming are going to be merging in the next few years.  Instead of getting HBO and watching things as they air you’ll be able to get the HBO app for your TV and things will become available to view at a certain time.  But none of that can happen till they find a way to stabilize the streaming video service market and make it an inviting place for major advertisers.

Ultimately, like social media, streaming video will turn into a place for smaller business to bust out of there regions and hit it big on a national level.   Just like social media it will also become more regionally targeted.  If you want to start a national viral campaign streaming video is a good place to put your advertising dollars but someday it will be a place to put big bucks into.

Netflix Backtracks

In House Video Marketing Via Youtube

-from AdAge-

Marketers can’t afford to ignore the social dimensions and interests of their customers. Frankly, it’s irresponsible and leads to a host of undesirable consequences:

- Massive media waste: Marketers are paying to retarget the same people multiple times, which produces media waste and substantially throws off attribution modeling.

- Limiting scale/potential: By simply retargeting the same people repeatedly, you miss out on growing your next most profitable customers. In some cases this newly expanded pool can be 60X the original audience size.

- Buying the easiest, lowest hanging (media) fruit: Taking the generic route and buying in scale from trusted sites won’t always get you the highest impact for your dollars. In other words, you won’t get fired for buying Facebook, but it doesn’t truly represent where the majority of consumers’ online interactions are occurring.

To read the entire article, go here:
http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/ad-campaigns-dead/230213/

Kickstarter has been around for years as a fundraising tool for creative projects.  It developed a cult following among the hipster set for people wanting to find an audience.  In a medium that is already about as unsubtle with advertising and marketing as one can get, Kickstarter makes everything else look like a whisper.  Basically it gives you the opportunity to talk directly with your audience about exactly what you want them to do and it gives them the opportunity to be a part of it.

Even though it started out as a fundraising tool Kickstarter has become something so much more.  You can use it to have your customers get involved in the business and feel like they are a part of things.  They call it a donation on the website but a lot of businesses are actively giving things to each person who donates at different levels.  So basically you are getting new customers and getting them involved in net products and new services.  Kickstarter is great for niche marketing and hobby shops.

With Kickstarter you can turn new products and services into a game that gets your audience interested and spreading the word for you.   Tell them if they donate a certain amount you’ll release prizes and then keep going for a few levels.  Soon they’ll be getting their friends involved and you have a well hyped product or service that people are excited about before it even comes out.

Entrepreneurs like Jeff Katz have recently used it to great success hyping his new business venture.  Wrestling Revolution is an attempt to create a wrestling show from the ground up and he’s getting ready to launch his first show thanks to Kickstarter.  He’s had big success hyping things and has already built up some good buzz without spending anything on digital ads.  He basically set up a Kickstarter and a Twitter page and then let word of mouth spread as he seeded things a little along the way.  It would be easy to take the model he used and have it work for your small business.  Try something soon because once other people see how successful Katz is Kickstarter could very well explode in a big way and start to get crowded with junk business and spambots (RE: Myspace).

Ultimately if you have a new product or service you want to try and aren’t really sure it’s going to succeed Kickstarter is a great way to gage public opinion.  Katz’s company got massive funding from real backers based on the initial response he got from Kickstarter.  You never really know what kind of an audience you have until you try something like this.

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter

How to Start a Buzz Fire: Using Social Marketing and Word of Mouth for your Game