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The Marketing Edge, one of the longest running marketing and public relations podcasts.
Host Albert Maruggi weaves his 25 years of marketing and PR experience across business, technology and national public affairs in interviews with newsmakers, authors and business leaders.
Maruggi is a frequent speaker and conducts workshop sessions on new media. For more information or to discuss your business challenges and goals, e-mail him.
Home Depot’s version of Spring Black Friday on Facebook was a huge hit, promoting sales items on the Home Depot Facebook page, then directing consumers back to the Home Depot website for the transactions – no apps, no plugins required.
Recently Angie Schottmuller @aschottmuller wrote a post about this campaign Home Depot used Facebook on selling merchandise in a matter of hours. On the Home Depot Facebook page they offered select merchandise for a limited time. The hook was when a product post reached a specific number of “likers”, the next promoted product offer was revealed. Anticipation and known goals are great motivators!
Schottmuller outlines six reasons why this effort was successful. I take another wrinkle on these reasons and tie them back to characteristics from other technologies, communities or old fashion, yes, behavior modification techniques, which have been around since Moses’ stone tablets. Funny, tablets are making a comeback too.
What Works There May Work For You
The Game – A concept perhaps best highlighted by TGI Fridays be a Fan of Woody where if Woody received a certain amount of fans 500,000 everyone wins a burger. In the Home Depot version, each promoted product was essentially a Woody, encouraging viewers to Like each one. With each threshold crossed a new product was revealed. Everyone knew the rules and was anticipating the trigger moment to occur. This highlights the effectiveness of transparency about milestones for a game environment, as Schottmuller points out in her post.
The “Members only” Approach – This Home Depot offer targeted current fans. So you needed to be a Liker of the page before you could weigh in on a promoted product. The way Facebook works is when I Like something my network knows it, making the content only visible to fans, was also a signal to the Likers’ network.
The Offer & Timing – Deep discounts and a limited offer, sound “Groupon” familiar? Yes, and a nice observation by Home Depot I suspect of what makes the Groupon system so effective. However, let’s not give too much credit to the digital generation. Limited time offers and scarcity has been around capitalist economies for a long time. The tactic is proven. The takeaway here is that social technology exponentially collapses time and geography which enables the information about the promotion, and the Word of Mouth association via the Like button to have essentially an economy of scale.
A Bit of A Question Mark?
Mari Smith, the co-author of Facebook Marketing an Hour A Day, commented on her Facebook page, “I’m assuming Home Depot are in compliance with Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines – simple liking of posts gets you deals. Hmm!!” The way I see it the answer is yes, Facebook Guidelines notice my comments in Smith’s comment thread.
As Schottmuller pointed out on the comments on Smith’s page, the Like-Gating tactic was about seeing what was next, not the current product up for sale.
Are you considering a gaming, time, discount, and/or networking element to your marketing?
I usually don’t budge on surveys, most of them are a dime a dozen and an often used way to get a little PR. This Social Media Marketing survey from Social Media Examiner caught my eye because of the sample size of 3300 marketers across the spectrum of business sizes and types. It’s the Social Media Examiner Social Marketing Report and in today’s Marketing Edge podcast we speak with Assistant Director of the Social Media Examiner Phil Mershon about the report. One of the trends different from last year is the increased interest in Facebook over Twitter. Facebook’s improvements such as, adding places, and making their business pages easier to engage the audience are, I believe, among the reasons for this change.
Phil and I get into some great examples of Facebook “Liker” engagement practices that work for big and small companies. In the survey, there were three major benefits for those using social media for marketing, and there was a correlation between the amount of time spent with social media communities and the benefit derived from them. This was encouraging for me because there is an attraction for some to look for the quick hit in social. You know the big discount or insanely creative promotion to create that initial spike and then no follow through. The connection between time and benefit potentially shows more attention to content and relationship.
Benefits of Social Media
– my comments in ( maruggi says…)
Stand out in Noisy Market (this will diminish as social media gets noiser )
Improved Search Engine Results (content is king, and social allows you to expand your digital footprint)
Direct connection to qualified leads (it’s public permission marketing – thank’s Seth Godin)
Social Media marketing vets with 3 years or more are enhancing their communications with other formats. For example, nearly all those social marketers surveyed who have participated in social media marketing for 3 year or more are major proponents of video. This trend is likely because of item number 1 above, also as I reference in the Marketing Edge Podcast episode, there are new technologies in video that will make that rich-media format more engaging.
Seventy-seven percent of marketers with more than three years experience in social media will spend more time with video and that number increases when you segment just the respondents with more than 1000 employees. This is exactly the issue I’ve raised about making your PR and marketing department more like a news organization. It’s a mindset that will be extremely beneficial for an organization with plenty to talk about that is beyond their products and services.
Time is key as the survey indicates, the more time you put in the more you get out. However, I submit part of the time element is coming up with the right content, not just pounding away at a keyboard.
The social media road is littered with spammers, in-active accounts, and disappointment due to lack of research about whether your specific audience is “active” in social media, notwithstanding the results of this survey.
Take the time to clearly identify the quantity of your qualified audience.
It is easier to leapfrog than catch up. Ok so you take great pride in being a follower. You joined Twitter in 2010, the leaders were there in 2007 and earlier. But that’s OK. You don’t have to be a follower all your life. Life moves fast as Ferris Bueller says. Now that you have your feet wet, move quicker to experiment with what’s next.
Establish an emerging tactics swat team and do quick deep dives on early adopter ideas like the use of video, QR codes, augmented reality, and the semantic web.
What’s on your social media marketing agenda next? Video, audio, mobile marketing?
One part viral Two parts grassroots campaign. The story of Jacob Tucker starts from the ground up. Dick Vitale calls Tucker, the hi riser Elevator Man. Tucker is a 5’ 11” guard at Illinois College who has a 45” vertical. Tucker, a senior plays basketball at the Division III school and so is unlikely to get noticed by many. He had a goal to get invited to the NCAA Dunk Contest. To that end he hoped to catch the eye of those at ESPN and others who contribute to the decision of those invited to the NCAA Dunk Contest by launching a video of his major hops.
What started in the early morning of March 4 ended up with media interviews and a huge spike on YouTube views in less than a day. Ten days later it’s approaching 2.3 million views. David Gaines, a friend of Tucker’s since Freshman year and a biology major, led the Jacob Tucker social media effort with a Facebook page effort which began with a network of less than 200 people. The key metric for Gaines was the second send of the link, once you know the first wave likes the content, then it’s a question of when and whether it will find it’s way to traditional media to make a quick leap to the next level of audience views.
ESPN knows gold when they see it and have layered an element of crowdsourcing to this selection. They have added another Division III high flyer Rico Cunningham from Lee University to a voting contest which begins March 17 and ends on March 28. You can vote on this ESPN 2 Facebook page
We will follow up this story because what goes up, must, at some point, come down.
The second part of this Marketing Edge podcast interview with author of the book The New Small, Phil Simon and Albert Maruggi talks about the type of consumer that the “New Small” economy may be creating. Picking up where Chris Anderson, the author of the book Free, a tome about the free economy.
In this free economy, supported in great part by the social web, consumers use platforms from Google to Hootsuite, from Twitter to Facebook for no cost (or a nominal fee) Simon’s book the New Small shows how businesses can tap into the free economy companies who are providing technology infrastructure at a fraction of the cost compared to the last decade. As a buyer at least, Simon contends the free economy is in your best interests.
More Whiners Than Buyers
Is this new small economy comprised of consumers who want something for nothing? Are they the same consumers that will share their criticisms to the world about a product they are using for nothing? Or perhaps this new small economy is about technology companies who calculate the more users the greater the revenue potential from other sources such as advertising, and in that model users are justified in their visible critiques?
Maruggi and Simon discuss ways to approach this highly vocal, highly opinionated consumer. The New Small doesn’t mean only small will win, it means there is a new perspective about creating businesses and new consumer perspectives that will impact businesses of all sizes.
Chance to Win The New Small
Enjoy this conversation with author Phil Simon, examine the book The New Small and enter a chance to win The New Small book used by Maruggi to conduct the interview with his notes by posting a comment or Tweeting about this podcast with the hashtag #mktedge Follow Simon on Twitter @philsimon on Twitter and Maruggi @albertmaruggi
I feared that I was naive. I gave up a bit on social media being anything more than a cheap marketing tool. I didn’t think this way, years ago I wrote a piece about social media being more a movement than a market . The message in that piece is that social media has much more potential than pushing multi-level marketing efforts so your friends can get 50% off teeth whitening.
The potential that keeps me going is the idea of cultures learning more about each other. Not necessarily a means to push western views, but a way to better understand other humans. With this desire to learn about other members of our species, perhaps will result in a better society. Communication is a cornerstone of freedom.
Here’s a video I did a couple of years ago with Robert Scoble and Gina Bianchini. What do you think, is freedom social?
The merger of multi-level marketing, a buying cooperative and steep discounting is a successful mix for Groupon. In less than two years Groupon has 40 million global subscribers spread across 300 local markets. According to this Ad Age report What’s Next For Groupon, the Chicago-based company’s international growth by acquisition is a major reason for its rapid growth.
As a marketing advisor to business Groupon is a conundrum for me. Groupon has significant benefits of reaching potentially new buyers in a specific location, the question is how to leverage the Groupon tactic with growing the most profitable customer base for each business. One restaurant client, a steakhouse in a midsize city, calculates that his break even point is if 10 percent of the estimated Groupon buyers return without a promotion.
Groupon’s shared revenue model of a 50% discount split with the restaurant where Groupon takes half of that amount. Its payment structure to its customer businesses is a 1/3 upon sale of the Groupon, a 1/3 increments at 30 days and the remaining third at 60 days from time of sale. A recent study by Rice University professor Utpal M. Dholakia questioned whether Groupon is worth the $6 billion offered by Google for the company whose annual revenue is more than $1 billion based on the price sensitive nature of Groupon users.
I’m looking to see how consumers use Groupon. I’ve focused on a popular restaurant in the Twin Cities which has a Groupon going on today. The restaurant is French Meadow Bakery and Cafe. As you can see in this graphic, as of about 8:20 Monday, December 13 there are 429 sold well over the minimum required to initiate the deal. UPDATE – in the half hour it took me to proof this post from the time I took the image, the number of buyers is up to 1,933!
I’m interested in reaching the people who purchased this Groupon to ask the questions in the survey below. Basically I’m interested in whether they have been to French Meadow before and whether they are purchasing this Groupon as a gift for someone else. Yes I understand it may be a stretch trying to reach them on this post, but let’s give it a try, I’ll use Twitter, Facebook and some other Twin Cities communities to get the word out. If you have ideas on how to reach them, put it in the comments section.
French Meadow Bakery and Cafe Groupon Buyers
If you purchased Groupon for French Meadow Bakery and Cafe in the Twin Cities, can you answer these two questions? Thanks
There are several articles on the issue of whether Groupon is a good fit for all small business. This New York Times piece for example I have several theories I’m working through on Groupon, one is from a simple dollars and cents standpoint, the other is from a conceptual perspective about whether Groupon’s concept is a way capitalist economics blends with social collective behavior.
This is the second part of a two part conversation with Bob Crawshaw on the topic of social media and tourism. Bob engages social media for the Australian War Memorial a museum and interactive center in Canberra Australia. Given the long travel for most tourists to get Down Under, social media is a critical part of tourism.
Crawshaw reflects a major crowdsourcing tourism campaign that tapped Australians’ love of country with the Nothing Like Australia campaign, compiling more than 29,000 submitted experiences about places that make Australia a great travel destination. There was also voting on the Nothing Like Australia experiences with a list of finalists and a winner.
Back to the Australia War Memorial and what makes that website and experience special. You’ll hear Crawshaw talk about the war diaries section of the website. The war diaries section contains documents, letters, and even orders to soldiers that gives you a window to the life a typical Australians serving in world wars.
The recommendations I have for using social media for tourism include the following:
Keep it on a personal level
Provide experiences that given insight into average lives
Tap a crowd where possible
What resources do you consider when selecting a travel destination?
No, I don’t mean social media war stories. Sometimes the social media world gets caught up in its own world of GAP logo changes and Old Spice YouTube ads to remember there are wars going on.
I mean real war stories and social media plays a role in sharing the realities of conflict. In part 1 of the Marketing Edge conversation with Bob Crawshaw, we talk about his role in marketing the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia. Bob is a long time listener of the Marketing Edge. When I heard about his work with Australia’s historical and living commemoration to its participation in defending freedom around the world, and his use of social media, I thought listeners would enjoy the conversation.
In this episode we highlight how the Australian War Memorial is using its own Flickr Commons photostream to share its thousands of images. I found that link on its website to be an interesting way to encourage others to use those images across the web. I have not see other sites with a specific link to the organization’s Flickr stream of non-copyrighted images.
This conversation also reinforced for me the power of still images, at least some still images. I was captivated by an image of a World War I solider whose identity is unknown so his image is called “handsome man”. I reminded me of the male equal of the famous National Geographic image of an Afghan girl.
I invite you to spend some time on the Australian War Memorial website. It’s a trip through freedom’s history of a country whose citizens have fought side by side with Americans in virtually all of its international conflict to this day. More importantly, the social digital presence of the Australian War Memorial is an opportunity for a country, one separated nearly as far as you can be from the United States, to share its stories of shared values; values for which men and women are willing to sacrifice.
How are you using or have seen Flickr used in an interesting way?
You thought the TV remote was the greatest invention for men, check this out. You can order men’s underwear online from Manpacks. You can even get packs of the boxers, briefs, or boxer-briefs for the uncommitted delivered on a regular basis. That’s right, now men have more time to use the TV remote with the time he saves not walking the asiles of some local Target store.
This podcast with Manpacks co-founder, Ken Johnson, reveals that while the idea of automating the purchase of essentials may be the next wave in retail, there is considerable learning, Johnson has done since launching Manpacks in January. Among the take aways:
Twitter is a better relationship building platform for Manpacks than Facebook,
Listen intently to customers for danger signs that you’re not providing the right products or services,
analyze customer buying patterns to anticipate what they need in the future.
I’m joined in this interview by Justin Dessonville who gave Manpacks the idea of a cause marketing promotion, Buy One Give One. The sales of Manpack underwear in the month of October will be matched 1- to – 1 from Manpacks with donations to Saint Stephens homeless shelter. Web entrepreneurs like Johnson, have an unquenchable desire to execute their idea, and the successful ones are married to the learning, not chained to their ideas. Enjoy the podcast and leave your ideas on whether you think subscribing for essentials is a good idea.
I believe social media is not about cookie cutter programs. If you want that, stick to direct mail and don’t worry your head about Twitter that or Foursquare this.
Now, if you want to look beyond and get your adrenaline pumping, (and that of your customers and sponsors) then social is the world of the possible. Hat’s off to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers for putting together a program that attempts to engage fans, tap into social networks, geo services, and sponsors’ interest. A key person to follow from the organization is Mike Mahoney of Panther Sponsorship Sales. The event is called Panthers Purrsuit (notice the 2 Rs) It’s a urban adventure in football, pictures, and discovery that appeals to the sense of adventure and competition. It’s open to teams who will follow clues and instructions around Charlotte area. The winner will go on an expense paid trip to see the Panthers play the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In this podcast we interview social marketing consultant Scott Hepburn, author of Media Emerging Blog who came up with the idea as he was experimenting with geo services and urban discovery this spring. What makes this event attractive is it includes the following elements.
1) Discovery of an area
2) Competition
3) Management vision with a flair for fun
4) Sponsorship benefit
5) Fan recognition and reward
The early odds are on Yarbyand CLTBuzz But will they last? dozens of other teams are after them. Follow this fun, creative event on October 23 on twitter with the #purrsuit and on Twitter @pantherpurrsuit
with video and that number increases when you segment just the respondents with more than 1000 employees. This is exactly the issue I’ve raised about making your 
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