Twitter celebrated its 7th birthday, Facebook announced an exciting new targeting feature, Pinterest rolled out a new design, and the Flickr IOS app now offers support for hashtags.

Twitter Turns 7

Yesterday, Twitter celebrated lucky number 7 since co-founder and current Twitter executive chairman, Jack Dorsey, sent out the first message. Since then the site has grown into a global town square where ideas, news, and connections are shared everyday. Twitter reported that the site now has more than 200 million active users that are sending more than 400 million tweets a day. Not too bad for a 7-year-old.

#Twitter7 trended yesterday with celebratory tweets from MTV, Spotify, The Grammys, and Brandmovers, of course!

Facebook Announces Their Newest Targeting Feature

On Tuesday, Facebook announced their newest targeting feature, lookalike audiences. According to Facebook, “lookalike audiences helps advertisers to reach potential customers who share similar characteristics with their current ones.”

This means that advertisers can now target people who share common attributes with their existing customers and get their advertisements front and center on their news feeds.

Facebook says that they’ve seen this new type of targeting drive a wide range of successful metrics including lower cost per checkout, lower cost per acquisition, larger purchase size, and faster and increased return on investment.

It seems like a no brainer that knowing who likes theater versus who likes football will go a long way in targeting and we expect advertisers to start receiving a bigger bang for their buck as the feature begins to roll out.

Pinterest Undergoes A Makeover

Pinterest announced Monday that the redesigned look of the site they’ve been testing for the last three months, will now be available to all of its 48+ million users.

The new look and feel is not surprisingly in line with similar design changes we’ve seen from other social platforms like Facebook and Google+. The changes included slimmer borders to allow for larger images and a cleaner layout as well as condensing profile pages to include more pins in less space.

Users can also search through other pins on a board without having to leave the page their on and can see what “people who pinned this also pinned.”

If you want to try out the new design for yourself, go to your newsfeed and select the “preview our new look” box to the left hand size. Users can switch back to the old design at any time if they wish.

Flickr iOS Adopts The Hashtag

The Flickr iOS app announced this past Saturday that it now includes support for hashtags.

Doing away with the long used “tags,” Flickr users are now able to include the more commonly used hashtag into their photo titles and descriptions; a smart move on the photo sharing service’s part to keep up with competitors like Instagram and Pinterest.

To celebrate the new feature, Flickr is encouraging #FlickrFriday as a way for users to enter their photos into the site’s weekly Friday photo challenge.
It’s also rumored that Facebook is working to adopt the hashtag, although no official announcement has been released from the company.

Find out what’s next to come for the Facebook news feed, see how you can stay up to date with SXSW ’13 (even if you can’t be there), read how some of the biggest brands are improving their customer service, and hear from a member of the Brandmovers team on whether or not content marketing is losing sight of the big picture.

1. Ch-ch-ch-changes for Facebook

On Thursday, Facebook unveiled the biggest change to the news feed since 2006. The major changes are bigger images, multiple feeds, and a more consistent user experience across mobile devices.

Here’s what Shubh Singh, our Solutions Designer had to say about how he sees the new design affecting brands:

“As the web in general transitions to cleaner and more open forms of design and user layout, it’s only natural for Facebook to follow suit. The new layout is brilliant. Brands will certainly benefit from the bigger pictures and, most importantly, not unintentionally annoying users as they browse the feed. Facebook’s innovative new news feed will keep users on the site longer, giving brands a bigger chance to make an impact on the site.”

Despite all the reporting on the big announcement, there hasn’t been too much talk as to when we can expect to see the changes. However, if you want to be one of the first to try out the new design, you can go to facebook.com/about/newsfeed, click the big “Join Waiting List” button at the bottom of the page and get on the list today. While it’s not yet clear how long people will have to wait, some lucky users were able to make the switch as early as Thursday evening.

2. Don’t Cry Over SXSW

SXSW, the annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival that takes place every year in Austin, Texas began its five-day run today. Attendees can check out new apps, attend interesting panels, and meet some of the biggest names in the biz. But, what about us unfortunate geeks who couldn’t make the trip this year, are we supposed to sit at home and miss out on all the fun? No way!

Here are a few apps our Lead Art Director; Troy Francois recommends to keep you up to date on all things SXSW:

Hey Big Fish: http://www.heybigfish.com/welcome

This app allows you to follow influencers at the event and gives you the opportunity to discover real-time info by filtering all SXSW-related hashtags.

Storify: http://storify.com/

This app gives you the opportunity to see all of the SXSW photos, tweets, Instagram pics, YouTube videos, Facebook posts and news articles in one place and is easy to digest due to its Pinterest like layout.

3. Top Brands Are Showing Extra TLC On Twitter

A study came out this week showing that more brands are beginning to dedicate Twitter handles specifically to address customer service issues. Simply Measured released a study this week showing a 30% increase of companies in the Interbrand 100 who have dedicated customer service handles on Twitter. Some of these companies include Ford, UPS, Microsoft, and Nike.

According to the study, request for customer support on social networks has increase 25% in the last three months, and as a result brands activity increased 33%. As a Content and Community Manager, I see this study as a great example of brands carefully listening to their customers wants and needs and going above and beyond to respond in a manner that is ultimately sure to earn major brownie points. I’m sure we’ll see more and more companies throughout the year adding customer service handles in addition to their primary accounts.

4. Too Much Hype Around Content Marketing?

There has been an increase in talk recently about the amount of content marketing in the industry and whether or not brands are buying into the hype too much. I read an article this week warning brands to avoid the increased exposure surrounding content marketing and being cautious to buy into the industry hype that content is the universal answer to engaging customers. So, I asked our Senior Manager of Digital Strategy, Jared Degnan to weigh in on the matter.

Here’s what Jared had to say:

“Marketers need to focus on the WHY of content marketing rather than the WHAT. Like any digital trend, many marketers tend to see a buzzword and say “yeah, we need some of that!” without actually understanding what it is. As long as we look at communicating the thinking and understanding of how to apply products and services, we keep content marketing on track.”

Tell us your opinion on content marketing and how you think brands can stay on track in the comments below.

Quickly growing in popularity, there were over 110,000 Vine clips posted to Twitter in a 48-hour period. Celebrities and consumers are using the app to document recent events like The Oscars and the East Coast snowstorm. Taco Bell made headlines when they used a Vine to announce the arrival date of their highly anticipated Doritos Cool Ranch Taco.

Taco Bell’s popular post on Vine:

@TacoBell It’s out of the bag. Coming March 7th. #CoolRanchDLT http://vine.co/v/bvlaYggdIiU

While some brands like Urban Outfitters were quick to jump on the Vine bandwagon. The majority of companies have yet to explore what type of value Vine can potentially add to their digital marketing campaigns.

Urban Outfitters posted this Vine the day the app debuted:

@UrbanOutfitters The most important Vine you’ll ever see. #uodogs http://vine.co/v/b5HEYV0IQPJ

Considering the growing expectations for brands to present consumers with visually appealing content, Vine should continue to gain popularity in the content marketing world.

Currently available on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Twitter has said that they are working to bring it to other platforms as well. Similar to the way Pinterest and Instagram caught on, you are sure to see more brands use Vine in their interactive advertising and marketing campaigns.

I am looking forward to exploring Vine more and seeing how it can be incorporated into Brandmovers social media content as well as our clients’.

In the meantime, check out my first attempt at using Vine:

@MariePhay My life as a #CommunityManager #myfirstvine http://vine.co/v/bXWWMzFTPbu

Have you started using Vine, yet? How do you see Vine impacting the way brands market themselves in 2013?

Sure, we’ve been talking about how things like data, measurement, and mobile have been important before.  However, there are three major trends in 2013 that will significantly alter how we think, handle, and use digital to improve business outcomes for brands, products, and companies.

#1 – Users Become Actively Engaged In Platform Privacy Discussions

The first trend, not surprisingly, is privacy.  If the last few weeks’ discussion about Facebook and now Instagram have taught us anything, it’s that users are now actively involved in how companies collect and use their data. Oddly enough, I think this is a good thing for digital marketers!

Just like civic engagement is a good thing for improving communities in the offline world, user participation in privacy discussions canhelp improve the quality of the engagement, online.

If marketers view users as partners in data collection, they can clearly and reasonably outline why and how they will use the data to enhance the user experience.  This process will not only increase satisfaction among users, it will help marketers collect the right kind of data rather than scavenging for whatever users just happen to reveal.

#2 – The User-Interface Revolution

Secondly, major shifts in user-interface design will dramatically shift the way we think of campaigns.  We’ve seen alittle of this in 2012 with the shift away from takeovers and tabs to iOS-inspired tiles and responsive design. The revolution will be more than just technical, however.

As we begin to see more platforms like Windows 8, for better or for worse, shift to more visual fluid navigation we’re beginning to see a desire for more control by users themselves.  Whether its self-checkout at grocery stores or websites that can shift and mold interfaces based on your desired platform, users want control over their experience.

Whether or not marketers allow this control will define the legitimacy of many major social platforms or microsites.  The lesion for marketers will be to invest in user-interfaces like you would in a quality package design.  The ability to put serious thought, preparation and real-world testing into microsites and applications will ultimately determine more and more of the success of campaigns.

#3 – The End Of Social Media “Experts” & Digital “Fake It Till You Make It”

Finally, 2013 will signal the permanent shift towards resources with established track records and talent grounded in the digitalworld. Though “amateur hour” has been over for a while, many companies in 2012 still preferred to stick with “one stop shop” resources.  These resources, most often traditional advertising or PR firms, that claimed they could “do digital,” left much to be desired in terms of truly innovative and effective campaigns.

What companies are now realizing, and a trend that will continue to evolve in 2013, is that the toolbox to “do digital” correctly is radically different than the toolbox many agencies have at their disposal.  In fact, companies are now becoming more comfortable having a stable of resources, such as agencies, that all have unique specialties but can work together to improve overall outcomes.

No matter what 2013 ultimately brings, it is most definitely shaping up to be a defining moment in the evolution of digital marketing. Where we go from here will be as much of a question of our capacity to lead and experiment with new ways of doing things, as it is our existing skill sets.

Here at Brandmovers We Wish You Excellent Engagement in 2013!

Brandmovers is proud to announce the start of Brandsurance, an industry-focused insurance company to work alongside their digital engagement initiatives.  Brandsurance specializes in promotional risk management and partners with marketing/advertising agencies, brands, and other ROI-minded clients to implement the most effective, highest-return promotions, sweepstakes, games and contests in the industry. Brandsurance offers a diverse portfolio  of classic promotions along with cutting-edge digital offers, each proven, through years of successful implementation, to meet or exceed client marketing objectives and eliminate their financial risk.

“We are excited to return to our roots, to a service we know each and every one of our customers needs and a service that helped mold Brandmovers into the agency it is today,” Andrew Mitchell, Brandmovers CEO. Through customized projects, standard sweepstakes, contests and rebates, Brandsurance will remove the financial risk associated with running powerful, engaging offers.”

Built on the Brandmovers foundation, Brandsurance offers more than twenty years of experience managing Fixed Fee promotions that include prize redemption and over-redemption coverage as part of a turnkey promotional solution enabling its clients to run programs for a flat rate that is always guaranteed to come in on budget.

“Brandmovers will continue to focus on its Digital Engagement services, but adding another layer through Brandsurance to meet existing and future client risk management needs,” said Sean Blair-Turner, VP of Business Development, Brandmovers.  In the past, we’ve helped a variety of companies, including Dairy Queen, Coca-Cola and Beringer Wines completely eliminate liability.”

Brandsurance will work with both on and offline promotions, tap into Brandmovers digital engagement technologies, and deliver risk assessment and solutions that enable brands to run larger, more powerful offers unhindered by budget constraints.

“Identifying and finding cost effective solutions to managing our clients’ promotional risk is our prime focus,” said Mr. Blair-Turner.  Through Brandsurance, we will be able to offer this specialized management to both our agency and client partners.”

For more information, please visit www.brandsurance.com

Understanding the root cause and subsequent drivers of consumer engagement directly influences marketing budget. When customers are highly engaged, their lifetime value to a brand increases significantly, (Fleming and Asplund, 2007) propose that engaged customers generate 1.7 times more revenue compared with regular customers. Fleming and Asplund found that engagement produces higher revenue and profit, in addition having engaged employees and engaged customer’s returns a revenue gain of 3.4 times the norm. Managers, who can accurately measure performance and optimize budgets and resources, usually outperform their rivals because of these competitive advantages. Advances in modern technology enable marketers to acquire, process and deliver content in novel ways, Social media allows users to interact and engage with corporations and brands in ways that would be unthinkable with any other media.

Although data analytics and metrics have become very sophisticated, these tools still struggle to decipher human perceptions and therefore behavior. New media is global and cross-cultural differences translate differently. While some global brands have an arsenal of promotional budget, this does not guarantee them engagement with customers. Engagement is built on relationships, this became evident when our Asia office helped client Biba http://www.facebook.com/BibaIndia rank as the No 1 Facebook page with  highest daily engagement rate across all brand pages in India.

Are you ready to engage more effectively? Call, Tweet or email us today.

August 2012’s State of the Social Networks gives you all the must-know updates to the biggest social networks in one handy guide. Read the latest stories from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest and follow Brandmovers on your favorite social networks to stay up to date with the latest in digital marketing and promotions!

Facebook

Facebook now allows page administrators to target posts by specifications such as gender, relationship status, education and workplace.  Learn More: bit.ly/812fb1

Facebook releases a feature that lets users mention-tag Facebook friends from third party apps. Learn More: bit.ly/812fb2

Facebook launches sponsored search results, allowing advertisers to pay to have their page appear amongst organic results of similar searches. Learn More: bit.ly/812fb3

Twitter

Twitter rolls out new interest-targeted ad system that allows advertisers to display promoted tweets and accounts to users with specific interests or that follow specific accounts. Learn More: bit.ly/812tw1

Google+

Google+ announces they will be rolling out custom URLs for pages, starting with select users and brands. Learn More: bit.ly/812gp1

Google launches a suite of enterprise tools for Google+, free through the end of 2013, including private sharing, admin tools, and Hangouts integration within Calendar, Gmail and Docs. Learn More: bit.ly/812gp02

Google+ launches Studio Mode for Hangouts on Air, allowing musicians to live-stream music with superior sound quality. Learn More: bit.ly/812gp3

Pinterest

Pinterest drops the invite-only system, allowing anyone to sign up on the social network. Learn More: bit.ly/812pn1

Pinterest launches first Android and iPad apps, and redesigns existing iPhone app for an improved mobile experience. Learn More: bit.ly/812pn2

Stay in touch, follow Brandmovers!

We know it’s hard to keep up with all the changes to social networks each month. That’s why we’ve compiled all the need-to-know updates in one handy guide. Check out July 2012′s State of the Social Networks, and don’t forget to follow Brandmovers on our social networks to keep your finger on the pulse of social media every day!

Facebook

Facebook is now letting advertisers target users based on the mobile apps installed on their phones. Learn More: bit.ly/712fb1

Facebook Groups now show members exactly who read each post. Learn More: bit.ly/712fb2

Facebook application stories now show up on your newsfeed in a “Pinterest-esque” layout. Learn More: bit.ly/712fb3

Twitter

Twitter now lets you target promoted tweets at followers according to their location, device or platform. Learn More: bit.ly/712tw1

Twitter is testing non-organic ads, meaning advertisers would no longer be required to send a tweet to their followers before making it an ad. Learn More: bit.ly/712tw2

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Today introduces new social features, allowing users to “like” and comment on articles and see stories that are trending in their network. Learn More: bit.ly/712li1

LinkedIn updates homepage interface to make network updates more prominent, drawing comparisons to Facebook and Google+. Learn More: bit.ly/712li3

Google+

Google Takeout feature is rolled out, allowing users to transfer circles between Google+ accounts. Learn More: bit.ly/712gp1

Google+ debuts iPad app, featuring pinch-to-zoom, touch-enabled sharing and the ability to host video chat Hangouts. Learn More: bit.ly/712gp2

Google+ is opening up its API to hundreds of third-party partners, in an effort to attract more businesses. Learn More: bit.ly/712gp3

Keep up with the latest news in digital marketing by following Brandmovers on your favorite social networks!

With the growth of 2012’s breakthrough social network comes an exciting opportunity for marketers to use Pinterest as a platform for visually engaging promotions with low barriers to entry.

As Brandmovers works to develop some of the world’s first Pinterest contests and sweepstakes, here are some of the best practices we’ve come across.

Pinterest Contests

Pinterest contests are a great way to get users to post content that links back to your brand, while engaging them to create the best pinboard or get the most repins and likes.

Best Pinboard

This type of contest asks people to create a pinboard named after the brand or the promotion. To build their boards, entrants are asked to pin or repin items from the company or promotion sponsor’s website or pinboards. Some brands take a less product-driven approach with inspiration board type contests. This type of promotion doesn’t require users to pin company content; rather, images that speak to a lifestyle element of their brand.

Entering

Participants enter into the contest by submitting a link to their pinboard via email to a specified address or via comment on a specified company pin.

Winning

Judging is usually determined internally, since Pinterest users can’t “like” entire pinboards. Winners are notified via Pinterest comment or email. Brands can highlight the contest winner(s) on all their social networks for added buzz.

Most Repins/Likes

These types of contests ask people to pin (or repin) images from company or promotion sponsor’s websites (or pinboards). A popular approach is to ask users to pin images of the products they would most like to win. Pinners who get the most repins or likes win their chosen item!

Entering

An effective entry method is to ask users to call out the name of the promotion or brand in the form of a hashtag or @-mention linking back to the company Pinterest page. This allows marketers to run a search on Pinterest to find all eligible entries, and provides a very simple way for contestants to participate.

Winning

Pinterest’s recently-released API presents a streamlined way to tabulate metrics such as user submissions, repins, and likes. This is a great solution for larger contests, where counting likes and repins manually wouldn’t be an option. The winning pins could be repinned by the brand and shared across their other social properties.

Pinterest Sweepstakes

While contests encourage users to win by creating the best pinboards or pinning the most likeworthy images, sweepstakes count user actions as modes of entry:

Win by Pinning Website Content

This kind of sweepstakes encourages users to pin content from company and/or promotion sponsor websites. Entrants could be asked to create an online wish list by making a pinboard populated with product images, or go on a virtual treasure hunt by searching for a new item added to the website each day.

This is a great approach for companies looking to drive traffic to their website, as it encourages visits from participants and populates Pinterest with a variety of pins that link back to your product pages.

Win by Repinning Brand Pins

This sweepstakes format asks users to repin images from a designated company pinboard.  One approach is to create a Pinterest “lottery” where users selects an image from the pinboard and each day the company announces a winning image. All the participants who repinned the winning image will be entered to win a prize. Another, more straightforward, approach is to ask users to repin an image containing information, dates and rules about the sweepstakes.

Asking users to pin images from a specified pinboard gives a company more control over what brand content users will be pinning to enter the contest. For example, a company looking to promote a certain subbrand or product line would want to limit user-generated pins to images relevant to the promotion. This approach to a sweepstakes is also advisable for companies that don’t have easy-to-navigate product pages or lack visual (pinnable) content on their websites.

Building Buzz and Driving Entries

Of course, none of these contests or sweepstakes should live in a vacuum. Any promotion a company develops on Pinterest should be cross-promoted on all online properties and link to a promotion site that details rules for participation. A simpler alternative is to create an image containing the promotion info and post it on Pinterest and other social networks. A Facebook tab can be created that features website content or pulls in your company pinboard, to enhance likelihood of fan crossover.

Beyond spreading the word to company followers, brands can expand the reach of their initiative by encouraging users to share to increase their chances of winning. For example, bonus sweepstakes entries can be awarded to people who post their pins to Facebook or Twitter. Pinterest automatically prompts users to share or tweet their image after pinning, making it another effortless but impactful mode of entry.

Still have questions about running a promotion on Pinterest? Let us know, and we could answer your question on our blog!

Meanwhile, don’t forget to follow Brandmovers on Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/brandmovers and check out our new Pinterest sweepstakes for RedEnvelope.

Happy Pinning!

Brandmovers recently worked with a leading beverage company and quick service restaurant to develop a sweepstakes that would reward consumers for scanning QR codes on their soft drink cups.

By scanning the QR code, users were taken to a mobile-optimized landing page where they could enter to find out if they are an instant winner. Prizes ranged from a year’s worth of beverage/food products to a trip to Las Vegas.

Entry rates for this sweepstakes were high, a result of connecting with the consumer at a moment when competing distractions are low and they are in-store, interacting with the brands.

To engage online audiences and maximize buzz around this campaign, Brandmovers developed a social media component that allowed users to share the sweepstakes with their Facebook friends and Twitter followers to get additional codes, and more chances to win prizes.

The promotion exceeded pre-launch expectations in terms of sweepstakes entrants and social media mentions. This can be attributed to the ease of entry on the mobile site, the consumer context when presented with a call to action, the prizing incentive, and the social sharing mechanic. The result was an on-brand promotion that engaged relevant audiences in both in-store and online channels.

To learn more about this promotion check out this article from Mobile Marketer.