How do you create synergy between pursuing a corporate mission and creating powerful grassroots awareness for your health plan? If you’re MVP Health Care, you drive momentum for your direct-to-consumer efforts with a social promotion that leverages consumer passion for community causes.
It’s possible that Wells Fargo did execute a coordinated promotion strategy, and we just can’t find samples of it. But it’s also possible that the bank overlooked the most important part of a promotion: making sure to promote it. Even the posts that we did discover don’t fully explain the prizes.
This time last year, asking your Facebook fans to comment on your page for a chance to win X, Y or Z was virtually a social sin when it came to abiding by the network’s strict promotion guidelines. But just as it’s wont to do, Facebook is changing its tune. On the heels of an announcement that the ad creation process will be simpler, Facebook updated its Pages Terms to make running promotions a lot easier, too. A lot easier. One change in particular – how fans can enter contests – is perfect for brands looking to engage with and reward their audiences in a simple, cost-effective way.
From a recent social media campaign, UK bank First Direct has enough happiness to last it a long, long while. Its promotion “Pictures of Happiness” utilized a Facebook app to crowd-source “photos of happiness” from fans. The contest not only awarded great prizes for the best submissions, but it also fed the user content into an ad campaign for the bank.
The first 5 people to comment score a pair of shoes! Fill in the blank to enter to win a $50 gift card! ‘Like’ this post and you might win! Facebook wall promotions: They’re easy to set up and enter, in-the-moment and exciting to participate in, which are undoubtedly a few of the reasons why many brands continue to coordinate them. Unfortunately, they also completely disregard Facebook’s promotions guidelines and run the risk of page termination at any moment.
When FYE offered a VIP package for the recent Lollapalooza festival, it was an intense competition on the brand’s Facebook wall right up until the final minutes. Candidates were rallying for themselves or friends by posting daily: “Please vote for so-and-so!” Once the winner was announced, people rallied around him to congratulate him, and after the winner returned from the trip, he shared his gratitude on FYE’s wall: "I cannot thank you enough for offering me such a freaking awesome experience! I literally felt like I was a celebrity for 3 straight days! Love you guys! Thank you SOO much again!!" Everyone now knows that this fan thinks FYE is the best brand ever!
P. T. Barnum once said, “Without promotion, something terrible happens: Nothing!” Barnum knew promotion. He used the social media of his day, the word-of-mouth of a thousand excited kids triggered by a couple advance men and a few handbills, to build anticipation for events featuring the “Fiji mermaid,” General Tom Thumb and Jumbo the Elephant. Our young democracy ate it up. Today, we’re quick to laugh at the “gullibility” of P. T. Barnum’s customers, rubes suckered in by “obvious” hoaxes like the Cardiff Giant. But history records few cases of customers complaining or demanding their money back. Why?
Does sentiment drive openness or does openness drive sentiment? There is no easy answer to this “chicken or egg” question. But there is no question social media is opening up (a quite public) window on the relationship between top retail brands and their customers. And though it is not necessary for retailers to prioritize openness – say, by defaulting likers to a “Top Posts” Facebook wall – not doing so (or being unable to do so), particularly when key competitors can, says something about a brand and offers clues as to how that brand operates in social space. Media Logic has just completed a quick analysis of the relationship between brand sentiment/passion and the willingness of brands to prioritize customer posts on an open Facebook wall. We examined brands in three retail sectors – Department stores, Discount and Value stores and Hobby stores.
Tara Coomans’ article in Business2Community about buying Facebook likers offers an important cautionary tale about social media. She warns that marketers should not convince brands that fans are leads and that brands should not believe that fans will equal sales. She reminds us that relationships grown organically are the ones of lasting value. But when Tara cautions, “Buying fans is a waste of money and probably a threat to your brand,” I am reminded about a social media (and universal) rule – few things are true absolutely. After all, there is “buying likers,” and then there is “buying likers.”
Let's clear up one thing: Yes, "Conversation Manager" is a real title at Media Logic! In fact, Conversation Managers supported by Zeitgeist & Coffee, our collaborative platform for real-time marketing, are exactly what makes it possible for us to deliver our modern social marketing services: Influencer Marketing, Managed Community Marketing and Social Promotions & Social Stream Marketing.