Category: Local News

As we celebrate Facebook’s 10^th Anniversary this month, it may be hard for many of us to imagine a life without the colossal online world that we’ve all come to love and hate. To date myself, I remember a time when I didn’t know what everyone was doing… every second of the day, and I miss those days. At the same time, we’ve probably all learned some valuable lessons from engaging on Facebook. After 10 years of posting, sharing and liking, here’s what I’ve learned:

1. It will never be a substitute – Never in the history of our society have we been so connected to one another. But, messaging/liking/sharing with your online friends is not the same as picking up the phone or speaking with someone in person.
   

   Mark Zuckerberg celebrates Facebook’s 10th anniversary this year while the founder himself turns 30 in May.

   From a business perspective, social media can be a great tool to engage with customers and incentivize them to purchase your products. However, humans craves personal communication that involves touching, feeling, seeing and hearing. Don’t let social media keep you from being a caring member of society. Pick up the phone, send a hand written note, or even better – invite someone to come and talk to you in person.

2. It can be a time waster – We’ve all been there… you jump on your home page, check a few headlines and the next thing you know you’ve spent 30 minutes looking at your BFF’s pictures from Disney Land or reading a 2000 word blog post about why you need to buy the latest version of P90x. Just like Mark Zuckerberg and his team of digital nerds have planned, it sucks you in and keep you for far too long. If you must spend time on Facebook, set a timer to let you know when you need to stop and get back to the important things. Even better, download an application like Hootsuite that will allow you to make posts in advance without actually going to the Facebook website.
3. It can toy with your emotions – So and so got a new job and you’ve been unemployed for months. Or your favorite actor just died and your social feeds are constantly being cluttered with RIP messages. No matter how mentally sound you are, seeing the constant ups and downs of all of your friends can wreck-havoc on your state of mind. Don’t be scared to take a break from time to time and remember that what you are doing is far more important than what everyone else is doing.
4. It can be useful – For as much bad as Facebook brings, it probably brings an equal amount of good. Businesses and individuals now have a way to connect with friends, family and customers in a way that we never thought was possible. Non-profits now have a unique way to raise badly needed funds and the news media can give us second-by-second updates on stories, often resulting in a positive result.

Like it or not, Social Media is probably here to stay! Just keep in mind that it really is about how and why you use and that it’s never too late to step away from your computer and go outside to smell the roses!

As a marketer, I firmly believe that there are only a handful of companies that should make the investment to advertise during the big game. The ultimate goal of any advertising is to sell a product, but not every company succeeds. Here is my take on the companies that got it right and the brands that should have saved their pennies.

THE GOOD

• Hats off to Radio Shack for reigniting the small ray of hope they had as a relevant business and poking fun at their stagnancy. The “80’s are calling” theme made me laugh, shake my head in agreement and maybe… just maybe… want to check out what their refreshed stores have to offer.
  

  Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” Super Bowl spot was a social media favorite.

• Axe Body Spray was provocative, memorable and gave viewers the warm fuzzy with their “Make Love, Not War” campaign. Originally created in affiliation with Peace One Day, a nonprofit organization dedicated to upholding an annual day of international cease-fire, it was a nice change of pace from the macho, sex-filled ads we normally see from them.
• H&M had hearts fluttering all over the U.S. with their ad for David Beckham’s new underwear line. Needless to say, I’m still smiling after seeing his cute and half naked bum running across my T.V screen and my husband will be getting some new underwear… STAT!
• As always, Budweiser had us shedding a tear with their “Puppy Love” spot. I’m not sure how many people will leap off their couches wanting to buy beer because of a cute puppy, but the ad got a ton a buzz before and during the game, which is every advertising exec’s dream.

THE BAD

If you’re paying $4 million dollars for a 30 second TV spot, you better bring your “A” game! Unfortunately, several brands seemed to squander their investment.

• Pizza Hut’s “Go for Greatness” campaign fell flat and struggled to stand out from the crowd despite their use of a baby waterskiing and a grandma jamming on the drums.
• Ditto for the Chevy Silverado ad with a bull being carried to a harem of girl cows by his cowboy owner via a shiny new truck.
• In the category of straight-up-weird, Audi took the cake with their “Doberhuahua campaign. It may have gotten my attention, but the scary looking hybrid dog that wreaks havoc on everyone it sees, had zero to do with selling a German car and freaked me out more than anything.

THE LOCALS

I hate to say it, but I was honestly unimpressed by both Phoenix-based companies that ran spots this year.

•  Fulton Homes was lackluster, as best, with their 30 second spot spelling out the name of the company. Had I not been paying close attention, I probably would have missed it all together. The home builder missed the mark on resonating with their target market and did very little to build a buzz around the brand… before, during and after the game.
•  Go Daddy broke from tradition with two different ad campaigns… neither of which was incredibly provocative or sexy. The body builder ad was a home run when it came to relevant messaging, tag line and branding. However, their ad with the woman quitting her job on live T.V. was pretty boring and lacked any staying power.

Go Daddy broke with tradition with scant use of a scantily clad Danica Patrick.

If you provide something interesting for people to read, they will come.

That’s a two-part process, said Arnie Kuenn, keynote speaker at AZIMA on April 18. The first step is creating a process for regular, quality content. The second step is optimizing that content so people can find it more easily.

“Please optimize your darn content,” was his stark and only statement on optimization.

Arnie Kuenn, AZIMA founding member and President of Vertical Measures, provided meeting attendees with insight into, “How to Win at Search, Social and Content Marketing” based on his award-winning content marketing book, Accelerate.

That two-step process is fundamental to success. “Think like a publisher!” was the key message Kuenn wanted the audience to embrace during his presentation. The focus was on creating compelling content for customer engagement, understanding the latest research and trends and learning best practices for content planning.

Content Marketing Results

Eighteen months ago, audiences he spoke to mostly gave blank looks when he mentioned “content marketing.” Kuenn led off with a look at how content has come into play as a powerful internet marketing tool and why it is important from a search perspective. Some of the favorite stats tweeted by attendees included:

• Companies that blog 15X per month, get 5X more traffic
• Content Marketing is the top priority for businesses in 2013
• Companies with 100-200 content pages generated 2.5X more leads than those with under 50

Compelling content is vital to turning visitors into buyers. 93% use search engines before deciding on a purchase.

Another topic that hit home with the audience of internet marketers, was Kuenn’s suggestions on how to conduct research for generating content ideas:

• Start by finding out what your audience is searching for by using Google keyword tools

• Businesses can get ideas for 60-100+ more content pages on their site, just by answering questions from customers. (This received a few nods of recognition from the crowd.)

• Focus on quality – the best performing posts were over 2,000 words! (This received a few groans from the crowd)
• It takes time – about 180 days rather than 30 days. Once you get to about 200 posts on your blog, traffic starts to take off

Other than the obvious benefits of coming up with useful, rather than gimmicky content ideas, Kuenn said costs can be reduced by as much as 2/3rds with this way of generation. This figure needs further research, he said. When it starts with a group of people talking and coming up with ideas quickly, though, it stands to reason the expense is less.

Following this often overlooked process for gathering ideas, Kuenn impressed the importance of mapping generated topics on a content strategy calendar – like a publisher – and provided this free editorial template.

The State of Relationships

When you’re dealing with an internet presence, Kuenn suggested, a two-way personal relationship is not needed for success. Especially for people getting first impressions of your company as they search for what they need.

“Now relationships are being formed with information, not people,” Keunn said.

Webinars and Google Hangouts are obvious examples of a hybrid of the two. They both bring people into direct interaction. Keep them, post later and transcribe what’s being said and you will also have searchable, evergreen content to put on your blog. The extra multimedia content is also looked upon favorably. That’s SEO.

“Do you view content generation as primarily getting your brand out there,” someone asked.

That’s exactly what it’s not. Being trusted as a place to get good information in your company’s field of interest, is what it’s about, Kuenn said.

“A lot of people think that, but people are tired of being targeted and being ‘sold’ to,” he added.

With a focus on both quality and quantity in his talk, someone in the audience asked which was more important. “Quality,” Kuenn said, adding that in-depth pieces of about 2,000 words are now shown to be more and more popular. The ability to read longer pieces on larger-screened tablets is one factor toward this. Quality also means variety of content, he said, which is another reason people stay on a site.

For businesses seeking growth and performance over competitors, Kuenn’s advice is simple – harness the power of search and social marketing, and consistently create content your target audience will enjoy. Ultimately, you will be rewarded with their business and loyalty.