It’s been four long years since the last world cup took place in Germany, when Italy beat France for the prestigious cup! This Friday the referee’s whistle will mark the beginning of the first world cup of this decade, hosted for the first time in the African continent. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be in its 19th edition and it’s scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. Soccer mania is seen everywhere: outdoor advertising, print, radio, mobile and online, with media spends this year higher than any other year.
Some of the biggest soccer stars today like: Messi, Torres, Ronaldo, Kaka, Beckham and many others will take part on the world’s most-watched sporting event.
According to the 2006 FIFA World CupTM / Infront Sports & Media, billions of people watched the World cup, and a good chuck of it did so in 2006 via online, from which we can only speculate that those numbers will rise tremendously this year.
A few weeks ago, I was asked to share some of my thoughts with iMedia Connection on common mistakes marketers make with Social Media and when it’s time for a Social Media Makeover.
Here is a re-post of that article and a few tell-tale signs your brand is missing a social media marketing opportunity.
The full article from iMedia Connection can be found here.
Article Highlights:
Brands often mistakenly plan social campaigns for the same window of time as they would an online advertising campaign
An intern should not be tasked with managing all of your social media efforts
Brands shouldn’t strip content off of blogs and communities just so they can promote it on their own websites
Common misconceptions and pitfalls
In the year of the social media revolution, we’ve seen many brands, organizations, and individuals jump in and make a concerted effort to expand their presences online and establish their social media footprints. Some of these brands have done a great job and really understand the importance of social media in getting people aware and engaged — while others are latching on to the newest trend and, perhaps, going through the motions to keep up with the Joneses.
Among the more than 3 million businesses creating Facebook pages and groups — not to mention millions of special-interest and community-driven blogs, up to 70 percent of which blog about brands — many have failed to connect the dots in terms of how to use these platforms effectively. Many brands fail to leverage social spaces to drive awareness and engagement among their customers and fans. They simply aren’t having conversations about their brands in the places their audiences share most.
There is a deservedly famous scene in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorcese, 1976) where Travis Bickle, the lead character played by Robert de Niro, tries various lines and deliveries in front of a mirror, angrily and seemingly puzzled at an imagined effrontery, and exclaims “Are you talkin’ to me?!”
This is what I imagine most traditional marketers’ expressions and words to be in the face of the social media explosion: surprised that their consumers are talking to them. And in many cases, talking back. As well as upset at the loss of control of their carefully crafted messages, unsure of whether to do anything about it, then unsure of what to do. And in my own reenactment of the Taxi Driver scene, with brands as Travis Bickle, I envision the mirror talking back, in the voice of consumers: “Are you talking to me?!” “Yes, but are you listening to us?”
Since the once one-way monologue from brands to consumers has irreversibly mutated into a multi-way conversations thanks to social media, the need to listen has become a critical part of any marketer’s must-do list.
One could even say that listening to what consumers are saying about your brand, which has been called many things from Social Media Monitoring to Buzz Monitoring to Social Listening, is a matter of survival. Here are a few reasons why:
As a marketer wishing to create a presence on Facebook, one is often faced with the decision of whether to create a Group or a Fan Page.
Before the design revamp earlier this year, Facebook Groups and Fan pages both had similar functionality and one big problem: they didn’t give people a reason to come back.
Once someone joined a group or became a fan, there wasn’t much to remind them to return for a visit. This made the decision pretty much 50/50 for a marketer as one option had about the same pros and cons as the other.
Point: Team “Fan Page”
The Group vs. Fan Page game changed a few months ago when Facebook updated Fan page functionality to act more like a personal page.
Rather than having static content, fan page news updates and wall posts would be pushed out to fans’ newsfeeds and foster more organic word of mouth and engagement (see our previous entry on the benefits of a Fan Page). During this time, Groups stayed the same– stuck with limited functionality and passalong factor. The marketing choice became a lot easier: create a Fan Page to maximize participation.
I was thinking today about how we used to communicate before computers and email and blogs and cell phones and text messages and social networks. In general, we had 3 big options:
Option 1: Walk up to a person and open our traps. That person would then open theirs and so on, and so on. Presto. An in-person conversation. If you were lucky, you would avoid an argument and end with a nice hand shake or a warm hug.
Option 2: Write a letter on a piece of paper – most appropriate when traveling or after receiving that “great” gift from Grandma (Dear Nana – Thank you so much for the peach polyester sweater with the pink elephants on it. I will wear it to high school every day. Love you!). You actually had to sit down, think about your thoughts and either write them exactly as they appeared in your head or utilize a pencil with an eraser to correct bad spelling and grammar on the fly. Address the envelope, stamp it, fold your letter, insert, seal and drop it in the mailbox.
Option 3: That involved the telephone – not the one that travels with us no matter where we go. This one might have had a rotary dial and could have been the Princess model, with hopefully a nice long twisted cord so you could stretch it across the room and behind the door to the basement in order to chat with the boy that drove you absolutely crazy at school. You couldn’t even leave a message on a machine – if no one answered, you tried again a little later hoping they would have arrived back home. But you would keep trying and eventually, you would have an actual conversation with the person you wanted to talk to.
Now, while all of these options are still available, we have become a very different society, where people can be reached pretty much any place they are and if they are not there, we can leave them a message to force them to get back to us ASAP.
Yesterday, over a lunch meeting with some friends and media colleagues, we started getting a bit philosophical about social media marketing and how companies are not only beginning to embrace it, but how they’re budgeting, implementing, and integrating this type of media internally as part of their overall marketing strategy.
One of the questions that came up:
Does a company really need senior level involvement or outside help to execute social media marketing, or can it be done internally by a team of interns?
Interesting question. The short answer is, yes and yes.
In my opinion, the mistake many companies make in leaping into social media marketing is that it’s all about having a Twitter and Facebook page. Well my friends, if this is all social media marketing means to you, by all means, have your interns go to town. But to me, social media marketing is so much more than that.
Reaching your target audiences where they live online is much more than how you’re represented in social networks. Tapping into the power of influencers, bloggers and taste makers who specialize in your cause or subject matter is something that is a bit of a talent, as there’s so much clutter and competition with getting messages and your call to action heard. If that’s something your intern can do, more power to you. However, sometimes it’s better to have a strategic game plan in targeting where you’re brand is represented, how consumers will engage, and the likelihood they will spread the word.
Well, the folks at KARMA Media Labs thought we’d demonstrate through some short videos. Part 1 of many (and thanks to one KML’er in particular for suffering a red face for the sake of social media).
It’s been four long years since the last world cup took place in Germany, when Italy beat France for the prestigious cup! This Friday the referee’s whistle will mark the beginning of the first world cup of this decade, hosted for the first time in the African continent. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be in its 19th edition and it’s scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. Soccer mania is seen everywhere: outdoor advertising, print, radio, mobile and online, with media spends this year higher than any other year.
A few weeks ago, I was asked to share some of my thoughts with 
There is a deservedly famous scene in 
As a marketer wishing to create a presence on 
Option 1: Walk up to a person and open our traps. That person would then open theirs and so on, and so on. Presto. An in-person conversation. If you were lucky, you would avoid an argument and end with a nice hand shake or a warm hug.
Yesterday, over a lunch meeting with some friends and media colleagues, we started getting a bit philosophical about social media marketing and how companies are not only beginning to embrace it, but how they’re budgeting, implementing, and integrating this type of media internally as part of their overall marketing strategy.