December 1st is World AIDS Day. To help build awareness and raise money for AIDS research, nonprofit group (RED) is partnering with Snapchat for a new geofilter that will raise $3 for every snap sent on Tuesday. The donation will come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the filter will go live at midnight PT for the following 24 hours. The three (RED) filters feature words like “World AIDS Day” and “Join the fight.” The Gates Foundation will donate up to $3 million, which should be an easy figure for Snapchat users to collectively reach. In addition to Snapchat, the foundation will also donate $1…
The following is a guest blog post written by Jessica Martinez, the marketing whiz-bang over at Kickbox, a company that helps email marketers improve their email reputation by separating low-quality email addresses from high-value contacts. She is responsible for digital branding, engagement and content creation for the Dallas-based startup. Before Jessica got snatched up by email verification powerhouse, Kickbox, she earned her marketing stripes working at a leading ecommerce beauty brand for over a decade.
Email remains the best channel for getting a great return on investment. According to many digital marketing experts, that’s not going to change anytime soon. That said, if you use email marketing, you’re probably busy strategizing and dreaming up clever campaigns to increase conversions and build your email list.
After all, effective list building is at the core of any good email marketing strategy.
But are you taking it too far?
Signs you might be an email hoarder.
Just as you can collect and save mass amounts of anything, it’s also possible to hold on to subscribers in your email list. Not sure if you’re hoarding emails? Ask yourself these questions:
Do you obsess over the number of subscribers on your list?
Do you find yourself boasting about the size of your email list to friends or colleagues?
When someone unsubscribes from your list do you cringe and/or feel a sense of pain?
When you get a new subscriber do you experience a euphoric feeling?
Does the thought of parting with any of the email addresses on your list make you ill?
If you’ve answered “YES” to any of these questions, then you might be an email hoarder.
While a large subscribe list doesn’t necessarily mean you are hoarding emails, if you are focused solely on building your list and/or have never consider clearing out the clutter, your good intentions can quickly get out of hand. Email hoarding happens slowly over time, and many marketers don’t even realize they have a problem until it’s too late – which occurs when they notice any of the following:
High Bounce Rates – Bounce rates approaching 10%
High Volume of Business Emails – B2B lists tend to degrade faster than B2C lists.
Old Lists – The older the list, the greater the risk.
Poor Email Performance – Your emails are not converting like they used to.
Warning from ESP – Your ESP will suspend or block your account if you have too many bounces or invalid email addresses before putting their own network at risk.
Thankfully, however, there’s a cure.
Kickbox, the cure for a cluttered email list.
No one is pointing fingers. We’ve all been guilty of email hoarding at some point in our marketing careers. However, you should understand that list building without routine list maintenance can have serious ramifications.
All email addresses are not created equal. People change jobs, change names, switch email providers, use fake or disposable addresses, hit the wrong keys or buttons, you name it. But when that happens, it can prevent your emails from getting into the inbox.
Additionally, a list riddled with incorrect data can damage your sender reputation and negatively impact email performance. Here’s the general rule for maintaining subscriber lists for both B2C and B2B business owners:
B2B lists should be cleansed every 6 months due to high turnover.
B2C lists should be cleansed at least once a year.
So where does Kickbox fit in?
Kickbox is a list cleaning powerhouse that allows AWeber users to check the health of their email lists and identify the good, the bad and the ugly email addresses lurking in their database. The seamless integration lets you easily pass data back and forth between AWeber and the Kickbox app to help you clear the clutter in a matter of minutes.
Kickbox will provide you with a plethora of data about each email address, letting you know if the address isDeliverable,Undeliverable,Risky – evenDisposable,Accept All,Role, andFree.
They also provide an additional metric, called theSendex™ Score, which allows you to further rank the quality of each email address based on their proprietary scoring system.
Armed with this data, you can make informed, stress-free decisions about which emails to keep, which emails you should ditch, plus you can segment to your heart’s content.
Dealing with online trolls is never a fun thing to have to do. Indeed, many people will recommend you don’t pay any attention to them, as all that’s likely to do is incite further trolling. It’s a vicious circle that, regardless of circumstance, pretty much leaves the victim at the hands of the trolls’ comments. Racist comments are hardly a rarity online – unfortunately, equal access for all means equal access for the abusers too; that’s the price of freedom in this case. However, anti-racism campaigners in Brazil are dealing with online comments in a way that should really hit…
Cyber Monday is officially upon us—arriving with ever greater importance. In fact, already this past weekend, an estimated 103 million Americans shopped online, edging out the 102 million people who stuck to the stores. Analysts predict that when all is said and done, social media alone will account for a staggering $15 billion of sales in 2015.
So, as people continue to clamor to find the best deals online, we at Sprout Social wanted to take a closer look at how retailers are responding. We started with a list from the National Retail Federation’s Top 100 Retailers (which, it’s important to note, includes several grocers, restaurants and fast food chains as well as clothing companies and big box stores). We then plugged these retailers’ handles into our proprietary Twitter Comparison Report to get a score that reflects how often brands are pumping out promotional messages relative to how often they are actually responding to customers’ concerns.
While our most recent Sprout Social Index found that most retailers are ignoring customers on social 83% of the time, the 22 retailers highlighted below are prioritizing customer care on Twitter, earning themselves a Sprout Social Engagement Score of 98 or above.
We’ve also called out a few other facts about how America’s top retailers are approaching Twitter—from how many use a separate handle for customer service to how many aren’t even on this important platform at all.
From Wal-Mart to Wendy’s, Social Standouts on Twitter
So what accounts for these retailers’ exceptional Engagement Scores? In reviewing their Twitter feeds, a few moments stood out.
Wal-Mart: Responding to the Outcry for Pie
After the enthusiastic endorsement from a fan on YouTube, singer Patti LaBelle’s signature sweet potato pies started flying off Wal-Mart shelves. The retail giant couldn’t keep pace with the demand leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday but was quick to issue a response to its Twitter followers, directly from Senior Buyer for Cakes and Pies Kinna Thomas, who promised that the popular product would soon be back in stores.
Nordstrom: Dazzling Audiences With Interactive Products & Promotions
If your product or service requires a bit of explanation, it can be difficult to encapsulate all that needs to be said in a short Tweet. Nordstrom, however, recently stepped up to the challenge. By integrating a Vine video into a DIY feature on Tevas, the retailer piqued its followers’ interest while sparking a lively conversation. At each stage in the lengthy Twitter thread that unfurled, @Nordstrom reps piped in with prompt feedback, providing more context about how the product works as well as where it can be found for purchase.
The world is abuzz over Adele’s latest album, which just broke the single-week sales record held by NSnyc. Target has played an integral role in driving a bulk of these sales—but it isn’t just promoting the album itself. Through some artful social media monitoring, the retailer recently discovered and then Retweeted an in-store photo of a welcome mat taken by one of its creative shoppers. This promotion of user-generated content invites other Target fans to interact with the brand in a more fun and meaningful way.
Wendy’s: Playing It Cool With a Brand-Adjacent Conversation
There are more “national days” than any level-headed social media manager can keep track of throughout the year. Of course, not every trending day requires a response from your brand, so it’s important to establish guidelines of what aligns with your core product offerings. Wendy’s provides a good example of how to coolly join the conversation without hashjacking a moment that’s totally out of step.
The Gift of Gab: Reaping the Rewards of Richer Engagement
If you want to earn a Twitter Engagement Score of 98 or above like the retailers on our list, it’s time to get talking—and gain a competitive advantage. Consider the following advice:
Listen for more than @mentions. Track keywords that alert your team of brand, product or service mentions—time is often of the essence this time of year.
Set clear customer expectations. State in your bio when your support team is active—whether that’s 9–5 CST or 24/7—as well as expected response times.
Establish short-term benchmarks.Determine reasonable (and unacceptable) response times; measure performance, and adjust staffing throughout the holidays.
Rise to specific occasions.Beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday, milestones like last day for promotional pricing and free shipping may result in increased chatter.
Businesses know that the holiday period can be critical to the success of their entire year, with nearly one fifth of annual sales occurring during these couple of weeks.
from Seo - Search Engine Watch http://ift.tt/1Rgo252
via IFTTT
About six weeks ago, I started a mini experiment to find out if I was too late (or too old) to hop on the Instagram and Snapchat trains. As a mid-thirties male, I’m not really in the demographic for either product, or I certainly don’t feel like I am. Nonetheless, it’s time to take a look at if or how my habits have changed during that time. Well, the fact that it’s been six weeks rather than a month should be a hint towards my success thus far – like the rest of the world, I’m short on time and have an awfully…
GIFs are often looked at assillyandunprofessional, but they can actually be used thoughtfully to help your serious organization—from high-end retail to nonprofits—stand out on social media and better connect with your audience visually.
The key difference between a GIF of dancing cats that likely has no value for your business and a GIF that helps your campaigns succeed is investing in this form of media correctly.
GIFs can be used on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and elsewhere to make content more compelling and provide context better than words or a static image would be able to.
Currently, most organizations overlook the addition of GIFs into theirsocial strategy, which only creates more opportunity for your content to succeed. So let’s look at how to regularly incorporate this visual media into your messaging with purpose.
Adding visuals increases Retweets by 35%.
Source: Twitter, 2014
Create GIF-Specific Guidelines
Start by making an addition to your existing social media guidelines to outline the best ways to use GIFs for your brand and incorporate best practices.
This process should align the creation of GIFs with your brand’s identity visually in terms of color palette, font preference and logo treatment as well as your strategic approach to serving the right messaging to the appropriate audience. That is to say, jumpy,jerkyandoverly repetitive GIFsare probably not the type of GIFs your organization should be producing.
Keep it simple when it comes to developing GIFs that engage and add value to what you’re sharing on social. The UN Climate Change Conference shared a straightforwardGIF on Twitterthat animated its name, hashtag and the date of its event, which all aligned with the visual branding of the conference used across other channels.
Add Value by Educating
GIFs applied with purpose can educate your audience, illustrating each step of a process, acting as a how-to guide or even adding a bit of humor to an otherwise dry subject.
Credit: designmodo
Educational GIFs can showcase the features of a website or an app, which are often hard to describe with words or static images and usually require video production. The looping aspect of a GIF is more helpful when trying to educate your audience on certain subjects, allowing them to review it as many times as they’d like until the concept resonates.
Partner With Influencers
To start creating GIFs that will resonate, work with influencers who are known for creating this type of media, whether that’s on Tumblr, Vine or Twitter, which depends on the type of audience you’re trying to reach.
JanSport recently worked with Tumblr influencerFashGifto develop a set of GIFs that featured its backpack product in a fun and interesting way that appeals to the younger demographic found on the blogging social network.
Ahead of the “Terminator Genisys” movie release, Paramount Pictures partnered withsix GIF artists on Giphy, the GIF search engine, to reimagine the characters and moments throughout the movie from their perspective. Their expertise in GIF making, coupled with a unique angle to the iconic movie series, yielded a suite of visuals prime for social sharing.
With a built-in audience and an expertise in GIF making, partnering with an influencer can ensure a campaign with this type of media drives results.
Use Cinemagraphs to Create Depth
An often overlooked form of GIFs to use are cinemagraphs, which are images where only a certain area within the photo is in motion. These are another way to showcase your content on social media, helping to better optimize it to stand out.
Credit: cinemagraphs.com
In the example above, cinemagraph makes the fashion-focused image more compelling by drawing the viewer’s eye to the featured product.
The point of using a cinemagraph is to not only stand out among the noise on social but also to bring more life to your brand’s story to better connect with customers. ReviewGiphy,ImgurandTumblrto get inspiration from the existing GIFs being shared today both from brands and consumers alike to understand what your range of options are.
What hesitations does your organization have investing in GIFs? Which channels are you most likely to share GIFs with your audience? Share in the comments below.
The crowd at Telefónica’s Wayra accelerator Demo Day 2015 in London was rather bizarrely treated to a midway cheerleading show before the second half of 16 startups pitching their winning ideas today. On Twitter at least, the event very easily looked like it had descended into a how-could-you-not-forsee-this, very-stereotypically-gendered tech event, with one audience member, who runs an all-female social enterprise, tweeting: And so begins 2nd half #WayraDD15 catering for the lads, when tech is 50/50 can we have male cheerleaders too pls?! http://pic.twitter.com/SC5Pk2G2KQ — Kathy Smart (@smartredkitty) November 25, 2015 Having got in touch with Wayra for clarification, a spokesperson said: “This has…
When a social network has reached the popularity of Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, making the decision to invest time and energy into it is easy. Most companies like to wait until they see other businesses have success on a social network before deciding to make the plunge. It’s completely understandable. You don’t have the resources to market on every new social media platform that pops up every day. On top of that, the list of failed social platforms is long, which isn’t helping.
Waiting for new social media platforms to become popular may sound like a good idea. But the truth is being an early adopter has its advantages, one of which being much less competition. When you start a new Twitter profile or Facebook page, there’s a good chance your competitors are already there and reaching your target audience. Now you’re competing for their attention. But if you start a Snapchat account on the other hand, you’ll probably be one of the first companies in your industry on the app, so it’s a lot easier to gain the unique audience.
The first challenge is spotting emerging social media platforms that will be worth your time and effort. Then as a trailblazer, you have to figure out how to utilize the platform within your marketing strategy.
What to Look For
Pinterest launched in 2010, but most businesses didn’t join in until a few years later. But there were certain companies like Wholefoods and Etsy that began pinning way before it was mainstream. What were they able to see in Pinterest that others weren’t?
Notice the similarities in gender, education and location. Etsy’s target market was on Pinterest so it made perfect sense to integrate it into their strategy.
The takeaway from this is you need to know your target market. Create a customer avatar that you can refer to when looking for new social media platforms to use. Once a new social network draws your interest, explore it. Here are some key factors to look for:
Are people actively engaged? If the answer is no, it’s probably not worth your time.
Who’s the most active? Just like the Etsy and Pinterest example, you want to make sure your target audience is actually using the platform.
How are people using the social network? Knowing how people use the platform (for leisure, communication or general entertainment) will help you create an effective marketing strategy.
What’s the climate? You have to know the environment and culture fits your brand. It may be structured like Facebook, or more of a free-for-all like Reddit.
Are their communities? It’s nice to have smaller niche groups within a social network to help you connect with your target customers. Think along the lines of Google+ Communities, Subreddits and Facebook Groups.
Answering these questions will give you an idea of whether or not a social network will be a good fit for your business.
How to Become an Early Adopter
Having a strategic approach to new social media platforms will put you in a much better position for success. Here are some simple tips to prevent you from falling flat on your face or missing out on the next big social network.
1. Claim Your Profile
You might be at a point where you think a social network looks good, but you aren’t sure whether or not you want to fully invest the time. Even if you’re marginally interested in trying a new social platform, setup a profile. You don’t have to go all in and be active every day like you are on your top social channels. Just take a couple of minutes to create an account on new platforms.
Not only will this allow you to claim your brand’s username, but it’ll also give you the opportunity to dip your toe in the marketing waters a bit. If the social channel starts to take off, you’ll be one step ahead. If it doesn’t, then at least you haven’t sunk too much time into it.
2. Promote Your New Social Profiles
Once you’ve made the decision to actively engage with a new social platform, your next step should be to let the world know you’re there. If you’ve established a following on other social networks, ask your followers to join you on the new one too.
The Lancashire Police is using this strategy to grow the department’s Instagram page. The official Twitter page has over 75K followers, and they’re using that following to push traffic to the Instagram account.
Another good option to build your initial following is to find those you’re connected to on your other social media channels on the newest sites. Most new social networks have this feature built in because it creates faster growth.
3. Get Active
After you’ve committed to a new social platform, you need to be active. This allows you to build your account up as an authority that’s worth following. When new users join, they’ll be looking for established accounts as they start to explore.
Create a social media plan around the new network. Most social networks don’t give you analytics at first, so you might need to develop your own key performance indicators (KPI) and metrics that you want to track. That might mean number of followers, comments or shares your posts get. The metrics you choose will depend on the social network.
Being active doesn’t just mean sharing content. You also have to interact with other users even if they’re not necessarily your target audience. It’s similar to being the person at a party that walks around and works the room. You have to make your presence known and you’ll become much more memorable as a result. Here are some ideas to help you start engaging with other users:
Re-share others’ content: Most social media platforms have a feature that allows you to re-share other users’ content like Retweets on Twitter. This is a great way to get noticed by other users while sharing more content.
Vote/Like their content: Whether we’re talking about likes on Facebook and Twitter or a +1 on Google+, nothing shows your appreciation for other users like giving their content your vote of approval.
Reply: Commenting and replying to other users is one of the best ways to engage on social media, yet so few companies do it. Taking the time to leave a thoughtful reply can help you stand out and build connections.
New Social Media Platforms to Watch
Now that you know how to take advantage of being an early adopter, let’s look at some of the top new social media platforms that your business should start looking into.
We Heart It
We Heart It is like a cross-breed of Pinterest and Instagram. Instead of Pinterest’s boards, We Heart It has Canvases and Collections. You won’t find infographics and recipes here though. Images that get shared on this platform are more like what you see on Instagram with quotes, photography and selfies. And the platform is open to businesses, which is a huge plus. Starbucks, MTV, Chobani and several other large brands have already jumped on the We Heart It ship.
Ello
In a lot of ways, Ello is like the anti-social network. The founders have pledged to keep the platform ad-free forever. They have even made it a point to mention that Ello is not about posting where you are and who you’re with. Instead, it’s a place to connect with creative people and draw inspiration. You can post videos, audio, GIFS, images and even blog posts. The fact that Ello is so anti-adverting might turn off some businesses, but there is still plenty of value to reach specific audiences.
Medium
With the explosion of content marketing over the past couple of years, Medium is in a great position to really take off. The social network is a microblogging platform that helps you establish yourself as a thought leader and share great content. Unlike networks such as Twitter or Tumblr that have a lot of content curation, Medium specifically focuses on original content. If your company has been looking for new platforms to publish content, or if you’re trying to get higher level executives involved in your social media strategy, Medium could be a great option.
Hyper
A good way to describe Hyper is Instagram with more structure and organization. Instead of posting your photos to your profile where only your followers can see, your posts get published to specific categories. Posts can be voted up or down similar to Reddit’s system, which can give your content more visibility. Hyper is nice for local businesses because you can use geotagging to attract users close to your business. The downside to Hyper is it’s only available for iOS users at the moment.
Snapchat
Snapchat is right at the point where businesses are just starting to realize its potential. This is great because it hasn’t been saturated with marketers. In the early stages, Snapchat was looked at as an app for sending pictures and videos discreetly. Users can send images or videos to each other but the catch is that they self destruct within 10 seconds or less. The app evolved to allow for more permanent content with Stories and other features that make it great for businesses.
There’s a good chance that most of your competitors aren’t using Snapchat, but your customers are mostly likely on it. Take advantage by setting up your profile as soon as possible. Read through our Snapchat Guide to get started.
Break free of the habit of waiting for social platforms to become extremely popular to join. Become an early adopter of new social media platforms like the ones we’ve mentioned, and use our tips to increase your chances of success.
KitKat is heading towards hitting its rather conservative petition goal on Change.org aimed at convincing the Unicode Consortium to accept a new /‘\ emoji, a snapping KitKat, as the universal symbol for taking 10 minutes away from your desk. This isn’t the first emoji stunt created by a brand and facilitated by the world’s petitioning platform, Taco Bell fought and won its attempt to get the traditional Mexican dish that has made its name accepted in the Unicode 8.0 update in June this year. More than 32,000 people signed their name to the ’cause’ and the Unicode Consortium duly took notice. In a bid…
Social media managers and marketers always try to find the best way to get their brand heard. Those in the marketing industry craft content that engages customers and builds better brand loyalty.
But what happens when marketers rely on popular culture references to connect to a broader group of people? Some companies can execute this perfectly and create truly engaging marketing campaigns. However, other businesses can swing and miss by relying on something like a marketing meme to help their brand go viral.
What Even Is a Meme?
We know you’ve heard the term thrown around the Internet, but what are memes? A meme is an image, video, phrase or some combination of a visual and bolded, capitalized text that is virally shared across social media networks and blogs. They typically have a somewhat hidden meaning that speaks about a popular culture reference. Memes are meant to be funny and most importantly, a piece of satire.
Memes have been around for years, but they have certainly evolved over time due the culture that surrounds Internet humor. In fact, with the rise of Twitter, more memes are turning into phrases instead of common meme images. Other popular memes go even further than standard images by using video editing and photoshop skills to make a meme that can be shared on all social media platforms.
Memes are also extremely interchangeable. There are specific types of meme phrases and images that are well known. But usually the content relies on users to create new phrases with the image to be relevant to specific audiences, interests or trends.
What You Need to Know About Memes
For most social media managers, you’ve been aware of memes for sometime. However, there are some important things you need to know about them before you even consider adding this viral approach to your marketing strategy.
Memes Have a Short Lifespan
Memes tend to live a very short lifespan. In fact, most memes get pretty old after you see it a few times, which is why the text is often so interchangeable. Memes are meant to provide a quick and clever snippet on some pop culture aspect, which helps them become viral. However, before you know it, a meme could have went its full cycle on the Internet and is now irrelevant.
The YouTube feed PBS Idea Channel dives even deeper into why people get tired of hearing or seeing Internet memes, and why some cannot even last throughout the week. There’s a real disparity between making a meme to be in the so-called “Internet cool-kids club” or just to try and be funny.
Know the Term ‘Memejacking’
One marketing term that comes up a lot with memes is “memejacking.” According to Business News Daily, this is when brands use previously created memes in their own marketing strategy. Brands tend to do this when they want to reach a younger audience, but it’s not easy to do.
Memejacking is a risky move because you will either ride the wave of the viral post or you will seem like you’re trying too hard. However, this strategy is one of the most popular uses of Internet humor for marketing campaigns. The majority of examples in this article could be considered memejacking.
Memes Heavily Rely on Humor
Like we said before, most memes are supposed to be funny. And because several memes have a sarcastic or satirical approach, it can be difficult for your entire audience to understand. If you think a meme could work in your marketing favor, you have to ask yourself a very serious question–Are you that funny?
Don’t get us wrong, there are plenty of brands that invoke humor and engage their customer base with weird, satirical humor. Just look at brands on Twitter like Old Spice, Totinos or Charmin that significantly invest in humor-based social campaigns. In fact, a report by WebSearchSocial said comedy is one of the best ways for marketers to get their customers to let down their guard with a brand.
On the other hand, humor is not for everyone or every business, which means as a social media manager, you have to know what you’re getting into when it comes to viral content.
If you want to make sure your meme isn’t offensive or off-base, check out the Twitter handle Brands Saying Bae for some poorly executed marketing memes.
Memes Produce Immediate Reactions
This can be good or really bad. Because memes rely so much on humor, it’s somewhat easy to miss the mark or come off inappropriate or insensitive. As you know with anything involving the Internet, there’s plenty of offensive viral content on the Web. But as a social marketer, you have to be careful not to damage your brand in attempts of going viral. Memes produce immediate reactions because they are:
Easy to read
Simple to digest
Shareable
Relatable
Trendy
Recognizable
To the point
Aim for the quick laugh
Know Your Meme
Your audience can run away with a great meme or turn it into an embarrassing campaign. This is why you have to know your meme and some of the connotations behind it. You can use sites like KnowYourMeme.com or Meme Generator to find more information on the most popular memes out there. However, if you plan to use it in your marketing campaign, make sure you choose something that will not make you seem out of touch or that has been widely unpopular some time.
There are some memes that have longer lifecycles than others, but you need to be certain that your content will relate and do well with your own audience. You should try to avoid posting viral content continuously just to be funny. Like any joke, it’s all in the delivery.
Where Memes Have Gone With Marketing
While memes typically rely on popular topics, characters, phrases or ideas, some businesses are going their own direction to uniquely created viral concepts. At its core, a meme should engage the reader and that’s why so many businesses want to use highly shareable Internet content to drive larger audiences.
Several memes have evolved over the last few years from simple image-based content, to either video content (gifs) or just simple phrases. The best thing to know about memes is they are constantly changing.
Who Uses Them?
There’s actually a good amount of major businesses that rely on memes and other viral content to help drive their social media presence. For example, Denny’s has come out as one of the most viral, Internet culture-based and odd companies on social media. But strangely enough, it has revamped its brand by creating humorous and engaging content.
In this instance, Denny’s recreated Drake lyrics right after the immensely popular song Hotline Bling was released. It’s silly, funny, trending and getting a lot of Likes and Retweets. Other brands such as Wonderful Pistachios has replicated actual memes into its own commercials.
In this example, the commercial is based on the Keyboard Cat meme, a YouTube viral sensation that has received over 24.3 million views. This is a perfect use of memejacking because the commercial uses the same theme and content as the viral meme to drive nearly 3 million unique brand YouTube views on its own.
Another company that heavily relies on memes to push their brand is Jimmy John’s. Its Twitter feed is full of different popular Internet memes that revolve around Jimmy John’s sandwiches.
Here’s the real question—should your brand engage with your audience through memes? The answer honestly depends on how in-tune you are with your customers. Brands like Hot Pockets, White Castle and Hamburger Helper have fully embraced the uniqueness of marketing memes.
Quit asking me "WHAT ARE THOSE?"
Kid, I don't EVEN HAVE FEET.
Some brands have even realized the success of some of their biggest competitors and tried to hop on the Internet viral wave. However, some brands fall short and can really seem like they’re over doing it.
too old for pancakes and chill, now we want breakfast all day and commitment
What’s crazy about Internet memes is some fizzle out in less than a month, while others pick up steam later on. If you consider yourself Internet savvy than you’ve definitely heard “Netflix and chill,” which is easily one of the most popular memes right now. However, by the time you read this article, the buzz around that phrase could be completely out of date.
For marketers who want to stay on top of Internet culture, you have to keep a pulse on popular culture events. For example, during Super Bowl XLVIII in New Orleans, there was a blackout in the Superdome, which caused a 34-minute delay. According to Wired, Oreo won the commercial/marketing Super Bowl without even paying millions of dollars for air time. The cookie company simply Tweeted out this image:
Within minutes Oreo had thousands of Retweets all because the company was extremely timely in its delivery. In a social media crazed age, comedy has to be extremely timely and as a brand, it requires to be ready when to use something like a meme to increase engagement.
So, What’s the Point?
Social media can be risky business for companies to let out their humorous side because some of the jokes are completely geared toward younger generations.
In this marketing meme, only those who get the “Doge” meme will understand the context. If you’re certain your target audience will comprehend, then you could drive higher engagement as these marketing memes do well.
Memes are used to get your audiences’ attention, which could ultimately lead to outreach and higher engagement. Using a tool for social media management like Sprout Social can help you measure social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to see how well your viral posts are doing.
Even though memes strongly depend on humor, understanding more about your target audience could seriously help you develop your social media marketing strategy.
At the same time, you’re entering a realm of Internet jokes where you simply cannot be certain if your memejacking content will go over well with your audience. It pays to know the social media demographics of your audience so you can make decisions like marketing memes to boost customer engagement.
However memes shouldn’t be used blindly. While they truly don’t have any context to your brand, how the company works or brand solutions, your humor can actually go a long way. With the right use of humor, you will build brand trust with your core audience as you begin to humanize your company.
Your website isn’t the only place you connect with new people.
You interact with others at conferences, your cash register, or even the grocery store (you know the longer those lines get, the sooner friendships and networking opportunities are forged).
With all of these face-to-face interactions you have with prospective customers, leveraging them to grow your email list simplymakes sense. That’s why for our latest episode of Quick Tips, Olivia and I address three ways you can encourage people to sign up to your email list offline.
In cased you missed a tip, here’s the transcript:
Monica (M): Hi, I’m Monica.
Olivia (O): And I’m Olivia. Welcome back to another episode of Quick Tips.
When you think about growing your email list, you probably imagine people sitting at their computers, checking out your website, and filling out the form on the homepage.
M: But you don’t have to let your website do all the talking. There are plenty of ways to leverage opportunities when you’renotonline too.
O: One way is to download an email sign up app.
M: It seems like there’s an basically an app for everything these days. And if you want to get people to easily subscribe to your email list from areasoutsideof your website, well, an app can help you do that too.
O: Email apps, such asAWeber’s Atom App, allow you to turn your mobile device into a sign up form. Simply download the app, connect it to your email list with your email service provider, and add new subscribers directly from the app – anyone who signs up to your emails will automatically get added to your list in your account.
M: If possible, include a brief description about the purpose of your email list. People who sign up to your list want to know what’s in it for them.
O: This is your chance to do some convincing, in addition to simply telling them how awesome it is. Planning on sending a weekly newsletter of company updates? Maybe recipes from your cooking blog? Tell your subscribers!
M: You might also want to add an image of your brand logo or change the colors to create a consistent experience with your brand.
O: If you’re the old school type, a paper and pen also does the trick – simply add columns for name and email address. The downside here is that you will have to manually add each subscriber to your list, hence why many enjoy the convenience of the signup form app. But, to each their own!
M: Once you have your form, it’s time to figure out some opportunities where you can encourage others to subscribe to your list.
O: Networking events or conferences where you have a booth set up are perfect opportunities for asking people to sign up to your list. Just make sure that you mention it at a relevant point in the conversation – you don’t want to start a discussion by immediately asking them to sign up to your email list.
M: If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can also set up an iPad near the register, and direct customers to sign up to receive future email updates.
O: Or maybe you just happen to strike up a conversation with someone you just met while hiking. You can pretty much grow your email list anytime, anywhere.
M: And before you head out to that next big event, be sure to set up an email to automatically welcome new subscribers to your list. OurCampaignsfeature lets you send a message to new subscribers who signed up through the Atom app – this means you can send them a message with info that’s relevant to them.
O: So that’s it for our tips on offline list building, but we wanted to leave you with a Quick Task:
M: Take a few minutes to think about offline opportunities you have to interact with your audience. Are there any upcoming networking events, or do you have a store where you can set up an iPad?
O: Just download a sign up form app, then customize the content and design, and ask people you interact with to subscribe to your list.
M: Now that you have some work to do, we’ll let you get to it. Feel free to leave a comment below with how you plan been growing your list offline.
Getting someone’s attention in our content-saturated world is challenging. Getting someone to actually click on one of your social media posts is even harder.
That’s why visuals are so important. While beautifully created graphics are great, another kind of image—the emoji—can be just as effective in certain settings. Of course, emojis may not be appropriate to include in every major communication, but they are often a useful form of shorthand for quick updates.
The bright folks of our #SproutChat community shared their thoughts on how these tiny popular graphics can have a big impact in engaging different audiences. Below are their suggestions.
Show Some Personality
Emojis have become their own sort of language. They began as a fun addition to a text message, but they can now be used to replace actual words and phrases, conveying an entire range of emotions. Frequent emoji users have set a standard for what each character means. Brands should test which ones resonate with their audiences while closely monitoring which emojis don’t get the intended reaction. Still, for the most part, emojis are a great way to foster a more personal connection.
A1 I think #smm is about talking the talk of your audience, so emoji marketing is a natural next step #sproutchat
The list of emojis keeps growing, opening up the opportunity for brands to be more creative. While most may use emojis playfully, they can also be used seriously. What’s more, combining several emojis in one post can take on an entirely new meaning. Look into what emojis your community is already using to guide your brand’s overall approach and tone.
A3: Don’t think there’s any single emotion… that’s why there are so MANY FREAKIN EMOJIs! #sproutchat
While emojis can resonate with a range of audiences, some people may find them off putting. Remember: Emojis aren’t just for a younger audience, but they do tend to resonate better with millennials and Gen X. That said, there are certain situations where an emoji just isn’t acceptable at all.
If my doctor starting sending me emojis on my reminders for appointments I may think twice about him, but my dogwalker? Sure #sproutchat
Let’s face it, emojis aren’t going anywhere. They have become accepted as a normal part of everyday communication. Seeing that the language has also evolved to incorporate different skin colors, as well as various foods and sports from a wider range of cultures, we predict that brands will start using emojis with even greater frequency.
A6. Branded Emojis are the future of messaging marketing. Might even be a big factor in SEO very soon! #sproutchat
With Thanksgiving just around the corner in the US, we have a lot to be grateful for this year—including our awesome #SproutChat community. On that note, we’re also thrilled to share that Social Media Examiner recently included us in their roundup of the best Twitter chats for marketers, thanks to the feedback from people like you.
Of course, if you’re new to #SproutChat, don’t be shy; feel free to stop by every Wednesday at 2 p.m. CST, and/or tune into our Facebook community for weekly discussion topics. We’ll see you next time, as we discuss supplementing data and analytics to prove the impact of social media today.
