Lately, real-time marketing is the buzzword du jour. While the notion of real-time marketing has been around since the mid-nineties, the practice gained steam after Oreo's "Dunk in the Dark" ad was created immediately following the power outage during this year's Super Bowl.
Then, shortly after the Super Bowl -- during the Oscars -- it seemed like practically every brand was developing Dunk in the Dark-like ads. The point I'm trying to make isn't that most marketers are lemmings unable to stop themselves from immediately jumping on the next shiny new object. In fact, a little real-time marketing experimentation is definitely not a bad thing, so in this post I wrote for HubSpot, I'll highlight the necessary steps you should take to be an effective real-time marketer.
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If there's anyone out there who still believes social media doesn't warrant serious consideration, consider some basic facts: There are more than 750 million active users on Facebook, 140 million unique visitors to the site each month, 200 million registered Twitter users, and more than 100 million professionals on LinkedIn.
That's just for starters. In addition to social networking sites, there are blogs, comments on traditional media and e-commerce websites, review sites such as ConsumerSearch and epinion, content-sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr, and collaborative projects such as Wikipedia.
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A marketer's job is to make something interesting. That's easy enough when you work for Red Bull, but what if your client is a soap company? Or a data-storage firm? Not exactly riveting. Let's face it, some industries are naturally a little more exciting than others. But the best marketing can make anything compelling, even something you never thought would resonate strongly with your audience.
Before you let a boring industry dictate the tone of an otherwise exciting company or write off, check out this abbreviated list of five companies that put an edgy spin on seemingly boring industries. For the full catalogue, download the free ebook 16 Companies from "Boring" Industries Creating Remarkable Content.
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Despite the fact that most Americans have embraced social media, recent studies show that as many as 72% of businesses that have a social media presence do not have a clearly defined social strategy in place. Without a clear social strategy, building a successful social presence that inspires customer loyalty and engagement is nearly impossible.
Is your business one of the 72%? The good news is you are not alone. If you're just starting to develop your social media strategy, or taking a second look at a strategy that just isn't paying off, here are some best practices to make the most of your company's social presence.
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Conversations about your company and your products happen each and every day, all over the web. For a marketer managing campaigns across all types of media, these real-time consumer conversations can either be a marketer's dream or your worst nightmare. At the end of the day, you just want marketing programs that work.
Bazaarvoice simplifies social-channel complexity by giving specific examples of ways social can improve marketing efficiency and effectiveness. This insight-packed resource clearly outlines six actionable strategies for leveraging user-generated content to: - Create word-of-mouth campaigns that drive growth
- Deliver a measurable return on social investments
- Bridge the gap between brands and consumers
- Increase site traffic
Download this report now to see exactly how social drives real results for brands.
The Wall Street Journal has reported Facebook is testing a program that would enable users to click on a hashtag, bringing the social network inline with Twitter. The hashtag would lead people to all conversations that used the hashtag.
While this will allow Facebook to better its ad targeting capabilities, Ad Age posits it's a play for improving its graph search since users of hashtags are more likely than those who Like to be true fans of a topic. They theorize by saying a person could Like something, view it and then never come back whereas a hashtag user may be more likely to be a fan because of continuous use of a hashtag.
Well, at least now maybe all those hashtags Instagram users apply to their pictures when posting to Facebook will now have a purpose.
Working tirelessly through the night following yesterday's Facebook announcement about its new News Feed, two diligent HubSpotters, Anum Hussain and Brittany Leaning, have published a new report, How Facebook's New News Feed Changes Your Content Strategy. The 35 page (don't worry, there's lots of pictures) report that aims to educate marketers on how they need to approach content creation for Facebook's redesigned news feed.
Download the report now and learn how these changes will affect your Facenbook marketing.
According to eMarketer, almost four billion dollars in advertising budgets were spent on Facebook ads during the past year, and that number is expected to grow to more than six billion in 2014.
Meanwhile, Facebook continues to grow its user base as more people join the world's largest social network and spend more time within its walls. ComScore reports that the average Facebook user spends more than 6 hours on Facebook each month. This report answers questions about how women and men engage differently with ads on Facebook. And the answers are quite surprising.
Download the report now and find out why men are cheap.
So while Advertising Age is critiquing the $1.6 million commercials that ran during the Oscars last night, we thought we'd take a look at something a bit less expensive and a bit more inventive -- the real-time newsjacking that occurred last night during the broadcast.
Newsjacking refers to the practice of capitalizing on the popularity of a news story to amplify your sales and marketing success. The term was popularized in David Meerman Scott's book Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.
Check out the full list here in an article we wrote for HubSpot.
As the Oscars kicked off last night, Honda hosted their own unique virtual awards ceremony dedicated to their fans on Facebook and Twitter. Fans who illustrated their passion were recognized with specialized #HondaLove awards in real-time coinciding with similar category wins as they were announced.
#HondaLove award examples include Best Song, Best Live Action Short and Best Art Direction. About 10 total awards were given out during the awards show. A #HondaLove winner gallery is posted to Honda's Facebook page.
While not exactly a newsjacking stunt, the work did tie in nicely with the evening's Oscar content.
This effort extends a series of feel-good surprises, known as "Honda Loves You Back," most recently for Valentine's Day.
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