Influence Marketing Archives

4 Ways to Leverage Big Data

October 14, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Data derived from social platforms can be highly valuable if you know how to leverage big data for the right campaigns.

Big data is one of the most talked about concepts of the era, and for good reason. If your brand knows how to effectively leverage big data to optimize campaigns and generate results, you could be looking at unprecedented growth.

Below are four great ways to leverage big data and some examples of campaigns you can execute taking these data into account.

Implement Responsive Branding

Social platforms offer brands a unique insight that no other marketing channel has ever offered. For the first time, your audience is coming to you and telling you what they want and how they want it delivered. If you are properly monitoring your audience’s tastes and preferences, you can implement Responsive Branding initiatives that leverage big data in order to target a specific group according to what they like and when they are online.

Say, for example, that you sell jewelry. After you mine for data, you find out that your target audience is most active early in the morning. Imagine taking this information, and targeting this audience when you know they are most engaged – wouldn’t that make the most sense?

Optimize Search Campaigns

When it comes to search-driven traffic, the majority of our audience is going to come from organic results. That’s a well-known fact. That said, there is still a strong part of our audience that can be influenced by ads online. Imagine if you had more insights into what that audience was.

For SEM (search engine marketing) campaigns, you can easily leverage big data in order to narrow your scope and drive a higher click-through rate (CTR). On Google, anything above 1% is considered a strong CTR. Imagine knowing exactly what demographics like to click on your ads and targeting only that group. You may not see as many impressions, but rest assured your CTR will soar!

Increase Internal Efficiency

Marketing patriarch John Wanamaker said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” That is no longer the case with big data.

Think outside just your marketing and advertising departments. You know where to allocate budgets and how much it costs departments to run. Now, when you look at data to see an even more in-depth analysis of where your dollars are best spent (i.e. what dollars provide you with the highest return on investment) you can eliminate waste from your budget and ensure that your spending – in marketing and elsewhere – is completely optimized.

Engage in Real-Time Marketing

Similar to Responsive Branding, real-time marketing is the concept of engaging with your audience while they are talking and capitalizing on events as they are happening. Monitoring your data in real time is a difficult task. The payoffs, however, can be great. First-mover advantage has never been more valuable than in the online world. By engaging in real-time marketing, you stand to benefit greatly as a result of your leveraging of big data.

These are just a few of the applications of big data. Find out about more by contacting t2 today.

How do you leverage big data? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

4 Reasons Why Social Media is a Must for Business

September 17, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There is a lot out there that defends the use of social media, but here are four reasons why social media is a must for business.

It’s everywhere. We hear about it every day and yet, there are still some companies out there that do not believe in the potential that social media offers. Well, below are four reasons why social media is a must for business and shouldn’t be ignored – by anybody.

Everybody’s Doing It

Admittedly, this is something our parents warned us against when we were younger: “If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that too?” But social media is different!

Over a quarter (27%) of time spent online by American consumers is now spent on some form of social network. What’s more 85% of Internet users have a Facebook account, and 49% have Twitter accounts! It’s hard to argue the other side when there is only a small minority left on it. (Eventually, even the most devout BlackBerry users switched to another device.)

It Spreads the Word

How much has your company spent on trade shows? What about telemarketing or PPC? Well, did you know that a properly implemented social media program generates double the amount of marketing leads as those marketing efforts?

The average Facebook user has 141.5 connections, and the average Twitter user has 208. Where else will you be able to reach such a broad audience with one line of text?

Marketing on Steroids

53% of companies have found at least one customer on Facebook, 43% of LinkedIn and 36% on Twitter. Social media lead conversion rates are also 13% higher than the average lead conversion. Ask any marketer: these numbers deserve double, triple even quadruple takes.

It Helps Business and Sales

60% of customers give feedback – willingly – to brands on social networks. That feedback can be applied to your business in order to improve the customer experience and drive new sales.

When it comes to sales, over 50% of marketers believe that social media has helped them improve sales. And in the retail industry, 73% of brands have found a new customer on Facebook. Lastly, 81% of social media users have their purchasing decisions influenced by comments made by friends on social networks.

Social media is an extremely powerful tool and it is right there in the numbers. Don’t miss the boat and think it’s a fad. Social media is a must for business!

Which of these stats do you think is most interesting? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: General Electric on LinkedIn

September 12, 2013/by Corey Padveen

How was a major impact made in specific industries by General Electric on LinkedIn?

As one of the largest brands in the world, there are not many verticals in which General Electric has not made an impact. When the energy and healthcare divisions wanted to reach out to influencers and policymakers around the world to promote new initiatives, the most logical choice was for the brand to focus on LinkedIn.

Using content and display ads geared towards industry leaders around the world, Sponsored InMail to speak directly to individual users, and by building communities around the content of General Electric on LinkedIn, some impressive results were achieved.

By the end of the campaign, General Electric saw a 5.75% interaction rate with their ads, leading to over 1,300 downloads. They also saw a whopping 13% open rate for their InMails geared towards specific industry leaders and personalized for the individual. Ultimately, there was a high rate of traffic generated as a result of their efforts on LinkedIn.

The Lessons

What can marketers take away from this campaign? General Electric can teach virtually any business professional a lesson or two in any of their campaigns. Just a few weeks ago, we even wrote another case study on General Electric. But in this case, even one of the largest brands in the world used the tools available to the average LinkedIn user in the right way, and the results were outstanding. Here’s why.

Find Your Audience

Would there have been the same results for this campaign if it had been conducted on Facebook, Twitter, or some other network? Probably not. General Electric succeeded with this campaign because from the outset, there was a clear target audience in place, and research showed the brand where they would be most likely to find success in targeting said group.

Know where your audience is before launching a campaign. It will be much harder to succeed when you know who you want to target, but do not know where they are talking.

Develop a Strategy

Strategy is at the heart of any successful social media program or campaign. In this particular case, it was clear that every aspect of a social media strategy was considered before launching the campaign. In doing so, each step was easily measurable and General Electric was able to monitor their successes and knew exactly where improvement would be needed in the future.

Personalize Your Campaigns

When sending InMail to industry leaders, General Electric was able to personalize their campaign. People like the one-on-one approach from big brands, particularly the largest in the world. That is why General Electric saw such a high open rate on these messages. People like to be addressed by name. A personal touch goes a long way on social media, and should never be discounted.

What other factors do you think went in to the success of General Electric on LinkedIn? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: DKNY #UK2012

September 5, 2013/by Corey Padveen

How did DKNY leverage the power of social media in their #UK2012 campaign to drive live traffic to their store?

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. We have all heard about it and many of us have experienced it at one time or another. DKNY and their marketing team recognized that people enjoy being where the action is, and created the #UK2012 campaign in order to capitalize on that.

DKNY wanted to do something big last year when they were re-opening their London location. They decided that, considering the nature of the campaign and the power of social media, there was no better way to drive success and traffic than with a viral video campaign that leveraged FOMO, social media and industry influencers.

Essentially, DKNY reached out to 50 industry influencers and asked them to begin discussing the store re-opening using the #UK2012 hashtag. As the video below shows, the event went viral and people from all over the world were getting ready to visit the new London store.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yUrxaBBhvrs

Thanks to the digital marketing experts at Fashionbi, we were able to find that the campaign generated over 12 million impressions, DKNY’s active followers increased by 31%, retweets of DKNY’s content increased by 42% and #UK2012 became an organically trending topic on Twitter.

As one tweet puts it, “DKNY #UK2012, Social media is the new press release!” This campaign goes to show it.

So what can marketers learn from the campaign?

Adapt to Changing Markets

There was a time when social media would not have even been considered as a viable medium to direct physical traffic to a local store. The marketing team at DKNY, however, realized that social media has become one of the world’s primary tools for communication.

It is important, as marketers, that we keep in mind that social media is much more than a place to post vacation pictures. It is the primary resource for sharing information and keeping up to date. When you are generating buzz, few places are better for getting started.

Capitalize on Influence

For every one influencer there is an attentive audience of thousands. In a recent Social Equity segment, we discussed the great value of influence marketing. By reaching out to influencers, DKNY was quickly able to reach the viral status that every campaign hopes to achieve.

Keep influence in mind when putting together a campaign. It can be the quickest way to social media success, as exemplified by the #UK2012 campaign.

Every Channel Has Its Use

In the video above, virtually every major social network is showcased as playing a role in the success of the #UK2012 campaign. It is premature to nix a network from a social media strategy early on in a campaign or program. Every social network can add value in some way or another, it is just a question of figuring out how it can be leveraged to benefit your brand.

Big Spending Is Not Big Return on Social Media

Social media is about time, commitment and fluency in every network. Spending thousands on paid ads and featured posts might generate exposure, but it will not necessarily translate into the same success as understanding how to use social media.

For DKNY, #UK2012 became a trending topic on Twitter with no paid media. The influencers volunteered and the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about the campaign as news, not an ad. The proper planning and execution of a campaign is what makes it succeed.

Special thanks to Fashionbi for their hard work and the excellent data they provided for this article.

Which lesson do you think is most useful for marketers? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

3 Steps to Getting Started with Twitter

September 3, 2013/by Corey Padveen

What are the 3 key steps every brand should take when getting started with Twitter?

When you are getting started with Twitter, there are a few steps that must be taken in order for your page to look and work for you.

Below are the three steps that every brand should take before really getting started with Twitter marketing.

Complete Every Section

You create your Twitter account and are walked through several steps before you can start tweeting. These are not for nothing!

It is important that you fill out every one of your sections for several reasons. First, sharing links in your profile will help increase the ease with which followers can click through to your website or blog. Your about section also help with Twitter searches and SEO. With the right use of keywords in your Bio, it will be much easier for users to find your page.

Geo-targeting your tweets (and account) can be a very beneficial tool for local businesses trying to garner international attention. The ability for users to look you up by proximity means that it will be much easier to build a geo-targeted audience and help them find you.

Personalize Your Page

You have the option to include a profile image, a background image and a header image on your Twitter page. Take advantage of all three!

You can add valuable information to your background on the left-hand column. You can include specials, calls-to-action, your physical location(s) and anything else you would like your audience to know. Your background image can be an extension of your profile bio, or an image that tells the audience more about your brand.

Your profile image is your headshot. This is the first thing people see when they look at your profile and you don’t want to appear as nothing but an egg. The general assumption is egg=spam. Nothing hurts your brand more than having users think you’re a spambot.

Lastly, take advantage of your cover header image. Put something together that is both creative and a resourceful use of the space. Like the background image, your header is an extension of your profile, and allows you to do more than a short 140 character tweet might allow.

Hint: your profile image should be 150x150px (shows up at 80x80px), your background should be 2500x1600px with a 200px left border, and your header image must be 520x260px.

Segment Your Followers

Twitter Lists are a very under-utilized resource that can be very beneficial to your Twitter strategy.

When getting started with Twitter, create lists and segment your followers right from the get-go. If you find potential customers, put them into a list. Industry influencers should make up another list, and so on. When your followers are all given a clearly designated segment, you can send targeted messages to each. You can send promotional tweets to engaged potential customers and share an informative blog with your industry influencers.

Lists are a great way to drive targeted traffic from Twitter, and few brands use them effectively. Don’t miss out on the many uses of lists!

Keep these three steps in mind when getting started with Twitter and you will find that the network is about much more than sharing more than people might want to hear. There are many business applications to Twitter and these three important things will help you derive these benefits.

What other important beginner steps can you think of for Twitter? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Equity: Influence Marketing on Social Media

August 30, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Your business can benefit tremendously from influence marketing on social media.

There are few forms of marketing that have as big of an impact as influence marketing on social media. With a very clear understanding of who your industry’s influencers are and a plan on how to leverage their power, you can reach audiences tens if not hundreds of times larger than your own.

In the past, we have looked at case studies like Kotex and Standard Life, where brands leveraged the power of influence marketing to quickly reach their goals and expand their presence online. Here, we aim to explain how this form of online marketing can really add a lot of value to your business in terms of Social Equity.

Influence Marketing Defined

So what exactly is influence marketing?

If you’ve read the case studies we mentioned above, you know that influence marketing has to do with leveraging the influence of others on certain social networks in order to reach a broad audience very quickly.

Generally, influence marketing can be a benefit when it comes to reputation management (e.g. having influencers speak to their audiences on your behalf) or individual campaigns (e.g. having industry influencers promote a campaign to their massive audiences). Furthermore, engaging with influencers and leveraging their power can save you a bundle as well.

The Savings of Influence Marketing

Reaching millions of users can be very expensive. You want to reach a targeted audience with any campaign. What’s more important, however, is reaching an engaged audience. If my campaign has 20 million impressions that’s great, but if not one converts, it’s a failure.

Perhaps the greatest value of influence marketing is the fact that by reaching out to your industry’s influencers, you are essentially reaching out to a very engaged audience by proxy. Influencers did not get to be where they are by building an audience of disinterested followers. People hang on their every word, and if they talk about your brand, you can rest assured that it will translate into buzz and intrigue for your business.

The speed with which all of this takes place – thanks in large part to the inherent nature of social media – makes it a very viable undertaking from an economic standpoint. You can start seeing return within hours of a campaign launching; this is assuming, of course, that it is well thought out and geared towards the right audiences.

By engaging with your influencers and leveraging their power, your business can benefit in a very big way.

Have you ever taken part in a form of influence marketing? Tell us what you did in the comments below or on Twitter!

3 Tips to Help You Benefit from LinkedIn

August 20, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Everyone knows LinkedIn as the business social network, but apart from posting your resume, what are a few things you can do to benefit from LinkedIn?

There are hundreds of millions of users on LinkedIn, but only a small percentage are using the network effectively. There are certain ways users can benefit from LinkedIn far more than by simply posting a resume online and allowing others to see their skills.

Below are three points to keep in mind when using LinkedIn. By incorporating these tips into your LinkedIn strategy, you can rest assured that it will not be long before you start to truly benefit from LinkedIn.

Follow Influencers

Influence is important on any social channel, but it is of particular interest on LinkedIn. Influencers on the business social network are industry influencers. They share great content, have large audiences of like-minded followers and provide lots of insights and wisdom.

Once you follow your industry influencers, be sure to check up on your LinkedIn profile regularly to see what great content is being shared by these folks. Read it, comment and engage and be an active part of the conversation.

Spend Time in Your Groups

Just as you do with your influencers, you should be commenting on, liking and engaging with posts in your groups.

Groups are an extremely important and beneficial feature of LinkedIn. While you should join and be active in as many as possible (the maximum is 50), you should pay attention to where you are finding the best content and where your content is most appreciated, and make those few your top priorities.

People are constantly engaging in group discussions and reading articles shared, and it is important to your LinkedIn success that you do so, as well.

Endorsements and Recommendations

Have you found someone’s content particularly insightful, or worked with someone that was truly an expert in their field? Endorse them for their skills and recommend their work to others.

Though endorsements and recommendations are fairly simple to give, they can go a long way and help you increase the power of your connections. Letting others know that you find someone to be particularly good at something can lead to both those you are endorsing and their connections looking at your profile and possibly endorsing, recommending or even reaching out to you to do business.

These three tips are important to keep in mind if you want to fully benefit from LinkedIn.

What other LinkedIn tips can you think of? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Standard Life

August 8, 2013/by Corey Padveen

Standard Life provides savings and insurance services and has been doing so for nearly 200 years – nothing so exciting to warrant a social media case study, right?

Social media is everywhere. Whether you are a major cutting-edge tech firm or a staple of the insurance business, social media has a place in your industry. Despite the long standing of Standard Life, Craig Johnston, in an interview with econsultancy, explained how and why the insurance giant decided to dive into the world of social media marketing.

Though the company took a crack (with some success) on Facebook and YouTube, they have found their true social media calling on Twitter and LinkedIn. Why? The marketing team took the time to develop a strategy, target influencers and reach out to very specific audience. The results have been outstanding.

Standard Life wanted to use Twitter as a means of providing additional resources and to engage with influential advisors. Well, after creating a functional content strategy and targeting the 30 users they deemed most influential to their target audience, they managed to garner nearly 67% of them as followers, and are now sharing content with them (and their clients, future prospects) on a regular basis.

On LinkedIn, Standard Life also wanted to reach out to influencers, so they created a private group for advisors and reached out to several they found to be most influential. By speaking to these individuals on a personal level, they managed to persuade many of them to join the group, which prompted several others to join (without an invite) as well.

There are quite a few great points that marketers can learn from this program.

Find Out What Works

This goes for both your industry and your brand. Facebook has a billion users so it must be the best network for you, right? Not necessarily! Maybe you will find that YouTube is where you generate the most referrals and social media success.

What is important is testing each market (with a clearly defined strategy, of course) in order to determine which one is going to work best for your business.

No One Is Bigger than Social Media

This is not saying that social media should replace your other marketing efforts. However, as we pointed out in an article about Social Media Marketing Myopia, thinking your brand is above the consumers’ preferences will leave you clamouring for business you once took for granted.

Insurance may not be the most exciting field, but there is still room for a social media presence. Johnston and his team realized this, and it is important that other marketers realize it as well.

True Value Rests with Brand Loyalists

The longevity of a company rests with its brand advocates. When word-of-mouth spreads far beyond product evangelists, you can feel safe in the future success of your brand. As Johnston notes, “The funnel has now changed so we are always trying to drive advocacy. Companies have to offer customers free stuff, such as information and advice, to add value and help encourage a purchase.”

Showcase your expertise and keep them coming back and wanting more.

What other examples can you think of where companies in relatively unsocial industries found room for social media? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Case Study: Armani Exchange #DressedFor

July 25, 2013/by Corey Padveen

How did the Armani Exchange #DressedFor campaign generate buzz, engagement and a lot of publicity for the brand?

The Armani Exchange #DressedFor campaign was designed to reach out to consumers, influencers and bloggers and encourage them to use the #DressedFor hashtag on Instagram and leverage the power of the photo-sharing network.

Though the campaign was launched in November, 2012, data gathered using Fashionbi – the world leader in Digital Marketing Optimization for the fashion industry – has shown that the campaign continues to generate engagement, with over 340 Instagram users sharing images with the #DressedFor hashtag in June alone, seven months after the campaign was launched.

Fashionbi also found that more common hashtags such as #night and #summer were used in conjunction with the #DressedFor hashtag, which led to even greater exposure.

Finally, after the campaign was initiated, the marketing team behind #DressedFor reached out to influential bloggers and Instagram users in the fashion world in order to expand their reach even further.

So what can marketers take away from the Armani Exchange #DressedFor campaign?

Customize Your Campaign

It might have been easier to get people talking with hashtags like #summer, but there would be no way of knowing whether or not a conversation originated due to the exposure of the campaign.

By creating a custom hashtag that is instantly recognizable as the backbone of this campaign, Armani Exchange was able to monitor their reach while encouraging users to continue talking about topics they would normally discuss.

Be sure to include some form of customization in order to see the effects of your campaigns, and know where you are successful and where modifications might be needed.

Reach Out to Influencers

This campaign would not have had as much lasting success if it were not for the efforts by Armani Exchange to reach out to influential bloggers and Instagram users in the hopes of extending their reach further.

Influencers-turned-brand advocates are the key to longevity. There is only so much a brand can do on its own. If people are not talking, there is an expiration date on a given campaign. The reason why a campaign such as this can continue to generate conversation months after it was launched was due in large part to the help of industry influencers. (Find out more about influencers in this case study on Kotex.)

Engage Your Users

User-generated content is the second secret (along with influencer-engagement) to a brand’s long-term success on social media.

By reaching out to the community around the brand and giving them a chance to share their content and have it seen by the world, Armani Exchange increased the likelihood of success considerably.

People want to share their content, that is why social media is as popular as it is. Give them a chance to do so and you can rest assured that your brand’s reach and exposure will grow significantly faster than it would have without them.

Special thanks to Fashionbi for their assistance in gathering data and disseminating the information pulled on the Armani Exchange #DressedFor campaign. You can also view this article at the Fashionbi newspaper.

Have you put together any Instagram campaigns? Tell us about them in the comments below or on Twitter!

How To Use Google Authorship to Benefit SEO

July 24, 2013/by Corey Padveen

There can be a significant boost to SEO from the proper use of Google Authorship.

Considering the first half of the term, ‘Google’, it is no surprise that Google Authorship can have tremendous benefits when it comes to SEO. Frankly, any time a service or network (e.g. Google+) is owned and operated by the search giant, SEO tends to be a major byproduct of its use. But how can you add to SEO with the use of Google Authorship.

The 4 tips below provide some insight into how you can take advantage of Google Authorship to boost your rankings.

Incorporate Google+ Into Your Writing

Google+ should be included on every website where you are sharing content. Google+ is a major consideration by Google when determining the authority of a given author, and if you are properly using Google+ when you write, your articles will have a better chance of finding their way to the top of search rankings.

Don’t Ignore Google+

Having said that, it is important that you are using Google+ consistently.

Simply having a Google+ profile does not mean you are using the network – it comes with a Gmail address. You need to really immerse yourself in the network in order to see the benefits associated with Google Authorship. The more active you are on Google+, the more recognition is given to your Authorship. (It may not be fair, but it’s fact.)

Invite Credible Authors to Share

If you are leveraging your own Authorship on your blog, that’s good. If you are leveraging the authority of several qualified authors on your blog, that’s great.

When your blog is filled with articles written by authors with great Google Authorship rankings, you can rest assured that it will improve the rankings of several articles on your site. We recently discussed the Social Equity of guest blogging, and Google Authorship is one important benefit to note.

Engage with Influencers

Industry influencers, like credible authors, can do wonders for your own Google Authorship. By engaging with influencers on Google+ and seeing mentions of your profile increase, you stand to see a trickle down effect resulting in increased authority given to your Authorship.

Reach out to influencers and join in the conversation in influential groups and Communities and expect to see the benefits to SEO.

Try a few of these tips and see how they help your SEO efforts. Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!