Social Business

Social Media Case Study: Burt’s Bees

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Social media selling is all about engaging with your audience, and Burt’s Bees has managed to build an engaged Facebook audience of 1 million fans and convert quite a few of them into paying customers.

social media case study burt's beesFacebook was one of the first social networks that businesses sought to take advantage of. As a result, Facebook adapted and created pages. Burt’s Bees, the notable personal care product line, saw Facebook as the perfect medium in which to engage with their audience, and the result has been a growing, highly engaged audience that converts to paying customers.

How did they do it? Burt’s Bees uses Facebook as a place to not only build an audience and share great content, but promote their products in a fun, engaging way that does not turn people away from the brand, and actually converts them into customers.

Selling on social media is a tricky grey area. People do not necessarily want to be bombarded with promotional content, but at the same time, many people follow a brand because they either use it, their friends use it or they want to keep up to date with specials and promotional offers. Burt’s Bees recognized this fact and modeled their Facebook marketing and sales strategy accordingly. In this social media case study, we aim to showcase the lessons social media marketers can extract from the Burt’s Bees brand in order to build an engaged audience on Facebook and convert that audience into paying customers.

1. ‘New’ is Intriguing

People are often curious about new products. There’s a certain mysterious quality about ‘new’ that tends to intrigue people. Burt’s Bees saw this and capitalized on it when it came to Facebook. One of the most prominent features of the Burt’s Bees Facebook page is their promotion of new products in fun and engaging ways. For example, one of the main ingredients differentiating their products is Cupuaçu. Nothing special about that. But when they wanted to emphasize the benefits of the new product, they took to social media to promote it by creating a video wherein they interviewed New Yorkers, asking them to try and pronounce the word.

The video is short, funny and the word stays on your mind. And there is little more than a branded sign off at the end. However, Melissa Sowry, Social Media and Content Manager at Burt’s Bees stated, “Through Facebook, we can introduce new products more interactively than in print or banner ads…and provide a space where [our consumers] can connect with one another.” So, what is this new product? People might like the word and the video, but they were starting conversations to find out more.

Lesson: Find a creative way to introduce new products and your audience will engage with your brand to find out more.

social media selling2. Social Media Selling

Burt’s Bees has integrated “Buy Now” buttons into their content and features coupons for Facebook fans. The result? Dramatically increased sales through social media.

Unlike many brands that may feature a product and a link to a store, Burt’s Bees allows users to click through to an e-commerce site from a product post that already has the product in a shopping cart. This may take a little customization on the part of the Facebook page and app designer, but any hurdles (e.g. clicking to the store, finding the product, adding to the cart, checking out, etc.) you can eliminate from the buying process means higher conversions.

Lesson: Help facilitate the buying process for your fans and you will see your conversions skyrocket.

3. Engaging and Influential Content

In addition to fun content like the video post above, one of the cornerstones of Burt’s Bees success on Facebook has come from their ability to engage with their fans in conversations. In an interview with eMarketer, Sowry said, “We also create opportunities for consumer education around skin care, for example, and sampling offers. We ran successful sampling programs on Facebook for our relaunched body lotions and new tinted lip balm.” Furthermore, the brand also asks questions and directly responds to user comments.

An active Facebook page is one thing, but to be engaging directly with your social media audience (particularly when that audience is nearly 1.5 million people large) will mean a returning audience, and that makes the social media sales process that much simpler.

Lesson: Engage with your audience and your products will sell themselves on social media.

4. Educate Your Audience

Burt’s Bees has increased their conversions on Facebook through education. By educating their fans on products and informing them as to which product best suits their needs and why, people want to buy from Bert’s Bees, and they don’t need to do too much research on their own.

The easier it is for a lead to learn about your product, compare it to the competition and ultimately make the decision, the higher the likelihood that you will see social media conversions when it comes to sales.

Lesson: Social media selling should be more about teaching people why your product is the best as opposed to simply telling them.social media selling 2

Burt’s Bees is one of the few examples out there of brands that has mastered social selling. It is not an easy task; not by any means. People do not necessarily want to be sold, but if it is done in the right way, your fans are more than open to the idea of buying from you through social media.

With regards to social selling, Facebook has been around a long time. But people still seem to struggling when it comes to engaging with their Facebook fan base and converting those fans into dollars. Burt’s Bees is a great example of social media selling done right.

What is your Facebook strategy with regards to social selling? Have you seen positive results? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Equity: The Value of YouTube

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The Social Equity of your business is increased with a presence on each social network, but there is a three-fold value added that comes from YouTube.

social equity youtubeYouTube is among the most interesting of “social networks” due to the fact that it is not. Well, not in the conventional sense, at least. YouTube is a search engine. Like Google (YouTube’s owner), Yahoo! or Bing, YouTube is a medium in which people can post content and generate traffic. Where YouTube differs, however, is in the ability for an individual or brand to engage with their audience directly on the site. That is where the social aspect of YouTube comes into play and that is one of the three key generators of Social Equity when it comes to Youtube.

Today, we aim to pinpoint where it is that we see value added to a company as a result of having a YouTube presence, and how video marketing combined with the power of YouTube stands to increase your Social Equity more so than almost any other network.

Why is YouTube Important?

To understand where the Social Equity is generated from the video-sharing portal, we need to first understand what makes YouTube crucial when it comes to online marketing. Let’s take out the social aspect for a moment and look at some facts and figures that explain the importance of YouTube.

Raw Data
  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
  • 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
  • YouTube is localized in 53 countries and across 61 languages
  • In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth
  • Millions of subscriptions happen each day.

(Data taken from YouTube Press Center Statistics)

social equity youtube 2

There are constantly eyes sifting through the content loaded to YouTube, and by properly optimizing your YouTube videos, you stand a greater chance of reaching the people looking for you on the network. Furthermore, video marketing is a growing trend as it adds an entirely new element to your business.

Giving people a chance to attach a face and voice to your brand takes social engagement a step further with regards to humanizing your brand. People like to engage with personalities, not simply corporate entities. Video marketing is a way to offer this and YouTube is the medium in which to publish it (in addition to your own corporate and personal blogs). Enter the Social Equity of YouTube.

The Three Pillars of Social Equity Derived from YouTube

As noted above, there are three features related to YouTube that generate Social Equity for your brand.

Engagement

When it comes to being social, the ability to engage with your audience on YouTube is a huge asset with regards to Social Equity. As with any social network, people are reaching out to you when they watch your videos. Whether they like it, share it, comment on it or simply watch, they are in some way engaging with your brand on YouTube.

Social Equity is derived in part from the growth of your brand. Video marketing on YouTube is a way to do that. Furthermore, the free analytics made available by YouTube (and Google) in the backend of your account are invaluable. These measure everything from engagement statistics to traffic sources. Thus, by observing and analyzing these insights, you can efficiently and quickly modify your campaigns and strategies in order to maximize the return from your YouTube marketing efforts.

youtube marketing 3

Humanization

There is a humanizing characteristic associated with a corporate video. Even if it is as simple as an introduction, a YouTube presence gives brands a face and voice that people can relate to and appreciate. In our case study about Old Spice a little while back, we noted that through engagement (primarily with videos) Old Spice was able to increase their sales by 107% very quickly. Old Spice has been known to engage with their fan base using personalized videos, making fans of all kinds feel personally connected to the brand.

Old Spice is owned by The Procter & Gamble Company, a company with 2012 revenues of nearly $84 billion. But you wouldn’t know it by the attention Old Spice’s YouTube channel gives to its fans.

Direct Revenue

social equity youtube 3There are over one million advertisers buying ad space on YouTube and guess what: you’re selling it. By creating videos that people want to see and building a following on YouTube, you increase your chances of having ads placed on your videos and money coming in as a result.

There is constantly the question of direct ROI generated from social media. If this does not answer that question then nothing will.

YouTube is a fascinating network that adds value to your company at every turn. The growing popularity of video marketing and the industry-wide focus on marketing virality are two perfect reasons why every brand should have a presence on YouTube. Your Social Equity stands to benefit tremendously as a result.

Where do you find the value added to your business as a result of Social Equity from YouTube? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media Case Study: KLM Airlines

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This week’s social media case study focuses on one of the most socially innovative airlines around: KLM.

When it comes to social media case studies, airlines often prove to have some of the most impressive, influential and trendsetting results. Yet, despite all of the data that supports the adoption of innovative social media marketing initiatives for airlines, few seem to be as willing to go the distance as KLM.

social media case study klmKLM’s social media program is brilliant…and they know it. When it comes to converting social media fans into paying customers, KLM is among the most successful brands around. In fact, on the KLM Facebook page, there is a section that breaks down their social media campaigns, explains how they went about executing them and posts the results. Effectively, they are their own social media case study as to why social is important to business. But our focus is a little deeper than that when it comes to our weekly case study. We aim to pull out the lessons marketers can learn from the KLM social media program as a whole.

The Campaigns

Featured on the KLM Facebook page are seven of their most successful social media campaigns. These campaigns include everything from “KLM Surprise” whereby special gifts would be presented to passengers who checked into flights using Foursquare or Twitter, to the “KLM Tile & Inspire” campaign whereby Facebook fans were asked to convert their Facebook profile picture into a Delft Blue tile and complete that tile with an inspiring message to be used as part of a mosaic design on a KLM aircraft that would travel across the globe. Below are two videos breaking down these campaigns.

KLM Surprise
KLM Tile & Inspire

Each campaign was equally inspired and generated similar results. For the two campaigns above, KLM reaped some considerable social benefits. The breakdown of the two featured campaigns by the numbers is below:

KLM Surprise Analytics
Foursquare 17.528 followers
Youtube 154,722 views
Twitter 1.597 followers
Tweet reach 2,6 mln
KLM Tile & Inspire Analytics
Created tiles 120.000
Number of countries where tiles were created 154
Views of the 2 videos 1.3 million
Number of destinations the 777 flew to 23

While the analytics are impressive enough as it is, the fact that KLM went on to further convert many of these fans is all the more notable. But what we wish to focus on is what KLM did that was as innovative and bold as it was simple and calculated.

The Lessons

Be Bold (But the Right Way)

KLM has had far from a conventional approach to their social media program. From presenting new meal options using Facebook videos that introduce the “chefs” (the “KLM A La Carte” campaign) to the controversial “KLM Meet and Seat” campaign that gave passengers the ability to preview their seat mates based on social profiles, KLM has dared to be innovative with each of their social media campaigns. But it is important to keep something in mind: the marketing execs at KLM knew exactly what they were doing, and these risks were as calculated as any.

By understanding the lead to conversion process, the KLM executives were able to put these campaigns together using careful market research, amalgamated and improved data from their own failed exploits (discussed below), and a clear understanding of the sales process for both the customer and the brand. You don’t garner new customers from social media by doing the same thing as everyone else (hence, the “Be Bold” part of the lesson) but you certainly won’t find them if you scare them away (and that covers the “Right Way” aspect). So keep in mind that for a social media campaign to work, you need to impress your audience and have the data to support your seemingly daring decisions.

Never Be Afraid to Try Something New

Social media is still in its infancy, and social media marketing even more so. There is no shortage of innovation out there, and with the ever-changing landscape of social media, you should never be afraid to be first to market. Your first-mover advantage will be huge when people see you doing something that no one has done before. KLM understands that and they have capitalized on it at every turn.

The airline only jumped into social media in 2009, but in these short few years they have managed to try their hand at virtually every campaign available on social media. Whether it is a Facebook campaign, a Foursquare promotion, a YouTube contest or a Twitter “Live Reply” campaign wherein the airline responded to user tweets using up to 140 REAL people to spell out the message, you should never be afraid to try something that has never been done before. When it comes to social media, people want something they have not yet seen.

social media mistakes facebook thumbs down

Try, Fail, Fix, Repeat

No one knows failed experiments better than KLM. Sure, they might have the budgetary luxury of making these mistakes, but over time they have learned exactly what they should not be doing in order to perfect their social campaigns. And on a smaller scale, you should never be afraid of the mistakes you make when it comes to social media. As we noted above, this is an incipient form of marketing; people are bound to make mistakes. But when you do, note your errors, redraft your campaign taking that into account, and start again.

For KLM, one of their big blunders came in 2011 when they offered a promotional gift to the first 50 male and first 50 female “Likers” of a post. Within minutes they had 1,500 “Likes” and no way of knowing which came when. Oops! But what is important is that KLM recognized their mistakes, fixed them and, more importantly, accepted their failures. And that brings us to our final lesson.

Humility is an Underrated Trait

People appreciate humility. It is a humanizing trait, particularly when it comes from a company as large and reputable as KLM. That is why the last important lesson to pull from KLM is that, while you might be a big brand, social media is a place for you to simply be a voice in the conversation. While an image needs to be maintained, you can be a little less corporate and little more fun when it comes to social (respecting professional boundaries, of course). As we never tire of pointing out, social media is about exactly that: being social. Not only does KLM have a post on their blog detailing some of their yearly bloopers, but they also make an important point in their step-by-step guide on running their social media program:

social media humble pie“Not that campaigns always need to be global and spectacular. Many of our establishments have successfully launched their local pages, and we’ve learned that the power often lies in simplicity — like showing the interior of a cockpit, or thanking someone for notifying us about broken lighting on our KLM sign. Our creative editorial board delivers a daily dose of captivating, engaging posts through our various channels.

Social campaigns have won us several awards, but it hasn’t been one success after the next. We’ve certainly had our share of bloopers. But rather than hushing them up, we decided to make them public and take them as a learning experience. And as it turned out, people liked us even more for it.”

Well said.

What lesson do you think is most important in the case study of KLM? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media Hints: Best Times to Post

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Social media is a worldwide network, but every aspect of that network – from Facebook, to LinkedIn, to Twitter – is different, and as a result there will be different posting strategies employed in each.

Social media marketing is all about expanding your reach at every turn. Considering the vastness of your audience, it would be devastating to waste a solid piece of content on a dormant audience. As we like to say, if a post falls on social media at the wrong time, will anybody see it?

We thought that it might be helpful to break down where and when you should be posting based on best times to post by network. Before you can employ these tips, however, you need to answer two questions. First, what are the features of the audience you are hoping to target? In other words, what demographics are you targeting? Second, where does you content best fit when it comes to social media? Once you have established answers to these two important questions, then you can apply these tips and see your reach skyrocket on social media!

Best Times to Post

People are constantly asking what the best times to post on social media are, and the reality is that the easy answer is, “It depends.” Who are you looking to target? Night owls? Then these general data will not apply to your niche. However, based on amalgamated survey data, these are the best times to post to different social networks.

Facebook

For Facebook, traffic hits a peak between 1p.m. and 4p.m. The best time for traffic on the social network is Wednesdays at 3p.m. On the other hand, posting first thing in the morning (as people are getting to work) and between 8p.m. and 8a.m. will leave your post stranded on Facebook with few, if any, being reached.

best time to tweet social media

Twitter

What is important to note for Twitter is that business hours are key, with an emphasis on the afternoon (1p.m.-3p.m. more specifically). After 11a.m., traffic on Twitter begins to build and by mid- to late-afternoon, it reaches its zenith. However, posting in the late afternoon on Fridays, or between 8p.m. and 9a.m. will, once again, leave your tweets with few users engaged.

LinkedIn

Leading up to and away from business hours is when you stand to see the highest exposure on LinkedIn. From 7a.m.-9a.m. and 5p.m.-6p.m. is when your reach will be maximized on the social network, while 10p.m.-6a.m. will generate the least exposure. Traffic also tends to fade during business hours on LinkedIn, and Mondays and Fridays are statistically a little quieter than the rest of the week.

social media reach

Google+

Google+ is most active during business hours, with a peak being hit between 9a.m. and 11a.m. However, as you head out of the business day, traffic tends to slow and doesn’t pick up until the following morning. Evening posts generate the lowest reach on Google+.

Pinterest

Pinterest is where the night owls show up. (Well, also the afternoon owls.) Traffic on Pinterest begins to build after noon, and peaks between 2p.m. and 4p.m. and again between 8p.m. and 1a.m. However, avoid posting to Pinterest during dinner hours! Between 5p.m. and 7p.m. is when your exposure stands to be the lowest, and the same holds true for the couple of hours leading up to dinner. But Saturday morning is the Pinterest gold mine – this is the point in the week where the network has its highest traffic.

Now, these are all the hours where your content stands to garner the most exposure due to the traffic on the social networks. However, consider in your strategy whether you want to be competing at peak hours, or if you would rather be one of the few competing for attention in non-peak hours. For example, the weekend may not be the busiest time of the week for Facebook, but there is still a large audience on the network and very few businesses posting to it. Furthermore, there is a higher share ratio on Facebook on the weekend. Think about it!

When have you found is the best time to post to different social networks? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter! And don’t forget to ‘Like’ us on Facebook!

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Effective Social Media Engagement: 5 Tips to Swear By

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Engagement on social media is one of the cornerstones of an effective social media program; but too many people go about it the wrong way.

So what can you be doing when it comes to social media engagement to ensure that you are doing it the right way? People are constantly talking about engaging on social media – ourselves included – but so few people give effective tips on how to engage with your fan base properly. Sure, every person and brand is going to develop their own unique voice when it comes to social media, but there are certain DOs and certain DO NOTs that everyone should be following when it comes to engaging with their fan base on social networks.

Today, we have decided to feature some of those tips to help your brand engage effectively on social media to ensure that you don’t run the risk of losing your audience or worse, having them comment negatively in a social forum.

1. DABC: Don’t Always Be Closing

In the Mamet-penned monumental monologue in the classic film Glengarry Glen Ross, the character of Blake (played by an Oscar-nominated Alec Baldwin in the film adaptation) gives a haunting speech to a group of terrified realtors wherein he tells them that they should follow the ABCs of selling: Always Be Closing. That might have worked for those realtors, but the reality of social media is that a better piece of advice would be to follow your DABCs.social media alec baldwin glengarry glen ross speech

You can’t always be closing when it comes to engaging on social media. Sure, the goal for most social marketers is to eventually convert leads generated on social networks into customers, but we can’t jump into our engagement attempting to close. We need to build a rapport with our leads and the only way to do that is to engage with them on a human level, not on a salesman-only level. That’s sure to turn them off.

It also brings us to our next point.

2. Talk Like a Human

If there’s one thing that people hate about engaging with certain corporate accounts, it is that it feels like just that: all business. There is no emotion or opinion behind a comment or post. Now, of course one has to take into account the political aspect that comes with running a social media program as a large company. Those in charge of engaging cannot say whatever they want. There is an image to maintain and thus, a certain standard to keep.

That said, if you feel like social media is the right place for your business to have a presence, then develop a strategy for engagement before you get started. People are going to reach out to your brand, and they want to feel like they are talking to someone there, not a computer directing them to simply call a customer service line for more information.

3. Don’t Discriminate

You might think that the only place where you stand to benefit from your engagement is with your industry’s influencers. And while it might be true that engaging with people who have thousands of fans or followers might lead to a quick gain, it is not always going to pay off. There are far more people out there with seventy-five or one hundred followers than those with seventy-five or one hundred thousand.

In a social media case study we did about Old Spice a few weeks ago, we noted that where Old Spice found the most success was in their ability to engage with any type of user in the same way, whether they were famous or simply Twitter fans with a few dozen followers. The payoffs were enormous for Old Spice and any marketer should take this as a lesson that it doesn’t pay to discriminate when it comes to engaging on social media.

4. Fashionably Late is a Social Faux Pas

Social media is an ongoing conversation. People are talking constantly and, when it comes to your brand, they are talking to you. And when it comes to all that social media has to offer and the fact that a recent study showed that the average online attention span is roughly 8 seconds, you can’t expect people to be waiting around for your response for too long.

We live in a fast-paced society and nothing embodies that better than social media. So when someone engages with your brand, do everything you can to respond as quickly as possible. You are half of the social conversation, so you can’t be late to the party.

5. Never Ignore Questions or Negative Comments

social media questions and negative commentsWe thought we would save the most important for last. This is one rule we advocate above all others. When it comes to your brand’s image both in the eyes of your customers and the general public, the two types of posts you never want to ignore are questions and negative comments.

First, let’s look at questions. When someone goes out of their way to engage with your brand and ask a question, they are generally doing so because they want an answer. They are, for lack of a better analogy, calling for more information. This is a traditional call to action that we see in ads and commercials, and social media takes the first part of that CTA out of the equation. So when someone has a question, answer it! You wouldn’t have a hotline for leads to call in to if you didn’t have anyone manning the phones, would you? This is the same concept.

Next, you should never ever ignore negative comments. In doing so, you are basically burying your head in the sand while the whole world sees your flaws. If anything, negative comments are a great way to do two things. First, they are a chance for you to show the world how much you care about your customers by dealing with an issue on the social stage for all to see. Second, they are a great way to turn people into brand advocates. Social media is one of the best avenues in which to generate new brand advocates and negative comments are one of the ways to go about doing this.

What is your strategy when it comes to social media engagement? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Equity: LinkedIn and Your Business

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Social Equity is given quite a boost with a LinkedIn presence – and not just for B2B companies.

LinkedIn is widely known as the professional social network. So, it would make sense for people to assume that it is largely for B2B companies. While it is true that LinkedIn is one of the most beneficial social networks when it comes to B2B, the Social Equity a brand can garner as a result of having a LinkedIn presence – whether it is B2B or B2C – is quite high.

Today, we aim to explain where the Social Equity of a LinkedIn presence is found, and how you can determine the value added to your business as a result of having both a personal and company page on the social network.

The Benefits of LinkedIn

social equity linkedin t2socialTo understand how we can derive Social Equity from LinkedIn, we first need to understand what the benefits of a LinkedIn presence are to our business.

As we noted above, LinkedIn is often perceived as the professional network. As such, it is an arena in which professionals actively seek out industry influencers, leaders and authority figures. Therefore, it is one of the easiest niches in which to establish yourself as an industry-leader within your market. Social networks on the more general scale, like Facebook and Twitter, are mediums in which we can establish our brand as an authority with the general public, but for any company, be it B2C or B2B, LinkedIn is the best avenue through which we can build our credibility with members of our own industry.

On the other side of the spectrum, LinkedIn is an excellent network for seeking out the advice and tips of other leaders and professionals, and applying those bits of advice to our own strategies. Though LinkedIn Answers was a great feature in which to do this before it was removed, LinkedIn Groups are still a powerful tool, and include higher engagement rates than almost any other feature on social media. Contrary to many social networks, LinkedIn is a place where professionals are seeking out the opinions and inputs of others, and the element of self-promotion (not in its purest form, but close to it) is not only accepted, but in many cases encouraged.

So, how does this all add value to your business?

Social Equity Derived from LinkedIn

Having both a personal account and an active company page on LinkedIn can generate quite a bit of Social Equity for your brand. With a well-orchestrated strategy in place, we can quickly build our authority in a given field and begin driving referrals to both our personal pages and our websites. This holds true for both types of businesses. Even as a B2C entity, we are still looking to build market authority, and LinkedIn is one way of doing that.social equity linkedin influence

Say you are a local and online retail store, for example. Now say you create a profile on LinkedIn and begin sharing short articles you write about running a successful retail location, or a successful e-commerce website. By posting to your updates (your network), your company page and your groups pages about the retail industry, you will quickly see your influence, network and, most important for building business, your LinkedIn referral traffic begin to shoot up.

It is important to understand that in any industry, people want to associate themselves with the best. Whether you are the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or a retail-savvy basement blogger, industry leaders and influencers receive the most attention on a network like LinkedIn, and that translates to Social Equity.

The value added of a large professional and referral network is highly coveted. Consider not only the calculated value of your business assets, but the value added of an extended network, an established industry leader at the helm of your company and your industry influence. All of this is capable through the strategic use of LinkedIn.

How are you using LinkedIn to generate Social Equity for your business? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media Case Study: Kotex

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The use of Pinterest and social media by Kotex proved to be one of the most successful and innovative social media campaigns run to date.

With the major announcement yesterday that Pinterest would now provide analytics to its business users, we thought an appropriate social media case study this week would involve the use of the social network. And what better Pinterest-themed social media case study than its use by Kotex last year to celebrate women’s inspiration.

The Campaign

social media pinterest case studyAs the world of social media exploded with the introduction of Pinterest last year, the first network of its kind, dominated almost entirely by women, Kotex and their social media marketing team had the brilliant idea to run a social media campaign centered on the women of Pinterest.

The brilliance lay in how they decided to design the program. Effectively, Kotex sought out the 50 most influential women they could find on the social network after reviewing thousands of accounts and their followers, and began searching through their boards to determine what inspired them. After that, they put together customized gift boxes inspired by these women’s boards, and reached out to these influencers on social media to share these gifts with them. They asked for only one thing in return: to repin the gift.

The results were far greater than what Kotex could have hoped for. Not only did nearly 100% of the 50 women comply with the simple request, but they went above and beyond. These women posted pictures of each component of the gift on both Pinterest and Instagram, made comments on Twitter, Facebook and reached out to their extended networks to tell them all about this wonderful gesture by Kotex.

By the end of the campaign – well, the end of Kotex’s analytics of the campaign, without measuring the extended secondary reach that the virality of the campaign created – Kotex had measured over 2,200 interactions and nearly 700,000 impressions. That’s quite the reach from contacting only 50 people directly!

Take a look at this video for a more comprehensive breakdown of the campaign:

The Lessons

There is a lot we can learn as marketers from this campaign. But when we consider the fact that this social media campaign relied heavily on a viral effect, we think the best lessons to pull from the Kotex social media case study relate to the importance of influencers.

Find Your Influencers

Kotex knew their demographic and the audience they could reach, but they knew that referrals are so much more powerful than direct marketing. It was for that reason that the marketing executives at Kotex went looking for their social media influencers on Pinterest.

These were women who had a reach far beyond that of Kotex alone. And they were women with an audience that filled two vital criteria: the audience was made up of the right demographics and the audience was highly engaged with these influencers. When you can turn influential people into brand advocates, you can rest assured that you are going to generate quite a bit of new business. But in order to find these influencers, you need to keep this next lesson very much in the forefront of your thinking.social media pinterest influencer

Influencers Can Be Anybody!

The women to whom Kotex sent gifts were not on any Forbes power list, they were not First Ladies and they were not Manhattan socialites – they were normal. (Well, that is not to say that these other women are not “normal” but you know what we mean.) These were every day women who happened to build a large and highly engaged following on Pinterest by simply being active and posting content their followers loved to share. It took a lot of insight for the marketing executives at Kotex to understand this.

When it comes to social media, industry influencers are no longer part of a closed off group comprised of the economic and social elite – anyone and everyone has the ability to be an influencer. Marketers need to keep this in mind.

Small Gestures Go A Long Way

The gift baskets sent by Kotex did not include fancy electronics, or high-priced jewelry. They were simply made up of small knick-knacks that Kotex knew these women would love because they did their research. Kotex could easily have sent them gift certificates for a lifetime supply of Kotex products, but rest assured, the returns would have been far fewer.

The reason why there was such a high response rate and such a viral effect was because Kotex customized these gifts to the tastes of the recipients. They did not need to include lavish, overpriced items because they knew that what they had included was worth much more. A little research into their industry influencers resulted in the numbers you see above. So remember, a little thought can get you a lot further than the easiest option.

Create Limitless Campaigns

Kotex asked these women to do one thing: repin the gifts. A simple request. But the beauty of social media is that these women decided, on their own accord, to take the Kotex campaign to the next level, and involve virtually every avenue of social media they had access to. Kotex created a campaign that had an inherently viral element to it; by giving these women individually-inspired gifts and making them feel unique, it was only a matter of time before they shared the experience with their communities. Furthermore, Kotex did not give these women an ultimatum. The gifts were not a bribe, they were simply gifts with one small request. Giving these women the freedom to do what they wished with regards to sharing the gifts and experience with their communities led to them immediately taking the opportunity to boast about how special they felt thanks to Kotex.

social media pinterest virality

Don’t Hope to Go Viral – Work Your Way There

Kotex was lucky that the campaign was as innovative and original as it was. At the time, Pinterest was the newest, hottest social network and Kotex was the first brand to take advantage of it in the way that they did. First-mover advantage worked wonders for the Kotex brand, but we cannot all hope that our social media campaigns will go viral the way the Kotex campaign did. So, when putting together your next campaign, reach out to your influencers, but don’t neglect the average customer or social media fan. After all, by targeting influencers, the ultimate audience whom you hope to reach is the average user, so make an effort to reach out to every person you can. Brand loyalty is brand loyalty wherever you find it.

The Kotex example is one of the finest uses of Pinterest and social media to date. As marketing on social media continues to evolve, it is certain that we can expect other campaigns to catch on as virally as this one did, but with regards to the use of influencers, it is hard to think of another example as perfect a social media case study as this one.

How are you reaching out to your influencers? What methods do you use to determine who your industry influencers are? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

Pinterest Marketing with Integrated Analytics

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Pinterest marketing was taken to the next level on Tuesday when Pinterest officially announced its newest feature (and what is undoubtedly every marketers favorite): integrated analytics.

So what does this mean with regards to Pinterest marketing? Slowly, Pinterest has been taking steps to become more business friendly, presumably in an effort to begin generating revenues internally. (After all, a business with no income can only last so long.) A few months ago, Pinterest announced the launch of business pages. Now, Pinterest marketing is taking the next leap forward with the launch of integrated analytics.

The analytics provided in the backend are fairly standard. They do not go into the complexity of some tools, like Pinfluencer, which allows you to delve deep into the insights of your followers and find your most influential pinners. But that is not for everyone, and what Pinterest does provide, completely free, is more than enough for you to gauge the success of your Pinterest marketing efforts.

Below are a few steps to help you get started with Pinterest marketing analytics, and a few tips to consider when using them.

Setting Up Your Pinterest Analytics

While your analytics may be working in the backend, you may not be able to access them right away. Luckily, it is a fairly simple process.

First thing you need to do is have your website verified by Pinterest. If you understand code, or have an easy-to-manage CMS like WordPress, then this is a very simple process of uploading a file to your backend or a line of code to your header. If you do not, then simply grab the line of code or file, send it off to your webmaster, and have them put it in there. Once that is done, and your site is verified, you will need to update to the “New Look” of Pinterest.pinterest marketing analytics

In your dropdown menu, the final tab gives you the option to switch to this new theme. Once you do, you will see a new tab in your menu: Analytics.

Let the Insights Begin!

Now you are all set to begin looking into your Pinterest marketing analytics. There are four tabs in your analytics backend: Site Metrics, Most Recent, Most Repinned and Most Clicked.

The latter three tabs are fairly straightforward; these three tabs break down the most recent activity (in picture form, of course) on your account with regards to shares, repins, clicks, etc. and give you some insights into who participated in said activity. Remember the small column on the left-hand side of your front page on Pinterest that showed you some of your most recent activity? Well, these three tabs are essentially far more detailed versions of that column. They allow you to monitor the progress of your Pinterest marketing on your website and see how that activity is converting on the social network.

The real metrics come into play in that first tab: Site Metrics.

This allows you to delve deep into your site’s Pinterest activity to see where you are successful, and just how successful you are. For the first time, you can measure the number of impressions on the pins from your site, and see how that translates into your reach on the social network. You can now also see the click-through rates on your pins, as opposed to relying on Google Analytics to measure the referral success of your Pinterest marketing.

At the end of it all, your Pinterest marketing analytics should look something like this:

pinterest marketing analytics backend

With this new feature, we can be sure to see Pinterest moving into the realm of offering paid advertising shortly. Like promoted tweets or Facebook posts, Pinterest seems to be on the verge of offering a whole new set of business services that will likely make paid Pinterest marketing all the more attractive. Particularly now that these campaigns can be monitored.

What do you think of Pinterest’s new analytics dashboard? How do you plan on integrating it into your Pinterest marketing strategies? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

Twitter Marketing: Build Your Brand

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Twitter marketing has evolved considerably over the course of the last year, and it is important, as marketers, that we understand how to build our brand on Twitter.

Twitter marketing is often one of the cornerstones of a social media marketing strategy. However, if you are not optimizing your Twitter page for your brand, you are missing one of the most beneficial features of the social network.twitter marketing brand optimization

Below are a few tips to help you maximize your Twitter marketing through brand optimization on your business’s Twitter page.

Design a Cover Photo

If you click on the small widget in the top right-hand corner of your Twitter profile and go to the Profile section of your Settings, you have the ability to add a customized header (Hint: 1252px x 626px in size.) to your Twitter profile.

A cover photo and the header section are great ways to showcase your business basics with a brief description or a Call-to-Action (CTA), your location and some fun, engaging photos that give your brand a personality. One of the more important factors that contribute to Twitter marketing success is the ability for people to relate to your brand and engage with the personality you create for it. The header section and the cover photo therein are a great way to do this on Twitter.

t2mktg twitter

Add a Custom Background

A custom background, once again, is another area where you can be optimizing your Twitter marketing with a CTA. There is no shortage of step-by-step guides detailing how to design a Twitter background, or services like TwitBacks that help you create backgrounds easily, and one should definitely consider taking advantage of these options when designing a branded Twitter page.

When it comes to Twitter marketing, you want to engage with people as quickly as possible. There is a constant conversation taking place on Twitter, and if your Twitter marketing is not grabbing the attention of your audience immediately with features like the background, then you risk losing that attention very quickly.

To get an idea of what we mean, take a look at these 17 captivating Twitter accounts from HubSpot and see what an engaging Twitter marketing strategy looks like.

SEO in Twitter Marketing

twitter marketing seo

The next major step when it comes to optimizing your Twitter marketing relates to optimizing your brand page for search engines. As we have noted in past blog posts, social signals are factoring more heavily in search rankings every time the Google algorithm changes. Therefore, it is important that we optimize our brand pages for search engines.

To do so for Twitter, we need to follow a set of simple but important rules:

 

  • DO NOT SPAM!
    • We cannot stress this enough. Spamming links to your followers will not only hurt your Twitter credibility, but it will also hurt your SERPs. This also has a lot to do with your handle. Google’s algorithm disregards handles with a long set of numbers in them (e.g. John123456) as these are typically used by spammers. Make your handle short, simple and professional.
  • Add Keywords to Your Bio
    • There should be at least one keyword in your bio on Twitter, as this registers to Google when determining search rankings.
  • If You Build It, They Will Follow…And Your Rankings Will Improve
    • As your network grows, it registers with the algorithm and help your search rankings improve when it comes to your Twitter profile.
  • Consider the Potential of Retweets
    • Retweets register to Google as pseudo-backlinks, particularly when they include a link to your site or blog. So consider the length of your tweets and leave some room for your followers to comment when retweeting (100 characters is your sweet spot!).

These are just a few tips that can help you optimize your Twitter marketing strategy. Each campaign, each profile, each industry and each step is going to be unique, particularly when you factor in what your goals are when it comes to Twitter marketing. But these pointers should help you quite a bit when it comes to putting together a winning Twitter marketing strategy!

How are you optimizing your Twitter marketing strategy? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!

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Social Media ROI: What to Measure

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Measuring social media return on investment (ROI) is one of the biggest grey areas when it comes to this emerging market, so what is important to look at when it comes to measuring social media ROI?

Social media return on investment is constantly a point of concern for executives and skeptics when it comes to launching a social media program. The irony, however, is that many of these skeptics claim that there is no means of measuring social media ROI when the fact of the matter is that, unlike many forms of marketing, every aspect of a social media program can be monitored and measured. The complexity of social media ROI factors in when one cannot decide how one wants to measure the success of a campaign (e.g. monetization of a fan base, growth of a fan base, increase in traffic, etc.).social media roi t2social

There are several angles from which one can look at social media ROI, and what we describe below are just a few. That said, we think these are some of the best ways to measure the success of a social media program.

Social Media Cost-Benefit Analysis

In the field of Economics, a Cost-Benefit analysis is one of the most common ways of measuring the return of a program. What is important to note is that a C-B analysis looks not only at what might be gained from taking an action, but also what one stands to lose by not taking said action.

Say, for example, you calculate that an unattended social media PR crisis costs your business $10,000 in lost sales, brand tarnishing, etc., and that your brand unknowingly suffers two to three of these crises per year. That’s a calculated loss of $20,000-$30,000 every year as a direct result of not attending to your customers on social media. Now, say that you put together a social media program designed to engage with dissatisfied users and help them solve their issues on the very public sphere that is social media. The result is not only the retention of a customer, but the build up of brand loyalty through social media.

Now, it would not exactly be feasible to suggest that social media engagement in the time of crisis will mean retaining every calculated dollar lost from not engaging on social media, but if you retain half of those lost earnings ($10,000-$15,000) and you are spending $700 per month on a small, customer-oriented social media program, you are looking at a yearly return measured as follows:

social media roi 2

While this is a very black-and-white example, measuring a social media program’s ROI can be as simple as a C-B analysis.

Setting Social Media Goals

social media roi goalsOn the less technical front, you might want to consider measuring your social media success through the use of established goals that you lay out at every stage of the program. These do not necessarily have to be monetary returns. In fact, one way of measuring the success of your social program is by measuring the growth and extension of your network. Effectively, the growth of your social network translates into the growth of your pool of leads.

So when building your social media strategy, create a set of goals that you would like to achieve and measure your returns by the growth of your networks. From there, once your networks have grown to your satisfaction, you can consider this next form of social media ROI.

Return of Campaigns

You may be focused entirely on the monetization of your social media program. That’s fine. Businesses aim to be as profitable as possible, and there’s no better way to measure profit than with monetary gains. So the final and most straightforward way you can go about measuring the ROI of your social program is through the monitoring of returns from your campaigns. Be careful, however. There is something that a lot of people overlook when it comes to measuring the monetary returns from converting a client. This once again factors into a Cost-Benefit analysis.

Say you have managed to convert a lead into a client on social media. Well done! Now let’s say that this client has a lifetime value (LTV) of $120 with three $40 purchases. Then let’s say it cost you $50 to convert this client (between time, resources, expenses, etc.). You’re looking at a healthy lifetime profit of the converted client with a value of $70. Way to go! Now, let’s look at the alternative – this is where people often lose out without even realizing it.

Let’s say you spend that same $50 to convert a lead into a client on social media, but now, a client’s LTV is a one-time purchase of $40. This means that for every client you convert, you are losing $10. So the more conversions you see, the more money you lose.

It is extremely important that we measure not only how much we are making when it comes to social media, but how much we are spending. And this includes time (our most precious resource), expenses, opportunity costs, etc. If we are only measuring the returns and not the costs, we are missing the entire concept of profitability. So keep that in mind when you are measuring the success of your social campaigns.

How do you measure the ROI of your social media programs? Tell us in the comments below or on Twitter!Social Media Marketing Social Media Strategies

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