Posted on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 @ 01:36 PM
Attracting and engaging people online is social media at its best. To explain how 
your company can effectively engage viewers, I looked at the company Blendtec.WillitBlend, a video series that literally throws anything into a Blendtec blender and blends it, not limited to Iphones, video games, bic lighters, marbles, etc. I was immediately drawn to a clip that puts an Ipad in a blender.
I stumbled across Blendtec while browsing YouTube for interesting clips about Apple's new Ipad when I stumbled across
The list of products destroyed by this mega-blender is endless, demonstrating that this is certainly not a machine to be reckoned with. I was in awe that a blender had such power because I had never seen any kitchen utility with the ability to do that. I then realized that not only was Blendtec engaging in communities outside of their traditional scope, their impressive videos were actually drawing in viewers that would otherwise never visit their website.
Blendtec's effective marketing campaign managed to attract several markets that prior to WillitBlend, have never been accessible. Blenders are typically used for blending fruit smoothies, vegetables, and various food related products, but never electronics. By utilizing YouTube, one of the largest social media pioneers, to stream their videos, the company is able to create a buzz around their product and attract an array of people in the technology, food, and blenders market. Blendtec is leveraging YouTube in an effective marketing tactic and according to comscore, YouTube has over 320 million searches a day. Had BlendTec simply targeted the food market, they would have greatly diminished their exposure to countless viewers searching for Ipads, video games and the like.
I typed in Ipad to Youtube and there was Blendtec with a video that generated over 7 million views. If the company was only targeting blending fruit, they would have missed out on the ability to reach all those Ipad viewers, such as myself. Not only are they branching out into unforeseen markets, but they are proving to customers that their blender has remarkable capabilities that truly deserve attention.
So what have I learned from Blendtec?
1. Their blender has some serious swag to it and can blend even the most challenging gadgets without breaking down.
2. The outreach for BlendTec goes far beyond the food market and into the technology market
3. YouTube rules all! Why not view countless videos and expose your own videos to the 320 million daily viewers on YouTube?
4. New products introduced in the technology market are YouTube hits and if you can engage in these communities then you're going to create a buzz
5. Creating a series of videos keeps your viewers engaged and awaiting the next video, best known as retaining your customers.
By Cameron Moulton, Internet Marketing Associate
Posted on Thu, Jun 17, 2010 @ 05:43 PM
Companies of all sizes have been leveraging social media on their homepages in an
effort to establish online communities. After exploring several companies who are at the forefront of this trend, I came across Uni-ball who appears to be effectively using social media to differentiate and promote their brand. Where there once was no online community for pen lovers to share their experience, Uni-ball has filled that void by utilizing three social media networks. The company now has a solid social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as promoted on their homepage.
There are a number of ways that Uni-ball is using Facebook to promote their products and encourage conversation. The following is a list of just some of the various ways they are engaging in online communities:
1. Scavenger Hunts - Answer questions correctly and receive awards
2. Contests - Draw a picture with a Uni-ball pen. Winners receive free pens and get their picture up on the Uni-ball Facebook page - which currently boasts more than 10 thousand fans!
3. Famous Signatures - Identify the signature and win FREE pens
A trend is apparent in how the company gets its online visitors involved; through these interactive contests and events, they are able to effectively motivate users with rewards for their social engagement. By offering free pens and prizes, Uni-ball has established an incentive for consumers to converse with one another and create a buzz for their products.
After exploring their Facebook page, I felt compelled to inspect the company's YouTube page. YouTube is often an important component of a brand's social media strategy because it engages users by encouraging them to comment, subscribe, and post their own experiences. The videos posted by Uni-ball are informative and help differentiate them from competitors by exploring the unique benefits of using a Uni-ball pen. To maintain a dynamic social media presence, they frequently update their YouTube page with new content and regularly interact with their 50 subscribers.
By this point, I felt so immersed into community of pen lovers that I was eager to visit Uni-ball's Twitter page. Here, I was pleased to find more contests and a following of nearly 2,300 users, many of which provided positive feedback and excellent reviews.
According to Mashable.com, internet users spent 5 hours, 46 minutes on Facebook in the month of August. That is triple the amount of time they spent on Google! It should come as no surprise then, that nearly every successful brand has established an online presence, thus revolutionizing conventional marketing approaches. Research has indicated that approximately 70% of consumers trust fellow consumer opinions that are posted online. In fact, brand websites are trusted around the same 70% level, while only 14% of consumers trust advertisements. As a result, companies have transformed their traditional advertising roles and now act as event planners, aggregators, and content providers. Uni-ball is a great example of a company that has effectively incorporated social media into their overall marketing strategy. They have managed to engage customers by creating an online community for them that had not previously existed, resulting in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty. I would like to hear from Uni-ball to further discuss their use of social media, its impact on their business, and whether my observations are consistent with their experience thus far.
By Cameron Moulton, Internet Marketing Associate
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Posted on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 02:17 PM
In 2004, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson wrote an article exploring the booming success of online retail sites like Amazon, NetFlix and eBay. It focused on these companies’ ability to cater to the smallest niches of fans looking for the most obscure titles and items that traditional retail stores could not carry. If you liked the best-selling and widely known Freakeconomics, you just might be interested in the 1986 paperback Fatal Equalibrium. That recommendation is something you would never experience at your local book store (the man or woman at the register probably can't name more than a pair of economic books from the past 30 years) but it happens every day on Amazon. In all probability, those traditional stores probably don't even carry Fatal Equilibrium.
Anderson opened the eyes of many and kick started the reshaping of business models. He shed light on a new movement that consumers are currently consuming in the 21st century. Subsequently after the piece, Wired went so far as to purchase the LongTail.com URL and brand it as Anderson’s blog. How ingenious.
"The Long Tail" is a marketing term that refers to the population or demographic that seeks the lesser known, more obscure products, but when aggregated together can often generate more revenue than a few of the most popular products.
On the graph to the right, the long tail is the low-sloping green tail moving left to right. More specifically, it shows how long tail marketing can be applied to Internet marketing and SEO. If you’re a small to mid-sized shoe company looking to attract buyers via organic search traffic, “shoes” is a search term that’s going to make you look like that tennis player in the fantastic Ladders.com TV advertisment. You’re competing with hundreds– maybe even thousands– of companies of all sizes. You’ll be rendered irrelevant from the start. But, small-to-mid-sized shoe company, if you can focus on optimizing your content to focus on those fresh, new small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes you just put on your shelves, you have a much better chance to corner that market and generate sales.
Because it’s a collection of the less popular, or less relevant search terms, the long tail is a cheaper and lower-risk investment. It also, as the graph notes, has proven to show a much higher rate of conversion. Someone perusing the web for small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes clearly has a motive to buy just that. And you should be out there waiting for her... or him buying for her. Or just him.
Identifying and capturing the long tail should be a primary focus for any Internet marketing company and any company looking to effectively market and get found on the Internet. There's always an opportunity to distinguish yourself from from the competition. Understand your audience and spend some time to rank high on specific search queries related to your business.
By Nick Fasulo, Internet Marketing Manager
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Posted on Thu, Mar 11, 2010 @ 03:19 PM
What are your thoughts on Facebook's advertising opportunities? Have you given it a shot? Found it to be successful?
Or maybe you wish there was a better way to truly target your audience on the giant social media platform. Well now there may be, if utilized correctly. ShareThis, a tool that easily allows you to post relevant links from your browser right on to a blog or Facebook page, has now inverted this valuable way to share content by creating the ShareStream. The stream is an application that allows users to view any and all content friends and/or followers have posted, essentially serving as an RSS feed for what your social sphere deems cool and interesting. The application gets it data from roughly 130,000 sites that use its "sharing button," reaching over 430 million unique visitors a month. ShareStream also comes available as a widget, so links of shared content can be viewed by visitors to your blog or web site.
So just how could this help your online advertising efforts as a way to share your value proposition? Facebook, despite making unbelievable strides in its search tools and connectivity between users, has yet to really offer a way to - in great detail - target your audience when purchasing adspace through them. Others may disagree, but with our few attempts, we feel this is a much more efficent way to identify a niche group, or groups, that we want to target with an advertisment (hint: millions and millions and millions of users is too many).
With ShareStream, if you're able to keenly monitor the interests of your fans and followers, then there's a good chance you can leverage this information to find a true niche before making your adbuy.
By Nick Fasulo, internet marketing manager
Posted on Wed, Feb 17, 2010 @ 01:18 PM
By Nick Fasulo
We all know that the conventional, 
one-dimensional television or print ad campaign is about as stale as that bag of chips still sitting in your kitchen from last Friday night. Campaigns are designed to hit targeted markets through multiple mediums and platforms. But you already know that.
So in today's world, a consumer controlled media world, ad campaigns that aren’t unanimously lauded as fabulous from each and every demographic can be criticized, visible to everyone, and creative media firms must begin to take heed of assumed backlash. Anyone with an internet connection and a beef can become - as Edward Boches points out – an anti-brand fan.
To the consumer: did you catch something while watching television recently that peeved you due to its horrible production value? Create a Facebook group page declaring your disdain, and watch your allegiance of people that echo your sentiments grow. Got a problem with a new ad because it’s degrading to a specific sub-culture? I hear spoof videos can draw thousands of hits a week on YouTube if they’re clever and uploaded in a timely manner.
Boches articulated this growing trend that producers must be cognizant of, by presenting a “contrived case study” based around a 1960s model Volkswagen Van. The hook? “Do you have the right wife for [a VW Van]”? Essentially, Boches is asking men if they are intelligent enough to pick a wife that fits in their ride. Not a terrible ad but surely something that the female population could be peeved by, and subsequently take to the Facebooks, Twitters and Blogs (the 21st century soapbox) to air their laundry list of grievances.
There’s no real way to police the anti-brand fan. In fact, we’re all one to some degree and this growing trend gives even stronger legs to the idea that social media and user-generated content isn’t going anywhere. We’ve learned that opinions and views shared between your group of friends are probably being heard in many other circles across the country, and this digital age helps to bring both the self-proclaimed #1 fan or the indignant hater together to share their thoughts.
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