Digital Marketing Guide - Digital Fewsure

Social Media Security & Branding As 1 - Identity Verification Ads

 Solve Media TYPE-INs Turn Online CAPTCHA process into Marketing Genius

 

With the never ending growth of security in the online space, CAPTCHAs are vitally important in determining web users are actually human.  In case you don't know what a CAPTCHA is, it is that little box that pops up in certain instances when you try to click to your next destination---- it asks for you to type the word you see in the box before advancing.  Above you will find a picture of a CAPTCHA.  Of course you know what that is, you see one every day and even though its intentions are good, nobody likes the inconvenience that comes along with the process.

Solve Media has come up with a solution.  Now you can turn your Social Network security processes into brand marketing machines.  The company brings you TYPE-INs - the ad alternative to CAPTCHA.  To put it simple: TYPE-INs are making an annoying experience less annoying but jazzing it up a bit, while relying on the old learning idea - "writing it down, plants it in the brain"

Instead of simply seeing a word or phrase within the verification box, you now see an advertisement.  The user still asked to type in the word featured in the ad box, but this time the word can be brand relevant, forcing the user to interact with the advertisement before advancing.  Brilliant! I thought so at least.  The first question that came to my mind was... all of those words in the CAPTCHA security verification boxes are so loopy and don't make sense... so how can a brand have words that make sense? and how many variations do they need to come up with in order to keep it secure?  If they don't give a variety, does it make it easier for the security process to be hacked?  I hope to get a response back from the company soon and I will be sure to post when I do.

Outside of all my security questions, I think this is a very cool idea and a great marketing tool.

TYPE-IN Idea for marketers

This tool is all about branding.  The concept of writing/typing something in hopes of implanting it in the human memory bank can work - the question is what is the best strategy to ensure it does?

To me, it is all about weird, yet intriguing.  There are times when I see a CAPTCHA that makes me stop and think - such as "whale girlfriend" (got this one the other day).  That kind of phrase was so off key, yet intriguinly sensible that I stopped to think about it and have a laugh.  If you are a brand it is all about delivering that experience without stepping outside of who you are.  Therefore, if you are a bank, you probably don't want a phrase that says "robber candy" or something that is out of your cultural element.  Stay within your brand boundaries but think of ad content that is pushing the limit enough to spark curiousity.  It is okay to sound somewhat loopy in what is already a loopy situation.  It will be very interesting to see how much this ad tool catches on in the social media security realm.

 STILL UNSURE?  Watch the VIDEO

 

 

Facebook Places Marketing - An Introduction

Facebook Places - Intro Marketing Tips for your Business

Facebook places is an application that allows users to check in and promote their specific locations to the friends, family and favorite brands.  There are already many applications that provide this service such as Foursquare, GoWalla, and Loopt just to name a few.  And some of these applications already have a large scale of customers.  So when Facebook announced that it was going to get involved in the location based market, critics scratched their heads as to how this would all play out?  So instead of having an all out war with every location based service, Facebook decided to collaborate with them and provide "places" as a product that brings some of them together.  Allowing places integration with other location based updates from other brands.

The whole concept of geolocation is to provide more transparency between friends that share their life experiences.  Of course the other side of it is for business - if businesses know where their customers or potential customers are located that is a goldmine of marketing information with a lot of potential.  This is an intro guide to marketing tips for Facebook Places.

Who Can Utilize Facebook Places?

Right now, Facebook places is available as an iPhone application and also via their website if your phone supports HTML 5 and geolocation.  They are also rolling out the application to Android and Blackberry but there is no official date released yet.  So iPhone users will have the first crack at Facebook Places.

Checking in

Much like the other location based applications, when you want to announce your location you choose to "check-in."  On the Facebook app, tapping the "check in" button will prompt the app to map your location and provide the nearest business, landmarks, etc. around you.  Once you check in, your location will be posted on your friends typical news feeds whether or not they have places enabled on their phone.  Businesses will have yet another exposure channel with places, as friends check in's can lead on-lookers to investigate the location and interact with the brand/business.

What Can You Include with your Check-In? 

You can include a few details with your check in:

The first being a friend tag.  Much like tagging your friends in photos and videos, you can tag your friend in your update - showing that you are at this location with these people.  This feature is important to marketers due to the group effect.  If a person shows that they are checked in with many friends you may have more incentive to market to that person that someone who is checking in solo.

There is also a "People Here Now" feature that allows users to see who else is currently at and around their location.  Seem Creepy?  If so Facebook does allow users to turn this feature off if you don't want strangers seeing that you are around them.  This feature will be useful for networking events.  Marketers that attend these events usually have some idea of who else is attending but this feature will allow them to see and potentially interact with people they DIDN'T know would be there.  This could open doors for networking in that a marketer can leave that meeting knowing with close to 100% certainty that they met anyone they HAD to meet.

What if I Don't Want to Broadcast it ... But Want to Check in?

Facebook has put a lot of time into ensuring this application upholds the highest levels of personal privacy wishes.  Users are allowed to check in and not share their check in's with friends.  They are also notified each time they have been tagged by another friend and are given the option of accepting or deferring that tag.  You can completely remove the option of being tagged by going to settings and deselecting "Let Friends Tag Me."  The application settings also allow the user to control who sees their location right down to the very person.  You can customize your updates to be seen by friends, friends of friends, everyone (public), or just the people you specify.

  Is this a marketers nightmare?  No, allowing people the space to privatize their life is always a smart move for marketers, the trick is getting them to WANT you to see.  Marketers will have to offer incentives to people in order to break privacy concerns.  Just more motivation in my eyes.

Comments

Users can also leave comments about the places they are visiting.  Foursquare allows "shout-outs" and this is no different.  For marketers, the comments function is a good and bad feature.  The good - a visitor loves the location and the services or activity associated with it.  The bad - the user thinks the exact opposite and starts bad mouthing the whole experience.  Basically marketers should figure out a way to control these comments like they control all their social conversation.  Track the comments and offer customer service to those who need it in near real time and/or offer rewards to customers who give you positive word-of-mouth

Push Notifications

Push notifications can be turned on through settings to show the user when their friends are nearby.  If I am hanging out at the Argo Tea Shop on the corner and my friend is a block away, some days I would never know.  If both friends have Places, they can see that they are not far from one another and arrange to meet and say hi.  Who ever said the digital age kills personal interaction?  For marketing, become friends with your customers and when they are nearby, you have the option of offering them an incentive to stop by and visit.  Like giving flyers away outside but waaaayyyy more cool and they feel more special as a customer because the message can be personalized.  Be as personal as you can be and you improve your chances of winning that customer over.

Create a Place for your Business

Here is the link for you to create a "place" for you business. Highly recommended by us. It can't hurt?  But make sure to check if you business is already within their location database. Create a Place for your Business 

Facebook Has a Brief Guide for Advertisers

This guide will give you more detailed information on advertising with Places.  Facebook Placed Advertising Guide.

A Few Points

• Right now users are not allowed to edit "places." Foursquare and other location based services do allow users to edit places, but for now Facebook has their own database of location information that they pull from

• Locations that are brands such as Target Stores, do not have direct links to their Facebook pages or website.  If they form an advertising partnership with FB this may available

****Check Back in a few weeks for more marketing tips with Places and an updated guide***

Track Twitter Updates by Location - Trendsmap Guide for Business

Marketing Strategies for Trendsmap

Trendsmap is a Twitter tool that allows  you to track popular status updates and conversation topics based on locations from around the world.  Below is a brief overview of the tool and also a few tips on how to utilize it for your business.

Trendsmap Guide - What it Can do for Business

Why Google Wave Failed - Marketing Outlook

Google Has Cut their "What Email Should Be" project - Why Did Google Wave Fail?

Not too long ago I was introduced to a real-time communication platform and concept that got me thinking...why hasn't this been done before?  That was Google Wave.  I was the first to jump on the "this will change the way we communicate" bandwagon an must admit, for the time being, I was wrong.  That being said, I still believe the platform was a big step in the right direction of creating a more fluid communication environment and if the world was more prepared for the WAVE it would have succeeded.

SO WHY DID IT FAIL?

I am not going to get into the technical aspects of why the Wave failed, as I am by no means an expert in user experience and will not try to be, but I can give my opinion on why it failed from a "market" standpoint.

5 Reasons why the Wave Died

1.  The clutter of social tools that surrounded it

There is no doubt that social media has formulated a new "market" in itself and has given users from all over the world and all demographics a new way of communicating.  It started with the late teens to twenty-something crowd and now over time has been introduced to all generations.  As it caught on, there were some obvious front runners for each type of concept.  Facebook leads the friend-to-friend concept, Linkedin and Xing lead the professional-to-professional concept, Twitter leads the status update concept, etc.  You get the point.  Behind all of those leaders there are many second and third tier competitors and application partners.  All of which, perform similar tasks or add a function to the overall experience.  There are literally thousands of these "tools" out there to pick from.  People become saturated with all these options and we quickly realize that the leaders are going to STAY on top of the leader-board.  This HUGE wave (pun intended) of social tools was at it's peak as Google Wave was getting pushed out.  The Wave was trying to generate buzz for their NEW concept, when there were thousands of NEW concepts coming at users at the same time.  So why should they care about JUST the WAVE?  It was presented at a time when users already felt overwhelmed.

2. The Misuse and Lack of Promotion

This is pretty self-explanatory.  Google could learn a thing or two from Apple here.  Instead of relying on the technology to be the prime "word of mouth" concept for a product, make the people want it based off the coolness factor and not just the "tech" features.  The iPod came out surrounded by many of the same devices from other vendors but Apple made the iPod the portable player to have through their masterful marketing and advertising.  If they would have released the iPod and just relied on the features to produce enough word of mouth, they would have never taken over the market like they did.  Google didn't promote the Wave to users outside of our blogosphere.  Social gurus knew about it but that is clearly not enough to make an impact.  Next time Google has a new tool they need to spend some money to make the product cool to people who don't want to understand the technological advantages.

3. Adaptation Defeated it's Own Purpose

The whole idea of Google Wave was to reduce the amount of clutter and time for the user and unfortunately because the tool involved so many moving parts, it just seemed confusing to the average user.  Even when I explained some of the features to my friends who do not work in the tech field, they seemed confused.  So imagine an average user entering the Google Wave interface and trying to navigate their way around.  It would most likely seem a little cluttered, and on the surface level would not intrigue the user enough to spend the time to move ahead with it.  There were some learning curves for the Wave and to put it simple, the average user just didn't want to spend the time to learn it.  And why should they, with that lack of coolness?

4. Why use Wave when Nobody Else Uses it?

One of the most obvious reasons for Google Wave's demise was the lack of use and interest among peer groups.  So a user joined Wave....great....what next?  Let's find friends.  Where are my friends?  This was a common problem.  Even if a few friends joined and you communicated on the Wave platform, many times you would still revert back to your old methods of communication such as email, Facebook, etc.  Why? Because you were there to talk to ALL the people that were not on Wave, so you figure why not reach out to everyone there? Even your Wave friends.  It was more convenient.  If Google would have advertised - (problem 3) they would have given new users a larger pool of people to interact with.

5. No Specific Target Market

Let's say Google would have promoted the Wave more.  Based on their promotion strategy they would have been promoting the Wave to EVERYONE.  That is a lot of people.  At no point in the process of promoting the Wave did Google seem to pick a target market.  Instead they relied on their dominant presence in Email (Gmail) and the overall web (Google Search) and tried to push the Wave to everyone that used their other services.  There was no direct audience for the product...had Google focused on a target market, let's say small business owners -and showed those small business owners how useful the tool could be for their internal company communication, they maybe would have won - in that market.  From there they could have expanded and THAT would have been generated by Word of Mouth from the people working at small businesses.  Just a thought?

So I will be the first to say, I was wrong.  At least 75% wrong.  Google still plans to use some of the features in their other product lines, so we will see where that goes over the next few years.  But I thought the Wave was the next BIG thing.  Here's to hoping my next BIG THING statement comes true.

Run Social Promotions with Ease - The Guide to Wildfire App

Spread Your Brand Like Wildfire!

The Wildfire app makes it easy to create, distribute and manage social media promotions.  The application has won many awards including 2 from Facebook for being one of the BEST Facebook apps.  Read the Digital Fewsure guide to Wildfire 2010 to read about what Wildfire can do for you and your business. It is truly a marketing tool for any type of business looking to gain more social exposure.

Run Online Social Promotions with Ease - Wildfire App Guide

How to Use Twellow with Twitter - Video

Twellow Video Guide

Watch the Twellow Video Guide on how to use the directory with Twitter.  From syncing your accounts to using best strategies in order to locate high potential customers.

The Twellow Guide - How to Use Twellow for Business

Learn About Twellow - The Twitter Search Directory

Read the guide that covers Twellow: the Twitter Search Directory and learn how to use it as a social media tool for your business.

Digital Fewsure - Guide to Twellow

Google Buzz Guide 2010 - How to Use Buzz

A Learning and Best Practices Guide for the Social Network of Google Buzz.

Google Buzz has caused quite a stir in the world of social media with its hype and recent launch.  If you want to learn the platform from a user point of view this guide provides you with all the basics as well as - coolest features and worst features.  Take a look inside the new social media tool from Google.

Google Buzz Guide 2010

Still Un-SURE Video

 

Twitter's New Advertising Platform

Twitter Advertising is Ready to Roll Out Next Month

 

According to the Wall Street Journal Twitter's advertising platform is prepared to launch sometime next month and will be associated with their search function and third parties that use API.  Twitter is comparing their ad model to GoogleAdwords.  Google has made a living off of their robust and targeted advertising platform so Twitter may assume... if it isn't broke, why fix it?

Other social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin are placing ads within your stream pages.  Profile and home pages are now accompanied with advertisements that act and feel like PPC ads.  Twitter's plan all along was to implement an ad platform that wasn't too intrusive and didn't make the social network seem spam ridden or too crowded.  Having the same type of ads that Facebook and Linkedin already put into action was not Twitter's intention and it seems like they are sticking to their word.

The ads will be based off of keyword system and go along with the 140 character limit that Twitter enforces.  It will be interesting to see how effective the ad system will be as the difference between Google and Twitter is that a lot of people search Google for a lot of things.  Twitter doesn't have that broad range of search reasons.  Instead people look to Twitter to find conversation.  Google is set up for product advertisements.  Twitter really isn't.  That being said, we must give Twitter a fair shot.  A lot more details on the features and the ad platform will become available this month as Twitter prepares for the full launch

 

 

Linkedin DirectAds Guide 2010 - Facts and Figures

Presentation on LinkedIn DirectAds

A short presentation on Linkedin DirectAds that covers the basics and highlights important aspects of running an ad campaign with LinkedIn's advertising platform.  DirectAds makes it easy to target specific demographical categories of people.  View the presentation below to get a better understanding of LinkedIn DirectAds and what they can do for you and your business.

Linkedin Direct Ads 2010

View more presentations from Casey Fictum.