Twitter Evolves Advertising Opportunities

During Twitter’s first Analysts Day in mid-November,  Twitter announced and alluded to new updates to the ad platforms that further compete with Facebook and even search giants like Google, particularly with mobile and video solutions.

Some of those updates include:

• Twitter Offers:
• After slowly allowing brands to sell on the platform, Twitter is further showing its devotion to eCommerce via an Offer Card
• Users can add the offer to their credit/debit card in a few taps and redeem in real time via their card
• Attribution will be easy to track directly on Twitter campaigns to further measure ROI for offers
  
• App install tracking
• Answers is now available as a free mobile measurement tool to track promoted and organic app installs driven by Twitter
• Native Video coming to Twitter by Summer 2015
• Beyond native uploading, the platform will allow for record, edit and sharing video directly on the platform
• SEO for Local and Logged Out Users
• Will provide a stronger experience for logged out users when searching content
• Google search keyword data may play a larger role in Twitter content

For more information see below:

Twitter Offers

Answers App Install Tracking

What’s Next: All Inclusive

Key Moments in Social Media

After a great Social Media Week panel with the likes of Social Code, Livestream and BuzzFeed, we heard a lot of the same stuff: 

Social TV is not going away. Users are engaging with live TV events (like Super Bowl, award shows, sports, etc) while on social within their mobile devices.

• We should be selective for the events in which we engage on live events
• For Example:  Pepsi only held a live event war room for the Grammy’s and Super Bowl as they have a larger presence for these events. It gives them more of a reason, and more content to work with, when engaging on these programs.

Listen to, and think like, Customers:

• Become more “Data Driven” but with the right data points based on campaign KPIs
• Continue to join existing conversations, rather than creating your own so we can become a part of the community
• Evaluate if you would share your branded content as a user first - if the answer is no, don't publish it!

But, some information is nice to hear again as a reminder for brands: 

Think moneyball strategy for content strategy with 3 types of content:

• Evergreen strategy: maintain the “always on” organic posts that support the brand and marketing goals (long tail)
• Seasonal strategy: Layer in relevant content to join the existing conversations
• Real-time integrations: Plan around a tent-pole moment and react to real time moments (like Sponsorship opportunities)

Content has a shelf-life. Revisit it and repurpose it when we can:

• Think about the platform shelf-life:
• Twitter = 2-3 days
• Facebook = 5-7 days
• Instagram = 5-7 days
• Pinterest = 60-90 days
• Some evergreen content can be repurposed – evaluate how to optimize and bring back to the platforms especially if the content worked well the first time

Follow me at @CourtRache for some more live moments for the last day of SMW!

Twitter & TV are Better Together

As we look back on the success stories for this year’s Super Bowl ads, it’s apparent that TV and Twitter can be extremely powerful when used together.

Through recent Twitter studies and articles we found that:

• 31 total hashtags were used in 57% of nationally-run Super Bowl ads, up from 50% last year, according to #Hashtagbowl 
• #Hashtags in TV ads drive positive brand conversations 
• TV ads that featured hashtags had 42% more Tweets about the ads than those without hashtags 
• Additionally, Esurance asked TV viewers to enter their #EsuranceSave30 sweepstakes on Twitter to win an extremely enticing prize. Esurance accrued 3 Million tweets, with 200,000 coming in the first minute after the ad aired.
• The success is tied to both, a great prize and the tie of Twitter and TV 
• Twitter keeps viewers tuned in to advertising 
•  The use of Twitter while watching TV, decreased the likelihood of users changing the channel while watching the ad 
•  Twitter makes TV ads more effective 
•  Viewers who watched TV without a second-screen had an average TV ad recall of 40% while those who watched TV while using Twitter, had an ad recall of 53%, as shown below

This research helps drive home that using hashtags in ads should be a best practice. When this combination is used with large scale events, like the Super Bowl, it is beneficial for both brands and viewers.

To learn more about this Twitter study and why TV and Twitter are better together, click here. See the full infographic below:

Super Bowl Social Wins (Still, none for Peyton)

Forget the TV spots, during the boring Super Bowl on Sunday, you could have been entertained on social media instead.

Thank you, Twitterverse, for hours of fun.

Here are some of the great engagements, conversations, and social posts from brands that just "get it:"

Oreo's Sits this one out...

Hey guys…enjoy the game tonight. We’re going dark. #OreoOut

— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) February 2, 2014

Dorito's Human Dorito at MetLife:

Are we making you hungry? #Doritos pic.twitter.com/NyFEcL4TV9
— Doritos (@Doritos) February 2, 2014

DiGiorNOYOUDIDNT:

YO, THIS GAME IS LIKE A DIGIORNO PIZZA BECAUSE IT WAS DONE AFTER TWENTY MINUTES #SuperBowI #SuperSmack #DiGiorNOYOUDIDNT
— DiGiorno Pizza (@DiGiornoPizza) February 3, 2014

Spiderman:

Need a hand, Peyton? #SpiderMan #SB48 pic.twitter.com/QrkkbZ8fnQ
— Spider-Man (@SpiderManMovie) February 3, 2014

RadioShack #InWithTheNew Campaign Support:

Out w/ the old, #InWithTheNew! For the next 24hrs, we're giving away all our old '80s stuff! http://t.co/SzvbDQmSlj pic.twitter.com/wI8hipTmhs
— RadioShack (@RadioShack) February 3, 2014

SNICKERS Connecting with (drunk) JCPenney:

Eat a #SNICKERS, you’re not you when you're hungry RT @JCPenney Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0
— SNICKERS® (@SNICKERS) February 3, 2014

Tide Vines:





And for the brand trying to be real time.. and just being well..:

Little known fact @RealJoeNamath and us have the same tailor. Who wore it better? #smartWrapMe #SB48 #joenamathscoat pic.twitter.com/VLlXkq7l7J
— Official smart USA (@smartcarusa) February 3, 2014

Facebook Launches Trending

Similar to Twitter’s Trends list, Facebook, too, launched a Trending feed. Located to the right of the News Feed, users will now be able to see trending topics and conversations that are popular across their individual Facebook, at any given time.

Image from Facebook Newsroom.

Features include:

• Personalized, clickable, topics spanning your interests, and top trends across the Facebook platform
• Snackable, at-a-glance headlines providing more information on each trend
• Upon click-through, view of trend-related content by users' friends, pages they follow and public posts 

This aggregate of trending topics aims to enhance the platform’s stance as a source of news and encourages users to share more content publicly.

As this list is engineered to populate with content users are interested in, along with their friends, this may provide ad opportunities, similar to the evolution on Twitter. 

As Facebook rolls out this update, you can learn more about the feature and how it’ll look on your Facebook, here. 

Creating Custom Content for Each Social Platform

In order to have a high performance, multi-platform social media campaign, Brands must do their best to understand each social platform and how its audience consumes media in order to provide rich, engaging content.

While there is no fool proof formula, this infographic developed by My Clever Agency provides tips on how to make the most effective social posts.
A few highlights include:

• Facebook: Use simple imagery posts that can be easily seen on mobile devises as 70% of fans view posts on their phones 
• Twitter: Retweet relevant content for your audience and be sure to leave 20 characters so people can add content
• Pinterest: Images that do not have a human face are shared 23% more while images with red or orange get double the repins
• Google+: Use full sized images to make posts stand out on the page compared to thumbnails
• Although not mentioned, using “Auto-Awesome” (a tool from Google that enhances images) on photos also helps increase engagement
• Instagram: Reply to people who have liked/commented to drive two way conversations
• Vine: Use popular hashtags such as #loop and #howto to gain the most engagement
• Tumblr: Like and reblog posts to interact and ensure visibility throughout the site

For Brands: Now is the time for Holiday Communications

According to a study by Crimson Hexagon, 2012 saw a 30% lift in holiday shopping communications on Twitter over 2011. Surprisingly, those conversations are starting before October.

An infographic from Crimson further reveals:

·         Holiday shopping conversations on Twitter start early.

o    30% of Twitter users begin thinking- and tweeting- about holiday shopping before October

·         Twitter influences product consideration, discovery and purchases.

o    55% of users discussed gift ideas on Twitter

o   64% of users have purchased a product because of Twitter

·         Twitter plays a key role in how and where people shop.

o    57% of shoppers use Twitter to determine what stores to visit

o    62% of shoppers tweet about the purchases they’ve made

o    45% of shoppers would rather take Twitter shopping with them than their husband or wife

Most brands will begin trickling in their holiday messaging now, but for B2B customers, time is of essence. 

For more information, please see the full study below:

Study: Twitter’s influence on holiday shopping

Social Users are Mobile First: We Should Be, Too

Consumers and customers alike no longer see Twitter and Facebook as desktop websites.  They consider these social networks mobile apps.  Because of this user behavior and mind-set, we see Twitter and Facebook leveraging the mobile first strategy.  For reference:

• Over 70% of all Facebook & Twitter activity occurred on mobile
• More than 219M users were mobile only on Facebook
• It is predicted that $4billion will be spent on Facebook advertising with 50% of the spend to occur in streams
•  This means, brands are not only competing with our fans’ friends, but with many other advertisers as well

The content developed and amplified becomes even more important: 

• It must break through the clutter
• Be relatable
• Leverage a “mobile first” philosophy
• Should be succinct, engaging and visual – on both Twitter and Facebook.

Although this isn't "new news" the data is still staggering and changing as we move into Fall 2013.

For more information see the Social Media Today article below:
http://socialmediatoday.com/markozm/1718946/changing-way-you-think-reaching-consumers-social-streams

How to Create the Perfect Hashtag

Hashtags have not only become synonymous with Twitter, but across the social web.  So how do you come up with the best hashtag for your brand or marketing campaign?

Twitter launched an infographic that helps establish the path for creating a new hashtag, using an existing hashtag, or why a hashtag should actually be avoided.  

In short:

• Make your hashtag memorable
•  Hashtags should be easy to remember
• Integrate the hashtag with other forms of marketing materials, not just on Twitter

• Don’t be afraid to piggyback on a popular term
• For example, Foot Locker began using the popular “#Kickstagram” hashtag. The hashtag was often used by sneaker-heads, but the brand began using it, added media and incorporated it to other messaging.  Now, the sneaker-heads think of Foot Locker when using #Kickstagram.