Imagine this scene: tick, tick, tick…and the clock strikes 12. The men at Sterling Cooper advertising in New York City huddle around a boardroom table; scotch in hand, cigarette smoke fresh in the air. Crafting the latest ad campaign, their matching black freshly ironed suits flood the room. But what appears to be a scene from the popular AMC show, Mad Men, is also the world of advertising on Madison Avenue, long before the online world, and long before Twitter released its first tweet.

Photo courtesy of Russellmoore.com

Twitter users have turned the tables on Madison Avenue. With user-generated content taking over the web, and social media particularly gaining more popularity every day, big brands are paying close attention to what their customers are saying online.

Overnight Ad Success-How Samsung Succeeded By Listening

For instance,  Samsung’s latest television ad, which mocks Apple Inc.’s new iPhone, got over 32 million views in just 2 weeks. Samsung credits the success of the ad to their team tuning in to comments made by consumers on Twitter. The lines from the script were pulled directly from “hundreds of thousands” of tweets making fun of features of the iPhone5. Samsung is “pulling conversations that are happening in [their] category and reflecting them in ads,” as noted by the company’s Vice President of strategic marketing, Brian Wallace. Social media has not only provided massive visibility to the 30 second ad, but created strategic direction for Samsung in the first place. They are not only tuning in to conversations on their own brand, but their competitors, and capitalizing on the opportunities leveraged from listening in.

Procter & Gamble – Ad Proves They Listen To Their Followers

Procter & Gamble has leveraged social conversation to devise new TV ads for its Duracell Powermat, a device that allows smartphone charging on the go. Duracell decided to use the little red and green battery signals in its ad after reviewing social media analytics. Data indicated that “70,000 people had commented that their battery was red while over 55,000 talked about their battery being green” (Networked Insights Inc.). Social analytics and tweets like “that moment when your phone battery is red and dying and you still use it like it’s on green” have helped the marketing giant integrate social data in to their ad creation process. Scenarios creating frustration for users create conversation on social networks, and brands and their advertising agencies are listening in. Ads that take into account what people are saying online showcases an ability to react positively to consumer requests and complaints. Companies like Procter & Gamble push user-generated content front and center, becoming more relevant, sharable, and socially savvy in the process.

Madison Avenue ad execs have long relied on gut instinct. With social media always changing, brands will have to learn to evolve with the trends, pay attention to conversations, and shift strategy to stay relevant. While filming the Samsung ad, dialogue was being changed on the spot! Stakeholders have found their footing on Twitter and although some Madison Avenue insiders are still skeptical of how influential Twitter comments truly are, more brands are using social media data in their ad planning. Another example is Revlon, who eliminated words like “hypoallergenic” from their ads, which has not been a major conversation online. The word will play a lesser role in 2013 (Wall Street Journal).

Advertising has long been built on the customer always being right, and in the age of digital these customers are turning to Twitter to voice their opinions and connect with brands. As the doors close to the board room, Madison Avenue will need to take a look at user-generated content online to stay ahead and stay in line with the long recognized slogan, the customer is always right. Let’s hope their gut instinct leads to Twitter.

We know you saw Bodyform’s video response to a “negative” Facebook rant recently, and we know you loved it. How could you not? The sanitary napkin company did just about everything right in its response and now is basking in the rays of positive comments and increased brand exposure. (See images below.)

But just in case you have somehow managed to avoid hearing about this delightful Facebook banter, we’ll sum it up for you. A British man posted on Bodyform’s Facebook page claiming tongue-in-cheek that the company’s advertisements, which portray menstruation as “a wonderful time of the month… [when] the female gets to enjoy so many things”, are all a lie.  The post went viral almost immediately and within 40 hours had nearly 20,000 “likes”. A week later, the post vaunts nearly 90,000 “likes”, 4,000 comments and has been picked up all over the internet! Now do you get why we’re surprised that you missed this? Below is the original rant and the video response:

Turn the Tables with these Four Tips to Energize Your Social Media Rebuttal

So when a company gets a post like this, what is one supposed to do? Well, we recommend to follow Bodyform’s example and stick to these steps:

1.)    Have a Sense of Humor!

There is a difference between an aggressive/hurtful rant and a consumer giving you a hard time in jest. When it’s the latter, take advantage of this opportunity to show that you are a human and have some fun! For goodness sake, don’t fail to respond and don’t take it too seriously. Social media is about being social (derrr) and people will connect with you better if you don’t act like a corporate machine.

2.)    Don’t Shy Away from an Opportunity – Go Big or Go Home 

Bodyform was handed an opportunity on a silver platter, so they went for it. It could have been easy for them to a.) Not respond, or  b.) Do something that takes little effort, like comment on or “like” the post, but they didn’t. They recognized the opportunity, grabbed it by the horns and decided to take the time necessary to make a fantastic and quality video, which leads me to the next point…

3.)    Present a Well-Crafted and Thought Out Response

It’s clear that Richard spent a little time dwelling on and drafting out his “rant”, and Bodyform responded on pointe with a video that clearly wasn’t just thrown together in 20 minutes.  The filming was professional and quality, the faux CEO was a great actor, and the thought out script addresses Richard’s exact statements, includes a historical background to build the story (see 0:50 – 1:06), and even weaves in the feminine-product advertisement staple: blue water! Bodyform went above and beyond to create an amazing response.

4.)    Respond in a Timely Manner

The time period between Richard’s Facebook post and Bodyform’s video response was just about one week. Any longer, and the response would have lost its steam. Any sooner, and it’s possible that the video might not have been as well made. (But, IF it was possible to turn the video around faster while still keeping its quality, that would be fantastic.) Just make sure that if you are responding to a consumer, do so within a time period that makes sense. Generally, the faster, the better.

Since Richard’s comment and Bodyform’s response, the page’s “people talking about this” numbers have soared to more than 85,000, and I expect  we will hear more about this over time as this will likely go down in one of the best social media company responses in history.

 The Exposed Golden Nuggets of Information

So what have we learned? Be a human and have a personable side, don’t be afraid to try something a little extraordinary when you have the chance, put in the effort, and be prompt in your response. As we have seen, the results can be priceless.

Consumer responses:

If it has not been displayed enough, pasted on most of the ads crowding today’s webpages or even occupying every available block on commercialized television, the 2012 Olympic Games premiere tomorrow in London at 7:30 p.m. EDT. So what does Twitter do when the world is preparing for this major international athletic event? It crashes and leaves eager micro-bloggers with a comforting message, “Twitter is currently down” at at 11:23 a.m. EDT.

The website was disabled for about 40 minutes and then briefly recovered until it became unavailable again at 12:45 p.m. EDT. The problem continued for about two more hours until the day was saved and users could continue tweeting about the Olympics, their cat’s favorite sweater or other daily antics.

When asking what the source of the problem was, the company blamed the malfunction on two data center failures. Twitter Inc. said in a blog posting that the parallel systems went down at the same time, which usually does not happen.

This has not been the first mishap in Twitter’s young history. The website was down in early June and disabled users from tweeting for two hours. Again, the setback was blamed on a technical glitch. After its booming conception in 2006, Twitter suffered from frequent outages caused by its explosive growth. Most of those outages have subsided over the past couple of years, but apparently, not completely vanished.

It makes sense that a service with over 140 million users worldwide, distributing up to 340 million tweets a day might encounter a bump in the road once in a while but can this powerful website make such sacrifices when one of the most climactic sporting events commences tomorrow?

Outraged users from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa stormed off to other competing social media sites like Facebook, to express their anger about their concerns. Having 818 tweets as of today and 1,138,433 followers and counting, the Olympic Games’ Twitter page publishes its tweets to a great deal of viewers relying on its data. Users want to read tweets about their favorite athletes recent records or how London is adjusting to the dramatic geographical transformation. If Twitter continues to crash, the Olympic Games will decrease in follower-ship, users will run to other social media sites and readers will not receive the tweets they want when they are on the go or simply curious about the athletic spectacle and what records will be broken in the next coming weeks.

With over three billion views a day and sixty hours uploaded every minute, how will your YouTube video stand out and grab the attention of some of the 800 million registered users? Pay close attention and bookmark these five easy steps that will serve as a guide to your social media marketing strategy and help your clients build their social influence.

1. Embed Links Back To Your Site: This is very important because when users share your video, you want to make sure they are given a backlink back to your site so once they’ve enjoyed watching the content, they can find out more about your company easily. This is also a very valuable tool for search engine optimization purposes, as well. 
2. Use Keywords in the Title, With Attention-Grabbing Semantics: The title to your video is the most visible element to users and also the most valuable for SEO. So try t include your main keyword, while not sounding too obvious (surround with other words that will really entice users to watch). Remember to keep it under 66 characters, or Google will cut you off in the search results.
3. Use Keywords in the Video Description and Tags: Once you’ve completed the necessary keyword research, be sure to include the keywords you wish to rank highly for in the description of the video, once again be reminded to avoid keyword stuffing. We also recommend adding the URL of your site at the end of the description, in efforts to drive users back to your site. Include the word “video” as well while describing and tagging (because most users will enter this in the search query when looking for videos). If some of your important keywords don’t sound right in the description, no problem! You should tag at least 10 keywords in the tagging section that you wish to rank for.
4. Keep Videos 90 Seconds or Less: The truth of the matter is that Internet users have very short attention spans. With that being said and in hopes that your video is watched and shared with friends, you should aim to keep the video shorter rather than longer.
5. Eye-Catching Thumbnails: The thumbnail is going to be the only visual a user gets when searching for a video. Therefore, you want this to be the most eye-catching image of your video. You are able to choose the thumbnail image in the edit section of the Video Manager, in which YouTube will automatically pull three images.

Now that we know the five easy steps, go to your YouTube Channel and see if each and every video has the necessary components to rank higher. If you have any other helpful video optimization tips, be sure to share with us in the comment section!

With so many social platforms now on the popularity rise, how do we know which one will offer our brand the most engagement? Some may say Facebook due to its 901 million users, or maybe Pinterest for its lucrative, exponential growth in just a few months. But when you have a platform that gives users the ability to watch footage ranging from a music video to one of America’s funniest home videos, YouTube can definitely stir up a lot of attention.  Social media marketing has grown tremendously in just the past year, so let’s dig a little deeper as to how internet marketers can utilize YouTube specifically for marketing their brand.

Produced by TechWelkin, the infographic below informs us of the latest YouTube facts and statistics. Here are some key takeaways I have derived:

• YouTube is the 3^rd most viewed website after Google (#1) and Facebook (#2)
• More than 1 trillion views took place in 2011 (that’s 140 views for each person on earth!)
• The equivalent of 500 years of YouTube videos are watched every day on Facebook
• 700 YouTube videos are also shared on Twitter every minute
• Each week 100 million people either like, share, or comment on YouTube
• More than 50% of videos are rated/commented upon by the users

Based on these statistics we can conclude that YouTube has the ability to create awareness about a brand/topic on a global platform. Therefore, it is vital that your company create a YouTube channel and post videos that are both informational and more importantly, as entertaining as you can make them. In a world where three billion hours of video are watched monthly, we can no longer ignore that YouTube could be the next best way to advertise over television ads. What do you think about the popularity of YouTube and how is your business using the platform to market your products/services to consumers?

Perhaps you recall reading an earlier post about the marketer’s perspective on social media. Here we gave you an inside look as to how internet marketers view the social media scene for business-to-consumer marketing. Now courtesy of social media examiner, more than 1,900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers has given us further insight into how they’re utilizing social media for their campaigns. In this post I will focus on the different experiences B2B marketers encounter when running their campaigns, as opposed to a consumer-driven focus.

In terms of how confident B2B marketers are in social media for expanding the reach of their business, more than 93% are using it to market their business, a 5% increase from 2010. When it comes to experience it was stated that, “B2B marketers bring more long-term experience to social media marketing than B2C, but lag behind slightly in the 1-to 3-year category.” When asked what results social media has brought to their B2B marketing campaigns, over 56% stated they acquired new business partnerships, 60% saw improved search rankings, and B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts, when compared to B2C. In this area it is important to note that only 53% of B2B marketers found social media helping to develop a loyal fan base; an area where B2C marketers rely heavily on social media for. Also note that there was no mention of a correlation between social media and increased sales. This is due mainly in part to businesses not knowing how to measure their efforts, and therefore not given the opportunity to see results from their campaign.

When it comes to which tools B2B marketers are utilizing, the results were higher with using Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and Google+ when compared to B2C marketers. 82% responded with using Facebook, compared to 96% of B2C marketers using the platform giant. We all know Facebook and its extremely high impact it can have on consumers, but these numbers infer that experienced marketers really understand where their target audience spends their time.

Where did the time go? B2B marketers are far more likely to increase their use of LinkedIn and invest more time in blogging when compared to B2C marketers. And what do B2B marketing companies want to learn more about in the social media world? Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter (and it that order). 77% of B2B marketers are interested in learning how to measure the effectiveness of social media, 72% in how to convert activities to sales, and 69% are interested in discovering the best social media tactics. In the future, B2B marketers plan to increase their use of SEO, event marketing, and e-mail.  Will your B2B marketing company be doing the same?

Ever wonder why some Facebook posts and Twitter tweets don’t have as much reach as others? While, this is actually due to a number of factors such as quality of content, topic of discussion, expertise on the topic, and many more but perhaps one factor you may not have considered is the timing of your post. A recent study released by Bitly, an online link shortening service that helps you share, track, and analyze your links shows the best time to post on Facebook and Twitter for maximum reach. Internet marketing agencies may want to consider these findings to maximize their client’s promotions.

Best Time To Post a Link on Facebook

• Between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m EST Monday to Thursday
• Peak Traffic on Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Worst Time To Post a Link on Facebook

• Friday after 3 p.m. & weekends
• Any day between 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Best Time To Post a Link on Twitter

• Between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. EST Monday to Thursday
• Peak Traffic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Worst Time To Post A Link On Twitter

• Fridays after 3 p.m.

*The days of the week are on the Y-axis beginning with Sunday on top, and hours are on the X-axis beginning with midnight and increases by 5 hour increments.

Social media marketing is at an all time peak. As seen in the findings, the timing of your posts have a huge impact on the success of your promotions.  It is far more difficult to make content go viral on the weekends as opposed to mid week. Also for those of us on the west coast, we may want to begin promoting around noon PST to maximize reach on the east coast. Next time, plan your posts & tweets wisely. Please tell us if these findings pertain to any of your campaigns.

It is no secret that social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have grabbed the attention of millions of consumers when it comes to the social scene. This is why event marketers and planners should be considering the viral networks in order to spread word of mouth and create buzz about their next big event.  An online marketing firm can benefit from the platforms to announce their upcoming events in hopes to acquire a bigger reach and awareness about your company and its events. Follow these three easy steps and be on your way to publicizing your next big event through social media marketing.

1.  #HashtagSwag – Create a Universal Buzz Word

It is important that consumers can connect with your event and find information about it easily and quick. This is why internet marketers should brainstorm for an overall hashtag, about 10 characters or less, that can be used to advertise the event in a unique, yet specific way. Take a look at what hashtags are trending now on Twitter to get a better perspective on what types of words/phrases grab people’s attention.

In terms of event marketing, speakers will love to reference the hashtag for it gives them a real-time feedback loop. A universal hashtag about your event will also give those unable to attend the opportunity to follow along with announcements and get involved on a virtual basis. Be sure to remind your audience about the hashtag you plan to promote before, during, and after the event. This is very important because you will need many tweets using the hashtag in order to gain virality; therefore consider including your hashtag on all print and online editions of any advertisements about your event.

2.  Publicly Display Your Virtual Attraction

In order to keep people involved online while at your event, you must bring the online attraction to the event through use of Twitter walls, for example. Setting up Twitter walls throughout your event will allow attendees to see all those online who are interacting with the event in a virtual way, while enticing them to join in on the online conversation as well.

If your event is small, consider setting up a virtual welcome near the registration center that encourages attendees to check in through social media platforms, like Facebook and Foursquare, using your designated universal hashtag. Once they see their name displayed on the big screen they will be more inclined to stay involved and keep tweeting about the event.

3.  Create a Central Online Location For Social Content

Those who are interested in your event should have a location that is easy to get to of where they can find all the social media information about your event. For example, consider creating an event page on your company’s website about upcoming events, with a tab that directs interested attendees to all your social media platforms. Be sure to include your preferred hashtag associated with the event here along with direct links to your Twitter account, Facebook page, Google+ profile, YouTube channel, etc. Consider putting a link to this page during the registration process for the event so you can drive consumers to your social media sites early on.

After reading these three easy tips, do you plan to utilize social media in order to gain awareness about your upcoming big event  and hopefully create interest for more people to attend?

Long-awaited photography application Instagram is now available for Android users via download from Google Play. The app, previously exclusive to iPhone users for free, hit 27 million users last month. That number is pretty impressive as it was only available to IOS users until now. The application allows you to apply professional edits to your photos taken with your phone, and upload them onto Instagram’s network. The photos may also be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram is considered a social networking app because it allows you to follow your friend’s photo streams and “heart” each others photos. The fast growing user base is an exciting opportunity for online marketing companies, and many of us are asking how Instagram can be a part of your company’s social media marketing strategy. Below are a few ways companies are taking advantage.

• Image Marketing- Instagram allows you to share your client’s story through vivid pictures. In the age of translucency and openness, consumers now expect to be included in the operations of their favorite companies. What better way to show your customers what goes on behind the scenes than a company Instagram page. Check out how some early adopters such as Starbucks, Redbull, and Tiffany & Co. are using the app for their campaigns.

• Share the Process- Every company goes through a process for their products/services, ranging from procurement to factory operations or even food preparations for a restaurant. Let your customers know the process behind your customers favorite products or services.

• Brand Management- The old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words,” is none truer in today’s world. By sharing what pictures represent your brand, you can make a lasting impact on your brand’s image. Show your customers what your brand is all about through dynamic pictures.

Now that the app is available to android users, expect not only a boom in the growth of its user base, but also companies to quickly jump onto this bandwagon. Currently Android and IOS combine for 110 million users in the US alone. The app has a real chance of hitting 100million users by the end of the year, a task that took Facebook four years to accomplish. Do you think Instagram is a valuable marketing tool for your company?

In a recent study conducted by Simply Measured, brands who have switched to Facebook’s new Timeline have increased their brand engagement by an average of 46%. The new feature was introduced to all brands last month with the purpose of showcasing a brand’s  stories and identities.  Bear in mind that the study was done with a sample size of only 15 brands across various industries. The result of the study showed that all brands except three (AT&T, Target, Old Spice) showed a percent increase in engagement, with Livestrong, Toyota, and The Humane Society achieving the largest increase.

Data was measured before and after February 29, 2012 (official date Timeline was introduced to all brand pages). The graph above shows the average increase of all 15 brands before and after the launch. Fan engagement is shown as a 14% increase, indicating an increase in “likes” of those specific brands. Perhaps the more interesting find is that average engagement per post increased an average of 46%, indicating that fans are interacting more with the content and engaging more with the brand. This is likely due to Timeline’s simple and intuitive layout. The new layout makes it easier to watch videos, check photos, view status updates, and engage with the cover photo.

Social media marketers need to take advantage of this feature and capitalize for their brands. The graph below shows the different levels of engagement by post type. Since the launch of Timeline, photos increased by 53 percent, videos by 49 percent.

Timeline allows your brand to tell a unique story. With the ability to backdate posts, you can share your company’s entire history with your audience. We here at Internet Marketing Inc have already jumped on the Facebook Timeline band wagon. Please share with us your reactions to the change. Has Timeline made your brand more engaging to your fans?