The NFL Hits Social Media Hard

With draft day come and gone, the NFL has been all over the headlines the last couple of days. Taking advantage of all this media attention, the NFL has made a huge push into leveraging social media. If you watched the draft,  you may have noticed how on Thursday night, all the potential draftees were ushered in front of an iPad to have their picture taken, which was then sent straight on out Twitter so fans could see what everyone was wearing in what the NFL was calling the #DraftRedCarpet. The NFL also tried to make the behind-the-scenes action much more visible for fans by tweeting all the action.

With over 12 million follower (Twitter - 4.5M, Facebook - 7.1M) the NFL has quite a substantial fan base. With such a huge following, you would probably assume the NFL has a large team managing their social accounts -- but you would be wrong. Duane Munn is the one-man show responsible for managing all the NFL social accounts. Managing account for such a huge entity with so many followers is a titanic undertaking for one man. Duane was quoted saying:

"I tell my Mom that I never wanted to be a doctor, but with the amount of time I spend on my job, I imagine this is what it is like to be one,"

Not only is Duane the sole manager of these accounts, but he tends to stay away from things like scheduling tweets, opting to engage followers on a real-time basis. This allows Duane to stay on top of trending topics and make each post get optimal engagement. Using platfoms like Adobe Social, Duane is able to track online trends and buzz words so he can make relevant posts that really impact his followers. Also, since Duane is posting this content real-time, he is able to coordinate effectively with news and articles the NFL is releasing throughout the day, creating a streamlined and influential presence on social media. Without scheduling tweets, Duane is also able to avoid backlash by limiting the amount of inappropriate posts that go out during times of breaking news. Many large companies were criticized for this in lieu of recent events, like the Boston Marathon bombing.

It seems like the NFL really hit a home run by finding a person who can effectively manage all their social accounts solo. Although community management is not always a 1 man team, it certainly does help cut down on communication errors, while streamlining the whole process exponentially.

- Mike

Retwact That Tweet

Have you ever had tweeters remorse? One minute you think you are in front of cutting edge news, getting it out there before anyone else, the next minute you are wrought with regret, knowing those 100 retweets are just a glaring reminder of your impulsive and erroneous tweet. With Twitter becoming one of the most influential platforms when it comes to breaking news, it was evident that some  tweets will need to be updated, edited or retracted. In comes Stonly Baptiste, a software developer from Pennsylvania. After seeing more and more people calling for a retracting or editing function on Twitter, Stonly spent a sleepless 48 hours developing what he is calling the Retwact. Basically this system works by pulling up your last five tweets. From those five, you have the ability to select one tweet and type out the correction or apology. Once your retwact is published, it will go out to all of your followers, meanwhile, Retwact's own account will reach out to the fist 100 people who retweeted your incorrect tweet with an @ mention.

There are still some things that need to be ironed out, like only being able to go 5 tweets back, but Stonly plans to continue working on and improving the Retwact until someone like Twitter offers to buy him out. This seems like a much needed tool and we don't think it will be long before Twitter purchases it from Stonly.

-Mike

Social Photos No Longer Yours

Facebook and Instagram users in Britain may no longer solely own their photos. As of last week, the U.K.'s Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act, passed the final stages to become law. This new act is basically a change to existing copyright laws, which will allow commercial use of images that do not have any information identifying the owner. Known as "orphan work", companies are now permitted to claim these photos after doing a diligent search to first identify the owner. At the end of the day, if you take a great picture of a sunset, a company can take that picture and advertise with it as their own or even sell it to other companies. All this without giving you any credit or cut in the profit. Apparently your only option to prevent having your photographic work constantly being stolen, is to register every photo you take. If this sounds like more trouble than its work, you are probably right. Currently there is only one registry available, which will make registering all your photos quite tedious.

It seems that an increase in law suits over who owns what on the internet is eminent in the U.K. Whether or not a company did in fact make a diligent search for the owner will be a very grey area, since it is hard to quantify what exactly constitutes as diligent. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out over the pond. We have heard whispers of similar things happening here in the U.S. but after seeing how the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act effects Britain, we should all have a better idea of the correct rout to take.

-Mike

ThingLink Comes to Facebook

Earlier this week, the popular interactive image platform know as ThingLink, officially hit Facebook. ThingLink allows users to enhance images with embedded information, like a video or a text block. Since the additional information is inserted within an image, the person interacting with this image will not have to leave the current screen they are on. This is great for brands and marketers because they can get more information in front of a customer in a shorter amount of time -- a benefit that could increase engagement and eventually, sales. ThingLink also will help Facebook since users will now spend more time on the Timeline and News Feed, not having to link to other websites do obtain more information.

Back in November, ThingLink debuted on Twitter with great results. Since it's launch, major reps have reported seeing more than five times as much engagement on their posts that contained ThingLink images. We believe these new interactive images will quickly become the norm. With online attention spans decreasing by the day, the ability to cram as much information in front of a customer as quickly as possible is paramount.

-Mike

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife and Hide Your Tweets, They're Hacking Everybody Out Here

The big news in social media yesterday was the hacking of the AP's twitter. A hacker group known as the Syrian Electronic Army is taking credit for hijacking the AP's twitter account Tuesday morning and falsely tweeting that there was an explosion at the White House and the President was injured. Moments after the tweet, the Dow Jones flash crashed 143 points. Luckily the AP corrected their tweet quickly and the Dow was able to readjust without major incident. Even though there were no major repercussions from this hacked tweet, it is making everyone, from Wall Street to Twitter, rethink social media security. Wall Street is surprisingly intertwined with social media. They have computer programs and algorithms that scan major news headlines and can auto-trade based on the news, this is how 1 tweet from a respected source can cause such an immediate threat to our economy. Twitter has become such an important factor on Wall Street that this month Bloomberg announced they will be adding the service to their trading terminals. This is HUGE news for Twitter, anyone familiar with Wall Street and trading knows, Bloomberg has such a gigantic influence on the industry that whatever service or practice they introduce becomes the standard.

It seems that there have been an increasing number of Twitter hacks of large brands recently. One of note was the Burger King hack back in February. Here is an infographic of the stats from that day:

Looking at these impressive stats, it is easy to see how much damage a hacked Twitter account can cause. In light of all these recent hacks, Twitter has announced they will be introducing a two-step verification system, which will help prevent fraud by requiring the user to input two pieces of personal information to verify their identity. With our increasing dependence on Twitter for the latest news, we feel that this new security measure is a must. If Twitter cannot remain a reliable source, there will be serious repercussions in the near future.

We have also included the below infographic on some of the more notable Twitter hacks in recent memory. Although this information is a bit dated, it is very interesting to see what 140 characters can do.

-Mike

Social Media: A Strategy, Not a Tactic

Imagine this. You’re running a business and decide to put some of your budget toward social media marketing. You’ve finally hired someone to setup your social accounts (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and manage possible engagement. All of this effort and you still don’t know if you have a full grip on the effectiveness of social media marketing!

Don’t worry. By setting goals for your company within the social space, you will prevent feelings of frustration and instead, reach objectives and create brand awareness that will eventually lead to sales. But how?

1. Start from the bottom. Set up obtainable social media goals and reflect the main business goals within them.
2. Do your research. Ask the following questions before moving forward:
   • Who is your demographic & where do they congregate?
   • What are your current resources/budget?
   • How much time can you give to this task?
   • What are your competitors doing within the space?
   • What are your strengths?
   • What are the potential issues/problems with this execution?
3. Be honest & realistic with your digital/social media goals.
   • Increase overall brand awareness
   • Increase website traffic and sales
   • Increase SEO for your company
   • Provide information for your fans
   • Decrease various marketing spending
4. Be patient. Social media is an ongoing effort with ROI being difficult to measure and most engagement results being hard to pinpoint. A lot of time, effort and money often go into the most successful social media campaigns in the market. Although it will sometimes feel like a crawl, your social push will eventually yield results over time!
5. Always keep learning. Although you may have already created a Twitter or Facebook account, there are other “big picture” social strategies that could greatly effect your total success. Be willing to learn the details to keep evolving with the current platforms at hand – or hire someone who is knowledgable and can do it for you!
6. Understand that social media is not the answer. Putting your brand on various social media platforms does not replace all of your marketing efforts. Instead, social media should be seen as a large piece of the larger picture.

Overall, social media should be seen as a strategy, not a tactic. No matter what industry you work in, such strategies will differ -- although most companies will need one relating to social to stay relevant. Having said this, it remains true that social media requires a full effort from all parties involved in order to successfully integrate your company goals. So go ahead -- take a deep breath, dive in head first & have fun!

xx Samantha

I Ate The Bones!

A new boneless chicken ad campaign has been recently launched by KFC with the tagline, "I ate the bones!" KFC believes this new tagline and hashtag are certain to go viral. So confident in fact, that they are spending an estimated $50 million on this promotion! Although KFC is still the #1 chicken chain in the country, they're feeling some serious heat from the #2 competitor, Chic-Fil-A and are hoping this campaign might help bolster their lead. To be honest, we have to agree that the two new commercials we have seen touting #iatethebones are pretty hilarious -- take a look: [youtube=http://youtu.be/foGgNP2DgT8]

Although most companies with a knowledge of the power of social media understand the importance of including a hashtag in a marketing campaign, one must approach with caution. Hashtags are a mode of aggregating content on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. They are not only used to measure engagement on a platform, but to also be the glue in conversations between users. Whether a company chooses to create their own hashtag or simply enter into a conversation that is already taking place to 'own the moment,' it can greatly effect the overall success of a campaign.

From our experience, it's best to keep hashtags short, easy to remember and seamlessly integrated throughout other marketing channels. It should be top of mind for users -- an immediate connection between the product being sold and the company at hand. Sadly, there are many brands that currently promote social hashtags that are either too long, complicated or are unrelated to the overall initiative. These companies miss out on a very simple and easy engagement with users, therefore eliminating the chance that one would remember the original brand messaging at a later time, preferably around the time of purchase.

Thankfully, we're confident that #iatethebones will be quite the success for KFC. The commercials are funny, relatable and make you want to say "I ate the bones" tagline out loud. With electronic devices at a user's finger tips around the clock, it's no wonder that the hashtag #iatethebones was taken directly taken from the main line in the ad to be promoted on social. It's a natural transition from the offline ad to an online experience.  And although the campaign is still new, we believe that these factors make the overall campaign memorable and highly engaging!

What other companies do you think have had success with hashtags?

- Mike & Samantha