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Archives for February 2013

2012 Brand Social Media Marketing Wins and Fails [Infographic]

sephoraIn 2012, 92% of internet users between the ages of 18-29 visited social networking sites. Compare that figure to 73% for internet users between the ages of 30-49 and 57% for internet users between the ages of 50-64, and it’s clear that the big drop off in social media usage that used to exist as age increases no longer exists. Even 38% of internet users over the age of 64 use social networking sites.

Naturally, brands want to connect with those consumers through social media, and 2012 was filled with more social media marketing initiatives than ever. Some of those initiatives performed very well and brought the brands that launched them positive buzz and sales. On the flip side, many brands experienced huge failures in social media marketing during 2012.

Marketers can learn a lot from both the social media marketing successes and failures of 2012 to improve their own campaigns in 2013. The infographic below highlights some of the biggest social media marketing wins and failures from the past year that can help you with your brand marketing creative thinking and help you identify measures to ensure things don’t go terribly wrong.

Some of the positive social media marketing stories include:

  • Nike: A campaign tied to the London Olympics honored everyday athletes with both offline and online components. Positive feedback was higher for Nike than it was for the official sponsor of the Olympic Games, Adidas. The social media aspect of the campaign targeted Facebook and Twitter and delivered over 16,000 tweets and a 77% increase in Facebook Page interaction during the Olympic Games.
  • Honda: A campaign to promote its new CRV model offered $500 to the most active pinners on Pinterest to take a 24-hour break from the site, which they branded as a Pintermission. Winners created pinboards about everything they did during their day away from Pinterest. As a result, Honda reached in excess of 5.5 million followers of those very active pinners.
  • Sephora: The “15 Days of Beauty” campaign on Facebook also included a mobile element. Both iPads and iPod touches were placed in brick-and-mortar Sephora stores in an effort to drive mobile traffic. As a result, there were over 2 million downloads of the Sephora mobile app.

You can see the complete infographic below, which includes additional social media marketing wins and several failures.

Biggest Moments in Social Media 2012
Image compliments of MBA in Marketing Degree Guide

Image: Justin Tung

Careers: Finding a Match

Pearson, a leading International media company, has joined several other large companies in the addition of the new LinkedIn feature, the ‘socialmatcher’ to their corporate website. When clicked through, this feature will suggest various Pearson career opportunities that are appropriate for the user.

By using this simple method to presort employment candidates, Pearson accomplishes three things:

  1. Increase the interest of qualified candidates
  2. Enhance efficiency by decreasing the time and resources necessary to sift through applications, searching for appropriate candidates.
  3. Improve accuracy by reducing or eliminating the number of applicants who do not qualify for certain positions.

This innovative website practice allows Pearson to seamlessly continue their expansion, and improve their ability to provide world-leading educational services.

Recruiting Veterans

I invited Thomas Jones to write a guest post for us today about veterans and recruitment. Have you considered targeting this group with a dedicated recruitment website? Let us know, in the comments…

Over to you, Thomas!

military man to businessmanThe global financial crisis has hit the world hard. Economies have been left in tatters and governments are having to cut budgets to weather the current economic downturn. Military defence budgets have been greatly affected with many countries around the world reducing the amount of money being spent on their military programs. The UK, USA, Germany and more have already reduced their defence budgets, with more countries planning to follow suit shortly. These budgetary reductions have seen thousands of jobs being cut and thousands of veterans being honourably discharged from the armed forces. A number of businesses have seen opportunity here and have started to roll out special websites and programs targeted to attract veterans looking for work.

This article will explain how, and why, companies are targeting these veterans using special veteran recruitment websites, recruitment policies and rehabilitation projects.

Why veterans?

Veterans are highly skilled and highly motivated individuals.

When serving in their country’s armed forces, they learn the value of discipline, teamwork and hard work.

Veterans have been trained to work hard and work well: they are model employees.

Methods used by companies to reach job seeking veterans

Many companies are instituting veteran recruitment programs that will see hundreds of thousands of veterans being employed around the world. These companies use a number of different methods to attract unemployed veterans.

#1 – Veteran recruitment websites

Many companies are building special websites tailored specifically to target veterans. These websites focus on the unique skills that veterans possess while explaining how the company will be able to make use of them.

These websites normally contain information about the numbers of veterans already working in the company as well as statistics about their career progression.

Many of these websites contain testimonials from employed veterans, too, either in video, audio or text form. These testimonials normally focus on how their military skills have been useful when working in the company while explaining why the company is a good place for veterans to work.

#2 – Charitable donations to military support charities

Veterans share a bond. They look after each other and watch each other’s backs.

Companies that donate to military support charities are looked upon favourably by veterans. These donations show that the company is committed to improving the lives of veterans around the world, regardless of whether they’re employed by the company or not.

However, it’s important for the company not to brag about these charitable contributions. These donations need to be seen as an act of goodwill – they should not be construed as a ploy to attract attention from veterans.

#3 – Rehabilitation projects to ease the transition back to civilian life

Life in the military is very different to civilian life. It is difficult, demanding and disciplined. Every day is highly regimented and planned out in advance.

Many veterans find the transition back to civilian life difficult. It can take time before they are able to feel comfortable living a civilian lifestyle.

Many companies have instituted veteran rehabilitation programs to help ease the process. These programs usually see veterans being assigned a mentor or advisor who will provide advice and help to ensure that the veterans under their tutelage are able to successfully transition back to civilian life.

Specialised schemes targeted to veterans that were injured in action have also been instituted by a number of companies. These schemes can help provide medical and psycho-social assistance to help deal with the injury as well as vocational support to ensure that the injury does not affect performance in the workplace.

Conclusion

Veterans make excellent employees. They are highly motivated, highly skilled and dedicated to their work. The three methods listed above are proven methods companies around the world are using to help attract veterans to join their workforce. Make sure to use them when instituting a veteran recruitment program for your business.

Thanks Thomas!

Thomas Jones is a business consultant that has a particular interest in specialised corporate business practices and how you work and develop over time. He also writes business guides and articles at BestPracticeHub.com

The Significance of Facebook Card for Brands

facebook cardJanuary 31, 2013 marked an important milestone in Facebook history when Facebook Card was launched to Facebook members in the United States. Suddenly, brands have a new way to marry Facebook marketing, ecommerce, and brick-and-mortar sales into one little piece of plastic.

According to the announcement of Facebook Card, Facebook members can give Facebook friends monetary gifts to shop at specific retailers (online or offline) via a plastic card that they’ll receive in the mail a few days after it is purchased. They’ll also receive a notification that the card is on its way to them at the time it is purchased.

When the card is used, a notification is sent to the cardholder letting them know that the balance has changed. They can also look up this information in the account settings of their Facebook Profile.

People who get a Facebook Card need to hang onto it though, because if another person sends them a Facebook Card gift, that money will be added to the existing card. The money associated with each retailer is tracked separately on the card, so a cardholder could have balances with several retailers at the same time on a single card.

According to AdWeek, Facebook has no plans to offer digital Facebook Cards, so the plastic is here to stay. Also, there are no current plans to link Facebook Offers with Facebook Card. In other words, retailers won’t be able to promote Offers to users with cards that have balances for their stores.

It’s probably safe to assume that such integrations will come in the future if Facebook Cards gains some traction among Facebook members. For example, if retailers had the ability to target cardholders with balances for their stores and serve ads to specific segments, they should be able to get the right offers in front of more of the right members of the one billion Facebook community and increase Facebook marketing ROI significantly. That’s just one reason why it’s so important for Facebook to find a solution that successfully marries Facebook marketing spending, ecommerce, and offline sales.

The question at this point is how Facebook members will react to physical gift cards, something that the younger demographic calls “retro” (check out the comments in this Mashable article to see for yourself). Of course, this is just Phase 1 of Facebook Card, and enhancements and changes are likely to come quickly and frequently. Again, Facebook needs this to work. Brands hope it will work. But do consumers care? Only time will tell.

What do you think about Facebook Card?

Image: Facebook Newsroom