The Perfect Digital Campaign – 7 tips on how to set it up
Here’s the good news – The perfect digital campaign isn’t your Moby Dick and you don’t have to be its Captain Ahab. It’s something that’s totally achievable. The problem is that sometimes we get overwhelmed and intimidated by the scores of digital fronts we need to consider. We lose focus and the result is usually screaming our campaign message on all the fronts out there, without a clear strategy on how all this screaming will achieve the goal.
For anyone managing a digital presence of a brand, let me start by saying this:
“An effective digital campaign or any new media campaign for that matter, should always be simple. But it does not simply consist of broadcasting the same message on all fronts with a little bit of facebook advertising rolled into it.”
Now that we know what a perfect digital campaign is not. Lets talk about the 7 Key things that I feel make up the dream digital campaign.
Target Market
Marketing 101 – your campaign has to be directed towards a specific someone. And its really important for you to know who that someone is. You can segment your target market based on a number of things that are important to you. It could be age, interests, line of work, location language etc. But you do need to define who your targets are. Because who they are defines which digital medium you should focus on the most. You may find that people in Australia use Hi5 or Friendster more than they use FB. Or the UAE crowd is more into tweeting or forums than blogging or sms campaigns. So a defined target will help you choose your target digital fronts. And this leads us nicely into point #2…
Synergize and Complement
All your assets should work in synergy and complement each other, with ONE asset starring as your anchor. Just doing this one thing, forms about 30% of a successful campaign. Each asset should dispense information ideal to its digital nature and direct consumers towards the asset that has been chosen to be the anchor. Which asset gets chosen as the anchor depends on your campaigns theme and what kind of messaging would be most effective. This approach has 2 main benefits
- Consumers will never get confused about which asset they should use to participate in the campaign. Campaign messages will almost never get misunderstood this way and they will be crystal clear to your audience.
- You need not worry about intense campaign administration, where you have to post and repost campaign messages on every single digital front of yours.
Facebook buying Instagram – Welcoming the inevitable
Its not even been a few hours and already the web is buzzing about Instagram being bought by Facebook for a cool 1 Billion USD. “Instagram” is already one of the trending topics on Twitter as I write this short entry. While I see a lot of mixed reviews from “Instagrammers” I honestly saw this as inevitable. If not facebook it would have been one of the other social networks.
I really do like Instagram and I’ve become quite a fond user like its other 30 million users. But the fact remains that the Instagram community shares less amongst themselves on Instagram than they would on FB or Twitter using Instagram. i.e. Its used more as a tool to share pictures on FB and Twitter rather than a picture sharing community in itself. Its only available on mobile devices and people cant log on to an Instagram network through the web; thereby limiting the kind of the social interaction one wants when viewing pictures etc. This is where Pinterest kicks butt. And if anyone was to acquire Pinterest, thats when I would really be surprised.
So what can we expect now from Instagram?
Well FB and Instagram both say that Instagram will be alive and kicking in the coming future and will operate as a separate entity. But in all honesty how can there not be deep integration between these two platforms now. I wouldnt be surprised if things like picture tagging, commenting and liking features from FB are somehow deeply linked with Instagram functionality. For e.g. when you’d like a pic on Instagram you end up liking it on FB. Same could happen with commenting. I wouldn’t even be surprised if any picture I upload on Instagram gets uploaded to FB as a default setting. We’ve seen FB play with our settings many times before so wouldnt be that much of a “are they really doing that” moment.
This is not a bad thing though. I would actually like it because uploading pics using Instagram is much more fun and easy to do than uploading a pic through FB’s mobile app. As a matter of fact thats why I think FB would acquire Instagram – not for shutting it down or to get its userbase…but simply to use an innovative way for people to interact with FB via a mobile platform.
But lets see what the future holds. For now do also check out Instagram’s CEO’s blog entry here http://blog.instagram.com/post/20785013897/instagram-facebook
Here is a list of other notable sources that talks about this topic.
ROI on your website – What you should be monitoring
A little while ago, I had a very interesting chat with my CIO and GM about the effectiveness of a website as a digital asset in achieving a company’s overall objectives. Some of the very interesting things we discussed were bounce rates, dwell times and returning visitors. And that discussion leads me to ask all of you something:
Does your target audience stay long enough on your website to be converted into a client/lead? Does it stay long enough to read through the information you have to offer? How about the frequency of visits of your audience? Do people usually visit once or do they keep on coming back for more?
All these things are tracked by the different analytical tools, but many companies hardly focus on them. They feel that the increase in the total number of visits to their sites is proof enough that their formidable website spending has brought the desired results. That is the easiest thing for the so-called “web optimization” agencies to sell to clients who don’t know better. That’s also the easiest way for employees to show to their managers that they did a job well done.
Companies must realize that this isn’t the whole truth. While the number of visitors to your site does increase your chances of getting more of your target audience on the site, it doesn’t mean that it proportionately increases the chances of the target audience staying on your site for as long as you want them to. It also doesn’t mean that they’ll come back.
Facebook Timeline ready for brands
Alright people. In case you haven’t noticed (if you are page admins), Facebook has just introduced the timeline for business pages; and in my view it looks awesome! Facebook plans to roll out timeline for all pages by 30th of March 2012. Which leaves you with at most, a month for you roll it out in the best possible way.
Some of the brands like Coca Cola, American Express and Facebook itself are already sporting the new look. But its not just a new “do”. The concept of the timeline on a facebook page encourages more social activity as well. And in order to maximize the benefit from it, below are some things you need to consider right away.
1. Start designing the ultimate cover photo
This is your chance to showcase your brand like never before. You aren’t restricted to the side image any more. You can be really creative and build a work of art that really speaks to your audience. So tell your graphic designers to get cracking.
2. Build your timeline
Take a look at what Coca Cola and American Express have done. They have defined their timeline all the way back to the late 1800s. That’s really sharing the history and the evolution of the brand. You can tell your brands story too. Just go to the place where you add the status update, and click on Milestone to add your milestone in the correct year. You can add a message along with a photo to create that great piece of engaging content. This should be done for every significant milestone that you feel defines your brand
3. Hide the unwanted updates
Lets face it – there must have been some moments that you would rather forget on your page. If that is the case then move through your timeline and hide the status updates that you wouldn’t want people remembering and then reposting. To hide a post, simply click the pencil icon on the top right of the status and click hide.
4. Pin the updates you want people to remember
As was the case with the bad updates, im sure there were ones you’d want others to remember as well. Or you simply want some extra exposure given to a status that may have otherwise gone down the wall. You can now pin these status updates to the top by clicking the pencil icon again. This time you select the “Pin from Top” option rather than “hide post”.
Brazil’s Carnival going social with Google in a big way
13th Feb 2012. Google announced on its blog that it going to be providing in-depth coverage of the Carnival festivities happening in Salvador, one of Brazil’s oldest cities.
Google will provide this coverage between 16th to the 21st of Feb, which is when the festivities are meant to be on their peak.
For those of you who are not aware of Brazil’s Carnival, its one of the most popular festivals in the world with thousands of people converging to the country to partake in the celebrations. Its so busy that flights and hotels are sold out months in advance. I should know as I’ve been trying to visit Brazil during that season.
So for those of us who won’t be able to make it, Google’s coverage through YouTube, Google+ and Orkut will be an alternative to really see what goes on there.
Through the Carinval YouTube channel which you can access here,
“…you’ll have access to everything from a live transmission of the streetfest to videos of bands who have traveled to Salvador to host the party. You’ll even be able to chat with other YouTube users who are watching the party with you from around the world through a map we’ve integrated just for the occasion.”
People will also be able to chat with bands and watch live celebrity interviews through Google+ and Orkut
This is what can be called a great example of using the power of social media for a promotional campaign. It’s extremely effective because it will generate visual interest amongst the target audience and its cost as compared to its scope is minimal.
While they aren’t there, people can really get a flavor of the Carnival from watching whats happening on the streets. This tactic is bound to generate an elevated level of engagement and will increase the interaction level online. Last but not the least there are bound to be reviews and suggestions by the consumers that can help the organizers improve the ambiance for the future Carnivals to come.
I really do think that this is a neat idea and would recommend this to anyone in the travel, hospitality or leisure industry.
