Facebook recently unleashed it’s latest and greatest feature: Offers. This is a real game-changer for any business with a product or service to sell.

Using the new Offers feature, brands can publish limited time coupons and exclusive deals to their Facebook fans – which easy for customers to share and to redeem!

Simple and Effective

The process is very easy for brands: Decide what your offer is, how many you have to give away, and when it will expire. If you wish, you can even post a thumbnail image and include fine print!

When your fans click to redeem the offer on your page, or in their newsfeed, an email with the offer is sent to the fan’s email address listed on the account with details to redeem. It also makes a post to their newsfeed, so their friends can see the offer they have redeemed.

Best Practices

According to Facebook, the best types of offers include:

• Discounts bigger than 20%, Free offers
• Simple redemption details
• Reasonable expiration date

In addition, we recommend ensuring your staff is aware of the offer & redemption details to avoid confusion and frustration.

Long-Term Effects

In our opinion, Facebook Offers could be a big thorn in the side of Groupon and similar daily-deal sites. While there is no option to charge money for certain offers like with Groupon, brands could give an offer guaranteeing a certain price for a particular promotion.

If you’ve got something to give away – Facebook offers can be an effective tool for you to spread the word! Have you seen or redeemed any offers yet? How has your experience been?

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The way people consume media has been shifting dramatically in the past few years. A Nielsen survey conducted in fourth-quarter 2011 found that 45% of Americans who owned tablets used them daily while watching TV. Time Warner learned that its 20-something audience was switching media 27 times per hour -  now that’s channel surfing at a whole new level!

Viewers are increasingly more likely to browse the web on a mobile device during commercial breaks, and in some cases, during the main event!

Smart marketers have realised this new trend is not taking away from the viewing experience, it’s actually enhancing it.

How to engage in the Digital Age

Similar to creating mobile sites, a few things should be considered when branching into mobile platforms:

Ease of use: Make it easy to download, with an intuitive interface and simple instructions. This is especially important if you want people to use your app again.

Multi-Platform accessibility: iOS, Android, Blackberry….the list goes on. Ensure your app or mobile site is compatible with various devices, and that the experience is the same for each.

Quality of content: No matter what technique you’re using, at the end of the day content is king. Make sure you’re adding a reason for people to pay attention.

Exciting Examples of Second Screen Interaction

While it’s not crystal clear what techniques and strategies will stand the test of time, here are a few examples of what’s happening today:

Disney Second Screen:  Download a free app that syncs with the movie you are watching. It allows you to engage with special features such as concept art, behind the scenes and much more through the magic of Disney!

Kony 2012. It’s the latest viral campaign to take over the web. If you thought the Middle Eastern Protests of 2011 was huge, Kony 2012 is growing to be massive on that scale.

Quick overview of the campaign: Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, has been kidnapping children and turning them into war soldiers. The Kony 2012 movement, run by the not-for-profit organization, Invisible Children, wants to stop it by taking to the web in a social media campaign to raise awareness and hopefully drive action. The 30-minute Kony 2012 video asks people to contact key influencers, and to become involved by plastering the world with his image on April 20.

We’re not here to support or criticize the campaign. This article is going to focus on how this campaign managed to spread so effectively.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

One simple, clear message is conveyed

“Make him famous.” That’s the message and goal. It’s easy to understand and measure. Once he’s famous, the next phase of their cause occurs. Everything they communicate stems from this message and is consistent throughout the campaign. Can you distill your core message into one sentence, or even better, a few words?

Time & effort was invested

While the campaign looks like it sprouted overnight, it’s been a 10 year journey. A lot of time and energy has been spent creating this cause. The Kony 2012 campaign is the culmination of the blood, sweat and tears involved. Make sure you have the time to build your brand, and don’t give up.

High production value

The video was very well produced, easy to understand and watchable. The website, posters, stickers and press releases all come from very talented designers and writers. While you can’t expect that 70 million people will see your content, be sure to make good of the talent you have access to.

Money was spent

Being that this is a not-for-profit campaign, it relies on donations for funding. While Facebook and Twitter are free, the underlying work involved is not. It takes time to research, write and post content on social networks. Brands need to treat social media like any other line on the balance sheet, and budget accordingly.

Target the right people

By seeking out key influencers (culture makers and policy makers), Invisible Children is attempting to make sure the campaign continues to get the support that’s needed. The targeted people can help spread the message even further and influence their demographics. Figure out who you want to be talking about your brand and turn them into evangelists.

Taking to the streets

Invisible Children has taken to social media to spread the campaign worldwide, but know that than integrated campaign will make a bigger splash. On April 20, they have invited everyone to cover cities worldwide with posters of Kony, with the intent of reaching their goal to make Kony famous. How can your brand create something to capture the limelight and get attention.

The Kony 2012 campaign is a clear example of the power of social media to disrupt the norm and get people involved. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this program, its intentions and the chance of its success. It will be interesting to see what will result from the attention given to this cause, given the waves it’s been making. Keep an eye on this story, there are many lessons to be learned here.

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This may seem like an odd time of year to be talking about the holiday season (since it feels like it was just yesterday), but in fact, this is just the start of the planning process that outstanding holiday programs require.

Step into any shopping centre during the holiday season, and you’ll witness the right of passage for many children: sitting on Santa’s knee and getting their photo taken. Not much has changed over the years: wait in line, sit on Santa’s lap, smile and get your photo taken. That is until this year, with malls like Vaughn Mills and Centerpoint Mall adding a new dimension to their Santa experiences.

In an interview with Global TV, Eleni Koukoulidis, Director of Marketing for Centerpoint Mall tells us, “It’s always a challenge and that’s where the thinking outside the box comes in. We want to distinguish ourselves from everybody else.”

Expanding Santa’s Fan Club

Santa has for many years been used to attract people into the door to shop. Using these different types of Santa experiences, malls can broaden their demographic of shoppers. No longer are they only targeting families with young children. Now, whole families, groups of friends and teenagers are attracted to take a unique photo and share it with their friends. This can translate into a massive increase in traffic and sales numbers. The popularity of visiting Santa has shifted from kids to include children, teens and adults wanting to take fun photos to share on their social networks.

Santa 2.0

This year, using a mobile kiosk from Parade! Multimedia Brand Experiences, these centres have become increasingly more innovative with their Santa set-ups. Shoppers no longer receive a simple photo, it’s a full experience with Santa using props and unique settings that they can share using social networks. You can fish with Santa at Vaughn Mills or ride a snowmobile with him at Centerpoint Mall, with the ability to share the free photos and videos of the experiences on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

By going digital and allowing people to share their pictures and videos online using Facebook and Twitter, it’s another way for the mall to reach potentials shoppers. The media is watermarked with the mall branding, and with the ability to use photos in contests and other promotional efforts, it’s another touch point for malls looking to differentiate themselves in a competitive market.

The Parade! Kiosk is custom branded for the specific centre various options include photos, videos, online contests, galleries and a slew of other unique features including printed QR codes and coupons.

Real results

There are a number of advantages for shopping centres to host these unique experiences:

• driving shoppers to the centre with a fun, free photo (compared to many other malls which typically charge a fee)
• capturing key demographic information about their shoppers
• building their own online influence by directing visitors to their website and social channels
• Centerpoint Mall offered an incentive of $1000 to the photo which received the most online votes – driving up the photo shares dramatically. The photos in the gallery also generated approximately 6000 Facebook “likes”, helping quickly spread Centerpoint Mall’s holiday messages.

Many shopping centres opt to keep Santa photos private, viewable only to those who have the direct link, but in the case of Centerpoint Mall, these fun, festive photos can be publicly viewed in the Sled with Santa gallery at http://www.centerpointshops.com/sledWithSanta

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Facebook’s recent announcement about the release of Timeline has businesses everywhere buzzing. The new changes allow for fantastic branding opportunities and new ways to engage your fans.

Timeline has been available for months now to regular users, but brands were kept waiting for their turn to join the party. On March 30^th, Timeline will be switched on for everyone (ready or not), so now is the time to start making updates to your Facebook Page. You can preview any pages you currently admin at www.facebook.com/pages/status

Timeline – Overall Layout and Function

Timeline is the new standardized look for Facebook Pages. This two-column chronological layout is very much a literal timeline, with a large image spanning the top, known as a cover photo. An excellent example of a brand utilizing the timeline features is the Wal-Mart page. You can click back in time and learn about the history of the company and see important milestones along the way. It will be interesting to see how brands use this in innovative and engaging ways.

Cover Photo

Now you can showcase your brand with a prominent photo at the top of your profile. The cover photo is 851 x 915 pixels, and spans the top of your Timeline. With the new cover photo come many new restrictions: No contact information, no calls to action such as “like” or “share” and no price or purchase information. To make it simple, it must be a photo, not a billboard.

Profile Photo:

This is different than the cover photo. The profile photo is a smaller square image, located along the bottom of the cover photo. The profile photo will be seen alongside all of your posts in people’s news feeds, and as such, it makes sense to be a logo, or some other recognizable icon for your brand. The picture should be 180 x 180 pixels, scalable to be viewed as small as 32×32 pixels.

Setting Milestones

Share key moments in your brand’s history by creating milestones along the page’s Timeline. Milestone images are also displayed double-wide, along with a message outlining the milestone. You might feature key moments such as building development, winning an award, or other newsworthy events.

Apps

Have not changed, except they are now wider (810 pixels wide) and can’t be featured as the default landing page anymore. To access your app, visitors to your page will have to click on the app tile, or follow a link shared in one of your posts to visit your apps. Great news though, is if you don’t change your apps, they still work as designed before the Timeline, but the smaller width might look a little awkward in the larger available space.

Facebook App Images

Private Messaging

Customers can now send brands a private message from brand pages, whether they are a fan or not. The message appears as a notification in the Admin Panel of your page. This provides an excellent avenue for increased customer service related tasks, especially if you need to take a conversation off the public page for privacy reasons (account #, home address etc.).

Competitive View

By clicking the “Likes” of a brand’s Facebook page, you can now see key stats for likes and engagement for any brand page, up to a year ago. It’s a great opportunity to see what your competition is up to and help you see which posts are working best for them.

Highlighting Posts

By clicking the star on any of your posts, you can showcase important posts by making them stand out, double-wide across both columns of the Timeline.

Pinning

You can pin an important post to the top of your timeline, so that it stays there for up to 7 days. This works only for one post at a time, and is great for showcasing events and stories that you want to stand out.

Key takeaways for Facebook Timeline

At the Facebook Marketing Conference, we heard again and again that storytelling is key. Build your online community by posting and sharing engaging content, not sales pitches. Visuals are still very important, if you can add a photo, do it!

There are also some new options coming for Facebook Advertisers, which we’ve outlined in another blog post, Premium Advertising Options Coming Soon to Facebook.

Long story short, find creative and innovative ways to use the new Facebook features, and your brand will be stand out from the rest. Spend some time to sort out a strategy going forward, taking into account all the changes. For example, Fanta used its Timeline to ask fans to “like” photos from their past. When enough likes were received, characters were returned to the present day Timeline photo.

What fun examples have you seen already?

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Facebook recently unveiled a number of changes to its platform, featuring Timeline, along with numerous new advertising options. We understand the goal of these new advertising options is for Facebook to not only to make more money, but to increase their valuation prior to going public.

Image from Facebook's Guide to Premium on Facebook

Most of the new advertising options won’t apply to most businesses on Facebook due to minimum spending requirements (upwards of $25,000 per month), but we’re going to outline the new ad formats that users will start seeing, and that larger advertisers will begin considering in their ad mix.

Marketplace Ads

These are the Facebook ads many companies are familiar with. The format of these ads hasn’t changed. These self-serve ads are targeted to users based on the things they like, and are viewable on the right hand side of the Timeline. With the new ad options for big spenders, it may be more difficult to break through the clutter, as these ads only offer a simple image with a few lines of text.

New Premium Ads

Depending on the size of your brand (and budget), these additional options for advertising help take content and turn it into sponsored stories that are integrated with the newsfeed, ticker and timeline. The key here is quality over quantity, because the content is the ad. These require around a 25k/month minimum buy which is out of the question for many companies. Even the logout page is now for sale, as shown in the example above for Bing.

Offers

Advertise an offer on your page or promote it with an ad, and when people click to accept, the offer is emailed directly to them to redeem at a physical location. Offers are simple to understand and easy to redeem. These could become a threat to Groupon, because they are seamlessly integrated into the newsfeed. We may see these roll out for smaller advertisers in the future, but currently they’re only available to brands who qualify.

Reach Generator

Brands that qualify to turn this option on will ensure their message is pushed into the newsfeeds to 75% of their fans each month, with 50% guaranteed each week. While the details are still vague, you can expect this feature to cost small fortune, and yes, it is currently only available to qualifying brands.

Due to minimum spend requirements, small businesses seems to be shut out of many of the new Facebook advertising options, making it harder to gain visibility. This could see a shift for smaller business away from Facebook and its ads, perhaps opting to use other forms of online advertising like Google Adwords to drive traffic to Facebook pages.

We believe it will be a costly mistake for Facebook to shut out the large market of small businesses to appease the brands with bigger budgets. After all, collectively it was smaller businesses who helped build Facebook, with many big brands jumping onto the platform late.

It will be interesting to see how small businesses, and users will react to the influx of ad formats coming soon from larger brands. Will users feel their Facebook experience has become cluttered with spam? Or will the guidelines and best practices Facebook has set out for brands to follow create a better experience for all? Comment below and tell us what you think!

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Writing for the Internet takes real skill, and this couldn’t be more true than with the microblogging platform Twitter. It’s a cut throat platform which limits every post to 140 characters, not a single letter more AND this includes punctuation. If you go over, your message will be cut short, possibly leaving you with incomplete sentences, words or even links.

Writing a 140 character message that contains all of the necessary information is a real skill. Each tweet must be clear, concise and captivating, otherwise it’s just more noise that will echo through the coliseum of the Internet. Many tweets are overlooked or completely dismissed because they fail in this regard, especially when there are millions of users writing tweets about how they, “totally had a greet time OMG!! #twitterpollution” (that typo is intentional for the sake of authenticity).

#Winning

If you’re lucky enough to have your Tweet read by someone, you now have approximately 10 seconds of their attention, where they can take action in up to four ways:

1. Actually read the tweet.
2. Follow or unfollow your feed.
3. Care enough to click the link, photo or video (if applicable)
4. Retweet, or reply to your message.

This is a lot for anybody to decide in less than a dozen seconds. This means that we as the content producers have to make it worth the time of the content consumer.

Think of Tweets as Headlines

Twitter has also breathed new life into a craft that many people have forgotten, writing old fashioned Newspaper slugs. If you take the time to follow and really read the tweets of successful and popular Tweeple (beyond Lady Gaga and Ashton Kutcher), you can’t help but notice that a lot of the Tweets which grab your attention are just like attention grabbing news headlines. If the Tweet is captivating enough, the reader might just take action (refer to our #Winning section above).

If you’re looking for help writing great headlines, particularly useful for sharing blog posts, check out this helpful post, The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines, on copyblogger.com

Secrets of Great Tweets

• Less is more. Fewer characters means your tweet can be more easily shared by others – as a general rule, aim to write in fewer than 115 characters. (Find out how to calculate your own re-tweet limit here).
• Use proper grammar whenever possible. This means, don’t sacrifice readability for a slew of hashtags and @mentions. Nobody wants to sift through that.
• Choose the right hashtags. Decide which will be the most effective for sharing your message. Broad hashtags like #marketing will cast a wide net for your message, but specific hashtags like #WebMarketing might reach a more targeted market.
• A picture is worth 1000 words. Videos can say even more. Write a short headline to pique curiosity, and let the pictures tell the story.

Will Tweeting Prevail?

People have shorter attention spans now more than ever. There are digital billboards, in-boxes filled with endless emails, smartphones, superphones, radio ads, TV ads, Google ads, and Facebook ads; they all want us to look at them, and each one of them is screaming for our attention.

There will those who argue that compressing our world into 140 characters will decay the linguistic ability of generations to follow. We, however; choose to view this short-form communication style as a challenge to eliminate verbosity and mundane details.

Note: We are aware of the irony of writing a 600 word blog about how to write a 140 character post.

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In the past few months, Pinterest has quickly become the hottest new trend for online sharing. Of course, there is a new trend a day in the social sphere, but this one – in particular – looks to have a lot of potential and more importantly, SUPPORT. Last week our team attended Social Media Week Toronto and Pinterest was mentioned in almost every session we attended.

Pinterest – A Quick Overview

Pinterest is a self-described online pin board. Users can “pin” up photos and videos they like, and also “repin” items from other people’s boards. At its core, Pinterest is about visually sharing the things you love with people you know across the web. Much like Twitter, you can follow others and they can follow you to keep informed of the things you like!

The best way to organize your boards is to create themes. Themes can be anything, for example: foods, styles, destinations or holidays. Each of the pins on your board would fall under a theme. American Eagle does a great job using boards themed to different Spring Break destinations. They have a nice mix of products and photography related to and inspired by exotic locales like Austin, Texas and Cancun. Of course, these are all expertly tied into their branding across retail locations and their website.
Many retailers have jumped on board (no pun intended), yet we still have not seen any shopping centers seizing this opportunity.

A few key considerations for shopping centres:

1. Right now, it’s a female dominated space, with the bulk of content being fashion, jewelry and the like. The majority of these content curators are socially connected and engaged – the exact demographic you want in your store, and talking about it online.

2. It’s destined to get even bigger with the media prophets ordaining Pinterest as the “next big thing”, so explore options for your brand. With an iPhone app and native Twitter and Facebook Timeline posting, it’s already integrated into the social ecosystem with little to no learning curve.

3. It’s driving more traffic to the websites of major brands than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.

4. Posting and curating sharable content is key. Pinterest isn’t just another place to content dump your products and services without any strategy. Remember it’s a community, and you want to add something valuable to that community.

As Pinterest grows, smart retailers are acting quickly and nurturing their presence on this new social platform. Here are a few examples:

Martha Stewart Living
Expertly curated collections of living, dining, and crafting inspiration from the world of Martha Stewart. Mainly focused on her vast empire, but pins from other places are scattered as well.

Williams-Sonoma
Gorgeous food and drink photography with links to their website for full recipes and serving suggestions.

Etsy
Pinterest is a match made in heaven for this crafty online store! When the price is mentioned in the comments accompanying the image, it is automatically featured across the top corner of the image. We’re a little curious how this feature will work – due to the fact that anyone can add a price to anything they pin!

Copyright has become a big issue with Pinterest, so much so that web developers can embed a snippet of code to prevent images on their site from being Pinned. Why anyone would not want free exposure of their products or brand is beyond us, but you can choose to stop people from sharing your content if you wish.

One thing to note: Pinterest is still in beta. Meaning people need an invite to join the community. If this beta is an indication of the future, we recommend joining. If you’d like an invite, email us and we’d be glad to invite you to join the party!

What do you think about Pinterest? Let us know in the comments below!

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