How Graph Search works

Facebook introduced Graph Search to make it easier for people to find personally relevant info. This tool allows users to discover people, places and things by asking pertinent questions. For brands, there’s an opportunity to increase visibility by correctly optimizing their pages.

Here’s an example of how it works: to find yourself a new gym buddy, just ask Facebook which of your friends attend the gym regularly – maybe even the gym you visit.  You can then expand this search to the friends of your friends, narrow it down by age or gender and even explore people’s photos of other nearby gyms.

By joining the waiting list, we were granted early access to Facebook Graph Search, which will soon be available in Canada. After discovering a variety of impractical and sometimes creepy uses of Graph Search, we finally came up with a few ways that this could benefit our clients and other brands online.

Graph Search for brands

One of most effective ways Graph Search can be used for our brands is through Sponsored Results. Just like Facebook Ads, brands will be able to select particular searches that benefit their brand to ensure they show up first when users search for their favourite products and services.

Another aspect that will become important for marketers is the fact that apps, pages, groups and places will need to be properly optimized for targeted keywords and that it shows up on the top of the results, otherwise no one would be able to find your page or business. This means ensuring that a brand’s about section contains appropriate title, category, and products offered.

There’s also the advantage to brands that Facebook users can now like your page directly from the search results, making it a little easier for likeminded people to become fans.

The future of Graph Search

As Graph Search stands today, it’s geared more for personal use, rather than benefitting brands. We are confident that Facebook will develop Graph Search into a solid system for marketing and advertising use, leveraging it as another source of income and satisfy its shareholders.

Are you excited about this powerful new search tool? Got questions? Let us know!

How social media is turning heads and setting records at the 2012 Games

Excitement is building in anticipation of astounding athletic performances, team triumph and among marketers, the world’s first official Social Media Olympics.

Record Setting Stats

Click to Enlarge

Social Media Olympics is a term coined by the media, referring to the race among brands and media to obtain the most social media exposure during this year’s events.  This title is particularly suitable since the brands that achieve the biggest results will stand on a podium as shining examples for future events of this proportion.

According to the Olympic Sized Consumption infographic by Iprospect, there are 140 million tweets predicted to be exchanged during London 2012, which is a 12,627% jump from the 1.1 million tweets during the 2008 Bejing summer games. The 456% increase in smart phone usage since the last Olympics will be largely responsible for the increase in social media sharing and consumption this year.

Hungry for real-time digital data about the games? Keep score in real-time as ComScore will be sharing a digital Data Gems on their website, social sites or even your inbox!

Athletes: Tweet with Caution

Athletes can and are encouraged to share their experiences over social media, yet it must be done in a diary like manner. This means that their tweets or posts cannot overshadow official media sponsors of this summer’s Olympic events (Mashable).

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has released a Social Media, Blogging and Internet Regulations document for participants and other accredited individuals with clear guidelines of limits and rules. Some highlights from this document prohibit athletes and participants from promoting any brand that is not officially affiliated with the 2012 games. Also, if athletes post a picture on a social network they must have the permission of each individual involved.

Prohibited Use of the Olympic Brand

In a nutshell, non-sponsoring businesses are forbidden from drawing any connection between themselves and the Olympics in a way that may potentially increase their profit. For example, restaurants or bars may not host any Olympic related events if they are not an official sponsor.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has established groupings of words are discouraged for use by businesses or charity not affiliated with the Olympics. Mixing any two words from List A with any words from List B can put your organization at jeopardy for the unconsented use Olympic related material.

List A — games, two thousand and twelve, twenty twelve, 2012
List B – gold, silver, bronze, sponsor, summer, medals, London
Or any of the following words: Olympic, Olympian, Olympiad, Paralympic, Paralympian, Paralympiad – plurals, translations and anything similar to them.

This is just scratching the surface. For a full list of banned words, symbols, sounds and more visit the London 2012 website (page 10).

What’s Left to Say?

The IOC recognizes the massive social media storm that’s brewing and have battened down the hatches. They state that the rules and limits about what can be shared are in place to protect sponsors brand image and profits.

The Olympics CAN be mentioned within social media or blogs for personal purposes being careful to not speak on behalf of any organization that can potentially profit from the mention.

Industry groups and media ARE able to discuss the regulations put in place by the IOC since there isn’t any direct advertisement of products or services for sale. Therefore, if you are spreading the pride of your country or cheering for your favourite athlete: tweet, tag or share away!

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By now, almost everyone we know has a Facebook account and knows how to post status updates and share photos. Many people know how to operate a car too, but not everyone knows its inner workings well enough to modify, diagnose or repair one.

If your brand’s Facebook page has fewer followers than you do, if your last status update is no longer relevant or if you have no idea what your engagement rate is, it might be time to call a social media specialist.

Easier Said than Tweeted

Weekly Time Commitment

Social media at a corporate level is not as simple as sending out a message every once in a while; doing it well can be a part or full-time job. According to Social Media Examiner’s 2011 State of Social Media Marketing Industry, the majority of marketers commit more than 6 hours per week maintaining their professional social networks and plan on increasing their activity.

To succeed in the social media world, it takes time, effort and a desire to chase a moving target.  Some people balance this well, others realize the value of putting an expert on the case, and others don’t even realize there’s an opportunity to do things better than they currently are.

The Science of Social

There are a number of things that experts know that will benefit your brand:

-          How to attract fans in the most effective ways

-          Stepping out of their own personality to speak in the voice of the brand

-          Choosing the best timing and frequency

-          Finding key influencers and how to benefit from their influence

-          Knowing when to respond, hide, or delete inappropriate remarks

-          How to analyze your data and adjust the plan for improved results

Maintaining a Consistent Voice

A social media specialist has the ability to research your market and speak to your audiences and consumers in a way that they can relate to. An expert can give your audience a reason why, create aspiration, inspiration, and build a connection that might motivate a store visit or purchase. They can maintain that persona through promotion, chatter and rebuttal if required.

Keeping it Relevant

When scrolling through your daily digest, there are plenty of tempting tidbits to share, re-tweet and re-pin, but if you must share, do so with discretion. It’s important to ensure that the content appearing on your page is relevant to your audience and follows the tone of your brand.  Shares, replies and re-tweets often look as though they originated with you, so it’s important to take the time to introduce shared content in your brand’s voice.

Fish where the Fish are

The social media landscape – 2012

There are so many social media platforms to use; but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they all suit your brand.  Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Pinterest are all very popular social media platforms; yet they may not all be right for the message you are trying to send your consumer. For example, Pinterest is a natural fit for shopping centres, allowing the centre to showcase the products available at its retailers, but this photo sharing site would require careful planning to make it work for a lumber company. Just like Twitter makes more sense to businesses whose target audience tweets. An expert knows how to maximize the potential of each platform, and which ones will be most impactful for your brand.

Information is Everything

Research is crucial to understanding your audience, particularly if you are targeting different groups. By collecting and analyzing audience data, an expert will cater your message to connect with your consumer on a deeper level, not only by speaking their language, reaching them when and how they like to communicate. As time passes, this bond will deepen and strengthen these loyalties over time. How is this information harvested? Through back-end analytics like Facebook Insights, Radian 6 and countless others, and above all… by asking questions and listening to your audience.

As you can see, it takes a significant amount of research, strategy, insight and time to fully maximize the potential of social media for your brand.  Choosing to hire or outsource a social media expert can provide substantial results to your company’s image and overall success. Get in touch, let’s talk about your social media strategy and how you can take it to the next level!

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If your designer doesn’t know why the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, or who the members of the serif family are, your brand might be in need of a makeover.

What is Typography?

Typography is the design and arrangement of words to make language visual. It’s one of many essential design foundations that advertisers need to master. Typography includes everything from the spacing between individual letters, lines and words to the colour, scale and font used.

Typography affects the overall look and feel of any design. It helps set the mood and tone for your brand, and works in harmony with your photos and other visual elements to sell your concept.

Why Does it Matter?

Almost everything around you has an aspect of typeset; meaning that it was designed to look a specific way to serve a particular purpose. Just like you need to dress for your size and body type, any typesetter knows it’s not appropriate to use a display font for the copy of an ad.

Steve Jobs took a class in college on calligraphy and it influenced the design of the first Mac. “If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts” Steve Jobs. You can thank beautiful typography for inspiring the look of Apple products to this day.

Typeface Specifics

Many people simply think of fonts when it comes to typography, but there are many elements at play including:

Leading: The spacing between the baselines of text. 
Kerning: Adjusting the space between individual letters to
achieve visual balance.
Proportional: Letters have varying width
Monotype: All letters have the same width
Serif: Fonts with semi-structural details
Sans Serf: Fonts without these details

And that’s just scratching the surface!
There are many other subtle  differences
and definitions that experts learn in schools
or in the trade.

Typography is a craft that requires creativity, discipline and commitment. Working with an expert means having the assurance that every project is treated with the utmost detail required to communicate your messages effectively and position your brand in the right light.

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Our February post discussed why retailers should care about Pinterest. Just a few months later, retailers all over the world have acknowledged this photo sharing site! The site presently reaches an average of 1.36 million daily visitors, and has been driving traffic to retail sites in droves! (Mashable)

Some of the savviest brands have begun rewarding Pinterest members for sharing their photos through contests, truly harnessing the power of this fun new platform!

Harnessing the power of Pinterest

Virality is the biggest strength of Pinterest. That is to say, when someone likes your content enough to share it, your photo or video will be distributed to their network in one swift click!

Pinterest Scavenger Hunt

A typical contest brands are running is a “Pinterest Scavenger Hunt”. In this type of contest, participants create a themed board with re-pins of the company’s photos. In some contests, participants are granted extra entries by tweeting about their contest entry or posting about it on their Facebook page; with a mention of the company conducting the contest, of course.

Pinterest Contests that Build Fans on Facebook or Twitter

Contests on Pinterest can be very powerful at building other social networks as well. If that is your objective, include components that require sharing on Facebook, Twitter or even your website!

For example, Kraft asked participants to Pin & Win by creating boards of their favourite recipes; ensuring to tag each pin with #KraftRecipes. This particular contest would not only encourage their consumers to share their favourite Kraft recipes on Pinterest, but promoted the brand through sharing on Twitter.

A Pinterest Lottery

During their “Pinterest Lottery”, conducted by BMI Airlines, the company posted boards from different destinations on their Pinterest profile; along with numbered images from each destination. Participants were asked to create boards and re-pin 6 numbers/images from each board, like one would do when playing the lottery. BMI Airline would then draw 6 numbers and choose the winner of a trip to one of the destinations on their boards.

Each of the contest examples we’ve explored is effective in increasing brand awareness, promoting products, learning about consumer preferences, and likely growing the brand’s online fan base; but most importantly, is an effective way of rewarding and engaging your online audience. Interested in creating your own Pinterest contest? Get in touch – we’d love to help!

Follow the Circus Troupe on Pinterest to find creative, inspiring and interesting boards related to ads, design, fashion, technology and more!

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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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