Already we have discovered that consumers are most likely to share on social media if the experience was unusual (71%), entertaining (69%) and relevant (65%). However, knowing which specific social platforms they are using tells you where you need to focus your attention. It can be hard to be active across all the social media platforms, not without unlimited resource and investment. It is much better to concentrate marketing efforts on a few platforms and do the job well – building ongoing relationships and increasing advocacy.

So when it comes to live experience what social networking sites have the closest affinity with real life social media? Are there platforms where we love to post form our mobile devices and do we prefer to share the live experience on specific sites only?

Mainstream platforms remain the favourite when it comes to live brand social sharing. Survey data revealed that 61% of consumers share content on Facebook, 25% on Twitter and 24% on YouTube. When it comes to devising material for your live experience it is important that you focus on content for these three social platforms in order to enjoy maximum return from your engagement with customers.

Although the research shows that visual content performs well with consumers, such as photos (51%) and videos (37%), comments remain the most popular. Facebook sees the most interaction so it is worth planning content that is easily shared. Still, that is not to suggest that user generated content will not do well. 68% will take the time to write a post or comment following a live experience, 60% will upload a photo and 30% will upload a video.

Smartphones present an easy solution for sharing visual content but it is interesting to note that the personal touch is not lost online. Comments, in particular comments on a friend’s post, remain the favourite way to engage and interact.

Download the full report and share your thoughts on live brand social with us bit.ly/LiveBrandSocial #LiveBrandSocial

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Already we’ve explored the recent research on Live Brand Social to look at how people’s behaviours can inform your planning. You’ve seen the best ways you can use a combination of live events and social media; how you can target your audience and interact with them on social networks before, during and after an experience to add value to your brand.

In this fourth post we’ll find out how consumers are sharing live brand social content with each other. While 49% feel more positive about a brand as a result of live brand social, 37% will join the brand’s social networking page or profile after a live experience. This now gives you a chance to further engage with your customers.

With an increase in fans, followers and wider conversations about your company, how are audiences communicating in social? And how can you engage with them? 

Over two thirds (69%) of survey participants use mobile devices to share content from live experiences. Smartphones and tablets make it very easy for users to share content on social platforms.

Brands can of course be more active on social by suggesting ready-made tweets or hashtags for participants to share, while any photo opportunities are very effective. But smart companies will go one step further and consider how experiential events can be designed for mobile and social sharing:

• Resize your content: create hassle free content with eye-catching features that encourage consumers to take and share photos at your live experiences

• Invite friends: 61% like to post or share on social media if it includes friends. Make sure that there are opportunities or attractions worth sharing at your event

• Short and sweet: by writing brand messages and calls to action that are to the point consumers can share your words easily. Aim to be within Twitter’s 140 characters

Inspiring and motivating social sharing is not just about the device used to connect. Nor is it just about the format, be it photo, video or plain copy. It is much more about the behaviours of your audience. The research shows that only 23% of consumers claimed they wanted to be the first to tell friends. So bragging rights really don’t seem to matter that much. What matters is that the experience and social content around it is unusual (71%), entertaining (69%) and relevant (65%).

Download the full report and share your thoughts on live brand social with us bit.ly/LiveBrandSocial #LiveBrandSocial 

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In the last Live Brand Social post we touched on how, together, live experiences and social create a 48% more successful event. Being active on social before, during and after a live event gives you the greatest opportunity to extend the relationship: 

In our report, 61% of participants find out about a live experience from a friend but over half (56%) find out through social media. In fact, 43% find out through Facebook, 22% see a tweet and 19% see it in their Newsfeed. It is clear that Facebook is the most influential in motivating attendance at live experiences. Even more significant is that live experiences give you the chance to meet your fans face to face. 1 in 5 still find out about an event before it takes place, through the brand’s own social media pages. A fantastic opportunity to build stronger relationships with fans and turn enthusiasts into advocates.

Social media extends opportunities to develop a lasting relationship with customers after the event too. 49% of all respondents said they felt more positive about brands when they took part in live experiences with social. And 37% follow or like a brand profile on social media.

And your audiences are not just interested in joining you or feeling good about your brand: one in six will tell more than fifteen people on social media about their live experience. That is a lot of conversation about your experiential marketing!

By understanding how experiential marketing fits in with the ongoing social relationships between brands and customers, companies can capitalise on mixing the two activities. And, dare we say it, ensure that the investment is greater than the sum of its parts!

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I’ll admit it. In the early days of my first PR job I flung my press releases far and wide, hammering as many contacts as possible in the hope that somewhere, somehow, the story would stick. Did it work? No. Did I receive seething emails from journalists informing me that slinky men’s swimming tangas were ridiculous and irrelevant to their macho motorist readership. Yes.

It was my first lesson in the pitfalls of assuming that one-size-fits-all. Because journalists, much like consumers, prefer a more personal touch.

This works on a micro scale – your local grocer, optician and milkman might know you by name and know enough about your typical shopping basket to tailor their product recommendations. You probably appreciate it. On a macro, e-commerce scale, this means tracking customer journeys and capturing customer data in order to serve relevant content and offers. Do consumers appreciate it?

According to a recent infographic by Monetate, 85% of consumers are aware that brands track their online shopping behaviour, but they are also aware that this enables the brands to match content to their interests. What’s more interesting is that 75% of the consumers polled actively preferred for brands to use their personal details to improve their shopping experience. In other words, their desire for relevancy and personalisation superseded the need for privacy.

The demand, it seems, is there. But what about the return?

According to Retail Week, the fashion giant, Arcadia, incorporated personalisation software into its e-commerce platform that enabled the company to track customer behaviours and serve up recommended products personalised to each individual customer. Products based on real-time stock information guaranteeing that the products were available to purchase at that time. As a result Arcadia saw online order values increase by 67%, while 7% of e-commerce sales have been attributed to the group’s personalisation pilot.

Personalised customer service is as old as commerce. But for digital and social marketers alike, the shift from generic mail shots, all-encompassing websites and mass-market messaging to an entirely more personalised approach to consumers, is an emerging trend that looks set to firmly cement itself into the digital psyche of 2013.

Infographic courtesy of Monetate

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When it comes to social media, one key to success is to focus on the activities that give you the widest reach, as efficiently as possible. You need to know that your message is being heard and more importantly that it is being heard by the right people. It is about targeting your efforts in the real world to give you the best advantage in social media.

Our recent research looked specifically at where best to look in the real world to drive social conversations. 56% of consumers will share content from live experiences on social media compared to print (49%) and TV (44%). When it comes to social media, it might be time to look a bit closer at the wider impact of experiential marketing.

Also notable from our research is the extent by which news and content about ‘live experiences’ travels across the social spaces. In fact it will often reach the people not actively participating in the event. Survey data shows that just seeing content from an experience online spreads your brand message even further; 45% have seen a live experience (but not participated) and 29% have seen live experience content on social networks without attending. But what content are they seeing? It could be footage uploaded by the brand or it could be user-generated content like photos, videos and blog posts. 

Most user-generated content is being shared through mobile. Coupled with the immediacy that smartphones and tablets bring, social media is a great way to find out what motivates your audience into not only sharing, but generating rich, original content around your brand. Breaking your content down into smaller, more manageable messages also means that information is easier for consumers to share. Give your live brand social marketing efforts proper direction and enjoy a 48% more successful event.

Download the full report and share your thoughts on live brand social with us bit.ly/LiveBrandSocial #LiveBrandSocial 

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Did you skim stones at the beach when you were younger? It’s a favourite summer pastime for plenty of kids but it isn’t so far from the marketing mix that many adults find themselves swimming through these days. How so?

Skimming stones has a short lifespan when it comes to entertainment value. The same can apply to different marketing activities. Brands must make sure that the way they choose to engage with consumers is targeting the right audience, driving sales and creating conversations amongst their customers.

Live brand social experiences can do all of these things. We conducted a UK-wide survey with brand experience agency Electrify to find out whether live brand experiences and social media can work together to deliver better value to brands. And, yes, they can. By developing live events that combine seamlessly with social media efforts, brands can extend reach, trigger sharing and ultimately increase purchase. As well as that they can develop the brand relationship and improve customer loyalty through one-on-one interaction and prolonged engagement on social channels.

Check back tomorrow and you will be able to download the full report. It will provide a much more in-depth exploration of live brand social events, as well as details on how best to plan your live events and how to manage them on social media before, during and after.

By using this research you can tailor your marketing strategy to your brand goals and the needs of your key demographic. After all, one carefully planned drop in the ocean can create many more and longer lasting ripples, widening opportunities of engagement and conversations, than skimming stones in a straight line.

Image courtesy of Foter

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There’s a reason that people like chilli and chocolate and it’s really simple: opposites attract. Alone, these ingredients are delicious but in very different ways. Combined (despite the initial reaction that you’re preparing a culinary disaster) the result is surprisingly satisfying.

It’s not so different in brand marketing. You can take two seemingly standalone activities and combine them to create a new, more interesting approach to engage with your customers. Social media and live brand experiences, for instance. We asked ourselves, what if you could engage with your audience in real life and then influence them to share content on their social media profiles?

It could be a one-off PR stunt or it could be a pop-up shop touring different cities. No matter what, the truth is that live brand social experiences can encourage conversations surrounding your brand. It might be in the form of user-generated content like photos and videos, or it might be something that the brand controls, like an interview with participants. Either way, you can extend the reach of your brand by encouraging and promoting live content, particularly as so many UK residents use smartphones every day to share content on social media channels.

Others have noted the impact that can be had from “increasing collaboration and convergence between industries” that might otherwise seem worlds apart, but immediate future and brand experience agency Electrify, conducted a UK-wide survey. Our report into the use of social media in real life can offer original insights and independent research to support your brand’s marketing strategy as it evolves. Keep an eye out for the full report findings because, like the first time that you try chilli and chocolate, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Our full report is available to download on Tuesday 14^th May with more facts and great tips to help you tailor your own live brand social experiences to your target audience. We’d love your feedback, or you could share your thoughts on live brand social with us by leaving a comment.

Image courtesy of © Renaters

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With social media being a hub for news stories and updates brands and companies are ever increasingly jumping on popular stories to engage with wider audiences. This is known as newsjacking.

When done correctly newsjacking can be an amazing asset for a brand, however, if done badly the backlash can be instant and severe. Getting the balance right can be tricky, but these three brands consistently hit the right tone:

1) Nandos:

The restaurant chain has a history of newsjacking. When the news broke that Sir Alex Ferguson was to retire as Manchester United boss, this brand was first off the mark to capitalise on the news.

To mark the manager’s retirement, restaurants in Manchester stayed open for an extra 5 minutes, causing the hashtag #NandosFergieTime to instantly start trending on Twitter. This is not the first time that Nandos has jumped on football stories either, last month they used Liverpool striker Luis Suarez’s biting misdemeanour as the centre of an online advert.

2) Charmin:

The brand has always been good at displaying its sense of humour on Twitter, and their newjacking of the Oscars was no exception. The tweets that Charmin used for the event were pre-written showing that real-time marketing can be pre-planned.

3) Oreo:

One of the most notable moments at this year’s Superbowl (other than Beyonce’s performance) was the 35 minute power outage at the game. Within minutes of the power loss brands started to newsjack the moment. But the cookie company came out on top with this clever Twitter post.

Great newsjacking can show a brand to be topical, clever and relevant as well as displaying the brand’s personality and relevancy to large audiences. Just take care that the news you piggyback onto is in keeping with the message that the brand would like to promote!

Images courtesy of Twitter

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Social media continues to revolutionise corporate culture. It opens up new avenues of communication, breaks down barriers between employers, employees and the public, and provides new opportunities for brands to put a human face to their image.

CEOs are no exception to this quiet revolution. Customers want to see that even the big bosses are humans with their own personalities, peculiarities and life stories. Here are two examples of CEOs using social media to communicate their personality to their employees and the general public:

T. Boone Pickens and LinkedIn

The CEO of BP Capital, T.Boone Pickens, has attracted 246,500 followers to his LinkedIn Influencer profile despite having only posted 23 updates. He writes about the economic developments of the energy market, politics as well as sharing his own personal experience of leading a multi-billion dollar business.

LinkedIn users are looking for authenticity and genuine insights into the CEO’s personality. Unsurprisingly, the most engaged post from Pickens is therefore not about his opinion on the free market approach to the energy market, and not on his views of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is in fact about his office desk!

Can there be a better case for corporate authenticity on social media?

George Colony and Twitter

The CEO of Forrester Research is not using Twitter very often – his tweet frequency averages to around 0.2 tweets per day. Despite this, he has attracted over 13,000 followers. How did he do it? Admittedly, his brand name has a role to play in the follower acquisition process but, more importantly, he engages in an authentic conversation.

Interestingly, George Colony mainly posts plain tweets. His posts contain no replies or links, which indicates that the tweets are authentic, designed purely for communication on Twitter.

His tweet distribution considerably differs to that of Richard Branson, who mainly posts links to the corporate pages of his business:

So, what have we learnt from T. Boone Pickens and George Colony? Authenticity trumps frequency and authenticity trumps impersonal corporatism. Be who you are and get out there. Social media users will recognise your honesty and your social authority will grow because of it.

You may also find this infographic on CEOs and social media thought-provoking.

Images courtesy of LinkedIn, Twitter, Twtrland

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immediate future had the same question. Unfortunately there is no button on your keyboard that can give you the answer to all your legal questions. But, after researching how UK businesses approach their use of social media we were able to create a best practice guide to social media and the law.

Did we find out who is responsible for a company’s social media policy? Actually we found great discrepancy between respondents; the majority of UK businesses believe that Marketing (32.6%) is responsible, followed by Legal (27.7%) and finally HR (24.1%).

Tempting though it is to point the finger, we suggest a collaborative approach instead, where Marketing, HR, PR and Legal are involved in creating and maintaining your company’s social media policy. Cooperation is likelier to encourage a better understanding of the rules throughout the company and to avoid litigation in the future. There is, after all, strength in numbers and a regularly updated policy is the best protection against confusion in the office, and legal prosecution.

Also, take care that your policy applies to social media use outside of office hours, as the lines between ‘professional’ and ‘personal’ profiles can often become blurred. Joe Gordon, the first blogger in Britain to be dismissed for “bringing the company into disrepute” through comments on his personal site, experienced this firsthand in 2005.

Unfortunately, since no present laws relate exclusively to the use of social media, companies must be vigilant that the content they share online meets the regulations already set out in UK law. Similarly, there are no specifications on the way that your social media policy should be or who should write it. Create one that is in tune with your company mission and in keeping with your brand, and remember to cooperate with each other to achieve a balanced social media policy to protect you all.

This is the fifth in a series of posts dedicated to social media and the law best practice. Browse our blog to find out what Captain Jack Sparrow, Oscar Wilde and Gossip Girl can teach you about social media, or compare your knowledge with our simple checklist to copyright laws.

Image courtesy of © meikesen 

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