The folks over at Flowtown have a great illustration that aggregates information about where small to medium business spent their money in 2009 and where they plan to spend it in the next 5 years.
Where is the Beef?
February 27, 2010
February 25, 2010
Target’s Super Bowl & Valentine Campaign — Learn Social Media By Example
Stat Box
Brand: Target (Retail Store)
Campaign URL: Super Love Sender
SM Channels Used: Facebook
Appeal: Emotional
Duration: 2 weeks before Valentine
We heard it from Mashable that Target’s latest Valentine – Super Bowl campaign was preparing to kick off. So we followed up…
The Idea & Objectives:
If you go to Target’s Facebook page and click on the Super Love Sender tab, you are able to begin the process of sending a “JibJab-like, NFL- and Valentine-themed” greeting card.
Before you start creating the card, you can choose from one of five charities that you think should get the most money.
Super Love Sender
The charities Target is supporting are:
- Kids in Need Foundation
- St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- The Salvation Army
- United Through Reading Military Program
- United Way
February 24, 2010
Avatar Movie — Learn Social Media by Example
Stat Box
Campaign Name: Avatar
URL: www.avatarmovie.com
SM Channels used: Youtube, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Website
Target Audience: Movie Goers
Date: Dec 2009
Campaign Duration: Ongoing
Avatar The Uber Block Buster
Hollywood has certainly been one of the great adopters of internet and social media marketing. Some of the greatest internet marketing campaigns have been given to us by the movies, campaigns like that of The Dark Knight were truly game changing. Ever since early December, the movie world has been abuzz with one word “Avatar”, with an impressive nine award nominations in March 7th at the 82nd Academy awards ceremony, it was certainly one of the biggest movies of not only the decade but of all time.
A movie that was truly entertaining, bringing 3D cinematics to the mainstream and raising the bar for special effects. While Sam Worthington and the Na’vi own part of their success to Mr. James Cameron’s genius, a great social marketing campaign helped propel the buzz around “Avatar” to stratospheric heights on the internet; giving it the boost it needs to break a Titanic record.
February 23, 2010
Learn Social Media by Example: “It Has to be Heinz — Dip & Squeeze” Campaign
Stat Box
Brand Name: Heinz (Consumer Products)
SM Channels Used: Twitter, Facebook & website
Appeal: Emotional appeal
Target Audience: USA bloggers, microbloggers, Facebook users, social networking users and Heinz lovers
Date: February, 2010
Campaign Duration: Ongoing
Dip & Squeeze with Ease!
Heinz might be famous for its ‘57 varieties’, but that was a portfolio for a long-lost age, when stores sold your brands, rather than competed via offerings of their own.
Therefore, and in efforts to innovate and freshen up, Heinz has launched its biggest umbrella brand marketing campaign to date, in a £5m push to build on its “emotional connection” with consumers.
The “It has to be Heinz” campaign has been designed to celebrate the way people perceive the food brand.
February 22, 2010
5 Ways to Utilize Twitter to Grumble — Effectively!
Each and every one of us, at least every now and then, and for one reason or another, feels the urge to complain, grumble and/or fuss about one thing or another. This is one part of human nature and for your average human beings, the “grass is almost always greener on the other side!”
Wah!
Regardless of your reason to grumble, it seems to me that social media has established itself as the trendiest “fashion” of venting and complaining publicly! It is like a confession board available for all to see – a documented manifesto placed into social media users’ hands!
Quarky News of the Web — Feb 2010
While news like the new Google Buzz, the new Facebook interface and soon to come mailing system dominate the headlines, there are always smaller headlines that tend to go unnoticed. They are the headlines that let us know how individualistic and unique some of the interactions on the web can be, and how much social media is shaping our world in ways that we could not have fathomed 20 years ago.
So the Quarky News of the Web section will be dedicated to those pieces of news that might go unnoticed but still pack quite the punch.
Google only looks out for Google’s privacy
After a wild party hosted by Orkut Büyükkökten, a senior Google engineer, Google exec barred the pictures of the night from being posted on the web. The home-warming party was wild, with female and male strippers, booze and God knows what else; so there was a good reason for the ban. Thankfully, we can always depend on Facebook for leaks when Google fails, photos of the party surfaced on it.
Orkut at a party in Jan. 2009
February 21, 2010
Sea World Connects Coaster Enthusiasts — Learn Social Media by Example
Stat Box
Brand: Sea World (Entertainment)
Campaign Website: Not available anymore
Channels Used: Website, YouTube, Flickr.
Appeal: Humor
Target Audience: Coaster Enthusiasts
Date: 2007-2008
I’m not sure if there are any statistics, but the internet seems to be one of the best niche-marketing platforms out there. It’s easier for communities that share a passion for a very particular object/service/hobby to network around each other with the tools that the internet provides.
While roller-coaster love isn’t exactly that niche of an interest, I guess it does take a serious adrenaline fanatic to join a club or read a blog completely dedicated to all the scary rides out there. The Journey to Atlantis Sea World campaign reaches out to these digital enthusiast by giving them VIP treatment.
The Journey to Atlantis ride
February 20, 2010
10 Ways to Lose Your Facebook Friends in 10 Days!
“The friendship that can cease has never been real.”- Saint Jerome
By now, I would assume that most social media users realize the positive and negative effects that social media reflects on us and our current and future environment. Whether how social media can help parents raise their children better, or how it can hinder friendships or relationships, social media’s consequences are becoming more and clearer to its users!
As one of Thoughtpick’s content chefs, I am always seeking to research, create and write about controversial and intriguing ideas which have the ability to get you to think about different things in a new light! Therefore, for my special dish of the day, I decided to present you with 10 easy and time efficient ways to lose your Facebook “friends” in ten days!
Remember, if you lose them, then they were never really your friends :)
Are you ready for it? Here I go!
1. Make sure you BOMBARD them with meaningless video and audio shares!
I promise you, if you are a regular Facebook user focusing your use for business or just to staying connected with friends and their lives, you will just hate being bombarded with more than 2 video or audio shares per day. I personally removed friends from my account due to the fact that they seem to have too much time on their hands and they share meaningless and useless audio and video clips on my profile!
Bombard them with videos!
2. Limit their access to your profile!
Are you shocked? Well, don’t be! I had friends remove me from their Facebook account simply because I placed them on my Limited Profile list due to privacy concerns! Sometimes, I even got calls r messages complaining about it to the point where we almost lost our friendship! [read full article >>]
February 19, 2010
5 Social Media Tools Must Haves for Small Businesses
With as many social media services as there are fish in the ocean, it gets very confusing for anyone to keep up with what’s what. While early adopters are raving about which service will be this year’s darling, for small businesses kicking off their social marketing campaign this discussion is completely irrelevant. To get their feet on the ground and establish a presence on social media, they really need to start off with 5 basic services. Now that doesn’t mean those services will be the end all of all services, they are just the essentials and are going to be the framework with which SMB will build upon in the future.
NameChk
What's my name
A consistent brand is essential to any marketing presence, the name check website is a great tool to allow you to secure your brand’s name on the top social media sites, even if you don’t plan on using all of them.
Microsoft Takes on Google with Social Outlook
Oh, no.
These days, everything feels like it’s being drip-fed social media. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, but companies are over-doing it, with the latest addition to the list of extensive-stitching-together being Outlook Social Connector.
I love the name! “Social Connector”: just as unimaginative as everything else that the horn-rimmed guys at Microsoft do.
My own anti-Microsoft sentiments aside…
What the hell is it exactly?
Look, they even use MS Word created clouds!
The Outlook Social Connector is an add-on for Outlook. When a user clicks to read an e-mail message, a new pane on the main e-mail reading screen fills with the sender’s most recent Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn activities.
