Barbie and Ken: Even Their Stale Social Media Feels Like Plastic
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the very first Ken doll, Mattel — the creators of Barbie, Ken and their vast plastic empire — launched a social media campaign to help Ken woo Barbie back. If you didn’t know, the iconic couple broke up a…
The Return of Experts?
Like all things in life, trust is cyclical. Last year, in the shadow of the recession, public trust was amazingly (but predictably) low. But now, according to the results of the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, trust in “people like us” is plummeting while trust in…
How Creative Concepts Helped Bigelow Tea Find 10,000 Active Facebook Fans!
What’s better than a lot of fans? A lot of active fans. When it comes to social media, a small-yet-active audience is often more valuable to a business than a large-yet-passive audience. Why? Because the incoming feedback, suggestions, color commentary and positive word of mouth…
Social Media Requires Follow-Through
If you’ve ever hit balls at a driving range, swung a tennis racket or attempted a free throw, you’ve already learned one of the most basic tenets of sports: always follow through. A golf swing doesn’t end when you make contact with the ball; it…
Is Your Entire Social Media Team Working from the Same Playbook?
Let’s say that, until now, you’ve had one small team (or even one single person) be responsible for your company’s entire social media presence. And now that things are going well, you want to expand. Maybe that means involving more people. If so, consider this:…
Do You Know Who Your Customers Really Are?
Who’s looking at your website right now? What are they looking for? Why? If you can’t tell, all your marketing is guesswork. Social media usage may differ among age groups, but everyone from children to seniors has the ability to find and engage your brand…
What’s Your Social Media “Seinfeld Ratio”?
During the initial wave of social media adoption by businesses and brands, conversation was key. Brands were lauded not for using these tools to sell, but for using them to chat. To listen. To appear human. But that mentality may be shifting. Remember Seinfeld? It…
Is Branded Entertainment a Good Advertising Fit for Your Company?
In the beginning, there were sponsors. That’s how TV and radio got their initial push. “Program X, brought to you by Company Y.” Or, commercials featuring the stars of everyone’s favorite programs would be planned to run during those same shows. For example: These days,…
Simplifying & Streamlining Social Media
These (quite good) Five Organizing Principles for Social Media by Judy Shapiro have us thinking… how did social media ever get so complicated in the first place? Part of it is the vast number of tools we have at our disposal. Since most of them…
2010: The Social Media Year in Review
December is the month of year-end and best-of lists, and this year there’s no shortage of social media-related countdowns, including: The best social media books of 2010. The top Twitter trends of 2010. The top Facebook status update trends of 2010. The top viral video…