Facebook Places is Here!

Well folks, this is it. Facebook announced earlier today that Facebook Places is up and running.

Starting today, you can tell everyone you know (or at least those you connect with on Facebook) where you are, at all times, from your mobile device. Just like Foursquare and Gowalla, you can “check in” to the place where you are.

The Places feature is designed for those with an iPhone (there’s an app for that) or others who have HTML and geolocation features on their mobile device (go to touch.facebook.com on your phone). One cool feature Facebook offers (and that Foursquare doesn’t have) is that when you check in to a location, you can tag people who are with you, just like in a picture or status update.

So what does this mean for privacy? Will everyone know where you are all the time? Just like anything with Facebook, you have privacy options, but you must make sure you set restrictive customized settings if you don’t want everyone to see where you are. Want to learn more? Check out Mashable’s Facebook Places Field Guide.

We’re wondering if Facebook Places will jump ahead of the competition. What do you think about Places? Will you use it? Do you prefer other geolocation services like Foursquare or Gowalla?

Effectively Leveraging Facebook Advertising (part 2)

This is the second part of a two part series on Facebook Advertising. See part one of Effectively Leveraging Facebook Advertising here. Here are some recent graphs from a client’s Facebook advertising campaign.

In our last post, we talked about what we measure, how each metric is affected, and what they all mean. But you can’t just go sign up for a Facebook ad and automatically get these results. How do we get such great results from our Facebook ads? Read on…

Compelling Creative

We wouldn’t be in business if everyone could come up with a creative way to convey a client’s message to target audiences. Our creative team has been doing this for over 20 years, and Facebook ads are simply a new way to convey that message. When our creative team spends time working on our Facebook ads, they consistently achieve significantly higher results. We’ve tested!

Strategic Targeting

We don’t ever just blast out an ad to “everyone.” In this business, there is no “everyone.” There is always a specific target audience, usually many, that will be more interested than others in a clients message. If we are paying to send clients’ message to the wrong people, it’s a total waste of money. What we like about Facebook Advertising is that we can target users several different ways. We can target people based on their: location, likes/dislikes, relationship status, age, school, workplace, and more. With all of those options, we can usually pare down the audience to exactly the type of people that we want to target. That way, each time money gets spent to show the ad, it isn’t wasted on people that don’t care.

Tweaking and Maintenance

No, Tweaking and Maintenance aren’t our nicknames for the office interns. Rather, the terms describe the art of a successful Facebook Ad; the continual maintenance and tweaking of things like the ad copy (words in the ad), graphics, title, demographic targeting, keyword targeting, and bidding. We don’t have time to explain all the terms here, but the idea is to hit your different audiences sequentially, instead of all at the same time, so that you aren’t spending tens of thousands of dollars in a month. Instead, you target one audience after another. We monitor the real-time statistics to help determine when an ad has saturated a certain audience. When our results decrease to the point where our clients’ money is less effective and less efficient, we tweak (or completely redesign) the ad to target new audiences, or target the same audience a different way. This might be through different keywords, different creative strategy, or any one of the myriad adjustments that we can make.

Research and Planning

We didn’t just come up with a cute ad for our client out of nowhere. We started working with this client months and months ago, as every good campaign starts, with a marketing plan and a creative strategy. That way, every time we want to create a new campaign or a new ad, we have all the information we need at our fingertips, and we are better equipped to clearly articulate our clients’ value proposition to their different audiences. Without the appropriate research and planning, we wouldn’t know who target audiences are, where they interact online, or what the client’s message should be.

So there you have it – more than you ever wanted to know about Facebook Advertising. Any questions?

Effectively Leveraging Facebook Advertising (Part 1)

This is part one of a two-part series on Facebook ads. There was just so much to say about Facebook advertising that we couldn’t fit it all into one post!

We just started another Facebook advertising campaign for one of our clients, and we wanted to share some of the results of the first 10 days:

What do those graphs mean? The first graph shows the number of people that clicked on our ad. The second picture is a spreadsheet of some of the numbers behind the results. At The Cyphers Agency, we are always measuring our results so (1) our clients know that their money is being used effectively and so (2) we can measure our success against benchmarks, and adjust strategy as needed.

If the graph above is somewhat confusing, no worries. Here is an explanation of each term and how it plays into the bigger picture:

Impressions

This simply shows how many times your ad was displayed to the audience you are targeting. In this example, we are targeting a very specific group of people, with only a modest budget, so the impressions are relatively low. Some of our Facebook advertising campaigns see tens of millions of impressions.

Clicks

This shows how many people clicked on your Facebook ad. As you can see in the graph, with under $32 in media costs, we garnered almost 300 clicks to our client’s website! (Debbie Downer Disclaimer: the costs described here are misleading as they don’t reflect all the planning and strategy that came before this ad’s execution)

Click Rate

This shows the percentage of people that saw your ad (impressions) divided by the number of people that clicked on the ad (clicks). This gives you a benchmark to compare to other ads and other campaigns. Although each industry and audience produce different average click rates, we tend to see an average of %0.02 – %0.04 click rate. This might seem low, but when you see how cheap it can be to reach 1,000,000 people in your target audience, those 200-400 clicks can be a huge boon for business. Combine that with several different ads, or with the rest of your campaign, and you’ve got some serious traction. Of course we’d like to take this opportunity to point out our stellar .22% average click rate!

Actions

“Actions” explains how many people interacted with your Facebook ad and decided to “like” whatever you are advertising. These are powerful numbers, because they (1) show affinity for your product/service/brand, and more importantly (2) are people whom with you now have direct communication. Similar to an email list, people that “like” your Facebook page will see your regular status updates. Often “actions” can be just as important as clicks; although sending people to the website (clicks) often drives immediate revenue, “actions” drive customer lifetime value, and help stimulate word of mouth marketing. What would you rather have, 10,000 people to your website or 10,000 people that will each tell 5 people that you are having a sale? Good thing you don’t have to choose, because we can deliver both. With under $32 spent, we’ve garnered over 180 subscribers to our client’s Facebook page! (not to mention the 294 visitors sent to the website!)

Cost Per Click (CPC)

This is a way to bid on the delivery of your Facebook ad. If you choose this option, you pay every time that someone clicks on your ad. When is this method best? When you (1) can’t target your audience or (2) your audience isn’t succinctly defined. This way, you can show your ad to 1,000,000 people, but if only one person clicks on your ad, you only pay for that one click. With Cost Per Thousand (CPM), you would need to pay for each 1,000 people to show your ad to all of those 1,000,000, just to get that one click. We did not use CPC bidding for the campaign in the graphs above, but Facebook still shows us our average CPC, based on what we are paying and how many clicks we have.

Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

Another way to get your ad in front of an audience is to bid a certain amount to show it to 1,000 people in your target audience. If you’ve narrowed down your audience to those that you know might be interested in your product/service, this can be a great way to leverage your budget. For example, if your audience size is 1,000,000 people, it will be expensive to show your ad to all of them, just to get to the 10,000 people that might be interested in your product/service. However if you use the targeting options (see “strategic targeting” and “tweaking and maintenance” below) you can start out just showing your ad to those 10,000 people. That way, you make sure that they see it, and can even show them multiple ads multiple times. We used CPM bidding in the example above, and it delivered a very good return on investment. When we created the campaign we could have paid for each click (see “CPC” above), which would have cost approximately 50-80 cents per click. But because we chose CPM, our cost per click is approximately 12 cents. This leverages our client’s budget so that we can get maximum exposure and results.

Spent

Simply put, this is the money spent for each day of results. As you can see, we earned this client an average of over 8 clicks for every dollar spent. That’s 8 people sent to the client’s page for every dollar spent, 8 people that interact with the brand, 8 people that are saying “I want to know more.” This is a strong example of how much your budget can work for you if you know how.

Old Spice Guy Wins the Hearts of Many, Including Ours

Do you remember the off-the-wall Superbowl ad featuring a suave, manly man describing the manliness of Old Spice? (If you don’t, the ad is embedded below.) At that point the advertising campaign was good – witty, memorable, and on-brand. But this week, the campaign evolved into one of the best advertising campaigns we’ve seen in a while.

The now-famous “Old Spice Guy” begun answering questions and comments from users that were submitted via Facebook, YouTube, and other social networks. The videos were hilarious, personal, and on-brand. See an example below. Most importantly, it wasn’t just one or two videos – over the course of two days, the team created over 100 video responses, which ended up generating well over 4 million views (and they are continuing to rise!).

Here are a few facts about the campaign:

According to Google, there have been over 7,000 blog posts written in the past week that contain the words “Old Spice Guy.”

The Old Spice Channel is now the #2 most-viewed sponsor channel on YouTube, with over 61 Million views.

The online campaign strategically responded to influencers online. The Old Spice Guy responded to celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher, Alyssa Milano, and Kevin Rose. But he didn’t forget about the little people either, and made sure to answer plenty of comments from average joes. This made sure that the messaging was authentic and engaging, but also sure to reach millions of people.

Here are some impressions from our team about the campaign:

“The pure volume of videos (183 in two days!) is astounding!” – Lucas

“The consistency of hilarity in the videos is amazing.” – Jocelyn

“The frequency of videos, at times, was mind-boggling – as fast as a video every 5 minutes. When you think about the fact that each video required finding an appropriate comment to respond to, thinking of a response, filming a take (probably several), some quick edits, and uploading the video, this is a very impressive statistic. And they kept it up hour after hour, for two days straight.” – Bailey

“I know it’s subjective, but I honestly want to go buy Old Spice body wash now. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I feel like I owe the brand for all the laughs they gave me over the past few days. Maybe it’s because I want to be like  that guy Isaiah Mustafa. Maybe it’s because I’ve always liked Old Spice, and this will just push me over the edge. Either way, this is great advertising – not because it is entertaining or well-produced, but because at the end of the day, it makes me want the product being sold.” – Andrew

“Blatant Old Spice promotion. The videos are anything but subtle, and the blatant promotion fits with the personality of the campaign. As a viewer, I was content with the promotion because it was a small price to pay for such hilarity.” – Anna

If you are interested in exactly how this was orchestrated, here is a blog (from ReadWriteWeb) post that explains how Wieden and Kennedy (Old Spice’s Agency) created such a phenomenon: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_old_spice_won_the_internet.php

A Facebook Movie: Social Media Becomes Part of Traditional Media

Two weeks ago Columbia Pictures released the first preview for their new movie that will come out this fall, the “Facebook movie,” or, what is actually titled The Social Network. The movie tells the story of  Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), the founder of Facebook, during his college years and his launch of the social networking site from his Harvard dorm room. A feature film about Facebook? What were they thinking? Maybe that Facebook is one of the fastest growing and most popular social networking sites with over 400 million active users, and bound to be a sure hit at the box office.

The Brand is Hero No More

Every person, journalist, blogger is talking about the evolution of media. Traditional means of communication have been turned upside down and shaken up. Social media is now becoming the norm, changing the way that we view information distribution. As advertisers, this change has a huge affect on what we do. We are constantly learning how to incorporate this change into our clients’ brands.

Brand Voice

Years ago (or maybe even just one year ago), branding and messaging were entirely in control of the advertiser. The message was displayed how, when and with whatever messaging the advertiser deemed necessary. The ad men formed meaning behind a brand, telling consumers what to think. Consumers were a passive audience that were receptors to those messages. Unfortunately for traditionalists, social media killed the brand hero.

Social Voice

With the increasing use of social networking sites and online communities, communication has changed. That changed created a need for advertisers to adapt, learning to really listen to the voice of their consumers to help mold a brand. These consumers are no longer strictly targets of advertising messages; they now play an active role in the brands they associate with.

This social voice also allows for trust to be generated between consumers and the brand. For years, people have either hated or distrusted advertisers and the messages they present; they think that advertisers lie. Embracing consumers’ interaction and engagement with a brand can help get to the truth, or clear the air, if you will, about what something really is. And while advertisers can still create strong strategy and messaging for a brand, this interaction creates a unique equation. Given the opportunity to complain, give feedback, or praise a product or company, consumers are given an environment to be heard. This interaction with the brand gives such meaning to the brand itself that the two cannot be separated.

Take Zappos.com for example. The site has become so much more than just an online place to buy shoes. Their use of social networking sites like Twitter has helped mold their brand image. Their shoes, social media policies, and internal culture go hand in hand; they have become inseperable.

Social Brand

Bringing the social voice into a brand can be a scary thing. But with the input of a consumer community, brands can adapt and become further defined, taking on new or deeper meanings that are linked directly to the consumer. The brand, once completely controlled by the advertiser, is now a social brand that results from advertisers and consumers meeting somewhere in the middle.  And ultimately, isn’t that what we should have been going for the entire time?

Sighting: Promoted Tweets

I saw this the other day when I logged in to Twitter: a promoted trending topic. I knew that Twitter had rolled out a promoted tweet platform, but didn’t expect it to come in this form. I grabbed a screenshot and tucked the occurrence in my mind for deep thought.

More than anything, I think I was surprised to see a promoted tweet as a trending topic. Will companies be able to purchase trending topics? How did that work? As an agency who works with a variety of clients, purchasing “ads” on Twitter would seem like a great option.

But I had to ask myself… What are the bigger implications of promoted tweets? Does it take the power away from the voice that Twitter users have?  Does it change the dynamic of the unique online community? Does it disable companies from having real conversations with their customers? If a topic is promoted, is it really “trending”?

I’m curious to see how promoted tweets or trending topics become integrated in the overall system. But I’m also curious to see how it going to affect the community. What do you think?

5 Tips on How to Pitch Bloggers

Our clients hire us because they want advertising. They have a message that they want to get out to their target audience. Blogs are an excellent tool to use, because they attract specific audiences. The only problem is that we don’t have control over what is posted on a blog, because blogs are completely controlled by their creator, the blogger.

This is why the act of pitching bloggers can be so vital to some of our word of mouth campaigns. In this blog post we will show you 5 tips on how to pitch bloggers so that they are most likely to write about you in a favorable light. This will increase your website search engine optimization, and more importantly get your message out to your target audience.

Tip 1: Create an outreach plan.

We never talk to bloggers without a lot of planning. First, we make sure that we are reaching out with bloggers that make sense with our client and our campaign. Just because our client is a chain of restaurants doesn’t mean that all food bloggers are appropriate. If our client’s restaurants are high-end, then we might reach out to foodie bloggers. If the restaurants were low-end we might reach out to blogs that focus on saving money. It all relates back to the overall campaign and how we are positioning the client. Our blogger outreach has to sync with our creative work so that the messaging is consistent.

After we’ve created a database of bloggers and their contact information, we get creative with our pitches…

Tip 2: Think about the blogger and the blogger’s audience. What’s in it for them?

Bloggers only want to post things that their audience will find valuable. However, that doesn’t mean that every blogger outreach has to involve some sort of contest or giveaway. Sometimes we offer an exclusive discount on our clients product. Sometimes there is such a good match between what our client does and what the blog audience wants that simply hearing about our client is value enough. It can even be as simple as offering a link exchange or writing/featuring a guest post for the blog.

In short, you need to be creative and strategic in what you are offering bloggers. Make sure that there is something of value for  both the blogger and the blogger’s audience. For example, offer the blogger a free trial product and have them run a contest on their blog for their readers. You get exposure, the blogger gets free product and a cool blog post, and the blogger’s audience gets gets a message and giveaway tailored to their interests.

Tip 3: Make your email personable

We never mass email our bloggers, for several reasons:

1. Bloggers get pitched all the time. They can sense a spam email from a mile away.

2. We want to create a relationship with this person. We treat them as more than just a name and an email address on a list.

3. We offer each blogger a unique incentive or discount. An “exclusive discount code” doesn’t do much good if the same code is posted on about 10 other blogs.

Tip 4: Can’t find their email? Do some research!

Bloggers often refrain from posting their email address on their blogs because of spam or other reasons. This can make it difficult to contact the blogger, but it’s not necessarily impossible. Worst case scenario, you can always leave a comment on their blog. But often there are other ways to contact bloggers. Try their facebook page, twitter page, linkedin profile, or even try googling them. We’ve had success by interacting with them on other social networking platforms, and they appreciate being contacted in a new or different way.

Tip 5: “Blogger” is a loosely defined term

You don’t need to have a blog for us to want to reach you. We like bloggers because they have specific audiences that pay attention to them, but with the advent of social networks, they don’t necessarily need a blog to have an audience. For example, Ashton Kutcher doesn’t have a blog, but he does have over 5 MILLION Twitter followers. We never pass up an opportunity to reach out to influencers, whether they have a blog or not.

BONUS TIP: Bloggers have a strong sense of loyalty to their readers. If they don’t think that your product/service/event is up to their standards, they may not post about it, or even worse – they could write an extremely negative review. This just emphasizes how you need to ensure that the bloggers you are reaching out to are a good fit. You also need to be confident in your product. If you think there is a chance a blogger might not like your product, you might want to think twice before sending it to a highly influential individual.

Now that you understand some of the issues surrounding blogger outreach, you are better prepared to get some visibility for your company. But be careful, you don’t want to start something like this without a plan, or without considering the risks. What are your overall goals? Is this the best way to achieve them? Are there other marketing tactics that would compliment this outreach? If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call. We’re happy to help.

5 Great WOM Resources You Should Know About

Many of our clients are still getting aquainted with WOM tools and strategies, and are far from actual implementation. That’s why we thought we’d pull together this list of great resources that can help your WOM education. Everything from Facebook tutorials to WOM case studies – it’s all here. And if you read all this stuff and want more specialized recommendations for your business? Then feel free to give us a call.

So, in no particular order, here are 5 great Word of Mouth resources:

1. Facebook Guidebook

Compiled from Mashable blog posts (like the Twitter guidebook below), this guidebook shows you how to use Facebook for business, and gives you tons of resources.

2. Twitter Guidebook

The Twitter guidebook gets you started on the basics of Twitter, but will also show you more advanced uses if you want. If you want a bunch of followers, and you want them to love you, this is a must-read.

3. WOMMA Case Study Library

WOMMA is the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and they are an essential resource for any company taking that wants to learn about word of mouth marketing. This section of their site contains tons of case studies that can help you learn more about WOM or help you brainstorm for your own WOM campaigns.

4. Meetup.com

If you don’t already know about meetup.com, you are seriously missing out. It is one of the few sites that connects online communities in real life. Are you trying to target golf players? Stay at home moms? They are all on Meetup.com, and are open to your communication if you know how to reach out the right way. Find your audiences here, and use them to spread the word.

5. Google Keyword Tool

If you need to find and target your audience, you need to know what they are searching for. This tool tells you the keywords you should be using/targeting, based on a few that you give, or based on your website. This is very helpful for increasing your organic search engine optimization.

So get started on your WOM education, before it’s too late! Let us know if you have any questions by email, phone, or in a comment below.

Is there a way to view all of your fan pages on Facebook?

Facebook has rolled out a new feature that can link the community pages that you follow on Facebook to your profile. This allows you to view all of your fan pages on Facebook, and also selectively display them on your profile. Facebook is touting this benefit as a boon for users, yet we have a sneaking suspicion that it is designed to help advertisers target more people (and thus spend more).

Mashable wrote up a great post about this new feature. Click here to see an in-depth look at Facebook’s new features.

We think this action is more for advertisers than anything else. Heck, just last week we were asking for similar adjustments from Facebook. If I can target people who like hip-hop for my music artist, it’s much easier than typing in “eminem” and “dr. dre” and “the roots” and tons of other relevant keywords in the keyword section for ads. Hopefully large communities will emerge and targeting for advertisers will be just as accurate yet have increased reach.

Check back here for updates regarding this issue.