Archive for the ‘Social Marketing’ Category

Memes in a post-breakfast world: lessons from Specsavers’ response to Weetabix and beans – The Drum

Last week, Twitter couldnt stomach the idea of Weetabix and baked beans for breakfast. For brands, however, the viral moment signified an opportunity to showcase their personality and tone of voice. Today, Helen Gradwell, senior creative at Tangerine the agency behind Specsavers response explores how brands can ride meme culture successfully

Picture the scene.

Its a Tuesday night, 9pm.

A social media creative is contemplating two pairs of designer Specsavers glasses on a white plate.

Slowly, but deliberately, they spoon on some baked beans. The beans slide down the lenses and leave a tomato-smeared snail trail.

Perfect, they say, iPhone 12 in hand. They start snapping pictures some wide, some close. Flash on or flash off? Flash on. The beans glisten.

In a lot of ways, we all knew, deep down inside, that lockdown social media marketing would lead us to this moment. Brands liberally dousing their products with baked beans; an offering to the trend of the moment.

It all started with Weetabix, as many good days do. The brand posted a now infamous picture of some of its wheaty breakfast products, artfully arranged, topped with baked beans (the reason is not yet completely clear, but we look forward to finding out). Other brands, from Lidl to the NHS, waded in with their own crafty responses.

When you work in social media, your eye is always on the latest Twitter trends and conversations. So naturally, on the Specsavers and Tangerine social media team, we asked ourselves something were sure everyone questions at some point in their lives:

Should we put beans on something?

It seemed almost too silly. Surely we shouldnt?

But then again we have beans we have glasses and we have a half-decent camera.

By the time our beans au spectacles were put in the team chat, it seemed almost foolish not to tweet about beans on things. Approved, came the immediate reply.

But if we truly want to understand how every UK brand on social media found themselves mulling over the idea of beaning their own stock, we have to go further back.

Of course, the trend of irreverent social media marketing was with us long before March 2020. But the first lockdown (and the two subsequent lockdowns...) have really done something to the British online psyche.

At first, of course, everyone was scared. Uncertain. They needed reassurance from brands. Updates. Comfort.

But as the new normal became normal (and we all got really annoyed with the phrase new normal), things changed.

On Twitter in particular, conversation polarised more than ever between serious, political and societal discourse and truly daft memes.

In the face of global turmoil, it seems we gravitate to the typically silly and self-deprecating humour thats always run through British culture.

And these moments came thick and fast.

Everything was cake. Wembley was a lasagne. Chanel, the African Grey Parrot, was an icon. Coronavirus left the pub every night at 10pm sharp and then everyone was obsessed with substantial meals/scotch eggs. A giant Rita Ora rampaged through the quiet streets of London.

Lots of people started talking to us about Barnard Castle at one point

Before pandemic, Twitter and only a few of the savviest brands would have fun with a meme for 12-24 hours before the media, news outlets and then (some weeks later) Facebook got wind of it. But now, things reach boiling point in record time.

To put it into context, Jackie Weaver (the stoic meeting clerk from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils) only found viral fame last week. But, unlike days gone by,the video went viral on Wednesday evening (10 February) and Jackie was on BBC Breakfast the very next day, and later featured on every news bulletin until that evening.

A meme that wouldve taken up a good week to bubble up on the internet a few years ago quickly became overdone in less than 24 hours.

Same thing with the beans. In fact, by the time youve read this, well already have moved onto some other trend.

Oh yeah, that bean thing youll say to yourself, nostalgic for a trend that Twitter was obsessed with only a couple of days ago.

The reason for this acceleration of meme culture is really simple. Consumers are bored. Very, very bored. The internet is all they have, apart from walks. Theyre inside, looking at their phones, with no wandering to the pub, visits from their mum or spontaneous trips into town to pull them away.

Theyre hungry for entertainment, so when something happens (especially something as ridiculously British as beans on some Weetabix) they react instantly. All the hot takes are snapped up within the hour. Its over within a single working day.

So how do brands fit into this fast-moving (and often downright baffling) world?

Firstly, marketers need need to know what their brand stands for on Twitter and thisll likely be a bit different than other channels. No small task.

Specsavers is every marketers dream, as that quintessentially sharp and self-aware humour is baked into the tone of voice thanks to the iconic Shouldve Gone to Specsavers campaigns. And social media is the natural place for this to come to life.

When we look for opportunities, the formula we follow is: national conversation + personality + brand message = relevance.

National conversation could be a trending topic, or it could be Twitters main character that day (think beans-on-Weetabix, Jackie Weaver or that Zoom man who is definitely not a cat).

For Specsavers, personality is our warm, knowledgeable and down to earth tone of voice that runs through everything we do. In 2020, as the nation was coming out of lockdown, we launched our Something to Smile About campaign and as part of this, on Twitter, our mission is to make the nation chuckle using by seeking out 'Shouldve Gone to Specsavers'-worthy moments.

Its important to note that a brand message isnt the same as a sales message. Its essentially what creates the link between the trending topic and the brand. If theres no link, the audience doesnt understand why the brand is getting involved or why its funny. For us, the link is sight and hearing, but this translates to almost endless situations seeing or hearing something in our own unique way.

Trends are more transient than ever, so dithering by even a few hours can mean completely missing the boat. Marketers must make sure they have a good view of what the trend of that day, hour or moment is, and that theres somebody on-hand to react quickly.

The key here is not to overthink it. Consider your brands angle and strategy, then combine that with what people would laugh at if they saw it on your feed.

A lot of people have told us they admire the speed with which we doused some glasses with beans and got it out into the world to the extent that weve been asked if it was pre-agreed.

It wasnt. It was just a funny idea we had, inspired by the ridiculousness of the Weetabix post. It was shot, put into the approvals quick-fire chat and approved within 15 minutes.

The key to that is trust, which of course has to be built up over time, so everyone is always working to do the best (and funniest) thing for the brand on social media.

And if you miss the mark this time, dont worry. Were sure well all be slathering another breakfast food on our products soon enough.

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Memes in a post-breakfast world: lessons from Specsavers' response to Weetabix and beans - The Drum

Outlook on the Social Media Integration Market to 2025 by Application, End-us – Business-newsupdate.com

The Social Media Integration market research report highlights the key trends and the factors driving the industry as well as those hindering it. Moreover, it boasts of accurate data pertaining the future growth model of this domain by referencing the past and present business landscape. Further, the document offers a broader perspective by defining the size and shares of the market and its segments, unveiling the top revenue prospects in the process.

As per expert analysts, the Social Media Integration market is poised to gain momentum during 2020-2025, recording a CAGR of XX% throughout.

Moving ahead, the research literature gauges the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, emphasizing on the challenges such as disruptions in supply demand chain and complexities in cost management. It also helps businesses understand the priorities in this changing environment and realign their strategies to ensure profitability in the long run.

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Crucial pointers from the Social Media Integration market report:

Social Media Integration market segments covered in the report:

Regional bifurcation: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa

Product types:

Application scope:

Competitive dashboard:

Key Highlights of the Table of Contents:

Social Media Integration market Study Coverage: It includes key market segments, key manufacturers covered, the scope of products offered in the years considered, global Social Media Integration market and study objectives. Additionally, it touches the segmentation study provided in the report based on the type of product and applications.

Social Media Integration market Executive summary: This section emphasizes the key studies, market growth rate, competitive landscape, market drivers, trends, and issues in addition to the macroscopic indicators.

Social Media Integration market Production by Region: The report delivers data related to import and export, revenue, production, and key players of all regional markets studied are covered in this section.

Social Media Integration market Profile of Manufacturers: Analysis of each market player profiled is detailed in this section. This segment also provides SWOT analysis, products, production, value, capacity, and other vital factors of the individual player.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the key factors driving Social Media Integration market expansion?

What will be the value of Social Media Integration market during 2020- 2025?

Which region will make notable contributions towards global Social Media Integration market revenue?

What are the key players leveraging Social Media Integration market growth?

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Outlook on the Social Media Integration Market to 2025 by Application, End-us - Business-newsupdate.com

We’re Measuring Social Media Wrong | Call to Action: Marketing and Communications in Higher Education – Inside Higher Ed

Getting more followers or going viral isnt why campuses invest in social media. They invest because its a primary communication channel used to increase brand awareness and equity, build alumni affinity, recruit students by increasing applications or yield, or any other number of objectives found in a campus strategic plan. The metrics we use to measure it should assess those goals. Yet many social media managers and their CMOs are tied to vanity metrics like followers or engagement rate. When campus social media efforts align with campus priorities, the way we measure social media must change.

Move Beyond Followers and Engagement

If your social media reporting focuses on followers, engagements and impressions from a handful of official campus accounts, it doesn't assess your impact on campus priorities. Rather, it measures how well youre conforming to the metrics social platforms choose to report, regardless of strategic alignment. Vanity metrics dont assess how social media helps or hurts your brand, impacts enrollment, or secures alumni donations. Prioritizing vanity metrics forces your staff to align their social strategy and content creation to the demands of platforms instead of your strategic plan.

Measuring the entire social media conversation about your institution -- not just your contribution to it -- along with direct goal-related conversions prompted by social media content is a better way to assess your social media efforts.

Social Media Metrics to Assess Brand

Angela Polec, vice president of enrollment, marketing and communications at La Salle University, puts it this way: Marketers tend to report in-the-moment metrics from social media such as followers, engagement and reach so we see whats working for us and how our posts and our content are performing. But if your brand is truly what people say about you, she says campus marketing leaders should be concerned with how the conversation forms around us, not just from us.

To measure the entire conversation about your brand on social media, you need to go beyond the analytics within platforms or social media management software. Social listening metrics capture your content as well as what others say about you, whether youre tagged or not. Start with three basic brand metrics.

Jenny Petty, director of enrollment marketing at the University of Wyoming, recently presented social listening metrics to her cabinet and trustees while talking about the impact of the pandemic on their brand. Presenting social listening metrics allowed me to frame our work on social media as managing the brand as an asset. Instead of sharing our most popular posts (which can come across as cutesy), approaching social media this way underscored that what people say about you -- or dont say about you -- is your brand. It shifted leaderships view of marketing from strictly being promoters to being managers of an important asset: our brand.

Typically, 64percent to 88percent of online conversation about colleges and universities occurs on social media, and much of that is earned conversation. Leaving that conversation out of your social media reporting ignores the contribution of word of mouth to your brand.

Tie Social Media to Revenue and Enrollment

Beyond brand, marketers have a responsibility to demonstrate how social media contributes to institutional priorities. A few years ago, Tony Dobies, senior director of marketing at West Virginia University, grappled with this task as his team grew. Likes and followers and pretty pictures don't prove the worth of social media, he said. We had to find something that senior leadership, up to the Board of Governors, could understand. That's money and enrollment.

The WVU team focused on measuring conversions for common recruitment milestones, such as registering for a campus visit or starting an application. This is where most campuses start; other revenue-driving conversions may include donations, housing or dining plans, or special event sales. If you promote these on social media with a link, the conversions happen on your website.

Data to demonstrate impact and value comes from web analytics software (e.g., Google Analytics), not social media platforms. Dobies counsels, You need to know how to use Google Analytics, otherwise you don't have the foundation to get this far. If you don't have conversions set up, you shouldn't be thinking about how to connect it to social yet. If youre new at this, start with the free Google Analytics Academy.

Get buy-in from leadership to identify website actions to track as goals, and work with your web developers or marketing technology team to ensure theyre implemented. Its possible this infrastructure already exists for your website or email marketing; Dobies built on existing practices at WVU. After the foundation is established, you can begin to publish social media content with built-in tracking (i.e., UTM codes) so you can tie efforts to outcomes.

You could -- and should -- go one step further by assigning a dollar value to each goal conversion. Identify how much a campus visit or application is worth to the university, working backward from net tuition revenue using enrollment yield rates (if this is a new concept for you, page 37 of the Enrollment Growth Playbook is a good place to start). For fundraising or ticket sales, use the actual value of the transaction. Assigning a dollar value to website conversions allows you to connect social media efforts to revenue.

In six months during 2019, our organic social media efforts resulted in $200,000 worth of enrollment conversions, Dobies explained. Going forward, well get even more specific to understand how much revenue Instagram Stories generates, or even a specific post. Well also expand beyond enrollment conversions.

Measure What Matters

Social media is part of an integrated marketing strategy, and every campus should treat it as the high-profile, high-potential communication channel it is. This includes assessing social media efforts against core campus goals rather than through a social media platform. Measuring its impact on brand and enrollment allows leadership to make informed decisions about investments in social media staff and tools to impact strategic objectives.

Liz Gross is the founder and CEO of Campus Sonar, a social listening agency dedicated to higher education, and author of Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy: A Guide for College Campuses. Find her on Twitter: @LizGross144.

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We're Measuring Social Media Wrong | Call to Action: Marketing and Communications in Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed

American Egg Board Partners with Wendy’s to Drive Breakfast Menu Trial – PRNewswire

"Wendy's was built on fresh, real ingredients and our recently launched breakfast menu is no exception," said John Li, vice president of culinary innovation at Wendy's. "Our partnership through the AEB's new program helped us expand on consumer demand for a high-quality breakfast by highlighting the inclusion of real, fresh-cracked eggs on our breakfast sandwiches and inspiring drive-thru and delivery orders across our key markets."

For the program, the AEB enlisted social media influencers in six key Wendy's markets to promote and drive trial of the restaurant's new breakfast sandwiches made with real eggs a fact that research has shown increases perceived product value when consumers are made aware of it. Instagram posts and stories featuring freshly cracked eggs were published on Wednesday and encouraged followers to celebrate #Weggsday an AEB social marketing campaign by ordering breakfast from their local Wendy's.

"We were so excited that Wendy's was developing new breakfast menu items featuring freshly cracked eggs and knew we wanted to partner to support their efforts and add our marketing prowess to help turn up the volume! The Incredible Egg fits perfectly within the Wendy's promise of fresh, high-quality, real ingredients and we're proud to support these incredible new menu items and start this new friendship off so strongly," said Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board.

The partnership exemplifies one of many ways America's egg industry through its national commodity marketing checkoff, the American Egg Board supports the foodservice industry. These efforts now also include solutions to help foodservice operators adapt and drive traffic in the COVID-19 environment.

"The AEB has a long and established record of providing custom strategic solutions to meet the unique needs of top national QSR partners, like Wendy's and we've shown how eggs can help drive business results," Metz said. "As a trusted partner to the foodservice industry, the AEB is now investing in helping restaurants of all shapes and sizes safely drive traffic during the pandemic by leveraging The Incredible Egg's versatility, functional benefits and tremendous popularity with consumers."

The AEB recently introduced a foodservice recovery program encompassing enhanced partnership support for large chains like Wendy's; resources and tools to take advantage of off-premise opportunities such as drive-thru, carryout and delivery; and a new "Boosting Breakfast Business" program for smaller and independent operators that have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.

"Restaurants that can meet the consumer where they are today by capitalizing on off-premise options and promoting use of real, authentic ingredients with strong consumer appeal, like eggs, may reap near- and long-term benefits including capturing loyalty and market share. And we're helping them do that," said Nate Hedtke, vice president of insights and innovation at the AEB.

In addition to providing custom support to national QSR partners, the AEB has developed a suite of resources featuring eggs to help foodservice operators attract consumers and drive traffic.

To learn more about how The Incredible Egg can help foodservice operators, please visit IncredibleEgg.org/professionals/foodservice or email Phaedra Ruffalo at [emailprotected].

About the American Egg Board (AEB)Home of The Incredible Egg, the American Egg Board (AEB) is the national marketing organization of America's egg farmers. The AEB's mission is to increase demand for eggs and egg products through research, education and promotion. The AEB is located in Chicago, Ill. For more, visitIncredibleEgg.org.

SOURCE American Egg Board

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American Egg Board Partners with Wendy's to Drive Breakfast Menu Trial - PRNewswire

10 YouTube Videos That Every Small Business Should Create [infographic] – Social Media Today

Is YouTube part of your 2021 digital marketing plan?

The online video leader remains a key platform, despite rising challenges from Facebook, Instagram and more recently, TikTok. Indeed, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly, logged-in users - and what's more, YouTube has seen a rising amount of usage on home TV sets.

That presents significant opportunity for big-screen, impactful outreach, all with Google's advanced audience targeting options. It has the reach, the ad options, and now the potential to connect with viewers on the key focus for home entertainment. If you're making video content, you need to have YouTube on your planning map.

But what should you create your videos about, and what works best on YouTube?

The team from Headway Capital have put together a new infographic that highlights 10 key options for YouTube content.

If you're struggling to come up with an idea, or you need some direction, the below listing will help.

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10 YouTube Videos That Every Small Business Should Create [infographic] - Social Media Today