Brand Advocacy 2.0

In last month’s bulletin we learned how the internet has revolutionized the purchase cycle. One step in the purchase cycle that has become increasingly crucial for marketers to understand actually comes after consumers have purchased your product/service. The internet is a loudspeaker that consumers are willing to use to voice their opinion on anything and everything, including your brand. This can be scary you but if you learn to monitor online conversations you can mitigate potential PR problems and ensure consumers are walking away from your brand experience on a positive note.



Source - via Youtube

A Roadmap For Collective Storytelling

Storytelling has always been a powerful tool for marketers. We leverage storytelling to create engaging dialogue and fuel tension in an attempt to keep consumers coming back for more. In today’s media environment, storytelling has reached a new level because consumers are now able to engage (two way dialogue) in ways that were never possible only a few years ago. Learn the recipe to collective story telling in today’s media landscape.

The ability to tell stories has always been one of the most powerful ways to connect with other people.

Social media has given us a unique way to to tell stories as a collective. Here's a road map for collective storytelling.

Stop #1 - Define Your Story

The process of discovering what you want to tell a story about is always different, but the most important step in storytelling. You need to be an expert on what your story is about.

Starting a story without knowing what it's about will likely cause confusion. If the collective is confused by a story, it's unlikely that they'll participate in telling it.

The collective will look to that person who started the story for reinforcement and reassurance that the story is still on track. Ensure you monitor your story and continue to participate in telling it, or risk the story ending.

Stop #2 - Spark a Conversation

In collective storytelling, stories are made up of wide-reaching conversations. Those conversations begin with a 'conversation spark'.

A conversation spark shouldn't be the entire story. It should provide enough information to be provocative, but leave the next chapter of the story open to be told by the collective.

Consider the Burger King "Subservient Chicken" campaign. The story begins: A human-sized chicken has decided to set-up a webcam. It's asking that you come to it's website and give it orders.

That's an example of a conversation spark.

Stop #3 - Participate in the Conversation

Conversations spread through social media like ripples across a pond. Consider the conversation spark as the pebble dropping into the water. The ripples dissipate as they move farther away from the center, just as the conversations have less impact the longer they continue without a new conversation spark.

Ok, consider this model:

The conversation spark could be the site created for the Burger King "Subservient Chicken". The longer the campaign runs, the greater the reach will be; however, the longer the campaign runs without a new conversation spark, the less impact the conversation will have. Eventually, the conversation will end.

Note: You can't control when the conversation ends. You can only control when, and how much you participate. Here's a great set of guidelines (PDF download) for responses to changes in your story.

This model shows the first two ripples as a conversation spark begins to propagate through a network:

Notice that each connection doesn't emanate directly from the conversation spark. Ideally, the originator of a conversation will encourage other storytellers to interact with each other. If you look at the "Subservient Chicken" example; Burger King actually provides customers with some tools to continue the conversation: a downloadable chicken mask, and a way to share the site with friends.

Of course they could have provided more tools. They could have allowed users to save a video of the chickens responses to a certain set of orders, and provide a link to send to friends. They could have created a gallery of user-generated video's of people responding to orders while wearing the downloadable chicken mask. These types of tools could help to extend the story.

Stop #4 - Extend the Story

A story could end after one conversation spark; but the best stories continue. As new conversation sparks are created and added to the story; the story grows, and reaches more people.

Innovative and provocative stories are often enough to inspire other storytellers to create their own conversation spark. Take the "Subservient Chicken" example again. It inspired this YouTube video, which reached over 2,000 people and got 7 comments. Not a huge conversation, but extending the story often includes conversations of many sizes.

Collective storytelling isn't necessarily about branding, or making money; it's about spreading a message and allowing that message to be malleable enough to be changed by its audience while maintaining its integrity.

Source - The Jordan Rules

Still Think Social Media Is A Fad?

You are entering dangerous territory if you’ve yet to consider how your brand is going to integrate into the Web 2.0 world. We’re not saying you have to drop everything and set up a Facebook presence or a Twitter account but it is crucial that you understand the implications of social media on culture. This video makes you consider if the advent of social media is going to have a bigger impact on mankind than the Industrial Revolution.



Source - The Economist via Youtube

Emotion > Rational

Irrespective of your gender, you are more likely to be swayed by advertising that is loaded with emotional cues over rational arguments. This isn’t news to most marketers however recent research has quantitatively revealed just how persuasive emotions can be when compared to rational thinking. Although the numbers favour emotional messaging, you have to be cognizant whether your brand is developed enough to take on a campaign that pulls at heartstrings.

The idea that ads that engage us emotionally work better than those that don’t might provoke a, “Well, duhhh!” reaction from Neuromarketing readers. Surprisingly, though, I still encounter business executives who don’t believe they are swayed by emotional factors when buying things, and often doubt that others are either. So, for those uber-rational decision-makers, here’s the hard data…

Earlier this month, I based a few discussions on the book Brand Immortality by Pringle and Field. The last finding from that book that I’ll share with you is an analysis of data from the IPA (the UK-based Institute of Practitioners in Advertising). The IPA dataBANK contains 1400 case studies of successful advertising campaigns submitted for the IPA Effectiveness Award competition over the last three decades. This particular analysis of the IPA data compared the profitability boost of campaigns which relied primarity on emotional appeal vs. those which used rational persuasion and information. The chart above shows the results. Campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31% vs. 16%) with only rational content, and those that were purely emotional did a little better (31% vs 26%) those that mixed emotional and rational content.

Pringle and Field attribute this split to our brain’s ability to process emotional input without cognitive processing (or even awareness – see Low Attention Branding), as well as our brain’s more powerful recording of emotional stimuli.

The authors note that while an emotional marketing campaign may be more effective, creating ads that engage consumer emotions isn’t easy. By comparision, basing a campaign on a “killer fact” (if a brand has such an advantage) is comparatively simple. Indeed, brands have damaged themselves when an emotional campaign failed to align with reality. Pringle and Field suggest that committing to an emotional branding approach be “hard-wired into the fabric of the brand,” which requires a major commitment as well as good understanding of consumer motivation. They cite Nike’s pervasive theme of “success in sport” as an example of a brand that focuses on a key emotional driver and builds advertising, sponsorships, etc. around it.

Smaller brands may not be able to follow the same emotional branding approach as the market leaders, Pringle and Field note, but may be able to segment the market to find a group of consumers that will respond to a different appeal. Ben & Jerry’s and Jones Soda, for example, aren’t the biggest players in their markets but have achieved success by appealing to smaller segments of consumers.

Smaller entities face several addtional challenges. Their name recognition is likely much lower, and an emotion-based campaign may befuddle consumers who don’t even associate the brand and product category. Budweiser can run amusing and engaging commercials about Clydesdales and Dalmations because 100% of the audience knows their products. A small business might well have to take the “combined” rational and emotional approach even if it is slightly less effective, or at least ensure that their emotion-based ads clearly identify the product.

Emotion-based ads may be more difficult to create, but the stats say it’s worth the effort.

Source - Neuromarketing

Digitalinguistics

Please translate the following sentence: ROFL! #fail! Dewd got pOwned...thx for sending that vid thru. If you ever get confused with the endless amount of acronyms and other expressions commonly used online then the following is for you. The article is positioned as a “Gen-Y Translator” but we would argue that the highlighted linguistics are becoming the common language of the internet, irrespective of your age.

Everyone knows the number one rule of social media engagement is to be honest, and everyone knows the number two rule is don't start something you can't finish (as in, don't start a celebrity Twitter account and write in it for two days and then not write anything in it again, because you end up looking like a dick).

In fact, the rules of social media engagement are so well-known these days that pretty much everyone can recite them by heart, even rule number 14a which is:

"Don't try and talk like you're Gen Y because you're not, unless you are, and even then you shouldn't be twittering on behalf of the company yet because you're not responsible enough and if you get access to Twitter you'll want access to Facebook as well and you'll claim it's for work but we know, and you know, and we know you know we know that you'll end up spending most of your day updating your status, playing Mob Wars and LOL'ing with your BFFs".

Well to hell with that rule.

For the first time, ever*, thanks to the vivacious, spacious and audacious wit of LOL-linguist-intern-strategists, @anna_goddard and @AnnabelBrusasco, myself, a list of words Dialogix couldn't define and a little too much time, Marketingmag.com.au is able to bring you the official GenY LOLspeak A-Z Dictionary of the 65 Most Popular Young Person's Colloquialisms. Or, The Gen Y Translator for short. Rule 14a be damned.

Thanks to The LOLspeak Dictionary even the most moronic of marketing managers can now converse with the kewlest of lolcats. Fire up that Facebook chat window, update your MySpace pic and energise your emoticons, let's start totes talkin!

Oh, and if I've left off any LOLisms you feel should be included in the next edition, feel free to add them in the comments below...

*As long as you don't count the Urban Dictionary as ever

The Gen Y Translator

Word	Definition	Example Usage
!!!!!	Words cannot express how much I think this is totally amazing	OMG!!!!!
@	At
*action*	Right now I am doing whatever is between the asterisks	This LOLspeak dictionary is going to be out of date before it's published but that's kewl. *shrugs*
#fail	That didn't go very well at all	Did you hear she was trying to get around the world, only made it as far as North Straddie and got hit by a tanker! #sailingfail
aiight	Alright	A: "Sorry I ran over your cat with my car." B: "That's aiight, it was my sister's cat."
b4	Before
BF, B/F	Boyfriend
BFF	Best Friend(s) Forever
biatch	My dear friend	Sup biatch!
boi	Boy
brb	Be Right Back
BTW	By The Way
burn	To denigrate	At least I wasn't vomiting in the garden! Burn!
CBA	Stands for 'Can't Be Arsed', meaning 'I could not be bothered	CBA going out tonight. Stayin' at home watchin' Idol.
C-Bomb	The worst swear word you can possibly use	I accidentally dropped the c-bomb in front of my Mum last night and got grounded for a week.
dats	That's
defs/defso	Definitely	Defs wanna hit the clubs tonight.
DM	Direct Message/Direct Mail	OMG the boss is coming, have to get off the phone, DM me!
DW	Don't worry
everybunny	Everybody
FML	F--- My Life	Today, my first girlfriend of over 3 years left me for another guy. She said she's looking for someone who can financially provide for her in the future. The dude owns a mobile phone kiosk. I'm going to medical school. FML
fo shiz	For certain	A: "Wanna smoke some weed and listen to Snoop Dogg?" B: "Fo shiz."
FPP	Facebook Profile Picture	You look hot! You should defs make that your FPP!
G2G	Got To Go
GF, G/F	Girlfriend
Ghost Tweeter	Someone who writes or fine-tunes someone else's Twitter updates because the person in question is too busy, dumb or unfunny to do it themselves	That's not really Kyle Sandilands on Twitter. It's a ghost tweeter.
Hellz Yeah	Yes, yes indeed	And so the cop told me that my party was the most epic party they'd ever been called to... Hellz Yeah!
HTFU	Harden the F--- Up!	A: "Really tired hey, don't know if I'm coming out tonight." B: "HTFU!"
ish	Sort of	She was good-looking...ish.
kewl	Cool
KK	OK, OK	A: "Can I borrow your jeans tonight?" B:"kk"
L8	Late
Laterz	Later	"Bye", "Yeah, no worries, laterz"
LMAO	Laughing My Arse Off
LOL	Laugh Out Loud
LOLZ	That's so funny
LOLGASM	The climax of a particularly effervescent LOL incident
LOLWAT	Disbelief to the point of absurdity
Maggot	Exceptionally drunk	Going to Jake's house tonight. Going to get MAGGOT!
Mofo	A term of endearment between mates. Short for motherf---er
n00b	Someone who is new to something, usually in an internet forum
OMFG!	Oh My F---ing God!	A: "She let me sleep with her!" B: "OMFG!"
OMG	Oh My God!
Owned	Defeated
Peeps	People
PPL	People
QFT	Quoted For Truth	You said that and we all heard it. QFT
Redic	Ridiculous
Redonkulous	That is seriously ridiculous
ROFL	Rolling On the Floor Laughing
ROFLCOPTER	Rolling On the Floor Laughing, spinning around like helicopter blades	A: "So I was just driving high and I stopped to let a pinecone cross the road because I thought it was a hedgehog." B: "ROFLCOPTER"
Sick	Really, really good
Siff	As if, that couldn't possibly be true
STFU	Shut The F--- Up!
Sup	Hello, how are you? Or, What's wrong?
Tomoz	Tomorrow	A: "So I think I'm going to break up with her tomoz." B: "No way!"
Totes	Short for totally, as in, most definitely	That comment was totes inapprop.
TTYL	Talk To You Later
U	You
V	Very	V.Good
Woot	Gamer-talk for woo-hoo	I got to the last level on Final Fantasy VII, Woot!
WTF	What The F---?	The doctor took one look and he was, like, WTF?
XXL	Someone with a rotund figure
Yeeeewww/ Yeow/ Yiew	An expression of great joy
ZOMG	A more sarcastic expression than OMG Source - Marketing Mag

Science Of A RT (Re-Tweet)

Social currency in the online world is heavily grounded in the amount of content you share. In the world of Twitter, the Re-Tweet (RT) is king. Brands engaging in these online environments need to be thinking about the “shareability” of their content. In other words, you need to create content with the intention that it will be passed around. Folks in media call this earned media and it turns out there’s a formula to creating spreadable (re-tweetable) Twitter content.

If I wanted to make sure this post did not go viral--according to the standards put forth by Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella in "The Science of Retweeting"--I could promote it on Twitter by posting something like this:

was bored watchin the game on tv and saw this thing about RTs...made me lol after i had really bad stomach cramps

Note the lack of punctuation, the use of of slang and abbreviations, the limited vocabulary, and the awkward overshare--all traits that Zarrella can now definitively say would turn Twitter users off. How? Because the avid Twitter-er and author of the upcoming The Social Media Marketing Book spent nine months analyzing roughly 5 million tweets and 40 million retweets (which are usually symbolized with an "RT" on Twitter). He noted when they were posted, which words they used, whether or not they included links, and more. Then, he says, he compared the two groups to get the first "real window" into how ideas spread from person to person: "Retweets may seem like a small idea...but many of the lessons [they teach us] will be applicable to viral ideas in other mediums."

The full report is 22 pages, and won't be available until tomorrow (UPDATE: It's here). But Zarrella offered me a sneak peak--via Twitter, no less. Below, his nine most effective ways to get retweeted on Twitter:

1. Link Up (But Don't Use TinyURLs)
In Zarrella's sample, links were three times more prevalent in RTs than normal tweets (19% to 57%), suggesting that their mere prescence could help buoy your bon mots. (Not sure whether that holds true for sporadic use of French terms.) But choose your URL shortener carefully: Newer, shorter services, such as bit.ly, ow.ly, and is.gd, were much likelier to get retweeted than older, longer services, such as TinyURL. Ouch.

2. Beggars Can Be Choosers
Although conventional wisdom suggests that SPAMmy pleas, such as "PLEASE RETWEET," would be generally ignored, Zarrella found the opposite. "Please" and "retweet" were his third and fourth "most retweetable" words, preceeded only by "Twitter" (duh) and "you." Also worth noting: "Check out" and "new blog post" were Nos. 19 and 20, respectively.

3. Avoid Idle Chit-Chat
Okay, let's face it: We all occasionally tweet about "boring" activities, such as sleeping and watching TV. But alas, these are the types of words and phrases Zarrella dubs "least retweetable." "There are a number of '-ing' verbs, including 'going,' 'watching' and 'listen-ing,'" that were not retweeted very often, he writes. Translation: Unless you've got a really interesting life--Shaquille O'Neal, anyone?--do not legitimately answer Twitter's "What are you doing?" prompt.

4. Don't Be Stupid
So much for abbrevs and emoticons. :-( Zarrella's RTs not only have more syllables per word than normal tweets (1.62 vs. 1.58), but they're also more intellectual: Per a Flesch-Kincaid test, comprehending RTs requires 6.47 years of education, while normal tweets require just 6.04.

5. Semicolons = Satan
A whopping 98% of RTs contain some form of punctuation (compared with 86% of normal tweets), with colons, periods, exclamation points, commas, and hyphens leading the way. (Where you at, question mark??) But Zarrella really sticks it to semicolons, calling them "the only unretweetable punctuation mark."

6. Break News
This one's kind of a no-brainer, but original content is way more popular than stuff we've already read: The words in Zavella's normal-tweet sample were each found 89 times in other tweets, on average, while words in the RTs were found just 16 times.
7. Use Proper Nouns Properly
Most RTs were heavier on nouns, proper nouns and 3rd-person verbs, suggesting that headline-style tweets--such as "Lindsay Lohan Escapes From Rehab Facility"--are more likely to go viral.

8. Bottle Those Emotions
Sorry guys, but nobody wants to promote your f---ing, stupid feelings: Tweets about work, religion, money and media/celebrities are more retweetable than those involving negative emotions, sensations, swear words, and self-reference.

9. Tweet at 4 p.m. on Friday
'Nuff said.

Source - Fast Company

I Heart Infographics

Challenge: How do you take all of the information available on the internet and aggregate it into a format that doesn’t take an analysis fifteen years to quantify? Answer: Infographics. One example is Trendsmap that is a real time mapping of Twitter trends across the world. Talk about free research.

For the Trendsmap click here

For more Twitter infographics here.