Juice Digital blog

“Become a fan to see what I lol’d about” – The annoying Facebook Scam Trend

April 21, 2010 – 10:26 am

This is a blog by Tina Jagla:
They might have appeared on your friendlist on Facebook. But if you are lucky and your friends are more mature (or less nosy) than some of mine, here are some examples of what I’m blogging about today:

Daniel became a Fan of Top 10 Stupid (but still in act) British Laws!!

Michael became a Fan of Only in America.. does THIS Happen.. LOL!

Sarah became a Fan of LOL This girl gets OWNED after a POLICE OFFICER reads her STATUS MESSAGE

Dou you lol?

Look familiar? Then you too, like me were a bit nosy and clicked on the link to find out which laws these might be or what happened in America, just to be told in capital letters: “YOU MUST BECOME A FAN.” My personal reaction at this point is usually to close the window and be annoyed about this arrant strategy of gaining more fans on Facebook. However, for the sake of this blog, I found a group on Facebook which explains how to see the image without joining.

All three examples didn’t end up showing me their picture, video or text but a link instead. All three links lead to questionnaires that have to be filled in, in order to ostensibly see the big secret. I don’t trust my Antivirus Software enough to take this step but if anyone did, let me know what happened.

These are very good examples of how not to use Facebook. Countless numbers of anti-groups have already appeared on Facebook by users who are as annoyed as I am about this scam-trend.

Still, the opportunity of hiding parts of the content from everyone who is not a fan has some potential. The German Theme Park Heide Park for example asks you to become a Fan in order to get a voucher for a €10 ticket. Fans can clearly gain something from the arrangement and the brand Heide Park gains positive sentiment as well as a wider fanbase.

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By steve.downes | Posted in Buzz monitoring, Social Media Marketing | Tagged Facebook, fan, fanpage, heide park, scam, Social Media Marketing, tina jagla | Comments (2)

Juice Digital gets fresh input from Manchester Masters student Tom McKenna

April 19, 2010 – 11:24 am

Hello all, I would like to introduce myself as Tom, the newest member of Juice Digital’s social media team. How long I will be the newest member for though is up in the air- Juice is looking to recruit and so I may not be the newbie for long! I am one of the ten students on the fantastic Manchester Masters programme and for my last three month placement I will be here working in the crazy world of social media. You will be able to find me in all the usual places online- Twitter, Facebook and also my personal blog which goes by the catchy title of “Marketing, digital, advertising and PR thoughts. Succinctly….unlike the title.” Here you will be able to share my experiences and opinions as I embark on my Juice Digital journey.

At Juice I will get the chance to work with some great clients- Stagecoach Manchester, Dulux Trade and the Marketing Society are all forward thinkers which have embraced social media. Working in this field has added benefit for myself also, as my Masters dissertation is exploring the use of social media by PR agencies. The research I have conducted so far is overwhelmingly in favour of companies engaging with social media and the sites that are best suited to engaging with their target market: Over 80% of the world’s top brands recently stated in a survey on Brand Republic that social media was becoming an increasingly important tool in their marketing strategy. To emphasise this further each of these top brands had increased their social media budget for 2010- a sure sign things are going in the right digital direction.

The survey above did highlight some problems, however. Whilst 80% of the top brands saw social media as important, only 25% had made it a part of their core communications strategy. This is hugely worrying as it can result in the biggest problem of social media- poor execution. Every threat that social media poses comes from this. Luckily all of the threats can be turned into opportunities with dedicated time and resources. To give an example, let’s consider Mercedes. The brand is built on a consistently high-end, professional image that attracts high socio-economic customers. Its target market is drawn to the brand and their cars often by the intangible factors that the brand represents- wealth, power, elegance etc. Let’s say now that Mercedes recognises the growing importance of social media and passes responsibility for a company Facebook fan page onto a marketing assistant. If this assistant is not familiar and actively involved with the company’s overall strategy and trajectory then there will be major problems. The site may attract huge numbers of fans and gain Mercedes great exposure, but if it is not consistent with the core brand then this is all in vain at best, fundamentally damaging at worst. For example, the campaign may take an informal tone (use slang etc.) with customers that would be more suited to Mini customers but totally unsuitable for Mercedes. Loyal customers would be turned off and potential customers confused by the brand messages they are receiving.

So what is the lesson to take from all of this- your online image requires the same care and attention as your offline image, perhaps more given the speed of online communication. Have a great social media presence and people will flock, but have a poorly put together campaign and people will form negative perceptions. Frequency as well as great planning is also key: your pages must be updated to keep your audiences interest. Once you start up a social media campaign a level of expectation is formed that you will follow this through. Leaving a social media site dormant halfway through its planned cycle will shatter these expectations and be more damaging to corporate reputation than having no social media presence in the first place. If you show a lack of care for your social media presence you show a lack of care for your brand. This all sounds very downbeat but the positives are huge- a new age has broken whereby direct relationships can be formed with customers/clients like never before. Two way communication is here and brings with it a world of possibilities:

•    Engage with a geographically diverse audience and become a part of their daily lives
•    React in real time to their needs/desires and never be caught on the back foot by market research which is outdated
•    Notify a worldwide audience instantly of your key message/latest offer/thought of the day
•    Form another ‘touch point’ with your target market so that you are always at the forefront of their thoughts

Never before has all this been possible and reacting now is crucial. Don’t wait until competitors in your market have already set up camp online and engaged with your audience. Bring in professionals, either in-house or consultancy, who will ensure consistency and great performance.
Now to leave you on a high note lets look at a great case study- Skittles!

Skittles

Screengrab of the succesful Skittles Facebook site

Skittles created a huge spark when it launched its very own Facebook fan page centred around ‘Mix the Rainbow’. The site allowed customers to engage with the brand in a way they never had before. Daily competitions brought new customers and a light hearted approach to comments meant that customer loyalty towards the brand was cemented.

The exert below perfectly demonstrates this:
Derek says: Is it just me, or does there seem to be too many orange ones in the bags now?
Skittles says: Derek despite what you or the Internet may think, we can assure you there is no orange skittles conspiracy - red on the other hand…

The results of this Facebook campaign were staggering:

• It generated incredible short-term buzz and the company was praised for embracing social media
• Home page traffic increased by 1,332% in one day!

Skittles committed the cardinal sin however of resting on its social media laurels. After the huge initial online boost it brought they failed to capitalize on it and left the site largely unmonitored. Due to its popularity this meant that rather unscrupulous vendors moved in with the dreaded spam.

The moral of this story therefore is that you have to be immerse yourself in social media as a business to see the results and that consistency is key to success!

Tom McKenna

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By steve.downes | Posted in Social media | Tagged Brand Republic, Facebook, juice digital, Manchester, Manchester Masters, Mercedes, pr, Skittles, social media, tangerine pr, tom mckenna | Comments (0)

Social Media Marketing the Undead – A True (Blood) Case Study

April 13, 2010 – 11:20 am

This is a Blog by Tina Jagla of Juice Digital, Social Media Marketing Agency, Manchester

Sookie & Bill of True Blood

The American HBO Show True Blood (produced by Alan Ball) is showing us how to keep Fans excited and on high alert inbetween seasons and keep the buzz going. An impressive six months after the end of Season 2 in the US and with two months to go until the first episode of Season 3, the buzz on Twitter and Facebook is still undead and biting (cheesy puns are a must-have when writing about Vampires!).

I only want to briefly mention the fact that True Blood fans can google organisations like the American Vampire League and The Fellowship of the Sun and can even purchase the beverage that lends the show its name online. Despite being an amazing gimmick, the idea is not new. Back in the day (2002), in the episode “Help” (Season 7, Episode 4) of the infamous Joss Whedon Show Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, when Willow googled guest character Cassie’s website, Thousands of Fans did so as well – and found it.

What is new though is HBO’s openness towards Fans, inviting their participation and even making the accounts of the first True Blood Roleplayers on Twitter “official”, frequently retweeting them and encouraging fans to follow their accounts as well. So it happens that @SookieBonTemps now has15,370 followers despite the fact that she (or he?) is “just” a fan. The list goes on with @jasonBT, @ArleneFowler and even @QueenSophieTB…

While the roleplayers are happily playing their chosen characters lifes and interacting on Twitter, the official True Blood Account @TrueBloodHBO has invented a Hashtag #waitingsucks which is now frequently used by Fans and Roleplayers alike. When one of the roleplayers suggested to play the game of “13 reasons why #waitingsucks”, the official account retweeted him, leading to hundreds of replies – without any incentive. Of course it doesn’t hurt that True Blood is HBO’s most popular show since The Sopranos. Still, popularity online and especially interactivity online, does not happen automatically.

Another tool of True Blood is publicising very short previews by using as yet uncut scenes from the set to its official website and spreading the word on Twitter and Facebook. Of course the scenes in question are always

VILF Promo Poster

mysterious and adding to the suspense of what is going to happen in the next season. On the same track are promotional posters that are published every few days. One of them, stating “VILF” has been especially discussed on Twitter. What is this supposed to mean? The urban dictionary has the answer if you’re not a fan of riddles.

On Facebook there is not only the official Fanpage with over 1.5 Million Fans but also Fanpages for different characters and actors of the show. The official wall is very active with Fans posting comments and liking everything coming from True Blood. Using the same promotional tools as on Twitter, altered to Facebook’s requirements, the number of Fans reached is even bigger than on Twitter with Fans sharing Fan Arts and videos.

Actually there would be so much more to write about and maybe I will add to this Case Study later but for now I want to close with the moral of the story. The Social Media Marketing receipe seems to be easy enough: Give us fans what we crave: Attention and Behind The Scenes material and we will love you – at least as long as the show still lives up to our expectations.

To see if it does, UK citizens will have to wait a while. In the US Season 3 starts on 13 June, for the UK I can’t find a date .

I agree with y’all: #waitingsucks!

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By steve.downes | Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged case study, Facebook, hbo, promo videos, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy, tina jagla, true blood, truebloodhbo, Twitter | Comments (0)

100% free, gratis, zero cost social media seminar

April 8, 2010 – 11:55 am

That’s for all MPs or PPCs.
In fact let’s change that. I’ll pay each of you a tenner if you come and listen.
And why’s that? It’s because YOU JUST DON’T GET IT and it’s driving me mad!
Now I know you all have been told that Obama only won the US presidency because he had a FaceBook site and that Social Media is the new ad break in Coronation Street and you’ve got to get involved. That, of course, is twaddle, but it is important and used properly it can be a powerful tool. But all of you are making a complete dogs of it.
Here are a few simple truisms:

1. People buy/vote, whatever, from people they like and trust
2. Everyone knows that nobody, but nobody, is always right or always wrong (any of you read Animal Farm?)
3. So if you say they are, no-one will believe you (see point 1.)
4. It doesn’t make someone a bad person if they disagree with you
5. It’s OK to agree with a competitor
6. Yes, there’s a general election coming and winning a seat is the most important thing in your life. But it’s not in mine, so if you want me to listen think about what is.
7. People would rather disagree with your answer to a question than for you to avoid answering it (again, see point1)
I could go on, but this is where my 100% free, gratis, zero cost seminar comes in. Please sign up now.

Steve Downes

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By steve.downes | Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged Add new tag, Digital marketing, Digital PR, digital public relations, online pr, smm, social media, Social Media Marketing, social networks | Comments (0)

How David Morris, the Bond Street jeweller, treats its customers.

March 17, 2010 – 3:16 pm

Remember how we used to complain? Or, for many of us, not complain. But those who did would have a rant on the phone, or write a letter or send an email. But now is the age of the blog attack. A complaint that can blow a bloody big hole in a company’s online reputation. Read this one from my colleague Sandy Lindsay, leave it a few days then Google David Morris Bond Street jeweller. Bet it has more effect than a letter…

Once upon a time there was a young couple who fell in love and went to H Samuel for an engagement ring. The cash point machine said ‘nope – sorry’ so out came the credit card to pay the whopping £78 price tag.
Fast forward 16 years and said engagement ring decided – not unfairly – that it had lived long enough and gave up the ghost.
By this point, said couple had worked long and hard and one of them – The Missus – had built up a company of her own.
And lo it was decided that – due to the hard graft, long hours, stress and other such stuff (not to mention the usual marital challenges) that the couple had been through, instead of replacing the ring on the high street, they would do a rare thing and treat themselves to something a little bit special. Off they went, on their 15th wedding anniversary weekend, to London town where – of course – the place to go for anything serious and shiny is Bond Street.
Taking a HUGE gulp – and chanting to themselves that this would be an investment – they purchased said shiny rock.
Fast forward nine months and - cue romantic music screeching to an end when the needle jumps off the record - one of the smaller rocks fell out! Oof!
When the famed Bond Street jeweller, David Morris, was contacted they said the ring would have to be returned to the store (no offer of assistance or apology was made) and - living in the northern mill town of Manchester - it wasn’t until the following Valentines weekend that the couple was visiting London on non-business business again (and The Missus didn’t want to post it) so it was duly delivered.
This is where the fun truly starts.
The store assistant took the ring, wrote out a receipt and said they’d be in touch ‘…TO SAY HOW MUCH THE REPAIR WOULD COST???’ (screeching record again – this time think more: Nightmare on Elm Street?)
Summary of conversations (face to face and via several phone calls) since then:
‘But the ring was nine months old when it broke.’
David Morris: ‘Yes but you’ve worn it!’
‘…as opposed to…?’ ‘
David Morris: ‘Well these things happen when people actually wear the jewellery.’
‘Yes but it’s an engagement ring – people DO wear engagement rings surely?’
David Morris: ‘Yes but these things happen when jewellery is worn.’
‘Surely not when the ring is only nine months old?’
David Morris: ‘Yes but it’s obviously been damaged.’
‘I work in an office! And it’s sat on the same finger as a wedding ring we paid £100 for in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and that’s still perfectly round and shiny. And the ring I purchased from Samuels lasted 16 years!’
David Morris: ‘Yes but this ring was hand crafted not mass produced.’
‘..so surely that means it should last LONGER??’
….and round, and round, and round…
Not one apology was made, not one bend on the side of the David Morris crew (except a reduction of 50% of the cost as a ‘gesture’ – talk about missing the point. It’s not about the money; it’s about the fact that the ring shouldn’t have broken and it did/the couple deserved an apology and didn’t get one/the couple was put through the above nonsense… etc etc etc.)
So The Missus paid the money to have the ring repaired so she could have it back but DIDN’T live happily ever after - in fact she’s fairly annoyed.
On David Morris’s website (www.davidrobinson.co.uk ) it says: : ‘These creations will look as beautiful in 200 years time as they do today.’ … .maybe they should have added ‘.. as long as you don’t wear them!’

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By steve.downes | Posted in Social Media Marketing | Tagged Bond Street Jeweller, customer service, David Morris, engagement ring, H Samuel, jewellery | Comments (2)

Social media agencies really are social

February 25, 2010 – 3:59 pm

I once had a punch up in a Manchester bar with an eminent publisher and businessman (you know who you are). Yes, I know it’s not big and it’s not clever. But, to be fair to us both, it was 20 plus years ago when our testosterone was raging and yes, of course, it did involve a young lady. I’ve bumped into him a fair bit recently (not aggressively) and we’ve had a nostalgic laugh about it. We were both involved, in different ways, in the creative and PR scene in Manchester in those days.

It’s got me to pondering the huge difference in attitudes of competing agencies to each other between then and now. The difference is even more marked in the digital and social media sectors.

In the Thatcher, ‘loadsamoney’ era, boy, were we all competitive. And part of that competitiveness was a lot of secrecy. God forbid if anyone knew which potential clients you were talking to, or pitching for. The most jealously guarded of all was ‘inside information’ – those snippets of knowledge that you and you alone had that just might give you the edge in the pitch or new business process.

Whilst we might share a drink and a laugh at an industry event, in public we were daggers drawn and, at best, condescending to our key competitors.

Now fast forward two decades and what a sea-change. Agencies are still very competitive of course but, mostly, apply that competitiveness in a much more mature and intelligent way. Collaboration is commonplace, cross-referrals routine and support from peers almost always there when needed.

But social media and digital agencies are the most striking examples. Knowledge is routinely shared with so-called competitors on networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter. We share our experiences in blogs and commonly praise other agency work on bulletin boards. OK, a glance at some of the comments on industry news sites will show you there are still a few trolls around who delight in nasty comments, but the positive far outweigh the negative. And most negative comments are sincerely held, not just there for self-promotion.

So why the change? Are we not as competitive any more? Not a chance. The desire to succeed and be top dog is as great as ever. Perhaps we’re just nicer people in the caring, sharing post-Blair days? Not a bit of it – anyone watched any reality TV recently? In my opinion it’s because marketing in general has matured and grown up from its Madmen days. And social media marketing demands transparency and rewards sharing and collaboration by its very nature. Put simply you’ve got to be real to succeed.

Hopefully my sparring partner and I have similarly matured since our fighting days. I know I have – I won easily and she fancied me much more than him.

Steve Downes,

Juice Digital,

Social Media Agency, Manchester

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By steve.downes | Posted in Corporate blogging, Digital PR, Digital marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social media, Twitter | Tagged Add new tag, digital, Digital PR, digital public relations, juice digital, Manchester, marketing, online pr, smm, social media, Social Media Marketing, social networking, social networks | Comments (1)

My personal internet decade - How Social Media has changed, or hasn’t it?

January 12, 2010 – 12:11 pm

This is a blog by Tina Jagla:

Me being on the internet started in Germany, in the summer of 2000 – I was 17 – when I was riding my bike the 7 kilometres to my friend’s place almost every day to explore this new and exciting wonder that was the internet. Swimming pools? Pah! We joined chat rooms, read (”The X-Files” and “Roswell High”) Fanfiction and even had a (not very successful) blind date with two guys from the next town.

The Tribe

It took me another year of constantly annoying my parents until we got internet access of our own. Very soon I joined my first community, the so-called UBB that was the message board belonging to the kiwi TV series “The Tribe”. I not only made friends (some of them I’m still in contact with today) but also enjoyed exclusive chats with the actors and some day in 2003, thanks to an online friend, I found myself in Berlin, actually meeting some of the actors in person, talking with them for two hours. Early Social Media Marketing at its best.

A friend invited me to join ciao.de, a consumer review platform for every product you can think of, so I was writing reviews, earning a few pennies a month, happy that it was “so easy” to earn money.

Around the same time my first and only website went online, publishing “The Tribe” Fanfiction. I marketed it on the UBB and other Fan-Communities, looking for the best authors, persuading them to publish on my website. The concept worked and the archive became and stayed High Quality even after I had to hand it over to an online friend as my working life had me in its grip. By now, sadly the site is offline for good.

“The Tribe” got cancelled and the community went downhill. I moved on to new hobbies and new communities. The German LARP scene was and still is organised over the internet and has born lots of different message boards until two years ago someone founded the Larper.ning, a community that has grown to 8,544 members to date, including me of course.

In 2005 I started personal blogging (“friends only”) on Livejournal.com, which I have kept up until today although I’m in my second account and friends have changed over the years.

And then, I can’t remember how it happened, it happened slowly and almost unrecognisable for me as I mostly have “geeky” friends but suddenly the internet was not just for geeks anymore. Facebook wasn’t a term anyone had heard of in Germany, yet, but I joined studivz in 2006, just like everyone else. Suddenly I was connected with old class mates and current uni mates.

Apart from that I used ICQ, MSN and later Skype to keep in touch. Free calls via the internet. Wow!

Then, a year ago, I moved to England and the world of Social Media became even bigger. Suddenly there was Facebook, which has so much more to offer than studivz and there was also Twitter. Youtube and Flickr suddenly weren’t just Filesharing platforms anymore but Social Media. My “mainstream” friends suddenly use iPhones and therefore have better internet access than I have though they are not using their options properly which makes me feel a bit better.

My whole understanding of the internet has changed in the last year and so I can look back on the last 10 years and say: Social Media isn’t new. I don’t know if it’s as old as the internet (probably) but it definitely existed when I first went online 10 years ago. The online community has just grown and the main audience has slightly changed. But what has helped “The Tribe” 9 years ago to build up a following of loyal and enthusiastic fans is today helping “Twilight” and even Coca Cola. Looking back at this development, it is unlikely that Social Media will ever become irrelevant. Yes, Facebook and Twitter might vanish but there will be other communities. Just wait and see.

By the way, I haven’t given up on fandoms. Today I’m following the actors of “Buffy” and “Dollhouse” on Twitter. Some things never change.

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By steve.downes | Posted in Social media | Tagged Blog, decade, Facebook, Internet, social media, the tribe, tina jagla, Twitter, website | Comments (0)

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

December 22, 2009 – 12:02 pm

This is a blog by Tina Jagla:

“FACEBOOK WINS: Rage Against the Machine UK Christmas Number 1” was announced by Mashable last night. Who would have thought?

Rock crowd

It was not only Facebook though, but also users on Twitter, countless bloggers and journalists in traditional media who picked the audacious campaign up and spread the word and thus the victory is a mixture of all these channels. Mostly however, it is a victory for people who actually took part in the campaign by downloading a 17 year old song.

Not surprisingly, now that it has actually happened, comments appear here and there on blogs and social networks condemning the song for being against the Christmas spirit. I agree that Christmas songs usually sound a bit different and maybe they should at least mention a tree, presents, Santa Claus or Jesus but to be fair, this song was never intended to bring Christmas cheer. Could it be that some UK citizens don’t appreciate listening to Christmas songs 24/7 starting in late November? Or is it really just about beating Simon Cowell? Whatever reason, the majority has acted and “voted” RATM over Joe.

It is not that bad though. Being very opinionated about music myself, I can understand that it might be hard to look behind the aggressive guitars and find meaning if you’re not used to this kind of music. If you google the lyrics though, you will find that the song is neither a “call to war” nor “racist”. Give it a try, you might be surprised.

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By steve.downes | Posted in Facebook, Social media, Twitter | Tagged christmas no 1, Facebook, Internet, rage against the machine, social media, social networks, tina jagla, uk | Comments (0)

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