Jessica Knobbe

When most people think of social media they think “Free Advertising!!”  Not so fast there buckaroo!  You need to stop and consider a few things:

• What are your marketing goals?  Just saying “I want to be on Facebook” and “Everyone’s on Twitter- why am I not on Twitter?!” is worthless unless you set a benchmark and these tools actually help you achieve that goal.  If your target demographic is Adults 45-64 being on Twitter is going to miss that audience by a mile.

• Are you going to hire a consultant to help you lay this out?  If you want to do it right I would say yes you are because there are tactics and strategies involved.

• Once this is all set in motion, who is going to keep it running?  Are you going to do it? Do you have time to do 3 blog posts a week and a monthly newsletter?  I was at a round table last night and one consultant panelist put it brilliantly “I am not selling you a goose that lays golden eggs, I’m building you a crank, you still have to turn it to get results”

Social media is a great option for so many businesses as part of a full marketing arsenal.  Listening to your audience online is a huge asset and can really help you get a feel for the sentiments of your brand and it’s strength’s and weaknesses.  Just make sure before you dive in you know how deep the pool is and that you can stay afloat.

Admittedly, when I think of Estee Lauder, social media is not really the next thought in my head.  But a new promotion brings them together in a fascinating way.  AdAge reported yesterday on a new campaign aimed at bringing Estee’s target demographic into the social media groundswell and are “offering free makeovers and photo shoots at its department-store cosmetics counters coast-to-coast to produce shots women can use for their online profiles.”  Can you say awesome?  Not even technically in their target demographic of women 35-55 they have me intrigued as I can’t seem to find a decent picture of myself to use on my professional social media profiles.  I will be interested to see how they measure ROI.  Will it be based on an increased number of fans on their Facebook page? Will it be the number or photos or the amount of merchandise that they sell because of increased traffic to the counter?  The host department store gets the fringe benefit of increase traffic in the doors as well.  Are they going to piggyback this with a promotion as well? 
What do you think?

“Friend of the Day”, “What 60’s Movie Star Are You” or “Which Candy Bar Totally Represents Your Entire High School Career”- Facebook quizzes are all the rage.  Polls have always been a way to find out about audiences for marketing and Facebook is no different.  The big one going around right now is called “My Friends On Facebook”  The basis is it takes all of your friends’ stats and it breaks out the information into pretty shiny pie charts and percentages- 19 of my friends are Virgos and 69% are Democrats!

Here is the amazing part about this and all quizzes on Facebook- you give it permission.  You say ALLOW and this little unassuming quiz suddenly collects immense amounts of geographic, demographic and psychographic information about you and your virtual social circle.  And who is it that gets this info? Well, my guess is based on the 20 second spot right before you get your results is Mobil 1.  Yes Mobil 1, the worlds leading motor oil, suddenly has information that the US Census is jealous of.

Now most likely reading this you are not surprised by this or at least you shouldn’t be.  I think the most interesting part is what are they doing with this data? Are they creating fan pages to bolster brand loyalty?  Are they finding geographic areas that match their target demographic and bumping up Internet or broadcast spend?  If your company or group is using Facebook polls to target your marketing efforts tell us if it’s working or what challenges you face in this social media space.