September 4, 2008

The Two Most Important Components of Social Media Marketing Campaigns

Filed under: UI/UX, advertising, analytics, creative, marketing strategy, metrics, social media — Tags: , , — bstraley @ 10:55 am

The first is content. Without interesting content that makes you stop, focus, and respond, your online marketing effort will fail.  As I wrote in an earlier post, your campaign needs a value proposition and a large portion of this value is created with really good content.  Obvious.

The second factor that gets overlooked a surprising amount of the time is enabling the sharing of the content.  Not just enabling it in fact but integrating this act into the very fabric of the user experience.  By this I mean, clever marketers (and content creators) understand that a social experience requires involves two or more people.  What I do with your content can and should enhance the experience for subsequent viewers.  Take YouTube for example.  The reason why they display the number of views, favorites, etc. and enable comments is because the perceived popularity (or lack thereof) of a specific video is a key indicator of content quality for visitors to the page.  As a consequence of making this information available to the visitor, YouTube increases the probability of the two primary goals of any social media marketing campaign:  views and pass-alongs.  It’s quite simple.

The next step in the process of engaging users in a truly social experience is to allow and encourage them to share it with others.  It’s striking how many online marketing campaigns we see that do not incorporate even the most rudimentary concept of “sharing” into the UI and flow of the user experience.

While all the attention and focus around social media is generally related to the creation of crazy, wacky content and how easy it is for individuals to get their 15 minutes of fame, the real juice for marketers looking to boost the effectiveness of their online campaigns through social media involves the sharing and evangelism of that content across each user’s social graph.  Do that and your social media marketing campaign with be a smashing success.

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September 3, 2008

Want to Learn Advanced Interactive Marketing Strategies and Tactics?

Filed under: PR, analytics, education, marketing strategy, media buying, media planning, metrics, social media — Tags: , — bstraley @ 12:40 pm

Shameless plug here.  I’m currently in the process of working with a small group of experienced marketing pros (online and offline) to build the curriculum for a new certificate program to be offered through University of Washington Extension during the Winter and Spring Quarters in 2009.  The program is ideal for more junior folks in the industry looking to accelerate their development, career changers who might be familiar with the Web and basic online marketing techniques and tactics but want to broaden their skillset in order to get their foot in the door with a company that is active in the field, and seasoned marketers (brand, mark-comm, PR, etc.) who want to merge considerable offline experience with an understanding of online strategies and best practices.

To learn more about this program, click here.

You can also hear a podcast of me (doh!) talking about the program with Mary Larson, UW Educational Outreach Asst. Director of Academic Programs.

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