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Tag: social media marketing

  • How To Use Facebook Timeline To Promote Your Business


    While many users have opted to cling to the traditional Facebook design for as long as possible, all users are currently being forced to jump on the Timeline bandwagon — whether they like it or not. At this point in the game, though, the majority of users have been using the revamped page for some time anyway. The layout is familiar and users know what they’re looking for when they visit business Pages. But do you know what you should be doing to effectively reach your fans?

    It’s no secret that you should be promoting your business on Facebook if you want to increase your social media presence. What you may not know, however, is that the way in which you go about it is pretty significant. If you fail to follow the rules outlined on Facebook’s Page Guidelines, you could find yourself suspended and unable to access your Page.

    When Facebook’s Timeline feature was first introduced to Pages, the site was flooded with cover photos of promotional content. It makes sense that the cover photo would seem like the perfect place to tout your business’ latest promotion or encourage visitors to Like your Page. However, this kind of customization is actually against Facebook’s rules.

    Pages cannot include price information whatsoever. That means that any special offers, like percentages off or coupons, cannot be referenced in your cover photo. Telling visitors to Like or Share your Page is also to be avoided.

    It might seem like overkill, but you actually can’t even put your website URL, email, or address in your cover photo. Facebook wants you to utilize the About section of your Page for those purposes. Any calls to action (i.e. Buy Now!!!) also have to be excluded.

    Previously, Page owners could customize their landing pages to include calls for action, special offers, and exclusive content in exchange for a Like — a process called like-gating. But, with the implementation of Timeline for Pages also came a discontinuation of the landing page. Now, your cover photo is what makes the first impression when people visit your Page.

    So, how can you make the most of it?

    Choose something eye-catching. Draw in your Page’s visitors with an image that reflects the heart of your business and/or engages your fanbase. Verizon Wireless’ Page, for example, features photos taken by fans using their products. It’s a smart way to involve users and encourage fan interaction.

    Pick a profile image that compliments (and doesn’t clash with) your cover photo. This is a great spot to feature your logo or a good image of your product.

    Optimize your About section. While you can’t include your website on your cover photo, you can display it here. The first 155 characters of this section are visible to your Page’s visitors, and they should be chosen wisely. Include a short, solid statement about your business, along with your URL.

    Lastly, Like the Facebook Marketing Page for tips on how to improve other aspects of your Page. When fans search for or stumble upon your business on Facebook, you want them to stick around. If your Page is aesthetically pleasing, informative, and engaging, you’re more likely to capture those all-important Likes.

  • SI Social: How the iPhone 5 Could Change the Social Media Landscape

     

    Oh, Apple. You and your sexy marketing campaigns. You know that we love all that sleekness, those stark white backgrounds. And do I need a new phone? Nope; my iPhone 4 still works just fine (albeit a little slower than it did when I bought it a year and a half ago). But now, with the launch of what we think might be the iPhone 5 right around the corner on September 12th, the internet is being flooded with videos and roundup posts about the new gadget, which is rumored to have a taller screen than its predecessor.

    Of course, we don’t even know if it’s actually going to be called the 5, although Apple sure is teasing us with that image up above. According to TechCrunch, the 5 will simply be called “The New iPhone,” if this image is to be believed (looks pretty suspicious to me). They’re also telling us that the new screen will be larger, meaning we can cram an extra row of apps in there. Supposedly, the headphone jack is on the bottom now. Really, the actual name doesn’t matter, because appearance is only a small part of why we care about these phones. Sleek is great, but our dependency on them as a part of our modern lives is all about what they allow us to do.

    What I need my phone to do, for example, is let me use it like a computer as much as possible. So instead of dying quickly because I’m running Twitter, Facebook, and Google Analytics simultaneously, I need it to last longer. Aside from that, I need it to offer me something that can allow me to further weave myself into the social media universe. What tools can it offer me? We know that no one buys the iPhone anymore because they need to make actual phone calls. As long as I could still send texts, I’d consider cutting off the actual phone service if I had the option. Yeah, it’s a little nuts, but the trend shows we all prefer data transmission in other ways (and make of that what you will).

    What else could it do to be transformative in the ways we use social media? On-the-go communication is crucial, and Apple is almost certainly keeping an eye on the multi-variegated capabilities that more and more networks demand. Increased battery life helps, but it just lets us do more of what we’re already doing. What if if offered a way to update all social networks simultaneously (and pick and choose which ones the updates go on, if we like)? In my personal opinion, I didn’t get much out of Siri; although she’s a good idea, the functionality simply doesn’t meet my needs as a blogger and certified social media addict. While Siri aimed to make our lives easier by managing these aspects, she didn’t adapt much to allow us to use social media in a new or different way — and that’s what we, both as marketers and private users, need.

    For instance, as a professional writer and blogger, one thing I feel my phone has always lacked is a way to write comfortably from my phone. Could the new iPhone’s increased keyboard space be a solution? Instagram addicts may ask for built-in photo sharing capabilities, or professional social media showrunners could drool at the thought of built-in feed automation. I’m sure every user has their own wishlist. Since people will buy the new phone regardless of whether its revolutionary or more of the same, perhaps these squabbles are minor at best. Or maybe it’s less about the phone itself and more about the apps available, although the phone has to have the power to run them in the first place. With the next generation’s increased processing speeds and functionality, an omnipresent mobile social media connection may not be too far away.

    Do you think the new iPhone going to change the way we interact? Or is it just going to be more of the same?

  • Hurricane Isaac & Social Media: Not Just For Memes & Self Portraits

    What were we to do? Hurricane Isaac is raging outside our doors, winds ripping down the street at 100 miles an hour, suddenly our power dies and our city goes dark. New Orleanians are trapped inside our homes without a way to connect to the outside world. At this point we hopefully aren’t wasting precious phone battery playing Tetris or Words with Friends, because this is when social media takes a greater importance than creeping on our friends from high school.

    In New Orleans, hurricanes and tropical storms aren’t a new phenomenon. Locals have become accustomed to evacuation procedures and preparing for torrential rain and screaming winds. What becomes difficult is communication during and following the storm. While Hurricane Isaac swept through New Orleans and plunged forward further inland, residents from all corners of Louisiana found themselves without power. After weathering the storm itself, those of us who chose not to evacuate were left without power and working appliances — so it was to social media we turned to receive the most recent updates on Isaac.

    Throughout the storm, the local news stations used Twitter and Facebook to answer questions from residents. Several times during the live broadcast, viewers would see news anchors scrolling through their social media accounts to acknowledge questions and retrieve answers from the on-camera meteorologist.

    For me, this was my first hurricane in New Orleans and I wanted to know exactly what Isaac was doing at every second. I turned to the only thing left in my house with power: my cell phone. In a matter of minutes, I was able to pull up maps, tracking systems and up to date information on Isaac’s movement. Also, by following the local news channels, the Weather Channel, New Orleans Police Department and other authorities on Twitter and Facebook, I was able to stay informed of evacuations and road closures.

    By Thursday, the worst of the storm was over. For the most part the people of New Orleans were safe and dry, but bored. Almost the entire city was left without power: no air conditioning, no Law and Order marathon on the TV, no radio to listen to. Everything in the freezer and refrigerator was spoiled. Computers were basically useless without the Internet to connect to. What did we do? Lucky for New Orleanians (who have a bit of practice at this kind of thing), the city is filled with outstanding restaurants and local watering holes that know how to deliver great service even in the midst of an outage. We were then left with the question, “How do we know what’s open?”

    Many homes, mine included, were left without power stretching into Labor Day weekend. While this is not the first time many locals had been without power for an extended period of time, it never gets easier to be without air conditioning in 95-degree temperatures and 90 percent humidity. We needed reprieve from the heat in the form of a hot meal, a cold beverage and a little bit of entertainment. Again, social media comes to the rescue. From Hurricane Isaac, new trending hashtags came to life! #NOLAopen #NOLAgas and #NOLAfood quickly became an easy way for businesses and restaurants to tell the community that their generators were pumping cool air and their doors were open.

    On Facebook, businesses were updating their fan base through status updates on when their doors would be open and the availability of their service. Many businesses in downtown New Orleans were able to open as early as Thursday night with limited menus, but air conditioning and cold drinks — just in time for the Saints game.

    One of the most impressive factors of the social media phenomenon was how involved the community became. Normal residents worked together to highlight open businesses. Including hashtags and sharing amongst friends, they continued to spread the word and fuel the conversation throughout New Orleans. Local businesses have historically gained a lot of traction via direct outreach on Facebook and Twitter, and this situation was a perfect example: customers checking their Facebook feed or liked pages were able to quickly and conveniently get the information they were looking for directly from the horse’s mouth, and reward establishments who stayed visible and in touch with their business.

    One local New Orleans blogger made it her mission to keep the city informed of operational businesses. Leslie J. Almeida focused her Twitter, Facebook and blog on an eight-page hand written list of businesses open during and directly after Isaac. Without power herself, she was left with her phone, paper and pencil. As she learned of each business she would add it to a hand written list, take a picture of the paper with her phone and upload it to social media.

    Needless to say, social media and cell phones also proved extremely useful helping people to connect. Once Isaac hit, landlines went dead across the city. Friends and family were able to check on loved ones via cell service and texts. As I recently moved here from Arizona, a state that doesn’t have natural disasters like hurricanes, my friends and family expected the worst. With a limited phone battery, a quick status update for my whole Facebook circle was easier than several texts and phone calls.

    All in all, a hurricane isn’t the most fun Labor Day weekend you can imagine. Even a category one storm like Isaac can leave a city in the dark — but social media and influential members of the community are able to use their platforms to keep New Orleans residents safe, dry and well fed.

  • When Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Chick-Fil-A, Facebook Foul Ups and Web 2.0

    It’s January 1st, 1999.

    The Euro is established. A month later, the U.S. Senate acquits Bill Clinton of impeachment charges. Then Star Wars Episode I, Napster, Columbine. And in an article entitled “Fragmented Future,” Darcy DiNucci states that, “The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear…” That was thirteen years ago, and I don’t remember anything called Web 2.0. What I do remember are static web browsers, a screeching dial up modem, fights with my sister, and AIM chat rooms — certainly not the Post-Internet proposed by DiNucci.

    So what was she seeing that I wasn’t? When she said “The web we know now… is only an embryo of the Web to come,” did anybody stop to ask her what she meant?

    Is the Internet of today even knit from the same quilt as that of 1999? Perhaps. It takes benchmarks to notice the change. Here was my wakeup call: Chick-Fil-A.

    Blasted by liberal groups for being opposed to gay marriage, the conservative corporation now finds itself in hot water for allegedly creating a fake Facebook profile (of a teenage girl), then using it to defend the company’s actions and promote blatant falsehoods. The non-existent girl, Abby Farle, even quotes the Bible, ending her post with “…John 3:16,” and “derrr,” which is appropriate because nobody says “derrr” anymore.

    The wakeup call is not that corporations lie: it’s how saddeningly fickle this whole story is. More concerning than the fact that Chick-fil-A, a quick-service chicken restaurant, is opposed to gay marriage, is the fact that we care that a quick-service chicken restaurant is opposed to gay marriage.

    What causes a billion dollar corporation to resort to such childish techniques? To actually embody a child to plead their case? Why can’t you just be you, chicken company? Do fake people defend better than real people?

    Even the article “Did Chick-fil-A Pretend to Be a Teenage Girl on Facebook?” published by Gizmodo.com that “broke” the story seems strangely suspect. The story’s screenshot of Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page depicts the conversation, where would-be Chick-Fil-A savior Abby Farle is exposed for being non-existent just two hours after telling one of the belligerents, Chris, to “check his info…” Yet the odd part is that whoever took the screenshot only has one friend on chat. Who has only one friend, right?

    If social media has come to serve as the hammer and anvil of democracy (see Wikileaks, Tahrir Square, Syria) and if our own voices are to be the liberalizing agent, what’s to be done when a conservative voice, like Chick-Fil-A CEO S. Truett Cathy, starts chirping “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.”

    To me, this is the high water mark of social media: when an asshole can’t be an asshole in peace.

    When a four billion dollar (and growing) corporation cares about public opinion enough to create a fake consumer to defend the owner’s socio-religious beliefs, something is very, very wrong. It’s not Chick-Fil-A. It’s us.

    Take 400 years of rabid capitalistic mentality, add a dash of recession-inspired fear, introduce social media and you’ve got the current “debacle.” If Web 1.0 took our bodies, 2.0 has edged toward our souls. Is this what Darcy DiNucci was talking about?

    The unprecedented access and information Web 2.0 provides to marketers (via social media platforms) allows businesses endless opportunities, if they only knew how to take advantage. Don’t overestimate the importance of assenting voices on Facebook, as Chick-Fil-A has. It’s at least reassuring to know that in our world of expressive freedom, backfires do still exist; genuine goodwill is the strongest form of PR a company has (and it’s free, too!), and faking it just won’t cut it. Moreover, the astroturfing of social media platforms, when discovered, inevitably leads to enormous backlash.

    So to the people who post pictures of all their meals on Facebook, I say, “Just eat it,” and to Chick-Fil-A, I say nothing.

    (P.S. I just found out Gore Vidal is dead. Welcome to Web 2.0.)

  • Pin It To Win It: Increasing Your Fan Engagement With Contests and Giveaways

    We’ve touched on how to put Pinterest to work for your brand in the past, but some businesses are now using the social media site in even more exciting ways. With the site’s unbelievable growth (it recently passed Twitter, Bing, and Stumbleupon in the rankings), if you aren’t using Pinterest to promote your business already, it’s very clear that you should be.

    But, did you know that besides pinning your products and using the images to drive traffic to your site, you can also engage your target audience with contests and giveaways? It’s a practice that’s been coined “Pin It To Win It” and it’s taking Pinterest by storm. We’ve talked about using Facebook contests to promote fan engagement, but this is the first push towards competition-based community involvement we’ve seen on Pinterest so far.

    Some contests simply require you to repin an image and include a hashtag. Others require Pinners to follow one or more of their business’ boards in exchange for a chance to win.

    http://imom.com/all-pro-dad-pin-it-to-win-it-contest#.T7pfnV5bey8.pinterest

    While this approach has been used on many a blog, it is also an effective strategy for Pinterest. Some companies, however, are getting especially creative with their fan engagement and taking it a step further. In addition to having Pinners follow them, they’re also having them create a board filled with their products.

    Take World Market’s recent Pin It To Win It Contest. They begin by having entrants follow them on Pinterest. Then, they have Pinners create their own board with at least 10 items taken either directly from their site or from the company’s own Pinterest boards. (You can see my entry here!)

    Genius.

    Not only are they gaining followers, but also they’re increasing the number of pins on the site from users and capturing countless other views in the process. I’ll say it again – genius. Anyone can fill out a contest entry form, but World Market is engaging its audience in a way that’s fun and beneficial for both the company and the Pinners, and they’re not the only ones.

    GAP recently held a similar promotion, as did Microsoft Windows. And as their popularity increases, we’re sure to be seeing more of these contests and more consumers engaging with brands on Pinterest.

    So, what about you? Would you consider running a Pinterest promotion for your business?

  • A New Media Paradigm or Mismanaged Effort? Social Media and the London 2012 Olympics

    IMG_5649As the self-declared first “Social Games,” the London 2012 Olympics are currently wowing audiences worldwide with an arsenal of tactics for every social media outlet imaginable. In our digital age, the instant, hyper-specific gratification of Twitter and Facebook is playing a huge role in how fans engage, interact, and react to the show. It’s so big that there’s an entire page devoted to the social aspects of the Olympics on the games’ official website.

    The London 2012 Social Media dashboard on the official website shows the number of growing fans for the Olympics on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also view where to check in, which hashtags to use, and what are the most recent tweets from @London2012. Twitter leads with 1.39 million+ followers, while Facebook is edging up with 1.37 million fans. Google+ only has 698,647+ followers. By so prominently playing up the social media count, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) is encouraging athletes and fans to interact through these platforms — but snafus like the pearl-clutching fuss made over a US soccer player’s personal Twitter account or blaming fans for outages of sharing-heavy networks have caused many to be harshly critical of the International Olympics Committee’s handling of the issue.

    Aly_Raisman_GoldMedalIn addition to the three social media platforms mentioned above, fans can also watch “Gold Medal Moments” and behind the scene interviews with coaches and Olympic athletes on the Team USA YouTube page. If you can’t decide between the eight official Facebook pages to like or the five different Twitter accounts to follow, you can just check out the Olympic Hub page for the latest updates from your favorite athletes. The current top three most followed athletes are LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Roger Federer — as if that was any surprise. But the Olympics are also a time for the non-celebrity athletes to shine and create those true ‘Olympic moments’ with their world records and flawless routines.

    As with any large scale operation, there’s always potential for bumps in the road. One notable disadvantage of all the social media frenzy is that American viewers, who are 5 or more hours behind Greenwich mean time, often get the outcome of the events spoiled before being able to watch the competition itself. The NBC tape delay caused a stir with fans when they preemptively learned about the results of the games while waiting for prime-time TV. Some took to Twitter with #NBCFail to voice their complaints about the prime-time delay, while others made their voices heard on Facebook.

    Another social media mishap occurred during the men’s cycling road race when, according to Reuters and Gizmodo, the IOC asked fans to stop tweeting because it was interfering with their broadcast and to only tweet when it’s “urgent.” Later IOC blamed the issue on an “oversubscription on one particular network.”

    It’s indisputable that the new prevalence of social media, particularly Twitter (which has grown exponentially since the 2008 Beijing games), adds unparalleled amount of richness to the Olympics experience. Fans around the world can watch favorite athletes getting their gold medal, peep Missy Franklin’s fan gifts or get second-by-second updates from six sources at once. However, its immense presence can lead to downsides — even athletes have reported the negative effects of the constant distraction, and many have levied complaints against the IOC’s restrictive policies.

    Whether you’re tuning into the Olympics via live stream, on the tube or even with a list of Twitter feeds, you’re experiencing something completely new in the world of communications and of sport. However strong the effort, though, the IOC’s handling of it has been less than pristine — Search Influence CEO Will Scott weighed in on this very topic in Forbes earlier today, saying “The moment the IOC set restrictions that limited the voice of the athletes, they made the Olympics less relevant to the Millennials… They have taken a large, influential group out of the equation.”

    How do you think the Olympics have handled their social media presence so far? Is your experience better for all the new options, or is their oversaturation taking away from the games themselves?

  • How To Twitter: Using Hashtags at San Diego Comic-Con

    Since I’m an Level 9000 bona fide nerd, I traveled to San Diego last weekend to celebrate Comic-Con. Of course, I took lots of pictures of what was going on when I was there. If you don’t already know, you can join the Twitter party of any major event by using the hashtag associated with it. This year’s Comic-Con used #SDCC — by hashtagging all of my related tweets, I was able to add my feedback to the public conversation about the convention, which anyone looking for the hashtag can read. If one of the people that reads one of my tweets wants to know more about me (or my business!), they might just follow me. What a neat way to network, right? (Don’t forget to check the “wrong” hashtags, too. It’s definitely not called “San Diego Comiccon“, but a lot of people searching the internet think it is.)

    Another key to getting involved in hashtags is trending. On Twitter’s Discover page, you can always see a list of the most popular hashtags for any given day. If you can get enough people talking about your topic, it will trend. While this is no small feat, it does mean TONS of exposure for you … not to mention for your business. If you have a strong Twitter following, it’s well worth it to engage your user base and ask them to use the hashtag if you are trying to promote an event. The best part about promotion like this is that it’s completely free, and you’re using one of the most popular social platforms out there today. What a deal!

    Of course, hashtags aren’t the only way to show your participation in an event. In the last few years, Tweetups have been popular, which are basically in-person meetups of your Twitter followers. It’s a great way to unify people and allow internet friends to meet in real life. It’s also an excellent way to meet business contacts.

    While hashtags like this are priceless way to be included in any event’s buzz, there’s no reason you can’t create your own as well. Geek goddess Felicia Day has put her own Twitter to work in this way, promoting several events, including her own @GeekandSundry project. Since Day has well over a million followers, plenty of people are listening.

    So how do you use Twitter hashtags on your own to best take advantage of the trend? If you’re at an event, make sure to find out what the hashtag is (and make sure its the right one!). Once you do, make a point of adding it to the end of all your tweets. That way, when people click the hashtag, they will see what you have to say along with everyone else.

    Want to create your own hashtag for an event? Make sure to keep it short. The easier it is to type, the more likely people will use it. Up to the date of your event, announce the hashtag and ask your followers to retweet it. That way, once your event begins, they will already know what to expect. If you’re lucky, they’ll use it too, and the more of them that do, the closer you are to that sweet high of a trending hashtag.

     

  • Twitter Ditches LinkedIn, Says It’s Not Personal

    twitter linkedin split
    I'm a fan.

    “It’s not you. It’s me.” That’s what Twitter proclaimed to LinkedIn this morning, ending a two-year partnership between the micro-blogging giant and the social network site for job seekers. Breakups are hard to do, as the saying goes, but according to LinkedIn, they didn’t even care in the first place.

    “If you had previously synced your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and selected the option to share Tweets on LinkedIn, those Tweets generated from Twitter will no longer appear on LinkedIn,” says Ryan Rolansky on the official LinkedIn blog. “There will be no other changes to your LinkedIn experience.”

    In other words, you can still post updates to Twitter from LinkedIn, but not the other way around. ‘Cause Twitter totally blocked LinkedIn, bro. So uncool.

    Jokes aside, Twitter has been getting pretty fussy lately. Developers using their application programming interface (API) have their work cut out for them — it’s notoriously tricky to handle — and the initial Spartan interface has gotten more and more tricked-out over recent months. With all these new bells and whistles, Twitter wants its branding to remain as consistent as possible, which is why sites like LinkedIn are getting kicked off the bandwagon.

    While Twitter may seem like an infallible giant to the hyper-focused social media contigent, the truth of the matter is that most people are reading it through a variety of secondary services. If you connect your Twitter stream to Facebook, for example, you can read it all there at the same time as you read about Aunt Margaret and her eighteen cats. So why go to the source site when you can get it all in one place?

    Even though the service became famous for its brilliantly minimalistic-efficient service, the company seems determined to expand. Twitter Cards, a new option that offers partner websites a way to show off more content, seems interesting, but not necessarily what I want out of Twitter as a user. Just give me my feeds in Tweet form, let me post dumb photos, and I’ll be fine. Is the majority of the user base really craving more than that? Or is the thrust of Twitter’s new direction less about what the general consumer wants, and more about how Twitter can serve as a business tool?
     

  • Driven to Feed: Why Food Trucks Learned to Use Social Media

    NOLA Food Trucks' twitter feed

     

    You may have been told at one point or another that it’s a bad idea to go to the grocery store hungry. There’s another hunger hazard to watch out for that’s sprung up more recently: the Internet. More specifically, the major offenders are Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, Pintrest, and a variety of other social networking sites that constitute the delightful temptations of food truck social media. You won’t be in any danger of impulse-buying that Jimmy Fallon flavor of Ben & Jerry’s (which is quite good, in my ice cream connoisseur’s opinion), but a very real enemy of your hunger lurks in various social networking feeds.

     

    Imagine this scenario: you were going about your afternoon not thinking about BBQ beef sliders at all until, out of nowhere, there’s a picture of one right before your very eyes. And wait, the exact geographic point where you could acquire this small sandwich at this very moment in time is there, too. You can have a slider just like the one on the screen in a matter of minutes! The secret is out that street food vendors and pop-up restaurants thrive on this strategy to interact with, and subsequently make friends, fans, and (most importantly) patrons out of their followers.

    #foodtruckAccording to these Portland food truck proprietors, Twitter drives a remarkable 80% of their business. This is significantly higher than the amount of growth many other types of businesses can attribute to a social media outlet alone. For food trucks especially, social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook are uniquely suited to the sort of outreach that drives customers their way. Tweeting locations, posting pictures of daily specials, and receiving feedback are invaluable methods of getting and keeping customers coming to you day after day. Even stationary restaurants have caught up to the marketing strategy employed by food trucks and mobile eateries, tweeting specials and forming customer relationships before people even walk through their doors.

     

    Unfortunately it’s not all low-overhead and roses for trucks using social media to attract attention. The Sun Times reports that law enforcement in the city of Chicago — a city where food trucks have recently proliferated and gained popularity — has used social media against food truck owners by monitoring their Tweets and Facebook posts in order to intercept the roving food sellers and issue citations for violating strict laws dictating how close to an existing restaurant a mobile food establishment can set up shop. Vendors must tweet and post with caution, or face being charged with heinous crimes such as “premeditated selling of a cupcake…”

     

    As in many arenas in life, with risk often comes a satisfying reward. You’ve been warned: risk checking your sites hungry and you may end up sitting on a street corner with a mouthful of Brazilian BBQ, not even knowing how you got there. All it often takes is one Instagram of a skewer and the food truck has got you in its crosshairs. Enjoy it, target market. Enjoy your dinner.

  • 5 Most Memorable Marketing Fails

    marketing failsOver the years, I’ve seen many companies going into damage control for missteps that they took in pushing their message. To learn from the mistakes of others, I’ve compiled a few of the most memorable marketing fails. These companies tried to do something unique or different to increase their brand awareness or create social interaction — but sometimes, things do not go as plan. Below is a list of the top marketing backfires that some of the biggest corporations have faced, offending or even repelling their customers.

    1. New Orleans hosted the NCAA Men’s Final Four the weekend of March 30, 2012. Coca-Cola, one of the NCAA Final Four sponsors, sprayed painted their logo using a chalk spray throughout the French Quarter. Residents were angered by the graffiti in their neighborhood, and Twitter blew up with tweets to Coca-Cola about the guerilla marketing that defaced their neighborhood. You can see their response and their graffiti below:

    Response_CocaCola

    graffiti

    2. McDonald’s started a hashtag twitter campaign #McDStories to connect with their customers about their new healthy food initiative back in January. Instead of getting positive stories, they received negative backlash. People replied with health issues from eating at McDonald’s, criticism of the business model and disgusting things they had found in their food.

    mcdstories

    3. In March 2011, GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons posted a video on his blog of him shooting an elephant in Zimbabwe. PETA and several others were upset by this video and shortly after, PETA cancelled their contract with GoDaddy.

    4. Groupon’s offensive ad during the 2011 Super Bowl showed poor taste in making a parody of the problems that the Tibetan people face. This controversial ad caused Groupon to go into damage control mode. This ad was no laughing matter when Twitter users lashed back with hard facts on the deaths caused by the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

    5. While the 2010 BP oil spill devastated the Gulf of Mexico, Spirit Airlines turned the matter into a mockery. No stranger to controversial ads, they launched several ads that said “Check Out The Oil On Our Beaches”. The tasteless campaign did not sit well with Gulf Coast residents whose coastline and wildlife were devastated by the spill.

    When companies think they are on the verge of some creative marketing breakthrough, they’re often failing to see the big picture or contextualize their campaign from the targets’ viewpoint. It’s a miracle some of these even made it past the cutting room. As tempting as it may be to commit our own marketing fail, it’s never funny to just poke fun at someone’s plight: we can all learn from these blunders. What do you think these companies should have done differently, or was their damage control appropriate? Any gaffes of your own to share?