See how Sephora scores Pinners, what social CTA works best, how Jell-O hijacked #FML, what’s new on Instagram, and the latest—more impulse shopping-friendly—Gmail update. You’ll also learn how to conduct a winning webcast and tell a story à la Pixar. Skim the possibilities!
Half the sugar, twice the love. A social corporate culture can spread from online to the real world, changing products and rituals. Coca-Cola circulated the socnets this week with a lively new way to “share happiness”: Coke cans that split in two for sharing with friends.
The Technicolor eye of the hive. Ever wonder what people are searching for right now? Google Trends’ “Hot Searches" tells you in real time… and in a giant font. Toggle by a limited number of countries, including the US, UK, and Canada. Get real-time relevant campaign inspiration, or just sit back and stare into the hivemind.
Wait there, Google postman. Probably in response to buzz-beloved inbox organizing tools like Mailbox and Sanebox, Google’s launched a Gmail revamp that promises to put you back in control. Separate tabs divide important mail, special offers/promotions, service updates, and social media messages, making the inbox your command center for organizing daily life, socializing, and maybe even… shopping?
Rebels with a tasty cause. In 2007, die-hard Nutella fan Sara Rosso launched World Nutella Day, celebrating the delectable hazelnut spread. The tradition spread, too… only to be squashed by Nutella owner Ferrero, which last week sent the heartbroken Rosso a cold, crisp (and not at all sweet) cease-and-desist. But when a brand succeeds in slipping into the lives and passions of fans, fans don’t give it up easily. Nutella Day’s 40,000 Facebook fans and 7,000 Twitter followers (not to mention all the blog readers rose in support of Rosso. This week, Ferrero’s employees finally contacted her to reinstill Nutella Day for good. Long live nutty, spreadable fandom.
Marketing with Moo. Super-trendy business card printer Moo is diving into branded content with its Startup Business Toolkit, an online resource for people seeking education and expert advice on entrepreneurship and marketing. This week’s topic is Marketing Your Startup on a Budget, with separate sections that explain the roles of content creation, WOM, influencer relationships, and online community engagement among others. Dive in!
What Instagram needed was more you. Instagram’s introduced a photo tagging feature that lets you both tag people and find pictures of yourself that you didn’t take, giving a wider context to the user accounts that just sat in their own universes. You’ll also be able to tag places, giving geographical context more social relevance. If you’ve got Instagram, check out your brand profile to see what kinds of photos people tag you in … better yet, encourage them to tag you! (But make the rules clear and coherent, so they’re not tagging you on every phallic object they find streetside.)
What’s in a CTA? Hubspot’s Dan Zarrella put together an infographic of different social calls to action, divided by platform: blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. What works better: “Please retweet” or “Please RT”? Should you ask people to “Like” or “Share”? Get the answer to these burning questions here.
FML goes G-rated. Yesterday in hijacks, Jell-O appropriated popular hashtag #FML (“f*** my life”) and gave it an optimistic twist: “FUN my life!” It’s diffusing it by responding to glum FML tweeters with jokes and gifts. Find some of its #FML responses on its “Fun My Life” subsite. Many tweeters are skeptical; others are jumping right on board. We’re not sure it’ll fly (FMLers are a willfully gloomy niche) but the effort may give a few people some (edible!) bounce.
#FML means Fun My Life, right? Because we’re answering a few lucky tweets with the very thing they need: fun. jellofml.com
— JELL-O (@JELLO) 20 mai 2013
Don’t be shy. Nervous about taking the social media plunge? Chris Abraham has written you a pep talk. Opening up is hard… but it also shows people you’re human.
Sephora is getting the Pinners. Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined, but penetration requires a solid Pinning strategy. For Sephora, the extra work’s worth it: It claims that Pinterest users spend 15 times more on products than Facebook users do. Explore how Sephora did it. Design boards focused on product promotion, as well as lifestyle boards that go deeper than “blush” or “lipstick” archives:
Win the masses from your desk. If you can’t score a keynote, give one from work. One simple way to build industry thought leader status is by webcasting (online discussions or lessons that you can provide in streaming to a limited number of participants). Paul Gillin provides 10 tips for giving a solid webcast, much of which should seem intuitive: imposing a time limit onto yourself, making it a conversation, using a Twitter hashtag, and more. (We can’t overemphasize the hashtag: this ensures marketing for both your current webcast and future ones, since Tweeters who aren’t watching may feel tempted to join the conversation.) For oratory inspiration, read Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. We can’t think of better masters to learn from. One of our favorites: “You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?”
Time to renew your passport? Twitter's expanded its Certified Products Program to include 11 new services targeted to international businesses in the US, Europe, Japan, and Latin America. They include Brandwatch, BuzzFinder, Curatorr, Engage Manager, Flowics, NTT DATA, Offerpop, Scup, TRUE TELLER SocialDesk, SocialGuide Intelligence, and Wayin. The program is pretty exclusive. It's only been expanded once prior since its August 2012 launch and now sports 33 companies, which include Adobe Social and Sprout Social. The news underlines Twitter's desire to better support international business needs, and is also a strong signal to developers about what they should be focusing on. The global B2B village is expanding!
