Constructing a Social Media Campaign OBIAA 2016 | London, on Why Social Media?
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Constructing A Social Media Campaign OBIAA 2016 | London, ON Why Social Media? • Checking social media accounts while eating breakfast, on break at work, or before bed has become routine. • An active presence on the internet will introduce new customers to your business and will allow you to connect with preexisting customers. • Best of all social media is FREE to use! Percentage of U.S. population with a social media account Social Media users worldwide Social Media usage in U.S. by age With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Facebook is currently the market leader in terms of reach and scope. Why is this important to us? 92% of consumers trust earned media (such as recommendations from friends and family) above all other forms of advertising. (NIELSEN, 2012) Growing trend of young professionals and older couples moving downtown and to urban centers. (The Value of Investing in Canadian Downtowns, 2013) Downtown London is getting younger, richer, and busier, FAST. (State of the Downtown Report, 2013) • More tech companies • More art galleries • More theatres • More restaurants • More experiential retail Embrace this new creative-class! Storytelling and Social Media Social media gives you a way to tell your story. When crafting posts, consider these elements of a good story: • Characters • Setting • Theme • Plot • Conflict Show, don’t Tell • Images are more effective on social media than text, but not every picture is effective. Take photos of your business when people are in it! • This encourages customers to visit your social media pages to look for themselves, share, and tag friends. People will help tell your story online if they feel they are apart of it. • Plant the idea with your new or old customers: “Wow, we are missing out. We should visit.” Show, don’t Tell Show, don’t Tell Own what is Unique to You! • What makes you different? • What is your competitive advantage? • What are people missing out on? Own What is Unique to You! vs. Own what is Unique to You…Really! vs. Own what is Unique to You…Really! • To compete with the many other alternatives available to shoppers and diners (online shopping, malls, other cities, etc.) downtowns needs to “own” and embrace the unique experiences we offer. • Brainstorm what you can do to stand out from the rest of your competition. Embrace what makes your business unique. Why are you different? How can you be memorable? It can be weird, cool, simple, or complex, but social media gives you the opportunity to share it and stand out! The Tools Available: The Tools Available: The Tools Available: The Tools Available: Mange your Social Media • Only bite off as much as you can chew. • Quality over quantity. • Schedule posts ahead of time to be more timely, but keep engaged. • Measure your success so you can better understand what works, and what needs to change. Free Monitoring Tools • Hootsuite.com – link accounts, create and schedule posts, and track all your accounts on one page. • Google Search Console - monitor and maintain your site's presence in Google Search results. • Google Alerts - get email notifications any time Google finds new results on a topic that interests you. • Google Starting your campaign: 1) Craft a message • Decide on a goal. • What idea, experience, or feeling do you hope people take away? • Get detailed and decide on a direction. • Focus on experiences tailored to your audience. 2) Create a ‘Call to Action’ Prompt or incentivize your audience to engage with you. • Contests – Sign up to our newsletter this week to win tickets to the London Knights! • Questions – “Food Fest returns next week! What are some of your favorite restaurants downtown?” • Video – Watch now a behind the scenes tour of the Grand Theatre! • Read more – Blu Duby restaurant just launched a new menu and you’re going to love their new entrees! Follow the link and read more. 3) Reach more people… on a shoe string budget! Social Media ads are: • Highly Targeted • Customizable • Affordable • Measurable Find your audience Boost an Event Facebook Two Weeks • Budget: $250 • 591 new attendees from the ad. • 45cents / response • Reached 41,901 people Share a Video Facebook Two weeks • Budget: $300 • Generated 40,327 video views • Less than 1 cent / view Promote a Contest Twitter One week Vote in our people’s choice award until Tuesday October • Budget: $300 20th! Help pick the next #GetDTL winner! • 210 Clicks • 25,331 Impressions • $1.49 per Click Measure, measure, measure! • What gets measured gets done. • Look for trends. What works? What doesn’t work? • Monitor your growth. • Look for how much input you need to give to maximize your effectiveness. It is advertising, not a diary. • Draft, Edit, Revise! • Posting negative tweets or messages hurt your brand, can turn off costumers, encourages negative responses, and does not sell products or services. • Move concerns and customer service issues off of the public channel. It is advertising, not a diary. It is advertising, not a diary. It is advertising, not a diary. It is advertising, not a diary. It is advertising, not a diary. Don’t feed the troll. • People who actively and purposefully offend, upset, defame, and tease with provocative online posts. • They have a deliberate intent of provoking readers into an angry and emotional response. • Feed on responses and “Internet Points” Handling Feedback Feedback Real Troll Positive Negative Misguided Rager Report / Preference Criticism Ignore Block Fix the Facts Monitor Case Study: The premise was simple… Get Down. Get Snapping. Get Sharing. And Win! Tag a photo downtown with #GetDTL and be entered into a weekly Downtown Dollar prize. We would share the winners and submissions on www.GetDTL.ca and on our social media. We engaged downtown marketing agency, sagecomm, to help develop a strategic plan and creative materials. 1) Craft a message • Downtown London is the hub of shopping, dining, arts, and commerce. • Our competitive advantages over malls and online shopping are “experiences.” • Our goal is to get people downtown to experience our merchants. 2) Create a ‘Call to Action’ • Get Down. Get Snapping. Get Sharing. And Win! • By posting a photo with the hashtag #GetDTL, you were entered into a Downtown Dollar contest 3) Market on a shoe string budget • Encourage participation with small and large photo frame props. • Strategic social media ads to launch the campaign, promote a People’ Choice contest, and promote the Grand Prize draw. • Engage partners to participate and collaborate to stretch the campaign’s reach. The Large Frames: The “Star of the Show” • To kick off the campaign, we printed three 4x5 foot frames on water-proof coroplast. • Durable, light weight, portable, cheap! • We brought them to festivals, grand openings, special events, London Knights hockey games, and more! • Businesses could easily borrow the frame for their events if we couldn’t attend. • We encouraged downtown businesses to tag their neighbours and challenge them to take a photo themselves! The Small Frames: Just Point, Smile, and Shoot! • Thousands of small frames were distributed at restaurants, bars, retailers, festivals, and events. • Frames included instructions and contest info printed on the back. • Businesses encouraged customers to snap a photo of their meal, purchase, new do’, or of themselves! Partnerships! • We partnered with Tourism London to promote their London is On! campaign as part of Get Down. • This introduced us to a number of new advertising opportunities. • Helped share costs. • Rather than competing, we worked together to spread a unified message of downtown London as an exciting destination. We couldn't have done it without help! We engaged influencers to share the contest through their participation. • Western University’s Student Council • Fanshawe College’s Student Union • Budweiser Gardens • London Art’s Council • The London Convention Centre • The London Lightning and London Knights • Pride London • London City Council • And a number of downtown businesses and offices “ Things are happening downtown. Love the vibe! #GetDTL @MyDundas - Stephen Turner, City Councillor, City of London @st3v3turn3 “ Nice to see line ups downtown, vibrant core=vibrant #GetDTL #LDNENT - Mo Salih, City Councillor, City of London @MohamedMOSalih Mayor Matt Brown joined the fun! Get Down was shared in Mayor Brown’s monthly newsletters, and he took a number of photos with our frames throughout the campaign. Sharing our story! • Media coverage of the contest included attendance at the launch by 103.1 Fresh FM and the London Free Press. Following the contest’s launch, a story was published in Our London in early August. A wrap-up story by Our London in November announced our grand prize winner. • Winning photos were shared on our social media, and all of the submissions could be viewed on www.GetDTL.ca and our Facebook page. • We coordinated our businesses to launch e-blasts and social media posts to their customers about the campaign. Additional Support Our Tourism London partnership allowed Fun branded coasters, window clings, We redesigned our Zamboni at us to use their advertising space in the and point-of-sale giveaways were Budweiser Gardens to promote London Free Press, Budweiser Gardens, distributed to participating merchants, #GetDTL at London Knights and London is On! websites. restaurants, bars, salons, and farmers’ games. markets. Results • Launched July 24, 2015. • 2053 photo submissions, more than double the goal of 850 • Campaign generated an average of 21 photo submissions per day! • 2983 unique visits to GetDTL.ca exceeding the goal of 2200 • 45 new email subscribers through GetDTL.ca • 850 new Twitter followers during campaign period (7% increase) • 639 new Facebook followers during campaign period (19% increase) • 604 new Instagram followers during the campaign period (61% increase) • After meeting all of our goals early, we extended the contest from September 27, 2015 to October 25, 2015.