Brands should be leveraging real time search! Here is why….
Tonight is Superbowl madness. Seems everyone on twitter is abuzz talking about the ads, the game or the halftime show. So as long as the theme of this blog is primarily social media and marketing I have a suggestion to make to all of the brands paying millions for their 30 second spots.
Turn your thirty second spots into conversation starters and engage with the real people generating real buzz around your brand.
Tonight, I noticed that just after a spot ran for a device called Flo-TV that Twitter was quickly making mention of everything from how the device looked to the viability of a one-dimensional device that is only meant to stream TV. So without getting into the discussion about the technology, I ask, “Why is that brand not engaging in the immediate feedback and mentions?” They have a twitter account and it has an offer for a Flo-TV personal device give away. Traditional push marketing tactics that in my opinion will take them nowhere!
Give people a reason not only to mention your brand but to interact with you.
What types of things could Flo-TV and the other brands be doing in these channels?
1. Extending brand mentions and buzz into real conversations. People like to do business with people.
2. Answering questions about the product or service.
3. Building and embracing the community.
4. Driving people to a measurable landing page with a call to action.
5. Build a community of passionate users.
The list goes on and on but I cannot stress how valuable it would be for brands to be leveraging the buzz and chatter around their products. This is the cheapest form of brand-extension known to man! Take a multi-million dollar investment in a 30 second spot and generate real measurable ROI!
Real Time Conversation
Since starting to write this blog post (about the length of half-time) there have been nearly 1,000 mentions of “flo-tv” or “flo TV” on search.twitter.com. Watching the google real time search field will make your eyes spin like a slot machine. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anyone there to collect the money.
Overwhelmed
So lets say there is someone at the other end of all these mentions. Heck, I’m sure their PR firm is collecting data of all the mentions. Maybe, the brand or people monitoring the mentions feels a bit overwhelmed. If this is the case and they have not thought of the real time effect it would have on the digital space I don’t believe they should lose all hope. Spend the next month engaging with the folks that took the time to mention the brand. Take the time necessary to connect with them. Build a community space where people can ask questions and leave feedback. The SEO value of all this content could pay for itself for the next year!
In the next five years I am betting integrated marketing suggestions like these will become the norm or best practice. It will be interesting to see if Flo TV responds to me in the next few hours or days.
How are you extending your advertising budgets?
Final Side Tweet:
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
@Edw3rd I would guess that the consumer-facing mobile teams are struggling with how to have an identity. Qualcomm is a traditional B2B company led by engineers, not marketers. The Firethorn mobile wallet application faces the same dilemma – mobile operators don’t have the time/money to push ALL consumer applications or enabled features, so it will be up to the brand.
Michele, It is smart to point people to places where they can engage. However, if that is done there better be someone there to respond to them.
Ed, I get that. In fact it is very true that the culture of a company is magnified in the social media space. Qualcomm, while having ‘comm’ at the end of their name is not much of a communicator. That being said, they did hire an advertising firm to generate their ad. I’m sure they pay huge to keep PR firms on retainer and they all dropped the ball on this opportunity. When do the big firms wise up to these channels?
Shyam Kapur I enjoyed this post greatly. You are absolutely right. The comments are good, too. Brands have no excuse now to not leverage social media smartly. They have the tips they need from folks like you. And, they have tools like TipTop http://FeelTipTop.com to analyze the relevant data smartly for free.
Keith,
This is a great look at how traditional Marketing 1.0 could merge to Marketing 2.0. With 7,000 responses in a few minutes, that’s a gold mine filled with prospects, early adopters, and talkers. Even if they do not all become buyers, they could all become advocates.
I think this really sheds the light on the traditional advertising approach. I hope Ad Agencies and PR Firms see this post. That’s a lot of money to spend, start a conversation and then not reply.
Nicely done Keith.
I completely agree. If it were me, I would have added the twitter username and put something like… Continue the conversatin @FloTV. The conversation will happen whether you are there or not. But best to be there.
And overwhelmed is not a good enough excuse for me. You don’t need to respond to each and every comment. But just being part of the conversation shows you want to be engaged with your potential customers.
Michele McGraw´s last blog ..The Biggest Snowstorm of My Life (aka Snowmageddon) in Video