Will It Blend?
In late 2006, Utah-based Blendtec spent around $50 to launch a series of videos in which the company CEO, Tom Dickson, does a simple product demonstration of the Blendtec brand home and commercial blenders. He uses their blenders to grind everyday household objects including golf balls, soft drink cans, a Hannah Montana doll and an iPhone.
To promote the DQ Sweet Deals, the fast food chain recently offered free $5 gift cards to the first 250 bloggers who would “Write a blog post (or leave a comment) about what deal you’d make with us to try our Sweet Deals for free.”
Sure enough, they got their 250 bloggers in just a matter of days.
Different Types Of Social Media Video
From The Social Media Road Trip Workshop
This blog post updated January 11, 2012
By Kevin McIntosh
I’m gonna try and keep things simple for us here, by focusing on the different kinds of social media rather than all the different ways to integrate social media into your organization. That’s really not something you can learn in a single blog post.
So clear your mind and throw all your baggage in the trunk. We’re gettin’ ready to head down the next stretch of the road on our social media road trip as we take a look at different kinds of social media.
Social networking sites allow users to add friends, send messages and share content. People on social networking sites group in communities of like-minded interest. IMPORTANT: 1) The other types of social media outlined here also allow for networking, though they’re typically more focused on content sharing. 2) Don’t assume your audience isn’t participating in social networking. The growth of Facebook for example is phenomenal. The rate at which it is growing with men and women in their 60′s even is staggering.
Social bookmarking applications allow users to share their favorite online content with one another while also creating online bookmarks that the user can refer to in the same way he would a bookmark created offline in his web browser. Bookmarks may also count as a vote, hence content with lots of votes can rise to the top of the page results in that community.
Blogs are online journals where the author can write (blog) about any interest he wants. The blogger can also use the blog to share content picked up from other social media sites (YouTube, Issuu) by taking advantage of the simple embed codes offered by those content hosts.
A wiki refers to content created online as a result of multiple users working on the same content, but at different times and from different places. The “Different Types of Social Media” video from my online social media workshop
Photosharing sites are where people can upload photos to share either privately with only selected other users or publicly. Creative Commons licensing rights can grant permissions for others to use the photos by simply embedding the codes in their blogs. That is how I get most of the photos on my blog.
Geolocation sites are typically accessed through the user’s smart mobile phone. These sites feature “check-in” capabilities so that users can, if they choose, share their location with their social connections. This is a fast-growing area of social media as it has strong possibilities for retail marketing.
Similar to photosharing. Users upload video content to a site for sharing either privately or public.
Files can be uploaded as PDF’s and they are then converted to work with the online presentation applications. You’ll notice these presentation tools include embed codes and email options as well, making it easy for the content to be shared online.
Meetup.com and Facebook event invites for example. These types of social media allow you to plan and organize events including sending out invitations through your social network and also receiving RSVP’s.
In my recent blog post, 5 Marketing Questions To Ask In A Recession, I discussed how October 2008 changed everything. Business is now more competitive than ever. As a result, most every business out there will have to re-think their marketing. Most will also have to improve their products and services. Because recessions like the one we’re looking at right now have a cruel way of thinning the herd.
We’re now seeing brands suffer that we never dreamed would. Most notable, the 3 major automobile manufacturers, who are now relying on the US government to bail them out. Circuit City has declared bankruptcy and is closing all of its 567 stores. Even Microsoft announced today that they’ll be laying off 5,000 employees, the first massive layoff in the company’s 34-year history. These are just a few examples.
While marketing isn’t the only reason some of our largest brands have suffered, I do believe in many cases it has played a role. Obviously business strategy has played a major role, as well.
But now, the playing field has changed for just about everyone. And competition is heating up.
All of this reminds me of a game we played in my copywriting course in college. The game was called “Knock-Knock.”
The way the game worked was, we all had to line up outside the classroom door. Then one by one, we’d knock on the door. Our professor would crack the door open. At that point, each student would have to say why the professor should open the door. And the professor wouldn’t let us in until we came up with a good reason.
I now understand and appreciate that game more than ever. It was a very simple yet effective demonstration of how marketing really works.
Right now, you’re probably having more trouble getting into some doors. Or perhaps you’re already on the inside, but you feel the pressure of trying to stay there because you know others are now knocking to get in and take your place.
Your relationships with your clients and customers may have kept you where you are for some time now. But when times get tough, relationships will get sacrificed for the bottom line. As the saying goes, “Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
As I’ve said before, October 2008 changed everything.
Are you developing the right kind of marketing strategies and brand messages that will push your business to the other side of this recession? Are you implementing social media strategies to create digital word-of-mouth for your brand? Are you giving your audience a reason to open the door that is better than the reason you had last year?
If not, you might want to get serious about your plan for 2009. Because you can bet that someday soon there will be wolves knocking on your clients’ doors.
–Kevin McIntosh
