Jello hijacks #FML: Fun My Life!

Yesterday, a friend of mine filled me in on a social media promotion being run by Jello (thanks, Sarah!). Before I say too much, I have to preface this post by revealing that I grew up and went to high school in Leroy, NY – birthplace of Jello. I remember taking school field trips to the Jello Museum throughout grade school, the local McDonald’s features historic images of Jello production on the walls and the Jello factory still stands in town.

While I’ll probably always look at Jello as practically pre-historic, the company is showing that it’s still relevant in the Internet Era and becoming very active on social media. Currently, Jello is attempting to hijack the commonly used acronym FML. Most recognize this as “f*ck my life,” but Jello is turning a frown upside down, using the phrase to express “Fun My Life” instead.

My initial reaction to hearing about this was one of extreme skepticism. FML is an incredibly recognized phrase used both online and offline. Not only did I think that re-defining the acronym would be near impossible, I was also concerned because of its vulgar nature. Why would Jello want to associate itself with that? In short, I expected this to completely backfire in a similar fashion to McDonald’s infamous faux pas, #McDStories. 

My skepticism began turning around once I learned that Jello was very actively responding to FML tweets. The truth of the matter is that when people are frustrated and say “f*ck my life,” they really are in need of a pick-me-up of some kind – and that’s exactly what Jello is aiming to provide.

But I still wasn’t convinced that this would be a good promotion for Jello. I didn’t really see where the connection to their product was. Sure, they’re trying to connect Jello with happiness and fun times, but would anyone else make that association?

To my surprise, the answer is yes. People who have tweets replied to by Jello have no choice but to make the connection because of the illustration images that are being sent along with the reply. Check these out:

It took me a minute to realize it at first, but each illustration includes a pack of Jello! They’re even subtly branded with the Jello logo on the right side of the packaging.

After taking a look at some of these, I think Jello turned me around. I think this campaign totally rocks. The images are:

• easily share-able to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest;
• social and engaging;
• able to legitimately associate Jello with fun;
• able to give a much better, more positive meaning to #FML.

What do you think – Can Jello pull this off?

Creating Viral Campaigns With Twibbon

 

On behalf of the American Red Cross, I’ve been using Twibbon for the first time to rally support for a series of blood drives that will (hopefully) set new records and cumulatively collect over 1003 units of blood – one more than Theo, from Buffalo, NY, needed to save his life in March of 2011.

If you haven’t used (or heard of) Twibbon before, it’s a social platform that allows individuals to show their support for specific organizations, causes and points of view.

For example, check out this Twibbon for Special Needs, or this one for the Boston Red Sox.

There are a number of features that Twibbon offers that we in the world of digital marketing need to know about:

• The actual “Twibbon” is a mark that is laid on top of supporter’s profile pictures on Facebook and/or Twitter.
• Give users multiple Facebook Cover Photos to choose from for their own profiles.
• Direct visitors to your campaign page to any website you want – use this link space to boost attendance, donations or sales.
• Create copy for Tweets and Facebook posts for individuals to publish on their profiles when they support your campaign.

I think my favorite part of using Twibbon was the design support we received by upgrading to a Pro account. For a one-time fee of $99, the Twibbon team provided our Campaign Header, Twibbon image, and Facebook Cover Photos – and they did so surprisingly quickly.

This tool is under-utilized and there’s a lot of room for organizations to leverage it to create viral campaigns that result in brand visibility and consumer action. Think about some of these possible uses of Twibbon:

• Colleges could invite incoming freshman to use Twibbon during orientation to be able to quickly recognize each other as part of the same class.
• Professional organizations, like the PRSA or AMA could invite members to use their Twibbon to display their loyalty to the group and encourage others to join.
• An organization with a strong brand, like Starbucks, could use Twibbon to let their brand ambassadors show off their love for Starbucks coffee!

How do you think Twibbon could help your organization?

Constitutive Rhetoric to Recruit Faith

While enjoying a particularly meaningful church service on this Palm Sunday, I had a bright moment of clarity that presented itself to me in almost tangible form. I did not see God, though. On the contrary, my realization is one that the pastor who was speaking and my parents would be a bit less thrilled with (though my Rhetoric professors at school would be pretty happy with me).

Speaking in generalities – something that I’ll admit can’t be done by someone trying to actually convince someone else of any kind of factual truth – the churches that I have always attended use inclusion and exclusion in their dialogue. Religious messages are often based on assumption that essentially works to recruit individuals to join the faith.

Example: these are all actual quotes copied from this morning’s service, given by Pastor Tom Stroup at Brockport Free Methodist Church. In bold are the portions of the sentences that were left in the sermon notes as blank lines, intended for the audience to fill in.

• “Sometimes I think God has forgotten about me BUT God never forgets me!”
• “Even when it seems life is hopeless, hope is what I have in Christ!”
• “Caiphas would Kill Jesus to save Israel from Rome, BUT Jesus died to save us from our own sinfulness.“

It’s subtle, but do you see what they did, there?

Churches frequently use words like I, WE, and US to formulate an in-group and out-group. The in-group are those that believe in God, have hope in Christ, etc. The out-group, obviously, are those that do not. If you had attended church this morning at BFMC, you never had the chance to decide which of those groups you belonged to. They actually decided for you. Even more – you wrote the words on the blanks, participating in the process.

It’s a fallacy of assumption, and it works.

Let’s brainstorm a few individuals who could have been in the pews this morning.

• A child too young to completely understand religion, too young to have made any of his or her own decisions in regard to what he or she believes in.
• A recovering alcoholic who was urged to pick a church and find God by a friend of his that goes to his Alcoholics Anonymous classes.
• An atheist who believes in seeing both sides of an issue and therefore attends different churches from time to time.

Would we consider any of those individuals to be part of the in-group? I would not.

This is the point in the blog post at which I need to give readers notice of two things:

1. Though it may seem like I am writing in a tone of disapproval of this inclusive language and rhetorical technique, that is not true.
   
2. This is a Marketing blog. Occasionally, I am inspired to write things that are more religious, political, or cultural in nature, and when I do I usually have them posted on Trova101 (Thanks, Mark Trova!). This one, though, is here on Millennial’s Marketing. That’s because there is some marketing insight quickly approaching.

Not to take any sanctity out of religion, but… by engaging in this practice, churches are only  tapping into widely used marketing techniques.

In the fields of persuasion, like advertising and public relations, marketers are selling something. It might be an ideology, a product, a service, a human-being, or a cause, but they are selling something just the same. When you tell someone something about them-self, it is only a matter of time until they begin to believe it and use it to construct their own identity. I believe that participation in the message itself only accelerates that process, which can be seen in this morning’s church example. The equivalent, in marketing rather than religion, are social media channels.

Don Draper once famously said, “People want to be told what to do so badly that they will listen to anyone.” Is your church and religion as a whole led by an incredibly faithful individual, or an expert marketer?

Probably both.

 

 

Facebook Graph Search to Harness Social Data

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook announced the social media giant’s newest feature: Graph Search. If the News Feed and Timeline are the first two pillars of Facebook usage, Zuckerberg believes that this is the third.

So what does it do?

Essentially, Graph Search allows Facebook users to sift through the information shared with them from other users. In other words, I could search for restaurants that my friends have been to in the New York City area. Or, for example, I could search for photos that I Liked on Facebook before 2003.

Google is to web results as Graph Search is to social results.

So why does it matter?

I’ll be the first to say that this introduction definitely matters, and Facebook absolutely needed it. We are all used to Facebook implementing changes and new designs, and we are all used to complaining about it for weeks afterward (until we all get used to it and then all of a sudden can’t imagine life without the Timeline). But this is vastly different than those occasions.

Graph Search is finally going to harvest, organize, and utilize the massive amount of information that is available on Facebook. That information, friends, is powerful stuff.

I think, broadly, Graph Search will do two things:

1. Provide an added benefit to users.

Pretty regularly, I see a friend of mine post something on Facebook basically asking their friends for a recommendation. Today, it was for a pediatrician in the Greece, NY area. But that’s just a simple example. People ask for advice from friends all the time. Now, with Graph Search, this will be easier and more productive.

Facebook will be able to aid individuals in decision-making.

2. Make it significantly more important for brands to connect with users on Facebook.

If Facebook is going to be used to help people make decisions about what restaurants to dine at, which store to make shop at, and which bands to listen to, it instantly becomes hugely more important for brands to connect with fans on the platform to take advantage of the search results that it can lead to.

Facebook, and social media in general, are sometimes ignored by businesses because it’s difficult to see results, and it’s difficult to sell anything. Graph Search will greatly improve ROI, because the third-party endorsements that are made on Facebook will be more accessible and widely used. If businesses choose to ignore Facebook, after the introduction and implementation of Graph Search, they will surely be missing out on valuable endorsements.

Do you think Graph Search will benefit Facebook’s long-term financial health?

Firestone Understands Social Marketing

I captured this screen-shot while browsing Facebook recently.

It’s a great example of social-marketing.

Hard-marketing doesn’t work in social media. That’s why the Firestone ad doesn’t read, “Firestone tires are better than other tires when driving at night.” People get annoyed with hard-marketing when it clutters their valued social spaces, and it doesn’t result in sales.

Instead, the company takes a softer approach, and positions itself as a thought-leader in the automobile industry.

It provides a helpful tip for its audience. Granted, it’s something that most drivers are already aware of, but they are still giving advice to people on how to drive more safely. And it’s also important to note that the driving tip has absolutely nothing to do with tires, the product that Firestone sells the most.

No product is mentioned in the ad. To me, that means that Firestone understands social advertising. They added value in the form of a driving tip to the audience, and backed it up with some subtle branding: “Make your car a Firestone.”

No, I didn’t see the sponsored Facebook post and go to Firestone’s website to buy something. However, Firestone put itself in the forefront of my mind, and made me think positively of the company. When I do need new tires, I’m more likely to buy Firestone.

Do you think that Firestone Tires has the right strategy?

#Election2012

A few days later, I feel like the presidential dust has settled. Now in the aftermath, we are free to reflect on what was the without a doubt the first social election.

Were you on Twitter during election night? If so, you were almost certainly bombarded by election-related tweets. In fact, over 20 million tweets including #Election2012 were sent on election day, which made it the most tweeted political event to date.

Check out this interview with Twitter’s Manager of Journalism & News, Mark Luckie, about the tracking that Twitter performed in an effort to predict the outcome of the election.

Chances are, you’ve seen Barack Obama’s victory tweet:

Four more years. pic.twitter.com/bAJE6Vom

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012

Right now, it has over 812,000 retweets, which makes it the most retweeted post in Twitter history.

The signs are all around us. People are paying more and more attention to social media. It’s becoming a way of life.

I think it is summed up best by this tweet:

https://twitter.com/nickbilton/status/266025523484979201

In four years, do you think social media will play more or less of a role in the Presidential election?

Social Media Age-Cap?

In case you missed it, here is the article written by Cathryn Sloane explaining her belief that people younger than 25 are the best equipped to handle social media efforts for businesses.

There has been more than enough backlash and anger directed at this girl in the last week, so I’m going to do my best to avoid simply repeating that. I’m also going to avoid picking her argument apart line, by line, by line – which is pretty tempting.

However, I do want to take an official stance on the topic of age in social media, both as a 20 year old college student AND as someone that plans on working in the field for a long time… even past the age of 25.

I think I have boiled my thoughts down to three main issues with Cathryn’s point of view. First is that social media, just like anything else, will never be an isolated tactic for a business. In other words, successful Marketing requires a bunch of different tactics to work together, like media relations, trade shows, direct mail campaigns and advertising.

Therefore, social media managers need to have knowledge of how a business truly operates, and how social media can fit into that overall structure.

Second – at her age, Cathryn can not possibly be aware of or familiar with all forms of Marketing. B2B Marketing is a completely different ball game. Additionally, every industry is different.

This summer, I began working in social media at Carestream Health, a global provider of medical imaging devices and IT solutions. It was new for me in many ways – my first B2B organization, my first global corporation, and my first jump into healthcare. If there is one thing that the summer has taught me, it is that I am in a completely different universe at Carestream than I had ever been in before.

When you’re dealing with products that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, things change a little bit. The purchasing process is completely different. Usually, customers need approval from boards of directors before buying anything, and price plays much more of a role than emotion does in that process. Not to mention, in healthcare, lives are at stake. People generally put more thought into the things that Carestream sells than what type of candy bar to buy in the aisle at Wegmans.

So, yes, maybe Cathryn and I and people in our age bracket grew up adapting to social media platforms as they progressed, but I certainly didn’t grow up thinking about things like dose reduction, mobile imaging, or vendor neutral archiving (just to name a few things that are pretty crucial in radiology). I couldn’t possibly operate the social media efforts for this company alone without a broader understanding of the field.

Third, it’s all about perspective. Cathryn seems to think that she was around when the revolution began, and will be around for it’s entirety. The fact of the matter, though, is that she was not, and will not be. In reality, we may have been around when Facebook opened it’s doors to the public, sure. But does anyone really think that the social revolution started with that one, single event?

If Cathryn really wanted to be around for the whole process, she would have had to witness the first personal computer, or been one of the first users of the internet. My point is, social networking didn’t just fall out of the sky. It may have facilitated and progressed the social world, sure – but there were pieces in place before Facebook, and there will be others after Facebook.

This isn’t a new concept, all technology is like this. For example, there was a time when record players were up and coming technology, and recording TV shows onto VHS tapes was ground-breaking. Obviously, those have been outdated. Isn’t it a little ignorant to think that my generation is somehow better than technology moving past us?

I am completely ready for the day that my grandson calls me an old-geezer when I don’t understand the latest gadget that he’s playing with. That’s a part of life, regardless of what era you grew up during.

Here’s the bottom line: some people get it, and others don’t. Earlier this week, I vented via Twitter about my frustration with people that don’t understand hashtags. Specifically, there’s a person that I follow on Twitter, who happens to be an older man, that frequently uses #?OfTheDay in his Tweets.

It’s shocking to me that he has yet to realize that using punctuation in a hashtag doesn’t work. In the last few months, he hasn’t noticed that none of his hashtags are clickable? Clearly, this individual just doesn’t understand.

That being said, I’ve learned a ton already this summer from a social media superstar at Carestream, who happens to be over 25.

So, no, I don’t think there needs to be an Age-Cap on social media!

 

Both Edges of the Social Media Sword are Positive

Recently, I realized first hand that not all executives at companies are necessarily in love with social media. In fact, some may not believe that their company should be using it at all.

To prove that these individuals are, in my opinion, misguided, take a look at a snapshot of my day:

6:30 AM – wake up, immediately wishing I could stay in bed.

8:00 AM– Get to work right on time and begin scouring the Blogosphere via Twitter & my new favorite iPad app, Mr. Reader.

Mr. Reader is a Google Reader client for iPad.

8:15 AM – Discover this Mashable article. on Vizify, a service that produces free graphical biographies.

9:30 AM – Complete my bio – I love it.

12:00 PM – Lunch break: Scour the blogosphere using Twitter & Mr. Reader again. (Some people may consider this an addiction.)

12:05 PM – Discover that a friend, Heather Saffer, also made her bio today.

I asked her what she thought of it:

This isn’t exactly a noteworthy series of events for me. In fact, something like this generally happens to me every day. And yet, sometime during my lunch break something hit me with more clarity than ever before:

This perfectly exemplifies the double-edged sword that is social media.

First, the positives:

• Social media, and digital tools in general, are used to spread information. Without using Twitter & Mr. Reader, I would never have heard of Vizify – leaving me incapable of using this awesome tool.

• I liked Vizify so much that I endorsed it. That is free, third-party marketing on behalf of Vizify. Additionally, I emailed invitations to other users that I think will enjoy the service, further spreading my discovery. This is viral marketing at it’s finest, and tools like Twitter allow that.

Now, the negatives:

• Whenever people are talking about your product, they may say something negative. You can see for yourself that my conversation with Heather today took a respectfully negative turn. Obviously, when there is something bad to say, Twitter is a venue for that as well.

I always try to end things on a positive note:

• Even the negativity can be seen as a good thing. First of all, it’s free feedback that should be highly valued. Normally, to get feedback like this, a company would need to send surveys to collect information – there are a ton of costs associated with that process! Furthermore, this type of feedback is less biased and more honest.

• Second of all, the fact that this negative dialogue occurred on a social media platform means that Vizify will have the chance to respond to it. I think we can all probably agree that when companies have a presence during a negative situation, it reflects upon them in a more positive way. By having the ability to respond to criticism, Vizify can turn a negative into a positive.

One thing is for sure:

Whether or not Vizify had a presence online, I was probably going to have the same conversation that I had this morning. If Vizify wasn’t there to witness it, they would lose out on the feedback, and they would lose out on a lot of the free marketing potential that social media unlocks.

David Meerman Scott, Author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR

This is one thing that one of my favorite authors, David Meerman Scott, writes about often.

I think him and I, and hopefully you, can all agree that every organization needs an online presence.

Have you ever dealt with resistance to social media efforts by an executive? How did you deal with that situation?

Starbucks and Crown Royal face America’s issues head-on

Today at work, I was lucky enough to notice two eye-catching stories on Twitter. Both involve a national brand using some outstide-the-box marketing strategies.

And, both campaigns make me love the brands even more.

Starbucks is giving away free coffee on July 4 to unite the nation.

Crown Royal sponsors a program called Safe Rides Home

Twitter’s Tailored Trends presents both opportunities and limitations

Last week, I heard the news that Twitter would be rolling out Tailored Trends. Within a 30 seconds, I experienced reactions including: thrilled, angry, mortified, and apathetic.

Have you seen this notification on Twitter yet?

Twitter’s blog post on the subject claims that the change is meant to, “bring you closer.” But is that really the point of trending topics? I’m not so sure.