The Future of Social Network Marketing?

The current state of social network marketing relies very heavily on two elements; a promotion and user generated content centred around the brand message. In other words, its competitions and users uploading content that somehow encapsulates what the brand is trying to say. That’s pretty much it. I would bet there are few campaigns that go beyond these elements. Why? Because they are tried and tested, and, more importantly, safe and easy. Now don’t get me wrong promotions can work, but just because everybody else is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s right for you.

McMarketing: The Strange Marketing of the Big Mac

One company that keeps on cropping up when I’m looking up examples of guerrilla and ambient marketing is McDonalds. The fast food giant knows a thing or two about how to break through the advertising clutter out there to connect with their target audience in new and interesting ways. Whatever your own personal view of the chain is, it’s hard to knock some of these examples of clearly clever marketing. These examples, from around the world, really puts my local McDonald’s to shame, with their discount coupon on the front of the local paper. Or was that Burger King? Hard to differentiate when both of them use the same tactics. For a chain that thrives on having a menu that is almost identical the world over, they do like to mix things up in their marketing. Here’s 15 examples of cool McDonalds Marketing.

5 Local Businesses Rocking Facebook (& Social Media)

At last weeks Martketing Institute presentation I used three local examples from here in Waterford, Ireland, to demonstrate how Facebook is being used for marketing by local businesses. The point in using local examples was to demonstrate that it’s not just the big brands and multi-national co’s who can incorporate Facebook into their marketing strategy, but its happening right here on our doorstep. Here’s those three examples again plus two new ones. Each example demonstrates a local business who have nailed, in my opinion, at least one aspect of social network marketing. In no particular order

4 Examples of When Not to be on Facebook

There’s an argument for and against any business being on Facebook, many firms just jump in without giving a reasonable amount of thought or consideration as to why they are doing it. But not every business should be on facebook. However here’s four instances when companies should definitely not be on a social network, including when viral marketing works against the product, shoddy products, problems that can not be solved and when firms have poor customer service.

15 Facebook for Business Tips

So last weeks presentation for the Marketing Institute got me thinking about Facebook and its use for business. So this week I’m going to do a bit of focusing on Facebook and using it for marketing. So here’s 15 basic tips that you should know before embarking on a Facebook strategy. Covering everything from vanity URL, to analytics to profile personalisation.

Market To Me (Powerpoint)

Here’s my slides from the Marketing Institute event I presented at last night. It’s called market To Me and covers why people want to be marketed to on Facebook. It’s based on research I carried out last year into people’s attitudes and opinions of social network marketing. The research was conducted amongst 12 people in Ireland and the UK who took part in in-depth interviews of 60 – 70 min duration.

Youth Marketing:Keeping Up With Gen Y and Why You Need To

I’m going to be presenting at the next Marketing Institute of Ireland south east branch event ‘Youth Marketing:Keeping up with Gen Y and Why You Need To’. It’s on Thursday April 29th at 6pm in The Gallery Restaurant in Waterford Institute of Technology.

I’ll be presenting research I carried out last year into the attitudes and opinions of social network users into marketing on that channel. I’ll also be including a lot of my own experiences and some existing case studies to help illustrate the presentation. I’m up first and will be followed by the CEO of Beat 102-103 Gabrielle Cummins. I’m quiet excited about this so lets hope it all goes to plan. More info….

Bebo ‘Bigger Than Google’

What a bizarre statement from AOL last week announcing the imminent sale or closure of the once very popular (at least in Ireland, the UK and New Zealand) social network site Bebo. Bizarre, not only due to the huge price the company purchased Bebo for ($850 Million) in March 2008, but bizarre because if anyone had considered Bebo as a viable service will certainly reconsider that opinion. Last week many former Bebo users were busy removing old pics and uploading them to Facebook if they hadn’t done so already, while marketers with a sizeable presence on the site must surely be looking at moving away from Bebo to their other channels…. more….

Digital Music Event Marketing (3)

My final post in the music marketing ideas series. These ideas were cooked up working on a project with Betapond here in Waterford at the end of last year. The brief was simple – come up with a bunch of marketing ideas for a music event that include some online element. The last two posts featured 7 ideas that were aimed at increasing online buzz prior to the event, this last post will look at 4 ideas to make the customers experience better during the event, and generating marketing content from the event that could be used at a later stage to position the event as unforgettable, and hopefully whet appetites for the next one.

Brands Bite the Chat Roulette Bullet

Chatroulette is a slightly bizarre service that has been the subject of many media reports and screenshot fails in recent months. Its appearance from what seems like nowhere, it being run by a Russian teenager, just shows the power of the internet, where anything can have its moment to shine. Will the moment last for Chatroulette it’s hard to know, but it has made enough of an impact in such a short space of time that the potential exists for it to be incorporated into marketing.