Community Management

Cancer Research UK on how its social team reacted to #nomakeupselfie

The #nomakeupselfie campaign has helped to raise more than £8m for Cancer Research UK. This money will fund 10 clinical trials, an astonishing achievement.

Many articles have commented on just why the campaign was so successful, from its mobile nature to the emotional triggers pulled by shared photographs.

What hasn’t been covered is just how Cancer Research UK dealt with such a large amount of social action. How does the team to react and capitalise on what some may think amounts to a black swan event?

I spoke to Aaron Eccles, senior social media manager at Cancer Research UK and asked him about the campaign. Here’s what I learned.

Google+ Hangouts: eight creative examples from global brands

It’s fair to say that Google+ has failed to capture the world’s imagination in the same way as Facebook and Twitter.

Many brands diligently update their pages on a daily basis yet see very few interactions in return, so maybe it’s time to try a different tack.

Hangouts is one of the few features that’s unique to Google+ and offers brands an excellent way to communicate with their followers on a personal level.

This can be done simply by hosting Q&As with employees and brand ambassadors, or through more creative Hangouts such as product demos or shoppable fashion shows.

To give some inspiration for your own events I’ve rounded up eight creative examples of Google Hangouts. Read on to find out more, or for additional information on this topic read our post on how to setup a Hangout.

Eight inspiring digital marketing campaigns from Samsung

Samsung has generated a bit of buzz in the tech world this week by announcing a Kanye West and Jay Z concert at SXSW that is only open to owners of its Galaxy devices.

It marks the continuation of Samsung’s association with Jay Z, as back in 2013 Galaxy owners could grab a free copy of the rapper’s new album by downloading an app.

This inspired me to delve further into Samsung’s back catalogue to see what other interesting digital marketing campaigns it had been come up with over the years.

You can also read similar posts focusing on digital campaigns from Coca-Cola, Nike and McDonald’s…

How are the UK’s fastest growing companies using Google+?

It’s a common declaration; ‘Google+ is a ghost town’. The search giant has amassed huge user numbers registered on its social network, but the lights are on while nobody’s home. 

The numbers seem to suggest as much, with apparently just 35% of Google+’s users active on a monthly basis, but anyone who’s a regular user will tell you the reality is more complicated than that.

The social network has hidden depths, they say. You’re just not doing it right. 

In our annual review of how the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 are using social media, we’ve found that the UK’s fastest growing technology companies are flocking to Google+, to the point where it’s on a par with Facebook in terms of businesses having a presence there. 

Why fashion label Marc Jacobs is so hot right now on Instagram

Fashion brand Marc Jacobs has managed to attract a massive following on Instagram, with 1.15m people in its community compared to 1.3m on Facebook.

Obviously some of its success will be down to its existing presence as an international fashion brand, but that’s not the sole reason for its huge following.

So to find out more, I investigated Marc Jacobs’ Instagram strategy to find out what makes it so popular.

And for more on this topic, read our blog post looking at nine different ways to use Instagram to market your brand.

Eight impressive social campaigns we’ve seen so far in 2014

In January I forgot to publish our monthly roundup of impressive social media campaigns. Please accept my apologies.

But fear not, for this post includes examples of high quality social campaigns that ran in the first two months of 2014.

So read on to see eight examples of innovative or interesting campaigns, featuring Urban Decay, Land Rover, Esurance, Renault and Juventus FC…

Forums: the cornerstone of brand reputation

No brand should underestimate the importance of its digital reputation, especially in this era of Google-first, buy later culture, not to mention the prevalence of review sites and social recommendations.

Although it is practically impossible to completely avoid negativity (just look at the comments of any YouTube video), it is how a company controls its surveillance of and response to these mentions that will help determine how it is perceived. By confronting issues as they arise, the impact that negative mentions online will have can be contained, helping to prevent a snowball effect from occurring.

Ensuring a brand is seen in the most positive light possible is essential for establishing and maintaining trust for customers, regardless of what the brand sells.

How Nordstrom uses Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google+

It’s been a while since I added to our series of posts looking at how major brands use social, so I thought it about time to pass judgment on another unsuspecting marketing team.

On this occasion the brand in question is fashion retailer Nordstrom which it turns out has a rather good social strategy, particularly when it comes to Pinterest.

This article follows on from similar posts looking at ASOS, Coca-Cola, Nike, H&M and Burberry, among others.

Enjoy!

Can you market to the over 50s on social?

It can be argued that over 50s are one of the final demographics not to be very well understood in terms of their relational social media behaviour with brands.

In the very early years of social, very few begged to ask the question or look into how brands can engage older consumers. It was assumed that they weren’t on the channels at all. 

And then the reports started coming through; the ‘Silver Surfers’ (a term I’ve always found slightly patronising) were flocking in droves! It’s a topic the Econsultancy has touched on before in a post looking at six design tips for making your website senior friendly.

But, like a horse without a cart, no one really nailed how to reach them in any meaningful way. 

Nine simple tips to help your business gain more Twitter followers

Nobody wants to tweet in a vacuum. We all want to know that someone out there is listening and enjoying what we have to say.

Admittedly that isn’t the best business case for increasing your amount of Twitter followers, but it is one of a number of reasons for wanting to attract more people to your feed.

A more pressing reason is that more followers means more exposure and better brand awareness, which in turn can lead to increased sales and revenue.

So to help you to boost your follower count I’ve come up with nine relatively simple tips that will help make you more popular on Twitter.

No single one of these tips will work as a golden bullet for your Twitter strategy – it’s not as easy as that unfortunately.

Instead you need to work at creating an interesting Twitter feed so people will want to follow and interact with you. That’s an ongoing process that takes time and effort, but these tips will at least give you a helping hand in the right direction.

If that doesn’t sounds like your kind of thing, you can always just go and buy a load of fake followers from a dodgy website somewhere, though that won’t really help your business.

Do big retailers need to create social value to succeed?

The high street debate is one that attracts much comment on the Econsultancy blog.

Feelings run high when it comes to ensuring the survival of stores in our towns. The situation has yet to crystallise, though it’s clear there are business models that aren’t best suited to bricks and mortar any more. 

Alongside the trend towards experiential retail (shops doing more than simply selling stuff that consumers can buy cheaper online), a trend towards creating social value in the community may be emerging. 

High street vacancy rates are steady in the UK at 14% in 2013 and independent stores such as cafes are on the increase. Part of the reason for this is social and local. 

Most of us still value our retail centres as places to take a ‘humanity bath’, meeting people outside of the office, the church/mosque/synagogue and your neighbourhood. 

But what else can big retailers do to engender a closer community? Does every store have to get involved? What about digital technology, can it play a part at a community level?

The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) has released a report detailing the business case for socially aware retail. The report includes the results of six months of research with three ASDA stores. 

Whilst most of the findings are relevant mainly for larger focal points, chiefly supermarkets, here’s what I gleaned…

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