Webinar Slides: How Big Brands Do Facebook Marketing

Here's a very good presentation on Facebook marketing. As I always tell clients, the best way to learn about social marketing is to observe what other brands are doing. There are some case studies mentioned but since there is no audio we'd just have to infer what is talked about from the slides. The good thing here is that they clearly define the value of using Facebook as a marketing platform.

Find the presentation here.

A Site for Web Developers and Designers

Here's a good site to look at for web designers and developers. With a lot of designers out there designers should not only make the site look good but it should be very functional and essentially do what it is supposed to do.

Check this out: http://2010.designmeltdown.com/

Pingo - a useless gadget you'd probably like to have

Here's a gadget which isn't necessarily useful but might be nice to have. It's a digital companion, it announces stuff from the web like email alerts, it responds to voice commands and they say it interacts with other Pingos on the net. Here's the video:



I don't really see any functional use for it but I'd like to have one.

Success - everybody can see the results but they don't appreciate the work behind it

A talk from TED.com - Measuring what makes life worthwhile

I am at the beginning of a new journey of starting my own business. I've been wanting to start something on my own ever since realizing I will never be happy with how other people run things. I always feel so smart that I think I can do better (this is not necessarily true though). This was actually something that was forced upon me and I realize that I will probably never start my own if I was never forced in this situation. The security knowing where you paycheck will come from is just hard to let go.

When I had to accept that I had to do things own my own I sent an SMS message to myself to help me remember a few guidelines or a certain philosophy I should follow when I start my business - Work should be fun, work with people you like - a happy environment creates better results.

It's just a simple realization that work is just a means to an end and being happy should be the ultimate goal.  The old cliche goes find work that you love and you will never have to work a single day of our life. Well, this is my goal now and this should be my guiding creed. It is quite serendipitous that I ran across this talk on one of my favorite websites TED.com

I was part of a start-up company a few years back and I saw the importance of having a vision and developing a corporate identity this is touched briefly on the video I will be posting. Even as a person you have to at least know who you are to move forward and find your happiness.

Enjoy the talk and know what you really want to value in life.

Filipino Martial Arts (Taking a Break from Digital Marketing)

I'll just take a break from my digital marketing stuff (which may be lame to  lot of people anyway) to post something on Filipino Martial Arts. It's one of the greatest cultural exports of the Philippines but very few know it locally. This teaser should give you an idea of what it is. I'm really enjoying it, not to really fight but it is also a good form of exercise. It brings my aggressive nature which I feel I'll need in business (I'd like to kick client ass sometimes - this is a warning actually hehe)

Digital Marketing is Changing the Pace of Marketing

I just realized while making one of my client presentations how the digital marketing platform has changed the pace of marketing. It is truly the generation now pace. With the social networks, where consumers are hooked 24/7 you can upload promotional materials, implement promos, communicate with your target market instantaneously. You can even do this anytime of the day. The good thing is - you'll probably have someone watching your Facebook page, your Twitter account and most probably your site (your social networks will lead them to the site anyway).

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is one company who is fond of implementing midnight run promotions (if I remember correctly). They simply place something like 'visit our site starting 12mn and you'll get great deals'. It was too late for me to try it out (I guess I didn't have a place to go to). But it's a good example of how of how digital offers companies opportunities to convert consumers anytime of the day probably any day of the week.

This is one reason why it's a must that brands should have a presence in the social networks. Consumers no longer surf the net to look for interesting sites but sites are recommended to them by peers via the social networks. People are stuck in their Facebooks or Twitter choosing the content they want to click on. As smart phone usage grows more and more people will be connected to the social network 24 hours a day 7 days a week posting status message and Tweets at their convenience.

It's now time to take a serious look at real time promotions catching people at the most opportune time and push purchase. These social networking sites are now placing location based applications - marketers will know where you and they can offer you prime deals because you're near their outlet.

For the marketers and advertisers it's time to think of campaigns given this pace and the constantly changing technology. I expect the consumers to get a loot of cool offers.

Mashable.com

I follow Mashable.com on Twitter and I constantly find myself clicking on the links they post. As much as I'd like to comment on some of these articles and apply them to the Philippine digital marketing scene I just couldn't find time to post it.  I do suggest that you follow them on Twitter and constantly visit their site for constant updates on social media marketing and online marketing in general. Since I use this blog as my own resource and sometime I ask potential clients and current clients to check it out. Here are some articles from Mashable.com that I find interesting (and I need to close these tabs on my laptop already).

Twitter Launches 'Places' Feature with Foursquare Integration - I believe that location based social networks will be the next platform for social networking and Twitter is preparing themselves for this. I should expound on some case studies location based programs in my future blog posts.

Inside Gatorade's Social Media Command Center - Aside from having a friend who works for Pepsi here in the Philippines, I think this shows how companies have embraced social media marketing. This is essentially how far digital marketing has gone in the US. With the Filipino embracing the social networks I expect more brands here to really start building their internal digital teams to take advantage of the Filipino's who just love these social networks.



6 Tips for Experimenting with Web Video - I touched on viral marketing on a previous post. This might be helpful if you plan on video virals.

Here's an article on how to measure your company's social media efforts, based on the article it's quite to use the application around $2,000 - there an opportunity here to do it manually or develop a similar application. Here's the actual site of the application.

Since I'll be starting on my own business soon I think this article '5 Teen Social Media Trends That Can Be Applied to Small Business' would be a good read for me and my potential clients.

The last article I'd like to recommend is '10 Web Design Bloggers You Should Follow' - you'll need a nice and functional site anyway.

Oh My God What Happened

I was in a meeting the other day and I touched briefly on viral marketing. People think when it's viral marketing it's a viral video but it doesn't have to be a video it can actually be an article or any content compelling enough that people will latch on to it and automatically spread it.

One concrete example I gave is www.ohmygodwhathappened.com written by digital marketing people. I saw this link being spread on Twitter so I immediately clicked on it. I suggest you go to that link and check it out.

Coincidentally I came across another viral campaign that didn't make use of a video that same day. It's a campaign to support the sports line of a clothing brand Uniqlo. Here's the link www.uniqlo.com/sportweet/us/. The two examples shown used Twitter as a platform but Facebook is as good or maybe a better platform for viral ideas such as these.

The Value of Building Your Fan Base on Facebook

There is real value in building a fan base and engaging them on Facebook. I found two articles which actually supports this. I always tell my clients that we really should work on their fan pages since this is to a certain extent free. Every status message is streamed to you fans, so the more fans you have the more impressions you get.

Engaging is also as important. If your brand can be part of the conversations they have amongst their friends then thats more impressions for you. In the case of one of my clients (a mall), they were mentioned several times on status messages of their fans because they would be meeting up there.

A fan page is really something brands should look at and these articles support it.

1. Facebook fans prove valuable to big brands
2. Does It Really Matter How Much a Fan is Worth?

BooneOakley Website

Here's one of the most creative and best websites I've seen. It simply shows how creative this agency really is.