Author Archive

by Lisa Peyton, VP Bonfire Social Media
Deals. They are everywhere these days. With our economy in a serious recession, consumers are laser-focused on getting the most for their money and EVERYONE loves a great deal.

With the advent of location-based applications like Foursquare and Facebook Places, deals are becoming more relevant than ever before. The ability to geo-target a consumer walking into your store or down your block is a marketing first so it’s not surprising that many platform developers are jumping on the ‘location-based’ bandwagon.

All the hype surrounding these new tools makes it difficult for business owners to make informed decisions about where to put their efforts. So let’s examine the facts and compare some of the more popular applications side by side.

I chose to report on the most popular applications for location-based deal creation as well as those I have the most experience with. These include Facebook Places Deals, Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp. I implore readers to comment with any information about additional platforms they feel have offered value to their business. continue

Congratulations Scott!

As promised we randomly selected one survey participant to win a $100 Amazon gift card, just in time for the holidays. Scott Davis, owner of From the rooftops, was our LUCKY winner! We’d like to thank all responders for taking the time to help us out. Your thoughtful answers provided insight into social media marketing trends for 2011.

In the coming weeks, we will be analyzing the survey data and crafting a report with all the key insights. If you participated in the survey you will be among the first to get a copy of this report via email. All others interested in the survey results can stay tuned to our blog where we will be posting our completed report.

By Lisa Peyton, VP Bonfire Social Media

Let me start off by announcing that none of the platforms mentioned have compensated me in any way or asked me to promote their products. I simply hoped to find a good tool for a reasonable price that would allow me to track metrics associated with campaign goals. I would also like to add the disclaimer that with the dozens of great tools available, there was no way to include them all. If you have experience with a great tool, PLEASE SHARE with the community by commenting on this post.

The information provided on each tool below is only PART of the equation when searching for a good social media monitoring solution. The MOST important question that should be asked is – what do you need to track and why? Most tools out there will report on endless amounts of data; the real trick is finding the tool that will report on the data you need to determine if campaign goals are being met.

Goals

The first step to finding a great tool for my client was taking a look at campaign goals. The primary goals included growing their Facebook fan base as rapidly as possible (BAD GOAL) and tracking – that is, which social media platforms and influencers were the most active for their brand terms. A good goal is measurable and time-sensitive, but not many clients come to the table armed with goals that include this level of detail so I made a few changes and came up with these working goals:

• Grow Facebook fan base by 100% over the next 3 months
• Increase overall fan page interactions by 100% over the next 3 months
• Identify the most active social media platforms for brand terms over the next 3 months
• Identify the most influential and active brand advocates on social media networks continue

Last week Facebook proudly launched ‘Facebook Places Deals’. With several mega-brands jumping on-board like Starbucks, Chipotle, The Gap and North Face; one could only assume the new feature would be a HUGE success. After attempting to create my own deal, I’m not convinced.

There are several factors that businesses need to take into account before deciding whether or not to offer a Facebook Places Deal. Here’s the skinny. continue

We have put together a short survey about your social media marketing efforts. Whether you are already using Facebook and Twitter to promote your business or just considering it, we want to hear from you. The survey should only take a few minutes and provide valuable feedback to the social media community.

All respondents will receive a complete report with analysis and key survey findings. And if that isn’t enough, we are also awarding a $100 Amazon gift card to one of the first 30 to respond. So make your voice heard and submit the survey today!

Who should take this survey:

• Business owners or marketers responsible for promoting a service or product
• Marketers who have implemented a social media campaign or are considering it
• Business owners who have questions about social media’s ROI
• Business owners or marketing professionals who are eager to voice their qualified opinions about social media

For the first time, social media platforms were included in recent reports on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The platforms included Facebook, MySpace, Wikipedia and YouTube. ForeSee Results recently released their Annual E-Business Report that  highlighted the surveys key findings. continue

by Lisa Peyton, VP Bonfire Social Media

Last week Facebook began reporting on some interesting data within their ad platform. They are now including ‘Social %’ within the campaign data table (highlighted below) and ‘Social Impressions’, ‘Social CTR’ and ‘Social Clicks’ within exported reports. (Use the highlighted button to export a report and access the new social data.)

Facebook defines ‘Social %’ as:

The percentage of your ad’s impressions where the viewer saw at least one friend who likes your page, event, application or ad.

Targeting friends of Facebook page ‘likers’ has been around for several months and savvy marketers have been touting the power of such targeting. Until now, we had to guess at just how successful endorsements from friends were at boosting campaign results. I have to admit that this technique has coaxed me into liking some items on Facebook that I may have otherwise overlooked.
However, can social impressions make a significant impact on ad campaigns? Facebook is now reporting on data that can help marketers make this determination.

Targeting friends of page fans or ‘likers’ is as simple as ensuring that you have added the relevant page to the ad settings when creating a new ad. Within the ‘Targeting’ section of the ad creation or editing platform there’s a box where you can ‘Target users whose friends are connected to’ your page. If you are running Facebook ads, I would recommend checking to ensure this feature has been added to all of your campaigns. This will provide you with additional ‘social’ data and allow you to make more informed management decisions.

After taking a closer look at the new social data, I was a bit dissapointed with my findings. I didn’t see a clear relationship between campaign performance and Social %. Here are my key findings:

• Highest CTR for the month, 1.15% occurred on a day with NO social impressions. The same day also had the highest Action rate, again with zero social impressions.

• Social CTR trended towards being SLIGHTLY higher than overall CTR.

• Data fluctuated greatly depending on the client, leading me to believe that the ad image, copy and industry were more influential than social endorsements.

For example the lifetime stats of  two  B2C clients compared side by side pointed to little or no correlation between increased CTR and Social Impressions:

Client 1 -  Impressions: 1,864,982  Social %:  78.6% CTR:  0.041%
Client 2 -  Impressions: 1,451,355  Social %:  2.9%  CTR:  0.046%

• Actions didn’t appear to get a boost from social impressions either. Using the same example as above, the client that had the highest percentage of social impressions had the lower action rate. If social impressions were successfully sending more targeted and qualified users, it would follow that the action rate would be higher for accounts running a higher percentage of social impressions. When comparing all our client accounts this wasn’t the case.

• When comparing data there seemed to be little to no correlation between Social % and a lowered CPC. There was an apparent relationship between campaign CTR and CPC. Our clients running the lowest average CPC also had the highest CTR. But these same clients DIDN’T have the highest Social %, in fact our client with the lowest CPC ranked in the bottom when it came to social impressions with only 2.4% of all impressions being served to friends of page ‘likers’.

Overall, I feel this analysis points to other campaign factors as influencing campaign success more than endorsements from Facebook friends. I have seen the most drastic improvements coupled with compelling promotions and strong ad creative. With all the hoopla and hype over social endorsements, it’s easy for some marketers to overlook the basics. It’s still important to build a strong foundation focusing on the tried and true principles of ‘The 4 P’s: Product, Price, Place and promotion.

I’m eager to discover if other Facebook advertisers are making similar conclusions or if they are seeing more of a lift from the elusive ‘Social Impression’. Comment below with your own campaign results, trends or tips.

Bonfire and Iryss, LLC are partnering to develop a social media promotional video for the new location browser and Augmented Reality platform, Tagwhat.

Tagwhat creator, Dave Elchoness, will be in Portland to present for the Software Association of Oregon on June 16th and spend time with our video producer and media specialist.

TMMPDX Executive Editor and  Bonfire VP, Lisa Peyton, had the chance to ask Dave important questions about this new technology and how it will change the world around us.

How do you define Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality. or AR, is the real time display of digital imagery on the camera view of a computer. Basically, if you’ve ever seen a Terminator movie, you’ve seen AR. The data that the Terminator sees through his eyes on top of his reality. Look at a building and see AR overlaying it including the building’s history, fuel consumption, tenant information, and you begin to realize the potential of AR. In the case of Tagwhat, the AR is mobile, meaning that the digital imagery overlays the camera view of the mobile device. Tagwhat is available for Android devices and for iPhone 3GS. continue

Bonfire Social Media was among the nights big social media winners at the 2nd annual SoMe Awards. The SoMe Awards recognize outstanding social media marketing efforts from agencies all over the Pacific Northwest.

Bonfire was thrilled to be named as a finalist for Best Social Media Agency and the winner of both the ‘Peoples Choice’ award and Best Campaign ROI. This year the competition was fierce and social media professionals needed to submit their best work. A complete list of all the winners can be found on TMMPDX.COM. continue

Company: Mio Gelato
Social Media Marketing Team: Lisa Peyton/Ryan Lewis, Bonfire Social Media
Campaign Length: 3 months
Result: Up to a 44% increase in sales at various locations
SoMe Award ‘Peoples Choice’ Winner 2010

The Challenge

Mio Gelato is a locally-owned cafe with 4 locations around the Portland metro area. Best known for it’s  frozen gelato, Mio’s owner wanted to combat slower  sales during the winter months. He hoped to utilize the power of social media along with great promotions to keep patrons coming back; not just for gelato, but for soups, Italian hot cocoa and/or a quick lunch.
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