Do you remember when Facebook launched Deals? And how similar it looked to foursquare? This concept didn’t last long nor was it user sexy…

Facebook has launched a new concept called Offers. My first interaction with this concept was with Sprinkles Cupcakes (of course) my good friend Hallie claimed this offer and it popped up in my News Feed!

So. Of course. I had to claim this bad boy because… well I love cupcakes! I was super excited to see how this new concerted worked…

The experience was smooth and my whole network saw that I claimed this one FREE cupcake. Now, did I go and get this offer… um NO! #FAIL, right? But I will say this experience was easy and viral…

Check out what my good friend Joseph said about this concept:

Have you claimed am offer? If so what was it and how was the experience?

Here’s a sketch I did couple weeks ago…

Resource links:
https://developers.facebook.com/roadmap/

With all this buzz about how popular Pinterest is, I want to share a personal experience I had…

The experience I’m going to share is one of the best experiences I’ve had with a brand:

The kicker to this experience is that Tory Burch not only gave me easy access to a money-sucking Facebook Exclusive App, but she — well her marketing team makes it incredibly easy for me to share Pins to My Style board without making me leave Facebook.

sto•ry•tell•er
noun
a person who tells stories

The truth about Pinterest is that it gives every women, man and brand a chance to tell their story through imagery.  The secret sauce to this social network is having the ability to not only share your stories but to learn about friends, fans and advocate stories! Follow their boards & engage with their pins. Ask yourself  ”can their pins be linked to your brand?”  If so mingle —  like it and than repin & share this content on your “Fan’s Shown’ Love” board. This instant connection between your brand and your fans will develop into a deep and interactive relationship.

Think of it as those old school inspiration boards you and your girlfriend would share with each other on the weekends. You build trust with them the same way… just more in a digital way #WOM

I learn so much and get influenced everyday by the people I follow…. my girlfriend Ashley shares her wedding story by pinning an image of her vanilla three tier cake. ToyWatch shares timepiece stories and most of the pins on this board are not their product — they’re sharing their love for time. My favorite (not because I created it) is sharing each staff members story, you can follow sitewire on Pinterest and create a story that Andrea from Media really LOVES different bowl designs or that Britni account manager and I share the same love story for SHOES

Photos are worth a million pins/words — so start sharing your stories!!

Still not sure how brands are not looking into mobile and video — is it because it takes time to produce? is it because they feel a video needs to be create/edited like an Oscar winning film?

eMarketer Daily shared this information this morning:

Brands Continue Limited Mobile Site Offerings
Smartphone usage is quickly becoming more the norm than the exception, and consumers expect anytime, anywhere access to websites—including brand and retail offerings. But many marketers are still offering only limited functionality and options on mobile-optimized websites and marketing materials –

Why are you not giving your user a quick, 30 second product video?? We have the ability these days (with technology) to be in every customers hands EVERY SINGLE DAY! Look at it this way your user has invested in a “billboard” — a moving, glued to their hands kind-of-a-billboard. All you have to do is produce a 30 second video with daily tips or tell us a personal brand story.

My takeaway tip: S3 – Simple, Short and Several.
Start with http://tout.com/ << Your brand MUST at least start here!!

As you know I am obsessed with all change & updates with any social media networking site.

This week Twitter launched their NEW ACTIVITY tab and Facebook started rolling out their new Insights… and it’s super #sexy!

Please check out my notes & share your geeky thoughts with me

“We have over 2,000 Likes!”
What does this mean to your brand?

“Not sure”
What have you learned from these 2,000 Likes?

“What do you mean”
Have you had any “ROI” moments with these 2,000 Likes?

“You can’t get “ROI” from Facebook… we just know we have 2,000 Likes! YEAH!!”
So why are you so proud of this number?

“Because that’s all anyone cares about is the number…it’s all about who has the most Likes! Duh!”
#PunchMeInFace

This is an example of the kind of Social Media Marketing we are displaying and if we keep making this “number” so important to this media… it will die!

Your Likes/Fans/Followers are NOT just numbers, they are real people that can give you real ROI. If you keep treating them like numbers you will NEVER build that relationship with your one number audience. If you are always worrying about reaching that next 1k mark on Facebook… than you are showing that you no longer care about those first 100 loyal fans. This number doesn’t matter to those who believe in your brand, this number only matters to you… and last time I checked you need them to care about your marketing message.

Let’s make this new media a place where we learn and interact with our fans, let’s make them our friends and let’s give them what they want! This is not high school or a game of “Who has the highest Number”, this is a place to mingle & listen to everyone in the world. Use their comments, their tweets and most of all their loyalty to grow your online presents! Don’t give them a number, give them “that moment” with your brand.

Instead of spending all your time worrying about how you can get that number up, go back to Joe Smith who had a great experience with your company and see how he’s doing. This method will go along way with your fans and you will see a much better growth number this way.

I don’t want to share all my #secretsauce tips with you… I just wanted to share my two cents on this annoying trend. So next time you want to shout at the top of your lungs how many Likes you have, stop and talk about your 1-on-1 moments you have with real people.

It’s not the size of the boat but the motion in the ocean

We’ve had the pleasure of interview social media director Paige Dell Armi from knoodle, an Advertising & PR agency. She’s very passionate about social media and design. Be sure to follow her on Twitter, @Paigeiam or check out her website DoubleBlueDesign.com.

Paige, do you recommend different social media strategies for different types of companies (like retail versus business-to-business), and can you give some examples?

Yes! We ask our clients what their online marketing goals are and from there we integrate them into a social media strategy… We of course have this magic machine that gives us this information  When we build/brainstorm social media for Dine4az & Gaslamp Hilton the strategy does tend to be more “sexy” than, let’s say Petersen Johnson’s. B2B on social media will always be a challenge, but we know it can be done! We always use one on one interaction and our #secretsauce is remembering who we have interacted with a week ago. This is key for us and it builds instant fan confidence…

What do you tell companies doing social media who feel they’ve “run out of ideas” for things to post?
Never forget the small things in life! It’s always those small events in your life that get the most social interaction…

In your experience, what are the most successful posts in terms of getting a lot of comments or replies, in other words, a lot of engaging dialogue?
The posts where we think and act like our audience and not act “bigger” than them… We’re their friend!  We want to know what their favorite snack is when they’re at a baseball game. We learned that Sherry is a hot dog/beer girl and that Joel is a fan of Garcia’s (#secretsauce of ours… is in return to Joel, we commented back with a direct link to dine4az.com for that 20% off next time he goes to Garcia’s)

What kinds of posts get the most “likes” or positive, happy feedback?
“What is your baking secret?” or “What type of beer are you looking forward to the most? IPA, Ale, Stout…” It’s when we ask questions and mingle in the conversation 

What things should we absolutely avoid in terms of social media posts and tweets?
Never do posting in the first person. Your a team, a company and your audience wants to see that 

How do you turn a fan or follower into a customer, and how do you track that?
Personal engagement along with being there within 24hrs… we use social media as a customer service tool for our clients. We take a comment left on Santan VW’s Facebook page and build trust with that one fan. Let them know we’re here and really care about what color Jetta they are looking for. We took a single persons comment about shopping for a new car and build a relationship out of it. Behind the curtain we were in touch with the Sales GM who is getting that Black Jetta ready  This is our strategy and it works, it works so well that we had a customer come back and buy a second car from Santan.

As far as tracking, we have a library of screen grabs when those “ROI” events happen and build case studies out of them.

Thanks so much Paige for taking the time to answer these questions!

We change, whether we like it or not. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’m a big fan of updates and changes below are couple of my favorite ones from Facebook!

I heard Twitter is going to be updating their image uploading as well… Seen it on a couple of your blogs I (sad panda) don’t have it yet…

Facebook added “RECOMMEND THIS PLACE” on Company pages! This something that all brands on Facebook need to get excited about… It’s a user friend area where your fans can write you a recommendation.

These recommendations from your fans will be displayed on the right side of your LIKE page. What I LOVE about this is that when you click on the comment/thumbs up icon it doesn’t take you away from your page… it’s a pop up window! This makes it really easy for fans to interact with each other about your brand

Let’s hope every post is positive of course

The BEST PART is once a fan writes a recommendation it’s display to their network… Your friends can see what you have said and mingle in with the posts. #secretsauce here is hoping my network clicks on the companies link and LIKE’s their page

Facebook did a great job at adding this into your News Feed! After a friend writes a recommendation… next to the Like – Comment they add “Write a Recommendation” link. #awesomesauce!

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Couple more random updates that I noticed are “Favorite Places” I love where this is going! Not everyone can see this option yet, but I have a feeling it will be a great way for you to have all your favorite places in one area. There are still some glitches but I have a good feeling about where this is going