Brave Ad World - Episode 37

Hey there! It's a really exciting week for the Brave Ad World podcast because Kevin Dugan, an experienced markeitng professional and blogger is joining the show, so you can listen in and check out our first episode together.

This week we have a lot to cover, including: Skype Acquires GroupMe, Twitter Turns Your Profile into an Art Gallery, Facebook Takes Privacy Settings and Gives Them a Major Upgrade, the Semi-End of Facebook Places or the Reemergence and Facebook to Release Photo Filters to Compete with Instagram.

All of this can, of course, be found on iTunes or in the podcast section to add it to your preferred podcast player. Be sure to subscribe, and let us know what you think.

Have a great week!

The Day Places Died... Kind Of

Facebook unveiled some major privacy changes (which we’ll discuss in depth on Episode 37 of the podcast) this week, but perhaps the biggest news for marketers was Facebook’s plans for Places, the geo-location feature that allows users to check into locations they’re visiting and share with their Facebook Friends. Facebook announced that the feature is to be replaced with the ability to add your location through a status update. No more checking-in.

Yes, tagging one’s location to a status update is still possible, but the dedicated button to check-in is gone. Without that little prompt to remind users, it’s doubtful they’ll share their location now. It’s difficult to assess exactly why Facebook has made this move, but one can likely assume that Places just didn’t click.

Places came about as a response to the rising popularity of other check-in services like Foursquare and Gowalla. It may be the case that consumers didn’t quit using those services to use Places. Instead, they stuck with what they were used to primarily because Facebook didn’t add anything new to the equation. Places was simply check-ins on Facebook. It lacked the flair, personality and sense of personal achievement that comes with other geo-location services. Plus, with Foursquare users can already share their locations with their Facebook friends (as well as Twitter). Why would someone switch over?

What this Means for Competitors

Facebook isn’t getting rid of Places exactly, but its refocus takes it largely out of competition with other services. This is pretty big news for competitors, particularly Foursquare, the most popular geo-location service. Facebook is the social behemoth, and it’s incorporated features of other services in the past to their detriment. In facet, many predicted the death of Foursquare when Places was announced.

It looks like Foursquare is sitting pretty. They’ve unrolled a slew of new features, and marketers will likely begin to focus in on them for geo-location opportunities versus placing an emphasis on Places as seen previously.

Consumer Usage

Geo-location services, while relatively new social behavior, are gaining traction, particularly with the penetration of smart phones. More consumers are becoming aware of the apps (56% of smart phone users) and 39% use one or more location based application. This is something marketers should be looking at.

How to React

Facebook will probably be back with a bigger location play in the future, but at the moment it looks to be taking a backseat (no matter how it tries to spin its actions). That doesn’t mean marketers shouldn’t be taking action. At the very least, everyone should be considering what these services mean for their businesses and how they can be leveraged or why they shouldn’t be leveraged.

Here are some considerations to get started:

• Determine whether or not geo-location makes sense for your brand. Why or why not?
• If yes, align on how geo-location can be leveraged by your business.
• Stake your claim. Facebook or Foursquare, there’s nothing wrong with claiming your businesses locations on these platforms. You may not use them for anything at the moment, but you might as well claim them now.
• If you do decide to place an emphasis on geo-location, incorporate rewards (monetary and non-monetary), such as deals, tips and information. Make consumers want to check-in.
• Measure the data on the backend. Look at when, where and who is checking into your business location(s), learn from it and take action.

Checking-In to Retail

Early last year a new consumer behavior began to gain traction and take the social space by storm as marketers took notice of customers “checking in” when visiting their businesses. Geosocial services like Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, Loopt, BriteKite, Yelp and others found their way onto GPS-enabled devices, like smartphones, giving users the ability to share their current locations with their individual social graphs.

Geosocial services have come onto the scene with a lot of hype, but they still have some growing to do in terms of adoption. A Microsoft survey found that 24% of surveyed respondents claim to have used geosocial services (about 40 million) and 30% claim to be familiar with them, which means there’s room for them to grow, especially considering Nielsen’s prediction that smartphone penetration will exceed 50% by the end of this year.

Even though the check-in hasn’t reached mainstream behavior, marketers, particularly retailers, can’t overlook its potential and value to reach customers who are at their front doors or even within their stores.

The Value to the Consumer

Users of geosocial services say connecting with people, discovering locations enjoyed by others and gaining insight into where and when they travel as the top three reasons they use them. Despite popular belief, receiving deals and discounts comes in fourth.

Consumers find value in geosocial services when they connect with others and crowdsource opinions to make decisions. The desire to build, maintain and nurture relationships is what keeps consumers checking in again and again.  

Source: White Horse

The Value to the Business

Geosocial services allow retailers to reach customers who are either within their stores or in the area. In addition, as geosocial services gain popularity, they can drive valuable insights as dashboards like Foursquare’s allow businesses to identify peak times for store visitors, who the most frequent visitors are and general visitor demographics.

Check-ins can also affect behavior in a couple ways. First, users can share their location with their social graphs, potentially influencing their connections to consider visiting a business. Second, rewards can be leveraged to reinforce or change customer behavior.

Meeting in the Middle

Geosocial services have the potential to serve business’ objectives, but marketers must also prove why checking-in is worthwhile for their customers by taking a two-fold approach.

1. Prioritize and Galvanize:
   • Identify the platforms where the business’ core audience is playing, whether that’s Foursquare, Facebook Places or something else, and claim the venues that are yours.
   • Encourage customers to check-in with a call-to-action, such as a decal on the front door, and ask them to share that check-in across their social graphs.
   • Leverage the data from check-ins to inform your business. For example, if you are running a bar, and you notice check-ins decline at 1:00 am, consider starting a 1:30 am happy hour.
2. Connect and Offer Incentive
   • The primary reason people use geosocial services is to connect with others, so build a community by encouraging users to share their locations socially and asking customers to add multimedia to your venue like photos, tips and stories.
   • Provide digital “swag” like badges and recognition (i.e., mentioning them on Twitter) to encourage certain behaviors that achieve business objectives, such as checking-in with a friend who’s never been to the store before.
   • Use deals to add icing to the cake by rewarding groups of friends, large numbers of people, new customers and loyalty.

Check Out the Check-In

Geosocial services are new, and for some consumers, privacy is a concern, the benefits of checking in aren’t clear and the fulfillment from geosocial services is found in other channels, which slows down adoption. Still, geosocial services are seeing growth, and it doesn’t look like checking-in is going away. Now, is an opportune time for retailers to take a look, test, learn and grow with one of the latest developments in social media. 

The Newsfeed is Everything on Facebook

Few platforms out there have evolved to the degree Facebook has. Facebook began with simple social network features, but the past couple years have brought us Facebook Pages, Deals, Places, the Newsfeed and other developments. With each of these additions, the right question of how does this affect us as marketers has been raised, but no other feature is more important to a brand on Facebook than the Newsfeed.

The Facebook Marketer's Ace in the Hole

The ability to create dynamic tabs using iframes and the new option to provide Groupon-like deals to Facebook users cannot be overlooked, but statistically speaking, engagement with consumers on a brand's Facebook Page stops after a consumer "Likes" the Page. It's their first and last visit to the Page, so an ecommerce tab or exclusive app doesn't do the brand much good if it stands on its own.

The posts from a brand that display on a user's Newsfeed drive everything once a user "Likes" the Page as they offer a link back to a consumer once they leave the Page. It gives the brand a presence in a user's Facebook life even thought they never come back to the Page. Plus, it can be used to support other Facebook efforts by driving to an ecommerce tab, exclusive in-store event or some other promotion.

Don't Overlook the Wall Content

The issue that arises is the wide range of choices available to marketers on Facebook. There are a lot of flashy options like Page tabs out there, but without the content from the brand's posts to support them, they do very little for the brand.

There's a little more pressure on the posts than simply supporting other Facebook efforts. They have to make it to the Newsfeed before they can do the brand any good. Users who have "Liked" a brand Page need to interact with the content on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, Facebook's algorithm recognizes that the content isn't relevant, which leads to it being removed from the "Top News" section of a user's Newsfeed, which proves how important it is to know your audience, know your brand and know the type of content that will deliver value to your Page's Likers to keep them engaged and interacting. 

Leveraging the Newsfeed

Mastering the Newsfeed is an essential piece to laying a sturdy foundation on Facebook, and how to best use the Newsfeed will differ by brand. Here are a few suggestions to do just that:

• Post Regularly: Start with posting once per day, and see how the conversation goes. If you receive lots of feedback and your audience seems engaged, post more. Share when you have something to share, not for the sake of sharing.
• Time Test: Schedule posts for different times, and monitor how they perform next to each other. Eventually, you'll be able to identify certain times that work best for posting.
• Encourage Interaction: Include a call-to-action in the posts by asking questions, requesting content or soliciting feedback. Don't speak to people. Talk with them and create a two-way dialogue.
• Provide Value: Know the audience and what content your brand can offer that will provide value. Teach them something, entertain them and give them something only your brand can provide to keep them interacting.
• Spice Up the Content Types: Balance the type of content you're sharing by peppering in photos, videos, polls and text. Stand out on the Newsfeed by diversifying the content types.