Digital Phenomena

“Keep calm and Carry on” is one of the latest phenomena in digital marketing. 

The poster was created in 1939, during World War I, to display the message in case Nazi Germany invaded Great Britain, but it was never distributed.

The message was very simple. In case of invasion keep calm and carry on your regular lives not to suffer retaliation.

The poster was rediscovered in 2000 in a secondhand bookstore in North East England and since the copyrights expired after 50 years, it is now of public domain.

The shop owners reproduced the poster and later it inspired a range of clothing, mugs, doormats, baby clothes and other merchandise from various vendors, and even a book of inspirational quotes.

The digital environment of social media was quick to distribute the image and create versions for daily problems and ideas. It is a digital phenomenon. Everyone has heard about it, seen it or got tired of receiving hundreds of these images in e-mails and their Facebook Walls.

 It is the companies’ job to find a way to ride the wave and attach their brands to the success.

The Chive, an entertainment website, capitalized on the trend and now sells t-shirts, posters and baby gear with the modified poster featuring their name.

The Chive is selling merchandise with parodies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_calm_and_carry_on

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/18/keep-calm-carry-on-poster

http://www.thechivery.com/

WikiFashion

WikiFashion (http://wikifashion.com/wiki/Main_Page) is a brand extension of the famous Wikipedia, the digital encyclopedia, and a great tool of digital marketing.

The website is a gem for fashionistas hoping to understand more about the industry. There is information divided by topic that can take an endless time to browse.

WikiFashion categories

One very interesting part is the collections’ picture gallery of the major designers since 2008 divided by Fall, Spring and Couture.

Chanel Fall Couture 2011 collection from WikiFashion

This is a great channel for the luxury industry to have another medium of marketing their brands since the Internet is a powerful way to communicate and Wiki offers the opportunity for the brands to be collaborators and post their own information. 

Even the models, photographers and fashion bloggers have space to add their profiles and articles.

Social media and digital marketing

My perspective on the value of social media in digital marketing taking information from a presentation by MarketingCharts.com.

To see my video click here: http://screencast.com/t/rOgxcNBvPP2

Viral videos are a great marketing opportunity

Everyone has heard about viral videos. They are in the everyday chatter at the office; the funny comments from an old friend, and if you don’t keep up there is a new one that you have yet to hear about.

Viral videos are almost always bizarre, have something extraordinary and are funny. Most of them contain catchy music that you can’t seem to forget. Including all of these features is the latest sensation Gangnam Style, a song by a Korean singer that has over 500 million views in less than three months.

Another viral musical sensation border lining the bizarre is Rebecca Black’s song Friday.

Some people can cash in on being the subjects of viral videos like Antoine Dodson who became an instant celebrity after an interview about a man who invaded his apartment was transformed into song and went viral. He created a t-shit line, Halloween costume, Iphone application for tracking sexual predators and is slated to appear in the movie “The Chronicles of Rick Roll”.

Another selling merchandise is Debbie, the cat lover who wants to date online.

Many viral videos include animals, especially cats, and seem to be a favorite among Internet users.

Spoofs are also a great way to know your video is being well received by the mass public. If people take an interest to re-creating it is because it is special. The Harvard Baseball team made a video with the song Call Me Maybe and many other teams responded.

Harvard Baseball (original)

Texas State Baseball

SMU Women’s Rowing

Below you will find a link with a tutorial to make a video go viral. Now go out and try it for yourself!

http://www.proactivereport.com/c/sm/the-secret-of-making-a-video-go-viral/

Justin Bieber, Digital Marketing Genius

On October 9^th the media received the report that a laptop computer and a camera were stolen from Justin Bieber during his tour stay in Tacoma, Washington. 

Later that day he wrote on Twitter to let his fans know he was very upset because there was personal footage in the devices.

Justin is a known digital marketer, using social media to interact directly with his fans on daily basis.

The announcement created speculation in media outlets that maybe there was a sex tape, naked pictures or confidential documents in the laptop.

The next day an anonymous person posted on Twitter two links of the singer interacting with friends in different years bringing credibility to the claim.

Justin and the anonymous micro blogger exchanged heated messages and the threats started to appear saying he would post a bombastic video the next day, prompting Justin to go to his Twitter and defend himself about being the victim of false rumors since he was 14 years old.

Friday, October 12^th at noon was the deadline. 

When the time came, fans were raging with curiosity and the video started with a statement that three hours of footage had been stolen and illegally uploaded but it turned out to be the release of his newest music video with Nicky Minaj.

The media went into frenzy, the Examiner called it “a brilliant marketing ploy” and now VEVO is waiting for the official numbers to decide if they broke the record for most views in 24 hours.

Justin Bieber really understands the social media and how to make it work for his benefit.

You can read more here:

http://www.examiner.com/article/justin-bieber-stolen-laptop-and-nude-pic-scandal-a-brilliant-marketing-ploy

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1695456/justin-bieber-beauty-and-the-beat-prank-fans.jhtml

http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/10/12/justin-bieber-secret-footage-released-on-twitter/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/12/beauty-and-a-beat-video-justin-bieber-nicki-minaj_n_1961657.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment

Unethical behavior is accepted. Welcome to the future!

The global world is changing how people behave and interact, causing great social problems. From anti-bullying campaigns that claim that bullies hide behind the screen to escape the consequences to people lying on their profiles for dating websites, the Internet and especially the social media outlets are seeing a lot of unethical behavior.

Because of the massive public interest in social media, the Ethics Resource Center – the oldest non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to independent research and advancement of high ethical standards and practices in public and private institutions – decided to include questions about the subject in their National Business Ethics Survey.

Study from the Ethics Resource Center

“Social networking has become very important in our culture, and we wondered if the technology is influencing employees’ views about ethics at work”, said the president of the Ethics Resource Center, Patricia Harned, who has noticed an increasing number of companies creating social media policies in the workplace.

The results are shocking since active social media users have a much higher tolerance for unethical behavior. Either there is a shift in behavior or actually behind a computer screen people get more candid and honest since the anonymity provides a safe environment to deal with difficult topics.

The article “Ethics and Social Media: Where Should You Draw The Line?” talks about the issue but provides more questions than answers. Read it at: http://mashable.com/2012/03/17/social-media-ethics/.

Another great read is the website of the Ethics Resource Center at http://www.ethics.org/.

Study from the Ethics Resource Center

For now there is only hard work ahead to clean the digital space of unethical behavior and hope for a better future. Social responsibility should be a global concern. 

Facebook: Do's and Don'ts

Facebook is a wonderful new way of reaching customers in an environment they are expressing themselves and looking for entertainment and contact with friends and family. The social media outlets have allowed people to share their preferences, likes and dislikes and companies should take advantage of the information available. Many companies have successfully embraced Facebook as a marketing tool and are reaping the benefits while others are still stumbling to find their way in.

So what are some do’s and don’ts for companies on Facebook?

Do

Connect your company’s business to other general interests of your target.

Dulce Marias is a Brazilian sweet shop that engages customers in eating right, design, recycling solutions, crafts, kid’s activities, photography and even has giveaways of theater tickets. At the same time they show their everyday sweets and personalized design for children’s birthday parties, baby showers and bachelorette parties. http://www.facebook.com/euquerodulcemarias

Mini Cupcakes from Dulce Marias

Kit Kat Cake from Dulce Marias

Suggestion for clients on how to make kids eat fruit

Don’t

Use e-mail marketing strategies on Facebook. This outlet is supposed to be a real interaction between people. Posting your e-flyer on your wall will only make people turned off about the company. Sushiism uses the same images of e-mail marketing on their Facebook page and the pictures are not elaborate. Some are even disgusting. http://www.facebook.com/SushiismTX

Beef tataki from Sushiism

Do

Shrimp Tempura from Nik Sushi

Use professional photographs and a casual language to reach your audience as their friend. Nik Sushi posts mouth watering pictures of their products. http://www.facebook.com/NikSushi

Don’t

Overwhelm your followers. People use Facebook to connect to their hobbies, develop relationships and look for interesting content. If a company posts three, four, five posts on the same day about things related to the business it is most likely going to drive people away from the page.

The University of Dallas official page is like that. In September alone there was not one day with less than three new posts a day, including weekends. The subjects vary between informative, questions, and funny remarks therefore I believe many people will be tired of the volume and lack of focus on the content. http://www.facebook.com/udallas

UDallas has four posts on the same day and little return from users

Doing marketing for a small company without resources is hard, but there is a lot of help online. One option is the Facebook Marketing Bible, a website with guidelines to boost sales by using Facebook. http://gold.insidenetwork.com/facebook-marketing-bible/

Help is available online, managers just have to find it and make the best options for their companies.