Should a Brand Use Social Media?

Should a brand be on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter? The answer depends on context. The phenomenon that is social media has meant that many brands or businesses want to leverage it – in many cases before they understand it. There’s a brilliant quote by Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist at Google that sums this eagerness up:

Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s done, they’re surprised it’s not better.

As with any other medium, we don’t recommend you dive in head first without knowing your audience or what you want to achieve.

Take Twitter for example. It was founded in 2006 as a fun and casual way to share your thoughts with others around the world. But as one of the co-founders, Biz Stone, admitted in a recent interview with The Age (25/02/10), Twitter is no longer considered fun and casual, but has changed to being a real-time “information network for discovering and sharing information”.

People seek instant information and Twitter gives it to them. It broadcasts information succinctly and quickly to those interested in your brand.

Two brands that have been hugely successful using Twitter are Starbucks coffee and Dell computers. Why? Because they follow the basic principles of engaging with their fans:

1. Understand the environment
Twitter is about contributing. It’s about being part of a whole. It’s an extension of one’s own brand. So don’t expect the majority of followers to interact with you. A 2009 study by Heil & Piskorski showed that 90% of the content is generated by 10% of users, but that does not mean that the majority aren’t listening or letting others know.

2. Add a return for investment
Dell computers have used Twitter to offer their followers exclusive offers and have reportedly generated US$6.5 million in sales as a result. Both Starbucks and Dell also listen to their followers about how they can improve their products and customer experience.

3. Dedicate resources
Twitter is a real-time broadcaster of information, so if you are receiving customer feedback, positive or negative, you must be able to respond promptly to be seen as credible. Again, the two examples here do a brilliant job.

Which brings us back to the question – should a brand use social media?
Yes, if it fits a strategy to expand the brand online, to get people talking about the brand, generate awareness, seek out ideas and look for opportunities to improve customer support.
No, if there aren’t enough resources to dedicate or if the commitment to the network isn’t genuine.

How To Get Consumers To Buy Your Product After Looking At The Print Ad

It may be tempting to use attention-grabbing visuals in your print ads, but research shows that if you go too far, as Budweiser did in this ad, readers will remember the visual and not the product

On average, readers only spend about 2 seconds looking at a print ad. Given the short amount of time you have to grab their attention says Francesca Pefianco, a marketing analyst, it’s important that any ad you create 1) grabs the reader’s attention, and 2) encourages them to buy your product or service.

Most print ads are composed of a strong visual, a headline, body copy and a logo or signature. But producing a great print ad isn’t as simple tossing these elements together. There are several do’s and don’ts that are essential to creating effective print ads:

DO:
Agree on your SMART goals. Your objective should be more than to simply “increase sales.” Get more specific with your goals, such as to “increase lunchtime store visits by 30% in 3 months” or “drive 15% more customers into our retail locations over the course of 60 days.” Specific goals are called SMART goals, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic and Timebound. Design your ad around SMART goals and be sure to hold yourself accountable to them.
Hook the reader within 2 seconds. On average, readers only spend 2 seconds looking at a print ad. It’s important to use visuals and headlines that cause the reader to stop and look at your ad. Headlines that evoke an emotion from the reader are more likely to catch the reader’s attention. Using white space and bullet points in an ad have both proven to stop readers in their tracks and produce a higher response rate as well.
Use high-impact visuals. In the 2 seconds a reader takes to look at your ad, 1.5 seconds are dedicated to visuals while only 0.5 seconds are spent looking at your copy. Use bright, clear images to promote your product. Research shows that people recall photographs 26% more than artwork and are more likely to look at an ad where the subject’s eyes are looking directly at you. That said, your visuals should always support the concept of the product or service you’re selling. Using attention-grabbing visuals just so you can stand out can have a negative impact on your brand.
Put strategy before creativity. Many advertisers sacrifice targeted content for witty or appealing messages. Even if it would be interesting to use a cartoon to advertise your product, would that really be appropriate in an ad about fine jewelry? Think about where your ad will be printed as well. The message you might want to use to sell your orange juice will be different in a local newspaper than it would be in a specialty magazine.

DON’T :
Don’t stuff your ad with too much information. Less really is more. Too much copy or too many images can actually cause the reader to skip the ad because they feel overwhelmed. In most cases, brand-oriented ads should only use one or two images, have a one-sentence headline and keep the copy to four sentences or less. (There are exceptions to this rule such as when you’re running a promotional/retail ad. But if you’re running a branding ad, it’s a good idea to keep your ad clean and uncluttered.)
Don’t force unrelated connections. It may be tempting to use a funny visual of a baby with food all over its face in your ad, but if your ad is for a new desktop computer, the audience might not make the connection. Worse yet, research indicates that when an association in an ad isn’t clear, the audience will forget about the product and simply remember the funny visual — in this case, the baby with food all over its face.
Don’t create negative associations. You might think its clever to compare your energy drink to a cheetah, but the second you mention that a cheetah hunts and kills its prey, the audience automatically applies that association to your product. It’s difficult to avoid some negative associations when using analogies in your messaging, but think through all of the possibilities before printing your ad. In the same vein, try to forgo offensive or stereotypical associations in your message. What may be funny to one person might enrage another and forever damage your brand image.
Don’t let your brand disappear. It’s not unusual for a brand to disappear in a print ad. When the integration is stretched or when your logo and signature are not prominently displayed, people can forget what product an ad was about entirely. Be sure to place your brand’s logo at a readable size in one of the corners of your advertisement.
When crafting a print ad, compose your elements in a way that’s eye-catching, creative, thought-provoking and positive. Be sure to avoid clutter, negative association and bad integration. Print ads are still a prominent form of advertising and can be an incredible tool for your marketing when done correctly and effectively, so use these tips as guidelines the next time you create an ad for your product or service.