25 Characteristics of Effective Social Media Campaigns

Pick this up from socialmediatoday, the 25 characteristics of effective social media campaigns show what the effective ones have done. Some characteristics really mind-opening. Marketers can pick and choose what applies to you.

1) They spread like wildfire. Effective social media campaigns spread very fast. If your campaign is not spreading, it is not effective. Test the waters with micro campaigns. Learn to swim before attempting to ride the big waves.

2) They are not spammy. Don't just promote your site links; share something insightful about your company or product. Don't send out the same message to your community. It is spam…and it is very annoying to them. Even to you. Admit it.

3) They provide value. Value can come in the both physical and mental forms. Effective campaigns provide value in any or both of these regards.

4) They are well branded. Clothe your campaign from head to toe with your company's identity. Use your logo, your USP or slogans, your colors, and any other thing that defines your business's identity. Add your brand to every video you produce; don't add just your website address.

5) They are measured. You need to track your social media marketing efforts. Whether you install Google Analytics on your Facebook fan page or you use Post rank to measure your effectiveness, make sure you work with the data.

6) They have excellent copy. Leave a positive impression in just a few words. Using big vocabulary is not the way to go; making sense is what matters.

7) They don't ‘sell'. Instead of selling, you should work at generating leads with your social media campaign. Sell to those leads later on.

8 ) They build relationships. Don't just broadcast. Interact. Building relationships  helps build even more relationships. It also increases the perception of value and builds loyalty.

9) They build trust. Be as honest in your campaign as possible. Trust is very hard to earn back once lost. Your campaign should build and maintain trust in your build.

10) They are innovative. Regular campaigns mostly go unnoticed. Innovation adds ‘flavor' to your campaign. It is the aroma of your campaign and the one thing that will convince most people to take action.

11) They have ears. Your campaign will not be successful unless you listen for feedback. People may have something to say so listen and show appreciation or let them know you are working on it. Never delete a negative feedback.

12) They are well organized. Your campaign needs to be well planned. It should have a first step and an nth step (where n is the number of the last step). Follow through from step 1 through to step n. Don't go from step one to step 3 to step 2. Plan your steps well so it is easy to follow through step 1 to the last step.

13) They are maintained by humans. Don't rely on automation when it comes to marketing on the social web. It just won't work. Besides, it destroys trust. Put a human being in front of, in-between and behind all your social media campaigns. I want to talk to a human being not a robot.

14) They are consistent. You need to be consistent with your update (or broadcast) schedules and interact with people who leave replies and comments. If you broadcast once a week and change to 5 times a day, people will begin to question your actions. Unless you give them good reason why you have changed your schedule.

15) They have bait. You need to have some sort of bait to convert visitors into leads. Try eBooks, free products, white papers, discount codes, samples, free vouchers, et cetera. Bait them to get them .

16) They use leverage. They leverage the subscriber bases of their communities and other people's communities. They also leverage their company strengths.

17) They include a blog. I suggest you have a business blog before you start your campaign. Your blog should be the hub of your social media campaign efforts. Make you install social media sharing buttons to make it easier for others to share your blog's content.

18) They engage other blogs. You can do this too. Apply as a guest writer for blogs in your target market. Read blogs in your niche and leave thoughtful comments (not just a “thank you”).

19) They are not everywhere. If you want your campaigns to be successful, don't register for an account on every social media site. That will only burn you out and your campaigns will be fruitless.

20) They have humor. Adding humor to marketing is a cool way of saying “we are a friendly business”. It makes your marketing memorable. A priceless result.

21) They share company events. If your company is being bad mouthed, tell your customers about it. Tell them the truth in it and the lies. Don't give them the chance to second guess your company. If your company is nominated for an award, tell your community about it. If your company wins the award, tell them. If you lose the award, tell them.

22) They integrate offline marketing. Print some T-Shirts, with your logo, Twitter handle, Facebook fan page URL and your slogan on it and give them out to your customers. Send out paper printed catalogs to your online leads. Add your Twitter and Facebook URLs to your contact address. Integrate offline with online.

23) They use the right networks. Even though Facebook supports videos, video campaigns will do better on Youtube than on Facebook.

24) They use photos and videos. Photos and videos leave a lasting impression on peoples' minds. The best photo you can use is your logo. When you make a video, put your logo on it.

25) They have a call to action. What is the essence of a marketing campaign without having a call to action of some sort? I suggest you use your social marketing campaigns to generate leads before trying to sell anything. By the way, “signup below” and “call us now” are not the only call to action examples. “Click to view our portfolio” is an example of call to action. Your call to actions must follow a sequence; from your homepage to the last page.

Sina Weibo maybe a copycat, but definitly a smart one

Sina Weibo maybe a copycat, but is definitely a SMART one. Noteworthy is that, there are also popular grassroots accounts that are not verified but still enjoy huge community. This is valuable because it leads us to find out in details how and why these accounts become famous. Verified account is like an ID that brings natural popularity and it’s nice to have one. However, if community can be created without a verified one, that’s even nicer. 

Continuing previous article on Weibo (equivalent to Twitter in China), this article takes a closers look at the top Weibo site T.sina. 

Let’s cut into the biggest difference Sina Weibo to its American equivalent—verified account. 

What is verified account exactly?

Verified account, like literally meaning, is the verified account identification on Sina Weibo, which according to the site, is to issue to “avoid confusion of identity”. 

Look: an orange letter V will appear next to verified account .

Who can be verified?

·         Popular entertainment figure

·         Popular public figure in other industry

·         Company, organization, media and executives

·         Important news figure

Process: apply online (need to provide ID and work ID). Sina will get back in 7 days.

Personal relationship with the editors is another option. Rate to be find out.

Special function: there’s no special function for verified account and regular account (really? Any more info?).

http://t.sina.com.cn/pub/verified

Other difference to Twitter: Sina Weibo is much versatile. 

All services and data are available under Sina Weibo: There’s Sina Weibo Square (微博广场), which aggregates all popular data and information: from popular topics, to the top 2,000 popular accounts in celebrity and non-celebrity category. Sina Weibo provides recommendation on friends base on users’ interest.  Mobile Sina Weibo is available too. Users are able to vote, create a topic, and include pictures and videos. 

Open API: Sina Weibo is an open platform. Third party APIs are available. Other functions such as group sending, IM, Weibo Group is also available. 

Connect to multiple platform: Sina Weibo  can be embedded into other platforms such as 163 Blogs, be included into your email, to BBS, under your signature, in QQ Space. Now we see the ambition of Sina Weibo.

Who’s popular on Sina Weibo?

Besides celebrities and public figures, pubic interest accounts are popular in non-celebrity category. See below the most popular accounts.

Celebrity	Number	Note
1. YAO Chen	4,251,950	actress
2. Xiao S.	4,039,605	hostess
3. Zhao Wei	3,856,872	actress
Non celebrity	Number	Note
1.Awkward joke	1,519,390	also popular on Renren
2. veggieg	1,334,901	NA
3.Great sayings	1,018,908	account acout good saying /idioms

Not only an information sharing platform, Sina Weibo has created a system that allows users to network, and advertisers to spend money. You can say Sina Weibo is copycat, but it's definitely a smart one.  

Source: http://t.sina.com.cn/pub/verified

Weibo Groups and Guanxi!

Continuing last Weibo article, which mentions that Weibo is more versatile with multiple social networking functions, this article digs deeper on Weibo itself, strengthening the increasingly important role for Weibo in China by identifying the very difference between Weibo and Twitter.
Besides videos, pictures, and gaming applications, “Weibo Groups (微群)” is another function that brings this platform closer to social networking business.

About Weibo Groups
Weibo Groups are social clubs divided in 8 major categories (celebrities, industry, interests, culture, lifestyle, housing, old friends, and cities), with over a hundred subcategories. Within these categories users are allowed to create their own groups with specifically defined interests. Each group is limited to 500 users and each user is limited to 10 groups. There are both open groups (anyone can join) and closed groups (requires approval to participate as a member, but anyone can read).
What does this mean to us?
• Multiple promotional ways on Weibo itself: not only setting up accounts for our characters, Weibo Group is another place to spread the word and generate subscribers.
• Similar promotions among Weibo and other SNS: while it is clear that Weibo is a competitive threat to SNS, it is also clear to us that it’s a necessary platform that we should include in our promotional efforts, knowing that Weibo has more social networking function, our promotional practices will have more direction accordingly. Weibo has 70 million users, Renren self-reported to have 160 million users. Sina Weibo Group has launched ahead of Renren Group

How much does it cost?
While full promotional rate is not available yet, from communicating with one blogger I outreached this week, the promotion within Weibo groups that have over 10,000 fans cost minimum 500-700rmb ($75-$105)/day. These groups will promise on avg 50 RT and 50 comments.
Payment cannot always guarantee premium account, what else? Guanxi!
From former research we mentioned “verified account” on Sina Weibo, which allows over 2,000 following and is supposed to be distributed only to celebrities and business. However, from communication with industry people, “Guanxi”, “personal relationship” in Chinese, with editors enable non-celebrity figures like Xiaoxi to have verified account access as well. Is Guanxi important? Of course!
However, there are also examples showing that payment without Guanxi can guarantee everything, including subscribers. Exactly why is that? See my next article for details.

Note: Weibo is Chinese Twitter, literally means microblog.

Additional reads:
http://www.techrice.com/2010/11/27/sina-weibo-launches-groups-threatens-chinas-social-networks/
http://www.techrice.com/2010/11/07/sina-weibos-4-steps-to-dominance-in-china/

First Look at Weibo

In order to find out Weibo’s role in campaigns, I examine three effective Weibo campaigns that happen recently, and identify the followings:
• Weibo+ event is most often utilized in campaigns
• Most campaigns focus on a variety of social media sites including SNS, VSS, and Weibo, intead of aiming solely on Weibo as a single platform.
• Weibo is becoming an increasing effective way to go viral. Weibo is becoming the main channel for online community to voice opinions and engage with brands. Source shows that 45.9% online users voice their opinions through Weibo during the World Cup Season. According to DCCI, China’s Weibo users will expand to over 100 million.
• Sina Weibo (t.sina) continues to be the leading Chinese microblog platform.

Furthermore, I examine the general differences between Weibo in China and the microblog in the US.
• Weibo has a focus on verified account, which is given to all celebrities and brands. “V” appears by every verified user’s Weibo entry. Weibo’s verified accounts have to be celebrities or brands.
• Weibo has multiple functions. That happens with other social media platforms in China as well. A Sina Weibo game named “Adoption”, which was launched in October, attracts 30,000 users and 100,000 Tweets in two days.
• Different to Twitter, Weibo embed pictures and videos which can be viewed without leaving the page. This is this handy for the user and provides opportunities for marketing, as brands can more easily associate visuals with entries.
• Business people on Weibo are as popular as entertainment stars. According to a blog article, In Twitter’s top ten there is not one business person; in Weibo’s there are three. Successful businesspeople are seen more like celebrities.
• Weibo has the backing of Chinese giant, Twitter doesn’t. Major Weibo is developed by major portal sites therefore are in very strong position in China.
• Top Weibo users have over 1 billion followers. According to first-hand source, it takes about 500-700 rmb/day to promote on a Weibo fans group that has over 10,000 fans. This type of fans group enable about 50 Retweets and 50 replies daily


Note: Weibo (微博) is the Chinese pronunciation microblog. Equivalent to Chinese Twitter. Therefore Weibo is sometimes called microblog.

China video site obeservations

There’s a very interesting article issued in May 2010, which provide a comprehensive survey on China’s video site, and in-depth research on major video sites from three aspects: a) basic info, b) content, and c) user and advertisement.
Kind note that video site here means all the sites that typically have video-related business, and can be divided into two categories:
1) Video portal site (straight-up video site), include Youku, Tudou, 56, Ku 6, Qiyi, Joy,cn,
2) Portal website that has video function, include Sina, Tencent and Sohu.

Take-away and analysis:
• Speed, quality of the picture, and video content are three most important factors for video site selection.
• Video portal sites beat portal sites in speed, traffic and quality of the pictures. Therefore video portal sites are the way to go.
• Ku6 is the unexpected dark horse, beats competitors in picture quality, traffic and the amount of originals. These provide us guidance on platform selection.
• Different from the US, Movies and TV are the most accepted and liked program for Chinese online audience. Therefore tend to attract advertisement.
• Audience is still reluctant to typical video Ad, yet character-driver Ad is different story.

Part 1 Basic Information—video portal sites, specifically Tudou and Ku6 are the way to go
Speed—straight-up video sites are faster than portals
Portal site is slower than straight up video portal site. Reason: as trading company, major portal sites such as Sina and Sohu won’t heavily invest in upgrading server and other technologies until they see promising profit. Within video portal sites, Ku6 stands out to have the fasterst speed.

Traffic—Youku, Tudou, and Ku6 are top three
The top three sites that have the highest traffic are Youku, Tuou, and Ku6. Within portal sites, Sina and Sohu has different model—Sina focus more on news reporting, whereas Sohu’s model is more like Hulu.
Noteworthy is that Ku6’s traffic enjoy tremendous growth, mainly because the strong support from Sunda.

Part 2 Content—fierce competition among video sites, professional content is the majority.
Speed, picture quality and content are three most important factors in site selection
Speed is the most important factor in choosing video sites, 33% of the researched audience chooses speed to be the most important factor; content is the second most important factor (28%). Picture quality is the third important factor (26%). Noteworthy is that the brand value of certain site is the least important factor for audience. This means that, audience are not confined to one video site. This leads to fierce competition among video sites.
In terms of picture quality, Ku6, Sina, and Qiyi top the list, Youku is in the bottom. The reason is that Youku needs to control cost given its highest user base.
All video sites categorize its movie and TV content by region. Youku and Joy.cn has the highest percentage of content that’s from Hollywood and Europe. Tudou has the biggest percentage of Asian content.
Professional vs. Original
Ku 6 stands out to have a stronger content team. Youku stands out to have the highest amount of user upload and user interaction.
Out of all the audience researched, 39% of them are most interested in new movies and TV, second interested content is entertainment and variety show (10%), third interested content is sports. Different than YouTube, originals are the least popular category (3.7%).

Part 3 Advertisement—advertisers favor professional and authorized content, audience needs time to accept
From advertiser’s perspective, Ku6 and Sina attract advertisers most for its support for high-definition, and authorized professional videos; Youku and Tudou are considered to be risker in copyright due to the mix of both professional and original content. Video advertisement is well-accepted among advertisesr; however, users are not so excited about video advertisement—33% of the audiences researched indicate that they cannot accept Ad on video site.

Access
In terms of how to access video sites, the most common way is search engine (26%); website links is in the second place (25%); advertisement is the least common way to access these sites (0.4%).


Source:
http://www.chinaz.com/Webmaster/Topsite/05251163002010.html
www.kejixun.com

Friday China Ad Industry Mashup

-       Euro RSCG continues momentum in new business

-       Continue fast change in agency industry

-       Branded TV drama rated 100 million views on Tudou

 MEC's Dominic Ng to lead AB InBev at MediaCom Shanghai Aug 27,2010
Dominic Ng, who was most recently national managing director at MEC China, has been internally transferred within GroupM to become the managing partner of MediaCom Shanghai to lead the AB InBev team.
Under Ng's leadership, MediaCom Shanghai won AB InBev’s media pitch. The contract is reportedly worth US$190 million (RMB1.3 billion) and will take effect on 1 October.Ng has already stepped into his new role. Michelle Ko, president MEC China, will take over Ng’s role in MEC Guangzhou as a temporary arrangement.Apart from AB inBev, MediaCom China also added GAP to their client portfolio earlier this year.
Recently MEC has been awarded Mercedes-Benz China's digital buying business, effective July 10th 2010.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230203,mecs-dominic-ng-to-lead-ab-inbev-at-mediacom-shanghai.aspx

Media veteran Frank Lin resigns from McDonald's after five years, effective in October Aug 27, 2010
According to an industry source senior the former marketing director will join a new media company based in Shanghai. The company is still looking for his successor.
Lin had held various senior media director roles with agencies like FCB Guangzhou, MediaCom China and Hong Kong, and JWT Shanghai.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230171,media-veteran-frank-lin-resigns-from-mcdonalds-after-five-years.aspx

Nike Hong Kong promotes Amy Wu as territory commercial director Aug 27, 2010
Amy Wu is marketing director for the past three and half years, to the role of territory commercial director leading the Hong Kong office.
http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/230192,nike-hong-kong-promotes-amy-wu-as-territory-commercial-director.aspx

Cupples steps in to fill OMD's regional role Aug 27, 2010
Omnicom Media Group's (OMG) Asia Pacific CEO Barry Cupples will add OMD regional duties to his current role as Maggie Choi departs. Choi has been with the company for 13 years and has decided to leave to spend time on personal interests. Her last day is 1 November.
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21728

Aegis preps for a convergent media world Aug 27, 2010
Aegis is restructuring its media offering under five "power brands" Carat, Vizeum, Isobar, iProspect and Posterscope, according to chief executive officer Jerry Buhlmann.
Speaking at the announcement of its first half results, where it saw a strong return to profits in the first six months of 2010, Buhlmann said Aegis is moving towards a "well organized" and "competitive product suite" and will be eyeing companies in the faster-growing regions and markets, in particular China and Russia.
http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21736

Euro RSCG wins cooking oil Bohi branding duties Aug 27, 2010
The agency is tasked with brand positioning, communication strategy and creative development for Bohi's main cooking oil brand Gourmet Expert as well as brand architecture across Bohi's other cooking oil brands.
Mason Lin is the CEO of Euro RSCG Greater China; Edward Su is the managing director of Euro RSCG Shanghai.


http://www.marketing-interactive.com/news/21730
Unilever branded TV drama ‘Unbeatable' rakes in 100 million views on Tudou Aug 27,2010
Tudou announced that ‘Unbeatable', a 36-part branded drama series for Clear Shampoo, has been played over 100 million times on Tudou.com since its 5 August premiere.
According to Tudou, it is the second drama series that has passed the 100 million threshold, following 'The Myth', which was launched at the beginning of this year.
The drama has been aired across six major satellite TV channels and six web sites. PHD China is the media agency behind the campaign.
http://en.campaignchina.com/Article/230176,unilever-branded-tv-drama-rakes-in-100-million-views-on-tudou.aspx?eid=22&edate=20100827&utm_source=20100827&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter&eaddr=msun@thoughtfulmedia.com

Taobao Mall calls media pitch in China Aug 27, 2010
OMD, MEC and ZenithOptimedia are believed to have taken part in the presentations yesterday.
Earlier this month Taobao signed a deal with Adidas to open its first online flagship store on the B2C e-commerce platform. Similarly, Uniqlo joined forces with Taobao to set up a flagship store supporting its e-commerce shoppers in the mainland during April last year.
Taobao announced at the start of the year to launch authorized offline stores to reach out to consumers unable to shop online in China. There are plans to deploy over 30,000 more stores in communities and schools across the country before the end of 2010.
http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/230230,taobao-mall-calls-media-pitch-in-china.aspx