Colin Alsheimer » branding

Ten Tips for Using Brand Ambassadors in a Social Media Campaign

Colin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:34:59 +0000

Lately, it seems to be all the rage (+1) to create social media campaigns for companies that feature influential brand ambassadors.

These campaigns, which typically come in some form of contest, can do a phenomenal job of creating awareness and interest for a brand or product – so much so, that when done properly, it can be many times more effective than a traditional media blitz.

And with the visibility provided by social media, it’s easier then ever to identify who the influential people are within a given community or geographic area.

That said, there are some guidelines brands should follow when deciding to implement one of these campaigns:

Don’t take too much of your ambassador’s time
Your chosen ambassador’s likely have other responsibilities outside of the campaign. Be mindful of this to avoid overstepping any boundaries. The last thing you want is a time-strapped and stressed ambassador, who can’t fully participate in the campaign.
Make the scoring mechanisms fair & easy
If your social campaign involves a scoring element, be sure that the mechanisms you choose are simple for your ambassador to obtain. Make this too difficult, and your ambassadors will tune out. Also, be sure the mechanisms are fair to all competing parties. For example – if your campaign targets general audiences, don’t rely on emerging technologies and services that have not yet reached critical mass.
Don’t request too much from your ambassador’s network
One of the benefits of running a social campaign with influencers is that you then have access to those influencer’s networks. Be mindful of what you’re asking your ambassadors to do – too much network outreach is liable to do more harm than good. Social media etiquette generally entails giving more than you take. If your social media campaign requires that your ambassador take too much from their network, it could foster ill will towards the ambassador and the associated brand.
Compensate your ambassador fairly
Remember to compensate your ambassadors fairly for their work. Social media campaigns are not an excuse for brands to get free or low cost labor. Use a creative incentive package, featuring a mix of attainable awards and monetary compensation, if necessary.
Communicate proactively
These campaigns tend to have a lot of moving parts. And as most marketers know, risk is near proportional to complexity. Frequently, however, issues that arise during a complex campaign can be corrected through regular and proactive communication. Address issues as you see them, lest they spiral out of control and reduce the effectiveness of your campaign.
Be transparent
For this style of social media campaign to be successful, your ambassador must be 100% on board. They’ll likely notice problems before you do, so you’ll need to be fully transparent. If a part of the campaign isn’t going as planned, be sure to communicate what went wrong, and how it’s being fixed.
Create a compelling incentive
Make sure your incentive (if you have one) is compelling enough for your ambassador to want to promote your brand. While this may be an expensive proposition for some, the ends will justify the means (and still come in cheaper then a traditional media blitz!)
Make it fun
This one should be a no-brainer. If your campaign isn’t fun, your ambassador won’t participate at a high level. Your campaign should be structured in such a way that your ambassadors are consistently engaged and interested.
Provide ample support
Your selected ambassador will need help bringing your brand message to life. Make plans to provide your ambassadors with all the resources they’ll need to succeed.
Integrate other media channels
To really shine, your social media campaign needs to be supported by other media channels. If your budget allows, try to find ways to incorporate content marketing, public relations, paid search, and even traditional advertising in the mix. By integrating several different channels into your mix, you’ll not only expand your reach, but if done strategically, you’ll maximize your return as well.

How would you run this type of campaign? What would you do differently or change? Are these types of campaigns still effective, or have they mostly run their course? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

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How To Set Up The Ultimate Listening Station Using Google Reader

Colin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:00:11 +0000

People are using the Internet to talk about your brand and your products – are you listening? Do you know how to listen? Listening is easier then you think, and you don’t have to buy an expensive monitoring tool to do it, either.

Want to know what people are saying about you on Twitter? Facebook? Blogs? Forums? No problem.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up the ultimate listening station using Google Reader, a free tool.

The Setup

For this hypothetical example, we’ll be setting up a listening station for the New England Patriots, since lots of people like to talk about the Pats online.

1. Sign up for a Google Reader account (this may require signing up for a Google account, if you don’t already have one)

Your Brand New Google Reader Account

2. Set up Google Alerts for relevant keywords. Choose the comprehensive search, and set the delivery option to feed. Click create alert, and then on the following screen, click view in Google Reader. You should now be subscribed to your Google Alert in your Google Reader. Repeat as necessary.

Note: you may experience some overlap between your Google Alerts and the other feeds we’ll set up below. This is OK.

Google Alerts Set-Up

3. Go to Twitter Search. Run a search for a relevant keyword term, like “New England Patriots”. Click on feed for this query on the right hand side of the screen. Add to your Google Reader account. Is your search for a particular geographic area? Use Twitter’s Advanced Search to narrow your search by geographic area. Repeat as necessary.

Twitter Search Results

4. Facebook has a search feature, but does not allow you to subscribe to searches via RSS. But there is another option. Go to Social Mention and select Facebook by clicking on the select social media sources option underneath the search box. Run your search and subscribe by clicking on the RSS feed icon on the right hand side of the search results screen. Add to your reader account. Repeat as necessary.

Selecting Facebook on Social Mention

RSS Subscription Option

5. What about forums? There’s probably a lot of discussion about the Patriots on sports forums, right? Go to BoardReader, run a search for your target query. On the search results screen, hover over the show tools link, and select RSS. Add to your reader account. Repeat as necessary.

Note: at the time of this post, both BoardReader and BoardTracker were having technical difficulties, and I was unable to get RSS subscriptions to work. The above info is how you would set it up if it were working correctly.

Forum Search

RSS Subscription Icon for BoardReader

6. Now for the blogs. Several options exist for searching blog posts. Google Blog Search and IceRocket can both get the job done. For this tutorial I’m going to use Social Mention again. Follow the same process as you did for step #4. Only this time, select the blogs option to the right of the search box. Subscribe to the results via RSS, and add to your Google Reader account. Repeat as necessary.

7. YouTube. There’s probably a lot of activity on YouTube for New England Patriots clips. Go to YouTube. Search for your relevant keyword term. On the results page, click on the RSS icon in your browser’s address bar. Add to Google Reader, repeat as necessary.

YouTube Search

8. Flickr. At this point in time, Flickr does not allow you to subscribe to keyword searches. So we must turn to Social Mention once more. Follow the same steps as you did on step #4, only this time, select Flickr instead of Facebook. Subscribe to the RSS feed on Google Reader. Repeat as necessary.

Searching Flickr Through Social Mention

9. Any other unmentioned website or media platform. Go to the site. Run a search for a target keyword phrase. Look for RSS subscribe options. If an option does not exist, check a website like Social Mention.

Organize Your Findings

By now, you should have several feeds set up for a variety of searches. Here’s how to organize your Google Reader account for easy reading.

1. Go to Google Reader.

2. Click on settings.

3. Then click on Google Reader settings.

4. Click on the subscriptions tab.

5. Start organizing your feeds into folders, in this example, I’ll group feeds into folders by keyword. You could also group by medium, or if you do this for multiple clients – by client.

Google Reader Subscription Settings

6. When you’re done, your reader might look something like the picture below.

Organized Google Reader Account

And that’s it! You’re now set up to monitor your brand or business across a variety of popular platforms and it’s all free.

Got any questions? Leave them in the comments!

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