In a country where men are traditionally the first ones to adopt new technology, it’s easy to see why writers have been sent into a tailspin trying to figure out why the gender ratio in Pinterest users is reversed from the usual statistics. These statistics have led some writers and analysts to speculate why Pinterest appeals to women in particular, and many have concluded that this is due to the structure of Pinterest itself.  For example, Steve Jones, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois in Chicago, has compared Pinterest to the bulletin boards that girls hang up and decorate in their bedrooms: “It reminds me of my girlfriends in high school who’d cut stuff out of magazines and pin it up on a wall…This is the Web-based, digital equivalent of that behavior.” This statement, however anecdotally true, seems to assume that there is a biological distinction between men and women that makes women want to pin things to a board. However, I don’t think women have an innate drive to create collages. Instead, girls create pin boards because they’ve seen other girls create pinboards, and they liked the idea. Looking at the story this way, it becomes apparent that there’s more of a social influence at stake – we’re influenced by people of similar social groups.

On the other hand, some minds have surmised that men look to social media as a “transactional” medium, as a means to gather information, expand business opportunities, or find a mate, while women use social media as a means to foster relationships. They reason that Pinterest is effective for female communication because it’s more community-based. Men prefer Google+ and LinkedIn because they can view information and scope out potential networking opportunities, while women prefer Pinterest because they can share their hopes and dreams and keep in touch with family and friends. This argument gets more to the heart of the issue by analyzing how women act in social communities, but doesn’t answer the issue of why women have dominated Pinterest over, say, Delicious or Instagram, which could both potentially be just as “community-based” as Pinterest is.

What both of the arguments above fail to address are two things: the importance of community in founding social networks, and the flexibility of social media as a medium. One statistic that firmly busts the idea that “Men are from Google+, women are from Pinterest” is that men actually outnumber women on Pinterest in the United Kingdom, with 56% male users to 44% female users. If Pinterest were so socially and evolutionarily structured so as to fit female communication, why would the statistics on user gender ratio be so vastly different in the two culturally-similar countries? If we look at the same infographic that gives us this statistic, the author notes the differences popular pinboard topics in both the US and the UK. In the US, the main interests include Crafts, Gifts and Special Event Items, Hobbies and Leisure, Interior Design, Fashion Designers and Collections, and Blogging Resources and Services. In the UK, on the other hand, the main interests posted are Venture Capital, Blogging Resources and Services, Crafts, Design, Web Stats and Analytics, SEO and Marketing, Content Management, and Public Relations. Although both countries have some similar overlapping interests, such as Crafts and Blogging Resources, the rest of the top posting categories differ greatly. The US interests largely fall under typical “women’s interests,” such as Fashion, Hobbies, and Interior Design, while the UK interests are dedicated towards pursuits that are typically thought of as more male because they are “transactional,” such as Venture Capital, SEO, and Analytics. What these differences between the utilization of Pinterest in the US and the UK show is that a social media structure is not inflexibly, or even inherently, “male” or “female.” Social media is a tool that can be manipulated for various purposes, depending on the people who are using it. Pinterest can be used as a means to foster interpersonal relationships through collections of dream wedding dresses, as well as increasing business PR through SEO and analytics. The comparison between US and UK Pinterest users underscores the fact that social media is an extremely flexible medium, and its primary purpose is directed by its users.

The fact that social media is directed by its users is an important point because then one can begin to view social media sites as spaces that can be dominated by a certain group of people, making it less likely for other groups to participate if they don’t already fit that demographic. In the US, Pinterest is not only a means for women to communicate about their dream weddings or their budding sweater-knitting businesses; it’s also a place for them to do so. In this manner Pinterest becomes a concrete location that exists, in the way that a concert hall provides a place for symphonic performances to exist. Except that since Pinterest has been dominated by women in the US, it has become a place primarily for women’s interests, and so its popularity as a site for women has snowballed through online and in-person recommendations from other women. American men are now less likely to be drawn to Pinterest in the first place because it’s already perceived as a community for women, where men are as excluded as they would be from most women’s groups in real life, such as some parts of wedding planning.

What marketers may forget, is that social media is not only a means of communication, a tool; it is also a space for communities. Tools can be used for many purposes, and spaces can be repurposed or taken over by different communities. When looking for ways to connect with their consumers, brands should be on the lookout not only for which social media sites already have a large number of users in their target demographic, but also which social media sites have the potential to be a good place to connect with that demographic, even if that demographic isn’t there yet. So this means that Pinterest could possibly be a good medium through which to connect with men, and it’s definitely already a good medium through which to connect with certain groups of women. Marketers just need to give men the right reasons to join in.

With the 5-day SES New York Conference coming up on March 19th-23rd in NYC, Supercool was lucky enough to get some time with one of the event’s speakers, Jon Aizen, Director of Display Initiative, with Yahoo!. Jon shares his thoughts on what would be the coolest dynamic ad in the history of the planet, the creative value of an ad vs the marketing message, and which industries could be taking better advantage of Yahoo! Smart Ads.

Supercool Creative: If you could just waive your hand and instantly create “the coolest dynamic ad in the history of the planet,” using real or imagined technology, what would be in it?

Jon Aizen: The coolest dynamic ad would be one that is indistinguishable from the content that surrounds it – an integrated and consistent part of the experience of the webpage in which it is embedded that provides consumers with a personalized, interactive, and dynamic experience. For example, denverco.areaguides.net, which is composed of a variety of content widgets that provide job listings, news, and other types of content, is actually advertising content that the website is monetizing directly on the page.  In effect, this execution is effectively a dynamic ad, albeit one that is constructed with custom integration, but more importantly, it blurs the lines between content and advertising to deliver real value to consumers.

Supercool Creative: Does an inverse relationship exist between the creative, or entertainment value and the message effectiveness of digital initiatives? In other words, as the marketing message becomes stronger, does the entertainment value necessarily decrease and vice-versa? Is there an ideal balance?

Jon Aizen: The best advertising actually delivers value for the consumer, which, in turn, creates value for the advertiser. Ultimately, however, the value delivered in the advertising needs to tie into the value provided by the advertiser’s goods or services.

For instance, an interactive game inside an ad with brand messaging seamlessly integrated can serve to educate and entice a consumer into making a purchase in the future.  After all, Internet users are still consumers who shop in both the online and offline world.  More importantly, however, that makes them no less averse to commercial activity or marketing messages.  What they want is ads that deliver value and relates to their experience – positive experiences go a long way in making a marketer’s message more effective.

Solutions like Yahoo! Smart Ads are a great example of how marketing messages can enhance the user experience.  They enable advertisers to harness their content and offers, personalize it to the user based on data, and, in doing so, create a more positive, engaging experience which ultimately drives results for advertisers.  In late 2010, we ran a four-month long, personalized retargeting campaign with online ticket marketplace Vivid Seats in an effort to increase conversions and lower cost per acquisition (CPA).  Taking into account previous events a user viewed online and the user’s location, we offered up an app-like creative ad unit on Vivid Seats’ website, which offered live ticket availability and latest prices, to their target audience, as well as a general public service announcement control ad.  We measured the post-view conversion activity and found Yahoo! Smart Ads caused at least 100% more incremental view-based conversions than the PSA group.

Supercool Creative: What industries could be taking better advantage of Yahoo! Smart Ads and why?

Jon Aizen: There has been broad adoption of dynamic ads and, in particular, Yahoo! Smart Ads across most of the major industry verticals. For some, like travel and retail, the applications are obvious because those advertisers have many different products, which make for ads that can be highly personalized to users based on offers that match those users’ profiles. Others, such as automotive and finance have also found great success with Smart Ads, tailoring their messaging to consumers based on what Yahoo! data can tell the optimization algorithms about those users.

That said, there are a number of industries that are just now starting to realize the potential of dynamic creative. A good example can be found in the entertainment industry. In order to promote upcoming movie releases, some studios are beginning to use solutions like Smart Ads for Video to select appropriate trailers based upon the viewer and overlay local show times. Another industry, consumer packaged goods (CPG), has recently started deploying dynamic ads at larger scale. Some pioneering CPG companies are using this type of ad to test and drive the most effective brand messaging based upon the specific consumers viewing their ads.  The results have been very positive and we expect more advertisers to take advantage of this ad format in 2012.

You can follow Jon @yonajon and SES @SESConf.

Last night Ria and I went to the Los Angeles kickoff show of the DigiTour, a national, live tour bringing your favorite YouTube musicians to you! The show rocked the El Rey Theater for the second year in a row and was absolutely amazing… even better than last year, if you can believe that. The lineup featured: Dave Days, Destorm, Ricky Ficarelli & Wellington, Alex Goot, Asher Monroe, Nice Peter and The Key of Awesome.

Here are some photos from the event. Seriously we had a blast, so go check it out on one of the 17 tour dates that’s nearest to you! 

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We had the opportunity earlier this week to interview Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist, leading up to SES New York. Avinash will be the keynote speaker at the 5-day conference being held March 19th-23rd in NYC. With an obvious passion for the work he does, Avinash shared some excellent insights about meeting customer expectations in a digital marketing world, the biggest risks marketing executives can take in 2012, and the best metrics for measuring the success of a digital marketing campaign.

Supercool Creative: On your blog, Occam’s Razor, in a post titled “The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish,” you wrote “Aim to meet super-insane customer expectations and you’ll future-proof your business.” How can analytics and data help marketers and their agencies pinpoint and even predict those expectations?

Avinash: There are two ways to look at this. You can look within your own data and see the emerging trends and preferences of your audience. Stories they love, products they buy (and then stop buying, switching to something else), performance of experiences with lower bounce rates, Per Visit Value of your flash content vs. straight HTML5, things people are searching on after they land on your site, products getting more reviews (and more passionate ones) than others etc. etc. There is so much data you have access to, it is not even funny. Use it.

You can look at your industry ecosystem data, your direct competitors data. For example tools like Insights for Search will show your the most statistically significant rising searches for any category. You type in Shampoo, you notice the fastest rising term is Hemp Shampoo. You don’t sell Hemp Shampoo. You have never heard of such a thing. Guess what, your customers are looking for it. What’s your plan? Leave that category for your competitors? Using tools like Compete.com and Trends for Websites it is extremely easy to run queries to understand how the behavioral patterns on the top industry sites are changing (go investigate what they are doing better), or you can dig in and understand how the acquisition strategy of your competitor is working (try some of those for yourself!). And so much more.

Supercool Creative: What’s the biggest risk marketing executives can take in 2012 and what are the potential rewards?

Avinash: It is extremely difficult to guess where the world is going and have any sure bets any more. Most definitely for the next few years as nothing short of a tsunami of changes are coming our way when it comes to influence, acquisition, meeting expectations and extracting outcomes.

With that context the biggest risk executives can take is to allocate 10% of their marketing budget to failing faster. 15% if they really want to be successful. Everything is changing. You can’t guess what is going to die and what is going to fly. So take some of your budget. Experiment with new channels, messages, acquisition mix, landing pages, product offers, a real social strategy that is not based on shouting, and all those other things that matter. Measure what works best. Fail a little. Succeed a lot.

The reward is the eternal survival of your business.

Supercool Creative: From an analytics perspective, what are the top 3 criteria that should be used to define success in a digital marketing campaign?

Avinash: It depends. Rather than giving you three metrics (though you can get them from this post: http://zqi.me/bestkpis), I want to share a framework. For every digital marketing campaign, make sure that you’ve chosen one metric that helps you identify success in each of these three categories: Acquisition. Behavior. Outcome.

• How will you know that your campaign was magnificent at acquiring the person?
• How will you know that your digital presence (site/mobile app) kept the promise made in the campaign?
• How will you know that your campaign added to the company’s online or offline bottom-line via your campaign?

So three metrics you might choose could be: Cost Per Acquisition. Bounce Rate. Average Order Value. For different types of websites the specific metric you’ll choose will be different. But you have to have a metric from each of the three categories. Or else you are not really measuring end to end success.

You can follow Avinash @avinash and SES @SESConf.

Originally published on Ad Age

Wikipedia defines symbiosis as the “close and often long-term interaction between different biological species.” That pretty much describes the relationship between brands and their agencies. Although they must work together to achieve larger, common goals, the relationship between marketing executives and agencies can be both rewarding and conflicted. Never before has this been more true than in the digital marketing space, when strategy, planning, creative development, social media and production are all expected to be cheaper, faster, more effective and more measurable than ever before.

Although they can seem as different as sea anemones and clownfish, marketing and agency executives both aspire to work hard, develop and execute fabulous campaigns, sell lots of stuff, win awards, not get fired and move up. The disconnect is often in the perceived value of the work, the scope of the work and the results that work will yield. The key to attaining those results, is for brand executives to hire the most symbiotic agency, and then make sure that agency delivers on their part of the relationship. Shove them around, spy on them, make sure they’re doing their jobs. The results will be better work and more effective campaigns.

Focus on accountability.
Campaigns, especially larger and longer ones with many moving parts, can be hard to keep an eye on. Marketing executives can often be too busy to micromanage every single detail. Stay focused on the campaign goals, short and long-term objectives and your digital or social media agency’s role in the campaign. Hold your agency to task for every deliverable they’ve set forth, and then some. Insist on frequent in-person or conference call status meetings. Agencies may hate you for this, preferring to be left to do their job, and you may not want to be bothered either, but when the campaign is over, you’ll all be a lot more successful for having gone through the exercise.

Demand analytics and reporting.
Once the campaign is underway, your agency should be showing you analytics on a regular basis and making suggestions and adjustments on the fly. How can you know what’s working and not working if you aren’t analyzing reports on a consistent basis? Focus not only statistics, but also on consumer sentiment. What are fans of your brand saying and doing in relation to the campaign? This type of feedback allows you to address concerns, initiate course corrections and better estimate your next moves. We were near the beginning of a 5-month social media campaign for a AAA fighting game, and monitoring fan reactions to a certain game feature that was being introduced. After picking up initially negative fan sentiment, we were able to promptly react and deliver content and messaging that swayed opinions and generated excitement leading up to the game launch.

Require flexibility.
How flexible and accommodating is your digital agency? Do they nit-pick at every new request that “wasn’t in the contract” or “that’s beyond the scope of work they agreed to.” Well, in all fairness, marketing teams are famous for scope creep, which can cost agencies extra time that wasn’t budgeted for. But on the other hand, many agencies are dime smart and dollar foolish, choosing not to go the extra mile to please their clients. Be appreciative when your agency does go the extra mile, and only work with those agencies that do.

Challenge your agency creatively.
Is your digital agency bringing new ideas to the table mid-campaign, or just moving along at cruising altitude, performing the line items in their contract? Your agency should be coming to you with fresh ideas and course corrections. What’s the point in measuring everything and pouring over analytics reports if course corrections aren’t made? Agencies are reluctant to suggest new ideas because, if a budget has already been allocated, this could mean more work for them for the same amount of money. That’s short-sighted thinking, and if a certain idea truly requires additional budget, give them the opportunity to pitch the concept. Regardless, always be asking how the campaign can improve. Don’t just go down a checklist that was created two months before the campaign began, and mark off each milestone as it’s completed. Challenge yourself and your agency to do better, stretch further, set new micro-goals. A good digital and social media agency will already be doing many things under the hood that you may not even know about, but make sure your agency feels free to make suggestions, even if they come with a price tag. You can always say no.

Communicate.
Let your agency know when they’re doing well and when they’re not. Ask them if they think they’re doing well. Evaluate. Develop an open line of communication. Ask questions. Never assume everything is OK. Encourage your agency to share any difficulties they’re having along the way. You’re supposed to be a team. A good agency will welcome the interaction and be far less likely to hide anything that isn’t going according to plan or fudge analytics to make themselves shine. The proof is always in the pudding, so discuss the recipe and taste along the way to make sure your results are as good as, or better than expected.

The goal will always be to sell more stuff. That’s what will ultimately determine the success or failure of a campaign. So as soon as you’ve locked down the scope and budget, start harassing your agency. The good ones will thank you… later.

My first reaction is to assume they understand their customers better than I do, but then I realize how insane that sounds, and decide that they simply don’t understand social media marketing. Here’s a quick crash course in case you need to get up to speed. I’ll go into more detail in a future article.

Social media marketing checklist:

1.  Establish goals

2.  Develop a solid social media marketing strategy

3.  Integrate the social media strategy across all departments including marketing, sales and PR

4.  Create funny, entertaining, engaging, informative, shareable content like videos, blog posts, graphics, updates and apps as social focal points

5.  Encourage your target audience to share via social networking

6.  Build and nurture an interested fan base of potential buyers

7.  Actively engage that audience across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other social networks

8.  Measure

9.  Adjust fire

10. Rinse and repeat

The whole idea is to offer content that will grab people’s attention and get them interested enough in what you’re offering to ask more questions, investigate, learn more. “But wait,” you say. “I’m supposed to grab people’s attention? This is B2B, not B2C.” Yeah, I know but guess what? That business that’s eventually going to buy your stuff is actually a person with co-workers, friends and a robust social life both on and offline.

B2B is still people selling to people, not buildings selling to buildings

Business to business, by definition, is one business selling stuff to another business, but the marketers and buyers involved are still people, not buildings. The purchasing decisions are made by individuals who are influenced by the same fun, cool, shiny marketing and tactics that influence B2C buyers.

The main difference between B2B and B2C marketing is that with B2B, there are fewer decision-makers for us to target for each product or service.

A software developer may sell 50,000 units to one large business, but for every 50,000 users there may be one person or small team responsible for finding and introducing the new software option to that business. What if you could reach those 50,000 potential internal advocates directly and mobilize them to influence the person responsible for corporate software purchasing?

As with B2C, B2B buyers are educating themselves

The buying process is changing fast in both the B2C and B2B sectors. People are looking to educate themselves rather than be sold to. So in essence, they are selling themselves on your products and services. Your job as the marketing, sales or PR arm of your company is to:

a.  Get their attention

b.  Differentiate your products and services from the other guys

c.  Point them toward the information they need

Workplace sharing via social networks is huge, and good content gets shared and discussed like crazy. Pin your marketing message on the right content with the right social media strategy and your audience will reward you by steering it to your buyers.

Written by Supercool’s Creative Director David Murdico. Originally published on MediaPost.

1. Google+

Many writers have debated whether or not Google+ will be able to topple Facebook, but the point is moot. Who really cares? What businesses should be looking at is how Google+ functions differently from Facebook and how they can lean from this. One of the most important features of Google+ is the Ripples application. Ripples shows the extent of influence of a user’s post. If a publicly-shared post is re-shared, and then re-shared by others, it shows up as a larger ripple. This application makes it easy to see who, and what, has the most clout on the social media site. Brands should perk up their ears on Google+ to see who is talking about their product, and who’s actually being listened to.

2. Bandcamp

Even though Bandcamp currently only functions as a social media site to help bands and musicians connect with new listeners, it offers an interesting model that brands and businesses should keep an eye on. The site allows bands to upload liner notes and songs for free streaming, and lets them set the prices for download. The site also connects users, encouraging them to share music recommendations with each other on the site, as well as posting to other more ubiquitous social media sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. However, what really makes Bandcamp a site to watch is its user analytics. Through the site, bands can see which of their songs were played and which ones were skipped, as well as review the direct links to where their songs where shared and posted online. This gives bands the opportunity to directly respond to their fans’ postings, and extend their direct person-to-person influence over multiple other social media sites.

3. Foodie.fm

Commonly dubbed “the Facebook for grocers,” Foodie.fm allows consumers to share recipes, and can create shopping lists that break down the necessary ingredients based on what recipes users add to their lists, helping plan meals. The site also monitors a user’s habits and suggests recipes and groceries based on past purchase history. With British supermarket Tesco’s recent subscription to Foodie.fm, which merges Tesco’s online grocery store with Foodie.fm’s recipe recommendation services, Foodie.fm could bring social media into an area never thought to connect with social media: home cooking. This site gives food businesses the advantage of seeing how their products are used once they leave the grocery store, and can give them insight into creating effective packaging, designing new foods, and finding out what people really like about their products.

4. GetGlue

GetGlue is site where users can “check in” for their favorite shows, movies, music, and books, and then interact with other users who recently checked in for the same item. Although the structure honestly isn’t that much different from Twitter (posts are categorized item rather than hashtag), GetGlue is unique in one very important way: stickers. Based on a user’s check in history and frequency, GetGlue will award that user a digital “sticker.” However, every 30 days, a user can cash in on his or her stickers and GetGlue will send real-life versions of those stickers to the user’s home address. Through this, GetGlue mixes status updates with a competitive twist, which the results in winning real-life swag that only furthers promotion for the specific books, movies, and bands that the user is interested it. GetGlue is an important new social media site because it reminds brands that social media isn’t just about sharing, it’s also about competition.

5. Pinterest

Perhaps the most approachable of the five new social media sites listed is Pinterest, in which users create their own virtual themed pinboards that they can share. The Pinterest website explains, “People use their pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.” In my usage, I’ve also seen people use their pinboards to conglomerate how-to videos for hairstyling, collect images of their favorite foods, and self-promote their photography careers. Users can either add their own “pins,” or peruse other users’ pinboards and pick up items that they like. Pinterest makes it easy for businesses to track what consumers like about their products, especially on a visual level. Because Pinterest functions on the idea that everything can be collected, and put into a group with other related objects, allows brands to gain a more subtle understanding of how their product is perceived by the masses. Pinterest lets brands see (literally) where their products sit in regard to social sub-cultures, so they know how to position themselves to create bigger impact.

Each of the five sites I’ve shared here functions very differently. Though all social media sites, by very definition, seek to engage users and bring them into contact with other users, each site has a different unique purpose at its core. Google+ Ripples is transparent about its purpose in tracking an individual user’s clout and internet presence, while GetGlue encourages users to learn about new shows and movies by competing with other users to win stickers. Pinterest tracks the way people think about brands and objects in relation to other brands and objects, while Foodie.fm seeks to bring social media into one of the most non-social aspects of our personal lives, grocery shopping. Bandcamp stands out because it allows bands to connect to their fans on a very personal level across all forms of social media. Each of these very distinct purposes for our Top 5 New Social Sites show us one thing: that social media is malleable to a wide range of diverse purposes. You just need to find the perfect platform for yours. Brands, keep an eye on these sites. We sure are.

Over 2 billion people worldwide use the internet, for various purposes, and almost all of them come into contact with social media through one means or another. It’s difficult to get an actual statistic on how many people use social media since a single person might participate in multiple ways, from tweeting to blogging to posting, but Facebook alone is poised to top 1 billion active users by August 2012, over 3 billion videos are viewed daily on YouTube, Twitter is at 100 million active users and Google+ is at well over 100 Million. Since social media is how people are communicating and interacting with each other online, brands and businesses have to be a part of those conversations.

2. Social media is accessible

Social media is really, really easy to access. Anyone with a name and an email address can sign up for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Foursquare or any number of social networking sites, and start connecting with friends. Even people who don’t have friends can get their social media fix by starting or reading a blog and making comments. As smartphones and wifi become almost omnipresent, your target audience no longer needs to be sitting down in front of a desktop to be able to access the internet, meaning that social media has become a constant, easily-accessible presence in public (and private) life.

3. Social media is personal

Unlike typical advertising, social media is intensely personal because it depends on word-of-mouth (or -blog, or -post) relations to communicate your brand messages. In an age where the general public demands transparency and is distrustful of big corporations (see Occupy Wall Street), social media communications take on a legitimacy that large previously-faceless companies, such as Dow Chemicals or Coca-Cola, could never capture on their own. By bringing communication down to the most basic, from-one-person-to-another level, social media allows brands to connect with consumers on a more intimate level.

4. Social media is anonymous

As well as providing a form of communication that is more personal and intimate, social media can also provide the perfect landscape for anonymity. For some people, the internet is a magical place where one can do or say anything from behind a dense wall of anonymity. For brands, this provides a goldmine of information. Social media allows brands an unprecedented opportunity to mine positive and negative feedback and find out what consumers really think of them, from the specifics of their products to the good and bad marketing choices they’re making. This type of feedback, solicited or unsolicited, is especially valuable during new product development and launch phases.

5. Social media provides cool factor

As humans, we’re social creatures and we hate being out of the loop. Social media is the perfect place for brands to plug into pop culture and become part of the ongoing conversation. The internet is a fast-paced landscape of constantly-renewing media and brands need to make sure their ads, videos, and communications not only catch users’ attention, but that they are instrumental in creating or becoming part of popular trends and memes. It only takes a couple thousand shares for something to start going viral because people want to know what their friends are into, and like to show off their discoveries, interests, and passions.

6. Social media allows for dialogue between brands and consumers

Perhaps the most obvious and revolutionary point of all is that social media allows for dialogue between brands and consumers. For the first time, consumers are being asked by large brands about what they’d like to see in their products. Consumers tend to find this flattering, and become even stronger brand advocates as a result. Win-win. The key in this relationship is for brands to keep the conversations going by engaging on a personal level, measure overall consumer sentiment, and look for positive change.

7. Social media allows for precise demographic targeting

The instant responses brands receive to their ads or products mean that they can very quickly gauge their current status in a certain demographic, and adjust their marketing tactics accordingly. Brands can also launch broader, though specialized, marketing campaigns, with each ad or video tailored slightly for a different demographic, resulting in greater clout and efficiency. Some social media sites, such as Facebook, even allow your fans to deselect the ads that don’t pertain to them, and other sites allow consumers to choose from a selection of ads, insuring that the right ads get to the right consumers.

8. Social media provides consumers with immediate access

Not only does social media provide brands with real-time market research information, it also provides instant access for consumers. After viewing a TV or video ad, consumers can go to that brand’s social media sites to interact with others, get advice, or go directly to the brand’s website to learn more, and purchase products instantly. Stores may be closed for the day, but the internet never sleeps.

9. There’s no one “right” way to do social media marketing

Since social media is still relatively new, it means that there’s a whole plethora of new ideas, strategies, and campaigns that haven’t even been attempted yet, much less dreamt of. Consumers are as excited as brands are about what’s going on. We’re all still trying to push the boundaries and figure out what this thing called social media is capable of, and it’s awesome. If your brand is engaging and interacting with your consumers online, and sales are going up, then you’re likely doing it right.

10. People love to be entertained

People will watch or play just about anything online that is entertaining, informative or engaging, provided it interests them as individuals. Work your brand message into video and gaming content that matches your audience’s likes and dislikes. If they like what you’re offering, they’ll spend time with your brand. Just search YouTube for “puppies” and tell me if you’re not still doing the same thing half an hour later.

Ali Cottong is an avid Quidditch enthusiast, an amateur vegetable-eater, and a huge fan of reality TV. As a social media enthusiast, she loves lurking around the newsfeed on Facebook and prowling the online magazine xoJane, where she occasionally makes an appearance in the comments. A graduate of UCLA, Ali lives in Los Angeles with her three roommates and hopes one day to own a cat. Ali is a contributing writer to the Supercool Creative Blog.

Who’s in charge here?
Establish your Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Google+ as the go-to authority for all the information your fans need. First, develop and release creative content on a regular basis. Write and schedule updates well in advance that include events, contests, videos and other content. Be prepared to throw some of that out the window and update on the fly as needed.

Second, have a social media manager in place that is engaging and replying to users’ questions, comments and responses in real time. Do (and continue to do) those two simple things and fans will know you’re the boss.

Let’s Get Hardcore!
Hardcore gamers are fewer than casual gamers but they are the most vocal, and therefore influential in the success or failure of your campaign. Get them on your side fast by gaining public support from respected professional gamers who show no affiliation to your title. Once on your side, you will keep them there by being consistent and interacting with any and every user possible.

Engage Fans With Insider Information
Interact with your fans in ways that will make them feel “in.” Your social media manager and specialists should know the game inside and out. If your game is The Mario Brothers, then they should know when Mario brushes his teeth and what color underwear he prefers (red right?).  Use that inside information to interact then watch your users engage more, share more, and come back every day.

N3rd Love
Fans taking time to interact with and share your content deserve recognition. Give them some swag like free games, T-shirts, or posters. Run regular and frequent contests on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. A good contest is easy to enter, features exclusive prizes, and boosts subscriber/follower/user counts. Once you have your winners, make it known and give them online shoutouts. Others will take note, share with friends, interact and get you more buzz.

Where Is Everyone? (Pick a Platform)
Decide on which platform you are going to run the core of your social media campaign, major contests, and develop your content for first. Likely, it will be Facebook because it has the largest user base. Run your large, national and international contests here to ensure the greatest number of people can access it with the least amount of effort. Developing content for that platform first to serves as a guide for creating content on other platforms.

Tease Fans With Exclusive Content
Maintain the attention of ADHD video gamers by keeping exclusive screenshots, gameplay videos, interviews and announcements up your sleeve and never give away too much at once. Tease fans by telling them you have exclusives coming their way soon to start the conversation and build hype. Take it a step further and leverage their anticipation, “If we hit 1 million Likes, we’ll release an exclusive character trailer.” Doing so makes your limited quantity of exclusive content and announcements as valuable, shareable and effective as possible.

Coordinate Announcements
Big announcements should be made on every available social media outlet at the same time. Blast out that important release date or big contest on each outlet concurrently including top tier blogs.  Keep the information the same, but change the delivery so fans that engage you on multiple platforms are rewarded with extra unique content. Also, be sure to coordinate new content releases and announcements across other departments including sales, marketing and especially PR.

Develop New Fan Bases
Fans that already follow, like and subscribe to you are a captivated audience so focus on reaching new fans as well. Do so by running ad campaigns on Facebook and YouTube, reaching out to relevant blogs and publications, and encouraging your existing fan base to share your content with friends. Also, cross-promote the different social media platforms with each other and within all online and TV ad campaigns to increase traffic and awareness.

Now… If you need a Social Media Agency… Let me know… john AT supercoolcreative.com

Originally published on iMedia Connection Blog, written by John Newell

Supercool Creative has just launched Round 4 of the contest we’re running for Capcom’s new game title  Street Fighter X Tekken. This round is called “Flat Ono vs Flat Harada” and we’re asking fans to download  and cut out a “flat” version of either Capcom producer Yoshinori Ono or Namco Bandai producer Katsuhiro Harada and snap a photo of him in a cool place!

To enter the contest or check out the campaign go to the official Street Fighter Facebook page.

Round 4 Flat Ono vs Flat Harada is part of a 5 month social media campaign that Supercool Creative is running for Capcom that includes 5 facebook contests, custom Facebook tabs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube management and a 12-episode video series called X The Line, starring video game host Andrea Rene who interviews some of the fighting game world’s top players and influencers. The series also features SFxTK-related news and events, a fan feedback segment called Cross Talk (X Talk) and frequent fan giveaways!