A colleague approached me this week with a great travel prize to give away and wanted to know the best way to launch it on Facebook. Competitions and prize draws can be a good way to build engagement with your fans however there are a few bear traps that you need to be aware of.
Make sure that you follow the Facebook promotional guidelines[1].
There are pretty strict guidelines on what you can and cannot say and how you use the Facebook name. They are starting to insist on prior approval of competitions and promotions from an Account Manager which means you have to have a minimum $10,000 spend in order to have such a Manager. You cannot require fans to send to other fans to take part in a competition or promotion.
Check the Legal Guidelines on Prize draws for each market you serve
Given that the Advertising Standards Authority will be monitoring internet advertising from March 1st 2011[2] you need to be sure that your competition follows the regulations regarding prize draws and that you are also following the internet child guidelines aswell if you want your fans to share information about themselves. The DMA also do a good guide on running prize draws[3] and the ASA also has a guide.[4]
Clear Terms and Conditions
Make it very clear in your terms and conditions if the competition is only open to residents from certain countries and whether there are any age limits and provide a tab to them so they are easy to find in your copy.
Competition Ideas
If you have a prize sponsor you could give them some value back by getting fans to complete a task which involves going to their site or to their product on your site to find the answers and it provides a bit of education aswell.
Or you could ask fans to list out what would be their ideal holiday or product experience with your sponsor and why - you'll probably get some real insight and great for product development and this provides an instant research base. See example below from Kuoni
Center Parcs have done poetry competitions which were fun or you can do a video and photo competition but make it as inclusive as possible so not just for those who have already been on a trip or are existing customers.
Have a look at some examples below of Facebook competitions:
Ask your fans to make a short video as to why they should be chosen for the prize. You would learn a lot about your fans that way but ensure you make it 18+ and abide by latest internet child guidelines on this.
Beware of asking fans to vote for winners
Be careful about asking the fans to choose the winning entry. One tour operator did this and it backfired . The fans felt that those who had the most friends to vote for their entry would win and that was not fair. That does not mean that you cannot get them to “like” or comment on each prize entry whether that be a photo, poem, video, drawing or anything else. See example below from United Airlines
Create a special tab for your competition
Your announcement will soon disappear down the wall and you need to keep mentioning it to keep visibility of it and encouraging fans to take part so creating a separate tab for it keeps it visible at all times.
Here are some other useful blogs on this topic:
6 tips for running promotions
5 mini competition ideas
promotions without paying $10,000 per month
20 expert tips on running a contest powered by social media
Do you have other tips and learning to share when running competitions on Facebook? Please share below or come and join our newly formed Social Media Travel Group on Linkedin by clicking on link below.
http://tiny.cc/00i4o
[1] http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
[2] http://www.cap.org.uk/CAPServices/Digital-remit-advice.aspx
[3]www.dma.org.uk/_attachments/resources/234_S4.pdf
Posted: 21/02/2011 13:31:05
I’ve been working with a client who is launching their social media presence and I thought it would be helpful to share some learning on what appears to be working best. Some of you may have read the article in the Times
[1] which was suggesting to consumers that they use a company’s Twitter page to make a complaint if they have been frustrated with their regular customer services. You may therefore see an increase in your customer complaints on Twitter as the national media suggest trying this approach.
Having emphasized previously the importance of measuring your social media activity activity I thought that you might be interested to know how some global brands have measured up so far and what we can learn from this.
Here are some examples of how companies have launched their social media channels:
As a concierge service
Whilst some companies have embraced Twitter as a type of 24 hour concierge channel (such as the 5 star hotel chains e.g.
Hyatt) I recommend that you think very carefully about how and if you really want to differentiate the customer service you offer on Twitter from that of other channels. Far better is to ensure that your processes on Twitter are integrated into your regular customer services operation.
Launch of exclusive promotions
Fairmont Hotels group launches Twitter only deals at specific times of the week which drives up their follower numbers and level of activity on the site. The Jet Blue airline offers
“JetBlueCheeps” and United Airlines also has a dedicated Twitter site for promotional fares.
Competitions
Prize draws and competitions are also powerful ways of driving up your Facebook fans and Twitter followers, however the key is to invite them to engage with you in such a way that they are awarded for sharing their interactions which will drive up the word of mouth impact and subsequent ROI.
Virgin Atlantic has launched a number of competitions to engage with its Facebook fan base using a cabin crew character called Linda.
Cause related campaigns
If you look at
Travel Republic they used the charity Children in Need to drive traffic to their page by offering to donate £25,000 if they managed to achieve 150,000 Facebook fans by a cut off date. Whilst they did not achieve their original target the campaign succeeded in achieving more than 40,000 fans and was able to bring substantial PR coverage in the travel press. They also galvanised partners to participate in a supporting video which helped to drive up the number of fans.
Flash mob events
Tmobile were able to secure millions of YouTube viewers with their Flash mob music adverts. The most famous ones were those carried out at Liverpool St Station in London and at Heathrow Terminal 5. In original YouTube style these type of events were then copied very quickly in other countries around the world by other companies and many passengers also posted their versions of these events adding to their viral impact. If you have never watched it, treat yourself, it’s likely to make you cry with happiness.
Use of Avatars
Whilst avatars are not unique and have been used since the early dot com days, in the mid nineties they are being used to build personality and interaction in social media channels across the travel industry. Cartoon character such as Harry Hotel are being used by brands such as
Hotels4u. The key thing to remember when using such avatars is to play close attention to the gender profile and interest sets of your fans. A poor choice of avatar could alienate your active fan base, so it’s worth testing any avatars before launch.
More than one Twitter or Facebook page?
Some companies chose to launch with more than one page for their business. If you take the example of
Butlins they originally launched three Twitter sites. One site for deals, one for customer service and another generic page which has adopted Ludo the Dino as its character to engage with children. More than one page may be useful in times of any crisis where you have different audiences and purposes however there is a danger that you have too many competing channels and the resource required to maintain them is not sustainable. It is interesting to note that Butlins have now rationalised their sites. To avoid fragmentation of your fan base it is sometimes better to start with one well maintained page which is fully supported.
How to measure best practice
By chance I came across a very interesting piece of research carried out by the
UXAlliance called “Around the world in 140 characters”
[2] which tested the customer service they received in 17 countries when using Twitter as a mystery shopper.
What was most interesting about this research was that almost 60% of the tweets were unanswered and only 13% were answered within 2 hours.
The research focused on the following aspects of the Twitter interaction:
1. Timeliness of the response
2. Relevance of the response to the original tweet
3. Consistency of the responses and “look and feel” of each brands’s site
4. Tone of voice and content of the tweet.
They focused on 10 of the Fortune 100 companies which are listed below in order of the scores they received. Toyota and Cisco received the best overall scores and BMW and Nokia scored worst.
- Toyota, Cisco, IBM, Sony, Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, HP. Nokia, BMW
The results suggest that even the most well known global brands are struggling to respond at all to Twitter enquiries and are still learning. Some were using their Twitter for PR purposes to broadcast updates whereas others had a distinctly more personal approach with names after each tweet and personal images which were appreciated by the researchers.
Top Tips
Here are some of the results from the
UXAlliance report which may help in putting yourself in your customer shoes when designing your social media channels.
- Make sure your customers are reassured by words such as “official site”
- Have consistent imagery and branding with other channels
- Clearly state the location of the office
- so customers know they are on the right page for their location.
- Be consistent in responding to posts
- researchers were confused when their query was unanswered and yet others before and after were responded to.
- Have your Twitter account validated by Twitter
-so it shows as a verified site to build extra consumer confidence that it is the official site.
If you have any examples of best practice to share then do please share below.
[1] The Times Money Section “Should you be using Twitter to complain about poor service?” January 29, 2011
[2] “Around the world in 140 characters” Research Report UXAlliance 2010
Posted: 16/02/2011 21:11:27
Posted: 09/02/2011 21:36:18
Some of you may have read over the weekend at Reuters
[1] that Linkedin is gearing up for an IPO, hoping to raise 110GBP million. The company was co-founded in 2002 by ex Paypal executive Reid Hoffman and now has over 90 million users
[2] (4m in UK) using it for business networking, prospecting and recruitment. Reuters are predicting that this may trigger more web company IPOs. Company valuations are quite eye watering for the raft of Social players such as Facebook which are now claiming to be worth $50US billion.
Linkedin has been coming of age and has even started to register a profit recently.
Having used Linkedin for many years I’m sure it was no coincidence that they are now promoting their “paid for” services much more heavily than in the past with 50% off deals. That is useful if you want to know who has been viewing your personal profile on line which may well help your prospecting with clients, although recruitment agencies are the heaviest users.
One of the key ways in which you can grow your personal network is to join or start a group within Linkedin. You can join up to 50 of them of the thousands listed and they cover all kinds of topics and it’s likely you could find some kindred spirits in any that share your special interests. I was amazed to see one group increase from 1 to over 970 members in a matter of days. The key is not to join them like a bull in a china shop and crash in and out of them, not adding value to any. Contributing to their discussions will make you more friends.
Another feature is that you can now put up a presentation on your Linkedin page although I’m not sure if it is yet working as the Google application kept crashing last time I tried to load it. You can link your blogs and Tweets to your Linkedin profile which also adds more interest.
In the Company section of Linkedin you can see which companies the employees used to work at and where they went next so giving some interesting insights. It also shows you the 3 employees who have the most recommendations within the company and gives you an insight as to whether the company has been growing its staff or not, if their staff are using Linkedin. Another interesting feature is that you can clearly see your competitor set and see which other companies were also browsed as shown in the American Express Business Travel example below.
As Linkedin raise more money to do more mining of their data I can see that the corporate world could be somewhat “Amazonified” ( I think that’s a new verb). That means we could start to see some very interesting company insights as Linkedin mine their data, which would help both recruitment companies and others in networking and prospecting. The key will be persuading individuals and companies to see the value of posting their full profiles and I wonder whether companies will be comfortable with the increased likelihood of poaching that this may potentially bring. However many will argue that the benefits of increased transparency of your company profile may well be good for business, especially if and when companies use it to determine if they want to do business with you.
How does your company look in Linkedin? Do share any useful tips below that you have discovered about Linkedin.
Posted: 02/02/2011 23:28:45