Digital Marketing Agency | Barracuda Digital

The new Timeline on Facebook profile pages is a fantastic new feature that has been in place for a few months now. While there are lots of people who have opinions on how good it is in conjuncture with their personal profile page, it is hard to argue against its benefits for Brand pages.

Being able to go back any number of years has allowed some brands to really build on their heritage, strengthening their brand identity and developing the origins of the character that surrounds their product as it is known today.

A great example of this is Burberry, who have created posts that go back through the 1900’s, allowing you to take a journey through their historical products that have become a staple of modern fashion.

The Timeline acts as a seamless filing system that can hold immense amounts of information, all of which can be interacted with and shared amongst friends.

Another important aspect of the Timeline is the possibility of having lots of colourful images all the way down the page, which can engage a visitor and encourage them to tell others about it. As posts are listed down the left or the right, or spread across the width of the screen, the Timeline allows a brand to display itself in an interesting and user-friendly manner.

There are many great examples of this, but one that really stands out is Ford, where they have utilised the many different talking points that their cars have conjured up, allowing for an infinite amount of information that can be created and shared between its fans. All of this is posted to their Facebook page, to create a vibrant wealth of information that can be scrolled through for hours on end.

Content has a lot to do with the levels of engagement that a page will receive and a Brand can do a variety of things in order to make that content as interesting and sharable as possible. For example, Starbuck’s core brand value is its sense of communal duty; making sure that their stores don’t just sell quality coffee, but make their mark on the communities they serve as well.

They do this by selling local artists’ music in their stores and by donating large sums of money to community projects and public causes. This value has been replicated on the company’s Facebook page, and has been accentuated by the Timelines ability to do so. If you scroll down the Timeline, you will see a variety of content from their different products to their community initiatives, combining to offer an insightful Facebook page experience.

Not only are they creating great content for their Facebook fans, they are also advertising the good causes they support in a forum seen by millions of people.

A much ignored facet of Facebook pages are applications. While the phone companies battle it out to provide consumers with the best quality apps, Facebook has quietly offered the opportunity for companies to produce enticing apps for visitors to their page. They can be a very effective way of directing traffic, and linking the different social media platforms that a brand may have, as Macy’s illustrated below.

In this instance, Macy’s have bridged their Twitter and Facebook accounts to make it as easy as possible for customers to get involved with both, or with their preferred choice of social networking site. The aim is to get people involved, and applications are a handy way of doing exactly that.

Finally, let’s look at the most obvious addition the Timeline brings with it. The banner photo at the top of the page is one of the most important parts of the page, as it is going to be the first thing that people see when they click through to the page. It can set the tone for the user’s page experience, and help to illustrate a brands sense of fun and purpose.

Have a look below at the Fanta banner at the top of their page. They have incorporated it with their profile picture to create a design savvy first impression of their page, and therefore their brand.

And besides, look at the difference between a Timeline page…

And an older style page…

Do you see the difference?!

Overall, Facebook Timelines can be used to great effect in enhancing someone’s perception of a brand. Their Facebook presence is important as a person’s appreciation of it will be highlighted to their friends, and this will therefore make them more like to become fans too.

Promote your brand by sending a little love – Valentine’s Day Apps:

Love it or hate it Valentine’s Day is here again giving brands the great opportunity to captivate
consumers with their latest offering straight from Cupid’s bow. It would be madness to not try and
stay ahead of the game, and Valentine’s is no seasonal exception, within the USA alone there is an
average annual spend of $13.19 Billion. There is huge scope for increased brand awareness and sales
if a clever campaign is undertaken, with social media once again to the fore.

So let’s have a look at three great ideas from this year’s offerings. First arrow whistling from Cupid’s
bow, smoothie giant Innocent Drinks.

Innocent have created a little app for their website that allows the customisation of their bottle
labels, allowing a very witty and healthy way of telling that special someone that you think they’re
pretty great. The app is easy to use, with many funny pre-set phrases to tailor your bottle to
win your crush’s heart. It is this ease of use, and clever simple idea that will strike a chord with
consumers, as they say “it’s way better than a naff card”. It is so easy in fact that here at Barracuda
we knocked up a quick design…

The utilisation of social media gave Innocent a quick publicity buzz, via likes, shares and comments, and if people start creating and printing they are sure to see a rise in bottle sales around the 14^th February.

The next arrow out of Cupid’s quiver is courtesy of Starbucks who are embracing mobile technology in their latest campaigns. Between 6^th and 16^th February, via augmented reality and Starbuck’s Cup Magic app for android and iPhone, customer’s coffee cups can come to life.

This “everylove” campaign is being coordinated across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and the app also rolls in the ability to send Starbucks Card eGifts to buy a cup of coffee for a loved one on Valentine’s morning. This astute use of technology will create both exposure and increased sales for the coffee superpower.

Finally, Heineken have launched “The Serenade” campaign, creating a sense of fun around a good old fashion serenade, challenging users to reignite the date and to ask someone out “in a legendary way”. The Facebook app has proven popular with men and women, and has also raised highly positive product discussion. Consumer-to-consumer engagement around a brand has once again been successful, as demonstrated on both Facebook and Twitter.

People are taking up the challenge and relating to Heineken in a very positive manner. Who knows, this could lead to a whole host of date acceptances that might include a Heineken or two to celebrate.

What do you think? Will you be using any of these ideas for Valentine’s? Or have you seen any great ideas that you are banking on to be a hit with the ladies on the 14^th February? Let us know.

You can sometimes feel and sense the emergence of a new Social Media site which may be a game changer. For online retailers Pinterest is one such site which deserves your attention.

So how does it work? the website works like a bulletin board of images allowing you to post, or pin your interests, compile them and share them with your friends. It is really simple, compelling and the design is fantastically addictive.

So should you be using it? If you base your decision on traffic growth and are reliant on images and friend recommendations to contribute to your sales process then yes, this makes commercial sense to add the pin on your product pages and track any impact on your analytics. But if you are looking for solid empirical evidence about conversion data as yet it is still early days to draw conclusions about its potential.

I have compiled 3 excellent articles from Econsultancy’s blog regarding pinterest’s commercial potential:

Pinterest role as a referrer for retailers grows:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8832-pinterest-s-role-as-a-referrer-for-retailers-grows-infographic

Boticca one of first retailers to add Pinterest to social sharing tools

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8700-boticca-one-of-first-retailers-to-add-pinterest-to-social-sharing-tools

Demographics of Pinterest users:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8796-revealing-the-demographics-behind-pinterest-s-user

Alternatively you can call the Barracuda Social Media team to discuss your requirements- 0207 593 1838

Google+ is the newest social media service on the block (see our post about how to set up your business’ Google+ page). Whilst it’s still small (50m users) what makes it interesting is fast growth, and that it’s made by Google. And no brand who wants to do well in search can afford to ignore a new product from Google.

Because there’s no doubt that Google are going to leverage their dominance of search to force brands to adopt Google+ as a platform to engage users. We’re seeing the first instance of that this week as Google launches Social Extensions.

Google+ Meet Google Adwords

Social Extensions are a way of linking your AdWords creatives to your Google+ page. This means that all your +1s — from your Page, your website, ads and search results — get tallied together and appear as a single total, published on your AdWords ads.

What this means for your campaigns

There’s no doubt that advertisers with a lot of +1s are going to get a better Click Through Rate, an improved quality score, the chance to rank more highly and an opportunity to reduce CPC. This is because all the people using Google search will see all the recommendations that a brand has had, right there in the search results page.

Without Social Extensions enabled, AdWords ads only show +1’s from people who have +1’d that ad’s landing page. This limits the likelihood that someone who sees the ad will have a friend or contact who’s recommended it.

Seeing the effects

It will also be possible to report on the results of your ads when social extensions are included, thanks to a new +1 annotation segment in the user interface.

The segment breaks out ad performance metrics into three categories:

• Impressions with personal annotations – (impressions where the viewer has a friend or contact who has +1’d your brand.)
• Impressions with basic annotations – (impressions that included an anonymous count of people who +1’d your brand)
• Impressions without any social annotations

How to add Social Extensions

In order to start including Social Extensions on AdWords creatives just click the Ad Extensions tab in your account and select Social Extensions from the drop down menu and choose new extension.

All you need to do is add your connected Google+ Page URL and click save.

That’s it

Social Extensions are an easy way to link a brands Google+ page with their AdWords creative. Those that are linked will have a positive boost in campaign performance, since searchers viewing the SERPs will be able to see which brands have had lots of recommendations.

Although they weren’t initially available, as of last week any business can now set up a page on Google+.

To get started, you’ll need to already have a personal Google+ account. Just go to the Google+ Create A Page tool. Here’s what it looks like:

Admin rights

On here you need to kick off by adding basic information such as your brand name and your URL. As the page creator you will also be the admin. At the moment no-one else gets to be admin, and you can’t transfer admin rights to anyone else.

Personalised URLs

At the moment you don’t get to choose a “vanity” URL like you can for your Facebook page. It is however important to get the name of your page right, because if you change it you will have to restart the verification process.

Getting the right category

You have to choose to put your business into one of five categories:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

What local pages offer

For local businesses there are some extra options including adding a phone number, an address and working hours, with the intention that people can use a Google+ page to find and visit a business. In this way it’s quite similar to a Google Places page.

You can also Act Like A Page

In the same way as Facebook, you can choose to use Google+ as your business page rather than as an individual, to do things like sharing photos and videos, links, and to conduct hangouts.

Using 3rd party tools

At the moment it’s not possible to post updates to your Google+ page using tools like Tweetdeck, since Google haven’t yet released the API for Google+.

Following

Unlike Twitter, Pages can only follow people once they have themselves been followed. but not until they’ve been first followed.

You can have more than 1 Page

As a business you can have more than one Google+ page. For example, you might want one for a number of different products, models or sub-brands; and a corporate one too.

Following a business

In order to follow a business, users must add it to a circle (purple in the diagram below), and not +1 it (orange), which may cause confusion.

+1 ing a page

Google say that a Google+ page will reconcile all the +1s that a brand has had, be that on a Google+ page or any URL or product on their site, giving an overall indication of popularity.

Getting official

Google plans to create a new icon similar to Facebook’s Facepile to encourage to following of business pages:

There’s already a badge maker page although its currently a bit thin on the ground. Google plans to also create a Verified Name programme for well known brands.

Direct Connect

Google have added a new feature to the search results called ‘Direct Connect’, which allows users to search for a business’ Google+ page by just adding a ‘+’ to the start of the brand name.

Verifying a page

To stop anyone creating a page for a brand, Google has introduced a verification process that ties a page to a website.

In order to do this you need to use:

• Rel=”publisher” on at least the homepage of your site to link to your Google+ page
• A Link from your page back to home page or main page of the site

Google also suggests using the new icon from the badge maker page. For more information about the verification process take a look here.

That’s it

Google+ pages are an exciting way that brands can make use of the fastest growing social network, and one which will undoubtedly have increasing impact on SEO. Good luck setting up your page, and let us know how you get on.

Barracuda were happy to welcome the Marketing team from Twitter recently.

A couple of years ago, PPC and SEO were all about driving traffic to websites and converting it into sales. With the rise of Social media the game has become a little more complex: Facebook PPC often leads to a Facebook landing page, promoted Tweets bring your traffic to your Twitter profile page. And with YouTube advertising, from promoted video, video overlays, companion ads, pre-roll and so on, it’s often your YouTube branded channel page that is the final destination of this traffic.

Since this traffic is leading to offsite ‘events’ it is highly important to be able to measure the benefit. And this has got a whole lot easier thanks to an easy integration between Youtube and Google Analytics.

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In the dark old days, if you wanted to find out what people were into, their likes, interests, desires and hobbies, you had to do some quantitative surveying or qualitative focus groups.

With the advent of YouTube, lots of this data is revealed by analysing what people watch, like and share.

YouTube have now opened this up to anyone with the launch of YouTube Trends.

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These days social media buttons like the Facebook ‘Like’, Tweet, Stumbleupon and now Google +1 adorn almost every web page, shopping item, and web content.

All these buttons allow users to share content to others in their social circle, or highlight that they recommend others to read the content.

So how do you measure the benefit of these social media buttons? How can you put a value on these social media actions?

Well the good news is that as with our previous post about Reporting the effect of +1 in Google Webmaster Tools, Google have now made it possible to see how users share your content using new reports in Google Analytics.

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It may have come late to the party, but the Google +1 button is the social media plug-in that may well have the biggest impact on your website.

The Google +1 buttons allow users to recommend your website or content to other both inside and outside their social circle. Those recommendations are displayed on the all-important Google Search Engine Results pages.

And the good news is that Google have rolled out +1 metrics reports in Google Webmaster Tools that show you how the +1 button affects the traffic coming to your pages:

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