Category Archives: Facebook

Irish Social Media Statistics

by

It can be hard to find credible, consistent stats for social media in Ireland.

IPSOS MRBI are a great resource that I use a lot. They’ve been doing this for a few years now so their figures give us good insights into which platforms are going from strength to strength and worth continued investment.

I use a lot of stats from the UK and the US as well to help me. That’s really just as a guide as they’d be somewhat ahead of Ireland, also we can have some pretty quirky, unique stats … because we’re Irish. We have the highest penetration rate for Snapchat in the world and the most usage of Facebook in the English spoken world.

We Are Social Singapore produce a monster piece of research every quarter which really helps with International clients.

 

No such thing as a free lunch

by

Mashable published this article today outlining what has been the topic of conversation for the past few months – the free Facebook lunch is over.

This will be much better for the site as a whole.  In general the quality of content on Facebook could definitely be improved.  It could be more strategic and harder working for brands.  More relevant and “on brand” – less of the generic “Hit Like if you are happy it’s Friday” posts. More valuable and rewarding to the fans and just more considered overall.  In my experience the amount of time a marketing manager will spend making sure that the artwork for a press ad is perfect, or the edit of a TV ad is bang on, is in direct proportion to the amount of money it is costing.

So maybe if Facebook requires an investment, more time will be invested in creating a better page and Facebook will keep going from strength to strength.

Burger King – pretty, pretty cunning

by

Burger King are the King of social, imho.  Well within their category anyway.  So whatever they do it’s worth keeping an eye on.  Everyone knows about their controversial Whopper Sacrifice campaign on Facebook that encouraged a spout of Friend Denunciation in return for a free Whopper.  This time the crazy Norwegians have taken the whole Genuine Friend thing a bit further with the Whopper Sellout.  

It was a brave move and must have taken some convincing to the marketing bosses, but I think it was pretty clever.  The value of a real Fan is something new in Facebook marketing, and is definitely an area that is worth exploring and brands investing in. I can’t tell you how many Facebook page competitions I’ve run where the entrants are either compies, or totally physically incapable of enjoying the prize at stake (entrants from India hoping to win a movie pass that evening in Dublin).

Corporate Facebook page parody

by

This Facebook page is doing the rounds on Twitter… @rickygervais just sent it to @Glinner – two of the biggest tweeters in the UK.facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy

Proving the rather obvious point that brands need interesting and relevant content and not just blatant self-promoting drone and facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy
quick wins all the time.   It’s pretty easy to keep posting up photo caption competitions, photos of sunset beaches and cute cat videos in a bid to get “likes” and “people talking about you”.  This social media whoring will not benefit the brand in any sense – whatever the communication objectives are, and it’s unlikely people will even remember the brand name even if they do engage and like and share and so on.

The very core of my business is establishing communication pillars that will help sustain a brand’s social media (and other) presence long-term.  Certainly branding is an important part of the mix, but as communications with consumers evolve, the key is to find a way to present interesting and valuable content to your target audience that will consistently put your brand in a relevant light.

Take South Africa Uncorked – a project I am working on to promote South African wines in Ireland.  In a nutshell, we establish a very clear target – male foodies who are interested in wine and who would like to broaden their horizons and improve their wine tasting skills.  Our objective is to put South African wines on their consideration list when they are shopping for wine to go with a meal that they are preparing.  The facts are firstly that this target is currently more familiar with wines from other countries, and secondly that South African wine is a robust tipple, best appreciated with food.  And so we map out our content strategy to give this cohort tips about wine, recipes that go well with South African wines, information about the country and its wine heritage.  We’ve loads to write about now, and the aim is that it will resonate with our audience and build a connection that goes above and beyond, at best generic entertainment, at worst spam.

Question is will Facebook take it down or will they have a sense of humour about it?facebook, parody, social media, strategy, content strategy

It’d be good to go to this….

by

Ger Roe, one of the creative directors at Publicis Dublin sent me an email telling me about this event in New York that will discuss how best companies can measure the success of their social media campaigns.  A subject very close to my heart, and to those of my clients.  I’ve managed to get a free ticket for this, using my wily ways.  Expect to hear more from me in October when I get back.  Thanks Ger!