President Obama's Tweet, “Four More years” with this image results in nearly 820,000 Retweets, breaking records. Source: Twitter.com

This year was an amazing year for Social Media. Records were broken, social media became a more integrated part of our lexicon, possibly to the point that you might not have had to explain what Twitter was to most people.

This year, Facebook topped a billion users, Twitter over a half billion and Pinterest became a breakout network. There were IPOs, acquisitions, and lots and lots of interesting content. Here’s just a brief overview of what happened this year.

10. Viral Video Proposal

Some folks like to keep their personal moments private. Isaac Lamb is not one of those folks. His wedding proposal was lipdubbed with some of his friends and have received over 17 million views. Personally, one of my favorite videos of the year.

9. Hurricane Sandy

LONG BEACH ISLAND: An 8 a.m. photo of Long Beach Blvd. from a resident….before high tide. #frankenstorm #sandy twitter.com/nicholashuba/s…

— Nicholas Huba(@nicholashuba) October 29, 2012

As with Haiti and Japan before it, Hurricane Sandy was the most social disaster of the year, with over 20 million Tweets in 5 days. Mentions of “Donate Blood” reached a yearly high in the aftermath.

8. The Pope Tweets

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

— Benedict XVI (@Pontifex) December 12, 2012

That’s right, if 85 year-old Pope Benedict XVI can Tweet, so can you. So can your marketing manager, and so can the vice president of your company. His first Tweet was on December 12 and received  64,000 Retweets. Since then, he’s only Tweeted 13 times. (Read more in this blog post.)

7. Red Bull Stratos

Felix is about to jump! win.gs/stratoslive

— Red Bull Stratos (@RedBullStratos) October 14, 2012

Yes, us geeks can all celebrate. Some of the top events of the year were science-related. In October, Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull team soared across social media as he leapt from a balloon 24 miles above earth, drawing 3 million tweets. (Read more in this blog post.)

6. @MarsCuriosity

Recalculating… I was so giddy about my 1st drive yestersol, I tweeted the wrong specs. Correction: 4.5 m fwd, 120º turn, then back

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) August 23, 2012

For the Mars Rover mission, NASA satisfied everyone’s inner geek by posting Tweets from the Mars Curiosity rover, from the point of view of the rover.

 5. #RoyalBaby

Congrats to Kate & Will on expecting your first child. The happiest day of your life to look forward to!

— richardbranson (@richardbranson) December 3, 2012

When the Duchess Kate Middleton was checked into a hospital with a case of hyperemesis gravidarum reported as morning sickness, the Twitter world was abuzz. When the #RoyalBaby was confirmed, people wrote over a million Tweets sending congratulations including heads of state and celebrities. “Kate Middleton” and “#Kate” were trending topics that day.

4. Olympics

"Not Impressed" Meme Image Source: mckaylaisnotimpressed.tumblr.com

The 2012 Olympics was certainly one of the social media highlights of the year, totaling 150 million Tweets, reaching 116k Tweets per minute. Many memes and trends were created from the Olympics, including “McKayla is Not Impressed,” The badminton scandal, Usain Bolt, empty seats, London Mayor Boris Johnson getting stuck on a zipline, Olympic diver faces, Oscar Pistorius, Phelps, Gabby Douglas, Ryan Lochte and even more. That should be enough for even McKayla to be impressed.

3. 2012 Campaign: Conventions and Debates

Clint Eastwood's empty chair Image Source: CNN

The Republican National Committee built up suspense over who their mystery speaker was, and even moved others so that their speaker could make news coverage. The speaker, Clint Eastwood, did not disappoint. In about fifteen minutes, Eastwood kicked off a new meme, #Eastwooding, or talking to an empty chair.

Other notable memes from the election cycle included #BindersFullOfWomen or #Binders, and  #BigBird, both taken from quotes from Governor Romney during debates. (Read more posts about social media and the debates here.)

2.  2012 Campaign: Election Night

Four more years. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012

On election night, President Obama posted a very simple Tweet, “Four More years” with an image embracing the first lady. To date, that Tweet has received nearly 820,000 Retweets and over 304,000 favorites, booting Justin Bieber as the previous record holder. The same post on Facebook garnered over 4 million likes, breaking another record.

1. Gangnam Style

Just a little more than a week ago, Psy’s Gangnam Style video became the first YouTube video to top one billion views. His Korean-Pop, or K-Pop song with its catchy beat and unique dance has taken the world by storm and spawned countless parodies. The above video is from the Tel Aviv office of my employer, BMC Software.

Which memes or trends did we miss? Let us know in the comments!

The post Counting Down the Top 10 Social Media Stories of 2012 appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Let’s take a closer look at what makes each of these campaigns stand out.

Stella Artois – Send Carole

This fun holiday campaign from Stella Artois allows Facebook fans to send a personalized video greeting to themselves or the lucky recipient of their choice. After users enter the recipient name, address, and holiday greeting, the app uses this information, along with Google Street View and other mapping APIs, to customize several elements of the video, including the scenery as Carole makes her way by car to the recipient’s house to present his or her greeting. Once they’ve viewed their personalized video, recipients can share it on Facebook or Twitter, increasing the campaign’s reach.

The campaign has been a hit with fans so far, with 99.5% positive mentions on social media.

In The Raw – Au Natural

Sugar brand In The Raw is using a tongue-in-cheek campaign, including a Facebook app, to appeal to its fans’ sweet tooth. The brand’s “Au Natural” Facebook App allows users to choose any dessert photo they’ve uploaded to their Facebook albums and apply a pixelated filter to the parts they wish to censor. Once they have selected the right amount of “coverage”, fans can then post their photos to their Facebook timeline. Dessert is something everyone enjoys, especially In The Raw fans, and by putting a sassy spin on it, the brand’s campaign is sure to catch people’s attention.

Union Bank – Commercial By Design

While Union Bank’s products and services are very different from our first two examples, its latest campaign shows how images and video can work for any brand. To help promote its “Banking by Design” program, Union Bank is asking customers to create and submit their own television commercials for the chance to have their commercial selected for air on national television. Customers can visit the Banking by Design website to choose what elements they’d like to include in their commercials and submit the finished product. The commercials are then displayed in a gallery where people can vote on which commercials they like best and share them on their social networks.

The post 3 Memorable and Visual Social Media Campaigns appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Here’s a few key takeaways for how to create successful social media videos based on the GoViral report, which is downloadable here.

“Several brands have created and published over 50 hours of content with less than one million views as a result.”

Good storytelling is non-negotiable – Having a compelling, unique story, such as the Red Bull Stratos, is key to breaking through and grabbing attention. Your brand may not have a story that shatters world records but you do have customer experiences that can also be compelling and worth sharing.  Get your audience to connect with a character – real or fictional – such as Felix Baumgartner and his record-breaking skydive or Issiah Mustafa and his hilarious horse-riding monologues for Old Spice. Don’t be afraid to take risks or be funny.

Distribution is vital – You can create the best content in the world but without a strong distribution strategy, no one will see it. Utilize multiple video sites beyond YouTube, such as Vimeo, and be sure to share it on all your social channels. Embed the video in your blog or on your website and come up with an approach for resharing so it doesn’t go stale within moments of the launch. As GoViral notes, “whilst content remains king, distribution is still very much its queen.”

“New social channels and the explosion of video content have opened up doors for brands to own the conversation with their audience and bypass traditional gatekeepers.”

Pay Attention to Your Audience -  GoViral correctly notes the ease with which brands can now own the conversation and bypass the middlemen to respond quickly to their online audience. Examples certainly exist of brands leveraging social media to produce content aimed directly at their fanbase, or even specific detractors.

Take the case of UK-based Bodyform. They produced a terrific video response to a Facebook user’s equally funny product complaint posted on their wall. Your community – fan or detractor – can provide ideas for great content, so pay attention to them.

See the Bodyform video and our post regarding it right here.

“Ultimately, the reward is for a brand to become part of the conversation rather than sit ignored on the sidelines in a 30 sec ad break.”

Transparency is important – While you have the option to refuse comments or moderate them with sites like YouTube, most viral videos are not locked down. Be open to your community, enable them to comment. If they want to talk about your brand or your content, they are going to do so no matter what. It may as well happen where can you easily spot it and respond when necessary.

Engage, Engage, Engage – Your efforts don’t stop after you launch your video. In fact, they’ve just begun. Keep an eye on those comments mentioned above and respond back when appropriate. Your community might even give you ideas for future videos, which will only inspire more sharing. Outback Steakhouse did a great job of this by engaging with a blogger via video.

For at look at five good examples of social media video use by brands, check out this post from Zoe Geddes-Soltess.

The post How to Create Social Media Videos that Stick appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

The Slideshare Logo

In the world of content marketing, Slideshare is an ideal social media channel. Like YouTube, it’s a platform for uploading your content to an organized, visual space that anyone can access. And it’s growing. It’s one of the top 150 websites in the world with 60 million visitors a month.

So Slideshare sounds like a great place to post your presentations, especially if you’re looking to boost your B2B social media strategy. But millions of other marketers are thinking the same thing. To succeed at Slideshare, you must create your content with the platform in mind. Here are 13 ways to do just that.

1. Write without a speaker. Slideshare houses presentations sans audio commentary so include a few bullets on each slide so readers can follow along. You can also include your notes or written transcript in the description below the presentation. If you use Slidecast, you can add the audio recording.

salesforce.com’s Ben Pruden includes stats on his slides

2. Be rich with your keywords. Include your key SEO phrases in both the title of the presentation and in the description, and add tags. Just like YouTube and your blog, you want to make your content keyword rich so it’s easy to find.

Tag Cloud on Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Slideshare page

3. Consider going pro. Slideshare Pro offers a more professional-looking and analytics-driven opportunity for your brand. While there’s a cost (as little as $19/month), if you link to Slideshare often enough and you want to capture leads, it’s worth it.

A look at the Go Pro page on Slideshare

4. Use Slideshare as a call to action. Slideshare is a free, organized hub for your content. It’s easy to embed content onto your website and it has the ability to capture leads (with Pro). It’s a great place to promote when your audience is looking for more of your content.

Our website’s Slideshare button

5. Embed your content. This saves you and your audience time. Instead of uploading content to Slideshare and your website, just embed your Slideshare content onto your site. It’s simple code (much like embedding a YouTube video), plus, it’s one less click for your audience since the content is fully legible right on your site.

Our Ebook is embedded from Slideshare

6. Upload a variety of content. You’re not just limited to presentations. Upload case studies, white papers, ebooks, infographics, videos, etc. The platform accepts multiple file formats, although it typically looks best as a PDF.

salesforce.com’s Slideshare page has a variety of content

7. Read and respond to comments. Much like YouTube, users can write comments about your content. Read and respond often – it’s another way to stay social!

Comments on a Salesforce Marketing Cloud Slideshare presentation

8. Keep it simple. The longest Slideshare presentation is 2,811 slides! Not exactly easy to digest. Keep your content simple and short. Got a 90-page presentation? Chop it up into multiple presentations for Slideshare (and link to the next one at the end of each presentation).

Keep page numbers low

9. Leave out the animations. Slideshare doesn’t support PowerPoint animations so work to make your content succinct on a page. If you are looking to create a build (reveal information piece by piece), break it out into separate slides. As users click through, it will give the same effect.

This Salesforce Marketing Cloud presentation has all steps on one slide

10. Include a call to action. Make your Slideshare content work hard for you. On the last slide, include a relevant call to action, such as a link to your site, a form to complete, or a link to another piece of content. This is all trackable which will help prove ROI.

Hubspot links to their next presentation

11. Capture leads. With a Pro account, you can set up LeadShare. This places a lead gen form within your presentation (you can even choose when the form appears). The form displays even if you embed Slideshare onto your site.

A look at Slideshare’s LeadShare

12. Make Slideshare the go-to spot. If your organization plans events or speaks at them, upload all your presentations to Slideshare and direct attendees there. It’s easier than emailing them out, plus it makes the content shareable and available for those who couldn’t make it. You can also keep your content private to just attendees.

SXSW uses Slideshare to display presentations from its conference

13. Be consistent. From the look of your Slideshare page to your individual case studies, your content should have a consistent look and feel. Take the time to design a template for your presentations, ebooks, case studies, etc. and have them match the overall design of your page. This enhances brand credibility and solidifies your content as distinctly yours.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Slideshare page

Slideshare can be a powerful platform for sharing content and increasing brand awareness. Blend the needs of your audience and the platform when creating your content and you’ll have a successful approach to Slideshare with each and every upload.

The post 13 Solid Strategies for Succeeding at Slideshare appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Sesame Street has been doing a great job re-using older content and creating new content for the web to keep their brand thriving.

The best thing you can do for your brand right now is give it a foundation of solid, quality content, delivered in a variety of ways on multiple platforms. By extending the life of your content this way you ensure that it (and your brand’s message) reaches an ever-growing number of people.

Up until a few years ago, content that was posted online had a much shorter shelf life. Now, because content can be repurposed into a variety of  easily digestible and shareable formats and a variety of platforms, the average life of a piece of content has been extended.

What are the key components to creating content that has a longer content lifecycle?

• create an internal system that will support content generation
• create a road map for your brand voice
• create content guidelines across departments
• encourage (and train) a team to create content using the system
• keep your content alive, fresh and consistent
• use your analytics data and social feedback to keep your content relevant and anticipate topics that resonate
• keep your content engine stoked with a variety of types of content, such as videos, ebooks, case studies, podcasts, infographics, etc.
• encourage social sharing and lively discussion
• plan, plan, plan: content calendars and topic tracking help keep your content engine humming

You can see some of the interesting ways people and brands are making their content more relevant, from politics to business, all the way to your living room via familiar favorites like Sesame Street.

Sesame Street, Oreo Cookies and the Muppets are generating some of my favorite educational yet entertaining content right now, in fact. Chris Penn from What Counts generates some of the most useful and varied business content, as does Marketing Profs.

Who creates your favorite content? Who do you think has the most varied content?

The post How to Extend the Life of Your Social Media Content appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Image Source: flickr.com/keithallison

Similar to Nike’s #RiseAbove campaign during the London Olympics, Adidas is relying on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media channels for its latest campaign.

#TheReturn follows MVP NBA athlete Derrick Rose’s rehabilitation from a knee injury he suffered during last year’s playoffs. Through a series of documentary-style videos released on the Adidas basketball YouTube channel (Rose is an executive producer of the series), Adidas depicts the struggles and triumphs of Rose’s recovery, keeping him front and center in the minds of fans.

With the third video in the series released last week and Rose’s latest commercial for Adidas coming out yesterday, let’s take a look at the social media conversation the campaign has generated so far.

How is the Conversation Trending?

Looking at a trend line of mentions over the past 30 days, as of yesterday, there were over 45,000 mentions of #TheReturn and several spikes in conversation around the hashtag.

The first significant increase on September 5 was driven almost entirely by retweets of the below tweet from Derrick Rose.

Praying for my city man… #TheReturn

— Derrick Rose (@drose) September 5, 2012

Peaks on September 10 and 13 were the result of another popular tweet from Rose and excitement around the release of his new shoe for Adidas, respectively.

Hope the CPS gets a deal done soon…we need our kids in school! #TheReturn

— Derrick Rose (@drose) September 10, 2012

My new @adidashoops shoe the #drose3!!What do you all think? #TheReturn twitter.com/drose/status/2…

— Derrick Rose (@drose) September 13, 2012

The videos themselves have also been generating a large conversation volume. Drilling into the spike on September 7, the day the second episode was released, we can see the video drove over 2,500 mentions out of almost 3,700 total mentions around #TheReturn.

WORLD PREMIER: #TheReturn of @drose Episode 2- HOPE youtu.be/iXKfj0BirWw

— adidas Basketball (@adidasHoops) September 7, 2012

The third episode in the series was released on September 19, causing another increase in mentions and generating over 2,600 conversations.

WORLD PREMIERE: #TheReturn of @drose Episode 3 –Focus youtu.be/JJ2rYJbhx_o

— adidas Basketball (@adidasHoops) September 19, 2012

Drilling into the most recent spike on Tuesday, almost 3,500 of 5,000 total mentions were fueled by the debut of Rose’s new commercial for Adidas.

New @adidashoops commercial for my new shoe the #drose3.Tell me what you think #TheReturn youtu.be/dtj-D8HT9BY

— Derrick Rose (@drose) September 25, 2012

Where are People Talking?

While the majoriy of #The Return mentions are on Twitter, the hashtag is also getting some coverage on Facebook, making up just over 5% of posts over the past 30 days.

Who’s Talking?

Using Marketing Cloud insights, we can see that the 25-34 demographic was responsible for the most conversations, followed by the 21-24 and 35-44 age groups.

Breaking the conversation out by gender, men dominated, contributing two-thirds of mentions.

Who’s Influencing the Conversation?

Looking at the most retweeted usernames around the Adidas campaign, Rose is the clear leader. His handle received almost 11,000 more retweets than Adidas’ basketball twitter handle, which had the second-highest number of retweets for the same period. The Chicago Bulls’ official twitter account was third, with 2,100 retweets.

Breaking it down by most mentioned usernames paints a similar picture.

Analysis Takeaways

Based on the most retweeted/mentioned usernames and the conversation trends around #TheReturn, we can see that Rose is both the subject of and a driving force behind the Adidas campaign. By effectively promoting the hashtag and videos on his social media channels, Rose has put campaign and Adidas front and center with his 282,000+ Twitter followers and over 6 million Facebook fans, helping to make #TheReturn a success.

What are your thoughts on Adidas’ campaign? Please share them below. For help building out your own content marketing strategy, be sure to download our free ebook, How to Craft  a Successful Social Media Content Marketing Plan.

The post Adidas Uses Social Media for Derrick Rose Campaign appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

	They succeed, you succeed, right? Tell a customer story in a way that makes them look like they saved the day, came up with a solution, and reaped the reward. It’s not about you. We love to hear stories that appear to be about us. If you can see yourself in the story, you are more likely to buy into the message.
	You are an expert in your industry, your department, and your organization. Use your expertise to teach others. You’re not the only expert, however. Your IT department, HR, C-Suite, engineers, etc. all have great advice to share as well. Ask them to provide content and suddenly, generating content can be a way of life at your company.
	Determine why you’re creating this content. It all goes toward your marketing goals.This means understanding the people that read your content and creating more of it for them. Have strong calls-to-action so your readers do what you want them to do and constantly optimize your content based on your metrics and results.
	Start with the content you already have, such as a case study or ebook. From there, transition your existing content into other content mediums. For instance, take that customer case study and make an ebook out of it by telling the whole story and include takeaways, interviews, additional stories or insights. Then read the ebook aloud and record that for an audio book. Make at least 5 blog posts out of key insights from your ebook. Shoot a video with the customer and put that on your YouTube channel. Strip out the audio of the interview and turn that into a podcast. The list goes on!
	If you’re willing to be transparent with your stuff, you will be successful. We don’t have any secrets, especially with social media, so don’t be afraid! This could be sharing pricing info, competitor comparisons, or your recipes. We tend to fear failure, but those that succeed keep on trying, no matter what. Try new things. Who cares if your blog post had no retweets? The only person who saw that failure was you.
	Whether it’s a customer story, a story from an employee or the reason behind how your business started, being a storyteller can help you break through, demonstrate who you are, and make an impact. Get inspired to start thinking differently about your content and using it to tell a strong story. But not just any story. Tell the ones that are unique. The ones that resonate with you. If they relate to you, they’ll probably relate to others too.
	Much like the content engine, try different mediums. Today, there are plenty of platforms to share your visual content, like Pinterest for infographics. Or you could try creating a video or podcast.
	You don’t have to be the one creating content all the time. It could be as simple as a tweet asking your followers for ideas or opinions, which then turns into a blog post. Or it can be a larger effort such as the Domino’s Pizza Turnaround, where customer surveys led to a complete change in their food and some great video content.
	Oil Can Henry’s does one simple thing to stand apart from other oil change franchises. Customers stay in their car and watch the mechanics working over a video feed on custom TV screens. This creates a feeling of ease and encourages trust. If your brand doesn’t lend itself to such physical transparency, let your CEO Tweet, make your quarterly holding calls public or have a public Q&A session on a Google+ Hangout. Check out this post for more ideas on becoming a more transparent brand.
	Create a calendar that spells out what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say it. Make sure it’s relevant to where people are in their lives and/or the season. Nobody cares about Santa Claus in August and your product or service may have peak times as well. Timing also relates to when you post content, when you share it and how often you do both. For instance, check out this Twitter data from Buddy Media which gives the busy and non-busy hours for tweeting.

The post 10 Ways to Create Social Media Content That Succeeds appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Image Source: flickr.com//javajoba

Last week, I found some great content related to retail, marketing, and social media. Here are five articles that stood out most to me.

Panera Helps Fulfill Dying Grandmother’s Final Wish

Coming on the heels of #PositivelySocial Day, this was a timely story. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a heartwarming example of how a brand that goes above and beyond when it comes to customer service can make a real difference, as well as the power of word of mouth.

[Read more]

Key Takeaway: Showing the human side of your brand is a great way to build relationships with your customers and enhance your brand reputation.

How An Ex-J. Crew Designer Built A Boutique Bag Empire

This piece from Fast Company is a fascinating read on how Emily Sugihara, the founder of Baggu, created a successful business by seeing a need and providing a solution that was both practical and aesthetically pleasing, while incorporating sustainable business practices. There are lots of great takeaways, especially when it comes to the unique challenges of operating a small business.

[Read more]

Key Takeaway: Knowing your limitations as well as your strengths is key to making the best decisions for your small business.

L.A. Restaurant Pays Customers to Put Away Their Phones

From checking emails to posting photos to Instagram, it’s common practice these days for people to use their phones while out at restaurants. Eva Restaurant in Los Angeles wants to put an end to “distracted dining” and is offering a 5% discount to customers who check their smartphones at the door.

[Read more]

Key Takeaway: Be respectful of individual preferences and leave initiatives open-ended to avoid losing customers who don’t wish to take part.

Why McDonald’s Canada Social Media Success Worked for the U.S.

The popular “Our Food. Your Questions.” campaign from McDonald’s was originally the brainchild of McDonald’s Canada. Adage looks at how the campaign has crossed borders to give the McDonald’s USA brand a boost.

[Read more]

Key Takeaway: When creating social media campaigns, remember that social media can easily cross boundaries and borders to reach a broader audience.

Luxury Brands Look to Online Video

With the popularity of video content, more brands are turning to online video for their content marketing, including luxury brands. According to Digiday, “43 percent of agencies expect their luxury clients to move money away from the tube in favor of online video”.

[Read more]

Key Takeaway: Content goes beyond text and video is a great option. Start brainstorming ideas on how video could work for your brand.

For more on luxury brands, read our Salesforce Radian6 use case Luxury Brands Grow Their Business Through the Social Web or check out our latest ebook on how you can develop a strong social media strategy, How to Develop Your Social Media Strategy.

Flickr image by Jack Kennard

The post Key Takeaways from the Latest Social Media Stories appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Resources. If you’re blessed with deep pockets and a large team, advance on multiple fronts with all these formats. If you’re a one-person show, pick one format and dominate it.

Industry. If you’re selling a complex supply-chain management solution, your customers will be looking for detailed white papers. But if you’re manufacturing blenders, then a YouTube series of your CEO blending golf balls, chickens, and iPhones may be in order.

Trial and Error. Experiment a little to see which formats generate the best response with the least effort.

A survey of 1,092 B2B marketers found the average organization was using 8 different content marketing tactics. Unless you have severe resource constraints, don’t limit yourself to just one.

One piece of advice: no matter what format you choose, eradicate anything that remotely sounds like a sales pitch. Consumers will bounce as soon as they realize you’re playing the give-to-get game. Concentrate on what your community cares about, and the resulting affinity for your brand will drive business results.

Here are the main online media you should consider adding to your mix. For a more detailed look at these, we highly recommend you read through Content Rules by Radian6′s good friends Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman.

1. Blog

A blog post consists of commentary or news hosted on either a regularly-updated standalone website or section of a website.

Benefits

• Can incorporate various forms of multimedia to supplement text: embedded videos, photos, sound clips, documents, presentations and more
• Allows for frequent publishing of fresh content to increase brand visibility in search engines
• Generates discussion and engagement
• Posts each have a unique URL that can easily be shared across the web to drive inbound traffic

Tips

• Commit to posting regularly – anywhere from 1 to 25 posts a week.
• Find people in all levels of your company who can provide interesting and well-written content. The CEO and the customer service representative can both be interesting for different reasons.
• Invite well-known people in your industry to guest post.
• Provide variety on post lengths, types and topics. Use this excellent list of 21 types of viral posts from Search Engine Land for inspiration.
• Don’t be afraid to take a stand and have a little personality.
• Link to previously-written blog posts and either embed or link to meatier ebooks and webinars to keep visitors on your site longer.
• Craft your headlines carefully to attract interest, promote social media sharing, and match the intent behind a user’s Google search (SEO).

What good looks like: Mayo Clinic runs eight different blogs, including blogs for patients to share their stories, for physicians to learn about patient care innovations, and for the research community to share new findings.

Note: While we’re on the topic of blogging, you might find our ebook on The Art of Corporate Blogging helpful.

2. E-Newsletter

An e-newsletter is a regular email from your brand that subscribers receive because they signed up for it or have an existing relationship with you.

Benefits

• Subscribers are voluntarily giving your brand permission to message them
• Email addresses can be used (with care) to further engage with subscribers
• Subscriptions are all handled by the system, freeing you up to write content
• Drive traffic back to your website with multiple links

Tips

• Add a prominent signup form to your website. The fewer fields in the form, the more signups you’ll get.
• Create an email template you can reuse. It’ll save you time.
• Keep it short so people can glance through and click on what intrigues them.
• Try some A/B tests to tweak headlines, copy and layout.
• Don’t spam. Make sure you and abide by the CAN-SPAM Act.

What good looks like: Fashion company kate spade lets brief, playful copy and alluring product imagery do the talking in its email campaigns.

3. Webinars

A webinar is an online live presentation which participants attend remotely via phone or computer.

Benefits

• Help establish your brand as an authority in your industry
• Registration can provide detailed information about attendees when they register
• Potentially more lively, engaging and interactive than other media
• The ability to participate in the webinar discussion in real time can foster a stronger rapport with potential customers

Tips

• Rehearse the webinar multiple times beforehand. Iron out any technical kinks. With live events, you have only one chance to do it right.
• Find presenters from within your organization who are enthusiastic, professional and enjoyable to listen to.
• Interview the big names from your industry in a guest webinar.
• A moderator (not the speaker!) should handle questions and keep the conversation moving along.
• Don’t be dismayed if only a fraction of people who register actually show up. That is typical.
• Record the webinar to share later.
• Follow up with attendees afterward.

What good looks like: One of the many industries accounting firm Baker Tilly serves is construction. They run regular, multi-part construction audit webinars to help current and potential clients manage and control a complex financial process.

Note: Speaking of content and webinars, check out our webinar with Lee Odden on how to Socialize and Optimize Your Content Strategy.

4. Ebooks

An ebook is an electronic booklet around 10 to 30 pages long.

Benefits

• Provides your customers with useful information that solves problems rather than solely promoting your products or services
• Serves as a substantial content centerpiece you can advertise and promote heavily
• Can remain evergreen longer than blog posts or webinars
• Can be used as a lead-generation tool

Tips

• Keep the tone informal and conversational. The nitty-gritty can be tackled in a separate white paper.
• Design the ebook to be easily skimmed. Liberally employ images, illustrations, diagrams, callouts, headings, and bullet points.
• Longer is not necessarily better. If you are able to say it in 10 pages instead of 20, that’s probably better for your readers.
• Repurpose excerpts or entire blog posts to save yourself time.

What good looks like: Email marketing automation company Silverpop conducted a survey of their clients and turned their findings into an ebook with a best practices guide to marketing automation.

5. White Papers

A definitive, data-driven report that explains how to solve a problem.

Benefits

• Helps potential customers make (favorable) B2B purchase decisions, especially those with a longer sales cycle
• Can establish your brand’s authority as an industry expert
• Capitalizes on the wealth of knowledge that already exists within your organization

Tips

• Give yourself lots of time. You’re not going to bang one of these out in an afternoon.
• Try conducting a survey of people in your industry.
• Highlight the unexpected. Proving what we all already know has limited utility.
• Back up all the claims you make with hard data.
• Conclude with recommendations for readers to put into action.

What good looks like: Not all of 3M’s products are as easy to describe as their Post-It Notes. This white paper is for the engineers who need to understand the technical benefits of a rubber process additive they sell.

6. Case Studies

Tells the story of how an organization (often a customer) faced and solved a problem.

Benefits

• Highlights your customers, services and products
• Establishes your credibility and provides evidence for your marketing claims
• Tells a compelling story about proven results

Tips

• Work in the colorful details that make stories interesting.
• State the problem in a way the reader can identify with it.
• Explain how your company fixed the problem.
• Prove the lasting results of your solution, e.g. “Since Acme Corp installed our solution, sales have risen 21%.”

What good looks like: Dassault Systèmes offers a substantial library of over 350 “customer stories” showing how clients like MIT, Under Armour and Rolls-Royce have used their 3D design software to solve pressing innovation problems.

7. Video

Benefits

• Google’s Universal Search and ownership of YouTube makes your videos much more likely to appear on first page of search results
• A well-executed video piece can generate many, many views
• Allows you to tell a story in an audiovisual way

Tips

• If you have a casual brand, it’s okay to keep your videography casual. A decent camera, tripod and microphone will go a long way.
• Craft your story before shooting to maximize your time.
• Consider documentaries, interviews, product tours, and behind-the-scenes footage.
• If you’re going to be filmed, relax and be yourself.

What good looks like: Noodles & Company serves noodles, salads and sandwiches from around the world — but they’re also generous enough to teach their community how to make their own tasty lunches. Their YouTube channel offers video on how to cook asparagus and lemon linguine, Bangkok Curry, and even a better sandwich.

8. Podcasts

A regular audio show or a series of audio recordings to which users can subscribe. Episodes are downloaded via iTunes or other software.

Benefits

• Podcasts are mobile – subscribers can listen during their commute or at the gym
• People can stumble across your podcast on iTunes
• Provides a more lively experience than text

Tips

• Keep it short to begin with. A regular 20-minute podcast is better than a 90-minute episode every 6 months.
• Plan out each episode before you begin. No need to write down every word; you’ll sound more natural speaking off the cuff.
• Export the audio from video recordings to make use of what you already have on hand.
• Invite coworkers and others in the industry to join you for an interview or conversation. Dialogue is always more lively than monologue. Friendly debates are even better.

What good looks like: Clemson University keeps students informed with audio recordings of various lectures and happenings from their different departments.

9. Presentations

Benefits

• Easy to recycle existing content (especially ebooks) into presentations
• Potential to go viral on sites such as Slideshare
• Communicate your message succinctly
• Useful as a resource library for workshops and industry events

Tips

• Keep it simple — one big idea per slide. Pare away everything that is not essential.
• Avoid the temptation to squeeze in as many graphs and bullet points as possible.
• Design each slide to be delightful to the eye. Ask a designer in your organization for some help.
• Find a handful of more tips here.

What good looks like: SimpliFlying trains and advises airlines and airports on how to engage travellers profitably. This 177-slide deck offers 50 case studies of airlines who are excelling in social media.

The post Webinars, White Papers, and 7 Other Content Types to Serve Your Community appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

While the world is focused on London, the Olympic Games, and the athletes, brands are also vying for fans’ attention. With 18 Worldwide and Olympic Partners, in addition to the countless brands who support national teams, Olympic advertising is in top gear.

Here are some memorable videos making the rounds on television and social media.

Coca-Cola

This ad from Worldwide Partner Coca-Cola features a dance track from Mark Ronson incorporating the sounds of Olympic athletes competing in various sports, including track, gymnastics, and Taekwondo, along with a throng of cheering fans. Watching this, it’s hard not to get in the Olympic spirit.

Procter & Gamble

Another Worldwide Partner, Procter & Gamble (P&G), pays tribute to the moms behind Olympic athletes with this spot. The ad captures the universal bond that exists between mothers and their children, regardless of what part of the world they live in, appealing to the Olympic Games’ global audience.

Visa

Worldwide Partner Visa celebrates the Olympic Games by inviting fans to join their global cheer. Through their series of Olympic ads, Visa celebrates athletes from around the world, sharing their stories of perseverance and resilience and recounting the journey each athlete has taken to reach the 2012 London Olympics.

Petro-Canada

With a theme similar to P&G, Petro-Canada, a supporter of the Canadian Olympic Team, uses clever visuals to symbolize the shared victory of Canadian athletes and the parents who support them.

What are some memorable Olympic ads you’ve seen from brands so far? Are you paying attention to brand advertising or are you more focused on other aspects of the games? For a look at the social media conversation leading up to the 2012 London Olympics, check out How London2012 Has Already Won the Online Battle for Positive Social Sentiment. We’ll be tracking the conversation over the course of the games, so stay tuned for future posts.

The post Brands Go for Gold During the 2012 London Olympics appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.