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How Often Do We Use Twitter?
Funny Friday!
America Looks to Social Media on the First Anniversary of the Joplin Tornado
Today marks the first anniversary of the Joplin, MO tornado which took the lives of 161 people and left much of the city destroyed. The tornado that swept across Joplin on May 22, 2011 cut a path spanning six miles long and a half mile wide.
President Obama Makes Commencement Speech for 2012 Joplin High School Graduates
In the aftermath of the storm, they city’s phone lines and means of transportation were widely interrupted if not altogether unavailable, leaving the people of Joplin without their major means of communication.
Facebook groups emerged almost immediately after the storm hit and were used for storm information, pictures, support, rescue, and for the search of missing loved ones. Groups like “Joplin, MO Tornado Survivors (11,033 “likes”), Joplin, MO Tornado Recovery (173,647 “likes”), and Joplin, MO – Missing Persons and Survivors Page (7,695 “likes”) gained thousands of followers in a matter of minutes all hoping to locate missing lovers, or to inform others of their safety.
On Twitter alone, the word “Joplin” was mentioned 65,459 people on May 22, 2011. Not only were people with ties to Joplin sending their prayers and best wishes to the town, but other people from other states and countries entirely were eager to reach out and offer their services or donations.
After a year of recovery and time to rebuild, Social Media is still buzzing with news, photos and support for the rallying city of Joplin. Today, the term “Joplin” was trending on Twitter racking in 25,644 mentions and counting. People are using the hash tag #JoplinStrong to highlight the strength and determination that Joplin and its residents portrayed in the wake of such a devastating event.
Support for the regrowth and rebuilding of Joplin is still needed. More information about volunteering and donating can be found here.
How Grandma and Grandpa Can Help to Grow Your Business
Last week I was browsing the Mac store, when I bumped into an elderly person dazing emptily at his iPad. “Do you know how to turn this thing on?” he said. I looked around the table noticing at least a dozen other baby boomers raising their hand, seemingly just as perplexed, trying to get the attention of a frazzled Apple associate.
It seemed as though I had walked in on an iPad101 class. All of its students were over the age of 60.
These classes seem to be on the rise as more and more seniors are joining the digital world. With this rise comes a growing need for education. In fact, schools like Howard Community College’s Gateway Campus launched introductory courses in Facebook and Twitter for those over age 60 in September, and added a new course this past winter called “Blogging 101.”
From 2010 to 2011, the social network use among internet users over the age of 50 nearly doubled to 42%. Nearly 16 million Americans over the age of 55 now have a Facebook page…that’s a lot of Nanas on Facebook.
According to a study conducted by iStrategyLabs, a social media marketing firm, there were 15.5 million Facebook users over the age of 55, an increase of nearly 60% from the year before where the number of users over the age of 55 was at 9.7 million.
Not only are baby boomers using social media, but they are beginning to use it regularly as part of their daily routine. According to data collected by Pew Research Center only 20% of baby boomers in 2010 used social media on a daily basis. By the same time the next year, that number had risen to 32% representing a 60% increase.
A Nielsen statistic revealed that the over 55 age bracket spends a total of 85 minutes each day browsing the internet. Not only are they using it to keep in touch with their children and grandchildren, but they are also buying products within the online marketplace. Though this is significantly lower than that of the younger generation, it is important to consider the fact that this older bracket controls the majority of the economy, with a combined spending worth of more than $1.8 trillion.
As a marketer, one cannot ignore the potential that this demographic has for creating market growth. Accounting for nearly 58% of the U.S. population, the Baby Boomers make up more than half of the American population. We can capitalize on this shift in technology use by using targeted Google or Facebook advertising to this age bracket. Specific industry verticals like pharmaceuticals, doctors, or lawyers, can take advantage of this demographic by searching for people who are in need of their services. Doing a simple Google search or twitter hash tag search will help you to find people who may be complaining about the price of their prescriptions, or who are looking to settle an estate or will dispute.
So hide your incriminating photos kids, Grandmas and Grandpas on Facebook are here to stay.
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Funny Friday
Relevancy Rules in Social Media Advertising
In recent years, social media has become more than just an arena for reconnecting or engaging with friends—it has become a platform for strategic and targeted advertising. In order to reap the most benefits of social media advertising, relevancy is essential. Facebook has a great system for online advertising that allows you to seek out the demographic of people that will be most likely to be interested in your advertised product.
A case study by famous blogger, Jason Falls in his new book, No Bullshit Social Media illustrates the power of Facebook advertising, and how it translates into dollars earned. In 2010, Jim Olenbush, owner of Cantera Real Estate in Austin, TX, utilized multiple relevancy factors in order to target a very specific group of people who may be interested in buying homes.
At the time that Olenbush first decided to use Facebook advertising, there had been so many drug-related murders and shootings in Mexico that many affluent Mexican families were looking to move to the United States. He realized that, due to Texas’ close proximity to Mexico, it could be extremely profitable to target these affluent areas (Mexico City and Monterrey) using Facebook’s advanced filtering tools.
Olenbush said that not many people were targeting this demographic so when he spent only about $400.00 over a period of 3-4 months, he received a good amount of impressions. Although Olenbush admitted that the click-through rates were on the lower side, one person did end up using his services, and buying a $1.1 million dollar house. For an investment of $400.00, this was an extremely high return.
As I mentioned before, people don’t care about things that don’t pertain to them (as bad as that may sound). In order to catch the attention of the consumer, you need to target the right products to the right people. With Facebook’s filtered advertisements you can choose exactly who will see your advertisement, all the way down to interests located in the info area of their profiles.
How have you used Facebook filtering to target a very specific demographic for an ad campaign? Let us know!
If you need assistance implementing your Facebook campaign, or simply need help to maintain or create content on your social platforms, contact Viral Technologies and we will provide you with a FREE social media consultation. 1-855-718-4725 or email info@viraltechnologies.com
Top 5 Super Bowl Social Media Campaigns for 2012
Every year, football fans and football “fans” tune into the Super Bowl to watch its infamous commercials. The Super Bowl has always been the most coveted and expensive arena for brands to display their ads. This year, many of the brands that are scheduled to be featured in Super Bowl XLVI are taking advantage of the free and powerful services that Social Media offers, creating campaigns to further their brand’s presence in the Super Bowl ad spotlight. For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be streaming live online and to mobile devices. Again, companies are taking advantage of this shift by advertising their commercials online, and engaging social media users with varying incentives. The following are our top five social media campaigns set to air during this year’s Super Bowl.
1. Chevrolet encouraged social media users to submit their own crowd-sourced videos via their website, ChevroletRoute66.msn.com, in order to choose their Super Bowl commercial this year. By using a crowd sourced video Chevrolet saved production costs WHILE maximizing social media and fan engagement.
2. Pizza Hut has launched a Facebook campaign called “Top This” instructing fans to upload a video of them singing their own rendition of the “10 dollar pizza song” to Pizza Hut’s Facebook fan page. The winner, which was decided on January 15, will be featured in Pizza Hut’s pre-game Super Bowl ad.
3. After they opted out of a Super Bowl ad last year, Pepsi put all of their efforts into social media campaigning to promote their “Pepsi Refresh Project”. This campaign will feature the fan-chosen winner of “The XFactor,” Melanie Amaro.
4. Another great Super Bowl ad Campaign is one being hosted by Fathers.com. The National Center for Fathering is offering two tickets to the Super Bowl to the winner of a YouTube video contest hosted on their Facebook Fan page. The videos must exemplify the reasons your dad is a caring and supportive father. The top three videos will be decided by fans, and a winner will then be chosen by a panel of judges.
5. A new app is being developed to aid in voting for your favorite Super Bowl ad this year. Facebook and USA Today are the companies behind the app and will be hosting it on their various online properties and mobile platforms. The app allows fans to view, rate and share Super Bowl ads with their friends online.
Happy viewing everyone, and oh yeah–GO PATRIOTS!
We Can Help You Win $500,000 Too!
So you’ve heard about what we do, let us now present to you a representation of what we at Viral Technologies like to call, “Our Corporate DNA.” From Dec. 1st through Dec. 8th, the team here at Viral Technologies worked very hard in assisting the charitable organization Let’s Get Ready (LGR), to place second in Chase’s first American Giving Awards, a Facebook contest which offered up to one million dollars in grant money.
On December 10th the Chase American Giving Awards, hosted by the Emmy Award-Winning Bob Costas, was broadcasted on NBC. Out of the five finalists, LGR received the second highest amount of votes, on the Chase Community Giving Facebook page, and won $500,000 in grant money! I did the math—we are an agency full of talent—and with this amount of money, LGR can help 1,000 students get to college!
In one week’s time, we were able to help LGR grow their Twitter following 10.3%, as compared to their competition, whose next-highest Twitter growth was 2.9%. We more than doubled the amount of Facebook “likes” on their page, and increased their mentions across the social web by 80% (the winner of the contest, To Write Love On Her Arms, increased their mentions by 66%).
“We want to thank Viral Technologies for helping us to grow our presence in the social space, and for their persistence in expanding our awareness across the Web,” said Brian Dever, Development Director for LGR. “With their hard work and dedication, we have gotten a huge response from the public.”
This past week was a testament to how powerful social media can be, and our team’s ability to use it to grow and spread the awareness of great organizations like LGR.