Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Social Contests

Are you interested in running a contest for your product on facebook
or Twitter?

Here are a few ideas of what some companies do to get their product
noticed. (As a newbie mommy, I enter quite a few of them)

1. Hook up with a popular site or blog that will run the contest to
their audience. Of course, make sure their audience is your target
audience.
2. Run the contest off your facebook fan page, site and/or blog.
3. Have entrants blog, tweet, video for extra entries. This helps
spread the contest around.

Here is a contest I am hoping to win ;)

Stokke Tripp Trapp giveaway - http://bit.ly/hkljC

Sunday, September 20, 2009

CASE: Future Shop gets Beaten By Clock

Future Shop's Beat the Clock contest suffered a computer glitch resulting in discounts to the XBox 360 lasting longer than the time they allotted.

The result: Angry customers who got a confirmation that their order was received and then emailed later that it was a misprint. Those angry customers went to the store's Facebook page and even their own online forums to complain.

PR disaster? Marketing disaster?

What are the potential effects?
1. Angry customers who will never trust Future Shop contests, promotions etc. again. Heck, they won't even buy from there anymore.
2. Decrease in contest entries for the next promotions.
3. A lot of bad comments on social networks that will affect the company down the line.
4. Nothing. It is a contest afterall.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Marketing During Construction

Yonge street is a mess. The city tore up the east side of Yonge
street from Eglinton to Lawrence to replace some pipes and redo the
sidewalks. That took a good three months. They are now working on
the west side, and who knows how long that will take. Cars are down
to one lane traffic and pedestrians have to live with dust, gravel and
the never ending sounds of drills, trucks and saws.

With all this construction has in no doubt affected local businesses.
With the struggling economy, times must be tough. But, this is making
things extra worse.

However, there are a few marketing tricks some stores are doing to
help bring in business.

1. Dufflet pastries is providing delivery service for a small charge.
2. The Body Shop & L'Occitane have outdoor sample tables.
3. Lululemon, Khiel's and David's Tea teamed up for a weekend to
promote each others products in their stores. This is great because
they have similar target audiences.
4. Roots opens their doors earlier to catch morning traffic like
mommys on their way to starbucks prior to 10 am.
5. Lolo Restaurant and Alize offer set menu's like summerlicious for
$25.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Book Review: Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel

Almost everyday I get asked an online marketing question. I am afterall, an online marketer. Most people find me either through this blog, twitter, a simple google search, or via some of the other sites I like to play in, like chowhound.

Some questions are broad, like, 'How can facebook help grow my business?' to asking me to look at their online strategy for further comments or suggestions. I am always happy to do so.

From time to time, I also get asked about other business books I enjoyed or would recommend. I can now happily recommend Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel.

Mitch guides businesses, especially those who are scared to take the plunge, through the world of online connectivity. His reason to dive in? 'In the digital world there are no degrees of separation between you and your customers.'

The book is full of great business examples, lots of questions to help you start building your connectivity and most of all, the online etiquette for safe entry. All stories and guidelines will show you just how close you can be to your customers and most of all, your potential customers.

NOTE: I worked with Mitch Joel and Twist Image, they are one of Scotiabank's digital agencies.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

CASE: SIGG CEO Apologises

A little to late for me.

The Sigg drama is a great example of the need for transparency in this
digital world.

No matter what you are saying, honesty is the best policy and your
community will reward you for it.

via:
http://www.non-toxickids.net/2009/09/finally-apology-from-sigg-ceo-steve.html

Buy Facebook friends

I just read a very interesting article at the Globeandmail.com called Not enough Facebook friends? Buy them.


Similar to purchasing third party phone, mail and email lists, you can purchase 'friends' on facebook to try to connect with. The service will send a request to friend to the list first, I suspect this is what they consider their opt-in. If the person accepts, great. If not, no harm done...so you think?


What can go wrong?
- spamming. If you do this once, for one of your products, it may work fine. However, if you want to use this more than once, with the same target audience, you will land up spamming the friend request.
- how did they get your name anyway? Transparency is key if you are going to try this method.


CASE: Old SIGG Bottles do leak BPA

If you have been following my posts on the whole SIGG drama, the story
continues. Turns out, it actually does leak BPA. Sorry Mr. CEO. I
had a hard time believing you before, but now you have no chance.

Via: http://thesoftlandingbaby.com/2009/09/03/fred-vom-saals-test-results-found-bpa-leaching-from-siggs-old-bottles/

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

CASE: 3 Green Angels Jump on SIGG

Here is a great case study of a company jumping on the demise of
SIGG's green transparency failure.

3 Green Angels will be hosting a twitter party to talk about the
recent news and what you can do with your old SIGG at http://www.bigbottleswap.com

http://3greenangels.com/the-scoop-on-bpa-and-aluminum-bottles/