Here at Luckie, we're getting ready to wind down one of our most fun social media promotions to date, so I wanted to invite each of you to check it out before the big finale.
The promotion is The Quest for Tea Town USA, a summer Facebook contest we launched with McAlister's Deli last year and saw great results. This year, we ramped up the promotion in a lot of ways, making it one of the most engaging contests I've seen on Facebook.
Fans seem to agree. We've had more than 150,000 votes in the contest, and the McAlister's fan base has grown by more than 180% in just five weeks. Best of all, the deli chain is seeing great foot traffic being generated by the promotion, and we haven't even reached the exciting conclusion: Free Tea Day on Thursday, July 28.
While it's compelling as a singular case study, "The Rise and Inglorious Fall of Myspace" also offers many hard-learned lessons for any business trying to build a strong future online.
Here are five takeaways that jumped out at me, followed by the relevant excerpts from the article:
1. Don't let good traffic numbers cloud your ability to spot serious structural problems.
The troubles at Myspace hardly went unnoticed by its corporate owners. But the site's continued success muted any alarms that the social media network was on an unstable path. "When you're growing at 300,000 users a day," says (former head of MySpace marketing and content Sean) Gold, "it's hard to imagine that you're doing anything wrong."
This week, I was honored to be invited out to BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City to discuss case studies in social media failure. Copresenter Dave Peck and I walked through some lesser-known examples of marketing efforts that drew flack for being offensive, misleading or just unsuccessful.
If you'd like to view the presentation, I've just posted it to SlideShare:
We had a packed house and a lively audience at BlogWorld yesterday for my co-presentation on social media case studies with Dave Peck. We had focused on finding case studies people weren't tired of hearing, and as you'll see in the presentation below, we were even able to pack it with examples from the last two months.
Which ones would get your Thumbs Up (or Down)? Check out the case studies and let us know:
I'll be co-presenting with Dave Peck, a veteran social media strategist currently working with the Xerox-funded project Meshin, described as "the first ever semantic Outlook sidebar." Be sure to check it out to learn more.
At BlogWorld, we'll be walking through several recent and relatively unknown case studies — so don't expect the same old stuff. There might be a little overlap with my recent presentation alongside Dan Shust at Internet Retailer, but much of it will be fresh and ripe for the nitpicking.
Hope to see you there. Even if you can't make it to our session, be sure to stop me in the hall and give me the secret Social Path handshake. Also, please take a moment to teach me the secret Social Path handshake.
I've been remiss in not sharing my colleague David Stutts' fantastic series of case studies called "20 Interesting Things." (I previously posted his list of 20 Foursquare examples.) As Luckie's Director of Brand Planning and digital safari guide, David sifts through tons of information each day and compiles the best into easy-to-read reports.
Today I wanted to share his SlideShare deck on great examples of how Augmented Reality is changing the way we interact with the world around us. Check it out:
This is the story of two friends who set out in their 2008 VW Rabbit, "Burt Reynolds," to explore their world both geographically and socially.
In September 2009, Toronto friends Alex and Luke decided to set out on an adventure to experience every state and province in North America. But how could you ever decide on an itinerary for such an epic journey? It’s easy if you leave it up to the social media masses to be your virtual and real-life tour guides through the trip.
Alex and Luke post polls online allowing people to vote for their next destination. Similarly, what they do once they arrive depends on the recommendations and connections made through social media channels, particularly Twitter — as well as shaking hands and making friends the good-old-fashion way on the streets they visit. In turn, they are sharing their experience and invite you along for the experience.
Unfortunately, I found out about this project too late to catch them in Alabama (which they loved, I might add). However, it's a fascinating case study in the power of social-media-built relationships and the ever-shrinking world we live in.
Most importantly, if you have the means, make a donation to their project. 25% of each donation to the trip is given to a cause defined by the region in which they are currently traveling. Check their pledge page to learn more.
Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You
can contact her by e-mail
or follow @KammieAvant on
Twitter.
I wanted to give a big thanks to my fantastic hosts in Dayton, the 100 attendees who took time out of their day, and all my friends who drove in from Columbus for the presentation.
To view our previous presentations on social media topics, check out my SlideShare gallery or related work by my colleague, VP/Director of Brand Planning David Stutts. If you'd like to talk to someone at Luckie about speaking at your event, just drop me a note via the contact info listed below.
Just a quick update for our friends in Ohio: I'll be speaking to the Greater Dayton Advertising Association on April 1, 2010. Here's some info on the topic, along with a link to RSVP if you're interested:
The Tipping Points of Social Media
How can your business go from good to great on Facebook, Twitter and
other social hubs? Social Media Strategist and Adweek blogger David
Griner will examine several case studies of success, including how his
agency, Luckie and Company, helped make Little Debbie one of the most
popular snack brands in social media.
The event is free for association members, $30 for nonmembers and $25 for students.
If you were to make a list of the top viral video superstars, Chicago rock band OK Go would be near the top. Their incredibly choreographed video for Here It Goes Again has reaped an astounding 49 million views on YouTube, vaulting the band from obscurity to Grammy-winning stardom.
But that was 2006. Now the band is racing the infuriating reality of 2010.
In an open letter to their fans this week, OK Go had to explain why no one is allowed to embed the band's new YouTube video, This Too Shall Pass, on a blog or social network. Essentially, the very model of sharing that made the band a success is now barred to them due to record label revenue deals with YouTube.
It's an incredible and incredibly frustrating read, a face-palming case study in how corporate desperation is one of the most self-destructive forces in the modern marketplace.
We've been flooded with complaints recently because our YouTube videos
can't be embedded on websites, and in certain countries can't be seen
at all. And we want you to know: we hear you, and we're sorry. We wish
there was something we could do. Believe us, we want you to pass our
videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it's now far
harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four
years ago.
...
The labels are hurting and they need every penny they can find, so
they've demanded a piece of the action. They got all huffy a couple
years ago and threatened all sorts of legal terror and eventually all
four majors struck deals with YouTube which pay them tiny, tiny sums of
money every time one of their videos gets played.
Seems like a fair
enough solution, right? YouTube gets to keep the content, and the
labels get some income.
The catch: the software that pays out those tiny sums doesn't pay if
a video is embedded. This means our label doesn't get their hard-won
share of the pie if our video is played on your blog, so (surprise,
surprise) they won't let us be on your blog.
....
So we've got this ridiculous situation where the machinery of the old
system is frantically trying to contort and reshape and rewire itself
to run without actually selling music. It's like a car trying to figure
out how to run without gas, or a fish trying to learn to breath air.
...
With or without this embedding problem, we'll never get 50 zillion
views on a YouTube video again. That moment – the dawn of internet
video – is gone. The internet isn't as anarchic as it was then. Now
there are Madison Avenue firms that specialize in "viral marketing" and
the success of our videos is now taught in business school.
...
So, for now, here's the bottom line: EMI won't let us let you embed our
YouTube videos. It's a decision that bums us out. We've argued with
them a lot about it, but we also understand why they're doing it.
They're aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and
share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans,
theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they're doing the
right thing.
Of course, since this is a YouTube issue, the band points out that you're welcome to share their video via sites like Vimeo, which I've gone ahead and done below:
