Clever Marketing
Tips for optimizing your Facebook News Feed.
Is NFO the new SEO? According to Facebook, only 0.02% of news stories actually make it to someone’s News Feed. So, how can you get noticed when the social networks are constantly evolving? Optimize. Optimize. Optimize.
Facebook has done something Google has never done; they provided a mathematic formula behind News Feed Optimization, or NFO, which has become the equivalent of Search Engine Optimization. Based on this “Edge Rank” formula, a posts likelihood of appearing in a news feed is a function of these three elements: Affinity, Weight, and Time.
- Affinity is a measure of how often someone interacts with your posts on a regular basis. The more you interact with the same person’s posts, the more likely their posts will show up on your News Feed.
- Weight is the score assigned to each post and how much activity the post gets. The more comments and “likes” your post receives, the higher the weight will be.
- Time is the final factor of the Edge Rank formula. It’s the length of how long ago the interaction was created. The more recent the post, the higher it ranks.
Facebook also weighs the content of your post in a specific order.
- Uploading videos. Whether it’s through YouTube or your own video, it holds the top ranking and has the highest chance of getting seen in a person’s News Feed.
- Checking in. Using Facebook Places (which is similar to foursquare), you can “check in” at certain locations, and tag the friends that are with you. Just like foursquare, this is most commonly done through the mobile application, but more people will see your check in on Facebook than on foursquare.
- Uploading pictures. Tagging friends in the photos you upload tends to attract a lot of interaction, boosting the weight of the post even more.
- Sharing posts. When you see a friend’s post that you like, you can share it to post on your own profile. But make sure when you do this, you add your own comments to make it original.
- Posting links. Share a link from a website that interests you, or that interests your friends/fans, and add your own unique take on the topic.
- Updating status. It is more likely this could be lost in the clutter, but there is a chance your status could still have a heavy weight if it gains a lot of comments and “likes” as mentioned earlier.
With the rapid changes taking place in social media, marketers have to stay on our toes, and hopefully with these tips, you can rule the Facebook News Feed and stand out from the crowd. How do you plan on boosting your profile popularity?
Innovative healthcare marketing example #1.
I know I’m kind of a weirdo. My kids think so when I shush them during a good TV commercial, then excitedly proceed to explain to them the marketing strategy behind it, the simplicity of message and why it’s so brilliant. As they text away -- once again, leaving me alone in awe of yet another innovative spot. It’s much worse if it’s healthcare advertising. They usually have to shush ME. I’ve been doing healthcare marketing for over 25 years, and I still get goose bumps when I see something really good.
Which is why I decided to do a series on innovative healthcare marketing. To spotlight those healthcare ads, campaigns and ideas that are out of the box, that emotionally connect, that are most likely not approved by a committee of docs. That deserve recognition!
My first example is from the Kaiser Permanente Thrive campaign. The whole campaign is goose-bump worthy, but my favorite is the “When I Grow Up I Want to be an Old Woman” spot, promoting mammograms. Maybe because I’m “growing up” myself, this one makes me smile, makes me appreciate these women, makes me feel that Kaiser Permanente truly wants women to maximize the joy and well-being in their lives.
Can innovative healthcare marketing conquer male invincibility?
Let’s face it, men think they are invincible. Is that why most seem to avoid the doctor? Doctor avoidance could be connected to the male obsession with invincibility. I wasn’t too surprised to find that in a recent study, Middle-Aged “Macho Men” Less Likely to Obtain Preventative Care, men who scored high on the “macho” scale were almost 50 percent less likely to see a doctor.
The average life expectancy of the American male has increased since 1990, but it’s still six years lower than females. According to recent data from the CDC, 70 percent of U.S. women had at least one doctor’s visit annually, but only half the U.S. male population did the same. If you ask me, this calls for an intervention. Men should sign up for regular doctor visits, just like they sign up for Fantasy Football.
So how do we reach these guys? How do we break through their daily fog of business, finance, sports and beer? Well, typically it’s through their wives, their girlfriends – the women in their lives. Why is this? Because women are caregivers and they are the healthcare decision-makers in the family. See how we targeted men through women in the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services radio spot, Mr. Fix It. But is there another way to reach the male audience on important health matters? Could there be an innovative marketing ploy that would grab their attention, and say, “hey man, maybe you should call your doctor today.”
Brand engagement campaign that engages.
Sometimes it’s hard to get healthcare marketing clients to step out of the comfort zone of traditional advertising. Not so with our client, Covenant HealthCare. True marketing partners, they are always ready to step out of the box. For the right reason. They are the regional heart leader, so what better way to take the lead in engaging the community around heart education than to forge ahead with social networking tools? Covenant’s “Love Notes” campaign launched on none other than Valentine's Day, amidst Heart Awareness month.
TV, Radio, Facebook ads, and heart-shaped, red Post-Its on the front page of the Sunday News are driving people to sign up for free “Love Your Heart” texts and e-Blasts (heart-healthy tips, coupons, recipes, events, heart risk assessment, etc), of course, all shareable. Covenant tweets a heart-healthy tip every day. The radio stations have joined in the fun with daily heart-healthy tips. It’s a beautiful convergence of traditional, non-traditional and social media. And in just two weeks, over 1,000 hits to the landing page with folks signing up for the cardiac-related information their heart desires...send us a "love note" if you love this campaign!
From apples to new apples.
This past Monday Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, announced the new iPhone 4, which is said to be the “biggest leap forward” for the iPhone since 2007. After reading this statement I had to take another glance at the date. The iPhone was only released 3 years ago?!
With the release of the IOS4 there are a handful of new features to gawk at. For instance, real time chatting will allow you to no longer meet for client luncheons. You can bring the client with you in your pocket then set them in between your water glass and soup bowl to chat it up. One catch is that this feature is only available on Wi-Fi, and the presence of good Wi-Fi connection is slim, thus preventing our need to have actual human to human contact. On a positive note the introduction of multitasking now allows one to switch between apps, the internet, and music without any disconnect.
The IOS4 will also have the iAd mobile advertising platform which utilizes the multitasking feature. “The iAd system allows third party developers to include advertising in their apps to earn more money or subsidize free apps.” Apple will sell the advertising and supply the ads from their servers. The advantage to the iAd system is if the user clicks on an iAd banner, a full screen advertisement will appear within the application instead of being redirected to the Safari web browser. Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% revenue to the developers. According to Jobs, “People aren’t searching their phones. People are spending time in their apps.” Do you think that with the introduction of iAd there will be in an increase in mobile ad sales?
Social media blacks out BP.
Amongst all of the discussion about the BP oil spill, there has been plenty of speculation about the way it was handled in social media. With what seems to be a lack of effort and a disregard for their users, BP has remained mum on the topic except for a few PR statements, prompting a backlash in the social media community.
Well that seems to have been the wrong way to handle the situation because now instead of just boycotting the gas stations as a means of protest, you can black out BP across the web. A Firefox plugin has been created to place oil splotches over anything BP related. This includes photos and words such as BP oil, BP gas or BP worldwide.
Do you think social media has gone too far with the Black Oil Firefox plugin or is it our right to determine what we do and do not want to see across the web? Either way, I hope this widely publicized incident will prove as a warning of what not to do when a company makes a mistake.
Embracing life with emotional connections.
As advocates of making an emotional connection, I have to blog about the Embrace Life spot that rates 10+ for EC. It got forwarded to me a couple months ago thru the adworld, and my sister (non-adworld) just forwarded it to me. Which tells me this internet phenomenon is now reaching stay-at-home moms. Now she's a very intelligent gal, and she thought it was pretty, but she wasn't sure she got what they were trying to communicate - hence, her question to her adsister. She got the main message - Wear Your Seatbelt - but she was looking for something deeper...Why is his family there? Are they saving him? Are they the reason he should wear it?
All good questions, and all likely part of the message intent. The key point is it made the emotional connection for her to begin questioning and thus, interacting with the communication...and bravo, she understands the main point - Wear Your Seatbelt! I passionately explained the whole emotional connection thing to my sis to which she responded, "hmmmm...so, are you bringing your broccoli salad Sunday?..."
We do a lot of social marketing (we call it "oughta marketing") and this is one of the best spots I've seen. I believe the beautiful emotional connection (love) has created this beautiful viral phenomenon (6 million plus views). If you haven't seen it yet, you really oughta click below.
Does it make your favorite commercial list?
Social media: Mother's Day.
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and I haven’t gotten my mother anything yet. Like most folks I am obviously waiting until the last minute. This year it might just be a card, as funds are a little low for me – since I am getting married in a month. With that being said – maybe I should just post Happy Mother’s day on my mom’s Facebook Wall. Okay, maybe not. That’s kind of tacky. Well it’s not tacky to retailers who might be trying to reach the consumer like me – a last minute shopper. Now stop reading this and go out to buy your mother at least a card.
Happy Mother’s Day Sally Jo! You’re the best!
mAd Woman.
Ok, I admit it. I am mad about the new Mad Men collection of dolls by Barbie. Yearn for a Don Draper to carry around in my purse. Sadly, madly, will have to wait for JULY to buy. Much as I fear being left out by this generosity, I am sharing a secret way to be first in line: Go to AMCTV.com and sign up for a notification when they reach the market. May the best women win!
As compensation for lack of immediate gratification, I have just ordered the complete three-season set of the MM series. And just bought a ticket to the Adcraft Club of Detroit’s Mad Men party on June 15th
Non-traditional advertising gets less traditional.
Ever wrote a tweet so funny that you wanted to put it on a billboard for all drivers to see? Ok maybe not, but Conan O'Brien did just that.
As his microsite puts it, "Conan has lost his home and his rightful place on millions of screens across the nation. His audience is also lost. Some are picking up the pieces of their lives, but many can't. Some are too young to know this isn't their fault: that they've done nothing wrong. So, until this talented, brilliant, voluptuously coiffed man has his show back, we shall offer him our screens."
This is just the latest example of how non-traditional advertising and social media can join forces for an impressively successful result. The possibilities are endless! Still skeptical?
Ever wrote a tweet so funny that you wanted to put it on a billboard for all drivers to see? Ok maybe not, but Conan O'Brien did just that.
As his microsite puts it, "Conan has lost his home and his rightful place on millions of screens across the nation. His audience is also lost. Some are picking up the pieces of their lives, but many can't. Some are too young to know this isn't their fault: that they've done nothing wrong. So, until this talented, brilliant, voluptuously coiffed man has his show back, we shall offer him our screens."
This is just the latest example of how non-traditional advertising and social media can join forces for an impressively successful result. The possibilities are endless! Still skeptical?
