10 Ways Brands Can Target Moms by Fusing Online Advertising and Social Media

Posted By Jaime on Mar 28th, 2011

This article by Hollis Thomases originally appeared in ClickZ on March 8, 2011.

A study recently released by Burst Media looking at “What Mom Likes Online” generated interesting findings. Among them: “Most moms say online ads promoting products geared towards the family and home fall flat” and “Moms found these ads ‘irrelevant or distracting’,” but that “Online ads that offer product coupons, sales promotion codes and/or other incentives resonate better with moms.” Other Burst Media findings highlight moms’ reliance on social media, niche websites, and mobile devices, echoing what was reported at last year’s ad:tech NY conference. So, what’s an advertiser to do? Here’s a great list for starters.

Give Mom what she wants. Since research finds that moms prefer ads with special offers and discounts, why fight the tide? Attract Mom to your site or social media channels with ads offering coupon downloads, rebates, or sample requests. Encourage her to share these offers with her friends and contribute back to the community with product reviews, fun photos, and other comments.Be a resource to moms. Use social media to offer truly helpful and useful branded content like tips, ideas, advice, how-to videos, news, etc. Moms love recipes (attention food product advertisers!), which not only makes for good resource and advertising content, but recipe communities are also great niche sites on which to advertise.

Build a community around your brand. A branded community like Pampers’ MommyCast can become the hub within which your mommy audience can congregate, ask questions of each other and/or experts, share information, and participate in informal research. Promote this community through your online and offline advertising.Bring your branded social media efforts alive in your ads. Not only do you want to incorporate social media into your brand, and your brand into your social media, but you can also literally pull some of these efforts into your online advertising. There have been a number of brands like Volvo and Juicy Juice that have pulled their live tweets into display ads.

Deliver a message that’s cause-worthy. According to 2010 Cone Cause Evolution research, 95 percent of American moms believe cause marketing is acceptable, 92 percent want to buy a product that supports a cause, and 93 percent are likely to switch brands because of the brand’s support of a cause. These are some pretty potent stats! For example, Coke’s “Give it Back” campaign promotes recycling with concrete correlations that resonate with moms.

Cater to Mom’s mobile lifestyle. Don’t overlook mobile devices – moms rarely find themselves untethered these days. Mobile makes Mom’s life easier, and advertisers have a huge opportunity to literally put their brand in Mom’s pocket…or at least her pocketbook! Moms like branded apps that are truly useful and help save them time. Toys”R”Us has built a mobile app for iPhone and BlackBerry that sends deal alerts.

And Starbucks uses QR codes to let customers pay for coffee via iPhones.

With mobile social networks growing, advertisers can also look for sponsorship opportunities to gain visibility.

Put Mom in the driver’s seat. Instead of funneling ad messages through one social media channel, you have to reach moms on all fronts. Moms like control, they like having a lot of options, and giving them both lets them tap into their creative side. Let moms customize how they communicate with your brand. Make it easy for moms to connect with your brand on their own terms, whether it’s through Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, text alerts, mobile, or directly on your website. Use advertising to promote these options.Keep moms entertained. Multimedia rules Mom’s world. She loves videos, digital games, and mobile apps that engage, assist, entertain, and inform her…plus a bit of “cool factor” doesn’t hurt either. Generate the kind of ad creative that has a better chance of getting Mom’s attention and shared than a sales pitch. For example, Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” YouTube campaign (just as easily converted into an infomercial) showcased the company’s blender power in a very attention-getting way. The campaign was such a huge hit that within two years, retail blender sales increased by 700 percent!

Make it personal. The Aberdeen Group found that a move from segmentation-based marketing to one-to-one personalization can improve conversion rates by 22 percent and customer retention rates by 60 percent. Take advantage of this when developing social media and ad campaigns like MomsRising.org did with a campaign to boost its membership. It created a tool that lets users personalize a video using Mom’s name. You could also try personalizing to Mom’s needs and lifestyle, like Swiffer’s “Cleaning Personality” campaign.

Make sure Mom knows how to find you. Prominently display your social media accounts (are they visible in your ads and on your website? Where is Ann Taylor’s social media presence on its site, for example?). Have direct calls-to-action encouraging moms to connect with your brand. (Caution: if you are going to do this, you better have worthwhile and active accounts to visit – there’s nothing worse than a brand promoting its social media account and having it be lame when you get there.)

The bottom line: moms are social media power users – they are savvy, shrewd, and not likely to be as easily fooled by advertising gimmicks. Use social media and advertising together well, however, and you’ll be pleased at the extended mileage you can get from your efforts.

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30+ Social Giving Sites that Connect People to Causes and Nonprofits

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Mar 4th, 2011

With so many social media sites, tools, and technologies on the internet, we have more access to causes and nonprofits than ever before. The convergence of social media and activism has given rise to a new wave of “social giving” sites that are helping people discover, engage with, and support the causes and nonprofit organizations they care about.

From the lone activist to large nonprofits, social giving sites present organizations of any size with an opportunity to discover new, exciting ways to expand their online presence, increase awareness, mobilize volunteers, and garner support and donations from multiple fronts.

Here’s a look at more than 30 social giving sites that are revolutionizing the way people and nonprofits connect:

(in alphabetical order)

ActiveCause — ActiveCause, The Social Giving Network™ brings together nonprofits, corporations and individuals to form vibrant, self-activating communities. Has a host of innovative features and tools to empower philanthropists to spark change where it’s most needed.Amazee — A platform that empowers individuals and organizations to initiate and promote their ideas and plans in groups, to find like-minded people and raise funds.Betterplace.org — Large online donation platform connecting organizations in need of support with people who want to help, one-to-one, worldwide.Bring Light — Connects donors and charities to create a way for more informed and effective online fundraising. On Bring Light, approved Charities describe specific fundraising needs. Donors can then make donations via credit card or they can establish a Donor Account.Causecast — Gives nonprofit organizations an effective and aesthetically-pleasing forum to promote their ideas, raise money and increase awareness on the internet. Has slowly evolved into an inspired community of leaders and individuals, news and media, and tools used to take action like donating, volunteering, petition-signing and creating original content.Causes — Positions itself as the world’s largest platform for activism and philanthropy. Empowers individuals to create grassroots communities called “causes” that take action on behalf of a specific issue or nonprofit organization. Since 2007, Causes has brought together 140M users, raised $30M for over 25,000 nonprofits, and helps 500,000 user-created causes.Change.org — Start, join, and win campaigns for social change. Campaigns can be about anything, from supporting curbside recycling programs to fighting wrongful deportation. Change.org members start campaigns around thousands of different issues.Changents — Connecting the people that help the world (change agents) to the people that help them.ChangingThePresent — Connects people to more than 1500 meaningful charitable gifts offered by nonprofits worldwide. Lets you browse by cause or nonprofit name; members can also create charitable gift wishlists.Citizen Effect — Gives “Citizen Philanthropists” the ability to choose a project, leverage their social networks, and communicate directly with a partner community. Partners actively manage projects so they can seamlessly share information with Citizen Philanthropists and directly report on the impact projects are having on the ground.Crowdrise — Crowdrise, a unique blend of crowdsourcing, social networking, and other incentives, is all about online fundraising, event fundraising, volunteering and having the most fun in the world while doing it.DeliverGood — Builds efficiencies into the charitable giving process by connecting charities and non-profits who need stuff with people and companies who have stuff to give.DoSomething.org — One of the largest organizations in the US connecting young people to the causes they care about by creating a culture of volunteerism through web, TV, mobile and social media.FirstGiving — Partners with nonprofits to allow them to plan, execute, and measure successful online fundraising campaigns with FirstGiving’s fundraising software. For individual fundraisers, makes raising money online easy, effective, and fun.Getinvolved — Matches you to volunteer opportunities that are right for you based on your interests, causes you care about, and the skill sets you have to offer.Givealittle — A New Zealand based site, Givealittle exists to make good things happen. Part of a wave of online ventures worldwide figuring out ways to use the web to create a real difference offline. Members can donate to hundreds of online charities, and nonprofits can create member pages to increase awareness and collect donations online.GiveMeaning — An online fundraising site emphasizing creative fundraising ideas and other unique forms of charity donation.Givology — Partners with leading grassroots nonprofit organizations, local communities, and schools to sponsor education grants and innovative community-based education projects.GlobalGiving — Connects you to over 1,000 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world. Project Leaders post their causes and details about what they need, giving donors an inside look at the project’s unique needs and work being done.idealist.org — Users can search for volunteer opportunities, events, and other concrete ways to get involved. Organizations can create profile pages to advertise their presence and recruit people to the cause by connecting with volunteers, donors, and supporters.Jumo — A social network connecting individuals and organizations who want to change the world. Leveraging connection technologies, Jumo enables people to find, follow and support those working toward solutions on the ground in their community and in regions across the globe.Network for Good — Secure, convenient donation system that makes it possible to give to any charity, anywhere, anytime online. Processes donations for over 1.2 million charities via DonateNow.Philanthroper — A giving site with an interesting twist: think “Groupon”, except donating instead of buying. Every day, Philanthroper features a different nonprofit/charity on its ad-supported site and invites visitors to donate just a single dollar. Philanthroper takes no cut from donations.Pifworld — An online charity platform where your donation goes directly to personally selected projects. Via video updates, you can see the change made possible. On the website you can donate to projects you like and act to make a change.Piryx — Makes fundraising easy by connecting people with the causes they care about online; charges a small transaction fee to cover donation processing.Razoo — Search for and donate to nearly 1 million officially registered nonprofit organizations; set up a fundraiser for a charity of your choice in minutes; your donation or fundraiser can be shared with millions who believe in you and your cause.SixDegrees.org — Support your favorite charities by donating or creating fundraising badges — as well as check out the favorite causes of other people, including celebrities. You can also pay it forward with “Good Cards” – gift cards for charity that can be redeemed as a donation to more than 1 million charities.Small Change Fund — Empowers you to make big change with small change. Discover, share, connect with, and support grassroots projects in communities across the country – projects that need just a small amount of money to make a real and significant impact in the world.Social Actions — Connects you to the issues and causes you care about via subscription alerts to “action packs” grouped around popular causes, such as health care, human rights, and the green movement.VolunteerMatch — Makes it easy for good people and good causes to connect. Offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. Welcomes millions of visitors a year and is a preferred internet recruiting tool for more than 76,000 nonprofit organizations.YourCause — Uses personalized web pages to leverage member’s voices, networks, and spheres of influence to improve the lives of others and connects their causes to relevant charities. Offers more than 25 nonprofit categories and boasts over 1.2 million registered nonprofits.

Do you know of any other great social giving sites?  Tell us about them in the comments below and we’ll consider adding them to our list!

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Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, and Social Media – What Online Advertisers Need to Know

Posted By Jaime on Apr 12th, 2011

This article by Hollis Thomases originally appeared in ClickZ on April 5, 2011.

Did I get your attention? Of course I did…and that’s my point. Today, social media topics attract advertisers’ attention like bright shiny objects to a fault. By my own observations, because they do capture so much attention, almost any headline containing the words Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, or social media gets clicked, shared, forwarded, and tweeted five times more than other digital advertising or marketing-related headlines, oftentimes without the article even ever being read. In fact, I confess to writing this headline as an experiment, just to prove my point.

Is this all so bad? Isn’t social media a way for brands to connect individually with their consumers in ways they never have before? Heck, didn’t I write a book on the subject?!

Are You Focused On Your Goals?

My concern lies in the ability for advertisers to focus on the kinds of online tactics that will help them reach their goals. When advertisers (and key decision-makers, quite frankly) get too distracted from proven tactics or develop unrealistic or untenable perceptions, it does them no lasting good. For example, last week at the Search Engine Strategies New York Conference, I spoke about expanding beyond pay-per-click search advertising and into display advertising. The room was about half full. The timeslot before this session, I spoke on another panel about Twitter, and the room was almost completely full. Yet, while many companies have successfully leveraged search and display to generate direct and measurable revenue, those doing so through Twitter are fewer and farther between.

Furthermore, I found it interesting that of those audience members in my “Leap from Search to Display” session, by a show of hands, only about half had even ventured outside of Google AdWords and into the Google Display Network, let alone into other forms of online media buying. I had to ask myself how many of these people, however, were also busying themselves setting up and populating Facebook pages or Twitter accounts before they ever even leveraged their search advertising successes? And when I asked the audience how many knew of ways to serve online ads besides through the direct serving of traditional banners and buttons, scarcely a half-dozen hands went up (by my count, there are at least 13 other types of ads or ways for these ads to be served).

While I’ll be the last person to dispute that social media and its respective platforms have merit, I find myself constantly reminding marketers that social media is just another tool in the toolkit. You should take out this tool if it’s the best tool to help you build or fix something, but if a wrench can do a better/faster/less expensive job, why use a hammer? And if you’re going to venture into the sun-shiny terrain of social media marketing, don’t go in with blinders on.

Reality Check

I’m a two-sides-to-every-story kind of girl, so I don’t want to paint a completely bleak picture. I formulate my opinions and recommendations by doing a lot of reading, listening, and observation (my parents are happy I’m putting my anthropology-sociology-social psychology college degree to good use). For example:

I recently overheard an advertiser saying that Facebook Ads worked better than PPC for them to reach their more affluent audience. This made sense to me, and Merry Morud wrote a great article on this for ClickZ’s sister site, Search Engine Watch.A Harris Interactive-RightNow post-holiday 2010 report found social media could create brand advocates – two-thirds of the 85 percent of customers who posted a negative review of a shopping experience and were then contacted by the retailer wound up taking a positive action through social media that directly negated their original negative posting.B2B advertisers, according to new research from Forrester, might not believe in online display advertising’s effectiveness, but I say they might find great success in LinkedIn Ads. (Forrester’s research also points out that B2B advertisers cannot merely port over their true blue print media practices and expect them to work.)While manufacturing companies sometimes flounder to figure out how to leverage Facebook and Twitter, they forget that video demonstrations of their products are a YouTube must-do.Though many local businesses have found success with Groupon and their imitators, others claim to lose money (Rice University Graduate School of Management study) or customer loyalty (New York Times Blog). Know what to expect before you dive in.

So you can see that social media definitely has its place in the overall marketing strategy. I just encourage advertisers not to fall prey to all the hype and dig a little deeper to understand the facts and what’s appropriate for their particular business, industry, and short- and long-term goals.

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