A DIFFERENT TYPE OF AGENCY

As a collective, The Factory Interactive is fueled by a passion for developing enduring messages conceived through a marriage of design and technology. At the core, we are explorers of possibility and architects of memory. We create rich immersive experiences that increase message retention and reward the audience. Our mission: give personality to products, resulting in a stronger, more effective brand.

_{May 27, 2009}
Baby Boomers dropping from Facebook?? _{By Ashley}

But wait???? In the beginning of the year, wasn’t the big news the fact that Baby Boomers were joining Facebook in masses (yes, my Mother joined)??? Ah, the fickle and ever-changing world of 2.0. Side note: (And not a joke) For Mother’s Day my Mom asked my younger “soon-to-be-a-doctor” brother to accept her friend request as her gift. He opted for a humorous card instead.

As much as a lot of our parents love this social media phenom, new reports from Facebook insiders report that Baby Boomers are dropping from the beloved site as quickly as they  joined. According to data that Facebook supplies to its advertisers, the 55-to-65-year-old age group’s activity has drastically declined over the past couple months (by 651,080, to be exact), making it the only demographic to experience an overall drop in numbers.

The big question is why? Is it that all the parents are getting upset their children won’t add them as “friends”? Or is it the new real-time interface is too confusing for them?

I have one guess: TIME. Most Baby Boomers do not sit at a computer all day long for work like the younger generation. Nor do they see the value, or necessity, in checking their facebook multiple times a day. And let’s face it, it takes a lot of time to stay on top of things on Facebook! So instead of getting emails notifying them that they’ve had a gummy bear thrown at them (because they probably don’t know how to turn off notifications), they opted to delete the account.

What do you think the reasoning is?

Filed under: Media News — Tags: baby boomers, facebook, mothers, parents, social media — @ 4:20 pm

_{April 29, 2009}
Social Media still growing… can you handle it? _{By Ashley}

In my last blog post, “Social Media is growing…and it’s growing fast”, I mentioned the fast pace social media campaigns are growing at, and how it’s pertinent to have an agency manage that campaign for you. I want to back that statement up with a few points on why and how it can be so difficult to manage on your own.

I wish I could say it’s as easy as creating a Twitter account, sending out a few tweets and you move on with your life… but, sorry folks, its not that simple.

Time – I write this post as I think to myself, “Holy bananas!! It is already 5pm! Where did the day go?” Is there ever enough of time? (I can write an entire blog post on that itself) It’s important to remember that marketing is a 24/7 job. Sure you can allot a time slot every day for it but will it ever be enough? Or will it overtake the rest of your day?

Negativity – Let’s face it, not everyone is a happy customer. You may have upset someone (unintentionally, of course) on the wrong day. These days, the first thing they do is take to the web to rant and rave about it. (I know I do!!) This is where it takes a professional to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.

Personality – You must balance personality and professionalism. An agency can help you come up with the right “fit” of a personality for your social media campaign. Take Jet Blue for example. They have the right amount of playfulness mixed with professionalism; and it remains consistent across all marketing platforms.

Measurement - Social Media is still difficult to gauge the successfulness of, but each day we are getting wiser and smarter in the ways we can find the value in a social campaign. Everything from analytics tools, to response rates, and retweets can help an expert calculate the real effectiveness.

The social media campaign is becoming more complex by the day. A real strategy must go behind it, and execution must be spot on. But if done correctly, it can be not only extremely cost effective but all-around-effective.

One last quick note: I participated in a webinar today which stated, there will be a 63% increase in digital/interactive campaign spending. And a 59% decrease in traditional media spending. That equivilates to a lot of competition for your customers attention.

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: blogs, facebook, Marketing, myspace, social media, twitter, YouTube — @ 4:14 pm

Social Media is growing…and it’s growing fast. _{By Ashley}

Oprah Effect: According to estimates, Twitter grew by 1.2 million users simply as a result of Oprah.

Oooooh, Oprah. The power that you hold.

It’s been said over and over that 2009 is the Year of Social Media. I’ve seen lots of numbers and statistics thrown out there so I have decided to compile the most interesting of them.

• In March, YouTube hit 100 million monthly users.
• 6.3 billion videos were viewed on YouTube
• Facebook has grown from 100 million to 200 million users in less than 8 months.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be bigger than Brazil.
• Social Networking is now more popular then e-mail according to a Nielson’s Online Survey.
• Twitter grew 76.8% from February to March. Yearly growth expected… 1,382%.

What does this mean to you as a business? I think the numbers speak for itself and social media should be incorporated into everyone’s marketing campaign. It’s become a MUST in today’s world (and economy).

On the same note, along with the popularity of social media comes major brand reputation management. Domino’s for example, has spent 49 years building a brand and within 30 minutes or less, had it’s reputation damaged. I think they did a fantastic job with some serious reputation damage control. Where as social media can be used maliciously by others, it can also (in the same amount of time) have a quick and speedy recovery effort implemented.

The point of this story? It’s important to have a well thought-out, social media plan that can be successfully managed and monitored, which is why more and more companies are turning to agencies to take this big job on. The bigger social media gets, the bigger the job becomes.

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: facebook, nielson, oprah, reputation, social media, twitter, YouTube — @ 3:24 pm

_{April 1, 2009}
Bringing Social Media into the PR mix _{By Ashley}

I have had the pleasure of speaking with several Public Relations specialists over the past several weeks. The overwhelming response I seem to hear repeatedly is that “I know I need get involved with Social Media but am not too sure why”.

Now, let’s momentarily backtrack… a survey of 1800 people from both small and large, B2B and B2C companies were surveyed. When asked if they were monitoring or responding to negative feedback, 25% of large companies polled said they don’t monitor social media commentary at all. 31% monitor, but don’t respond. That is the way of the past.

Fast forward to 2009, the age of Twitter… Imagine if you are in an airport and you just found out your flight is delayed 2 hours… and you are peeved. So you complain about it via social media (facebook, twitter, etc.). Next thing you know you have a return message from a competing airline that they have a flight leaving in 30 minutes, they will reserve you a seat plus a free upgrade if you can make it in time. Insta-convert and fan! Even if they don’t choose to fly your airline, you are building brand recognition and brand equity in the consumers eyes.

This is just one example of where social media and public relations is headed to. Superservicing the customer/client is going to be easier than ever… and expected.

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: brand, equity, facebook, public relations, social media, twitter — @ 2:25 pm

_{March 27, 2009}
Social media…it means business. _{By Ashley}

By now, I’m sure my enthusiasm for social media is beaming through your computer screen after all of the blog posts I have written of late. So you can imagine my excitement when I was sent a white paper this week titled, “Social Media Market Industry Report: How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow Their Business” by Michael A. Stelzner.

The document was extremely enlightening and reinforced a lot of the talking points we have preached to our clients here at TFI. I just wanted to share some of the factual highlights from the report.

• Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 88% of marketers surveyed are using social media to market their businesses, BUT 72% have only been doing so for a few months or less.
• How much time are they using it?: 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly.
• The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic and building new business partnerships.
• The top social media tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order.
• Social media tools marketers most wanted to learn about: Social bookmarking sites were ranked of highest interest, followed closely by Twitter.
• Site Optimization: A rise in search engine rankings was reported by more than half of participants.
• Generated Qualified Leads: After only a few months and with as few as 6 hours a week, more than half of marketers have generated qualified leads with social media marketing.

This is just a snippet from the report but as you can see, Social Media is not just a tool to talk with long lost friends, or follow your favorite celebrities, anymore. If done correctly, it is a means to create new business relationships, optimize your site, and potentially gain new business.

Stay tuned for updates on my Twitter & Your Business: 101 Webinar.

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: blogs, facebook, linkedin, SEM, SEO, social media, twitter — @ 3:23 pm

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