Forget Facebook’s IPO. The real news this week came when GM declared that Facebook ads are worthless. Okay, so maybe that isn’t a direct quote but they pulled their entire Facebook advertising spend—that’s $10 million—and the world took notice.

Suddenly companies across the globe started wondering if they’ve been duped by the promise of social media. I mean, we all remember when the dot com bubble burst, right? What if this is the beginning of the end?

But there’s more to the story…

GM is still bullish on Facebook as a platform that helps them reach their customers. In fact, they plan on investing $30 million to support their line of automobiles on Facebook over the next year. But Scotty Monty, Ford’s social media czar had a fairly quick retort to GM’s claim about Facebook advertising. The gist? Facebook Ads work for Ford because they have a strategy.

Brian Wallace, Samsung Mobile’s Vice President of strategic marketing was a little more colorful in his response when he told Ad Age that, “Blaming Facebook for a lack of ROI on your advertising is akin to blaming the internet because no one purchased from your website.”

Full disclosure: Terralever was one of the first Facebook Preferred Developers in the world, but our primary responsibility is to the brands we work with. That being said, we think Facebook advertising can be effective if you approach it strategically.

• Know your goals
• Assess the platform to see if it can contribute to your goals
• Test the benefits
• Rinse
• Repeat

Jay Baer’s team over at Convince and Convert may have said it best in a simple Facebook status update yesterday: “What GM does has ZERO impact on YOUR business. Play your own game, people.”

Beyond building an interactive community, corporate blogging offers search engine benefits, it elevates thought leadership, and it helps create a content library that can be used in sales efforts. Here are a few best practices we recommend to our clients:

Create a custom URL
You need a strong foundation and it starts with the right URL. Blogging platforms like WordPress will host your blog for free, but don’t do it! Instead of yoursite.wordpress.com make sure your blog is yoursite.com. It simply looks more professional.

Be passionate
When you write about something that you are passionate about, that passion gets infused with every word you write. It’s also infectious. We all want to be inspired, so write about the reason you love your brand, product, or service and your readers will catch that passion as well.

Have an opinion
Have you ever been enticed by food that looked amazing but once you took a bite it was bland? If you don’t spice your blog with a strong opinion, you risk bland writing and when that happens the reader won’t finish your blog, much less come back for a second helping.

Know your voice
Your brand has a voice, and that voice is unique. Some are playful, others are stodgy, and a few are even bombastic. The voice of your blog should match that of your brand. If it doesn’t, you are sending a mixed message to your audience.

Give it away
Nobody reacts well to a hard sell, so remember that when your write your blog. Instead of blasting your readers with sales pitch after sales pitch, give them content that will improve their lives. And if that same content happens to tie into your product or service, then you have a winning formula.

If you sell ergonomic office furniture and want to tout a new product line, write a blog post about how those products will improve health, efficiency, and overall quality of life. Are there statistics that back it up? Did the manufacturer produce a white paper? Once you establish that your readers are more important than their wallets, slip in the fact that you just happen to carry those products and link to them.

Be concise
We live in a headline society where few of us have the time to read a full article much less an entire newspaper. Readers are looking for concise information that packs a punch, which means you have somewhere around 500-700 words to get your point across.

Structure matters
• Title: Keep your titles between 3-8 words. Be sure to incorporate words that not only pique interest, but also use key words that will help your page rank in search engines. Also, avoid all caps and exclamation points whenever possible.

• Opening: If your title was good enough that someone read the first line, it’s time to grab him and not let go. Be assertive. Challenge him to keep reading. Make him need your content because if you go bland, he’s going away and never coming back.

• Body: Keep your foot on the gas. If content isn’t essential, get rid of it. Each paragraph needs to leave readers wanting more. Consider using headers for each paragraph. Headers not only create visual interest but they break blocks of text into bit-sized pieces.

• Close: The beauty of a blog is that you are building a community and communities are interactive. Instead of ending your blog with a declarative statement, finish it with a request for feedback and opinion. Then go back and respond to each comment. You’ll be amazed by the number of people who will post on future blogs simply because you acknowledged them.

Use images
A massive block of text will often force a reader to click away before she reads the first word. Add interesting images, charts, and graphs to break the monotony. Or consider starting each blog with a branded image that varies in content but is always the same size.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO requires skill, patience, and dedication, but you can set yourself up for success with a few key steps:

• Use key words as early in your blog title as possible. Focus on a single search term but don’t sacrifice a good title if key words sound awkward.

• Keywords should also be reinforced through subheads whenever possible.

• Search engines give pages that are linked more authority, so link key words to other pages or earlier blog posts. But don’t go overboard. Too many links in one post could turn readers off and it could also have the opposite effect with search engines.

• Most blogging platforms allow you to apply tags and those tags organize your blog for both people and search engines. Make sure you only use tags that are pertinent to your blog post, because search engines will penalize pages with terms that might have a high search ranking but don’t have anything to do with the content.

• If other websites want to repost your content or link to your post, make sure they use targeted keywords in the link.

• If the blogging platform allows you to customize the URL for your post, make sure you use key word friendly terms. For example: yoursite.com/5-ergonomic-office-tips.

Consistency is everything
You don’t have to post every day to have a successful blog but you do have to post regularly and on time. Post three times each week or once a month, but whatever you choose, you need to be consistent. If readers enjoy your content, they’re going to come back for more. But if that content is missing their likelihood of returning diminishes.

Encourage sharing
Give readers the opportunity to share your content with their social graph through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and other social platform buttons.

Pay it forward
One of the best ways to gain attention from influential bloggers in your industry is to support their blogs. Read their posts. Make smart comments. Share their content through your social graph. It doesn’t guarantee a similar response, but you certainly increase your chances.

Guest blogging
Do you have a relationship with an influential person in your industry? What about a retailer that carries your products? Or an athlete who wears your shoes? Find interesting people with something to say and ask them to write a guest post for your blog and promote it through their social graph.

You can also offer to write guest posts for blogs that cater to your target audience. Just remember that the same rules that apply to your blog apply to other blogs as well.

Birth of a simple gesture
Facebook made a fundamental shift in its approach to social interaction with the introduction of Open Graph and social plugins. It started with ability to “Like” content and Facebook Pages from anywhere on the web, which at the time was a seismic change. But now the next chapter is underway.

The “Like” supreme
As Facebook continued to grow and brands became more focused on reaching people through the social network, “Likes” (formerly “Fans”) became the de facto measurement of success. There is no shortage of conversation citing what seems obvious: in a social environment, engagement is the metric of importance. Merely amassing an innocuous indicator of affinity does not signal a healthy social community, all it signals is one of a certain scale.

“Likes” can be misleading
For instance, let’s say I decide to “Like” U2. By taking that action both Facebook and U2 will know something about me, but the knowledge gained carries little depth.

As an action, “Liking” something is a broad-based statement that often signals something different than what a Page owner or administrator might think. For instance, if I “Like” U2, do I like a U2 song or do I like the band in general? Did I attend every U.S. concert since 1997, or is their latest song a turning point where I now align with their musical style? Or maybe I just clicked the “Like” button to gain entry into a contest.

“Liking” is a generalized activity that happens only once, and herein lies the fundamental change that the revamped Open Graph and Open Graph actions bring. By interacting regularly and with more detail, a user’s actions are far more telling.

Actions are coming
Facebook’s Platform Product Manager, Eddie O’Neil, provided a succinct explanation of what Open Graph actions allow in a recent post on Facebook’s developer blog: “Starting today, developers can build apps that let people add anything they love to their Timelines–whether it’s eating, traveling, shopping, running or taking pictures.”

Under the new rules I can still “Like” U2 on Facebook, but Facebook Applications leveraging Open Graph actions can provide far more telling interactions. You may have already seen the shift with Spotify, the DRM-based music streaming service. If one of your Facebook friends listens to a song through Spotify’s actions-enabled application, Spotify posts artwork related to that song in your Newsfeed as well as the ability to listen to the song. That’s the status update. What it creates, however, is a different relationship with the band because you are actively listening to them.

Facebook recently approved 59 additional applications that produce similar results, which means you’ll likely see mention of everything from exercising and cooking to driving and knitting. You name it, the information is coming.

Frictionless sharing
Facebook is also moving towards something called “frictionless sharing.” Once someone authorizes an application to share his activities, the application need not ask permission again. It may sound intrusive, but if Spotify asked permission to post each new song in a playlist it wouldn’t take long before the requests became annoying.

Assuming users don’t revolt at that level of permission, marketers will have access to a deeper set of information that will allow for more targeted advertising campaigns, which in turn should produce more effective advertising results. This is good news for advertisers, but the clear winner is Facebook. The lion’s share of Facebook revenue comes from Facebook Ads, and improving the performance of those ads yields more revenue.

“Like” lust no more?
Facebook Insights, the analytics tool for page administrators, has also shifted focus away from “Like” metrics to refocus administrators on reach and engagement. What people do, and what they share on and off of Facebook through Open Graph applications is the future that Facebook sees.

But analytics aren’t the only change. A Facebook user is no longer required to “Like” a Facebook Page in order to interact with the content or post on the Wall. Additionally, Facebook is aggressively making a case that marketers need to advertise to not only grow, but to engage their audience. In 2011, Facebook actively pushed Sponsored Stories, a way of getting advertisements in front of friends of those who interacted with a brand. As alluded to earlier, the latest advertising method released allows targeting based on actions taken when using Open Graph applications.

Does that mean that the “Like” is going way? Not yet. And maybe not ever. But as Facebook continues to improve its engagement models, the algorithms could mature to where they provide a better gauge of which content it should put in front of users without having to rely on the “Like” button.

When was the last time you clicked on a desktop icon to launch a brand’s application instead of typing the URL in your web browser? For most of us it seems absurd, but mobile users do it every day to access applications on their smart phones.

With the current and projected growth of mobile in the digital space, it is an absolute necessity for businesses to have a mobile presence. Marketers are increasing their investment in mobile, but more often than not their only goal is to have a shiny icon tied to their brand that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace. But how many marketers are asking the important question: “Do we even need a mobile application or do we need a mobile-optimized website”?

Mobile vs. Web: What’s the difference?
Mobile (or native applications) refers to anything that is launched directly from the home screen of a phone’s operating system as opposed to being served from a web browser. These free or paid applications are typically downloaded from a marketplace owned by the device or operating system manufacturer, like Apple’s App Store or the Android Marketplace. Web applications refer to any mobile-optimized website that serves content from the web intended to be consumed on a mobile device.

The majority of these mobile websites (or web apps) are developed using some combination of HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript to create a more user-friendly experience. Advances in these technologies over the last 12 months have allowed mobile applications to offer many of the features that native applications have enjoyed without many of the barriers to entry presented by mobile applications.

The advantages of going mobile
Beyond the obvious cool factor of a native application, there are many advantages to developing a mobile application in lieu of a web application:

Access to native APIs. Native applications can allow a user access to native device features such as the camera, photo albums, contacts, and other data stored on the device.

Consumer habits. Customers have become accustomed to downloading, accessing, and frequently using native applications. If someone doesn’t find what she is looking for in an app marketplace of choice, she may abandon her search altogether.

Ease of purchase. Since native applications can be purchased directly from an app marketplace like iTunes, users do not need to enter their credit card information each time they want to make a purchase. That reduces the barriers to one-time purchases as well as in-app purchases, which many application developers depend on for revenue.

Push notifications. Native applications have the ability to push notifications directly to the device in order to bring users back to the application. Web applications have to use email or SMS to reach a user on his mobile device.

Development standards. Since developers only need to create an application for one operating system (and often only one or two devices), developers familiar with the standards of that platform are able to follow the guidelines without cross-browser or cross-platform concerns.

The advantages of web apps
While web applications may not have the immediate mind share when someone mentions the word “app,” these applications offer many advantages:

Cross-browser/platform. Web applications can be optimized for multiple operating systems and devices. Creating an application once and allowing customers to access it from whatever device they choose is often significantly less effort than creating individual applications for each platform.

Ease of distribution. As of late 2010, Android, iPhone, and Blackberry accounted for roughly 23% of all phones in the market. That means developing native apps for these platforms is alienating a large number of users with web-capable phones that can access mobile-optimized websites. Comscore reported that in April of 2011, 69 million people used a native application, while over 72 million accessed websites via their mobile web browser.

Instant deployment. Whereas a native app must go through an approval and deployment process controlled by the App Store or Android Marketplace, bug fixes or feature updates for web applications can be deployed nearly instantly to a server and accessed by users.

Access to native features. With recent HTML5 advances, web applications can now access a device’s GPS functionality and work in offline mode (to a certain extent). This makes web applications appear to function more like native applications.

Search engine relevance. If a brand develops a native application, the content of that app will only be found inside the application after a download. Web applications have the ability to be indexed by search engines just like a regular website. As a result, customers using search engines to find products or content will be able to find these applications without accessing an app store first.

Seamless experience. While in-app purchases typically convert less frequently, web applications offer a more seamless experience when clicking through on banner ads, visiting “deeper” content on a brand’s website, or completing a purchase outside of the application.

The big decision
So how do marketers decide which is best? The first key factor is that an application is a tactic, not a strategy. And businesses should always start with strategy, making decisions based on budget, customer demographics, products and services, time to market, and content that they plan to offer in their application.

If a business can’t identify a specific purpose for an application (i.e. content distribution, utility to customers, or entertainment value), then developing an application could be the wrong choice.

What other options exist?
After a strategy has been established it’s important to remember that there are more options than limiting your scope to a native or web application. Many businesses have seen success starting with a basic web application as an extension of the content or utility of their website and then scaled that presence to multiple native applications with similar or enhanced functionality.

A number of solutions also exist that allow web applications to launch from within a native application, bridging the gap between web and native and providing another option for companies who are not yet ready to commit to a fully native application.

Part Two – A Brand’s Dream Ambassador

Pinterest is making Brand Loyalists more relevant and powerful than ever before. Throughout my career in digital & traditional advertising, clients have always been interested in ways to advocate and give a voice to their Brand Loyalists. Pinterest is a hotbed for Brand Loyalists and Early Adapters when researching products, shopping online and reading blogs that allow them to clearly, easily and swiftly “pin” product images and videos with a click of a button. Those pins are instantly organized in a message “board” for all other pinners to find and re-pin, re-pin and re-pin. As the re-pinning happens that Brand Loyalist has essentially provided a mini-advertisement for the brand, showcasing an image, endorsement and link to purchase.

Don’t Ignore the Power of a Super User
In Part One, we saw how brands can feed Pinterest with fantastic product images and videos that either focus on their products, brand promise and/or brand voice. On the flip side the end-user has the ability to “pin” images and video from any website at will, with one caveat. Currently you can’t pull pins from Facebook.

And end-user has three options. She can “pin” an image directly from the website using a “pin” (a button dropped into the users bookmark), upload the URL and pin images found on that page, or upload an image from her computer.

Walk in the Mind of a Pinner

Sometimes I hear people say that they don’t understand Pinterest, or that it’s too complicated. But Pinterest actually has a clean and easy user experience and real life purchasing power.

Here is someone’s board that I found on a random search:

I noticed a fun gift idea . . .

. . . which I re-pinned . . .

. . . after re-pinning, I thought of a girlfriend who would enjoy this gift. So I went back to my board . . .

. . . clicked on the gift idea . . .

. . . and went to Amazon.com and purchased it.

It really is that simple. And now when I go back and look at the original Pin, it’s been re-pinned 171 times with 90+ likes and dozen of comments. And it will get plenty more traffic after this has been posted as well.

The ease of embedding and social sharing within the Pinterest user experience has changed the blogging and online retail game, especially for etsy.com, where Pinterest has become the number one source for traffic.

Changing The Way Bloggers Work
Pinterest users are Brand Loyalists and Early Adapters, and they shouldn’t be ignored. They are “pinning” images in insightful and creative ways to organize, plan and define their personal and professional style. Bloggers and storeowners on Etsy.com are seeing huge traffic increases from Pinterest and are rethinking how they post images to ensure the Pinning user gets what they need.

I recently stumbled on a pin reviewing an article written by Mommy Blogger of The Nester that discussed how Pinterest is changing the way people blog. The author discussed how she’s changed the way she shoots photography to ensure images capture the entire thought not just a glimpse of a picture—and that change was driven so Pinners can remember why they pinned a specific image.

Calling All Brands
Anthropologie is a chic and funky store dedicated to women’s clothing, home accessories, jewelry, shoes, and intimates, and its consumer demographic is ripe for fan acquisition and interest via Pinterest. There are hundreds of pins taken directly from Anthropologie’s eCommerce site with a simple title description of “Anthropologie.” All Brand Loyalists need is a simple brand title to entice other users to pin, re-pin and purchase.

With one click users can now obtain this exact look:

Pinterest can easily be added and embedded to a brand’s email campaigns and as social callouts.

Why So Obsessed?
What does this mommy blogging, obsessed, female-driven social media next big thing mean? It means that brands need to keep Pinterest top of mind. More than a social media fling, Pinterest is a full-on marriage.

Brands should be keeping a close eye on links that are coming into their site. There is a good chance that you’ll see traffic from Pinterest. Land’s End did a fantastic job using a contest around the holidays, but now that the holidays are over brands should look at Pinterest as a way to grow their Ultimate Fans, follow them, feed them easy-to-pin content, and then watch the pin’s lifespan as it helps increase brand awareness and eCommerce sales.

I often think of my Mom when I’m “pinning.” When I was a kid, she would read magazines to bide her time in waiting rooms. And when she came across a recipe or a DIY project that she wanted to try, she would scan the room and when the coast was clear, tear it out and add it to her collection. Essentially Pinterest has filled that void, but instead of tearing pages out of magazines, users are “pinning” images on their “board.”

Wanna See An Obsessed Pinner In Action:

Part One – What is it and How can Brands Benefit?

Pinterest is the hottest social media platform, although it’s been around since 2008, it’s popularity and member-base has skyrocketed over the past several months. So what is it and why is it important to your brand?

Technically still invite only; Pinterest is a visual pinboarding platform that allows members to organize and share image content from the web. Members can “pin” images and videos to “boards” and create virtual wish lists for things like weddings, home improvement, fitness regimen, fashion, style, diet, party planning, etc. Members can also browse pins and boards created by other members and re-pin them to their own boards. Think of it as a virtual bulletin board for inspiration and planning.

Pinning has become a seemingly overnight obsession, specifically within the female demographic, with 70% of the Pinterest member base being female. Not surprisingly, it’s a top traffic driver for the popular ecommerce site Etsy. And if you consider it as a traffic source, it could be a game-changer.

What makes Pinterest a compelling platform for brands to consider it as a part of their marketing toolkit?

Alternative to Search Engines for Consumer Discovery:

Most consumers start their research for a future purchase online, and historically they have gone to Google for the answer. Pinterest offers a compelling alternative. Users don’t need to know exactly what they want, because Pinterest allows discovery, and it breaks outside of traditional algorithmic results. For example, if a user looks for a wedding dress, traditionally that person would search within Google for a style or designer. With Pinterest, that same user can search “wedding dress” to get inspiration on without having to provide detailed information. And if the user sees something that she likes on someone’s pin or board, she can click on the link and make a purchase directly from the pin. It’s an enormous advantage for any brand.

Contests

Pinterest offers a new avenue for brands to host contests, which ultimately attract new fans and customers. Brands can host contests within Pinterest to generate buzz and followers. Land’s End Canvas ran a Pinterest contest for two weeks in December 2011 around the concept “Pin It to Win It!” Land’s End asked fans to create a Pin It to Win It board and pin 10-20 products (from men’s or women’s apparel categories) on the Land’s End dot com, or re-pin them from the Land’s End Pinterest Page. Once the user created a board, he or she emailed a specified Land’s End email address for a chance to win $10-$250 gift cards. The board was their official entry.

Winners and links to their boards were then posted on Land’s End Canvas’ Facebook page. Not only did the contest build loyalty from their fan base, it fed Pinterest with Land’s End products and links at no cost.

Brand Personality

If a company doesn’t have products to showcase, Pinterest is still a relevant tool to help communicate brand voice/personality. Companies can pin a photo from an article or webpage and link the pin to the article to help connect users with their story. That kind of application is a great way for brands recruit by highlighting company culture.

Test Product Adaption

Brands can use Pinterest like a focus group and pin new product concepts and get feedback from users based on how many times each was re-pinned, liked or commented on, helping gain intelligence on how consumers are engaging with the product concept.

Crowdsource

Brands can ask users to pin pictures of themselves with their favorite product and tag the brand. Brands can then create a dedicated board for these pins, which creates a connection between the brand and the user.

Who’s Already Pinning & Winning?

Brands have already jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon and are leveraging the platform for its multiple marketing benefits. They’re also seeing results. That group includes Whole Foods, West Elm, Martha Stewart, Real Simple magazine, and The Today Show just to name a few. A recent Mashable article highlights “best practices” for brands, as provided by Pinterest, and it lists some of the top brands maximizing the platform.

We are confident that Pinterest is going to be a big player in the social space, and we’re already testing it for some of the brands that we work with.

Click here for Part Two by Jenna Rutschman where she’ll look at Pinterest from a user/brand loyalist perspective. Now get pinning!

Google+ Pages for business are here, but why should you care? Are they the equivalent of Facebook fan pages or are they something more? We posed those questions to our strategy, online marketing, and account management teams, and you might be surprised by what everyone had to say . . .

“Google+ has a long way to go before it becomes the Facebook killer, but marketers and businesses shouldn’t wait to create and experiment with Google+ business Pages. Google is the go-to search engine for the public at large, and there’s a good chance that Google+ business Pages will be favored over other social networks when it comes to searching for content, services or products on Google.”

- Scott McAndew, Vice President of Strategy

* * * * *

“Google and Google+ may not have the visibility and strength that other social networks currently have, but so far Google+ has consistently released new features that will allow serious competition with the larger networks. Google will leverage its dominance in search, analytics and checkout to add features into Pages that are not available on other social networks. Emerging products such as Google Wallet could provide a lot of marketing advantages for brands and business owners alike.

“Another win for social marketers is the secondary benefit that Pages will play in search engine rankings and relevancy to a subject. Here’s what Google had to say: Linking your Google+ page and your site like this not only helps you build relationships with friends and followers, but also gives Google information we can use to determine the relevancy of your site to a user query in Google Web Search. An added bonus? Your linked site is now eligible for Google Direct Connect.”

- Matt Kayne, Online Marketing Specialist

* * * * *

“Google+ Pages for businesses could not only drive organic traffic but help brands with reputation management since Pages will appear in Google search results. Google+ Pages will likely appear near Facebook and Twitter within SERPs (search engine results page) for branded search. Google may increase the visibility of +Pages within SERPs similar to how Google Places results are shown for registered business locations.”

- Jeff Kuchta, Online Marketing Specialist

* * * * *

“There is no reward for being first to this party. Google+ may never achieve the ubiquity required to be a commercially worthwhile marketing tool. The majority of businesses should focus social effort where they will be more impactful. Definitely reserve your brand page for future use, though.”

David Foster, Solution Strategist

* * * * *

“While Google+ will have to make significant strides to compete as a ‘social network’ by our standard definition, the impact that this will have for the visibility of businesses should not be underestimated. When Google is going as far as changing an operator in their search functionality to accommodate Direct Connect, it shows that they are behind the change and it should affect search in a major way.”

- Scott Patten, Project Manager

* * * * *

“You can’t ignore Google. Yes, they’ve made mistakes but they’re too smart and too big to count out. As social becomes more about the larger ecosystem where it’s integrated into every aspect of a consumer’s web experience, Google+ will become more relevant.”

- Chris Bird, Director of Business Development

* * * * *

“From a feature perspective, Google+ doesn’t offer anything completely groundbreaking. It’s just another social network, but where they excel is their subtle and intuitive user interface.”

- Tony Peterson, User Experience Architect

* * * * *

“Google+ Pages launch is weak. I don’t expect Google to copy Facebook, but it would have been nice if they brought something more to the table. Adding Google+ pages to their algorithm and making it easy to categorize brands within your network by using the “+” search doesn’t seem to offer web users any value. Having said that, I’m happy that the Facebook pages platform is getting challenged. I have to hand it to Google when they said, ‘Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.’”

- Eric Doolan, User Experience Architect

* * * * *

“Google+ Pages for business are not going to overtake Facebook fan pages in the near future, but there may be significant benefits when it comes to search. The direct connect feature allows users to access branded content straight from the brand’s Google+ page, but it’s going to be up to Google to condition searchers to put a “+” symbol in front of a search term. In the end, the user interaction and engagement will only be as rich as the content that a brand offers, and how they actively manage that content.”

- Kate Thompson, Account Manager

* * * * *

“The announcement of Google+ business pages serves as an exciting opportunity for brands to reach consumers. But adding another social platform can prove overwhelming, which is why brands need to understand their social media strategies and goals. One thing is certain—as Google+ hones business pages, advertisers and consumers will be able to benefit from Google’s search engine expertise and the detailed analytics.”

- Jenna Rutschman, Account Director

Helpful Links

• Official Announcement of Google+ Pages on the Official Google Blog
• Create your Google+ Business Page
• Introducing Pages for Google
• Google+ Help Page

I’m over the Old Spice Guy. Sure, he was a brilliant integrated campaign, but it’s time to move on, right? Then again, as far as integrated campaigns go, it’s the benchmark. But if you’re trying to replicate Old Spice’s success, it’s not about viral videos. It’s about being both strategic and integrated.

TV, online and social media need to offer a consistent branding message that ties your marketing efforts together. For Old Spice, the playful tone, the messaging, and the level of engagement gives consumers a cohesive experience across channels.  When I go to the Old Spice website I see what I expected to see based on the TV commercials, or the Facebook page, or a video on YouTube—not some flat corporate site that’s disconnected from the campaign.

Most of the time, a 360-degree campaign starts with strategic insight. That insight creates a launch pad for a creative concept. It also allows us to infuse the concept across all platforms, but recently companies we’ve worked with have wanted to skip the strategy and have us simply “build a website” or “create a Facebook page.” The great news is that they trust us, and that kind of freedom can be exciting. But without an understanding of the overall brand strategy, we’re going to fail. Sure, the site might look amazing. It might even win awards. But it won’t be effective without integration of the overall marketing campaign. If the messages conflict and the channels operate independently, there is no way that users will have a positive brand experience. And isn’t the goal to evoke a response?

I still remember the day all of this hit home. I was working on a campaign for Sony Electronics, and one morning I sat down at a bagel shop, opened up a newspaper and saw an ad for a Sony BRAVIA. Peyton Manning was asking the question, “Aren’t all HDTVs the same?” Later, I headed into the office and it wasn’t long before a banner ad opened up with a picture of Peyton and the BRAVIA, prompting the same question. As I drove home, I heard a radio ad with Peyton’s voice. Again, same question. That night my husband and I were watching ESPN and when the commercials rolled, who do you think we saw? You got it! Peyton and the BRAVIA. It was an incredible example of strategic integration.

In a Direct Marketing Association survey, 27.4% of U.S. Marketer respondents claimed that they were doing an effective job of messaging across channels, but only 10.4% responded that they were effectively integrating digital assets. The buzzwords are out there and everybody is talking about them, but there’s a gap that exists between knowledge and action.

I love what Linda Gangeri, Manager of National Advertising, for Volvo cars had to say. “(It’s about) remaining relevant and straightforward. It’s not so much the channel, but it’s the message within the channel.”

At Volvo they are trying to learn about emerging spaces and are focusing on new mediums that may not be as familiar, including mobile, social, gaming and virtual goods. They also launched a new Volvo social media team to tap into the psyche of Gen X.

Big brands are catching on to integrated marketing, and savvy marketers will find the right way to ensure a consistent and relevant brand message. My hope is that this blog post will stop just one brand manager from thinking that he needs a Facebook page just because everybody else has one. We want to make sure it compliments the message that you’re sending through all of your marketing channels.

The launch of Google Plus has triggered an enormous amount of buzz over the past few weeks, and rightfully so. By amassing a user base of over right around 20 million since launching a month ago, Google has immediately become a legitimate player in the social networking mix. Their impressive growth makes Plus the fastest growing social network ever—faster than juggernaut Facebook’s rise. However, this buzz has subsequently taken significant attention away from an initiative by that other social network that will almost certainly overtake the headlines we’re reading today.

Project Spartan?

Dubbed “Project Spartan,” Facebook’s HTML5-based platform will be optimized for mobile Safari and will give Facebook the ability to sidestep Apple’s arduous App Store approval process. This will not only give Facebook more control over their platform, but will also reduce the time-to-market for new development, easing the burden on their developers and partners. The platform will be expected to house applications developed by both Facebook and third-party developers and will bring with it the ability to purchase applications and make in-app purchases with Credits. Instead of working to succeed playing by Apple’s rules with applications on iOS, Facebook is attempting to build an operating system which may ultimately allow them to compete with the App Store itself.

Spartan seems directed straight at Apple and it’s closed system, but in taking an HTML-based approach to the table against native mobile applications, it challenges not only Apple, but also its native-App-centric challengers, Google and Microsoft with their Android and Mobile Windows platforms respectively.

Facebook’s mobile intentions seem genuine. Beyond Project Spartan, Facebook has been making a concerted effort to gain mobile market share, purchasing multiple mobile companies over the past few months. Working with INQ mobile, Facebook will be bringing multiple smartphones to market on the Android Platform with deep integration including mobile chat, news feeds with images and videos, and location-based check-ins.

If social is big, mobile is massive

Where mobile is headed, and how fast its headed there helps put things in perspective. Justifiably respected analyst Mary Meeker (KPCB) paints the picture better than most if not all. A few highlights from presentations she’s delivered in the past year:

• Mobile Internet ramping faster than the Desktop Internet did – and its not even close
• Smartphone + tablet shipments should overtake PC shipments this year
• Social Networking is accelerating the growth of mobile

Change on the horizon

Whether we view Project Spartan as anti-Apple, anti-native App, or simply pro-Facebook, what we do know is that with over 700 million users, Facebook’s continued efforts to assert themselves on mobile devices should get considerably more interesting when the platform is released. And, Spartan could be the kind of thing that takes the hardened cement Zuckerberg has poured with Facebook and reinforces it with steel – the timing and the approach are compelling and completely aligned with Facebook’s offering.

Watch those headlines.

Elsewhere on the Web

• Mary Meeker – Internet Trends (New York CM Summit June 2010)
• Mary Meeker, Matt Murphy – Top Mobile Internet Trends (February 2011)

From toothpaste to auto insurance, the fact of the matter is that most things we sell to our customers are painfully mundane. We struggle to make our offerings seem fresh, timely, or exciting when our customers long ago put these purchases on autopilot.  Thankfully, evolving technology gives us a tool to make any digital activity more engaging and pleasant, Gamification.

Gamification is a loose term used to describe the process of making a mundane process or activity feel a little bit like a game. This is not a new concept. In 1987, McDonalds started giving Monopoly game “pieces” along with their meals, converting “single purpose” visitors into serial customers with secondary goals (prizes) and an ongoing stake in continued patronage (the value of the pieces gathered). In other words, McDonald’s successfully applied the principles of Gamification to the process of acquiring high blood pressure resulting in a hugely popular promotion with only a small manipulation of human behavior.  In 1934 when the chocolaty children’s drink, Ovaltine, offered to trade proof-of-purchases for relatively worthless detective badges and decoder rings for kids, they incorporated Gamification into the world of snacking and saw a huge jump in sales that has been emulated for decades.

Clearly, there’s a history of success around Gamification.  So, the question is, if this idea has been around so long, why bother inventing a new word and pretending it’s the next hot thing?  The answer is that while the concept is basic, looking at it as a broadly applicable, systematic online marketing technique is revolutionary.  It is the next hot thing and, with rare exception, should be considered for some level of inclusion in almost any digital strategy.

The rise of digital games as a mass-market pastime is a relatively new phenomena.  In the last decade, video games surpassed Hollywood movies in terms of sales and a 2010 survey by PopCap showed that average age of social gamers (casual games played on social networks like Facebook) is 48. This means that video gaming is the go-to source of entertainment for more than just the stereotypical video gamer we’d often associate with this form of distraction.

Today’s video game industry arose almost accidentally, driven by cheaply available technology, but in the process of discovering this new business, they revealed a powerful and systematic human compulsion.  “Enjoy” is too mild of a word to describe the human response to games; we are driven to play. This force is subtler but no less prevalent than the compulsion to eat or to seek a mate.  The nearly universal availability of cheap computing allows any company to create complex man-machine interactions that go far beyond the passive viewing model that dominated the last century or two of marketing.

For our purposes, Gamification does not equal games.  Rather, it is the inclusion of one or more modern game-like techniques to drive human behavior.  In the digital arena, this means providing an online experience that responds, progresses, and constantly challenges visitors.  Often this is accomplished by providing a goal system or “story arc” that makes even casual interactions meaningful. Gamification gives meaning to minutiae, creating an incentive for micro-behaviors. Modern Gamification techniques move past the blunt force of influencing a single burger purchase and enable more frequent and subtler actions such as voluntarily sharing friend lists, expressing product interests, or accepting marketing communications.

A bundle of well established gimmicks have become synonymous with Gamification.  Point scoring systems, competition among visitors, visual badges for accomplishments, and status levels can be bolted onto most any interaction. For example, this might mean prompting a visitor with a message like, “Sign up for our newsletter now to earn double bonus points!” As much as it has a circus-sideshow feel, anecdotal evidence suggests that this crude approach yields better results than simply putting up a banner saying “Click here to sign up for our newsletter!”

The real art and opportunity of Gamification is plugging it cohesively and organically into your digital presence. Doing this requires thinking about your visitor experience as a journey.  What is the end point?  What are the stages along the way?  How can you make this journey visible, dramatic, and meaningful? Microsoft Office’s “Ribbon Hero” allows the user to think of software training as a challenge regardless of whether the user has any interest in learning to use exotic spreadsheet features.  By these means, Microsoft promoted a greater understanding of why Office is a premium product and created a feeling of skill-investment that creates a reluctance to start over.

Game Mechanics will be our next topic in this series and it will cover the specific tactics used to achieve Gamification.  We’ll be covering the common gimmicks mentioned above as well as exploring the elusive quest for deep Gamification.

The Red Bull Racing Team has achieved levels of success in racing and technology innovation in the world of NASCAR, which is a relatively tradition-based sport. To create a similarly successful experience digitally, Terralever created a highly visual, engaging and premium user online experience that showcases the success of the Red Bull Racing Team, highlights the skill and passion of the drivers, and develops an active social community. With these objectives met, the website became not just a source for Red Bull Racing Team news, but an opportunity to build the brand, create faithful fans, and become a benchmark for all NASCAR sites.



Objectives

The objectives for this project included the creation and development of a premium user experience that drives continued traffic to the website; social media integration and an increase in social reach by making content easily sharable; and redefine Red Bull Racing USA as a leader by setting benchmark for all NASCAR sites.

Solutions

Based on the objectives, Terralever was able to create a core website that aligned with the Red Bull brand, generated an interest in the sport of NASCAR, and allowed for a level of accessibility with the Red Bull Racing Team to create a community of loyal and active fans. Some of the features of the website that demonstrated these objectives were the Team Stalker, the Social Hub, and Shutter Speed, which allowed for high levels of engagement and interaction.

Interactive features

• Real-time access to uploaded content from team members
• Social Hub featuring Twitter updates from fans around the globe
• Interactive race track rendering with banking information and average speeds
• 180 degree interactive view of Red Bull race car

Red Bull Racing Nascar Facts:

• Founded in 1997
• Redbullracingusa.com
• Target market: males and athletes age 18 – 45
• Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA
• Racing Team HQ: Charlotte, NC

View the entire PDF  of this interactive case study.

‘Scotty is in it to WIN it!’ – this is a phrase that American Idol fans (myself included) have heard for the past four months when Randy’s premonition finally came true as 29.3 million people enjoyed a spectacle of performances on last season’s American Idol. As a country music fan, I would have been happy with either of two finalists, but as an avid American Idol fan, the lack of enthusiasm I was feeling about the show’s winner had me concerned.

Then I realized something that happened to me early on in the season that was responsible for my waning level of excitement.

After an emotional episode where the judges saved Casey Abrams from elimination, I wanted to ensure that Casey, one of my early favorites, was ‘safe’ for a couple more weeks. I pulled out my iPhone to search for the American Idol application I was sure would be there. I found something, all right.

Was it an easy to use, intuitive voting application that allowed me to quickly allocate my precious votes to the contestant of my choosing? Nope. What I found were apps for quizzes, karaoke, golden tickets and ringtones. Oh, joy. For a TV show that received over 750,000,000 votes this past season, it shocked me to see that there was nothing in place to capture even more votes from a mobile audience. Sure, they have a mobile version of their website which imitates how a mobile application functions, but it still didn’t let me cast my precious votes.

This seems like a missed opportunity if I’ve ever seen one. People own over 60 million iPhones worldwide and Google’s Android OS has 160,000 activations daily. If even half of these iPhone owners voted one time with their 50 allocated votes, American Idol would more than double the number of votes received.

The current lull in excitement is a great time for creating an amazing app that will engage fans before the next season begins and continue to encourage interaction throughout. How? Beyond giving users the basic ability to vote for their favorites, this app could include:

• Judge’s comments – These sound bites are always popular for use in promotional commercials and on YouTube. This app could give users exclusive access to these sound bites for sharing with friends and commenting on.
• Fan predictions – This would be a great opportunity for increased fan engagement even before the season starts and throughout the season. Fans could create predicted lineups, earn points for being correct in their predictions, and even have a chance to win prizes for having a perfect score.
• Idol calendar - A listing of idol events, birthdays, and concert dates would allow fans to keep updated on their favorites and increase interaction outside of the show.
• Concert ticket sales – This feature could be a huge moneymaker for the application. Incorporating this functionality into the app lets fans get engaged with the contestants and make plans to see them live without ever leaving the application.

In addition to these exciting features, incorporating their news feed, contestant profiles and video clips, and an option to download music straight to your phone would help this application to take off.

Although I’ve hammered American Idol on ways they can improve their digital presence, it in no way deters me from still being a devoted viewing fan and I’m already looking forward to Season 11 early next year. Let’s just hope they develop a mobile application in the meantime and I’ll be all set.

Would you use an app like this from American Idol? What other ideas do you have that it could include?

Media Bistro recently published an opinion piece on Twitter engagement levels stating engagement levels on Twitter, if you’re lucky, may be around 0.46% on the higher end.

Are you gasping for air yet?

It took advertisers quite a while to even come to terms with Google AdWords clickthrough rates of around 1-2% on the high end and now we’re hearing that Twitter isn’t even close to that! Before you hit the delete button on your Twitter account, it’s important to understand the nature of participation and interaction on Twitter and what these numbers actually mean so you can take full advantage of the engagement you do receive:

• Twitter provides a real-time feed of what is happening now.
• The website and third-party management applications load only the most recent tweets (typically 20-50), representing as much as a couple of days or as little as a couple of hours, depending on the number of people followed.
• Users are often multi-tasking – browsing updates while they perform other activities.

More Tweets Equals More Engagement
The research of Dan Zarrella, Hubspot’s Social Media Scientist, shows that tweeting more leads to better engagement. If you think of each tweet is an invitation to engage with your brand, and you only tweet once per day you’re not being very engagement-friendly. People are busy. They dip in and out of their social streams when they have time. They read what’s in their feed at that moment in time, and maybe catch up on a handful of their favorite people, but that’s about it. There’s an art to being in front of your followers when they’re most likely to be looking at their streams, and tweeting once per day just doesn’t cut it.

Photo by *saxon*

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s a point of diminishing returns if you tweet too often. Avoid getting stuck in broadcast mode. Twitter engagement is all about finding that sweet spot of true engagement without annoyance.

Fewer people use Twitter than you think
Jay Baer recently reflected on a social media usage study by Edison Research and Arbitron that revealed that only 8% of Americans surveyed were active on Twitter. Moreover, that number hadn’t grown much since last year. Facebook, on the other hand, is being used by more than half of all Americans. This information is important to keep in mind during strategic and tactical planning. Your Twitter engagement will be different than other types of customer communication because there are simply fewer people actively tweeting. That’s not to say Twitter isn’t a valuable tool for many businesses, but your expectations need to align with the adoption and usage patterns of your customer segments.

Facebook engagement levels, a comparison
We recently did a deep dive into the engagement levels on editorial posted by 3 of our clients during Q1 2011. We considered how factors such as post time, post frequency, and content type affected performance. Performance can be analyzed in terms of reach (stream impressions), interactions (likes and comments), feedback (likes + comments / impressions) and actions (click-thrus, shares, etc.). For the purpose of this post, we’ll look primarily at feedback – Facebook’s on-site engagement score. The average feedback across the three clients we looked at was a whopping 0.22%. That makes the 0.46% cited by Shea look stellar.

These clients vary considerably, both in terms of industry and in fan base size. If you look at the feedback score of each independently, you’ll quickly see that the smaller the brand’s fan base, the better the engagement level.

• Page 1 – 40k fans, average 0.38% feedback
• Page 2 – 22k fans, average 0.44% feedback
• Page 3 – 350k fans, average 0.11% feedback

For brands focused on growth and fan counts, let this be a gut check. The greater your fan base, the more people you have to market to, in theory, but a smaller percentage of your fans are regularly engaged with your content, and thus are less likely to see and respond to that call-to-action you just posted.

Beyond the numbers, a variety of other factors affect engagement rates. Whether on Twitter or Facebook, you can, and should, experiment with the following to determine what works best for your social communities:

• Type and mix of content (discussion posts, marketing messages, company news, etc.)
• Types and use of attachments (photos, videos, links, etc.)
• Post timing and frequency
• Campaigns, promotions, and contests
• Regional targeting of updates by location of fans

Your reasons for getting involved on Twitter are, or should be, different than other media
Remember, the nature of the relationship you’re building through social media is inherently different than the one you’re building through other channels. Twitter, Facebook and other social networks were not developed so that businesses could market to consumers; they were intended to help people to connect and converse about what’s going on in their lives. Most users talk with friends, post photos, celebrate birthdays, vent about bad days and share videos that make them laugh. Businesses who understand and align their efforts with these social, relational and emotional currents can find success in social media. Businesses that think it’s just a place to make the next sale are left wondering why nobody seems to care.

Media Bistro’s post ends with a solid piece of advice – when stepping onto the social playing field, make sure you bring your A-game. This doesn’t mean that you should keep your Twitter stream strictly business. In fact, ExactTarget’s research on “The Social Break-Up” shows that one of the leading reasons people unfollow brands on social media is because their stream is getting too congested with marketing messages. Rather, combine business and fun, but make sure the fun stuff you post resonates with your followers and reinforces the reasons you got engaged with social media in the first place.

Are you tracking engagement rates on your social media activities? If so, how do they compare with Media Bistro’s hypothesis for 0.46% on Twitter or any of the numbers we’ve shared about Facebook feedback scores?

Pulte Homes (PulteGroup) came to Terralever looking to create a portable application to assist their sales associates in showcasing available homes in a way that reflected the innovation with which each home was constructed. After gaining valuable insight into the current sales process, Terralever was able to create the Centex HomeStore app which includes interactive maps with points of interest, available home catalogs with intuitive customization options, and sales tools to encourage a closed home deal, all in a highly interactive mobile interface.

Objectives:

Pulte Homes (PulteGroup) had the objective of creating a better sales process, demonstrating cutting-edge innovation in a stagnant, slow moving industry, and increasing the quality of interactions a homebuyer has with the company. In today’s housing market, small, incremental improvements to any process can have a large effect, and Pulte Homes was interested in doing just that.

Solutions

In order to address these objectives, Terralever worked closely with a team of sales, marketing, and information services individuals to map out an application that addresses the concerns of sales associates and homebuyers alike, increasing the likelihood that the application would have positive results. The resulting application mimics the home buying process but does so in an efficient, memorable way by integrating the Centex HomeStore technology with a demonstration of the actual home.

The application is currently being tested in one market in Dallas, TX to gain insight into its adoption among sales personel and customers. After this 90-day test period is over, results gleaned from this trial period will be incorporated into future iterations of the application before being rolled out into more markets.

Quick facts:

• Built with HTML5 for optimum flexibility across platforms
• Incorporates mapping, inventory, pricing, and sales functions
• Real-time pricing and financing terms
• iPad application to roll out among all PulteGroup brands
• First application of its kind for the homebuilder industry
• Incorporating direct customer feedback into future iteration

View the full iPad application case study.

Amidst reports of Arizona-based businesses growing at a faster than average rate, we’re excited to announce that we’ve grown in size by over 30% and we’re not stopping there!

In the last few months, we’ve added 16 new employees to our roster of amazing talent and promoted 3 others to positions within the company, further expanding our Account Services, Technical Services, Creative Services, and Online Marketing departments.

Among the new hires are:

• Peter Stallone, National Account Executive, who joined the team after his role as Division Sales Manager for a website platform provider and SEO firm.
• Lauren Keeton, Account Manager, who came to Terralever after having worked at agencies in both NYC and LA where she was the Account Manager on Sony Electronics, Bombay Sapphire, adidas, Mitsubishi and Seventh Generation.
• Grace King, Project Manager, who joined the Terralever team after her previous role as a Project Manager for a hospitality marketing firm in Washington D.C.
• Scott Patten, Project Manager, came to Terralever after spending a number of years with a local interactive company and his own web-based marketing company.
• Matt Kayne, Online Marketing Specialist, who came to Terralever with 5 years of SEO/SEM experience working with Chapman Automotive Group and their various dealerships.
• Shawnda Williams, Senior Interactive Designer, who joined the team after her many years in various web design, art direction, and graphic design positions.
• Tony Peterson, UX Architect, who joined our team after many years in various UX architecture, web design, project management, and online marketing positions.
• Eric Doolan, UX Architect, who came to Terralever after acting as a Project Manager and Art Director for a digital marketing agency and educational institution.
• Tony Camp, Developer, who came to Terralever after several years as a developer for an Arizona-based design and marketing agency.
• Matthew Jorgenson, Developer, who came aboard after his previous role as Art Director and Web Designer at a marketing and publishing agency.
• Kim Higdon, Marketing Coordinator & Copywriter, who joined the Terralever team after her previous role as Marketing Director for an Arizona-based design and marketing agency.

Along with new hires, we’ve also promoted within the organization for positions such as Director of Online Marketing, now filled by Tina Kelly, formerly an Account Manager; Craig Budwitz filling the position of Director of Creative Services after his previous role as Senior Art Director; and Amanda Purple filling the position of Account Coordinator after having been an Operations Assistant.

Before the end of the year, we’ll be hiring anywhere from 10-15 more individuals, making us double our size from where we were only one year ago. Interested in being a part of a growing organization? We’re currently looking for Developers, Account Executives, User Experience Designers, Project Managers, and Account Managers for both, our Tempe and L.A. offices.

Last night, much of the nation was glued to televisions as President Obama addressed the nation informing Americans that Osama Bin Laden had been killed in an operation that had been in planning since August 2010. A subset of the population was simultaneously glued to Twitter, exchanging a wide range of opinions and perspectives on everything from the news to the celebrations that followed. Some of them were your customers.

Breaking news happens, playing out on the same social channels you engage with fans and followers about your business, but as a business, what should you do during such momentous events? Do you participate in the conversation, or continue “business as usual” and update as if nothing happened? Both can be tempting but both can have unintended effects that could be more harmful than helpful.

Creating your game plan

To figure out which strategy will work best for your brand, you need to examine what relationships exist between your brand and the news event. Unless you can draw a strong connection it might be a good time to simmer down. We expect, and likely want, to hear from organizations whose purpose is rooted in patriotism, American history, global news, the U.S. military, and select social affairs will have something to say during this time, but we don’t necessarily want to hear about product releases, reality shows or destination vacations.

Most brand marketing updates are unrelated to what’s on everyone’s minds and you should be careful with what you choose to share with your community. If people want a distraction, they might welcome your updates, but if not, you could come across as lacking empathy, and some instances, seen as outright insulting to your community. Is it really worth the risk?

Crafting your message

We’ve all seen what can happen when a brand tries to tie a marketing message to politically and socially sensitive events (Kenneth Cole’s blunder), but sharing general marketing messages can reflect ignorance and complete disengagement. Your best bet in these situations is to share a short, general sentiment (emphasis on general, you don’t want to state a polarizing opinion that could create backlash) and then power down temporarily. It’s a scary proposition, but one that will protect your brand’s integrity and allow your community to focus on what’s important to them.

Automated updates published can expose a lack of presence.

Listening and responding

Now that you’ve powered down your social media fronts, and held back non-critical marketing and discussion posts, when should you power back up? Let the social media community be your guide. Watch trending topics, use the advanced search on Twitter or even read your own Twitter stream (note: this only works if you actually follow some of the people who follow you, and you should be following people) and watch for frequency, subject and sentiment of posts will give you a pretty good idea of when it’s OK to resume. Start out slowly and listen carefully to the responses you receive and course-correct appropriately to preserve your brand’s standing.

Getting buy-in for your plan

So how do you now go about convincing your boss/department/company that halting social media activities, even for a short time is the right move? Theoretically, you’ve invested time, money and energy to nurture and grow your community so if you go radio silent, are you going to drop off the radar? Not likely. Explain to stakeholders that your updates will receive little to no interaction during this time and it’s not worth the risk to your brand’s image. Sure, it’s important to keep your business afloat, but skipping a few days’ worth of tweets won’t break you, particularly when your fans and followers are preoccupied with more important matters.

Social media is a powerful, but sometimes delicate, tool that can be used to propel your brand forward. In the same vein, insensitivity to emotional or controversial topics can create backlash. Tread carefully during times of great excitement and sorrow and you’ll be sure to keep your brand’s integrity in tact.

What are your thoughts on handling social media during big news events? Is it something that should be embraced and commented on or would you rather clear the channel for other, more relevant sources to have comment?

We’re excited to announce that DC Shoes, one of the world’s most-renowned footwear and apparel providers for extreme sports enthusiasts, has brought us on to support the company with their social media efforts and to re-design their global website, scheduled to launch in Q2 of this year.

We also recently began working with Cisco Systems on their initiative GETideas.org, an open, online community for education leaders driving education transformation worldwide.

Terralever is headquartered in Phoenix, AZ with offices in Los Angeles, CA and has 40 employees servicing a wide range of national clients from Cisco to Goodyear. For more information, visit www.terralever.com.

Join us on April 12th, when our very own VP of Strategy and recognized expert Scott McAndrew discusses proven tactics to solve one of the most contemplated tribulations in the interactive marketing space today. Providing quantitative data to client’s social media efforts can be a bit tricky. At this month’s AZIMA event McAndrew hopes to inform and share his findings on how social media ROI can be measured. The event takes place at Scottsdale Hilton (6333 N. Scottsdale Rd.,Scottsdale, AZ 85250) with cocktails and networking beginning at 6pm, then a light dinner and the presentation to commence at 7pm. For more information and to order tickets, please click here.

UPDATE: For those who missed it and those who want to see it again, you can find a PDF of Scott’s entire presentation here.

About Azima: The Arizona Interactive Marketing Association (AZIMA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps Arizona agencies, businesses, educational institutions and students improve their understanding and application of interactive marketing best practices. Driven by an extreme passion for interactive marketing, AZIMA was created to help you better understand all things about interactive marketing.

To accommodate the agency’s increasing presence in Los Angeles, Terralever, one of the nation’s leading full-service digital marketing agencies, has opened an office at the Yahoo! Center located in downtown Santa Monica.

Terralever currently has several clients that they service in metro Los Angeles, including globally recognized brands Red Bull, eHarmony and DC Shoes.  With the number of accounts growing rapidly, it was important for Terralever to expand into an office that allows for closer proximity and greater interaction with its clients.

“With many of our clients based in Los Angeles, being in their backyard is extremely important,” said Chris Johnson, CEO of Terralever. “We want to have the ability to interact with them face-to-face.  The location and nature of our new office space will greatly enhance this collaboration.”

Terralever is headquartered in Phoenix and has 40 employees servicing a wide range of national clients from Cisco to Goodyear.  For more information, please visit www.terralever.com.

Note: One month ago, Facebook announced a new Pages format. Today, those changes roll out site-wide. This post and its predecessors reflect the very latest features and functions of the new format.

Our series on the finer details of administering Facebook Pages is written with the goal of helping you move beyond the Facebook Page 101-type articles and dive into the nitty gritty of day-to-day community management. If you’ve been following along, welcome to the fourth installment. If you’re visiting us for the first time, here’s a quick guide to what we’ve covered so far:

Part 1 covered:

• Distinctions between account, profile and pages.
• The differences between posting as yourself and posting as a brand.
• Tagging individuals and Pages in status updates.
• A few of our favorite Facebook Page 101 resources.

Part 2 covered:

• Targeting posts by location and language.
• Wall view filters and the introduction of relevancy sorting.
• The new photostrip at the top of the Page.
• Private messaging through Facebook Messages.

Part 3 covered:

• Email notifications for Page activity.
• The new moderation and profanity blocklists.
• Featuring other Facebook Pages and exposing your own Page’s admins.
• Page navigation and profile photos.

Today, I’ll talk about one of the most compelling changes of the new Pages format, the ability to extend brand interaction beyond your own Page by authoring and interacting with content across Facebook. The detail and the opportunity here are indeed fine, so pay close attention.

Self versus Brand Posting on the Page

I covered this topic in my first post in this series, but it’s worth touching on again as the new Pages format allows admins to toggle between posting as him/herself and posting as the brand. This feature offers admins greater flexibility in how they interact on the Page, but also affects how information spreads on Facebook.

• Controls for brand and individual authorship on the brand’s Page are located under ‘Your Settings’ in the management dashboard.
• Your authorship setting affects Wall posts, as well as Likes and comments on all Page content, whether posted by the brand or by others.
• All other management options, such as viewing Insights, flagging spam comments and removing abusive fans will continue to function as normal.
• Authoring posts on a Page as yourself will generate a news feed story that can be seen in the feeds of friends who are connected to both you and the Page.
• Liking and commenting on Page content as yourself will generate a mini news feed story (like the one shown below).
• Authoring, liking and commenting on Page content as the brand will not generate these types of stories on your personal profile.
• Authoring Page content as the brand will create a news feed story able to be seen by people who have liked your Page.
• Liking and commenting as the brand can facilitate the distribution of content among your fans and their friends, and will trigger notifications for other people who have also interacted with that same content.

Tip: Use this feature to clearly differentiate your personal viewpoints and those of the brand.

Tip: Understanding how brand content spreads on Facebook is an art unto itself. Invest the time to learn as much as you can about this, so that you can optimize your potential reach and engagement.

Using Facebook as Your Page

• Page admins can now interact on other Pages, Places and Events as the brand.
• Because Facebook Places have their own unique Pages, which maintain similar features as brand Pages, you may also use Facebook as your Place.
• To enable this, click ‘Use Facebook as Page’ under Account Settings, and select the Page from the modal window.
• You can also enable this directly from your Page, by clicking ‘Use Facebook as Page’ in the right-hand column below admins.
• Once in Page mode, you will land on your Page first.
• Click the Facebook logo in the upper right to access your brand’s home page, complete with a news feed and notifications for people and activity.

Home page when using Facebook as Terralever

On the brand’s home page:

• The news feed shows posts by Pages that have been added to the brand’s Page Favorites.
• The Friend Requests notification icon in the header navigation switches to a Likes notification (showing 10 new Page Likes above).
• The global notifications icon remains the same, but limits alerts to activity on your Page and on other content around Facebook that you have interacted with as the brand.
• The left-hand navigation provides links to a limited number of the more frequently used Page features, including events, photos and Insights.
• The right-hand column displays a snapshot of Insights activity, recommendations and other quick-add features.

Interacting across Facebook as the Page:

• You can interact on other Pages, Places and Events.
• To interact on any of these, you must first establish a connection between your brand and the Page, Place or event by liking or RSVPing.
• If a Page has disabled posting by fans, you will not be able to post an update on their Page. You will, however, be able to like and comment on content produced by the Page.
• You can not interact on individual user profiles.
• When viewing an individual’s profiles, you may be able to view certain fields on their info tab, their Wall and the filmstrip. But that’s it. You can look, but you can’t play.
  Exception: You can like and comment on a photo if that photo was posted on your brand’s Page, and the user was tagged in it.
• All relationships unique to the admin are stripped when in Page mode, and only the Page’s relationships are taken into consideration. This affects things like search. If I start typing one of my friend’s names, their profile won’t populate the suggestions field, but if I start typing a brand name, matching Pages that the brand has liked will appear among the top suggestions.

Caution: The ability to use Facebook as your Page opens multiple opportunities for greater engagement throughout Facebook, but also carries the inherint risk that an admin will forget they are logged in as the Page and accidentally engage in activty as the brand that they should be doing as an individual.

Tip: Conduct periodic housecleaning, eliminating admin rights for anyone who doesn’t need them. It’s common for brand Pages to have many more admins than is necessary. As an example, we collaboratively manage a Page that has nearly 20 admins. Less than a half dozen of those people are responsible for regular activity on the Page, be it custom application development or community engagement. The fewer people who have admin rights to your Page, the lower your risk that someone will accidentally post, comment or like content as the brand when they should have been doing as themselves.

That concludes our review of brand and company Pages. When we get back from SXSW, I’ll start digging into other Facebook products, such as Events and Places, and share our thoughts on running promotions. As always, if you have other specific questions that we can help you answer, let us know by leaving a comment below.

South by Southwest Interactive, better known as SXSWi and the biggest interactive conference of the year, kicks off tomorrow. Thousands have already begun pouring into Austin.

Scott McAndrew demos Terralever's work with Silverlight at the Microsoft Lounge, last year at SXSW.

Terralever will be represented once again. If you’ll be at SXSW and want to meet up with someone from our team while there, please drop us a line (preferred communication method listed).

Andy Parnell, Director of Account Services
Text: 480.326.4756 (Don’t forget to include your name in the text!)

Dave Foster, Account Manager
Email: davidf [at] terralever dot com

Steven Kim, Account Manager
Email: stevenk [at] terralever dot com

Heather Herr, Social Media Strategist
Twitter: @MsHerr

New Business Pitch = Travel

Earlier this week, I began preparing for a promising pitch in Miami, Florida, and as most business travelers often do, I needed to gather information regarding the cost of the trip.  As a regular American Airlines customer, I visited their website and found the message “American fares no longer on Orbitz, Expedia and its subsidiary, Hotwire.”

I found this alert message intriguing and decided to delve deeper into their decision to remove themselves from the travel-deal mega websites. I quickly understood the business logic behind the decision – eliminate the middle man, secure higher profit margins and retain a larger share of customer web traffic - but my thoughts then turned to not what might be gained, but what might be lost from the standpoint of lost opportunity due to lack of search engine visibility.

Expedia? Orbitz? Hotwire? We don’t need you!

Expedia, Orbitz, Hotwire and the like enjoy high visibility on search engines. What I wondered was if American enjoyed the same fortune. After a handful of searches I found that American, among other airlines, did not have nearly the visibility I thought they’d have. Searching for common travel terms I found page one search engine results dominated by travel deal sites. The airlines themselves were nowhere to be found. Next, I moved on to some more specific, qualified searches; the trend continued. Here’s a sampling of searches for reference:

So, What’s my Point?

From a search marketing perspective, I saw a few areas of focus that represented literally tens of millions of searches a year on Google alone. Where might American put its efforts? Here’s where I’d concentrate:

• Generalized Industry Searches - Search terms related to industry and casual dialect that draw traffic for many channels of business from commercial flight searches to cargo and alternative services offerings.
• Geo-targeted Searches – Searches tied to location are long-tail and definitive searches specifically targeting travel desire including airports or city locations in search term.
• Financially Motivated Searches - These are the search terms used by bargain shoppers; example keywords include “specials” and “deals”.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

One thing was definitely obvious to me: currently, in the airline industry, the deal-oriented sites seem to have great placement for a wide variety of travel related searches. And, while the airlines are all known brands that don’t rely on search engines exclusively to drive their business, there are clearly opportunities open for them, especially in situations like this one where they are separating from partners with high visibility. For the Internet searcher that is looking for a price, not a brand, American is leaving a lot of opportunity untapped, left for the travel sites they removed themselves from and the airlines that are still working with them.

Each year, AAF Metro Phoenix holds the ADDY Awards to recognize agencies across the Valley for their creative work in concept, design, copy and strategy. This year, Terralever is excited to announce that we took home two gold awards in the website category for Red Bull Motocross Racer Ashley Fiolek and MommyTalk.com, along with one silver award for Red Bull F1 Racing.

• Gold: Interactive Media – Website, Consumer Flash – Red Bull North America, Ashley Fiolek
• Gold: Interactive Media – Website, Consumer HTML – MommyTalk, Lindy Williams
• Silver: Interactive Media – Website, Consumer Flash – Red Bull F1 Racing

As a two-time women’s motocross champion, Ashley Fiolek’s website needed to showcase her talent in a lively and compelling manner, much like the champion herself. Our team used a Flash-based website with three-dimensional interactivity to develop a highly visual experience. Many thanks to our talented team on their sixth award for this site: Jordan Ball, Ryan Mathis, Joe Johnson, Erin Enriquez, Craig Budwitz and Jeff Cross.

MommyTalk.com, a free online community for parents, needed a new face to embrace its growing following. The refreshed website incorporates a softer color scheme, intuitive navigation and more comprehensive community tools and functionality that allows moms and dads more access to forums, discussion boards and blogs. This could only have been achieved by the very best: Jordan Ball, Travis Simpson, Jennifer Walsh, Robert Paveza, Amber Darroch, Tina Kelly, Jeff Cross and Dallon Feldner.

Red Bull F1 Racing needed a website that would resonate with fans of the sport across the globe. Including the ADDY, this is now the fourth award for the team as they have won Gold’s for the Summit International Awards, the W3 Awards, and a prestigious ‘Ultimate Sports Website’ award from Sports Business previously. Shout out to Craig Budwitz, Ryan Mathis, Roger Pimentel, Jeff Cross, Jennifer Cournoyer, Olu Ayandosu and Dave Foster for helping Red Bull achieve their goal!

“We’re beyond proud of the work we’ve created this year and we’re honored to be recognized by the ADDY Awards,” said Chris Johnson, CEO of Terralever. “We can’t wait to share some of the new projects we’re working on in 2011.”

About the ADDY Awards:

Each year the competition recognizes and rewards outstanding creative work in the art of advertising and is the industry’s largest, toughest and most representative competition for creative excellence. Work is judged on a local level by creative firms outside of the competing city. Gold Award winners will compete in the AAF District 12 ADDY awards, with top winners advancing to the Worldwide ADDY Awards competition.

Note: On February 10th, Facebook announced a new Facebook Pages format that mimics the update made to individual profiles a few months ago. As a Preferred Developer Consultant, we have learned that the new Pages will be rolled out site-wide March 10th. This post reflects the latest changes included in the new Facebook Page format.

We recently started a series that addresses the finer details of administering Facebook Pages to help you move beyond the Facebook Page 101-type articles that focus on the broad stroke instructions for getting started and dive into the natty gritty of day-to-day community management. Drawing on the questions we hear most frequently from new Page admins, I’ll highlight some of functional nuances of managing Facebook Pages.

Part 1 covered:

• Distinctions between account, profile and pages.
• The differences between posting as yourself and posting as a brand.
• Tagging individuals and Pages in status updates.
• A few of our favorite Facebook Page 101 resources.

Part 2 covered:

• Targeting posts by location and language.
• Wall view filters and the introduction of relevancy sorting.
• The new photo strip at the top of the Page.
• Private messaging through Facebook Messages.

Today I’ll dive into the backend management dashboard and related features. Many of the features below were rolled out as part of the new Facebook Pages format announced February 10th.

Email Notifications for Activity on the Page

Facebook admins were clamoring for this, and thankfully, Facebook has responded.

• Page notifications are triggered by the activity that triggers notifications on your individual account.
• Comments by others on posts by the brand will initiate a notification.
• Wall posts by others will initiate a notification.
• Comments by others on posts by others will not initiate a notification unless the brand has either liked or commented on the post.
• As with content you post on your individual profile, you will not receive an email notification for likes.
• You can toggle these notifications on and off under the ‘Your Settings’ section of the backend management dashboard.

Observation: This feature may be a bit buggy still, as we’ve noticed that we don’t always receive an email notification when someone posts on the Wall or comments on Page posts.

Moderation and Profanity Blocklists

• The moderation blocklist allows you to create custom ‘blacklists’ for keywords and phrase, which will cause posts and comments containing one of these keywords to be automatically marked as spam.
  Reminder: As mentioned in Part 2, spam posts and comments remain visible to the original author and Page admins.
• Wall posts that contain moderated keywords can be found in the Hidden Posts Wall view.
• Comments that contain moderated keywords will appear in a grey background within the post thread, instead of the standard light blue background.
• Admins can manually unhide posts and comments at their discretion.
• The profanity filter prevents users from adding posts or comments that contain commonly reported words or phrases marked as offensive by the broader community.
• Profanity filter options are none, medium or strong.

Observation: Posts and comments with profanity may actually get marked as spam rather than be blocked entirely.

Tip: Think carefully about the likely uses and grammatical variants of all words that you’d like to blacklist, and determine whether these uses carry legitimate concern for moderation. The public and social media advocates maintain a shared expectation that social media represents a democratic forum for discussion. Clamp down to tightly on that discussion, and your fans will start to suspect that maybe you are not as interested in their honest feedback as you claim to be.

Featured Pages and Owners

• A Page can like other Pages, which showcases them in a box in the left-hand column of your brand Page. This can be a great way to showcase cross-promotional relationships.
• To add another brand’s Page to your favorites, go to that Page and click “Add to my Page’s Favorites” (located at the bottom of the left-hand column.
• There is no limit to how many Pages can added, but only five are displayed in the left-hand column.
• You can specify which of your liked Pages always appear by selecting them in the ‘Featured’ section of the backend management dashboard.
• You can now expose some or all of your admins as featured Page Owners, which allows a more transparent and human connection to brand interactions. We’ve done this on our own Page.

Page Navigation and Profile Photos

• Page navigation, formally accomplished through tabs, now occurs in a menu in the left-hand column below the Page profile photo.
• Facebook truncates longer menus, showing the first 8 links and hiding the rest behind the “More”.
• Wall and Info remain locked in as the first two navigation links.
• The sequence of links, or tabs, on menus with more than 8 items can be reordered via simple drag and drop functionality.
• The sequence of links, or tabs, on menus with 8 or less items cannot be reordered. You can get around this by adding enough tab applications to obtain edit capabilities, reorder the menu to your liking, and then simply remove the extra tabs from your menu. It’s a work around, but it will get the job done.
• The new design specs limits the display version of profile photos to 180 pixels wide and 540 pixels long. Images larger than this will be scaled to fit.
• Long, vertical profile photos are great for incorporating campaign tie-ins, but will push your Page navigation further down the Page.
• Your thumbnail avatar is the square cropped version of your profile photo. The thumbnail will cut off edges on all images, even if they are already square, so it’s important to design in edge space to accommodate for this loss.
• For more information on designing for Facebook, check out this social media style guide by David Griner of Luckie & Company. It was published before Facebook announced the new Page format, but is still a great guide for profile photo, thumbnail avatar and tab application design.

Side by side comparison of profile photo and page navigation visible above the fold on the Coca-Cola and eHarmony Facebook Pages

Next up, I’ll readdress self versus brand authorship both on your Page and across Facebook, and then start digging into other Facebook products. As always, if you have other specific questions that we can help you answer, let us know by leaving a comment below.

Note: On February 10th, Facebook announced a new Facebook Pages format which mimics the update made to individual profiles a few months ago. As a Preferred Developer Consultant, we have learned that the new Pages will be rolled out site-wide March 10th. This post reflects the latest changes included in the new Facebook Page format.

Last month, we published the first in a new series that addresses the finer details of administering Facebook Pages. The idea is to help you move beyond the Facebook Page 101-type articles that focus on the broad stroke instructions for getting started and dive into the nitty gritty of day-to-day community management. Drawing on the questions we hear most frequently from new Page admins, I’ll highlight some of the functional nuances of engaging with users on Facebook Pages.

Part 1 covered:

• Distinctions between accounts, profiles and pages.
• The differences between posting as yourself and posting as a brand.
• Tagging individuals and Pages in status updates.
• A few of our favorite Facebook Page 101 resources.

Today, I’ll dive into post targeting, wall view filters, the photostrip and private messaging. So, without further ado…

Targeting Posts

• 

  Targeted status update for an event in L.A.

  Wall posts can be targeted by location, language or both.
• Targeted posts will only be visible to those people whose location and language settings match those that you’ve selected.
• As a Page admin, you will see all posts regardless of your own location and language settings.
• When targeting by location, once you select a country, you will have the option to drill down further and target by State/Province or City.
• When targeting multiple countries in one post, you can not drill down to the State/Province or City level. In other words, you cannot target London and Tokyo in the same post.
• Posts that are targeted are indicated with a privacy lock in the post footer.

Observation: We’ve noticed that an increase in targeted posts will often result in a dip on Impressions for non-targeted posts published around the same time. I have a theory (unconfirmed) that Facebook takes past performance into account when distributing new posts. In other words, if recent posts have been performing well, new posts will get an extra bump in Impressions. A decline in performance may result in a loss of Impressions on new posts. We noticed that when location-targeted posts going out to less than 0.5% of our community on one of our Pages yielded little engagement, we took a hit on Impressions on non-targeted posts. There are other, and better documented, factors that go into post distribution, including those outlined in this post on Facebook’s EdgeRank by Chris Sietsema of Teach to Fish Digital.

Fun Fact: Facebook recognizes Pirate English as a language, which is perfect for occassions when you want to reach a merry band of sailors and on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Wall View Filters

There are two Wall views available to Page visitors: Everyone and the Page.

• The default Wall view is determined by Page admins and is controlled in the backend management dashboard. Page admins can toggle between the two views according to strategic goals and campaign-specific objectives.
• The ‘Everyone’ filter includes posts by the brand and by people who have liked the Page sorted by relevancy. Facebook is calling this a “smart” filter and was introduced as part of the new Facebook Page enhancements announced earlier this month. Relevancy ordering on Pages mimics that of Top News on a user’s home view where posts authored by or that have high engagement by people you interact with frequently will appear higher on the Page.
• The ‘Page’ filter shows only posts by the brand, sorted by recency.

There are two additional Wall views available to Page admins only: Most Recent and Hidden Posts.

• The ‘Most Recent’ filter includes all posts by the brand and by people who have liked the Page, sorted by recency.
• The ‘Hidden Posts’ filter shows posts that have either been automatically flagged by Facebook as spam or manually hidden from the Wall by a Page admin. Hidden posts are not visible to most Page visitors, but will remain visible to the original author, anyone who has liked or commented on them, and Page admins.
• You can manually hide posts by clicking the “x” that appears in the upper right-hand corner when you hover over the post, and then select “Hide Post”.
• Hidden posts can be manually unhidden in a similar fashion.
• Facebook has added the ability to mark individual comments as spam, which hides them from most Page visitors. Hide comments the same way you would hide a post, which will cause them to appear grayed out to Page admins in the post thread.

The Photostrip

• 

  Photostrip on the DC Skateboarding Page

  The new Page format includes a flimstrip of five photos, that mimics the look of the photostrip introduced on individual profiles.
• Photos are drawn from the 5 most recent photos posted by the brand or in which the Page has been tagged.
• On individual profiles, the filmstrip order is static, sorted by recency.
• On Pages, the order is random and changes each time the Page is loaded.
• Photos can be removed from the filmstrip by clicking the “x” that appears in the upper right-hand corner when you hover over the photo.
• Once hidden from the filmstrip, photos can not be unhidden.

Private Messaging through Facebook Messages

• Pages do not have the ability to message users.
• Individuals can message users.
• Messaging between individuals is determined by the privacy setting of the person being messaged and the relationship between the sender and recipient. For example, if someone has their privacy set to only accept messages from friends-of-friends, we must be either directly connected to each other or have at least one mutual connection before I can send them a message.
• In both the inbox and individual messages, Facebook displays the sender’s name as a link, giving the recipient the ability to click through to the sender’s profile. What the sender sees on the profile is, of course, determined by privacy settings and the relationship between the two individuals.

Tip: Whether your page is being managed by an agency or internally, be sure to clarify your position on having community managers reach out to individual users via a Facebook message early on. I guarantee there will be times when you feel like the best way to reach out to a user is directly and privately, and the only way to do this on Facebook is with a message.

Stay tuned for future posts, which will cover backend page management, other Facebook products, and what we know about promotions. If you have specific areas of interest, please let us know by leaving a comment below.