DC Interactive Group’s SmartMarketing Blog

Facebook has undergone several changes in recent months, making a difference in how brands build their presence on the social media site. There are implications to these changes that businesses should be aware of.

News Feeds have changed

Facebook no longer defaults to the most recent updates for the news feed. Instead, it opts to display posts that have the most interaction, including comments and “likes.” While it still offers the live news feed as an option, it is no longer the default. This means you will need to make sure that people care about what you are posting and are participating in your message to guarantee a spot on your audience’s news feeds.

Email will soon be an option

Originally, Facebook had hidden user email addresses; however, it will soon be allowing developers access to these users’ verified email addresses. Obviously, email is an important tool to marketers and a positive way to reconnect with old fans or friends that may have fallen to the wayside.

Brands gain more control on application appearance

The application canvas pages have removed the Facebook header, allowing brands to make better use of the page to be more customized. Users can still return to Facebook via a link near the top of the page, but the removal of the header has given brands significant control over how they are able to portray themselves to customers.

The “share” option is more dynamic

Facebook will be enhancing its share button to include a counter displaying the number of times a piece of content has been shared by users. For brands that have a large audience, this is a positive development and really allows them to leverage the word of mouth aspect of Facebook. Facebook will essentially be doing more of the work to make your content social.

The Open Graph

In the near future, Facebook will allow every webpage the potential to become a fan page. Soon, users will be able to fan not only your company or brand, but also a specific product, page, movie or SKU. Not only will users be able to fan these separate elements, but they will also show up in users’ profiles and in search results. This is one of the most significant changes that Facebook will be making in the near future.

These changes will allow brands to leverage more control over their message and perception on Facebook’s platform, making it easier to engage customers and build personal relationships. For brands that can manage to stay ahead of the curve, 2010 should bring a positive wave of social media for strong brands.

Here’s a funny take on agency life, especially during the holidays.  Enjoy, and have a great Holiday Season!

From its inception, advertising has been used to sell everything: shoes, food, cars, charities and even causes.  That’s because in its most simple form, advertising simply connects those with a need with those who can fulfill that need.  Suffering from credit card debt? Here’s a debt relief program.  Pipes clogged?  Meet Draino.  Looking for public bathrooms?  There’s an app for that.

But “needs” aren’t always obvious if you’re just looking at your product/service as a solution.  Indeed, nobody “needs” a 5,000 sq foot home, or a $1,500 watch.  What those markets “need” are things that demonstrate their importance to themselves and others.

These psychological needs are really the foundation on which much of today’s advertising is built.  And it works really, really well.

So well, in fact, that when Columbia looked for ways to persuade rebels to drop their arms and turn themselves in, they turned to TV advertising.  Yes, TV.  But their spots didn’t criticize the rebels’ cause.  They didn’t try to tell convince them that they were in a losing battle.  Instead, they attacked their pyschological need for freedom which wasn’t being met by being a guerrilla.

Many in-depth interviews with former guerrillas made it clear to the government that the best way to get rebels to quit was to shine a spotlight on what was upsetting to them in their current situation.  The life of a rebel isn’t pretty.  Sure, they had money from drug dealing and other things to have plasma TVs with satellite service, good food and other trappings.  But they also were always hiding, always running and always fearing for their lives.  Some had families that they couldn’t even see for fear of getting those members killed.  They weren’t free, despite the fact that they were fighting for freedom.

So Columbia used an advertising agency to produce TV spots that focused on the needs of these rebels to get their lives back — basically to get their freedom back.  The spots, using actual rebels who turned themselves in, highlighted the feelings these men had when they had to kill a commander and an innocent couple.  Another rebel spoke of the disappointment he felt when he had to miss another birthday being celebrated by his child.  A third described the empty feeling he had when he had to bury his best friend.  The ads end with “Think about it.  There’s another life.  Demobilization is the way out.”

Since the agency knew the rebels watched soccer, these spots ran almost exclusively during soccer matches.  In addition to getting rebels to turn themselves in, the media buy had an added bonus of showing non-rebels that the government was serious (and humane) in its effort to end the guerrilla warfare.

The results?  In 1999, there were as many as 30,000 rebels.  After the aggressive program began in 2002, that number is now down to an estimated 5,000 — despite new recruits.  In fact, one of the most recent spots touts that 8,900 rebels have quit.  And much of the success is due to the fact that they did not advertise to the obvious need (quit the warfare), but rather to the rebels innate need to secure their freedom.

Despite proven success, only 10% of U.S. hospitals and health systems are involved in social media (California HealthCare Foundation).   Even worse, few of the 10% really take advantage of the “social” side of this medium, instead preferring to simply push out messages about services, classes, and general news.  In fact, per the study, only 6% of all tweets (in the sample) were social interactions; therefore, 94% of all hospital and healthcare tweets were simply information.

This needs to change.

For social media to work, hospitals must be social.  Rather than just tweeting news, or uploading press releases to Facebook and LinkedIn (which, by the way, is still important), why not post discussion points, such as “how can we improve our Emergency Department?”, or “we’re redesigning our waiting rooms and would like your opinion regarding the furniture, carpets and wallpaper.”

This article has great information to help, so click the link below for a more thorough read:

Tactics for Achieving ‘Socialness’

A somewhat new website allows builders, real estate agents and anyone interested in housing access to information about the “walkability” of the area by making calculations based on the distance from any given house to nearby amenities.  One important note:  Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.  So this site is really not for those who are looking for nice areas in which to walk.

Per the site, home buyers rank proximity to daily conveniences as one of the two most important factors in choosing a neighborhood—more important than schools and property taxes.  Anyone can add Walk Score to their website or to their listings with the Walk Score API or the Walk Score Real Estate Tile.

Walk Score API

Beds: 3 Baths: 2 Walk Score: 84
The Walk Score API returns the Walk Score for any latitude and longitude. Use the API to add Walk Score to your property listings and allow people to search homes by Walk Score.

Learn more about the Walk Score API

Walk Score Real Estate Tile

An amenity map for any address.
The Walk Score Tile displays the Walk Score of a property and a map of nearby amenities. It’s simple to add the tile to your property listings, website, or blog.

Learn more about the Walk Score Tile

It is simply amazing how much information there is on the web — not just for people to use for themselves, but also for people to use in business situations.