Social Branding

“Building Social Brands” Slideshare and a Free eBook.

As social media has become a marketing and branding powerhouse in the last decade, for many there is a general belief that if you build it, they will come. That social media is the marketing panacea that will make your brand a standout in the marketplace. The truth is, it’s far more difficult than you think, and there are rules of engagement with your target audience that will help build your social brand.

Below is a really solid SlideShare presentation on the key building blocks of a social brand. In it you’ll find great information from the guys at WeAreSocial, about how brands drive conversation, building digital communities, adding value to conversation, going mobile, and much more. There is a link on slide 3 to download the free eBook that accompanies this deck as well. Or if you just want to download the book and skip the deck you can get it here.

Animated Twitter Ads, for Smart Argentina.

Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters, and doesn’t natively support video, flash, or other dynamic media solutions. This can be a bit challenging for advertisers who want to use rich content to promote their brand. That’s right not everyone feels that they can truly convey their ad message/brand message in 140 characters or less. So what do you do if you want to create an animated ad in Twitter? You get really creative, that’s what.

Take what BBDO Argentina did for Smart Cars Argentina. BBDO Argentina created the first animated Twitter ad that is built right into the Brands Twitter stream. If you go here you can see the animation in action by holding down the “J” key on your keyboard to see the animation scroll by. If you are lazy, watch the embedded YouTube video below. The ad works like an old school flipbook animation, creating a fun simple animated ad with a light story. It shows off the Smart’s commuter features like squeezing into a parking spot to small for other cars. What a great idea. So simple, and so much fun.

Google+ As Seen by Performics / ZenithOptimedia.

If you are curious about Google+, and Google’s plans for it, this is a great presentation from Preformics / ZenithOptimedia. The presentation looks at the new social network service, Google+, from a number of angles… What they are offering, the overall numbers, Google+’s implications for search, its chances of success, the opportunities Google+ offers for brands and more.

The deck is only 59 slides deep (still to many for any presentation, but digestible) and takes about 5 minutes to go through.

Don’t Go Talkin’ Trash About Versace on Facebook.

In today’s world if you are going to market yourself, and expand brand reach through social media you better be willing to put up with some criticism. Some brands get the whole “Transparency” thing, others don’t. The latest example of this is Versace.

Versace has pulled posting functionality from their official Facebook page. A page with more than 500,000 fans. Posting functionality was pulled after they began to receive wall posts openly criticizing the use of manual laborers to sand blast their jeans. A practice preformed in sweat shops, and conditions that are openly harmful to their labor force.

What is really pretty interesting about this is, that this kind of reaction is that it isn’t about just shutting down or moderating fans bickering or complaining about products or styles. It’s about shutting down any criticism of the company or brand as a whole. Rather than step up and try to manage what rapidly became a PR nightmare, they took the easy way out and shut down fan interaction with the brand. The only problem is, this kind of action tends to add fuel to the fire, rather than extinguish the flames.