In class, we discussed how brands were finding it more difficult to reach users with purely organic content on Facebook. There has been a huge decrease in traction for organic posts, with one study finding that it was halved over the course of four months. This is especially evident for Facebook pages with a larger following (500,000+ likes), where many of them saw their organic reach plummet to just 2% in February of this year.

Facebook has recently announced that it intends to crack down on overly promotional posts from brands. Starting in January, updates that are deemed “too promotional” will no longer show up in users’ News Feeds as often, even if they had “liked” the page.

What constitutes as “too promotional”? Facebook defines this in three ways:

1) Key messaging that pushes users to buy a product or install an app
2) Posts that push people to enter contests/promotions without proper context
3) Posts that reuse the exact same content as existing ads.

This indicates that Facebook is pushing brands to buy ads if they want to make any sort of significant impact or reach with their messaging. This can be of concern to smaller brands or start-up companies, who may not necessarily have the budget to put money towards their social media marketing.

Overall, in my opinion, it will improve both the user experience (by de-cluttering their feeds from overly promotional posts), and will force brands to write more engaging and relevant organic posts. This will, in turn, improve consumers’ relationships with the brand, and give them a reason to keep following and engaging with brands on Facebook.

Whether you love her or hate her, everyone knows who Kim Kardashian is. I personally view her as a reality star and businesswoman: she has many different product lines, a hugely successful mobile app that has raked in $43 million, and several different reality shows. While some may counter that Kardashian is simply famous for being famous, or may question her choices or values, there is no denying that she has built up a hugely strong, influential brand that has made her business ventures very successful.

Most recently, Kardashian teamed up with Paper Magazine in a mission to “Break The Internet”, starring in their Winter issue in a series of risqué cover shots (link is NSFW).

Backlash and controversy aside, and just focusing on the digital marketing side, the partnership and magazine covers generated staggering traffic stats for Paper. According to a rep from the magazine, Paper’s traffic hit 6.6 million page views with 5 million unique visitors as of November 12th. This is just direct traffic to the website, and not including the billions of impressions generated via social media or news channels.

Considering the fact that Paper Magazine was not all that well known before the article, I would say that their mission to #BreakTheInternet was a success. They chose one of the strongest, most famous brands in existence (both online and off)- a brand that knows exactly how to work social media to her advantage, generates a frenzy just by leaving her house, and represents the pinnacle of fame and stardom. So while there may have been more modest ways to achieve virality, there is no question that their campaign was effective.

If I wanted to extend my brand’s reach, gain virality, and make an unforgettable impression, I would also have chosen Kim Kardashian as the person to do that with.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 weeks, you’ve heard about “1989″, Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated new album. In its first week, it has sold nearly 1.3 million copies– breaking not only her personal sales records, but was the highest sales week in music history since 2002. It was also the first album to go platinum this year.

While her popularity and talent has taken her very far, she owes a great deal of her success to her digital marketing and social media strategy in promoting this album. I have been closely following her promotions for quite some time, and have been very impressed by the innovative tactics she’s used in promoting her new album.

Social Media

Taylor understands exactly how to build a social presence- from creating worldwide trending topics such as #TS1989 and #taylurking, to creating a Tumblr page about a month before her album launch (and maintaining it with unique, channel-specific, heartfelt content!).

The physical copy of her album contains 13 polaroids, each with hand-written lyrics, which she released one by one leading up to the album launch. And after the launch, she tweeted out song lyrics along with photos of fans who have sent her photos of themselves with her CD. It’s that kind of personal touch that builds loyalty and resonates with followers.

Strong Connections

Taylor is very well-connected in the industry, and has cultivated genuine friendships with many other big celebrities, many of which have showed their love and support for 1989 through social media- further helping her build her credibility, extended her reach beyond her own fans, and generate more hype.

Showing Appreciation

Perhaps the most creative aspect of her campaign were her “1989 Secret Sessions”– in which she invited 89 fans to her home (in five different locations), and they got to listen to her album in its entirety months before the launch.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these fans, during which they got to meet and hang out with Taylor, take photos with her- and she even baked treats for them! It was a unique and personal way of showing her appreciation and thanking her fans, one that many marketers can make an example of.

In E-Marketing, we learn so much about the importance of real-time marketing and staying relevant. Some of the best-executed ads of all time are the digital, real-time reactions to live events unfolding at that exact moment.

Let’s take the Super Bowl as an example. The average cost of a 30-second TV commercial for the 2013 Super Bowl was $4 million. But last year, the infamous Super Bowl Blackout occurred, within a few moments, Oreo put out one of its most clever tweets of all time:

This is a prime example of real-time digital marketing that was clever, timely, and engaging- it became one of the most talked-about ads of the night. It had both quality and speed. Best of all? It was free.

John St., an ad agency based in Toronto, just released a humorous new parody video about the ridiculously fast pace of marketing today, and how every brand feels the need to react to breaking news within minutes, and sometimes quality is compromised for speed.

In the video, the agency is pretending to be running a new unit called Reactvertising™, where it goes to crazy efforts to make sure clients are engaging and reacting to current events around the clock, in “hyper real-time”. It even goes so far as to helping clients “react to events that have not yet happened”.

Take a look at Reactvertising™ here:

Of course, while this video is satirical, it raises a good point for all digital marketers to consider: How can we stay timely and relevant without sacrificing quality? How do we pick and choose which events to react to? And how can we work with clients to ensure their brand is advertising in the right context?

Hats off to John St. for yet another satirical piece that hits the nail right on the head.