Month: October 2013

One of the intagram campaigns I love most is the one Armani made for its new perfume Si.

There are a increasing number of brands that are currently using instagram as their marketing channel, among them, many already started to take advantage of the video content on Instagram. We have seen lots of marketers start to be through content innovation from where Burrery post their fashion show videos to Movie “JOBS” post their first trailer. However, there is a common limitation for those businesses that market through instagram. Marketing messages can not reach to audience on instagram who does not follow the account because of Instagram does not support share function.  Armani’s Si istagram campaign is a perfect example of how to break through this limitation.

For this Perfume Si Campaign, Armani invited three influencial fashion blogger Chiara Ferragni (The Blonde Salad)，Gala Gonzalez (Amlul), Emily Johnston (Fashion Foie Gras) to each shoot a short instagram video using the moon filter.

The result is surprisingly good; where all three bloggers use their unique perspectives to showcase the message Armani want to deliver to the audiences which is Say Si (yes) to your dream. Those 3 videos got more than 50,000 likes on instagram and create a great buzz on the market for the perfume

Here are the links for the instagram video

http://instagram.com/p/caDHRAyD7F

http://instagram.com/p/cW0ZuKK0QR

http://instagram.com/p/cbPZnBiR0j

 

The most important facto that make this campaign successful is the use of Influencer marketing.  While other brands are only posting pic/video to deliver messages through their official brand account, Armani find a breakthrough point to leverage the power of influencer and instagram videos. Lets look at the number first, Armani Official Account only have 280,000 follower, the three blogger total have more than 1,500,000 follower on instagram, which help Armani to reach 4 times of audience than it usually does. Moreover, because the video is shot by the blogger not Armani, it function as word of mouth rather than direct advertising. It is more real, authentic and closer to the audience. The influencers’ credibility also helps to build up the products’ positive image even before the launch.

There are also things marketers have to e careful when use influencer marketing strategy.

1. Ensure the credibility of the influencer. Influence can somewhat act as a spokes person, therefore the brand image is closely related to the influencer. Low credibility or negative news related to the influencer may dilute the brand image.
2. Co-creation is better than directly posting positive product review. Customers may consider product review from a influencer as inauthentic and unreliable, where co – creation between the influencer and brand is considering as creative, innovated and fun.

What is Wechat?

 

WeChat is a mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China. It provides multimedia communication with text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact information exchange. WeChat supports social networking via shared streaming content feeds and location-based social plug-ins (“Shake”, “Look Around”, and “Drift Bottle”) to chat with and connect with local and international WeChat users.

Wechat marketing

I have been a dedicated wechat user for almost 2 years and recently I have noticed that there is an increasing number of business selling products on wechat. Therefore, in this blog I will take a close look at different channels for wechat marketing.

1.Wechat verified account/ brand home page

The verified account/brand home page provides an exclusive information push channel for business to connect with customers. Because this channel is exclusive for customers who follow the business account (those who follow the business account are most likely to be the target audience), business could send messages directly targeting their target audience. The message arrival rate is 100%, and it’s very effective. There is also a concern of marketing through this channel, the information will be overwhelmed or missed if this user follow many brands.

2. Location Marketing

Location marketing on wechat is where business put advertising or promotional messages on the signature line and reach potential customers when they use wechat “look around” feature to find people nearby. It allows business to effectively attract users that are close to the location and induce the consumption. However, on the other side, the location marketing can also limit the message coverage.

3. QR code

Users scan the QR code to add the business’s page and interact with it. User has to actively scan the QR code to add the business account, therefore, the business have to provide incentives for users to scan the QR code. When user actively scan the QR code for the business it at least prove that the user are interested in your product or the company at least.  Therefore, business can market through QR code to induce the user consumption. Business could further take advantage through this QR code marketing channel by providing promotional information to potential customers.

4. Peer Review/ Advertising on “Moments”

There is a increasing number of business use moments to directly advertise their product or post positive customer reviews to build strong brand image. I saw lots of business owner who always post snap shot of positive peer review from their customers on the moment. By providing those peer review, it increase the credibility of its brand image. Business could also take advantages through encouraging their brand advocate to post positive peer review on the moments to function as a word of mouth to reach more customers.

 

 

 

 

 

Sina weibo is currently the hottest microblogging service in China now. Sina weibo has grown rapidly in the last few years, growing its user bases from 0 to more than 140million users in the first 2 years, and it is keep growing. It’s becoming the must have social media tool for every web user.

 

I have been use sina weibo for almost 3 years, comparing with twitter; I find myself more satisfied with Sina Weibo more. I am glad that I am not the only one feel this way. Recently I have read a blog writing about 8 things that twitter can learn from sina weibo, and I found it very interesting. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/things-twitter-can-learn-from-sina-weibo/

 

Also I am gonna talk about the things I personally like about Sina Weibo Rather than Twitter.

 

1. Rich Media

One of the Sina weibo’s features that I love most is its ability to insert a wide variety of media.

Let’s take a look at the user interface for Sina weibo and Twitter When Twitter only allows you to insert pic and location, Sina weibo on the other hand enable you to insert emoji, pictures, videos, music, polls and even “long blog”. Long blog is where you can post blogger than is longer than 140 Chinese characters, and it will appear on the interface as a picture.  Looking alone at the emotion feature, it has over 400 emotions for you to use! I find my self enjoy more looking through “twittes” with various media insert than simple words. With rich media insert available on sina weibo, it allows users to not only just twitted but also express themselves in different but unique ways; it also allows users who read through twitter feel more exited and interested.

 

2.Following Categorization

On sina weibo, you can manage your account by categorizing the people you following into different groups. It allows you to quickly locate the posts that you like to see without having all kinds of other posts’ interruption.  I personally have different group categorization such as friends/ family/foodie/fashion/cosmetic etc. When I want to find more info about fashion, I just need to click the fashion category on the left side bar and then I could go through the related posts. It allows users to customize their weibo and build convenient user experience.

 

 

1. “Hash tag” and hot topics

In sina weibo, we called hashtag as topics. What’s different from twitter is that sina weibo has a very detailed categorization of the hot topics. You could search for topics under several key categories like enter

tainment, sport, finance, tech, etc. This allows you to find interesting topics more convenient.  That’s not all Sina weibo also have a weekly ranking chart of the hot topic depending on how many people are posting the hashtags. It also provide stat about the number of hashtag, number of weekly hashtag, and number of hashtags in 24 hours. This detailed information provide users more insights of the topic, marketers can also track the number of hashtags of their brands to gain deeper insights.

 

Right now Sina weibo is planning its English version platform to compete with twitter, even though it will be hard for sina since twitter has dominated the micro blogging service throughout the world, there is still opportunities for sina to grow. Twitter should be careful about sinna weibo, and probably learn from sina weibo to improve its user experience, or you never know when sina weibo may take over !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the social media channel continues to mature, businesses are now trying different ways to connect with their customers online beyond Facebook, Twitters and in different ways. Nowadays, Instagram is becoming increasing popular among marketers. The stat shows that among 150 million unique users(both consumers and business)on Instagram, 25% of Fortune firms are already maintained a presence there, mostly posting pictures on a regular basis. Brands like Nike, Starbucks, Ralph Lauren, Whole Foods and more are all top players in the Instagram big brand space.

Recently, TrackMaven, a competitive analysis firm has released a study that exposes how these Fortune 500s are using Instagram, and gives tips on how you can use Instagram like a boss, too.

Here is the summary for some key findings

1.Photo v.s Video

Photos are performing better for Fortune 500s as the video service is somewhat new.

 

2.Timing

The effectiveness of instagram marketing using pictures varies little among workday(8a-9p), off-hours(9p-8a) and weekend. However, when it comes to using video content, the effectiveness is much higher during off hours suggesting “users are more likely to engage with videos when not at work, presumably because of the audio component of video,” TrackMaven said in its report.

 

3. Instagram Filters

There are also some interesting foundings about the photo filter usage. While nofilter photo are most used by Fortune 500s, the Mayfair filter seemed to perform the best.

 

4.Instagram Hashtags

According to the study, number of hashtags correlated to the success of the content.”Looking at the interactions (the sum of likes and comments) per 1,000 followers compared to the number of hashtags used, there is a strong correlation to the number of hashtags used and effectiveness up to 5 hashtags which has the highest average at 21.21 interactions per 1000 followers,” TrackMaven said in its report.

My takeaways of Instagram Marketing

From my perspective, instagram enable companies to do “Life Style Marketing” through its platform. What I mean by life style marketing is that the picture and video feature allows the company to market their product through story telling. First of all, picture and video are more engaging, attractive, one pictures can tell thousand words without boring the customers.  Secondly, Customer can always project their own experience & feelings towards the pic without the Ad Script’s interruption. This could allow customers get attached to the brand therefore create sense of brand loyalty. Last but not least, by posting pictures took in real life, it closes up the distance between the brand and customers. Customers are more likely to believe it’s real, the brand is in my life, therefore may be more easily to have an emotional attach to the brand.

According the Treck Maven’s study, there are two key takeaways I think may be useful for companies uses instagram marketing.

1.Use Videos

The slow adoption rate for the Videos on Ins from Fortune 500 provide opportunities for other brands to lead ways in Video content Marketing by providing a different variety of postings. As Instagram functions as a highly visual platform, taking it a step further by adding more videos to your account can give you an advantage with your followers by being more engaging

2.Utilize Hashtags

The Study showed that 4-11 hashtags can increase up to on average 77 interaction per Ins Post. Incorporating hashtags by integrating them into your story telling process. Finding several most relative hashtag you can use and maximize the brand exposure by effectively use them!  Not only the brand should use the hashtag, encourage the brand advocates to hashtag the brand! Customers’ hashtag not only provide varieties of the pictures but also in a way create a direct two way interaction between the brand and the customers. Customers’ hashtag also function as peer review and word of mouth, which could also help out reach broader potential customer bases and build positive brand image among them.