My Three Cents

Commerce 464 flew by, first and foremost. It feels like yesterday that I was panicking about having to approach a real-world client to pitch our help to them. It was something that I had never done before and felt that I didn’t have the experience to do. However, approaching Black Kettle Brewing and talking to them about their social and digital media, it was clear that asking never hurts. They were more than happy to have our group on board to help them out and it was a fun and engaging experience over the three months to see their company grow its presence online.

Using tactics and strategies we learned about in class, we saw their online presence grow substantially. To list off some numbers, we saw an 11% increase in likes on their Facebook page, a 12.6% increase in followers on Twitter, and a staggering 55.8% increase in followers on Instagram. A few of the highlights included introducing a brand new website for them, seeing one of our Facebook posts reach over 1000 impressions, and seeing the new monthly beer that they introduced in October sell out in under two weeks, something they had never seen before. That’s 900 litres of beer spoken for and most likely consumed in under 14 days!

All of these results show two things. First, Black Kettle clearly has a quality product and a company that customers have come to trust. Second, as soon as we started helping the company optimize their social and digital channels, we were seeing real world results that stemmed from seizing the opportunity that was lying within that trust and rapport that the company had built with it’s customers.

Here are a few of the main takeaways that I personally had from our client project:

1. Each post on social media counts. You need to share content that is relevant and engaging to your audience. You want to start and maintain conversations about your brand and what your brand stands for. Your social media is a key factor in establishing your brand personality.
2. Your website is just as important as your social channels. Customers need to feel at ease and comfortable with your website, being able to find the information they want as quickly as possible. Make sure your website doesn’t leave your customers with any unanswered questions, and provide easily accessible resources for customers to obtain those answers that can’t be found on your website. You need to strive to have website ‘stickiness.’ Make customers want to come back.
3. Build your brand personality. As a craft beer brewery, Black Kettle doesn’t just sell craft beer. They sell a product that represents creativity and originality. They are a brand that’s not afraid to break from the norms of the craft beer market by experimenting with new and unique recipes. They represent the North Shore of Vancouver, with it’s mountainous backdrop and West Coast mentality. Black Kettle is more than it’s beers, its a brand that customers feel that they can identify with.

Thank you Paul and Julio for sharing your knowledge and insight. This course was eye-opening and the experience that I gained from it is invaluable.

For our client marketing project, I was the one to take on the Google Adwords campaign mini assignment. I had no prior experience with Adwords and was unsure what to expect. The one thing I did expect was that I was about to learn a lot in a short amount of time. Guess what? I was right. Go me. However, it seemed that that was about the last thing I was right about.

Setting up and running a Google Adwords campaign takes a lot of time and effort. The goal of an Adwords campaign is to drive traffic to your website and convince consumers that your website is the best way to find what they’re looking for. Specifically, the ads have three general goals: (1) to generate clicks from your potential interested customers, (2) to discourage clicks from customers who aren’t interested in your brand or product, and (3) to provide an expectation of what the customer will find on your website.

To realize these goals, you need to optimize the independent variables of your campaign. These variables are your keywords between ad groups and the ads that you’re running. Keywords need to be specific and targeted towards your customers. You need to ask yourself, “What are my customers looking for and where are they looking for it?” Then, once you’ve identified your most effective 10-20 keywords, you need to create an ad that will drive a customer to your website. These ads needs to have a captivating headline, a descriptive line that defines your product, and then a ‘call to action’ line that tells your customer to act. Lastly, you need to have a website URL that shows who you are and establishes trust.

I’m looking for new windows for my renovation? Many ads pop up for companies that manufacture top of the line windows as they’ve identified what I searched for as an efficient keyword. Note, it’s funny that the first two organic search results have nothing to do with actual windows.

To optimize your keywords and your ads, you need to be monitoring their performances daily. Each day will produce new results. Effective keywords need to be kept, ineffective ones tossed out. Effective ads need to be kept and further A/B tested, ineffective ones need to be dropped. You need to be monitoring what your most economic maximum bid is to be producing a good ratio of impressions versus clicks.

Google Adwords isn’t something you learn overnight. You need to care for it and influence its growth. It’s an extremely effective tool for bringing customers to your websites, but it’s only effective if you use it right. Trust me.

As of last night, I saw my first sponsored ad on my Instagram newsfeed. It was from Instagram and I have to say, I didn’t really mind it all that much.

It’s the start of a new era. Instagram will no longer be ad-free. The social media platform has long since taken over as my personal favourite from Facebook. The interface is so easy to use and so visually pleasing. You get a picture, the photographers small thought, and you move on. However, another one of its perks over Facebook was that it was without ads until this point. That isn’t to say that the new addition has been a huge inconvenience to me, though. The ad that I saw was still visually pleasing and simple. Other ads that I’ve seen where Instagram has already rolled out its new feature have also been quite good looking…

These ads give companies a new way to expand their campaigns. Facebook posts tend to be long and cluttered and Twitter posts are too short and don’t give the user enough incentive to explore. I like to think of these ads as the ‘Goldilocks’ of content. The picture catches your attention, has ‘stopping power,’ and the short caption gives you reason to identify with the picture and to further explore the brand. It also gives companies a chance to capitalize on their hashtags, as in the Levis ad above. A picture with a theme of exploration and being outdoors and a hashtag to compliment it.

Overall, I’m excited to see where Instagram ad campaigns go, and I’m not scared. Users will still be able to hide content that they don’t want and it will make for a very personalized Instagram experience.

Who am I? I am a lot of things. If asked this question, I would respond with words like: skier, marketing student, music snob, golfer, Suits-watcher, socialite, beer-lover, actually-secretly-Palm-Bay-lover. This list may change and the order may be revised, but I know that one word will always be present and will always be at the top: skier. In light of our recent class with Julio, discussing our personal brands, I wanted to dive further into who I am as a skier.

Hi from on top of the world!

This is me, I am a skier. It is my first and foremost passion. It is the biggest part of my personal brand. In class, Julio outlined five key points to having personal branding success:

• Make sure you’re passionate
• Define your personal goals
• Create value-added relationships
• Create a tribe
• Connect with influencers

In this post, I want to touch on these five points for myself as a skier.

Am I passionate about skiing?

Hell yes, you bet I’m passionate about skiing. I’ve been skiing since I was two years old and I’ve been a seasons pass holder at WhistlerBlackcomb for fourteen straight years. I’ve covered all types of skiing, from park to big mountain to backcountry, and I love it all. I also love the new equipment that comes out each year and the ski movies that come out each year. Give me a ski, I’ll tell you the brand and the year it was made. Give me a movie segment, I’ll tell you which skier it was and what movie it’s from. Trust me, I’m passionate.

Define my personal goals:

I have always dreamed of working in the ski industry. Which part? That’s always been unsure for me. However, after working for WhistlerBlackcomb last year, I know that this is my home and it’s exactly where I want to be. I want to be a part of their marketing team, showcasing to the world the beautiful place that I get to call home. I know everything about the mountains, the town, and the people that live here. Let me share my passion with the world.

Create value-added relationships:

Be friends with people who are just as into your passion as you are. Easy.

Create a tribe:

The constant hype around new videos being released.

My tribe is my group of friends who share my passion for skiing. We all grew up in mountain towns and know how much the sport means to us. Every day we’re finding new videos to share with each other online, new articles to read about mountain expansions or new backcountry techniques, or new gear that’s being released. We’re all in the same headspace and we all support each other’s mutual interest by starting conversations and resharing each other’s content.

Connect with influencers:

Throughout my years in and around Whistler, I’ve met some very cool people. People who have inspired me and given me insight into the sport that I love. Thankfully, skiing is large community of people all stoked on the same thing- being out in the snowy mountains. In this sense, I’ve been able to stay in touch with several ‘big names’ in the ski industry. From Eliel Hindert, who’s a professional skier who graduated from UBC and manages a ski company, to Darren Rayner who is one of skiings best and most talented filmers.

So yes, if you ask me what my personal brand is, I’ll always start with being a skier.

Throughout our course and as a marketer, I have come to appreciate just how important social media monitoring has become for a brand. Without monitoring social media, you won’t be aware of what conversations consumers are having about your brand or your line of business and without this information, I think that companies will quickly find themselves becoming irrelevant.

Monitoring is about keeping an ear low to the ground. You need to be discovering and keeping watch over conversations that are discussing your brand. You then need to be analyzing and measuring these conversations. What topics are more common than others? Is the general tone of the conversations positive or negative? Do consumers have questions regarding your brand or are the presenting their opinions of your brand?

Once you have found the conversations and measured the content of these conversations, it’s time to engage. Engaging is where you show how well you’ve been monitoring. You don’t just need to engage with people, you need to engage with the right people. You must hang out in the right digital areas by embracing the online communities that your customers frequent. Creating relationships over the platforms that consumers are used to and answering to their questions and concerns is all part of building the trust and integrity of your brand. It all shapes how the consumers see you. A brand can’t be successful without the consumer knowing you.

A great example of this in an online community that I’m a part of are the ski companies that participate in discussions on Newschoolers, an online skiing content website and forum. All the skis companies have their own accounts or reps that represent them on the website and they’re constantly monitoring what’s being said about their gear and who’s saying what about their athletes.

The user ‘onenerdykid’ is commonly known as a rep for Atomic. Here we see him hosting a thread on the Gear Talk forum answering all the questions that other users have about ski boot fitting. The thread has over 6,000 views and nearly 450 replies.

Arc’teryx is my favourite outdoor clothing and technical outerwear companies. They make outstanding products with the highest quality. In this short web audit, I’d like to see if their website stands up to their product. So, without further ado, the 7 C’s of Web Design…

Context: 8/10

Functionality of the Arc’teryx website is up to par, with clearly labeled headers and dropdown menus full of options. There are easy links to their social feeds, their contact list, and a very useful searchbar. The design of the website is also very pleasing with a uniquely West Coast feel to it, showcasing snowcapped mountains and wet old growth forest scenes.

Content: 9/10

There is text where there needs to be text and it’s informative and concise. Their are pictures and videos everywhere. All of the content is useful and to the point, none of it being redundant. Product pages have pictures of the product at all different angles and videos showcasing it in realtime. The pages telling their story use a balanced ratio of pictures and words to tell it.

Community: 9/10

For each product, there is a comment box at the bottom of the page where you can submit reviews of the product. As it’s a very popular website and customers are passionate about their Arc’teryx products, each product has a long list of honest and well-thought-out reviews. The website also links to the Arc’teryx blog that is regularly updated with athlete stories and company updates. When you view the blog, you are prompted to sign up for the company enewsletter.

Customization: 8/10

Under the ‘Shop’ dropdown menu at the top of the website is a wide variety of options. You can shop mens gear and womens gear, or you can shop by activity (climbing, skiing/snowboarding, hiking, running, etc), or you can search through their specific collections. However, the website is designed exactly the same for all of these categories. There is no customization of user experience based on what the customer is looking for.

Communication: 5/10

Under the ‘Contact Us’ tab, there is a very basic user experience where you can submit an email to the Arc’teryx team with your questions or concerns. There is also a general customer service phone number offered.

Connection: 7/10

Included in the tabs at the top of their website is a link to their Arc’teryx Veilance brand website. There are also very clear links to their blog and all of their social media channels under their ‘@arcteryx’ tab.

Commerce: 10/10

The Arc’teryx website offers absolute professionalism and simplicity as it takes you through the purchasing process. You have the option of checking out as a guest or signing up to become a member with your purchase and all forms of online payment are accepted. They also give you a chance to review your entire purchase before finalizing your decision.

After analyzing the 7 C’s of Web Design, I am able to say that the Arc’teryx website is in line with the quality of their superior products.

As we saw in one of our recent classes, automating your posts on social media can be beneficial up to a point, but needs to be used in moderation. Too many automated posts from companies can lead to consumers feeling disconnected. It’s key for companies to be aware of events taking place around the world and current trends to keep their posts relevant and appropriate (You don’t want to be that surfing company advertising your great surfing lessons when the tsunami hits Japan, #whoops).

Monitoring big events around the globe can also be beneficial for companies though. As we all are aware, the Apple iPhone 6, 6+ and Apple Watch were released last month in a massive reveal event. Companies all over the world were taking advantage of the hype around the release. Most posts on Twitter were hits…

HTC mocks Apple with this light-hearted tweet during the iPhone 6+ launch event.

Chili’s Grill and Bar posts a tweet jokingly promoting their new iGuac.

…but there were some certain misses, too.

Papa John’s tweet about the Apple Watch neither made sense or was it funny. As you can see, it got a very small number of interactions.

Papa John’s, what were you thinking? Big miss. Even when you’re just joking around, you need to provide quality content.

 
I think it’s inherently smart for companies to ride along on the buzz around big events. Whether it’s a release of a new product like the iPhone 6, or a major tragedy, companies need to be in-line with what consumers are thinking about and posting. You need to stay relevant. It can only help build those business – consumer relationships.

The other day I was taking a look at my personal profile on Facebook and I saw something that I found interesting. I was browsing through my liked pages and saw that there were two large majorities: companies and musicians. I understand that my interests, or my ‘likes,’ are completely unique to myself, but I would guess that a lot of Facebook users are fairly similar.

Upon thinking about this, I started to realize that musicians are very much identical to companies in that they, too, need to make the shift to building and maintaining their relationships over social media. New and upcoming artists aren’t necessarily discovered because of the music they’re making, but because of the fan base that they’ve built up. Music has become an internet industry. And in this industry, artists need to take a look at the modern-day marketing handbook if they want to stay relevant.

Dillon Francis, an EDM artist, takes a very active role in his Twitter feed.

Marketing’s underlying theme is essential to the music industry – success ultimately depends on the relationship you have with the consumer. Artists are taking to multiple platforms of social media to connect and listen to their listeners. It’s no longer a one-way street where artist pump out whatever music they like. Instead, we see artists on Facebook and Twitter listening in on what their fans like and dislike, what other music they’re listening to, and what their interests are. These platforms also give them the opportunity to have conversations with their fans on a daily basis. All of this earns respect and trust from their fans. Artists can segment and target their market better by learning and producing the music that their fans want to hear.

A look into Andreu Lacondeguy’s winning run at Red Bull Rampage 2014

On September 30th, 2014, Red Bull posted this picture across their three main social media channels. The picture is of Andreu Lacondeguy, the man who took first place at Red Bull’s completely mad mountain bike freeride event, Rampage. What’s noteworthy about this picture has nothing to do with the athlete or the event, but to do with the attention that it received.

Red Bull boasts an impressive amount of followers across their social feeds with 1.71 million followers on Twitter, 1.8 million followers on Instagram, and a whopping 45 million ‘likes’ on their Facebook page. However, contrary to the numbers, only one of these accounts gets a significant amount of attention- Instagram.

To put it into perspective, the picture above, three days after being shared across their feeds, has only 42 ‘likes’ on Facebook and 147 favourites on Twitter. But, on Instagram, the picture has now received over 53,000 likes.

Why?

Because users are exceptionally willing to engage with content on Instagram.

A recent study by Forrester Research found that Instagram users were 58 times more likely to like, comment, or share a brand’s post than Facebook users and 120 times more likely than Twitter users. Those are some astounding numbers.

This extraordinarily high level of engagement is entirely driven by the consumers. We know, as marketers, that visual content is key. Instagram provides consumers with a platform for them to quench their need to share their stories, reactions, and experiences with visual content. These pictures on Instagram are far easier to share and understand as they’re much more universal. And the reason why consumers feel the need to engage on Instagram? The absence of clutter, which makes consumers feel like they’re better heard.

So, if you’re wondering when to hop on the Instagram train, as a brand, the answer is NOW. Instagram, like Facebook, may not be clutter-less for long. But while it is, all the arrows point to Instagram regarding the best user engagement experience.

It’s time to start learning which filter best suits that moody fog picture you snapped on your morning run and thinking about what your first #tbt picture is going to be.

Music is the universal language. Everyone has a type of music or a certain artist that they listen to religiously. Some of us like the classics, some of us like niche genres, and some of us love the thrill of exploring new music and new artists, being the first ones to discover new songs (I see you, hipsters). The bottom line being that we all love music in one way or another.

The music blog Hype Machine recognizes our love for music and gives their users the best possible way to discover new music as well as listen to the classics again. As they explain on their site, “Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We’ve carefully handpicked a set of 816 music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery.” Hype Machine gives you a variety of different methods of exploring music. This includes looking at the latest posts in the music blogosphere and the most popular posts currently in the blogosphere, to using Twitter as an interactive music chart of songs being posted, to using the Time Machine feature to check out what was popular each month over the past six years. Overall, it’s a very user-friendly experience and, more importantly, a user-trusted site.

This reflects extremely well over their social media channels. Hype Machine has 71k likes on Facebook and over 157k followers on Twitter. By definition, Hype Machine is a hub influencer. Garnering nearly 50 interactions per post or tweet, Hype Machine takes in the information they gather from the hundreds of blogs they monitor and reintroduce it to their followers in an organized manner, making it easy for users to discover new music that they like.

As an avid Hype Machine user, I am excited to see where the project goes. The site is forever growing and changing and I, the user, am always discovering amazing new music. And thank goodness for that, because without that new music on my iPhone every week, I’m sure the radio would have me wanting to drive into oncoming traffic after hearing Katy Perry five times each day. This is how we don’t, Katy.

And for any of you who made it this far through my post, here’s my favourite new song that I discovered on Hype Machine-

White Lies (ft. Jenni Potts) by ODESZA