The post New SMBs Choose Social Media to Advertise, Retain & Acquire Customers appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The post New SMBs Choose Social Media to Advertise, Retain & Acquire Customers appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

I attended an intriguing breakout session — “Spreading the Word: Advanced Strategies for Content Distribution” — at the ad:tech conference today in San Francisco’s glistening Moscone Center.

The session  featured a presentation by Alex from Digitas, who walked the audience through the conception and implementation of a social-centric campaign to introduce a new taco at Taco Bell. A new menu offering is a big deal in the QSR world.

To launch the new taco, Digitas went to great lengths to construct a series of “speakeasy” videos, in which the new taco was essentially hidden from taco-starved millennials, and they had to go to great lengths to get one. This contrived scarcity was intended to create a groundswell of consumer demand — which is exactly what it did, propelled by social media.

To make all this happen, Digitas flipped the typical sequence of using “Paid, Earned, Owned” media to “Owned, Earned, Paid.” They used the content of the “speakeasy” videos on their own sites, which generated tremendous interest among their hungry followers who proceeded to post, Tweet, blog, and Instagram about this new taco to all of their followers. Media paid by Taco Bell then picked up both the original vignettes and the first wave of social media, and amplified everything. This became a self-reinforcing cycle, until something like 3 billion impressions were earned. Of tacos.

Key takeaways

— “Paid, Earned, Owned” media can be used in a creative sequence, to maximize the impact of a campaign.

— Content can work across the spectrum, at all points in the purchase funnel.

— When advertising on mobile, the advertiser needs to be “in the content feed” — because most mobile devices don’t support a side column of advertising adjacent to the content.

— If the advertiser comes up with the right message [for its audience], “the message will find the fans.”

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It’s been an active week for The Washington Post Co. First, it added to its portfolio of vertical sites with the launch of Service Alley. Now, it is hatching a subsidiary brand — SocialCode — to act as a full-service Facebook marketing agency. First and foremost an advertising service, it will also specialize in hard-to-hold applications such as social commerce, fan monetization and competitive analysis.

The idea of a media company diversifying into integrated marketing is nothing new. Tribune Co.’s 435 Digital and GannettLocal both have expanded marketing efforts beyond their own proprietary products to further leverage relationships with local clients. In Tribune’s case, this includes social media optimization and monitoring. Similarly, this past April, McClatchy struck a search marketing partnership with third-party reseller WebVisible.

The concept of a company planting its entire stake on top of Facebook has already gained ample traction, too. Marketing agencies such as Buddy Media, social commerce-enabling middleware providers such as Adgregate Markets and Payvment, and promotions builders such as Wildfire are all tethering themselves to the network.

What is new is the notion of a traditional media company rooting itself entirely in Facebook. However, taking into account Facebook’s 650 million global users and recent estimates pointing to $1.2 billion in domestic ad revenues in 2010 (the majority coming from smaller businesses, the kind that a media company like The Washington Post may have established local relationships with), a singular focus on the big F makes more sense.

Then there’s the personal angle. Post CEO Don Graham serves on Facebook’s board, and his daughter, Laura Graham O’Shaughnessy, is leading SocialCode.

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Groupon’s smashing success has spawned hundreds of clones and, given its relatively simple technology and the absence of entry barriers, buoyed those imitators that they too may strike it rich in social commerce. Wildfire Promotion Builder comes at it from a different angle. Rather than wrangle with the behemoth head-on, the start-up sees itself as a complement that enables businesses of all sizes to design full-scale social media marketing campaigns.

CEO Victoria Ransom told BIA/Kelsey that whereas a business may enlist Groupon once or twice in a year to generate a flurry of activity, Wildfire works more regularly with its clients to drive them to interact with and reward their customers through “continual engagement” over social networks.

Ransom also stressed that Wildfire is far more than just deals. In fact, it began in 2008 as a platform that used sweepstakes on Facebook fan pages to build engagement. Now, contests, giveaways, quizzes, voting, trivia and other activities are all part of the portfolio. And, of course, deals. “Deals have been great for us in generating buzz and attention,” Ransom acknowledged.

Wildfire gives marketers and merchants of all sizes a six-step self-serve process to build their own campaign. Once developed, it is published to Facebook and Twitter and posted on the company’s own Web site (or for those without a Web site, to a microsite connected to Facebook through Facebook Connect).

Aside from giving brands the kind of social media integration that they hear is vital but don’t know how to execute, Wildfire’s most inviting feature is its flexibility. Campaign designs can be customized or templated. Pricing packages (an upfront-plus-daily-fee hybrid) range from $5 upfront/99 cents per day to $250/$4.99, based on the level of brand control and depth of analytics desired. A full white-label offering is available for those seeking full brand control.

Whereas many online advertising platforms initially cater to national and regional brands seeking specialized targeting and then attempt to migrate down market, Wildfire actually began as a social media service for SMBs. Ransom quickly discovered that “big businesses also didn’t have expertise and needed a scalable option.” Now, Wildfire works with brands as big as Target and the W Hotel, and as small as a local laser tag company near its Palo Alto headquarters.

To date, Wildfire has relied on positive word-of-mouth P.R. to create a viral effect and reach small businesses. But Ransom knows that continuing to grow this revenue stream will require additional channels, and that it “definitely would make sense to consider reseller partners” (though none is presently in place).

Back to the issue of Wildfire’s position in the Groupon galaxy. The outgrowth of Groupon’s self-serve merchant center has given Ransom something else to think about. However, while conceding that Groupon Stores “hits a bit more in our area with do-it-yourself deals,” she also contends that the big G is still playing predominantly in direct social commerce, while Wildfire is in the social media presence game.

And if Groupon is at worst a “frenemy,” then Facebook is certainly not a foe. In fact, the social network once gave Wildfire a grant through the Facebook Fund. Ransom has already seen opportunities to integrate Facebook Deals for local businesses into their wider suite of social offerings.

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