Hasta La Creative!

In this Social Media Wrap Up September 2012 report, part of the Adrants whitepaper series, top marketing experts share their lessons learned and secrets on social media discussing everything from the basics to the most advanced techniques. The report, a collection of several short articles, will help you learn how your company should use social media as well as how to hire a social media agency or whether or not you should keep the position in-house.

In the report, you will learn:

• Tips to improve your social media strategy
• 79 social media facts and figures for September
• Three cardinal sins of social media writing
• Why social media managers should stop talking about social media
• How LinkedIn Groups can improve your social media strategy

Download the free report now and get the latest ammo you need to beef up your social medis programs.

For Australian energy drink V, Jung von Matt has developed Switcheroo, a “game” that allows one person post anything they want on another person’s Facebook profile…as long as you give them permission to do the same. It’s set up in a way that no passwords are shared nor is access to private messages or settings granted.

How this promotes an energy drink escapes us but it sure looks like fun. Suddenly, we’ll all be like a bunch of middle school girls who have no problem stupidly handing their accounts over to their friends who will wreak havoc, dump a boyfriend or generally slander each other with glee.

Will growups behave differently? And won’t Facebook have something to say about this?

Along the lines of Google Chrome Coffee and Happy Hour Fail, RankPop has created a hilarious video that takes a look at why girls love social media. Or, perhaps, more correctly, why guys might want to be wary.

So everyone’s got their panties in a twist over the BIC for Her pen situation. It’s being called a social media disaster, a debacle and, yes, yet another example of a brand asleep at the social media steering wheel. These are all valid points. But, perhaps, not to the degree we inside the inner circles of marketing would like them to be.

Writing in Advertising Age today, B.L Ochman, who is one of the most astute, bright and wonderfully friendly people on the planet wrote, “Judging by their clueless lack of response, BIC richly deserves its place in the anals of online brand goofs.”

Pointing out how many missteps the brand took in this situation, Ochman continued, “Despite the fact that the buzz has been growing for weeks, the brand did not have the foresight to secure @BicForHer on Twitter, where a spoof account has already been launched, nor did they buy the URL www.bicforher.com, which is available for $12.99. A Tumblr blog is chronicling the funniest reviews and blog posts. An ad for BIC for Her launched last week, and is fast picking up derisive comments on YouTube. And through it all, BIC is silent.”

Ochman is correct in her assertion that the brand fell on its face here. She’s right on all counts. But is it really as big a deal as it’s been made out to be?

In a comment to her Advertising Age piece, I wrote, “I wonder what would happen if BIC did nothing at all. Now I’m all for ‘joining the conversation’ and dealing with controversy but we’re talking abut an innocuous little pen here. I wonder if, in a week or so, after all the media has covered this to death , whether or not people will go on with their lives as if nothing happened. My bet is they will. My bet is also that in the greater sea of nationwide pen buyers, only a small percentage of people noticed this or, if they did, even care. Now I’m not arguing that a small but very vocal minority should be ignored. But in the greater scheme of things, is this really as big a deal as we’d like to make it?”

We love to chastise brands that trip over themselves. And social media has both exponentially magnified the likelihood a brand will, at some point, screw up and amplified the means through which the public can chastise the brand for doing so.

But is BIC really going to suffer any lasting pain over this? Are they going to see a drop in sales? Are women really that upset over a feminine-styled product when countless other products are feminized for women? Will BIC simply come out with BIC For Him and have the last laugh? Will this just turn out to be yet another case of “any publicity is good publicity?” What do you think?

Well this is kind of creepy. Perhaps you’ve heard of the If I Die Facebook app. It allows you to set up your “last words” to be published on Facebook when you die. To promote the service, Mizbala Group and twentythree have launched If I Die First, a campaign that hypes the service and promises that if you are the first user to die, your last words will be featured on Mashable and elsewhere. All in the name of lasting world fame, or so the campaign claims.

Campaign or not, the first person using the service who dies is going to be news anyway. Why? Because we love twisted shit like this

When posting on your brand’s Facebook fan page, you’re limited only by your imagination (and, of course, your brand’s corporate policies). But no matter what content type or subject matter you choose to post, according to Wildfire, there are six fundamental messaging strategies that you should always follow to maximize fan engagement. In this white paper, part of the Adrants white paper series, Wildfire will show you real-life examples of:

• The one topic fans always like to talk about
• The personal touch that leaves fans pleasantly surprised
• The one thing you need to include in every post

Download Best Practices for Engaging Messaging now to see how smart brands are using these six proven strategies to tap into fan passions, trigger engagement, and make fans feel like VIPs.

On average, just 17 percent of a brand’s Facebook fans share a campaign with friends and family. But top-performing social brands get 39 percent of their fans to share their campaigns. Compared to the average, these top performing brands achieve:

• 2X greater reach
• 3X greater engagement
• 10X greater fan growth

What’s their secret? To find out, Wildfire analyzed 10,000 Facebook campaigns from a 9-month period. In this report, part of the Adrants whitepaper seires, Wildfire shares the 6 best practices that allowed the top 10 percent of those campaigns to outperfom the others.

Download the report now to find out how you can improve your Facebook marketing efforts.

If you haven’t been sleeping under a rock then you know social media has quickly become one of the preferred methods for brands to interact with consumers. When done right, social media can foster meaningful relationships between brands and consumers that never could have existed before.

A new report from Kenshoo, part of the Adrants white paper series, is the first of several from digital marketing shop Resolution Media and Kenshoo Social. The report looks at global trends in social media, with a specific focus on Facebook Marketplace ads, and offers actionable insights and metrics for brand advertisers. The report introduces Exposure Rate, a new metric that gives more meaning to reach.

Download the report now and learn how you can amp up your Facebook marketing.

Here’s frequent traveler’s worst nightmare. One never wants to think about just what might be going on in your hotel room when the maid makes a visit. One hopes they simply enter and sterilize the place without leaving any of their own DNA behind.

To promote Gordon Ramsey’s new TV show, Hotel Hell, production company Ralph & Co. developed this Facebook app that provides and up close and personal experience with the Maid From Hell.

As you squirm while watching this Facebook-fueled production, you will forever wonder just what those maids do when they come to tidy up your hotel room.

Arijit is a 31 year old PhD student at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. Upon returning from a trip to India last January, Arijit suffered abdominal pain and was ultimately diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer.