Creating “buzz” around your product, business or event is the demand from clients to all social media marketing strategists. The common question is, can you take or produce a piece of content and make it go viral?” Can you wave your social media marketing wand and make everyone want to read it? Can you also use the same trickery and create traffic for our website?

For many, these practices are this magical event that must be forced upon the viewer or reader so that everyone will talk about “their thing.” However, buzz isn’t an event, but a reaction to a process. That process doesn’t start with a video on YouTube, but with a marketing strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing both online and offline.

Social Media Explorer highlights a few tactics to get you started when you begin to consider developing your social media strategy:

Read full post at Social Media Explorer

Let’s play with your ROI…

Media planners are now reacting and preaching a bowling strategy with a ‘360° approach’: Each media is a bowling pin and your two bowling balls are the communication investment waves you have to reach your target. If you’re lucky/agile you’ll hit it at the right angle to get a strike or at least a spare.

But if you’re not… you’ve just killed no birds with two stones!
;-)

What about a cool pinball game?
Size does not really matter… you can still have fun with smaller balls!

The pinball (your investment) is way smaller but the goal of the game is radically different too. Its no longer about a linear ’shoot’ but rather a surprising continuous game. Some of the tools (flippers, shaking the machine) are under your control, others react themselves (bumpers, ramps…) and help you if you play the game well to increase your score.

The goal now is to develop non-linear strategies, and to keep a small ball going and going, bouncing around everywhere giving you unique opportunities like extra balls and jackpots.

Same player plays again?

I recently received a link to see what type of lover I am. I jumped to the gun immediately, as expected. I mean, who isn’t curious about those big issues in life. So, after filling out an extensive 5 question quiz that comprehended issues such as my favorite time of the year, I submitted my answers and eagerly expected my answer. It was then that the application asked me to send the quiz to 15 friends in order to see my answer. And that’s what I did. It was only then that I realized that I received the quiz via the same mechanism – somebody wanted to see what type of lover they were and innocently forwarded the quiz to 15 unsuspecting victims.
The truth is that the Facebook system for applications is ground-breaking in many senses – it allows companies and individuals to create applications related to certain content and that engage with the users to a certain extent. But they only work if the users have an incentive to push the application onto others in their social network. Therefore there are two ways – either the application is that good or there is a mechanism that makes the user has to send an invitation.
And thus API Spam is born.
API Spam isn’t, by any means, an official term to this phenomenon. Spam can be defined, to those who want to actually understand the term extensively, as

the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages

Spam in Social Networks isn’t new. The thing is that it has followed the same rules as it ever has – sending messages in forums, message boards and individual e-mails indiscriminately to advertise a product or service. Nothing new there. But in the API Spam, there is a specific and interesting methodology involved – the ones who push the advertisement are the consumers themselves driven by the mechanisms built into the application itself. We can already see 4 distinct patterns in those mechanisms at this early age:

- Receiving the results only if you send the application – Curiosity related;

- Accessing exclusive content if you send invitations – Exclusivity related;

- Gaining extra functionalities if you send invitations – Gamer related;

- Being listed as high priority if you send invitations – Social Network related (it is mostly related to semi-dating Applications in Facebook).

The fact is that Facebook was ready for this – in a previous post we mentioned that Facebook has an automatic functionality when you reach 40+ applications on your profile to hide some of them so you can organize your account. This breaks any limitations to the extent that a Facebook profile page might have. Pages do get a little slower as you build up applications, but that’s up to the user to decide. Truth be told, who can refuse an invitation to a brand new quiz or a good karma sending by your closest (or not) friends? API Spam is consumer-driven via built-in mechanisms in the API and it might just redefine Spam. Is it good or bad? I’m not absolutely sure. But one thing’s for sure – it is an opportunity for Marketeers to develop new ways of engaging the users and convincing them to actively advertise the Brand via the use of the 4 basic (I say basic because its still to early to already begin narrowing them down to smaller categories) patterns.
Oh, and by the way, I’m the “Student” type of lover.

Part of Orange Unlimited campaign, a web-page that never seems to end, an addictive crazy little world of never ending doodles, mini-games and interactive animations including breakdancing monkeys, musical chickens and of course where would you be without a guitar playing pot-plant! Building upon the seemingly never ending scrolling page of endless wacky character the site communicates the campaign message of limitless free text messages, by encouraging us to follow the never ending rainbow of fun found in its online, print and television campaigns.

If you’ve been paying attention to what is going on online, the new keyword is “OpenSocial“. Recently announced by Google, OpenSocial opened its doors to developers on November 1st, and believe me, it does deserve the websphere hype it has been generating.

Essentially, what Google did was provide a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites by tapping into 3 distinct sets – member profiles, social graph and member activities. Unlike the Facebook case, that uses FBML (Facebook Markup Language) in it’s APIs, requiring every developer to invest yet again in learning a language to develop a Brand presence in another Social Network, OpenSocial allows developers to use JavaScript and HTML to create apps for Social Networks. Of course, at this stage, the participants are “scarce” – but by no means unimportant! With names such as MySpace, Hi5 or LinkedIn for Hosts (the place where the Apps can be used) and ILike, Slide or Flixter for Developers (the companies that develop APIs for the OpenSocial library and key Facebook App developers), there is definitely an alarm ringing for Brands to check it out. During the initial release of OpenSocial, several examples were presented.

Of course, some noticeable names are missing, Facebook on top of them all. But I believe this is expected – this idea derived from the success of Facebook opening up API development to third parties, and let’s face it, there is little love between Google and Facebook. OpenSocial represents Google’s Trojan Horse into the private information gladly given away by users in Social Networks – the trump card Facebook held high. And with this comes the potential to extent AdSense’s lifespan. A smart move indeed.

On the other hand, while being a good concept, OpenSocial is still standing on shaky foundations. The inherent characteristics of each Social Network – simple friend aggregation, relationship between users, etc… - makes it difficult to develop an API in which the actual experience the user gets out of it makes sense on every Host. Also, since Social Graphs still aren’t intertwining, how to create APIs that are set upon the User’s social graph if this is fragmented in the various hosts? Doesn’t it ruin most of the desired effect this project would have? 

For this beginning stage, Google opened up a sandbox in Orkut for developers to test their API creation skills. What are the next steps for you, thinking about what should you suggest your Brand to do? Test, try, observe, read and let the experts deal with it in this first stage. If you have resources, get someone watching and reporting on this subject. As soon as you see a break, try to create something worthwhile for the Brand - an app that takes in consideration the possible limitations and possibilities of OpenSocial’s System. But, in my opinion, do not disregard it – if Google manages to attract the big fish into this, we could be witnessing the birth of something big – a possibility for Brands to, in a “simple” way, engage with consumers in an environment otherwise closed to them.

Every movement has a counter movement. It has been true for political, cultural or sociological movements throughout time. It is normal for it to happen as it is as innate to human nature – we can only see black because white exists. In movements this happens naturally – it’s a natural evolution. And, as in every other aspect of society, this applies to the Internet.

The clash that the engagement on the Internet causes in various factions is noticeable. People who defend the web, who are against it, who are indifferent, and who simply don’t have an opinion. The fact is that the Web has given birth to a whole new level of interaction between users, as it has evolved from a mere channel to the stature of an era changing tool – the engine of digital philosophy (more on this coming in a future article). But, to focus on the main point of the article, one of the most important tools that appeared on the web is the Social Networking Websites. I will not rant into the importance or characteristics of SNW, as each of their aspects deserve an article on their own. I’m going to focus on a more sui generis subject – the counter movements of social networking.

For every major SNW tool, such as Facebook or SecondLife, a counter website has appeared. Although it brings nothing new to the ying/yang balance of movements, it does bring up a few interesting details – just as specific as the characteristics of the SNW, so are the movements as they show the flaws of the original ones in ways that sometimes we fail to grasp. And, above all of it, it all comes down to a fight between the SNW engagement and relationships axis vs the real life experience. We can actually witness to the birth of an online symbolical universe that we begin to share as a connected community.

Take SecondLife for example. The Virtual SN System found opposition in the one page satire First Life, which displays the advantages and perks of getting on using the account you were born with – reality. Using the same homepage structure as of its original counterparte, GetaFirstLife can’t be considered a tool on its own, but it has gained quite some popularity due to the blunt way it shows the users how disconnected from real life they become when engaged in the SecondLife Hype.

Facebook, on the other hand, found a few more counters, being Enemybook, Snubster and Hatebook the best examples. While the first two are apps inside Facebook itself, in which users can list their hated users and list their misdeeds, or “snub” them by pointing out warnings to them on their behavior, the second is a website on its own. With a structure very similar to Facebook, Hatebook makes fun of just about everything on Facebook by containing, for example, a “Hate Album” where the users place the things they hate the most. Actually, the site includes some added value the go beyond the basic features of Facebook, like a Google Maps app that shows where the members are. Of course, the more hyped the SNW, the bigger the probability for a counter-movement to appear. That is barely the point – the point is how these movements have a life of its own and an entire line of thought that doesn’t connect to the offline world at all.

Apart from the counter-movement websites that are directly connected to a popular SNW, there is an example of one directed towards the Social Networking phenomena – NoSo, where people are invited to join in Flash Mobs without actually talking to each other – the joy of making no friends and no connections. This shows how the main focus of the counter-movement – the fight against the constant, non-stop contact in every area of the Web, as well as against the nonsensical social graph developed through the profile adding frenzy of people who aren’t even friend’s of the user.

So how does this relate to a Brand? At this stage it is early to say – as I delve more into Social Networking Profiling and in the coming Digital Philosophy article, I will try to make it clear to you how the Web should be faced – not as a digital print of real life but actually as an evolving independent organism, whose importance is widely acknowledged. But, studies done upon this subject do no justice to the inherent concepts and lines of thought that a online marketer should take into account when developing the Brands’ online presence. In the course of these lengthy articles, I hope to help the reader to develop the in-depth necessary to consider your work in the online world with the necessary context – connected to an online world without being stuck to the offline world universal knowledge. When you are able to do so, then you’ll definitely have gone from the Information Age to the Communication Age and will have taken the most important step towards creating true and relevant engagement with the online consumers.

So what’s the link between this hilarious movie and chocolate i hear you say? Because, as you noticed, there is no chocolate shown in the commercial. But we can assume that the guys in the white and purple brand’s marketing department knew what they did when they wrote a £9m cheque, the biggest spend on chocolate in many years. Especially when you know that the client behind this, Phil Rumbol, is responsible for the amazing Stella Artois campaign, and that it was written by the guy who made the Sony Bravia ads (Balls and Paint).

I invite you to read this article in today’s Independent, allowing you to take a break from my poor English. Feeling lazy? I understand, you’re still hangover from the weekend. The quoted paragraphs below make a pretty good job at summarizing it:

People don’t want advertisers droning on and on about their products any more; they want to be entertained. “Cadbury traditionally did well-built ads for the interruption age when consumers had an implicit media deal with advertisers. In exchange for free TV they would allow us to interrupt their programmes with commercials,” says Green. “The nation has a massive soft spot for CDM and it is deeply embedded in the national psyche. For a brand that is so well known, it’s arguable whether the old style interruption advertising model is the best model for the future. So we are trying to engage more genuinely with our audience.”

But there is a product message in there too. In fact, the entire commercial is a product metaphor. “Chocolate is about joy and pleasure. For years Cadbury has told us that it was generous, through the glass and a half strap line. We thought, don’t tell us how generous you are; show us. Don’t tell us about joy; show us joy.”

That’s just what the campaign tries to do. “We’ve created a branded space in which Cadbury’s can be generous in bringing joy,” says Green. That may sound like adman’s blather, but it a sign of an important philosophical shift in the way that advertising agencies are beginning to approach their work.

Oh and since being remixed is a pretty good form of flattery, especially on the web, don’t miss this one, it’s almost funnier than the original! Now let me grab some more chocolate before going to bed.