Viral Marketing Project

For my Marketing 322 class at Davenport University, I had the opportunity to create a message that can be posted on Social Media with the hopes that it would go viral. I decided to make a short video ad that launches a photo contest for a free trip to Hawaii. Feel free to watch the video here.

I did make this video 'unlisted' on youtube, so no one would accidentally come across it and think it was real. But if it was, I believe it would be something that would definitely go viral. I believe that video has the ability to capture someones attention and convey a message that will be engrained for a longer period of time. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth much more. The video is in similar style of the Pure Michigan ads narrated by Tim Allen. I think they are impactful and portray a positive message about the State.

The video would be posted on Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms with the instructions on how to enter the contest. The content can be easily shared with friends and family and the images of Hawaii will motivate anyone to enter. The main idea of a campaign like this would be to attract people to the University's social media platforms and convert them to take interest in what we do. I used Davenport for this project because we all are familiar with it, but this process can be used with any company. Overall, I feel that Video is a powerful tool to convey any message and a call to action embedded in a video takes it one step further.

References:

Video Stock Footage provided by: Sawyer Hartman - https://www.sawyerhartman.com/
Music by: e-soundtrax background music - http://www.esoundtrax.com

Social Media Planning and Generating Leads

I had the opportunity to watch two Stukent webinars regarding the use of Social Media. The first webinar featured Adelyn Biedenbach, who is the Director of Digital Media for the Florida Panthers hockey team. Adelyn talked about Social Media Planning and how important it is to a business. There is so much more to the effective use of social media than just having an account and posting every now and then. A business must be intentional about what content they are sharing out and when they are sharing it out.

Adelyn Biedenbach, Florida Panthers

Having a Social Media account means that your followers have 24/7 access to your business and although it may not be on your mind to post at 3am, customers might be. Knowing when you customers are active and what they are interested in seeing is an important step to building a lasting relationship through social media. It is also important to keep the content relevant. One way to help with this is to develop and utilize a calendar system. Using a calendar, the company can not only schedule posted content, but they can differentiate between media types such as pictures, video or promotions to mix up the content and keep it fresh. When it comes to planning, it is critical to remember that you are posting to appeal to your target group and you must understand what they want to be relevant.

Bree Nakatani, Wishpond

The second webinar featured Bree Nakatani who is the Success Lead for Wishpond. In her webinar, she discussed the process for soliciting leads through social media. There are several ways that companies can utilize social media to connect with new customers and ultimately make conversions. One way of doing that is to run a sweepstakes. In this scenario, the company will offer up a good or service from the company for free of charge, all they have to do is enter the sweepstakes and agree to the terms. The terms of the sweepstakes usually involves the customer authorizing the social media platform to automatically add them as a follower and tweet a message on their behalf. The tweet will be shared with the customer's followers and spread the desired content of the company.

Other ways to use similar tactics involve holding an Instagram hashtag contest where users are presented with a photo from the company and they have to come up with a creative hashtag to describe the picture. And another avenue would be a Facebook photo contest where users can upload their best photos representing the company and ultimately be chose to win a prize. All of these marketing techniques are used to draw people into the social arena of the company and hopefully convert them into sales. Understanding the use of social media tools and techniques like these will set businesses apart from the rest and develop relationships with their client base. After all, grounded relationships are integral to the success of a business.

Using Social Media to Drive Sales

More and more businesses are turning to Social Media to help drive sales and many are finding it a very valuable tool. Some may wonder just how effective social media is when it comes to driving sales. A few businesses believe that social media is so effective, that they no longer need websites any more. A recent article published by the Chicago Tribune talks about the best ways to utilize social media to help bring in customers and keep costs down as well.

One of the main benefits is the cost factor. Most major social media platforms do not charge like some web hosting companies do and in most cases they offer more benefits than a traditional website. Not only does the business have control over the content that is being shared, the platform itself is created in a way that allows for that content to be shared in a more viral way that allows the message to spread faster than a traditional web page. However, the article does explain that if a company is to truly benefit, they should consider having both a social media presence and a website. The article states that, "To secure new sales leads or traffic requires search engine optimization for your particular products or services. Even though your business page on a social media site may show up high in a Google Search, that doesn't necessarily translate to converting those visitors to your social media business page." (Hoagland-Smith, 2018) It is pretty important for a business to have both avenues to really have the best shot at connecting with customers.

Another article goes into more details about the importance of a website. The article states that, "People expect businesses to have their own websites, just as they used to expect businesses to have a real physical business address." (Ward, 2017) The main marketing focus of a business should be to gain conversions; to get people to become your customer. Why would you limit yourself when it comes to marketing avenues. A website is just as important as a social media platform and if you can establish both, the business can be very successful.

References:

Hoagland-Smith, L. (2018). Expert use of social media can bring sales. In The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptb-hoaglnad-smith-feb5-st-0206-20180204-story.html

Ward, S. (2017). 6 Reasons Every Small Business Should Have a Website. In The Balance. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/reasons-small-business-website-2948414