Facebook | No Limit

One of the most common questions I hear from people that I first meet and are looking for advice or guidance in the social space is, “Which brands do you think are doing a great job?”. A lot of the time, I tend to stray away from the question for the simple fact that these people are looking to duplicate the successes of whomever I mention. The beauty of being social with your following is by being yourself. Your brand needs to own its identity and be original, it is the reason your brand has been successful up to this point. So as I lay out some of my newly favorite brands in this blog post, I beg of you to not look at them and say “Well, we should be doing this.” Instead, look at them in admiration and see how your brand can adopt some of the strategies not content.

First up is ESPN. Every male in America knows this brand. That alone is something great to have in your arsenal when launching a social campaign. ESPN could have taken the easy route, not invested in social and still had the 6 million fans they currently have on Facebook, but they didn’t. Some things they execute with success:

1) Daily, Engaging Posts: Every day, ESPN adapts their social calendar to revolve around what is occurring in the sports space. Photos are present in nearly every post (remember, photos increase interactions/impressions drastically.) Every post has a call to action and every post utilizes their irreverent, targeted voice.

2) Live Chat w/ Personalities: It’s all about transparency. ESPN often holds live chats with their anchors, sports experts and others on their Facebook page. Questions are taken from their following, creating an engaging, live event.

3) Promotion: During their prime time shows, ESPN can be seen advertising their social networks in prime real estate on the TV screen. Something many shows have caught on to and have begun implementing.

Remember college? If you do, you were not enjoying this next brand enough. That’s right; I am actually applauding the social media efforts of one of the cheapest beers of all time, Natural Light. In case you are not familiar with this brew, this is a beverage the majority of college students enjoy due to the fact that you can buy a 30 pack for $15. Here are some highlights from this brand’s social footprint:

1) Embrace Your Brand/Following: Natural Light knows that 99% of their consumers refer to their beverage as ‘Natty Light’. The company embraced this, named their fan page appropriately and secured the proper vanity URL. Their posts are dedicated to the college demographic with irreverent photos and embracing the party scene.

2) Photos, Photos, Photos: Natty Light does an excellent job of creating entertaining content in a simple photo. Their posts are often puns of the photo itself. Again, I cannot emphasize the importance of using photos when posting on behalf of a brand.

3) Promotion: Once again, this brand displays their Facebook presence on their website in quite dominant fashion. Instead of simply placing a 10×10 Facebook icon below the fold, they invest some actual, legitimate real estate and give a reason for the user to click on the icon.

Your brand may not have the following that these mammoths have, but it doesn’t matter. Every day, I make it a mission to highlight engagement and interactions on clients’ behalf. The value in interactions and engagements far outweighs the fan count. Implement some of these posting/promotion strategies and you will start to see activity on your fan page.

Chad Bryant (@chadATL)

Chad is the Director of Digital and Social Media Strategy at No Limit. If you want him to review your brand’s footprint, be sure to email him: chad@nolimitmediaconsulting.com

There you have it. One of the most credible sources in the world, Wall Street Journal, has reported a study showing that 46 percent of online users with investible assets of $1 million or more are members of Facebook. This number is up 20 points over last year. In comparison, Twitter’s demographic in the same category has dropped two points to 3 percent, according to the Spectrem Group.

And now, for the relevancy factor.

In today’s marketplace, it seems that every franchisor is focused on the multi-unit, multi-brand, homerun-hitting Albert Pujols of franchising. Rightfully so. The economic downturn forced the lowly franchisees to go back into the corporate world for many reasons, but one in particular, THEY WERE NOT GREAT BUSINESSPEOPLE. Great businesspeople know how to make money – such as the 46 percent of people with more than $1 million to invest.

This can simply be extended into the ideal franchisee candidate focus for franchisors. Who is your ideal fit? What do you they look like? How do they act? If, one of these millionaire investors approached you with interest in owning your brand, would you say no?

Of course not (especially if you wouldn’t say no to the zee who barely could inch together enough pennies to pay for your franchise fee three years ago).

So, if these millionaire investors play on Facebook – where is your development campaign playing? Where are you spending your advertising dollars? How are you getting your business plan in front of those who could actually make a difference?

The reality is – very few of you actually are. You are still using the portals as your advertising spend or perhaps some classifieds.

What happens to that lead if they don’t fill out one of your applications? They remain a ghost. What if I told you I had an answer? Perhaps not the be-all, end-all, but a good answer? Would you listen?

Max Muscle Sports Nutrition did. In fact, during a two week test of marketing specifically to the franchise prospect, their Fan Page (a blend of consumer and franchisee) generated an increase of 15,000 fans – all of which clicked on an advertisement that was franchise focused. Now, instead of being a ghost lead, we know who they are and can constantly market to them because they clicked ‘like’ (the opting in of 2011).

At every IFA Convention for the last four years, the majority have spoken skeptically about frandev and Social Media. Perhaps that opinion will now change. That same Spectrem Group study revealed that only 19 percent of millionaires used LinkedIn – unchanged from a year ago, according to the group.

However, beware of your frandev strategy because, based on your demographics, your strategy might be slightly different:

“But age also plays a role,” The Associated Press said. “According to the study, among those with $5 million or more in investible assets, the boomers are slightly more likely to use Facebook than the youngest investors — 56% vs. 50%, respectively. (Warren Buffett is an exception, of course). Twitter was generally more popular with the younger-millionaire crowd.

“They also are split on where they get their financial news. Millionaires younger than 55 years old are at least twice as likely as those ages 55-64 to get their information from social media than from traditional media outlets.”

And lastly, according to the report, “blogs remain popular among all millionaires. Nearly one-third of investors worth $5 million or more say they either read or would read blogs by trusted financial advisers.”

So, they are on there. They are waiting for your marketing. Now, go get em.

A blog post by:
NICK POWLLS
Nick is the CEO of No Limit and is ready to cheer on the Bears this season.