Social

One of the more eye-opening and surreal experiences of my life came in 2007 when I sat in a pit road tower during a NASCAR event. The thunder of the stock cars as they rambled down the front stretch to start the race is a sound and a physical rattling you'll never forget.

Seeing the crews operate behind the scenes was also something to behold. Like the car they each worked on, the crew focused on optimal performance based on speed and precision. Each pit stop had to be prepared for: tires stacked and ready, the drill gun oiled with no kinks in the compression hose (or battery full with cordless...

Welcome to another edition of the Baer Facts. This is our second in-person interview from Myrtle Beach, SC for New South Digital Conference! Please pardon the sound quality. We had Allie Wallis of the Brandon Agency record the discussion with Jay's iPhone. 

Today we talk about the massive changes that have been happening in the digital and social media space from the Google+ layout changes to Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr. What does it mean for content development? What does it mean for social media? What does it mean for the digital marketer? Jay and I break it down in this 24th edition of the...

Summer is heating up here at our Indianapolis headquarters, and our May product release delivered a few new features with plenty of sizzle over the weekend. Whether aimed to save you time, optimize your marketing efforts, or just make our interface easier to navigate, we think you’ll really like these new enhancements.

And don’t forget—we have free training on product release features via 3sixty. It’s interactive, and takes less than 30 minutes.

1. It’s Here! Send to Multiple Data Extensions
This long-requested new feature gives you the ability to save time by sending to a large data set in one...

In today’s digital era, brands are trying everything to stand out from the crowd. With more channels, more users and more campaigns than ever before, breaking through the white noise is becoming even more difficult. There is no special formula, process or social media "expert" that can guarantee success when it comes to these efforts. For Dick’s Sporting Goods, they have found a way.

@DICKS simply asked, “What do you #RunFor?” It seems like a simple enough question. And then you think about it. Running is hard work. It can be painful. There’s rarely a tangible reward at the end of a run. So,...

Social media has impacted everything from daily friendships to business practices. But one of the most dynamic effects of social media is how it has blurred the lines between customer service and marketing.

As a CMO, you know that your brand needs to go beyond listening and start doing. When it comes to social media, a further examination between customer experience and marketing has led us to three essential truths that CMOs should know about the social space. (Read the full list of truths and background information in our free-to-download whitepaper.)

The first truth for CMOs to grasp is that r...

Over the next several weeks, I will be publishing a series of posts about the basics of social media. These aren’t in any specific order, but if followed they will help you to monitor and respond to your fans and followers effectively. The posts in this series will be:

• Do Not Delete
• Remember, You’re Talking to People
• What’s the Reason for Your Social Media Presence?
• Your Customers are Talking. Listen to Them!

Do Not Delete
You might be tempted to delete negative posts from your Twitter and Facebook feed, but don't do it! It might seem counter intuitive, especially if you have a plethora of negative...

Facebook poses unique opportunities—and challenges—for marketers. It’s an inherently social channel where consumers are open to interacting with brands. But because consumers typically think of Facebook as their “personal” space, marketers have to tread lightly with hard-sell messages.

To complicate this balancing act further, consumers have a variety of reasons for “liking” a brand. Overall, however, consumers’ top reasons for becoming Facebook fans are similar to their reasons for subscribing to email. These statistics from ExactTarget's 2013 Global Executive Summary tell the story:

• For...

Are you a digital marketer? Do you work for a travel brand? If you answered yes, then this blog post is for you!

ExactTarget recently released Reaching Today’s Digital Traveler, a compilation of tips and tactics that are critical for digital marketers in the travel and hospitality industry. Here’s the list of tactics, plus the questions you should ask yourself to keep your digital communication strategy on track.

1. Grow Your Subscriber list

To determine why your brand might be missing out on conversations with interested and ready-to-purchase travelers, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you...

Andrea Vahl (@AndreaVahl) wrote a great blog post about How Your Business Can Use the New Facebook Cover Photos. While she goes into much more depth, the two primary items to keep in mind are 1) cover photos may not include more than 20% text, and 2) cover photos are no longer disallowed to incorporate calls to action, websites, or address information.

Marketers should definitely keep #1 in mind to ensure they don’t go through official Facebook reviews like I mentioned in my last blog post. Meanwhile, #2 provides some great new opportunities in taking advantage of your Facebook presence.  Even...

When the quirky and soulful independent hit Garden State was released in 2004, it captured the hearts of audiences around the world and helped creator and star Zach Braff gather a social following any marketer would salivate over. 

However, it is the way that Braff is utilizing this audience for his follow-up project "Wish I Was Here" that is really capturing the attention of marketers.

Braff took the unusual step of funding his new project through crowd-funding platform Kickstarter two weeks ago. The project has over 37,000 backers at the time of writing and over $2.5 million pledged already...

In the month of May, the entire city of Indianapolis is taken over by “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” – The Indianapolis 500. And for one weekend each year, this historic race captures the country’s attention. That short span of attention is the perfect opportunity for the sport to capitalize. In the digital era, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing becomes the greatest spectacle in social media.

In years past, the “500” – a race so famous it can be called by a number – has been criticized for its lack of enthusiasm around the social media arena. For an event this big, with so much attention...

It should come as no surprise that traditional advertising is no longer as trusted by consumers as it was in the Mad Men era. Today’s consumers are more skeptical than ever. Less than 50% of consumers worldwide trust TV advertising. So what do people trust? 92% of consumers around the world say they trust word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family over all other forms of advertising.

Brands are embracing new strategies and technologies, which allow them to connect and engage with customers in social channels. The most innovative brands are shifting their strategies from traditional...

It's almost summer and, aside from school vacations and a turn in the weather, the prime indicator of this change in seasons can be found in the barrage of blockbuster films hitting the theaters. It's standard industry practice for major studios to save the most anticipated titles for the summer lineup, in the hopes that they'll break the bank with audiences eager to spend their well earned time and money in the cool, dark movie houses. But with the birth of social marketing came new tactics to build communities of eager fans long before a film releases. Success typically does hinge on opening...

Is your brand on every social media platform under the sun yet mastering engagement in none?

The virtues of having a social media presence are blindingly obvious. After all, what brand wouldn’t want to connect with their customers, build brand reputation and ultimately increase sales? But all too often this desire to engage online gets side-tracked and you find yourself staring down the barrel of multiple social media profiles with no notifications. So how can you optimise your efforts on social media and increase engagement with fans and followers?

Let’s take a look at some best practice...

Facebook has long had Page Policies in place with rules that govern page management and provide legal coverage for Facebook regarding contests and promotions. However, the social media giant is now taking stronger and more proactive steps toward enforcing these guidelines.

The process:

1. If a Page is triggered by the Facebook system, it will be put through a checkpoint until released again.
2. During the checkpoint phase, page management tokens will temporarily expire.
3. Once the Page is released, the same exact page management token will be released and everything should go back to normal.

So, what are...

Twitter is practically everywhere when it comes to entertainment--in music, on TV, in the film industry, and more. But how is social making an impact in the tourism industry? On a recent excursion to Las Vegas, I found myself checking into the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and staring at something that I've rarely seen in hotels and similar establishments. It was a giant-screen TV positioned behind the check-in desk that presented, in real-time, all interactions with the @MGMGrand Twitter handle. This does a couple different things for the hotel brand:

• Guests are immediately struck by the steps...

ExactTarget partnered with Social Media Explorer's Jason Falls and Nichole Kelly to deliver a hands-on, full-day workshop that will leave you with a fully executable and measureable social media strategy by the end of the day! We couldn't be more excited about the content and format of the Social Media Domination Road Tour. You'll walk away with a strong foundation in the most important strategies to be successful in social media, including:

Social Media Strategy: You'll particiapte in hands-on exercises that guide you on the creation and evaluation of a successful social media strategy that is...

The recent success of social music platforms, such as Spotify and Songza, has inspired Twitter to expand its reach into the world of arts and entertainment. Primarily used as a collective newsource to share information in 140 character chunks, Twitter launched its music platform #Music last week to support music sharing and promotion. This comes only a few months after the release of Twitter's video support application, Vine, which can be used as further evidence of Twitter's expansion into other forms of communication and sharing.

#Music allows Twitter users to explore popular, emerging,...

There’s been a lot of debate about whether social media increases or decreases brand loyalty. While it allows a customer to gain more access and get closer to the brand, it also allows competing brands to do the exact same thing. With more brands competing for customers, it is easy for consumers to switch brands.  

In the sports industry, empires are built on brand loyalty – specifically the loyalty of the organization’s fan base. As we have written several times, social media and sports seem to be a combination built for each other. Now that nearly all teams at all levels are on Twitter, it is...

It’s amazing to think that just a little over two decades ago, consumers had only two options to communicate across long distances: telephone and mail. In today’s mobile, post-PC world, consumers have countless ways to communicate with each other.

They have similar options when it comes to communicating with brands. The question is, how do consumers determine the proper channel for their communication needs? The decision appears to boil down to six factors:

CONTENT: Is this a marketing message?
As we document throughout the Channel Preference Survey, consumers are much more selective about the...