Analyzing a Facebook Page

As a marketer, it's always important to run a critical eye over your work, look at it from a consumers perspective, and understand how you can improve. One of my current marketing tasks is to manage the Facebook page for the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club. Here is my analysis, and notes on what I need to improve on.

I first signed out of Facebook, and looked at this site as a first time visitor would. I need to update the cover photo, as the one at present is not quite in focus, and has been up for about 2 months. The profile picture should be more zoomed in, so it is more legible. Also, the photos for each of the apps should be updated, as the welcome page does not even have a proper photo. All of these details are important, because they are the first items a person will look at before they even see the content, and will create the first impression.

This is what users see currently when they log on to the Orienteer Vancouver page

In terms of content, my posts are fairly regular; one every 1-2 days. The new addition of being able to schedule posts has made managing content way easier, as I can set posts to appear around 6pm when I am at school/work/out running, but this ensures that when our fans log on in the evening or early morning to check their Facebook (heaviest usage times), my post will be near the top of their feed. I should look at posting content everyday, rather than every 2 days.

Most of the content is promotion of our upcoming events. As we hold at least 1 event per week, this is understandable. However, the event information links are usually just text and a link to our website, which has no image. I will look in to adding an image of each park we visit to the event page of the website, so an image will appear on Facebook. This should give more visual appeal to the posts.

I will also look in to adding a better variety of content, such as sharing information on other running races in Vancouver (as many of our members are also runners, bikers, or engage in other physical activity). I currently follow Canadian Running Magazine and Get Out There Magazine, but I should look for more local running clubs and sites to follow.

In terms of interaction, most of our posts either have likes or comments. I noticed 1 comment that went unanswered, and have corrected this. I could increase interaction by engaging users after a race and encouraging them to share information on what routes they look, or issues they had with the map.

Overall, I am pleased with the way our Facebook page looks and feels, however, I would like to increase the amount of interaction. I will act upon the suggestions above over the next week, and analyze, using the Facebook Analytics system, to see if increases engagement and interaction.

Please take a look at the Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club Facebook page, and leave a comment if you think there's something else I could work on that I have not covered above.

Social Media Tracking Tools

McDonalds recently set up a webpage called "Our Food, Your Questions"; Canadians are invited to pose questions about McDonalds food, which are answered by a representative. The aim of this campaign is to dispel myths around McDonalds food. In response to the question "Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?", McDonalds released the video below explaining the food photographing process. 

I was interested to see whether this video changed opinions surrounding McDonalds foods. To measure this, I found a number of online reports on the video. A selection of comments were taken and rated based on their sentiment towards campaign, not towards McDonalds itself. The comments +1 for positive, 0 for neutral, and -1 for negative. 


Here are a selection of comments from the thestar.com:

So does every other food shot: This is a common practice for food photographs; there are food stylists who strive to make their food "edible". but the majority of the food in shots can't be eaten. Stop the McD hate.

Score: +1


and "drum roll"..... Crap is still crap no matter how you dress it up... but so nice to see how they dress the crap... Score: -1Dishonest - How lovely to have an inside view into the business of lying to your customers.Score: -1 (this comment is interpreted as sarcasm)McDonald's vs Subway - McDonald's advertising photos look a lot closer to what you're served, compared to Subway...Score: +1Good for McDonald's - It's not like people are going to stop buying their products if they reveal why their burgers in commercials look better than in real life.Score: +1Good for them - Be honest and show people why. NO need to hide the truth.Score: +1Here are a selection of comments from Twitter:@lindsaysherry - Don't know if this was a good idea #mcdonalds - http://t.co/velfTxT9Score: -1@Budd_Dwyers_Bag - I love everything about this story. Especially the awkcent of the presenter htt://t/co/fuY6Bnh4 #imlovingit #thisiswhywerefat #mcdonalds Score: +1@leannmifsud - "@TorontoStar @McDonalds #AdvertisignSecrets http://t.co/mJCI2cN Still want a Big Mac?" Yes... Yes I do.Score: +1@tifutifers - "@TorontoStar: Melting cheese w/a blow dryer and other @McDonalds #advertising secrets: http://t.co/AgSAdWV5" bold+smart move by @McDonaldsScore: +1Overall Score: +4
From these comments, it appears McDonalds has been successful with their campaign. Some praise McDonalds for being honest and answering the question, even if they wouldn't eat at McDonalds themselves, whereas others seem to harbour a negative attitude towards McDonalds that cannot be undone by one video alone. The conclusion from this analysis shows that the campaign has been successful in improving attitudes towards their food, but more work is needed to improve the company image.What do you think? How do you feel after watching the video? Do you think that McDonalds has been successful with their new, behind the scenes approach?

Social Media News Release ~ Telly.com

As the internet becomes increasingly dominant, the world of marketing is shifting. Media, or press, releases are increasingly sent electronically, and as a consequence the "Social Media Release" is born! To demonstrate, I have reformatted this original release (found via MarketWire) in to a social media release. Here is a common template of a social media release.
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Contact: Emilie Cole

LaunchSquad for Telly

415-625-8555

telly [at] launchsquad [dot] com

Twitvid Unveils Telly for Online Video ~ A New Way to Tune In

Telly Builds on Twitvid's Social Video Network Success to Change How We Collect, Discover, and Share Video Today

June 13, 2012 11:00ET

• Twitvid announces its rebranding and a new way to share videos online at Telly.com
• Telly is a simple and fun way for people to collect, discover, and share great video online.
• 10-million plus videos already available from Twitvid archives, linking to top sites such as CNN and EPSN
• With Telly you can:
• Collect videos you love: Post and save any video from the web with our Chrome extension or web bookmarklet to create a personalized Telly, share with friends, or watch later
• Discover video you will love: Telly shows you the best video for you from across the web, by combining your personal tastes with what your friends find interesting. When you watch, you also help others discover through our real-time recommendation engine.
• Create and share videos others will love: Post your own creations to Telly only, share them with the Telly community, and easily report them to other networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Screen shot from Telly.com. Simple, clean user interface

Quote from CEO and co-founder, Mo Al Adham: "Over the last four years, we've seen more than 10 million videos uploaded to Twitvid. iPhones and Android devices have caused an exponential growth in the amount of video published on the web. How can users find great video to watch, and how do video creators, both big and small, reach relevant viewers when over 100 hours of video is uploaded every minute? This is a big problem that we understand well, and today Telly is taking the first step in reshaping how online video is viewed and distributed in today's world."


Frequently Asked Questions: 



Connect with Telly:

  

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About Telly
Telly is a new and fun way for people to collect, discover and share great video online. Brought to you by the team behind Twitvid, the popular social video network, Telly makes smart social recommendations that fit your interests to create a steady, dynamic stream of personalized video. Telly is based in San Francisco and is back by Azure Capital Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. 

Social Media and Tourism

An industry I've always been interested in is tourism, especially in beautiful BC! The tourism industry is using social media to promote themselves across the world. Tourism BC, for example, has a website, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube accounts. Tourism Vancouver utilizes Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Whatever the channels a company chooses to use, they must have exciting and enticing content that connects with their target audience. There are a variety of campaigns that tourism groups use to attention; one time larger events to grab attention and pull people in to the social media sites, then ongoing campaigns to keep people coming back.

An example of a one time event to grab attention is the 'smart' mob at YVR on behalf of the "This is Great Britian" campaign. The dancers are dressed in costumes to resemble some of the most famous British acts; the Spice Girls, the Beatles, and Elton John, to name a few. The dancing is great, and the video is fun to watch. The link in the information section of the YouTube video takes viewers to the "This is GREAT Britain" Facebook page, where you can choose to interact and follow the campaign.

An example of a great ongoing campaign is Tourism BC's "Fan Photo of the Week". Fans post their photos to Facebook, and Tourism BC selects the best ones in for the "Fan Photos of the month" album, then selects one per week to be displayed as Fan Photo of the Week. I think this is a great use of social media, as Tourism BC gets a fantastic collection of photos from across the province, and fans get the excitement of having their photo shortlisted, and possibly displayed as photo of the week.

Makes me want to jump in my car and go find a lake and mountains! Photo Credit: Tourism BC Facebook page

Are there any tourism social media campaigns that caught your eye? It's not just about being clever, it's also about being memorable!

Educating Canadians about Online Behavioural Advertising

Welcome to my first vlog on this blog!

I came across the article on Marketing Mag, and felt that there was a great lesson for marketers ~ be upfront, honest, and educate your public!

As I mentioned in the video, I strongly believe that proactively educating consumers about changing technology is a very important move. There was lots of media coverage of Google's recent move to combine search and viewing information across various Google platforms to enhance its online behavioural advertising. Google was not upfront or completely transparent with these changes, and was written an open letter by Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's Privacy Commissioner, to be more transparent. This is a great example of a situation to be avoided by clearly and concisely education consumers about their options upfront, and allowing them an easy way to opt out. You can judge for yourself whether you think Google's policies are transparent enough.

P.S. Learn more about IAB Canada.

Do you agree with online behavioural advertising? Do you think it's an invasion of privacy, or an enhancement of the online experience?