The application encourages Australians to enter to win $5,000 cash and to then use a bespoke friend picker to invite their friends to the application also in order to obtain additional entries into the competition draw. Entrants are rewarded with multiple invites for each time one of their friends enters the competition as well, giving them multiple entries rather than a singular entry.

The friend invite feature is not a required component of entry. It has been designed to enable competition entrants to obtain additional entries for themselves and to share the competition with their friends, whilst the branding message is driven further through the Facebook portal via entrant advocacy.

The application offers all entrants the chance to ‘fan’ [now ‘like'] Pauls Smarter White Milk’s Facebook page [not a required component of competition entry either] as well as the chance to ‘opt-in’ to receive relevant marketing and promotional materials in future from Pauls Smarter White Milk directly.

The application sports a dedicated back-end reporting feature designed to provide Pauls Smarter White Milk with an ongoing aggregated type data report for their social media engagement monitoring and audience segmentation analysis relative to the campaign.

You can check out the competition and enter by clicking on the competition image above, or you can visit this link: http://apps.facebook.com/paulsmarterwhitemilk/

Good luck and have fun!

Australian’s were ahead of the global pack in December 2009 – spending more time on average in social media than our counterparts in the United States, Japan, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland!

Australian consumers in 1^st place for their time spent in social media sites – we spent an estimated 7 hours in our favourite social media sites in December 2009 which is 1.5 hours above the global average and for those of us that want to know – an increase of 4 hours as the global average from December 2008! We are doing some serious social media engagement!

2009 turned out to be a big year for social media as expected. Consumers spent more time dining with their favourite social media networks and tools than ever. In December 2009 global consumers spent approximately 5.5 hours in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, an estimated increase 82%, up from 3 hours in December 2008!

Facebook took out 1^st place for the social networking site division with 206.9 million users (unique) and 67% of social media users engaging with the network over the month of December 2009, whilst the average global social media user spent approximately 6 hours onsite!

So the paradigm shift that is social media continues to flaunt an upward trajectory and our brands are looking at ways to leverage the curve so that they can engage with savvy social media network users in ways that will catalyse two way conversations, positive branding engagements and interactions with targeted consumers for branding awareness, acquisition, retention and education akin. Please see our previous articles for Facebook brand benefits.

Leveraging Facebook for marketing is key and if your brand does not have a Facebook dedicated branded business page – why not?!

So what about Facebook versus Twitter, or is it Twitter versus Facebook? I’ve lost count as too how many times I’ve been asked Twitter or Facebook, or both? Watch this space for more in this regard….

All this social media talk is making me hungry for more [logs into Facebook]

Heidi von Creytz

allaboutcheddar.com

Source: The Nielsen Company

Social media has catalysed a paradigm shift in the way that brands communicate with consumers online, whilst altering the way in which consumers consume such communications. The social media landscape enables us to use various social media-based tools to interact with targeted consumers, during the times when they are most likely to engage with our brands.

Australian brands have acknowledged the power of customer engagement via social media and are doing what they can to join and start conversations online. Marketing tool-kits have changed, morphing to include

social media, as a key component. No longer will consumer-facing brands rely on online sponsorship, email marketing and general advertising mediums alone for brand management and market exposure.The fact remains that consumers are spending more time in their social networking ‘zone’ than ever before and are less inclined to leave the platform whilst in their ‘social media zone’. This means that brands that are appropriately within the ‘zone’ will benefit. The amount of benefit will be varied, ultimately driven by engagement levels achieved.

Engagement for Brands

Social media enables us to advertise to, sell to, to connect and to engage with consumers in a two-way reciprocal manner. Consumers are now the empowered masters of our online domain, and they seek more from it – they want to interact more and to communicate more, whilst they want to be more ‘online present’. 52% of Australian online users noted that businesses should establish new ways to interact with them online. (Source: Nielsen)

Social media engagement for brands is about building trust with key consumers; it’s about partaking in 2 way conversations that add mutual value to at least 2 parties. Immersion within this space is an investment of our time and assets, and we do this in order to engage and interact more with current buyers in order to strengthen and retain current relationships, increase brand awareness and acquire new buyers.

Social media value is not just about shared brand content across the online landscape – it’s about the provision of content that holds meaning and relevance to the receiver, which then catalyses a reaction – an interaction between brands and users. When content is shared across social media networks, brands can achieve new consumer online reach levels, increased awareness and user engagement.

Social media offers brands a foundation for real time customer feedback, which can be used to improve future levels of customer service excellence, product, service and branding brilliance. Whether or not we like it consumers will talk about our brands in the way that they see fit. By not being involved in this space we miss the chance to partake in a conversation that could otherwise be detrimental.

By immersing ourselves within the social media space we are giving ourselves a better chance of joining conversations that without us, may catalyse a negative effect on our brands. Content share and concomitant word of mouth is a very powerful tool for disgruntled consumers and brands that are able to respond accordingly in the right place, in a timely manner will reap great benefit.

Brands that hold a social media presence are better enabled to respond appropriately to negative posts in comparison to brands that are not. A negative post that is responded to well can also act as a lever for a brand to show it’s human side – consumers not only appreciate commentary from brands in the way of general responses, updates and improvements, they are starting to expect it. A brand response to a consumer post (be it positive, or negative) can go a long way, potentially turning a negative situation into a positive consumer–brand experience, whilst it may catalyse new buyer behaviour and concomitant brand advocacy.

KISS Principle and Strategy

Brands should embrace social media as a new universe based-marketing medium and this means respecting the communities within, and consumer desires in line with what, how and when in terms of engagement and appropriateness of contact. Social media content provision, consumer engagement, marketing and branding efforts should be synergistic with greater marketing strategy and goals.

The closer we get to cracking the code that is social network engagement, the faster the landscape and the portals within it seem to change around us and so we must evolve with the landscape itself, if we are going to remain abreast of social media. Keep your social media effort well planned and keep it realistic, in line with resource manageability, and be prepared to monitor, to learn and to grow within the space.  Brands that take time to listen and learn prior to participating within the landscape will achieve greater engagement, becoming the leaders in this space. Whilst, brands that show a human side to business, promote transparency via truth, and value that engagement is a privilege will win. The winners in this space will be those who understand that this is a game of listening, online community membership and two-way communication.

Target market segmentation 101 is at the core of social media engagement success, whilst concomitant social network selection is key. Find the right network, listen, learn, and then join the conversation, with the plan of becoming a trusted member of the community. Keep your content fresh, relevant, transparent, honest, and show a human side of business wherever possible. Timely responses that are key, and remember that you have entered a consumer-based social media zone, so talk with consumers, not at them, in line with their interests, in order to retain their engagement. Note that if you fail to plan within the social media landscape, you plan to fail and a fail in this space can cause a potential negative backwash that could be detrimental to your brand.

Retention Strategy

A lack of retention strategy means that we are limiting our further opportunity outlook, in line with new client acquisition, current user retention, and word of mouth potential. A top-shelf social media strategy can score you a ticket to the inner circle of trust, but this is merely the beginning. A retention strategy is crucial if we are to retain user to brand interest, engagement and interaction within this space in the short, mid and long term. If you don’t have a Retention Strategy your social media effort will be only half-baked.

The most Engaged brands

Whilst there does seem to be a correlation between social media engagement and financial success, it is also important to note that this does not come about without investment, in terms of time and company assets. A large investment across multiple social media mediums is not necessarily the best way forward for all brands due to resource limitations, so we must refer to budget constraints and goals in any regard prior to ‘dipping our toes’ into this space. It is important to leverage social media in line with company mission and to access the correct portals and tools, in order to truly benefit. Many brands have spread themselves too thin across multiple communities, which has led to untimely responses and disappointing engagement levels. The world’s most engaged brands have created their social media presence in line with what was deemed to be realistically achievable at the time of entry, based on internal resource and planned task management.

It is possible to achieve great levels of consumer engagement by the use of a singular social network like Facebook, subject to a brand’s target market consumers being present and a well-formulated engagement strategy that considers who and what, in terms of internal staff resource management and key task allocations necessary to manage this medium appropriately.

Trust and Facebook for Brands

Consumers are more likely to buy a product that has been recommended by a trusted friend, or that a trusted friend is affiliated with. Social media is a merely a universe of many communities – networks of people who have joined to communicate with trusted others. Social networks are clusters of like-minded individuals, who have come together to discuss and share content in line with their interests and desires.

Facebook is Australia’s fastest growing, largest, most popular social network, with more than 7 million Australian users, growing by almost 500,000 users between mid August 2009 and October 2009 end. Facebook continues to grow exponentially, in line with consumer social networking desires. It provides consumers with a multitude of tools, not withstanding it’s real time, synchronous content share tool.

Brands that are making themselves present within Facebook will be the beneficiaries moving forward, as an inherent part of the online networking experience. Such brands will be insidiously top of mind when it is time for their related market segment to buy.

Facebook enables business to engage and interact with targeted consumers to build stronger, more interactive relationships with current clients, whilst acting as a lever for new business acquisition. It is an online community portal that links people and brands effectively, fulfilling mutually interactive desires. Facebook has become an ultimate marketing tool that exists as a cost effective portal for businesses.

Facebook dedicated Brand applications and Increased consumer Reach

The Facebook platform offers brands a hub for dedicated brand application creation and development. The most engaging, interactive Facebook applications engender instant

value add, and convenience based gratification for consumers, whilst providing an additional potential perception point to users.Facebook applications encourage user interaction, engagement and brand page traffic that can then be used to grow page ‘fan’ volumes. A good retention strategy can turn resultant page fans into a new messaging stream touch point for future content share and marketing endeavours. Facebook and it’s associated geometric mesh factor offers a unique multiple user touch-point for brands, across a wide user age demographic.

Heidi von Creytz

Am I am hearing more ‘viral’ banter these days?..I mean marketers talking about campaigns and their so called ‘viral’ factor? Over the last month, I’ve heard the word ‘viral’ used more than I can remember it ever being used before….surely I’m not the only one?

I feel a little strained when I use the word ‘viral’ now.. I’m starting to feel that if I want to use the term ‘viral’, then I should acknowledge why I am doing so in order to remain credible? Is viral an overused euphemism?

Social media has caused a definite stir of excitement across our Australian marketing community of late – the use of ‘viral’ seems to have skyrocketed, inline with our YOY Facebook usage statistics! Are we wearing ‘viral’ out, from overuse and potential misuse? Do those of us who are belting out the term actually have a predetermined measurement index for a campaigns’ viral factor?

Is it that some of us are confusing the geometric mesh factor of Facebook, with a campaign’s potential to go ‘viral’ through the Facebook portal, maybe? Or is it that some of us think that it’s appropriate to use ‘viral’ with social media-based dialogue? I can understand…if this is the case? Then I think: You Tube – hey, definitely a very exciting tool and strong-hold for ‘viral’ potential, but it’s not been the content of conversation, so I remove it from the equation that is that I think that ‘viral’ is being used too often.

Social media offers campaigns a very powerful carriage-way for distribution, and potential to drive campaigns further – is social media our highway to the ‘viral hall of fame’? Is that what this new found use of ‘viral’ is all about? Maybe.

Please don’t get me wrong – I’m an absolute advocate for all things ‘viral’ and have great respect and praise for marketers and brands, that have obtained a place in the ‘viral hall of fame’. This after all brings such a great sense of success, and achievement (including plenty of back-pat tokens for all).

The Big ‘V’, or ‘V’ effect is a sure goal for each of our campaigns and bespoke applications – I’ve even used the term ‘viral’ a couple of times recently myself! Post each time that I did however– I found myself questioning myself for doing so – was I using it in the right context, was I setting realistic expectations for my client, or was I simply so excited about the campaign’s potential to go there, that I had to say it?… I mean, as a marketer, I appreciate knowing that campaigns have the potential of going ‘viral’ and I’m in to that, but the fact remains that ‘viral’ is a term, that is being used far too much by marketers right now. Due to this, I’ve made a call to be ‘viral, as a marketing term to clients selective’ moving forward – I just decided one day, that I’d use the term less and be more realistic about all things ‘viral’ – I hope that others will follow. The fact that I am in the social media scene, I think, makes this even more important.

There is no perfect science associated with taking a campaign to a ‘viral’ state – it comes down to advocacy units, content relevance, carriage-way, and a consumer’s desire to share – and sure we can hope that a campaign goes ‘viral’ through social media, but the fact remains that if a campaign lacks any of these 4 components, then we can’t expect those pleasure tokens to come rolling our way.

As marketers, I think that it’s important that we remain aware of the importance that realism brings – I think that if we are setting realistic expectations about a campaign’s potential to go ‘viral’ with our clients, then l think that we are on the right track. Honesty, transparence, and a top shelf strategy will do no harm, whilst a well aligned, well targeted social network, and social media tool kit may certainly help to increase the ‘revs to viral’, via relative multiple touch points, and associated geometric mesh factor.

Cheers

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com/

Social media has changed the way that brands connect with their consumers. It’s all about engagement now, about using the social media-based tools to interact with targeted consumers, during the times when they are most likely to engage with our brands. Many brands are finding that they require a social networking presence to ‘keep up’ with user demand and to keep competitors at bay.

The web has grown inline with our desire and need to be a part of it. With the evolving landscape that is the web, users are now seeking more from their online playground. Users want to interact more, communicate more, they want to be more ‘online present’ – most importantly though our consumers want two-way conversations that are relevant and honest, human-to-human.

While stage Web 2.0 elements are addressing our evolving web based needs, businesses are realising the positive impact that an interactive online presence can offer. Consumers are after all spending more time in their social networking zone than ever before (annual YOY growth statistics continue to show a strong upward trajectory) and are less inclined to leave the platform whilst ‘in their SM zone’. OK great – you get it!

Facebook is a pure example of a community portal that links people and businesses, whilst fulfilling interactive desires on both consumer and business ends of the scale. Facebook has become an ultimate marketing tool that exists as a cost effective portal, enabling marketers to ‘rev up’ their marketing efforts via social network user engagement.

I will be honest – I am a Facebook advocate (that’s what social media relationships are about right – honesty, 2 way conversations, relevance, being fresh, and being HUMAN – using social media to build trust and to leverage off this trust, in a mutually beneficial way – amongst other things). So, one day I woke up to become a Facebook advocate. I did so as I realised Facebook’s power for marketers, as a platform for brand-to-consumer interaction and engagement.

The size of Australia’s Facebook community and YOY upward growth trajectory is astounding – did you know that Australia’s Facebook coverage in terms of our overall Australian population is greater than that of it’s birth country – USA? Yes: 35% of Australians, in comparison to 33% of Americans use Facebook (September 2009 figures) Facebook is growing exponentially in line with consumer social networking desires. Facebook is our #1 consumer playground online and brands that are making themselves present are, and will continue to be the beneficiaries, as an inherent part of the online networking experience. Such brands will be insidiously top of mind when it is time for their related market segment to buy.

Check out these statistics for Facebook (current at 250909 = 6,572,900 Australians)

The fastest growing age demographic is 35 years+ BTW.

Anyway, I really did not plan to get stuck into my love for Facebook– I wanted to reiterate the importance of social media strategy, and to provide you with some bits and bobs that may add some value to your social media experience, as a brand that is…

Recently, a client stated that they would like to develop a Facebook based application. Perfect I thought, but then I STOPPED! Huh? – Were they planning on doing so without a SM strategy? I experienced an instant moment of stress, which compelled me to ask ‘so why would you do that?’ the answer was ‘because we want to immerse our brand into social media before our competitors do’ great…yep…thinking ahead I thought – I liked it, but the fact was that they really weren’t, and I didn’t like it!

So we had a chat, and it went a bit like this: social media strategy is crucial to your success within this landscape – it’s not a matter of buying a ticket to the game and then taking a seat. Will you be ready to catch the ball? What would you do with the ball anyway and how quickly would you do it?! By failing to create a strategy, we are opening ourselves up for failure, and a potential mess.

There are few things that brands should consider prior to immersing themselves into social media, and I trust that the following will help:

Create an internal social media strategy, inline with your greater marketing strategy and goals.

Here are a few key questions to get started:

What is my Target market?

Social media monitoring – find out who, where, when, what?

Where is my target market – what network communities are my target consumers part of, in the most part?

What do I want to achieve from my social media experience with these individuals? Do I want to:

Strengthen current relationships for retention? Drive new product and brand information for heightened brand awareness and business extension? Drive new business sales-acquisition? Manage customer relationships better, via two-way conversations and brand-to-user rich content? Keep competitors at bay? Use as a public relations content-tunnel? Other? – all of above, or just components of above?

Synchronous, non-synchronous dialogue, or both?

Some other considerations:

Competitors – what are they doing in SM?

Budget?

Timeline?

Other marketing tools that may compliment my SM entry?

Contact strategy – who can I task internally?

What reporting, measurement for success is available?

Who owns the data and how can I make it work for me?

What social media networks and tools are available, and which are relevant to my consumer playgrounds and SM-based goals?

Don’t over do it – you are best off starting within a singular network and driving your traffic there (for example Facebook) we don’t want to confuse consumers by providing them with too many options and then spreading ourselves too thin. Remember – if it’s too much to manage, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, and this means – too much! Pull it back.

Exclusive, relevant content is key and we don’t really want to be promoting duplicity of content across the web do we? Remember – the most ‘fans’ wins – the higher the # of ‘fans’ that a business Facebook page has – the better the geometric mesh factor is. The more ‘fans’ – the better you would hope your content will be, the more 2 way conversations you will have and ofcourse the more feedback you should obtain from your users. Oh and BTW – the more ‘fans’ achieved = the more important is your ‘fan’ retention strategy.

Once you have ascertained which social media tools are most appropriate, it’s time to build your contact strategy, taking the following into consideration:

When and how is best to engage the community?

Create rules for engagement and interaction (maximum time frame of response, contact strategy: who, when?)

Get real, be honest, build respect – use a P2P 2way (person-to-person) approach – don’t SPAM and don’t ‘me me me’ the community unless you want to be kicked out of the party!

Get a good retention strategy in place: plan for a short – mid – long term life cycle factor of your social media presence and remember that social media relationships are two way, and as soon as half of that relationship drops off, the conversation is over. So a retention strategy is key – I recommend that you do what you can in advance to remain relevant and fresh, whilst you provide your consumers with interactive tools to keep them coming back to your page, or site. Remember that your ‘fan’s not only assist to maximise your geometric mesh factor, but act as a positive catalyst for your SEO.

Note: there is no point in driving traffic to a Facebook page that is not ready – don’t do it and if you write in SM that you are going to follow something up – ensure that you do, and then post appropriately in order to follow on your promise.

If you receive a negative post – don’t freak out! Use it to empower you to improve your position – always thank individuals, who provide feedback and for the negative users, take their notes on board, then return to them to show what you have (or have not) done about it! Nothing builds trust within your community better than transparency that results from an issue – remember if it doesn’t kill our brand, it makes our brand stronger + if it almost kills our brand – get out there and use SM to work the community, to show them your brand’s human side! No human after all is perfect – we make mistakes – but it’s those of us who make an effort to fix these mistakes amicably, and then learn from the experience, that are able to differentiate ourselves as heros in this regard. If you muck up – do the right thing – step up to the SM plate. Oh and one more thing – a lot of us like to complain – even more so, we like to complain about a complaint that we’ve lodged that hasn’t been dealt with – so please ensure that if you are engaging with consumers via post-based dialogue especially, that you are responding within a reasonable, professionally correct time frame – more than 24 hours may be too long right? Right, but then it’s also about customer experience and expectation – please remember these ‘guys’.

What ever the case, Facebook is the largest, fastest growing social network that Australia has right now, and it is an absolute goldmine for consumer driven brands who realise that social media is about mutually beneficial, two way conversations and interactions that are relevant and fresh.

Facebook enables businesses to engage with targeted consumers, to build stronger, more interactive relationships with current clients, whilst acting as a lever for new business acquisition. The Facebook platform offers developers a haven for dedicated brand application development – the best of which operate within Facebook brand pages, and engender instant value add, and convenience based gratification, whilst providing an additional potential perception point to users. The fact remains that strategy is key, and as Chris Brogan suggests – “we wouldn’t build a hotel without a toilet!”

PS: Our client has since commenced work on a social media strategy and an application will be developed in line with this – only if it is believed that it will add true value, which no doubt it will….but anyway, that’s a story for another day.

I hope that this article was helpful for you – please do provide feedback – I am after all writing this as a social media piece, so feel free to have a two-way conversation with me, if you agree / disagree, like / dislike and be honest!

Cheers.

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

© Copyright Cheddar Marketing 2009

The closer we get to cracking the code that is social network engagement, the faster the landscape and the portals within it seem to change around us and so we must evolve inline with the landscape itself, if we are going to remain abreast of social media.

We can’t  just build something and hope that our target market of consumers will come, nor should we use social media as a stage for message promotion purely from a branding perspective, if we are not around to listen to feedback and to reply to consumers in a timely manner with appropriate responses.

The winners in this space will be those who understand that this is a game of listening, online community membership and two-way communication. It’s all well and good to jump into social media, guns-a-blazing, however please do take time to write a social media strategy before you throw your toes into the water. A social media strategy should be mapped out from point ‘o to go’. Would you run a marketing campaign without having completed a marketing strategy? Same same, but same.

Social media is about engagement sure, but I note that the winners in this landscape will be the businesses and brands that respect that engagement is a privilege and not one to be taken lightly. This means that those of us who are prepared to listen and show a human side to business, whilst promoting transparency via truth, will be our leaders in this space.

The volume of campaigns that I have seen flow into the social media space, without a retention strategy has shocked me. This shows a lack of understanding of what social media means for business and consumers akin. Honestly, is there a point of positive difference that I am missing, by rolling out a campaign through any social media portal without a retention strategy? By doing this, we not only frustrate consumers who want to experience further engagement with us (who we have encouraged to interact to do so already as part of our promotion), but we limit our further opportunity outlook, inline with new client acquisition, current user retention, and word of mouth potential via this medium.

We need to embrace social media as a new universe based-marketing medium and this means respecting the communities within, and consumer desires in line with what, how and when in terms of engagement and appropriateness of contact.

Social media can mean so much more for businesses, the core of which is a strong foundation for mutually beneficial relationships, within a captive social media-based target audience, or community. A well thought out social media strategy can help us to get a ticket to the inner circle of trust – the winners take the prize.

PS: Please respect our social media communities – do not disrespect them by SPAM-ing them with irrelevant messages, and if you create a social media presence – please be prepared to provide responses that are timely, useful, correct and representative of your organisation’s code of conduct and authentic mission.

Thank you.

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

© Copyright Cheddar Marketing 2009

Virtual gifting is the ultimate branding, awareness and engagement tool, enabling brands to interact more with consumers, enabling them to ‘rev up’ their consumer engagement function.

Forward thinking brands are using virtual giving campaigns to build and heighten their brand, product and service awareness levels across new targeted demographic groups, whilst they maintain and grow their current relationships via user interaction.

Virtual gift campaigns are also a great way for brands to launch new products and services to market via a branded gift strategy.

Virtual gifting has been a key campaign success driver for the most impressive, most engaged and most successful Facebook applications to date and is reported to be one of the few online advertising mediums that consumers actually enjoy to receive!

A key factor here is the roll on effect of the big ‘V” (viral effect) that has been seen to work in conjunction with top-shelf virtual gifting campaigns. Virtual gifting CAN act as a positive agent for viral potential, and that is pure gold, no matter how you look at it.

An estimated statistic of spend is that $34.5 million was spent on virtual goods on Facebook alone over 2008.

Cheers,

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

© Copyright Cheddar Marketing 2009

Many of you are now aware that GTMP has initiated a launch competition.

The goal of the competition is to get as many fans as possible. The winner will win $1000 AUD cash, a photoshoot with a well known Melbourne fashion photographer and their very own editorial feature within the dedicated Facebook brand application called GTMP.

Users are encouraged to have their friends and industry contacts ‘fan’ them in order to get them moving toward the token GTMP prize!

We are starting to see some interesting activity in the backend as users embellish their GTMP profiles – photo galleries are flourishing, the scroller is scrolling like it’s never scrolled before!

The aim of the competition is to introduce our users to GTMP’s true functionality – that is profile building and ‘fanning’- all in preparation for the true launch that will enable GTMP to fully morph into it’s true state – that is the Portal for Global Talent Management.

GTMP is a clever Facebook application that has been designed and built specifically for user and job advertiser interaction, across a specific demographic group that is talented individuals.

The Portal enables talented individuals to showcase their work in the form of their GTMP portfolio whilst it enables job advertisers to host their roles at no charge, within Facebook.

The competition is two fold, the other fold – not already noted is the viral marketing effect, that we hope will drive traffic to the site for user engagement.

Social media applications of any type require user engagement to succeed. Without the big T (traffic) and the big E (engagement) we’re really only going to be left with a really pretty, very cool, highly technical application to brag about and we are gunning for so much more, as are our current users who look forward to interacting with top shelf job advertisers for work moving forward.

GTMP will also act as an enabler for social media brand sponsorship and engagement for relevant brands. Once user volumes have reached our internal goal level, we will invite specific brands to engage with the site from a media placement angle.

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

© Copyright Cheddar Marketing 2009

Social media has catalysed a paradigm shift in the way that brands and marketers communicate with online users, whilst altering the way in which consumers consume such communications. Social media enables us to advertise to, sell to, to connect and engage with users in a two way reciprocal manner.

Consumer participation is key to Social Media, as consumers are now able to not only receive content from brands and marketers, but are response enabled. Social Media allows users to partake in the self provision of text and imagery responses across various Social Media mediums, within social media online environments.

Users are now masters of the online landscape, carrying various Social Media tools that enable them to interact with brands and other users directly if they wish to. As users interact online – they are writers, uploaders and down loaders, networkers and buyers.

Users are now seeking more from their online playground – they want to interact more, communicate more; and they want to be more ‘online present’. Social media enables the interaction between users and brands within an online user trusted environment. Sound Social Media engagement should provision value to both sides of the Social Media relationship.

Social Media value is not just about shared brand content across the online landscape – its about the provision of content that holds meaning and relevance to the receiver, that then catalyses a reaction – an interaction between brands and users. Users who then share such content with their network of users and / or online communities aid viral effect, resulting in new consumer online reach levels, increased awareness and user engagement for brands.

Recent social media growth statistics and its concomitant trajectory figure statements are staggering. Brands and marketers have started to realise the power of customer engagement via social media.

Our marketing palettes have morphed to include user social network engagement as a key component of our media tool kits. No longer will we rely on online sponsorship, email marketing and general advertising mediums alone for brand management and market exposure.

Brands are now engaging with consumers via social media to increase market presence, to grown and to intensify and enrich relationships.

Social media is the parent of various Social Media children elements – the Social Media playground for brands and marketers is grand. The current Social Media landscape covers three key components:

1. Social Media Sites

2. Blogs

3. Social Media Applications

I am particularly interested in what will be moving forward relating to Social Media engagement uptake from a brand and marketers perspective: what core Social Media components will become key elements of our Social Media engagement strategies and campaigns moving forward? No doubt there will be highs and lows in terms of ROI figures – heres hoping for plenty of highs where our marketing success is concerned.

My educated guess is that Facebook will be at the forefront of Social Media marketing strategies – for many the concept of Facebook marketing consists of two key components: dedicated Facebook brand applications and PPC advertisements, however the Facebook environment really does offer more value to marketers if they really consider current options available in line with actual demographic profiles associated. If used meaningfully, the Facebook platform can, does and will offer marketers and their brands a highly tactile Social Media ready canvas for strategic and targeted social network user engagement based campaigns.

2008 – 2009 showed us a significant media shift towards the digital online landscape. Its looking to me like Social Media will change the landscape once again through 2009 – 2010. It will be a rapid paced evolution and those with first mover advantage will benefit exponentially.

Will social media really position itself as a key component of the marketers tool kit pie over the new financial year? I will be keeping my eye balls on the actual % split of the Social Media pie, whilst remaining abreast of Social Medias growth curve charts where this split is concerned over coming months thats for sure.

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

© Copyright Cheddar Marketing 2009

The Global Talent Management Portal (GTMP) is an interactive modeling, talent and casting Facebook application that showcases Facebook application development at it’s best.

GTMP has been designed specifically to provide a rich, social networking-enhanced user experience. The application allows users to create their own ‘professional’ profile. Users can upload photos directly from their Facebook page, which then scroll across their profile page as dynamic gallery images.

The core attribute of this application is that users are able to engage with like -minded individuals and potential employers, within the social networking environment that is Facebook.

The GTMP community is a specific group of individuals, who are always on the look out for what’s what’s HOT and in vogue. Many of these individuals are at the forefront of fashion and value ‘looking good’. They are models and talented individuals, who hang out at funky bars and love a good party.

Heidi von Creytz

http://www.allaboutcheddar.com

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