Social Brand Equity

In 2013 more businesses will begin to recognise the important role that social media plays in the production of brand equity. Brand equity is a valuable asset to a business; one that increases the financial value of the business. Social brand equity, also called social brand value, is an expression of the unique relationship between a business and it’s audience. Social media can hence be used to nurture that relationship. This approach, as opposed to focusing on a quick sale, leads to better results in the long term.

An Empowered Audience Is an Engaged Audience

Social media has given consumers a voice and online audience have become more outspoken. But instead of talking about the latest discounts and offers from their favourite businesses, people are now sounding off about what they like or don’t like about a business. They are sharing passive talking in a marketing message. If you encourage your audience to be empowered and to have their say, you will secure their engagement for the future.

Broad Horizons

The sheer number of existing social media websites where online audiences can have their say is overwhelming, and the pool just keeps getting bigger. In 2012 Pinterest had a never-before-seen growth from being a small, niche site, mainly used by women, to becoming one of the five biggest social networks. Before social media, businesses were still in control of when and where their marketing messages would appear. Now however, businesses can no longer choose the social media channel that they appear on. Consumers share information between the different social media networks. This is why an all-encompassing approach is recommended.

2013 brings new and improved ways of using the information gleaned from social media to build up your social brand equity. So, in order to have access to this valuable information, you will need to follow your target audience on the social media platforms of their choice.

Need help with your Social Media? Talk to our specialists today and see how we can take your online presence to a new level.

The post Marketing Trends for 2013: No Marketing Without Social Media appeared first on Grafton Media.

Mark Zuckerberg and Director of Design, Julie Zhuo recently announced a number of Facebook changes which will be rolled out over the coming months. These changes will impact on business pages and brands in a number of ways. In this blog post, I’m going to examine the new Facebook changes and discuss how these will impact on businesses as well as brand pages on Facebook.

Firstly, it’s important to note why these Facebook changes were required. When Facebook started out, News Feed was primarily populated with text updates from users. That of course was prior to the explosion of camera phones and affordable data plans. Since then, the majority of the content on News Feed is visual content. As well as that, many users have complained that their News Feed is cluttered with updates from brand pages and public figures. Content from brands actually makes up approximately 30% of our News Feeds. This percentage isn’t really the issue. To me, the fact that users are complaining means that brands are not providing content that is engaging or entertaining enough. Now, more than ever, brands must ensure that they consistently provide useful content on platforms such as Facebook. Otherwise they run the risk of being blocked from a user’s News Feed.

For these reasons, a number of Facebook changes were announced:

“Rich stories; visual and engaging”

Regardless of how good your visual content is,  News Feed currently doesn’t deservedly represent the rich content that you produce. However, the new design ensures that visual content takes centre-stage; it represents this rich content in a deserved light and gives you much more space to showcase your images.

From a brand’s perspective, this particular Facebook change could mean that you no longer have to solely rely on the likes of Instagram or Pinterest to show off your rich visual content. On the flipside, if you are the producer of substandard visual content, this Facebook change means that you will need to ensure that your content is high quality and strong enough to be able to compete with other brands who are posting similar content.

The layout of photo albums has also changed. Albums will now appear on News Feed in a way that tells a story. For brands, this offers an opportunity to move away from posting a lone photograph and instead posting an album which will tell a story and achieve a higher level of engagement with consumers.
Publishers and media organisations will also be pleased to know that links to articles will be represented with a bigger image and longer titles and summaries.

“Choice of different feeds; dig into any topic that you want”

This change is a means of combating the cluttered News Feed. It gives the user more control over their feed. For example, if they just want to see posts from friends, they can select the Friend feed. There’s also a Photo feed which allows the user to see all updates which include photos. Again, this means that brands will need to ensure that they are only producing high quality visual content.

There’s also a feed where users can see updates from pages. From a marketing point of view, this changes things quite a bit. No longer will your brand message slot in between updates from friends. Now you will appear in a feed where you are primarily competing with other brands. Again, this means that all brands must up their games and ensure that they provide content worthy of grabbing the attention of the user. Since users will now actually have the ability to ignore the business pages feed, it’s more important than ever to ensure that we provide useful, engaging and entertaining content that will bring the consumer back for more.

Mobile inspired UI

The feel and design of Facebook will now be the same across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Therefore, users accessing Facebook on a mobile device will have a much better experience than they currently have. This also means that the content you post will be consumed more consistently across all devices.

Here’s a quick look at some other recent Facebook changes that you might have missed:

• Facebook recently updated its policy for business pages. There will no longer be rules against a call-to-action, contact or price information on cover photos. In saying that, businesses and brands must still ensure that cover photos are not made up of more than 20% text.
• If someone likes your brand page on Facebook, your cover photo will now appear in a friend’s feed. This is the perfect opportunity for marketers to create a cover photo that will attract other potential customers to the page.

If you want to get on the waiting list for the new design, click here to register your interest.

The post How Facebook changes will affect businesses appeared first on Grafton Media.

One of the things I love most about this elaborate prank by Google is the help section of the ‘new service’. For the people who still haven’t figured out that this is a prank, are still pressing their noses against laptops and iPads, and still can’t get Google Nose to work, not to worry; Google Nose is still in Beta so of course it won’t work on every machine. For those experiencing errors etc, here are some solutions provided by Google:

• Due to technological constraints, not all smells are compatible with all devices. From a user’s point of view, of course this is acceptable. We can’t expect Google to have Google Nose fully accessible on all devices. I’m sure it would work on Chromebooks though!
• Refrain from licking or biting your screen. Come on, we all have a friend who would stoop to this level of embarrassment and we’ve already sent them on the link to Google Nose.
• Try upgrading to a modern browser, such as Google Chrome. Hat tip to Google for this one- we’re all used to experiencing problems with various browsers. Of course Google Nose will work on Chrome though. I wonder how many people downloaded Chrome to experience Google Nose?!

Here is promo video for Google Nose:

If you think that was all from Google, think again. The company was very busy on run up to April Fools’ Day this year. Google also announced that YouTube would be shut down after 8 years and would no longer allow videos to be uploaded. This, to me, is less believable than Google Nose. However, one could be more convinced after Google released a video filled with very well known YouTube stars, which explains that YouTube was originally set up for a competition to find the best video on the internet. It’s amusing to see the group of people sitting down to review each and every YouTube video before a winner is announced in the year 2023. YouTube will then go live again but will only feature the winning video.

Here is the very entertaining promo video for the closure of YouTube:

The company also added a Treasure Map feature to Google Maps. This feature transforms Maps into an old-style pirate map which includes drawing of some famous landmarks. For example, if you zoom in on Dublin or New York, you can see 2-D drawings of landmarks such as The Spire, The Statue of Liberty etc. The Treasure Map feature is a follow-on from the 8-Bit Google Maps prank from 2012.

Google is very well known for pranks around April Fools’ Day from the Job Openings for Autocompleters video to this year’s Google Nose feature. In my opinion, this year we have witnessed the most entertaining series of pranks to date. Let’s hope that Google can up the ante again and try to get one over on us in 2014.
Happy April Fools’ Day.

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Do you live and breathe social media? Always dreamed of breaking into a cutting edge digital marketing agency that works with some of the sharpest brands in the market?

We have a fantastic opportunity coming up in our Dublin office for an entry-level intern to work as a community manager alongside our social media team for some of our clients. During your time with us, you’ll get real-world training and experience from inside one of Irelands leading digital marketing agencies.

One of your key roles will be to make close bonds with different targets markets and online influencers through channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others, and be the eyes and ears for several of our clients across these platforms.

If you’re looking to launch your career into the social media and marketing space, this really is an opportunity not to miss out on.

On The Job Duties

Content related activities

• Working alongside our creative team and with our clients to achieve and exceed goals set
• Develop an ongoing communication and marketing strategy based on marketing objectives and community feedback
• Continuously providing editorial support for many different social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and others 

Community interaction activities

• Interact with online communities across multiple platforms in a creative and proactive way
• Reach out to your community through conversations and generate hype around certain products, brands and events. Whilst doing so, identify and engage key influencers and brand advocates through these channels
• Be able to work within client guidelines to answer online questions and promote positive conversation 

Reporting activities

• Work with our analytics team and with our online tracking software to see how well online campaigns and statuses are performing
• Compile weekly or monthly reports on interactions, likes, highs and lows of campaigns and other statistics that are relevant to a client
• Proactively communicate with other team members on any issues, opportunities or highlights of a campaign

Qualifications and Experience 

• Stays on the ball with the latest trends
• Understands the way the digital world works, across sites such Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Flicker, blogs, forums and other channels
• Commercially minded and driven
• Proactively seeks out current and future industry techniques and researches new technologies
• Has an eager want to interact with online audiences and takes a keen interest in the brands being worked with
• Excellent at both competitor analysis and market research
• Eager to learn more and thrives in a fast paced environment
• Works equally as well in a team as well as individually
• Excellent communication skills required to share experiences and results with other team members
• Fast but proficient writing skills are essential, with the ability to crank out editorial content
• Able to identify opportunities and threats from different social media content
• Past experience in managing content and in publishing is a bonus

This position is for an internship that is unpaid, but can lead to a paid position with our agency. We are looking for a superstar in social media who has the potential to become a fulltime member of our team!

Salary

Unpaid (but expenses such as travel are covered)

How to Apply

Send your CV and a Covering Letter to recruitment@graftonmedia.com
Include any social media presence you have personally i.e twitter, tumblr, blog, vlog etc.
Tip: Stand out! – We receive a lot of CV’s!

The post We’re Hiring! Grafton Media – Community Manager Position (Intern) appeared first on Grafton Media.

That was all well and good, but that was the past.  If you didn’t believe in traditional media before today, then this example might just change your mind….Fanta have literally given us a taste of the future and have introduced a game changer in the area of print media by creating “The World’s First Tasteable Print Ad” – an edible print ad to introduce their new flavour.

The advert starts by using strong copywriting to paint a picture of what will be experienced when one consumes the product – “like a burst of sunshine”, “surprising and juicy” – all pretty standard. But then with a massive twist, the final line takes this advert to a level far beyond any other print advert – “Just tear off a piece of this page, pop it in your mouth & enjoy a Fanta by tasting this ad!” Yes, you can taste it right now, and no, you do not need to drink it from a bottle. While it may seem like something out of a Willy Wonka marketing campaign, it’s completely legitimate.

The best thing about this ad in my opinion is that every single consumer who sees this ad has the ability to experience the taste of the product. I don’t think any other marketing channel (excluding sampling) could possibly give you this much power in terms of enabling the consumer to test the product on such a large scale.

Premium magazines carry perfume samples, novelty birthday cards carry the voice of Daniel O’Donnell – there’s nothing new about this, so of course the next progressive step would be to provide consumers with the opportunity to experience the taste of a product through print media. When you think about it like this, it’s a wonder that it took food and drink brands so long to tap into this area.

The print ad was created by OgilvyOne in Dubai for citrus-flavoured Fanta. While the promo video for the campaign claims that this is “The World’s First Edible Print Ad”, Volkswagen actually earned this accolade about 2 years ago with its “Eat The Road” campaign. This edible ad by Volkswagen was created by Ogilvy in Cape Town so it seems strange that OgilvyOne are claiming the Fanta ad to be the first edible one.

The sceptics will question the costs associated with implementing more campaigns like this and of course they have reason to. Inserts add additional costs as it is, not to mind adding in the cost of each plastic sleeve used to protect the edible ad. That said, the PR value of this stunt alone was probably worth it. Ultimately, this is the type of marketing that is considered worthy of being covered by the press. This coverage leads to consumers craving the opportunity of being able to eat a print ad; but since the costs of implementing this is probably very high, it is unlikely to appear in any more than a few publications. For this reason, most people will have to settle for drinking the product from a bottle, which is what Fanta wants after all!

But what’s next? Edible billboards or bus shelters made from chocolate perhaps?

The post Fanta – One of the world’s first edible print ads appeared first on Grafton Media.

Pitchify.me Dublin Event

Pitchify brings start-ups, investors & industry experts together for networking, discussion and general chat, across all ages and walks of life.

Infact if you’re a start up, don’t miss out on our 3 minute pitches for your chance to secure investment from investors attending the event.

Not only that but you will gain valuable business experience from their keynote speakers at each event, with inspiring speeches and valuable Q&A sessions.

Pitchify is a FREE event that takes place every 8 weeks in Dublin, so make sure you come along for what promises to be a great night. To book your place click “Register Now“ for the next event.

Pitchify has over 400 people now registered to attend the next event on the 6th Feb in Dublin.

Sponsored by:

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Graph Search – the 3 pillars to Facebook (Newsfeed, Timeline & the new Graph Search)  Graph Search was built with privacy in mind. “Most of the content on Facebook isn’t public, so you want a way to find things that have been shared with you.
10 percent of Facebook’s computing power is spent on ensuring privacy. Apparently.

It sounds like Facebook has just made it even easier to stalk with their new search functionality coming soon! Or does it?

Back to privacy issues… If a person only shares their profile info with friends, then they won’t show up in search. Unless you are their friend, of course. Still, not sure if I am confortable with this at all.

People can easily search through your picture by typing in “Eimear playing tennis” and it will group all my pictures. A question I have about this is if you need to tag your photos appropriately or if it just knows based on the photo’s geotag/timestamp etc?

You can also tie the search to other interests. For example, you can search for “music liked by people who like Grafton Media“. You can also search for services in the locality but you can go one step further – example used on stage “restaurants in San Francisco liked by friends from India. Lars confirmed that the top result returned is, indeed, delicious”.

The graph search page is live now, complete with demo videos. Though it seems like not everyone has access to the feature yet. http://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

Limited beta rolls out today, and it’ll start slow, and as more info is indexed, it’ll roll out more widely.

The post What was Facebook’s announcement? appeared first on Grafton Media.

Grafton Media, The Digital Media Agency are delighted to announce that they have agreed to be Global Platinum Sponsor for the very successful Web Summit for 2013.  With summits taking place in Ireland, UK, United States, Singapore and mainland Europe this will aid Grafton Media with its global expansion as it plans to open offices in New York and other locations during 2013.

The Web Summit is a series of tech events held in London and Dublin. In 2013, the Web Summit will launch events in New York and San Francisco. Last October’s Dublin Web Summit attracted over 4,200 attendees from 45 countries. Speakers included Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL; Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype; Luke Woods, President of Beats By Dre and over 200 others.The partnership is worth in excess of €150,000 and will see Grafton Media as THE only Creative Technology Agency to be promoted at the Summits taking place around the world this year. There will also be a further 20 “Pub Summits” across Europe and the USA which Grafton Media will also be involved in.

With its headquarters in Dublin and two offices in the UK (Manchester and London), Grafton Media see this as a unique opportunity.  Dave Antrobus, Joint Managing Director said of the sponsorship, “Grafton Media are thrilled to be partnering with the Web Summit for 2013.  We immediately saw the advantages of being associated with such a fantastic and fast growing brand as the Web Summit and see it as a great opportunity to showcase Grafton Media in both markets that we already exist in and ones that we hope to develop in over the next twelve months.”

Paddy Cosgrave of Web Summit said of the deal, “We are delighted to have Grafton Media on board as a partner for 2013 it is a great endorsement of the Web Summit as a platform to do business. This year we are entering new markets and it is great to have another Irish company by our side.”

With the Europa Awards taking place on 22^nd January and quickly followed by the London Web Summit on 27^th February (full calendar of events below), the sponsorship will see Grafton Media not only have a presence at the seven web summit events this year through their amazing stand but they will also be panel members, speakers, mc’s and judges at each of the events giving Grafton Media the opportunity to meet with likeminded people and rub shoulders with tech giants which can only further advance the growth of their business in Ireland and beyond.

Calendar of Event for 2013

22^nd January                Europa Awards

27^th February              London Web Summit

28^th February              Digital Media Conference London

14^th March                   New York Web Summit

May                              San Francisco- START

June                              Singapore – START / Web Summit

29^th – 31^st October      Dublin Web Summit

www.graftonmedia.com     www.websummit.net

The post Web Summit Casts it’s Web Over Grafton Media with Partnership appeared first on Grafton Media.

The key to success in an online venture is dominating the search engines, particularly Google. 65% of all searches are done using Google, a fact which clearly cannot be ignored. One of the most significant elements of a successful search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign is keyword research.

When you research keywords, you should looking for the perfect compromise between the level of competition and the relevance to your content. The key words and phrases that you choose to use in the content of your website should be those which receive enough search queries while at the same time not placing you in a situation where you to compete with well-established sites which already have very high rankings. You’ll never get into the first page of the search results if you choose keywords which compete with sites that receive many thousands of hits per day.

Keyword Research Tools

There are many keyword research tools out there, including plenty of free ones One of the most popular is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This resource is extremely useful for evaluating important elements of keyword research such as competition and monthly searches both globally and locally. It also tells you that value of any keywords or phrases that you search for. Newbies might find it tempting to go for the most valuable phrases, but this is not the most important factor. If, for example a keyword has a high value of several euros or pounds per click, but is only searched for a hundred times per month, you’ll never succeed by using it. Likewise, you’re nether likely to do well by relying on keywords which are searched for thousands of times per month if there is also a great deal of competition. For example, if you are running a web hosting company, you won’t want to rely on the key phrase ‘web hosting’ since there are already plenty of well-established companies with high rankings using this phrase. Trying to compete with sites relying on such keywords is completely impractical.

Long-Tail Keywords

Newbies to SEO are often tempted to go for keywords and phrases which have hundreds or even thousands of hits per day. It is important to realise, however, that the most popular keywords only account for less than a third of all search results. By contrast, around seventy per cent of search queries are for long-tail keywords rather than just a single word.

With long-tail keywords, your SEO marketing campaign has a far higher chance of success, since you can enjoy a far greater degree of versatility. Long-tail keywords are key phrases of three to five words. While there are far fewer search queries, you also have a lot less competition and a more efficient method of targeted marketing.

Lets say, for example, that you run a website selling a home improvement eBook. The key phrase ‘home improvement’ already has a fairly high amount of competition, although there are still a lot of searches. Using long-tail keywords such as ‘home improvement projects’ or ‘home improvement stores’ for example, provides better targeted advertising with lower competition.

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Here’s the T&C’s:

• One entry per person
• The winner must be a resident of Ireland OR the UK
• Winners must be over the age of 18
• No employee of Grafton Media may enter
• Winner will be chosen by random computerised selection

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