What is ySocial? Here at Thrive, we realized that YMCAs have a very unique position on Facebook and Twitter. Just like any organization, YMCAs want their members to know what is going on at each location, fundraisers and events, pool closings, fitness classes etc. Since the booming growth of social media, alerting members of this information has become much easier.
Social media is a constantly growing platform. As soon as a new social app or site catches attention, it spreads like wildfire - the whole point of social media. The newest fad is Vine. What is Vine? Twitter launched the video-sharing app, Vine, designed to allow users to create a short film of 6 seconds. Each short video runs on a loop, functioning much like an Instagram feed, showing friends and their videos.
Social Media is one of the largest, fastest growing mediums online, today. Sit back and think for a minute, is your brand present on the major social media platforms? Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram? If you have not ventured into these platforms yet - you need to. To maintain a strong presence online, your brand will need to establish a profile on each. Here are some tips for your brand to follow when revamping your presence online:
Having trouble keeping the conversation going with your followers on Twitter? You might not be tweeting at the right time or starting the conversation off with the right tools. Twitter is different than Facebook when it comes to keeping a conversation going. Throughout the day it seems that more people are on Facebook than on Twitter, especially during the week. Arm yourself with the right tools and statistics to keep a conversation going and tweet out relevant information your followers will want to retweet.
As part of a 'How To' series - we will show you how to enhance your social media strategy, build your online community and engage them!
Toledo.com/Thrive Internet Marketing recently launched its very first CrowdTilt campaign in support of Streetspun Yarnbombing. If that sentence doesn't compute, let me back up.
CrowdTilt is a crowdfunding startup. It allows friends, family and community members to support various initiatives or organizations by contributing to their efforts and helping to create a community push that makes financial goals more attainable.
An organizer describes in detail the item or cause they hope to fund, and asks for their friends (and sometimes even strangers) to contribute with whatever denomination they feel comfortable with. Contributors can choose to donate anything from $1 to $5,000 or however much the project costs. The organizer can also set the campaign's run dates, so if you need to fund a project in one week, two weeks, three weeks, or a month, you can choose the parameters that best fit your needs. If the CrowdTilt campaign "tilts," the money will be transferred from every contributor's credit or debit card and into the bank account of the organizer or agency receiving the funds.
CrowdTilt is similar to Kickstarter, but does not require the organizer to offer incentives or gifts (though you can offer gifts if you want). Additionally, a CrowdTilt campaign does not require a video, and organizers do not have to seek approval for their gift or cause. Essentially, a CrowdTilt campaign can be set up in less than a day.
Toledo.com identified a worthy community cause that we thought our fans and followers could appreciate: Streetspun Yarnboming's Yarn Fund. Streetspun is an anonymous street artist who crochets beautiful pieces of art for bike racks, lamp posts, parking meters, street signs, etc. across the Toledo landscape. The works are bright and colorful, and almost seem to keep their attached structures a little warmer, especially in these chilly months of winter. In fact, yarnbombing is an international craze, and cities across the world have embraced their own rising street artists. You can even spot some of Toledo's yarnbombs in other cities (and non-Toledo yarnbombs here), thanks to Streetspun's yarnbomb exchange.
The staff at Toledo.com/Thrive IM truly appreciates Streetspun's efforts, who has created some 200 yarnbombs for the streets. However, Streetspun has created all of these yarnbombs on their own dime. We reached out to Streetspun via Facebook and asked how much is spent on materials (a.k.a. yarn) each week. $20 was the reply. And to fund Streetspun's efforts for duration of 2013, we'd need to raise $1000.
To ensure that Streetspun received the money, we decided to run the campaign for three weeks, and set the goal at $500. We also encouraged Streetspun to offer incentives to anyone who donated $50 or more to the cause, and decided that at the end of the campaign, we would select three contributors at random to win personal yarnbomb gifts for their generosity.
We didn't know what to expect, and it took all of us by surprise when we reached this goal within 24 hours. Oh, the powers of social media! Not only did Toledo.com promote the campaign to our 21,000+ Facebook fans and 3,000+ Twitter followers, but Streetspun reached out through their social circles as well. We also shared the campaign on Toledo.com for our 200,000 unique monthly visitors to find. Combined, we managed to seek out fellow yarnbomb enthusiasts to share the CrowdTilt and make contributions.
With almost a full three weeks left, we encouraged our fans and personal friends to donate, even though the initial goal had been met. After all, we were still $500 shy of the actual amount needed to fund Streetspun for a full year. This proved to be a little more difficult since that sense of urgency had dissipated. With a little persistence and some effective "call to action" messaging, we surpassed the goal within hours of ending the campaign. The final amount raised for Streetspun Yarnbombing's Yarn Fund: $1,105. That money was donated amongst 37 contributors, some of them friends of Toledo.com, some of them friends of Streetspun, and some of them complete strangers. Because of these contributors, Toledo will be a more vibrant and warmer city this year.
Our first CrowdTilt campaign was a huge success, and exceeded Streetspun and our own expectations. Not only did we meet our goal and then some, but we were able to utilize the Toledo.com brand, demonstrating once again how much we care about the surrounding community. We can't wait to launch additional campaigns in support of worthwhile Toledo causes. If your business is looking for a simple, frugal way to give back to the community, consider organizing a CrowdTilt campaign.
There are plenty of assumptions that people and marketers alike have made about Facebook when it comes to connecting with customers. Some of these assumptions could be hurting a brand's marketing effort on social media. Facebook and Twitter are now places where customers gather to obtain information, vent about their concerns or problems with a brand, converse with friends and acquitances, and the list goes on. These platforms are of enormous opportunity to marketers. A constant, running forum of information that brands can use to better their products, company and employees. If you have any of the following assumptions about marketing on Facebook, or are skeptical on how well Facebook can really help your brand - we are here to help you take a different line of thinking and better your brand communication with customers.
Are you wondering what promotion your YMCA is going to be for the New Year?
How are you going to market it? Where are you going to spend your budget?
Taking your membership campaign can have a low cost and be effect for gaining new members.
Consider this. Most of your prospect’s eyes are online and inside of social media. As a marketers we need to follow our prospects eyes and get savvy online inside of social media. The average internet user spends 2-3 hours of time online and 75 minutes of that time is using Facebook and Twitter. That is only on average, so the time spent on social media could be much greater. So it’s time to transition some of your traditional marketing dollars into social media.
Compare the cost of using your budget on digital media versus traditional - the trade off will amaze you. Keeping a simple spreadsheet to measure member lead acquisition is important. You will need to track the total amount of visitors, total amount of lead forms completed, the total cost of the Facebook ads. Divide the total cost by the total leads and you will have your cost per lead. This number should be less using social media than traditional media and get better over time as you polish your efforts.
Here is a short list of the tasks you need to execute to launch a simple online membership campaign:
1. Change your Facebook cover images to match your campaign.
2. Update your website front page and have corner call outs.
3. Launch Facebook ads: you will spend anywhere from $.80 to $2.00 based on cost per click to target a specific demographic.
4. Change "About" info on Facebook page
5. Create tab app for promotion to link to promotion page - include auto play video (less than 30 seconds)
6. Create Facebook badge that is shareable for people who have participated
7. Create a referral page, allowing current and new members to share the information
Overall transforming a small portion of your marketing budget to social media is very important to recruiting new members to your organization. Be sure to take the time to create your campaign and match every aspect to the needs of your viewers and followers. You wil increase your traffic online and awareness.
Our in house social media gal, Emily Rippe, is assisting with my blog post today and together, we have come up with some tips on how to be "Social Media Ready" for 2013. When I asked Emily what she felt were the best tips to give brands on social media going into 2013, this is what she said, "You're not the only brand on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram anymore (nor were you ever). The rise of brands on social networking sites is more than ever before, and an important thought to have in the back of your mind for 2013 is how to distinguish your business from all the others. Maybe you've been doing this all along, but it's time to step up your game."
