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Wildfire Report - 5 Best Practices For Increasing Earned Media
Wildfire Report - 5 Best Practices For Increasing Earned Media
Wildfire Report - 5 Best Practices For Increasing Earned Media
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Key Findings................................................................................................................................................ 4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................15
Key Findings
The most entered campaigns are not the campaigns that generate the most earned media, or sharing activity. Certain campaign application types generate higher entry and participation rates (contests and sweepstakes for example), while other types are more likely to be shared via a news feed post or an invite to the app (pick-your-favorites, quizzes and trivia). Coupons, giveaways, and sweepstakes get the highest amount of entries on average. Pick-your-favorites, quizzes and trivia that get the most shares by users, thus creating more earned media for the brand. The campaign types that generate the most earned media are those that allow users to reveal personal preferences, tastes or opinions to their Facebook friends. These include pick-yourfavorites, quiz and trivia applications. People are equally as likely to enter contests and sweepstakes whether they heard about them directly from a brand or from a friends post. In other words, where a user learns about a contest or sweepstakes within Facebook does not impact the likelihood they will enter it. The earned media generated by users sharing to their networks about interactions with these apps resulted in a significant conversion of new users in other words, the earned media is working. For example, 82% of the users that clicked on a friends news feed post about a quiz theyd taken went on to take the quiz themselves.
82% of users that clicked on a friends news feed post about a quiz theyd taken went on to take the quiz themselves.
Sweepstakes:
Sweepstakes are similar to a lottery, where the prize winner(s) is/are chosen randomly. The odds of winning depend on the amount of entries.
Trivia:
The trivia application provides multiple choice question trivia where users can measure their knowledge. The results of a trivia campaign generate a number score, and typically display it alongside the average score of all the other users that have participated in the campaign.
Quiz:
The quiz application provides quiz questions configured to result in a categorization of the user based on the responses submitted. Results display an image and statement, i.e. I took the Which Sex and the City Character are You Quiz and found out Im a Carrie!
Coupon:
The coupon application provides customizable coupons, vouchers or codes that consumers can print or redeem electronically.
Giveaway:
The giveaway application provides a sign-up form which allows users to submit the relevant information necessary to get on the list for a brand-sponsored giveaway.
Pick-your-favorites:
This application enables a user to choose a pre-determined amount of items from a larger set of brand-selected items to demonstrate their favorites.
What campaign types resulted in the highest engagement and earned media?
The study found that, on average, coupons, giveaways, and sweepstakes get the most entries and Facebook engagement. This is not surprising, as entries to these campaigns are closely correlated with low barriers to entry (as in a sweepstakes), high-value perceived rewards (as with coupons), and the popularity of a sure thing (as with giveaways).
Coupons, giveaways, and sweepstakes get the most entries and Facebook engagement.
Before you restructure your entire marketing plan to only run coupons, sweepstakes, and giveaways, the study found another significant trend: the most entered campaigns are not the campaigns which generate the most sharing, and resulting earned media.
What do we mean by sharing, and how does sharing create earned media for brands?
In this study, sharing occurs when a user participates in a branded promotional campaign and then gives the campaign application permission to post about it to his news feed for his networked connections to see, or he invites certain friends to the promotion app directly (instead of broadcasting it via news feed.) This creates earned media for the brand because each share enables extended reach, broadcasting information about the campaign to connections of participants that the brand may not have captured otherwise.
CAMPAIGN ENTRY
DIRECT INVITE
CONVERSION RATE
REFERRED ENTRIES
CLICK ON POST
CLICK RATE
CONVERSION RATE
REFERRED ENTRIES
When earned media is the focus of the analysis, an entirely new set of high performing campaign types emerge, with an interesting commonality. The campaigns types that are most shareable are campaigns that include pick-yourfavorites, quizzes, and trivia.
When interacting with branded applications that quiz a user, (for example, to determine which character from Sex and the City they are) participants are 3x more likely to share the result to their news feed as they are when they participate in a video contest. This generates valuable earned media for the brand.
27%
3% 2% 1%
Which types of earned media news feed posts are clicked on most often?
When a users attention is piqued by the news feed, the engagement potential is very high.
23% 13%
When a user clicks on earned media, how often do they go on to enter the campaign themselves?
Trivia campaigns inspire high user sharing activity, likely because they reveal users aptitude for varied subjects.
When putting together a plan for your next social marketing campaign (or set of them), consider how you can plan the content or application to allow users to express themselves. If youre putting together a voting app, for instance, think through how you can set it up so that users are voting on something that expresses an opinion theyd feel proud to share, and make sure the app includes a mechanism for sharing their voting outcome via a news feed message.
You may find yourself realizing that certain pieces of content dont easily pass the share test. For example, while a user may be thrilled to fill out a what engagement ring style are you? quiz, she may think twice about broadcasting this activity to her network of friends and family.
Mountain Dew incentivizes sharing behavior from fans by assigning point values to it in a campaign oriented around game mechanics.
Using relevant metrics to quantify progress towards your social goals will help in determining your brands ultimate success in social media.
5. Mix it up.
Certain marketing campaigns naturally inspire users to broadcast their interactions with a brand (like the ones discussed above). However the study found that the types of marketing campaigns that are most entered by users are not the same as the campaigns that are most heavily shared about by users; in fact, the most shared campaign typesquizzes, trivia and pick-your-favoritesdont always get the highest participation or entry rates. Popular campaigns like sweepstakes, giveaways and coupons are proven to get users to enter, but entrants are less likely, for example, to voluntarily share the fact that they just entered a sweepstakes. In other words, these campaigns types generate less earned media from each entrant. Just as paid media (ad) campaigns should be adapted to drive different types of user activity, so should custom content initiatives. A well-rounded social media marketing program includes a steady drip of varied applications and content designed to influence a range of user interactions.
A well-rounded social media marketing program includes a steady drip of varied applications and content designed to influence a range of user interactions.
Delta has more than six custom content applications available for users to interact with.
In the example above, Delta has more than six custom content applications available for users to interact with. Each tab does something different, and while the activity offered on one tab will perform better at enticing user signups, another tab will be best for inspiring user-generated content submissions, sharing and so forth.
Conclusion
A strong social media marketing strategy is one that approaches the creation of branded content and applications for users from multiple angles designing some owned media to achieve high consumption and participation rates, and designing other owned media to influence high sharing activity (to generate the earned media that grows communities so successfully!). Use paid media to amplify your owned content even further, and youll reach new users outside of the existing network, thereby generating many more opportunities for earned media.
Wildfire is a powerful, easy-to-use social marketing platform to grow, engage and monetize your audience across social networks. Learn how we can help you today!
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