Fast reaction with personalized videos through social media - Old Spice smells like great success

When advertising through social media, being quick is essential. There are not many companies that are fast and at the same time deliver appealing content. A company that was able to do so is Old Spice - with advertising for deodorant and body wash for men. Old Spice belongs to the Procter&Gamble group.

The clip „The Man your Man Could Smell Like“ by Old Spice with Isaiah Mustafa was first published on Youtube on February 2nd, 2010 and has had almost 15 million viewers since then. On June 29, 2010, the Clip „Questions“ was added. As the actor from the clip tells in an interview, the entire clip is one single shot without any CGI (computer-generated imagery). To build the set in Vallermo, California, took several days.

A week ago, an Old Spice hype started, as the company added personalized videos to its Youtube channel OldSpice. The "Old Spice Guy" from the commercials answered questions and responded to tweets - topless and just with a towel around the waste. Even conversations and flirts between him via video and (female) users via Twitter started. The Old Spice guy answered to random questions from users - almost in real time. Within 24 hours, more than 150 videos were created.

The video responses are between 20 and 60 seconds long and react to the users' comments (Tweets, Youtube comments, blog articles, facebook comments, reddit comments and others). The responses contain a lot of charm and humor and are also sexy.
Very funny are the video responses to the twitter question of @isaiahmustafa, the actor who plays Old Spice guy or also the question of Haley Mustafa (the actor's daughter) who wants to know why Old Spice guy looks so much like her dad.
One questions however remains: who is the actual target group of the Old Spice commercials?
Old Guy certainly speaks to the "ladies". Nevertheless, the products are for men. For sure, Old Spice guy is every woman's darling - maybe guys should become jealous? Or it speaks to women who should then go and buy Old Spice products for their men?

Your online reputation: How to monitor yourself or your company on the Internet

A reputation can be easily damaged - especially on the Internet. Therefore, you should always check what appears online about you or your company/organization on the Internet.

Simply google your name and see what you find on the online. Then google the name of your company/organization. Also google your website to find out if and where it is mentioned. Additionally, you should enter your name, your company’s/organization’s name on Twitter to find out whether someone twittered about you.

This way, you can find out what others are saying about you or your company/association. You can also find out if your work or your business name is used (without your permission).

You should set up a Google Alert, so you do not always have to google your own name. You will be sent an email as soon as Google finds something on your search term.

If you find that someone uses your information, data or work without your permission, spreads negative information about you, you can either ignore it and hope that the person fails to do so in the future. You can, of course, confront the person directly, and also ask why she/he did it. A third possibility is to get professional help. There are firms or lawyers, who specialize in such cases and know what to do.

Do not forget to check again, what is distributed through online about you and make sure that your image does not suffer.

Is marketing through social networks a waste of time?

More and more small business owners spend more and more time online with social networking. Is time spent here wasted or is it useful?

For sure, blogging, twittering and facebooking takes time - a lot of time if you want to post more articles than just one every now and then.

There are some things online that you can automate, such as the update of your twitter account, that you can set up in a way that it will show your latest blog posts or facebook post. However, communication through social networks should stay personal. That means, not everything should or can be automated. If you really want to start interacting with people, you yourself will have to answer their questions or respond to their comments they might leave on your blog or facebook page.

So why do businesses and organizations even have blogs, twitter accounts, a fanpage on facebook, if it is so much work to keep it updated?

They do it to draw attention to themselves, to gain more and more subscribers or 'followers'. Of course, as a company or organization you also want to sell. Either your product or service or your organization’s purpose.
If you do not gain any new subscribers, ‘followers’, customers or clients with all your efforts, then you are probably just wasting your time.

Of course it will take some time (at least several months) until you succeed with your efforts in social networks. If you are not successful, you should reconsider your strategy. It might be better for you to target your audience through other channels.

How much time do you spend with social networking? Do you believe it is a waste of time?

Obama and the social networks

Social media are becoming increasingly important for advertising and PR. More and more organizations create positions for people that take care of communication with customers/members through social networks.

The American President, Barack Obama, already created such a position a while ago. Now, this position as a social networks manager is available, as Mia Cambronero does not want to do it anymore.

Getting paid for hanging around in facebook, twitter, myspace and others all day? That sounds too good to be true.
However, it is not completely clear, what qualifications are required for such a position. Of course you will need experience with social networks - but how much experience can anyone have with something that has not been around for a long time? Social networks are not yet matured and keep on developing. Those people having to do with social networks have to acquire new knowledge quickly, in order to make sure they do not miss any trends an are up to date all the time. Of course, you will need a certain experience in writing thrilling and motivating articles. Correct orthography and phrasing are always important in a job like this. Also, marketing knowledge and experience, as well as creativity might come in handy. You should be able to develop new social media strategies. Managing social networks is not a 9 to 5 job - you are always working...

But now let me go - have to send my applicaion to Obama real quick!

Social networks for small businesses and organizations

Every day we exchange lots of information through social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Youtube or Xing. So why not use these online communities as a marketing tool? Millions of people gather in social networks to share information or videos, and to make photos available for others. Companies and associations can also make their news and information available in these online communities.

Effective advertising through marketing mix

The most effective way to attract customers is a mixture of online and offline media - which connects real life with virtual life on the Internet. This combination could become your success!
A very positive aspect is that companies and organizations can create more personalized advertising through clusters (identification of groups). In the various social networks this could be distribution by age, gender, region, or interests such as hobbies, work, etc. Therefore, social networks should be used to promote niche products with very specific and individual target markets. It is not easy to sell everyday products with this approach. The identification of groups should be an easy task, since many people add everything about their lives in their profiles in online communities.

The average facebook user is not a teenager

According to a study by Royal Pingdom, about 25% of all social media users are between 35 and 44 years old. Only 24% of the users are under 25. The average user is 37 years old.

The company also looked at the age structure of facebook and found out that the averag age of facebook users is about 38, the average age of LinkedIn users is 44, and the average age of MySpace users is 31 years. The average twitter user is about 39 years old.

In another study the company conducted in 2009, it was found that 84% of all social network sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,…) have more female than male users. 64% off all MySpace users are female. However, the ratio male-female among facebook users (57% female) and twitter users (59% female) is relatively balanced.

If you already advertise through social media, or you intend to do so in a near future, make sure to consider these statistics. Make sure, you really reach your target audience!