enter: new media

Facebook is rolling out a series of changes that  may require swift action by marketers. The disappearance of the “Boxes” tab, narrowing of custom tabs and discontinuation of iFrame use – all likely by the end of February – leave little time for the modifications that will shape how the social media-using public perceives your brand. Unless you’re sticking to out-of-the-box functionality (which means you’re leaving ROI on the table), you have a little over a month to prepare. Read the rest of this entry »

Celebrities, spokespersons and other prominent personalities are flocking to Facebook. It enables them to expand their reach beyond a particular media or social venue and connect with existing and new audiences through a channel known both for reach and flexibility … yet many take advantage of neither. Instead, they use default Facebook functionality, which offers little advantage over the average user, let alone other recognized names. So, when enter:new media began to work with international polo star Nacho Figueras on his Facebook presence, we emphasized that there were no boundaries. Forget the confining structures seen by the average Facebook user, we explained, and there is no limit to the fan experience that can be delivered. Read the rest of this entry »

The luxury market resisted online marketing for years, fearing brand degradation and that additional investment wouldn’t yield a return. Yet, this thinking is changing, quickly. The ubiquity of internet and social media use includes the high net worth market. Skipping the social media space thus means passing on a rare opportunity to engage the core market directly.

Versace decided to get in front of this trend. Rather than enter social media with trepidation, a common approach in the luxury apparel market, this premier apparel and accessories brand worked with enter:new media  to launch an integrated online-to-boutique concierge service to engage its customers through the holiday season, cultivate brand loyalty and infuse a personal touch into the online retailing environment. Read the rest of this entry »

To promote a brand through social media, sometimes, you have to focus on everything else. When we developed a social media marketing effort for YMI Jeans, it became clear that the target market was looking for more than the new styles and products that our client wanted to sell. To reach its goal, we created an integrated social media environment that used related information to attract likely customers and used it to draw them into a relationship with YMI.

We partnered with YMI Jeans to construct a customized social media presence that includes robust content development and community management for its blog, Twitter and Facebook … as a starting point. Of course, content has little value in front of a limited audience. To increase the value of YMI’s promotional material, we launched a collaborative initiative with musician Pete Wentz and his clothing line, Clandestine, to increase brand visibility, drive sales and attract social media users into an ongoing relationship to use as a foundation for future revenue generation.

For YMI Obsessed, our client’s blog, we conducted an interview with Wentz, using the content to drive membership on YMI’s fan page and to generate activity on Twitter. Proactive media outreach expanded the interview’s online footprint, as several high-profile, highly trafficked blogs picked up the story and made the interview YMI’s most popular blog post. After the initial spike, we found an increase in the traffic baseline, indicating that core readership increased substantially.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the old days (2008) when so many brands were trying to decide whether or not to engage in social media?  Today, the hot question on the minds of brand managers is “Now that we are here, how do we measure and increase brand value from these investments?”

According to the latest report from eMarketer.com, most have a long way to go.

Despite widespread adoption of social media, measurement still lags. Only 16% of those polled said they currently measured ROI for their social media programs. More than four in 10 respondents did not even know whether the social tools they were using had ROI measurement capabilities.

Measuring the success of social media marketing can be difficult, but using a variety of hard and soft ROI metrics is one solution. For example, distributing a coupon via a social network and monitoring its redemption can put a concrete number on social success. And marketers can also assign a dollar value to soft metrics, such as number of fans or followers, to measure ROI.

Unlike many agencies that lead with a creative tool or campaign, we lead with a focus on defining metrics. Creating value in social media is less about one big idea and more about pointing a thousand little ideas in the direction of unified metrics. This is impossible to do without a clear vision of how to define that value upfront.

How clear are you on how social media can and should be used to drive measurable value for your brand?

iVillage is one of the first and largest communities for women online. Their decision to make the move onto new social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook was more than just a ploy to increase traffic back to their page. The brand is focused on extending its community onto these platforms in a way that creates new value for the business and unique experiences for users.

As Michele Mitchell, VP of Audience Development and Retention for iVillage explains, “For us Facebook is not simply a place for us to advertise, it’s a new platform for us to build our business and extend our community.”

Check out the new iVillage Facebook presence and stay tuned to see how we continue to help this initiative grow to become an increasingly important part of their business.

Monday’s Women’s Wear Daily put the spotlight on social media with an article featuring an interview with enter:new media president, Mark Curtis. In addition to weighing in on the e-commerce impact social media can have for fashion accessory brands, Mark was able to touch on the importance of luxury brands controlling the context of their initiatives

According to Curtis, companies going social must stay specific in their branding efforts or risk veering down-market. A firm can spend years carefully cultivating an image through print advertising and runway shows only to see its efforts undone once it posts its first tweet.

“Some luxury firms present their brand on Facebook the same way ‘Joe’s Plumbing’ does, or lets interns run their Twitter feed,” Curtis said. “Social media is such a huge opportunity for brands and every detail – whether it’s putting out a post that is off-brand or not correctly handling this frenetic conversation – can undo so much effort and investment that’s been built up for so long.”

See the full article here.

enter:new media is profiled as one of the “social media agencies to watch” in a new article by iMedia Connections’ Michael Estrin. Based on an interview with Mark Curtis, the article covers our use of “Fan Only” content on Facebook and gets Mark’s take on what requirements brand managers should keep in mind when selecting a social media agency.

The new Fan Box is essentially a free Facebook Connect widget brands can add to their existing website(s) to enable visitors to become a Facebook fan without ever actually leaving the site.

The Fan Box replaces the static  “Find us on Facebook” button and should help brands better leverage their existing site traffic to build their Facebook community. The Fan Box can even be customized to highlight recent status updates, number of fans, videos, etc.

Brands need to not only determine where to place Fan Boxes on their site(s) but which features to leverage. We are currently testing different executions to determine best practices. For example, you can see an example of our test of the Fan Box right below the real-time Twitter feed on the YMI Obsessed Blog. We are also moving quickly to implement the Fan Box into the canvas pages of certain Facebook applications.

We’ll provide an update as the real impact of this new widget comes into clearer focus.

One of the biggest developments on Facebook over the last couple of weeks has been the Facebook Username Landrush – basically a vanity URL for profiles. While this service was only available to Facebook’s top advertisers prior to June 13th, any business public profiles with over 1,000 fans can now apply. (After June 28th, usernames will be available to business public profiles with under 1,000 fans.)

The initial launch of this feature caused such a stir that it was covered on CNN, yet the big question remains – what exactly does this mean to marketers?

Our take is that these custom URLs make it substantially easier for our clients to integrate Facebook into their overall marketing mix. Once upon a time, social networks were viewed simply as another tool to drive traffic to a brand’s main web site. As Facebook’s ability to create brand value in its own right has become increasingly clear, it now makes sense for brands to use their FB presence as a major call to action across email, print, tv, radio, billboards, web, and live events…

In April, Vitamin Water broke new ground by using their Facebook Public Profile as their primary call to action for their multi million dollar campaign around Vitamin Water 10. How will you leverage your brand’s new Facebook URL?

Look for upcoming profiles on how enter:new media’s clients are fully integrating their Facebook presence into their entire marketing mix.