Erik Qualman's Blog, page 617

The Social Customer Infographic

Social media has fundamentally changed the way brands and people communicate. Once a channel for personal expression and news, social has become a primary form of commercial communication and its changing how organizations work. A brand’s followers and fans expect attentiveness, responsiveness, and value in exchange for their attention and loyalty. More than ever, consumers are in control and they expect brands to take care of them.

Below is an infographic that was sent to our team from Kevin King of Sprout Social. The infographic illustrates the highlights from their Sprout Social Index.

“The Social Customer Infographic” by Sprout Social

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How to Eliminate Work Email Overload

We get a lot of junk mail from a lot of places, but we forget that a lot of our work-related email can be junk as well. Apparently, those of us using email for work sent and received 110 emails per day in 2012. Here are a few tips for eliminating some of that junk to avoid work email overload without sacrificing communication or project management.

Get Out of CC Land

Sometimes we get a lot of emails simply because we choose to Cc people that don’t need to be involved. Then you’ve got your boss responding to every little thing when it isn’t necessary. If you have to keep your boss in the loop, avoid using Cc and instead share the task details via an organization app, like Flow. This way he or she can find any information related to the task, but won’t fill up your inbox with responses to those Cc’d emails. And if you’re getting Cc’d on far too many emails yourself, just sort them out of the way using your provider’s filtering system. You can make it so only emails sent directly to you make it to your inbox.

Handle Emails Immediately

One of the problems with reading email on a mobile device is the tendency to forget to respond because you’re bogged down with other tasks. This is a bad habit, and leaves uncompleted tasks lingering around in your work inbox. Instead, when you read an email, immediately respond, delete, archive, or label and mark unread. You can organize your tasks much more quickly this way, and respond when the time is right.

Reduce Incoming Notifications

You might want to know what’s going on with your social media accounts, but do you need a notification every time a post is repined? Probably not. Turn OFF the majority of your social media notifications. You can filter them to be sorted and marked as read, but are you really going to go back and check them out? Unless you know you’ll need them, just turn the notifications off completely to keep them out of cyberspace altogether.

Organize Project Management

Sometimes email isn’t actually the problem – it’s the communication in your office or the organization of projects that’s the real issue. It’s important to recognize that email as a whole is a good thing, but that abusing this tool is what causes anxiety and overload. Utilize organization apps like Flow to keep everything for specific projects in one place, and tag people in comments and tasks that need to be in the loop. It’s not necessary for an entire department to know all the problems and details of a project at all times so keep each other posted only when necessary. Tell your collaborators to communicate with you via phone or chat if something needs to be answered immediately, or to compile a list of questions and tasks to send to you rather than shooting off 50 one-line emails a day.

Answer When Necessary

Avoid shooting off those quick Reply-All emails with “okay” or “thanks” unless the email requires confirmation. Does everyone need to know that you received the email? Good habits spring good habits and hopefully your coworkers will follow your lead. Imagine how many fewer emails you’d get just in the course of a single day! Try to collaborate project management and organization outside of email and say “thanks” face-to-face next time you see the person.

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Precautions for Writing Your First Blog Post

 

Blogging has grown up exponentially in the recent years, with every Tom, Dick and Harry is seen embarking one blog or the other. With several free of cost blogging platforms of like Blogspot and WordPress, the idea of coming up with blogs has simply become easy. You can find blogs on every topic under the sun and over the moon at the web landscape. Whether you are a seasoned blogger or an amateur one, you had come across something new and interesting experience while writing down the first blog post. Writing the first blog post is often an interesting and incredible experience and at the same time a daunting job as well, which is very much inevitable and unavoidable. It is often an intimidating job to jot down the first blog post owing to inexperience and no exposure in the domain of blogging. But once you come up with your own blog you have to pass through this stage of writing down the first blog. It is always better to check certain cautions and precautions while writing down the first blog as these would help you treading the right path of blogging. Let’s check them out in the following paragraph:

Overcome your fear

When it comes to writing down the first post for your blog, you are often seen with some kind of apprehension for blogging or writing. The reasons could be basically two; you may be too scared to try out this on your own or secondly may not have the knowledge as what to write. Most of the times, it is both the reasons that can be valid while you plan to write down the first post for your blog. As per experts and even studies, it is obvious to see these two reasons when newly turned blogger has to write his or her blog post for the first time. One of the best ways to get away from this fear or from the darkness of ignorance is to actually attempt the same thing. Once you make your mind to write down the blog post, you will start putting all your efforts to embark with a quality blog post. The fact is you have so many ways of getting started, as and when you start researching the subject, you can come across number of ways of beating your fear and moving ahead to write down quality blog post.

Chalk out a basic outline

Thinking of writing down your first blog post can be a daunting and scary experience; however, once you move ahead you can easily overcome these issues. If you have something big to write you can think of breaking them into digestible parts. This will certainly make things simple for you. You could even think of writing down the main points the first and then head back to write down a proper introduction. You need to test for things that simply work for you. However, as per experts, you should jot down the introduction first and then think of introducing yourself at the start. By telling the readers about you would simply add more personality element to your blog. The best part of about blogs is that you can go anytime casual over this format. This can simply help you a lot in moving ahead the right way while thinking about the chosen topic.

Avoid writing down longer blog post

When you talk about writing down the first blog post, it is always recommended to keep it short. The first blog post is often taken as an introduction by the readers, hence shouldn’t be wordy or lengthy. As per research, the average blog reader stays not less than for one and half minutes. People reading your first blog post may want to know about you and the reason they should really care about you. Make sure you limit your first blog post up to 250 words or less and do keep them concise as much as possible.

Create a memorable kind of headline

If your blog post headline fails to grab visitor’s attention and hit their interests, they would certainly not prefer to visit you the next time. As per the study, reading your first post should be an enjoying experience. The very first thing you need would be to choose the best words and write down a very catchy kind of eyes.

Edit, Edit and Edit

Once you have jotted down your first blog post as per the above discussed points it’s time to publish the same. But wait, this should follow only after a thorough proofreading process as you are bound to commit certain mistakes, which only goes when you edit them perfectly by reviewing the blog post. Writing down anything on the piece of paper or over your computer screen can be called as a barfing on paper/screen. This may sound gross, however, this is one of the best writing tips you can find ever in your blogging/writing career.  This is the same old rule, which your English teacher had probably told you while you were in your earlier school days.

The idea here is to simply get rid of the things without much worrying and proofreading each and every sentence. The technique of barf on paper has to be utilized with some tangible condition, which you are going to invest adequate time in cleaning it up or simply editing the same. The step of editing is similar to writing down the text over the first place. Write down your blog without any constraint and take a pause to revert and review. Finding any trustworthy resource to which you are comfortable to do the editing part of your post and rendering some constructive type of criticism before submitting can be called as the best way. The fresh eyes would be able to catch errors, which you may have failed to note down and with this you may end up getting some fresh ideas for strengthening your post.

Final word

There is no right or wrong method of writing down the first blog. Blogs can be called as a personal journal wherein you can easily write anything you want. The above are some of the precautions, which you need to take while writing down your first blog post.

Kelly Marsh is a freelance journalist who has been writing about mobile technology, customer relationship management and women’s health for more than a decade. These days she is busy to contributes on getamplify

 

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The Power of Facebook: One Man’s Quest to Discover Life’s Greatest Lessons

This story was written by David Menasche – former teacher and author of The Priority List: A Teacher’s Final Quest to Discover Life’s Greatest Lessons.

My Diagnosis

Six years ago, I was told that I only had a few months to live.

Just a few weeks before, I had started hearing a ringing in my left ear.  I didn’t think much of it until the sound became a sensation that ran through my face and then the entire left side of my body.  Soon, one doctor led to another as I underwent seemingly endless medical tests.  When the final results came in, one of those doctors sealed my fate with the devastating words I’ve lived with every day since:  Brain Cancer.

I did survive my first surgery, and over the next six years, I continued to defy my doctors’ expectations while enduring the discomfort, illness, and daily nausea that resulted from several years of chemotherapy, over thirty rounds of radiation, and several more surgeries, all necessitated by the tumor’s growth.  I lost whole swaths of memories as a result of these treatments, but despite the doctors’ many, many pronouncements, I didn’t die. Instead, I lived more than ever.  I immersed myself even more fully in being a teacher, relishing in each moment I had with those kids.  I celebrated each student’s accomplishments with true joy and pushed twice as hard when I knew they could take it.  My time was valuable, and I had to make it count – both for my benefit and theirs.

The reality of my situation overwhelmed me until I remembered the promise I’d made to myself long ago.  Cancer had taken my past and would take my future, but it wouldn’t take my present.  I realized that for the first time since becoming a teacher, nothing was tying me down in Miami.  There was no good reason for me to remain stuck at home, feeling trapped and restless. I could regain my freedom and independence by going out into the world and traveling by bus, ferry, train, or anything that didn’t require me to drive.  I could see the Pacific Ocean for the first time, while I still had a piece of my vision left.  Along the way, I could seek out my former students and ask them what they remembered of our time together, in the hopes of regaining my memories and maybe even making some new ones.

My Vision Quest

I kicked off my project, which I call a Vision Quest (for a nearly blind guy, the irony’s pretty rich), in the fall of 2012.  I started by reaching out to former students on Facebook, explaining my plans and asking for couches to sleep on along my way.  Within 48 hours, I had offers from over fifty former students – fifty open hearts, open minds, and open homes.  These students were now willing to help me live my dream, to teach me as I once taught them, and to assist me on a journey over deserts and rivers and miles and miles of open road, to meet new people and see firsthand the America that Kerouac and Whitman wrote about.  Before I knew it, the media caught wind of the story, and when each news outlet posted an article on my timeline, teachers around the world reached out to me on Facebook, validating my choices and offering encouragement.

I spent a total of four months on the road visiting with 75 of my students in 31 cities.  Every time I was on my way to a new city, I posted on Facebook and quickly found places to stay, invitations to dinner, and new friends to meet.  There were moments of pure joy as I relished brand new experiences – holding a newborn baby for the first time (only four days old!), visiting a Hindu Temple, and drinking absinthe – and moments of anguish as I stood at a playground on Thanksgiving day with a former student and her children, thinking about how I’ll never have kids of my own.  I saw how far my students have gone in life, becoming Wall Street Bankers, government agents, Immigration Officials, writers, teachers, and lawyers, many of them surpassing my own accomplishments.  I stopped being the teacher and became the student, and learned from my former pupils about parts of the world I have never seen, different foods, and new movies.  And, most importantly, I learned who I was to these students and what I meant to them through all of the things taught me.

All of my communications on my trip were through Facebook. Every day, I was on Facebook either reporting on my latest adventure or planning my travel to the next stop, and after I left each city, I felt validated and “liked” by all of the people who commented on my posts.  Facebook also helped me enjoy the long stretches between cities, and I was grateful to have it on my phone during the 43-hour train ride from Minneapolis to Portland.  It’s not an overstatement to say that this this once in a lifetime adventure wouldn’t have been possible without Facebook.

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The Impact of Internet.org

Every one of us. Everywhere. Connected.

That’s the motto of Internet.org. The organization has the bold belief that Internet access is a basic human right—and aims to make that a reality for literally everyone.

Worldwide connectivity

Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg partnered with several other big names in technology—including Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, Qualcomm and Samsung – to create Internet.org in August 2013. Their goal? To make Internet access available to the 5 billion people who lack it.

It’s an admirable mission. Even as Internet technology is improving with fiber-optic Internet from Verizon and Google Fiber, the rest of the world is falling behind. Today, nearly two-thirds of the world’s population is without Internet access, a number that’s growing by less than 9% each year. And it’s not just access to social media and viral videos that they lack. It’s access to healthcare information, current events, educational resources and economic opportunity.

The basic principle underlying Internet.org? Internet access is expensive—but it doesn’t have to be.

The founding members of Internet.org plan to make Internet access more affordable for those in the developing world. How will they do it? By decreasing the cost of data delivery. Creating high-quality, low-cost mobile devices. Reducing the amount of data needed to run apps and programs. And incentivizing more sustainable business models for tech companies.

Internet.org believes that making data and devices more affordable will allow Internet access to expand across the world. And they’re already taking steps toward making it happen.

Facebook recently purchased Onavo, an Israeli mobile app start-up that specializes in data compression. The social media giant created a software called Air Traffic Control that allows developers to test apps under conditions that mimic third-world Internet access, and Facebook is saving bandwidth in its own app by using WebP image standards, prioritizing Wi-Fi, and reducing battery drain. Other Internet.org partners are getting involved, too: Qualcomm has discovered new ways to extend the battery life of mobile devices, and Nokia is expanding sales in India and Africa.

Is Internet.org really that altruistic?

Internet.org’s goals sound charitable—and if it’s successful, the impact could be huge. But some critics are questioning the organization’s motives. Can a charity founded by some of the biggest names in technology really be driven by anything other than profit?

The answer is complicated. On one hand, Internet.org’s success would be immeasurably beneficial to the world. It’s impossible to overstate the good in providing the developing world with Internet access—and, thereby, access to better healthcare, education and economic growth. If Internet.org’s work is so beneficial, do its motives really matter?

On the other hand, companies like Facebook, Nokia, Opera and Samsung have an undeniable stake in getting more people online. More people online across the world—especially 5 billion more—equals a lot more in profits for those who make their money on the Web. Internet adoption is reaching a saturation point in the developed world, so it only makes sense that social media networks, operating system developers and device manufacturers are seeking profits overseas.

Internet.org founder Zuckerberg has explained his own views on the matter, saying that the organization is focused on expanding Internet access “more because we think it’s something good for the world, rather than something that is going to be really amazing for our profits.”

Will the rest of the tech world buy that? We’ll have to wait and see.

 

Photo credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

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Go Social on Finding out About Surrogate Mothers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6.7 million women (or close to 11%) have an impaired ability to get pregnant or carry a baby to full term. This is where a surrogate mother may come in.

Discovering Surrogate Mothers

A surrogate mother is a woman who carries a baby to full term and delivers the baby on the behalf of another couple or person. There are two types of surrogate mothers – traditional and gestational. Traditional surrogates are genetically related to the child, whereas gestational surrogates are not.

Though there aren’t any official statistics on surrogacy, it is estimated that nine children in each state every year are born to a surrogate mother.

Why Might a Woman Use a Surrogate?

There can be many reasons as to why a woman would choose to use a surrogate mother.

The woman may not be able to carry a baby full-term or may have a high-risk pregnancy that puts both the mother and child’s life in danger. The woman may have had a hysterectomy and is not physically able to carry a child, or she may have had unsuccessful attempts at getting pregnant with procedures such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

Finding a Surrogate

Surprisingly, it is possible to find a surrogate mother without the use of a surrogacy agency, thanks to the vast amount of resources available online.

You can join networking groups, surrogacy websites, social media sites and message boards on surrogacy. Websites now will actually connect you to available surrogate mothers once you’re ready to have a child. The same is true for women who want to be a surrogate – you can connect with hopeful parents all over the internet.

You can also choose to go through an agency.

Agencies connect couples and individuals to surrogate mothers all over the country. There are currently over 100 agencies in the United States alone. Agencies do typically charge a higher fee, though, since they’re acting as a third party.

Use Social Media to Find a Surrogate

You’ll want to start by finding websites that will connect you to surrogates in your area.

From there, you can follow those websites on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. You can also get to know potential surrogate mothers via their own social networking websites.

Finally, you can read stories of the pros and cons of surrogacy, hear personal testimonies, talk with surrogates who have been through it before, and connect with others looking to use a surrogate, and again learn more about just what is a surrogate mother.

Ideally, the surrogate mother you choose will be over 21 years of age, have given birth to a healthy baby at least once before, be willing to take care of her body while pregnant, and be willing to see the appropriate doctors throughout her entire pregnancy.

Before choosing a surrogate, make sure to read up on your particular state’s laws.

Always meet with potential surrogates before deciding. This is someone you’ll be working closely with over the next nine months, so you want to make sure you get along extremely well with that individual.

Of course, the decision to be or use a surrogate is an extremely personal one.

Connect with as many people as you can and hear their stories. Do as much research on surrogacy as you possibly can before making a final decision.

Photo credit: medicaltourismco.com

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How to Keep in Touch With Family and Friends When you Move Away

Just ten years ago, before technological advances and social media, smart phones and the Internet in most homes, people were limited on how easily they could contact their friends and family if they decided to move away from home. Thankfully, today keeping in touch with loved ones at home has never been so easy. This has helped to make moving away from the motherland easier and more appealing to thousands of people. According to the BBC, nearly half a million people booked their international removals and arrived in the UK last year. Furthermore, this trend is becoming more popular with the younger generation, with many international students coming overseas to experience a British student lifestyle. For instance, Touchstone Student Living (who specialise in student accommodation in London) say that over 85% of the students in their halls are international.

So if you’re thinking of joining all the other thousands of people for a lifestyle abroad, but are still worried about keeping your home sickness at bay, here are some ways you can keep in contact with your loved ones back home:

Face Time/ Skype/ Google Hangouts

If you find yourself missing seeing your friends and family faces back home, then Face Time, Skype and Google Hangouts are the next best thing.

When all you want to do is see a friendly face and a voice call doesn’t cut it these are programmes you can install on your computer or smartphone, to video call your loved ones for free. While Face Time is convenient for iPhone and iPod users, it is limited to Apple products but luckily there are other ways you can contact friends and family. Both Skype and Google Hangouts are a fantastic way to stay in touch allowing you to make video and audio calls, exchange chat messages and much more. Skype now has over 299 million connected users. It is easy and free to set up an account and can use it with your smart phone, tablet or computer as long as you have internet access. Google Hangouts is great if you want to have a video call with more than one person and has hilarious options to wear hats and eye patches if you wish.

Social Media

Whether, it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google +, all of these social media platforms are a great way to stay in touch with friends and family whilst you’re away. Never has it been so easy for you to keep up to date with what all your friends and family are up to and make it easy for them to check in on what you’re up to. With instant messaging, photo/video sharing and status updates to name a few of the features that these platforms offer, you’ll have a good idea what’s going on at home.

Snapchat

In the space of just under a year, Snapchat grew from 20m users to a staggering 350m users. If you’re not already aware of what Snapchat is, it’s a photo messaging application where users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings and send them to their contacts. The aspect that differentiates Snapchat from other photo sharing apps or platforms, is the people receiving the photos or videos can only see it for a few seconds. So, this is a great app, if you want a quick fix of your little sister pulling a funny face at you or your best friend sending you a funny video.

Whatsapp

If you haven’t already heard about Whatsapp, it is an app for smartphones which not only allows you to send instant text messages but also images, video and audio messages. If you have a smartphone, you can purchase the app for a very small price and from then on all you need is internet access to send as many free texts/images/videos to your friends and family as you like.

The popularity of the Whatsapp app has rocketed over recent years. Its users now send 16 billion messages per day and users now send 500 million images per day which is more than Snapchat! So if you’re friends aren’t already on board, tell them to get Whatsapp so you can pester them whenever you like without having to pay for international texts.

Calls

“But what about my Grandma?! She can’t use technology!” – Even if you have some friends and family that aren’t very tech savvy, where the idea of using a computer or a smart phone scares the living daylights out of them, then calling home is always an option as it no longer has to cost an absolute fortune.  For instance, Call Happy, specialise in cheap calls to countries all over the world; including cheap calls to Pakistan.  So don’t worry you can even talk to those relatives you thought you wouldn’t be able to whilst you’re away. 

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The Ugly Truths About Social Media

In our technological advanced society, social media has changed how people do business online. It offers so many opportunities  that sometimes people overlook its flaws and forget its limitations. Yes, social media is a powerful tool to market a brand and this is a fact. But behind those beautiful truths about the power of social media, there are ugly truths behind it. Here is a more realistic guide that will open your eyes to see how social media really works.

1. Social media can increase sales

Social media is a new innovation that is incredibly efficient and reliable when it comes to improving product sales and boost a company’s profit. It is proven to be a convenient marketing campaign for both big brands and small businesses. By just posting compelling content and good use of relevant keywords and hash-tag in different social networking sites you can already gain new visitor to your website and can able to reach out a larger audience.

Ugly truth: It doesn’t happen overnight, it requires hard work and consistent effort over a dedicated period of time. You cannot see results immediately so you have to be patient in updating your social media. You have to monitor and measure your online visibility. Aside from that, you also need to be consistent in promoting your business. If you are new to social media marketing, there will be a lot of work to do and frustrations will always be around. Even how difficult it is to improve your online business exposure, do not give up. Your persistence and effort will be paid off once you get to see the results.

2. Social media can establish authority

It is not easy to create an authoritative online presence but with the help of social media, establishing your business as an authority will not even make you sweat. Competition is very tight in the world of technology and Internet. And one thing that can make your business stand- out is to differentiate yourself from your competitors. You have to build trust, credibility, and value to your customers to gain authority in your chosen niche. How? Create an active social media presence.

Ugly truth: As you establish authorship, you will also be exposed not only to your prospect clients but to detractors as well. You will gain more readers and critics so expect that you will receive more criticisms and negative comments from other bloggers, users, etc. Once your brand get associated with malicious or unpleasant issues on the web, it could blemished or damaged your brand image. Some will write negative or painful things about your product and when other people read such feedback it could affect your brand’s reputation.

3. Social media is free 

Yes, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. offer free membership in their websites. Once you have accounts in these sites, you can already start your social media marketing campaign. You can add friends, get followers, and widen your connections all over the web. See? You don’t need to spend a hundred bucks to pay for TV commercials or print advertisements to introduce your services or products. It is given to you for free.

Ugly truth: Registration to various social networking sites is free BUT you still need to invest time, effort, and money in maintaining it. You have to be hands-on in managing your social networking sites. If you cannot do the job due to many responsibilities that you have to attend to in your business you can delegate the tasks to your employees. To get realistic results in your social media campaign, you need to dedicate budget and come up with strategies on how you can make your social media engaging to the audience.

4. Social media helps build high quality relationship

One of the benefits of using social media in your business is that it open doors of opportunities for you to get to know your potential customers and it also teach you how to get engaged with them. As you build deeper business relationship to your prospect customers, you can easily identify the needs of your target market. Relationships can result to leads and leads can turn to customers which will direct you to new clients.

Ugly truth: It requires consistency, connection, and good communication skills. You have to stay connected and up to date about the things that interest’s your audience. You have to get involved not only in posting good contents in your blog but you also need to get engaged in social communities and be interested to other things that can attract more new clients.

5. Social media is a widely used marketing tool

Studies say that social media is an effective marketing tool to draw in much larger audience and qualified leads. It benefits all kinds of businesses that is why most companies these days are already hooked and using it because they are seeing a good return on their investment.

Ugly truth: It is not a complete marketing strategy. There is a risk on it but some marketers overlooked at it. To use its overall potential, it should be incorporated with other inbound marketing strategies like Search engine optimization, content writing, keyword research, brand reputation, etc.. Once you successfully apply these methods on your marketing campaign expect to get good and valuable outcomes. But if you don’t used its resources efficiently, all the investment and effort you put on it will go to waste.

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The Power of Mobile Workforce

The infographic, titled “The Power of Mobile Workforce” was created by HOB, an expert in secure remote access solutions. It was submitted to the Socialnomics team by Leanne Reis.

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Get a Kick Out of Super Bowl Social Media

How many people watch the Super Bowl for the commercials as much as the football?

Whatever that number may be, the commercials have always been a major player in the Super Bowl event.

Now, with social media, viewers don’t really need to wait till the night of to get a taste of the hot commercials. Companies can tease up a following before the commercials air using social media.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the biggies for this, and here is a little look at what some of the big names in advertising are doing before the big night:

• Budweiser is giving consumers the chance to help name a baby Clydesdale via social media

• Pepsi is holding a contest on Facebook where consumers can win a party kit prior to the game; an ad will air featuring fan pics from the contest.

• Audi is letting fans decide which ad will run during the game.

• Coca Cola fans can choose the ending to the Super Bowl commercial.

Getting the Most Bang for Their Buck

It’s not that companies are giving up on the coveted, but pricey, Super Bowl advertising spots. They are combining social media with the Super Bowl TV spots to get the most out of their advertising efforts.

Social media combined with traditional spots can gain a much broader viewer base, and one that keeps coming back for more.

Viewers can continually watch their favorite ads after the initially airing via YouTube or other social media, and companies know this. Ads get passed around social media by fans, and the companies don’t need to do a thing to up their views.

One of the strongest reasons these campaigns are successful is the dialogue it sends out.

Viewers are no longer passively watching fun ads and then talking about them the next day. They are now involved in the campaigns: choosing endings, telling stories, naming horses. Dialogue and communication is shared.

Viewers can become part of the ad itself, literally seeing themselves in the picture. With this interaction comes involvement and viewing at a more personal level.

Do Just Big Names Get to Do This?

Any business from the smallest to the giants can jump on the social media bandwagon and learn from the biggies. Companies have been doing this for years; take a look at Bob Parsons GoDaddy.

Let your fans name your newest cupcake flavor or publish pictures of your ballet dancing students/fans on Instagram. The more invested your fans and customers are, the more they’ll want to share their social media. And you know what that means for you – more exposure.

So small businesses learn from the biggies, and this Super Bowl, don’t wait for the actual event to start watching the great commercials.

They’re ready for you now!

Photo credit: www.nynjsuperbowl.com

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