In last week’s sessions, we spoke about the influencers on Social Media. Famous people like, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian came across. In the class we all agreed that Barack Obama is one of the biggest influencers in the world. With 64.9M Twitter followers, he reaches a big audience worldwide. This made me think about the upcoming presidential election in 2016.

I came across an article called “Why social media could swing the 2016 presidential election”. It is standard today for politicians and their campaigns to have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. However, for the elections of 2016, there are other social networks to consider, for example Instagram and Snapchat. As campaigning for the 2016 election increases, political strategies targeting newer social media sites will surely play a significant role.

Hillary Clinton is a good example of a candidate with a wide reach on social media. She recently created new accounts on more niche social networks; Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Spotify. The goal behind it, is to create an image around Clinton, humanize her and make her more relatable.

Candidates aren’t the only ones putting forth efforts on social, social media providers are also getting involved. Snapchat is a good example. Ahead of the Republican Debate, Snapchat Launched a “story” that showed behind-the-scenes clips of the event. Another example is Jeb Bush, he used Snapchat to announce his presidential campaign. In another article Snapschats idea of breaking the news of who is elected President in 2016 is being discussed. Which is another example of politicians and new social media tools working together.

Ralph Legnini says: “It’s not just about motivating his generation to vote, but getting their friends to” For example, 71% of Snapchat’s users are between the ages of 18 and 34 years old. So posting on niche social networks can help candidates to stand out to millennials. To make it work, campaigns need to be original and authentic, since millennials don’t want social-based political messaging to look like the age-old political ads they see on TV.

It’s unclear what the results will be. Right now it’s too early in the game for campaigns to tell which efforts work, and which ones don’t. It’s not the question if it will have an impact on the campaign; the question is more how it will impact the campaign. Like Jasso says; “How comfortable do I feel with that practical person? How trusting am I of that particular person? Would I want to have a beer with that person? Social Media is a good way to show that”

Articles:

• http://www.cio.com/article/2919218/snapchat/snapchat-wants-to-break-the-news-of-who-is-elected-president-in-2016.html
• http://www.cio.com/article/2976083/social-networking/why-social-media-could-swing-the-2016-presidential-election.html

As some of you might have noticed, Instagram recently started adding Adds in your “timeline”. The cause of that is the change that barely anyone noticed. It officially switched on API, or application programming interface, for ads.

For marketers, Instagram has long been a coveted target. The network has 300 million users, and has won the battle of Twitter and LinkedIn. In comparison with Facebook or Twitter, Instagrams users are considerably younger. 44% percent of the people on Instagram are 18-24 years old, opening a brand new audience for marketers.

The network began testing Ads on the platform in late 2013, early 2014. The results were encouraging; users reported a 2.8 times higher recall compared to traditional online ads. Companies had to pay a minimum of $200,000 to purchase the ads, which was a major turn off for most companies. Most companies didn’t have the resources to make Instagram part of their campaign.

With the new API offering, everything changed. Everyone and anywhere can now purchase ads. This means that marketers can now automate the ad-buying process and compare the results easy. Althought the changes are little, experts call the change “one of the most anticipated moments in the evolution of advertising”

Butt will opening the floodgates to ads change it’s users behaviour? Will Instagram’s dedicated users, who now post 70 million images daily, go to sexier apps like SnapChat? Instagram’s solution is taking the process step by step, hoping to avoid a major backlash in its users. The native format looks a lot like normal posts, and receives thousands of likes from enthusiastic users. But where is the redline, that Instagram can’t cross?

Paid ads are not the only option, creating more followers or creating a community through Instagram are ways to reach the public eye. But with the recent API change, Instagram is open for business and a goldmine for many marketers. Keeping in mind that twee quarters of Facebook’s revenue now comes from mobile ads and de opportunity to reach the younger public. The only problem is finding a way to keep both users and advertisers happy. But once the solution is found, Instagram will be a multibillion-dollar ad riddle in the years ahead.

http://recode.net/2015/08/19/why-an-instagram-tweak-spells-the-beginning-of-a-multibillion-dollar-industry/

Last week, I ran into an article about the 12 best Facebook Campaign from the past year. Thought I would share it with you, since it is a very good link to last weeks article “Is your social media strategy effective”. The article of the required readings discusses five success factors for a Facebook campaign; considering the photos, time and days of posting etc. Marketing on Facebook is growing rapidly. Facebook pulled in $12.5 billion in ad revenue in 2014, and mobile ad sales now makes up more than 70 percent of the business. Considering this, Facebook made awards for the best campaigns with categories looking at the creative content, social strategies, use of technology etc. Below I will discuss a few of my personal favourites.

In the article, The Ice Bucket Challenge, is crowned as the best use of Facebook Marketing the past year. In the campaign millions of people doused themselves in ice water to raise awareness for ALS. The result was 17 million videos from 160 countries, including Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah and Bill Gates. No money was spend on marketing, and the campaign raised $220 million. An example is shown below;

Another example, which is one of my favourites, is “Like a Girl” from the Always feminine-hygiene brand. Like you can see in the video below, people are asked to do certain things “Like a Girl”. The goals behind the video were to building awareness and drive an emotional connection to Always. The campaign was successful, the emotional connection rose from 38% to 41%. The video is the most watched video in Procter&Gamble history with 76 million views all over the world and the awareness rose extremely; from 9% to 58%.

Another winner, in the category “integrated” is “Love has no label” by AdCouncil. A large installation set up for public viewings showed people dancing, kissing, playing etc. After showing the interaction the people were revealed. The goal was to raise awareness. Love has no gender, love has no race, love has no disability, love has no age and love has no religion were statements presented by the makers of the campaign. The video has 40 million views in two days and is one of the most viral video’s in history.

The last example I will discuss is “New Castle band of Brands”. This video is very different from the other examples. In this campaign a beer company came up with a way to get into the Super Bowl without buying ad space. It crowd funded a commercial together with 30+ brands. The goal was to drive brand awareness, preference and purchase intent. The result was 2,3 billion total campaign impressions. The video is shown below;

https://youtu.be/MaqRwWwXau0

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/here-are-12-best-facebook-marketing-campaigns-last-year-165332

Li, T. and Soonius, G. 2012. Is your social media strategy effective? An empirical study of the factors influencing the success of Facebook campaigns. Proceedings of the Workshop on Electronic Business, Orlando, FL, December.