If you’re like us and made the near-cross country trek last week to join the citywide festivities at Internet Week New York, your head was still spinning into the weekend from the abundant content, impassioned speakers and spirited meet-ups that marked the 4th annual Manhattan pilgrimage for thousands of laptop-toting, mobile checking-in, tsotchke-collecting, iced coffee-swilling, sweltering heat suffering, blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking mavens of the digital realm.

While our schedule was jammed from jackhammer-on-10th Avenue sunrise through OMMA Social on Thursday (which we proudly sponsored) to rooftop-party sundown, we had time to take note of certain recurring themes  that strike us as shareable. With a heavy nod toward social media promotions, and generous paraphrasing, here are 5 gems on doing social just right, as heard on the streets last week in New York.

(Note: So good was the word-on-the-street that we’ll break it up over two days…)

1) “…Roll out the welcome mat…”

Not simply because new users are visiting your microsite, reading your Twitter feed or logging on to your Facebook page for the first time should you spend an inordinate amount of time on your landing page . It’s been the rule of the internet for almost two decades, and the same now applies to your social media presence. Carefully design and test any destination page to your sites or microsites. Nail the description on your Twitter home. And on Facebook, invest in great tabs.  It may be the difference between a quick bounce and a return visitor, but more important, it’s as much a representation of your brand as your logo, your ad on TV, or your booth at the trade show. See an example in the home tab for Craftsman’s Finding American Treasures photo contest landing tab on Facebook. It’s visually striking, to the point, and an authentic homage to the timeless tool brand.

2) “…Define your audience…”

Know your audience…target your audience…understand your audience…cultivate your audience…  You’ve heard it so much  that it’s almost cliche.  But it could never be more true.  Social media is not mass media, despite the opportunity to reach a vast audience.  Every component of a social channel can be geared to a carefully defined audience.  The narrower the target, the more interactive their response will be. Great promotions- like great brands- don’t try to be all things to all people. This theme comes up repeatedly in a forum like OMMA Social- so much so that we can break it down further:

(part 1): Address an Affinity

Identify the affinities- professional interests, personal passions- that unite your audience and center your social media efforts on them. We are not all drummers even though we all may wish we could channel an inner John Bonham. But percussion & music publishing brands Mapex, Remo, Zildjian, Vic Firth and Alfred didn’t worry about targeting the whole universe when they launched the Drummer of Tomorrow user-generated video contest. They simply targeted the whole universe of drummers with a relevant call-to-action (and extremely relevant prizes).  The reaction from the community has been a robust and heart-pounding flood of entries from drummers laying down their beats over the downloadable soundtracks.

(part 2): Multiple Channels for Multiple Audiences


Not all customers share the same perspective.  Hopefully they all end up at the same cash register or check out page, but they arrive at your brand with very different attitudes and motivations.  Whichever audiences you are pursuing, interact with them uniquely.  Case in point: not only is  Mercury Marine’s Mercury Film Festival a well-integrated user-generated video contest microsite (with complimentary coverage on the brand’s homepage) and again, great prizes for entrants; the “celebration of all things marine” also offers a sweepstakes with additional prizes for the voters, the company’s partners and dealers, and even its employees.  These other parties- not typically eligible for an open contest- are often the best advocates for spreading the word. Mercury Marine is giving all segments of the audience their due in this contest.

Tune in tomorrow for Part II of Heard on the Streets in New York: How To Do Social Media Marketing

Further reading: SmartBrief just published a follow-up Internet Week / Social Media recap written by Heidi Cohen of Riverside Marketing Strategies.

Team Detroit is no stranger to accolades for its Ford Motor Company work, so it isn’t merely to sing praises that we highlight The Global Ford Ranger Challenge. The latest Ford social media promotion also illustrates some important mobile functionality and user experience queues- not to mention that it’s visually striking with great alignment of brand and call-to-action, and powered by Votigo.


The just-launched Global Ranger Challenge asks users to submit photos, videos or essays of how they would put Ranger’s Dynamic Stability Control to the test, in competition for a chance to attempt and film their challenges and ultimately win a new Ranger. One entrant promised to relive a long-ago family road trip; another would head straight to Ayers Rock for some off-roadin’ in the Outback. A quick browse of the Challenges already submitted is enough to inspire a dream holiday to the home of Uluru.


Viewers can see featured entries and share them via Facebook, Twitter or email, but must register and log-in to submit, comment or vote. Sharing drives traffic back to the microsite-FordRangerChallenge.com.au- which then links to the Australian home page for the truck.


To accommodate the campaign’s incredible geographic reach- it launched first in Australia as homage to the truck’s design and engineering heritage but will ultimately extend to 11 countries, from South Africa to Thailand- entries can be submitted from any mobile device, including smart phones but also feature phones and basic handsets. A must for any brand launching an international promotion with a critical mobile component is to extend access to the broadest range of devices possible, not to mention to get expert guidance on the local regulations in every jurisdiction where the contest or sweeps is open.

Every brand stands for something.  The highest quality.  The cheapest. The most luxurious. The happiest. The toughest. The quirkiest. The one with the most unique/innovative/irreplaceable characteristic that no competitor has ever offered.


One of the most powerful ways to communicate your brand’s meaning to customers in a competitive market is to let them do the talking.  That’s where a powerful User-Generated Content campaign comes in.  With UGC, you empower your customers to tell the story of your brand.


Digital media is the most open forum in the history of commerce for giving customers a voice.  Some of the most dynamic destinations on the web- from YouTube to CNN iReport to Wikipedia- are built on a foundation of users contributing content.  For your UGC promotion, a microsite dedicated to the campaign, plus social venues like Facebook, are the ideal places to host a campaign featuring your fans’ creative work.


Ask Votigo’s Account Services team about the keys to a great UGC promotion, and you’ll get fundamental advice from savvy marketers:  Accessible entry requirements that don’t require entrants to climb a mountain or do anything outside of the typical person’s reach.  A great theme; kids and animals are always a draw, but the contest should be authentically tied to the brand.  And great incentives.


Great brands from every industry are asking their users to create content that is authentically tied to their products.   Check out three Votigo-powered UGC contests in different stages:

• Yahoo Messenger capped off its one-month UGC promotion Faceoff: Which Emoticon Are You? on Facebook by crowning a winner whose photo submission of acting out a new emoticon (facial expression symbols that are shorthand for emotion in chat sessions) that won the most user votes.  The winning emoticon: “Whatever!”

• Folgers is set to announce the finalists in its second annual Best Part of Wakin’ Up Jingle Contest. Entrants produced their own renditions of the iconic Folgers jingle to enter via microsite or mobile. The final quintet will go to New York for the Grand Prize Audition in front of celebrity judge Kara DioGuardi- and a chance at $25,000.

• And Febreeze Carpet Care just launched the It’s a Dance Video Contest, motivating the audience to submit videos of themselves dancing to the tune of six downloadable music tracks while cleaning their floors.  The promotions spans the rest of 2011 and will award monthly winners and one grand prize. And every entrant walks away with coupons for the Procter & Gamble cleaning products.

These UGC promotions ask the audience for photos and videos that directly connect the contestants to the brand: facial contortions fit for an emotional chat, memorable covers of a coffee-sipping classic, and rhythmic dances that convey floor-cleaning fun.  All three encourage their audiences to spread the word about the contest- and the brand- and provide incentives with great prizes and experiences.  And all three put the customer in charge of telling the story.