Category: Campaigns

Blogging as a full time job?

With the rise and rise of blogging in Australia – and in the fashion sector particularly – blogging as a way of earning a living is becoming a more and more viable option for those who started their little slice of the web with an iphone and a laptop in their bedrooms.

Hosted by Nuffnang, the Asia Pacific Blog Advertising Community, Fashionopolis gave bloggers the opportunity to come along and hear from experts about the ways in which a blog can be monetised, how best to build the brand of your blog and how you can actually make a career out of sitting on your couch with the computer.

Your Blog, Your Brand

Popular fashion blogger Phoebe Montague, of Lady Melbourne, hosted the first session of the day – Your Blog, Your Brand – talking about ways in which bloggers can take control of their own personal brand and use this to build an audience and, in time, make money.

Key takeouts included:

• Your blog is an extension of yourself and should reflect this through the authenticity of your voice and originality. Shareable content is what the people want.
• Share your blog/brand across multiple channels. Being on Twitter gives you an authoritative voice; use Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest as extensions of your blog.
• Imagery is currency and your photography is one of the most important elements of your blog. Smart phones are great and more than sufficient for photos and video. Do get a tripod for digital camera and outfit pics.
• Remember what you love about your favourite blogs and think about your blog from the readers’ perspective.
•  Treat your blog and readers with professionalism. Pay attention to what you tweet (behave online to be taken seriously!) and if you can’t blog regularly, be transparent and open about it.

Fashion Torque

This session was followed by a panel discussion with Fashion Torque founders Phillip Boon and Jenny Bannister, with special guests Patty Huntington and Sarah Gale.

While Patty is a veteran of traditional media, she was also one of the first to venture into blogging as part of her profession, with Frockwriter, giving her a unique angle on the subject.

The panel talked about the entrepreneurial spirit of the blogging community and the benefit of bloggers to up and coming designers, especially when traditional media (particularly newspapers) tend to ignore the Fashion Industry in Australia.

Key takeouts from this session included:

• The importance of doing your research. When you already have an interest in an area, take the time to seriously look at the topic and know the background.
• Know what your blog does well. Is it surprising styling, amazing images, etc? Leverage this.
• Bloggers are 24/7 news gatherers. While traditional fashion writers write between 9 and 5 and get paid for it, the bloggers are writing in the middle of the night to ensure they have the story first.
• Networking is VERY important. Have business cards and remember you are a walking endorsement for the content you create.
• Understand how best to work with advertorial. Fully disclose the nature of these posts and don’t post on products that are completely unrelated to your audience.

Monetising Your Blog

The final session of the day bought back Phoebe, and introduced Kyra Pybus of Pybus PR, David Krupp from Nuffnang and Amber Venz  from Venzedits, each providing an angle on the subject of monetising blogs.

While there are few bloggers who gain a full time income from blogging at the moment, the door is wide open for the future with endless possibilities in the reach of the bedroom blogger.

Key takeouts from this final session included:

• Consistency – in both regularity and style – in posting on your blog.
• Checking spelling and grammar of a blog post – a simple thing often overlooked!
• Have a point of view that is unique to you – talk about your own experiences, use your own voice and be authentic.
• Content is king, but going forward, imagery must be really, really good.
• There are many ways to make money indirectly from blogging – diversify into selling your images, writing ebooks and charging appearance fees, freelance copywriting or styling etc.
• Value your own experience and know your worth – don’t work for free.

Going Forward

In summary, all the speakers over the day acknowledged the potential that bloggers have to be a driving force in both the bought, and earned, media space. The power the blogger yields is their voice, and their opinions are held in higher esteem because of the perceived unbiased opinions they present.

Going forward, while brands will work more closely with bloggers and bloggers will charge for their services, it will be even more important to ensure a blog remains transparent and true to the personality of the individual behind the blog.

Do you have a blog? How do you feel about blogging in return for products or payment? As a reader, do you think this compromises the opinions and views of the blog?

Snack favourite Nestle KitKat will this week launch a new campaign, Social Break, that will automatically send updates to subscribers’ social media accounts, minimising the stress that comes from updating multiple social platforms.

Launching in Singapore, the downloadable widget allows a user to have updates sent on their behalf to nominated social media accounts including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, including liking posts you are tagged in and retweets. While the app is a clever marketing gimmick, it also highlights a growing problem – especially among Gen Y – that being social media addiction or stress.

With so many social platforms now part of our daily lives, more and more people are feeling the pressure of maintaining a social presence with just over half of respondents to a recent survey indicating that being in constant contact on social media was interfering with their job, studies and ‘real’ life.

Time to Switch Off?

While the KitKat app is designed to make things a little easier for users by updating their social networks for them so they appear connected, Kangaroo Island’s most recent campaign encouraged users to take the 24 hour switch off challenge, disconnecting from all their social media networks on April 28 for the sake of their own mental health and our society.

A number of bloggers took up this challenge, taking a full day to have time out took advantage of a widget developed by Kangaroo Island to advise users who visited their social media platforms that they were having the day off.

This initiative followed research indicating that heavy users of social networking sites should have at least one ‘offline’ day a week, in order to counteract our 24/7 ‘online’ lifestyles.

But I’m Lonely…

These initiatives to simplify our social lives come just days after a report in the Sydney Morning Herald discussed how almost a quarter of Australians are living alone and are lonely, often turning to social media for friendship, connections and confidants.

We no longer make eye contact with people whilst walking down the street; we sit at restaurant tables glued to our mobiles and we email people sitting three desks away. But online, we never have to be alone.

Online, we never have to be alone.

Together, Alone.

So which is it? Are we become a society of isolated individuals, chained to updating our social media networks and immersed in others’ lives through a series of status updates and tweets? Or are we lonely and seeking meaningful human interaction which, in the wake of our busier than ever lives, is only possible via social networks?

Welcome to FRANk PR. As a social business agency that challenges assumptions about communications and looks at how we can engage with people in media, it was a logical next step that we incorporate PR into our offering, fusing it with our social business know how and connecting the missing link for our clients.

And I am the one who will help you do this – hi!

Who am I?

My name is Sarah Kempson and I come to FRANk Media after a number of years working across a variety of marketing disciplines. My background includes PR, advertising, branding and social across corporate, government and consumer clients, in both agency and client-side. I also produce my own blog and write for online and print publications, helping me to better understand the traditional and new media platforms and how best to engage them.

So what is PR today? And how do we address the challenge of integrating PR and social?

PR today is more targeted than even before. In an environment where most people in media have a Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest – or whatever the flavour of the month is – personalisation is required. Who is the right person to talk to? What is the best way to engage them? Who do they influence? Finding the right approach is paramount – one size does not fit all and it’s important to integrate across all platforms – old and new.

PR now needs to focus on engaged content, rather than just push content

Old vs New

PR Professionals need to be savvy in the way they approach journalists today – a press release emailed to the newsdesk is no longer enough to get your client in the media. Hooks need to be stronger; news needs to be quirkier; a unique point of difference is required. What makes your story special?

And it’s not just traditional media that we are sending a press release to anymore. Whilst print, radio and TV might seem the most logical (or most powerful) choices, are they the right ones? Or are they simply the ones we know and are familiar with? As the graphic below represents, half of our media consumption is now via the internet. Social media, be it viral campaigns, blogger engagement or getting your message across in 140 characters on Twitter – needs to be a part of this mix.

50% of our media consumption is via the Internet

Where to now?

At the end of the day, the basic premise of both PR and social business is the same as it has always been; the building and maintaining of personal relationships. This should always remain at the forefront of any planning for your brand’s PR and social strategy. The communications landscape is changing often and while it may seem daunting to keep up, the key will always be to keep it personal.

What are some of the best integrations of PR and social campaigns you have seen recently? Or, the worst?

Sure, it might be easy enough to monitor the traffic coming into your website, but the importance of this information is disregarded by many businesses. Some businesses neglect it entirely and not recognising that by monitoring certain aspects of online traffic they will be able to take not of what strategies they are using online are working, and which ones aren’t.

How can a business expect to grow and expand if they neglect such a vital part in gaining an understanding of your customers? Analytics provide an easily measurable form of information that can be easily monitored. Having a better understanding of your customers will allow you to provide material on your site that appeals to them and is as effective as possible.

So how does the use of analytics translate to useable information? By  monitoring conversion rates, you’re able to distinguish between the visitors and the buyers. Google have made life easy for those wanting to start monitoring their date by creating Google Analytics, which is free and allows users to monitor their sites with a large array of information. Analytics don’t only provide a great way of getting to know your customers but it always reduces wasting money on online strategies that aren’t targeted correctly or provide information customers may not even interested it.

If you’re still not sold on the idea of using analytics to help your business grow, here are 3 other benefits:

1. Allows you to gain a better understanding of the search process customers undertake to discover your business online, by knowing this you can ensure it is as easy to find as possible.
2. You can discover which social media platforms and most suitable for your business and which should be given the most attention.

3. Email segmentation can be used with the information provided to you, so certain customers receive emails specific to them and increase their chance of taking the information in and acting upon it.

There are many other opportunities to take advantage of the online data provided from customers, how else do you think this information could be used?

A recent Forrester study reveals that Facebook fans are a brand’s most valuable customers. Wow!

I have no trouble believing this study, I just don’t understand how it is so hard to feel how valuable you are as a customer on Facebook. Let’s be honest here, brands struggle on Facebook and have no clue about how to work it.

Desperate to be “liked”, brands come up with the weirdest campaigns to drum up more fans. A great recent example is the Commonwealth bank with its sponsored poll (below)- care factor anyone?

Also Dutch fashion brand Stüssy made the headlines last week with its latest Facebook campaign.  We wrote about their lame attempt to get more likes on Facebook earlier but let’s recap: a model covered in layers of clothing will strip in return to likes. In other words, one like on Facebook is as valuable as a one dollar bill in a strip club- nice job Stüssy for making your fans feel really special!

via http://theoatmeal.com/

Facebook fans are too valuable for shit like this, but brands are missing out massively on the potential of Facebook. As brands run meaningless Facebook campaigns to increase their fans numbers, they simply undermine the commercial utility of their Facebook page.

In other words, the Facebook “Like” button does not create fans, it identifies them.

Once identified, a brand can target, select and reward these advocates with meaningful and interesting content. Brands can show how valuable their fans are by creating content that is fun, sad, interesting, raw, hilarious, inspiring and most of all relevant to the fans.

THAT is how you best use Facebook as a brand. Anything else is idiotic.

Facebook is not a new tool. It has been around for a while now and brands have had some time to get their heads around how it works. It is not about chasing likes.

I was rather surprised when I read about fashion brand Stüssy undress a female model for likes on their Facebook page. It looks like this:

And it works like this:

“As you can imagine the model must be suffocating under that many layers of clothing. It is almost a public duty to free her out of this misery so we are expecting Facebook fans to help out here. Like and undress.” (via Econsultancy)

Seriously, what are they thinking? There are several issues with this campaign besides the point I made earlier that Facebook is not about likes:

Facebook rules: As noted by The Next Web, Facebook rules clearly state that it does not allow this form of generating likes plus it has a no nudity policy so fans of Stüssy may actually never see the naked girl. How disappointing…

Branding: Clearly this campaign is aimed at men (and lesbians?) but Stüssy also makes fashion for ladies. How they feel about this campaign I can only guess but also is it clever for a brand to be associated with stripping?

Sales: While this campaign may generate likes of the brand page in the short term, how does this sell more exactly? I guess this brings us back to why Facebook is not about generating likes.

We’ll see how this campaign unfolds and report back if anything interesting happens. In the meantime, let us know what you think about this? Genius or insanity?

UPDATE: The campaign has finished and the end result is this:

Image via http://adverveblog.com

I would feel seriously jibbed if I had “liked” the page to see this lady naked but I would also be offended by the middle finger action of the model. Well done! [NOT]