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Category : MAKING A RUCKUS

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This week’s ruckus makers (June 1 – 5)

This week’s ruckus makers (June 1 – 5)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • Twitter continues to improve the usability experience with Periscope. Last week the released the app for Android, and now you can discover streamers in your area. 
  • If you’ve been noticing more ads on your Instagram feed, you are not alone. DigiDay delivers it’s verdict (so far) on the image sharing platform. 
  • In case you missed it, Pinterest finally announced that they will be adding a “buy” button to their boards. You can also catch up on Pinterest with our What the Ruckus issue about the platform. 

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This week’s ruckus makers (May 25 – 29)

This week’s ruckus makers (May 25 – 29)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • The NBA is utilizing a lot of social listening and analytics to create content on the go for its consumers. 
  • E-Mail newsletters may have been a thing of the past yesterday, but now, some publishers see them as a separate platform. 
  • The U.S. Air Force is competing with Google when it comes to recruiting. 

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  • Violence against women is a serious issue and technology often helps us shine a light on it in unexpected ways. 
  • Heineken got creative by turning your Tweets into music:

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Video Showdown: Facebook vs. YouTube

Taking a closer look at the rise of Facebook’s native video player and how it challenges YouTube.

There was a time when it was hard to imagine anyone unseating YouTube as the king of online video. While it’s not quite time to declare a new champion, it’s no longer unfathomable that someone will be up to the challenge, and it’s looking like that “someone” will be Facebook.

In 2014 we have seen a significant change on how users chose to both view and post videos. Here is a quick snapshot of change in worldwide Unique Desktop Video Viewers and what service they use to view it:

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Companies like Buzzfeed and WestJet have been weaning off posting their videos to Facebook via YouTube and opting to use the platforms built in software instead. Facebook video is optimized for the platform, with features like autoplay, making it easier for users to view the content and for publishers to get it to play on screen. The process of sharing and distributing content is also more intuitive on the native platform. 

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As you can see, at least on Facebook, the native player is already gaining the edge over YouTube because of its built in capabilities. It makes sense from a metrics perspective too, allowing you to gather all of the information in one place (not go to views to YouTube and engagement to Facebook and YouTube). Facebook is making it easier to track analytics on your video.

However, this is also where the differences come in. YouTube only registers a “unique view” when a user actively clicks “play” and only registers one view per unique connection. Facebook on the other hand counts any video that played for 3 seconds as a view and duplicates the count if a user later returns to view the content again. The stat can be deceiving since users pause while scrolling through their feed, allowing for the video to play.

What does this mean for my brand? As always all of these stats are pointless unless we can apply them to your brand and make them work for you.

What this is means is that YouTube is still more valuable to your brand overall. It keeps better metrics about user engagement and actively pushes content. Customers viewing your content on YouTube are more valuable because they are engaged and present; they are interested in the content (at least initially).

YouTube also stretches the shelf-life of your content. If you miss a video in your Facebook feed, odds are you are not going to come back to it. YouTube on the other hand maintains a library, allowing users to return to content.

However, if you post primarily to Facebook, you should start using the built-in media player on the platform. An array of handy features like autoplay helps you get your content in front of more eyeballs reduces the number of interactions required to view the video, especially on mobile.

As Facebook finds itself at the intersection of social media and mobile, they are quick to introduce features that make mobile experience more convenient and streamlined for both users and advertisers. The analytics and statistics in Facebook video views increase makes it a no-brainer for brands to start posting their content to the platform using the built-in player. 

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Twitter – Updated features you should know about

We took a look at some of the new features Twitter rolled out for 2015 and what they mean to your content strategy.

Every time Twitter unveils a new feature to its platform you’ll see a handful of brands and agencies begin to experiment and test its limits.  Over the last week we’ve seen a few new features be unveiled from the platform such as 30-second mobile video capture, which will be a great tool for brands to create quick product how-to’s, celebrate the excitement of in-store events and showcase behind-the-scene footage for their companies.  As well, a group direct messages features was unveiled for users to host a private conversation on the platform with up to 20 accounts – whether they’re direct followers or not.

But there’s another new Twitter feature we’re intrigued by – Twitter’s While You Were Away  recap which is now available on its iOS mobile app and coming soon to its web platform and Android app.  In an attempt to make the platform less intimidating for new users, this feature lets you “catch up” on “your world” to deliver “what you need to know first.” Basically giving content, advertised or not, an extended life which is similar to the Facebook timeline algorithm by showing users a summary of engaging content they might have missed while they were off the platform – while still remaining its real-time nature.

So how do you get included as a “top tweet”? It’s not entirely clear how Twitter picks and chooses which tweets it features in this feed, though presumably it’s an algorithm that serves us content based on metrics such as engagement (retweets or favourites) or other user habits.  Also if your fans are active users of the app – it’s less likely their see this feature and will most-likely appear for users that spend less time on the app.  Nonetheless, we’ll be watching to see how consumer react to this feature and how it evolves.

As Twitter continues to adapt and evolve, we’re looking forward to leveraging the platform to tell brand narratives in a new and creative way. 

Posted by
Katie Boland
on 28/01/2015

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Social Media Analytics Brief

Analytics and measurement remains a contentious topic in digital. Some would argue that we are living in the age of advanced metrics, where measurement is important. Meanwhile, others would point to the fact that we often shy away from measurement for multiple reasons. Yet, there is a growing demand for tighter, leaner numbers on both front and back ends of campaigns.

Analytics and measurement remains a contentious topic in digital. Some would argue that we are living in the age of advanced metrics, where measurement is important. Meanwhile, others would point to the fact that we often shy away from measurement for multiple reasons. Yet, there is a growing demand for tighter, leaner numbers on both front and back ends of campaigns.

There is no doubt that analytics is becoming an important part of digital strategy. Numbers usually do not lie (unless you want them to). 

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While we recognize the importance of analytics, we still struggle to identify what precisely needs to be measured and to what extent.  

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There is an overwhelming amount of categories to which we can apply analytics, both short and long term. I would argue that that list is incomplete because it doesn’t cover the entire scope of social listening as well as competitive analysis. You also have to break down these categories into social channels and demonstrate how they apply to business goals such as customer conversion or sales rates. These are all primary concerns for digital marketers moving forward. 

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What We Want to Focus On

Leaner measurements

The next step in analytics is to simplify measurement reports and narrow-in on the numbers that are important. The early trend was to include as much detail as possible, resulting in lots of numbers but little significance.

While impressions is a key stat, with changing algorithms it doesn’t always represent campaign effectiveness. Engagement on the other hand shows whether or not your content resonates with your audience as well as demonstrates its ability to grow organically across social platforms. In other words, engagement comes before impressions because it helps generate those impressions.

The next step is to identify the most important social and digital numbers that help you demonstrate effectiveness of your program (or flag the need for a strategic pivot). This can be conversion rates to a sales portal, or a click through rate on a YouTube ad. They key here is knowing what you’re looking for before you even begin the campaign which leads us to:

Tying Analytics to Business Goals

We need to demonstrate the right value. Digital marketers need to place more emphasis on access to client metrics to enhance reporting. Has there been an increased engagement online that corresponds with a good sales quarter? How many users are visiting the website or a sales portal from social properties? What is the click-through rate from a Twitter ad to the website? All of these stats demonstrate the effectiveness of social strategies when driving business results and we must get comfortable with showing them.

Recognizing Long and Short Term Analytics

There was an article on AdAge that discussed abolishing ROI measurements for social in lieu of ROEx2 (Return on Experience and Engagement). In the age of social, experience and engagement are important criteria, however, we must still factor the ROI measurements (we do have to adjust them for the reality of the digital landscape however).

To effectively measure both, we must pay equal attention to both long and short term analytics and demonstrate them to the client. Short term analytics (ROI) address campaign results and real-time customer data that shows how what we do affects business goals (online sales, event attendance, viewership). These results allow us to adapt tactics when we see something working (or not) and make sure we deliver the most effective content.

Long term analytics (ROEx2) require a deep dive into data. These numbers will not show immediate business results, however they demonstrate how a brand’s social presence cultivates relationships online, maintains engagement with users and grows organically across a digital infrastructure. By increasing the number of engaged users, brands increase the market size for those who will see their content (engagement leads to impressions) and in turn their potential audience. It’s important to track this growth and customer interaction because good long-term analytics can contribute to excellent short term gains and campaigns (and numbers).

It’s 2015, and we are less afraid of measuring our success than ever before.  

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 05/03/2015

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This week’s ruckus makers (June 22 – 26)

This week’s ruckus makers (June 22 – 26)

  • Skittles are auctioning off some items and they’re using “likes” as currency.  
  • A Luxury hotel is using user Instagram photos as promotional material as opposed to staged photography. And it’s working. 

  • We’ve launched our first newsletter this week. Learn about what’s been happening in the industry and what kind of ruckus we’ve been causing by signing up. 
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Dispatches from Austin – Day 1

We’re in Austin for SXSW Interactive – check out our learnings from Day 1 of the conference.

Our SXSW experience kicked off with Interactive director Hugh Forrest giving his advice on how to get the most out of Southby. His tips – make a plan, be ready to abandon that plan and meet everyone you can. 

Forrest was followed by the always-intense Gary Vanerchuk (@garyvee), whose colourful language and frantic pace amped up the crowd. Vanerchuk’s big tips for getting the most out of your conference experience: stop trying to sell yourself and add value to the conversation. Be human (amidst a flurry of F-bombs).

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Next on the agenda was a fascinating presentation titled Evil By Design by Chris Nodder (@uxgrump). The concept is simple, how can we use tactics and ploys that may on surface seem dishonest or deceptive to pull people in and get them to engage.

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Some of the examples he used were Waze’s crowd sourcing model – rewarding users with “points” for driving around and verifying their map data. And Volkswagen’s Speed Lottery – wherein speeders were punished with fines. The money collected was then dispersed to the non-speeders. Simple gamification scenarios that worked to great effect.

We wrapped the day with a panel discussion with notable Youtuber’s and content creators Grace Helbig, Tyler Oakley and Ze Frank. Their discussion managed to be both hilarious and insightful as they talked around how they built their audience, how they managed audience expectations and even worked with brands on sponsored content.

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The big takeaways here were be true to yourself and create content you love (be on brand). And don’t focus your energy on building your following and instead, cater to your existing audience and give them content they care about.

Check back tomorrow for a recap of Day 2 and follow along on Twitter @madearuckus

Posted by
Gary Edgar
on 10/03/2014

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This week’s ruckus makers (March 23 – 27)

This week’s ruckus makers (March 23 – 27)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • KitKat continues to explore creative ways to tell you to take a break. Sometimes a picture is really worth a 1000 words. 
  • Taco Bell wants you to get serious about breakfast monotony and defect online. 
  • Either “Hot Dudes Reading” were wearing too much Banana Republic to begin with, or the retailer instantly recognized a fantastic opportunity on social that already had viral legs. 
  • With Spotify and other on the go music apps, the radio industry is finding it harder and harder to keep up. SunoFM has worked hard to offer an interactive experience to the commuters. 

Posted by
Serge Leshchuk
on 28/03/2015

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This week’s ruckus makers (March 30 – Apr 2)

This week’s ruckus makers (March 30 – Apr 2)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • Following up on Facebook news from last week, Medium published a great article on the social platform and how it sees the future of the connected world. 
  • If you’re a parent and you need a little help organizing photos of your children, Facebook Scrapbook might just be for you. 
  • You may have heard of Thrillist. Here is an inside look at how they’re making branded content work for them. 

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  • With a variety of April Fool’s day jokes going out there, Google as always remained on top with Google Maps Pacman and com.google. Tweet some of your favourite April Fool’s social campaigns at us (@ruckusdigital).

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  • We are proud to announce that we have helped one of our clients, Polysporin Canada, launch their official Canadian Facebook page. Check it out. 
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Social Media Marketing Weekly Update

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • MTV is venturing into unknown territory with their attempt to reach their audience on KiK. It will be interesting to track their strategy as they discover the app’s features and work out its kinks. 
  • The White House released a full set of analytics for government websites. This is analytics heaven for those who like this type of thing and proves that data is everything.
  • The New York Times writers are venturing into the social world and engaging with their readers across multiple platforms. 

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  • If you were using Tinder at #SXSW you may have ran into a very attractive artist… who then turned out to be a character from the upcoming Ex Machina film. 
  • Cyber bullying is an important issue, and while we might enjoy watching a few celebrities read a couple of mean things, it’s not always funny. This campaign reminds us of that.
  • This cat shelter redefines the definition of “catfishing” on Tinder. 
  • If you made the mistake of tweeting at #SWSX instead of #SXSW, this campaign quickly let you know and even gave you a free energy drink. Kudos to demonstrating how effective social listening can be in identifying activation opportunities. 
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