Best Practices for Posting Across Social Networks

Social media is evolving to accommodate a range of personalities. While Twitter appeals to casual conversationalists, LinkedIn attracts professional network-builders. Meanwhile, marketers think of Facebook as content-driven with brand pages intersecting with friendships and close communities. Then there are blogs that hover between the personal and professional: they’re content-driven too. And now there’s Google+ Pages, which has recently joined the scene and promises to merge SEO and social media strategies.

Across industries, a well-planned social media strategy is essential for success. For every brand, business, and marketer, an important step involves evaluating prospective channels as conversation platforms.  This process can be confusing, sometimes frustrating. How do you accommodate the different “personalities” of each social media network? Consider, for example, the humorous take on posting across different social media sites shown above and the “stereotypes” associated with each network.

All kidding aside, this process will inspire some key questions:

  • How should a brand’s tone vary between a Facebook page and LinkedIn discussion group?
  • What’s the best way to condense a lengthy blog post into a short-form tweet?
  • Should a Facebook status and tweet have the same goals for generating conversation?
  • What is the ideal tone for a blog post?
  • What should I post on different sites?

Take this short quiz to find out where you should be posting your content.

While the answers to these questions vary between campaigns and companies, some best practices can help clarify ambiguities:

Blogs

Unlike other types of social communities, blogs are unique in that companies own the content. As a result, blogs are effective platforms for visitor recruitment, audience engagement, trust-building, and customer education. To keep audiences interested, writers should post at least several times per week and if possible, every day.

A blog extends beyond a basic hello, providing an opportunity for people to get to know a conversation or brand. Concerning tone, a blog is like a conversational lecture with room for questions.

Blog posts should be straightforward, to-the-point, polished, and casual, providing an opportunity for businesses to build a platform for healthy community mentorship. Beyond writing a post, authors should maintain an active presence by monitoring and answering reader comments.

As for length, there is no cookie-cutter word count requirement. Still, a post should be long enough to communicate a message and short enough to keep audiences interested. Typically, 250 to 1,000 words will provide an ideal window. Short paragraphs will help deliver maximum impact.

Facebook

Like a blog post, Facebook status updates should be conversational, but they should also be response-oriented. Typically polls and open-ended questions will help facilitate engagement and interaction. A link to a landing page or blog post will help bring people to a company site.

Frequent updates are also important, with the ideal number ranging between three and five spaced throughout the day. With too few updates, brands will lose audiences, and with too many updates, brands will drive people away. For brands across industries, it is appropriate to ask fans to share and like content. When users post questions and comments, it is important to be responsive.

Length-wise, Facebook status updates should be one to three sentences in length. Audiences will likely see this content through their newsfeeds, so status updates should be short, attention-grabbing, action-motivating, and compelling.

Similarly, brands should maintain a balancing act with sales-driven pitches. Ideally, only one out of every five posts should be a direct marketing pitch.

Twitter

With Twitter, the main challenge is condensing messages to 140 characters. Keeping this challenge in mind, marketers should be careful to deliver maximum impact with each and every post, which should include descriptive and action-oriented words. To make an impression, tweets should convey complete thoughts rather than fragmented messages.

Furthermore, brands should leverage Twitter as a hub for conversations. Hashtag (#) symbols can help categorize tweets for users who are using the search tool to research topics of interest. Brands can also join conversations by monitoring trending hashtag categories. Of course, brand moderators are welcome to establish direct connections with people using the @ symbol by replying to others’ tweets and questions.

Beyond a place for sharing stream of consciousness thoughts, Twitter content should be sharp, substantive, and informative. All the while, tweeters should maintain a conversational tone.

LinkedIn

For B2B networking, LinkedIn is a powerful social media tool. Beyond a resource for networking, LinkedIn provides a platform for professionals to share knowledge. Through discussion groups, users are able to ask questions, answer questions, and exchange information. Brands can engage in this dynamic by sharing blog content and expertise.

In LinkedIn discussion groups, brand representatives should promote substantive and knowledge-driven content. They should not be sales-driven or self-serving.

Furthermore, LinkedIn provides a platform for employee recruitment and can also help companies build a reputation among job-seekers. One way to accomplish this goal is to create a group.

For marketing on LinkedIn, the tone should be professional and knowledge-oriented. If necessary, sales pitches should remain limited to private messages only.

Google +

Although still growing and developing, Google’s contribution to the social media space has already proven itself. Stylish, user-friendly and cutting edge, Google+ profiles and pages are popping up everywhere.

But how does a social media manager accommodate this new channel?

By merging social media efforts with your search engine marketing strategy. The Google+ network is integrated with Google’s powerful search engine. That means posts should not only be topical, but keyword rich as well. It isn’t enough to craft an engaging post that targets your users, but it is important that those posts be optimized for search.

Direct connect is the first benefit Google+ can offer as a social network powered by a search engine. Run a Google search for a company with a “+” before the name, and you will automatically add that company to your circles. It’s a faster way for savvy users to connect with your brand.

The Bottom Line

Each social network comes with its own strengths. By understanding best-practices, brands can better adapt to each platform’s unique needs, tone, and atmosphere.

Take this short quiz to find out where you should be posting your content.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/best-practices-for-posting-across-social-network...

Vizio reveals $3,499 price for its 58-inch ultrawidescreen HDTV

We were told at CES last month to expect Vizio's ultrawidescreen LCDs would hit the market sooner rather than later, now we know how it will fit into our budgets, even if we're not sure how the aspect ratio will fit in our living rooms. Similar to the way its first Theater 3D TVs popped up last year, the XVT 3D CinemaWide product page reveals a 58-inch model (50- and 71-inchers are also planned) sporting its trademark 21:9 aspect ratio (compared to a traditional HDTV's 16:9) and 2560x1080 resolution will start at $3,499. It also has an array of specs, measuring the 120Hz Edge LED lit screen at 56.7-inches wide by 29-inches high and 1.8-inches deep. Just as we saw when they were first announced at CES 2011, Vizio upscales Blu-ray and other wider-than-widescreen sources to fill the screen without those black bars we've become accustomed to. If you're watching standard HD programming, the extra space alongside can accommodate tiles for Yahoo! Widgets pulling information from the internet without blocking the picture at all. Check our gallery below for a better look and a demo video after the break, we'll keep an ear to the ground to find out when and where these displays might hit the market first.

[Thanks, chilipalm]

Continue reading Vizio reveals $3,499 price for its 58-inch ultrawidescreen HDTV

Vizio reveals $3,499 price for its 58-inch ultrawidescreen HDTV originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceVizio  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/01/vizio-ultrawidescreen-58-inch-3499/

Why Context Is King in the Future of Digital Marketing


Jonathan Gardner is director of communications at ad company Vibrant Media. He has spent his career as an innovator at the nexus of media and technology, having worked in communications leadership roles and as a journalist around the world.

An avalanche of devices, platforms, channels, and information is crushing consumers as they go about their daily lives. I’m crying “uncle” too, wishing a corporate entity (Apple?) would take the firehose of content and channel it into a trickle of relevant info on one simple device.

Since that’s not likely to happen, and since data, devices, and content just keep multiplying, how can we marketers help consumers make sense of the world? By going back to basics, and returning to context.

Behavioral targeting is certainly valuable. Knowing what a prospective customer has recently read, browsed, watched, and bought online is definitely useful. But all it illuminates is past behavior. What if I spent the morning looking at travel sites to research a planned trip, but now I’m reading an article and thinking about buying a birthday gift for my aunt? If you want to understand a user’s likely future behavior — their intent — you need to understand their multiple contexts.

“Multiple” is the key word here. As Tom Wentworth wrote on Mashable recently, “You might be a 45-year-old technology manager who likes jazz and runs marathons, but you’re also a husband, a son, an uncle, and a friend — and your purchases reflect all those different contexts.” When you add “SoLoMo” (social, local, mobile) to the contextual mix, you begin to understand why context needs to be at the core of every smart marketer’s strategy.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to make it part of yours.


What Are You Doing?


Planning a social media campaign? Consider the contexts. A teen looking at Facebook is in the context of seeing what her friends are doing, where they are eating, shopping and hanging out. She’s watching funny videos her peers have liked or posted. She’s chatting about weekend plans. Even as the content is curated, controlled, and shared by consumers, marketers need to understand the contexts within which that sharing happens. Ask yourself: What kind of marketing message are users receptive to in these contexts?


Where Are You?


Local creates amazing opportunities to examine context. If I’m checking in on Foursquare, I’ve chosen to share my real-time, local context. Smart companies like Local Response understand the resulting data and harness it to create powerful, relevant marketing. I’m sure this will evolve further, as devices (wearable and not) get more intelligent and NFC-enabled. Marketers will have simplified my life and performed great acts of contextual relevance when they can send me a waffle coupon as I arrive in the frozen-foods section of Whole Foods.


Who’s Mobile Now?


We all are. Social and Local are mobile. With mobile Internet usage expected to soon surpass desktop, at some point in the future, nearly all media consumption will be untethered. And as with So and Lo, more Mo means more constantly shifting contexts.


As users, we all understand these contexts. And as technology advances, marketers will begin to be able to leverage these new contexts as well. Our contexts change dozens of times a day: In the morning, you’re an athlete, working out on the elliptical — while at the same time you’re an executive, watching the early business news. Then you’re a cook, making breakfast. Then you’re an executive again, making decisions at the office. Then you’re a friend, consoling a colleague who had a bad day. And so on.

Think of the possibilities for marketers and consumers who want relevant, personalized brand engagement in the right context. Ford and other auto companies are pushing forward with new telematics that can understand your health and wellness. Google’s self-driving car concept is not only logical but possibly inevitable. After all, in-car marketing really isn’t a huge leap from what we do now — looking up rest stops and gas stations from our GPS devices or smartphones. “The time is ripe for the next generation of contextual branding — the art of sending the right message, to the right audience, at the right time,” Martin Lindstrom has written about marketing in cars. But this could apply to any other context, too.

Regardless of the platform or strategy, we must not forget that content may be queen, but context is king in the future of marketing. We have seen brands such as Lowes and Jeep build this in the core of their in-image, in-text, display, and toolbar strategies that reap the benefits. They have taken branded content, dynamic creative, valuable information and special offers into relevant contexts where their customers can (and do) choose to engage with them. As David Doty of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has said: “[Contextual marketing strategies] are rich, relevant, and indicative of what the future of all advertising is going to be.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Maliketh

More About: Business, contributor, features, Marketing

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/context-digital-marketing/?utm_source=feedburn...

HBO and Miso Bring “Game of Thrones” Fans to the Second Screen


HBO is partnering with Miso to bring Game of Thrones fans an awesome second screen experience.

Miso launched its new SideShow platform at the end of 2011. The idea is to allow fans or networks to create customizable, synchronized content to go alongside what airs on TV. This can include trivia, character information, quotable moments, polls and more.

This is not the first use of the SideShow platform — USA Network recently launched official SideShows for the show White Collar. But HBO is taking a slightly different approach. Recognizing that Game of Thrones has a fanatical following, the network is asking fans to create their own SideShow content for each episode of the first season of the show.

Fans can vote on what SideShows they like best and the top three entries for each episode will win Game of Thrones swag and other goodies. When Game of Thrones season 2 premieres on Apr. 1, 2012, HBO and Miso will announce the winning SideShow for each episode. Those winners will get additional prizes, social mentions and have the honor of having their SideShow dubbed the “official” pick in the Miso iOS app.

Sabrina Caluori, VP of Social Media/Marketing at HBO, told us that the idea is not only to embrace the diehard fans of the show but to encourage viewers who may have missed the first season to catch up on what they missed.

HBO is re-airing the first season of Game of Thrones every Thursday night at 10:00 p.m., leading up to the season 2 premiere on Apr. 1. Caluori says HBO is using this as an opportunity to experiment with Miso’s SideShow platform and to look at other ways fans can connect via the second screen. If this promotion takes off, she says HBO will look into bringing the concept to other shows, including my personal favorite, True Blood.

To help fans get started with the SideShow platform, HBO and Miso reached out to fan sites Winteriscoming.com and Westeros.com to create SideShows for the first two episodes of the series. To us, this is brilliant outreach and a great way to encourage fans to get more involved.

What we like about this promotion is that it gives fans a reason to tune into the show a second or third time, while also creating worthwhile second-screen content for viewers that might not be fanatical enough to create their own experiences.

We’re impressed with what Miso is doing with its SideShow platform and hope to see other networks embracing the possibilities of fan interaction in the future.

More About: game of thrones, hbo, miso, miso sideshow, second screen, social tv, trending

For more Entertainment coverage:

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/hbo-miso-game-of-thrones/?utm_source=feedburne...

ConnecTV social companion beta launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on)

ConnecTV
The old guard's attempt at a social TV companion just got real with the launch of ConnecTV in open beta for iPad, PC and Mac -- smartphones and Android tablet versions are coming soon. The idea is you'll load up this app while watching TV and find a whole new way to discover details of your favorite content while at the same time share with your friends. The app uses a mic to detect what you're watching just like IntoNow and links up with both Facebook or Twitter (it'll also work on its own). Overall we were underwhelmed and quickly realizing that the other startups are way ahead in both release date and functionality. For starters, there are plenty of channels missing and not a single channel number. You can't even search for your favorite shows or channels. But even when it did manage to figure out what we were watching, we felt like we were being forced fed useless data like trivia and ads rather than having useful information like actors or players names at our finger tips. There's no doubt in our mind that the app was designed more to make us discover certain content rather than discover shows based on our actual tastes. Then again, this is the first version out of the gate, but somehow we think ConnecTV's business model will get in the way of ever making anything truly useful.

Continue reading ConnecTV social companion beta launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on)

ConnecTV social companion beta launches for iPad, PC and Mac (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceConnecTV, iTunes  | Email this | Comments

from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/02/connectv-social-tv-ipad-pc-mac-beta/

Social Media Has Turned Super Bowl XLVI Teams’ Marketing Upside Down


The explosive growth of social media over the past four years has drastically changed how the Giants and Patriots market themselves and connect with fans compared to the two teams’ most recent Super Bowl trips.

“It’s a whole new world compared to last time,” Nilay Shah, the Giants’ director of digital media, said in an interview.

When the Giants and Patriots reached the Super Bowl in 2008, Twitter barely existed, Facebook had less than 100 million users, and Google+ wasn’t even a gleam in Larry Page’s eye.

Today, Facebook has grown to more than 845 million users, Twitter has become an integral communication tool of the sports and media worlds, and Google+ now claims around 100 million members. Other sharing sites such as YouTube have swelled in popularity too.

“Last time we were here, the social world was still sort of new for us, and our main communication method was email,” Shah said. “We didn’t focus on it a lot back then, but coming back now we knew we had to place a lot of emphasis on it, find a way to incorporate our fans as much as possible and make them a part of the experience.”

“We didn’t focus on it a lot back then, but coming back now we knew we had to place a lot of emphasis on it, find a way to incorporate our fans as much as possible and make them a part of the experience.”

The Giants are among professional sports’ most social media-savvy teams. But Fred Kirsch, the Patriots’ vice president of content, said that growing social networks have played a real role in fan outreach and marketing during New England’s Super Bowl run as well.

When the team won the AFC Championship, it decided to run a contest giving away free trips to the Super Bowl for fans who worked in healthcare, law enforcement, the military, firefighting or education. Kirsch said that the team was able to promote the contest effectively in a short time thanks to Facebook and Twitter, gathering about a thousand nominations.

“It made it tough to choose the winners but it was well worth it,” Kirsch told Mashable in an email.

The Giants, meanwhile, have run a number of promotions built entirely around social media. They installed a button on the team website to allow fans to follow more than a dozen players on Twitter before Super Bowl XLVI with one click. They have a player shooting behind-the-scenes footage — but 10,000 new fans have to “Like” the team’s Facebook page to unlock each day’s content. They are even hosting a “Social Media Night” on Thursday, in which a number of players will participate in a live webcast from the team hotel, answering fan questions sent via Twitter and Facebook. Four more players are hosting exclusive Google+ Hangouts, each with five chosen fans who joined their Google+ Circles.

“It’s more relaxed, more informal, a chance to know the guy behind the uniform.”

Tyson Goodridge was one of the fans selected for a Hangout with linebacker Mark Herzlich. Goodridge, who works as a social media director for a marketing agency, told Mashable his two young sons wanted to ask what players eat before games, while he wanted to ask what goes through the players’ minds in the moments before the ball is snapped.

“It creates a level of intimacy that is so cool,” Goodridge said. “Anyone can know all his stats, but in this case it’s a private session where he’s not in the locker room. It’s more relaxed, more informal, a chance to know the guy behind the uniform.”

That, said Shah, epitomizes the wealth of new engagement possibilities opened up by social media’s maturation since 2008.

“We’ve always tried to provide the best content possible, but before that might have meant just putting up exclusive-access videos and that was it,” he said. “Now we’re able to give the fans more and make them feel like they have a voice.”


BONUS GALLERY: Who to Follow on Twitter for the Super Bowl XLVI Scoop



1. @SuperBowl2012


The official account of the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee is a must-follow for fans going to the game. It will function as one of several channels directing fans to entertainment venues and addressing logistical concerns from the committee's social meda command center.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Facebook, Google, Social Media, Super Bowl XLVI, Twitter

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/social-media-super-bowl-xlvi/?utm_source=feedb...

Election 2012: Voters Expect Candidates to Be on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

About 82% of all adults will receive most of their election news online. The ways U.S. voters are using social media have changed drastically since 2008. Here are some other social media trends driving this year’s election.

Presidential parties and the media are focusing on what’s being said about the election online, because of the wealth of information voters disclose about themselves and about candidates.

Voters have been disclosing their party affiliations, listing the issues they care about and liking presidential candidates they support since 2008. Now in 2012, more candidates are picking up on the trends and joining the conversation; 62% of Americans expect candidates to have a social media presence.

Newt Gingrich leads the Republican presidential candidates on Twitter with more than 1.4 million followers (although how many of those are real is still an open question). Mitt Romney has nearly 308,000; Ron Paul has 221,400 followers and Rick Santorum closes out with 102,000. President Obama, meanwhile, has collected more than 12 million followers.

In short, there is more sharing of election-related content on Facebook and Twitter than ever before.

SEE ALSO: Twitter CEO: 2012 Will Be the Twitter Election

See the infographic below, created by MDG Advertising, for more ways people are learning and sharing political news.

Tell us in the comments what you think about the growing reach of social media in politics. Do these trends reflect your social media use during the presidential election year?


Image courtesy of Flickr, Geoff Livingston

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, infographic, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/social-media-election-infographic/?utm_source=...

NBC to Dissect Super Bowl Ads in Post-Game Google+ Hangout


When Google first rolled out Hangout video chats for Google+, part of the plan involved allowing hanger-outers to watch YouTube videos together. While many questioned the usefulness of the feature, we’re now seeing what Google had in mind all along: a Super Bowl post-game Hangout where users dissect the big game’s commercials.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t part of the Google+ Master Plan at the initial unveiling, but a Hangout based around Super Bowl ads does strike us as one of the better uses of the service’s YouTube integration. Google’s partnering with NBC to run the Hangout, tapping sports business reporter Darren Rovell to host.

“The day after the Super Bowl is when people head back to their office water coolers to discuss what they loved and what they didn’t,” Rovell said in a press release. “Our conversation is about taking all those water cooler conversations and bringing it to a national, digital stage.”

SEE ALSO: Who’s Winning? The Most-Shared Super Bowl Ads So Far

As part of the deal, NBC will promote YouTube’s Ad Blitz, the page where the site asks users to vote on their favorite Super Bowl ads. In turn, YouTube will serve up NBC ads and promos for the big game all weekend. This marks the first time YouTube has had any kind of partnership with the Super Bowl broadcaster. Rovell will reveal the winning ad of the Ad Blitz on his CNBC show, SportsBiz: Game On on Feb. 17.

Google+ Hangouts are generally limited to 10 users, but some users can create “Hangouts on Air,” which expand beyond that limit by allowing others to watch the Hangout as a live stream on YouTube.

Love the idea of an official Google+ Hangout about the ads? Will you join? Let us know in the comments.


BONUS: The Most Popular Super Bowl Ads So Far


1. "The Bark Side" (Vokswagen)


Not surprisingly, the sequel to the most-shared ad of last year's Super Bowl, and of all of 2011 for that matter, is leading the pack this year. Volkswagen released this video last week showing dogs barking to the tune of Star Wars's "The Imperial March." So does that mean there will be dogs in this year's ad? More Star Wars? We'll know soon enough.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Google, nbc, Super Bowl, Super Bowl ads, super bowl commercials, YouTube

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/01/31/nbc-youtube-super-bowl-hangout/?utm_source=fee...

Be a Grown Up Boy Scout: The Wilderness Survival Skills Everyone Should Know [Video]

>A few hours watching the Discovery Channel can prompt extreme survival fantasies involving frog licking and urine drinking, but what basic skills would you actually need to survive in the wilderness? Here's a look at the basics you need to become an adult Boy Scout straight from a cadre of survival experts. More »


from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/5881604/be-a-grown-up-boy-scout-the-wilderness-survival...

Hey Candidates… Get Your Ads Together.

Marketers always dream of the opportunities a bigger budget would afford.

“If I just had $250,000,” we think to ourselves, “then I could REALLY make an impact.”  That money may mean the ability to add some new marketing talent to the team, put extra energy into reaching an audience that’s often neglected; maybe even the chance to test out a new social media campaign strategy.

But what if instead of getting that extra $250,000 you were dreaming of, you got something more along the lines of $250 million?

My mind is spinning thinking of all the possibilities that nine digits of budget entails.  Talent just went from a kid with 2 years of experience to a full team that includes the likes of Seth Godin and Scott Monty.  I’d probably even pay to have Jon Hamm impersonate Don Draper, just for kicks.  I could put millions into researching the needs, preferences, locations and decision-making habits of every audience segment and definitively know what levers move them.

Forget about Effies and Clios – my marketing campaigns would be winning Oscars.

So then why is it that political advertising campaigns are so bad?

Rinse and Repeat

Barack Obama is estimated to raise $1 billion to support his bid for reelection this year.  Mitt Romney pulled in $10 million dollars in just one day of fundraising last year.  Even Herman Cain raised over $14 million in his short-lived run for the Republican nomination.  With so much money at their disposal, it really is amazing how bad the final product typically ends up being.

While I’m sure a painstaking amount of work is put into devising political advertising, it seems to be more of an exercise in repetition than creativity.  All of that beautiful budget is used to place heavy media buys which make watching TV unbearable.  What’s worse is that all the commercials seem like they can be boiled down to one of the following two formulas:

Formula 1: [Insert Opponent Name] + [Black and White Photo/Video of Opponent Making A Weird/Unflattering Face] + [Insert Negative, But Lacking Context, Factoid] + [Quick Flash of a Smiling Photo/Video of Your Candidate]

Formula 2: [Insert Your Candidate Name] + [Color Photo/video of Candidate with Family, Veteran, Blue Collar Worker or Senior Citizen] + [Insert Positive, But Lacking Context, Factoid]

Both have the same end result: mind-numbing advertising that further disenfranchises the American people.

Confined Innovation

In a recent post, Digital Influence Group’s Kevin Green detailed that, all too often, “we limit our thinking to what we know and we’ve experienced.”  This is all too true in politics, where it seems that innovation can only take place in the medium used, not the actual message that is spread across that medium.

Go watch a video on YouTube and you’ll likely be bombarded with AdRoll that tells you why Ron Paul is “America’s last true statesman.”  Or you may notice that Mitt Romney has some promoted tweets showing up on your feed the next time you visit Twitter.  You could even stumble upon Barack Obama’s campaign HQ in the virtual reality world Second Life.  Political advertising is at the forefront in terms of leveraging marketing platforms to find and reach their audience…

They just have no idea what to say to them.  If the candidates want to change our perception of them, they need to change the message altogether.

Changing the Conversation

Just because candidates have huge budgets to work with, it doesn’t mean that the idea needs to be overly complicated.

What if, instead of producing the same old staid advertising and buying media, the candidate used his/her money to do something meaningful?  Can you imagine how impactful it would be if Barack Obama announced today that half of the money he raised ($500 million) would be used as a down payment on the national debt to demonstrate his commitment to righting our financial ship?  Or if he decided to use that money to fund entrepreneurs’ business ideas to show how dedicated he is to stimulating the economy?  Or just donated it to a good cause? And then he used his massive following on social channels to encourage his constituents and supporters to do the same?

In a time where mistrust of politicians is at an all time high, a candidate could fundamentally change the political conversation through a single, strong action like one of those listed above.  Think of all the press and conversation that act would garner; the confidence and excitement it would instill in the American people; of how refreshing of a break it would be from politics as we know them.

He’d certainly get my vote.

Connect with Matt on Twitter @_matthewjdunn or read additional posts by him at the agency’s Under the Influence blog.

from BostInno http://bostinno.com/channels/hey-candidates-get-your-ads-together/