What the Drug Industry Can Learn from FDA's Social Media Policy

The FDA recently posted a new social media policy, but it's not for the pharmaceutical industry. The policy is for its own employees (read "FDA Releases a Long-Awaited Social Media Policy").

Like similar policies developed by pharma companies such as Roche (here), FDA's SM policy provides guidance to their employees about how to use social media for personal and professional purposes.

"The FDA encourages the use of social media technologies to enhance communication, collaboration, and information exchange in support of FDA’s mission to protect and promote public health," states the introduction. "This policy applies to FDA employees, contractors, and other personnel acting in an official capacity when using social media to communicate with the public regarding FDA-related matters."

I read "between the lines" to determine if this policy offers any hints as to how the FDA may further regulate pharma's use of social media in the future, especially with regard to correcting/deleting comments posted to its own sites and linking to external third-party sites.

Read more »

FDA Acts on Violative Social Media Posts a Lot More Quickly Than It Does for TV and Print Ads

Kim Kardashian posted a violative Diclegis® ad on Instagram (read “Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency, Drug Safety, and Learning from History”). She was paid to do that by Duchesnay -- the company that makes & markets Diclegis.

But did you know that the ad also was posted to her Twitter and Facebook accounts?

Here's how the FDA depicted the campaign (find the original here):

Click on image for an enlarged view.

What does this show us? How did the FDA get so social media savvy? Note two things:

Read more »

The Irrelevance of Social Media for Pharma Marketing

The pharmaceutical industry has often been criticized for being behind the "digital curve," meaning that it lacks the expertise to fully take advantage of the Internet and social media to improve marketing and communications.

Back in 2013, I suggested that pharma was on the "Slope of Enlightenment" of the "digital" hype curve (here).

Since then, the FDA has come out with some social media guidelines (read, for example, FDA Sets Up a Roadblock for Branded Rx Promotional Tweets and Drug Industry Rips Into FDA Over Social Media Guidelines) and I sense that pharma has moved along the curve, but the curve itself - which I am now calling the Social Media (SM) Hype Curve - has changed and it looks something like this:

Click on image for an enlarged view.

What do I mean by "Slow Slide Into Irrelevance?"

Read more »

Social Media "Corrective Messages": Closing the Barn Door After the Cow Has Left!

You undoubtedly know about Kim Kardashian's Instagram post that promoted Diclegis® for treating morning sickness and which resulted in a warning letter from the FDA because it "entirely omits all risk information" (read “Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency, Drug Safety, and Learning from History”).

A Klick Wire email newsletter said that this may have been the “quickest warning letter in history.” The FDA knew about the post at the time it was made or beforehand because Duchesnay -- the company that makes & markets Diclegis -- and all other drug companies are required by law to submit any promotional material to FDA’s OPDP “at the time of first use” together with a form called Form 2253. The Instagram post was also submitted as a complaint to the OPDP Bad Ad Program.

So, it’s no surprise that the FDA acted quickly in issuing the Warning Letter, which requested that Duchesnay immediately cease misbranding DICLEGIS and/or cease introducing the misbranded drug into interstate commerce. Duchesnay complied quickly and removed the violative Instagram post.

But so far Duchesnay/Kim Kardashian has not complied with another FDA request: to disseminate truthful, non-misleading, and complete corrective messages. What's the process for doing that? How long will it take? Will it work?

Read more »

My Book Is Published! Get a 35% Discount!

Good news! The book, Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy, which I co-authored with Letizia Affinito, has been published!

Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategymakes the case for a fundamentally new approach to healthcare communication; one that mobilizes patients, healthcare professionals and uses new media to enable gathering, sharing and communication of information to achieve patient-centricity and provide better value for both organizations (in terms of profit) and patients (in terms of better service and improved health).

I am happy to say that the publisher has allowed me to offer you a 35% discount off the usual price! Use code G15JNY35 when ordering the book online here: www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9781472456328

I also have a few [autographed] copies I can give away to colleagues who wish to write glowing reviews such as this one by Mario R. Nacinovich, Jr. (@nacinovich), Managing Partner, AXON and editor emeritus of Journal of Communication in Healthcare:

Read more »

Kim Kardashian's Diclegis Instagram Post Raises Issues of Transparency, Drug Safety, and Learning from History - i.e., Thalidomide deja vu!

Duchesnay Press Release (click for enlarged view)

By now you've probably read several media reports about Kim Kardashian's enthusiastic Instagram post promoting Diclegis, a prescription morning-sickness medicine. That's only because the FDA sent a Warning Letter to the drug’s maker, Duchesnay Inc.

The FDA said the post failed to give information about the drug’s risks, which is something I reported here on Pharma Marketing Blog back in July ("OMG. Kim Kardashian Shills for Pharma! No Worry - No Side Effects!").

FDA's letter ordered the company to "immediately cease misbranding." Kim -- obeying orders no doubt from Duchesnay -- removed her violative Instagram post, but it lives on in the media seen by millions and also in a Duchesnay press release (Kim Kardashian West Found Morning Sickness Relief with Diclegis).

Of course, the press release also contains all the necessary risk information, including a very troubling side effect in children.

Read more »

For Pharma Marketers, Celebrities + "Social Media" = Gold Mine!

Today, I learned from a @Novartis tweet that yet another celebrity is  teaming up with a pharmaceutical company to leverage "social media" for marketing purposes. The celebrity is singer and LGBT rights activist Cyndi Lauper, who admits she she has "moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis (PsO)."

Lauper is featured on the "THAT's PsO ME" website hosted by Novartis in conjunction with the National Psoriasis Foundation.

Novartis recently won approval from FDA to market Cosentyx  (secukinumab) for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients.

In a PEOPLE magazine article published yesterday, Lauper reminds us that "It's not just a rash. It's a disease" -- a statement straight out of the pharma marketer's playbook.

Of course, like many other aged celebrities hired by pharma (e.g., Monica Seles admitted she suffered from binge eating disorder for many years; she too came out in PEOPLE magazine after signed on with a pharma company; read more about that here), Lauper suffered from her condition in secret for many years before being paid by pharma to come out in the open. "You don't have to suffer in silence or live in pain," says Lauper after doing just that for years.

Not only is Lauper shilling for pharma in PEOPLE magazine, she also "joined" the THAT's PsO ME "community." What's that all about?

Read more »

Social Media Uncovers Need for "BALLm" - Rebranding of Vagisil for Men's Itchy Balls!

Infegy is a company that claims to have cloud-based technologies that can transform "huge volumes of [social media] commentary into valuable consumer insights."

To prove how valuable these insights can be, the company is published a report that offers several "quick snapshots of various use cases that can be leveraged for the pharmaceutical and personal care industries."

One case study involves Vagisil, which gives women relief from vaginal discomfort and itching due mainly to yeast infections.

While performing a brand reputation audit of Vagisil, an Infegy analyst found that more men were talking about the product online than women. According to the report, "the majority of these male commentators were referencing Vagisil when doling out insults."

OK. Obviously, that's not very helpful if you are looking to social media for ideas about line extensions. However, the analysis also found "subsections" of social media conversations about a topic that Infegy believes uncovers an opportunity to rebrand Vagisil for men: Itchy balls!

Read more »

House Bill Would Give FDA 18 Months to Finalize "One-Click Rule" Guidance: ROFLMAOYSST

On May 20, 2015, Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives a bill (H.R. 2479) that would "direct the FDA to clearly regulate meaningful, truthful and non-misleading communication of product information on social media."

Specifically, the draft of the bill (find it here) states that the FDA should revise its regulations and guidances to "recognize that [sponsors of medical products] may use the Internet to:

• "disseminate, in character-limited applications, truthful, introductory information about medical products, including the name of such products and their approved uses; and 


• "provide additional information about the safety and effectiveness of the medical products using information that is hyperlinked to such introductory information; and for regulatory purposes, treat hyperlinked information ... as if the information appeared in introductory information [i.e., the original character-limited text, meaning tweet]."

This, of course, is the "one-click rule," which has been hotly debated for years in pharma marketing circles. In fact, I was among the first observers to point out that the "one-click rule" as described above should be allowed. Let me explain...

Read more »

PharmaGuy - the Book! "Socialize Your Patient Engagement Strategy": Coming This August

How Social Media and Mobile Apps Can Boost Health Outcomes 

Letizia Affinito and John Mack 

Read more »

LAP-BAND's Social Media Campaign Definitely Violates FDA Guidelines

I heard that a number of participants at the 33rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco were "baffled" by LAP-BAND's social media campaign. LAP-BAND, marketed by Apollo Endosurgery, is a medical device that is inserted surgically around the stomach to reduce its capacity and thus aid in weight loss.

LAP-BAND has a limited indication: "for weight reduction for patients with obesity, with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 40 kg/m2 or a BMI of at least 30 kg/m2 with one or more obesity-related comorbid conditions." It also has a number of possible adverse events such as "band slippage, erosion and deflation, reflux, obstruction of the stomach, dilation of the esophagus, infection, or nausea and vomiting may occur."

It seems that several tweets posted by the @LAPBAND Twitter account violate recent FDA "Guidance for Industry Internet/Social Media Platforms with Character Space Limitations— Presenting Risk and Benefit Information for Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices" (here).

First, here's what the @LAPBAND Twitter page looks like:

Click on image for an enlarged vie.

You can SEE - but you probably can't READ - the Important Safety Information (ISI) in the upper right corner. Technically, I suppose this satisfies FDA requirements that ISI must accompany branded Rx and medical device ads that mention benefits of the product.

But it's the tweets themselves that FDA should be looking out. Let me explain why.

Read more »

Are Online Peer-to-Peer Physician Discussions Overrated?

Congrats to Thibaud Guymard (@thibaudguymard), Digital Marketing Manager at MSD France, and his Comuniti team for winning the Prix Or de la Communication Médicale & Hospitalière in Paris at the yesterday.

Comuniti is a online community lunched in early 2014. It is part of MSD France's Univadis service exclusively for healthcare professionals.

"Contact your colleagues and talk exclusively with health professionals," says the Comuniti promo. "Work with your colleagues in public or private groups. Ask medical questions and find precise answers."

These capabilities offered by Comuniti are a first for Univadis, which has been around for a long time (listen to this podcast: "What is Univadis?").

Of course, it has to compete with other, similar services offered by independent companies and organizations. But MSD France hopes that Comuniti, coupled with the heaps of content available through Univadis, will be a magnet for French HCPs.

But are HCPs really interested in having discussions with their peers on so-called "peer-to-peer"  physician networks? I discussed this with Jeff Tangney, CEO & Founder, Doximity, and Shona Davies, Global Communications & Programme Leader for Univadis worldwide. You might be surprised at what they have to say about the value of online physician peer-to-peer discussions.

Read more »

FDA's 2015 Guidance Agenda - Just Like the 2014 Agenda - Promises Publication of Guidance Regarding Use of Links to 3rd-Party Internet Sites

FDA/CDER has published its 2015 Guidance Agenda (here). Here's what's under the Advertising Category:

• Brief Summary and Adequate Directions for Use: Disclosing Risk Information in Consumer-Directed Print Advertisements and Promotional Labeling for Human Prescription Drugs
• Direct-to-Consumer Television Advertisements – DTC Television Ad Pre-Dissemination Review Program for Human Drugs
• Health Care Economic Information in Promotional Labeling and Advertising for Prescription Drugs Under Section 114 of the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act
• Internet/Social Media Advertising and Promotional Labeling of Prescription Drugs and Medical Devices – Use of Links to Third-Party Sites
• Manufacturer Communications Regarding Unapproved Uses of Approved Medical Products
• Providing Regulatory Submissions in Electronic and Non-Electronic Format – Promotional Labeling and Advertising Materials for Human Prescription Drugs

Some of these guidances -- such as the DTC Television Ad Pre-Dissemination Review Program guidance -- have already been released as draft documents (see, for example, this review). I suppose the FDA is planning on publishing "final" guidance documents based on comments to the draft documents. Or maybe just "revised" draft documents.

I highlighted one item on the list having to do with "Internet/Social Media Advertising" -- Use of Links to Third-Party Sites. This was also on FDA's 2014 Guidance Calendar, but as we know no guidance was issued in 2014.

Perhaps none will be issued in 2015 either. Why not?

Read more »

Social Networks: How Many Is Too Many?

Blogging takes a lot - creating awesome content , designing , moderating comments , commenting on other blogs, guest posting , … And social media is just a part of it. There are over 200 social sites (at least according to Wikipedia ), but does this...

Marketing Experts - 7 Common Omissions from Social Strategies

When it comes to devising your brand’s social media strategy, the devil is in the detail. Small mistakes and basic omissions can leave your efforts falling short, potentially impacting your online presence. There are numerous, simple mistakes that business owners are still making on social media, so here are 7 critical elements that often get neglected: 

1.) Email is NOT Dead
It may be the oldest online social network, but don’t go writing email off just yet. It is still a great and powerful way of connecting with your clients, and has the added bonus of being cheap. The majority of businesses check their inbox regularly throughout the day, and research by Zapier suggests that customers who receive their emails are more likely to share important information across other networking platforms too. 

2.) Link Back to your Website
So many brands invest time and effort into creating great content for their Facebook or Twitter pages, however trying to find a link back to their website is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Your website should be your priority, and your social media channels should drive traffic back to your site. Make it super easy for those who are interested in finding out more about your services to find your site. 

3.) Focus, Focus, Focus
With a plethora of networks now available, keeping a cohesive social media strategy can seem like a full time job in itself. A lot of business owners may feel that they have to be active on all social media channels, all the time. In reality, it’s far more valuable to focus on one or two sites and use them really well. Do some research into what sites your target audience are using and focus your efforts there. You should be able to see higher engagement and conversions at a lower cost.

4.) Make your Employees your Advocates
Bring your brand back to even more customers by utilising one of your greatest assets - your employees. Make them advocates for your business by including them in your social media brand-building efforts and welcome their strategic input. Not only will it build the brand amongst employees, but it will foster greater employee advocates too, creating a strong all-round presence. 

5.) Don’t be Afraid of Retargeting 
If done right, retargeting can be a very powerful marketing tactic. By using past social media campaigns and specific URLs, it is possible to track specific leads around the web from a simple tweet or Facebook post. Following on from this, you can target your potential customers the ads that are most likely get them to convert, as well as being able to quantify this data to see how much of an impact your social media is actually having on sales.

6.) Use Facebook Targeting 
So many businesses forget to capitalise on Facebook’s targeting software. With this tool, certain posts only reach a certain demographic to strengthen the appeal in one without turning off another. The targeting function can be found on the Facebook admin pages and could make an impressive difference to your marketing strategy. 

7.) Use YouTube!
YouTube is often forgotten in social media strategy because it is often not thought of as a social network. In reality, it is one of the most powerful sites you have in your tool kit. Users tend to browse the site, and the related video suggestions YouTube shows users in the sidebar are almost as good as buying ads on the page. 

Make videos that are either useful (e.g., expert how-to's), which potential customers are likely to come across when searching for information on their own or that are entertaining (e.g., funny commercials). Ultimately, make something that people would share amongst themselves. Search results featuring videos have a higher click-through rate, so not having a video presence could mean missing out on potential customers from organic search traffic.

Special thanks to Madeleine Hammond for today's guest post. Madeleine is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies with Skeleton Productions

10 Social Media Tricks Your Small Business Needs to Try

If you're struggling to get the word out about your small business, social media could be your great equalizer. Social media as a marketing channel is more strategic and data driven than a few blog posts, status updates, and a few hundred “followers” and “likes.

Expanding your audience is crucial, and Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and Twitter let you do that easily. HootSuite lets you manage all these profiles at once, saving valuable time, while Tumblr, Vine, and Instagram allow you to reach a younger audience in creative ways. And don’t say your audience isn’t on social media; the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-64 year olds.

Keeping up with the latest social media changes is not always easy, and your social media marketing tactics may need to be refreshed. At Grovo, an online learning platform that trains people on leading cloud apps, social media tools and Internet trends, we put together the top 10 tips your small business needs to try to take your social media presence to the next level today:

1. Promote a Page Post with Facebook Ads
Paying to advertise a Facebook Page post increases the distribution of an important message so that it appears in more News Feeds across Facebook. To promote a page post, select "Page Post Engagement" from the ads creation page. Pick a recent post from the dropdown, or check the box to automatically promote the most recent post and keep your ad up-to-date.

Below, you'll see what your ad will look like in the "News Feed" and the "Right Column," but you can "Remove" it from either place. Uncheck the box beneath "Sponsored Stories" if you don't want stories published about people liking your posts, commenting on your posts, or sharing your posts.
However, leaving Sponsored Stories enabled won't force you to increase your budget. Under "Advanced Options," you can add "URL Tags" to make it easier for you to track clicks if you want.

2. Get To Know Your Facebook Fan Base
If you don’t know who your fans are, you won’t know what content to publish. Posting the wrong content will help you lose likes, not drive likes. The “people” tab will help you better understand the users who share and engage with your page’s content. Here you can choose data on demographic information and narrow your data down to people you’ve reached, who’ve engaged with content, or who’ve checked in within the past 28 days. You can also see check-in, age, sex, and location comparison reports, and detailed explanations.

This video will help you better understand how you can get to know your fans better, in order to target them with the right content and drive likes:

3. Advertise on Twitter
Setting up your Twitter ads account allows you to promote your brand or company through Twitter. To sign up, go to ads.twitter.com and sign in with your brand's Twitter account.

Once you get started, add the locations and interests of people you'd like to target. Under "More targeting options" you will be able to better precisely and accurately you target your ads. If you do this, the more likely it is that someone who views it will click on it, so choose carefully.

You get to decide the maximum you'd like to pay per day and per interaction for individual promoted tweets and promoted accounts. You won't always pay the maximum amount, but you'll never pay more than your maximum bid. You can also choose to focus exclusively on promoting individual tweets or your account by clicking "Stop promoting" under the other category. Your ads will begin appearing on Twitter users' feeds. You can control your ad settings on this page, and return to it at any time by going to ads.twitter.com.

4. Convert to a Pinterest Business Profile:
Pinterest now allows businesses to have official accounts. These accounts allow companies to more effectively interact with their audiences on Pinterest.

By visiting business.pinterest.com, you can either create a new business profile or convert an existing profile to a business account. To create a new business profile, click "Join as a business." You'll then be prompted to fill out a form with such information as: your business type; your contact info and password; the business name and logo; and a description and website.

Business accounts, you only need to provide a single name, rather than first and last name with personal accounts. To convert an existing profile, select "Convert your Existing Account" on the Pinterest Business page. Log in to your account, provide the required information, accept the terms of service and click "Convert Account." After creating or converting your account, you'll see a Get Started page that can help you Verify your website, install a pinterest widget on your site, drive traffic back to your site, and grow your audience.

5. Make Your Business Googleable
Google Places for Business allows you to manage the information Google displays about your business in search results, your Google+ profile page, your Adwords account, and Google offers all from a single dashboard.

To get started on Google Places for Business, go to google.com/places and click "Get started for free." Log in with your Google Account or Google apps username and password. In the popup, choose whether you'd like to be notified about future release information, agree to the terms of service, and hit "Okay, got it!"

Type your business name, location information, business phone number, and business type. On the next page, verify your account to prove you really own the address, or "Continue and verify later."Note that your page won't be displayed on Google until you verify it. Next, click "Edit information" and add your business's hours, a description, and photos. Your changes will be saved automatically.

6. Post Simultaneously to Multiple Social Networks
Once you've added social networks, you can use HootSuite to post to multiple networks at once.
First, select the profiles you want to send this message to in the box to the right of the compose box at the top of any page. You can select as many profiles as you have connected. Deselect a profile by clicking its icon again. Click into the "Compose" window and type the message you want to send.You can type up to the most lenient character limit of the networks that you selected. You'll see each limit decrease to the bottom left as you type.

If you exceed the limit of one of your networks, the number will turn red and go into the negatives. This lets you know how much of your message will be cut off with an ellipsis on that network. Click the location icon to add location data to your message, and the lock to adjust your privacy settings. Click "Send Now," and your message will be posted to all the profiles you selected.

7. Help Search Engines Find your Videos
Adding tags and video categories can improve the performance of your videos by helping search engines find them when users search for your tags and similar terms. You can add tags when you upload your video, or at any time after by selecting "Video Manager" in the dropdown below your username. Check off a tag you've already used to include it, or type in the box above to find a specific tag or create a new one. You can also choose a video category that matches your title, description and tags to help improve your video's search ranking even more.

8. Track the Performance of your Tweets
There are many ways to advertise your business, this way has 140 character restrictions. Twitter helps your business build an audience, broadcast your message and send followers to your site. Tracking your tweets' performance allows you to see how popular your tweets are over time, as well as get information about the people who follow you. To track tweet performance, go to ads.twitter.com and log in. The following video will give you a better understanding of using Twitter’s Analytics, to dive into your Timeline activity, followers influence, good and bad tweets, and more.

9. Pay to Have a Tumblr Post Shown More Places
Promoting a Tumblr blog post allows you to pay for your posts to have better placement in front of your audience or highlights a post to stand out on users' dashboards.From the post creation page, click "Promote this post" then select either "Pin this post" for $5 or "Highlight this post" for $2.

When you pin a post, it remains pinned to the top of your followers' dashboards until they remove the pin.
Highlighting a post means the post will have a glow around it to stand out from other posts, and include a tag to the right of the post.

Select a message for the tag using the dropdown below, after you select the "Highlight this post" radio button. Select the icon and color to the right. If you've already entered your credit card information, you can either confirm the payment, change your card, or cancel the order. Otherwise, type in your credit card information and click "Next" or use PayPal to pay for your promoted post.

10. Track Your Most Popular LinkedIn Updates
LinkedIn page analytics allow you to keep track of which of your company's updates are the most popular,and see how your LinkedIn page has grown over time. To access your company's analytics page, go to your company's page, then click "Analytics" at the top.Here, you'll see your company's most recent updates, with more information about each post to the right. To better understand your LInkedIn Reach, Engagement, Clicks, Likes, COmments, Shares, Range AND More… Grovo’s 1minute LInkedIn Analytics Overview will help:

Special thanks to Drew Hudson for today's guest post.  Drew Hudson is a Product Analyst and Writer for Grovo Learning, Inc. specializing in social media, cloud computing, and mobile apps. Since the turn of the decade, he has entrenched himself in the evolution of Web services and digital strategies and is an authority on the business impact of new Internet tools and trends. He writes several tutorial scripts each day, with tips on how to better use the Internet, and is a lead writer for the Grovo Blog. Besides keeping up with what's going on in the tech world and writing about it, Drew loves music, sports, and exploring the best of everything New York has to offer.

6 Tips for Brands Using Vine a Instagram Video

Short-form video is an invaluable tool in the marketers kit. With the incredible popularity of Vine and Instagram videos as of late, the savvy marketers amongst you will no doubt have picked up on it’s plethora of opportunities and potential reach, with studies showing that 40% of the top 1000 most shared Instagram videos for last month were brand led.

In fact, Instagram's 15 second videos are creating twice the engagement that images do and not only are users watching but they are also sharing and embedding them. The downside of all this of course is that getting your content seen is even more of a challenge. Greater popularity = Greater competition meaning your video has to be even better than it’s multitude of competitors. But never fear! Here are some top tips to make your video the cream of the corporate crop.

1.) Tell a Story: Real Time is all well and good, but giving your story some context can make it even more engaging to the viewer. What do you want your video to say? Using it as a storytelling arc may mean more time prepping and planning - thinking about storyboards, angles, and what it is you are trying to achieve. This extra effort could, however, serve in making your video more memorable and aid it’s longevity.

2.) Listen!: Instagram & Vine are pretty much entirely mobile-based applications, so the sound quality can sometimes be hit-and-miss. Be sure to place yourself at a close enough distance to your object so that you can clearly capture what it is you want your audience to hear. It might even be worth using a microphone to get the crispest audio possible, especially when in a noisy environment.

3.) Have Some Fun: Never be afraid to show some personality in your content. Above all, Instagram and Vine are social platforms - people are waaay more likely to follow you for likeability over professionalism. Make sure you build relationships with your audience and maintain a strong sense of character throughout your videos. Having a personality can engage viewers and help cement good customer relationships.

4.) Use a Great Thumbnail: First impressions DO count! The thumbnail is the first thing viewers will see and has to encourage them to click through to the actual content, so it’s worth making them as appealing as possible. Pick one that could stand alone as a picture, but also teases the viewer into watching the whole video.

5.) Hold Steady: Mobile phone footage is the worst culprit when it comes to shaky, jerky shots. Stop moving and set the phone down on or against a steady surface, or better still, mount it on a tripod. If you absolutely must be holding the camera, consider keeping the focus object stationary in the shot whilst you move with them, it will help create smoother transitions and stop the overall footage from being too disjointed.

6.) Experiment with Angles: Unless you're doing a stop-motion piece, try and vary the perspectives of your shots as much as possible.Experiment with close-ups, wide shots, big reveals...just doing something as seemingly simple of this could make your video more interesting as well as provide you with some excellent practice.

Madeleine Hammond is a marketing executive at Skeleton Productions - one of the UK's leading video production companies.

Word of Mouth in the Digital Age – Social Media for your Internet Marketing

Businesses around the world have come to the Internet to promote their products. The more traditional methods of internet marketing include banner advertisements and keyword placements. 

These follow the model of print media, which provides brands readership and therefore exposure. But these banners and keywords are only as good as their traditional counterparts. They only reach their viewers in a different way.

In recent years, the Internet has gone through an evolution spearheaded by social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. With the Internet being freely accessible through mobile phones and other gadgets, it isn’t uncommon for people to get their news and updates from social media rather than traditional media like newspapers and TV.

This development has given rise to social media marketing. Companies can now create pages for their brands and products and provide regular updates and promotions. People online can see these updates as their friends interact with the pages or even by just commenting on posts about these pages. Every like and comment shows up on a friend’s feeds and does not come in as an advertisement in the traditional sense.

These advertisements comes in as word of mouth. And that is the beauty of it all. This sort of advertisement is earned instead of being paid and adds credibility.

Wouldn’t you listen to a friend when he talks about how good the steak is at the new restaurant rather than to a radio advertisement that gives the same message? And wouldn’t you be more likely to try that same steak yourself after hearing from your friend? And not only do you just read what your friends say about these products, you can actually see it for yourself as they post pictures in Instagram or when they check into a new location in Foursquare.

Internet marketing in social media is so effective that it has enabled political campaigns. Ask Barack Obama. His 2008 campaign differentiated itself by having a page that engages with users and also provided the Democratic party reach that it would not have had using traditional means.

It’s just like when you watch a good movie. The really good ones don’t stop once the film ends. You end up talking about it with your friends. The same goes for any outstanding product marketed over social media. The discussions themselves showcase the product.

Internet marketing has also gone beyond just computers. With millions of tablets and smart phones capable of going online and more importantly getting instantaneous updates from social media, your campaigns and promotions reach their user base right away. And they get these updates on the go with wireless Internet being as prevalent as it is today.

So whether you are trying to increase awareness on a new product, working on customer service by going the extra mile in reaching out to your customers or even just collecting information on buying habits and preferences, Internet marketing through social media has a place in every company’s campaign. Today, not only can you get heard or talked about; you can go viral!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing

http://mashable.com/2012/12/07/corporate-social-media-marketing/

Learn from Coca-Cola, Red Bull and Oreo for Social Media Success

No matter what size your business is, you can still utilize social media platforms to boost your marketing efforts. Did you know that Facebook has over 1 billion members, there are more than 140 million users on Twitter and YouTube gets 4 billion views every single day? 

Social media is used by consumers across the world as part of their everyday lives but it is a vital element that businesses should use too. According to a new report by Forbes, social media is more prevalent among customers than ever.

However, only 8% of Fortune 500 CEOs are on Facebook; only 4% are using Twitter and less than 1% has a presence on Google Plus.

So it is clear from the findings that it is important for businesses to engage with their customers through such channels. When used correctly, you can form an online community of dedicated fans that will help your brand maximize its advertising strategies.

Learn from renowned big-named brands for social media success. Here are 3 examples of social media triumph:

• Coca-Cola 

Facebook: 36 million fans

Twitter: 616,873 followers

YouTube: 105 million video views

Coca-Cola is a great example when it comes to tweeting, photo sharing, uploading videos, blogging and social media apps. It has achieved massive success online and the secret is that it has an independent fan page rather than an official one. The fans can moderate the posts themselves so it is more like a community rather than an advertising platform. It is about engaging instead of acquiring and about loyalty as opposed to selling.

• Red Bull

Facebook: 32,282,658 fans

Twitter: 746,963 followers

YouTube: Over 340 million video views

Red Bull has built up a very strong fan base online and it has become one of the most flexible media companies in the world. The fun, unique content that it publishes has made it a lifestyle brand and the company produces several engaging videos on a daily basis.

Just take the latest Space Jump as an example. Its mission to the edge of space resulted in Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner successfully completing a jump from 23 miles above the Earth; setting world records for the highest jump, highest balloon flight, and fastest jump.

Red Bull has become a badge that you like extreme things. It appeals to everyone that embraces adrenaline activities such as those who like going fast on motor bikes, and surfing in the desert.

• Oreo

Facebook: 28 million fans

Twitter: 56,000 followers

YouTube: 5,258,025 video views

Oreo’s social media marketing strategies are admired simply because it plays on the fact that it is a highly recognizable brand.

It creates a lot of buzz and has built a strong community to achieve high engagement rates. They have a ‘fan of the week’, a ‘birthday of the day’, and they ask their fans to share their ‘Oreo moments’.

Essentially, they have achieved success because they reach consumers in a personal manner and make it fun.

Conclusion…

Brands that do well on social media tend to be the biggest brands in the world. But SMEs can emulate the likes of the companies mentioned above by employing the right techniques.

Don’t think of it as a marketing channel that you have to get involved with; think of it as what your brand can do for customers online. Social media is a relationship, not an advertising platform. Start genuine conversations with your consumers, engage with them and think of it as a community.

Once you have made the contact, it is an on-going practice. Even the likes of firms such as Red Bull needs to continuously engage with their fans or they will go elsewhere.

This guest blog post was provided by Custard, a creative marketing agency based near Manchester England that specializes in innovative social media strategies.

6 Social Media Tools for Enhancing Your Marketing Efforts

Social media is becoming an increasingly important component in the plans of many organizations. The social web has plenty to offer, but making the most of it is much more than setting up a profile on a few popular sites. It’s about creating an active presence and having the tools that allow you to manage it effectively. These six tools will help you tune your social marketing efforts to peak-level performance.

1. HootSuite

HootSuite is a very popular choice among small businesses. This tool is essentially a web-based platform that lets you manage your presence across the social web. So you can manage profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other networks from a single interface. In addition, the streamlined goodness of the HootSuite allows you to schedule posts, monitor brand mentions, and even analyze social traffic.

HootSuite is free to use, but you can upgrade to the paid Pro version, which of course, frees you of the limitations that accompany the free version.

2. Traackr

At one time, social analytics tools were scare. Now they’re all over the place. Traackr is a little known tool slowly but surely proving to be one of the best of its kind. With Traackr, you can easily identify the influencers who are the most valuable to your brand. It lets you see how these authority figures are responding to your content by viewing who is contributing the most to your social marketing campaigns. From there, you can build new strategies around the data, and then view the results of your efforts.

Traackr is available at a fixed monthly rate, but plans can be scaled to fit individual needs.

3. TwitterSearch

If Twitter is one of your preferred social networking channels, then TwitterSearch should be one of your favorite tools. This tool can help you find just about whatever you need on the popular microblogging site. For example, you can use it to find out what people are saying about your brand, or what they are saying about your competition. It’s also great for researching trending topics that would fit into your content marketing strategy.

Freely available, TwitterSearch is an underrated social discovery gem you don’t want to sleep on.

4. Wildfire

Wildfire is a powerful platform that lets you monitor and manage your social media presence. An integrated suite of solutions, it offers advertising, messaging, analytics, and various other features for brands looking to maximize their efforts. With Wildfire, you can create engaging experiences that captivate your audience, and then have a comprehensive view into deep insights that enable you to do it again, this time, even better.

Wildfire, now owned by Google, is a in Pro and Enterprise pricing plans for social marketers with slightly different needs.

5. Postano

Postano provides a convenient way to stay active across all your social spots. It lets you aggregate content from each of the top social networks, and even those that are not directly supported can be connected via RSS feeds. Furthermore, you can designate specific times to post your updates, make edits before publishing, and prevent specific users from seeing specific content. With Postano, sharing your content is a breeze as it allows you to easily embed posts into web pages, sidebar widgets, and various management interfaces.

Postano plans come in three pricing tiers, but you can also give it a test drive with a free trial.

6. VenueSeen

Last on the list is VenueSeen, definitely one of the most interesting social tools around. VenueSeen is unique in how it tracks the activity of photos taken within your place of business. This app collects data related to the pictures you post on Foursquare and Instagram, and serves it up in a way that makes it easy to see what type of buzz you’re generating. The platform offers additional tools for connecting with your audience through marketing campaigns, and even developing custom experiences with API integration.

VenueSeen is available on a monthly subscription at a price that you may find surprisingly affordable considering what’s included in the package.

Load Up the Toolbox

Ignoring social media is starting to become a bigger risk than taking the actual plunge. This space is filling up with competition and while there is still plenty of room, you want to have your feet firmly rooted in a comfortable position. Stock your toolbox with options that will take your social media marketing efforts to the next plateau. It’s the only way to fly.

Guest post written by Francis Santos who is a writer for Benchmark Email, a best practices event marketing company.