Solution Type – Digital Promotions, Social Marketing for nutritional supplement brand MuscleTech

Objective:
Counter declining brand sentiment and support the launch of a new line of products by developing and activating the MuscleTech audience in social media, engaging with targeted communities and influencers to educate and deliver key product and brand messaging where it would be heard.

Services Provided:                                      
Contests and Sweepstakes
Blogger/Influencer  Outreach
Facebook Advertising
Social Media Monitoring
Social Media Audit
Internal Policies and Education
Profile Management
Facebook Applications
Product Sampling/Fulfillment

Activation:
Formalized the social media program for Iovate prior to the program’s launch including conducting a social media audit, developing the communication workflow, engagement guidelines, and more.  Utilized a cross-platform content strategy (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, Knowledge Base) to consistently deliver interesting and relevant content and brand messaging with MuscleTech’s audience.  Improved customer interaction across major social networks by engaging with people talking about MuscleTech, its products, and the sport of bodybuilding. Earned new customers and brand followers by applying audience development tactics across platforms, developing sweepstakes, exclusive offers and content supported by targeted Facebook advertising. Educated customers about new products through interactive Facebook tabs and a Support Center with answers to commonly asked questions, and empowered them to share and recommend content and products through targeted trial sampling programs.

However, Facebook’s success isn’t all good for marketers.  For one, Facebook’s staggering growth has exposed them to more legal issues, and as Facebook fills up their liability soft spots, marketers feel the pinch.  Just recently, Facebook outlawed conducting any giveaways or promotions through page status updates.  All promotions on Facebook must now be done through 3rd party apps, and Facebook must be indemnified.  That’s a pretty high barrier to what used to be a casual, effortless process.  Countless Pages from small to big name brands have been running these types of promotions to garner fans, grow brand awareness on Facebook, and increase customer engagement for quite some time.   It doesn’t appear as though Facebook has begun to crack down on this just yet, but they will likely soon.

Second, the discovery of Facebook as a viable marketing tool has led to a deluge of brands jumping into the Facebook Page game.  As consumers become fans and interact with pages, their friends’ news feeds begin to fill up with these brand interactions, which they may or may not care about.  To counter this and other issues, Facebook launched a simplified version of its platform, fittingly called Facebook Lite.  The biggest change for marketers is that no longer do these Fan Page actions hit the news feed.  You won’t see “Jane Doe became a fan of Brand X” anymore, or “John Smith added the SuperBrand Application.”  The stream is streamlined, with only status updates populating the stream, and the Highlights section is 86’d.

It all sounds like bad news but in reality this is an opportunity for marketers; marketers who understand what engagement really means, that is.  As the marketing fence goes up, brands that’ve relied solely on giveaways, promotions, flashy games and stumble-upons will be looking through the pickets, and the brands that authentically engage with consumers and keep a real person behind the voice will be tending the greener garden.  Better to start now while you can still hop the fence.