Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.
One in five (20%) online adults ages 50-64 say they use social networking sites on a typical day, up from 10% one year ago.
One in ten internet users aged 50+ now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.
Increased social media use among a wider demographic is obviously a good thing. But it also creates additional questions for any company that uses these tools to communicate with its customers.
For example:
Are you actively engaging customers of all ages on your social networks?
Does your messaging change depending on your intended demographic?
Is your website — or your Facebook fan page — intuitive for all ages?
Does your social media strategy include a mature perspective?
And while these may seem like new challenges, this isn’t a new conversation.
Thus far, social media has been considered a youth movement. With this growing number of mature voices and viewpoints, the gender gap is being closed — and this is a welcome opportunity for brands to reconnect with an audience they may not have expected to be paying such close attention.
Here at Creative Concepts, we’re often asked to help our clients create interesting videos on location — maybe at work, in a restaurant, during a photo shoot or on the street. And while these on-location videos can be tightly controlled or spontaneously energetic, the locations themselves always present the same batch of speed bumps, roadblocks and complications.
If you want to film a branded video on location, here are 7 tips we’ve learned — some of them the hard way — to help filming and post-production go as smoothly as possible.
1. Befriend and respect the location’s manager or owner.
If you’re filming in a business or office, track down the manager, owner or supervisor. Be friendly. Explain what you’re doing, and what your goals for the video are. Ask them if they know of any obvious stumbling blocks to avoid, any shortcuts, or any particularly photogenic angles. (After all, it’s their building.)
2. When you’re outside, roll with the punches.
If you’re outdoors, be mindful of the public, the nearby property owners and the police. What you’re filming probably looks interesting, and you may attract a crowd. If you’re not controlling the crowd with barriers and security, they may linger. This is good, because it increases the exposure for your shoot — but it also increases your opportunities for unwanted noise and distractions.
Does the location play music on a PA system? Is the heat or air conditioning on? Are the walls thin enough to let nearby conversations come through? Does the floor vibrate when cars or equipment move past?
If you can hear it in the room, you can hear it on the video. Make sure the audio that’s in your video is supposed to be there. And if you can’t turn the noise off, be prepared to work around it (and hope you can reduce it in post).
4. Shoot more than you think you’ll need.
Maybe your script only calls for 10 shots, and you’ve wrapped ahead of schedule. Be proactive. Get an extra introduction or conclusion. Ask the interview subject a few unscripted questions. Pitch some alternate ways that a product could be shown, or that a topic could be discussed.
It’s these unexpected additions to the script that may well turn a stiff, boring video into a human story with actual character.
5. Stay loose.
No matter how comfortable someone seems in person, putting them in front of a camera is like sending them into battle. People freeze when that red light comes on. They panic. They become acutely aware that the next words out of their mouths will be seen by numerous strangers, possibly for years to come, and that’s a lot of pressure.
Be personable. Help the subject loosen up. Make them laugh. Get them comfortable. Change the subject. Ask them a question. Change the lighting. Move them to a new room. Make a mistake, then fix it, so they see that mistakes can be corrected and recovered from.
Above all, do whatever it takes to ensure that the personality seen by the viewers is the same personality you saw on your subject’s face before the red light went on. (And if all else fails, film them when they think they’re not being filmed. It’s funny what some black tape over that red light can accomplish.)
6. B-roll will save your life.
Get ample footage of the location, inside and out. Get shots of every participant, even when they’re not looking. Shoot labels, packaging and displays. Shoot products, in all stages of assembly and execution.
If you’re filming a conversation between two people, get reaction shots from both of them. Get shots of the table. Get shots of the audience. Get shots of their hands.
There will always be at least one place in the final edit where you’ll wish you had just one relevant clip to cut away to, over an emergency edit you had to make. If you don’t have something to use, you can’t make that cut. Never, ever shoot yourself into a corner.
7. Always carry release forms.
You’re shooting on the street outside a business and you’ve only planned to get once scene with the company’s owner. Suddenly, her favorite customer, or a longtime vendor, or her family members arrive unannounced. What a wonderful opportunity to film a meaningful exchange with your client and the people who matter most to the success of her business!
Now, if only you had a release form that person could sign, so you could legally use their image…
For more business tips, connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!
On Mad Men, the ad execs of the 1960s rely on focus groups and psychologists to understand their clients’ customers. Today, we have Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
Instead of employing tricks and misdirection to learn what people really think about a product or a brand, we’re now empowered to share our opinions with anyone who’ll listen, 24 hours a day. But this generational shift from privacy to oversharing has created a whole new problem: we now offer too much input, rather than too little.
Thankfully, the web is loaded with tools to help you understand what your customers (and your competition, and complete strangers) are talking about.
Managing multiple campaigns? Keep track of them with rich metrics analysis from Radian6 or Scout Labs.
As you can see, there’s no shortage of ways to listen to your customers. And now you can analyze what they say vs. what they really mean, all from the comfort of your laptop.
Of course, what you actually do with all that information is another story entirely — but at least you’ll never be in the dark again about what your customers really think.
Overwhelmed? We can help! Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!
The last month of US box office has been dominated by Inception, the latest thriller from director Christopher Nolan. Despite Nolan’s pedigree (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), Inception is still a huge box office surprise for one big reason: late summer is normally a cinematic dead zone.
With heat waves, family vacations and a general pre-autumn malaise ruling the day, this is the notorious timeframe when Hollywood dumps the films it doesn’t expect to be winners. And yet, here we have a complicated movie without blockbuster stars, and it’s earned over $200 million.
As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos famously said, “Advertising is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product or service.” And while that’s an oversimplified (and somewhat cynical) statement, it’s not entirely untrue.
The more people are willing to talk about you on their own, the less you have to convince them that you’re conversation-worthy. When people are voluntarily talking about your product, it allows you to invest more time and resources on creating those products that delight your customers, rather than creating noteworthy (but temporary) illusions of interest.
Ultimately, a great ad campaign can make a good product sound interesting, but a great product starts conversations all by itself.
You should start a conversation with us on Twitter or Facebook!
As we’ve mentioned, getting a brand to talk about something other than itself can be difficult. But creating lasting relationships involves finding a common ground — and no matter how wonderful your brand is, no one wants to talk about you 24/7. (Even you.)
So where’s the overlap between your goals (profit) and your customers’ goals (solving their problems)?
One Tip: Find a Common Enemy
Ecover (our client) creates ecological cleaning products. As such, they’re naturally passionate about the environment. They stress the need for sustainability in everything they do, from their product ingredients to their factories to their supply chain.
Ecover also knows that their core customers are informed and passionate (and, at times, frustrated) about environmental issues. And that’s one reason they’ve asked us at Creative Concepts to help them build their Ecover Facebook page and Ecover Twitter account as forums for broader ecological discussions that go beyond the limits of buying and selling.
Obviously, Ecover wants to sell their household cleaning products. That’s how they stay in business. But if they didn’t occasionally shift their focus to the big picture (i.e., the real world), they wouldn’t be true to their ethics as a company. And by giving their customers a platform to discuss the issues they feel strongly about, Ecover provides a secondary service to their audience: a community that’s actively engaged in improving the world we live in.
In Ecover’s case, finding a “common enemy” with their customers is easy: pollution, erosion, waste, ecological misinformation… the list goes on. Each of those issues makes it harder for Ecover to do its job (cleaning without further burdening the environment), and each of those issues also makes it harder for Ecover’s customers to live a happy, healthy life.
Thus, spreading the word about global ecological problems — and, ideally, sharing practical solutions — is in everyone’s best interests.
So… where do you and your customers have a common enemy? (Hint: It’s not your competition; it’s what you and your competition each exist to prevent.)
We may not have common enemies, but we can still be friends on Twitter or Facebook!
Most companies consider Facebook, Twitter and blogs to be the cornerstones of their social media strategy. If they invest in a fourth channel, it’s usually YouTube, because video is often a high-impact media asset.
While most of Flickr’s massive userbase are amateur or professional photographers, Flickr’s actual audience is as large as the web itself. This makes Flickr increasingly attractive to brands seeking to capitalize on its unexplored traffic-driving possibilities.
Surely your company has dozens of product shots, photo spreads, news articles, in-house designs and personal candids that tell your brand’s story. And those images might be interesting to long-time fans and potential customers alike.
As a family business (for 65 years and counting), Bigelow’s history is a family photo album, and they wanted to share their memories with their customers. But they also wanted to ensure that curious tea drinkers could easily find their way to the Bigelow website, so we at Creative Concepts embedded links to any relevant Bigelow products within the text descriptions of each photo. (Because if that photo of a vintage 1960s Constant Comment canister looks good now, why not order a box today?)
2. Promote your fans.
Ouidad (also a client) is known as “the queen of curl.” Her delighted customers often post photos of their amazing post-Ouidad hairstyles on Ouidad’s Facebook page. But why stop there?
With our help, Ouidad has begun cross-posting fan photos (along with product shots and “before-and-after” images) to Flickr. And, as with Bigelow, each Ouidad photo includes a text description with links inviting viewers to further explore the Ouidad product line or join Ouidad on Facebook. (Because if their hair looks this good, shouldn’t yours?)
3. Use Pictures to Solve a Problem.
The Redwood Rollers (not a client, but we still like their moxie) are a roller derby league in Humboldt County, California. While Flickr provides them with a home for their photos — over 2,000 uploads so far! — it also provides them with a means to overcome a possible business pitfall: audience perception.
The sport of roller derby is increasingly popular, but it still takes a few extra nudges to get a skeptical viewer to attend his first live event. What better way to convey the thrills of a fast-paced sport than with visuals? Being able to see the competitors’ personalities and camaraderie up close can provide potential fans with the emotional fuel they need to get involved and start cheering. (Plus, you can’t get this personal at the major leagues.)
So… still on the fence about Flickr?
Don’t just take our word for it — check out what these other worldwide brands are doing, from 7-11 to Urban Outfitters. And then think about all the ways your company can make use of those overlooked images.
And while you’re at it, check us out on Twitter or Facebook!
The six-month study from 360i reveals that 43% of consumer tweets are conversational — replies to other people tweeting. Yet only 12% of marketers’ tweets demonstrate active dialogue with consumers.
This means that while “normal people” spend almost half their time actively conversing with their fellow Twitter users, companies are only conversing in 1 out of every 10 tweets they send.
Which, obviously, begs the question…
What Is Your Company Talking About?
Do you use Twitter as a megaphone to broadcast company-wide news?
Do you use Twitter for sales, showering your followers with coupon codes?
Do you use Twitter for lead generation, littering your tweetstream with linkbait in the hopes that unsuspecting readers will click through to your sales page and be mysteriously compelled to give you money?
If so, you’re at the wrong party.
Remember to Put the “Social” in Social Media
If you only had one minute to chat with a complete stranger, would you rather tell her something about yourself or learn something about her instead?
Why can’t it be both?
On Twitter, people value (short) conversations. The nature of the service lends itself to bite-sized interactions and splintered attention, which actually increases the need for meaningful connections in shorter amounts of time.
Yes, people like to listen. But they also like to talk.
The key is to make time for both.
Is your social media strategy a two-way street?
We drive on a few two-way streets: Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!
To help your employees understand what is (and is not) acceptable online behavior, we’ve previously discussed the need to draft an in-house social media policy. But if you’ve been wondering how other companies craft their policies, now you can see for yourself.
And if your company frequently represents the messages of others, there’s a solution for that, too.
For example, we here at Creative Concepts have our own internal social media policy (downloadable here), which separates our actions as individuals from our actions on behalf of our clients.
Why?
Because our creative team holds a variety of opinions, ideas and beliefs, and we believe that we should be free to express ourselves as ourselves. But when we’re speaking on behalf of our clients, we ensure that there’s a proper separation of our personalities & philosophies and theirs.
We’re not alone. In the Coca-Cola example above, their policy clarifies the difference between speaking “on behalf of the company” and speaking “about” the company. They also designate which groups of employees are expected to respond to certain conversations (such as negative commentary about the company), and how. (Because no one wants to be the next “Nestle vs. Greenpeace” case study of a conversation gone wrong.)
The lesson? Social media is embraceable by companies of all sizes. But strategy and planning isn’t just for your outward-facing messages; it’s also a necessity for helping your employees know what’s expected of them.
Social media is about people. Companies are about profit. Finding ways to bridge that gap can sometimes seem tricky.
But there’s one commonality that’s always worth discussing: charity.
Most companies have at least one charitable cause that they feel passionate about, usually for personal reasons. And whenever your company invests their time and effort in a cause other than direct profit, that’s a potential feel-good story that your employees and your customers can get behind.
Ouidad and her family have been personally affected by breast cancer. In response, Ouidad founded her own charity to help raise funds for cancer research.
Why do we mention our clients’ non-profit endeavors?
Because they’re the kinds of stories that remind customers how the products they purchase are, ultimately, created by human beings. These are the conversations that help the people on both sides of the storefront find a common ground, and remove the barriers that make us think of all businesses as impersonal moneymaking machines.
Ultimately, social media and business are about people.
Your company is people.
Don’t forget to remind your customers — and yourselves.
Want to connect with us more personally? Follow us on Twitter or Facebook!
As I continue to convince the C-Suite at client companies to trust in social media, I find that it’s an easier sell when the company is struggling to fight a negative image online.
This makes sense. Like people, brands are always concerned about fixing problems after those problems occur, not beforehand. (The school of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is also why preventative health care and preventative car maintenance often seem like luxuries, rather than logical necessities.)
Yes, the Old Spice ads are funny. And yes, Isaiah Mustafah (the new face of Old Spice) deserves all the accolades currently coming his way.
But we wouldn’t be talking about Old Spice at all if they didn’t have an image problem in the first place.
Old Spice has been perpetually seen as “your father’s deodorant” (or “your grandfather’s deodorant,” or however far back you’d like to go). It’s never been considered contemporary, and that anachronism was part of its charm. But it’s hard to sell “traditional” to a plugged-in, post-modern audience. So Old Spice revitalized their image.
Will seeing Old Spice as crisp, clean, adventurous and unstoppably witty help sell more sticks of deodorant? If so, then all this rebranding — and their investment in social media — will have paid off. And it’s hard to argue against the idea, since simply running in place is almost never a brand’s wisest option.
But this also raises a question of intention.
Because if the social media campaigns that garner the most attention are those that update outmoded brand images, repair PR problems and revitalize aging assets, maybe companies should be striving to generate their own “bad image” crises.
Because then they’re guaranteed to garner attention for engineering their own “new and improved” turnaround.
