FreshNetworks Blog

Virtual gifts are big business. Even in its earlier days, many people on Facebook were paying money to give their friends virtual flowers, and Farmville makes a great success out of selling trees and sheep to people to gift to others as part of the game. What we have learned is that people are willing to pay money for virtual objects, and even more so when they are gifts to other people. Seeing this trend, many people are tying to explore ways to integrate virtual gifts into their social media strategy as a way to make money. Few are doing this successfully but as with many examples of successful social media there is much we can learn by looking at how it is being used in the not-for-profit sector.

Imagine that rather than spending £2 to buy your friend a bunch of virtual flowers, you could spend £2 on a virtual badge for your charity of choice. It would post that charity’s branding and logo on your friend’s Facebook page (and thus in the newsfeeds of all their friends) and the £2 would actually be a donation to that charity. This is the simple, but effective, idea that is JustGiving gifts. This app lets you show your support for a particular charity by buying a virtual badge for a friend. So, for example, if you wanted to show your support for Breast Cancer Care you can send your friend (or indeed yourself) a branded badge and a message about the charity and the work that they do. And when you buy the badge you pay a £2 donation through JustGiving for the virtual gift and are given the option if you choose at that point to set up more regular giving to this charity.

Its a simple idea but a really effective one that builds on the behaviour we are seeing in Facebook and in social media more broadly:

1. Users like badges as ways of showing their allegiances – in recent user testing work we did at FreshNetworks we explored why people ‘Like’ things on Facebook. One reason that was popular with many is that it was a way to get a badge on their profile showing their interests and what support. If you are a fan of Arsenal Football Club, for example, one reason to ‘Like’ them on Facebook is that it will put an Arsenal badge on your Facebook profile showing your allegiance to this cause. The virtual badges given by the JustGiving gifts app do just this – they are a way of friends showcasing what they care about and displaying their allegiances on their profile
2. Badges offer a way of highlighting particular updates - in the same testing we found that users like adding things to updates and messages on Facebook as a way of making theirs stand out or to add extra value to it. On a birthday, for example, they might add in links or photos in their ‘Happy Birthday’ Facebook wall posting. This is a great opportunity for this charity gifting as adding in a virtual gift adds the extra value to such birthday or other updates that users are looking for.
3. This virtual badges capitalise upon the connections in Facebook – these virtual gifts are a great example of using the connections between people in Social Networks – when I send my friend a Breast Cancer Care badge it will not only tell her all about the work that they do, but also my friends and her friends. It is a good way of sharing and spreading the message about the charity and makes good use of the social network features of Facebook.

Perhaps what I love most about the JustGiving gifts app is that it is a simple solution that really works with the trends we are seeing in how people are using social networks and virtual gifts. They have not just seen that people are spending money on these kind of gifts but really explored why and how. It’s only by exploring and really understanding how users are interacting in social media that you can start to develop a social media strategy that will really bring you value.

My name is Kristin Labisch and for the last couple of months I have been an intern here at social media agency FreshNetworks.

Before I started my social media internship I found it quite difficult to imagine the type of thing I would be doing. I really didn’t know how a social media agency functioned or the kind of work I would be given to do.

Most of my friends and family thought that my social media internship would involve doing just “Facebook stuff”, but I soon found that “Facebook stuff” doesn’t nearly describe what work at FreshNetworks is like.

Yes, there are 500 million people online on Facebook, but with  93% of the world not on Facebook I applied for the internship at FreshNetworks  to learn more about social media and how it can be used to help generate real value for businesses, rather than just how to use Facebook or Twitter. In fact one of the first things I learned is that whilst some brands will say ‘we want to be on Facebook’, that isn’t a social media strategy. And it usually isn’t the right answer for them.

I also saw the internship as a way to help me answer the many questions I found myself asking about social media. And actually, much of my internship has been spent working on these unsolved questions, as well as trying to work out what has not been asked yet by looking towards future developments in social media.

And this is why working at a social media agency like FreshNetworks was so appealing to me; everyone is always open to new ideas. Whilst they believe in taking an analytical approach to social media, there is no stiff or inflexible theoretical framework and each client is looked at on a case-by-case basis to assess their unique conditions, circumstances and strategic needs.

Because of this, work at FreshNetworks never gets monotonous. Every part of the team (and yes: this also includes the interns) is considered a valuable asset – an individual with their own ideas that will be welcomed at any time.

I know this is not a direct advert for FreshNetworks, so I will refrain from saying that I have never experienced a more welcoming and enjoyable working atmosphere with such an enthusiasm and passion for ideas. So I will put it another way: If you want to work with and learn about social media, have creative ideas and want to get to know creative minds, follow my lead and apply here for an internship. It’s not easy – it’s fast-paced and can get hectic, but the experience is rewarding and memorable.

Overall, my experience as an intern at FreshNetworks has shown me that there are endless opportunities for using social media both personally and for business. I can now describe to my family and friends how social media goes way beyond just “Facebook stuff” and can prove what a good social media strategy and the opportunities that some social media monitoring can bring to brands and businesses.

Fancy learning about social media with FreshNetworks?

At FreshNetworks we are always keen for Interns who want to learn about social media , shadow our teams and run their own projects for the business. If you would like to apply for a community management, marketing or social media strategy internship here at FreshNetworks please email your CV to interns@freshnetworks.com.

One sector that is really embracing social media is the travel and leisure industry. And it is an industry well suited to social media and online communities – people share an experience or situation and this provides a reason for them to connect and engage with each other (and with a brand). We have seen some great uses commercially from companies like Marriott and InterContinental and Expedia but social media really works well in the travel and leisure industry when it is used in real time. In the latest FreshNetworks Video, Matt Rhodes describes three areas where this works well:

1. For customer service – Social media is a great customer service tool – not only does it allow you to connect with and engage customers online, but it also means that when you solve one query you do so publicly for all to see and for all to share. This winter I was skiing in the French Alps this winter when snow back in the UK  caused a halt to most of the flights leaving Geneva for London. I knew that Easyjet were using Twitter, but rather than tweet them myself to ask if my flight was going I saw that somebody else already asked the question and I could see the response. Saving me from having to ask the question and Easyjet the hassle of having to respond to the same question multiple times.
2. For real time experience capture – Social media is quick and easy making it the perfect media for allowing people to express the way they are feeling in the moment, which does not always come through if you are writing a review after the experience has finished.
3. For real time information sharing – Holidays and stays don’t always got to plan and things change: the weather, the times, the traffic etc and so social media is great for being able to transmit information in real time.

See our video post on Social media in the travel and leisure industry below.

With digital marketing becoming an increasingly important part of  brand strategy, more and more “traditional” agencies are employing experienced digital marketers to ensure they win online briefs by providing clients with services that span across all marketing mediums.

However, when it comes to social media, still a relatively new part of digital marketing, is it best to employ a specialist social media agency to focus on developing and implementing an in-depth social media strategy, or is it better to look for  a one-cap-fits-all agency to provide all your marketing, advertising and digital needs?

According to Marketing magazine, brands  need to reconsider how they organise their digital activity given its increasing importance as a marketing channel.

Paul Troy, the global head of advertising and content at Barclaycard, has suggested that he will be looking for one agency to work across  all marketing activity. Perhaps he feels marketing and advertising efforts will be more joined up if he pursues just one agency. It’s likely this approach will also save him money and potentially give him more control over the agency, as the financial loss to the agency if they loose a large, cross-channel account is much greater then just a single project or campaign.

On the other hand, lots of brands, like Honda and Toyota, are sceptical about big, “jack of all trades” agencies because of their inability to keep up with digital developments, especially when it comes to social media. Toyota, for example, use specialist agencies for each marketing discipline as they feel that above-the-line agencies often focus on TV ideas first and foremost and digital doesn’t fit naturally into their strategic thinking.

So when it comes to employing agencies, in particular specialist agencies like a social media agency,  what’s the best way forward? Getting specialist agencies to work together across marketing briefs could be one way of addressing gaps in experience and knowledge while still ensuring joined up thinking across the board. Agency partnerships of this kind would also allow clients to consolidate their marketing supplier base, potentially saving costs and reducing time trying to source the correct agency for each task.

At the moment though it seems there is no definitive answer about the approach that brands and businesses should take to employing agencies.  The decision really depends on the key strategic aims of the business.

The landscape for both multi-channel and specialist agencies (particularly social media agencies) is changing fast and the best advice for brands looking for agency help is to identify the expertise that can develop and implement a strategy that will achieve key targets rather than think about the type of agency you are hiring.

Read another post about the benefits of a specialist social media agency.

One of the biggest dangers with social media is to assume that it is only exists online. We see this in the way some brands approach social media – developing a social media strategy that is focused on the tools they are going to use rather than the business aims they are going to contribute to. We also see this in the way some brands allocate budgets for their social media work – associating it with their ecommerce or digital spend can mean that they need to work harder to make sure that social media efforts integrate with what is happening offline.

This is a real shame because really social media is not about online at all. It’s about the same human interactions and collaborations that we have enjoyed offline for many many years. In fact for as long as human beings have been social animals. Technology just lets us do more of these things, in different ways and, perhaps critically, with people we don’t know, that we are not near and at different times to them. Social media just lets us do things we have always done offline in bigger and better ways. So it should be natural that we consider it as having offline implications as well as online ones. But too often we don’t.

This is a real shame. The best examples of social media, especially when looking at the ways it is used by brands, have an offline element to them. You might have an offline event where members of your online community can get together to meet and continue to share the thoughts and discussions they have online. You might get people to do things such as test a product or experience an experience offline and then talk about it in their online communities (as we saw with Virgin America). You might us content created online at an offline location. You might reward people offline for what they do in online communities online.

The options are endless and do not necessarily have to be just traditional integrated marketing campaigns. Its about things that people do and things they care about. And about letting them do these offline and online. The rise of social media for marketing is less about technology and more about brands realising the benefits of closer engagement with customers and others. Social media tools provide a great way to do this but always remember to think how you can get this engagement offline too.