Let’s look at the social traffic framework we have been working on at JellyBarn can be seen in the flow screenshot below.

We had a few goals when creating this strategy framework:

1. Provide a steady flow of traffic to our website and blog.
2. Help us build our brand as market experts and leaders.
3. Create a process framework that is simple and continually repeatable.
4. Allow a process that can be delegated and operated by any employee.
5. Create a foundation that can be continually quantified and improved.

Lets take a look below in a little more detail what the process looks like…

traffic-strategy-flow

1.  This is our website and blog where we create valuable content that is relevant to our target audience.
2. We are working on a knowledge base that is designed for industry experts and leaders to discuss, share and innovate all ideas relating to social media marketing. (this could be done through a social network software or even a linkedin group. We are preparing to launch our knowledge group at SocialCampfire.com)
3. We create original content specifically for guest posts on popular blogs that are related to our market focus.
4. To simplify the process of distributing our content we utilize a syndication service like ping.fm. 
5. The syndication flow is designed to keep traffic from our content flowing back to our website and blog.
6. Our guest posting is to drive traffic back our website and blog as well as establish market credibility.

Having a strategy is key to building continual awareness in your target market. What is your strategy? If you don’t have one documented that is easily communicated to your staff I encourage you do so.

There are a lot of strategies out there. Don’t forget to comment and share your thoughts, ideas, and what your working on. Please also share your thoughts on how we might improve our strategy.

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Thanks for stopping by! ~ Devin Day

All the disappointment and talk lately that display advertising needs to change to become more effective only paves the way for marketer acceptance to go from experimental to mainstream. As marketers transition to social apps (and other social media), it will become one of the more dominant forms of online marketing. Everything from display, search, and even our current social app/media advertising will undergo a social innovation transformation. The need for better ad effectiveness is one of the very reasons that Yahoo’s revenue is down nearly 80 percent as of the writing of the post.

The first half of this year was spent with ad companies reeling from economy shock and the next half, now that the economy shock is wearing off will be focused on new, more effective and engaging forms of advertising. The economy was just the spark needed to light the innovation fuse. One of the biggest reasons for the social app explosion will be an accountability shift. Social apps will move from a time and material model to a pay-for-performance model (similar to cokes recent request for agencies to innovate to pay-for-performance).

Other reasons that social apps will become a dominant advertising model is because 1) they can tell you (if you build them correctly) a ton about the users life-stage and lifestyle, 2) They can be made fun and engaging, 3) the are inherently social 4) they allow for a truly authentic consumer/brand experience and 5) they can help drive real results and revenue rather than a focus only on a brand message.

About a year ago I put a video together from a collection of speeches given by Eric Schmidt, CEO @ Google. His speeches are from as far back (seems like ages ago when looking at it from a speed of technology perspective) as 2006. Mr. Schmidt is giving his perspectives on the rise of web 2.0 and the massive impact, change, opportunity, and questions that it has presented from an advertising perspective.

The message in the video is how web 2.0 (has anyone noticed web 2.0 is seldom used now and has been replaced with “social” this and “social” that!?) is changing the Internet advertising arena and how with the continued growth of web 2.0, our advertising will become very personal and targeted. Most people know the Internet presents the ultimate platform for perfecting targeted/unobtrusive advertising (the holy grail), but the key question most people are still wondering is a) what is the solution to extract that data to better target users? and b) what is the “vehicle” that will make this possible? I believe that social apps for many of the reasons I listed above will explode and play a key role of the ad personalization Eric Schmidt discusses in the video.

See this post on PerformApps™ for performance-based social app solution.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwXU22b3zvY

The question that I want to address in this post is “how can a brand utilize the viral and entertainment aspects of social apps to achieve authentic product engagement that influences consumer purchase intent, rather than settling for surface-level brand engagement?”

Last year my company, Jellybarn, participated in Nike’s FY09 marketing event at the invitation of Avenue A | Razorfish (Great Agency – Be sure to check out Jeremy Lockhorn’s articles on Click Z. He’s spot on when it comes to social media). At the event, Mike Reeder, a brilliant Account Director at Razorfish, gave a presentation on brand marketing authenticity. It was this presentation that really prompted me to start thinking beyond surface-level marketing.

What does this authenticity look like? How does a brand connect with online consumers in a true, authentic fashion in which a dialog or relationship can grow? These questions are often hard to answer, and I think it is the reason that we as a social marketing community have not moved very far beyond surface-level brand engagement. We still tend to broadcast a brand’s inner-app messaging with a simple logo or an embedded banner ad within the application. In my view, social marketing apps will reach a tipping point by the end of 2009 and become not only a staple for brands, but one of the most important ways in which marketers engage AND SELL products to consumers. But first we must become truly authentic!

Let’s look at a Jellybarn app that I feel is a first step on our journey beyond surface-level brand engagement and closer to authentic interaction with the brand’s actual products that engages and drives purchase intent. Screen shots of the app follow below.

The concept was a casual game for Nike designed to interact with customers, compel them to shop, and ultimately sell them shoes. The idea incorporated actual Nike products within the game, as well as a virtual shoe “micro-store” so that, after users interacted with the shoes authentically, they could shop for and even purchase the product. The user chose which pair they wanted their character to use. To encourage users to interact with multiple styles, we gave each shoe different abilities and incorporated many of the benefits from the real shoes into the game.

The result was that users interacted with both the brand and the product in a way that was not broadcast, pushy or “selly.” Users do not want to be “sold,” and with this approach they enjoyed engaging with the brand and product. With this type of authentic approach, users are more inclined and even eager to share the application via the social web. Assuming the application is a viral success and includes some simple XML capabilities, the product lineup can be continually updated throughout the application’s life cycle. Lastly, with the incorporation of the micro-store there are now thousands of purchase point locations across the web where users can keep the product on top-of-mind purchase intent.

One final point worth mentioning is that the apps themselves are simply the vehicles by which these authentic interactions happen. Making money is the goal of marketing, yet much of the industry still tends to look at social apps (from a brand standpoint) as a way to “engage” consumers and build brand recognition. I think it’s time we as an industry became more accountable (brands let’s make this a New Years resolution) to tapping the real power of social apps to actually make money for the brand rather than limiting ourselves to brand recognition. Social applications hold so much more opportunity for driving purchase intent through authentic interactions than we have yet to utilize.