Twitter Promotes Mobile Apps & SMS To Logged-Out Users. Smart.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about Facebook's post-logout promotion of Facebook Mobile - which helped to significantly increase iPhone usage (+20% in a week).

Meanwhile, another giant social / mobile player is now doing the same. Twitter has recently redesigned their homepage and, in an effort to view it, I logged out of my account today. I was greeted with the following screen:

For Facebook, the unit's efficacy makes sense because, despite targeting logged out users, it is still highly targeted ... and therefore still counts as "in the river marketing". So why shouldn't this work with Twitter?

And Twitter's approach to showcasing their App across all platforms is equally compelling (and reminiscent to Amazon's marketing).

Also interesting is the dual action item of "download now" and "use via SMS". Both actions route content directly to your mobile device either by email or SMS. Once there, you are either directly engaged or Twitter is able to direct you to the appropriate application / app-store. Smart.

Twitter Promoted Tweets & Effective Real-Time, Event-Based Advertising

For much of today, my blog was unaccessible because Media Temple had a far-reaching outage.

After unsuccessfully trying to reach my site, I was made aware of this through Twitter (why no email correspondence?)... with a simple search of "Media Temple", there were endless tweets referencing the outage. This of course speaks to the power of Twitter's instantaneous news stream; but surprisingly, it also spoke to the potential power of Twitter's Promoted Tweets ad system. Media Temple competitor Storm On Demand saw this is a immediate opportunity to reach targeted searchers and acquire new users with a specialized coupon. Smart. And Twitter is the perfect system for this short-lived, real-time marketing opportunity.

Facebook is terrific for reaching hyper-targeted users (demographic, location, taste / preference, etc). And this is an example of Twitter's effectiveness around real-time, event-based advertising.

Much to Learn from the NBA's Facebook Fan Page

When asked who does the best job of managing their Facebook page and community, I recommend looking at two pages:- for e-commerce: ShoeDazzle (and yes, it's a Polaris company) - for media and big brand: the NBA The NBA does a fantastic job of updating the page daily and engaging fans with questions, polls, and timely / unique content (such as the "5 Best Plays of the Day").

Here is a good, simple example that takes advantage of the NBA's Facebook community and their daily interactions: the NBA updates its Facebook profile picture to reflect that day's televised games. They do this each and every day. In fact, if you visit the NBA's profile picture page, you can scroll endlessly through previous profile pictures.

Facebook Testing, Promoting Around Proximity

Below are two Facebook promotional units that I have seen more of:1. Friends in City, State 2. Friends' Popular Places Notably both are around location and proximity. Interestingly, one is focused on my home-town and the other on my travels: - the popular places are expectedly near my home city and regular Facebook Places check-ins. - the other unit though is showcasing friends outside of my city. I suspect that it is choosing Los Angeles because I have checked-in there multiple times over the last month.

Clearly proximity and location will play a key role in the forthcoming Facebook Deals... I imagine this is part of the piping / testing that will tie together location, Places, Deals and (of course) friends.

For Social Ads, Voice and Relevance are more Important than Just Reach.

This Twitter post / ad from Darrelle Revis of the New York Jets is a reminder that ads need to be relevant. And relevancy is a function of voice AND message. This is precisely why I am bullish on Facebook Ads and Google +1. Darrelle Revis is a star and he's got a strong twitter following (160,000). But neither of those qualify him to be a Motorola Xoom spokesman who raves about the 10.1" HD widescreen. Traditional commercials might allow for more creativity - but when Revis touts the Xoom in text, it is neither authentic nor convincing. I would much rather hear a techy voice and/or friend praise the Xoom (much more compelling) or here Revis talk about products / brands more relevant to him.

... and this has nothing to do with the fact I dislike the Jets =)

Nike Golf's Facebook Contest Promotes the Masters & their new 20XI Golf Balls

In time for the PGA Masters, Nike ran a daily Facebook promotion for their 20XI golf balls. Nike Golf's 450,000 Facebook fans could win one of 25 sleeves of their exclusive Masters edition 20XI golf balls. The first 25 fans to click through Nike's newsfeed post won. I am not writing this to gloat of my winnings (though I am excited), but rather because the contest was done quite well for a few reasons:

1. Nike has run several Facebook promotions aimed at driving immediate engagement around surprise newsfeed activity. Nike Basketball has a promotion around Kobe Bryant where exclusive content is uploaded at 'random' times to Facebook ("the Black Mamba can strike at any time")

2. Not only is the promotion time sensitive, it is timely: doing this around the Masters is relevant, fun and impactful (as it's the most watched golfing event each year).

3. It is actually viral. See the step-by-step example below.

So here's how it worked:

Nike posts to their newsfeed. Time is of the essence: within five minutes, ~50 people have liked the post... but only 25 sleeves of balls are being given away:

I somehow got there fast enough to win the sleeve:

And the 'transaction' occurs entirely on the Facebook fan page. So I've never left Nike Golf:

Once you complete the 'order', you are prompted to share on Facebook:

The feed post describes the balls rather than the promotion (I would probably have changed that to encourage discussion / awareness among friends):

And within seconds of my feed post - 42 seconds to be exact - friends noticed and liked Nike Golf.

Low cost, easy and fun way for Nike to engage fans and drive greater awareness.

My Response to Mark Cuban's: Does ESPN.com Have a Twitter Problem?

Whether you are a sports fan or work in media, Mark Cuban's "Does ESPN.com have a Twitter problem?" is a relevant, good read. Cuban argues that ESPN is struggling with social media because their writers generally do not have big followings and the company hasn't figured out how to effectively monetize the platform (like most publishers, monetization is through traffic referrals). I will offer three follow up points that are specifically aimed at ESPN but relevant for any content publisher.

In short, ESPN does not have a Twitter problem. Like all other media networks, they have a Twitter opportunity. ESPN has a tremendous brand, a powerful promotional platform, and 100s of great personalities who can together leverage social media to enhance the ESPN.com experience. Here are three ways to get there:

1. Solve Finding & Promotion.

The primary problem is that big publishing networks like ESPN have big networks of writers / personalities. That creates a serious problem in finding and following the relevant personalities.

I am a paying ESPN Insider Subscriber. ESPN knows explicitly and implicitly that I like the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics - and I visit ESPN Boston. But this the ESPN Boston homepage and there is no promotion (let alone mention) of the writers I should follow on Twitter / Facebook. I should be able to subscribe instantly to all related writers.

Other ideas:

- ESPN.com/twitter should list out Twitter handles by popularity, team, relevance, etc - ESPN personalities should have Twitter pages that promote other personalities and/or ESPN.com/twitter - ESPN should build and promote Twitter lists - Articles on ESPN should promote writer's Twitter handles (this would be a good example of In the River marketing right?)

2. Ensure an On-brand Voice (not uniform - But on-brand).

A couple things to get out the way: - we are following these writers primarily because of their expertise... that is because: - there are very few personalities like Bill Simmons - therefore, there is a difference between their professional and personal Twitter accounts (or habits)

So publishing networks who promote their writers should ensure a consistent voice. This does NOT mean that ESPN writers should all engage similarly (Bill Simmons and Buster Olney are both great and very, very different). But it does mean that ESPN should make sure that their personalities are engaging appropriately and on-brand on Twitter.... just as they do within ESPN.com articles.

For every Buster Olney, Colin Cowherd, and Bill Simmons - there is a Jemele Hill. Here Twitter description is: "Jemele Hill is an ESPN columnist and television analyst. I tweet a lot. If you don't like it, keep it to yourself! ". Now Jemele may be a great reporter and sports thinker, but she is annoying on Twitter (sorry). She often posts dozens of times an hour on subjects irrelevant to sports and ESPN. But she has 40,000+ followers and affects how we think about ESPN (and their writers') roles in social media.

Give me more Buster Olneys to follow. I'll appreciate the writers more. I'll visit ESPN more. And I'll appreciate the brand more.

3. Engage with Fans & Follow Social Media Best-Practices.

This is simple: engaging in social media has to be more than just linking to an article. Twitter and Facebook represent opportunities to behave in ways that traditional media doesn't afford. For instance:

- real-time commentary - commentary beyond the article or in-response to reactions - engaging with readers and fans: questions, comments, responses, etc. - provide behind-the-scenes access that is better suited for Twitter than an article - cross promote other content, writers, etc

Darren Rovell of Sports Biz on CNBC is great at this. Here are a few examples:

Redbox's Email Strategy: Reward Users for Engagement

I write a lot about email marketing campaigns and best practices... in part because it is such a vital, under-discussed lever for marketers (primarily for engagement / retention). But also because I get so many emails that it's easy to compare effective ones against the junky ones (which are the vast majority). I pay attention to emails from movie-rental company Redbox because they are intelligent and well crafted.

Redbox runs email promotions that have a clear purpose. I wrote before that about the email campaign / offer aimed at validating email addresses - it was smart because it rewarded an action that was worth longer-term value (free movie for an email validation).

Redbox has run similar offers / campaigns for Facebook Likes.

Below is a 2-for-1 email promotion. Seems like a great deal - and it is: three movies for <$2/night? Of course Redbox knows that the third movie is either no-cost to them OR results in greater value (from late return fees associated with incremental rental days... after all, is watching three movies in a night possible?). And the email arrives on a Friday (smart: if you're going to rent three movies, it should be for the entire weekend).

I love the fact that Redbox is eager to reward users who do a little work: whether its validate an email, like the company of Facebook or rent a couple movies.