Breaking Boundaries

There are hundreds of millions of bloggers worldwide, each with their own unique voice and motivations. Some blog for profit or self-promotion, others use blogs to build online communities and provide a forum for sharing common interests – the list goes on and on. For me, the reasons are more personal. Even now, I get butterflies as I tell you the story of how becoming a blogger has changed my life. I started my blog, Around Applegate, in March 2009, seeking inspiration and guidance on the path to finding personal and professional fulfillment. For the past 12 years, I have been a graphic designer. In theory, being a designer is the glamorous part of marketing. In practice, very rarely do I get to execute my ideas from conception to completion. There are creative directors, art directors and clients that intercede and shape the end product. Through the process of editing, originality and innovation are routinely compromised. All too often I find my place in the process is reduced to a production artist. This is not the role I desire. I want more; I need a true creative outlet. I was introduced to blogging in an unlikely way: through a search for "tile inspiration." I was directing a photo shoot at work that involved a tile floor. Not knowing much about tile patterns, I turned to Google for guidance and landed on Young House Love, a blog started in 2006 by a young married couple living in Richmond, Virginia, to update friends and family on their kitchen renovation project. Three years and more than 1,000 posts later, the site has developed a cult following of home improvement DIY-ers from around the world and received more than 1 million hits last month alone. Young House Love was the first blog I laid my eyes on, and I was instantly captivated. I became caught up in a brave new world, one in which ideas and inspiration thrive in the absence of ego, corporate politics, rules or procedures. A culture of sharing without censors. An intoxicating level of creative freedom that’s sometimes risky but always exciting. Then and there I decided to start a blog of my own. Although it takes a matter of minutes to set up a blog, it took me a little over a month to determine the look and content that would define Around Applegate. The blog came to encompass all things creative. It’s a space where the things that inspire me creatively can live and, in turn, inspire others. I have written about everything from Twitter to my grandma's Italian cookies to sites that interest me and the people around me that love and support me. And somewhere along the way, through the process of documenting change, what I love and what I’ve learned, I have found clarity in the ideas that will shape the next phase of my life and my next business venture. Admittedly, keeping up with posts has been a challenge. Wanting to have interesting things to write about, I am constantly involving myself in the world around me along with researching and completing new projects. I must admit, I'd rather get started on the next project than stop to write about the one I just finished. But I have to remember to feed my blog, to nourish it with content in the same way it's nourished me with excitement to create. It’s something that I have never before possessed at this level. It’s like being in love. Writing a blog has become more satisfying than anything in my life to date. No relationship, no promotion at a job, no prize won or goal met has come close to the fulfillment Around Applegate has given me. It has helped me to realize my niche. It has let me be who I am without judgment. It has let me create without criticism. It has given me the chance to reach people I don't even know and inspire them to do the same. All without cost. Feed the blog, and the blog feeds you. Break out of your boundaries: start a blog of your own and see where it leads you. Not sure where to begin? Become a follower of blogs that appeal to your interests and passions. You’ll be amazed by the smart, funny, clever, creative, insightful bloggers out there, and chances are you’ll find you have your own ideas that must be shared with the world. I’ll leave the last word to two blogging superstars, Seth Godin and Tom Peters:

---

The Next Evolution of Social Media Integration

A few years ago, when brands first began wading in to test the waters of the social media pool, the concept of social media integration was very straightforward and simplistic: add icons linked to your company’s social media profile pages on your website, and consider the job done. The message to visitors was, “Like what you see here? Please come join the conversation happening on our company’s social outposts!” And as brands continued to jump on each new social bandwagon that came along – YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. – the once-standard three buttons became four, then four became five and so on. Shortly thereafter, brands discovered the benefit of serving content across multiple sites in the name of message continuity. The advent of social media management tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck set this activity on fire, as marketers began exploiting newly available scheduling tools to republish content to all their profiles with the click of a single button, with no regard for tailoring their message to the culture and syntax of each platform and audience. And this run-of-the-mill, low-quality content made its way back to these companies’ websites as embedded Twitter and Facebook feeds – all in the name of integration. And customers noticed. Actually, everyone noticed. Because this robotic, efficiency-driven method of social media integration began to strip these platforms of their primal social element — the very reason why sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are so popular in the first place. So with a little push from Google, Bill Gates’ postulation, “Content is King,” became every marketer’s buzz phrase. Companies began pouring big dollars into developing relevant, original content in every arena, from sharable blog posts and traffic-driving SEO landing pages to viral videos — each fighting for a just few fleeting seconds of consumers’ precious attention. As companies started to find their footing, they realized success in social media demands integration through and through – not at the superficial level of icons and links but at the very core of a company’s business growth efforts. Rather than treating each marketing medium (e.g., television, radio, email, pay-per-click, social, etc.) as existing within its own self-contained silo, social should be seamlessly interwoven throughout the brand’s marketing initiatives in ways that are a natural fit with how real customers think, behave and make decisions. When done well, social media integration steps inside and outside the four walls of the Internet fluidly, supports customer engagement while maintaining the social integrity of the platform and, inevitably, drives sales. Here are a few excellent examples of companies who are doing it right by today’s standards:

Well that’s Pin-teresting

Recently, Banana Republic sent out an email blast that combined the best of social media, direct marketing and e-commerce into one cleverly crafted campaign. Subscribers to the company’s mailing list received an email message featuring images of customers’ most-pinned styles. Within this email was a link that took recipients to a dedicated landing page on the brand’s own website where they could shop these looks, creating a direct, distraction-free path between email, website browsing and checkout, greasing the gears for a quick and easy purchase decision. Smartly, Banana Republic executed these promotional efforts in the other direction, too. Their Pinterest profile includes a board of most-pinned styles, each of which of course links directly to the item featured in the pinned image for interested buyers to purchase from the website. This creative campaign not only integrates the company’s social media, email and e-commerce efforts, it also capitalizes on a key psychological motivation for the fashion-minded by giving them insight into what’s on their fellow shoppers’ wish lists so that they, too, can be seen sporting the season’s most-wanted looks.

Tweet to eat

If you’ve got a fanbase that’s actively engaged in talking about your brand on social media, it begs the question: how can you take advantage of their promotional activities to reach a broader audience? The answer: integrate your social media campaigns into your traditional marketing efforts. Case in point: Panera’s highly successful #PaneraFaves campaign. Over the past several months, Panera Bread has been encouraging customers to share photos of their favorite menu items on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – providing added incentive by giving those who participate a chance to win Panera gift cards. While this initiative provides great value on its own by prompting fans to promote the brand to their own friends and followers, Panera has taken this campaign to the next level, running national TV spots that feature these #PaneraFaves tweets and pics. The strengths of this TV campaign are multifold, as they position Panera not only as a brand that pays attention to its customers and their opinions but one that is well loved by those customers, too.

Add it now, buy it later

In May 2014, Amazon launched a feature that lets Twitter users add items directly to their Amazon cart simply by typing a hashtag. First, the user must connect their Twitter account to Amazon. Then, anytime they see an Amazon product link on Twitter, replying to that tweet with the hashtag #AmazonCart — or #AmazonBasket in the UK — adds the product to that user’s shopping cart, where it will be ready and waiting for them to purchase at their convenience. This stroke of marketing genius essentially turns Twitter into a retail pipeline for Amazon, extending the reach of the e-commerce giant beyond its own website to the social hubs where its customers live and talk about products day in and day out. In doing so, Amazon is also wisely fending off the rising threat of social networks transforming into social commerce outlets in their own right. While there is still a learning curve for customers and a few technical kinks to work through, Amazon’s “add it now, buy it later” concept clearly has tremendous potential to shape the future of social commerce.

As seen on TV

Also in May 2014, TaylorMade partnered with Chirpify, a marketing conversion platform, to host a live sweepstakes for their SLDR S golf club during the CBS broadcast of the PGA Byron Nelson Championship. Using their #actiontag (#DistanceforAll), anyone could enter for a chance to win the SLDR S or a trip to the US Open. According to Chirpify, “55 percent of people who saw the message on TV and responded to the sweepstakes on social completed the registration.” This 55 percent conversion rate is nothing to scoff at. It means social is no longer limited to merely reflecting engagement. Instead, it can be used as a clear and defined component of the sales funnel — exactly the kind of approach to and innovative use of second screen and social that defines the next stage of evolution in social media integration.

---