It’s possible! Accomplish goals and consistently deliver effective social media campaigns with MeO Social.

What is MeO Social?

MeO Social is a digital platform designed to make creative content management easier and faster. The first of its kind, it provides all the necessary tools for both client and team, making workflow much more efficient.

Who needs MeO Social?

Anyone who works in the creative industry can reap the benefits of this essential tool. Those making strides in marketing, advertising and other agencies as well as social media managers, blog managers, graphic designers, video editors and brand and account managers.

Why MeO Social?

Until now, no other platform gives both clients and creatives all the tools they need in one place. Workflow and creativity are hampered by unnecessary tasks such as switching from one tool to another, digging up crucial information, chatting via several messaging apps and so on.

MeO Social eliminates all that and gives you a perfect place to:

Create
Share ideas by uploading text, images, videos, audio files and much more on the MeO Idea Moodboard. No more scrolling past messages to find important files! See what the team is up to in one click.

Communicate
Rate and approve ideas using the voting tool. Discuss revisions and other edits with the chat/messaging function on the MeO Idea Moodboard or directly on the file.

Plan
Pin tasks, set deadlines and facilitate workflow without having to open several sites and apps.

Publish
Post approved ideas to social media sites with MeO’s publishing tool. Run consistent campaigns across different social media sites and pages with just one switch.

Evaluate
Get real results. Know what works and what doesn’t with MeO analytics.

Most of all, it’s very easy to use!

Want to get started…

Contact us at: [email protected]

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Although TNF first started in America, it has since expanded globally, catering to hikers and trekkers from all walks of life. But even good old reputable brands that your dad probably wears need a refresher to gain a new following.

The North Face has gotten quite a few facelifts in the marketing department in the past; collaborating with various brands such as New Era for the highly-sought after 59Fifty snapbacks and of course, SUPREME.

The sportswear brand has teamed up with three of Japan’s popular brands and designers. And these collaborations are doing marketing wonders.

The North Face Purple Label (TNF x Nanamica): Japan Only

TNF Purple Label has a cult following and it does largely due to exclusivity. You see, until a year ago, the brand is only available in Japan. You would think that making items unavailable to the rest of the world would result in meager and mostly local demand, but that isn’t the case.

Making items exclusive triggers a sense of curiosity and scarcity among buyers. Exclusive items are often perceived as ones that are of higher quality or of higher value.

Although exclusivity-scarcity is a pretty effective marketing ploy and is one of the six principles of persuasion, The North Face Japan had other reasons for the sub-label being elusive.

“The owner of The North Face trademark in Japan is different from the rest of the world. So we are not allowed to export it to any other countries,” said brand mastermind Eiichiro Homma. Business wise, that’s good riddance!

The North Face x Junya Watanabe: Function in High Fashion

Face it: you don’t usually see hip, fashionable TNF winter gear. The brand opts for earthy tones and maybe just a splash of brighter colors for most of its items.

Which is why collaborating with Junya Watanabe for a fall/winter collection gave TNF serious fashion cred. The collection is an ode to the 90s, bringing back varsity jackets, hooded sweatshirts, and long coats.

The iconic designer rehashed the pieces, injecting The North Face logos from the sportswear brand’s duffel bags into the garments. Such trademark ups the price considerably, with varsity jackets, tagged $1616 and long coats $2716.

Watanabe is famous for transforming ordinary pieces into extraordinary ones. “… to me, fashion is creating something, creating something new through clothes,” he said.

The demand for more fashionable winter gear is also what inspired The North Face Purple Label. Homma points out that some consumers might want to add emotional direction to technical clothing, appealing for stylish yet functional garments.

The North Face x BEAMS: Cheaper Luxury

Luxury gets mass appeal when you give it the right price tag and for BEAMS, it is no more than $200. The North Face x BEAMS fall/winter collection starts from $62 and that’s not bad when you’re getting TNF’s high-performance Expedition line!

BEAMS has teamed up with TNF to harness each of the brand’s strengths. Mainly providing casual streetwear, BEAMS utilizes The North Face’s design elements and garment technology just in time for the cold season. In turn, The North Face Expedition line gets a tan-black and teal-black makeover, giving the usually mature and dreary winter gear a more casual, vibrant look.

Collaboration is indeed a win-win situation, with both brands bringing its own strength and expertise to the table. The result is almost always guaranteed to be industry-competitive and new. Done right, brand collaboration is a marketing strategy in itself.

The post The North Face and Japanese brand collaboration is killing it in the marketing department appeared first on MEO Social.

Building A Social Media Empire From Traveling The World

One of the pioneers in the travel blogging scene is Jeremy Jauncey, creative mogul and founder of Instagram account Beautiful Destinations, which currently boasts a following of 9.7 million strong – and counting. Jauncey, who started the account as a passion project, has turned it into way more than that.

Jeremy Jauncey: How I built a social empire from Beautiful Destinations https://t.co/tLIuUUBxTY pic.twitter.com/9rZeBYIlvv

— Campaign Asia (@CampaignAsia) September 20, 2017

Today, Beautiful Destinations as a brand has expanded into other Instagram channels: @beautifulmatters, @beautifulhotels, @beautifulcuisines, @beautifulhomes, and @beautifulapparel. Along with this, it has a Facebook page, a Youtube channel, and two Snapchat accounts which have all garnered a significant amount of followers. And to say that Beautiful Destinations is the biggest social-centric travel organization is actually an understatement.

If you check out its website, one would see that the company’s description writes itself off as a creative agency and not just a travel brand. Last year, Jauncey and team launched a campaign called “The World’s Coolest Job,” which aimed to discover fresh talents with a distinct perspective on travel to join their company’s pool of creatives. Needless to say, the campaign proved to be a success — with a staggering 65,000 applications received.

Influential Beautiful Destinations Conquer Travel Brands

At the moment, Beautiful Destinations holds 30 employees from New York, London, and Manila under its wing, and it shows no signs of stopping when it comes to expansion. As mentioned, the company already offers not just the travel aspect of the business, but also the production side of things. Some of the services include content creation, photography, and video production – three things which the page is known for. This social media savvy, along with accurate analytical data, has gotten the company to where it is now.

Their roster of clients ranges from corporate giants like Mastercard, to travel brands like Airbnb and even tourism boards like the Department of Tourism in the Philippines. In May of 2016, Jauncey and his team of content creators embarked on an intimate exploration of the Philippines. With the help of social media, they were able to reach almost 15 million people across two of the biggest platforms in the country — Facebook and Snapchat.

The step towards Asian expansion was not accidental. Jauncey, whose careful calculations have paved the way for the company to grow, knows that Asia would be a game-changer. Thus, Beautiful Destinations set their eyes on learning more about the platforms that apply in the area.

Jauncey believes that measurability is essential.

With this in hand, the company has gathered ways to calculate scale and conversion. Each photo is analyzed, all engagement broken into pieces. The creative social media mogul knows that every social platform entails a different strategy and that penetrating countries like China would be a totally different ballgame altogether.

An immediate goal for the company is to break into the country’s massive community of WeChat. They have already gotten through Weibo, which gained them almost 2 million followers in a span of only nine months.

“Localisation in terms of translation is certainly one aspect,” Jauncey says. “But also what we have found is actually coming to China and shooting Chinese content was the thing that really changed the trajectory of our growth. Before, we were sharing content from all around the world on our account, and we were growing, but when we actually came to China and created a mini-series called ‘Beautiful China’ in Sichuan, that was the starting point for the account really exploding.”

With the rate it is going, it can be said that the company is flying towards the beautiful destination of success.

The post The social journey to Jeremy Jauncey’s Beautiful Destinations appeared first on MEO Social.

The Irony of Walmart’s Place on the List

It is ironic how the first on the list for revenue is also last in terms of profit. They earned $485 billion in revenue, but they only profited for about $13.6 billion. That is only 2% of what they gained. Has Walmart done anything wrong?

To give you an idea of how bad things are, Warren Buffet — one of the shrewdest financiers in the whole world –announced that traditional retail is dying and online department stores are rising.

“Buffett doesn’t just sound off about the demise of traditional retail — he has been pulling his money out of the industry as well.” – Business Insider

To counteract this fallout, it seems like the retail giant is taking a cue from the biggest online retail giant in the west, Amazon.com, and is slowly dipping their toes in the online retail industry. They just announced that shoppers could order their groceries online as long as they own an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card.

In hindsight, they’re actually on the right path. But is it going to change their profits in 2017? Based on their announcement for their “portfolio management,” Walmart may be competing against themselves in terms of speed. Maybe Walmart needs to start selling and marketing online to keep up with their biggest profit competitors.

Why Apple is now near the top but still bobbing below others?

If you’ve seen the movies and heard the references in pop culture, you all know that Apple – excuse me, Macintosh, was a dud when they first started. They now rank third on the list and is still going strong despite the dip in sales at the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. Mind you, they currently stand as the top profit earner with $45.7 billion.

Perhaps, the company is growing strong because of their testament to their current mission – to offer high-quality design, usability, and integration on a consistent basis. The iPhone changed the game, but Apple continues to stay in the lead despite surprise sales dips or bad reviews of their products.

But to whom do they really owe their success? Some would say Steve Jobs, and we can all agree on that, but he was the internal human factor. Externally, why do people still buy Apple products? It’s because they adapted, adjusted, and knew when to scale. However, the biggest factor of all is that people kept talking about them – in person, in texts, and especially social media.

After the latest keynote speech, do you know what everyone said to me after? “Did you watch the keynote speech?” “What do you think of the iPhone 8?” “Would you buy the phone?” That’s how Apple remains relevant. Be important. Be the first thing people talk about. And never let them forget by giving an annual keynote speech of your latest and most innovative products.

Newcomer Activision Blizzard deserves its spot.

Activision Blizzard, one of the most successful video game development companies, just arrived on this list at the 406th place. However, they’re not just a gaming developer anymore. They are now also a film and E-sports company. Activision just monetized the heck out of two of the most lucrative industries on the planet by turning itself into a diversified media company.

Not only is E-sports doling out millions of dollars in prizes, but they are also gaining more than enough sponsorships from gamer-friendly products like Monster, Red Bull, etc. as well as super brands like HTC, Nissan, Logitech, and more.

With regard to films, they tapped into an audience that is usually ignored by mainstream media – the gaming community. These people have the money and the drive to stay in touch with Activision’s mission. Just check out their feature film, “Warcraft.” Although it failed at the U.S. box office, the worldwide audience gave them back their budget.

And they don’t even have to advertise as much because their demographic goes where they go since everyone is inarguably online and discussing Activision’s activities on a daily basis.

The post What the Fortune 500 list says about its best players appeared first on MEO Social.

The Furrow always sees to it that there is a human story behind its content, an approach that made the publication successful since 1895. In fact, many believe that John Deere’s brand magazine is the world’s oldest content marketing. To date, it reaches about half a million consumers in the U.S. and Canada and about two million customers worldwide.

Joe Pulizzi: “Brands Need a Loyal, Trusting Audience”

Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute and the first speaker at the expo. According to his opening keynote, brands should not stop at simply building an audience. What they really need is to have a loyal and trusting audience. He added that while you cannot quantify emotions, you could always engage your audience and run surveys to find out how they feel toward the content.

Likewise, Robert Rose, chief content adviser of the same organization, took the crowd down memory lane and discussed briefly how brands rented audiences in the past. Rose pointed out how Netflix is now changing the game by building its own audience. He then added that the latter’s value goes beyond buying things. With today’s technology, audiences have the power to share content and provide feedback that help brands understand them better resulting in a more focused content.

Caroline Nuttall Urges to Challenge Conventional Wisdom

Meanwhile, CEO and talent advocate Caroline Nuttall emphasized in her talk that there’s an overpopulation of experts whose pegs for content types only adhered to conventional wisdom.

While she did not criticize the how-to type of content marketing, she urged attendees to rethink their strategy and take an eccentric approach where they do away from the general beliefs. The thing is actually laying fresh new insights on the table.

Jay Acunzo, who is the podcast host of Unthinkable, echoed the same sentiment when he highlighted the importance of intuition in his own talk. Acunzo furthered that to be exceptional in your content, you have to provide your readers with your own answers instead of following someone else’s solution to the problem.

Nice one. @jayacunzo about unconventional thinking. Will probably keep you awake this night https://t.co/X7cdLkQuEi

— cor hospes (@corhospes) September 21, 2017

Cor Hospes: Make Love, Not Content

Merkjournalisten creative director Hospes went rather romantic in his keynote when he stressed about love being the most important part of content marketing. He also raised the issue on how some companies only care about gaining traffic and sales when all marketers have to simply love the brand, share stories, inspire people, and let user’s experience speaks for itself.

Coca-Cola is a good example of a brand that values storytelling.

Being around for 130 years, however, has made any new feature unreliable to excite consumers. Hence, Coca-Cola started casting its product as if it were a character in a larger story, which enables them to continue telling timeless stories to a very loyal audience.

Kate Santore, integrated marketing lead at Coca-Cola, shared that the brand has indeed long lost its narrative control over its stories but that the brand took it as a blessing in disguise because, now, fans across the globe produce their own Coca-Cola campaign videos, making them the “marketers” of the century-old brand themselves.

Content Marketing: Where the Future is Rooted From the Past

Humanizing content marketing has always been the key ingredient of The Furrow. In fact, its publication manager David Jones shared that the agriculture and brand publisher’s recipe — since its first issue over 120 years ago — is all about telling stories that folks enjoy reading.

A century later, marketers remain adamant about incorporating humanity into its content for good reasons. It is a strategy that keeps on proving itself, and this was exactly what the speakers at the recently concluded Content Marketing World 2017 tried to imbibe to its audience.

The post Humanity shapes the ‘past and future’ of content marketing appeared first on MEO Social.

A businessperson in this era must establish and maintain an active online profile that can make it easier for marketing your product or service.

In line with this, it will also make people or customers share their opinions about your business easily. Almost half of the world’s population has an internet connection nowadays; thus, it is essential that you know how to conduct your business in the digital world to protect your credibility in reality.

What Is Online Reputation?

In the old days, businessmen can claim their brand is beloved, and who would argue with that? As long as the business is running well and sales are high, you can simply assume that your reputation is good, too.

However, in this era, everything is online. With just one disgruntled customer, s/he can cause a small hole to your reputation. If your reputation takes a big enough hit, sales would not be far behind.

A huge part of your online reputation is self-generated chiefly because of the ever-growing world of social media. Whatever it is you post on behalf of your business like on blogs, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, it will reflect the mindset and character of your product or service.

If your posts to some social media platforms show commitment to product or service quality, as well as customer service, then your prospective customers will comprehend your values. If you run both online and retail business transactions, then it is significant to bear in mind that prompt service, courtesy and honest practices are just as of great importance to the online customer as they are in the retail setting. This way, both will generate your client reviews.

In today’s digital era, you must invest on how to manage your online trail. While it is true that it takes a lot of time, money and effort to create and grow your business, the reward in the long run for reaching new customers can plainly outweigh all the challenges you may face.

Businessmen must understand the significance of online reputation and how proper management can give a positive impact on their search engine placement.

Efficient management is key to increasing your online presence and reputation. A well-managed online reputation can aid in drawing prospective client base to your website. Moreover, understanding reputation management will provide you insight on how it can affect your placement in the digital world, especially in Google rankings.

Ways In Doing Proper Reputation Management

Some happy customers often need a gentle nudge and reminder to post a positive review. A lot of companies encourage this practice as part of their sales and marketing process, which has significant results.

On the other hand, some unhappy customers are exceptionally self-motivated in announcing their opinions. Negative customer reviews are a reality of business life nowadays. Knowing how to cultivate a calm and measured response to negative consumer reviews is both necessary and is an art form.

Online Reputation Management Tips

Pay close attention to different social media platforms.

Whether or not your business is thriving, you have to pay close attention to your social media accounts. It is imperative that you build your social media platforms and keep them active to reach out to your target audience. You can also interact with loyal consumers that can increase your influence, engagement scores, and digital reputation.

Never fight in a public forum.

There are just some people who post hostile comments that even include personal attacks and try to engage you as the concerned party to ruin your credibility. Remember that there is no use battling in a public match in front of the global audience.

Business association counts.

A lot of companies are first identified by their owner’s, founder’s or leader’s names instead of their trade names. In this case, you must develop a business social media identity for that particular person and separate it from their accounts. Also, you may consider starting a reputation management scheme that can aid protecting the reputation of this certain individual.

Listen, learn and correct.

If you get negative comments on your product or service, then take this as a chance to figure out why you get those comments and make a corrective action to enhance the product or service.

Express regret.

If your company or you have done something wrong, then accept and own it. Express regret by apologizing to your customers. A heartfelt apology can go a long way, portraying your business as a transparent and honest entity. Thus, you will give an impression of being genuine and, in turn, this can aid in closing the loop in a trying time or predicament.

Consider seeking professional help.

You might need legal or professional help if/when necessary. If you cannot solve reputation problems by yourself, you might consider employing an online reputation management company.

Reputation Management Impact On Google Rankings

The search engine giant, Google, rewards the most prominent and the most modern companies within their target market areas. Since the tech giant has always made the search engine imitate the real world, your product or service must be among the most talked about, recommended or patronized in the cyber world to get that highly coveted page one placement.

Below are the impacts of this result in Google:

Boosts online presence.
With proper management of your reputation online, you can help create a strong online presence for your business. Forming a business starts with nurturing its presence. It can make or break your product or service.

Potential customers can readily find your business when they use Google or other well-known search engines. With customer reviews, you can think of them as a referral. The more trusted your business becomes by more clients, the more reviews you have, the more click-throughs you can expect. This online profile eventually leads to more customers and, hence, sales.

Clears out negative content.
It might take a long while reviving the Google placement when you have a damaged online reputation. You have to address issues by fixing your website, product or service then message the user or offer a freebie or whatnot for the customer to revise a negative review.

Most businessmen today protect their online reputation by a simple yet powerful plugin as it filters bad reviews before they reach your business profile. Hence, you can focus on the feedback that can give a good impact on your business.

Acts as an online business driver.

Reviews can waver a consumer’s decision on using your product or service. If there are bad reviews about bad customer experience, the new prospect reading the review might just choose your rival’s product or service to get rid of such fate.

Nonetheless, if you are ranking in the three map listings on Google’s homepage and you have 20 five-star reviews compared to others with two four-star reviews, you can bet your business is then preferred.

Managing your online profile reputation properly with positive reviews, together with good SEO campaign, you will get a higher chance of getting Google’s page one placement.

CONCLUSION

Understanding the proper reputation management is a vital key to the success of your online or retail business. By cleaning up or preventing negative reviews, and learning how to fix errors can help improve your business and drive it toward a profitable trade.

In addition, you can keep your website from falling off Google rankings when you can prevent bad reviews about your product or service from reaching your business profile. Your web visibility and online profile reputation management can be an advantage in achieving your long-term goals.

The post Use these powerful ways to grow a successful business through proper online profile reputation management appeared first on MEO Social.

From the very beginning, Facebook has improved its social network features non-stop. Recently, the social media giant has introduced some changes and updates to its feature “On This Day” memories.

Facebook always surprises its users with feature upgrades.

And this results in notifying users and expands the feature to “milestones.” It has improved the function so that it does not only resurface posts from the same date one year or more years ago.

Facebook expands the popularity of its two-year-old “On This Day” sharing prompt. It has an addition of the new feature that allows users to revisit their memories. Likewise, this allows them to celebrate milestones in connection to their friendships on this social network. While “On This Day” feature can give users a look back in time starting with the same date as last year’s memories, a couple of new options will focus on their more recent memories instead.

Facebook will start to bundle its users’ past posts into a seasonal, or monthly sharing prompts. Users, for example, might see stories recapped like their February memories or their summer memories. This modified function is to recapitulate the users’ posts and photos to highlight what has happened in the past month. They can share these on their profile if they want to.

So, why does Facebook do this?

Well, it is because the social network wants to encourage its users to be more active and to regularly share photos or posts on their timelines. It also makes some efforts to remind users how fun it is to use Facebook before all arguments and debates over such fake news or some baby pics. Moreover, with the milestone posts, users will be shown how many friends they have added and how many likes they have gathered.

The social network company has stated that it plans to give more metrics like this and make them shareable on users’ timelines in the future. Therefore, users can interpret this as they want to for their own New Feeds.

Just like “On This Day,” these new sharing prompts are private to users unless they wish to post them on their Facebook profile. They also appear on the users’ News Feed where they can find the collection of photos the social network has picked for them, together with the “Share” button at the bottom.

Little do you know, the world’s largest social network has also struggled with consumer adoption when the recap feature arrived. Facebook began to show grayed-out photos of friends’ photos earlier in 2017 in “Stories” in an attempt to expand usage.

What can the netizens expect from this tweak?

Facebook is convinced that “Stories” is just a new sharing format every social media will offer in time. Nonetheless, a lot of people think of Facebook as a lasting record of their life events. Thanks to the social network’s capability to surface users’ old memories, scroll back or search through timelines to find meaningful personal moments such as the date the user has married, started a new job, moved to a new home, and so forth.

That is why for Facebook a recap feature makes more sense, unlike with the recency related with “Stories.” It is more fitting for the social network to encourage users from day one to record what matters most in their lives and not what is disposable.

Aside from these, users receive “celebratory” notifications when they “make a notable number of friends on Facebook, and when your friends have liked your posts.” Although these are not shareable yet, they will be soon, so it’s another interesting feature to watch out for.

Facebook product manager, Oren Hod, has revealed that they plan to launch more messages like this in a few months.

The feature might give a negative impact.

“On This Day” has been tagged as one of Facebook’s most divisive features, with some users enjoying its daily reminders while others find it annoying. Nonetheless, constant reminders for things that users posted recently, including meaningless notifications about “milestones” they do not care about, could get extremely annoying.

Facebook has also rolled out an advantageous functionality as part of the update, which quickly lets users know they do not want to be reminded of such a memory.

Hod has said that they received people’s inputs over the last couple of years. And they have essentially worked to improve “On This Day” feature like making controls and preferences easier to access. Also, he has added that there are some memories, which may sometimes spark negative feelings to users that they want to avoid.

Some memories are just too painful to recall.

Hence, it is true that people do have some memories that are not welcome and are painful to remember. Because of this, the social network has invested a lot in making ways to filter content that can select images they believe can be most pertinent and enjoyable to users.

To cite an example, a certain Facebook user once shared his bad experience where the feature showed him a photo of his best friend who had unfortunately committed suicide. According to him, since this recall was unexpected, it has just dredged up old memories and feelings he already buried years ago.

Facebook has stated that the social media giant uses a particular algorithm to take out potentially painful or nostalgic memories through monitoring the number of angry or sad reactions.

How to filter ‘On This Day’ memories?

“On This Day” memories feature is the one that shows some memories to look back on from a particular date on their timeline — in their Facebook history.

However, users can go to the “On This Day” Preferences where they can “filter” the people and/or dates that they would rather “not be reminded of” in this memories feature. And when the users have finally specified the individuals and/or the dates, they will no longer be told of any of these even in future years.

Thus, Memories include the posts, pictures and their friends’ posts wherein they are tagged in, as well as major life events and the date they became friends with other users on this social network.

To see your Facebook memories, one can follow these two easy steps:

• Click Apps in the left column.
• Click “On This Day.”

The users also may turn on the notifications of this memories feature to see when they have memories to look back on.

Meanwhile, when it comes to blocking out the particular people and/or dates, users can go to the “On This Day” Preferences. Then click ‘Notifications’ and select ‘All Memories.’ More so, users can choose ‘Highlights’ so that they can only see memories from their top friends.

The post Facebook takes your ‘Memories’ and ‘Milestones’ to the next level appeared first on MEO Social.

Here are three examples of recent social media campaigns from the UK, which illustrate the importance of getting this right, and the dangers of getting it wrong.

The direct link

About a year ago, ZSL London Zoo decided to embrace Facebook Live in its strategy to connect with its followers and drive more engagement on its page. It’s important to remember that not everyone warmed up to that new tool at the time, particularly in Europe which generally tends to be a somewhat slower adaptor to new trends in social media than the US or Asia, but the move certainly worked well for ZSL. It’s been a brilliantly simple way for the organization to give its fans exactly what they want, by utilizing a resource it already had so much of.

Most of its videos focus on the animals themselves, such as this popular clip of two rare Sumatran tiger cubs captured on camera bare moments after their birth. There are also those, however, which strikes a more educational note, by featuring live Q&A sessions with the animals’ handlers. In line with best practices, ZSL’s Facebook videos make use of subtitles, so they can be followed easily in mute mode too.

A large amount of engagement the posts achieved and the total views the videos get are a testament to the strategy’s success. Some of the most popular clips have attracted viewership numbers that dwarf the 100k or so fans of the ZSL page, which essentially translates to significantly higher brand visibility.

The indirect link

Innocent Drinks is another example of a UK brand which has managed to connect with its audience, and perhaps more impressively, in a far less direct way too. The smoothie maker is known for its unorthodox approach to everything from its early days to its current website, and of course, its social media marketing strategy could be no exception.

Innocent’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have a distinctive feel to them, in that they never miss on an opportunity to highlight the brand’s “Britishness” – and that’s despite the fact that the company is now majority owned and controlled by Coca-Cola. Case in point, the regular, creative “weather updates”, which employ a characteristic dry British humour to report on the UK’s usually gloomy weather, or the recent sarcastic coverage of last month’s Eurovision (pictured below) contest, an event that’s popular on the Continent, but typically ridiculed by most Brits.

Innocent’s strategy is both clear and focused. Even though some posts may be unrelated to their actual products, they certainly do a great job in reinforcing their image as a vibrant, young and smart brand that’s loyal to its roots; one that its health-conscious target audience would be happy to interact and be associated with.

The weakest link

That type of connection surely can’t be claimed by Walkers Crisps, another British brand, in their own recent campaign. During a rather poorly thought-out competition for tickets to the UEFA Champions League final, they asked their Twitter followers to send through a selfie, which would be superimposed on a blank placard sign held by the veteran footballer and long-time Walkers spokesman Gary Lineker in short promotional video clips.

The football-themed campaign turned out to be a spectacular own goal, as supervision of the pictures sent was minimal to non-existent. Instead of genuine selfies, the campaign was bombarded by headshots of people no brand would ever wish to be associated with; disgraced celebrities, foreign dictators, and serial killers. And it could have been much worse. The videos from the campaign were set to be projected onto giant screens all over Cardiff, the location of the match, though Walkers managed to pull the plug on the campaign in time.

The Walkers social media department dropped the ball in this example on many levels. First, there’s an obvious need to establish a process for checking any incoming user-generated content. Second, as anyone who’s come across the various Trump executive order memes would agree, it’s never a good idea to hold a blank sign up and ask the online community to fill it in however they see fit.

Perhaps the campaign’s biggest fail though was the fact that it underestimated the creativity of the very audience it was targeting. The British public has a strong track record of piling on a form of collective online sarcasm on loosely controlled social media campaigns, most famously demonstrated by last year’s #NameOurShip poll by the NERC.

The bottom line

While the above relates to social media in the UK, the takeaways are obviously more general. Marketing to a local audience is neither a simple nor a straightforward task. Proper research is always an absolute pre-requisite, in order to understand the local culture and the online attitudes, the behaviour, and the practicalities of the audience involved. And this, of course, becomes all the more important when the brand involved is not local itself, as is the case for those in the above examples.

The situation is also way more delicate for brands looking to develop a greater European social media strategy. Although it’s often regarded as one area, the Continent’s numerous different languages, local customs, historical backgrounds and national sensitivities, make it a potential social media minefield without prior extensive research, a proper plan and a well-thought out strategy.

For a start, it might pay off to keep in mind the key takeaways from the above examples. Open up to new tools rolled out by social media platforms, even if your competitors seem less than eager to jump in there first. Dare to be different if that fits well with your image and helps your audience identify with your brand. And of course, if you’re looking to run a viral campaign, put the appropriate checks in place so that you safeguard your brand’s reputation at all costs.

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There are few brands out there as bold as MAC Cosmetics. Known for their loud and expressive ad campaigns featuring famous faces and collaborations with celebrities like Rihanna, Dita Von Teese and Ariana Grande, MAC is not afraid to push boundaries. The Canadian brand has been around since 1985 and is still one of the most distinguished and trusted names out there. Some of the most loved all-time essentials of celebrities and makeup artists are courtesy of the brand.

It’s LGBT month and we’re taking an in-depth look at one of the forerunning brands supporting the community through creative brand awareness strategy and social media expression.

“All ages, All Races, All Sexes” – MAC Cosmetics. That’s the first thing you see on MAC’s Instagram Page.

To celebrate Pride Month, MAC posted a series of photos on their social media accounts showing influencers and makeup gurus sporting gradient or patterned lipsticks, eyeshadows, blushes, and mascaras in rainbow colors as their show of support. Using the hashtag #MACLovesPride, followers joined in on the fun by posting their own rainbow color makeup, some of which were reposted by MAC.

MAC and the cause

RuPaul (pictured). MAC has a long history of collaborating with celebrities who are out and proud, like RuPaul, Elton John and Ricky Martin

VIVA GLAM is still a cult collection for anyone who knows cosmetics. The collection really started out with a single lipstick- the very first lipstick created in support of, and to raise money and awareness for AIDS during the height of the pandemic. Fashion, and makeup, communities were greatly affected, and MAC took a stand.

The brand has a year-round charity campaign that raises funds for those suffering from AIDS called MAC AIDS Fund. When speaking to Digiday, Nancy Mahon, svp of MAC Cosmetics and executive director of the MAC AIDS Fund, said, “We’ve always been a purpose-driven brand for all ages, races and had a great relationship with the trans community.” She continues, “Brands becoming content creators have really democratized the spread of information. But as an activist brand, we want to go where the decision-makers are. Content without a point of view is hollow.”

The brand is working with director Silas Howard of ‘Transparent‘ fame, on a video series called #Trans102 about the trans and non-conforming community. Here’s a teaser.

Caitlyn Jenner’s collection with MAC received tremendous feedback and opinion

In the past year, the brand tapped Caitlyn Jenner, inarguably the most famous person to come out in 2016, as one of their ambassadors. Jenner’s journey was a widely documented, emotional one, hence the name of the lipstick, ‘Finally Free’.

In 2015, MAC developed a campaign called MACnificent, an open call for fans to express their passion for the company’s products, regardless of their gender. According to winner, 33-year-old Ben Dniprowskij from Melbourne, Australia, “They wanted people with soul who have something to say. And I am here to represent all of the gay men, straight men and anyone else who feels that they cannot be who they want to be.”

MAC Social

MAC is a trendsetter, to say the least. The brand has long presented their fans with fresh takes on makeup and leaves no stone unturned when it comes to product offerings. The label is more than simple cosmetics, it’s a lifestyle, a ‘cool club’, if you will. Transparency and being outspoken about their beliefs coupled with glamourous presentation featuring fabulous personalities- there is not much the brand would shy away from.

MAC Cosmetics never comes across a hard sell, rather, those who buy their products and consider themselves loyal fans are proud to be associated with the larger than life brand. Because a brand that stands for something is a brand that’s distinctive, and authenticity is a movement everyone wants to be a part of.

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To overcome company distrust and gain brand loyalty, companies must strive to communicate honesty and transparency in their customer relationships. Trust in a brand can be built through consistent engagement. There is no better way to build that loyalty than with a great social media strategy.

Latin Americans value personal communication and one on one conversations– perhaps more so than any region in the world. Social media is bridging the gap for business transparency in Latin America by providing the opportunity for businesses to start conversations and show signs that they worry for the happiness and satisfaction of consumers. People are ready to actively participate as long as the company takes measures that demonstrate that the opinions of their fans matter.

This region has seen major political disruptions and high inflation that hit consumers’ budgets and confidence in brands in 2016, resulting in a 22% decrease in the total value of the region’s strongest brands. However, the value of the Top 10 declined by just 14%, indicating that building trust in your brand can provide protection in tough times.

The retail sector brand trust and value remained largely unaffected because of their ability to implement comprehensive communication in their social channels and strategies that build excitement and trust with millennials.

Mexico: home to 127 million and Liverpool fashion fests

The rock star here is Mexican retail label, Liverpool. The retail brand stayed innovative in their campaigns, successfully attracting consumers through their online content and building excitement with their yearly fashion events. The brand is fun and relatable and this shows in their ad campaigns.

Liverpool knows that it is impossible to transcend in brand marketing in Latin America without creating a strategy that builds trust and desire in their customers’ minds. Before its yearly fashion fest the public relations team of the department store come together with the press to present the top models in their campaigns, and models with ‘celebrity status’ such as Kate Upton make appearances at their shows. The brand is tied to glamour in the minds of consumers. Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi performed at this year’s fashion fest to the delight of many. Events held for socialites, celebrities and bloggers in a tropical location equals great photo ops and exposure.

Celebrities like model Kate Upton make appearances at Liverpool’s shows

Liverpool’s consistent showmanship puts them in prime position to build presence and a relationship with their customers.

You can watch Liverpool’s lively Spring/Summer ad campaign here.

Liverpool shows are so popular and anticipated in the region that the brand is in no shortage of companies to partner with- namely, Televisa, the largest TV broadcast network in Latin América. The show – which is really more a spectacle than a traditional fashion show – fulfills the intention of creating a tonne of buzz and have spectators be part of the fun and really live in the moment.

Arguably in both social and fashion, what’s next is always more attractive than what is current.

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