- Craftsy - Whats your craft?

Do you miss art class from school?
Have you had the desire to make something, instead of buy it ?
Are you intimidated by projects?
Would you rather support local business then buying something from a chain?
Are you tired of cooking microwavable meals?
Do you not enjoy listening to people rant when YouTubing DIY projects? Do you want to experience, shorter and more professional videos?
Do you want to make someone a gift that is from the heart?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, Craftsy.com is a site that could offer you great utility. This multi-function service, supply site has lessons from some of the best cooks and crafters around the globe. They take impossible seeming projects and put everything together in easy kits and lessons.

www.Craftsy.com

Their main area's of focus are:

 

SEWING & QUILTING

CAKE & COOKING

YARN & FIBER ARTS

ART & PHOTO

HOME & GARDEN

MORE (Jewlery and paper crafts)

 



 

Hands full? Just a bit.... But Craftsy is trying to be the one stop shop for everything craft related.

Lofty goals for a company that is in a competitive/growing space, but they have a solid platform with very motivated users. With so many different segments of users, craftsy needs to deliver relavent messages to its user base while building awareness of the brand.

 

Competition?  Just a bit....

• Michaels: Started a partnership with CreativeBug to deliver their online DIY content.
• This content is sold in lesson form
• Have brick and mortar locations
• More info about the partnership

• CreativeBug -
• Crushing content and partnerships

• Hobby Lobby: Has a database of DIY PDF's and videos
  
  
  • This content is given for free
  • Have brick and mortar locations

• Esty -
• Online marketplace for craft goods and supplies.
• Not currently selling services

• Pinterest and YouTube
• Offer free alternatives

• CraftU
• Online class offerings just like Creative Bug and Craftsy
• Little to no social media presence

 

 

 This competition is forcing the players to get creative in differentiating themselves and below are some examples of Creative bug doing just that with live demo's and product partnerships...

Craftsy should take notice of CreativeBug's social media campaigne and try to come up with some partnerships of their own. They offer users a very diverse services, and those different segments all have opportunities for teaming up with strong brands that could help build the brands awareness and Network.

Craftsy needs to continue to differentiate themselves from that free content and distinguish themselves a more premium way to learn. They have been able to do this already by connecting themselves, with professional cooks and crafters. These relationships are what make the brand appealing, but when there is free information available to consumers you would have to consider it a threat to the company.

Has anyone used any of these before? and have any thoughts on the companies?

I'm signed up now and going to give it a try.... (Follow-up to come)
 

 

 

 

Under Armor (UA) - Stepping up the Social Media Game

I wanted to highlight one of my favorite ad campaigns I thought was really effective.  I'm going to highlight UA  that competes in the highly competitive sports apparall space. My favorite part about this campaign is how far it has evolved over time. The first few videos they launched were very basic, but as time progressed, they continued to improve their story telling and ended up getting its users engaged.

Under Armor "Rule Yourself "Campaign

9 Months ago they first launched commercials staring: Misty Copeland, Jordan Spieth, Steph Curry, and  Tom Brady. The message all the commercials were telling you that "you are the sum of your training..... Rule Yourself".

The commercial currently has over 2.4MM Views. The commercial was a very basic but cool concept, they showed each athlete practicing their particular sport, with hundreds of clones or past versions of themselves training going through the same motions. This was symbolizing the number of times they have worked on something to get it right, and when you see all of those times practicing being played at once, you have a far greater appreciation for the time these atheletes put into their sport.

The brand then ended up taking this a step further and examined what goes into a day/week of practice, because a lot of people just see the end result, and don't realize what goes into getting there. Three months ago they launched 3 new videos starting the US Womens Gymnastics team, Memphis Depay, and Michael Phelps. These videos had a slightly different quote at the end; "It's what you do in the dark, that will put you in the light... Rule Yourself". With the summer olympics coming up, I think that these were great choices and think they were all remarkably well done. Take a look:

 

 

 

5.3MM Views

 

 

2.8MM Views

 

 

219K Views

I thought they were all great, and after seeing them all I was wondering who Memphis Depay was. Apparently he was named "Best Young Player" in the world in 2015 by France Football. He is 22 years old, plays wing for the English Club Manchester United. He has also been dubbed the "New Ronaldo" because of their very similar styles of play. Something tells me, we'll be seeing and hearing a lot more of him in the years to come.

Looking at the numbers, UA was able to produce ~4X the views in 1/3 of the time with these new videos. I hope UA keeps building on this, and continues to generate more content like this. The only problem I think they have now is that they have set the bar extremely high.

Then when you look at the #RuleYourself on Twitter, there is all sorts of good stuff being posted by its users including:

Someone going 18 under par

People cutting weight:

Buying swag:

The campaign motivated people to work hard, share content and buy swag.... I think its working and can't wait to see what they come out with next.

Synchrony Financial (SYF) Social Media Overview

Who is Synchrony Finanical (SYF)?

SYF is a consumer financial services business that has a wide range of credit products, but the primary segments of its revenue can be broken down to Retail Card (Private label and Dual Card products with Lowes, Walmart, Gap, Amazon, American Eagle, ect.), Payment solutions (Large, one time buy Financing with: Yamaha, Sleepy’s, Lumber Liquidators) and Care Credit (Helps Finance Vision and dental bills). These different businesses are all financed by SYF’s Bank and even though they are different products they have the same goals for its shareholders, make money. At Year End 2015 SYF had $83B of Assets and had a Net income of $582MM. So, the company has money at its disposal, does business with some huge Brand names (Marvel, Wal-Mart, and Lowes) and just needs guidance in Digital Marketing, which would make them a primary target for any Digital marketing consultant.

Where are they active in social?
           The brands presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube comes off as very clean, direct and professional. They post a lot of pictures with great messages that are short and to the point, but they seem to be using a lot the same content on each of their platforms. They even use the same banner picture across Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  I’m sure creating a unique experience through all of the platforms is difficult for any company because once you have some quality content to share; you want that message displayed from everywhere. SYF is starting to make good connections with different groups and social tags, however, most of its posts interact with another form of SYF’s Social Media.  If they keep creating these quality posts that are relevant to different social networks, groups and users they will increase their following over time.  

On Facebook - (3-5 posts per week)

·         Have 3,882 Likes with posts getting between 5 - 2,600 interactions (A large gap).

·         They have a Timeline, About, Complements and Concerns pg. and Photo/Video pg.

·         Have good filler content linking to relevant news articles its followers might be interested in, however, there is a lot of overlap in the filler content.

 

 

On Twitter - (3-5 posts per week)

·         They have a SYF Page and another Ask Synchrony page

·         Collectively have over 3,750 Tweets, ~6,750 Followers, & Following ~1,000

·         Unique contest with one of their clients

SYF recently started a Credit Card product with Marvel and have been doing a good job collaborating with them through social media. As you see to the right, they hosted a costume contest recently and just declared a winner. They were trying to build awareness for the new program and are advertising people to "save like a hero" with your new Marvel CC (financed by SYF). Contests are a good way for SYF to engage social network users.

 

In another post, SYF drops the hash tag #girlsthatcode, showing their support for the education of girls in tech field. This is a great message and creates awareness of a credit company to a group of people that might be a little strapped for cash because they are in school. SYF uses this post on both Facebook and Twitter, to link users of both to each of the social networks.

 

 

 

Linkedin – Post less then FB and TWTR

·         SYF’s largest group of followers, but seems to have the lowest level of engagement as far as interactions.

YouTube – 1 video every 1-2 weeks

·         Most watched video (underwhelming but informative). (Click Here).

·         SYF’s YouTube videos with Marvel “Saving the world is hard, saving with Synchrony Bank is easy” got the most collective views through the 4 video ad campaign.

 

Competition

SYF has some stiff competition on social media, but there is a lot to be learned from competitor’s campaigns. All of the posts I’ve highlighted here are from the past month, and the competition was able to get more engagement then any of SYF’s posts. Granted, these companies have had a longer time to establish their social media presence, but they still have some great ideas.  Capital one is very active on social and has recently posted a contest to win $10,000, been posting behind the scenes footage of a Jenifer Garner commercial (celebrity influencer) and have been teaming with well know travel bloggers (social media influencers).  These influencers and contests will help Capital One reach new audiences and help build the brand. SYF has already done some contests, but should look to involve some Celebrity and social media influencers in their social media marketing.

 

 

 

Another competitor is Allied Bank and they have come up with 2 recent campaigns that are doing pretty well. The first campaign I’ll highlight is one that goes the funny route, it starts off every commercial showing the following “No Branches = Great Rates. It’s a fact of life. Just like…” they then come up with funny sayings like, “how boardrooms= bored rooms, ouch” and “how grandkids = free tech support”. I found them pretty hilarious and effective. 

Allied Bank also created an app that they have been pushing, that warns people of their poor spending habits by letting them know when they start to approach a business which they often “splurge” on. I thought this was a very unique campaign because it’s addressing a fear of many of its customers. Very few people get credit cards with the intention of overspending on it, and going into debt. Everyone wants to be able to manage their spending and it is comforting knowing the bank is also trying to look out for your best interest as well. In these ads Allied bank uses some celebrity influencers to get their point across with a little humor. I think they made light of a very delicate subject, while still getting their message out there. Another opportunity is for SYF to socially post about their community service involvement (Which Citi has done below). Capital one, Ally Bank and Citi are engaging with their customers in interesting ways (all of which require a more intensive capital investment), and it’s time for SYF to join the party.

 

 

 SYF... Time to respond

 

 

 

 

 

Contagious - Why Things Catch On - Review

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

6 hours and 54 minutes

"Why do some products get more word of mouth than others? Why does some online content go viral? Word of mouth makes products, ideas, and behaviors catch on. It's more influential than advertising and far more effective...

Contagious is filled with fascinating information drawn from Berger's research. You will be surprised to learn, for example, just how little word of mouth is generated online versus elsewhere. Already praised by Dan Ariely and Dan Gilbert, and sold in nine countries, this book is a must-listen for people who want their projects and ideas to succeed " (Amazon.com).

My thoughts: 

This book has great real world examples to support what its teachings. Which is something I was looking for more of with the #AskGaryVee Book.

What you learn about:

Word of mouth is the most important part to the success of a business

"Only 7% of word of mouth happens online"

 

"When we care, we share" / "Caring Is Sharing"

We often send people things if we know it can help them or think they will find it useful

 

Diminishing Sensitivity: people are willing to go out of their way to save money if they are buying a low ticket item and are less willing to do so when buying a large ticket item.

 

ex. saving $10 on a $30 item you would drive to the next town over, but would do that for a $1000 TV

Rule of 100 - If the cost of an item is >$100 advertise with $$ savings and if its <$100 advertise with % savings

People love seeing that things are on sale
Ex. Someone is more likely to buy a vacume at $150 showing a 50% mark down from $300, then they are the same vacume at $140 showing a 10% mark down.

Social Currency: 
Doing things because you think it makes you look good

• Sending messages "sent from IPhone"
• Purchasing a particular brand of Car
• Buying a Live Strong band

Triggers: 
School Case study around eating healthy

• One group of college kids are exposed to advertisements that say  'Grab a Tray and eat 5 vegetables a day'
• Another group of college kids is exposed to an advertisement that says 'Live longer, eat your vegetables'
• The word association with word 'tray' helped college kids remember the advertisement at the point they get their food.

Poor Triggers make people aware of a product at a time they are not in a position to do anything about it

• Seeing a advertisement about the importance of floor mats (To provent in the shower when you aren't in a position to buy.

Destroying the brand of another company by triggering a message on top of their existing message

• Marlboro cigarettes use cowboys as the spokes person for its brand
• Public health launches ad with a cowboy telling another cowboy they have cancer

Kit Kat revitalized its brand by selling itself as "Coffee's best friend"

Emotion

Case study on why certain Wall Street Journal Articles are shared more then others

• We are more likely to share things when we are awe inspired of something.

• Additionally, there are examples of when we are mad or very happy with something

Public

Case study on how people imitate one another's

• MBA students are asked what they want to do with their career, before and after they start School.
• Answers by the end all start to gravitate toward investment banking and consulting

• People go to the hotdog stand that has the line with the thought process that they have better hotdogs, without knowing.
• White headphones on an iPod Case study

Practical Value:

Information people can use

• Sharing articles on healthy living, or a deal on a product.
• People getting value from a product and sharing that information with friends.
• DIY YouTube Videos

Stories 

Information that travels through chatter and the Trojan Horse of conversation.

• People telling you the benefits of a product don't come across like they would from a company.

Overall: I really liked hearing about studies and the examples of how brands use these above elements to create viral content. Two thumbs up!

Audible Audio book Review's - #AskGaryVee

Getting Back into "Reading"

Since starting my masters at Sacred Heart I've wanted to start reading more about social media, so I could offer additional insight to my classes. However, I read a lot for work, and when I'm done, I'm hardly ever in the mood to read more. So lately I've been really into listening to Audio Books and for the most part, have really enjoyed it.

#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur's Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness

11 Hours and 37 Mins 

Description on Audible: "#AskGaryVee showcases the most useful and interesting questions Gary has addressed on his popular show. Distilling and expanding on the podcast’s most urgent and evergreen themes, Gary presents practical, timely, and timeless advice on marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and everything else you’ve been afraid to ask but are dying to know. Gary gives you the insights and information you need on everything from effectively using Twitter to launching a small business, hiring superstars to creating a personal brand, launching products effectively to staying healthy—and even buying wine.

Whether you’re planning to start your own company, working in digital media, or have landed your first job in a traditional company, #AskGaryVee is your essential guide to making things happen in a big way." (Amazon.com).

The Ratings:

• It got amazing ratings 
• 397 reviews with 96% of the reviews going in at 5 stars
• Very few people had negative things to say

My thoughts:

I started the book I had very high expectations. However, after devoting 12 hours of my life to listening to ASKGARYVEE speak I had enough. Having listened to a few of his YouTube videos before buying the book, I thought it would provide lots of examples of real life businesses and implementing his strategy's/insight.  I thought that these examples is exactly what the book lacked. Some of the YouTube video's provide businesses advice, and it would be interesting to see how they do after taking his advice... instead of listening to him tie back his advice to himself all the time. I get it, he is building the brand of #AskGaryVee, and that's all this book is in my mind. 

Things I learned from the book (In no particular order):

• Gary wasn't an A student growing up, he was a C student but he knew from a young age he was going to be brought in to the family business of wine, so he spent most of his time focusing on reading into that industry.
• He helped build wine library, which was his family owned business to be extremely successful through building a YouTube Video Blog (winelibrary.com).
• After years of "Crushing it" at Wine Library, him and his younger brother started their own Social Media Consulting Firm and has been also working on his own Ventures group.
• Vayner Media - It looks like a legit place to work
• Gary works hard, puts in long hours, but is still a family man
• Gary is very accomplished, very full of himself and loves telling the same story’s to answer questions people ask (Granted a lot of the questions asked in the book seem straight forward and might be have a little overlap).
• Gary doesn’t think anyone is smart enough to mentor him, he thinks he knows it all and has done a great job managing his career to this point.
• He wants to become rich enough to one day buy the NY JETS
• Gary is very competitive when it comes to everything
• Gary believes people that come from money are less entrepreneurial then people that come from no money (Which is how he grew-up).
• Wishes he could “sell his DNA” because he thinks he would be rich
• Gary hired a personal trainer to handle his fitness and overall health because he has always struggled with that aspect of his life

Now for things I learned about social media

• You need to provide solid content on your social media pages
• Engage with your clients
• Don't talk about things you don't understand
• Work hard and hustle
• Do what Gary Did and get it done

In closing: If you need motivation, or want to hear a story of someone who did a excellent job using social media to market his business with no solid information to explain his results. This book is that feel good pump up story that will get you going. If you are trying to understand more about the strategy he used to gain his success and learn more about what others did to do the same this is not your book. You will leave knowing more about Gary Vee then Social marketing... But who knows maybe i'm just not ready for this book yet... (according to forbes.com Review)

Granted that is only one of the three aspects of the book (Leadership, Social Media and Self-Awareness), I was just hoping to come away with more.

If you've heard of him, or have read this book let me know your thoughts.

INSTAGRAM - Top Fashion Brands (Sorry GAP)

I previously wrote a posting looking at the drop in GAP Inc's Revenue over the past year. There are a number of things that are going wrong with the GAP, but I showed that they have been trying to use influencer's and social media campaigns to engage with their potential customers. Looking at Instagram data from last May 2015, there is a direct correlation between their struggling social media and GAP struggling sales for all of 2015. Today I'm going to show you those reports from last May and show how they are doing now.

 First we want to understand the Instagram Audience:

• '300M+ - Monthly active users
• 75M+ - Daily active users
• 41% 16-24 Years Old
• 25% 25-34 Years Old
• 70% Users are outside the US' (Socialbakers.com)

Other facts that are good to know about Instagram from Socialbakers.com:

• Brands receive 110X the engagement with Instagram vs. Twitter 
• Celebrities receive 3X more engagement than Brands and Media
• Connecting your Brand with an Influencer or a Celebrity can massively improve your brand exposure, awareness and image

Looking at the Numbers below, you can see that the Fashion industry gets the 2nd most interactions by industry. So if you are a brand in this industry (like Gap), then a significant amount of resources should go into making a strong presence in the space.

(Socialbakers.com)

I looked at GAP's followers on Instagram this week, and a year later GAP still has just over 1MM followers (1.25MM). I'm not sure what they had a year ago... but their competition has been taking off:

• Victoria Secret : #38.8M Followers up from 16.4M
• H&M: #14.1M Followers up from 7.2M - 
• Have an H&M Home #202K Followers
• Forever21 - #10.2M Followers up from 6.8M
• Forever21Men - 114K Followers
• Forever21Plus - 90K Followers
• LouisVuitton - #10.2M up from 5.1M
• Michael Kors: #7.8M Followers up from 4.5M

All the Gap's competition is showing significant Growth in the instagram space, and the GAP should have been making strides to try to catch up with the competition. The Gap is just as big of a name as anyone of the brands listed below and should have been working on getting more of a social footprint.

(Socialbakers.com)

(Socialbakers.com)

I showed above that most of these company's saw growth year over year of 100%, some even more... which is incredible.

(Socialbakers.com)

Going forward, GAP needs to look to see what the Brands are doing on Instagram and try to put there own spin on whats working for other brands. The steps below are what SocialBakers suggest folloing when looking to grow an audience. The GAP is a big name in the retail space, but they are losing steam as far as sales and need to become more relevant. Increasing their Social footprint should help them accomplish that.

(Socialbakers.com)

If the GAP didn't see these numbers last year, I hope they see them now, because they have already let themselves fall massively behind their competition in the Instagram space.

What Is your favorite fashion brand to follow? What do you think GAP could do on Instagram?

Whats going on in Social Media?

I recently signed up for a site called www.Socialbakers.com and they send out a weekly newsletter that lets you know whats going on across all social media. Sadly, I only have a 2 week trial, and after that you have to pay for a subscription, but take a look at the kind of data they send you, its pretty sweet. Every company with a digital marketing department would need to be in tune with something like this (seen Below).

Here are some highlights from the Social bakers Youtube:

Check out more here: https://www.youtube.com/user/socialbakers

I feel like this is something that every company should be a part of. Why? Its important that businesses focus on their core competency while leaving this analysis other companies that will do it well. When you see the pricing for this application its cheap when you think about it. An account is as low as 75$ a month, that is only $900 a year. The time savings this application gives you is worth well more then that. It probably would take a few analysts to even put together this level of data that would cost over $100K. Having a program like this gives you more time to focus on how your company will react to the market, and your competitors (See the pricing below). I'm even thinking about reaching out to them to see if they have a discounted account for people in school, I know I would like to play around with it more.

Summary of the email:

FACEBOOK
Jaguar has been crushing Facebook getting lots of fans through sponsoring the Invictus Games

JEEP

Jeep - has a lot going on

• They posted a lot of videos
• Fans constantly post pictures of their jeeps outdoors
• They have a Social Media Specialist neutralizing Trolls 

They really have  a lot of engagement from their users.

TWITTER

Ford - crushing Twitter with content

• They have a number of high end cars that people love to look at
• The raptor - A truck
• Ford GT - Sports Car
• Mustang and other classics
• Forza6 a video game just came out and they are promoting with that game (on Xbox)
• The Ford Focus RS came out and has 320hp and is highlighted on the game

EMAIL FILE- SOCIALBAKERS

Analytics Weekly Overview (Week 18) May 02, 2016 - May 08, 2016 Hi DK (Analytics Demo, Your weekly overview of the social profiles that you are currently tracking in your Socialbakers Analytics account is attached here. For further metrics and details, please login to your account. Facebook Pages in Your Dashboard Page Name Total Fans Sum of Page Posts Sum of Interactions Interactions per 1k Facebook Fans Sum of User Posts Response Rate for User Questions Jaguar 12 464 629 + 17 091 8 7 681 0,62 16 N/A Air France 5 614 954 + 3 960 108 3 510 0,63 264 57,0 % Jeep 4 851 431 + 5 809 12 58 468 12,06 147 20,8 % Ford Motor Company 3 442 217 + 5 315 4 2 369 0,69 105 0,0 % AirAsia 3 295 247 + 12 338 13 5 089 1,55 0 N/A Lufthansa 2 014 849 + 5 494 10 23 771 11,82 481 33,7 % TOP Posts Lufthansa May 02, 2016 10:15:48 UTC Von wegen Regional Economy: Lufthansa ist wieder Fanhansa. Von Weißbier, Sauerkraut und Blaskappelle an Bord bei Lufthansa kann man schon mal träumen – genau wie die beiden Fans in unserem neuen TV Spot. Was sie auf ihrem Flug erleben? Schaut’s euch an! Herzlich Willkommen bei #Fanhansa! Hintergründe und mehr: LH.com/fanhansa  Interactions 9 031  5 646  1 035  2 350  Interactions per 1k Fans 4,49 Jeep May 06, 2016 23:00:01 UTC Let the weekend begin. (Photo credit: Emily L.)  Interactions 16 386  14 909  227  1 250  Interactions per 1k Fans 3,38 Jeep May 02, 2016 21:00:02 UTC Proof of an afternoon well spent. (Photo credit: Brian V.)  Interactions 8 923  8 445  95  383  Interactions per 1k Fans 1,84 Jeep May 02, 2016 14:00:03 UTC Mud? We're in. (Photo credit: Lisa P.)  Interactions 7 063  6 648  96  319  Interactions per 1k Fans 1,46 Twitter Profile Name Total Followers Sum of Profile Tweets Sum of Mentions Interactions per 1k Twitter Followers Response Rate for User Questions Ford Motor Company 880 901 + 2 439 7 6 619 1,96 0,0 % Instagram Profile Name Total Followers Interactions per 1k Instagram Followers Sum of Interactions Sum of Posts Sum of Comments Sum of Likes BMW 6 652 399 + 74 307 347,71 2 300 208 21 6 951 2 293 257 YouTube Channel Name Total Subscribers Sum of New Videos Sum of Views Sum of Interactions Red Bull 5 154 666 + 16 141 8 5 682 896 33 852 Hot Wheels 297 356 + 2 983 12 3 230 408 4 432 VKontakte Page Name Total Fans Sum of Page Posts Sum of Interactions Interactions per 1k VKontakte Fans Sum of User Posts Response Rate for Questions Lipton. Парк Яркого 536 890 - 1 241 5 179 0,33 0 N/A