Kim Townend

Social Media Listening & Strategy

The Blog

Brands and Tumblr and Social TV. Things you should know.

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This post started out as a bit of a rant about certain brands on Tumblr not using it very well, but on re-reading , I decided it might be more useful to talk about why Tumblr is great, what it’s great for (hint Social TV and fandoms), and why you should be using it.

Tumblr (when used properly) is a brilliant platform for the right brands to reach the right communities.

Tumblr themselves have made it so easy for us as marketing types. They update Fandometrics every single week, so you can always be up-to-date on what’s trending in your field. Imagine Facebook doing something as helpful!

According to a 2015 study by Global Web Index, 48% of Tumblr users say they follow their favourite brands on the platform, and when executed properly, it’s a great place for brands to distribute platform appropriate content to their fans. Take a look at the ‘Sponsored Posts’ Year in Review section for superb examples.

The Tumblr community understands fandom and nerdiness and ‘the internet’ in a way that other platforms of a similar size seem incapable of doing. Look back at Dennys and the advent of ‘foodom.’ If you’re interested in learning more about the platform and its key demographic, Elspeth Reeve just wrote a brilliant article for the New Republic.

Tumblr is – as far as I’m concerned – the undisputed home of social TV, (in the post-show sense, Twitter is still the go-to for real time viewing) Yet few networks/shows take advantage of the massive fandoms that keep the platform ticking over.

This is the place that the fans that ‘get’ the shows live.

Remember the Hannibal Tumblr? It was so great that people would write articles about how great it was. Tumblr was the place that the Fannibal community was born – it exploded onto Twitter and Instagram and the rest of the internet. Same with Supernatural, Doctor Who (the reboot), Sherlock, Teen Wolf – the list goes on and on.

Tumblr is where the things you’ll be reading about in two years time are getting started now.

Tumblr represents a massive (and currently woefully under-used) opportunity if you’re a UK publisher/TV production company/games developer/create anything that people get nerdy about.

One of the problems I have when trying to convince clients/agencies that we should be looking at Tumblr as a platform is ‘reach’ –  the idea that UK Tumblr numbers aren’t worth the investment.

According to 2016 data from Global Web Index –  11% of UK interenet users have used Tumblr in the last month. The number rises to 30% in the 16-24 demographic. But it’s when you look at behaviours, that the numbers become  even more attractive.tumblr

Alongside the 48% of users who follow their favourite brand, 70% of Tumblr users have bought a product online in the last month and an even more incredible 64% of users have reviewed a product online in the same time frame*.

The Tumblr community might not be as big as some of the other networks, but they’re early adopters who review online as a matter of course.

If you’re looking to talk to the ever elusive Snapchat audience, but you’d quite like content you can track, that lasts longer than a day, and you’re also big into metrics, then you should give Tumblr another look.

If you have any kind of an entertainment content and you’re looking to tap into the social TV audience, you should consider this platform.

Tumblr recently published their December 2015 numbers, and they’re impressive.

I’m not saying that Tumblr is for everybody – it’s definitely not. But if it is for you/your brand/tv show and you get your content and tone right, it’s one of the best (and certainly one of the most creative and fun platforms) that there is. Keep it in mind.

*All this data comes from the same GWI report

Snapchat On-Demand Geofilters are a Big Opportunity For Smaller Brands.

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Snapchat.

Just the word is enough to strike fear into the heart of anyone over the age of 35.

But why?

Well. According to the recent Bloomberg profile. On purpose.

But if you can see past all the ‘mystery’ and lack of analytics, then you should take a look at what Snapchat can offer.

One of the reasons that brands were hesitant about Snapchat were the extortionate advertising costs, coupled with the ‘TV style’ reporting which didn’t give you any real metrics to show to your boss.

But things have moved on. Snapchat is still elusive about how much most of their standard advertising costs (although one source cited the prices having dropped to around $400 000 for a custom lens), but earlier this year they made one type of ‘ad’ completely accessible to everyone.

I’m talking about On Demand Geofilters.

The idea is this. Snapchat already allows Geofilters for locations. You’ve probably seen them from friends who are travelling/humble bragging about where they’re spending their holiday time.

Then last year, Snapchat introduced custom Geofilters for brands, you’ve probably seen the McDonald’s filters being shared, and then there was the (not particularly well thought out) time that Hollister targeted 19 0000 US & Canadian high schools with their ‘Friday Vibes’ filter. These filters were only available to select partners and still on the pricey side of ‘give it a go’ advertising.

Roll on 2016 and the advent of On-Demand custom geo filters (not to be confused with  community filters, which are free to create for a landmark/town/university/place of interest.) On Demand custom geofilters were originally designed as a way for you to be able to easily apply a Geofilter to your Wedding/Bar Mitzvah/Premiere/Whatever. But in terms of marketing, they’re a brilliant way to create hyper-shareable content, perfect for sharing outside of Snapchat as well as in platform.

 

Currently, brand presence on Snapchat is on the low side, and there are a number of reasons for this, the biggest of them being Snapchat is perceived as a hard to understand channel just to reach teenagers.
I won’t dispute that Snapchat is still heavy on generation y & z users, but the fastest growing user group is the over 35s. Platform engagement rates (8 billion video views each day) are impressive, as is the sense of creativity lacking from the rest of the ‘big’ social media platforms.

Currently, a starting price of $20 will buy you an 8-hour time slot, the space of a few blocks in a major city. You’ll still need to get someone to design the filter for you, and make sure it passes Snapchat’s requirements. (No mentions of URLS or phone numbers – hashtags and usernames are supposedly fine!)

If you’re a business that hosts events/does anything location specific and you’re looking for a fun way to raise awareness among potential customers. (And you’ve got a bit of design know-how and a few bucks to spare). I would recommend testing out the Snapchat waters.

It’s not yet saturated with brands, there’s very little marketing douchery, and if you’re right for the channel and you understand your audience enough to create content that will resonate with them, then Snapchat custom geofilters might be exactly what you’re looking for. And also, with such a low price point – you can afford to test this one out.

Oh, and if you find the whole idea of Snapchat terrifying, Buffer Blog have written an excellent guide to how it all works.

Social Media and Social TV are not the Same Thing!

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Okay, maybe that title was a little misleading, in that social media is definitely an intrinsic part of social tv as it provides the tools that make it possible.

What I’m really trying to do in this post is point out that the two things, although sounding the same, require very different approaches. 

Which is why I’ve come up with 4 principles for you to consider, when approaching a social TV project.

Social media for both brands and broadcasters, is an often awkward, slightly perplexing idea.

Yes, you need to be visible on it, yes you need to be creating some form of content as part of this deal, and yes you need to be listening and responding to your consumers. But this is where the similarities end, for one simple reason*

People are already fans of TV shows!

Nerd Rage gif from 30 Rock

They’re interested in the stories you have to tell, they’re interested in the secrets you can share, they’re interested in the exclusives you can dangle in front of them as your will decides.

With brands, people are largely interested in getting stuff for free and customer service, unless you’re lucky enough/smart enough to have built a really strong content offering, solidly over time then getting them to stay interested in your content in 2015, is pretty hard work.

So, it makes sense that you would go about developing your social media strategy for a broadcaster, quite differently than you would for a brand.

When it comes social TV, it really is all about the fandom.

Fandom is something that brands rarely have unless they’re very, very good with Tumblr (I’m looking at you Dennys)

The key to creating a good social TV strategy is understanding the fandom. Only then can you create the kind of content that fans will go crazy for.

This sounds obvious, but time and experience have taught me that it’s really not.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying you need to love the shows, but you need to understand the fandom.

In every social TV project that I’ve worked on, I’ve started with the fandom and worked my way outwards to the mainstream.

Starting with the mainstream is never going to work, because those guys aren’t going to be bothered about your show unless it’s popular right now.

Fandom is what makes the show popular, it’s what buys the shirts and the boxsets and creates the art and goes to Comicon and gets the people on Facebook interested in watching in the first place.

Not all platforms are created equal

Yes, this goes for regular social too, but (kings of social TV, The CW will tell you) it’s more pronounced with TV.  (Or as I like to put it, don’t try Superwholock on Facebook.)

Different types of people naturally gravitate towards certain platforms. Always, always look at your analytics and then use them to hone your hunches.

Different platforms require different content types and different timings. Are you looking to build buzz, drive to TX or drive to catch up? Each of these things will benefit from understanding the whens are wheres and whos.

Also, people are beginning to make noise about Snapchat being the future of social TV, so you might want to keep an eye on that.

Oh, and always check fandometrics.

Everyone loves a reaction gif.

Seriously.

If you want to know more about any of this/are looking for some help with social TV, then please drop me a line.

*Yes, I know there are exceptions to this rule, but they are just that, exceptions.

How Broad City’s social media strategy delivers, as well as being MASSIVELY FUN

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It’s probably not a big secret that I’m a huge TV nerd, and as such I love Social TV. What I’m constantly astounded by, is how little thought and effort is put into most TV show social strategies. Sure, Doctor Who and Supernatural do some stuff, but in all honestly – most of this is fuelled by fandom, not smart, creative thinking.

Enter Broad City.

Until I researched this piece, I had no idea that the creators and stars Abbi and Ilana worked in SEO/social pre web-series, but suddenly all became clear.

As the second season of Broad City launched on Comedy Central in the US, it was obvious that the girls had upped their game. Their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr presence was top notch, but not satisfied with that they decided to hit dark social as well, creating their own keyboard app, so you could now share your fave Abbi and Ilana gifs with your BFF in texts.

They partnered with Lyft and created a Broad City bus (that featured a replica of Abbi’s apartment) and drove it around picking up customers, who then Instagrammed it like crazy. (hashtags front and centre)

But the real genius was in the way the show was aware of which moments in each episode people were going to want to share. These were the ones they created gifs and stickers from and served up in their keyboard app. This was updated weekly, after each new episode with content that had just aired.

They also created in show moments that referenced online content – who can forget the al dente dentist or the glorious Body By Trey dot Biz?

Don’t get me wrong, these ladies were a content marketing machine, throughout the 10 episode run all of the owned channels posted regularly, but it didn’t ever get annoying, even if you followed them on everything. Reasons being

1) The tone of voice was always totally on point.

This isn’t a brands saying BAE type situation. Abbi and Ilana can talk like millennials, because they are millennials.

2) Catchphrases that are good hashtags.

There was no attempt to keep jokes running longer than they needed to. These girls (and their marketing team) understand that Twitter is all about the now so each episode would feature at least a couple of super hashtaggable moments, just ripe for the tweeting.

3) Their approach was integrated perfectly, but they kept their channel content separate.

Gifs and longtail content goes on Tumblr, videos are uploaded natively to Facebook, Twitter is perfect for gifs, memes and showing off fan art. Although the content occasionally crossed over, the strategy was clear and it worked. None of it felt like an marketing ploy dreamt up by a middle aged man who doesn’t get it.

Their social strategy feels less ‘put together’ than HBOs for Girls (which caters to a similar demographic), where everything feels a little bit more corporate than it should. With Broad City it all manages to feel natural and effortless. And this in turn, makes you really, really want to be their friend.

This is a perfect example of an always on social media campaign with well thought out content at its core.

It’s something we should all aim for.

Oh, and check this out for some of the best Broad City social moments.

What to do when a client won’t pay an overdue invoice!

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Late last year, I was approached by a local business, recently opened in the area, to help them build their social presence and hopefully their customer base.

I was really keen to get involved as I feel it’s important to support the area I live in, and it’s always great to see new ventures opening up near to me.

Long story short, I met with them and outlined a plan I also agreed to both their payment terms and a reduced rate (which were different than my own, but I was trying to be supportive of their endeavour in any way that I could.)  

I began work for them by creating a strategy, agreeing a direction and ways of working and right from the get-go they weren’t delivering on what we’d agreed. (Not giving me the content promised/rescheduling meetings at the last minute) but I just put this down to the upcoming holidays/general client inefficiency.

A couple of weeks before Christmas (I’d been working for them for the better part of a month now) I invoiced for the first half of the agreed amount. They had asked me to do this in our initial meeting – this was on their timescale. Invoice terms had been set at 7 days.

7 days came and went, and I was assured that the payment would be made soon. I didn’t worry too much about this as it was the holidays, I was just mildly annoyed until the client stopped responding to my emails or texts.

In early January I eventually got the details of their financial controller who emailed me back a few days later saying that unfortunately he didn’t have a payment date as of yet. No explanation as to why or when he might. Literally a one-liner.

This was what really annoyed me as it showed such a massive lack of respect. I continued to chase for payment, but to no avail.

In frustration (and not naming any names) I tweeted about overdue invoices, and a company called Safe Collections responded to me.

Now, I’ve never used a debt collection service because I haven’t had to. I’ve had overdue invoices before, sure, but they’ve always kept me posted as to what was going on and when I could expect payment.

I was at the end of my tether with this client so I contacted Safe Collections and they were super helpful right from the start. They take on the job of dealing with the client for you (very persistently) until they settle the account.  I just had to give them the client details and fwd them any relevant correspondence about payment.

It took the guys at Safe Collections just over 3 weeks to get my invoice paid, they updated me at every step and just took the hassle out of dealing with my worst ever client. It was worth every single penny of the teeny amount they charged for their services.

No-one asked me to write this post, but I thought it might be helpful for other freelancers/ small business owners to know that there are people who can help resolve situations like this.

I find it irksome that given the way that business works, if you complain publicly about not being paid or treated very well, it’s you who is seen as unprofessional, while the client continues as usual and you’re put in a situation that makes you feel (somewhat) helpless.

If you’re ever unlucky enough to experience this, just be aware there are things you can do while still retaining your professional integrity.