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Last night, we flicked the switch on our first social media ‘experiment’ for Online Marketing Month (right).

Okay. It’s fair to say that we have been dabbling with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for some time now.

For example, last month I revealed how we used social media platorms to promote nominations for the Cool Company Awards, sharing real numbers about which platforms generated the best results. And, two weeks ago, I also asked whether there is a Tipping Point for Facebook fanpages and published our own growth data (which suggested that growth might be influenced by many mini-tipping points).

Today, I’d like to introduce you to our latest exploration into the depths of social media marketing and invite your involvement. (Actually, this effort could more accurately be described as ‘skimming the surface’, rather than plumbing the deep, because the project is not really that radical.)

Simply, we’re trialling a Facebook competition (more).

I admit, it’s hardly original and, for many people, Facebook competitions can get a bit annoying. But this online marketing method is a common one and an obvious baby-step for most organisations (once the thrill of tracking follow rates has lost its charm).

Also, competitions employ many of the tried and tested tactics of traditional marketing, involving:

1. An offer of ‘perceived value’,
2. Presented to a ‘target audience’ of prospective customers,
3. For the purpose of prompting an action (such as a registration or purchase),
4. To produce a measurable outcome (built to reflect KPIs, such as ROI).

With that in mind, here’s our Facebook competition offer:

Create your own business movie club!

Invite three (or more) friends to share your passion for business and you could score an Anthill Business DVD Pack, featuring four of Anthill’s most requested DVDs…

• The Corporation (Double DVD Set)
• Enron (How NOT to do business)
• The Man Who Souled the World (How skateboarders stole back the global skate industry)
• Harvey Crumpet (Oscar winning Australian documentary… for when you want a break from business)

Spread the word…
The more friends you invite, the greater chance you’ll have of winning. You must successfully refer at least three friends to be eligible. It’s fun to share! Enter.

So far, it ticks all the boxes (offer of ‘perceived value’, to our ‘target audience’, prompting ‘registration’ to fulfill ‘measurable’ outcomes). But, of course, the true benefit of any social media campaign is its capacity to go ‘viral’.

For that reason, I’d like to add a fifth element:

5. And empower users to also share and promote the offer.

This last point possibly needs some polish but you get the gist.

The ‘zing’ factor that social media brings to any marketing campaign is the potential it provides for exponential growth. If one person likes the offer and is compelled to invite their friends to also register for the offer, and if their friends, in turn, feel compelled to register and invite their friends to register for the offer, then you suddenly have on your hands a campaign with significant reach, far beyond anything that traditional media can provide.

So, what now?

In the interests of radical transparency (it is an Anthill ‘experiment’, after all), it makes sense for me to disclose that the competition, at the time of writing, has attracted 11 entries (make that 14). This provides a benchmark from which to measure activities designed to grow and accelerate the campaign (including this post).

Over the next month, I will be providing updates on what has ‘worked’ (and what hasn’t) in terms of technology, marketing fundamentals and viral reach (plus any other observations that I think are interesting).

If you’d like to provide any immediate feedback, please post your thoughts below.

Let the experiment begin! (Whahahahahhaaaaaa… gasp.)

Photo: MJames