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Two weeks ago, we launched our first social networking experiment for Anthill’s Online Marketing Month.
We kicked off a Facebook competition, offering a four DVD prize pack (right). To see the promotion in its natural environment, click here.
The goal: Attract new fans to the Anthill Facebook fanpage, generate registrations to the Anthill newsletter, introduce new people to the Anthill brand — but only from members of Anthill’s target markets.
I offered to provide updates on what has ‘worked’ (and what hasn’t) in terms of technology, marketing fundamentals and, most importantly, the campaign’s viral effectiveness (i.e. it’s ability to self-perpetuate).
So, what viral benefits has this item of social media marketing achieved so far?
Hmmm… well… without beating around the bush… the simple answer is…
Almost none.
And here’s why.
Facebook competitions can prompt free publicity
The very exciting thing about social media is that it empowers participants to promote a campaign on your behalf. For example, any entrant is invited to tell their friends by posting a comment of their wall. It looks like this:
This is good.
Facebook competitions can ‘enforce recruitment’
By creating a rule, as part of the eligibility process, that requires entrants to also invite a prescribed number of friends in order to ‘win’, the ‘viral’ potential of a campaign can be further improved, operating as a kind of ‘enforced recruitment’ process, like this:
This is also good.
But getting the prize right is hard
This type of campaign can be very effective if the friends of participants have similar interests (i.e. enjoy business DVDs). In which case, their friends will also enter (perpetuating entries).
However, here is where our campaign reveals its first weakness.
Not everyone is interested in business DVDs (or perhaps DVDs, period – after all, they don’t sizzle quite like an iPhone or a holiday to Europe).
Quite simply, a prize of narrow appeal is less likely to attract mainstream take-up, undermining the viral potential of a campaign.
‘That’s not a big problem,’ you might say. ‘The solution is to provide a prize of wider appeal.’
However, to do so would undermine the goals of the campaign, by attracting fans, registrations and awareness from outside of Anthill’s target market.
And reaching the ‘Tipping Point’ is even harder
At the conclusion of two weeks (the time of writing this), our Facebook marketing campaign has attracted a measly 59 entries. This is despite our inclusion of the competition in our eNewsletter, our Facebook Fanpage and our Twitter feed.
However, while disappointing, this low number of initial entries is not, so far, my greatest cause for concern. And nor does it offer the greatest lesson.
What is the most telling aspect of the campaign is the almost non-existent number of ‘Friend Conversions’ (i.e. recruited entrants), despite the fact that, as part of the eligibility, the competition required that entrants also ‘invite three (or more) friends’ in order to ‘win’.
Quite simply, friends invited to enter have not been responding to their friends’ advice. So, in two weeks, what have we learnt?
Q. Was our initial audience too small?
A. Probably not.
Q. Was the appeal of the prize too narrow?
A. Possibly. But to broaden the prize may have undermined the targeted nature of the competition.
Q. Was the number of ‘required recruits’ too small?
A. Bingo! (I think.)
When a prize is of narrow appeal, an invitation is less likely to generate new registrations (i.e. Friend Conversions).
While a trip to Europe might be of interest to one in two (50 percent) of the initial entrant’s invited friends (interesting enough to prompt an entry), a business offer might only be of interest to, say, one in five (20 percent).
In hindsight, this ‘revelation’ is kind of obvious.
What would Malcolm Gladwell say?
The expression ‘Tipping Point’ means different things to different people. However, thanks to Malcolm Gladwell’s highly influential book of the same name, it now usually means “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”.
In his book, Gladwell identifies three main rules that he believes trigger a Tipping Point. To quote my previous post.
In particular, he talks about what he calls The Law of the Few, whereby he attributes “Connectors” (people with a special gift for bringing other people together), “Mavens” (people we rely upon to connect us with new information) and “Salesmen” (charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills) as having the most influence over whether a message or product will ‘tip’.
But he also acknowledges that even the most persuasive, charismatic, erudite or connected influencer cannot influence the viral possibility of a dud message or product, something that he also discusses when talking about The Power of Context and The Stickiness Factor.
Without going into the detail of Gladwell’s opinions, it’s safe to say that this promotion, possibly due to the unremarkable prize, lacked a certain stickiness. Also, Facebook users are most likely visiting the social media platform for social reasons. Hence, the context might be inappropriate for the message.
Success is a multiple greater than one
So, what’s the conclusion?
It seems that any attempt at marketing with a viral component should have one goal in mind, irrespective of the sophistication of the tools used or the strategies employed, and this is it:
Generate a ‘Friend Conversion’ rate of greater than one.
In the context of Anthill’s offer, those people who attempted to co-opt the upper limit — 12 people — were usually successful in converting two. Those who followed Anthill’s instructions a tad too diligently – ‘invite three (or more) friends’ — largely failed to cop-opt anyone at all.
In other words, the offer, the message, the ’sharability’ of the prize and the number of ‘enforced recruits’ needs to be tried and tested, tweaked and re-tweaked, to generate one simple, measurable result.
It needs to prompt enough people, on average, to co-opt more than one additional entrant each. Once this ratio is achieved, the only ceiling is the size of the market.
Sometimes the only way to learn is to do. And the greatest lesson is often not to make the same mistake twice.
Wish me luck!
19 Comments
Lesley-Ann
October 28th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Perhaps there’s another element to this – of the numerous ‘friends’ we have on facebook – how many of these do we actually have any influence on? If you’re a maven or a connector – how many of your ‘friends’ are really listening to what you have to say? Have you had enough meaningful and authentic communication with them to establish yourself as maven or connector for all?
You probably read Seth Godin’s blog yesterday, where he was discussing Dunbar’s Number. Interesting point he makes in relation to Social Media. This led me to ask around my network of folks I admire for their far more logical thought processes than my own – “what do they think about this?”
One of the answers I got blew me away and really made me realise – we’re only just scratching the surface on the real intricies of all this Social Media stuff.
[Reply]
Paul Ryan Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Excellent point, L-A. Influence within social media is a very important element here.
My personal view is that the incentive just didn’t really excite people. Perhaps DVDs excited some individuals momentarily – enough to refer three friends and have a crack. But, as James hints at, it’s not exactly a trip to space. If the incentive is compelling enough, it becomes the engine of viral activity and easily drowns out the voices of maven messengers.
[Reply]
Lesley-Ann Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Maybe you need your own ‘Ask Richard’ campaign as a precursor to the next Facebook Competition?
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David Dobson
October 28th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Great to see the open discussion of the outcomes from the campaign. An idea might be to ask the current members of the fan group what would be the most appealing prize for them. My guess is many of the current fans would convince a very large number of their friends to join if the prize was a feature article on their business or the business of their choosing.
I also think people need to be given an intro one liner about Anthill that they can send to friends, takes away the hassle of trying to come up with your own definition.
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David Martin
October 29th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Great article,
Please find my 5 cents below!
For me Facebook is where I am connected to friends and family, it is not where I have my business contacts, who I mainly have through Linkedin.
I have deliberatly split the two groups of people, (where I can), because I am protective of my reputation and do not want my peers/staff/contacts to see written on my wall “such and such had a great weekend dressing up in fancy dress and getting pissed at blah blah blah”.
I would also note most facebook application/invitations have the whole ‘invite 10 friends’ aspect to them and I find that this has programed me to automatically ignore such requests because a lot of the time it is clear I have no interest in the program, or my friends simply wish to use the application.
Regards,
David
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Matt Hampshire
October 29th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Agree with David and previous posts.
a) I have very few friends on Facebook that would be relevant to this campaign.
b) The incentive wasn’t exciting.
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TerryB
October 29th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
I think it depends on what you are selling as you seem to have identified. But I came to the conclusion that these forums are over stated and pretty much useless for the majority of business or product offers out there that are not just for play or entertainment. Your exercise proves this.
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Julia
October 29th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I need to send this on to three friends to enter the competition for some DVD’s? I don’t think so.
That’s too much work, annoyance to friends and colleagues for something relatively small – maybe a proper business development course or business strategy meeting with a business guru would be more appealing but I hate competitions that I have to invite other people to enter unless it’s something REALLY cool. Too much work for too little gain.
Plus by quickly glancing over the ‘ad’ for the campaign it didn’t really make sense to me – all I can see is ANTHILL and some DVDs – I didn’t see the ‘business pack’ and didn’t realize that these are business DVD’s that I could be winning.
[Reply]
Martin Hosking
October 29th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
A very useful and insightful analysis of a widely misunderstood area. It is very hard to get viral right in the first instance (>1) and very, very hard to get it right in the long instance (people sticking). It can be done but if it was so damn easy everyone would be doing it.
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Tim
October 29th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
The primary focus for users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter is self-promotion. That is, they want others to notice what they’re saying and doing, and are far less interested what others are saying.
This is even more the case when using these tools for business purposes. That is, if I’m interested in promoting my own business, I’m generally not interested in others doing the same, especially my competitors.
Also, it’s not enough just to have a large following. Few of your followers may be taking an interest in what you say.
The attribute that seems to enable a business or individual to have an influence on these forums is to have already achieved notoriety in the mainstream media. That is, success breeds success.
The answer for me, then, is to focus on building a following in the physical world. Then being an influencer in virtual world will almost be a fait accompli.
[Reply]
arnaud
October 29th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
I believe that there is something even more important that was not included here. Where is the fun part? Even if it were business related (which narrows down your audience), don’t business savvy people want to have fun?
I am a fan of Anthill but I choose to forward only some content to my online networks when I think it can be appealing to them, not to me.
Yes business dvds are no fun, having more recruits just for the sake of recruiting is no fun.
Your extended market (new recruits) need to know what Anthill is worth. Maybe a section about Anthill TV (which is entertaining), or some links to popular topics on your website would have been more appealing and you might have made more conversions.
In social media marketing, Content is King!
However, i agree that this does seem tricky and probably requires a lot of trial and error to get it right. Better luck next time.
[Reply]
Thor
October 29th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
What I value in SM is community interaction and the ability to connect with people I would otherwise never know or meet.
The technique I use is then to give them the opportunity to tangibilise the relationship.
I want more access to James!
More INTERACTIVITY with this community in Real Time!
I would take tickets to a networking event over DVD’s any day because I want to do business with a better class of SME, and I am attracted to the COMMUNITY aspect of what is offered not only on Anthill but other online forums such as Facebook and Twitter.
It seems to me what is most attractive about online business communities is the chance to foster organic OFFLINE communities for business development.
Love you guys – and JT – what are you up to Saturday we want to buy you breakfast!
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Alex
October 29th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
I agree with David (and by proxy Matt also and anyone else who agrees with David).
a) Wrong “social media” channel. The fact that Anthill ‘pushed’ through a Social Media channel rather than allowed peeps to promote through their chosen social medium is perhaps a folly in itself. I got your email, but as it was a Facebook driven promotion ignored it. Others might have jumped on – but apparently not.
b) I think you dismiss your choice in prize too easily. DVD are so ’90s. Ask a 19 y/o how they consume movies these days… If people are likely to subscribe to a magazine, online, using a credit card: 2+2+2 = Amazon.com. If you had offered an Amazon voucher, I would have jumped onboard and pumped it.
c) With the right prize, your requested recruits could have easily been 3-5, exponentially increasing the scale of virality.
I’m available for weddings, parties and high ROI internet marketing strategies in the Melbourne area.
peace. aa
[Reply]
Dan Brian
November 5th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Hi James, great post, and Alex almost nailed it. I think Gladwell would say, Facebook was merely the tool through which you sought the connectors, mavens, salespeople, and your call to action may be weak, strong, or indifferent (I say indifferent here, better off to go with someone remarkable (godin) that prompts a call to action by your target demo) should be multichannel in it’s reply and entry options. OR it should choose a channel like email that everyone is comfortable with. If you changed this paradigm you would look at FB, Twitter, and all the others as multiplier channels for the remarkable call to action to pass through. How do you measure which one’s most effective, either use a simple entry code word or question or dedicate response email addresses etc. Hope that helps.
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James Tuckerman Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Thanks mate! Valuable stuff. JT
[Reply]
Dan Brian
November 5th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Something remarkable (correction from above) along the lines of what Seth Godin espouses in Purple Cow – the competition call to action should be remarkable – like coffee with a top capital raiser or marketing guru or a publicity event with one of your sponsor partners, or a combination – it would cost less than the DVD’s and I would refer all my mates I thought might want to meet them or might benefit.
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Tim Lea
November 6th, 2009 at 8:44 am
James – a great post and thanks for sharing so openly your experiences. I must say it is so refreshing to hear of and to openly share the practical experience of using social media – there is so much hype (a euphemism for BS) about the subject with very few open case studies on a B2B basis, where social media whilst having a role, is probably very limited. I suspect Linked In might generate some more “quality” results for you – that’s where I first came across the quality of Anthill Online, and have become a supporter. Thanks again for such an open posting. I look forward to reviewing updates
[Reply]
Anthony
November 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
A lot of good advice has been offered already, mostly from people with far more marketing nous than me, I’m sure. Kudos to you, James, for starting an open conversation about this stuff. Good relationship building with your readers–and good use of a resource, for that matter!
I think there is one important point, touched on only briefly (by David Martin), that is worth raising: the effect of your recruitment strategy on how people feel about your brand.
Being too pushy can be dangerous. “Recruit X people to win” has a worryingly pyramidal feel to it. Even if the prize is an iPhone or a trip to Hawaii, there’s nothing more annoying than being bombarded with invitations from ‘friends’ (which on facebook might include associates, distant relatives, and people I went to school with or met at a party once) who are CLEARLY just trying to win a prize for themselves! As a result, I never enter any competition that requires me to recruit a bunch of other entrants, because I value my friendships more than any competition prize.
It goes beyond the automatic ‘ignore’ that David talks about. I imagine it has the potential, if you get it really wrong*, to do serious damage to your brand.
* I’m certainly not saying that you got it really wrong, James!! In fact, you might have had a higher take-up with a more aggressive recruitment strategy–but at what cost?
[Reply]
Carl Uvesten
November 18th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Whether approached by a marketer on the street or receiveing an email, I’m not selling out my friends for a prize awarded to myself. Every time there’s a possibility for me to gain something by providing name, email address etc of my friends I turn it down.
However, everytime I find something I personally believe is worth sharing I pass it on to everyone I know. Viral is not forced, viral is voluntary.
You want people to join your Facebook group? Give them a reason. Don’t buy them.
You want people to tell their friends about you? Give them a reason. Don’t buy them.
It’s very simple. My nephew (7yo) has few friends. He gets the neighbouring kids to play with him by giving them lollies. Sure they come, but they leave when the lollies are gone.
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