How to make money talk in social media campaigns

As social media are increasingly being used to drive audiences to buy products and services, brands are able to evaluate their return on investment using five simple tests.

By Habib Amir


How can brands find a social media evaluation model that forecasts the monetary value of their campaign, plans e-commerce mechanics and evaluates return on investment?

FAME IS THE SPUR

WHEN EVERYONE'S DISCUSSING IT, A BRAND ATTAINS CELEBRITY STATUS IN ITS OWN RIGHT. THAT'S THE BEAUTY OF POSITIVE NEWS COVERAGE, SAYS CLARION COMMUNICATIONS' CHIEF EXECUTIVE

BY GARY FREEMANTLE


Just like celebrities, a brand that can make the news positively has genuine power and currency


As a PR agency we offer many services, from crisis management to brand reputation building - but the one which excites clients the most is news generation. Getting their brand talked about (positively of course) on the news pages, on TV, on the radio or online – or preferably all of these. PRs and marketers alike love it.
But are we right to love it? 

Celebs’ Private Lives in an Instant with Instavid

























Scarlett Such, account executive, Clarion Communications

Everybody loves Instagram.  Who doesn’t love snooping into the private lives of celebrities or spying on what your faux friends are up to? There’s been the odd argument that people over-share when it comes to posting their favourite snaps online - and when it comes to seeing what your friend had for breakfast, lunch and dinner; there is probably a line to be drawn somewhere.

Vine’s Greatest Moments So Far



































Fraser McIntosh, account executive, Clarion Communications

Vine, the six-second looping video app owned by Twitter, has certainly introduced a great new format for people to play with, not least PRs.  The forced brevity leads to a great range of creative uses - so now, six months after it was first introduced, I thought it worthwhile to recap some of the most novel uses so far.

How Instagram Clicked With Social Media


Melissa Clayton, PR assistant, Clarion Communications

Online photo-sharing and social networking service Instagram has taken the world by storm. To date there are over 100 million users uploading pictures to filter and share amongst other devoted ‘instagrammers’ every day - the most popular of which rack up ‘likes’ into the five figure bracket or more.

Sky's no limit when it comes to TV coverage

John Mayne, account director, Clarion Communications

A couple of wily news hounds at Clarion Communications decided to set their alarm clocks extra early this week to go and meet Sky News’ defence reporter Alistair Bunkall and news reporter Richard Suchet, to discuss their insights into landing that illusive TV coverage for clients.

Facebook ads - and why they add up for brands when done properly


Rebecca Bolton, digital account manager, Clarion Communications

Every time I pick up a newspaper just lately there’s another story about Facebook - as the world’s largest social network it’s obviously going to attract controversy and last week was no different, as The Sun ran a story on how bookies are ‘buying advertising space which appears on children’s Facebook news feeds’.  Even though, of course, children aren’t the target demographic.
(link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article4787148.ece)

Getting Social Media To Impact On The Bottom Line in 2013

Habib Amir, head of digital, Clarion Communications 

Five Ways Brands Will Drive Revenue From Social Media Over The Next 12 Months

Most brands have learnt how to reach consumers and build advocacy through social media, but to drive sales they need to set up the right online purchase routes relevant to their specific business. And digitally intelligent brands have realised that Likes, Followers, and +1s shouldn’t be the primary KPI for measuring social media campaign success.  Measurement is set to become more sophisticated in 2013, and the industry benchmark for measurement will shift from community growth to revenue and profit through social media.  Here, Habib Amir of influenceD predicts five purchase routes brands will increasingly be looking to set up this year to drive sales.

13 bad marketing habits to ditch in 2013



Nicola Kemp, head of features, Marketing

After the excesses of Christmas, the traditional January purge kicks off in earnest. Nicola Kemp picks 13 common bad habits that marketers should forgo this year.

The Digital Launch That Fell To Earth


Howard Bowden, head of content, Clarion Communications

Twenty-four and a bit hours later and I still can’t work out what’s more astonishing: that David Bowie is back, or the way in which he did it.  Lets look at the facts: 1. With the exception of a four-piece guitar band from up north, Bowie is THE most important figure in British Popular Music over the past half a century (source: me).  2. With no live performances in a decade, no new music since 2006 and well documented health issues, the word was that we’d never hear from him again (as ‘confirmed’ to me by a national newspaper news editor the other week).  3. The last time I checked, the internet was a pretty big place, yet NO-ONE knew any of this was coming; no blurry cameraphone shots of him leaving a recording studio, no MP3s of demos leaked onto filesharing sites, and no slip-up by someone involved in its making on Twitter, as the excellent Alexis Petridis wrote in The Guardian.  This really isn’t how you’re supposed to do things these days, you know.