April Fools’ Day Pranks by Brands

Who doesn’t love April Fools’ Day?

• …your younger brother stealing all your shoes
• …dad telling you it’s snowing outside on a sunny Southern California morning
• …your best friend telling you he’s joining a monastery in Budapest
• …your girlfriend breaking up with you. OK that one isn’t so funny but all the rest are!

But were you expecting to be pranked by your local business or conglomerate, multinational corporations? Boy have things changed! Maybe its the social media revolution, or the internet revolution, or just the YouTube “Gotcha!” generation but here come the brands. Just watch your Twitter feed April 1st (It’s a Sunday this year which should make things interesting) for prank after prank after prank. We wanted to highlight a few of our favorites over the years. Dan is paranoid about brand April Fool’s Day pranks so we’ll see if they get him this year!

STARBUCKS

We absolutely LOVED what Starbucks did! How about a “Plenta” or “Micra” size to kick off your day? The accompanying photo was hilarious as well! Some days it feels like we need a “Plenta” size to get us through the day.

EXPEDIA

As self-proclaimed Space nuts we were actually pretty excited when we logged onto Expedia on April 1st and saw them offering Mars Vacations! It was like all the Ray Bradbury we had read in our youth came true — we could go to Mars!

THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Leave it to the Brits to be so ahead of the times! Back in April 2009, the UK Guardian newspaper declared that print was dead and they were moving to Twitter! What a brilliant use of connecting your brand to something new and hip with the use of an April fools joke. Little did they know how much journalism is centered around Twitter these days.

There you have it! Just a sampling of some of the great pranks over the years. Is your company going to get in on the April Fools mix this year? If so, let us know! But make sure to comment before next week, when we turn this blog into a Turnip cultivation website.

Just kidding…April Fools!

-Andy, TGPR

Touting Tout

Twitter has mastered the 140 character status updates. Facebook is the gold standard for image posting. But what about video?

Let’s talk some “Tout”, which partnered with the movie studios to launch a contest around sneak previews of the new Matt Damon flick. Maybe you’ve seen Shaq, Jeff Probst or Wendy Williams posting videos to the site. With Tout, you can:

• Watch and upload 15-second video status updates captured on your smartphone, tablet or webcam.
• Share instantly via your social media channels.
• Use as a social sharing experience by capturing and delivering real-life-in-real-time direct from your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or browser — with all the energy and emotion of full-color, sound and action.
• Use quick, ADD-friendly video snippets to build your relationships, fanbase and brand.

As an early Twitter adopter Shaq seems to have a knack for predicting the next big thing.

There used to be a dedicated 15 second video site that posted right to Twitter, but it and others like it have not sustained…nor have they built the buzz comparable to Tout. We were first introduced to Tout when the big fella’ Shaq announced his NBA retirement through the service. According to a Forbes article:

O’Neal discovered Tout early this year and had his agent meet with CEO Michael Downing.  The two men made a deal. Shaq would announce his retirement by posting a Tout video to his more than 3.8 million Twitter followers. In exchange, O’Neal — who told ESPN he considered himself “the emperor of the social media network” — would get a seat on the company’s advisory board and get a small equity stake in the company.

Appears Tout is taking steps to be around for some time. But how is the user experience and should businesses and individuals start using the service just because other big names are?

It’s really easy to sign up and start using the service but one thing we noticed was you can login to your Tout with a Twitter account but each user’s Tout page has its own “Followers” — this doesn’t mean people have to use another network. Your videos can still be public and shared primarily through Twitter and Facebook.

We like 15 second videos. They are easy for the average person to create…it’s hard to talk too much. If the video is bad, it’s practically over when you realize such. If it’s good, you get to blaze through a lot of interesting content. Tout could provide brands with a whole new world of fun and creative video tie-ins to their promotional campaigns and community engagement initiatives.

We’ll be keeping an eye on Tout, in 15 second increments. Where do you see Tout fitting in to your social media strategies, if at all?

-Andy and Dan, TGPR

Twitter Spam is here JUST in Time for Summer

With the change of the seasons, Twitter spammers modify their approach much like a department store does clothing racks. Mashable reports that thousands of hacked Twitter accounts are sending a tidal wave of spammy messages advertising a weight-loss product, just in time for summer. The message, followed by a link to a website advertising an Acai Berry dietary supplement, reads:

Get the beach body you’ve always wanted, now you can with this weight loss supplement.

If you see this being tweeted from your account, the article suggests you change your password immediately. Oh what? You meant to send out those tweets? Disregard.

In all honesty, with the prevalence of growing Twitter spam and hacking, you want to change your password frequently either way! For more info, follow this link: http://mashable.com/2011/07/27/hacked-twitter-beach-body/

-Andy TWW

Twitter Tips for Brands

When I was responding to a reporter asking about how to use Twitter properly to market your business, I thought, why not summarize a couple of my response on the Tellem blog? Can you believe some brands are just now getting into the Twitter game?

What–don’t think it’s for real? Hmmm…hundreds of millions of Twitter users, or every major television news media outlet incorporating Twitter, must be just plain crazy. Sure. Then my fellow crazies on Twitter, here are some basic points to keep in mind when working with a brand on Twitter:

• Numbers of followers should not ever be an indicator of success. If you have 450 organic, true followers and each is dedicated (some might even be potential brand ambassadors), than it’s easy to argue how much more benefit they will bring you than say 1500 followers gained by two other common methods: 1) spending much of your time following thousands of people with hopes of being followed back or 2) buying followers. I’ve heard of buying followers for appearance, but that doesn’t make a company more successful or credible on Twitter, nor does it increase your reach (many of those paid-for followers are not real people anyway).

• Telling people to buy things doesn’t mean they will, just because you said so. How many people walk up to you on the street at random and say “Buy this, it’s 10% off if you get it from me right now!” Same rules apply online. You can indirectly alert followers to specials and opportunities to save, win, acquire, but Twitter is about dialogue.

• Put in the effort to identify and engage with your audience. Share news related to your industry —  your audience may find it valuable and share with their own followers.

• Use twitter to find your “VIPs” and “brand ambassadors.”

• Use Twitter to alert followers on exclusive opportunities.

• Join conversation topics by using a #hashtag.

• Use Twitter for exclusive random contests for your followers. This will engage them and make those on Facebook wonder what all the Twitter contests are about.

• Post photos of your brand interacting at events.

• Use humor and don’t be so serious that your tweets are boring.

• Definitely don’t copy and paste the same thing over and over.

• Post at the right time (don’t forget, Twitter operates 24/7).

Note: There are sites like Crowdbooster that monitor your activity and tell you the best times to tweet for each account. Crowdbooster also has affordable, basic reporting tools for unlimited accounts so you can provide updates to your clients.

You have followers because they want to feel closer to the brand, to feel valuable, to feel important. Don’t forget that, because they won’t. Just put yourself in the shoes of your followers if you are ever unsure. If you have a personal Twitter, use it to follow your brand. You’d be surprised how it looks coming through on your account/mobile notifications. This Twitter “thing” takes time and dedication. Are you ready for it?

-Dan TWW