FLUID on Facebook Timeline: What Brands Need to Know Now

by Christine Takaichi
March 5th, 2012

Last week, Facebook announced that brand pages will be switching over to the Timeline layout on March 30. We at Fluid think that corporate pages may actually be better suited to this format than profile pages. For starters, it’s significantly less creepy to find out what Coca Cola was up to in 2001 than a casual acquaintance. It also makes the experience on brand pages much more interesting and personable for visitors.

With that said, remember the most valuable company exposure isn’t on brand pages. According to a May 2011 Comscore report, 27% of a user’s time spent on Facebook occurs in News Feed. Comscore also reported that three top brand pages saw 40 to 150 times more impressions in News Feed on their pages.

Timeline won’t affect the way these stories are shared in News Feed, but the posts that resonate on Timeline will likewise drive engagement in News Feed. That’s because the Edgerank algorithm that determines News Feed placement rewards highly engaged posts and Friend activity. Additionally, posts with images- the kind of posts you’ll want to be using regularly on your Timeline- generate twice the engagement of other posts types, according to Facebook’s internal studies.

Fluid has taken a look at the first Timeline pages to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what we can work around.

Hence our first recommendation: convert to Timeline as soon as possible.

You’ll be required to make the switch on March 30, so why not leverage some early adopter swag? While you’re at it, use this opportunity to re-evaluate your social media strategy. A few points to consider:

Is your page easy to find? An additional feature added on Wednesday allows admin to easily change page names. Many brands have multiple pages, some unofficial fan pages, some company-run. Makes sure it’s clear that yours is the correct page.

Pick a cover photo that complements your profile picture. You can use this background to creatively interact with your profile picture. Swap it out seasonally as you would a landing page, but take note: Facebook has prohibited the following:

  • Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
  • Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section
  • References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features
  • Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media | No Comments »

Pin it. Nail it. Heart it. Post it. #pinterest

by Amy Lanigan
February 29th, 2012

The social inspiration and curation market is on fire in digital. The land grab for market share and consumer pins, posts, hearts, bookmarks and nails is obviously on.

Pinterest remains the marshall of this parade. This has not changed since my last Pinterest post. The one where I said stop reading about Pinterest and start playing with it – but bear with me. I like what I’ve seen this week.

Noteworthy parade participants:

- Juxtapost: 52 days in operation. 50K images bookmarked. They are hot on the heels of the lead dog.
- Little Monsters: It’s Lady Gaga. Her touch is social gold. And she loves a parade.
- We heart it: Around since 2008, this serious contender draws more than folks who dot their “i”s like Junior High girls.

Remember the race last year to optimize men’s style and fashion (Mr. Porter, Gilt Man and CLAD)? The men have officially entered the social inspiration arena. Notably Gentlemint, Fancy and Manteresting. Note: Items are “nailed” on Manteresting, not “pinned.” Put those pins away.

For the record, pinning used to be how a sweaty man in a singlet won a wrestling match.

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Posted in Social Media, Social Shopping | No Comments »

Craftsman TORQUE case study featured in The SoDA Report; See page 87

by Stephanie Aldrete
February 28th, 2012

The SoDA Report: 2012 Has Been Released !
Download the publication here: bit.ly/AmGSqf

Fluid’s Craftsman TORQUE case study is featured on page 87 of The SoDA Report.

For the fourth year in a row, SoDA has compiled the thoughts and opinions of ≈700 marketers, agencies, technologists and digital industry insiders. Dozens of SoDA member companies have contributed thought-provoking articles and case studies to The SoDA Report (formerly known as the Digital Marketing Outlook). A broad array of guest contributors, CMOs and other senior-level digital marketers from a wide array of organizations (i.e., L’Oreal, Adobe, Google, Compete, E*Trade, Bloomberg and Samsung, among many other blue-chip brands) also provided their insights.  The result: an invaluable planning resource for marketers and agencies in 2012. SoDA is releasing the publication in its traditional format today, and a tablet edition will be released in early March.  SoDA will also be publishing smaller quarterly updates to The SoDA Report over the course of 2012.

Download the publication here: bit.ly/AmGSqf

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Posted in E-Commerce | No Comments »

The Pinterest Frenzy: One more opinion

by Amy Lanigan
February 20th, 2012

Like a designer loving, unique style finding, in-the-know fashionista who ends up in a room full of people dressed just like her, I delve into writing about Pinterest. I almost feel silly. What can I say that hasn’t been said by the volume of articles flooding my in-box and social media?

I made a Pinterest board to show a sample deluge of articles from the last two weeks. This doesn’t include tweets or Facebook posts:

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For the record, my favorite one is Bianca Bosker’s The Secret of Pinterest’s Success: We’re Sick Of Each Other.

The whole digital industry is running to catch-up with a high school friend who lives in Minnesota and discovered Pinterest first. She’s busy making bird nests out of cut string with her kids (found on a How to Make or Grow board) while we all try to figure out when she got so cool.

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Posted in E-Commerce, Online Retail / Interactive Merchandising, Social Media, Social Shopping | No Comments »

SOPA: A Case Study in Digital Action

by Amy Lanigan
February 7th, 2012

In 1997 I worked on a March to Conquer Cancer. Modeled after Earth Day, it aimed to increase funding for cancer research through the power of grassroots coalitions. Well funded, the kick-off involved full page ads in the Washington Post and The New York Times with a phone number call to action. On the other end of those phone calls? A small team figuring out how to organize a movement on the fly – without the full benefit of digital.

It was fantastic. And frightening. And fulfilling. All at once.

SOPA, Komen and Planned Parenthood scrolling on my Facebook wall, have me thinking about that project. I still spend my days figuring out how to get people to take action – but now that action centers around interaction, engagement and conversion on behalf of consumers and retailers. A social movement still moves me – especially when it uses the uniqueness of digital to compel action.

Specifically, the reaction to SOPA reminded me of the power of the medium in which we work – and the power of people who purposefully engage with it.

Frankly, it fired me up.

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Posted in Strategy | No Comments »

Kmart Layaway: Consumers create the best “campaign” of 2011

by Amy Lanigan
January 3rd, 2012

In the holiday season when hope reigns and we all want to believe, consumers came up with a “campaign” that was (in my opinion) one of the best in 2011.

Read about it here. Agencies (including Fluid) take note.

It started in Michigan when a woman anonymously paid off three Kmart layaway accounts. From there it went viral. It spread across social networks in a way that makes those of us who create social strategies salivate. And to top it off, the content was user generated.

Let me clarify. The story spread, so did the giving. And in a time where social updates define status, the majority of those who donated did so anonymously.

Sure there are naysayers who called it “Kmarketing,” saying Kmart was exaggerating a few instances and plugging them into their PR machine. But whether that’s the case or not, I don’t care.

The bottom line: People had an idea about being good to others and it caught fire. It was one of those ideas that I, at an agency, wish I had thought of first. It told an irresistible story, hit the social goals we usually set for our clients and felt good.

Are consumers eligible for a Clio? Could they win at the One Show? If they tweaked this to pay lists off via digital, perhaps a Cyber Lion?

I love the look of the new competition.

Happy New Year,
Amy

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Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

DIY: How Fluid built “Craftsman Torque”

by Michael Janiak
December 20th, 2011

Here at Fluid, we love the iPad. We love all the possibilities it presents, and all of the amazing types of innovation it makes possible. Fortunately for us, our clients at Craftsman share that view. Coupled with a DIY ethos and a drive to do something really different, we went about designing and building Torque, the first shoppable iPad magazine for Craftsman.

Fluid’s guiding principle as a company is that content, community and creativity together drive commerce. With Torque, we put that belief into action by creating an experience that took the best of Craftsman’s vast amount branded content, added in their highly engaged community of DIY’ers and brand enthusiasts and transformed it into a richly interactive, fully shoppable iPad magazine.

The list of innovative things we did for this app is pretty comprehensive:

  • Almost all content within the app is actionable in some way. Whether it’s shopping, signing up for the Craftsman Club, engaging with the brand on Facebook and Twitter, following along with DIY projects, or accessing exclusive videos and articles, the content leads the way
  • Using an updated version of Sears eCommerce API, we enabled users to add products to their cart right from articles and content within the app, then checkout seamlessly on craftsman.com
  • Live video streams directly from the Craftsman Experience studio, and the app alerts users when the stream goes live
  • Social media streams are universally accessible, giving every interaction a potential
  • Blurs the line between editorial, branded content and eCommerce
  • Content is streamed into the app via a CDN, allowing easier updates without having to release full updates into the app store

How Fluid designed it
Fluid started the discovery process by first auditing all of Craftsman’s existing content as well as their upcoming campaigns and initiatives. We then created an editorial structure and content flow for the app, which is actually much more like creating a magazine for print than creating an “app.”

After nailing down the table of contents, Fluid worked out all of the possible user interactions. This included everything from basic page behaviors all the way down to multiple content interaction scenarios. As we worked on the interaction design and started merging it with our editorial structure, we began brainstorming ideas for an editorial voice and identity. Fluid presented one naming option to Craftsman: “Torque”. Craftsman promptly trademarked the name.

We then began the process of breaking the editorial structure apart into smaller chunks to work on. For content that already existed (like the step by step projects), Fluid redesigned it to fit into the edgier, grittier, DIY-inspired look and feel of the app. For content that needed to be created or expanded, Fluid designed those sections from scratch and provided clear direction and guidance to the Craftsman marketing team so that they could start writing those remaining sections – the most notable of which are the Top 100 and Mystery Car Vault. Our process continued on iteratively until the content for the entire experience was completely fleshed out.

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