A brief about the challenge

ALS ice bucket challenge is an activity that aims to promote amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) awareness. It involves pouring a bucket of ice water on the head of the challenger.

READ SOMEWHERE: ALS, which is also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, refers to a neurodegenerative disorder caused by various factors. To understand the plight of the patients, the challenge was created to make people understand the sensation that the patients feel and experience. One way to do so is to pour icy cold water on your head (on your brain, in actuality). That’s what the patients feel.

The rules are simple. Within 24 hours of having someone challenged you, the participant should record a video of himself, herself or themselves while someone dumps ice water on him, her or them. First, the person will announce his or her acceptance of the challenge. Next, the bucket of ice water will be poured over the person’s head. Finally, the person will nominate at least three other persons to do the challenge next. Some participants nominated first before being doused with ice water.

The failure to comply with the challenge means donating $100 for ALS research. Many declined the challenge (including President Barack Obama) and opted to donate instead. Nonetheless, the majority of the participants donated $100 and performed the challenge as well.

The SMM lessons of the challenge

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrates the power of video.

Videos have a more viral tendency than images and images with texts/captions. Watching a video is a complete experience that may not be always possible with photos and images. Videos can reach people exponentially thanks to the reach of both Facebook and YouTube. Videos showing a person doing the challenge makes videos a mainstream content format that SMM experts should take advantage of.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is both participative and fun.

The challenge itself is fun for the persons involved and funny for those who are watching the videos. The challenge is so simple (and silly for some) anyone can do it. Imagine the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Matt Cutts and everyone at Silicon Valley. These are the people you never thought will say yes to the challenge, but they did in all their soaked glory!

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has a charity angle.

The participants are not just a part of a challenge. Instead, they are doing it as a shared experience with others and for others (the ALS patients). There is an advocacy behind the challenge that made it an effective cause marketing. Most of the participants may not do it just for the sake of participating; they do it because of how meaningful the participation is.

In sum, a well-planned SMM strategy that resonates well with the intended audience can have unlimited positive effect on your business. Sometimes, there is no need to look elsewhere since the simplest yet most entertaining ideas make for a great SMM.

Tidbits

• The #icebucketchallenge might eventually become the most viral post of all time. The challenge is not done yet (in other countries), so this cannot be confirmed at the moment.
• The #icebucketchallenge went viral between July and August 2014.
• The origin of the #icebucketchallenge is unclear although Pete Frates and his friend, Pat Quinn, are considered as the creator of the challenge. Both are diagnosed with ALS in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
• The #icebucketchallenge raised approximately $79.7 million as of August 2014 compared to a mere $2.5 million in the same period last year.

Sources: Forbes.com | Entrepreneur.com | Wikipedia

The post Social Media Marketing Lessons The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Had Taught Us appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

The truth according to Facebook

Facebook claims that the changes in news feed wherein a very few targeted feeds are supplied to the account owner, for instance, is not implemented for the purpose of boosting revenue. Instead, it aims to make the experience as pleasant as possible. Facebook can share more than 1,500 stories to any user upon logging in, all of which can be consumed in one whole day. The news feeds that we see today are the best stories there is, according to Facebook.

If you want your branded post to be shown to the right audience, then you must pay Facebook to consider your posts as one of the best stories. No matter what the argument is, it all boils down to paying Facebook so the branded free post will be shown to your target market.

How the small businesses see it

Small businesses regarded Facebook as a free platform because these businesses can manipulate Facebook in the way an individual user does. Today, there are more than 30 million small businesses with active pages and 19 million on mobile. The steps taken by these businesses are modest including creating a Facebook page which is basically for businesses, updating status, uploading product images, offers and discounts, etc. There is nothing completely wrong with this.

Facebook has more than 1.3 billion active users with 829 million active users monthly and 654 million active users on mobile monthly. For any small business, these figures are huge! Hence, you cannot blame them if they get upset with the current situation. One brand even broke up with the social giant publicly, saying that Facebook now sucks for brands.

The points of view of the experts, on the other hand, are completely different. Facebook, while it is provided free for the users, is a business entity whose main job is returning value to its shareholder. Generating revenue is the first agenda, so advertising your business for free in Facebook is essentially non-existent.

The only premise is that if you want to target the right customers at the right time using the right posts, then pay Facebook to do it for you. That is, if your marketing budget allows. Since we are talking about small businesses, we cannot expect a high budget percentage. In fact, some small businesses have no marketing budget at all! When they had, it is not even 1% of the marketing budget of the big companies.

Not so fast…

The good thing is Facebook also offered a few tips so the small businesses can still appear on the best stories list at a minimal cost. If you still want to do Facebook without spending a penny, then stop at #4.

1) Timing is key. If you are a pizza parlor owner, make sure that you post an offer during Fridays, 4pm and not during Sundays, 6am.

2) Post relevantly. Of course, as a pizza parlor owner, you wouldn’t want to publish anything about violence, wars, etc. or anything that will cause to lose the users’ appetite.

3) Post regularly. Again, pizza parlor owners must not post craps that only annoy the followers. READ: Don’t flood the feed with almost-the-same contents.

4) Post images and videos. Make the pizza come alive! Images are ideal for engagement.

5) Try Facebook Offer. If your page has more than 50 likes, you are allowed to create an offer. You are the one to set a lifetime budget for your pizza offer (buy 2, get 1).

6) Boost important posts. Create a post and make sure more people will get to see the post. Targeting features are available wherein you can target the people in your vicinity where your pizza business operates.

While the developments are blatantly discouraging for the small businesses, this does not mean removing Facebook from your social media marketing strategy. Facebook remains to be a good venue to interact with your customers and prospects. After all, it is primarily a social site.

Source: Business Week | Groovv.com

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