07 Jul 10 How to dress up your Facebook page
Everybody invests in having an online presence, but most leave their Facebook page rather bland and vanilla flavoured!
Today, Facebook Pages look quite alike for the most part. That might be because people don’t have time to invest in them, nor have the qualifications to create an immersive page, or maybe they simply don’t care. But if you own a brand, you should care.
Making a page by yourself is not that hard, but it involves some basic HTML/FMBL familiarity, and many people don’t want to be hassled with any of that.
We think it’s time for all this to change though!
Oh and before we get started, if you are still wondering what the difference between having a Facebook Group vs Facebook Page is, please read this to go for (*cough* Facebook Page) the right one.
So how do we spice up our standard run of the mill Facebook page?
There are 4 different options you can take at the moment.
1) Befriend a geek with some knowledge on FBML (Facebook Markup Language). This is Facebook’s own flavour of HTML and is used within their walled garden for application development and design. This option will grant you the most flexibility, yet is also the toughest to get going. Especially if you aren’t familiar with anybody who can help you out.
2) Our second option is Pagemodo.
This is a service that allows you to create a “Welcome” or “About” tab without any static FBML knowledge, or too much work. You simply log in and use their editor to create styles and panels of your choice. The idea is that you customise this “landing page” that your visitors see for the first time with brand colours, logo and the most important message you want them to immediately see in an aim to attract new visitors as well as provide an instant sharp message to those who see it for the first time. Check it out.
3) Third, comes tabsite. Similar in style, has a comprehensive content manager and packs in a bit more under the hood, but also comes with a basic pricing structure depending on what you would like to use.
4) The last option, is asking us for a custom build. We build Facebook apps upon signup for users and can design something based on more specific requirements if need be. Contact us for more info on pricing.
Until Facebook implement tools of their own, we need to resort to 3rd party services such as these or beefen up our tech knowledge on HTML/FBML, to add to our social media campaigns.
On signing off, check out some great implementations from well known brands that have taken the approach of dressing up their Facebook pages:
21 Apr 10 Background images & colours in your email
We often get asked how to modify the background of an email.
There really is no easy way of doing it considering the environment we are working with. So, we thought we would share some quick tips to help you with setting the background of your newsletter.
The problem is that there are so many email clients (programs which you use to view your email like hotmail, gmail, Outlook etc) and each of them renders the contents of the email differently. This means that the way something looks in Outlook could be very different to how it looks in Hotmail.
Many browser based email clients (such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail etc…) remove the <BODY> and <HEAD> tags of your document. So this pretty much rules out CSS for setting such things.
The best way to do it?
Many web developers are about to cringe at this, but the answer is Tables. That’s right! Tables are back in fashion and it is pretty much the only way to get the desired effect that will work on all the email clients.
Now, how to do this?
Simply, create a table wrapped around your whole document (set the width to 100%). Then set the background colour of the table to the desired colour or set it to an image. We recommend doing it old school with the “background=” and “bgcolor=“ tags.
Once your table has been created just insert your newsletter code inside.
CSS in Emails?
CSS is allowed. But try to keep it short and sweet. If there is something you want to do in CSS that can be done in HTML; it’s probably better if you do it in HTML.
Any CSS code needs to be in-line or embedded. That means no linking to external content.
We prefer in-line CSS. Might make you feel dirty but it does work.
Your code may look like spaghetti but it will do the job
Unfortunetly, HTML (especially CSS) isn’t as reliable on emails as it is on web pages.
Until there is a unified standard and consistancy between the different email applications, you are going to have to get used to shortcuts like this.
And naturally, you can always chat to us for help and assistance with any of the above.
09 Mar 10 The viral formula. Yes there is one!
So it’s no secret that we’re crazy about data here at MyGuestlist.
Ahhh…not stealing it that is, but rather creating models, metrics and generating some useful information from that data to use as leverage for critical decision making in our development and a sales sectors.
So it should come as no surprise then, that many of the world’s tech companies (including us) are utilising what is known as the viral coefficient to deduce whether a certain action/application/entity is technically considered viral or not.
Up to now, this information has not been really interpreted for all us other bar, restaurant and club folk, but let us do that for you.
So, how do you find out if your latest video is going viral? How do you know whether that last competition you just created in MyGuestlist is working its magic? Is your Facebook promotion actually making some sort of impact? Is word of mouth spreading online? We finally have a way of measuring it all.
Let’s explore a little.
So the idea behind the concept of something being viral, is that new members or new activity is introduced to the parent (or original) concept in a perpetuating fashion. So instead of you finding members for your mailing list, they find you. Instead of you finding patrons to enter competitions, they find your competition and spread the word on to their friends. Those friends to friends of their own and so on. This is all well and good but there are two questions that need to be answered.
How do I create viral content?
How do I measure viral activity?
This post is focusing on the latter.
There is a variable in our formula called the viral coefficient. What this is, is a measure of the number of additional members, each new member brings with them.
So based on this information, if the viral coefficient is 1 (i.e each new member brings only one other new member in), the activity/content/distribution will grow, but only at a linear rate and eventually topping out.
So the scenario may be as follows:
10 people become members
10 invites sent per person
10% of those people convert to new members
End Point: 10 new member to the site
So therefore, 10 new members / 10 original = 1 (which is our viral coefficient)
Above 1 however, it achieves our desired and classic hockey stick on the graph scenario of exponential growth.
10 people become members
15 invites per person
10% of those people convert to new members
End point: 15 new members to the site
15 new members / 10 original = 1.5 viral coefficient
The following table is created by Jeremy Liew, a venture capitalist in San Fransisco’s Silicon Valley. Study it carefully as it illustrates the difference between a tiny increase in the viral coefficient of 0.6, 0.9 and 1.2. In the example, Liew starts with a base of only 10 members and a viral coefficient of 0.6 and defined time as the period it takes for a member to invite others, which he estimated could be anywhere from 2-8 weeks for this specific experiment.
Viral Coefficient Stats
So the idea was that starting with a base of 10 members and a viral coefficient of 0.6, you flatten out at 25 people, a gain of 15 members. At 0.9, you end up with 75 new members and growth slows dramatically.
With a viral coefficient of 1.2 however, those same 10 members, yield an amazing 1,271 additional members.
We come up with the following formula:
Viral Coefficient = Invitations x Conversion x Infection
where Invitations = average number of users invited by each active user
Conversion = proportion of invited users who activate
Infection = proportion of new active users who invite additional new users
For some more info on how to calculate growth and population forecasting, read this blog entry by Robert Zubek.
So, what to do about increasing this viral coefficient?
Identified, are 5 solid ways to increase the viral coefficient. To first understand these 5, we need to understand what we are trying to do. This is:
- Trying to get our members to send more invites or share our content more to other non-members.
- Try to get our members to return more often to our site/content/venue/party so that they are able to invite more often.
- Find more channels and mediums for the recipient to receive the invites.
With the above in mind, we can now explore the techniques for increasing our viral coefficient so that this can be achieved.
1) Invitations/Sharing integrated as a part of the core
To increase the average number of members that each of your active members invites, you must ensure that new member invitations are a core process in your marketing, action or content.
Examples:
- Hotmail has a small invitation at the bottom of every email which helped with early adoption.
- PayPal allows members to send money to non-members and provides a referral bonus if they join.
2) Immediate utility or usage without external needs
In order to achieve traction with initial members, you must provide some immediate action/task/utility for them to look at, play around with even when none of the member’s personal contacts have joined.
Examples:
- Twitter allows you to micro blog, before you’ve started following or getting followers
- Linked in allows you to setup resumes and connections prior to any invites going out
This step is quite important as most users will not invite other friends until they’re familiar with what is being presented to them. If you don’t provide them with something to do before they’re ready to invite others, you will probably lose them before they reach that stage.
3) Persistence. Keep pulling people back into your world over and over.
There are heaps of examples of this. From Facebook pulling you back in to update your status, to Facebook apps like Mob Wars reminding users of new features that are unlocked. You should always remain in touch and keep sending useful communication that will encourage people to come back to your event, or website.
In addition, once you do one of these pull-ins, remind these active members that they can invite more people and what the benefits are of doing so. Just be careful to not fall into the trap of becoming a spam machine and sending reminders or newsletters all the time without a good reason.
4) No Artificial barriers
According to the CyWorld Behavioural Distribution from “Do friends influence purchases in a social network?”, Raghuram Iyengar, Sangman Han and Sunil Gupta, there is a following approximate distribution:
47% of people are not well connected, have limited interaction with others and are unaffected by social pressure.
43% of people are moderately connected and “Keep up with the Joneses”
10% of people are highly connected and can also be negatively influenced by others
So the fact of the matter is:
- Most people will not invite anybody
- A few people will want to invite lots of people
- Ask yourself how you will make it easy for those few to invite as many as they want: 5, 10, 20, 40 people at a time
5) Influencer targeting
It isn’t important that your content or word of mouth is just spreading, but it is equally as important to make sure they are spreading from the right person. The connectors.
You should select those people to receive viral content based on the number of friends they have, the size of their network (online and off) as well as the probability of instigating action.
If you have anything to add which you may think increases the viral coefficient of your promotions and content in the hospitality industry, please share it in the comments.
29 Oct 09 Viral videos: How to make one that actually does go viral!
Viral videos are one of the great mysteries of the universe.
Every “marketing expert” is pitching them as the best way to expose your brand/business without actually advertising.
But how do you know what’s right and wrong? How do you know what will be the next numa numa, star wars kid or chk chk boom girl?
Short and truthful answer is, you can’t. And you probably won’t be able to. There will never be a formula for what makes a successful viral video. However, we can look at one company that has taken somewhat of a structured approach.
Blendtec is a company in the U.S. that makes blenders, has made a series of videos where a scientist-looking figure attempts to blend the wackiest of things, from marbles to coke cans to crowbars, using one of their blenders. The videos are all on YouTube, but you can see one of them below:
These videos have all of the ingredients of perfect social media marketing:
- Interesting and different
- Easy and free to access medium (youtube)
- Fun to watch
- Markets the product’s strengths, while not focusing on them specifically
- Consistency with the brand – showing of other products and logo prominently in videos
In fact, this marketing has done so amazingly well that Blendtec’s sales have gone up by 700%! Each video has over 1 million views each – and to be honest, I even felt a slight urge to go buy one of those blenders after watching!
So what lesson can we learn as nightlife & hospitality troopers?
Well have a think about how you can incorporate those 5 points above into certain elements of your venue. Here are just some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Funny cooking class videos from your chef with interesting and non-conventional cooking ingredients
- A competition between two patrons in your venue in some funny game. Award prizes.
- All you can eat/drink competition
- A musical in your venue. No jokes! Check out this and this. These are incredibly viral & shareable amongst friends on Facebook.
- Exhibit the skills of one of your staff into a cool and impressive video. This could be cocktail mixing, musical performance or anything else they may be good at.
- Do a spoof of a popular trend, music video, film or show. Done the right way, these can be explosive.
- Do a funny false “media statement” where you announce new events, nights, meals, drinks, offers, musical acts.
- Do a coke vs pepsi styled taste test between one of your signature cocktails and another similar beverage
There are so many more that you can add to this list, that it can almost be the basis of another blog post.
Be creative, make a video that is engaging, shareable amongst your friends and friends of your friends, with the ultimate goal of sparking more interest in your venue or event.
23 Mar 09 10 tips on increasing your marketing effectiveness in the nightlife industry
As a continuation of the previous post, here are a few more tips (in no particular order) that may come handy to promoters, event organisers and venue owners.
1) Personalise your mailouts and SMS campaigns
Ok, so every venue, promoter and their pet dog out there is pushing their night/s as much as they can and they are doing it on many different mediums. Facebook, twitter, myspace, emails, sms, flyers…the list goes on. Trouble is, people have had it up to here (sideways hand raised to nose) with getting all this promotion crap shoved in their face everywhere they turn.
Solution:Check the previous post on using #name within MyGuestList to include your patron’s name in your e-flyers and SMS.
2) Schedule birthday mailouts/SMS to all upcoming birthdays in your database
Birthdays. It’s those things people go to on friday and saturday nights which have heaps of close friends all looking to have a good time and spend a lot of money somewhere. Make them have your venue/night in mind 6 weeks prior to their birthday. Offer birthday packages. More on this later.
3) Collect the right data
If you have contact forms, enquiry forms, booking forms, guestlist forms or anything else where your patrons contact you, have a think about what kind of information you would like to gather from them. If you are currently only getting a name, email and mobile number, you may be missing out!
Imagine if you collected only just D.O.B and their favourite drink as extra info.
Now, you can find yourself promoting to Alison who is having her 21st in 6 months and enjoys cosmopolitan cocktails, on a targeted, specific level. You can custom tailor a package based exclusively on this information you have about her preferred choice of poison.
4) Timing is everything
Not only is it about “who” you promote to, it is also about “when” you promote. Experiment around with different times of the day and week. Not so unusually, you may find that sending out that email or sms on a Friday just before lunchtime when corporates are figuring out where to go for their after work drinks or what they are going to do with their friends/spouses that night may give you some surprisingly good results. Your welcome.
5) Categorise and keep clean
Your database should be like your wife. Clean, organised and working for you. Errr…moving along.
A common action that is performed by most promoters/venues, is that the database consists of just one big slab of inconsistant information that has been gathered by various different methods over the past x amount of years and nobody that is responsible for its maintenance now or in the past, can make heads or tails out of it.
Categorise. Categorise. Categorise.
Create a category for your Friday nights, create a category for your saturday nights, create a category for your over 28s, create a category for your corporates, create a category for anything that deserves its own seperate marketing and promotion. In the long run, it really pays out.
6) Use HTML templates for your e-flyers
Many venues/promoters send out e-flyers and place a mere image as a part of their email. While this does remind people about the night you are running, you are not providing them any fast and easy way of being a part of the night.
Rather than just an image, why not use HTML flyers with a link to your guestlist/booking page. This then encourages people who read it, to immediately click one button and be on the guestlist for the night. And on top of that, they can then be automatically added to your database into the appropriate category.
Isn’t giving people the option to include themself in your night much better than just simply making them aware of it?
7) Do not send one generic mass email/SMS
This one of the many common pitfalls that venues and promoters get stuck into. Although a small percentage of the target audience will be affected by this, you will find a lot of discomfort amongst your large list of patrons since it has no personal affect on their psychological behaviour. It’s like trying to sell baby food to a room full of teenagers, senior citizens, chefs and japanese construction workers. Oh and maybe a couple of babies and parents as well.
Isolate as much information from your patrons as you can, categorise accordingly, and send incrementally. Even if this means sending out to only a selected smaller amount of different people each week, you will find it yields much greater results than just blasting out a generic one-size-fits-all message.
8 ) Have a photographer as often as you can
People love seeing themselves in photos. It’s a fact. So utilise this by having a photographer in your venue or night as often as you can. These pics (which can also be watermarked with your logo) will then spread onto the various different social networks online, amongst email inboxes of friends, and on the forums of nightlife websites.
But most importantly, you can put these pics up on your own gallery, and grow your database by excited patrons from the previous night, eager to check themselves out and how “smashed” they were.
9) Video Production
Although this doesn’t need to be a regular task, the next time you have a major event where you have celebrity guests, international DJs, special performances, opening nights or a venue birthday, think about producing a short video clip of the night and sending it out to some of your database contacts. This is a great and dynamic way of showing to somebody at home on a computer, what your venue/night is all about.
It is much more effective at keeping the attention of the viewer than what normal text is, so why not give it a shot?
10) Create Packages
For some bizarre reasons, it seems like many venues/promoters forget to implement what they learned in nightlife promoting 101 which is to create packages for their patrons. Whether it be for a birthday, hen’s night, buck’s party or any other celebration, packages are always a great way of assuring your patrons you are taking good care of them.
For example, suppose you organise the following for a group of 30:
- Limousine pick up from location
- Drive around with free bubbly in the limo
- Priority entry to venue
- 30 free shots.
- Host for the night with finger food/drinks always on arrival
Although the above might not suit your particular venue or night (change it around to suite accordingly with your vibe), it is the simple fact that you are creating a convenience for your patrons that they will appreciate. Price the package above how you will, but it is guaranteed that with the amount you throw in, patrons will be happy that you are looking after them and will be more interested in having their functions at your venue as opposed to somewhere that does not give them this incentive.
For more info on how MyGuestList can help you achieve all or any of the above, feel free to give us a bell.
Not literally.
23 Mar 09 Personalised e-flyers VS standard bulk emails
Think about new years eve.
Think about the number of “Happy New Years Eve everyone” SMS messages you receive.
Now think about the people who actually make the effort to personally wish you a happy new years eve or even just merely use your name in the message. Doesn’t that act of consideration immediately strike you as more personal and warm?
Well that precisely, is the reason why you should always understand the difference between personalised marketing and generic blast outs. In summary, generic marketing sucks!
It is common knowledge that your e-newsletter/e-flyer is a great way to keep in touch with your patrons and we all know that people love having cheaper entry and free drinks so they want to know about when you are offering these goodies all the time, right?
Wrong!
The first thing that venues and promoters do wrong is blast everyone that is on their mailing list/database with a promotional email offering anything from half price drinks to cheaper entry. Whether this is an email or sms, you are immediately turning many people away from your promotion.
Why?
Well let’s face it, chances are that you probably sent something out fairly recently with a similar kind of offer, and you have had many optouts from your patrons since they don’t want to be flooded with emails from you so often. And if that didn’t do it, what about the fact that you are sending out just a generic email to all those on your list, suggesting that you don’t really think you should take the time to communicate to your patrons on a person level?
The solution is simple. Here are a few things you can do to make your e-flyers more effective:
- Use the #name or !name commands for the patron’s first name to be added in the email giving it a more personalised flavour.
- Do not send mass email/sms to every contact in your database. This is a turn off.
- Categorise contacts into your different nights and market accordingly so that your not cross-promoting to two diverse sets of crowds.
- Use scheduling to market birthday packages to those in your database with an upcoming birthday.
