You may have seen or read that a banana taped to a wall recently sold for $120,000 at a Miami art exhibit (yes, you read that correctly). What you may not have seen is all the brilliant trolling on social media by brands in response.

First, the background: Maurizio Cattelan is the artist... or "Absurdist" as he's actually (and appropriately) called... who quite literally taped a banana to the wall at the Art Basel exhibit in Miami, described how the banana provided him inspiration in his travels and sold three (yes, two for $120,000 and a final one for $150,000) to collectors who, of course, don't get to keep the banana (it will rot... obviously). They purchased only a certificate which proves they bought a banana that they didn't get to keep. Yes, it's that crazy. Yes, you can read about it here.

The secondary story (you can't top that story) is the lesson for social media managers:

• Listen to the conversation. Use social media (and their filtering, searching and trend highlighting tools) to easily and efficiently hear what people are talking about. A LOT of people were talking about the $120,000 banana in the interwebs.
• Participate in the conversation! How? Imagine you were first learning about the topic at a social event of some kind. What would you say in response, in real life, to real people? That's typically a good place to start. 
• Have some fun. Be interesting. Be carefree.
• Be original. Don't just rip off someone else's idea. That's analogous to repeating what someone says in real life -- annoying.

Brands who did that well (and some who just ripped off an idea) are highlighted in this piece by Bored Panda. Which ones do you like the best?

Recently, I've discussed how brands like Bud Light and Aviation Gin are winning the social media game by listening and participating in viral social conversation, and having fun while doing it. It's not hard, you just have to start by listening.

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section!

Last minute addition. I love what Porsche did here:

Yes, more quickly than expected, Fox sold every 30-second spot for the upcoming Super Bowl for $5.6 million EACH, which is an all-time high​. And if you've ever watched the Super Bowl, you know there are a LOT of ads. 

Does it seem worth it? Or does it seem like a total waste of perfectly good marketing dollars? In honour of this news, I'm digging out [and updating] an old post about the value of expensive Super Bowl advertising, to re-open the conversation. Let me know what you think in the comments!...



In 2006 I distinctly remember being outraged that the Boston Red Sox paid $51 million just to negotiate with a promising Japanese pitcher named Daisuke Matsuzaka. "There's no way a pitcher who plays every fifth game is worth that!" I announced to anyone willing to listen. Then a colleague changed my thinking on baseball contracts...and subsequently on advertising costs...with one statement. "They expect to make that back in jersey sales alone" he said.  

Oh.  

I guess it's worth it then!  I'll shut up now.

The simple fact of the matter is that advertisers make their money back...and then some...for Super Bowl spots. Consider:

• More than 100 million people watch the Super Bowl. That's a lot.
• MORE THAN HALF of those people are watching JUST FOR THE ADS. Unlike any other program in the universe, people get up and make their sandwiches during game action so they don't miss the commercials! If you want to waste money on TV ads, buy spots on programs where viewers are making sandwiches while your ad is playing. I'm not even going to mention all the viewers that skip commercials using [the digital ad-blocking and playback recording options now available].
• Every ad gets countless mentions leading up to the game and even more re-runs after the game in the news media. It's next to impossible to count all the 'Best Super Bowl Ads' lists.
• Social media coverage and YouTube views can explode for the best ads. Forever. One of my all-time favourite ads - the Volkswagen Star Wars spot from 2011 - has [85 million] views and counting on YouTube. Update: the video has been removed from VW's YouTube page, but lives on on other YouTube channels.
• The retail channel makes more shelf space for products being advertised.
• Brand awareness skyrockets.

Forbes, who estimates the value of each spot at $10 million, believes the advertisers make their money back on brand recall alone.  

Much like the Red Sox making their investment back in jersey sales alone.

That, my friends, is the power of brand impressions, and the power of the Super Bowl.

YOUR TURN

Despite all this, many previous SuperBowl advertisers are backing out due to the hefty price tag. What's your take on the ROI of Super Bowl spots? 

LESSON FOR MARKETERS

For small and medium-sized businesses, I absolutely LOVE the efficiency that comes with digital / social advertising. It's highly targeted, it's inexpensive and you control the costs. If it isn't already, it should be a part of your marketing efforts.

YOUR TURN

What are your success stories with digital advertising? What are the challenges you are still facing?
​ 

In my previous blog post, I listed the top 10 marketing highlights from 2015. In it, I (among other things) congratulate a brand -- Big Ass Fans -- that very cleverly poked fun at Kim Kardashian and her.... um.... well, let's leave it at that. Hoping that it might be an interesting post for business owners interested in marketing their business, I decided to post it on Facebook and boost the post with some advertising dollars. The image that I assigned to the Facebook post (shown above) was of her bare back (only!). According to Facebook's advertising guidelines, that was too much skin. I chose the image because my Facebook post described the blog post as "A look back at the marketing topics that are important...", and Kim Kardashian is looking back at the camera. See what I did there? Alas, the ad wasn't approved, and I had to change the Facebook post image to something far less clever.

It got me thinking, though, of the difference between Facebook and print media when it comes to marketing and advertising. On one hand you have Facebook who earned $16 billion in advertising revenue in 2015. On the other hand you have traditional print media (including magazines), who are suffering unprecedented declines in advertising revenue. This gives Facebook the flexibility and authority it needs to insist that advertising be done the proper way. This makes print media desperate for whatever ad revenue it can scrape together. Case in point: the Kim Kardashian image I am referring to is from a recent edition of Paper magazine who, as I'm sure you know, resorted to sexism for their cover photo and to full frontal nudity on the pages inside. It was clearly a desperate move to boost circulation, which would presumably attract advertisers.

Four thoughts on the matter:

1. Shame on you, Paper magazine. Desperation does not become you.
2. Shame on you, Kim Kardashian, but that's a given, isn't it?
3. Facebook, love 'em or hate 'em, has created an advertising channel that is the most efficient and effective channel I can think of, with the possible exception of Google Adwords. They rule advertising, for good reason, and we should be happy to have the opportunity to use it to our advantage. Sure, we need to follow their rules, but at least they have boundaries... and morals (well, some at least).
4. It makes me sad when brands resort to desperate measures to grasp at revenue they don't deserve. Evolve. Create something valuable to people, not cheaply sensational.

LESSON FOR MARKETERS

1. If you're not advertising on social media, you should. At least experiment with it.
2. Ignore the trends in your industry at your peril. Paper magazine should have evolved. Black's Photography suffered a similar fate.

YOUR TURN

Am I too much of a Facebook apologist? Am I overly critical of print?    

Social media costs money.

We get it. 

By now we've all come to realize that social media isn't "free". There are many costs, such as staffing and advertising (which this insightful infographic demonstrates) that marketers and business owners need to consider.

What I LIKE MOST about the infographic is that it goes on to list all the BENEFITS of an investment in social media, most of which are immeasurable. They (Social Media Today) list these benefits (which were gathered via an eMarketer survey) as a way of illustrating that marketers have dismissed "low cost" as a real benefit. A valid point to make, and an important one for their purposes. But to me, the most important point of this whole infographic is the fact that there are MANY benefits of social media, most of which are immeasurable, and all with considerable impact on the success of a business. Sure, we may not be able to calculate a numeric ROI (since we can't measure the total return), but the length of this list of benefits makes it hard to justify NOT investing in social media.

IMHO, there are a few missing from the list!  Notably:

• LEARNING - Social media is a fantastic source of industry news, insights and best practices, no matter what industry you're in.
• COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE - Social media allows you to follow your competitors' activities... at least to the extent that they share them on social media (you'd be surprised how much they share).
• REPUTATION MANAGEMENT - Track all the mentions of your brand across the internet, positive and negative.
• PERSONALITY - Many of the businesses I work with express a real desire to figure out how to tell customers who they really are. Your activity on social media allows you to show your personality - to let your customers know just what you're all about, beyond what it is that you sell.
• BRAND RECALL - The more active you are on social media, the more likely it is that your brand will come to mind when customers next need to buy [insert the type of product you sell here].

LESSON FOR MARKETERS

The case for investment in social media is compelling (perhaps overwhelming).  The real question is whether or not you're taking advantage of all the benefits. 

YOUR TURN

Any benefits that I missed? Don't forget to also check the ones in the infographic.

Too many businesses forget that social media is.... wait for it.... SOCIAL!  

Social media is (supposed to be) a collection of real conversations between real people. They just happen to take place on a screen, rather than in person. Too often, though, businesses use social media as a channel to talk about their business, their offers, their events and so on. They treat social media as another channel for promotion. In other words, they talk about themselves.

With that in mind, look back at your posts, read them in succession, and imagine that you're saying all these things, in person, to real people. How do you sound? Do you sound like that annoying guy who only talks about himself? Are you saying anything that would be interesting to real people? My guess is (based on what I see every day on social media), NO.

You need to dedicate a considerable portion of your social feeds to interesting dialogue about things that have nothing to do with your business, just like you would in a real social setting! Real life conversations include all kinds of dialogue about current events, pop culture, and...wait for it... interesting topics! Eventually, the conversation may turn professional, but if you compare your social media feeds to what you talk about in real life to real people, there are surely vast differences in tone. And there shouldn't be. 

The best example of real social engagement on social media is Mashable. They talk about all kinds of interesting things that have nothing to do with them. In the illustration above, I captured three recent posts: one about a nasty sea slug, one about the Paris attacks, and one about the Biebs. None of those posts are about about Mashable, a digital media website which describes itself as a "source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation". They started in 2005 as a site focussed on technology and new media, but they quickly realized that when it came to their social media activity, they needed to be... wait for it...you know what's coming...SOCIAL! They talk a LOT about things that are interesting, regardless of how closely they relate to their business or their offerings. Slugs have nothing to do with tech. The Paris attacks have nothing to do with the Connected Generation. They talk about these things because they are interesting, and people listen. A LOT of people (they currently have more than 6 million Twitter followers). 

THE LESSON FOR MARKETERS

You want to be interesting on social media, not self-promoting. Why? Because people listen to interesting brands. And the more interesting you are, the more likely you are to be remembered when those people need to buy a product that you just happen to sell. Social media's not for inspiring a purchase. It's for engaging in dialogue that makes you memorable. It's that brand awareness that will lead, one day, to purchase consideration.

How will you know if you're doing it right? Go back to your social media feeds and pretend you're saying what's in your posts to real people in real life. Do you like what you hear?

YOUR TURN

How much of your social media activity is dedicated to interesting conversation that is unrelated to what you sell?

1. It speaks to me.  I'm sure you're saying, "Of course it speaks to you, you're a father" as though to suggest it only appeals to a small, specific group of people with specific attributes. But I'll let you in on a little marketing secret: THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT! The secret to marketing is figuring out exactly who you want to speak to, what's important to them, and where they make their purchase decisions. Few brands have done it better than this.
2. It stirs up emotions. The ultimate goal in marketing is having your target audience think about YOUR brand when it comes time for them to buy the category of product that you sell. Stirring up emotions like this goes a long way towards that objective. I'm sure the next time I'm in the drug store, the Dove products for men will be the first products I notice.
3. Integration with social media. #RealStrength (which very neatly ties in with the theme of the ad) is a thing on Twitter. A big thing too. I could spend all day talking about the importance of social media for brands, but I'll spare you for now. If you're interested, I've written a few posts about it (see the category list to the right).

LESSON FOR MARKETERS:

The FIRST thing to do it the difficult but important work of deciding who your brand wants to reach. It all starts from there. If you've done that already, show it to people that haven't seen it and get their honest opinion about how well you done that.

YOUR TURN:

What do you think of the ad?
 

Michael Sam, the first openly gay athlete to be selected in the NFL draft, wasn't fortunate enough to make the lineup of any NFL team. On Friday he found a home with the CFL's Montreal Alouettes.

The Huffington Post wrote about it and posted a link to their article on Facebook (image on the left), giving us the headline and the key information we needed to decide if we were interested in reading more or not. NFL.com, the click-baiters on the right, gave us nothing. They teased us, forcing (or baiting) us to click to find out which team signed him.  

In the HuffPo example, they may not get as many clicks, but the click-throughs will be engaged readers, interested in all HuffPo has to say about this story. In the NFL.com example, they will get more clicks (probably the same number of engaged readers as with the HuffPo example, and a few more of the curious uninformed) which, presumably, allows them to sell advertising at higher rates. But at what cost?

In my case, I'm annoyed by NFL.com. They've given me so little information that I'm forced to click to get the basic information that I need. So annoyed in fact that I didn't click on that link. Instead, I continued down my Facebook feed and clicked on the HuffPo link to read the whole story. 

LESSON(S) FOR MARKETERS

1. When you intentionally annoy people with blatant click-baiting, your brand image suffers damage. Why wouldn't it? 
   
2. If you're buying online advertising, beware the inflated traffic numbers of blatant click-baiters like NFL.com. In the above example, they may have more clicks than HuffPo, but those additional clicks are NOT engaged readers... and they're NOT likely to see your ad.
   

YOUR TURN

What do you think? Am I the anomaly? Is it worth it to annoy your readers to get more traffic? Comment below.

We've all had crappy friends. 

Among the worst of our crappy friends is the friend that likes you when he needs something from you, but completely discards you when he doesn't.

That's Facebook.

Facebook needs you. They need your advertising dollars so they can please shareholders, so they roll out slick advertising apps that allow your business to target just the customers you want to target, and they make the pricing model very enticing. It really is a great advertising model that allows for real-time testing, tweaking, measurement and results. 

But just as quickly as Facebook befriends you, they toss you aside. As Fast Company points out, your Facebook posts appear in the Feeds of your fans about 2% of the time. 2%. Unless you boost the post (give Facebook money to show it to people), brand posts are barely shown to anyone. Now you see how Facebook really feels about you. They don't really do anything for your business unless you have something to give them. Some friend.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

1. Be the exception to the rule. Make your posts so interesting and captivating that the 2% of people that see it have no choice but to engage with it and/or share it. Not only will that viral activity allow your post to be seen by more people, but that comparatively high level of engagement helps convince Facebook that the next post should be shown to more than 2% of your fans.
2. Deal with it. That's not a great answer, but it's the realistic one. Spend some money on Facebook advertising. You'll feel like a sell-out, but it's an effective way to reach your audience. If Facebook is the friend that only likes you when you offer him something, he's also, unfortunately, the most popular guy in school. So if you want to be at the coolest parties, you have to pay the price of admission.

YOUR TURN

What do you think? Have you given money to Facebook? With any success? Are you succeeding without advertising? We'd love to hear your thoughts. 

This morning, a random Tweeter named Chris Menke had a really clever thought about Big Ass Fans (image above).  

He WOULD HAVE won the internet today (still gets the silver though), were it not for Big Ass Fans' response:

(On the off chance you don't get the Kardashian reference, here you go.)

This is brilliant on so many levels:

1. Big Ass Fans is really good at listening to the chatter about them.  Further proof of the power of social media for brands - you can hear what anyone in the world is saying about you and your industry... anywhere... all at once.  By the way, it's really easy too! Just make sure notifications are turned on!
2. They're even better at conversation. Interesting, engaging conversation too!
3. They're hilarious!  Oh and by the way, funny often = viral, if you're interested in that kind of thing.
4. They're clearly having fun.  That's one of the hidden benefits of social engagement - your employees love working at your company and can't wait to see what happens next.  Employee loyalty is a good thing, right?

Bravo Chris and Big Ass Fans!

LESSON FOR MARKETERS

Social is easy, effective, fun, and less time consuming than you might think.  Plus there are a multitude of lesser-known benefits, including employee satisfaction and loyalty.  Go have fun!

COMMENTS?  


P.S.: 
Click to follow Chris, Big Ass Fans and Share Of Marketing on Twitter.

P.P.S.:
This isn't the first brilliant thing Big Ass Fans has done. Read what I said about them back in March here.