PromoJam takes to the Air with Virgin America and Rock The Vote!

This is the Boarding Call for Virgin America flight Red, White and Blue - going nonstop to Washington DC with PromoJam and Rock The Vote!

This morning, Virgin America celebrated the launch of its new low-fare, upscale nonstop service to Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport (DCA) with an irreverent election-themed celebration for its first commercial flight from SFO.

The “campaign rally”-style sendoff featured Obama and Romney impersonators and PromoJam was there to help launch the new service with a unique promotion to encourage First Flight guests to register to vote via Virgin America’s Red in-flight entertainment system. 

Starting today, guests on Virgin America flights will be able to use their smartphones to scan a QR code using the RedLaser scanning app on the airline’s Red seatback entertainment platform to register to vote. Powered by PromoJam’s Social Marketing suite, this unique experience will definitely change the face of the 2012 elections - even from 35,000 feet up in the air!

Here are some pics from the day’s amazing festivities!

Got our VIP passes on and we’re ready for flight!

Just part of the fun red, white and blue themed celebrations!

PromoJam founders Matt and Amanda MacNaughton talking Flypartisan politics with “Barack” and “Mitt”

Rock The Vote’s President, Heather Smith was on hand to explain the whole registration process to guests

And we’re ready for take off!

Rock The Vote scannable tees were given out to guests on the flight!

And this is where the magic happens - guests can scan the QR code onscreen to register to vote and be a part of the #ScanToVote movement!

The 2012 Social Olympics: Ready, Set, GO!

After all the preparation, the training and waiting anxiously for 4 long years, it’s finally Olympic season and the PromoJam team couldn’t be happier!!  It’s always fun to watch our favorite athletes compete and strive for those gold medals.  But this year’s Olympics seems to be a little different. Watching the Olympics, it seems that social media has become a major driving force in the popularity and the marketing of the games.  Fans have been going crazy tweeting, posting comments, and texting all about their favorite Olympians, sporting events, and results. 

There have been many trends seen at the London summer games - when it comes to updating friends and family, Twitter cinched the gold, beating out strong contender, Facebook. This was shown when people tweeted about the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony around 10 MILLION TIMES worldwide.  The unbelievable reach and connections made online has given this year’s Olympics the wonderfully apt name of the “Social Olympics”. 

One of the biggest shocks was that women are actually tweeting about the games more than men.  Why you may ask especially when we’re dealing with a topic so close to the heart of men everywhere? Because the Olympics are not just about sports - it’s about the people performing these feats of athleticism, your Ryan Lochte’s (72% of tweets have been about this swimming ingenue!), Michael Phelps and yes, as you guessed, women are tweeting more these Olympics in support of the more genetically blessed set of athletes.

And yet, on the flipside, social media communication can also cause problems and it does not always have a good impact on events as seen when a Swiss soccer player was expelled from the games because of racist comment that he tweeted about his opponents from South Korea.  Similarly, a fan was arrested for a mean tweet that he sent out about Tom Daley (British diver).  

It is of paramount importance to realize and harness the benefits of social media to boost morale, support and camaraderie across nations and peoples, but there are also consequences to what is said, thereby adding on additional monitoring pressure for the athletes and organizational bodies involved. This brings to fore questions about freedom of speech and accountability for one’s actions. The US Olympic Team for example, has issued strict guidelines for athlete’s use of social media during the summer games.

Social media has also taken flight in terms of its application by marketers, advertisers and the IOC itself. For the opening ceremony, director Danny Boyle crafted an entire segment of the show to the connective powers of social media in the digital internet age.

Here in the US, official broadcaster NBC focused alot on the social aspect of the games with daily hashtag recaps and trending topics shared by social media correspondent, Ryan Seacrest. Advertisers such as Nike and Twitter have taken to TV ads to help bridge the divide between old and new media, of extending the experience of the telecast out of the box tube and into the daily social life. Commercial featuring hashtags tied to the preceding or upcoming sporting events enabled viewers to follow the conversation in real-time and to extend the conversation out of the predetermined telecast. 

On the grounds, the iconic London eye was transformed into one large mood-ring. Tweets were filtered, collected and attributed color codes depending on the mood that they were projecting. The colors go from yellow (positive) to purple (negative) and green (neutral). These colors were used to change the color of the London Eye, giving viewers an effective barometer of the social sentiment surrounding the games on a daily basis.

So what have you been following and tweeting about these past few weeks? Is social networking the next piece of the global unification process that is the Olympic spirit? Do you see more pitfalls than benefits? Let us know what you think! 

Sun, Sand & Tech?? Silicon Beach Fest @ PromoJam

There was a definite buzz and excitement in the air as tech enthusiasts from all over the country descended upon Santa Monica and Venice to celebrate the first ever Silicon Beach Fest! Featuring 2 days worth of compelling panel discussions and off the hook networking events, Silicon Beach became a hotbed of stimulating ideas and engagement.

PromoJam was proud to be a hub organizer for this inaugural event and as the hub for social media discussions, we hosted a series of relevant and engaging panels centered on the role that social media has to play in the future development of target key markets.

With the sun shining and the beautiful sea breeze acting as our backdrop, let’s dive into a quick highlight recap of this amazing event!

:: Friday, June 22, 2012 ::

Social + Broadcast

(L-R) Adam Goldstein, Ustream; Anna Liza Bella, NBC Universal/Style Network; Jonathan Wilner, Ooyala; Ted Hong, M-GO and Dan Fienberg, Hitfix (moderator)

Day 1 of Silicon Beach Fest @ PromoJam kicked off with the Broadcast panel - will social media be the format to end the scheduled broadcast, or will it amplify beyond the time slot? Will your friends be more powerful than the broadcasters of will the content kings control the social media landscape in the future? How do new streaming and mobile technologies change and affect the way people consume and share video content?

Key takeaways include the need for real-time metrics to accurately measure ads and broadcast social media engagement. Citizen journalism and online live streaming are key areas to watch as we move into a future where the desire for live content and for neutral content providers become more eminent.

Social + Music: What’s the Ticket?

(L-R) Tyler Childs, Constant Artists; Rami Perlman, TheAudience; Chris Mortimer, Interscope Records; Ian Rogers, TopSpin and Matt MacNaughton, PromoJam (Moderator)

Moderated by our very own CEO, Matt MacNaughton, the second panel of the day touched upon the massive changes brought about in the music industry due to the proliferation of social media networking. From the phonograph to the MP3, music has always created new value propositions for its consumers but where do we go from here?

From this in-depth conversation, it was clear that music marketing in the age of social media required a long-term concerted effort to guide fans through the funnel of un-awareness to awareness, connections and engagement through initiatives that maintained constant conversations between artist and fans. Keeping the Buzz in real time is critical to help drive engagement during the lulls of seasonal marketing. 

:: Saturday, June 23, 2012 ::

Social + Latin


(L-R) Horacio Rodriguez, Universal Music Latin Entertainment; Yamile Fernandez, Get Yours Entertainment; Rudy Lopez Negrete, Lopez Negrete Communications; Alex Corral, Shine America and Carlos Mendez, Rapp (Moderator)

¿Qué? That’s often how we feel when dealt with the task of marketing and creating communication strategies to reach out to the large and highly connected Hispanic community. What are the best strategies to reach out to this burgeoning audience profile and what are some of the opportunities and threats? 

The Latin market is highly differentiated and is growing at an exponential rate - expanding by over 1 million people per year! The belief is that in 20 years, the Latin Market will become the mainstream market of the US therefore marketers need to start taking this nuanced demographic more seriously. The key is authenticity when marketing to the Latin youth community. The US Latin Market is a hybridized market; the new Latin generation has adapted to the US mainstream culture but still has roots to their culture and origin. Therefore, it is important to create a connection that will differentiate you from the general market and create a sense of belonging and aspiration with your audience.

Social Media & The Vote


(L-R) Rob Veres, Redlaser (eBay Inc.); Heather Smith, Rock the Vote; Noa Tishby, Act For Israel and Josh Constine, TechCrunch (Moderator)

The 2012 elections is the hot ticket this year and with the goal of getting over 1.5 million young voters this year, Rock the Vote is leading the charge on getting under the Millennial Generation to get involved with the Political process and to help shape the future of the US political landscape.

Social media is changing and shaping the political landscape of the world - and QR codes are useful for connecting users in the physical world to information stored online; removing the language barrier of online interactions and creating powerful, meaningful connections. Rock The Vote believes with education it allows people to make their own choices through easy to access media is vital to creating the pillar for democracy. For this election twitter is now showing politicians poll ranking during debates in real-time via specific hashtags. One in every 4 voters is under the age of 30 – imagine the impact that you have as a generation to shape the future!

For more fun tidbits and pictures of our events at Silicon Beach Fest - check us out on Facebook! 

Celebrate the Facebook IPO with PromoJam! Kick back with one of these 9 cocktails that were inspired by all things social media! Read more about the cocktails in The 2012 Social Media Cocktail Handbook - Check it out now! Wanna own your very own copy of the social media cocktail poster? Get your hands on it now! CLICK HERE! 
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Celebrate the Facebook IPO with PromoJam! Kick back with one of these 9 cocktails that were inspired by all things social media!

Read more about the cocktails in The 2012 Social Media Cocktail Handbook - Check it out now!

Wanna own your very own copy of the social media cocktail poster? Get your hands on it now! CLICK HERE! 

Socaltech.com: Interview with PromoJam founders!

Our fearless leaders and founders of PromoJam were featured on socaltech.com recently for an amazing interview about the company and the ever changing face of social media marketing.

Here’s a quick excerpt!

What’s the best way to get the word out about your brand on social media? For a number of high profile brands, it’s by using the software and services of Los Angeles-based PromoJam(www.promojam.com), which just announced a round of funding to accelerate it efforts last week from Golden Seeds and the Band of Angels. We spoke with Matt and Amanda MacNaughton, the brother and sister team behind PromoJam, to hear more about the company’s platform.

What is PromoJam?

Amanda MacNaughton: PromoJam is an enterprise, social marketing technology platform. Basically, we’ve built a platform that allows businesses to build social media promotions across multiple social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Linkedin. We also have a mobile platform, which integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. The whole concept behind PromoJam, is that it’s a one stop shop to come and build promotions, which you can launch across multiple networks to reach different targets….

Wanna read more?? CLICK HERE NOW!

Pique your Pinterest!

The current social media darling, Pinterest, has us visualizing everything! From current promotions we are running to cool infographics, we love to diligently pin it all! Because the tech age has us communicating progressively more through images, visualization has become one of the most effective tools in marketing.  If you are ready to be a part of the social media craze that sends more referral traffic to publishers than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn COMBINED, try Pinterest.

Facebook’s incarnation of Timeline utilizes words, images, and videos in chronology, but Pinterest keeps it much simpler for your brand. You fill up “pinboards” that feature collections of images (your own or images referenced from other sources) that tie your brand together. The concept is brilliantly simple! However, in the same vein as Facebook Timeline, you must be ready to commit and participate on a daily basis!

As of yet, Pinterest has a disproportionately female heavy following, with only 18% of their audience being male.  The numerous beauty, food, and wedding boards currently dominate Pinterest, so these industries are a shoe-in. However, with over 10.4 million pinners out there and counting, other companies cannot ignore this growing social media phenomenon.  

 

Pinterest can be useful for any brand by leveraging your resources.  Equip yourself with content, promotions, and ways for fans to engage in your product or service. Even sports teams (just check out the New England Patriot’s Pinterest Account) have chimed in by posting pictures of all their cheerleaders! Non-Profits can get people excited by creating “shared interest” boards. Animal activist? Create a board for viewers to post their adopted puppies. Cancer survivor? Share your triumphant survival pictures. You can even turn these into content driven promotions, giving away prizes to inspiring and enthused fans.

 

Nordstrom’s features all of their new products constantly. In addition, the organize their boards by theme, color, style, etc. allowing their fans to engage your audience by style, not sterile or stoic categories like hat/dress/purse.

 

Another great feature of Pinterest is your ability to sell your item directly on the site. You can customize your pin and add a price tag at the corner of the item you are selling. This requires constant upkeep, but loyal pinners truly follow such updates.  If your company is service driven, communicate your brand personality through pictures of company functions, your awesome marketing department, or products and events you like to be associated with. Show your followers your company’s core values through creative pinboards. Want to know a little more about PromoJam and see a great example of fun pinboards? Check ours out!

Facebook Timeline for Pages: Your HOW-TO guide

Following our previous post on Facebook’s new rollout of the Timeline format for Pages, PromoJam delved deeper and did some research and legwork on how to best take advantage of the new Timeline features. Check out our new Facebook page - not a bad start at all we reckon!

The new Timeline format definitely shifts your thinking about how your brand presents itself and communicates with consumers on Facebook. It requires a more concerted effort on the part of the brand manager to reflect, organize and consolidate all of your brand assets - from your company history or legacy to the content that you push on your Facebook page - it is now important to weave a single consistent narrative for your brand. It’s a huge leap forward but with a little help from this handy little guide from PromoJam - you’ll be set for life!

Facebook Timeline for pages comes chockfull of new tools and features to help you create, enhance, and polish your brand’s social media footprint. Here are a few basics!

1. THE COVER PHOTO

Capture the essence of your brand! Picking the right image will help set the tone for the entire timeline.

Check out Coldplay’s cool cover photo that reflects the aesthetic sensibility of their new album!

Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG signature yellow stripes make for a great graphic treat that effectively takes the eye through the entire timeline page:

NOTE: While you can’t feature deals or calls to action on your cover photo, this nifty little header section establishes in one big visual space, your brand’s identity and personality. It’s also a great way to feature your consumers; to involve them in the brand conversation and to spur on engagement with the page! Check out Coca Cola’s Facebook Page which features photos and art created by fans of the iconic brand!

Need some inspiration? Don’t forget to check out our previous post that highlights some cool tools you can use to create vibrant and engaging cover photos!

2. VIEWS AND APPS

The second thing that users will notice on your brand new Facebook Page are the applications located right below your cover photo. These are highly customizable, allowing you to organize and create cohesive brand images and calls to actions such as likes, videos, events, etc. Apart from the default position of the photos tab, you have three other spots which you can categorize and list - so think about what you want users to do on this page - do you want to build your email subscriber list? Or maybe you want to emphasize a list of upcoming events? This is the place where you can really dictate and control what users see and on your Facebook Page. 

Check out Burberry’s amazing Facebook Page where they foregrounded videos by their head designer, Christopher Bailey, engaging and speaking directly to fans. Personal touches such as these create strong human connections and therefore, increases brand loyalty!

3. MILESTONES AND “PIN-ITS”

Curate and design the layout of your brand’s timeline narrative using the milestones, highlight and ‘pin-it’ features! The visual nature of the new layout allows you create a rich and interactive Facebook page that is carefully crafted and deliberately displayed. As an admin, you get to control how much fans can post and in what capacity. Create significant brand and company milestones so that fans can get firsthand introduction to your illustrious history. With larger real estate on the time, milestones are a great way to communicate the human side of your brand. 

As if that weren’t enough, you can highlight and ‘pin’ certain posts to ensure that they get more visibility. Pin important posts to the top of your timeline, which makes sure that important messaging doesn’t get drowned out in all the content that you’ll be pushing out on your Facebook page. Pinned posts stay at the top of the page for a week and are automatically removed from that premium position thereafter or if you pin another post. 

Pinned posts like the one above on Red Bull’s Facebook Page will be denoted with a little orange bookmark.

4. YOUR FRIENDS

A powerful element of social media and social media marketing lies in personal attachment and word of mouth. Facebook Timeline for Pages does a great job of making you feel truly involved with the brand. The top of the timeline instantly lets you in on the number of friends in your network that like the same brand as you and any posts about the brand that they may be published! 

Just check out Manchester United’s Facebook Fan Page - the right of the timeline, it lists the friends I have that like the famous soccer team and tagged posts by my friends about them:

Facebook Timeline for Pages can be a powerful social media marketing tool when used properly. It is a dynamic storytelling tool that visually chronicles a company’s evolution and effectively showcases your fan engagement in real-time. It is a perfect opportunity for brands with a long standing history and legacy to visualize its narrative and the perfect platform to educate new consumers and fans in a fun, engaging way. Just a take a look at Coca Cola’s or Manchester United’s extensive timeline which lists all the major milestones and history of the brand from its founding days!

While this is meant to be a simple crash course on Timeline for Page’s features, creating a successful page isn’t always easy. If you have a nebulous brand identity or if your company is still in its infancy stage, start forming that strong cohesive brand identity now! Take the time to really look at your company as a whole and start by filtering out the noise and honing in on the key milestones, events and happenings that make your company stand out and pop! If you have any associated media with it such as photos or videos, even better!!! Cos really, what counts and what works with the new Facebook layout are strong, bold visuals that really capture your attention!

LEXUS Facebook Page

Just take this blog post for example - you REALLY wouldn’t have gotten this far if not for all the amazing visuals and fun links that I included! (lol) 

At the end of the day, think of this new Facebook shift as a much needed spring-cleaning opportunity for all you Facebook hoarders. PromoJam has already started cleaning out the closet - have you?

Have you seen any other cool Facebook Brand/Fan Pages? Let us know or post up a picture - we’d love to hear from you!