‘Bully’ is a documentary film that lays bare the experiences of young people, and their families, who are bullied on a daily basis. It also tells of two bullying victims that took their own lives. Yes, this is actually happening.

The content of this film meant it was hit with an R rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Reality ain’t so pretty; turns out teenagers use coarse language. Which, of course, meant it was inaccessible to its target audience. How to pull ‘Bully’ out from under the censorship rug and put it in front of the right sets of eyes? I think you know where this is going…

A multi-platform social media campaign ensued, with Twitter being the main stage. On March 27 2012, ‘Anti-Bullying Twitter Tuesday’ was born, generating a phenomenal amount of activity, causing a tidal wave of awareness with a simple tweet; ’13 million kids get bullied every year. Today take a stand with me and @BullyMovie http://bit.ly/wkgZxG #BullyMovie.’ Bang. One million tweets in 24 hours. Now that’s a movement.

The direct intention of the Twitter campaign was not to change the MPAA rating, it was to raise awareness. But awareness breeds action. A petition was led on Change.org, by 17 year old Katy Butler, who called for the ‘Bully’ rating to be lowered to PG-13. Katy’s petition has been supported by more that 500,000 people, including 35 members of Congress and numerous celebrities. As a result, a compromise was reached where the filmmakers removed a couple of expletives and the PG-13 rating was granted by the MPAA, making this important film viewable to those who need to see it most.

Meaningful, authentic content is so important in social media promotion. The ‘Bully’ campaign, which isn’t complex, is a stand-out example of how powerful social media can be. Whether you’re aiming for a cheeky smile or action for a significant cause, make it real and make it human. There are real people waiting at the other end of that post/tweet/blog.

‘Bully’ is released in Australia on 23^rd August 2012. Rated M (accessible to younger viewers).

View the trailer here:

http://thebullyproject.com/

Melbourne charity screening of ‘Bully’ – fundraising for Headspace, 21st August 2012.

If you’re a young person having a tough time with bullying visit the Headspace information page.

Since the launch, Facebook Ads have been such a powerful tool for online markets. This method of advertising allows marketers to easily produce and release an ad to millions of potential clients. In 2010, Facebook obtained 1.86 billion dollars in ad revenue and in 2012 it is predicted to see Facebook obtain 5.06 billion.

One of the reasons for their success is the ability to advertise to a specific audience. Facebook Ads are highly targeted; reach your desired audience by age group, interests and location. Having said this, one of the barriers for many to succeed with Facebook Ads is the complexity of this tool. It is easy to create an ad, but the sheer number of options creates a lot for the average business to learn, before they can maximize the power of Facebook Ads.

This complexity allows a lot of room for errors and wasted money spent on targeting an audience which may or may not be the right one. 44% of companies and marketers are spending their budget on initialising their ads to increase their audience, however how many of them are getting the result that they are after.

When creating a Facebook ad, there are some key points that really need to be addressed. The following tips are some basic points to look for when creating ad:

• Understand the target audience. Buyers surveyed from Social Fresh 2012 Facebook Ad Survey are not putting high importance on gender. Justin Kistner, Director of Social Products at Webtrends believes that there is a big difference in performance based on gender, so implementing this segment within a Facebook ad can really affect the success of a company’s Facebook ad.

• Aim the ad at existing fans. Connections should be the number one criteria used by advertisers. Nothing increases your click-through rate more than targeting your own fans, which is what connection targeting allows you to do. It states in the Social Fresh 2012 Facebook Ad Survey report that targeting fans has an average of a 7x higher click-through rate and a higher conversion rate. The difference can be as much as multiple dollars per click.

• Nail the content. There is a lot of guesswork about which types of Facebook ad images, headlines and copies work. It does come down to what works with different target audiences, however, there is some evidence that creating a variety of ads and testing them against one another, helps. 34% of Facebook advertisers are not split testing at all. This means that over a third of marketers that use Facebook ads put up one ad and do not test it against other images, headlines, ad copies, landing pages, or targeting options. It is effective to create a number of ads and find which works best. This allows you to obtain valuable data which showcases which content works well, to whom and at what time.

The success of a company’s product or page can really depend on the effort that is put in at the start. The time spent now can pay dividends towards the business’ future and success of its presence in social.

Putting your company’s foot in the social door is one thing, but to ensure that Facebook users open it, is another. It will always depend on your target audience and what you are advertising; the above tips and hints will hopefully steer you towards success. Tune in next week where more tips and stats will be posted on Facebook ads. The success of your social media presence depends on it.

This report was produced using content from the Social Fresh 2012 Facebook Ad Survey.

Well…it was actually this video by Simon Grant:

I managed to track him down to ask him a few burning questions…

1) How did you find out about the opportunity for this position?

The Dragons were advertising for the role through their member eDMs as well as a few of their other digital channels.

In my case, a friend forwarded me the email that was sent out to members and I applied from seeing that.

2) Did you find the process easy to follow?

The process was easy to follow. From reading the email the first time though, I knew I wanted to create something different that didn’t focus on ‘me’ and my ‘personality’ but more so, letting the video and the content/idea speak for itself. The brand I was creating the video for was strong enough in my opinion, all I had to do was create something that would compliment what already existed.

3) What inspired you to run with the video you submitted?

The idea. Again, I didn’t want the clip to be about me and what my personality could bring to the role, but more so how I could take the brand and create something that people that love the team could appreciate and want to share with their networks. The other indicator was that after the video was finished, the clip already looked like it could have been released by the Dragons as a TVC or web/social media content.

4) What advice can you give to other people gunning for a job in the digital space?

Believe in the brand your working for. The work you do with that brand will then translate through the work you do. I think that this is the most important thing in digital, especially social media – the conversation needs to feel and be real.

Thanks a million for this Simon!

So, what are your thoughts from this recruitment drive? Have you seen any other innovative and successful case studies?

It’s now essential that recruiters have a solid and thorough social media strategy to ensure the time spent within social platforms are going to meet key recruitment objectives and goals.

When we are looking for who we need in a job role, factors like education, skill set and experience are qualities that are essential and a CV gives us this. However a CV can’t show us personality, attitude, connections and values. From utilising social media, an organisation can gain an insight into a person and the person can gain an insight into the organisation. It enables us to understand the person further and their potential fit into our workplace culture.

The standard job ad in the paper a few years ago was a reasonable option however in todays fast paced and online-centric environment it simply doesn’t cut it when you’re after innovative and talented individuals. What you’ll also find out is that these days, job seekers can be particularly picky and are keen to see more than just the PD. They’ll look for more, like eg. pictures inside the company, informative/exciting videos and a possible blog. Organisations going through recruitment processes need to widen their channels and be prepared to offer innovative/engaging ways to connect with their market.

The Illawarra Dragons have successfully recruited their Digital Communications Co-ordinator and from what I hear, they are over the moon with the ease and effectiveness of their recruitment drive compared to past years.

The Dragons were looking for their “Digital Dragon” and “Big Del” was the lead in gaining traction for this position. They also used a combination of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote the position.

This is what was promoted on their website:

Fish where the fish are! By integrating different channels and not going down traditional routes, the Dragons’ strategy ensured that they are appealing to the best in the business.

Here were a few of the candidates who applied for the position!

1)

2)

3)

We will certainly being seeing many more organisations use this type of recruitment.

Can you guess who got the job?

The purpose of this campaign is to assist government’s NATAL trauma centre for emergency blood. They communicate quickly with members of the Facebook group to see if its members can donate blood. The groups were split into blood types – AB, O, etc. The campaign attracted huge media exposure, had zero budget and saved lives. This is a brilliant example of how social media can be put to good use and for a worthy cause.

I blogged about KLM earlier this year (in a different context to this), however they are another brilliant example of a company engaging in a random act of kindness to yield a result from its target audience, and with minimal budget.

So you’re thoughts…? Can you see the Red Cross doing something like this? Would you join a group of this kind?

Via Digital Buzz Blog

Today, Facebook launched a new page functionality that enables brand pages to interact with other brand pages. This awesome new feature is handy for those of us with strong relationships with other brands and has massive community building and brand enhancing potential!

We’ve had a good poke around and thought we would share this with you.

So far you’ve been able to talk to and share with the community of fans you’ve brought to your page. This is great for getting to know your fans and who your brand ambassadors are.

But this new functionality is all about interacting with other areas of Facebook as a page and ultimately, getting your page in front of new people. This seems to promise a cross-pollination of communities – like your friends can hang with my friends, online (so long as you’re not spammy or annoying!).

Say a page that is built around a cheese rolling organisation in the UK interacts with the page of a cheese brand or a traveller community page. They now have the ability to do this for example, by posting a funny video of a bunch of people chasing a cheese wheel down a hill for all to enjoy. Get it?

The good thing is, in keeping with the trust people have in Facebook, personal profiles are a no-go zone for brand pages. So as a page, you cannot go and post (or spam for that matter!) on someone’s personal profile.

Other handy innovations include navigation links being repositioned so they’re in the same place as they are on personal profiles, making them easier to find, filtered wall posts so the most popular one’s appear first and that eye catching photo strip which doubles as a great space for displaying your brand pics.

The downside is that any tabs you have built in with applications are now displayed down the left hand side underneath your profile image and until people get used to finding them in that location, they are not grabbing attention…

Love it or hate it, tough biscuits, as it’s soon to be the default format come 1 March. Let us know your thoughts: are we in for an exciting new development for brand pages, or are we merely at the mercy of Facebook’s latest home renovations?

I chose to turn the TV off. As someone who has experienced the devastation of floods I didn’t want to see the impact. Those visuals were just too much.

So I turned on the Twitter stream to #qldfloods and got to work.

By 10 am I had stocked up on groceries, picked up my daughter from soon to be cut off school and told my husband he needed to get out of the CBD. All because of Twitter.

First and foremost the QLD Police and Government Departments, Community Agencies, News Papers and Radio Stations have done a wonderful job of keeping people up to date through Social Media. The streams of information via Twitter, Facebook and Ustream has been amazing. Special accounts have been set up and people are manning these accounts 24/7 to keep people up to date. For some organisations it is probably the first time they have used social media on a regular basis.

The same cannot be said for some Business Owners in the Social Media Space. Some are doing a great job, answering questions, sending people to the relevant agencies and offering help to others. But others are using the opportunity to gain more followers. And let’s not forget about all the automated emails telling me about summer fashion. Seriously, the fashion in Brisbane is currently daggy old clothes and gum boots.

This natural disaster has got me thinking about whether the tried and true social media strategies work in all situations. Here are my thoughts:

1.    Spoke and Hub Model

The Hub and Spoke model is where you put the most important information on your website, and use your social media channels to send people to your site. The last two days are showing us that that model is not the greatest in natural disasters. Websites have crashed. Geolocation tagging has meant overseas friends and family can’t find out important information.

The better options have been Twitter and Facebook. These platforms are stable and easy for information to be passed quickly.

2.    Connect first, sell later.

Well this strategy hasn’t changed. In fact connection is more important. This is the time to be thinking of others, not the amount of followers you can get on a Facebook Fan Page. Some businesses have tried to set up special funds for donations and that has back-fired as well. People are beginning to mistrust the reason behind the action.

The better option for everyone is to keep referring to the Government and Community Agencies. Keep the flow back to the original author and reliable source.

3.    Community Action

The beauty of Social Media is that it is driven by community. If you make a mistake or do something in really bad taste, the community will let you know. And again this has been amplified during the flooding.

I must commend Queensland Police Services and their QPMedia Unit Twitter Account. They using the #mythbuster hastag to dispel rumours and misinformation about road closures, evacuations and water supply. They obviously have people watching the #qldflood stream and making sure all facts are correct, without the blame. But let’s also remember the wonderful support of each other either with kind words or action. Through Twitter and Facebook people have connected and helped each other get out of trouble by offering their time, utes and spare beds.

The question I have, and am hoping the good team at thinktankmedia can answer for me, is Should Business be as usual for those both in Queensland and Australia? Some people are commenting that they are disappointed at the amount of tweets not about the Flood. Should I be upset to get my regular sales newsletters from stores? If we are currently working during this time should we go ‘dark’ or keep talking about our business and work as well as the flood?

In the end I think all us, including government agencies, businesses and community services need to do online just what we are doing offline. Help each other stay safe, keeping people informed and lending a hand where possible.

Ainslie Hunter @ainsliehunter

He certainly wouldn’t have expected such a unanimous response from consumers.

@GerryHarvey #wtf? Indeed.

With their facebook and twitter sites set up and humming along, did they honestly not think that this would be the first place people would head to vent their frustration and anger?

Where was their social media crisis management plan? When are they going to execute this?

There may be internal conflict and I trust Gary Wheelhouse, Harvey Norman’s Head of Social Media & Sam Fletcher are stressing the fact that fans and commenters on their facebook page need to be acknowledged, not just swept under the carpet and forgotten about.

From The Age Jan 7th 2011 “Gerry Harvey has declared he will step back from the big retailers’ campaign to have the GST imposed on overseas online purchases, saying he is hurt by an avalanche of criticism directed at him and feels that getting involved was ”suicidal’‘. A media release like this has some impact but it seems crazy to me that Gerry and his social media team didn’t utilise Youtube in a timely manner and addressing it head on!

In an age where consumers can have significant influence in the marketplace every brand needs to have a social media crisis management plan in place. Rehearse and update it regularly. We saw many near misses for brands in 2010 (and some casualties) but it seems social media crisis management is still not being taken seriously, or executed well in some cases.

I’m guessing Harvey Norman have a social plan and policy in place however I’m confused why they have suddenly stopped using their official facebook page, when it’s one of the stronger platforms to communicate through. There are always ways to clean up the spilt milk and social channels can be some of the most effective.

Here’s my advice Gerry:

• Use Youtube to explain why you said what you said Gerry, tell us what was going on! You know what was going on, so don’t think we are fools to think differently, be honest! Look directly into the camera and tell us! You could even use Ustream/livestream for a quicker and direct comms channel.
• Using a tactic like this can certainly start to clean up that spilt milk.. you look human! We all say things we don’t mean at times and they may be communicated in a different way than was intended. Now’s your chance to explain it, straight from the horses mouth Gerry. This way, at least you’ve made an effort and acknowledged a bigger percentage of people in a quicker, truer and direct manner.
• Address the issue right away. Head on and be authentic .DON’T leave it a few days or more…
• Use the same outlet where the people are. Acknowledge your facebook and twitter community. It may not be answering every comment -( even though that would show the “care factor”) yet use this powerful channel to explain what is happening now, whilst acknowledging comments along the way. Media releases only cover off a percentage of readers.Use the social network to address the rest, in a personable and honest fashion.

To me, if Harvey Normal rolled out these simple tactics thoroughly, I truly believe the brand has a huge opportunity to start to turn some heads and simmer the boil.

Harvey Norman, I’m guessing are now looking at this and learning, putting new procedures and plans in place that are relevant for 2011 and beyond. They can’t close their eyes to this…this is reality..everyone has a voice now.

All brands reading this. You cannot control your message, it’s controlled by the people, but the way you respond and address the issue is the difference that makes the difference.

We’ve got a few tasty ideas of how Harvey Norman can address this front on and turn it around, and I’m sure some of you reading this will have also. We’d love to hear if you have any suggestions for Harvey Norman! Hit us up below.

So many emotions peak at airports and KLM have tapped into these in an outstanding way!

The airline has gone about giving their brand the “care factor” and “an element of surprise” by showing they listen, care and provide. This lights me up like a Christmas tree ! SO many brands utilise social media but how many truly have the care factor at number 1?

Show you care, create an experience for your consumers and give back at times. These qualities should be woven into every social media strategy and execution assisting in the success of the program.

Simply put, KLM looked at who had mentioned them via twitter and foursquare. From here they researched a little into the type of person who had mentioned them – eg. what was mentioned in the tweet, what info could they find to describe the type of person – eg. sporty.

Once they found this out, it was a rush against the clock to purchase a small gift and find the person to deliver it to them.

In the process of doing this, they were creating a real smile and a stronger association with the airline in some shape or form…one that they could see. Their aim was to create a surprise and make a small difference to a passengers day. They certainly exceeded this.

The results – they created 1,000,000 impressions on twitter alone- a brand experience for those travelers and the people that viewed the campaign, like myself. Obviously this type of campaign has a high sharablity factor due to it’s human approach.

Here’s a quick video of how they did it. I’d like to see more brands take this colloquial and humanised approach in amplifying their social media execution.

How about you? Do you know of any brands…or maybe your own business using tactics like this? Hit us up in the comments section below, I’d love to hear your take on this.

Kim Duthie is either a mercenary or a modern entrepreneur depending on your perspective. She is certainly no pushover. How many of us have been wronged before and wished we could react with the full force of our anger? Raise your hand. Thought so. Kim has done it and don’t we know about it. A victory for the little guy right?

Social media and citizen journalism has forever changed the way sports clubs (and any organisation) meets their community. Your identity as a team of 20, a workforce of 200 or an army of 20,000 can now be shared with everyone you interact with.

As an individual, your partner, your family, your friends are now interwoven within your private and your public life. Indeed its very hard to separate the two for many of us in (late) 2010.

St Kilda has a Facebook community of 60,000+ fans and most of them add value to the club with their comments, photos, stories and support. It’s been a tough three years for the club after all. To have one person (or a handful) within Facebook (and beyond) doing the club harm should be no surprise and the club should be ready for such scenarios.

A social media crisis plan with support from PR and the senior team within the club should be in place for all AFL clubs. I suspect a few don’t have them or have even thought about such a plan yet.

To slap injunctions on Kim and lean on her heavily is naive. She is getting support, not for how she has pursued the club but that she has pursued the club and used all the tools at her disposal. A (new + old) media savvy team will recognise this and act accordingly. Sure Nick is a great guy and a model for all sportsmen but the look on his face in that photo suggests poor judgment can beset the best of us.

If you are a ‘public’ person you must behave as such. Everything you do outside of your own thoughts is public. That’s public life today.

The technicality of how the photos came to be in Kim’s possession will be debated but a club should not be surprised when men behave like boys and girls tag along (with cameras). To our mind it’s hardly a story. In a couple of years clubs will either be side-stepping these issue (nothing to say, seen it before) or embracing them.

Does it even matter if we know what Nick looks like naked? I feel for him and his privacy but its actually not that interesting. Seen one, seen ‘em all.

Make no mistake, sports clubs have been sweeping these issues aside in private for decades and thinking of their players first and the women involved second. Looking at the big picture we should welcome a more equitable society where everybody has a voice, we are all more connected and like it used to be, we all know more about each other and how we live.

Nick, we’re sorry for you mate – it’s a tough break but no harm done really. It’s a nice penis. Be proud. Kim, good for you. You have something to say and you’ve said it. Let us know how it’s going for you.

Let’s all not see it as a cock-up but a stiff lesson in how the world really works in this wonderful age.