Case Study: Running a branded Facebook Page on small to no budget (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of a guest blog post from Kevin Lippy who has successfully run a branded Facebook Page aimed at Backpackers travelling through Australia. He has used the great analogy of the Big Lebowski to show the lesson learnt from this.

5. “I don't roll on Shabbos!” – Walter Sobchak
Actually, with your company’s name at stake and by giving our fans free reign to post links, pictures and videos on our wall, you kind of have to roll (or at least check on it) always. Yes even Saturdays. Also, we knew that by opening ourselves up in this way, meant it was inevitable that other third parties would use the page to promote themselves. Like ‘El Duderino’ himself, we have taken the pacifist approach, and have decided to do absolutely nothing about this (so far), because:
a. While their content hasn’t been cool, so far it has been harmless
b. They have never been our direct competitors
c. It would be hypocritical - as we had seeded info on other pages
And...

6. “This is what happens….” – Walter Sobchak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCcKBcZzGdA - (censorship on purpose)

7. “Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon, with nail polish. Those…. amateurs!” – Walter Sobchak
In order to meet our objectives we had to generate interest. We went about this by opening up to other people in the industry by grouping together a prize that included 15 Nights accommodation, a 2000km bus pass, a Skydive and a Surf Camp. Being inclusive, also made our Page sexier as all of a sudden we had hip content to post like skydives, surf safaris and nightclubs. To enter we couldn’t have made it simpler. All someone had to do was:
1. Become our fan
2. Write on our wall “The best thing about backpacking Oz is…”

We promoted the Page in 3 main ways:
1. A Launch party - we co-hosted a night at a Backpacker Bar and had a door prize draw for anyone who became a fan on the night.
2. We created some signage and asked Hostel managers to promote it.
3. We created in Facebook ads. These are the shizzle! One of my core objectives is to get to my customers before they have even left their country! Please tell me another way I could do this for the price I have with Facebook ads?

8. “Where’s the F***ing money Lebowski?” – The Dude
Laugh if you will… but I believe that I have evidence that this campaign has been monetized in some ways.

Exhibit A:

This was a question, posted on a spin off ‘group’ created by one of our fans, with the purpose of asking other fans whether they were going to be staying at one of our Hostels this New Years Eve. From this I see two good news stories:
1. A random fan created a Facebook “group”, unprompted by us, positively talking about our brand.
2. By the time I had even seen this, Carolyn’s question had been answered by another fan, the situation had been resolved, and as a consequence she was able to book with us (= revenue $). This had all occurred on the Group’s wall!

My all time favourite part of Facebook pages is “Interactions.”
I find it strangely exciting to know that exactly 39% of my Fans are Females between the ages 18-24. More importantly, I can monitor the amount of page views, fans, user-generated content uploaded, fan interactions and even how many photos have been looked at.

We launched www.facebook.com/backpackingmate just over 3 weeks ago (oh yeah... make sure you get a vanity URL… you just need 100 fans). After all is said and done we are a bed… not a band, and are not something that many people already have an existing emotional connection to. I am stoked with the amount of fans we have, and even more with how they have interacted with the page. I am still deciding whether it is something that should be evaluated within the context of a brief campaign, or something that will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Case Study: Running a branded Facebook Page on small to no budget (Part 1)

This is a guest blog post from Kevin Lippy who has successfully ran a branded Facebook Page (Backpacking Mate) aimed at backpackers travelling through Australia. He has used the great analogy of The Big Lebowski to describe the lessons learnt.


“Smokey, this is not 'Nam…. There are rules” – Walter Sobchak

With a budget of "as close to zero as possible" and with the experience in running a Facebook campaign to match, it was pretty obvious that I was never going to create “The Dude” of Pages. I needed to shoot from the hip… like a ‘gun-toting Jewish-convert with post traumatic Stress Disorder’ such as Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) in ‘The Big Lebowski.’ But before I could roll… I needed to learn the rules.

1. “Donny you’re out of your element” – Walter Sobchak
I was naive, impressionable and amped to do a campaign exclusively on Twitter because I thought it would be a great way of reaching my core market, 18-34 yr old international backpackers. In my defence this was at a time where I was attending Tweet breakfasts, helping Ashton to his1,000,000 followers and refusing to speak to people unless it involved less than 140 characters! It was the future after all and pretty much a no brainer ! Then one day whilst asking myself “What are you doing now?” I had an epiphany: “@KevLippy Do some #Analysis 4 the campaign!”

Incredibly, what I found was that only 50% of my target market even knew what Twitter was at the time… and only 14% were on it, let alone the ones that were actually ‘active’ users. My own intuition told me that 99% were more likely to have a box of goon in their hand than a mobile device, which is pretty much required to handle the immediacy of Tweets. Conversely, 83% are on Facebook, and not just passively. For example 70% of backpackers use Facebook to upload their photos. I also quickly learned that Facebook ‘Pages’ were the way forward, and that Facebook groups were dead. while I created a Facebook page campaign, I did end up incorporating Twitter, primarily to facilitate messages to others in the travel industry.

2: “The Dude abides” – The Dude
In building my page I scoped out my favourite pages and tried to model my page on theirs. This proved difficult as ‘The Dude(s)’ of Pages, such as Discovery Channel and Red Bull often had purpose built apps. This was out of the question for my budget. So I specialised in finding the coolest free apps (there were plenty!). My favourite is “FBML” which is essentially a box that you can have HTML on your side-wall.

3. “I’m not Mr Lebowski. You’re Mr Lebowski. I’m The Dude” – The Dude
The average backpacker probably perceives us as just ‘a bed.’ It’s not like many people would actively look to become a fan of our brand ‘just because.’ So I decided to create the campaign based around a character called “Backpacking Mate” which;
a. Humanised us – this opened the door to us joining the conversation. It allows us to talk with (not to) our fans. We try not to push-market but are still able to get key messages across subtly.

b. Allowed us to be everywhere - We can send Backpacking Mate from Broome - Byron - Belgrade in a matter of minutes, being that he is an animated fictional character, and that his preferred mode of transport is Photoshop. This also keeps him interesting.


4. “Nobody F***s with The Jesus” – Jesus Quintana
In this regard I consider “The Jesus” to be our “Fans”. Whenever I post anything I ask myself “If I was a backpacker would I want to see this?” I try my best to only speak when I have a significant deal, discount, or a valuable piece of information that I believe will benefit them. Company agendas, inevitably get in the way… but I do try.

Part 2 will be delivered on Wednesday

How grassroots band Short Stack used online to go to No.1 on the ARIAs

This is a guest post by Emily Copeland who is the Strategic Integrations Manager for Channel V (MCN - Music) and writes the music marketing blog, OMG with Emily which also has a radio segment on FBi 94.5 - Thursdays at 8.15am.

This week will forever be remembered in musical history. After 7 weeks at number one on the ARIA album charts, we saw Michael Jackson’s reign toppled by an Australian emo band from Budgewoi called Short Stack.

Not only did Short Stack push Michael Jackson into second place, but this release was their very first album, and it debuted at #1!

So how did a group of kids from the coast overthrow the King of Pop?

Back in the 80s, before the members of Short Stack were born, bands kicked off their careers playing in pubs. But in 2005 Short Stack were still too young to tour the pub circuit, so they began placing their tracks on MySpace and entering band competitions such as Youthrock.

As their popularity on MySpace began to grow, the band extended their online presence to include Short Stack TV on YouTube, Facebook fan pages, Bebo, Absolute Punk and Twitter to name just a few.

Short Stack now have almost 60,000 friends on MySpace, and over 10,000 followers on Twitter. They have fan pages for not just the band, but for each individual band member. And back in 2008 they had so many views of their videos on YouTube that they beat Britney Spears to have the number one video of the day.

But lots of bands use social media to promote themselves… how have Short Stack managed to become one of the most popular Australian bands on MySpace, without having released an album until this week? What have they done differently to garner so much support online? How have they turned fans into fanatics?


Graph source

Short Stack used the power of community, credibility and accessibility. And they used their link to a geographic community to strengthen their online community presence.

Community - Embrace Multiple Communities, Real World and Virtual
Short Stack’s home town of Budgewoi, is on the NSW Central Coast. It’s not a large place, but there are a lot of teenagers living nearby – and not a huge amount for them to entertain themselves with. Short Stack used the power of geographic community to initially harness this local young and somewhat-isolated crowd, and make them feel a part of something bigger. They tapped them into the emerging Short Stack online community, and gave them something to get behind when there wasn’t much else for a teenage emo to do. And from it's beginnings on the Central Coast, Short Stack’s music began to spread via online communities around Australia.

Credibility, Credibility, Credibility
The typical emo fashion is to go against the grain, disobey parents, ignore mainstream media, and not get sucked in by large commercial corporations – so Short Stack’s low budget marketing and the fact that they weren’t backed by a major record label at first, made them even more attractive to their fans. The band never discouraged illegal downloading of their tracks – understanding that getting large numbers of people to hear the music was more important initially than trying to push a small number of sales. They boys seemed ‘real’ and relatable which all added to their credibility.

Accessibility - Identify, Understand and Interact with your Audience
Short Stack were lucky that with their long hair and somber emo looks, they appealed directly to teenage girls. The band put their efforts into online communities where their demographic were already spending a lot of time, and tailored their messages directly to this audience. Short Stack have also made themselves accessible – and their fans love them for it! Fans can see the effort that Short Stack go to in responding to comments online, posting regular videos, and releasing free tracks, and they are happy to reciprocate.

It was this reciprocity that saw Short Stack take out Channel [V]’s Oz Artist of the Year 2008. According to lead singer, Shaun Diviney "Our fans are very, very rabid and really into what we do. If we ask them to vote for us they'll do it furiously and really get behind us," (source). Those fans got behind them in 2008 to the tune of 400,000 votes – to see them beat Silverchair and The Presets for the award. Those aren't just fans... they're fanatics. And it is fanatics you need if you want your debut release to topple the King of Pop.