Archive

New Media Strategies and Meredith 360 Win Social Media Initiative Award

Proving that social media is more than skin deep, this award recognizes the success of skin care line, Eucerin's, national Skin First campaign which educates women about how proper skin care related to overall heath. The award is the industry's leading honor, celebrating the creative relationships between media companies, marketers and advertising agencies.

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A Bridesmaid’s Guide to Social Media

Always the bridesmaid? If you're trapped between fittings, party planning and bridal bazaars, checking out these tips for using the power of social media to bring your bridezilla back down to wedded bliss.

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Turntable.fm: A Socially Savvy Music Experience

All the music headlines today seem to be about Spotify landing in the United States, Google Music finally launching, and Grooveshark defeating UMG, but there’s one new and unique service that you may not have tried yet.

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How To Trick Your Friends Into Thinking You Are A Professional Photographer

I come from a family of professional photographers. My grandfather had his own photography business in the 1970s, and soon enough my mom was helping out at weddings and other events. My dad and sister are also avid photographers – my sister used to be the assistant photographer to the Supreme Court. Suffice to say, I have been surrounded by intimidating Nikons and Canons for as long as I can remember. Do I know how to shoot a striking photo? Not so much.

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Measuring Facebook Engagement Across Competitive Pages

Comparing your brand’s Facebook page to the pages of competitors is a challenge, as you are not privy to several key data points that ultimately have significant influence on the level of success. If you’re analyzing your own page, the metrics to look at in general are monthly active users, post views (impressions) and engagement rate. These metrics provide a clear view of how many people are actively taking in your content and interacting with your brand. Since these metrics are inaccessible on competitors' pages — and the number of lifetime likes is not an effective measure of consumer engagement —how can one compare their page to the competition?

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Grantland and the Resurgence of Long-form Content

In late 2010, rumors started to emerge that popular ESPN.com sports columnist Bill Simmons was planning a “top secret editorial project.” The initiative, shrouded in secrecy, was limited to rumors for several months, until talented writers suddenly started disappearing from popular blogs and websites.  Star writers at Vulture, Deadspin, and This Recording wrote goodbyes to their established readerships, claiming they were leaving to work for The Sports Guy. The sports and pop culture-focused site, to be named Grantland (after legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice), would be backed by ESPN, and attracted top sponsors in Subway, Lexus and Klondike. The site’s central concept would be to produce intelligent, entertaining takes on sports and pop-culture. It would do so by publishing almost exclusively long-form content, come to be known as “longreads.”

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Eye on Innovation: A Mid-Year Update

The NMS team has been on tour the past several weeks, visiting clients to brief them on spanking new social media developments – from the smallest emerging platforms to the elephants throwing their weight around. And while everyone is curious about what’s up with Google+, a multitude of movers and shakers warrant an update to our social media watch list.  

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Are Fans Open to Surprise and Delight?

NMS recently hosted a seminar for 19 precocious George Washington University interns spending the summer studying communications in DC. It was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate social media’s power to surprise and delight customers while solidifying brand loyalty. Turns out those of us who live and breathe marketing strategy were the ones who left a bit surprised. We began with a case study: Last fall, KLM Airlines rewarded its customers by delivering “small doses of happiness” in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Over three weeks, KLM surprised 28 passengers with gifts based on preferences indicated in their social graphs, generating more than 1 million impressions in 88 countries on Twitter alone. The premise:  “Creating a real smile on somebody’s face is much cooler than attaching a smiley face.”

 

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