Horror Movie Goodness

As you know, we’re no strangers to working on social media campaigns for movies. One of the most recent projects we’ve been working on is a new movie, The Theatre Bizarre. It’s an indie horror movie that the Chefe has dubbed “gore-porn” and that’s a pretty accurate description. We started their social media campaign pretty much from scratch, and really relied on Twitter to promote new stills and clips from the movies.

The Chefe used Follower Wonk to find influential people in the horror movie industry, and developed lists for outreach. We contacted them and worked in conjunction with their Twitter accounts to help spread the word around about TTB. In the weeks to come, we’ll be talking about Follower Wonk and it’s usefulness in other types of campaigns, not just movies.

More Movies, Plus Games

Another project we’ve been working on is a series of three sites, two based around movies and one on video games. When the Movie Gallery franchise went out of business, it sold its assets, including its web presence. The sites for Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery and Game Crazy were all bought buy the same company and it was our job to figure out how to turn a profit on them as well as market them.

The Chefe had the brilliant idea to turn them into collating sites. The Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery sites automatically post content the most popular posts from several major movie news sites, and the Game Crazy site does the same thing for video games. We also supplement the sites with unique, humorous content written by yours truly.

We’ve created Facebook, Twitter and Google+ business pages to reach out to new fans as well as connect with old fans of the sites. While the direction of the sites is entirely new, it still offers plenty of content that should appeal to older fans. We post unique content to each fan page as well as repost more popular posts from the sites.

More Posts Coming

With the increase of new and unique projects we’ve been doing, we have plenty of new content for Social Media Guerilla. So while we’ve been off the radar for a little while, we’ll be posting more frequently again so we can share our experiences with you. Sorry, we’ve not been around much, but as you’ll see, the wait has been worth it.

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We all enjoy Facebook’s constant tinkering, right? Yeah, not really. They change so many things SO often it’s really hard to keep up.

I’m not at all coming up with an excuse for not posting a new Facebook tutorial since the one about setting up FBML fan pages. There are plenty of talented folks that built a profitable reputation around keeping track of those FB changes.

Improving User Engagement on Page

Well, a not-so-recent change is Photo tagging for Fan Pages, which allows users to tag themselves or their friends on pictures uploaded by fan pages. Such feature was heavily requested by marketers that wanted to share photos of business events, meetings, testimonials, etc., but were unable to tag the people on the images. Well, not 100% unable. If the admin uploading the pictures was friends with the people on the photo, you were able to tag them, which is clearly not a simple thing to achieve.

Here’s what the feature looks like on your Admin page:

The checkbox we highlighted is unchecked by default (thanks, FB!), so you need to go into your Admin area to enable it. Immediately, your fans are able to start tagging themselves.

As it is the case when a user tags a photo, the person tagged gets a notification, and their friends see it as well. With the super annoying useful ticker on the upper right, this repercussion is even bigger. You can see how this can have exponential growth fairly quickly.

Increasing Page Reach With Photo Tagging Contests

We recently ran a Facebook Halloween contest for the film Hesher. See the promo image we made for it:

In the past, we had 2 options when running such contests:

• Upload the images ourselves – all of fans see the update, but the person portrayed in it may or may not the picture’s been uploaded. Much less their friends
• Allow the users to upload images themselves – that makes sure all of THEIR friends see the photos, but 95% or more of the fan page is never aware of it

With page users being able to tag themselves, admins can upload the pics, publishing the info on their users’ newsfeeds, and users can still tag themselves, reaching their friends’ newsfeeds as well. Here’s what such feature looks like in action:

Want More Real-life Application For Photo Tagging?

How about $100,000 worth of it?

There’s a photography couple that built a 6 figure business using Facebook’s photo tagging capability. Yeap. They went from hobby photographers to popular Wedding Photographers in less than a year!

Can you think of a better application than that? Seriously, if you do, let us know your thoughts on the comments below.

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The Ultimate Local Promotion – Online!

Our goal for Quiznos is to increase local awareness through online resources. We always try to keep our costs down by using smart advertising, and even with our fees, it’s been a relatively inexpensive campaign for Quiznos.

Aside from the usual custom landing page on Facebook and a Twitter account, we also focused heavily on using Google Maps, Foursquare and Facebook Places.

Google Maps + Offer + Boost Ads

We started by getting Quiznos to actually appear on Google Maps. Google Boost was pretty helpful, offering a set it and forget it approach to ad generation and integration. You can also place a coupon in your Maps listing, which gives added incentive for people to choose your business. And as the business “owner”, we ensured that all the images were high quality.

Foursquare Venue Coupons

With Foursquare, we took full advantage of their coupon offer as well. They have a GREAT selection of potential offers dependent on various criteria you select based on the number of people checked in and their status.We also did a similar tactic for Facebook Places. Not everyone uses Foursquare.

A Great Social Media Campaign

With Quiznos, we had a lot of savings offered. Coupons were available from Google Maps, Liking them on Facebook, or signing in on Foursquare or Places. We have effectively used QR codes in the campaign as well. There are signs throughout the store with a QR code that links to the Fb page.

The social media campaign items are ranking well on Google as well, so there’s no reason any should miss any of the deals.

We’re pretty excited with the results, and the owner has seen a marked improvement in sales, so he’s pretty happy as well. And with the low price of the campaign, we were able to offer an affordable solution that worked. While this wouldn’t work for every business, it’s well suited to representing the local branch of a national chain, and it’s low maintenance while bringing in a sustained revenue stream. It’s win-win for everybody!

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The Stupid

Chrysler’s snafu was perpetrated by someone with access to the Chrysler Twitter feed. They apparently thought they were using their own account, but inadvertently used the Chrysler one when they complained about traffic in Detroit and dropped the f-bomb. Oops.

Aflac’s issue comes courtesy of Gilbert Gottfried, who somehow thought it would be a good idea to crack jokes about Japan’s recent crisis on his personal twitter account. (Really, Gilbert? Wow.) While the actor eventually took the offending comments off of his page, the damage was done and Aflac unceremoniously canned his ass.

Welcome to the Fishbowl

My grandmother used to say “Fools names and fools faces are often seen in public places.” How right you were, Gram. People forget that the internet isn’t a private place. Period. We’ve talked about privacy on Facebook before. It doesn’t exist there or on Twitter, Myspace or anywhere else online. In a world where everything is a quick Google search away, you need to consider the repercussions of everything you do online.

These are two different examples of social media snafus. With Chrysler, the employee was careless, and in the case of Aflac, their spokesman was an idiot. Yes, it was his personal profile, but that doesn’t matter. When you are a public figure, that’s the price you pay. So how can YOU avoid making a similar mistake?

Separate Accounts? Just Fooling Yourself

I’ve heard of people using separate Facebook accounts, or using FB for work and public and MySpace for personal, but that is still a great way to tempt fate. The Chrysler employee thought he was using one account when in reality it was the other. That could just as easily happen to you. You think your updating your personal profile and the next thing you know, clients and the public are asking you about your date Friday night. Not a good solution.

I don’t have easy access to any of my clients accounts on my phone specifically to avoid this situation. When I mobile social update, I never have to worry, because I know it’s my account, period. I’ve purposely made it so I have no access to client accounts on my phone because this very situation was immediately apparent and avoidable. The guy at Chrysler was an idiot for having such a huge client even near his personal account. Access it from a real computer. It can wait to be updated while you drive to and fro.

Another Simple Solution

If you won't say it here, then don't say it!

Ultimately though, my solution for this is the same as for Facebook privacy concerns. Stop putting things online that will embarrass you! If you wouldn’t say it out loud in front of your church, don’t put it online. That’s why we have phones and email, for sending more personal stuff. And if it’s real personal, tell them in person. I know my clients are going to be friends on Facebook, and that some of them will follow my twitter. I wouldn’t drop the f word in front of them, so I won’t online either. It’s not real hard.

Just THINK before you SPEAK.

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A lot of people have multiple concerns about privacy on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, calling for more stringent protection. They are consumed with the thought that people might be able to see them. While Facebook has several different levels of privacy settings, they’re not good enough for a lot of people.

Online Privacy: An Oxymoron

I don’t get it. You’re online. It’s the internet. Were these people raised with no common sense? How can you expect privacy when you have no direct control over the medium? Much like celebrity sex tapes, once you put it down in a format that can be distributed easily, there is no realistic guarantee of privacy. It’s a shame, maybe, but it’s the truth.

So I propose a very simple solution. Don’t put anything private online. If you don’t want anyone else to know, then don’t say it or show it, especially not on service that is designed to share info, like Facebook.

My Facebook account is wide open to everyone. Anyone reading this can go to Facebook right now and see everything on my wall and all of my photo’s. Why? Because there is no info on there that I wouldn’t tell you anyway. So I don’t really care who see’s it, and anything I don’t want available to everyone, I share either in emails or in person. And I certainly wouldn’t put anything that might be embarrassing to me on there.

Of course, that’s just me. But I encourage you all to do the same. My grandmother, God rest her soul, always said “Fools names and fools faces are often seen in public places.” And my grandma didn’t raise no fools.

Social Media Guerilla brings tips and tricks for effective social media marketing, as well as social commentary to anyone who is interested, or will at least listen. We are waging a war on traditional marketing techniques. We are the underground. We are the future. Enlist now.

For privacy in a more personal setting, you should hold your next big event at The Grande Ritz Palm, the top Outer Banks wedding venue.  The Palm is large enough for an extended family reunion and secure enough to let you feel safe.  With just a short walk to the Albermarle Sound, the Grande Ritz Palm is the perfect event site for you.

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So this morning I put it on, and it looked really good on me, so I took a picture of myself wearing it. Naturally, I uploaded it to my personal Facebook.

From here, I wanted to show all the people involved how well it fit. We all know that tagging the photo itself puts the picture on the persons wall, but you can’t photo tag with a fan page and I wanted the clients fans to see the pic as well.

So I put a message with the photo and I used the @ to tag people. When you type @, followed by whoever you’re trying to tag, Facebook will pop up a little selection of your friends and pages you like. Just pick who you’re looking for, and you’re good to go. But to tag someone, you have to be friends with them, or Like them.

Clearly, this is incredibly useful. If you have a company that sells kitchen furnishings, why not talk about Vetrazzo counter tops and tag Vetrazzo in your update? Then your post will appear on both your site and the Vetrazzo site. And, generally, there are more followers on their page who will hopefully follow back to your page and become fans.

I would warn you though, don’t abuse it. It has been my experience that other pages will take offense if you start blowing them up with your posts.

So thats this weeks update. The Guerrilla Chefe is beckoning, so I best be wrapping this post up. And of course, don’t forget to search the rest of the site for more social media guerrilla warfare tactics.  See you next week, Guerilleros!

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I like to check out the blogs and sites I follow, as well as Facebook. You know, like Copyblogger, Mashable, and Techcrunch. They’re all kind of industry related. However, sparked by a Monster-fueled Halothon, I decided to pop in on the Xbox community over on Facebook.

I had never been to their FB page, and it was nice. They have 3  custom FBML pages. One for everyone, one for the hardcore gamers (like me!), and one for the new Kinect. Of course, even though it has a separate tab, the “All” page had the Kinect, as well. And that was also the landing page.

Just recently, I had to ask the Guerilla Chefe how to set my custom FBML page as the landing page for everyone. It’s so simple, I felt dumb for not knowing. So just to keep you from feeling dumb, here it is really quick.

Go to a page you admin. On a page you admin, click “Edit Page”

See? I even highlited what to click.

Click “Edit” under “Wall Settings”

Select which landing page you want from the drop-down.

That’s it in it’s entirety. I told you it was pretty easy, and for some reason I even included pictures. So hopefully you guys learned something, and now, I have a few more Covenant to kill before bed.

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First, your quickest fans are your blog readers. Make sure that it is EXTREMELY easy for your blog followers to follow you on Facebook as well. Put a big Facebook button on your page and tell people to use it. It can help you establish an early fan base.

Make sure you interact with your fans on Facebook. And people love to be heard, so ask questions asking about their thoughts and ideas. Ask them for advice. Just get them engaged. And when people comment, make sure you reply to it. Don’t just ask a question and wonder off; let your fans know you actually care about their answer.

You can also use a FB similar to a blog for short snippets of info, links to other blogs, or to share pictures and videos of things applicable to your page. You want them to be interested and entertained by your page. Then they tell their friends and the word spreads.

Once you have some interesting posts up, start inviting people over. My favorite way to do this is to become a fan of a page related to my business, then use the @ sign to put my post on their page. TO do this, simply type @ in the text box then the first few letters of the name of the page you want your post on, and a list of friends will pop up that match what you’re typing. It will put a hyperlink in, as well as reposting the post.

Now people on the other page will hopefully see your post and follow it back to your site, and be so enthralled with you’re content, they will become fans.

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A Fan page is the most flexible application for business on Facebook, it allows you to integrate it to your wordpress blog, to twitter, and even to Youtube.

But showing visitors your “wall” may not be the best practice for business, since you have to change that message constantly. Today, I’ll show you how to create a unique landing page for Facebook using FBML.

1. On Facebook, search for Static FBML

You’ll find the application page. Look over on the LEFT UPPER corner, right below the logo.

2. Click on “Add To My Page”

Add To My Page On Static FBML

3. Pick A Page

Pick A Page To Show Static FBML

That’s it – you’ve installed the application on your Fan Page. Now, let’s get it to work!

Make sure you’re logged in as the page admin. Visit your page and then click on Edit Page.

4. Find the Static FBML App

FBML application for facebok fan pages

5. Edit The Page

Warning – you’ll need some HTML knowledge to edit the page. Leave me a comment if you need some help with that.

Click on edit and you’ll see this:

FBML page Set Up

6. Add The FBML Page To Your Fan Page Tabs

Back on the “Edit Page” screen, find the FBML application and click on “Permissions”. The screen below will appear:

Add the FBML as a TAB

Make sure that both box and tab say ADDED, which means that there’s a navigation tab just for the new page you created within your regular Facebook Fan Page.

That’s it! Feel free to leave me any questions or suggestions on the comments.

Your guerilla is my guerilla!

P.S – Tomorrow I’ll show you how to make sure your visitors land on the new page you’ve created instead of the regular wall! Stay tuned.

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