The Virtual Gift template is currently available to all Wildfire Social Marketing Suite clients. Every element of the template is customizable to reflect your brand’s personality. Administrators can choose how many gifts are available on the page, what each gift looks like, the gift headline, a descriptive gift message, and even a destination URL that gift-clickers will get taken to.
 

The default Valentine’s Day template has a classic theme with flowers in shades of red and pink. However, like the puppy example demonstrates above, the template can be skinned or redesigned in infinite ways— no matter how it’s customized to look, fans will delight in being able to send gifts to their friends’ walls, and the recipient friends will delight in receiving them. Below, you can see an adorable customization of one of our testing templates— it’s hard to resist sending one of these little guys to every one of your friends’ walls!
 

How would you use the Virtual Gift template? What sorts of virtual gifts would you like to receive and post on your Timeline? Leave us a note with your comment—we love hearing your ideas; they inspire us to create more new templates of our own!

So how can brand managers take advantage of these new capabilities? Wildfire’s Page Manager offers brands the ability to create a seamless end-to-end Facebook experience, regardless of whether users view Facebook content on their desktops or their mobile devices.

Facebook’s Mobile Platform

Prior to the December 2011 release, the only way to deliver app content to mobile users was to host it on a mobile website outside the Facebook ecosystem. By using this approach, a brand could link to an app from its fan page, and a mobile user who clicked the link was redirected to a website in his mobile browser, outside Facebook. This was less than ideal for a few reasons. First, numerous studies have shown that Facebook users are inherently distrustful of processes that route them outside of Facebook (doing so can result in high bounce rates, among other things). Second, removing users from the Facebook ecosystem prevents the app from tapping into the viral nature of Facebook’s platform, such as the ability to share app content with friends.

 
What do you think of the results? Where does your brand fall in line with these alignments?

Summing up social marketing in 2011 and making predictions for the coming year is a daunting task! 2011 saw more industry growth than any other year; we saw the widespread acceptance of social marketing for B2B companies, and we witnessed moments that are likely to echo beyond 2011: the debut of Google+, the introduction of Facebook Timelines, and an amusing concession to social media silliness by the White House, via the now infamous rickroll.

* This post was originally published in the Huffington Post.

On the local front, we asked our Account Strategists about their observations of trends over the year. Our team of strategists works every day with the biggest brands in the world, hands-on in helping to craft and maintain the strongest social marketing strategies on the web. Our marketing strategists noted a dramatic rise in clients’ needs to set specific marketing objectives for each social campaign. Objectives fell into three key areas:

1. Growth of the brand presence (fans, likes, follows, and subscriptions)
2. Engagement of the brand audience (comments, shares, and user generated content)
3. Monetization of fans (qualified leads, or sales driven from social pages)

Before 2011, social marketing efforts focused almost exclusively on growth – in a recent Wildfire survey, social media marketers noted “growth of fans or followers” as the top measurement of success, and the primary definition of positive ROI. We predict a shift from the emphasis on growth in the coming year as engagement becomes the most buzzed-about measurement of 2012. The generalized category of “social media marketing” will break apart too, with more specific business objective-based goals and models to achieve those goals.

In 2011, we saw little integration between branded social campaigns and the brand’s other marketing activities. You might have seen one editorial campaign on a brand’s website, only to see something different on Facebook, with no mention of either initiative via the brand’s email, television or radio channels. Too often consumers found themselves on a brand’s Facebook page served with a message absent elsewhere. Progressive brands will approach their marketing plans with an integrated social channel— more than just a messaging strategy, or a page content calendar, or a promotions schedule, winning brands will need figure out how all the pieces of the social puzzle fit in with a complete marketing plan.

In 2012, Wildfire predicts that the industry will follow an integrated social campaign approach, following the example of savvy social marketers like So Delicious, who linked their “Change Your Milk, Change Your Life” efforts across TV, outdoor, online and print advertising. The campaign, centered around celebrity spokesperson Jillian Michaels, reflected the brand’s message about changing ones life and reached audiences on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, the company’s website, the company’s blog, Youtube, and in print.

The effort was worth it: the results from just one of the 3-month, Wildfire-powered campaigns, were enviable, as So Delicious grew its fan base from 5,200 to over 59,000 fans – an increase of over 1,000%! The brand received 322,664 total entries, averaging 3,226 entries per day. So Delicious recorded its two highest sales days ever, while unit sales increased by 74%, and category share increased by 60%.

In 2012, integrated marketing efforts will swallow standalone social media plans, and more companies will follow the approach that one major initiative should guide the objectives and editorial plans of each marketing channel.

In 2011, users got a lot more sophisticated in how they use social networks. In fact, we saw that a user’s initial interest in a brand socially was no indication of whether they would stick around for the long haul. Top reasons cited for “unliking” a brand on Facebook included: “they post too much” (44%), “my wall was becoming too crowded with marketing posts and I needed to remove some of them” (43%), and “the content became repetitive or boring over time” (38%).In 2012, brands that want to develop long-term relationships will make sure to deliver consistent value and entertainment to their audiences. “Likes” will be granted more selectively (as users increasingly get how liking a brand reflects their personal taste, for better or worse). We will see more unique, targeted content, and more sophistication in promotions as well, as those ubiquitous iPad giveaways lose their positive brand impact. In fact, our customers’ top 250 campaigns of 2011 prove it — none of the campaigns gave away an iPad. Prize giving was more strategic and audience relevant, and prizes reinforced the brand.

In addition, more descriptive and frictionless sharing of people’s actions beyond the “Like” is already underway with Facebook’s support for social applications. In this way, endorsements made by friends will extend further and further past just the “like,” to include any variety of enticing action words like “played,” “watched,” “shopped,” and “read.”

Finally, in 2011, Facebook and Twitter gave customer service a kick in the rear. Social media is supposed to be a two way street, and consumers are treating branded pages as message boards that go straight to the board room (two such fiascos—both unscripted “celebrity versus airline” disputes involving Kevin Smith and Alec Baldwin — made big waves this year, for example). In fact, 62% of consumers used social media for customer support! While most brands have a long way to go for true interaction (approximately 95% of fan-written wall posts go unanswered), more and more users are demanding (and businesses are responding) that any brand who asks for their affinity, had better be responsive to their requests as well.

While this post doesn’t cover all of 2011’s social media industry trends and predictions (find the complete report here), keep an eye out for more targeted social marketing objectives, integrated campaigns, increased user sophistication and preferences, and the rise of social for customer service in 2012. Download the complete report, including several marketing trends not mentioned in this article, here.

What do you think of the trends and predictions we mentioned? What would you add?

Do you have a pretty nice fan base, but you’re struggling to come up with ideas to engage them on a daily basis?

One proven approach is to help your fans.

Here are 3 techniques used by some of the most successful Facebook pages. Try them on your page to see how your fans respond!

This post was originally published for the Social Media Examiner blog.

#1: Become a resource

Despite the level of connection you think you have with your fans on Facebook, many still express pleasant surprise when you respond to them personally on the social network.

Use fan names when you can, and respond one-on-one to the comments they make. This proves to fans you are listening and are receptive to their commentary and feedback, making it more likely that they will post in the future.

Moreover, invite conversation by asking your fans’ opinions on topics, or asking them to tell you what sorts of content they’d appreciate.

Everybody likes being asked, and fans feel extra-appreciated when you fulfill these desires—so don’t ask them for input you never intend to use or incorporate.

In the example below, Time Warner Cable demonstrates an inconsistent response strategy toward different users. While “Sharon” got her request attended to by the page administrator, “Regina” reports frustration that her posts are being removed instead of replied to, indicating that she had posted additional comments earlier than the final post visible in the thread.

If your brand strategy is to be a resource to all fans, it is important that you treat all fan comments in the same way by responding to all of them, no matter the sentiment.

One example of this kind of open interaction strategy working very successfully is our own continued initiative to build out a Facebook fan page community of marketers, business owners and social media managers interested in sharing knowledge about social media (as well as Wildfire!).

We have found over time that our most engaging posts, which get the most feedback from our users, are consistently the ones where we invite people to post any question they have about social media or invite them to have their pages reviewed by social media professionals.

The key is to follow up (even for just an hour) with all of the questions and actually answer them. Because the promise to answer any question is not an empty promise, the users become confident that their questions can be answered and trust the brand for it.

An excellent example of a smaller business getting engagement right with great messaging strategies comes from the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, an imported foods store in Pittsburgh.

As of this writing, the store had just under 1,100 fans. Their social media manager told me they regularly get over 1% engagement on their posts, a great figure for their size.

#2: Offer your services, free

What is your brand known for? What would you like it to be known for? If you provide a product or a particular service like consulting or advisement, consider offering your fans a taste of it every once in a while for free!

According to eMarketer, the #1 reason users become fans of a brand on Facebook is to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales. Your brand can capitalize on this desire while leveraging the brand’s capabilities by giving users an occasional exclusive pass to experience the business, free.

Here are several examples of companies doing this on Facebook, to the delight of their users:

Rue La La, an online boutique of designer merchandise and clothing, knows many of its fans are in tune with fashion trends and enjoy thinking about design, clothing and style. As such, one of their most popular fan page “events” is a weekly invitation for fans to join a stylist on the page for an hour of live interaction.

Because typically most people don’t have access to a personal stylist or advice from one, Rue La La creates an environment where fans can happily expect this recurring event.

Every week, these invitations to post are the most consistently popular updates! Even the users who don’t get their pages reviewed that week leave feedback that they enjoy watching the advice for other fan pages, and that the learning experience is valuable.

#3: Make your fan page a complete knowledge hub

When brainstorming how to entice users to join and interact with your brand, the challenge is to come up with ways to encourage them to interact with the page continuously over time and prevent disengagement.

For brands that have a rich background or require a fair amount of user education, creating a fan page containing valuable resources and information that benefit the user is essential. The goal is to capture users with an initial promotion, and to keep them returning to your page for information even after the promotion is over.

An example of a page that achieved this goal is Webroot, a software company that distributes security applications and programs.

The initial user pull is the promotion Webroot has set up on its landing page. Users visit the Facebook page for a chance to win high-value prizes such as airline tickets, electronics and kitchen appliances.

Recognizing that its promotion would drive considerable traffic to its page, Webroot created a powerful, resource-rich page about its products and services, including a tab with educational slide decks, a full customer support portal (“Ask Webroot”), an explanatory splash page about their mobile security products, and even a collection of YouTube videos about the software.

As a result, users who visited Webroot’s page to participate in the promotion were also exposed to the page’s valuable content, which gave them a reason to return. In turn, Webroot created a full-service, user-friendly community through its Facebook page, a place where fans go to access information about the company.

Now that you’ve seen several examples of companies helping their fans help themselves, what’s the first approach you are planning to take with your fan page? Putting together a library of resources? Testing the waters by giving away some free services? I’d love to hear from you! Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Lead Capture

1. Make a beautiful, creative newsletter signup form and publish it to Facebook, your website and your mobile site.
2. Make a special deal, gift, coupon code, video, whitepaper, ebook or other valuable piece of content available only to users who submit the form.
3. Create flash sales, where a special deal is revealed only after a certain number of people have completed the signup form. This encourages social sharing and lets you promote products or services, all while capturing leads.
4. Remember all those bottle-top promotions? Integrate online and offline promotions by printing coupon or other codes on your products, and allowing users to enter those, along with their contact information, in your online form.
5. Integrate your website and Facebook page with LinkedIn’s network, by putting up a page for users to sign-in with their LinkedIn accounts and drop “virtual business cards” into a fishbowl for prize entry.

Engagement

6. Create a virtual treasure hunt, where fans get clues and answer questions through your form. Keep your fans coming back day after day and give a prize to winners at the end.
7. Incorporate SMS messaging! Let users sign up for an SMS message, voicemail or phone call with a premium deal or unique content to be sent directly to their phones, integrating with a service such as Twilio.
8. Run a contest with user-generated content. Let users submit testimonials, essays or product reviews, or even run a caption contest, and pick the winner at the end!
9. Create a fun Mad Libs-style form, letting users fill in blanks to create unique stories about your brand or promotion.
10. Run a true scavenger hunt by publishing your form to your mobile site and letting users gather clues at physical locations, input them and submit the completed form to win!
11. Provide targeted deals to certain geographic, age or other groups. With advanced code verification functionality, you can require that users submit a certain code that you have predefined–such as a zip code or birthdate–in order to proceed. You can vary the deal according to the answer that users provide.

Surveys and Support

12. Use it to survey and poll your users. Find out their favorite products, interests and more, and include Name and Email fields to build your leads.
13. Provide a forum for product feedback, and incorporate a Storyteller plugin to encourage conversation and social sharing about your products.
14. Use it to gather support tickets. Include dropdown and text fields in your form, and integrate it with your company’s support site provider, such as Zendesk.

User Registration

15. Tie the signup form into your own account registration, so that when users fill out the signup form on Facebook, they are also automatically signed up for an account with your company. This works well for member-only shopping sites.
16. Are you targeting businesses? Allow professionals to sign up for webinars, conferences and other events directly from your page, and even integrate with services like GoToWebinar or Eventbrite.
17. Let users register for events, and give registrants exclusive content access, such as event-specific deals or information.

To chat with one of our social media experts about using forms to maximize your marketing, click here!