Lip-Sticking

Try ShortStack App to run your Sweepstakes and Contests on Facebook

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Some of the most successful ways to grow your Facebook fan base and gain insights on your customers is by running sweepstakes and contests promotions. Contests are considered the heart of social promotions today since they are a great way to create buzz, awareness and engage followers and fans.

In order to run a promotion on Facebook though, you must follow Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines and run it through an application and not directly on your Facebook page. We have been working with a few preferred Facebook application partners that enable us to offer this service to our clients. They all include sharing via the Facebook functionality which allow participants to easily share the promotion with their friends and help spread the word for you. Most applications will give participants the option to publish that they entered the promotion on their Facebook wall so all their friends will see it and have the chance to enter too. They can also choose to invite a few of their friends to participate as well.

When we first started running promotions on Facebook we utilized an application called Wildfire which turned out to become one of the most popular. In time Wildfire added more services and changed their core services from just a Promotion Builder app, to a full social marketing suite of services. They were acquired by Google toward the end of last year and then just a month ago Wildfire announced that as of June 30 they will no longer just provide their Basic, Standard and Premium Promotions but instead only offer it as part of their full suite of services.

For those that may be looking for a new resource for Facebook promotions, especially small businesses, I highly recommend the ShortStack Facebook Application. We have been utilizing this application in place of Wildfire for the past two years and I have been extremely impressed and happy with the results. Not only do I find the application flexible and user-friendly, but their customer service is one of the best experiences I have had from a provider.

How it works is the app gets installed on the sponsor’s Facebook page as a tab page. We upload images that include graphics and copy that describe the details of the promotion. The ShortStack promotion widget allows us to set the promotion up either as a sweepstakes or a contest.  The major benefits include the following:

• Able to include both fan and non-fan data, therefore inviting non-fans to first “like” the Sponsor’s Facebook page before they can access the app.

• Ability to not have any application branding on the page

• Complete ownership of all the data collected

• Graphics can be easily added as jpeg files and additional customization using CSS is available.

• Contests may include a voting widget that enables voting in a gallery for photos, videos and essay submissions

• Entries can be viewed and downloaded at any time during the promotional period.

• Mobile devices can access the application via a “Smart” link to use in FB status updates and other online messages.

• A fairly new feature is the ability to embed the promotion as an iFrame on a website to enable entries from both locations into one database

Promotions also need to have Official Rules that should be posted in the app and accessible prior to anyone entering. We have created what we refer to as a Social Sweeps package that combines us setting up the ShortStack Facebook app along with our promotional marketing legal expertise that includes a set of official rules. This package has enabled many of our customers to get these types of social promotions up and running very quickly and cost-efficiently.

Here’s one example of a sweepstakes that we set-up and are administering for Design Within Reach that is currently running on their Facebook page. The DWR Eames Foundation Sweepstakes offers a chance to win a weekend trip to Los Angeles for winner and guest to experience an afternoon at the Eames House on Members’ Appreciation Day hosted by the Eames Foundation taking place on June 22.  This sweepstakes is open till May 30.

You can also check out these two contest promotions that we are currently running for Rail Europe on their Facebook page that both utilize the ShortStack App.

The Rail Europe Picture Perfect Contest invites participants to submit a photo they took while visiting Europe and then encourages them to share with their friends and family to gain votes. Rail Europe is selecting 5 weekly winners who will receive a t-shirt and the 3 photos at the end of the month with the most votes receive a 7-day Global Eurail pass.

The Rail Europe Culture Shock Contest has been running since late 2011 and restarts a new round every two weeks. This contest also is offering participants a chance to win a 7-day Global Eurail pass by submitting an entry that describes an interesting, awkward or inspiring European cultural experience.  Participants also have the option of uploading a photo. The submission with the most votes at the end of each round is the grand prize winner.

These promotions are great examples of how they help to reinforce the brand. If you decide to run a contest, be prepared to receive fewer entries versus just running a sweepstakes since you are asking people to do some work. The quantity will be lower, but the quality and engagement will be higher. Therefore, I usually recommend that if you are trying to build a fan base and add to your database, start with a sweepstakes. Once you've established a following, contests are a great way to engage with your fans and get them to help spread the word for you.

Please feel free to contact me if you’d like more information about running promotions on Facebook as well as the Shortstack App. If you want to try out Shortstack they do offer a free version, but of course it doesn’t include all the option that we have in our paid account.

Reflections on this year's Mother's and Graduation Day

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Mother's Day is just a few days away. I personally will have a unique way of celebrating the day this year. But before I get to that, I wanted to first share this promotion we have been administering for Lane Bryant.

The Mom and Me Love LB Photo Contest kicked off back on April 22 and invited their Facebook fans to submit a photo of themselves with their mom, or with a woman who has been a mother figure to them, wearing some Lane Bryant styles.

Then starting on May 4 the contest moved into its voting phase where participants now (up until Friday) are encouraged to share their photo and invite their friends and family to like their submission. The three photos with the most likes will move on to the judges who will then determine the final winners based on the creativity, uniqueness and expression of passion in the photo.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to Full Fashion Week in New York City for two including airfare, hotel accommodations and two $500 Lane Bryant Gift Cards. The first runner up will also receive two $500 Lane Bryant gift cards and the second runner up will receive two $100 Lane Bryant Gift Cards. You can view all the photos here on this Facebook tab page and vote for your favorite. There are a total of 179 photos display in the photo gallery that have been submitted to the contest.

So now for sharing my personal story regarding this year's Mother's Day. I will be spending the day attending the graduation of my youngest daughter, Alex, from the University of Buffalo. My other daughter, Kelsey, who graduated last year from New York University, will be coming up from NY to also attend. We haven't all been together since Christmas, so it will be a special day. Not only is Alex graduating with a degree in biology, but she has been accepted into vet school. This year she will start attending the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine located in St. Kitts,

We are all so very proud of her. I keep saying that we're now going to have a doctor in the family for the first time. I wish my mom was here to share this with, but I know she will be smiling down at us from heaven. This is the third Mother's Day that she is gone and it continues to be such as bittersweet day. My mom gave me, along with both my daughters, the will and determination to accomplish anything that we set our minds to. Alex, congratulations, you did it! Thanks again Mom.

Huggies essay contest encourages moms to sign up for Dollar General text alerts

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Last week I wrote about some new research on how moms are using their mobile devices for shopping. Here's some other new insights that find that moms are 20% more likely to use social media across all devices than the general population.

BabyCenter, with comScore, revealed this new data that states 91% of moms now use social media regularly, a 20% increase since 2010. And, 22% of moms say that if friends or family don’t participate in social media, they are not as much a part of their lives. Mike Fogarty at BabyCenter, says “... before mom clicks to buy, she’s posted, pinned, tweeted, and shared... so much a part of a her life... (she checks) social platforms... before first cup of coffee... now fundamental to... moms’... lives...”

Here's another new promotion that we're involved in that is targeted to these moms. The Huggies Little Hands, Big Plans Contest invites participants to write an essay about the big plans they have for their child. Two lucky winners a month for five months will each reach $5,000 to help them make their dream come true. This contest is sponsored by Huggies' parent company, Kimberly Clark, Corp., in conjunction with DollarGeneral.com.

We are again working with Triad Retail Media who specialize in creating and managing online media programs for major retail e-commerce websites such as Dollar General as well as Walmart, Sam's Club, CVS and Toys R Us. They create custom digital ad campaigns for a variety of national brands to help them reach their customers and engage with shoppers while they’re doing researching and making final purchasing decisions.

The entry form for this contest asks participants to provide their mobile phone number and then invites them to sign up for DG Mobile Text alerts to receive text messages about Dollar General's events and coupons. This is one initiative Dollar General is using to grow their mobile phone message list in order to reach these key customers. Last week's survey stated that SMS was the only category that a majority (52%) of moms said they used to incorporate mobile into their shopping experience.

A panel of judges will be reviewing all the contest submissions and twice a month pick the top two winners based on the following criteria: Creativity/Originality (25%); Quality of Submission (25%); and Fit to Contest Theme (50%). There are already 60 entries from the first week of the contest. It will be interesting to see the number of entries and how many new mobile text alert subscribers Dollar General gains. Contest ends September 30, 2013.

This appears to be the year that retail e-commerce marketers are definitely focused on mobile marketing, especially mobile marketing to women!

PMA's Annual Marketing Conference kicks off today in Chicago

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Normally I would be in Chicago today attending the PMA/BAA Annual Marketing Conference that got underway yesterday afternoon. I've attended this conference almost every year since I started blogging back in 2007 and sorry to be missing it this year. My schedule just doesn't allow me to be out of the office this week. So I guess I'll just have to follow along with the tweets (#annualMTG13)and updates on the PMA Facebook page instead.

This year the conference theme is titled "The Art and Science of Brand Activation". The association announced last year at it's Annual Marketing Law Conference that after over 100 years in existence, it was changing its name from PMA, Promotional Marketing Association, to BAA, Brand Activation Association. Bonnie Carlson, the association's president, made the announcement at that event and said the name change would become official at this conference taking place now. Bonnie stated that the new BAA will have a broader focus on translating marketing strategy into best brand activation strategies. They will strive to help members solve problems, rather than just dwell on specific tactics. I'm curious to hear want new developments and resources they have put in place to achieve this.

Walmart kicked off the conference yesterday afternoon with a special session for brand marketers only from Clint McClain, Senior Director, Marketing. Clint was to speak about Brand Activation strategies that utilize Walmart’s proprietary "Brand Growth Platform” and demonstrate how Walmart provides the tools marketers need for success. In a session today Clint will share some interesting insights from a case study on Walmart's local marketing efforts.

Today the morning is getting off to an opening keynote speech titled a "View of the Retail Landscape" by author, and marketing consultant, Paco Underhill. Paco will share his insights about what motivates shopper behavior today and what changes to expect over the next five years. There will be sessions from brands such as Godiva Chocolatier (@godivachoc), Kimberly Clark(@KCCorp), Hasbro (@vlee) and more @thePMA . Plus they will end the conference tomorrow night with a gala dinner to celebrate this year's Reggie Awards Finalists.

Promotional Marketing is a key ingredient in today's marketing mix. Check out this recent article from MediaPost that is great news for any of us in the business. According to Borrell Associates, spending on digital promotions will hit $36.1B this year. Online sweepstakes and contests, which is my area of expertise, is part of that and is headed in a totally mobile direction. So it's a good time to pitch for new business that involves social and mobile promotions.

I'll be missing the networking opportunities that are available when you attend these types of conferences. Still today there is nothing that can compare with a face-to-face meeting, especially over a cocktail! To all my friends at PMA (BAA), I wish you a great and successful conference ! I hope to see you at the Annual Marketing Law Conference in November!

Paas Easter Eggs celebrates with a Pinterest Contest and Facebook promos

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

With all the cold weather we've been experiencing, along with the freak snow storms, it's hard to believe that this weekend is Easter Sunday. Easter does occasionally happen in March and this year the holiday hits on the very last day of the month.

I went looking for some Easter promotions to help get me in the Spring mood and landed on the Paas Facebook page. This immediately got me feeling much more like Spring. Even though Easter is a highly religious christian holiday, I would still guess that the vast majority of us have used the Paas egg decorating kits many times in our lives. In fact Paas says that 88% of adults carry on the Easter tradition of creating Easter baskets for their kids and 90% of us hope for own treat from the Easter Bunny. Yes, I already got my pastel-colored peanut M&M's!

Paas has joined the Pinterest bandwagon this year with their "Egg-Ceptional Eggs" Pinterest Contest which they have been promoting on their Facebook page. First, participants needed to follow PAAS on Pinterest, create a board and name it “PAAS Egg-ceptional Eggs”. Then they had to add at least 15 pins from either the Paas website or Pinterest page along with any other Easter egg Pins they wish. The #easter and #paas hashtags had to be included on all Pins and then they submitted the URL address of their Pin Board on this entry form. 

A panel of judges has already chosen a winner based on the following criteria: originality, theme, and creativity. And the winner is Karla Cyr! You can check out her winning Pin Board here: http://pinterest.com/karlacyr/paas-egg-ceptional-eggs/.

Karla's board contains some beautiful decorating ideas. Paas is still offering fans of their Facebook page some coupons for $1.00 and $1.50 off their decorating kits.

So enjoy and have a Happy Easter. Hey, they say it may even get close to 50 degrees here on Sunday! Now that's something to celebrate!

Business or Pleasure: When Social Media Personas Collide

by guest blogger, Megan Totka

Small business owners know the importance of utilizing social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and even Pinterest. The relatively small investment of time and money can really pay off. Crowdspring reports that 50 percent of small business owners say they have gained new customers through social media, with LinkedIn and Facebook leading the way. That’s a statistic worth pursuing.

The great thing about social media is the interactive, personal atmosphere it fosters between businesses and consumers. This can be a challenging characteristic for small business owners that are unsure how much personal information really should be part of their professional identity and don’t want to commit one of the 7 deadly online sins. Every industry and business differs, but here are a few ground rules when striking a balance between a business and personal social media presence:

Spring has arrived (or has it) along with March Madness

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Happy Spring! It officially arrived this morinng at 7:02. But you wouldn't know it from the weather. We're stuck in this cold pattern here in the Northeast till at least the end of March. Yesteday we even woke up to a couple inches of the wet, white stuff on the ground and it's still there. Well, at the least the dogs love it!

Today is also the start of the NCAA March Madness. Have you filled out your brackets yet? If not you can fill one out here at the official Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge or here at Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Tourney Pick 'Em. I'm sure there are many more online you could find as well. But you need to do it today.

The first two games actually went off last night and there are two more tonight to determine who will make it into "Round of 64" which begins on Thursday. All to decide who will play in the Final Four in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome on April 6.

With Coca-Cola being a big sponsor and headquartered in Atlanta, they are hosting Bracket Town which consists of several events happening in and around Atlanta and the Georgia Dome.

The games will be broadcast on CBS and on three Turner Networks. Fans can also watch all the games live by downloading the NCAA March Madness App available in iTunes for Apple devices.

Twitter this year is helping to bring all the exciting plays to the mobile masses within a few minutes of them happening via Instant Replays. Twitter introduced the "instant replay" concept last year with ESPN for college bowl game highlights which allows users to watch videos from their phones, tablets and PCs without leaving Twitter.​ AT&T and Coke Zero are sponsoring the March Madness videos, and the replays will begin with a short video clip from either sponsor. You can follow the official Twitter page here @MarchMadness.

We assisted one of our clients with the Dunkin' Philly Madness Sweeps which they are running on their Dunkin Philly Facebook Page. They're giving fans daily chances to win college gear, Dunkin Donuts mGifts, basketball tickets, coffee for a year and a final Grand Prize of $5,000. Also for every entry, they’ll donate $1 to Coaches vs. Cancer of Philadelphia. (up to $5,000). Sweepstakes ends on April 8.

There are also still chances to win tickets to the Final Four tournament. LG Electronics is currently running their Do March Right Tip-Off Bracket Challenge on their Facebook page. The top prize consists of airfare for two to Atlanta, hotel accommodations, tickets to the semi-finals and the championship games and $500 spending money. Pretty sweet package.

So get your brackets ready today. We'll be cheering for the Syracuse Orangemen, the #4 seed in the East Division. They lost the final Big East Tournament to Louisville, who ended up getting the #1 seed spot. So you never know. At least we have some good basketball games to watch while we still wait for Spring to actually arrive!

BlogPaws 2013 Photo Caption Contest is currently running on Facebook

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

It's that time of year again to share with you info about the 2013 BlogPaws Conference along with the new 2013 BlogPaws or Bust promotion which this year is a photo caption contest.

Most of you are familiar with BlogPaws, but for those that are not, BlogPaws is an online community of pet lovers made up of pet bloggers and pet brands. BlogPaws was co-founded back in 2010 by Yvonne DiVita, our Lipsticking leader, and her partner, Tom Collins, and it has become the go-to resource for bloggers and brands to partner on projects and campaigns, to be educated on social media, and to attend face-to-face meetings. The first BlogPaws Conference was held in Columbus, OH, in April, 2010, and last year it moved out West to Salt Lake City in June.

This year's 2013 BlogPaws Conference will be held back in Tyson Corners, VA, on May 16 - 18. It was held here two years ago in August in which we unfortunately experienced Hurricane Irene. I was one of the lucky ones that was able to get on an earlier flight on Saturday because I was heading south to visit family in South Carolina instead of heading north in the direction of the hurricane. So I literally flew over the hurricane as it was coming up the coast.

I have been a speaker at each of the past BlogPaws conferences speaking mostly about running contests and sweepstakes. This year I didn't make the agenda, but I am attending and am the contest administrator which I have set up the contest on the BlogPaws Facebook Page and am again using the ShortStack Application.

This year the contest features this photo of the two dogs in a tug-of-war and invites participants to submit a caption to accompany the photo. All the submissions can be viewed and shared. The contest started accepting submissions this past on Sunday, March 10, and will run till the end of day on March 24. There are currently 120 submissions.

A panel of BlogPaws staff members and volunteers will judge all the submissions based on the following criteria: Creativity 50%, Originality 25%, and Relevancy 25%. The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to Tysons Corner, VA, to attend BlogPaws 2013 which includes round trip air transportation, hotel accommodations at the Sheraton Premiere and of course admission to BlogPaws 2013. A Second Prize winner will receive hotel accommodations and admission to BlogPaws and a Third Prize winner receives the free admission.

Many of the captions are written in the voice of the pet, which are quite funny. We held a similar contest a couple of years ago where participants submitted their own photo along with a caption that was in the voice of the pet. Deb Barnes was the winner of that contest with this beautiful photo of her cats with the featured caption.

I am very much looking forward to going back to this year's conference and seeing some old friends, both two and four-legged! I'm planning to bring my daughter, Alex, with me this year who will be graduating from college the week before. She's applied to vet schools and still waiting for word.

There is still plenty of time to register for the Conference. You can find all the information here on the BlogPaws website. I'll be sure to give you an update on the contest results and announce the winner sometime in April.

Walmart’s #WinItWednesday Green Contest takes place today on Twitter

By Guest Blogger Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Last month Walmart kicked off a new "Green" promotional marketing campaign with its first #WinItWednesday contest on Twitter. The contest gives entrants the chance to share their unique eco-friendly ideas and to win Walmart Gift Cards. The contest takes place on the first Wednesday of each month, so today is round two for the month of March.

Today @WalmartGreen will ask Twitter users to respond to a specific #WinItWednesday sustainability inspired challenge question. Three winners will be selected by judges representing Wal-Mart Stores, and the Mother Nature Network for each month's challenge question. Participants must follow and reply to @WalmartGreen and include the hashtag #WinItWednesday in their tweet. Each of the three winners will receive a $100 Walmart gift card and a chance to have their Submission featured on Mother Nature Network’s The Leaderboard and The Green Room, Walmart's sustainability blog, within that month.

For the first contest entrants were invited to share their idea for an eco-friendly gift for their Valentine (in 140 characters or less !). This first contest resulted in a 5.4% spike for @WalmartGreen in their number of Twitter followers in only 6 hours. This equaled 1.5 new followers every minute. The contest was also mentioned by John McCain and Planet Green on Twitter! Here's an overview of last month's winners which includes Terri Pointon who's idea is turning old wool and cashmere sweaters into new items.

Walmart's “The Leaderboard” was launched earlier this year through a new partnership formed with the Mother Nature Network with the purpose of creating a special editorial channel on the site for readers to explore the people, businesses and organizations leading in sustainability.

“Thanks to the ingenuity, passion and innovative thinking of so many people, we’ve seen an increase in sustainable technologies, processes and options in the past decade,” said Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of sustainability at Walmart. “These new ideas have helped companies, like Walmart, make significant progress toward our sustainability goals. Walmart has a responsibility to use its size and scale to influence positive change, and we believe ‘The Leaderboard’ will be a place to showcase cutting edge ideas and spark further adoption.”

Today's challenge question is scheduled to be posted at 11am ET, so check it out and share a tweet @WalMart Green with one of your eco-friendly ideas.

Applying For Jobs Isn’t Enough

Guest post by Hannah Morgan

When you submit your resume to an online job posting, how many other people do you suppose are doing that exact same thing? Hundreds? Thousands? The odds of your application rising to the top of the pile are as good as your odds of winning the lottery. The good news is, you can do something to increase the chances of your application getting the attention you want.

2 Steps Is What It Takes

Most job applicants won’t take the time to do this, and that’s the very reason you should! The first step is easy and familiar. You find a job online and modify your resume to showcase your most important and relevant qualifications and include a cover letter that explains why you want to work at that company (this requires you’ve done research and know more than the company’s name).