Social Media Archives - BlitzMetrics

How Isaac Irvine got 70 million views on his Facebook video, step-by-step

May 19, 2017 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

Meet Isaac and his son, Bodi. Their video drew over 70 million views on CBS, BuzzFeed, and Ellen Nation. Want to know the exact steps they took to go viral?

Have a purpose with the content.

Bodi was bullied at school for his long hair, grown to donate to kids with cancer. Isaac pulled out his phone and made a 2 minute video in the shower, posting it on Facebook and boosting the post.

Use social proof as testimonials to target larger audiences

The local news picked up the story. We boosted that post to people who work in the media– BuzzFeed, Ellen, CBS News, ABC, and so forth. Over 100 targets.

Amplify to media outlet audiences

Other media outlets picked up the story over the next few days. We shared their posts and boosted to a combo audience (their audience and the media workplace target).

Engage the top influencers on the posts

Millions of people watched, commented, and shared the videos from these outlets. We replied to the top influencers, which included other media wanting to run the story, often in another language.

Create follow up content. Keep the viral energy alive.

Outlets worldwide asked him about bullying, how Bodi’s doing, and whether they could share his story. Isaac made follow-on content, so that he wouldn’t be a “one hit wonder”. Using the same style of video, he made more videos on related topics in the same shower location.

Here are some of mentions and shares on Facebook:

Living Tree: 111,000 views
Love What Matters: 522,000 views
China Times: 22,000 views
Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament – Myrtle Beach: 10,000 views
BuzzFeed: 8,669,176 views
Ellen: 2,300 views
The LAD Bible: 5,425,593, views
Café Mom: 100,000 views
Parents: Shared video from Isaac’s page
Mic: 25,724,728 views
Shauna Zeck’s video response with David: 4,300 views
CBS: shared video from Isaac’s page

The feature from Mic drew the most views– over 25 million!

The nearly 400,000 shares on that post is far more impressive than the 26 million views.

Isaac’s video was translated into Chinese for the China Times.

The video even got a response from Medieval Times!

Leverage the viral attention.

Next, Isaac used the momentum from the video to build his personal brand and share his story on what it was like to go viral.

Some videos go viral passively, but you can see here that you can do so intentionally as well. As you get picked up on different outlets, share, and re-boost to their audiences to piggyback off their authority. More outlets pick up your story, and you continue to boost. Isaac’s viral adventure is proof that going viral is an outcome that can be driven by a step-by-step process.

Automotive Social Media Charlatans Exposed

February 16, 2017 By Marlena Solomon Leave a Comment

I have been a part of the automotive aftermarket for over seven years now. Companies and brands of all shapes and sizes are realizing the relevance and power of social media. While their efforts are admirable, many are not capturing the characteristics of the aftermarket that make it unique from all others. That being said, there is a stark contrast within the measurable, mechanical world of the automotive aftermarket with the fluffy, mysterious world of social.

Bobby Likis host of the Bobby Likis Car Clinic radio show.

So I was wondering…
Does the mechanic ask you what type of wrench to use in fixing your car?

Would you trust a Ferrari mechanic who has never seen a Ferrari before?

Pros fix your problems, have legitimate certifications, and can provide a well-defined outcome with reasonable certainty.

But in social media, we have no such thing yet.
So to avoid being a self-proclaimed social media expert, focus on being a driver (no pun intended) of business value in your area.

There is an assumption that if you know how to post to a social media account is sufficient.
This ability alone does not make you an expert.

The automotive aftermarket segment is like no other, with companies that operate as B2B, B2C and hybrids of both.
Knowing the tone and personality of the brand, and having an understanding of the customer base and audience will allow for good content and even better targeting.

If you don’t know about antifreeze, you’re not going to be able to credibly write content for Prestone.

If you don’t know about how to modify Corvettes for maximum performance, you’ll fail responding to die-hard Lingenfelter fans.

The social media expert dies

Sure, there still will be colleges offering degrees in social media.

And the need for strong measurement in social isn’t going to go away either.

But the one-dimensional social media expert will be extinct.

If you don’t have deep vertical expertise for a particular client, you can’t help them in their social media.

Sorry. Just won’t work.

Your knowledge of how to pin and tweet won’t make up for lack of vertical knowledge.
Same is true for whatever set of tools you employ.

Here’s Rob Schermerhorn, who is a Ferrari mechanic.

Because he’s able to post content that Ferrari owners relate to and because he knows where Ferrari owners hang out (Ferrari Chat), when he runs ads, he gets leads.
This is the GCTA viral cycle:

Goals: Drive leads for his Ferrari tuning service
Content: Lots and lots of examples of him tuning Ferraris over the last 20 years– going faster for cheaper. You’d be surprised at what penny pinchers these guys are, but that’s another story.
Targeting: Ferrari owners, not the 18 year olds who are fans of the Ferrari page. Choose the right interests and demographics. Income works, too.
Amplification: This is where we run ads, but we call it “amplification” instead– the combinations of content and targeting to drive relevant traffic.

These are the mechanics of social media amplification.

Miss any part of this cycle and the wheel collapses.
If you don’t have awesome content, all the analytics and targeting in the world won’t save you.
If you don’t have proper targeting, no amount of measurement or content will win.
If you have clear goals, solid content, and strong targeting, but no amplification– well, you still might win, but you’ll be running on a donut tire.

How are you doing against these factors?

They’re not magical.
It’s just that not many people get this owner’s manual when they get their Facebook page, twitter account, or whatever network profile.

Why are there SO MANY ad networks? How to start YOURS!

March 4, 2016 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

Here’s an article that was in the works from July of 2009 that never saw publication.

While people are no longer building ad networks (that game died 5 years ago), understanding how networks behave is critical if you want to make money via optimization (arbitrage between the supply and demand– the publisher and the advertiser).

Tactics like scrubbing don’t work anymore– but the basic principles never change, which is our reason for reviving this article. The game never changes- SEO Consultants become Social Media Gurus who become Content marketing wizards, and so on- like wolves who discard their worn out old sheep skin only to don another.

Why are there SO MANY ad networks? How to start YOURS!

Every day, another ad network launches. What’s the deal? Google “ad network” and you’ll see 137 million results and see thousands of companies. AdKnowledge, AdBrite, Adfish, Adsdaq, GetAds, E-ads. This evening I was driving down the road and saw a sign for “Be Ad“, before I realized it was just a bead store.

Too many ads!

With Facebook shutting down spammy offers, and even wholesale shutting down a couple ad networks, it will be interesting to see who is left that can monetize the inventory that is in free fall pricing, especially at networks such as RockYou, with over 8 billion impressions a month. It’s no secret that I ran one of the largest Facebook ad networks.

People– there’s cheap inventory on ad networks, if you can find offers that won’t piss off Facebook. Same is true whether you are buying inventory via self-serve PPC or running your own ad network by gathering up a bunch of Facebook publishers. You could cloak, but that’s a short-term solution.

Regardless, the ad networks are taking margins of 45-60%. If you’re a publisher, you’re likely also aware that you’re being ripped off blind.

Thus, if you want to start your own ad network, here’s what to do:

Put up a site: Call it AwesomeFacebookAds.com, SuperDopeAdNetwork.com, MyFirstNameMedia.com, or something like that. Make sure you have the word “ad” or “media” in the name. Have a wordpress front-end with images of hundred dollar bills, Ferrari’s, and hot models– that will attract attention. These Facebook pubs are kids and such advertising will appeal to them.
Set up your ad server: Use OpenAds (now called OpenX, used to be called phpadsnew), or Google Ad Manager (yeah, Google’s offering is pretty slick). If you have a few Gs, then license LinkTrust, which will allow you to scrub your affiliates– else do DirectTrack, where you can manually scrub (remove leads, for noobs that don’t know what scrubbing is).
Start recruiting pubs: You don’t have the money to front your network, nor do you actually have unique offers, so blather on about how you have the best payouts, treat pubs right, pay on time, and so forth. They won’t know any better, especially if you post pictures of yourself in front of cars and houses that you don’t own. So start hitting up the top Facebook pubs– you can install their app and friend them. Easy!
Run the traffic through your domain: Not a tracking domain, but the site you set up in step 1. That will pump up your Alexa rating and perhaps even your HitWise and Comscore rankings.
Set up a progressive scrub: Initially, you need to make publishers happy, so take only 5-10%. After a week or two, while they’re not paying attention, start dialing it up to 20%, 30%, and higher. You might even get to 70 or 80%– I was able to with a lot of folks. If they notice, then give them one of these convenient excuses:
- Your traffic just doesn’t back out
- We should try some fresh offers– your ads are burning out
- The Advertiser doesn’t like your traffic
- Maybe there’s something wrong with your tracking
- I’ll look into that and get back to you (and, of course, you don’t)
Use your excess money to promote the network: Even if you don’t have the cash, by paying your publishers slowly, you can effectively finance your operations through what is called a “reverse float”. In other words, you’re getting paid by your advertisers (or ad network) before you pay out your affiliates. Get a black card, which has double duty of earning you points and impressing the chicks. If you’re running at 60%+ margins like most networks, you’ll be ballin‘ in no time.

I was only partially kidding here, as the examples I’ve listed here are taken from real experience.

And I will admit that we had our own Facebook advertising network, for which there was no scrub. Honestly, the barriers to entry were so low that anyone could have started their own ad network.

But as the competition increased and both advertisers and publishers got smarter, you can be assured the profits were competed down to nothing.

By the way, if you want to learn more about Internet Marketing, I’d encourage you to sign up for MariMetrics.

Want to read more by Dennis Yu? For more content follow him here:

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/author/dennis

https://www.facebook.com/dennisyu

https://twitter.com/dennisyu

How much should I charge for social media consulting?

February 13, 2016 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

If you’re a freelancer, charging by the hour is a good way to start. Time is an approximate measure of value and reduces risk to you on scope creep. Clients understand billable hours, as do project management systems.

Yet, tracking time can be painful. And time spent is not an approximation of value. A few quick tweaks to a $10,000 per month ad campaign can produce thousands of dollars of on-going monthly value.

Consider that some universities now offer social media courses that give certifications, like Pepperdine University, who offers a few programs: Social Media Professional Certification for $1500 and a Social Media Strategist for $2500. Takes about 30 course hours to complete- Not bad, since according to Glassdoor (a salary / employment data aggregate), the average social media pro makes around $50k / year.

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-manager-salary/

And you know consultants who charge a lot less than you would, but they either take much longer or can’t even do what you do. The hourly model rewards people who take longer, punishing the good guys. So you certainly don’t want to compete on hourly rate, unless you are an offshoring company.

But wage slaves can sometimes get $500/hour (that’s my rate), but it requires you to do a lot of speaking and publishing to build up your reputation- a bigger investment well over 30 hours.

So how do you graduate from being an hourly wage slave to a business owner charging what you’re worth?

You need to charge percentage of spend or a flat monthly retainer. Percentage of spend usually means 5-15% of spend with a monthly minimum. 10% of $5,000 per month is $500, so decide how much effort a client is.

Could be great or could be a nightmare depending on the expectations and how much effort you need. By not doing hourly, you have to limit scope more carefully, of course– and that means you have to set strict package offerings.

You cannot graduate from hourly to retainer/spend pricing without this structure in place, lest you risk random outcomes and uneven client expectations.Consider what Jakob Hager of TaskWunder says:

“My advice is to learn as much as you can while charging hourly and, at the same time, figure out what you enjoy doing and where you want to specialize.

By doing so and by writing about it, you become an expert in this area.Once your knowledge increases and your hourly rate goes up, think of how to streamline what you do and create processes and checklists.

By starting hourly and improving your skills, you make sure that your expertise is based on real-world competence. By creating checklists you learn how to both think in processes and create a system that generates value independently of how many hours of work you invest (in the long run).”

Perhaps the biggest challenge of packaged offerings is getting the set-up bits done.

That means getting necessary access to the accounts, creating them (if necessary), and being super clear on GCT (goals, content, targeting).
The bigger players will have an on-boarding process handled by a separate team.

But if you’re small, then use a series of forms (Infusionsoft, Google Docs, whatever) to make sure the prerequisites are out of the way before starting.

If you’re really smart, you’ll put these online to qualify anyone who might be a client.Just make sure you have a process in place, as Mike Gingerich of Tabsite suggests:

“The shift to digital over the past few years has created a wave of opportunity for new entrepreneurs. The ‘online business’ model has exploded but, as many who jump in find out, it’s not simply a matter of posting your website on social media and watching clients roll in!

It’s important to have a plan and a process. Most people who take the entrepreneurial plunge have somewhat of a plan, but few have a process and this is the big gap! The onboarding and business processes you have help you qualify clients, give you a complete and clear plan to demonstrate your competence to prospective clients, and it gives you a clear checklist and scope from which you can evaluate your costs.

My advice… spend as much, if not more time, on the process than on the plan because the process ultimately guides the plan!”

Then no more free consulting calls, which wastes your time and reduces your effective rate. It’s not that all potential clients are freetards, but that you must set clear expectations of what you do and don’t do. Instead of having to repeat these bits endlessly, write it down, record a video, and you’ll never need to say it again.

If you’re a solo consultant, it’s easier to get away with no process.With just a few long-term clients, you’re not going to need to acquire new business or explain what you do.

But maybe you want to be a business, not freelancer/consultant. And if you believe in packages, driven by checklists, then you’d naturally take the next step to have others follow your checklists, buoyed by training you create. That means you have to package up what you know into checklists for repeatable excellence.

So do you want to keep working in your business or on your business? Continue to be tortured by the E-Myth with dreams of a 4 Hour Workweek or actually be a Checklist Manifesto disciple?

Invest 30 minutes to systematize your expertise and watch this: eventualmillionaire.com/dennisyu/

Want to read more by Dennis Yu? For more content follow him here:

http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/author/dennis

https://www.facebook.com/dennisyu

https://twitter.com/dennisyu

Now You Can Create Ads Where 75% Of Users See Them, On Smartphones!

August 24, 2015 By David Chojnacki 1 Comment

Did you know that 75% of Facebook traffic occurs from mobile devices around the world? So wouldn’t you think that mobile ad managing is the same way? Probably not yet because Facebook just launched its Ads Manager app a few months ago – while the Facebook mobile app itself has been around for years.

I’ll show you how to navigate through the app and gain definite kudos from your clients or for yourself as you easily manage their/your account via mobile:

Upon entering the app and signing in, along with the usual facebook blue, there are help texts along the way:

Let’s create a campaign! I’ll use my friend Dennis Yu’s page for explanatory purposes.

You can either boost a post you’ve made already, reach people near your company’s business address (location targeting), or send people to your website.

Let’s send people to his website:

From here, it’s easy enough to tell that the next step is to choose a picture from his page, or you can take a picture with your smartphone’s camera.

Position the picture as desired:

Create your ad copy that will intrigue your audience, (next step) to click on the ad:

While creating your ad, The Facebook Ads Manager app also allows you to add a Call-to-Action Button. Choose the button that fits most with your ad:

To help you out, Facebook includes the following about Interests.

“Facebook can help you reach people by looking at their interests, activities, the pages they have liked and closely related topics. Consider words beyond those that describe your business or brand.”

For example, a flower shop might choose an interest like “weddings”.

For more examples, we put online marketing, and online advertising:

Be elaborate to get the most out of your targeting, but also certain that the people you target will desire to know more about your ad.

Is this ad directed towards both genders? Choose accordingly, along with the age group (You don’t want to be advertising alcoholic beverages to underage teenagers!):

You’re almost done! Now just choose your budget and schedule and you’ve made your first ad!

*If you’re just starting out, Dennis Yu has an amazing concept of Facebook marketing with gaining results at just $5 a day.

5 reasons I defriend people on Facebook.

June 22, 2014 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

Ever get the itch to drop in on old friends on Facebook? Have you searched for a person you swore you were friends with then discover you’re not?

How do people choose their friends on Facebook? Sometimes it’s pure interest in someone’s images, or they are a celebrity in their industry, or you actually know who they are- a mixture of everything.

Defriending is also random. Arizona’s FOX10 News featured why people remove others on Facebook:

High school friends. You haven’t seen them in forever, and if you were good buddies, they’d be in your close circles already.
Friends of friends. Your friends friend is also your friend, right? Not exactly. Everyone is different, so don’t rely on simply knowing the same people to make a profound connection- reach out as yourself. Friends-of-fans is good for ads, but bad for connections.
Work friends. Know those embarrassing moments people love to post on your wall? Keep your work and home life separate, and avoid the water cooler drama.
Common interest friends. Like friends of friends, relying on simply enjoying the same things is a weak connection.
Spam. No explanation needed.

My top 5 reasons to delete people is different:

Constantly posting obnoxious things. You’re often connected to family, you don’t want the potty mouths to make them question your associations. Warn them first, then delete constant offenders.
Sharing inappropriate/ offensive content like pornography or “shock” images. Same as above, except no second chances.
Troublemakers. Nix those who always argue and start problems.
No longer friends / an ex. Some people aren’t malicious; others are. Don’t take the chance of them airing some dirty laundry for everyone to see.
Only sending game requests. No thanks! I want friends who contribute instead of wasting time.

Sometimes it’s not even personal, you just have too many friends and need to cull the herd. According to Dunbar’s number, we can only remember around 150 meaningful relationships, so there’s no need for this many friends. If you’re popular, make a dedicated Facebook page. These have no audience limit, and you’re able to run microtargeted ads to your posts, growing your audience.

What’s your top 5 reasons to defriend someone?

How does a marshmallow and dried spaghetti relate to social media?

June 3, 2014 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

We wanted to know what happens when you take several professionals who are leaders in their fields and ask them to make a free standing structures out of spaghetti and a marshmallow?

Here are the rules:

You get 20 sticks of dried spaghetti, 1 yard of string, 1 yard of tape and one marshmallow.

The goal is to make to strongest freestanding tower with the marshmallow on the top in 18 minutes or less

Here’s what happened:

We had 6 teams of 4 people building structures, all of them using slightly different designs.

Almost all of them started with a plan. Most of the teams talked it out before hand, developed a plan and a few minutes in started to build. Some even drew their plan on paper.

For almost all of these, they started at the base and worked up according to their plan, and then at the end they added the marshmallow.

And for almost all of these teams, as the towers stood and the teams carefully placed the marshmallows on top, they would slowly let the tower go and watch as it slowly crashed to the ground.

The one exception was the team that started out testing what it took to hold the marshmallow.

The successful team took the tower and tested it, step by step to see what would hold.

So how does this relate to social media marketing?

The way most people view advertising is to make a plan and execute it once, but when it comes to social media it’s not a one shot chance.

In traditional advertising, groups of people will get together and made their best guess as to what will be successful, and after arguing back and forth for a time and eventually coming to a consensus, they will launch the campaign.

Luckily, when you are advertising on social, you don’t have to just rely on a guess. When amplifying your content on social, you get the opportunity to try out a variety techniques and targeting.

Because you are not limited to a fixed, unmovable campaign like you would be with newspaper or magazine advertisement, you can try out a large mix of content and targets and see what works.

But you still don’t want to waste money. On top of that, there are so many options, so how do you start?

Look at your goal(s).

In the marshmallow challenge, the goal was getting the marshmallow to the top.

The group that succeeded started by testing the strength of the spaghetti against the marshmallow then built up from there. Once they discovered how many pieces of pasta it took to hold a marshmallow, they would then keep testing different things to see what would hold.

With social, you can do the same thing. You can start with your content and target it against several different targets that you think may work. After several days, you will see which targets are doing the best. Once you narrow that down, you can test what creatives and content work best.

In the marshmallow challenge, every move that the winning team made had the goal in mind. When optimizing your campaigns for social, you have to do the same thing. With every move you make, you need to have the goal in mind.

If you need a little guidance how you would break this down check out how we believe it should be broken down here.

When amplifying on social, So many people will fail once and then quit, but what they don’t know is that in social, we get a chance to fail many times, at minimal cost, and learn from the failure and apply it to the next campaign.

With the constant “test and tweak” method, you are able to evolve your campaign and determine what is the best content and best targeting so that in the future you will know what will work well. As a result, the process becomes quicker and more cost effective.

Jon Acuff’s Social media secret has been revealed

May 14, 2014 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

During #ICON14, Jon Acuff, A New York Best Selling author’s secret of Social Media has been revealed. Why during this specific event you may ask? Because he believes in Infusionsoft just like we do!

What was the secret you might ask?

“It’s about the People!”

When using Facebook, the people are the most important part! Such a simple phrase yet it makes all the difference. If someone were to ask me how to capture this every time when they are getting ready to post of Facebook, I’d walk them through this checklist:

Is your audience ready for this? Your content probably rocks but will it catch their attention enough to want to know more? Are they going to be able to relate to your content?
Does your content fall under one of the goals you have for your company?
Is it visually appealing to your targeted audience? (We suggest having a picture or video) This allows to the reader to have an automatic connection with the post, before they even stop to actually read what you have said.

So next time you have some killer content consider the things listed above. By doing those simple checklist items, you are making sure you are creating the best user experience for your customer!

Thanks Jon Acuff for sharing the Secret of Social Media with us!

Yes, you can now say “Facebook” in your ads again!

May 8, 2014 By Dennis Yu Leave a Comment

It used to be that anything mentioning Facebook, whether in text or image, got immediately rejected as an ad.

So we had to “How we got killer social engagement” instead of “15 ways to drive leads via Facebook ads”.

Anyone who does Facebook ads for a living can rejoice.

An early Friday to you!

If you’re a real pro, you’d leverage the new workplace targeting on Facebook employees, so they know you’re a big deal.

Of course, you’d have to narrow down to folks who live within 25 miles of Menlo Park, since there are 40,000 folks who claim to work at Facebook via their profiles.

Now when will we be able to promote G+ pages?

Meanwhile, there’s this: