How To Create The Perfect Facebook Fan Page

Video tutorial by Dave Dugdale of RentVine.com on how to create a “Fanbook page”

World Rowing Championships: Stellar Social Media in Action!

Yesterday Rowing New Zealand  finished up 8 days of hosting the 2010 World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro for the first time in over thirty years. It was a pretty memorable occasion as it was also the first time New Zealand had qualified for a men’s and women’s eight since 2007, and the event drew over 60,000 volunteers, spectators and athletes – the biggest crowd ever documented for a World Rowing Championships!

Due to much of my work this year being affiliated with The New Zealand Gynaecological Cancer Foundation and their ambassador Fiona Paterson (double sculls rower), I noticed a lot of activity online around promoting the event well up to and now still afterward and I was very impressed.

My newsfeed on Facebook was updated very regularly by the official championships Facebook Page, which has over 8,000 fans. Some of their content included live updates of what matches were taking place and the winners, diary-style videos from some of the Kiwi and overseas competitors, and summary broadcasts of the highlights each day brought. The page was well customized with ticket, merchandise and entertainment tabs.

The official Twitter account was an extended version of the live updates – and catered to the mobile supporters keen to know asap who won what, when, and with whom! I also thought I’d mention here the official Youtube page with over 30 videos uploaded during the event, which is what impressed me the most.

Youtube pages are always hard to get off the ground, as the content needs to be interesting to lure views. RNZ did incredibly well with getting the Cambridge community involved in many of the clips, as well as highlighting aspects of the championships that are often overlooked (i.e. transport, volunteers, entertainment, local kids etc).

Well done Rowing New Zealand – if only you could have shown them how it was done for the Commonwealth Games (check out my review here) this year!

Written by Jess Miller.

Auckland Super City Elections – Social Media Sum Up

Over 60,000 votes separated Len Brown, our new Auckland Supercity mayor-elect and his opposition John Banks. Such a large sway in votes leads us to think – what exactly did he do better?

Holmes said that the last 3 months of Banks’ campaign dwindled and suggested Banks lost his steam for a great fight. This particularly down to his comments of not over-promising and keeping a relatively similar view to the direction he was currently taking Auckland. Brown on the other hand promised some big plans for Auckland, and with that came some attractive looking policies, with equally high prices. Seems we were in favour.

After reading numerous articles and comments post election, it seemed Banks ran a very traditional campaign somewhat limited to the central city. He’s reported to have neglected to target the North Shore, West Auckland and most importantly South Auckland areas where voters may not have been as tuned into the campaign. This could have been one of the factors that contributed to the landslide victory, coupled with the way each candidate used social media.

@mayorlenbrown attracted twice as many followers as @mayorjohnbanks. The interaction on each Mayor’s Twitter accounts reveals extensive conversation and banter back and forth. Brown ran with a ‘banter’ approach and Banks sent ‘updates’.

My opinion is that Twitter works best as a water cooler turned beehive of information and chatter, and in only certain cases (e.g @NZcivildefence) requires one way communication by way of updates. It is imperative that for the success of high profile people (of any sort) on social media that interaction between the person and the fans is on the same level to ensure engagement.

Special Mention – Social Media Stand Outs During the Campaign:

1. Rob Thomas
Auckland council candidate Rob Thomas made the 6pm news after announcing he had put up a billboard on Ponsonby Rd that was kitted out with Bluetooth. Nearby locals had the option to enable their cellphones to receive a personalised campaign message.

2. Michael Goudie

Elected into Rodney District Council at just 22 years of age last election, and over the weekend racked up an outstanding 9,121 votes for the new Albany ward of the Auckland Council, thrashing North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams. He has almost 1700 friends on Facebook and over 400 followers on Twitter. Goudie tweeted after the result that he proved a point in his campaign by using social media.

I think it’s fair to say the crows spoke for themselves – and Bank’s agreed. In his speech of defeat, he congratulated Brown, and said Len had mobilized his voters like never before – and “good on him”.

Written by Jess Miller.

New Zealand Fashion Week Unravelled

It comes and goes in an instant – and during the five day showcase of fashion of all kinds, all eyes are on New Zealand’s best making their debut onto the world stage.

Globally speaking, New Zealand Fashion Week has ever so subtly morphed into a digital highway of information – snowballing into every online avenue and collecting millions of loyal followers on the way. In New Zealand we are just starting to see this trend catalyst and challenge traditional media sources.

Yesterday, Fashion Without Borders, a discussion conference held by FINZ (Fashion Industry New Zealand) highlighted in part the digital revolution and it’s effect on the development of the industry.

Key panelist, Joanne North describes the interaction between brands and consumers online as a new dynamic:

“Now, brands are interacting with their fans, an interaction once regarded as mainly for the insiders, magazines and retailers. Fashion brands are able to place themselves in the same spaces as their consumers, and stay visible by appearing on their Facebook walls and Twitter feeds."

But despite this we are still lagging behind the rest of the world. I thought I’d take the time to see who leveraged NZFW the best through our online media:

Best blogger – this one has to go to Isaac Hindin-Miller of http://www.isaaclikes.com/ and @isaaclikes. This guy is a fashion connoisseur, and is constantly feeding back trends around the world. At least twenty blog posts tagged ‘Air NZ Fashion Week’ – he has and still continues to pave the way of our digi-fashion industry.

Best supporting sponsor – aside from the usual suspects (Air NZ, Westpac, NZ Herald), this year Smashbox @smashboxartists did a great job profiling their work during Fashion Week, actually during the week (and not afterward like lots of other sponsors!) on their Facebook - this included behind the scenes photos, and a competition run throughout August/September for a makeup artist to accompany Smashbox to NZFW.

Best emerging designer – This has to go to Celine Rita, this lovely lady is on Facebook & Twitter @CelineRita and is especially great at generating talk through competitions through tagging & liking, and generating a down-to-earth online presence. This year was her first year at NZFW since establishing in 2008 and methinks she has a great future!

Best established designer – In my opinion the younger more emerging talents are trying harder through social media to breakthrough their brands, through word of mouth. However, Stolen Girlfriends Club @stolenGFclub have made a stamp online into popular blog sites Isaac Likes and Fashion Toast, generating tens of thousands of hits, and have also created their own blog following NZFW! Check it out here.

The face of NZFW @nzfashionweek will no doubt be different again next year, especially as these key figures (and many more) will further delve the fashion industry into a digital arena, and we at markomPR cannot wait!

Written by Jess Miller

Facebook - To Powerful To Ignore

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