Who’s Knuckle Rumbler? 12 Ways They Used Social Media to Reach Farther
February 8, 2010I don’t remember how I found it, but I ran across this over the weekend.
Who knows how I got there, but I found them. We’ll talk about tracking in one of my points.
As you know, companies are using social networking sites to communicate to their current clients, constituents and friends. As it becomes more familiar, as people and organizations start to realize the benefits frequently outweigh the risks, they’re coming up with creative ways of reaching out to new people.
It IS all about attracting attention to your company, your cause, or perhaps yourself, and the BEST way to do that is to prove that you’ve got something valuable to say, teach, or offer.
By pointing out a few things I noticed about Knuckle Rumbler’s campaign, some related to social networking, some not, perhaps it will give you some ideas for your own.
My suggestions & observations, in no particular order:
You can scroll down or click on them to hop down for more details.
1. FREE or GIVEAWAY Creates Action
2. Make It A No-Brainer To Decide
3. Compare, Contrast & Teach So It’s Easy To Understand
4. Give Credit; It Benefits You, Too
5. Spell Out The Action You Want Them To Take
6. Be Friendly and Personable, Even When You’re Communicating the Rules Of Your Game
7. Know What You Want From Your Campaign & Communicate That
9. Encourage Them To Talk Back To You
10. Track Your ROI & Response Rate
12. Prove You’re A Valuable Asset To Them
Here’s the details:
1. FREE or GIVEAWAY Creates Action
They used the word ‘Giveaway’ prominently. We’re in a recession. Free is extra-compelling right now.
They drove traffic from wherever I was to their site. That means whatever I saw convinced me to click. Perhaps it was the VIP Wristband Giveaway title, combined with the fact that they’re in an area I already have an interest in: music.
2. Make It A No-Brainer To Decide
When I get to their site, it’s EASY for me to see exactly who they are, what they do. I can experience them through video and audio.
First, I don’t have to spend the time digging around to find that, or even worse, take the risk of spending the time to go SEE them to find out if they’re good. I’ve been reading What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about a ‘pitch-man’ who believed the more you could see how something worked or what it was, the easier you could decide if it was for you, and the more you were convinced you could operate or benefit from what was being pitched.
Second, the audio and visual experience appeals to more than one sense. Last year at SXSWi, I saw an excellent presentation on how involving at least two senses had much more impact than just doubling the impact of one sense.
3. Compare, Contrast & Teach So It’s Easy To Understand
You might not know who Knuckle Rumbler is, but they mention others you might know.
Will it help to mention something or someone else who’s somehow related, involved, or similar to help your audience categorize or differentiate?
4. Give Credit; It Benefits You, Too.
As part of helping you learn about them, they link to others, giving them credit, publicity and ‘link juice’ which is valuable for the others’ visibility to search engines.
Doesn’t hurt theirs either.
5. Spell Out The Action You Want Them To Take
Knuckle Rumbler tells you EXACTLY what you need to do to act. How to do that, where you need to show up, is bold, colorful, clear.
6. Be Friendly & Personable, Even When You’re Communicating the Rules Of Your Game
They’re personable. You get a sense of who they are. This is important when you’re on the social media sites, and it’s important when someone visits your website, too.
They tell you what THEY’RE willing to do, while they also make sure you know what’s not okay. They let you know what will happen if you skirt their system, too.
7. Know What You Want From Your Campaign & Communicate That
Knuckle Rumbler wants you to get involved in order to win the prize. You’ve got to make some effort. After all, they want new fans, publicity, and interest. This builds a fan base, fills venues and sells their music.
Their campaign supports their desire. You can’t just fill out a form and be done with it. You have to show up, you have to interact if you want the prize.
The more ‘touches’ they have with you, the more likely they are to impact you and keep you engaged if they’re a fit for you.
They make it easy to pass this information on, and they show visibly on their site how many others have passed it on, too.
Maybe you’re not interested in their music, but you know EXACTLY who is, and coincidentally, you know they’d do this kind of thing.
The easier it is for you to pass it on, the more likely you are to do it. Sometimes even having to go to a new page is enough to make you bail. Our attention span and willingness to click and navigate is scary short, isn’t it?
9. Encourage Them To Talk Back To You
Right there on that page, there’s a comment section. Doesn’t that say they want to hear from you? A few blanks to fill out to make sure you’re for real, one button, and you’ve had your say.
Some would argue (and sometimes that includes me) that it makes it TOO easy for people to type before thinking. There’s definitely a lot of comments on blogs that make me roll my eyes, especially when the commenters digress into attacking each other
But now I’ve digressed. The content of the comments is often less important than the fact that there ARE comments. That means someone’s looking, talking. They’re there; they care.
For many of us, that’s what’s really important. (Confession: Unconcealed Hint!)
10. Track Your ROI & Response Rate
You need to know what’s working and what’s not.
Knuckle Rumbler can track where it came from. I gave you a shortened version of their URL so it was easier to open here.
So you don’t have to scroll back to the top of this post, here’s the URL again:
Once you click on my shortened version, you’ll be able to see their full URL in your browser. See how it has Twitter in it?
It’s essential, mission critical, for you to be where your potential audience is.
Visibility isn’t optional.
Even the big brands can’t sit on the front porch of their websites, hoping people stop in. We want to see you in the park; we demand the ability to talk to you if you want us to care.
No more website porch; you’ve got to be in the social media park hanging out!
Yes, you still NEED the porch, the website, so when they’re interested, they can come over to your house. But you can make some pretty close ‘friends’ just from showing up and playing the game.
12. Prove You’re A Valuable Asset To Them
It’s important for you to know what you want from being there. What game do you want to play, what friends, clients, connections would you like to find?
If you’re looking for monkey bar playmates, you shouldn’t be hanging out in the sandbox filling pails with little shovels.
It’s critical to know what to do when you get there, too. If people are interested in kickball, and you’re a great first baseman, step up and give them what they want. You’ll benefit, too, when the team of you and your audience kick a home run.
Winning for them wins for you, too.
I hope this example and these 12 suggestions generate some ideas for you.
Your comments mean a lot to us here. They help us create content that’s useful, they start conversations. We learn from them. What compelling examples have you seen from an organization creatively reaching out using social networking?
What did YOU notice about Knuckle Rumbler’s campaign that I didn’t? And did you click on their video?
