Quest Staffing Solutions, one of South Africa’s leading staffing companies, identified the opportunity to be the first company of its kind to effectively use social media to connect with Generations X and Y candidates.
Quest’s social media campaign is ongoing and includes social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, a customised job site and blog. Missy Quest is the mascot designed to represent the brand within this online environment.
Facts
The phenomenal rise of social media has made it a medium that cannot be ignored.
South Africa’s internet user growth has grown 91.3% from 2000 to 2009.
Facebook has more than 400 million active users.
Facebook is South Africa’s second most popular after Google.
There are 55000 active South Africa Twitter users who have an average of 115 followers each.
The Objectives
The ongoing campaign goals are twofold: attract and filter prospective candidates while building the brand image of Quest Staffing Solutions in the minds of Generations X and Y candidates.
Cutting through the advertising clutter and getting people’s attention is a challenge for any brand. Flash mobs, in which a group of people assemble suddenly in a public place to perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time and then quickly disperse (Wikipedia), is gaining momentum. It’s a publicity stunt but thanks to social media, a quick but immaculately choreographed performance can spread like wild fire online. Now that’s thinking globally and acting locally.
Oprah has done it:
And now Jamie Olivier has organised a flash mob to promote his new TV series, Jamie’s Food Revolution. As Jamie says in the introduction of this video, “A flash mob is about creating a really unusually experience in a really normal place and shocking everyone with something brilliant.”
Have you heard of a flash mob in South Africa? What do you think a flash of brilliance or just another stunt you’d walk past? Don’t let me sway your opinion but I think it’s brilliant.
When AMERICAN shutters approached us to enhance their brand we had to start thinking like interior designers and home décor enthusiasts. We wanted to translate the ease and elegance of AMERICAN shutters and blinds in the branding, website and social media communication.
Brief
AMERICAN shutters wanted a new look for their website, brochures, business cards and email signatures. They planned to exhibit at the HOMEMAKER’s 2009 expo, a perfect event to launch the evolved brand, which given the time line meant to we had to work fast to maximise this opportunity.
Background
AMERICAN shutters have been manufacturers of customised louvre shutters since 1985 and are one of the first companies to bring American style shutters to South Africa. Founders Stephen and Karina Palmer know that being first doesn’t guarantee anything and therefore decided to enhance brand identity to maintain their position as industry leaders.
Concept and creative execution
We gave the site a fresh look and enhanced it with features such as information libraries from news, answers to frequently asked questions, customer references/ recommendations and advice.
The original website looked like this:
We redesigned it to look like this:
We added an online gallery showroom which allows visitors to select shutters and/or blinds according to function, colour and style preference.
“The online showroom was the most challenging part of building this website,” said Daryl Glass, our creative director, “It had to be designed in Flash and required intricate coding and database management functionality.”
You pay for print advertising per millimetre, centimetre or page and measure the power of PR by millimetre. So just how do we measure social media? Get me my ruler; I want to measure your social media!
It’s absurd but then again so is the debate between the value of traditional media and social media. I read the news online but I like my ‘chick’ magazines to page through when I’m lounging on the couch. The point I’m trying to make is that I believe both are valuable, but different, mediums of communication.
In order to understand the value of social media, we need to start with the psychology of traditional advertising.
I can’t believe that 2009 is almost over! My first six months at Power of 9 have been full of fun and sometimes full of vloek words but all-in-all I have to say that this is a flipping cool team to work with.
If you were a fly on the wall in the Power of 9 office you would more than likely hear about our team’s highlights and low lights of the day, week or month (and sometimes the vloek words). This is our final list of ‘fur balls’ (low lights) and ‘purrfects’ (highlights) for the year so we hope it makes you smile and if it makes you break out into a giggle, let us know.
Tweeting is not just for birds. Twitter, the micro-blogging site, allows anyone to ‘tweet’ and share their opinions online in posts with a limit of 140 characters, much like a text message.
Who cares you ask? Brands care. A recent study found that 39% of people on Twitter have discussed a brand or product and 44% are receptive to promotions and special offers (if you’re interested, read more here).
South African brands have taken notice and it’s no wonder since Twitter is the 8th most visited site in South Africa and South Africa is the the 10th largest user of Twitter. Now you can see the big attraction!
If you’ve been convinced and want to start tweeting, here are a few things you should know…
Wondering what’s all the fuss about social media? This blog post will get you up to speed on the size of social networks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in South Africa.
According to Internet World Stats, South Africa’s internet user growth has grown 91.3% from 2000 to 2009. Universal McCann’s Wave 4 annual social media tracker reports that 1.4 million South Africans have a social network profile and 25% of South Africa’s active internet usersare uploading videos to a video sharing site. Social media has surpassed the popularity of online porn and many say that it’s about to squash TV as an entertainment provider.
In other words, social media isn’t big… it’s HUGE.
Facebook continues to evolve and tailor functions to make sure the social networking site maintains popularity with users. The latest revamp has made Facebook groups look and function similarly to fan pages.
It’s good news for administrators of groups who felt they lacked the means to engage with members. Previously group activities only appeared in the group but now group activity should show up in the news feeds of members. Groups now have publisher enabling members to share group content with their friends via a message or post to their profile like one can do with the fan page.
Trying to choose between a fan page and a group for your brand? The fan page vs. groups debate continues but one function may make all the difference… page insights. In a previous post about Facebook fan pages I noted that fan pages allow administrators to view market insights or ‘page insights’ from the number of page views received to the general demographic segmentation of fans. This is the real difference between groups and fan pages… for now.
Are you a fan? Do you follow a Facebook fan page for your favourite band, TV show, cool drink or celebrity? Have you ever thought that a fan page could benefit your business?
If you would like to know how you could use this social networking site for your brand or business, read this article. Find out what a Facebook fan page is, what makes it an attractive option for marketers, why content is so important and what it takes to make a fan page work.
fax:
+27 21 556 8215