Since 2008, social media has expanded beyond the young user demographic and is continuing to enhance its personalization and interactivity. Which is why it turned the tables this presidential election, taking on a more proactive role by co-hosting debates, sponsoring town halls and creating new ways for voter/candidate communication. It’s awesome to see social media making a big impression that will forever change how future elections are ran. Thanks to their outreach, the 2012 elections are expected to be one of the highest voter turnout elections in U.S. history.

Just in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap of what social media has done for both candidates and tech-savvy constituents so far:

APRIL 20, 2011 – FACEBOOK TOWN HALL
Obama reconnected with the users responsible for his 2008 campaign success at Facebook’s headquarters. Moderated by Mark Zuckerberg himself, more than 1,700 questions to Obama were posted to the White House Facebook page and over 50,000 people watched the live-streamed event.

MAY 18, 2011 – YOUTUBE TOWN HALL
YouTube, owned by Google, created a channel for virtual debate. Users watch and decide which Congress members’ views they support before knowing which party the representative belongs to. The most supported videos are featured in the YouTube Town Hall Leaderboard. Congress members also respond to the top-voted user-submitted questions monthly.

JULY 6, 2011 – TWITTER TOWN HALL
Obama kicked off this event by making the first live presidential tweet in the White House. Twitter’s Executive Chairman, Jack Dorsey, then posed questions to Obama in real time that used the hashtag #AskObama. Radian6, Mass Relevance and curators monitored the tweets using Twitter’s search algorithms. Obama’s answers were condensed to 140 characters on @townhall and @whitehouse during the event.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 – TWITTER’S POLITICAL PAID ADVERTISING
Twitter allows candidates to purchase political Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts. Tweets feature a purple promoted icon and display a discloser line when hovered over. Unless you follow the accounts, the ads only appear on the top right corner of the UI, in trending topics and when you search for related topics.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 – GOOGLE/FOX NEWS DEBATE
Prior to the debate, about 20,000 viewers submitted more than 18,000 questions and 100,000 votes via text and video to the Fox News YouTube channel. As Google presented its public data and search trends in conjunction with debate questions, viewers voted on real-time polling questions and submitted comments as they watched. To top it off, the filing room was branded with Google’s logo and colors right down to the drinks.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011 – LINKEDIN TOWN HALL
What better topic to discuss in a town hall hosted by the world’s largest professional network than job creation and the American economy. Similar to the Facebook Town Hall, CEO Jeff Weiner asked Obama questions from the live audience at LinkedIn headquarters as well as from more than 4,000 users in a specially created LinkedIn Group.

OCTOBER 6, 2011 – YOUTUBE POLITICS CHANNEL
Curated by Storyful, YouTube launched a channel that serves as the hub for all political videos by candidates, users, news networks, etc. You can also compare each of the major candidate’s YouTube stats including views, subscribers, video shares and amount of searches. While user-generated videos generate the most views, no one has been able to produce the same virality as the “Obama Girl” music videos.

JANUARY 8, 2012 (TENTATIVE) – NBC NEWS/FACEBOOK GOP DEBATE
Facebook is scheduled to co-host a primary debate on NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderated by David Gregory. There’s not much information about the interactive elements, only that this first-of-its-kind debate will be an innovative, multi-platform forum that will make history. Meanwhile, users can go to the Meet The Press and US Politics Facebook pages to share questions for the debate and interact with others.

Although we’d like to think the social media giants are facilitating these events entirely out of the goodness of their hearts, “their proactivity is backed as they hire lobbyists, form political action committees and nurture their relationships with lawmakers whose policy decisions affect the companies’ bottom line.” In other words, social media is using its power to “friend” politicians and reinforce its privacy issues, algorithms, advertising, censorship, etc.

Regardless of its corporate motives, this just means we’ll have an even better social experience and more marketing opportunities as it attempts to get government “approval” to develop its technologies further. We applaud social media for pushing its innovation (and politician friending) to bring the outdated practices of campaigning to the 21st century. By taking initiative to generate political conversation in the digital landscape, its shown its capabilities and proven itself a necessity for more than just elections.

Facebook has grown to be the thousand pound gorilla in the social networking world with statistics to prove it, but even with that success they decided to make some big changes. These are the biggest changes they have made since their launch and there are big implications for businesses involved both in the short and long term.

Some claim that these new changes will transform social media forever. On the other side, PC Magazine reports that 86% of Facebook users don’t like the redesign. If Facebook’s new changes fail, it won’t be because of a lack of effort. Zuckerberg said in his keynote presentation at the F8 conference that they have been working on these new changes for the past year.

Summary of the Main Changes

There is already much discussion in the blogosphere detailing the specific features that have been changed. Below is a quick summary:

• A Subscribe button which allows you to follow people you aren’t friends with similar to how you would on Twitter. You can also set filters on what information you see from your friends.
• Easier ways to group people into lists with improved friends lists.
• A window with a constant flow of updates that floats on top of everything in the upper right corner called a News Ticker.
• Similar to a newspaper, you can filter the content on your homepage.
• Instantly and automatically share what you are reading, listening to, and watching.
• The Timeline has replaced the traditional profile. This video shows what Timeline will look like.
• A good general overview would be: Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need to Know.

6 Takeaways: What it all Means for Your Brand

1. New Layout, New Opportunity
Zuckerberg described the advantages of the new design and layout solely from the user perspective and brushed aside any questions about how the changes would affect brand pages. From the Marketer perspective, every element that was implemented to help individuals express themselves will help brands do the same. For instance, the new large image at the top of each Timeline will speak volumes without a single word. Although brands haven’t actually implemented these changes, these mock ups show what will be possible. (Source: Skinnynyc.com)

2. The “Like” Taken Off The Pedestal
Many companies have invested in getting as many “Likes” on their pages as possible and now they are becoming less important. The original idea of the “Like” was for people to find, identify, and distribute good content. Many brands that were just trying to increase the number they had on their page and not produce quality content are going to have to change their approach or be forgotten.

3. Good Content or Die
The concept of producing quality content that people want rather than advertisements with hard sells has been around for some time, but it just got much more important. Sharing is becoming easier which means that there will be much more clutter to have to break through to be noticed and only the very best content will be able to do that. In addition, users will have much more control over their timelines by being able to select which content are the top stories. Facebook will learn over time individual preferences and automatically sort a user’s Timeline. Brands that are either boring or irrelevant won’t be selected and ranked much much lower or not at all.

4. Apps Take Center Stage
Apps are transitioning from being a tool to being a medium that people express themselves through. The emphasis has shifted from getting people to “Like” their brand to enabling the brand to become a part of the story of someone’s life. A runner may have “Liked” Nike’s brand page in the past, but now they will post that they just ran 3 miles using the Nike Plus app for all their friends to see. These apps will have a very visible presence in the Timeline. In short, there is a massive opportunity for brands to create apps that become an organic part of someone’s story.

5. Dare to Share? Automatic Sharing
Sharing aspects of your life has never been easier. Instead of deciding every time you want to share some piece of content, you can now decide to share a type of content once and then that type of content is posted automatically after that. For example, you can decide that you would like the music you listen to on the online music player, Spotify, to be posted and every song will be posted with the Spotify branded message to the Ticker automatically. Much of this will be facilitated through apps. This automatic sharing will cause there to be much more noise, but it is also an opportunity for brands. Creating an app that will enable people to share content like this will proliferate the amount of branded messages you have buzzing around on Facebook. Although we won’t know until everything has been rolled out and embraced, there will probably be far more of these automatic messages being posted than regular posts. This is one way to keep your brand in front of your customer.

6. Privacy: Facebook Knows A Lot More
Zuckerberg’s keynote announcement introduced all of these changes as benefits for the users, but they are even more beneficial for the advertisers. All of the additional user data is ideal to improve ad targeting. Some go as far as to say that the new changes were made primarily because of the advertising benefits and actually hinder the user experience while minimizing privacy.

The issue of privacy is a thorn that keeps causing problems for Facebook. It seems that privacy will become the user’s responsibility now even though Facebook’s CTO Bret Taylor said some new elements will actually give users more privacy control. Users have the opportunity to share much more content, but have to determine how much they feel comfortable sharing.

If you are a Facebook advertiser, the question you should be asking now is whether you want to adopt Facebook’s view on privacy and use all of the data they have available even if your customers may object to it.

By continuing to distribute quality content within a strong social media strategy, Visit Carlsbad’s Facebook community exceeds 30K+ ‘Likes’ in less than one year.

SAN DIEGO, CA – July 14, 2011 – In September 2010, Visit Carlsbad, the Destination Marketing Organization for Carlsbad and San Diego based digital media firm Mindgruve, set out to create beneficial content and exclusive vacation deals for locals and visitors to Carlsbad, California. Together, they have provided a great service and 30,000 people have ‘liked’ their Facebook Page within months, demonstrating the value provided to this online community.

Visit Carlsbad set out to offer engaging content and value. Initially, Mindgruve rose to the challenge and created the Visit Carlsbad Facebook Page to serve as a hub to find community event information, hotel deals, attraction updates and restaurant recommendations. Beyond simply bringing this all to one place, this page also rewarded its visitors with exclusive vacation deals.

As the project moved along, Mindgruve improved the user experience even more by adding the “Book a Stay” tab to the page. This enhanced the engagement because it evolved the page from only giving information and deals to also allowing visitors to actually book accommodations right on the Facebook Page.

“It is evident what a difference a solid social media strategy can make not only in the short term, but especially in the long term. We’re thankful that Mindgruve has laid such a good foundation to build on and taken us to not only 10,000, or 20,000, but 30,000 ‘likes’ [on Facebook] in less than a year,” states Sam Ross, Executive Director of Visit Carlsbad.

Mindgruve and Visit Carlsbad have continued to build on that foundation by incorporating components such as giveaways during this 2011 summer too. This has not only helped increased the ‘likes’ but has also really boosted the engagement of the fans on their page. To build on these successes, Mindgruve will continue to partner with Visit Carlsbad on initiatives such as this to help them provide a great service to their local residents and visitors.

About Visit Carlsbad
Visit Carlsbad is the Destination Marketing Organization for Carlsbad, CA. It serves approximately 36 Carlsbad hotels ranging from beach bungalows to luxury accommodations by presenting and promoting vacation ideas, packages, attractions and deals for the City of Carlsbad. VisitCarlsbad.com.

SAN DIEGO, CA – April 1, 2011 – At the start of September 2010, San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve, implemented a new social media strategy for Visit Carlsbad that focused on providing engaging content and exclusive vacation deals. Seven months later, Mindgruve successfully brought the Visit Carlsbad Facebook Page up to 20,000 members and counting!

Mindgruve and Visit Carlsbad worked together to provide relevant content that visitors and locals would find beneficial, including community event information, hotel deals, attraction updates, restaurant recommendations and more. Incorporating regular contests also increased page interaction while targeted Facebook ads helped reach new audiences.

“The Visit Carlsbad Facebook page has been a great help in solidifying Carlsbad as a premier travel destination. We are thrilled to have Mindgruve’s help as we continue to grow, connect with users and share the beauty of Carlsbad,” states Sam Ross, Executive Director of Visit Carlsbad.

With the addition of the “Book a Stay” Facebook tab, Mindgruve continues to work closely with Visit Carlsbad to develop engagement opportunities.

About Visit Carlsbad
Visit Carlsbad is the Destination Marketing Organization for the Carlsbad area. It serves approximately 36 area hotels ranging from beach bungalows to luxury accommodations by presenting and promoting vacation ideas, packages, attractions and deals for the area. www.VisitCarlsbad.com.

In 2008, President Obama’s presidential campaign changed political marketing in various ways, but as a digital media agency we were intrigued with his use of social and mobile media to connect and garner support from the American people. After witnessing the overwhelming amount of success Barack Obama had with his voters, 2010 midterm election candidates on both sides of the aisle are embracing the power of new media, such as geo-targeted mobile ads, social websites and appealing designs that evoke a sense of sociability and openness, to connect with voters in time for election day.

Similar to President Obama’s mobile marketing efforts, candidates running in the 2010 midterm elections have stepped up their mobile advertising through geo-targeted mobile ads. Rep. Michele Bachmann used this tactic to target Minnesotans specifically at the state fair this past summer and as the Star Tribune notes, “campaigns are spending more of their budgets on sophisticated web ads that zero in on specific locations and demographics,” and rightly so. As we discussed in a past blog, mobile phones are a hyper-personal medium. Targeting smart phone users based on age, location, gender, search terms and residence can create awareness among groups of voters that matter most to a campaign’s overall success.

In addition to geo-targeted mobile ads, political parties have increased their social media use (of note, Republicans now hold eight of the top ten Capitol Hill Twitter spots, while 300 members of congress have turned to Facebook to stay in touch with the voting public) and taken steps to create community websites for constituents to interact with the political party and fellow voters. This past May, the GOP did this very thing when launching America Speaking Out. Its purpose is to solicit policy ideas from community members, who then vote for their favorite policy idea in order to create the GOP’s “Pledge to America.” The integration with Facebook and Twitter take this concept a step further as community members are able to share a policy idea and/or vote with their network of friends.

Finally, it doesn’t just end with new media channels. Design now plays an integral role in making sure the brand of a political party is open and inviting, encouraging a stronger social relationship. America Speaking Out moved in this direction with their website design and color palette in order to speak to voters who are unhappy with current leadership. Another intriguing web design change came from the Democratic National Committee. Armed with a new logo (reminiscent of Facebook and Twitter icons) and website redesign, the party’s new look was created to reflect what the DNC wishes to represent to America – “a community.”

Based on our observations of the new social media and mobile methods being used for the 2010 midterm elections quickly approaching, it’s obvious that new media is changing the face of political campaigning. With that said, we are confident that the new media tactics and strategies used today will empower politicians and political parties to expand their social reach by creating a network of supporters who will help spread their message to the American people.

By using innovative social media and marketing tactics, Sunfood’s online community increases by 100% in only four months.

SAN DIEGO,CA – September 13, 2010 – Through the use of online contests, unique content and exclusive deals, San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve, has been able to push Sunfood’s Facebook Page past 75,000 engaged members.

Mindgruve has worked closely with Sunfood to create specific content targeted at the superfood community. Initiatives such as the weekly deals Facebook tab, exclusive educational content and weekly product giveaways have allowed members to remain engaged while also generating new users. “The Sunfood Facebook Page has greatly helped Sunfood increase its exposure to the health food community. With the innovations and content that Mindgruve has been able to generate, our Facebook page has become the core for a growing online superfood community,” explained Brian Bowers, Sunfood’s Director of Product Development.

In addition to the current features, Mindgruve is working to create new strategies and features to further engage the audience, which has an average of 300 people “liking” the page daily. These features will include increased promotional giveaways as well as new content and recipes from guest chefs and leaders within the raw food community.

“Sunfood has long been a leader within the raw food and healthy lifestyle communities. Their Facebook page has allowed them to continue their leadership role and provide a place for superfoodies to band together and share their healthy living experiences. Future initiatives, such as the ability to purchase foods in-tab, should only increase the engagement and interactivity for this group,” said Chad Robley, President of Mindgruve.

About Sunfood
Sunfood is the world’s leading provider of high-quality superfoods, including sustainable, organic and raw products. Distributing over 700 different products, their website has become the nucleus of the growing superfood global community. Sunfood also provides staff experts, educational materials and various other tools used for integrating the health benefits of superfoods into their patrons lifestyles. www.Sunfood.com

Online video is a major part of the interactive world and many say it’s the future of marketing. However, it wasn’t until recently that we’ve seen companies actively use it to reach audiences online. Toyota (apart from the recall woes faced earlier this year) and Levi’s have shown great leadership with their current campaigns. Inspired by Reel SEO’s tips for creating a web series, we believe these brands hit the nail on the head with content that centers on universal truths for the target audience, encouraging them to contribute, watch and share with others.

Toyota
Toyota’s Sienna Family changed the way we viewed automobile advertising, especially after the now famous Swagger Wagon music video took the web by storm. Armed with (self-professed) A+ parenting skills, the family gave parents and minivan drivers the opportunity to chuckle at the well-known steps new parents take to meet varying family needs. Taking a step back from traditional car ads, Toyota developed a campaign around an engaging, sitcom-style series of online videos that don’t push warranties, pricing and the like.

Already, millions have gone out of their way to meet the family. As Spork Marketing Blog notes, unlike traditional TV advertising, “online video viewers have elected to watch your content – it’s not being forced upon them.” With nearly 3 million YouTube channel views and over 4 million views of Swagger Wagon alone, Toyota has achieved an online video marketing success.

Levi’s
The popular clothing brand grabbed Mindgruve’s attention with “Ready to Work” (an extension of their “Go Forth” campaign), which documents the new pioneers of Braddock, PA, through an 11-part online video series.

Unlike Toyota’s series of laughable family quirks, this series of online videos pull at the heart strings by tapping into the idea of hard work, a theme integral to America and Levi’s roots, while also highlighting a very real concept many have faced in light of economic highs and lows, starting over. These personal narratives will be carried through the entire series as it showcases the potential of Braddock residents, including Braddock’s Mayor who expresses his passion for the town with heartfelt tattoos.

Still early in the campaign, Levi’s made the right decision to captivate their audience by leveraging their Facebook Page and YouTube channel. The use of their social network makes the series easily accessible to those already interested and is sure to help spread the word about this resilient community and Levi’s brand.

Done correctly, online videos can be an engaging medium and possess the ability to enhance your marketing with repeated viewing, sharing and meaningful discussion. While there is no surefire way to guarantee a hit, choosing and executing on a theme universal to your audience is a good first step.

Through a strategic social media campaign, Mindgruve increases superfood community to over 50,000 members in seven months.

SAN DIEGO, CA – July 7, 2010 – Seven months after launching the Sunfood Facebook page, San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve, has produced a series of key social media engagements to propel the online community, Facebook.com/Sunfood, to over 50,000 members.

Closely collaborating with Sunfood, Mindgruve continues to improve their efforts by utilizing a custom-built weekly deals Facebook tab, weekly product sample giveaways, targeted Facebook ads, website display ads and email marketing. “This is a huge milestone for Sunfood and our online community. Mindgruve’s guidance and knowledge of this space has allowed our Facebook Page to become the hub for all conversations relating to raw foods and superfoods, and given us countless opportunities to directly connect with our consumers,” stated Brian Bowers, Sunfood’s Director of Product Development.

With an average of 300 people joining the page daily, Mindgruve is actively working to create and implement additional features for Sunfood’s Facebook Page, including custom tabs that will give health-conscious individuals the ability to shop within Facebook, contribute to important topics of conversation and find recipes for their lifestyle.

“Every day Sunfood is doing their part to share the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. With an average of over 600 monthly interactions, it’s clear that Sunfood’s page members are actively seeking this information. We’re eager to help Sunfood provide valuable insights through more integrated features, such as custom applications, as well as other exciting initiatives, including SunfoodTV and a Superfoods Community,” explained Chad Robley, President of Mindgruve.

About Sunfood
Sunfood is the world’s leading provider of high-quality superfoods, including sustainable, organic and raw products. Distributing over 700 different products, their website has become the nucleus of the growing superfood global community. Sunfood also provides staff experts, educational materials and various other tools used for integrating the health benefits of superfoods into their patrons lifestyles. www.Sunfood.com

Using robust Facebook Page capabilities, Mindgruve drives the community to 25,000+ members in under six months.

SAN DIEGO,CA – May 5, 2010 – Since launching the Sunfood Facebook Page in January, San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve, has provided a series of social media initiatives to build the online community, Facebook.com/Sunfood, to over 25,000 members.

Leveraging a custom-built weekly deals Facebook application, an Earth Day Giveaway contest and other weekly promotions, Mindgruve continues to support Sunfood’s efforts with targeted Facebook ads, website display ads and email marketing. “The success behind our Facebook page is directly related the amount of work Mindgruve has done behind the scenes to help us develop the community. We couldn’t have met 25,000 members without their quick work and strategic planning in launching efforts like our Earth Day promotion and weekly giveaways,” explained Brian Bowers, Sunfood’s Director of Product Development.

As more people continue to join the page, Mindgruve moves to develop more immersive features for Sunfood’s Facebook page. The page will soon feature custom tabs, which will allow for shopping within Facebook while also giving health food enthusiasts increased opportunities to contribute and interact with other members.

“With nearly 100 interactions and almost 200 new community members every day, the success we’ve seen has been amazing. As Sunfood continues to find the best new superfoods, we look forward to developing innovative ways to share them. These include SunfoodTV, an online video channel for recipes and product reviews, and Superfoods Community, a superfood-specific online community focused on health, lifestyle and personal growth,” stated Chad Robley, President of Mindgruve.

About Sunfood

Sunfood is the world’s leading provider of high-quality superfoods, including sustainable, organic and raw products. Distributing over 700 different products, their website has become the nucleus of the growing superfood global community. Sunfood also provides staff experts, educational materials and various other tools used for integrating the health benefits of superfoods into their patrons lifestyles. www.Sunfood.com

Through an integrated social media campaign, Mindgruve increases raw lifestyle community to 10,000+ fans in 45 days.

SAN DIEGO,CA – February 25, 2010 – Starting 2010 with the goal of increased customer engagement for client, Sunfood, San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve, launched a robust social media effort that included exclusive promotions, topical interactions and a special donation program for the Haiti relief efforts to propel Sunfood as the leading Facebook community for raw foodists.

In only 45 days, Sunfood’s fan page, Facebook.com/Sunfood, surpassed the 10,000 fan mark and continues to see over 300 new fans join daily. Supported by targeted Facebook ads, website display ads and email marketing, Mindgruve has involved Sunfood’s community on a new level. “Everyone could see the potential for success and Mindgruve made it a reality. Through their efforts, support for the page is growing with every interaction. The recipe submissions, photo sharing and personal recommendations show just how collaborative this group is,” explained Brian Bowers, Sunfood’s Director of Product Development.

Coupled with new product offerings, enhanced email marketing strategies and exclusive offerings, Mindgruve developed a comprehensive forum where raw foodists and health advocates alike can share common experiences, best practices and helpful tips. In addition, Mindgruve created new branded tabs to launch important initiatives, such as the “Sunfood for Haiti” donation program, which helped to raise over $6,000 for victims of the devastating earthquake.

“With the abundance of information, products and studies about the raw food lifestyle, we knew it was time to provide consumers with an in-depth location to discuss the latest trends, news and products, and it’s paid off. Interactions are over 400 each week and we have yet to reach ceiling in fan additions. This also translates into increased traffic and sales on Sunfood.com as well as more phone orders being placed,” stated Chad Robley, President of Mindgruve.

As Sunfood’s fan page continues to grow, Mindgruve and Sunfood work to develop premiere programs that allow shopping within Facebook, encourage more raw foodists to interact and evolve their lifestyle, and offer special online deals.

About Sunfood

Sunfood is the world’s leading provider of high-quality superfoods, including sustainable, organic and raw products. Distributing over 700 different products, their website has become the nucleus of the growing superfood global community. Sunfood also provides staff experts, educational materials and various other tools used for integrating the health benefits of superfoods into their patrons lifestyles. www.Sunfood.com

Mindgruve believes this: RSS and traditional news sources in their current form are a dying breed, while entertainment and “valuable” content are getting easier to share. People are also spending more and more time on social networks, but rather than seeing a constant stream of mostly random, rarely significant tweets and Facebook updates, meaningful content – content that is shared by friends you trust – will rise to the top (it’s already a top driver of news media traffic). The remaining issue: money is key to making this work.

Offering consistently valuable content is a huge step forward for the digital world, but how do you do it without spamming your audience? We believe it should be done strategically, creatively and with respect for the users.

So, why focus on money and friends as it pertains to social media content? Simple. The two go hand-in-hand. If your friend suggests a story on the most recent Haiti relief efforts, you’re more likely to read it and share it again with your network. In time, as you spend increasing attention to specific outlets like Facebook, the less time you want to spend outside of it searching for content, resulting in a willingness to pay for the links that your connections suggest or you subscribe to. Content producers are more than excited by this prospect. Their goal now is to make content as easy as possible to share, while installing simple profit centers in which you can fund more content.

Of course, some people would prefer to keep their social networks cost-free. Invading “personal” space with requests to buy, buy, buy will likely cause revolt among certain audiences. Everyone has seen the Facebook backlashes and we wouldn’t be surprised if some individuals who are bombarded with media content dig their heels into the sand and say, “Enough!”

Ultimately, getting socially-attuned people to become early-adopters of the social media, media frenzy means taking careful steps not to overwhelm, while also providing a perfect balance of consumer cost analysis with content desire. It will be different for every single content provider (and each one is truly different) and a lot of fun to perfect.

Facebook promotion leads to increased brand interaction over the holiday season.

SAN DIEGO,CA – January 19, 2010 – During the 2009 holiday season, Mindgruve, a digital media firm based in San Diego, CA, launched a social media promotion that combined two popular holiday games – Secret Santa and White Elephant Gift Exchange – with a social media element. Through this effort, they were able to engage a large audience as well as provide them with a variety of gifts and discussions during a time when most agencies shut their doors.

Mindgruve posted an image of 16 wrapped presents on their Facebook page, along with a custom “Social Santa” tab explaining how the promotion would work. Any “fan” of Mindgruve could tag the gift they wanted with their name for a chance to win it.

“Our goal was to do something smart, simple and fun that encompassed our personality and philosophy. I think we achieved it perfectly with Social Santa. We engaged a large number of our peers and spread a little holiday cheer. The response was outstanding,” stated Mindgruve President, Chad Robley.

Mindgruve set the contest in motion through email as well as updates on their Facebook and Twitter pages, keeping fans abreast of the action. As people began to participate and discuss the promotion online, the popularity of the contest grew virally, increasing traffic, commenting and opportunities for interaction.

After one week, random winners were chosen and announced via email. To extend the campaign further, Mindgruve posted the unwrapped gifts with their respective winners and allowed the community to continue discussing the prizes, which ranged from old VHS tapes to gift cards to an iPod Shuffle.

As a result of the campaign, Mindgruve doubled their Facebook fans, sustained a multi-week surge of interaction through commenting and tagging, and participated in a series of meaningful engagements with their audience. Mindgruve looks to continue innovating internally and for clients with social media as it plays  an increasingly prominent role in consumers’ lives.

SAN DIEGO, CA – In an effort to bolster tourism in a struggling economy, San Diego North has chosen to partner with San Diego, California-based digital media firm, Mindgruve. “We were looking for someone who could maximize our dollars and stimulate hotel occupancy. We have one of the greatest vacation areas in the country, if not world, so we wanted to make sure people found us on the internet when they were searching for vacation deals,” explained San Diego North Director of Marketing, Barbara Bovee. She continued “Mindgruve has a great track record of creating results-driven campaigns and that is exactly what we’re looking for.”

Focusing on travelers within driving distance of San Diego, Mindgruve is rolling out a comprehensive internet marketing plan that targets areas such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and encourages their residents to get away to San Diego’s northern coastline. “We’ve already implemented rich media ads, behavioral targeting and retargeting, as well as instituted an aggressive email marketing plan – all based around the trend of mini-vacations. The average vacation stay for people right now is only 1.8 days, so we want to make sure visitors make the most of everything our area has to offer in that time,” stated Chad Robley, Mindgruve President.

Looking to further engage active travelers, Mindgruve has also developed a Facebook fan page and Twitter account, which allows would-be vacationers to get a first-hand look at everything that is available to them. Barbara Bovee elaborated, “to us, it made perfect sense. Travel is often a very social thing to do. Not just during a trip, but also while planning it and then telling everyone about it afterwards. Through our social media presence, we’ve created a forum specific to our area where consumers can get the latest deals as well as share or plan their next adventure.”

About San Diego North

The San Diego North Convention and Visitors Bureau represents approximately 300 hotels spanning from La Jolla to Oceanside. By combining the efforts of these hotels to offer a cohesive message, San Diego North engages and incites travelers to explore the northern San Diego coastline and all the amenities it offers. www.sandiegonorth.com