Case Study – Social Media CFFS

Case Study: Social Media for CFFS

Situation:

The Canadian Flowers for Food Society goals included generating both awareness and funds to continue programming. The success of the upcoming second annual Art Gala Evening “Bouquet of Hope” was critical in the continuation of the charity and its programming. Canadian Flowers for Food Society empowers the homeless while engaging Vancouver’s senior citizens, youth and artists through sustainable initiatives.

Action:

Marrett Green, CEO of Canadian Flowers for Food Society, turned to Joanne Probyn of ReadyGo Media to promote their second annual Art Gala Evening “Bouquet of Hope” at Gallery Gachet. Joanne lead a team of four specializing in public relations, marketing, web design, event promotion and graphic design. She effectively sourced group show artists, consulted on art curation and marketing, and booked headliners including internationally acclaimed painter James Picard and musician Lisa O’Neill. Primary focus was to develop and implement a powerful Social Media Marketing Strategy.

Results:

“Bouquet of Hope” was a huge success. The event was well attended and Canadian Flowers for Food was exposed to a wide range of new people. Due to growth in attendance, profits and exposure, the charity and its programming will continue and expand. Expansion includes hosting in a new city. Canadian Flowers for Food has also been approved to host the next Gala in the prestigious Roundhouse Community Centre for 2011.

Metrics:

• Increased number of art sales by 1200%
• Increased gross sales by 780%
• More than doubled attendance from previous year
• 66 Twitter followers (starting number 7), 11 listed
• 181 Facebook Group members, 31 Facebook Page fans

*Website:

• 231% increase in referring website traffic
• 193% increase in unique visitors
• 184% increase in overall website visits
• 157% increase in “search” traffic

*Based on same three month period for the previous year.

Testimonials:

Alison Doyle, Web Design and Media Consultant, Canadian Flowers For Food Society
“Joanne was an essential component to the success of The Bouquet of Hope Art Exhibit at Gallery Gache last May. She plugged away at as many outlets as possible to spread word about the event. She exposed CFFS to many new people and did a fantastic job raising awareness about homeless/marginalized groups in the Lower Mainland. Joanne is organized, on the ball and great at what she does. If she ever decides to pursue another career choice, I recommend Project Manager; for her ability to communicate.”

Facebook – The Movie

It’s coming! Facebook the movie. Scroll down for movie trailer.

“The Social Network – you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” is due to be released October 1st, 2010. The trailer is enticing. If you still think Facebook is a trendy phase that can be ignored, this might convince you otherwise. This film looks like an entertaining mirror of our time and I can’t wait to check it out.

“The Social Network is an upcoming 2010 drama film directed by David Fincher about the founding of the social networking website Facebook. The film features an ensemble cast which consists of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Malese Jow, and Joseph Mazzello.

The film was written by Aaron Sorkin and adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. The film is distributed by Columbia Pictures and is set for an October 1, 2010 release. None of the Facebook staff, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, will be involved with the project. One of the co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, was a consultant for Mezrich’s book.”*

* Wikipedia

“The Social Network” Movie Trailer

Seth Godin Quote

“Safe is risky and risky is safe.” – Seth Godin

Social Responsibility with CFFS

ReadyGo Media has recently committed to serving the Canadian Flowers for Food Society on an ongoing basis. We will donate a minimum of 10% of every work week to their marketing, web design and fund-raising initiatives.

CFFS salvages flowers that would otherwise be thrown out by large organizations, engages a seniors home to re-bouquet the flowers, provides the boquets to homeless to sell on the street level, and then mulches for profit any unused flowers. CFFS addresses multiple social and environmental needs. Learn more about our mandate.

Google Advice: What Now? What Next?

Dennis Woodside at The Paley Center for Media, March 16, 2010.

Google Advice: What Now? What Next?

I just finished watching Fora.tv, one of my favorite websites. Barbara Walters eloquently introduced Dennis Woodside, Google’s VP of Americas Operations. He spoke on advertising, technology and his work with Google.

Watch the Presentation on Fora.TV

One of his roles is to help large organizations understand what’s next in technology (mobile, tablets, web books) and how to recreate the online successes of their flourishing brands.  Often one division will experience success while others lag. With more and more people spending their lives online, it’s no wonder the phrase “getting in front of the consumer” was frequently used. People are very sophisticated in their research and will often arrive at your website or store knowing more about your product or service than the salesperson.

Mr. Woodside asked of businesses “what kind of web experience are you trying to create?” We are beyond the online brochure and playing at a higher level of interaction now. He believes with over 40 million US users looking at YouTube’s home page, video is a powerful method of reaching and engaging consumers. I couldn’t agree more. It’s also my understanding that video search isn’t as saturated and therefore offers great SEO benefits.

There were a few questions on privacy. “With a greater understanding of people’s needs, we can serve them better” is his answer in a nutshell. “Who wouldn’t want to see an ad for a car if you are in the market to buy?” On the other hand he says technology is there to assist. “It can create opportunities or it can be a bad thing. We’ll continue to struggle with this for some time.” True. We do now have the power to serve our customers better. We have the ability to test which ad works instantly. It’s a unique medium because we can understand our return on advertising investment.

Technology continues to invade our privacy for better or for worse. He mentioned “FourSquare“ a few times which seems to be a website application that helps you can connect instantly with people, places, products and services near you, wherever you are, from your mobile phone. I heard about something similar last year at WordCamp. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of this type of social networking to come.

What about open source and closed source (another shift driven by Web 2.0’s sharing nature)? How do we monetize when so much is free? TV Everywhere was referenced. Mr. Woodside delivered no quick solutions. With a sense of leadership, he instead offered the perspective on journalism that more people than ever are better read because of this change. It is suggested that while there may be discomfort, that in the long term we are better off. He assured us that monetizing would naturally follow people’s preferences. Google will continue to support with display advertising in the meantime.

My takeaways? Big change continues to be underway shifting the entire economic structure we have grown so comfortable with. The good news? If you’re looking forward you’ll find opportunities. Get online with video and think local (mobile, tablets, web books, social networking and local search).

Top 5 SEO Tips

Make the most of your website and start generating more business. With a few small changes you can make a BIG difference.

Over 70% of people use Google as their primary search engine. When your customers put a few “key words” into Google they want to find your business. Make it easy for them and you’ll reap the rewards.

Did you know 62 percent of people searching online look only at the first page?! And 90 percent will only look at the first three pages.*

Wondering how to rank better with search engines? ReadyGo Media can help. Want to try a few tricks on your own?

Here’s 5 hot tips that will give you a great start:

1. Fresh is Best

In response to social media (blogs, twitter, etc.), Google adjusted its ranking process (algorithms) to favor current content. This is called “real-time-search” and it attempts to make results as timely and relevant as possible. Current unique content rises to the top.

2. Inbound Linking

Develop relationships with other complementary popular businesses that will put a link to your website on their website. A good initial goal to aim for is 25 inbound links.

Competitor Analysis
What keywords is your competitor using to optimize? Who is linking to your competitor and should you be too?

Directory Submission
Get listed in the top directories and other relevant industry directories.

3. Optimize Your Title Tag

The title tag is the bar above the location of the website address. Sometimes it says “Index” or a company name and is an important part of search engine optimization. 74 percent** of searches are local so consider including your location. Use this area in the same way your customers would enter a search for your business. Don’t use: “XYZ Law, San Francisco” Do use: “San Francisco XYZ Law.”

Further, include key services in your title tag. For example, your title tag may look like “San Francisco Divorce Attorney, San Franscisco Prenup Lawyer, XYZ Law San Francisco.” Notice the company name is at the end. When it comes to organic search for new customers this is least important.

The top local search listing engines:

• Google Local Business Center
• Yahoo Local
• Bing Local Listing Center
• Best of the Web Local

The number of people who sought local information on a mobile device grew 51% from March 08-March 09.

4. Cross Linking

Create internal hyperlinks that drive your website visitors back to main pages of your content.

5. Harness the Power of Keywords

Identify keywords and phrases by researching the competition, your website and by using SEO tools. The easiest way to get started is to provide unique compelling regularly updated content. Include your top keywords yet ensure your text is written for the reader first and the engines second.

Google doesn’t bother with “keyword meta tags” anymore but may still use the description tag. Many argue keyword meta tags are still a useful especially considering other engines. So, they are still commonly implemented.

Here’s a fun tool to get you started with keywords. See how your website keyword density measures up today!

SEO Strategy

SEO is an ongoing process where the best results are realized with a solid strategy. It takes time for search engines to recognize your changes. More traffic and a longer term to compare information equals better results.

SEO companies generally work with a minimum time commitment of 3-12 months.

By actively measuring your successes you can adjust your tactics and continually improve. Relying on search engine rank alone is not effective because results are personalized. For example, someone in LA will retrieve different results than someone in San Francisco even if they search the same words.

Success can be measured with sophisticated analytics tools, inbound links and even by good ol’ emails, phone calls and sales.

Get Found Online ReadyGo Media Website

ReadyGo Media websites all include search engine optimization.
SEO results made fast and easy. Our websites use WordPress which is naturally great for SEO. Further, we install an SEO tool into all our websites and provide training on how you can use it.

Features include:

• Advanced Canonical URLs
• Fine tune Page Navigational Links
• Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality
• SEO Integration for WP e-Commerce sites
• Nonce Security
• Support for CMS-style WordPress installations
• Automatically optimizes your titles for search engines
• Generates META tags automatically
• Avoids the typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
• For beginners, you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box.
• For advanced users, you can fine-tune everything
• You can override any title and set any META description and any META keywords you want.

This doesn’t replace carefully researched strategies. ReadyGo Media also offers powerful SEO packages for you to start growing your business and getting more clients.

Contact Joanne today to raise your search engine ranking and get found online.

*Study by iProspect / Jupiter Research 2006

** Kesley Group