Brand Photos: Behind the Lens of Image Recognition

Natural Brand Engagement with Social Photo Marketing

Advertising, Social Media | August 6, 2012 by Connor

Open up your favorite social networking site and you probably won’t have to go far before you notice something that didn’t exist not so long ago: native ads. Native ads are ads that appear tightly integrated into a site’s content and presentation, in contrast to the intrusive ads that interrupt our videos or show up as a big ugly box on the side of the screen. The two social media bigwigs, Facebook and Twitter, have both started implementing native ads, which they’re calling Sponsored Stories and Promoted Tweets, respectively. But plenty of other sites are also giving advertisers native options for their placement, including YouTube, Tumblr, Yelp, and those purveyors of silly photos of cats with grammar problems, ICanHazCheezburger.com.

In some ways, this is coming full circle for advertising, harkening back to television shows in the 50s and 60s that included sponsor’s names as part of the show. It’s a move that makes sense for advertisers. As Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, says, consumers are “tired of being interrupted, bothered, and ‘marketed at.’” The shift towards native ads allows consumers to see branded content naturally and transparently, just like they see content from their friends and people they follow.

Photos shared on social networks strike consumers as more authentic and will easily spark conversation.

At Pongr, we love this trend towards more natural, less intrusive advertising. Our Photo Response Marketing (PRM) can take it a step further, though. Rather than placing advertising alongside content from users’ friends, why not make the content from users’ friends your advertising? User-generated content will consistently be perceived as the most authentic, and it appeals to our universal human desire for self-expression. By encouraging consumers to take photos of your brand and then share those photos to their social networks, you will expose consumers to your brand organically.

As times changes, it’s important to be able to adapt to new trends and preferences. We’ve already talked about how shoppers are anxious to blend their digital life with in-store experiences. Using social photo marketing is a great way to blend social life with consumer life by allowing the conversation around your brand to develop naturally through shared photos. Pongr’s platform makes this simple with one-click sharing to Facebook or Twitter.

Go beyond Sponsored Stories or Promoted Tweets. Let consumers interact with your brand in the most natural way possible—through social photo marketing. Contact Pongr to find out more.

Better Safe Than Sorry: OAuth2 Security and the Pongr Platform

Brand Loyalty, Mobile Marketing | July 18, 2012 by Connor

Online security is a major concern. Internet users need to be increasingly careful with their information, and brands that run online promotions and contests have to take steps to protect users’ privacy at every stage of the process. Pongr’s platform ensures security with OAuth2, the industry standard used by sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and foursquare to allow users to grant third-party applications access to only their relevant information.

OAuth2 works by assigning every user an access token when they authenticate the app. Any requests made to the Pongr API—such as uploading a photo, liking a photo, or commenting on a photo—must have this access token to let the system know that the user has approved the app to act on their behalf. This protects against any unauthorized activity that could expose the user’s personal information.

Photos Make Social Media Social Again

Brand Ambassadors, Social Media | June 28, 2012 by Connor

Brands—how much do you know about your Facebook fans? I mean, really know? You know how many you have, you can see how and when they interact with your content, but what else can you say about your fans? How many use your product on a daily basis, or how many wish they could? Which ones clicked “like” on your page two years ago and then forgot about you entirely, and which ones remain devoted brand enthusiasts who proudly advocate for your brand and spread word of mouth via their own personal profiles?

Chances are, most brands can’t answer these questions. A new like or follow doesn’t tell brands much about the users themselves, and this makes it very challenging to engage with fans on the personal, one-to-one level that social media promises. As a result, lots of brands have resorted to simply blasting their message on Facebook and Twitter, and they’re a bit lost when it comes to personalized, individual engagement with fans.

Victoria Ransom points out this challenge in her latest blog post for AdAge today. She proposes that brands need to implement systems to aggregate and analyze social data in order to be able to create highly personalized interactions with consumers. Of course, this is exactly what makes Pongr’s photo response management tools so great.

Photos: The Secret to Facebook Success

Advertising, Social Media | May 7, 2012 by Connor

For quite a while now, there’s been no question that Facebook is an essential aspect of every brand’s marketing strategy. But there hasn’t been much in the way of definitive stats telling us what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing on Facebook. Every brand has their own idea of how it should be done, usually figured out by trial and error. But as Advertising Age reported today, Facebook has recently released the results of their own study into the effectiveness of different ways brands are using their timelines.

Facebook conducted a one month study of 23 brands, plugging information about what the brands post into an algorithm to predict engagement— that is, likes, comments, and most importantly, shares. Shares are incredibly valuable to brands. Getting fans to like or comment on brand content is great, but that’s still only a one-on-one, brand-to-consumer interaction. On the other hand, if a fan shares brand content, then everyone that person is friends with will see it. Shares are what make Facebook really powerful for brands. And what type of content are people most likely to share? You guessed it— photos.

George Takei posts funny photos that get thousands of shares on Facebook.

When you think about it, this isn’t particularly surprising. While many animals rely on other senses like smell or hearing, humans are naturally visually-inclined. We are captivated by images, so it makes sense that this is the sort of content we’d want to share with our friends most. AdAge provides an example from Skittles’ fan page: a status that read “Like this post if you agree with what I’m going to say tomorrow” got more than 10,000 likes, but only 21 shares, while a photo of a football helmet made of Skittles got over 400 shares. Actor George Takei, known for his role as Lieutenant Sulu on the original Star Trek series, has practically made a second career posting funny photos to his Facebook timeline, most of which are shared by literally thousands of people.

These findings underscore the need for brands to have robust photo marketing capabilities. Pongr makes it easy for brands to collect photos taken by their fans and post them to Facebook with one click. As we’ve already pointed out, it’s amazing the kinds of exciting, visually stimulating photos brand enthusiasts take. The key for brands is to make sure as many people as possible see those pictures and get pumped about the brand.

This post is based off this article in Advertising Age.

"Old" Meets "New": How radio stations are reinventing themselves with social media

Social Media | May 1, 2012 by Connor

Let’s face it: in many ways, radio is a relic of a bygone era. It’s not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of innovation and new technology. It was dealt a heavy blow by television, and the Internet has proven to be a daunting challenge. Sure, there’s satellite radio and Internet radio like Pandora and Last.fm, but where does that leave traditional, terrestrial radio?

President Roosevelt famously addressed radio listeners in his "fireside chats."

Despite how dire things may seem at first, many radio stations are reinvigorating their businesses using social media. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Radio and social media actually have a lot in common. Radio has always been considered a medium that’s all about communication and connection, just like social media. FDR made history by reaching out to citizens via his fireside chats broadcast over the radio, while President Obama was the first president to successfully use social media to win a presidential election. One of the things that made radio so revolutionary was the ability to help people get news immediately, and everyone knows how fast word spreads via social media.

Facebook not only gives radio stations a chance to post links to their online content and recorded broadcasts, but is also an excellent way for listeners to interact and engage with each other like never before. Boston’s WBUR 90.9 FM posts links to their pieces, infographics, and photos on their Facebook page, and all of these spark engaging discussions among fans. Stations can also make their promotional contests accessible to many more people by allowing entries via social media, like Kiss 108 has done with their contest to win a year-long Zipcar membership. Social media also allows individual DJs to connect with their fans. Many hosts are regular Twitter users and use the site to communicate with fans and post promotional tie-ins as well as other content that interests them. Twitter is also an excellent tool for stations with a variety of different types of content. NPR has many different Twitter accounts, for example, allowing listeners to get info only on the topics that interest them the most.

Many radio stations appear to be embracing social media very well. It’s an excellent opportunity for something that was once a one-way medium to become a two-way medium by engaging with listeners. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing so-called “old media” working in harmony with “new media.” Even though radio is inherently not a visual medium, the incredible versatility of social media means promotions for radio stations could very well include things like photo contests— something we know a thing or two about.

Not All Social Media Sites Are Created Equal

Advertising, Social Media | March 22, 2012 by Connor

Brands today don’t live in just one place. As more and more of our lives are spent online, many brands are seeing the value of having a strong social media presence. There are the big kahunas— Facebook and Twitter— that no marketer in their right mind would ignore. But beyond that, things aren’t so cut and dry. How should brands determine where to focus their efforts when it comes to the smaller, more specialized social networks?

If you’re trying to decide where to buy physical ad space, where you put your poster or billboard will be determined in large part by how many people in your audience will see it. Locations where large numbers of people in your target demographic will see the ad are the most valuable to brands.

Each social media site has its own distinct character and a unique set of tools to offer brands. Photo by Chris Lott

Brands should have a presence on sites that provide meaningful engagement

But social media sites are not the same as physical locations. The most important metric to determine where brands need to be online is not raw numbers alone. Brands need to consider the purpose of the site and the tools that are offered there. Why do users visit a particular network, and how can brands take advantage of that for social marketing purposes? This isn’t to say that traffic doesn’t matter— if a site has no users, it’s of little value to brands. But prioritizing social networks that complement the brand’s business model will mean more effective social marketing.

It used to be a lot easier to categorize companies. You had media companies, service companies, and other easily defined niches. But now there’s a lot of overlap and blurring of those kinds of boundaries, especially when it comes to social media companies. Instagram founder Kevin Systrom has made it clear that he considers his photo-sharing network a media company. The marketing value of a media company is in the audience it gives brands access to. At Pongr, we see ourselves as providers of social marketing tools, rather than a media company. Our features are designed to spark a dialogue between consumers and brands, which goes way beyond monetizing a social network with ads. These tools can work in tandem with sites like Instagram and Pinterest as well, taking advantage of the obvious popularity of social photo sharing.

It comes down to this: not all social media sites are created equal. Whether a brand’s social media presence helps their bottom line or not has a lot to do with how they manage the unique services of each social network. Figuring out which sites are the most valuable to your brand’s business and understanding how to make the best use of the features and functions of those sites is half the battle. Traffic isn’t the only factor that should determine where brands have a social media presence. By focusing on sites that offer the most useful tools, brands will be able to create the perfect marriage of social and other marketing initiatives, and it’ll be a thing of beauty.

What’s more engaging: Facebook brand pages or a sponsorship table at your local Rotary club?

Advertising, Brand Loyalty, Social Media | January 30, 2012 by Jamie

This is neither from Facebook, nor a real-life Rotary event. It's a recent display of genuine fan engagement via a Pongr-powered photo initiative. Fans like this are the salt of the earth.

There’s been some interesting debate recently about Facebook’s low engagement rate for brand pages. According to a recent article in AdAge, only about 1% of “fans” are actually engaging with brands on Facebook. If this is true, something seems disconnected with how brands have been calculating their “success” metrics when it comes to social media engagement campaigns. In fact, there’s probably a pretty big gap between how some social media marketing “experts” count the impact of “likes” and how brand managers measure the overall health of the brand — not to mention product sales!

Now, not get down on Facebook, because they’re obviously the center of gravity when it comes to social networking outside of the 4-H club, VFW, American Legion, Boy Scouts of America and Rotary International, but isn’t a real-life connection to a brand the best form of engagement? Or has Facebook become so pervasive that any digital “relationship” with a brand is just as valuable – to all parties – as a physical one?

With an impending IPO valuing the company around $100 billion dollars and so much social heat you just can’t look away, Facebook is top of mind for many of us, but what’s with the low engagement rates? Being in the business of consumer generated photo fun for brands and shoppers, we’re very curious about how to help brands increase the value of their time and effort on Facebook. Actually, we’re interested in understanding how to help consumers get more value out of their time with brands on Facebook too. There’s definitely a symbiotic relationship; some cause and effect between certain brand behavior and corresponding consumer behavior. Right?

What do you think drives genuine engagement? What do you, as a regular person – not a marketer – find compelling about certain brand tactics on Facebook? What are some of your favorite forms of “engaging” with brands and what do you wish would happen less (or not at all)?

November Facebook Brand Spotting: Win free Facebook Credits, free movie tickets or a $25 Groupon gift card!

Social Media | November 2, 2011 by Jamie

Want to earn a shot at some free movie tickets, a $25 Groupon gift card and Facebook Credits? Check out Pongr’s Brand Spotting tool and help your friends import their Facebook pics that have brands or products in them. Details below.

To participate in the Brand Spotting challenge, you need to import your own Facebook photos to relevant brands on Pongr AND spot brands in your friends’ Facebook pics. It’s really easy.

Step 1:

Make sure you’re logged into Pongr with the Facebook button and that you’ve allowed Pongr to access your photos. Click on the green “You’re connected. Start spotting!” button.

Click the Start Spotting button on the Pongr homepage.

Step 2:

You’ll initially see your own pics from Facebook and you can spot brands by hovering over your photos. Try a few and submit them.

Step 3:

Scroll through your friends and spot brands, products or even lifestyles & fun times in their pics. Make sure you write a funny or unique comment because it’s going to show up as comment on their Facebook photo. Your Facebook friends have to click the Pongr Brand Spotting link that gets placed after your comment, and they have to allow Pongr to post their photo.

So, you may need to help them the first time and introduce them to Pongr. We suggest you take them to the movies if you win one of the movie cards!

See what your friends have been posting that's Pongr worthy.

Here are the rules:

You have to get at least 5 Facebook friends that connect to Pongr by way of your spotting. That means new people that aren’t on Pongr already.
You have to spot at least 5 of your own pics from Facebook. We’re assuming you’ve got some cool photos that are Pongr’able!
No fake accounts, fake pics or harassing other users. We assume you know that, but had to put it out there.
At the end of November we’ll randomly select 5 winners from the pool of participants.
The first winner gets to pick one prize from the list, the second gets second choice, and so on. It’ll be like an early Yankee Swap.

Have fun brand spotting! We bet you’ll find a lot of cool pics on Facebook as you scroll through the Pongr Brand Spotter.