With a large splash during the Super Bowl, Audi of America began a promotional campaign to take advantage of the power of Social Media. Details of that effort are described in Audi Attempts to Harness Social Media in #progressis Promotion.
Finalists Campaign to win $25,000 for Charity
The last aspect of the Social Media effort by Audi began at midnight on February 14, 2011 and ends at 11:59 PM on February 18, 2011. In the interim supporters of the finalists have been filling up Twitter with tweets in support of their preferred candidate from among the ten finalists. Additionally, blog postings and postings of pictures featuring the finalists have been employed to award points to the contestants in the effort to win a $25,000 donation to charity.
Finalist Michele Lorito-Chase Sees Selection as Chance to Improve Her Skills
One of the finalists is Michele Lorito-Chase (assigned #oldphone by Audi for the contest), founder and CEO of Ghostexecutive Group. Ghostexecutive Group is devoted to social media consulting and provides services in a field known as virtual assistance. Ms. Lorito-Chase is finding the contest quite interesting from a professional standpoint. As she personally is a practitioner in the field of Social Media, she sees her participation as a unique opportunity to conduct a case study of a major social media promotional effort by a major marketer from the inside.
She serves her customers in a variety of ways, and among them is by using various internet tools, known in the industry as “analytics” to track the effectiveness of the efforts of those supporting her cause and those of the other finalists. She believes the experience with her special view as finalist will add to her skills in providing advice to her clients.
Tracking Blog Posts and Hashtags
Ms. Lorito-Chase has developed a strong skill set in tracking internet activities. She has a great number of supporters who have written blogs supporting her cause. Examples of these have been done by Eric Taubert, ( SWFL Resident Finalist in Audi Twitter Contest), Rick Thomas (Ft. Myers Social Media Maven Finalist in Contest to Aid Charities) and and on the website of the Audi dealer in Fort Myers, FL on its website ( Audi Fort Myers Supports #progressis #oldphone @ghostexecutive ). These postings count in Ms. Lorito-Chase’s support, but her ability to track how effective these blogs are in generating that support is adding to her knowledge of how well various internet tools work, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), reciprocal links and employment of twitter hashtags (#). The experience is increasing the value of her advice to her clients. To see these tools in use, click on the links in this article.
The Use of Twipics in the Marketing Mix
An interesting part of the program includes point incentives to the finalists for posting pictures that are labeled with the hashtags assigned to each finalist. This employs an internet application named Twitpics. For Ms. Lorito-Chase, there are several Twitpics pictures involved showing her along with Audis, including a convertible, a sedan and her apparent joy in coming through a moon roof. Audi is giving credit to finalists for creative use of Twitpics, and Ms. Lorito-Chase is tracking the effectiveness of that aspect of the campaign as well.
Audi Wins, Finalist Lorito-Chase Adds to Her Skill
The Audi campaign seems to be achieving Audi’s goals of mobilizing online exposure for its brand and products in a relatively inexpensive fashion. In participating in the campaign, Ms. Lorito-Chase is enhancing her own knowledge of how to effectively employ social media on behalf of her clients. Great for Audi, terrific for Ms. Lorito-Chase.
David J. Shestokas - Mr. Shestokas is a former prosecutor & writes on the Constitution & legal issues for the Save America Foundation & Suite 101.
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