SXSW Panel 2010: Facebook Fan Pages

We're excited that our CEO, Victoria Ransom, is among the speakers for the suggested Facebook Fan Pages panel at SXSW 2010. Find the bios of the panelists below and CLICK HERE to vote for the panel. A big shout-out to Dave Kerpen from The KBuzz who's organizing the panel!

Hazel Dircksen

Socialbees was founded in November, 2008 by Hazel Grace Dircksen, a consultant and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Hazel Grace has helped nearly 50 businesses and non-profits leverage social networking tools to expand visibility and reach new audiences.

Nick O’Neill

Nick is the creator of AllFacebook.com and the Social Times. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Nick has spent the past 9 years developing creative solutions for individuals on the web. Working from within agencies and startups, he has gained significant experience working with clients and overcoming extreme challenges.

Justin Smith

An early-stage entrepreneur living in Silicon Valley, Justin is currently the founder of Prophetic Media, which runs Inside Facebook and Inside Social Games. Justin is intrigued by the untapped potential of social utilities and new models for media businesses.


Victoria Ransom

As CEO, Victoria has led Wildfire to profitability in just one year and has built a client list that includes major brands and agencies including Facebook, Pepsi, Unilever, Sony, AT&T, Ogilvy, Publicis and Fleishman Hillard. Thousands of small and medium-size businesses all use Wildfire's turnkey marketing solutions. Wildfire is a two-time winner of the fbFund; investors include Facebook, Accel Partners and the Founder's Fund.

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Hot Tip: How to Run an Engaging User-Generated Contest

You don't need to be a big brand with a huge marketing budget to run a user-generated contest that spreads like wildfire. Non-profits and small businesses are currently running contests with us that are generating thousands of submissions and are reaching tens and, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of consumers via newsfeeds, friend invites and sharing. Why are these contests doing so well? We've noticed a couple of important success factors:

1) Contests that focus on topics that people feel passionate about tend to generate the greatest interest. We've seen highly successful photo and written contests that focus on pets, children, sports (e.g. surfing, skiing, mountain biking), hobbies (e.g. cooking, travel), and affinity groups.

2) Contests that make it easy for entrants to submit their content tend to generate more submissions. Asking entrants to submit photos that they likely already have in their Facebook photo album (e.g. photos of travel, kids, pets, hobbies) or that they can easily snap using their mobile phone will tend to result in more entries. Likewise, if asking for written content its best to keep word limits reasonably low. Video contests require quite a lot of effort on the part of entrants so generally result in a much lower number of entries - but if the content is good, these can be very viral.

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New Format: Sign-up Form for Facebook Pages

Looking to add a newsletter signup to the wall tab of your Facebook fan page or a sign-up form that feeds data from your Facebook fan page to your website? If so, our latest tool, an easy signup/questonnaire builder is exactly what you need.

With our signup/questionnaire format you can create an attractive signup form that you can place on the wall tab of your fan page (ideal for getting newsletter signups). For longer questionnaires, sign-up forms or surveys you can create a custom tab on your fan page that includes your form and custom banners. If desired, you can link the sign-up form on your fan page with a signup form on your website, so any data that consumers provide while signing up on your fan page will pre-populate the fields of the sign-up form on your website. This is ideal if you want to provide an abridged sign-up form on your fan page and then drive consumers to a more extensive sign up form on your website. For generating leads, building newsletter subscribers or gathering customer feedback, our signup/questionnaire builder is a powerful, easy-to-use and cost effective solution.

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New Support Feature: Live Chat

Do you need help setting up your Wildfire campaign? You can now reach us instantly from your Wildfire account.

Next time you log-in, check out the "Questions about Wildfire?" box in the lower right corner of your screen to chat with us in real-time! We're happy to help you brainstorm campaign ideas, navigate the campaign set-up process or discuss any suggestions that you have for making our Campaign Builder better for you. We are ready to start chatting with you right now!

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New Format: We've Combined the Viral Power of Voting and Sweepstakes

Gatorade is the first to use our latest and most powerful campaign format - a combination of voting and sweepstakes. This format will soon be available to everyone on our platform.

Different campaigns are viral for different reasons. Voting formats are often viral because they involve self-expression. Voters like to broadcast their opinion to their friends (in the case of Gatorade, for example, voters can express which moment in Michael Jordan's career they think was the best) by publishing newsfeeds....which results in more people learning about the campaign....which leads to more newsfeeds being published.

Sweepstakes, on the other hand, are extremely powerful because they enable companies to gather information about their users (contact info, email address etc) and to encourage them to become fans of a company's fan page and/or join a company's newsletter. Sweepstakes that utilize our 'social' prize format (see below) are also highly viral because they encourage entrants to invite their friends. A voting campaign combined with a sweepstakes (e.g. "Vote for your favorite Michael Jordan moment and then enter the sweepstakes for the chance to meet Michael Jordan") offers the best of both worlds - a highly viral, newsfeed driven campaign plus a powerful way to generate leads and build fans.

By combining the viral strengths of these two campaign formats, we've created the most powerful Facebook marketing campaign format on the web.

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Insider "Tips": Successful Campaigns Offer Social Prizes

If you're looking to run a sweepstakes that spreads like "Wildfire" one trick is to offer a "social" prize. A social prize is one that can be shared among the winner and several friends, for example, "tickets for you and 4 friends to a concert," "a night out on the town for you and 3 friends," "the ultimate clothing shopping spree, electronics package, weekend getaway etc.... for you and 2 friends."

When offering a "social" prize, entrants are encouraged to name the friends they'd want to share the prize with if they were to win. Our system then automatically updates entrants (via email or Facebook notifications) when a friend accepts their invitation and gives entrants the chance to go back and remind their friends or invite new friends. This format can be highly viral; some campaigns currently offering a "social" prize have grown the initial base of entrants by 5+ times thanks to the viral spread of friend invites and newsfeeds.

Check out the campaign we're currently running for Britney Spears for an example of a "social" sweepstakes.

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