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Category : MAKING A RUCKUS

HomePosts in MAKING A RUCKUS (Page 8)

WTR – What The ruckus on Instagram

Trying to figure out whether your brand should be on Instagram? Curious about who’s doing it well and what it takes to have a successful Instagram account?

We’re back at it with our second instalment of the WTR (what the ruckus) series featuring this handy guide to Instagram. If you’ve wondered whether your brand should have an Instagram account or what level of effort it takes to run one – look no further. We’ve got stats, who’s doing it well and of course, our recommendation on whether Instagram is right for you.

Check it out

Posted by
Gary Edgar
on 20/01/2015

That time we won Boutique Agency of the Year!

As well as a few IABC and CPRS awards for our social strategy!
2015 seems to be smiling on ruckus as we were announced as Boutique Agency of the Year at last night’s IABC Toronto Ovation awards ceremony.

The award comes amidst a pretty great streak including another IABC award of Excellence for our work with Husqvarna Canada, an IABC Silverleaf award and CPRS Ace award, all for our work in social strategy and content development.

While the award was definitely unexpected, I believe it reflects the dedication and strong work the ruckus team shows everyday and the passion we have for our clients.

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Ruckus Digital launches inaugural speaker series

Join us for an intimate chat with Cam Gordon, Senior Communications Manager, Twitter Canada

Twitter Canada’s, Cam Gordon (@cam_gordon), will join us for our inaugural ruckus makers speaker series to discuss some of the recent twitter updates and best practices for brands. 

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to learn how you can best use Twitter for your brand and get your questions answered directly by Twitter.

WHEN: Thursday, October 22 2015 from 6:00PM to 8:00PM

WHERE: 365 Bloor St East, Suite 1700, Toronto, ON M4W 3L4

To RSVP, please email info@ruckusdigital.ca 

If you would like to bring along a guest, they can RSVP to the above email to attend. 

We look forward to seeing you on October 22nd!

This week’s ruckus makers (June 8 – 12)

This week’s ruckus makers (June 8 – 12)

Check out our round up of all the great campaigns, links and notable reads this week.

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  • How one company utilized the Chinese version of Google Street view to help with promotions during fashion week.

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  • Moe Arora joins the ruckus team as Senior Digital Strategist. Check him out on Twitter @moearora.

Truth in Content Matters. When in doubt, disclose!

Do you take all of the recommendations for granted? How close do you look at the source before accepting their words at face value? Here is why it’s important to always disclose your sources and clients.

Have you ever trusted a recommendation or an opinion of a friend only to find out later that they were offered an incentive or they were paid to provide that reco? It can leave you feeling exploited and stupid. Over the last few years social media has played a role of uncovering these individuals, bloggers or brands and their bad choices. Many of which could have been forgiven if they just were open about their biases. Don’t be a brand that misleads consumers and doesn’t follow these unspoken guidelines. 

In the U.S., however, it’s not unspoken. It’s the law. Advocating for consumers, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), regulates and fines marketers when they do not adhere to their regulations. Since 2010, the FTC has been on the forefront of misleading social media advertising and endorsements and has held many brands accountable for their deceptive behaviour. For example, the FTC recently fined Cole Haan for a Pinterest contest they hosted which required consumers to create their own pin boards of Cole Haan products with the hashtag “#WanderingSole”. The FTC argued that the pins were incentivized by the opportunity to win a prize and it wasn’t clear to the average Pinterest user that this content was being shared for a chance to win a prize.

But what about Canada? Right now we don’t have an equivalent to the FTC. The closest organization might be the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, which is a self-regulated organization.  The most relevant policy they have is the clause of authenticity and disclosure that states “no advertisement shall be presented in a format or style that conceals its commercial intent.” Because of this lack of a Canadian legal direction, many Canadian brands and lawyers don’t adhere to the FTC’s guidelines.

Whether you’re working contest for your Facebook page or writing your own cooking blog, it’s just as important to disclose any bias or payment you might have received. And if you’re not willing to disclose or admit the relationship, you might be crossing a line.

When creating content as a brand or with a partner, consider the following:

Influencers:

  • If a product or service is provided, or an exchange of payment is made, ensure that that relationship is disclosed. If the influencer is tweeting about your brand have them use the hashtag #sponsored or #ad. If they’re creating a video to promote your brand, ensure that disclosure is provided within the video as well as the video description.

Contests:

  • If you’re asking a consumer to create and share their own content in exchange for an entry for a contest, be sure that content is tagged with a #Contest hashtag. To ensure that the consumer uses this hashtag it’s best to include it the full hashtag. For example with Polysporin, we hosted a contest where we encouraged users to share a picture of their most painful shoes and tag it with the hashtag #SavetheShoesContest.

Character Limits:

  • Just because Twitter has a 140 character limit does not mean you can’t disclose. In these situations #ad is the easiest and shortest option. 

Employees/Clients:

  • Encouraging your employees to share great news, or sharing great news about a client is a great way to spread awareness among an engaged audience. Before you do so, inquire if your company has a social media policy – how much are you allowed to share as a company? Is there a process that you need to follow beforehand?
  • If you’re allowed to speak publicly on social media about your company’s products or services, ensure that you’re disclosing the relationship within your social profile, but also the individual post or tweet.  

All in all, Canadians aren’t regulated in the same way as the U.S., however by following these guidelines, you might be able to build a stronger and more trusting relationship with your consumers, and maybe even avoid a social media shaming from any missteps.

Posted by
Katie Boland
on 18/09/2015