Want a Free Starbucks Coffee?

Interested in a free Starbucks Tall brewed coffee while also doing something good for your community? Visit Starbucks Pledge 5 and commit five hours of volunteer service – that’s all you have to do!

There are also several great strategies built into this microsite to help continue the conversation and interaction between the brand and the consumer

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Social Media as a Brand Extension

Instead of focusing on social media as something additional to maintain that provides relatively little value, we need to shift our thinking. Social media is an extension of your brand, and how people perceive your identity can lead to greater awareness and profitability.

To increase your brand connections, Harry Gold outlines his suggestions, which are summed up below

Quick Suggestions for Brand Awareness and SEO

Web Content
On every single one of your web pages, add links to Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati and Reddit so that users can easily help spread your message and content. This includes landing pages and microsites. By having users backlink your content, you are helping boost your natural search engine optimization.

Emails
And, don’t forget your emails. Besides the typical “forward to a friend”, allow users another easy opportunity to share your message by adding these social networking links. You don’t want to overcrowd your emails (and have your main message lost), but it might also be a good idea to provide links to your MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Beware of the Doghouse

JC Penny‘s has come up with a clever site to help promote their jewelery line during the holiday season. There are several marketing techniques we can learn from BewareOfTheDoghouse.com:

» Create a short video (less than 5 minutes) that can be spread virally and increase brand awareness

» Use social networks, such as Facebook, to integrate with your website to help spread your message’s reach

» Find clever ways to ask for someone’s email address (e.g. give someone a warning before they go to the doghouse)

» Tie your product into every piece of the promotion – don’t loose focus on the creative