11/05: Your Brand and Social media
In reality there is no one question because despite the way most companies approach it, social media is not a tactic but an ethos. And as an ethos it is simply not something that will work for everyone.
This is not a do and don't list for social media - there are lots of people far more qualified than I am to do that for you. My questions and interest in the role of social media is more of a strategic one.
The fact is, if you are not willing to embrace the corporate and cultural ideals of transparency, openness and engagement then you will struggle to make social media work no matter how much time and money you throw at it.
It is not a given for every organisation and I know that flies in the face of much that passes for marketing wisdom.
This is not a do and don't list for social media - there are lots of people far more qualified than I am to do that for you. My questions and interest in the role of social media is more of a strategic one.
The fact is, if you are not willing to embrace the corporate and cultural ideals of transparency, openness and engagement then you will struggle to make social media work no matter how much time and money you throw at it.
It is not a given for every organisation and I know that flies in the face of much that passes for marketing wisdom.
Businesses must develop mobile websites to accommodate for the huge number of smartphone owners using their devices to access the internet, a new Nielsen report suggests.
The firm's new survey, which measures the amount of engagement smartphone owners have with their gadgets, indicates that 43% of all mobile phone owners are able to access the internet with their handsets, with about 29% of those now actively using the internet via their phones.
Create your mobile website online for free @ www.iweb.mobi
The firm's new survey, which measures the amount of engagement smartphone owners have with their gadgets, indicates that 43% of all mobile phone owners are able to access the internet with their handsets, with about 29% of those now actively using the internet via their phones.
Create your mobile website online for free @ www.iweb.mobi
LINKEDIN and Twitter have linked up. Starting immediately, users of LinkedIn and Twitter can cross-file to each other's services, by checking a box on either site.
LinkedIn is the largest professional social network, with 50 million members around the world who post information about themselves, such as resumes, to help find jobs or employees, and to stay in touch with each other.
Twitter allows people to broadcast short messages up to 140 characters to subscribers, who are called "followers".
LinkedIn also has an update box, which happens to be 140 characters.
Allen Blue, a co-founder of Twitter who is its vice president of product strategy, said LinkedIn members would be able to automatically repost recent Twitter messages if they wanted.
Mr Blue said users will have the option of sending only selected materials to Twitter.
He said that in addition to the obvious advantage of increasing the audience for either tweets or LinkedIn information there were two other advantages to the new system.
Twitter "wants to take advantage of the strong identity in LinkedIn to make those professional tweeters more successful".
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26334877-5014239,00.html
LinkedIn is the largest professional social network, with 50 million members around the world who post information about themselves, such as resumes, to help find jobs or employees, and to stay in touch with each other.
Twitter allows people to broadcast short messages up to 140 characters to subscribers, who are called "followers".
LinkedIn also has an update box, which happens to be 140 characters.
Allen Blue, a co-founder of Twitter who is its vice president of product strategy, said LinkedIn members would be able to automatically repost recent Twitter messages if they wanted.
Mr Blue said users will have the option of sending only selected materials to Twitter.
He said that in addition to the obvious advantage of increasing the audience for either tweets or LinkedIn information there were two other advantages to the new system.
Twitter "wants to take advantage of the strong identity in LinkedIn to make those professional tweeters more successful".
http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,26334877-5014239,00.html
06/11: Google Wave
Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
Google Wave is Australian-made, with the Sydney-based Rasmussen brothers spending much of their time at the new Googleplex near Darling Harbour. Also like The Matrix, it's hard to explain exactly what Google Wave is. It's been described as "Twitter on crack" or "Friendfeed with benefits", while others see it as "Lotus Notes on steroids".
Everyone sees Google Wave as something different because they're bringing their own preconceptions to it — just as the first cars were known as "horseless carriages".
In simple terms, Google Wave is like a cross between email, instant messaging and wikis [a wiki is a webpage that allows anyone to make changes].
Google Wave is still in the early development stages and Google isn't even calling it a "beta" yet. After offering a "preview" to a few thousand developers, Google extended Google Wave invites to 100,000 early adopters. As with Google's email service, Gmail, Google Wave invites will remain a precious commodity for a while.
Google Wave is Australian-made, with the Sydney-based Rasmussen brothers spending much of their time at the new Googleplex near Darling Harbour. Also like The Matrix, it's hard to explain exactly what Google Wave is. It's been described as "Twitter on crack" or "Friendfeed with benefits", while others see it as "Lotus Notes on steroids".
Everyone sees Google Wave as something different because they're bringing their own preconceptions to it — just as the first cars were known as "horseless carriages".
In simple terms, Google Wave is like a cross between email, instant messaging and wikis [a wiki is a webpage that allows anyone to make changes].
Google Wave is still in the early development stages and Google isn't even calling it a "beta" yet. After offering a "preview" to a few thousand developers, Google extended Google Wave invites to 100,000 early adopters. As with Google's email service, Gmail, Google Wave invites will remain a precious commodity for a while.
04/11: Twitter Lists
Twitter Lists allows you to categorize the people you are following, or are following you. Individuals may create different lists for friends, family and so forth. However twitter lists allows to allocate individuals to certain buyer personas and allow you to better serve them.
People on twitter don’t like being sold to and it can be easy to feel like you are part of a database. This is where twitter lists excel – you can give back to the community while managing their individual needs.
Not only are you reaching your potential customers, you are also reaching the people who will spread your message to others. This is where twitter lists can really help you. Its simply a matter of discovering the best method of organizing your followers.
How do I categorize people?
There are multiple ways you can organize the people you are following:
By geographic region
This is useful if your business targets a specific region. You can see what they are talking about, what they like and find ways to help them.
By how active they are in social media
You can create a separate list for those who are really active within your niche. We call them the ’sneezers’, or ‘influencers.’ These are the people who rave when they find something great and can generate a lot of traffic to your business.
As with everything in social media, you shouldn’t target ANYONE specifically for personal gain – you have to find ways to help your followers before asking for help. But simply identifying them can help you get a feel for what motivates them.
People to look for are active tweeters, bloggers or those who use niche social networking sites like Flickr.
Previous customers
People who have already bought from you will most likely trust you. They still need attention, as they are the ones that will continue to talk about your brand. By having a special list you will instantly know that they have bought from you and mention that in conversation.
People who are ‘trolls’
This category may seem unnecessary but it may prevent you from engaging with someone who is just out to cause trouble.
People in certain industries
This can be particularly useful for those who are seeking others in different areas of their industry. It can also help if you are looking for support in another industry. A good example is creating a list of journalists on twitter.
People in the same industry
This is a useful way of giving back to your community. You can keep a track of the competition while supporting others.
People on twitter don’t like being sold to and it can be easy to feel like you are part of a database. This is where twitter lists excel – you can give back to the community while managing their individual needs.
Not only are you reaching your potential customers, you are also reaching the people who will spread your message to others. This is where twitter lists can really help you. Its simply a matter of discovering the best method of organizing your followers.
How do I categorize people?
There are multiple ways you can organize the people you are following:
By geographic region
This is useful if your business targets a specific region. You can see what they are talking about, what they like and find ways to help them.
By how active they are in social media
You can create a separate list for those who are really active within your niche. We call them the ’sneezers’, or ‘influencers.’ These are the people who rave when they find something great and can generate a lot of traffic to your business.
As with everything in social media, you shouldn’t target ANYONE specifically for personal gain – you have to find ways to help your followers before asking for help. But simply identifying them can help you get a feel for what motivates them.
People to look for are active tweeters, bloggers or those who use niche social networking sites like Flickr.
Previous customers
People who have already bought from you will most likely trust you. They still need attention, as they are the ones that will continue to talk about your brand. By having a special list you will instantly know that they have bought from you and mention that in conversation.
People who are ‘trolls’
This category may seem unnecessary but it may prevent you from engaging with someone who is just out to cause trouble.
People in certain industries
This can be particularly useful for those who are seeking others in different areas of their industry. It can also help if you are looking for support in another industry. A good example is creating a list of journalists on twitter.
People in the same industry
This is a useful way of giving back to your community. You can keep a track of the competition while supporting others.
MICROSOFT has started integrating Twitter messages into its new internet search engine Bing and arch rival Google announced plans to do the same.
Microsoft unveiled its real-time Twitter search feature at a web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, and said it also planned to incorporate status updates from social network Facebook into Bing.
Within hours of the announcement by the US software giant, search leader Google said it too had reached an agreement with the popular microblogging service to include Twitter updates in search results.
The Twitter feature on Bing is already active and can be accessed at bing.com/twitter while Google, in a blog post, said it would roll out its product "in the coming months''.
Full Article : http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,,26245081-5013040,00.html?from=public_rss
Microsoft unveiled its real-time Twitter search feature at a web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, and said it also planned to incorporate status updates from social network Facebook into Bing.
Within hours of the announcement by the US software giant, search leader Google said it too had reached an agreement with the popular microblogging service to include Twitter updates in search results.
The Twitter feature on Bing is already active and can be accessed at bing.com/twitter while Google, in a blog post, said it would roll out its product "in the coming months''.
Full Article : http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,,26245081-5013040,00.html?from=public_rss
From Josh Bernoff on adage.com/digitalnext -
In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement "we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing." Only 7% said "we have no plans to increase our marketing budget."
Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.
The result is that digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won't grow much.
This is huge.
It means we are all digital marketers now, since digital is at the center of many campaigns anyway.
In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement "we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing." Only 7% said "we have no plans to increase our marketing budget."
Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.
The result is that digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won't grow much.
This is huge.
It means we are all digital marketers now, since digital is at the center of many campaigns anyway.
Forrester Research predicts that interactive marketing spending will hit $25.6 billion this year -- up 11% from $23.1 billion in 2008, despite being flat, as marketers shift money from traditional media to digital channels.
That total, which also includes search, email, social media and mobile marketing dollars, is expected to more than double to nearly $55 billion by 2014. "This growth is due to marketers seeking lower cost, more accountable channels which are also widely used by their customers," wrote Forrester analyst Shar Van Boskirk, in a blog post previewing the firm's interactive spending forecast due out in June.
A recent Forrester survey of more than 200 marketers found that 60% planned to increase interactive budgets by pulling back spending on traditional outlets. The biggest victim of the trend will be direct mail, which stands to be slashed by 40%. Print will not fare much better, with spending on newspapers expected to be cut by 35%, and magazines by 28%.
By contrast, mobile and social media will enjoy the biggest spending gains in interactive -- increasing nearly 70% to $391 million and almost 60% to $716 million, respectively, in 2009. But the recession's toll on other segments will leave display advertising virtually flat at $7.8 billion, and email up only slightly to $1.2 billion.
Search marketing, which will get a lift from the shift of traditional and online display ad dollars, is expected to grow 14% to $15.4 billion.
A number of market research firms and Wall Street analysts have revised down their estimates of online ad revenue this year as a result of the worsening economy, and are now predicting single-digit growth. Online ad growth fell to 11% last year after recent years of 20% or better gains as the weakening economy finally caught up with Internet spending.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=105767
That total, which also includes search, email, social media and mobile marketing dollars, is expected to more than double to nearly $55 billion by 2014. "This growth is due to marketers seeking lower cost, more accountable channels which are also widely used by their customers," wrote Forrester analyst Shar Van Boskirk, in a blog post previewing the firm's interactive spending forecast due out in June.
A recent Forrester survey of more than 200 marketers found that 60% planned to increase interactive budgets by pulling back spending on traditional outlets. The biggest victim of the trend will be direct mail, which stands to be slashed by 40%. Print will not fare much better, with spending on newspapers expected to be cut by 35%, and magazines by 28%.
By contrast, mobile and social media will enjoy the biggest spending gains in interactive -- increasing nearly 70% to $391 million and almost 60% to $716 million, respectively, in 2009. But the recession's toll on other segments will leave display advertising virtually flat at $7.8 billion, and email up only slightly to $1.2 billion.
Search marketing, which will get a lift from the shift of traditional and online display ad dollars, is expected to grow 14% to $15.4 billion.
A number of market research firms and Wall Street analysts have revised down their estimates of online ad revenue this year as a result of the worsening economy, and are now predicting single-digit growth. Online ad growth fell to 11% last year after recent years of 20% or better gains as the weakening economy finally caught up with Internet spending.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=105767
The surging popularity of social networking has been underlined by separate deals announced overnight by search engine giant Google and Microsoft's Bing search engine, which will now include Twitter posts in search results.
Bing beat Google to the punch, announcing at the Web 2.0 conference that it has done deals with both Twitter and social networking site Facebook.
Bing plans to integrate Twitter posts and Facebook updates into its search results as quickly as possible, and has released a beta version of its new Twitter search stream (for US users only at this stage).
"One of the most interesting things going on today on the internet is the notion of the real time web. The idea of accessing data in real time has been an elusive goal in the world of search," Bing social search team leader Paul Yiu wrote on the company's blog.
"Web indexes in search engines update at pretty amazing rates, given what it takes to crawl the entire web and index for searching, but getting that to "real time" has been challenging."
Just a few hours after Bing's announcement, Google also announced a deal with Twitter on its company blog, although there is no beta version of the search stream up and running.
"We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data," Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience wrote.
"That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."
Search engine expert Jim Stewart from Stewart Media says the inclusion of Twitter and Facebook posts in search results highlights the need for all businesses to have a strong social media presence.
He also argues it could force some businesses to change their search engine optimisation strategies. Companies in areas where they frequent news - such as the media, finance, communications and technologies - need to be on top of the news cycle and tweeting regularly.
"What you are talking about is a live environment - what's going on right now. Companies in those industries really should be having a good look at their Twitter presence."
However, Stewart expects the search engines' use of Twitter feeds will be "transient" in nature. Given Twitter does not archive posts, Google and Bing are expected to only post the latest tweets, and probably won't be keeping its own archive. And that means the value of using multiple Tweets to boost your search ranking might be pretty limited.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20091022-google-and-bing-to-include-twitter-posts-in-search-results.html
Bing beat Google to the punch, announcing at the Web 2.0 conference that it has done deals with both Twitter and social networking site Facebook.
Bing plans to integrate Twitter posts and Facebook updates into its search results as quickly as possible, and has released a beta version of its new Twitter search stream (for US users only at this stage).
"One of the most interesting things going on today on the internet is the notion of the real time web. The idea of accessing data in real time has been an elusive goal in the world of search," Bing social search team leader Paul Yiu wrote on the company's blog.
"Web indexes in search engines update at pretty amazing rates, given what it takes to crawl the entire web and index for searching, but getting that to "real time" has been challenging."
Just a few hours after Bing's announcement, Google also announced a deal with Twitter on its company blog, although there is no beta version of the search stream up and running.
"We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data," Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience wrote.
"That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you'll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information."
Search engine expert Jim Stewart from Stewart Media says the inclusion of Twitter and Facebook posts in search results highlights the need for all businesses to have a strong social media presence.
He also argues it could force some businesses to change their search engine optimisation strategies. Companies in areas where they frequent news - such as the media, finance, communications and technologies - need to be on top of the news cycle and tweeting regularly.
"What you are talking about is a live environment - what's going on right now. Companies in those industries really should be having a good look at their Twitter presence."
However, Stewart expects the search engines' use of Twitter feeds will be "transient" in nature. Given Twitter does not archive posts, Google and Bing are expected to only post the latest tweets, and probably won't be keeping its own archive. And that means the value of using multiple Tweets to boost your search ranking might be pretty limited.
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20091022-google-and-bing-to-include-twitter-posts-in-search-results.html
What’s required to launch a successful business campaign using social media?
David Armano blogs on blogs.harvardbusiness.org that many companies entering this space drastically underestimate one key ingredient: "Gardeners".
It’s the flesh-and-blood gardeners who create those conditions through seeding (preparing the site for growth), feeding (keeping fresh, relevant content pumping through the system) and weeding (pruning old content and analyzing data)
“Not taking into account the manpower that’s involved in these as you develop your social business design strategy can lead to a lack of adoption or participation — essential elements to any social initiative”
David Armano blogs on blogs.harvardbusiness.org that many companies entering this space drastically underestimate one key ingredient: "Gardeners".
It’s the flesh-and-blood gardeners who create those conditions through seeding (preparing the site for growth), feeding (keeping fresh, relevant content pumping through the system) and weeding (pruning old content and analyzing data)
“Not taking into account the manpower that’s involved in these as you develop your social business design strategy can lead to a lack of adoption or participation — essential elements to any social initiative”