James Gurd: The rise and rise of digital media

Using social media for niche business - have your cake and eat it

2010-04-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking out for stories of niche business using social media to drive customer engagement and/or increase sales, so I was interested to learn via The Marketing Donut of two groups using Flickr to increase conversation around cake making and cupcakes. "Cupcakes!?", I hear you question. Well, yes. And you know what, I can see why social media would work for this product. Indulge me.

Who is using Flickr for cupcake indulgence?

The two groups are Cake Biz UK and Cakes UK Style, set up by Karen Labett of Tasty Little Cakes and Svarna Singh of The Little Cakery. If you check the founders' websites, you'll see that social media is an important part of their business with prominent links on the homepage to profiles.

Why is social media relevant?

Making cakes is fun yet challenging. I know from many hours spent as a kid trashing my grandma's kitchen in search of the perfect fruit cake. It is also a social activity because cakes are made to share and deep down, when cooking most of us want to know we've done well, so feedback and discussion is important.

Unless you're an expert, it's also hard to know the best way to bake a cake, how to blend the ingredients and how to get organised. This is where the advice of a wider community is valuable - we've all got some experience but there's nowhere to access the communal perspective.

Furthermore, when planning what to bake for your next gathering, you want to know what it's going to look like. The aesthetics of cake making should not be under-valued, a good looking cake catches the eye. Inspiration is often hard to come by, so tapping into the creative suggestions of other enthusiasts can be highly beneficial.

So, information gathering, sharing and visualisation are important. This is where social media ticks the boxes and Flickr is the perfect fit.

What value does Flickr add to the community?

The article from Marketing Donut highlights the lack of UK websites to cater for cake making enthusiasts and business owners. What these groups have done is identified a need and built a solution around social media to deliver the following benefits:

Central location for information sharing and advice
Discussion threads are supported to encourage participation and problem solving
Image library helps members share photos and display their skills
People can share their passion with like minded community members
A separate groups exists for people running a cake business - this enables business owners to share knowledge and learn from each other to benefit the market

I love this story because it emphasises how social media can be used effectively for niche business and niche discussion. The challenge is to find a need and then communicate this to the right people. Good luck to Karen and Svarna, let's hope their social media activity can influence and inspire other communities.

Thanks to The Marketing Donut for the article.

Waterstones - showing that Twitter can be fun for customers

2010-03-30T01:35:00.001-07:00

There is a lot of coverage of companies getting social media wrong but less focus is placed on celebrating those who do it well. As an industry we need to be more positive and celebrate people who demonstrate creativity and innovation in their usage of social media. Last week I came across a Waterstones promotion available to its Twitter followers - the Golden Ticket Treasure Hunt.

The promotion

There are 10 Golden Tickets hidden around the website
Waterstone's tweets a clue to each one
Followers scramble the site using their clue solving skills to locate the golden ticket
Followers then email when they have found it
First correct reply wins the prize
Different prize for each Golden Ticket
Prizes are showcased on landing pages linked to via Twitter
Additional clues are given from time to time

The benefits

Greater engagement of Twitter followers - during each treasure hunt Waterstones is talking to its followers
Driving traffic to the eCommerce website
Customers spend more time looking around the site to solve the clues
Increase product views and appreciation of range diversity
Ancillary sales generated off the back of this activity.

Whilst the format is hardly revolutionary (Willy Wonka anyone?), the delivery was neat and fun. And this is where I think social media has great potential - driving brand engagement by giving people something of interest that they can play with. We all like to be distracted for a while and business doesn't always have to be serious.

I would love to find out the actual impact of site traffic s0 have asked Waterstones via Twitter. I will update this blog if they are able to share the information.

*UPDATE*

The kind peeps @Waterstones have shared this info:

"We've had double the usual traffic from Twitter, and as you can see we've had 882 new followers in 2 wks"

So what do you think? Clever marketing or not?

Do you need a mobile strategy?

2010-03-20T06:10:00.001-07:00

The latest data from ComScore shows a 30% increase in social networking traffic among smartphone users in the past 12 months. Research from Forrester shows that iPhone users are more affluent than users of other smartphones. The average internet usage for an iPhone user is 100MB, x30 larger than on other phones. There is a lot of discussion about the shift from desktop to mobile and the prediction that in several years time eCommerce will be dominated by mobile browsing.

So this begs the question, do you need a mobile strategy?

The obvious answer is yes but what exactly is a mobile strategy? At a basic level, you can optimise your website for mobile browser compatibility meaning that people using mobile devices can navigate your main website on their smartphone. However, I would argue that this is not a mobile strategy, it is simply enabling browsing via mobile devices.

For me a mobile strategy involves integrating mobile commerce into your customer communication channels to ensure that they can interact with you using their mobile device. This goes beyond mobile commerce through to supporting communication and driving engagement via mobile channels. So what can this include?

Capturing mobile phone numbers and using these for customer service including order status updates
Targeting mobile users with SMS marketing campaigns
Developing mobile apps to provide added value, such as an iPhone app
Developing social media presence on mobile friendly sites such as Twitter, Facebook
Providing mobile as a response channel for customers
Taking micro payments for products and services
Optimising your web presence for local search to increase visibility when people browse on the move
Using mobile technology to improve internal communication between remote teams.

Of course this comes down to relevance. If your audience is not using Facebook, focus on the other elements of a mobile strategy to add value. It's also important that each element of your mobile strategy is measured to ensure it is adding commercial value. There is no point building an iPhone app if nobody is going to use it.

How do you work out if this is right for you?

First, check your web analytics data - what % of your traffic is coming to the site on mobile browsers? If it's a decent %, then there is clearly a mobile audience out there. Next, compare the performance stats for mobile visitors v other visitors - what paths do they take, how long do they spend on the site, are they repeat visitors, how much do they spend? If you have a decent traffic volume but poor conversion, it would suggest you need to do something better to engage your mobile audience.

I appreciate this is a simplistic analysis - I would recommend you survey your customer base to find out what the mobile demands are. Analytics tells you what is happening, the voice-of-customer data will tell you why.

For further reading, there is a useful post by Graham Charlton on the Econsultancy blog.

Local niche business owner using social to extend his brand

2010-03-11T08:23:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I've had time to maintain this blog but as a freelancer I've decided I should prioritise it a little bit more. This week I found something that got me excited enough to want to blog about it.

I got a call from Charlie, the owner of Henry Herbert, a specialist London tailor who makes shirts, suits and overcoats. Everything is made in England and the twist of difference is that they visit you by scooter for a personal fitting. Personal service is at the heart of what Henry Herbert offers.

Charlie set up his website using Wordpress with a focus on content and blogging about the products and services. The site does not sell direct because it's such a customised service but he's turning to SEO and social media to increase brand exposure.

Early efforts with Google local have paid real dividends, generating strong click through and leads. For a mobile tailoring business that relies on bringing its skills into your home, local search is an ideal marketing channel. Next steps will be to add a listing to Yahoo Local and extend the use of customer reviews on to the main website.

Another opportunity around local is to improve the landing pages for local search, providing content that relates specifically to a London audience.

Charlie has sensibly taken steps to build a social media presence. Word of mouth in this market is important and his Twitter presence (@henryherbert) provides a good platform from which to reach new customers and communicate the brand values. It is early days and the challenge now is to extend beyond simply pushing new blog content to engage with a local and national audience and generate dialogue and conversation.

I really love this business idea. For busy people, the opportunity to have an experienced tailor visit you where you want and take all the effort out of the buying process, is wonderful customer service. It reflects the increasing number of businesses that are offering mobile services, especially in the London area, and the online world provides a wide range of communication channels through which to capture new customers.

So take a look round www.henryherbert.com and let me know what you think. How do you think a local niche business can use Twitter to build brand awareness and engage with customers?

The Winter Chill hits the fitness race

2010-02-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

February has been a real pain in the arse. Having finished Jan in good spirits and well on my way to reaching half marathon fitness ready for the South Coast Half Marathon on 21st Feb, I suddenly discovered the flu. Not the man flu us gents are so often ridiculed for by the unfairer sex but real, smack in face, wipe you out for weeks type of flu.

So my training has been well and truly screwed. I spent the first two weeks of Feb sulking at home dosed up on Tamiflu, which sounds more liken a ladies' hygiene product than a medicinal cure. To be fair to Tamiflu, whilst they may have cornered the market for flu anti-viral treatment and raked in serous £££ from the NHS, the little tablets do work. Unfortunately, there is a risk. One of the disclaimer side effects is kidney problems; so, I might not have a fever, i'll just experience agonising pain from renal failure. Bonus.

It's only now at the end of Feb (Tuesday 23rd to be precise) that I've been able to muster the enthusiasm to get out and run. And i've picked a freezing day with driving, pouring rain. Marvellous. However, despite the pain and the tiredness and the overall mental desire to quit after 5 mins, I managed to drag my sorry backside round 6.5m and still do it well under an hour. Strangely, though it has ripped the lungs apart and kicked up a coughing fit, I feel mentally much better and stronger. It is amazing the impact that exercise can have on your psychological and mental balance.

So as Feb draws to a close, I can now get back on track. Alas I missed the half marathon on the 21st but there was no way I could have managed 13m after 4 weeks of no running. The next target is the Newham 10k on the site of the Olympic Park on Sunday 7th March. Fingers crossed the renal side effects don't kick in.......

Running on empty

2010-01-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

It has been a tough first month of training to blow away the Christmas cobwebs and shed the love handles. It started so well with some new year enthusiasm but then it snowed. And it got cold, really cold. And my feet started to hurt. And I added Sky Sports to my Virgin Media package. The schoolboy error is haunting my every move.

However, through wind, rain, snow, hale and sheer laziness I've kicked myself into action and hit the road. At the start of Jan I struggled with pace and was managing 6.5 miles at around 8.15 minute mile pace. Having given myself the target to complete a half marathon at 7 minute mile pace, I was a bit gutted.

As Jan progressed, I've gradually upped my distance to 10 miles and comfortably doing this at 8 minute mile pace. However, the killer blow was a recurrence of my old ATB injury that has meant everytime I try to increase the pace, my leg falls apart and I spend days in pain. So after much soul searching, i've made the sensible (for once) decision to stop obsessing about times and focus on being able to complete my races and keep going.

I have to admit, after the initial sulk I'm now really happy that I've made the decision to focus on distance and enjoyment rather than the illusory time. I'm regularly knocking out 10 mile runs and this weekend (Sat 30th) will be the first 12 miler.

I've also being playing regular 5 a-side football on Monday evenings down in Putney and this has helped my core aerobic fitness massively. It is also more fun than running around the freezing roads of Ealing.

So all in all, a positive first month of training and now only 3 weeks to go before my first competitive race, the Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon on Sunday 21st Feb. If you fancy helping me reach my fundraising target of £1,000 then please visit my justgiving.com webpage.

Raising £1,000 for The Rosemary Foundation

2009-12-19T05:48:00.001-08:00

The last month has been a manic time moving into freelance world. My current Client projects and other commitments such as guest blogging for Econsultancy, I'm not gettting the time to dedicate to my personal blog to write content worth reading. As I don't want this blog to descend into the pits of content for content's sake, I'm changing its purpose.

Charity is something close to my heart. In 2009 i've not done any direct fundraising myself, having supported others instead. 2010 is the year I get back to fundraising and i've chosen the wonderful Rosemary Foundation (previously the Sue Ryder Home) to contribute to. This is a Charity close to my heart. At the end of 2008 my Grandad was diagnosed with lung cancer at the ripe age of 87. In Feb 2009 the doctors told us it had spread to his brain. The brain cancer brought a quick end to his life, in a matter of weeks. The Rosemary Foundation gave my Grandad and family incredible and selfless support during that time, helping care for him so he could bid us au revoir with dignity from the comfort of his own home, the home he had shared with my Nan for so many years. I can't thank them enough for the care and consideration they showed my Grandad and I know that he will be eternally grateful.

As with many local Charities, they are not-for profit and self-funded. Every penny counts and helps the wonderful nurses support families like mine. I've set myself the target of raising £1,000 by the end of 2010 and will be running several organises races to achieve this....more to follow.

I will be using my blog to keep tabs on progress and write about the events I enter and the joys of training through Winter.

I appreciate that there are many amazing Charities and solicitations for financial support are frequent. However, I would not be a serious fundraiser if I didn't ask for support so I would welcome any contributions, either donations (via my JustGiving website) or spreading the word to your connections and across your networks.

To find out more about the Rosemary Foundation please visit their website.

If you have any questions or suggestions for how I can hit my £1,000 target please drop by and say hello.

In the meantime, happy Christmas!

thanks

james

http://www.justgiving.com/rosemaryfoundation

What is social media marketing?

2009-11-06T03:13:00.000-08:00

The term "social media marketing" is now the buzz word du jour, with social networking taking a temporary back seat. But what exactly is social media marketing and what can you do with it?

My abbreviated definition is this:

"The integration of social media channels into your marketing and customer communication mix"

Yep I know that sounds very marketing lovey but it makes sense if you take it bit by bit. Social media provide a channel to market, another communication option for you to talk to and with customers. The culture of marketing is changing thanks to the community aspect of social media - dialogue and engagement take precedent over push marketing (i.e. broadcasting messages without interaction). This offers an excellent communication channel. Therefore, I see social media marketing as the creation of, participation in and nurture of communication, wherever that communication takes place.

The wonderful thing (in my humble opinion) about social media marketing is that the impact, whilst you can influence via intelligent planning and execution, is in the hands of the community. They either like it or they don't - the word of mouth element is determined by influencers who can help spread your message like wild fire or send it to an early grave. The difference from other online marketing like email is that the global reach is far greater and the share of information quicker - and the expectation for engagement is higher.

For me, social media marketing requires an understanding of the new rules of engagement, an appreciation of netiquette (the etiquette of social networks). It goes beyond selling something to someone. It relies on building relationships and helping people to find the information they need, quickly. If done well, it builds brand loyalty and reputation. If poorly managed, it will lose your potential customers and damage your brand.

There is a good article from Jay Deragon on the impact of social media on marketing communication. I like it not for what it teaches me but for the way it is expressed - social media marketing involves people and, therefore, emotion.

In summary, social media marketing:

Integrates social media into your marketing mix
Provides a platform for customer engagement
Supports offline and online marketing programs
Enables brand and reputation monitoring
Supports your customer service framework

What is your definition of social media marketing?

Wiggly Wigglers gets social networking

2009-10-31T04:48:00.000-07:00

Nielsen Online research shows that blogs and social social networks are more popular than personal email and that the audience is spanning the age groups. Facebook has fast become one of the most influential social networks globally - according to Mark Zuckerberg, if it were a country, it would be the 8th most populated in the world.

So, with such a large audience and fan pages/groups to take advantage of, surely every business can reap the rewards of Facebook presence? Wrong. There are Facebook fan pages going to seed because the owners are passive and expecting their potential audience to do the work for them. That is not social media, that is lazy marketing. Ebuyer is the perfect example - their discussion board has not been updated since 30th Jan 2009 - what is the point?

However, amongst the chaff there are some good people building fun communities whilst adding commercial value via networking.

Wiggly Wigglers is a great example of a brand that understands the culture of social networking and the need to build engagement with its customers. Its social presence is driven by the owner, Heather Gorringe, who adds a personal touch to all communication. This is why I think Heather and the Wiggly team have got the mix between strategy and passion spot on:

Heather's personal brand drives the social networking activity
Their Facebook presence is integrated with other channels including blogs, podcasts, Twitter and main website
The tone is relaxed, informal and open - it is not a corporate PR stunt
There is a genuine warmth and passion for the audience
There is interaction - comments are listened to and replies made, promptly
Heather sends a regular (almost weekly) newsletter just to her Facebook fans
The content in fresh, fun and engaging
There are frequent personal touches that give you a glimpse into the people behind the company - I love that they've named their choc Labradors Toast & Jam!

And guess what, it's on-brand and incredibly effective and making you want to visit the website and tell your friends about it. I know, I have.

Please share your thoughts on Wiggly Wiggler's social networking presence.

Social search and the information bubble

2009-10-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Google and Bing used the Web 2.0 Summit to lay down their social search markers. A long anticipated move, the search engines have been pushing hard to improve their real-time search capabilities. In a nutshell, Bing is doing some nice tag clouding of trending Twitter topics (US only currently) as well as including Facebook content whilst Google announced an agreement with Twitter and the altogether more intriguing Google Social Search. I’m not going to evaluate the two offerings here, this blog asks the question: “How will real-time and social search impact SEO?”

A brief history of SEO

Algorithms change. Frequently. Experienced website optimisers monitor these changes and decide what the next stage will be in the optimisation of the website(s) they manager. Most recently, Google Webmaster Central has announced the demise of meta keywords, once the obsession of optimisers, and raised the question about the long-term future of page rank.

Google has long been the market leader with a devout focus on the relevance of SERPs to drive user experience. They have market domination in the UK because their focus has always been on search results, not content. Google changes its algorithm to keep pace with the way in which consumers search for, access and share content online. Yes, they exploit their position for commercial gain. However, they do so by ensuring the search engine works for online searchers. Integrating social media into the SERPs was the next logical step.

Why is social and real-time search relevant?

People are consuming, moving and commenting on content at a micro-level. Look at how Jan Moir’s article on Stephen Gately’s death hit the headlines through social networking.

It is logical that search engines want to find a way to index and display user-generated content so that search results mirror the real world. If there is a trending Twitter topic yet a traditional search results page shows none of this content, browsers will turn away to an alternative information provider.

Real-time social media owners like Twitter were never realistically going to topple Google for all our search demands. However, integrating social search with the power of the major engines’ algorithms provides an enhanced service to consumers. In the future, when we search Bing or Google we will have the content of private and commercial web owners as well as conversations taking place on social networks. We can begin to build up a contemporary view of individual topics and not just rely on historical commentary. If you add in blog updates and mobile to the mix, you can see a 360 degree information bubble emerging.

Imagine the education potential? Want to teach children about the impact of politics? Get them monitoring the Twitter conversation using search engines and correlate this with historical evidence. A great example would be the social coverage of the Iran Election (and the subsequent backlash against Habitat for breaking the etiquette).

SEOs need to adapt and increase their capacity for social media optimisation

Switched on SEOs are already planning social media optimisation (social network conversation management) as part of their overall website optimisation strategy. However, the importance this element now plays has increased as the major search engines place more value on social conversation. SEOs need to focus on:

The value of personal and commercial blogs
Registering the brand across social networks
Brand reputation monitoring and management
Generating relevant content via social profiles
Managing conversations effectively using cost-effective tools (such as Hootsuite)
Responding with a human voice to comments, questions, queries
Producing relevant and valuable content
Integrating social media planning with other marketing channels
Engaging with thought leaders, influencers and advocates

This list in not exhaustive but covers the key elements of social media optimisation. What do you think? Are you committed to the value of social media in your website optimisation? Do you think there are other areas that I have not covered above?

Please share your comments.

Social media and presentations - the speaker backchannel

2009-10-19T04:09:00.001-07:00

Earlier this year I attended an event at which one speaker used Twitter to gather audience questions and then answer key themes at the end. He did not allow this to interrupt the presentation but it was made clear that questions would not be a 'hands up' affair. More and more speakers are now aware of and monitoring their presentation 'backchannel' (a new marketing buzz word for the bingo card).

Yesterday, I read an interesting article from Jeremiah Owyang outlining how speakers should integrate social into their presentation. Whilst I don’t agree with all of Jeremiah’s points (I will elaborate), I think speakers need to be aware that the penetration of social apps on mobile devices is making real-time commentary increasingly relevant.

What is the presentation backchannel?

The backchannel is the discussion about you or your presentation that takes places in other media, whether that is online or offline. The most direct channel where this is happening is on social networks like Twitter.

This backchannel is real-time. Social media has expanded event dissection from the general hubbub of physical event networking spaces into online communities.

I have direct experience of this. At Internet World, when I was not on the exhibition stand or attending seminars, I tweeted live from the event. I talked about the organisation of the event as well as the content of presentations. Included was constructive criticism of issues that made the event experience less than ideal. So, is this backchannel part of the future of presenting or is it a passing obsession of the attention deficit nation?

To read more on my thoughts about the relevance of the speaker backchannel and what you can do, please join in the debate on my blog on the Econsultancy website.

I would be interested to read your comments.

Do websites need a social media landing page?

2009-09-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Social media is all the rage. Everyone and their dog is on Twitter, even if over 50% of profiles are ghost towns. The older generation is growing on Facebook more rapidly than the teens and content sharing has become a la mode. If you're not bookmarking (AddThis, Stumbleupon, Digg etc) then you're so last year.

However, it is dangerous to assume that just because your website now has a social media angle, your customers will flock to it and engage like never before. Wrong. Why would they? Just because they use Facebook doesn't mean they automatically want to join your fan page. The world is crammed with stuff to do, networks to join, content to read, links to follow. If you want yours to get to the surface, you need to give your customers a compelling reason to join in.

With this in mind, I started thinking about how landing page optimisation could benefit social media activity. I don't mean the main page of your community section or your Twitter account background, I mean a page on your main website that communicates your social media presence and explains how customers can interact.

The logic is clear - social media is marketing, so to drive conversion (Twitter follow, Facebook fan page sign-up, YouTube views etc) you need to target customers with a relevant landing page. That landing page then needs to be optimised over time to drive click through and conversion. If you want the benefits of social media then be serious about marketing it to your customers.

What content do I think sits on this page?

Explanation of what you are doing and why - convey your passion
List of benefits to customers e.g. If you have a customer service query, use our Twitter account to get a faster reply
Bio of each social media profile you manage - what, where, why, how, who etc
Links to each profile
Integrated into your analytics package - track links and page performance to enable benchmarking & optimisation
Main navigation back into core pages of your main website - keep consistency

Take away thoughts:

Get your customers excited about following you via social media
Clearly communicate the benefits
Ask for feedback
Encourage people to get involved and share their thoughts/ideas/content
Enable people to bookmark your pages and share your content easily
Look at the stats - how does the page perform?
Test different ways to improve the page and keep asking your customers' advice

What do you think? Is landing page optimisation missing from social media presence? Do you know a company doing this well?

Please share your comments. Thanks.

BT using Twitter as a customer service support tool

2009-09-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

Twitter is becoming increasingly popular amongst retailers as a customer service tool. The likes of ASOS and Debenhams have embraced this angle, the former having a dedicated ASOS account for customer enquiries. This adds another feather in the bow of the micro-blogging service when it comes down to challenging the criticism that Twitter offers no viable commercial value.

This week I was nodded in the direction of @BTCare by @GeoffreyB, Marketing Director at BT Retail Solutions and someone whom I follow on Twitter. So, I took a look round....

First impressions are good - @BTCare has a branded backround and has added some key profile info such as web address and location. The bio could do with some work though, very friendly but says nothing about who/what BTCare is and who is behind it. Nice links on the left to other BT Twitter accounts, good to see joined up thinking.

What about the level of engagement and content?

This impressed me. There are a lot of replies to individual users, with a positive and helpful tone. There seems to be a genuine desire to help, it certainly does not come across as a “me too” attempt to leverage Twitter’s popularity. The #followers is testament to this – currently at 1,978. Yes I know that BT is a huge brand with a customer database of millions but I think the follower base is a reasonable size.

Without approaching BT with a genuine customer query/complaint, it still looks like BTCare is doing a good job as a customer service channel. I love replies like “@edwardlamb I do not think we can gain the information you require, however if you DM us your account details we can have a look for you!”. The tone conveys knowledge but also offers to investigate the enquiry further. This communicates authority, reliability and genuine care. I really like this.

And what of the commercial benefit to BT?

Using Twitter as a customer service channel can help answer queries in real time. This will encourage customers to use Twitter, reducing the demand on other inbound channels such as email and the call centre. We all complain when faced with a complicated IVR: we don’t want to wait, we don’t want to press 1 then 2 then 1 etc, we want a real person immediately. If this is what we want, then we should start to embrace Twitter as a communication channel and be grateful that retailers are putting the resource into providing this service. It is not a right, it is a bonus.

There are other benefits too such as raising brand awareness and managing negative comments.

What do you think of BTCare’s uses of Twitter? Do you have examples of other retailers using Twitter as a customer service tool? Please share and leave comments.

How social media can support your affiliate program – a concept

2009-08-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

I’ve been putting together a proposal this week for affiliate management services. At the heart of the proposal is my belief that affiliate management revolves around communication and relationships. Yes, strategy and delivery is important but without the relationships your strategy will not be implemented effectively. This got me thinking (the mice have pushed the wheels!) about how social media could play an important role in building sustainable partnerships with your affiliates.

In its Internet Stats Compendium 2009, Econsultancy estimated the UK affiliate market @ £3.82bn in 2008 (22% year-on-year growth) with an estimated £227m paid out in commissions. According to the UK Affiliate Census 2009 (in association with Affiliate Window), 13% of merchants claim affiliates generate at least £600k in revenue per annum. That level of revenue makes Directors pay attention and the commission potential excites affiliates.

However, at the same time, many affiliates feel that merchants need to be more open and honest in their communication and flexible when dealing with problems, such as commission queries. The most significant reason for promoting a merchant is the quality and quantity of links and marketing support they provide to their affiliate partners. With 34% of affiliates doing this as their full-time job, it is obvious that they will focus on the merchants who give them the best chance of generating revenue.

Communication is king. You need to keep affiliates updated with product/service developments so they know what they should be promoting. Then you should identify top performing affiliates and give them a bonus scheme that rewards their support of your website. Don’t see them as reference numbers on a report, see them as an extension of your marketing team, people who can positively influence your end customers and grow your business. Make them aware of the rewards you offer them. It is a numbers game and your ‘super affiliates’ need to understand what their potential is – talk to them, encourage them and tell them what they could earn with a little more focus – send them projections to whet the appetite. Then give them the collateral and promotions to achieve this for you.

How can social media play a role?

Twitter

It is not practical to be on the phone all day talking to your entire affiliate base. Twitter can provide a direct communication channel, enabling affiliates to post questions and requests that you can respond to quickly. This could help reduce your inbox burden and enable affiliates to support each other with answers/suggestions, increasing engagement with your program.

If you set expectations for response times from the start, you could find that your affiliates get value from the Twitter exchange. There are spin off benefits – other potential affiliates can find you from your Twitter activity and every tweet with your company name builds brand conversation.

Social Networks e.g. Facebook

A closed Facebook group for affiliates would enable you to update your affiliate base with information and enable them to discuss your products/services amongst themselves. The more enlightened affiliates will see the benefit of sharing tips with others to learn from experience and help each other increase conversion and revenue. They will also identify common problems and flag them up for your action.

Ratings and reviews

Why not ask your affiliates to post reviews of the promotion and campaign collateral you provide? The best way to find out why campaigns are working/not working is to get feedback from the website owners using them. This could help your strategy and planning.

If you offer customer reviews on your website, send affiliates a weekly list of the best rated products to help them promote these on their websites. Research proves that products with reviews have a higher conversion rate (Argos experienced 10% increase), so get your affiliates shouting about them as well.

Take away thoughts

Affiliates feel that communication from merchants is limited – social media can provide one tool to help address this sentiment and increase the level of engagement across the program. If affiliates believe that you take them seriously and are working with them in partnership to benefit both parties commercially, they are more likely to promote your campaigns ahead of their other merchants.

My key thoughts are:

Use social media to increase discussion with your affiliates
Use social media to inform affiliates of product/service news and latest offers
Reduce the need for phone & email support by offering customer service via social tools
Promote your top rated products to your affiliates
Increase conversation about your brand to attract new affiliates
Give affiliates the tools to become brand advocates

Not sure your affiliates will embrace social? Ask them. Start with the big players and gauge the level of interest.

What do you think? Will social media play a role in your affiliate program? Let me know your thoughts, would be interested to develop this idea with your input.

Why social media makes Customer Service more important

2009-08-21T02:04:00.000-07:00

I spoke to a friend last night who visited Iceland for his first wedding anniversary. He had treated his wife and splashed out on the Hilton which is apparently the second best hotel in Iceland.

On arrival he was greeted with the news that the hotel manager had upgraded their reservation to the executive suite, on one of the top floors, affording spectacular views over Reykjavik. The reception staff wished my friend and his wife a happy anniversary and told them to shout if they need anything to make their stay more pleasant. When they got up to the room, there was a greeting card congratulating them and a bouquet of flowers.

Now that is what I call customer service. The hotel knew about the special occasion because my friend added this to the comments field when booking online. However, the fact that the manager made the effort to give them something for nothing and that the hotel staff were all aware of the importance of the occasion is testament to a company that takes customer service seriously.

As a result of this kindness, my friend has recounted the story to almost everyone he knows. He added an update to his Facebook account when he was over in Iceland saying how happy he and his wife were. That message instantly reached hundreds of people. Following a conversation in a pub, I'm now writing about this and will link to it across my social networks.

Why? Because it illustrates the point that positive customer service can have a ripple effect. One of the positive effects of social media is the ability for individuals to influence decision making via user generated content. This content could be on a social network like Facebook, in a Twitter tweet or in a review posted on a website. The fact is, with people sharing information (in some cases instantly) freely, the impact the actions your business takes can have a significant impact on your brand reputation.

If you look back to the problem United Airlines created for itself when it damaged a customer's guitar, it provoked a chain reaction from the video posted to YouTube which amassed over 2m views from July 7th to July 12th after the story broke. The company's reputation was tarnished and they had to respond, eventually providing positive customer service. Social media provided the tools for an individual to express his frustration by the inept customer service he was provided. This social commentary influenced the opinions and actions of thousands of people globally.

For brand marketers and PR, I think this concept is proving hard to handle and also quite daunting. No longer can you rely on press releases to spin a positive line, you have to monitor brand conversations across the social space and learn to engage with people on their terms and in their networks. Communication is more pervasive than ever and companies have to respond by taking customer service seriously across the business; the adage that the customer is always right is truer than ever and how business deals with its customers is wonderfully visible.

Why has social media changed the requirements for customer service? Because an individual can influence people globally which in turn can have a significant impact on a business. Perhaps investors will take stock and impress the value of good service on their management team because ignoring it could affect the value of their investments.

Do you agree that social media is making customer service standards more visible and more important?

Investment in social media needs to be measured and not treated with kid gloves

2009-08-13T06:32:00.001-07:00

Over the past few weeks I’ve been asked the same question by different people, assuming it’s not the voice in my head again. The question is, “How can I prove that social media is profitable?”

I don’t like this question – what do you mean by profitable? Do you mean net profit after all costs (including labour) have been deducted? If so, how do you calculate the involvement of all the departments in your social media activity, such as the Customer Service team that fields an email/call centre enquiry generated off the back of your Twitter updates?

I much prefer the approach of measuring the impact of social media investment on your commercial goals. How you measure success will differ to other companies, so you need to establish your success criteria and then learn how social media works in conjunction with other marketing channels to support them.

Establish goals and measure outcomes

What I do advocate is defining your success criteria and then putting the tools & processes in place to measure outcomes against goals. At the heart of this has to be a web analytics tool (Google Analytics, Omniture etc). Behind this has to be a carefully constructed tracking program that ensures that every link that appears anywhere across your social networks includes a relevant tracking code. These tracking codes need to be logically segmented to ensure you can evaluate the impact of Twitter v blogs v forum presence v social networks etc. An example would be to set a goal in Google Analytics that targets increasing revenue for Category X on your website – monitor what % of the revenue increase is contributed from social media activity via the tracking codes.

Understanding sales attribution online

Another important step is to ensure your campaign stacking is working. What do I mean by campaign stacking? The ability to see which campaigns have influenced the final click. Your last click secures the sale but earlier clicks influenced it. Very much like raising brand awareness via TV advertising, a sale generated by email might have its origins in PPC or Affiliate. Prior exposure to your brand could have driven email sign-up and subsequent conversion when the time was right. Multiple channels working together to drive your revenue base. Therefore, you need to ensure your analytics reports can deliver the granularity of reporting needed to identify these interactions; otherwise you will end up making the wrong investment decision based on partial information.

What should my success criteria be?

You tell me! I am a strong believer in setting both financial and non-financial goals. Why? Very much like a holistic PPC strategy, there is the short and long tail impact of social media. The short tail is activity that immediately generates website traffic and purchases, such as a special promotion to your Twitter followers (Accessories Online does this very effectively). This can be measured by key metrics like visits / orders / revenue / average order value / conversion.

The long tail is the increase in customer engagement that builds brand loyalty and drives elements like newsletter sign-up and word-of-mouth. In the long-term, these elements can lead directly to generating new orders and driving incremental revenue. An example of this is using the Facebook fan page tabs to incorporate a newsletter sign-up option for your main eCommerce website. What monetary value do you assign to a newsletter subscription from your social media presence?

Measuring social media is never 100% accurate

Why? You can’t track everything. For example, just before Christmas I found a tweet from a fancy dress/jokes/games retailer about Space Hoppers. We loved these at school, so I posted the link to my Facebook wall using Add This. Next time I met up with some school mates who live locally, Jimbo brought up the post on Facebook and we started talking about how cool Space Hoppers (and other things like Pogo sticks!) were. A few of them shared the link with other contacts in their social networks. I turned up at Jimbo’s New Year fancy dress party in my Superman outfit and was handed a surprise gift. Inside was a brand new Space Hopper! He had gone direct to the website but he did not use the original Facebook link to click through.

The retailer could not have associated that sale with their Twitter activity. They could run a post purchase question for “What brought you to the site today” – still no guarantee it would be filled in accurately or you could effectively cover all options.

My summary

From an evaluation perspective, treat social media the same as any other investment: define your goals and success criteria, implement a measurement program and regularly evaluate performance and fine tune your program to focus on what drives the most value (however you define value).

But do me a favour – make sure you enjoy it. Social media is more than brand marketing, it should be exciting, fresh, engaging and most of all, you should have a real passion for this, not just treat it as the next great thing for online marketing. It’s not a toy, it’s a community waiting for your involvement, step in and say hello!

Will Facebook shops be a new dawn for monetising social media?

2009-07-31T01:42:00.000-07:00

The question of how to measure & monetise social media investment has been a hot potato throughout 2009. Many brands are either embracing or interested in adding social media marketing to their mix but struggle to define how this investment can be planned, measured and analysed to ensure it 'adds value'.

Over in the US, retailer 1-800 Flowers (can you guess what they sell?!) has taken a bold and innovative step forward in the race to commercialise social media activity - they've worked with advertising network Alvenda to launch a shop within their Facebook fan page.

The big leap here is that customers can shop and buy without having to leave Facebook. Whilst the current storefront is Flash based, it is an interesting step towards evaluating the cash potential of engaging customers via social networking sites. 1-800 Flowers currently has a low fan base, 2095 fans as of July 31st @ 10am (UK time!). Imagine though the potential of selling to a niche audience as that number grows. Provided they continue to engage with customers on Facebook and provide relevant content and contribute to discussions, perhaps there is a viable commercial model in play.

Why do I think this could work? Firstly the user interface is quick and easy - you don't need to be web savvy to order. Check out the screen flow below - clear navigation, buttons & calls-to-action:

Secondly, customers demand convenience. There may be a % of your audience who only use Facebook for communication, conversation and information. If you do not have the right presence in Facebook, you might lose the opportunity to convert them into a paying customer. I'm not saying this is going to work for everyone but it is logical that this eCommerce channel has potential.

Some might throw up the criticism of cannibalising online sales and losing margin by paying fees to Alvenda and/or Facebook. However, would you rather take a sale at a lower margin than your main website to gain a new customer who can then fall into your retention cycle, or potentially lose them to a competitor? The same argument applies to marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, affiliates and price comparison sites. Having been a Head of eCommerce for a retailer using marketplace and affiliate programs, I know that without them the net sales and contribution from the online channel is lower than with them, even if your margin % point is diminuished. I guess the investment decision relies on whether commerically you target margin instead of net profit. If you have a limited stock base, this becomes a more pressing concern.

The reality is that people have wanderlust online, they are promiscuous and shopping habits change. Presence is essential, as is grabbing attention in an attention deficit world. It is feasible that Facebook shops will add another channel to the online mix and help retailers monetise part of their social media investment. What interests me is the fallout of the 1-800 Flowers PR - how many 'me too' retailers will jump into a Facebook shop and how many will sit on the fence until there is evidence of the results?

Thanks to Econsultancy's blog for a helpful write up of what 1-800 Flowers has done and the ensuing discussion.

I'd welcome comments on my blog - what do you think of this move, will is start a footrace for the next frontier of social media? Alternatively, join in the Econsultancy blog discussion - I think this is an exciting move and would welcome other people's views on it.

How can your business start to make sense of social media?

2009-07-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

I woke up on Thursday morning with a nagging question in my mind. I don't know why, perhaps it's because my mind has a mind of its own. The question that snapped me awake was how can a business make sense of the seething metropolis that is social media? I've been guilty of adding to the commentary and not putting enough suggestions to paper. I've tried my best but I do tend to get distracted and add my thoughts to the latest story, albeit in an attempt to add value and insight.

So this week I'm going to put down a simple plan with the sort of questions you need to be asking yourself and the actions you need to take. This is not an authoritative and exhaustive list, it is simply my recommendation to help you get started and not simply sit back and drown in information. It is written for someone who is new to social media and has had no experience of working with it and struggles to understand how it works alongside traditional marketing.

Below are my 9 steps to getting started:

Step 1

Define the goals and objectives of your social media strategy?

· Why are you investing time & money?

· What do you want to achieve?

· Create SMART objectives and ensure that any activity is tied back to at least one of these objectives

Step 2

Plan the resource requirements

· How much time can you afford to dedicate to building your social media presence?

· Who needs to be involved and how does this need coordinating?

· Define how you will respond to feedback (positive, negative, general enquiries etc)

· Establish what tools you will need to use to monitor your presence effectively

Step 3

Understand the culture of the social networks you wish to explore

· Evaluate competitors and other companies using the networks and learn from what they do

· Immerse yourself in the social media and get to grips with the etiquette and how people interact

· Read relevant industry blogs and articles to improve your knowledge

Step 4

Create a measurement plan

· Define what your success criteria are – are they soft or hard targets, are there financial objectives?

· Define how you will measure each success criterion

· Set-up the tools that you need to measure these (web analytics, voice-of-customer, call centre etc)

Step 5

Understand your customers' needs that do not relate to a purchase

· What will make people interested in what you have to say and engage in conversation with you?
What information will satisfy the needs of online researchers who don’t want a sales message?

· What subjects areas related to your products & services drive the greatest conversation?

· What knowledge base do you have that you can communicate to add value to the community?

Step6

Create an integrated communication plan

· Define how you will use each channel to promote both conversation and sales orientated messages

· Define how your social media presence will work with your other marketing channels

Step 7

Build relevant content – content is king

· Plan what content you can produce that is relevant and adds value to your community

· Integrate this content with your primary website to ensure that your traditional customer base benefits as well

· Integrate content creation with your SEO to ensure content is optimised and beneficial to site visibility

Step8

Identify brand ambassadors and key contributors

· Monitor your networks and identify people who get involved the most – talk to them, find out more about them and encourage them to become brand ambassadors

· Use other people to spread your message – give them the tools to share your content across their networks

· Engage with them directly using more personalized 1-2-1 communication

Step9

Monitor, evaluate, respond, adapt & evolve

· Social media is not a fixed entity, communities are evolving every day as people’s needs and desire changes – make sure you stay in touch with the mood

· If your audience is shifting to other social media sites, move with them; if they are demanding more interaction, learn how to satisfy this

· Regularly evaluate performance against the objectives and goals you set – how are you doing?

· Use all sources of information to identify ways to improve your engagement

· Above all, monitor your brand reputation and act when there is conversation happening that you can both influence and add value to – never stop listening.

Have I missed anything obvious? I am not claiming to be an 'expert', I don't believe in that word. These recommendations are based on my own experience of using social media. Please share your comments and suggestions.

Social media is pervasive

2009-07-17T08:40:00.001-07:00

This week's blog is a short response to an excellent article about the power of social media for individuals v business, posted by Dan Greenfield on Social Media Today. I am not going to repeat the content, Dan does an excellent job so please read his blog for an insightful analysis.

In summary, a musician had his guitar damaged by United Airlines' baggage handlers and this was witnessed. Following months of wrangling, United Airlines failed to provide compensation. Frustrated, the musician set about using his music to broadcast this shocking customer service via social media sites such as YouTube. This led to an outbreak of negative PR as the online community took umbrage at the disregard for the customer.

What does this tell us? Well, it clearly demonstrates that social media is pervasive. By that, I mean that its reach is extensive and one action can echo far and wide very quickly. You don't need to be a business leader or celebrity for your voice to be heard, shared and embraced.

I think this is wonderful. The internet is fast becoming a social vehicle whereby people can have their 15 minutes of fame and effect change. The power of the online community to chose what it believes is important is exciting (for some concerning, perhaps). One individual can influence millions of others simply by providing relevant content that is then shared across networks.

What does this mean to business? It means that monitoring brand conversation is more crucial than ever in order to protect and enhance your brand reputation. It is arrogant to dismiss channels like Twitter as worthless fads that offer no commercial value. If your company is being criticised and you do nothing about it, that will damage you commercially. The challenge has been set and business must take online reputation seriously. Read Dan's blog and follow the links to find out just how quickly a story can go global. Can business afford to be so complacent?

What do you think? Is this a great development that will help make business more accountable for its mistakes or do you find social media too pervasive and open to abuse?

All comments welcome. Thanks.

DM drives more web traffic than online marketing - how can this benefit social media?

2009-07-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

A new survey by Pitney Bowes has found that 60% of UK consumers believe offline direct marketing is the most likely to get them to visit the website of a company they have not bought from before. You can read the full Internet Retailing article here.

Ok, the survey only covered 10,000 people but that is a significant number and gives a good inidicator of the general mood of consumers. How much value should retailers place in this finding? Do they need to rethink their marketing mix to cater for the impact of offline media on online performance?

I started to think about this in relation to social media. Let's take the example of customer reviews. Argos made a bold and logical move at the start of 2009 by integrating online reviews into its print catalogue, with a reach of over half the UK households. That decision instantly put user generated content in front of their main audience and highlighted both the service availability and the value of independent comments. This raises the question of how effective user generated content can be in driving traffic and sales from offline media into the online store? I have not seen any follow up data from Argos or Bazaarvoice on this subject and would welcome any info.

The research from Pitney Bowes indicates an age and gender bias to the multi-channel effect. Women are more likely than men to be influenced by offline media and those in the 25-34 age group are most likely to consider buying when directed from an offline message. How does this tally up with the general usage of social media? Interestingly on networks like Facebook, it is the over 35 segment that is increasing usage quickly and there is a female bias, though us chaps are catching up quickly, especially on Twitter.

So, if there is a prime social media audience that will respond to offline messaging, is there a bigger opportunity to engage people via offline media to improve online website performance? Beyond incorporating customer reviews into catalogue and other media such as advertising, how else can retailers leverage social media across their offline channels?

I would start by testing some low level activity because you don't want to throw all your eggs in one basket and find out the effort has been worthless. With customer reviews I would be interested to see the impact on response rates to adverts using unique URLs for the online click. Perhaps radio ads could position top rated products to increase engagement and response?

Then there is the question of social network profiles. How can you promote your community presence on sites like Facebook & You Tube or your micro blogging on Twitter? Perhaps these can be incorporated into catalogues and adverts to test whether they can increase your audience participation?

Of course, you need to balance the testing of the new with the impact on your existing marketing activity. There is no point increasing Facebook fans if you destroy your direct response at the same time. However, with a sensible testing strategy I think retailers can play with this multi-channel marketing story and learn more about how the channel interaction affects customer engagement.

I would be interested to hear what you think and give me examples of retailers already doing this well......

Marketing Donut shows how to get people talking on Twitter

2009-07-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

It's Tuesday 30th June, 2009 in Maidenhead. It's 9.30 am and my eyes are still stuck together and my brain desparately trying to work out why i'm not in bed and in my happy place. I'm sat at my desk, logged in to Twitter and just typing my first tweet using the hashtag #mydonut.

Why? My thoughts exactly. The reason is both intrigue and genuine engagement with a new brand, the Marketing Donut. The Marketing Donut is a new venture aimed at the SME market, sponsored by the brute force of Royal Mail and Google, to provide advice, guidance and discussions to benefit business. It is a fantastic idea and really well delivered online. Behind the Donut is a team of editors and marketers who are responsible for different elements of business, from marketing to law.

The twitthusiasts (twitter + enthusiast?!) at the Donut organised a Twitter conference on Tuesday and encouraged their contacts to get involved using the hashtag #mydonut.

Did it work?

Well I don't know what their success criteria were but it certainly had a resounding impact. Over 1,800 tweets were exchanged (not just in the UK) and the hashtag trended to the #4 spot. This also generated wider interest as those following the trending topics got stuck in to question what the hell #mydonut was about.

From a personal viewpoint, I benefitted. I gained 40 relevant new followers whom I can now engage with and exchange ideas. I also accessed information that has enhanced my knowledge and god knows, I need it!

For more detail you can check out the Marketing Donut blog.

What could have been done better?

Perhaps there could have been some goals set for the conference and these shared with all participants to focus the discussion. There were a lot of useful conversations but these were slightly disjointed and many people were simply RTing the same comments. Maybe there could be set discussion points that then generate multiple conversations and you can listen/join in to those that are relevant?

I have a vested interest in encouraging engagement with @MarketingDonut: I am one of their expert contributors, offering advice and info for online marketing. You can find my profile here. Please do drop by and take a look around the Marketing Donut website, you could be pleasantly surprised!

So what do you think? Was Marketing Donut's move inspired genius or symptomatic of people having too much time on their hands? Please leave your comments.....

Habitat - not a natural fit with Twitter!

2009-06-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been hiding, you will have read about the Habitat Twitter storm that has been exciting the masses. To keep a long story short, Habitat begain tweeting using irrelevant hashtags, one of which centred on the scandal around the Iranian elections. The Iranian hashtag was trending strongly as the global twitter community started to engage with what is a truly frightening and depressing scenario. Habitat (some would argue shamelessly) cashed in on the rising trend to grab awareness to their unrelated sales tweet.

What ensued was inevitable - the twitter community reacted negatively and with speed. Negative comments streamed in against Habitat, criticising them for their 'black hat' efforts. A swift retraction of the tweets followed but general silence from Habitat HQ as to why they did this. After a few days an apology surfaced, more comments were generated and the storm in the tea cup gently eased. Not before the news had reached mainstream media with the story breaking on the Guardian and Sky News.

For me, this is a good example of how much impact conversations within social communities can have on mainstream media. Twitter has been derided by many as a fad, novacaine for those of us with attention issues and nothing to do (something I have always aspired to!). However, if you can put this one-dimensional view to one side, you will discover that Twitter is a powerful communication tool that throws up stories and spreads them like wildfire. The viral impact of breaking news is impressive; Habitatgate has seen coverage on Sky News which has extensive reach (nope, no idea how may million viewers!).

You can follow the original story (and the outbreak of comments - some rather fuelled with vitriolic rage!) on Social Media Today. A follow-up story was then posted after Habitat contacted Social Media Today to ask them to publish an apology - read it here.

So what do you think? Should brands be taking brand monitoring in social communities more seriously? Is managing your social media personality more important than ever? Do you need to define rules of engagement before starting, or does that go against the culture of social?

Love to read your comments so don't be shy!

How can you cut through the noise and appreciate what Twitter offers your business?

2009-06-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

The blog post below is a summary from an article I recently had published by Internet World and sums up my thinking about Twitter.

For the full article please visit the Buzz articles website.

What is Twitter – my take
The online retail landscape is changing and not just because of the economic downturn. There has been a mentality shift from passive to active consumers of other people’s information. We increasingly expect dialogue from the people/brands we like and want to receive information when and where we want. This demands an understanding of the social networks that people use and the tools that communicate with them. Twitter is just one tool that enables people/brands to connect with a wider online audience.
I consider Twitter to be an interactive communication tool that is part of an overall communication strategy. Its audience is not homogenous. Who you communicate with depends entirely on why you are on Twitter, what you do and what you want to get from it. At the most basic level Twitter is a text based information service enabling you to send updates via online & mobile devices to your network of followers. As you embrace richer functionality and complementary applications, Twitter can become a brand monitoring service and customer engagement tool.
I genuinely believe that Twitter provides an important communication tool but that its contribution to your personal or business brand is entirely dependent upon what you want to achieve, how you use it and how much effort you put in.

Do you agree? Let me know what you think of the commercial potential of Twitter.

Getting your attitude right with social presence is key

2009-06-11T01:27:00.000-07:00

I was asked this week by another consultant (yes, we breed like rabbits!) what companies should be doing with social media and whether it is really worth the effort. Instead of laughing at the suggestion that it might be a futile investment, I thought about what is the best way to explain the context of social media to someone who doesn't know much about it. So I turned to the best possible example of how social marketing can engineer both a culture change & drive engagement with new audiences - the Barack Obama election campaign.

I love this quote from Mike Slaby, CTO of Obama for Amercia: "If you tread on people’s space, you’ll piss them off". That hits the nail on the head. To get social media, you have to change the mentality from a brand to a community member. You need to engage people with dialogue, not push marketing monologue at them. On Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc you are an equal member with everyone else, even if you have your own account you do not control the conversation. Why do you want to control conversation? That's not how a conversation works, that is more of a chaired panel session!

The challenge is to understand what you want to achieve from your social media presence, define the information you wish to communicate and then build relationships with key members (find the advocates, those controbuting the most and having the greatest influence on other members) so that you can get your message across without being seen as intrusive.

The other quote I really like from Mike is in relation to Twitter: "If you’re going to use Twitter, you have to have people in your organization who know how to tweet. And you have to trust your people and the people you’re talking about". What I like is the ethos of trust, empowering your employees to take ownership of social channels and giving them the freedom to build relationships and conversations using their voice and personality. By all means provide guidelines (you don't want people swearing and using offensive language, that could damage your reputation) but allow nature to take its course.

In social media I think that your personal voice is really important. People relate more to people, than companies. Establishing who you are and why you are there goes a long way to building trust and with trust comes a more open dialogue that enables you to achieve your communciation goals. Take a look at my last blog entry on Southwest Airlines for a great example of how employee empowerment can be put at the heart of a social media strategy.

Using commercial disciplines to plan a social media program is both sensible and recommended but the delivery has to be personal, relevant & engaging.

So what's my take out from this blog post?

1) Don't let your social program be brand-centric

2) Understand that people relate to people more than businesses

3) Get your employees excited about what social media can achieve

4) Empower employees to take ownership of social channels

5) Engage your community; ask questions, respond to queries, give them relevant content

6) Amongst this, weave in sensible promotions to drive traffic & sales on your commerce website.

Do you agree with my take? If you have any comments or questions please drop by and have a chat.

Southwest Airlines gets that social vibe

2009-05-29T07:17:00.000-07:00

It has been a long week, reading trite soundbites from really negative people slating social media sites like Twitter as smokescreens with no relevance to the business world. I'm all for exchanging conflicting views and opening up the debate but recently there has been a bit of vitriol from'experts' denouncing us new media darlings are being oh so naive and a bit too eager to jump on board.

So imagine my delight when I discovered perhaps the best story I've read about how a major brand has embraced social media into its company culture and empowered its employees to use it to engage with the wider world. I stumbled upon this story in Hubspot's internet marketing blog.

Southwest Airlines appointed a Manager of Emerging Media, Paula Bergs, who is responsible for driving their social media plans. They have an interesting model whereby each social channel is owned by a different person and that person decides how the company's message can best be communicated via that channel. The communication is not regulated by a central legal or brand department, instead employees are empowered to positively represent the company.

I really like this approach. It does not involve one person banging the drum whilst others do as they are told. It is participative, it builds trust and encourages people to take ownership and have a personal attachment to the social media channel they are working with. It also means that each person will build up a strong understanding of the customers they are engaging with which will then benefit the overall social media strategy. Listen to Paula talk and you can clearly see that she is both passionate and excited about what Southwest is doing - that sort of passion is infectious and will rub off on her team.

But what got me most excited was the video of David Holmes, a cabin crew employee, who has become a legend for rapping the inflight safety instructions to liven up the flight for his passengers. The rap was filmed by a passenger and put onto YouTube. Southwest Airlines got hold of this and, instead of criticising David for deviating from company policy, embraced what he had done and started to promote it themselves. He has now appeared on major TV networks (Leno, Oprah etc) and been interviewed online and for radio. He has become somewhat of a celebrity off the back of his own spontaneity and individuality.

What's more the top boys & girls at Southwest have encourage this and it has been absorbed as part of the company's attitude to encouraging its employees to engage with and delight their customers. What a truly refreshing attitude.

What do you think? Does this put a smile on your face as well?

Smirnoff - Social in mainstream advertising

2009-05-22T02:24:00.000-07:00

It's rare that a newspaper advert gets my attention, I'm so stauchly online that i rarely acknowledge adverts in offline publications.

However, the other day, sat in the office kitchen aimlessly scanning Metro for something engaging to read (other than more woes of shameless MPs bleeding taxpayers dry!), my eyes stumbled upon a very cool and interesting Smirnoff advert.

The advert had an impactful headline: "Create the Next Smirnoff Event!". I was intrigued to know what event. I then indulged my classic 'get to the end' impatience and checked the advert footer - I saw something even more interesting; the reply URL was a Facebook page. I was intrigued enough to go back and read the full advert. And then click through to Facebook.......

Below: Facebook landing page for the "urthenight" promotion:

I liked what Smirnoff had done. They had dreamed up a new event, staged it at the O2 in London which is perfect for their target audience - fun, funky, lively & full of alcopopped teenagers with a crazed look in their eyes.

To get people engaged they created a competition to have a personalised journey to the event by boat on the Thames. All you have to do to enter is tell Smirnoff how you would start the evening, they will then "pimp up a boat with your design for an exclusive warm-up party and transport to the venue".

The only way you can enter is via the Facebook app. A Facebook poll on their fan page will then decide the winning idea. Great way to engage people via Facebook and then let the community decide. Smirnoff has over 48,000 fans on its Facebook fan page..... yes it's only a number but that is a large number to communicate with.

The ad copy suggests this isn't the only interative element to the night and encourages people to check every Thursday for more ways to have fun with Smirnoff. I think this is a great example of a brand using social in the offline space to engage with its target audience and give them something to influence using their social networks.

What do you think? A clever bit of offline integration into social media planning or nothing to get excited about? Let me know your take on this.

It's ok to flash in public!

2009-05-15T02:54:00.000-07:00

No I don't mean the dirty mack and shifty look in a local park but at least the heading made you read on. What i'm referring to is the thrill of flash mob events that seems to have sparked the imagination of us Brits. Perhaps it is the adrenaline of such an instantaneous burst of activity or perhaps it's the Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame narcissim, the Big Brother obsession with being on TV. Either way, there are some brands and agencies that are nailing the viral element of the social media evolution and creating incredible brand engagement.

If you haven't stumbled across the idea of flash mobs (where have you been all this time?!), it involves bringing together large numbers of people to act out a specific event in public locations. T-Mobile seems to have embraced this with open arms and you can see footage of their recent sing-a-long in Trafalgar Square using this Chinwag link. Scroll down to the 4 min edit and keep an eye out for Pink....actually, you don't need to do that, there is more to life. Want more examples, you can give this site a go.

The event itself is creative but it's the online marketing impact that excites me. This video has more than 450,000 views on YouTube and 1,483 ratings...not bad eh? Just think of the full social potential if the viral effect is fully exploited nationally, globally?

Having spoken to someone involved in this event (Saatchi & Saatchi organised the whole thing), it's not the free spirited utopia that you might think. Organising these events requires massive co-ordination with the local council and Police. That's inevitable, for one there has to be cover in case of an accident - who would foot the bill if hundreds of people got injured by crowd frenzy?

Do flash mobs have a direct financial benefit? I don't know how you could qualify that unless you ask people why they bought on your website/in-store and list "the flash mob in Trafalgar Square inspired me" as an option.....

However, perhaps that is missing the point. From a brand awareness point of view, it is an amazing outlet. Thousands of people coming together in waves of exaltation, hundreds of thousands perhaps millions more engaging with the creative online via social networks/seeding.

What do you think? Is flash mobbing a flash in the pan or can it become a sustainable engagement tool? Is it only for global brands that have at the core of their brand values a sense of bringing people together, like the mobile operators?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Should email be more social?

2009-05-01T02:50:00.001-07:00

I get too much email. Fact. I'm signed up to hundreds of retailers, industry bodies, bloggers, gurus etc in the search for illusory perfection. I want to find the best elements of every aspect of email marketing to blend them into something fantastic for our Clients. For the past few weeks i've been tracking who adds a social element to their emails and there are surprisingly few examples. Which got me thinking. Yes, rare I know.

What do I mean by social elements to email? I mean giving people the ability to interact with and share your content across their social networks and to join your networks, such as:

Linking to your blog
Providing social bookmarking
Showcasing your social profiles on sites like Facebook & Flickr
Including Twitter follow links
Highlighting your online forums

Of course, not everyone is feeling social despite it being the latest obsession of the marketing world. However, for most brands there is a compelling reason to make emails more social - not everyone wants to buy from you right now, so you need to keep them engaged with your brand until their purchase desire is ripe. If they get a flat email with no reason to pay attention, they're gone. Unless your next emails then land at the exact point they are considering a purchase, you are likely to lose the sale to someone else.

So what do I recommend?

Firstly, get to know your audience and start with the basics. Put social bookmarking on your email - you can use free tools like Add This and embed the code into your html. Then tell people about it and get them excited - tell them to share with their friends and post the content to their preferred network so they can access it whenever they want.

Secondly, test the impact of your social media presence. Start simple with something like Twitter. Add a "Follow me on Twitter" section to the email and then track the volume of clicks. If your tracking & analytics is effective, you can then measure how non-Twitter email customers compare with Twitter email customers for site traffic & conversion. Having spoken to Littlewoods Deals, they generate 50 to 100 visits to their website from Twitter daily.

Once you've got them to follow you on Twitter, you can use your tweets to keep them engaged with you and your brand (important you keep this informal and personal), alerting them to offers and promotions as well as new products/services. Twitter is a much lower cost communication tool than email - no design, build or distribution costs. Imagine if you could get 1,000 of your customers to follow you on Twitter - you then have a daily communication opportunity, the only cost is your time.

A good example of this in action is......drum roll.......no alarms and no surprises......ASOS!

I know everyone bangs their drum but they just get it. They embrace online and the love talking to their customers. A recent ASOS email invited people to follow their Tweeps and if you look in the footer of all their emails, there are links to their social network profiles.

Another brand mixing email & social well is Coke Zone - targeted at the younger audience but great offers and clean creative. Check them out.

Do you agree with me? Do you think that brands should be integrating their social & email marketing?

Let me know of any good/bad examples you have discovered.

Dominos feels the force of the social web

2009-04-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

In case you have not read about this already (if you are on Twitter it is almost impossible not to have stumbled across the story), Dominos US President Patrick Doyle has taken the unprecedented step of releasing a YouTube video to tackle the growing malaise caused by Dominos employees filming themselves doing unspeakable things to food and then (allegedly) serving it to customers.

The employees in question released a video on YouTube of them, amongst other things, putting cheese up their nose and then putting it in sandwiches. Now that is not the smartest move; every naughty schoolboy knows that if you are going to misbehave, you don’t advertise it globally! Unsurprisingly various consumer groups and outraged online viewers escalated this issue until Dominos had no choice but to respond. Unfortunately the original video can't be accessed as the employees in question have had it suspended due to forthcoming legal action being taken against them by Dominos. Oh dear, bet they never though that would happen!

You can find the video response from Patrick Doyle here.

Now there is an explosion of commentary, debate and abuse floating around the web. Bloggers have gone crazy (yep I'm firmly on the bandwagon!) and there are comments galore. There are even discussion threads where people are laying in to each other over their responses to the incident. Crazy people out there. For an example of a blog on this subject check out New York News.

If you want further evidence of how much content this is spawning and how excited the online world has become so quickly, got to Twitterfall and type in "Dominos" as a custom search - watch the tweets rise & rise!

This is a great example of the power of the social web - once something becomes public domain, you have no control over what happens to it. The community decides whether they want to share, embrace, condone or vilify. It has a direct impact on brand reputation, so every contact with social networks must be well thought through, well intentioned and effectively monitored.

So what do you think? Was the response the right decision, was it too big brother? Did Dominos have any other choice given the potential brand damage of sitting on the fence? Do you think Dominos has come out of this with positive PR?

Please let me know your comments.

Sitting in the corner all alone

2009-04-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

Why do some companies miss a trick? Why do marketers spend a lot of time and effort coming up with clever campaign concepts only to fail in the delivery? On the social web there is a huge opportunity to encourage people to share your ideas across their networks, provided you give them good reason to. Encouraging people to talk for you doesn't always require a financial incentive, though that is indeed the usual fare. However a quid pro quo is desireable - you scratch my back etc.

My irritation comes this week from what I think was a great piece of marketing poorly executed. The brand is Brora, the concept an Easter Egg Hunt launched via email. The email invited me to their website to hunt for easter eggs hidden on pages; there are 15 in total to collect awarding a maximum discount of 15% off your order.

On closer inspection, there was no obvious route to finding the eggs and no hints/tips to channel people to find the mother load. The landing page explaining the hunt was bland and unengaging. The eggs, when found, were easy to see and there was a nicely delivered splash page showing your new egg being added to the basket and the total eggs collected.

However, there are 15 eggs to collect to get the full 15% discount. Firstly, 15 eggs is a lot to collect when you are not giving people any clues how to find them and they all exist on separate pages. Secondly, 15% is not a great offer anymore - anything less than 20% seems an offense! So, in my opinion this is a really cute piece of marketing that has failed to ask the killer question - will my customers find it easy to use and will they be excited? Of course, that is my take, hopefully for Brora it will prove successful but could it have been even more successful if the execution has been smarter?

Bringing it back to the general social theme of my blog, what do I think they should have done?

Encourage sharing - use a standard "send-to-friend" service in the email - why are they not using such a basic tool to get more people involved?
Provide social bookmarking in the email so that people could post the content to their networks - Easter is abput friends & family, so encourage people to spread the word
Reward people for spreading the content virally - why not offer anyone who sends the email to X friends a bonus Y% off their order? Or free delivery. Or a free gift.
Get online and get people excited about it!! Now this is supposition but I think there will have been zero online PR for this campaign - there should have been some content syndicated to raise awareness & the offer driven via channels such as the affiliate base

I guess my main point here is that people undersell themselves too easily and don't think laterally. A promotion is as effective as the interest of your customers and you limit the scope of involvement if you just send an email and put up a new homepage - you have to put all your eggs in one basket!

What do you think? Go to the Brora homepage and follow the instructions: do you get bored after the first 5 eggs and give up or does it really work for you? Please post comments, I welcome other viewpoints.

Should we expect responses from all Twitter messages?

2009-04-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

Following some twitter banter this week i've decided to continue the political theme of last week's post. Don't worry, i'm not politicising my blog, I'm just interested by the usage of social media by politicians and political parties.

Last week's blog discussed the relevance of social media to politics; this week's reviews how a poorly thought through campaign can increase apathy amongst the target, or voting, audience. As with any social media presence, politicians need to understand the rules of engagement; if they want the kudos and benefits of our attention and affection, they need to take it seriously and give something back. In short, I think they have the following obligations:

Respond to comments and feedback
Maintain regular updates
Don't preach - give us opinion but let us think about it
Address negative PR
Entertain us!

I, like one man and his dog, follow Downing Street on Twitter. I guess I'm intrigued to see the Labout spin monster in motion but also the pure part of my heart longs for genuine engagement from a politician. This week I decided to post a reply to a tweet from Downing Street:

Granted, there was a certain cheekiness and provocation in this tweet but it was also playful and genuinely hoping for a response. I took the time to communicate with Downing Street so surely they would want to respond to create a positive impression? Wrong. 2 days later and still nothing.

In my view, if you accept me as a follower you should take me seriously and respond to my comments. If you had no intention of responding to all individuals, then at least make that clear in your bio or by putting a background to your twitter account with a short statement. When I use twitter I expect a response - everyone else i message achieves this. That is what engagement is about. Twitter is not a marketing tool to push information at people - it is a conversation tool to interact and share content; without the interaction it is a PR stunt.

So tell me what you think - am I being unreasonable in expecting the Downing Street behemoth to respond to individual comments, however banal? Or should we demand better service from a public body that obviously wants the benefits of having a large follower base?

Please let me know your thoughts by posting comments to this blog.

Can social media be applied to the public sector and politics?

2009-03-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked recently on this blog how the principles of social media could be applied to the public sector and, specifically, politics. That got me thinking, a rare occurrence. I thought that being negative would help focus my mind - why couldn't you use social media tools to engage people in politics? That thought lasted a few minutes before I was resolved; social media is hugely relevant to politics and the proof is in the Obama pudding. Below are the key points to my response to the question posed by Oranjepan (apparently a “A balding, ginger primate verging on extinction” from Reading, you don't meet one of those every day!):

Politics is about people not words

How can you engage your voters if you don’t understand what they want? You must speak to them in a way that is conducive to their needs – too many politicians speak through soundbite and never actually listen, too interested in their own voices and pomp (yes that is a disservice to grass roots politics where more people are genuinely interested but mainstream politicians like Gordon Brown and David Cameron have a wider influence)

Engagement requires direct contact

Putting a leaflet through a door does not mean you’ve engaged with someone – engagement only happens when somebody responds to you, implicitly or explicitly.

Passion breeds interaction

Engagement involves concerted effort – you can’t just say “well I tried”; if you believe in something make others feel that passion – communicate it regularly and don't expect everyone to respond at the first hurdle. Creating true conversation takes time and effort, nature and nurture

Build it and they will come!

Use advocacy – when you find someone who is listening and responding, ask them if they would like to be more involved & reward them for their effort – doesn’t have to be money! The power of advocacy is huge and people respond far better to "people like me" than a politician they have no direct relationship with.

Make it easy for people to interact with you

Allow people to share information, make it easy for them to pass on what you are saying. Create a blog, allow people to track it; set-up an RSS feed so people can have your content fed to them in a convenient way; use social bookmarking tools to enable people to post your content around their social networks. Open the communication channels and make sure you respond; I recently sent an email to Patricia Hewitt via her website and received no response, making me dislike her and what she represents even more. Why bother having a "Contact me" section if you have no intention of replying?

Embrace the online channel

You want to see a good example how social media can influence in politics? I give you Mr Barrack Obama, President of the USA. Check out his official website and follow the social media links. This helped him engage with millions online, many of whom never embraced politics before. Here is a handy chart that my fellow blogger Oranjepan kindly sent me:

Team Obama's intelligent use of social media to engage a diverse online audience was instrumental in achieving two political milestones; record numbers of people using online to engage with the election and record amount of money raised online to fund the campaign.

Granted, Obama will have had far greater resource than local politicians but the principles are the same. People are not interested in grandiose rhetoric about solving the problems of a nation, they want to here policies that will deliver tangible results and that are relevant to their lives. Social media provides one of the channels to achieve 1-2-1 communication and build personal relationships.

In my opinion, there is no reason why social media can't be applied to politics. However, i would urge budding politicians, at whatever level, to tread carefully. Social network are not there for your manipulation; if you misjudge the culture of the community you can do your reputation a lot of damage.

Engagement is about listening and sharing, not pushing your agenda. Take time to understand who your audience is, then spend time monitoring where they talk and what they talk about. Only when you are sure you have something positive to contribute should you join the discussion.

If you are genuinely interested in what people have to say and what to engage in dialogue with them, you could use the online space to build an effective community and influence the voting public.

New ways to engage - contextual advertising

2009-03-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

This week i'm taking a look at engagement from a different angle to widen the perspective of this blog. Following the great debate kicked off by Google's announcement on behavioural targeting and the ensuing furore from the privacy brigade, i wanted to tackle the role of contextual advertising online.

I took the liberty of interviewing (by email) Greg Caswell, Head of White-Label Sales @ Mirago and regular contributor to the Chinwag UK Netmarketing discussion group. What follows is his stream of consciousness from my random grilling:

James:

"Hi Greg, how does contextual advertising differ from behavioural targeting?"

Greg:

"Put simply contextual advertising is about showing adverts that relate to the content of the webpage while behavioural targeting is about monitoring a consumers internet usage, the sites they visit and showing adverts that relate to those.

In more detail contextual advertising delivers adverts based on the content of the page, without the publisher having to ‘manually’ add a specific advert to a particular page. The words on the page are scanned by software which uses linguistic algorithms to extract the themes (context) of the page. Advertising is rendered within the page, based on those themes. As the user is likely to have landed on that page because they are interested in it, they are also likely to be a good match for the products or services within the related adverts.

Behavioural targeting renders adverts on the basis of the historic browsing patterns of the user who is visiting the page. The adverts are therefore rendered on the basis of the type of content the user has been viewing, rather than on the context of the current page they are visiting. Unless the behavioural implementation relates to a login mechanism, confusion can arise when the same browser is used by multiple users."

James:

"How does contextual advertising sit with privacy concerns?"

Greg:

"As a contextual advert is rendered on the basis of the (server side) content of the page, no cookie information is required by to deliver the ads. There are therefore no significant privacy issues. Behavioural advertising on the other hand, relies on storing a user’s browsing history which requires the use of cookies to do the tracking and obviously raises privacy concerns."

James:

"What are the advantages to the customer?"

Greg:

"The advantages for the consumer is that they will be shown adverts for products and services that are relevant to the content which they are viewing, and as they are more than likely to have chosen to look at this page, then they are more than likely to find the advertisements relevant too. Also there are no cookies, so no spying on their off-site behaviour.

James:

"What are the benefits to the advertiser?"

Greg:

"The advertiser knows that the content they are placing adverts against is relevant to their business or proposition, and that readers of this content are more likely to be receptive to these messages than if they appeared on unrelated content. Response rates to targeted advertising are higher than those from untargeted adverts."

James:

"What examples are there of companies using contextual ads intelligently?"

Greg:

"We worked with Travelmail last year where we matched travel advertisers to the content that was being viewed, so as an example you could be viewing a page about holidaying in Thailand and so the adverts around the content would be from advertisers who either offered holidays, flights or tours to Thailand. Far more relevant than a consumer seeing ads for ski holidays, which could happen with no contextual targeting, where the advertiser is just appearing within the Travel section."

James:

"Crystal ball – how do you see the industry evolving?"

Greg:

I think that there may be a future for behavioural targeting, but this will be on individual sites or within specific login areas of sites, and where the customer has opted in, but personally I believe widescale behavioural advertising will disappear due to the huge ‘Big Brother’ privacy issues.

Contextual is independent of where you have been, it purely attempts to supplement the place you currently are with relevant commercial content. It is therefore likely that Contextual will continue to evolve into the space ‘targeted’ by behavioural. There is of course scope for a hybrid delivery mechanism, as in individual site tracking, but the taboo of behavioural may have an affect on that trend.

Interview ends.

My view is that contextual adverts can engage customers far better than other targeting because the personal relevance is high. Couple that with the ability to search within the ad for real-time content to fine tune the personalisation, there is great potential to increase click through whilst delivering good service.

Join the debate and tell me what you think about the potential of contextual advertising as an engagement tool.

Thanks to Greg Caswell from Mirago for his time & contribution.

Twitter is not the new facebook, deal with it!

2009-03-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

We are in the midst of a new marketing obsession, people calling twitter the new facebook or holding twitter up against Google as a search tool. I've read blogs, seen tweets and found articles pitching twitter against other major online services. I don't get it. Why do we always have to evaluate one website in the context of another? This week's blog looks at why we should embrace the differences and not try to force comparisons.

There is an excellent thread started by Patricio Robles on Econsultancy.com (Fail Whale: Twitter as a search engine) debating whether twitter will ever replace Google as a search tool. The general concensus is that it won't, even can't. However, there are some really good arguments about how the two tools can work in unison to deliver a more sophisticated search program.

The point that got my attention was how twitter supports search in a brand monitoring way better than Google can. Take the example of Dell, who do a lot of direct selling & engagement work via there multiple twitter accounts. Dell uses twitter search tools to monitor brand conversation, such that it can respond to comments made about Dell, in real time. This is not the traditional search of Google but it enables a holistic view of brand communication.

Tools such as Twitterfall facilitate search monitoring. I use Twitterfall to monitor talk about my twitter profile, my name and the company I work for, e-inbusiness. Through this I've picked up on people commenting about my blog and responded. I've seen people retweet content relating to e-inbusiness. I've been able to engage with individuals more closely than I ever could using Google search.

And that is the point - the two are different. I love Google, the behemoth; Google set out its stall to dominate search and provides the best customer tool out there. If I want to research information and find websites, I will use Google 100% of the time. I can't remember the last time I looked at Yahoo or MSN. Yet Google does not enable me to nurture a personal social network and monitor my brand traffic as effectively as twitter. I can't use Google to send an important article link to my band of merry followers. However, I can use my knowledge of SEO to make sure the article I posted on the e-inbusiness website is accessible to millions of people via natural search. If I use the two in tandem, I get a powerful search & communication program.

And what about facebook, wonderful facebook, digital media's darling? facebook is definitely not the same as twitter. Again, there are similarities - facebook also enables networking and sharing of content. However, it is more commercial. facebook encourages content to be shared on profile pages, twitter via 140 character updates. facebook is a strongly visual tool where photos, videos, widgets, apps etc are prominent. Twitter uses apps to faciliate individual users but not to populate profiles. You would not use facebook to monitor who is talking about you but you would use it to share conversation across groups of friends. facebook is what Friends Reunited never became, a global platform for friends & colleagues to connect, catch up and then move on. facebook also has its advertising platform; it is likely that twitter will follow suit to monetise its audience, I hope not.

As a brand, would I benefit from one or the other, or both? Only your customers know the answer. The right question is who in my target audience uses these social networking tools and how can I use them to increase my engagement? If 2% of your audience is on twitter and 5% on facebook, wouldn't you like to have great engagement with 7% of your customer base and get them to spread the word virally? You have to use them differently.

My view is that facebook, Google & twitter are different tools, part of the overall communication mix and whilst there maybe some similarities, they serve different purposes. Don't have a face off, determine how you can use all of them to benefit both your website and your customers, then put the effort into making them work.

What do you think? Do you agree or do you think i'm wide of the mark. Join the debate, social media debating is the new black.......

Why shouldn't you use customer reviews on your site?

2009-03-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy week @ e-inbusiness. With lots of new prospects on the horizon, the e-inbusiness roadshow has been from town to town. Like the littlest hobo, every place I stop, I make a new friend etc…….

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past 2 weeks talking to people about social media. Some rooms fall silent and the tumble weed rolls. Others erupt into debate between advocates, sceptics and those who just love sitting on that fence. Social media has polarised the business community! I know that some social enthusiasts are vexed by this but I say game on. I would rather the discussion provoke a response rather than apathy. At least with negativity there is an emotional reaction you can dare to influence, perhaps change. The conquest for the new frontier has begun. In this week’s blog I’m going to take one element of social media, customer ratings & reviews, and explore its potential in more depth. Of all the forays into engagement and buzz, I think this is the easiest for people to conceptualise and ‘get’ and there are a lot of stats floating around to beef up the business case.

For those new to user generated content, ratings & reviews enables online shoppers to post reviews of products & services that they have bought. The usual mechanism is to send the customer an email X days after purchase, inviting them to rate pre-defined criteria such as product quality. The customer clicks on a link to a webpage where they can complete the review. This review is then posted to the review engine (could be bespoke on your site or an integrated 3^rd party solution like BazaarVoice, Feefo & Reevoo).

Why should you take reviews seriously?

Quite simply, if you don’t you will lose business. People read reviews and are influenced by them. If you don’t have reviews on your site, you will lose people to competitors who do. It really is that straight forward. I personally use reviews all the time for products I don’t know enough about, such as digital cameras. I want to know that the person I’m buying from is reliable and I’m getting value for money. I also want to know it does what is says on the tin. I am actually disappointed when sites don’t offer me reviews, surely it is in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs now!

And here is the dry bit, the research findings from JupiterResearch:

77% consumers cite reviews as being useful in making a purchase online
61% report that confidence can be increased via independent reviews
Petco experienced a 49% increase in conversion for products with reviews

Still not convinced, take a trawl around the web and in particular BazaarVoice’s website. Yes they have an interest in converting you to the cause but the research they cite is all independent. The facts speak for themselves.

What are the commercial benefits?

Increased product conversion
Increased average order values
Greater trust
Improved customer engagement
Great SEO content to increase your visibility

Why would my customers be interested?

Why wouldn’t they? 65% consumers research a retailer’s reputation before purchasing, according to an Internet Retailing article. Reputation is becoming increasingly important online, as is quality and trust. The economic climate is also influencing consumer behaviour. People are spending more time researching to get the best deal, not just on price but on quality & service.

Providing reviews adds reassurance, it says “listen to what people like you think”. It benefits your visitors and also your customers who can share their experiences with others. I actually like the idea that my opinion counts and can influence others – if I get great service, I want others to know so that they can benefit too.

An interesting stat this is doing the rounds is that 32% of consumers are willing to write an online review but only 19% would be prepared to write a letter or email a company directly.

How can I get people excited by this service?

Think differently. Don’t just stick the review content on your website and pat yourself on the back. Work out how you can communicate your customer’s opinions across your customer channels to increase visibility. Here are some winning ways to use reviews:

Advertise review content in your emails – “As voted by our customers”
Promote reviewed products in offline marketing such as display advertising & TV
Interact with your main reviewers, encourage them to become advocates
Integrate review ratings with your search marketing – powerful impact when a search ad has a “customers rate this 5/5” promotion

To give a few recent examples:

Argos

Argos recently added reviews on key products in its printed catalogue which reaches over 17m UK customers, 2/3 of all households

Free People

The US clothes etailer invited its most prolific reviewer to an in-depth interview, asked her about her life and why she likes Free People, snapped her in their clothes, then uploaded the photos to their Flickr group, dedicated a blog to the interview on their website and talked about it across other social platforms.

Being creative

Mobile shopping is taking off. Every time someone walks into a store with a mobile device, there is an opportunity to influence them via mobile marketing. In regards to reviews, you can promote online reviews on display stands, allowing customers the chance to read reviews of your products before making a purchase. This can increase in-store conversion be driving messages of quality, trust and reassurance. Also, if your products is syndicated in retail outlets and is up against competition, strong display stands with customer review options will help differentiate your offering.

A great example of this comes from Bazaarvoice’s customer, TurboTax. They launched a national campaign in the US to allow in-store customers to read views via their mobiles.

The summary

My view? Consumer feedback has become standard, it is no longer a novelty. What is creative is how brands are using reviews in a multi-channel environment to increase engagement. We all want honesty and transparency and from that trust will come. Don’t ask “why should I use reviews”, ask yourself “why shouldn’t I use reviews”.

Is social media killing our social skills?

2009-02-26T06:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone following my twitter updates would have seen a post about a BBC online article in which a leading medical professional warns of the inherent dangers of social networking.

Dr Aric Sigman says websites such as Facebook set out to enrich social lives, but end up keeping people apart. These warnings have been made in Biologist, the journal of the Institute of Biology. The general warning seemed common sense to me, the fact that some people could suffer by being withdrawn from face-to-face human contact, but what caught my eye was the following excerpt:

"a lack of face-to-face networking could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, the function of arteries, and influence mental performance. This, he claims, could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease, and dementia."

Now, that just seems a little bit scaremongery (if that is even a word) to me. With everything, there comes a risk. There is the belief that amongst the social networks lies the menace of people luring and enticing for nefarious intent - just take the example of the German cannibal who invited his victim over the Internet. Every communication tool has the potential to be used for illicit purposes. However, Dr Sigman's hypothesis seems a little far fetched.

Can the usage of social networking lead to fundamental changes in the human physiology and biology? I can accept that it could prevent some people from going out as much, leading to laziness, lack of exercise, sunlight etc which could have an impact on health. But does it really have the debilitating effect he claims and could it contribute to an increased prevalence of major diseases?

I'm not convinced but I'm no doctor. I personally think social networking can help improve and enhance human interaction. What it doesn't do is remove the need for parents to look after their children and make sure they have a balanced life or for adults to no withdraw into their shells.

I really hope that Dr Sigman's warnings are an over zealous reaction to the pitfalls of interacting virtually because for me social media should be something we embrace to improve how we communciate and share information, not something that replaces interaction.

"No way, it's just not for my customers!"

2009-02-20T09:23:00.001-08:00

I was at the Retail Week eCommerce Summit in London this week and talking to several leading retailers. Our Sales & Marketing Director, Steven Hampson, presented the e-inbusiness take on creating a buzz for brands online using engagement techniques including social media. I wanted to know what the audience thought so, direct as usual, asked them. One senior person fired back "It's a load of rubbish, what relevance is any of this to my customers? They dont use Facebook and Twitter is for celebrities, not selling". I considered this an invitation to wax lyrical.....

Now, i'm not defensive about social medial. If you don't like it, fair enough. However, if you don't get it, i'm not going to accept the negativity without explaining my viewpoint. So that is what I did with my usual enthusiasm. This week's blog is the condensed version of the stream of consciousness that burst forth....

Firstly, there is no right answer to the question "Will social media work for me?". I don't know. Nobody knows. But you can build a business case. Many brands are using social media effectively to engage customers and drive traffic/revenue. It helps them influence perception. But it is not a brand & reputation management tool per se. Success (how do you define success?) depends on many factors but the most important are a) is it relevant to your customers? (b) will it add value to your customers? (c) are you committed to making this work? (d) are you open to allowing your community to grow at its own pace, with a little encouragement?

There are many good examples of large (mainly retail) brands embracing Twitter. Zappos is the one I always use and I took the liberty of asking their CEO (via Twitter of course) how/if they measure the impact on their eCommerce site; the answer was a pleasing "we don't really measure it, it's just another relationship building tool". Now, thanks to that interaction I have blogged about it and told a lot of people in my personal networks. That might not monetise the time Tony spent replying but it has given him a lot of free PR.

So my view? Don't judge a book by its cover and don't infer your personal viewpoint on your customers. People use Twitter. Some people pointlessly follow everyone through fad addiction, these are the people who will switch off as soon as the "next best thing" arrives. However, there is also a myriad army of genuinely interested people who want to connect and share information. If you can tap into these people, you can build yourself an effective follower base who will talk about you and tell others. That just might drive people to your website.

But if all you want is measureable sales & profit, turn to your standard eMarketing channels. Just don't expect people to get excited about your brand.

Why Twitter is the blind disco of social

2009-02-16T05:50:00.000-08:00

Well, i survived a night out on Friday 13th with no hockey-masked psycho in sight. Job done. To celebrate still being alive, I thought i'd blog today having read some inspirational stuff from Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO and embracer of all things Twitter.

So, what has Tony's insight taught me? That social media is relevant, you just have to work out how and why before you embrace it.

I'll use a blind disco analogy (ooh we do love a good analogy at e-inbusiness!). There are thousands of people in a room, all with the same goal - have a great night, (hopefully) meet someone they like. They are all listening to music via headphones but get to choose what to listen to. The room itself is silent. From time to time people look up from the maelstrom, take the phones off and talk to each other. Sometimes that spreads and conversations start. The room suddenly has a buzz, the reverberation of conversation amplified by many voices. The individuals then gradually return to their own music and indulge in their own little world. The room falls silent again.

Social media is like the blind disco. On an infinitely larger scale. There are millions of individuals absorbing communication every minute of every day, from friends, celebrities and companies. Frequently they take time out and share information with other people, personal associations or simply people in a network they use. The ripple effect starts and one conversation strand suddenly embraces hundreds, thousands of people. Then the moment passes, the hubbub calms and they go back to doing what they want on their own until the next buzz descends. A bit like watching an episode of Bagpuss...

This happens. I know it, I am regularly involved. I love the buzz of getting something relevant sent to me. The challenge for brands is to work out who wants to hear from them and then put a program in place to give them the information where and when they want it. Then give the support needed to help them use & share it. And most of all to listen to what people are saying and act when needed. No, it is not easy. Yes, you need to think carefully. Yes it can be relevant to you.

To put this in context, I highly recommend you read Tony's blog about how Twitter can enact positive change, both for the individual and the company. You can read his thoughts here.

Hope you enjoy!

Keeping up with the Joneses....getting excited about engagement

2009-02-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

It is amazing just how many people are on Twitter sharing links about social media, not just people extending their own brand reach but genuinely interested in all things social. I struggle to keep up with the updates but am learning to be a bit more ruthless with what I read and what I act on. Otherwise, I really will have no life!

I’ve been busy helping write a presentation that e-inbusiness is giving @ the Retail Week eCommerce Summit on Tuesday in London. The focus is on social buzz and how important it is to use engagement online to create a buzz for your brand. That may sounds oh so Web2.0 darling but we genuinely believe in this. Thankfully the web has moved beyond basic transactions to a more sophisticated community in which people are increasingly demanding high quality service and positive experiences. The high street has already gone through this (obvious) evolution – people have emotions, so it is only natural they want enjoyment in life and not just functional service (disclaimer – yes I know there are those of you who don’t care as long as you get the right thing at the right price).

So, this week I’ve been thinking about how retailers can leverage social tools to not only satisfy but delight and engage their customers. There is a requirement to go beyond basic shopkeeping. There needs to be something that attracts the customer to your brand beyond the purchase need. Why would I be loyal to Brand X simply because they sold me something? I am more likely to come back if they make me feel wanted. Or show me that their customers are loved. Or make me laugh. Basically, do something to engage me and give me value from paying attention. A colleague of mine, Steven Hampson, used a neat word to summarise Web3.0, or better still Consumer3.0 (yep the whole numbering thing is far too media speak but it is what people understand, so please forgive me!) – meCommerce. We’ve had eCommerce, we know about mCommerce but now we need to put the individual at the heart of our thinking. Here’s where the gaskets blow and people raise the flag of CRM. Yes, CRM gave traditional DM great propensity models, customer segments and improved personalisation. Yes, it is still hugely relevant. However, traditional CRM does not cover the social space online and look at how communication can be used to share information and build communities. It does not build direct 1-to-1 dialogue like microblogging and social networking can. meCommerce takes CRM to the next level.

Take a look at what Free People has been doing with its customer reviews. Free People pays real attention to their customer reviews, so much so that they invited their #1 reviewer to an extensive interview. They asked her about her favourite Free People clothes, her lifestyle, her interests. They collected photos of her wearing their clothes and featured them on their Flickr event set. Then they dedicated an entire blog post to the day to share what they learned with other customers. There is a good summary on the BazaarVoice blog page.

Why do I think this is a good example of “meCommerce”? I just love the attitude that drives this behaviour. Free People put in customer reviews for commercial reasons but also because they wanted to understand what their customers thought. They then wanted to go further and speak directly with their most prolific reviewer. Thinking more creatively, they wanted to share what they learned with the wider community and embraced blogging & Flicker. This shows commitment and passion. It also shows they have a handle on social media and how it can be applied to their customer base. This also shows a company willing to engage its customers and create content that is both interesting and relevant. Dialogue not monologue. Nurture and nature.

So what can other retailers learn? That engaging customers requires passion and creativity. You need to understand all the touch points for your business and work out how to knit them together. Most importantly, you need to give your customers a reason to get involved. Simply offering them somewhere to be is not reason enough.

Dialogue is better than monologue: building engaged communities online

2009-02-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

Month 2 in the 2009 Social Brother diary room….

I’ve been locked in a cellar with only my iPod for company as I write a presentation for the Retail Week eCommerce Summit on 17^th Feb @ which e-inbusiness is the Associate Sponsor. Yes, a shameless chance to further our global domination plan by drip feeding our knowledge and experience to innocent bystanders!

For those of you who have ever given a presentation to a demanding and savvy audience, it can be quite a daunting task. Not only do you have to provide a voice of authority and knowledge, you have to be engaging and interesting. I’ve always prided myself on being able to keep people’s attention but that’s usually fuelled by some premium ales and the odd Jack Daniels, or two. I was set the challenge by Sarah, our Head of Corporate Marketing, and Steven, our Sales & Marketing Director – what should we talk about that is current, topical and relates to user experience and the use of technology to drive online conversion?

After two days of spiritual meditation in an ancient Buddhist temple in the Himalayas, entering into a zen like trance (anyone seen Monkey Dust?!), I came up with the thread of building engaged communities online by creating a buzz for your brand. Before the corporate bingo police come rushing in, that’s not just marketing waffle. I’m not trying to cram in agencyspeak to sound uber-modern. I genuinely believe that this is the key challenge for online brands in 2009 and onwards; how do you excite and interest your customers to build a community that actively engages with your brand? This week’s blog looks at what I mean by an engaged community and the power of advocacy in helping brands grow a community organically.

Yakety yak – what is an engaged community!?

Noun

Engagement (plural engagements)

1/ connection or attachment, the point at which two or more things are connected

2/ a feeling of understanding and ease of communication between two or more people

An engaged community is a group of people who have a common interest in your brand, who interact with each other and your company to access interesting, relevant information and share it across their social networks. Each member contributes to the community but some are more active than others and take leading roles. Your community requires support and your main challenge is to provide them with the tools & technology to use your content when, where & how they want. The community thrives on nurture and nature; your nurture to provide advice & guidance and moderation when needed to help the members, nature for your members to grow the community organically via their personal connections and advocacy and most importantly, on their terms.

Encouraging advocacy

This is about dialogue, not monologue. When you have engaged with customers, you can talk to them regularly and update them with relevant information. You can signpost them to important announcements and build a personal relationship. Then you can encourage them to share your content with their contacts and other social networks. By rewarding and encouraging, you gradually build up a base of brand advocates who trust you, like what you offer and will tell their connections. Check out how well Wiggly Wigglers has done on Facebook at linking product enthusiasts. Heather Gorringe has really embraced social media and put her customers at the heart of the communication – I have told hundreds of people about them because of this, who could have told hundreds more. As Diana Ross said, we’re in the middle of a chain reaction….

Putting this into practise – visualising advocacy

Below is a Blue Peter special sketch of how the One-to-Many power of advocacy can positively impact brand awareness (and eventually conversion and other KPIs) by dialogue:

This is all very top level stuff but it does illustrate the power of engagement. If brands look to social media as the cure all for the tough economic and trading conditions, they will be missing a beat. I think people need to encourage engagement, giving their customers the tools & support to interact with their brand and content on their terms, when, where and how they want. Social media is just one element of this, albeit an important and hugely exciting one.

What do you think? Is engagement the new black, or are you one of the doubters? If you want to hear more, please come and listen to us at Retail Week eCommerce Summit on February 17^th @ Millennium Gloucester in London.

Do you tube?

2009-02-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

Just how far can brands go with YouTube? Does it really extend brand reach and how can you measure the value it adds to your business? These are just a few questions I’ve been asking myself recently as I get to grips with why I think video is an essential part of the customer engagement process.

On a personal level, I love YouTube. I use it to listen to new bands and duck into the viral offerings that so easily clog my attention. I spend 2 to 3 hours every week ambling around, with no particular aim and no pressure to find one. I use the TV channels and enjoy the offerings some of the major brands have uploaded. I can choose what content to access and when, then move it to wherever I want to display it on my personal networks. That is the beauty of the tube and why I think it has longevity.

The doomsayers predicted the death knell when the Google behemoth moved into town but thankfully the paranoia was short lived. More and more brands are dabbling with YouTube as a marketing milieu, some are really getting stuck in and, dare I say it, having fun! Yes, that’s right, big brands are releasing the shackles and coming out to play.

I’ll throw a few obligatory stats into the mix to assuage the doubters. According to comScore, the number of online shoppers watching retail videos has gone up 40% since October 2007 (read the eMarketer article here). In the US, adding video or streaming media is rated by 43% of retailers as the most important site feature they will add to their site this year. Yes, that is the US speaking but as we all know that’s a canny barometer for the UK and we are only lagging 12 months behind in terms of adoption. Econsultancy has a helpful article with a list of major UK retailers using video well. My personal nudge is Knicker Picker, a great example site to use when explaining the beauty of online video to a male audience…..

And from the customer’s point of view, what’s so special about YouTube? Quite simply, it is another tool that enables people to engage with content on their terms. Unlike TV where adverts appear regardless of whether you want them, online is on demand. And let’s not forget the viral effect. I don’t mean viral in the sense of some digital agency using seeding strategies to push the content, I mean viral from friends and colleagues exchanging stuff they like. I was sat having a nice cup of tea with a good mate of mine and he started talking about what Durex are doing on YouTube and told me to check out their videos. Later that afternoon, an email landed in my inbox with an article on Durex and YouTube. Coincidence? The article gives a good insight into how video can really, really engage people online. I highly recommend visiting YouTube and watching their “Doggy Style” video – this would probably hit the censors via traditional media but on YouTube there is a more open-minded audience with a keener sense of humour. Watch it, I challenge you not to laugh, especially when the Durex dogs check out the camera! Oh and did I mention, this video has been viewed over 800,000 times.

Brand reach anyone?

2009-01-23T03:06:00.000-08:00

Another week, another interesting indulgence in the world of social. There has been a lot of chatter about Obama’s impact on the world and the inauguration of the first ever black President of the United States. Quite an emotional and awe inspiring scene from the US and a genuine sense of optimism. I have followed with interest the role of the Internet and specifically social media in Obama’s rise and rise to office.

From the outset of the election trail and lengthy primaries, Team Obama has used persuasive engagement online to encourage more and more voters to engage with politics and embrace the Democratic candidate. The website also helped raise a record breaking amount to fund the election campaign and the financial impact of the online marketing was incredible.

What struck me was the engagement techniques that the Obama team used. If you check the official website you can see a link to the blog in the top nav bar. As well as regular updates, video has been embedded on this page and the ability to login in to the MyObama.com community site where you can interact with other voters to get active in the campaign trail. The MyObama.com page is personalised and acts like a social network. Here you can contact other voters, attend or organise local events, send and receive messages and link through to your Facebook account. Everywhere you go in the site, there are clear links to donate or buy Obama merchandise. The marketing and merchandising is effective but not intrusive.

Another neat touch is the “Obama Everywhere” panel that appears throughout the site. From here you can link direct into Obama’s profiles on the usual suspects, from Facebook (557,923 posts and over 4 million supporters) to Linked In, embracing the corporate and business market. There is a real intelligence to the targeting and relevance of all the profile links and the content you can find on each. Brilliant.

There is much more to this site in relation to use of social media, such as the links to the Barack Obama channel on YouTube (1,827 videos and 155,750 subscribers). Take a look around. I’m not saying it is the only way to do social media but the success of this engagement approach is proven and now much spoken of. The blogging world has embraced this event and there is a wealth of personal opinion being churned out. Despite my cynical view of politics, I genuinely enjoyed seeing Team Obama embrace online as a key channel to engage with and influence millions of voters. They are more in tune with the world and the younger generations than the Republicans. The rest is most definitely history.

What will 2009 bring for social retail in the UK?

2009-01-16T01:12:00.001-08:00

I've been lazy and skipped a week in this blog but I had a good reason. I've been busy. First recovering from new year indulgence, second getting my thoughts together on where we are all going with social retail in the UK. I've been banging the drum at e-inbusiness for the last 12 months about the value of social media and how its application to retail is evolving quickly. Nurture and nature. Nurture from the brands and the social evangelists, nature from the communities it is engaging.

So this week's blog is about the potential, not the application. My current horizons are limited on purpose to focus on key social sites: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, WAYN, Flickr, Technorati etc. This is the tip of the iceberg - there are so many social avenues online, it is like naming all the stars in the galaxy. Microsoft has now launched its Windows Live community....could this be the new Facebook? It is early days and the application is rather basic but Microsoft has the reach with its hotmail base and I’ve already seen invites from friends outside the UK to join up to their Live network. It will be interesting to see which social networks stand the test of time and which satisfy the typical shelf life of a fad.

So back to my point this week. 2009 is the time for retail to take social media more seriously. 2008 was a time for experimentation and some people got it spot on, others were lazy in their attempts to leverage the social vibe.

I think some brands took the sinful approach of banging up a profile on Facebook and thinking “job done”. There are also some companies whose employees have gone and set up their own groups with some seriously damaging content for the brand. Check out the Currys offering and read entry 9 in the news section. I’m not sure the Marketing Director would embrace it! There are currently 1,324 members, many of whom are disgruntled and have the claws out. My shining example of delivering a positive engagement via Facebook is Wiggly Wigglers and it was good to see them hailed in this month’s Catlaogue & e-Business magazine (pp18-19 if you have it).

Twitter continues to excite me and social buzz has to be a key element in a social model. I have frequently used the example of Starbucks (with over 30,000 followers) to highlight how brands can give short and sweet updates to their fans. Now I’ve been shown the perfect Twitter blog that contain a list of brands currently tweeting away, I highly recommend you check it out here. One of the interesting players is Delicious, so we have a social media site using a buzz channel to spread the message. Tidy.

So how do retailers need to sharpen up to get social in the right way? The key word is community. A community is not built overnight and is not created in one place. A community is far reaching, has diverse members and a will of its own. A community also needs leadership and the belief that what is wants and says is important to those leaders.

Brands need to think big and join the dots. Set-up a commanding profile on a site like Facebook, have a Twitter feed, post videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr, get busy on Digg, Stumbleupon, Delicious, start your blog, link it to sites like Technorati, find your brand ambassadors and reward them for spreading the love. Make sure all of these elements work to a shared vision and the content is co-ordinated. Most of all, don’t launch and then sit back. Social media demands daily attention, it needs to be prioritised and should be driven by someone who is passionate about it. If you don’t live it, you can’t love it. I was recently sent a blog by Kevin Gibbons that gives an example of a brand doing it the right way.

Building a community starts with a vision and a message. You must know what you want to say and what value you can provide. Then you need to give your prospective members the tools they need to interact with you on their terms. You need nurture and nature. Nurture to encourage, to participate and share information, to answer questions and make people feel involved. Nature to give people the free will to contribute, to post content and receive content where they want, when they want.

Perhaps this is a form of social regeneration, building ties between people to feel a sense of belonging. Perhaps this can help break down cultural barriers. You may laugh and think I’ve gone overboard but why not? More and more people interact online, from the furthest corners of the world. Why shouldn’t social media be a means to bring people closer together?

Danger for the brand that treats its community like a traditional marketing channel.

The youth is starting to change....

2008-12-29T07:03:00.000-08:00

Ok, that phrase is taken from MGMT lyrics but their prophetic words encourage me.....

Amongst marketing executives, connecting with customers is perceived by 84% to be the most important benefit of social media, according to the latest MENG research. It is interesting that alongside this view, the pecentage of mobile phone users who say they access social networks from their phones jumped 182% between October 2007 and 2008 according to the Kelsey Group.

Itsmy.com is a global mobile platform that is growing rapidly with 2.5m members. More than 40% of its users have never used a social network from a PC. Many of the users are still in bed when they check their messages for the first time each day. eMarketer forecasts that by 2012 over 800m users worldwide will access and participate in social networks via mobile devices, up from 82m in 2007.

I'm not a mobile person. I don't mean my lack of gym attendance has left me house bound, i'm just not that enthused by mobile apps. I like my phone, it calls people and lets people call me. I have also been known to indulge in drunken text battles when my wit is at its sharpest. However, that's where it ends for me. I'm not interested enough to log-in to my social networks on the move when I know a computer is never far away. I guess that as much as I love technology, i'm not of the mobile generation.

Yet I am having conversations with friends on mobile devices. Take Facebook & MSN Messenger as examples. I have a good friend in LA with whom I am in regular contact but due to costs, I don't want to phone every week. So I send messages through Facebook and she picks them up on her mobile facebook app and replies. I'm also a big fan of MSN Messenger, so much better than email. We regularly have chats as she enjoys her morning coffee and i'm tucked up on the sofa with my dinner. Both applications sit easily on her mobile phone and the modern phone keyboards make it easy to type long messages. The barriers to quality communication via mobile devices are being quickly removed. It will never be the same as seeing someone in person but we regularly have to face distance as a communication barrier, so technology plays an important role.

And what does this fascinating insight into my social netiquette have to do with the commercial side of social networks? In a roundabout way I am saying that mobile will be playing an increasingly important role in connectivity, both between people and between people and applications, whether that application is a social network, a game or a company's website.

There is a great opportunity for companies to increase the scope of interaction with their customer base via social media and mobile devices. Just think about the connections you can generate if you are regularly updating content to social networks that are accessible on millions of mobile devices. Your potential customers can access your content whenever they want, wherever they want. They can read, interact, share and buy on the move. Social networks will play an increasingly important role in the relationship between a seller and a buyer provided the sellers appreciate that it must be in a way conducive to the buyer's social preferences.

So do you agree? Will social media be important for you? Have to take the time to sit back and ask yourself how social media fits into your business strategy? If not, why not? Please leave any feedback you have.

thanks

james

Are tag clouds the new mullets?

2008-12-12T07:59:00.000-08:00

This week I have been mostly indulging in tag clouds. With every new widget or technology, there is the potential for it to be a short lived fad rather than a lasting gift. The question I asked myself was “Do tag clouds really improve web browsing?” and I set about discovering whether, as Jeffrey Zeldman proclaimed, tag clouds are the new mullets.

If you don’t know what a tag cloud is, you can check out the bite size wiki entry for a handy description. Tag or word clouds are visual representations of data, used to organise content by meaning, relevance or popularity. It is a neat way of showing people what is important, often using word size as the barometer, such that the most popular words are the biggest in the cloud. WAYN, the social network for travellers, uses it on the homepage to flag popular destinations which then take you to an optimised landing page for that destination. Flickr was one of the early pioneers and you can see the user friendly design in the ‘Explore’ section of the website.

I’ve seen tag clouds in many forms over the past 12 months, mainly on industry sites and personal blogs. What interests me is that retailers are increasingly using this technique to enhance site navigation and search, or searchandising if you want to be natty and oh so Web2.0. Tag clouds are a cool way to support site browsing and have many applications in a retail environment, provided they are integrated in a way that enhances rather than distracts the customer journey. So, to briefly name but a few…..

Enhance site search

Highlight popular search terms, showing people what other visitors have searched for, helping people find the most popular terms quickly.

Display product features prominently

Improve a product details page, highlighting the most relevant and popular features of the product to help people make the right buying decision.

Showcase content from customer reviews

Closely related to the last comment, customer review solutions like BazaarVoice enable review clouds so that the most popular and frequently used words contained in customer reviews can be browsed to help identify what other people are saying and learn more about products and services. It also enable customers leaving reviews to select attributes from the community to make writing the review easier.

Highlight featured content

A good example is on the blogs on Technorati. Here the tags relate to the content of the blog to help you determine the relevance of the content. This is helpful when navigating the site, looking for new blogs. Simply click on the tags that you are interested and get results that match your requirements. In the words of John Barnes, it “gets to your thirst, fast”.

For the best on-screen example of tag clouds in action, visit Smashing Magazine. Here you’ll find a deluge of screenshots of tag clouds from various websites….if you still don’t get the concept after reading this blog, give up!

If anyone has a view on the commercial benefit of tag clouds for retail websites, please post comments and suggestions. If you have any examples of websites using tag clouds to good effect, please post the URLs to this blog. In the meantime, get tagging!

Tweeters Anonymous

2008-12-04T06:14:00.000-08:00

I now tweet. No, I don’t need to see a doctor and yes I meant to say that. Whilst I’ve been banging on about the potential of social media for what seems like eons, it is only very recently that I’ve embraced the joy of tweeting. I’d known of Twitter for a while but I never really got it. Then I decided I should get it because if I’m going to get you excited by the social melting pot online, I’ve got to embrace everything and find out how it really works.

So, I put myself on Twitter, absorbed the language [tweet, twittersphere etc] and went to work. Initially I found a few friends lurking around who it turns out don’t actually have much to say, which is a surprise as I’ve found they never really shut up. Then I realised that I see them at least once a month, so why Tweet with them? So that got me thinking, why would anyone use Twitter and how can you get excited by it?

That’s when I discovered Twittervision. If you don’t know what this is, get online now and the strange addiction will grow! Twittervision is as basic as it gets as an opiate for the masses but I love it; it gives you a world map and overlays the latest tweets from around the world. I have no idea what Muki in Japan was saying but I want to know. Perhaps this is bringing out my more voyeuristic impulses but it’s strangely compelling. I’m sure there will be concerns about internet security and the potential for cyber stalking but there are no personal details on this site, simply a name (that you choose)and a link to a map of your geographic location (we’re talking general here, not a zoom into your bedroom). You can upload a personal photo or use something generic, or even arty if you feel that way inclined. Spend long enough on Twitter and you’ll find all sorts of weird and wonderful profile pics. There is also the obligatory link to Facebook with a Twittervision application to enable you to tweet from your Facebook account.

I like the fact that Twitter is unashamedly basic. It is not Facebook, or MySpace, or Bebo. It isn’t about turning yourself into a vampire, throwing sheep or inviting people to virtual reality happy hours. I’m not knocking these networking sites, they have a place and they are successful and I’ve been known to chirp away (see what I did there) on Facebook walls of a winter’s eve. However, I crave simplicity in life. I have an attention deficit and the brouhaha of Facebook gives me cold shivers. Twitter is allowing me to satiate my desire for playing with the rest of the world without having to think too hard about it.

What really excites me though is the commercial potential. I don’t mean that cynically because I love the fact that the ethos of social media is about community, sharing and engagement on your terms. However, there is a real opportunity for the more enlightened brand darlings to be smart and build a thriving community. People buy, people respond to marketing, people like to talk about their experiences, people like to belong. So why can’t you leverage these drivers via social media to create dialogue and build lasting relationships?

If you want some proof, take a look at the meteoric rise of the Stephen Fry tweet which has seen his website become the #1 visited site. Blogs have been spawned over the Fry phenomenon, including Mark Higginson, a well know social purveyor. I’m also currently following Starbucks, not because I have an affinity to or like of the company, but because I’m fascinated by what they are tweeting and seeing how a global brand can engage people via Twitter. They recently posted a cute tweet about their charity link up with the Seattle Space Needle for World AIDS Day. Twitter is not a direct sales channel, it is a communication opportunity to share interesting information with the wider world and let people get to know you better. And, I’m not embarrassed to admit, it is quite enjoyable.

To put my money where my mouth is, I am planning an e-inbusiness twitter feed and will be launching this to the world at large. The great thing is that only interested people will follow, so there will be a qualified audience to talk to. Finally, my voice will be heard……

2009 will see social media hit the mainstream for UK retail

2008-11-25T08:22:00.000-08:00

If 2008 saw the UK tentatively engage with social media tools, 2009 will see us embrace with open arms. The early adopters have ducked in, experimented and put in place creative, compelling social media strategies that have engaged their customers and created a lot of noise in the online maelstrom. There have been a few learning curves to boot and the occasional backlash. Social media is not a passing fad, the concept of enabling your customers to engage with your brand on their terms is one way to start building an online buzz. Some individual tools may be short lived but the concept is not. The experience online is becoming increasingly important and as the world descends into discount fever, those brands that compete on more than just price will benefit.

Take a look at what the more enlightened companies are doing in the social media space. Firstly, let’s look at Facebook. Very much maligned yet undeniably has had a huge impact on how people interact. There are 8.4m UK users alone and 67m active users worldwide. Wiggly Wigglers has taken the ethos of Facebook to heart and developed a branded page that offers excellent content and value to members, interacting with them at both the personal and company level. What it has done well is to post regular content that informs customers as well as posts that are light hearted, humorous and engaging. This has resulted in 1,063 members of the group who are all sharing information with each other, much of which is related back to Wiggly Wigglers products and service. The company has recently won the Global Dell Small Business Excellence Award. An interesting move saw Amazon acquire Shelfari (a network site dedicated to book lovers) in October 2008. This was a commercially cute way of developing its social media presence whilst giving direct access to a highly targeted audience who can buy books direct from Amazon.

You Tube is another interesting prospect for customer engagement. Hitwise data shows that UK traffic to online video websites has roughly tripled in the last year and You Tube accounts for 70% of that traffic. The number of branded video channels is increasing, with major retailers like Diesel embracing this channel for brand engagement. Diesel has 516 subscribers and 17,968 channel views (as of November 24^th). If creating a channel is not your bag, then it is easy to load videos to the site to showcase your company. Acquired by Google, You Tube also displays Google Adwords adverts on search results…. A nice way for them to get more click revenue!

One of the more intriguing sites is Twitter. This dispenses with the bells and whistles and simply enables you to give a status update (max 140 characters, aka microblogging) and to follow other members and be followed too. You have a basic update list to tell you what you and your followers are up to. Many companies are now monitoring the twittersphere [go with it….]for reference of their brand and then engaging with the twitterati where relevant. JetBlue in the US is a great example and their actions have spawned blogs on the subject. At the same time, these companies are tweeting [Twitterspeak for posting updates] to their heart’s content. Even the UK Government has muscled in with the kids, creating a twitter feed for No.10 Downing Street with 6,056 followers. If you’re feeling voyeuristic, check out twittervision where you can view the latest tweets on a global map! I really should get out more….

Similar to tweeting is the global phenomenon of blogging. In the blogosphere [detect a theme?] content is being generated rapidly by both individuals and companies. In the last 3 years, UK traffic to blogs has increased by 208%. With pingback and trackback functionality, blogging is increasingly linking people together and having a significant SEO effect. Is this relevant to your brand? Definitely. Take a look at what Ikea is embracing with the Ikea Fans site. I’m also a fan of the Topshop style blog; simple and effective and you can also sign-up to the RSS feed. The secret to a successful blog is….. well, I’m not going to give that away for free am I!

I’ve saved the peak of my enthusiasm for the subject of Customer Reviews. There has been increased uptake of the major UK providers Feefo, Bazaarvoice and Reevo and some retailers are also implementing bespoke solutions on-site. A good example of how to do reviews is Boden. If you really aren’t convinced about the power of reviews, take a peek at some of the stats. People inherently trust independent feedback more than your own product information. Providing customer reviews not only adds validity (and SEO friendly content) but has also been proven to increase order values and conversion. I don’t think customer reviews is a competitive advantage so much as a necessity.

So, social is the new black. I’ve not even touched on the more gimmicky but nevertheless popular aspects such as widgets, wikis and applications. For examples of e-inbusiness Clients going forth into social waters, take a look at New Look’s My Look community forum, and the Facebook presence of both New Look and Radley.

The eCommerce industry is itself using blogs, forums and reviews daily on sites like Chinwag and eConsultancy, so why have so few committed to social media for their customers?

I think we will see more exciting uses of social media in 2009 and we hope to help you become one of the converted! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts, so to embrace the social media theme I’ve started this blog which is also linked to Technorati. The blog starts with this article, so please tell me what you think. Are you excited by the social media potential for your brand? Do you have a SMO strategy? Or are you finding it hard to work out how your brand can be relevant in social spheres? Or can you share new information to increase my socialsphere? All comments will be welcome.

Thanks

James