Wiggly Wigglers gets social networking

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.

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

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?

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.

Marketing Donut shows how to get people talking on Twitter

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.....

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

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

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

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?

It's ok to flash in public!

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?

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

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.

Should we expect responses from all Twitter messages?

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?

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.

Twitter is not the new facebook, deal with it!

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.......

Is social media killing our social skills?

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!"

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

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!