Filed under: Industry news, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: conditions, Facebook, Family Guy, griffin, grinds my gears, new, peter, terms
Peter Griffin hates Facebook new Terms too.
Sometimes you just wish for the freedom of being a cartoon character – even if that is Peter Griffin from Family Guy. He’s an idiot but fans of the show will know and love the episode where he gets his own News section on things that wind him up. If he were working in digital marketing I’m sure he would of adapted his famous rant to “You know what really grinds my gears America? Facebook. F**k Facebook!” because Facebook have recently changed their Terms and Conditions.
They say it is to improve the service, reduce spam and unwanted news feed items. The problem was that they then froze several client pages for reasons known only to the technical team. The UK account team were zero help. We were actually working with them in advance of the new T&Cs yet it turns out that everything they told us became null and void 48 hours later. Grr. So let’s be clear, no competitions run on or from Facebook.
Their change to the wall publishing nullified the functionality in several iPhone apps and Flash widgets. Great.
The main issue here is not all the wasted development time in corecting the functionality or the tiny amount of consideration given to our clients. It’s the fact they are working the circuit really hard right now trying to promote Facebook as the ultimate channel for brands to spend their cash. This is a hard pill to swallow when in the last 72 hours we’ve had several client campaigns hampered by new terms that for the most part don’t make much sense.
Oh and they could do with improving their targted ad service too.
Filed under: Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth, research | Tags: billion, buzz, consumer, Facebook, Google, impact, members, million, Networking, numbers, people, posts, power, pull, push, reach, social media, sucks, Twitter, viral, volume, word of mouth
interaction vs proximity graph
Brands are no longer able pitch the credentials of their products to the current social media generation. Push is almost out, but pull is sky rocketing in. Buyers and consumers want trusted and real information from people like themselves and know where to go, to get it. They need it stamped as trustworthy and good for usage (with extra features) not by any company that dreamed up the slogan at a coffee shop meeting, but by the members of a social network that they can see, interact with, and most importantly something that they chose to join. They all have an appetite for the real interaction that generate buzz in which they are a part of. Facebook’s 350 million user posts and its shared 3.5 Billion different content per week, is what these consumers want.
Talk about a lot of possible brand awareness and brand management. People know the members of their social media networks and trust what they have to say. They can access all this information quickly and easily to help them learn about the product, and step into a shop knowing more about the goods compared to the shopkeeper himself.
Social media is about investing in relationships that create more economic value than they cost. It is about engaging with the people who decide whether to buy or not buy what you are selling, like it or dislike it, recommend it or trash it, and even to mould it or to throw it out the window.
A great (and very fun) way to show the power of social media marketing is to enter “(BRAND NAME) sucks” into Google. Put into consideration the fact that around 80% of the information read on the Internet today is not read on the site that it was originally published, but through social media, the word is spread to different websites, blogs, forums and networks. It is no longer just a fad for kids or a way to spread the word about your fart app; social media is evolving as a powerful and a fast paced low-cost, high-reward tool for making the sales, turning profits and taking home the big prize. The price tag is appealing and it is no holds barred.
Filed under: Coffee Break, Our team, books, research | Tags: book, clients, crowd sourcing, Facebook, fear, Godin, good, innovation, inspiration, inspire, leadership, leading, media, organisation, read, risk, seth, social, start, status quo, tribes
Despite no-one saying it, Trevor knew people could tell he had not washed that morning...
At a first glance Seth Godin, the author of ‘Tribes’, comes across as an Americanized idealist. His narrative technique resembles that of an evangelist writing sentences which starts with “we need you to lead us” and finishes with an exclamation mark. But Seth somehow manages to melt down my defences and he does convince me that he is a really cool guy with heaps of cool stuff to tell.
In short, Tribes is about how people make crowds, and that crowds are really tribes waiting for someone to speak up and take the lead. He challenges any form of status quo, and blames unsuccessful ideas or business attempts on a combination of fear for risk and the unknown, with bad management and poor leadership:
“Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe“
Seth argues that any sort of movement, innovation or organisation can triumph with the right person showing the way. This type of leadership is something that requires dedication, charisma and faith. It could be you!
I found it particularly inspiring to read about the many people Seth refers to as good examples of tribe leaders, and how their stories validates his arguments for that change can come from the most unexpected places.
Regardless of whether you have a keen interest for word-of-mouth marketing, business development, leadership or simply just like to read a really good book, I would recommend you to read Tribes. Go on. If you want I’ll even send you one of the many copies we have here (for giving our clients).
Filed under: Hot List Clients, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth, research | Tags: 2010, art of the trench, burberry, chanel, charlotte russe, community, dolce & gabbana, Facebook, fashion, gilt groupe, louis vuitton, luxury, marketing, prizes, social media, topman, Twitter, you tube
Channel Chanel
User-generated content is key to social media and fashion. From blogs to Facebook photo contributions to product reviews, the user-generated content is at its apex. One of the most notable and consistent campaigns that are built around user-generated content and social media has been from the brand Charlotte Russe, The brand’s weekly trivia contest on it’s Twitter channel or virals from their YouTube channel, drives the consumers to their website with the high hopes of snagging some great prizes.
Another great example of user-generated content used is Burberry’s Art of the Trench site. The people are encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature style, the trench coat. Burberry is on a roll when it comes to online advertising to showcase their goods.
Moving into 2010, brands and retailers will be delving deeper into social media to reach online audiences. Digital and e-commerce launches of new products have also been a popular way for brands to keep costs low in a tough economy for luxury products. A variety of mobile platforms have taken off as brands, magazines, and web sites to develop apps with the goal of extending their online presence and widening the distribution channels.
When it comes to developing apps, fashion brands are some of the fastest out of the blocks. Chanel shows its runway collections via iPhone app, and the Gilt Groupe app allows users to shop sample sales and receive alerts as to when sales are starting. Guilt free apps to download for the stylish brand hunter! We’re currently developing iPhone and Blackberry apps for fashion brands around London Fashion Week.
The future of fashion is in digital marketing, not only have these brands started to win over the consumers through social media campaigns, but are starting to create their own niche groups. Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and other major league heavy hitters in the fashion industry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing web sites. Or in the case of TOPMAN, we’ve worked to build their community over existing social networks and channels to lighten the load on the brand and keep things relevant to their audience.
It’s been a tough education, but we start to see less one-way discount promotions, and more genuine interaction between the brand and the people, it makes everyone happier and allows sales to boost, with satisfaction of personally acquainting yourself with who you are purchasing your new outfit from.
Filed under: Brands & Marketing, Coffee Break, Events, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: Branding, breakfast, buzz, Buzz Monitoring, Facebook, marketing, Nielsen, Nielsen Online, Online Marketing, social media, Social Net, WOM, WOM-UK, WOMUK, word of mouth, YouTube
How does it relate to you?
Social Media/”Consumer Generated Media”, although fairly new compared to other forms of online communication is the third most popular way to spend time online, in fact 1/5 of all time spent online, in the UK is spent on Social Networks. Added to this is the perception, among the more traditional among you is that Social Networks are there just for younger audiences that just spend most their time on Facebook/Myspace/YouTube. Yes these are key sites, and yes young people are still in these spaces, but there is a huge space online that is inhabited by all ages, in fact between April 08 – April 09 18-34 age group lost a 8.3% share of online user composition, in community member sites. There is almost an equal share between 18-34 and 35-49 age groups, if you then add in 50-64 group, the share held by 18-34’s is looking rather small.
Once you take away the big sites I have mentioned above, naming another 7 Social Media sites which reach over 3m unique users (in the UK) per month might be a bit of stretch and no Twitter isn’t one of them! But this just points out there is huge untapped market, where you can interact, it doesn’t have to be through the initial channels that you would think of.
So basically, pretty much all age groups are using Social Media, you know their interests, age group and where they live. For Marketers, this is a dream, as all over the internet users can be talking about your brand, doing some of the leg work for you.
Who rules online?
This would be fantastic if everything being said was positive, however as we all know, this is not the case! What has happened is that control has been taken away from brand’s and instead given to the public. A scary thought indeed, but you can help even the balance through buzz monitoring, such as Neoco’s PoNo service. But added to this you can interact with disgruntled consumers in a very public place and can in fact turn negative publicity into a very positive outcome. Toyota did this in the states with one of their best selling car’s, the Camry. They opened a dialogue with key bloggers who were unhappy with the product, helped improve the product and in front of a huge audience of readers solved the problems for them. This was great PR, and was widely praised in blogs. For organisations who do latch on to this new approach to marketing, that sometimes you do make mistakes, but you are happy to rectify them, its a huge step forward and can forge trust in a brand that cannot be repeated elsewhere.
One thing you need to think of before approaching the world of social media is planning. With both negative and positive outcomes in mind, knowing how to react to them before they come. Having key set of objectives and KPI’s in place so you can track how well your campaign is doing, whether this is brand awareness or ROI. When it comes to planning and experience Neoco are digital experts, so please drop us a line to find out how are tools and services can help you.
Thanks to the guest speaker Alex Burmaster, from Nielsen.
Filed under: Industry news, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: Alex Bainbridge, BA, community, Cravendale, Facebook, hosting, london, Make The Tea, maps, Metrotwin, New Media Age, New York, NMA, social networks, trave;l, Trip Advisor, trip pods, Virgin, Virgin Active, virgin atlantic, Vtravelled
As reported in January’s New Media Age, Virgin Atlantic are preparing for the soft launch of their new travel portal “Vtravelled”. According to the article, the community site will aim to recruit 2 million founding members between the soft launch date (end of Feb) and the rollout in June – an ambitious target.
The site moves Virgin into territory already covered by their main long-haul airline rival – BA. “Metrotwin” is based around the idea of “use[ing] what you know about one city to explore the other one.” So Borough Market in London is twinned with Union Square Greenmarket in New York. It’s an interesting idea, complimented by the excellent look and feel of the site and interesting content – a point well observed by Alex Bainbridge in his blog.
Virgin’s community site takes a different approach. According to the NMA article, the site will focus on:
• providing an “inspirational” site that will help “spark ideas for new trips”
• image and map content
• hosting “personal travel content” in the form of “trip pods” that allow users to share their travel plans, photos, notes and chat
Ultimately, Virgin want customers to “think of the site when making a travel decision”.
As Alex points out in his blog, with this approach, much of the content appears to be focussed on an individual’s travel plans. This differs from sites such as TripAdvisor and Metrotwin where much of the content is focussed on a place and therefore often of interest to other users.
There is also a crossover of functionality with the large social-network players (Facebook, MySpace etc.). Can Vtravelled persuade users to leave Facebook and other social networks to post photos and chat to their friends?
I believe that the success of the site will come down to the implementation. If the look and feel and feature-set are attractive enough to the target audience (users who wish to share travel plans or plan trips), then users may embrace these tools and make the jump.
Arguably Virgin have the clout to make this happen. Other recent Virgin advertising activities (agreeably not in “digital) seem to have been a success. I joined Virgin Active after the “lose the bits you hate” tube poster campaign and the more recent Virgin Atlantic TV ads are extremely impressive.
Whether Virgin can meet their ambitious targets remains to be seen. I for one am looking forward to following the success of the site, not least because of what it will say about consumers appetite for niche social-network communities. From my experience implementing social networks for our clients I do believe that niche networks are the future. I think users are willing to sign up to sites that they identify with, me included. Recently I’ve signed up for the BA website and a Cravendale branded ‘make the tea‘ site! But at Neoco we know that, however grand the scope of a new social network, it’s expert implementation that will keep members engaged over time.
Filed under: Brands & Marketing, Cool & Online, Industry news, News, Social Networking/ Word Of Mouth | Tags: applications, banned, brand image, Burger King, campaigns, condiments, defriend, Facebook, fast food, i love cheeseburgers, mc, McDonalds, never trust bearded men, privacy, social networks, strategy, the king, US, viral, whopper, whopper sacrifice
Earlier this month Facebook removed a branded application by fast food giant Burger King over fears that it was against their privacy code. But then that’s probably what Burger King wanted, seeing as it has won them global press beyond the capabilities of just a facebook application, not matter how ingenious. The whole affair has triggered multiple debates on the state of social networks, the place of applications and the effectiveness of simple but extreme marketing stunts.
The facebook application in point invited users to ditch their friends (or defriend as it is now technically known) in return for a free whopper. A fun concept that’s win:win for all. By exploiting the fact that adding friends on facebook has become rampant and meaningless they can offer the user a freebie in return for practically no cost (we can all think of 10 friends we only added out of politeness/drunkenness/confusion/because we have to work with them!!) and BK makes a very powerful point in the process. On one level they are proving that whoppers rank above some of our friends, but they are also proving that they understand their audience very well and they are not afraid of sticking their necks out.
Like other’s that have picked up on this over here, I’m sad that BK was only running the offer in the US. In terms of marketing strategy they have always seemed to be less locally focused than their biggest competitor, and it’s a shame that a campaign with such appeal to a UK market as well wasn’t rolled out over here – sometimes I even think that the clown cares about us Brits more!
A real strength of the application is that it’s non-intrusive. By its nature it doesn’t require you to pass it on virally to your friends and it’s temporary. This is a shift that Neoco is also embracing in the facebook applications we build for clients. It’s better to make a statement that people want to pass on of their own accord. What BK have done so well is grab hold of the right statement at the right time.
To those unfortunate enough to be forced to listen to my rants of personal grievance it will be known that Burger King have been my thoughts for other reasons of late. I had an interesting ‘debate’ with a member of their staff last week on being told that not only would BBQ sauce cost me extra, but it was not possible to swap the tomato sauce that had been forced upon me for a condiment of my own choosing. The next day at another branch of the same chain I was informed that, over night, the price of BBQ sauce had risen from 10p to 15p. Particularly irksome because I was all ready to swallow my pride and hand over my 10p but I didn’t have another 5 little pennies! I understand that this is probably my own fault for eating at Burger King twice in one week!
The moral of the story, however, is that actually going to a fast food chain is often not the nicest experience – involving bad service, dashed expectations, and pointless, faceless, policy (I’m not involving the quality of the food for obvious reasons). The challenge in marketing such brands is to manage expectation and get consumers engaged with a brand image that makes sense. As BK have shown, there’s still a lot of fun to be had, and that doesn’t have to mean just ticking new ‘healthy,’ ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘caring’ boxes.
And now I’m off to clear out my facebook of the friends I can do without and then reward myself with a burger…but without the incentive over here I will probably just buy it from the nearest store!
Filed under: Technology | Tags: 37signals, accessibility, Apple, Browser, browser support, developers, Facebook, IE6, InfoQ, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, MobileMe, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, upgrade, web standards
In August of 2008, Internet Explorer celebrated its 7th birthday. In browser years that is pretty old. I was still a teenager waiting to go to university. It was a long time ago! The problem that most developers have with IE6 (other than wasting countless hours of our lives trying to support it) is that we now live in a world where everyone talks about ‘accessibility’ and ‘web standards’, and IE6 simply does not comply. It is out of date, insecure and terrible at rendering pages to modern standards. Yet nearly 30% of internet users still use it as their main browser (W3counter).
Everyone wants their websites to use the latest cutting edge technology, but a significant proportion of people still continue to use a product that is incapable of supplying that to them.
So why have people been so slow to upgrade? one theory is that companies still have it installed as their default browser and it would be too expensive and time consuming to roll it out across hundreds or thousands of machines. While this may be true there has to come a point when everyone catches up with the modern world.
The last few years, particularly since the introduction of Firefox as a viable alternative to Microsoft’s web browsers, there has been a steady rise in the number of anti IE websites on the internet including:
“IE Death March,” “STOP IE6” and “Save the developers“
They all encourage web users to upgrade their web browser to a newer version, be it Microsoft’s more standards compliant IE7 or an alternative browser such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or Apple’s Safari.
The relative success of browsers such as Firefox and Safari wrestling some market share away from Microsoft means the worm may be starting to turn. InfoQ point out that “Since attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) has been rapidly losing market share. As the end of 2008 approaches, significant online services, vendors and web frameworks are dropping support for IE6.”
Some of the big names that are dropping their support for the browser include Apple’s MobileMe (the rebranding of the .Mac service), 37signals (a prominent online software supplier), and Facebook, which now recommends upgrading to a newer browser.
It is this last one that could sound the death knell for IE6. If the world’s foremost social networking site ends up ending all support for the browser, then it can’t be long before the rest of the computing world follows suit. I for one hope that this day comes sooner rather than later.
