Think Big, Think Local

Sometimes its is difficult to see the wood for the trees.

The Web is a big place packed full of global opportunities but if current trends are to be believed, thinking 'local' is the best business approach.

A 'localised' online presence develops business growth cultivates greater customer loyalty.

Social media is a critical part of this marketing mix, as are incentives (deals). Group deals continue their rapid rise in popularity, up 33% in 6 months.

By far the majority of people searching online (73%) are looking for local content as this infographic shows.

See the larger version here

The pay off is that 82% of searches online result in off line follow-up, either through a visit to a store, a phone call or a purchase.

So even if your business has a global perspective the greatest success will come from localising your offering -  local content on localised web sites, engagement in local social media and forums. One size (of content) does not fit all.

How Agencies Rate Their Clients Social Media Tactics

Agencies have rated the effectiveness of their clients' social marketing tactics and according to an article by Marketing Sherpa, posting content on company-branded or -managed blogs is deemed either very or somewhat effective by 85% of agencies.  This is particularly so when that content is purposely fed into other social media outlets.

Unusual marketing tactics - Betfair sponsored Bromley Town and the footballers 'adopted' QR Codes

Related articles

• 2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions (socialmediatoday.com)
• Optimizing Your Social Marketing Program - A Practical Way to Social Media Optimization (SMO) (thecustomercollective.com)
• The What And How Of Social Business (forbes.com)

Influencing South East Asian Consumers and Small Business Survival

According to a recent Nielsen report, South East Asian's respond well to advertising delivered on social media and mobile phones.

73% of these South East Asian consumers said they were “highly” or “somewhat” influenced by web site advertisements on social media.  This is 13% higher than  the global average (60%).

They also respond well to advertisements that acknowledge their previous purchase habits or third party site visits.  Living as they do, a full and active digital life, means that they think such personalised advertising techniques makes their lives easier.  74% found this to be so with the global average of similar sentiment being 58%.

Vietnam consumers were by far the most receptive to such personalised inducements.

Nearly 70% of SE Asian consumers have “liked” or followed a brand or company on social media which proves how vital it is for companies to develop a robust social media presence if they hope to succeed in this part of the world.

Consumer comment and sentiment posted online proved to be one of the most trusted forms of engagement and communication amongst those surveyed by Nielsen. 54% of respondents claim to completely or somewhat trust consumer opinions posted online.

All of which goes to prove that if you don't build your own online reputation others will do it for you.  The need to monitor the 'Buzz' and respond to it is vital for any business and this in turn requires understanding from management and resourcing to manage the process. This includes having the right person in charge of social media strategy and development.

And it is not just large scale enterprises that waking up to this realisation. Small Businesses are also growing through the use of social media although a significant percentage still do not see it as important, with just 12% of US respondents in a July survey seeing it as 'a must'.

It also need to be said that in the same eMarketer report, 50% of small business respondents saw word of mouth as essential to business. Either they have not realised that 'word of mouth' in the 21st century is largely a social media exercise or they do not have the time and resources to use social media to its fullest extent.

Patrick J. Chambers, organizer of the Small Business Survival Summit however sees social media as critical to business survival.

"For most small businesses, word of mouth is the predominant way of getting leads and finding new business.Social media is an extension of the word of mouth platform. Social media education with practical application is the missing piece today - small businesses need to be comfortable with social media in the same way that they may have evolved from being a wallflower at a Chamber event to someone who is actively seeking to introduce themselves and engage with prospects."

New Publication - 12 Easy and Free Steps to Join the Digital Revolution

How to Build an Online Presence and Save Money.

International digital consultant Roger Smith explains the simple options for building a successful online presence and getting the best from social media and email.

The e-publication covers:

• strategy
• online profiling and reputation
• buzz monitoring
• First steps
• Building you business site
• Domain names
• Payment options
• Merchandise branding
• Online brochures
• Email management
• Social media
• Content propagation
• Coupons and deals

All this for just $US10. Order your copy by clicking on the shopping cart button below:

Buy a copy for your Kindle by clicking here

Facebook Deals And The Alternatives

The primary motiviation for people visiting a business's Facebook Page is to locate an incentive -  what is the company able to offer me as a consumer?

A big hang-up for businesses wanting to use the power of online group deals and coupons is that they lose up to 50% of any revenue they make from their deals to the online providers providers, such as Groupon, and LivingSocial or Google Offers.

Facebook Deals syndicated partners take similar sized commissions but the return to business is that they, and the major providers mentioned above, can offer vast distribution power.

There are now new alternatives for SME's and companies to offer online deals without using the major providers and paying such a large chunk of their revenue as a commission.  If you have a large fan base already then then you might well consider using them.

Thrusocial has drag-and-drop  functionality and easy distribution to Facebook and Twitter.





Thrusocial's four pricing models range from the free option to a full enterprise solution for $US1,00 per year. For most though their Premier plan at $US34.99 per month will suffice, as it includes the coupon creator and a 30 day free trial.

It is worth having  a look at their showcase and they also provide a Message and Promotion Centre where you can automatically create promotion campaigns with landing pages that live on Thrupons.com.

These in turn are automatically promoted in updates published by the app to your Facebook Page and Twitter account, getting rid of the need for time-consuming manual promotion.

Another option is FaceItPages which features an ecommerce storefront app; you can sell your merchandise from your Page as well as proving deals, but it has fewer distribution options.





Their Promo module allows  a compnay to provide a special offer, discount, or giveaway and it appears that it is included in their Premier plan for $US15 per month.

In their application you are able to link the buy button to your buy url and control what text the buy button has on it.

According to FaceItPages, the coupon app. is best used with their reveal content module, which allows you to display different content to fans versus non fans.  This gives an added incentive for non-fans to sign up.

They offer a couple of pre-designed templates (below) to make the coupon offers an easy exercise. Examples can be viewed here.

Coupon Templates

So is using an alternative coupon provider worth the investment consideration?  For those with a proven social media profile and a large fan base the answer is probably yes.

For the smaller company at the online coupon 'starting line' you may still need the vast distribution network of Groupon, Google Offers or similar, to extend your reach / scale up your offer.

Related articles

• AT&T Launching Groupon-Style Daily Deals Site (techland.time.com)
• The scale Facebook brings to the social coupon market is staggering (marshallstanton.com)
• Bye Bye Groupon, Hello... thruPon? (gigaom.com)
• Explaining Facebook's new online coupons (cnn.com)

Time is On Your Side - Part Two

Social Media

A recent 'The Science of Timing' seminar for Hubspot's Dan Zarella suggested the following optimum times (US times - Central and Eastern Standard Time Zones) to be engaged:

Retweets by the Hour - Dan Zarella

• Retweets of your content from Twitter

2-5 PM provides the greatest number of  ReTweets and you get more during the day than during the night.

Later in the day (5 PM) and later in the week are the dominant times for retweeting,

You need to pick the optimum time for the time zones of your target market and this may vary from the above.

Use this free tool to determine the best timing for retweets of your content - you could well be surprised.

Interestingly the study also shows that those who Tweet about 22 times daily have the most followers so I suggest that if you are using an automated service such as Twitterfeed you should adjust the settings to this posting amount.

Using Google Analytics timing reporting mentioned above you will also be able to see the number of referrals from Twitter to your web site.

• Facebook

Facebook sharing happens most during the weekends.

Less is more with Facebook postings and once a day, or once every second day, yields the best results

11 AM is the time when most people read content on Facebook. 2 AM, 5 AM, and 7 PM are the next best times which could mean some adjustment of corporate sleep patterns!).

• Email

Most bounces are recorded at 6am. and 5 and 7 in the morning have the best opening rates.

97% read their email in the morning, and 95% read it in the afternoon.

Weekend email has an open rate of around 42%  but note that abuse reports are also highest on Saturday and Sunday, 6 AM being the peak for this.

As with Twitter automation, you can set you email programme to deliver it into inboxes at the best time to capture the attention of your target audience.

• Blogs

Mornings are best for people who view blogs; 80% do so during this time.  The percentage drops to 60% during the afternoon, half (50%) read them in the evening and only 40% do so at night.

More men (60%) than women (50%)read blog posts in the evening, so demographic targeting is important.

Viewing rate is highest on a Monday (130 average) but tapers of a little on Tuesday. From Wednesday to Friday the average levels out at an average of 120 views. Saturday and Sunday's average views are lowest (80). Comments i.e. feedback, is higher in the weekend.

10 to 11 am has the most blog views, averaging 190 and the lowest blog viewing rate is at 5 am(65)

The Science of Timing

Time is On Your Side - Part One

Social and online media is all about engagement; more often than not in realtime.  If you are posting on social media sites at times when your target audience are away doing something else then you have a problem.

More of a challenge are enterprises who persist in following their business hours for online activity instead of adopting those of their audience.

While it is true that you need to be where where your market is, it is equally true that you need to be there when that market is digitally engaged.  Logistical challenge aside, consideration of time zones is a must if your business is not locally focussed.

While you can schedule your blog postings to publish at specified hours and use third party platforms to spawn your company RSS to your twitter account on a sequential basis, but do you really know that this scattergun approach is reaching your audience?

This is the first of two articles on timing and what it could mean for you.

Let's Start With Web Sites

Google Analytics should be now be a 'given' for all web sites.  To accurately gauge the times when people visit your site you need to enhance the Analytics reports and fortunately (if you are using Firefox as your browser) there is a free way of doing so. Here's how:

1. Download the Greasemonkey addon for Firefox 
2. Now add the Google Analytics Report Enhancer script (you will be prompted to accept this)
3. Open your Google Analytics window and in the left hand column click on 'Search Engines'

Click on Search Engines

 

Click on Source

  

Click on Time

You can do the same for 'day of the week' . As a result you now have a good idea as to which days andwhat times people are making greatest use of your site.  Check out not only 'visits' but also 'new visits'. Adjust the period to get monthly and annual rates.

Related articles

• The New Google Analytics Available to Everyone (analytics.blogspot.com)

What A Difference A Year Makes

Click on the chart to see the larger version

A year on year analysis of social media from January 2010 clearly demonstrates the rapid growth of the major networks.

While Wikipedia is chugging along with 5,000 new contributors Facebook continues to blitz the opposition, signing up 290 million new accounts over the same period.

Note also that users accessing Facebook on their mobile device has grown by over 200 percent to 200 million.  This growth trend will continue

Another significant mover has been the professional network, LinkedIn with a 100% growth and Flickr has now features 5 billion images, which represents a 25% increase in their activity.

Related articles

• 2011 social media statistics show huge growth (browsermedia.co.uk)

Not Wanted On Digital Voyage?

Is the company web site a digital appendage that is fast becoming obsolete?

If you listen to the pronouncements of Stephen Haines, commercial director of Facebook's U.K. operation you would have to thing so.

Putting aside the vested interest, he certainly has a point that for many companies social media is becoming more important in engaging with their customers than the traditional, 20th century web site.

It is delusional to believe that building a web site will guarantee an audience and that this audience will be prepared to make repeat visits to get to news and offers.

In this day and age customers and site visitors expect incentives and they expect these inducements to come to them, rather than the other way around.

According to Haines statistical analysis of Facebook likes on  company FB sites are well ahead of those people who visited that company's Web site.

For Starbucks the ratio was 21.1 million likes to 1.8 million site visitors. For Coca-Cola, it's 20.5 million compared with 270,000; for Oreo, 10.1 million compared with 290,000; and for Dr. Pepper, it's 4.1 million compared with 325,000.

Haines summarised some of the functional advantages of Facebook for marketers:

• Ways to offer free samples to customers
• The ability to attract the attention of smartphone users making local check-ins.
• The ability to build e-commerce sites into Facebook pages.
• "Reach block" ads that change as many as five times in a 24-hour period to send a sequence of ad messages to Facebook users.
• Surveys that let companies try to engage customers in company decisions.
• Applications built atop Facebook's interface that let companies create custom-made interactive programs

Despite this companies would be very unwise to abandon their web sites and rely solely on Facebook.  The problem being that Facebook is a 'walled society' unlike the Web, which is open.

You limit your options for customer search and discovery of your online brand if you rely totally on social media.

Related articles

• Facebook Offers Commenting Plug-In To Other Sites (informationweek.com)
• Will Facebook replace company Web sites? (news.cnet.com)

Make Me An Offer

A Groupon by any other name still smells as sweet.  Now one of the Web's biggest players is taking on the market leader and with its huge resources it should be an interesting battle.

With new CEO Larry Page at the helm we should see more passion and slightly less arrogance from Google and even more inspired innovation.

When Google's recent $6 billion bid for Groupon spluttered to a halt folks wondered what would be next.  Well now we know.

According to a report in Mashable Google Offers is the new kid on the discount coupon block.  Google's own fact sheet send to businesses claims that " Google Offers is a new product to help potential customers and clientele find great deals in their area through a daily email”
Google Offers Fact Sheet



The daily deal competitve lanscape is becoming increasingly crowded and it will be interesting to see what impact Google's announcement has on Groupon's recently announced $15billion IPO?

Google has also responded to Mashable when asked for confirmation about their Offers trial:

“Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.”

And so shall we.

Related articles

• Google readies Groupon competitor (news.cnet.com)
• Google Set to Deal Groupon Some Competition with 'Offers' (marketingpilgrim.com)

2011 Crystal Ball Gazing

The reality is that there will be so much happening in 2011 and at a faster pace than ever before.

Top picks:


3D-enabled television sets will contiue to be pushed by manufacturers but the 'imminent 3D revolution' will remain on the horizon

Gaming will continue to grow with Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect motion control gazumping the older platforms

Home computer and television convergence will continue with Apple and Google leading the way

Rupert Murdoch's content paywall will make more profit but continue to shed publication subscribers

iPad2 will be released with mounted cameras and Face-time video-callingsoftware

Devices that can anticipate our needs by using intelligent accelerometers and provide personalised content, advice or services, will become more prevalent

A bigger Cloud and smaller devices with solid state hard drives

There will be more Android, Nokia, Apple, Blackberry and Windows Apps than ever before, generating close to $10 billion of revenue in 2011

And here are the predictions from a variety of digital pundits:

Social Media

Gary Halliwell of Venturebeat:

• Social customer service will drive revenue
  Smart companies will do more of this in 2011.
  
  
• Social marketing will move beyond Facebook and LinkedIn
  In our connected world of Tweets, blogs, emails and posts, this information transmission is captured in electronic form, and what we know as “word-of-mouth” in face to face interaction has become “word-of-digital”, and it’s incredibly track-able and useful.
  
  
• Socially adept companies will align the needs of employees and customers
  In 2011, we’ll see more companies embrace Zappos’ approach to social as integral, and large corporations relying on their inertia will feel the hot breath of excitement from fully motivated competition.
  
  
• Millennials will take another step forward into the breach
  The shift to greater social connectedness will continue to move forward in 2011
  
  
• Social will penetrate deeper into company structures
  Not surprisingly, marketing decision makers had the heaviest use of social media. This is a trend that will hopefully reverse, as more CEOs see the power of social media to network and to amplify their thought leadership
  
  
• Go live or go home
  Going “real time” means preparing an organization to react to what’s happening in their world, cohesively and adeptly. It requires planning for the future with room for ambiguity and change, and the flexibility to react from the top to the bottom of a company.

New Products




DigitalTrends predictions for products and trends to be seen in Las Vegas this year include:

• Unfinished tablets
• iPad accessories
• 3D content
• Superphones
• AMD Fusion
• Intel Sandy Bridge
• Smart TVs
• Automotive media extravaganzas
• Next-generation e-readers
• All-in-one PCs as an art form

E Marketing

Predictions from EMarketer.com

• Apps invade all platforms - mobile, desktop, tv
  
  
• Content consumption convergence - consumers engage seamlessly with content across multiple platforms
  
  
• Location, location, location - mobile social network usage will more than double by 2015 and location based services have yet to reach the mainstream
  
  
• Social gets its share of marketing dollars -  4 out of 5 marketers will use social media tools in 2011and changing consumer usage patterns will make social media a must. 80% of companies are planning increased spending in this area in 2011. Traditional advertising spend is falling as budget is funnelled to social media. Return On Investment remains difficult to quantify.
  
  
• Targeting audiences vs content -  Audience segmentation and targeting will remain key factors driving the shift to digital marketing
  
  
• Online privacy debate heats up -  50% of users remain concerned about privacy issues. More people trust the government than advertisers, but most don't trust either.

Click Here's 2011 Digital Trends:

• Digital will be everywhere in 2011
  In 2011, we’ll see digital engagement as an everywhere medium
  
  
• The brand web site is under threat from social media
  Despite the rise in buzz around Facebook pages, brand websites are every bit as relevant as they’ve ever been. They remain the only true digital channel that can be completely and wholly owned by you, the brand
  
  
• The jury is out as to who will win the HMTL5 vs Flash battle
  Should we continue to invest in Flash and business as usual, or do we abandon the platform altogether and fix our sights on the promise of HTML5
  
  
• Mobile Advertising
  In 2011, mobile advertising will provide more opportunities for advertisers with rich technology, a unique daypart, more customization and more tracking.
  
  
• User Generated Content and the emerging power of the status update
  Brands need to focus more on building an advocate base through the delivery of a consistent brand message
  
  
• There will be more fun and games
  Consider how multitouch and mobile apps transformed the mobile device into an opportunity for meaningful engagement with audiences away from computers and TV screens. GPS functionality transformed social networks into a local experience. Even the humble webcam has evolved well beyond its original function as it has been repurposed to serve up face recognition and augmented reality experiences. The Kinect’s technology is positioned to lead a transformation of similar magnitude
  
  
• The constant evolution of Search Engine Marketing
  First and foremost in 2011 will be the necessity to build a website that lends itself to successful search engine indexing and that, with the all-important keyword-rich content and linking efforts, can return high rankings on SERPs
  
  
• The future of shopping is social
  Recommendation engines and group buying sites are becoming increasing popular and integrated into social networks such as Facebook. You may not even recognize them, but these shopping tools are showing up all over the place and will give shoppers a lot of power in 2011.
  
  
• The Rise of the Demand-side platform
   Marketers will look to DSPs to expand their product offerings and become much more than a technology company that merely lends out its bidding platform. In 2011, look for these companies to go to market with turnkey and unique products that will further drive efficiency and attract large marketers
  
  
• It will be the year of the mobile website
  In 2011, the net result of the increase in smart phones will be a drastic increase in mobile web usage and more brands will begin to create mobile websites instead of applications

Meeting and Events

2011 will mark significant change for the global meetings and events industry, driven in part by the ongoing adoption of mobile, the increase in popularity of social networks and the pressure to make meetings and events more transparent, predictable and aligned to the business - Certain Software

• More and more events will be organised and managed via handheld devices
• Smart phones and social networks will provide expanded ways to engage attendees

  PaidContent

• It Will Be The Year Of ‘Interactive TV’
  Growing broadband penetration and a face-off in the booming race among over-the-top box maker - Robert Andrews
  
  
• Netflix Will Be Acquired
  Think of what iTunes is for Apple—that’s what Neflix could be for its acquirer - Andrew Wallenstein
  
  
• The ‘Ad Network’ Name Will R.I.P.
  The term “ad network” will fall even further into disuse by ad-tech firms - David Kaplan
  
  
• Local Deals And Check-Ins Will Converge
  Would it really be that much of a surprise to see, for example, a Groupon or LivingSocial deal at a nearby hair salon when you load a check-in app on your phone?  - Amanda Natividad
  
  
• The E-Reader Will Reach Critical Mass
  This is the year the standalone e-reader shifted from luxury to near-commodity, from a $250-$350 planned purchase to a $140-and-below basic buy. - Staci D. Kramer
  
  
• We’ll Finally See Some Big Name Digital Media IPOs
  The year will be then capped off by a record-breaking filing from Facebook, which will value the company at a staggering $100 billion - Joseph Tartakoff
  
  
• Microsoft Will Keep Trying In Mobile With Limited Success
  In the year ahead, we will see more attempts by Microsoft to take that new OS, put it in more devices—and, yes, roll them out to more carriers and other retail channels. - Ingrid Lunden
  
  
• Google Will Win Its Intellectual Property Lawsuits
  On its own, Google has been footing a big chunk of Silicon Valley’s legal bill for several years now. The company has created important case law that benefits its competitors too - Joe Mullin

JWT
Ann Mack, Global Director of Trendspotting for J Walter Thomson (JWT) 2011 “watch” list.



 Happy New Year to all readers of The DigitalConsultant. May your 2011 be a social and profitable one!

Related articles

• Five trends all marketers should watch in social media in 2011 (freshnetworks.com)
• 2010 in review: What our 10 most popular posts say about the year in social media (smartblogs.com)
• 11 Marketing Predictions for 2011 (samirbalwani.com)
• New Social Media Business Trends for 2011 (jenningssocialmedia.com)
• What will happen in digital advertising in 2011? - Quora (quora.com)

Colour My World

Ever thought about the importance of colour choice for your online presence?

Apart from the purely aesthetic reasons, top online brands tend to gravitate towards the same colour palette as this infographic demonstrates.

Source: colourlovers.com blog

And if you really wish to tie your media promotions together, you might also consider using the most popular colours of 2010.  By linking key words to the top three hues you stand a better chance of making the visual impression you had hoped for.

Source: colourlovers.com blog

The breakdown by social media is even more interesting.  Using colour preferences made by twitter users, who make use of a tool called 'themelon', it is possible to demonstrate demographic data analysis.

Related articles

• Make Your #NewTwitter Background Pretty With Themeleon (techcrunch.com)
• Revealed: the colour of the social web is the colour of Twitter (guardian.co.uk)

Who's Piloting Your Social Media Ship?

The importance of social media to a business is now well known and proven.  More than a third of all companies in the States now actively engage in social media according to a  recent survey from CareerBuilder.com.

Its management within an organisation is often piecemeal at best and this lays an enterprise open to brand and reputation issues.

According to Mike Sachoff, 43 percent of employers have their marketing departments take care of their social media strategy, followed by public relations (26%) and human resources (19%). Twenty-five percent of employers have 1-3 people communication for their organization, while 7 percent have 4-5 people handle the work. Eleven percent have six or more people communicate for their company via social media and fifty-seven percent said they did not know.

Fifty seven percent of "don't knows" is a big number and graphically demonstrates the fragmentary nature of social media control and monitoring.

So how much control should companies exercise given that many are averse to their employees freely using social media but equally concerned that they should be able to do so?

Responsible use can be of great benefit it is the loosed cannons that are a concern to employers.

They might well consider using a tool such as Socialite; a name that has nothing to do with the likes of Paris Hilton and is developed by a company called Facetime (which in itself is a little confusing as they have just sold their brand name to Apple).

Facetime's own survey has found that:

• The use of social networks and social media sites is not only widespread, but has seen a significant shift in usage profiles.
  Sixty-one percent of end users use these sites at least once a day, up from 51%. Fifteen percent use social networks "constantly throughout the day." Social networking is used by 95% of respondents.
  
  
• The most common work-related purposes cited are for professional networking, 79% (up from 54%), and learning about colleagues, 66% (up from 52%).
  Thirty-seven percent of respondents use social networks for sales prospecting.
  
  
• LinkedIn is the most commonly used site for professional purposes (86%, up from 62%).
  For personal purposes, Facebook leads the pack with 93% of end users accessing the site, at work, for personal reasons. YouTube is used by 51% of end users for work-related purposes. Twitter is used by 76% for work purposes and 62% for personal reasons.
  
  
• Eighty-nine percent of Facebook users utilize the status updates function, with 28% using Facebook at work to play games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars or Scrabble.
  Thirty-five percent utilize Facebook to create and publicize events and 44% join "fan groups."

View the Socialite (aka Facetime) presentation

Related articles by Zemanta

• CareerBuilder: One-Third of Employers Use Social Media to Promote Their Organizations (pamil-visions.net)
• How Far Will Employers Go to Control Employee Social Media Use? (webpronews.com)

Discovering Social Media Profiles

Here's a handy  tool to view the sociodemographic profiles of social media users in several countries.  Simply click on a country, define your audience and then view the their social media profile,



Armed with this information you can craft your campaigns to match those of your target market

Death Of A Postman

In our neighbourhood one can still see the posties cycling around making snail mail deliveries; sadly they are a dying breed.

A couple of decades ago it was possible to set the time by the regular nature of their beat but no more.

In Singapore weekend deliveries have now completely ceased as the volumes of traditional mail have dropped dramatically.

Recently release figures from the States show that at th end of June, year-to-date total mail volume was down 4.9% from 2009 to nearly 129 billion pieces.  This represents a drop of 700 million pieces in the last quarter which in the long term is simply not sustainable.  The US Postal service lost $2.5 billion in June and the revenue trends show the situation worsening.

While it may be comforting to blame this on the recession, the real reason is that one form of communication has replaced another.

I recall stock market advice given more than a decade ago to invest in courier firms.  At first glance this may seem to be going against the global trend of less snail mail volume.  The rationale is the the growth of e-commerce would see an increased need for home deliveries and so it has proved to be.

Though email has supplanted the written letter there are still quite distinct usage patterns  vary widely as this analysis from Rackspace shows.

The prevailing advice is not to send out marketing email at these peak times as the "delete" button is likely to be fully operational.  Better to time the delivery for the start of the working when the volume is less and recipient is more receptive. 

Related articles by Zemanta

• US postman hoarded 20,000 letters (news.bbc.co.uk)

A Lot Of Old Soap

Omo is not a new product.  It has been hawked around households for generations but now comes a digital marketing development that positions it (literally) in a totally different sphere.

From  next week comes the reality that your soap powder can stalk you.

According to the Advertising Age, Unilever's Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors.

Starting next week, consumers who buy one of the GPS-implanted detergent boxes will be surprised at home, given a pocket video camera as a prize and invited to bring their families to enjoy a day of Unilever-sponsored outdoor fun.

The promotion, called Try Something New With Omo, is in keeping with the brand's international "Dirt is Good" positioning that encourages parents to let their kids have a good time even if they get dirty.

It will be interesting to follow the campaign on the web site as this is the case of the a prize finding a consumer rather than the other way around.

Because of the high crime rate in Brazil the promoters are concerned that the lucky prize winner may not open his of her door to the team who are tasked to deliver the prize.

To avoid such an eventuality they "can remotely activate a buzzer in the detergent box so that it starts beeping. And if the team takes too long to arrive, and the consumer has already opened the box to see if she's a winner or just do laundry, she'll find, along with the GPS device and less detergent than expected, a note explaining the promotion and a phone number to call."

It begs the question though, will this lead to increased sales?  Omo's brand recognition is already high within the country where is has 80% of the detergent market

In some countries issues of privacy might prevent such an initiative, but seemingly not in Brazil. being tracked from the store to your home might not be everyone's cup of tea, or in this case, box of soap.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Advertising Age: Omo Detergent Uses GPS to Follow Consumers (boxofmeat.net)
• Brazilian Detergent Follows Consumers Home Thanks to GPS (triplepundit.com)

On Target With Blog-vertising

Image by Mexicanwave via Flickr

Blogs are meant to be pure streams of consciousness, unsullied by the taint of commercialism - right?

When you are reading a blog you are getting personal opinion free from the undue influence of third parties is a commonly held belief.

Unfortunately this is increasingly not the case. The reality is somewhat different, with a growing legion of "professional bloggers"

Blog-vertising (a terrible term) is increasingly becoming part of the mainstream as companies scrabble for market share inthe brave new world of social media.

As Steve Green reports "As an advertising channel,  the blogosphere makes total sense. Certain blogs not only boast a valuable and rich list of subscribers, but have also developed a highly evolved authority, making bloggers a sought after commodity for advertisers "

The recently launched ebuzzing matches bloggers with advertisers and bloggers only survive if their content remains relevant to the audience that they serve.

The company's stated ain is to "be a platform for bringing bloggers and advertisers together. It is based on a simple principle: Like. Recommend. Earn. 

It allows bloggers to monetise their blog, earning money by creating posts about things they genuinely like and want to recommend, whilst advertisers can create buzz for themselves in the communities that are most likely to be interested in them."

The strength of blog-vertising is that it is a highly targeted channel providing a greater return on investment.  Advertisers need to be where their market is and companies such as the Euro-centric ebuzzing are building "the buzz", which is so essential to build online reputation and drive sales.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Ebuzzing, the sponsored content platform for bloggers, launches in the UK (eu.techcrunch.com)
• In the Blogosphere, Credibility Hinges on Giving Up Some Message Control (bulletproofblog.com)

I Am Listening

Image via Wikipedia

The immortal words of Dr Frasier Crane have some bearing on boosting the effectiveness of your social media marketing.

We need to know two basic things:

• where our customers are and 
• what they are saying?

Convince and Convert's Jae Baer suggests four ways of discovering if your existing customers are active in social media.

The first idea is to deploy good old fashioned espionage using modern digital tools.  Simply by providing your customer's email addresses to companies such as Flotown or Rapleaf is all that is required for them to data mine the  figure out which and how many of customers are on social networks, their preferences and other marketing details.  Your may also be interested to track you own digital footprint with Rapleaf.

Secondly (and one of the simplest methods) simply ask them and ensure that all of your lead generation forms and opportunities ask them about their social media habits.

Thirdly if you are using email platforms make sure that you are using tools that allow the recipient to recommend to others. Embedding third party code from platforms such as AddThis is one such option if the email solution itself does not provide the required functionality.  Simply run reports to discover which of your subscribers clicked your Twitter link and/or shared content on Facebook.

Finally Jae recommends "Gmail Stalking" as the two main social networks, Twitter and Facebook (and others) have "functionality that allows you to see whether your Gmail contacts are using the services and invite them to connect with you".

The beauty of his system is that it costs nothing and takes very little time.  Here is how he does it:

1. Create a .csv file from a list of your customers’ email addresses (you only need email addresses, not names, mailing address, etc.).
2. Create a free account on gmail.com specifically for this purpose. Don't use an existing account.
3. Upload the .csv  list to your Gmail account.
4. Next go to Twitter and create a new account using your special new Gmail email address.  On Step Two “Find Your Friends” of the Twitter signup process, select Gmail.
   Twitter will automatically read all of the email addresses of your customers stored in Gmail, allowing you to track the number on Twitter and/or follow them immediately.
5. Set up a new Facebook account using your new Gmail address.
   On Step One “Find Friends” of the Facebook sign up process, indicate that you have a Gmail account, and follow the simple instructions.
   All of your customers on Facebook are presented to you, and you should be able to become their “friend” with a single click.

So having discovered where they are, what should we be listening for?  The answer is, anything that is said about your brand, as both the positive and the negative present opportunities for you to exploit.

Suzanne Vara of SocialMediaToday first recommendation is that a listening station be established "where you monitor the conversations about your brand, competitor and industry as a whole".  She sets out what should be listened for in your brand, competitor/s and industry:

For brand and competitors the list includes:
 - Inquiries
 - Praise
 - Complaints
 - Recommendations/referrals to others
 - Mentions of: company name, abbreviations, key players, product and specific services

Industry:
 - Broad keywords that are used to describe your industry
 - Targeted core keywords for your specific services and/or product
 - Non-industry used terms – if the general public calls it something different or abbreviates you listen for that as well.
 - Industry leaders

If you are not already listening your competitors will be, so now is the time to start. Facebook alone has 500 million users, each with their own story to tell. That's a lot of potential prospects.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers Are Active With Social Media (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• How Social Are Your Customers? (searchenginewatch.com)
• Listen up! A guide to Twitter engagement (econsultancy.com)