News Update – Best of the Day

daily1Although web 2.0 provides all the benfit for e-learning, the use is till low. The study “Benchmarking Online Operations: Snapshots of an Emerging Industry” by the consulting company Eduventures shows that the education they offer is still based on “rudimentary, text-based technology”. This stands in contrast to webinars, web-conference or any kind of podcast or vidcast tools that the web 2.0 world offers today. “But when it came to technology, the Eduventures survey found that the widely used tools are e-mail, text discussions that don’t happen in real time, physical textbooks, and word and PDF documents”, reports http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Online-Programs-Profits-Are/8517/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en.

Blogher released a new study on how social networks are used by men and women in the US. The main findings are…

– 84% (16 out of 19) of the sites have more female than male users.
– Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.
– Most female-dominated sites: Bebo 66%, MySpace and Classmates.com 64%.
– Average ratio of 19 sites: 47% male, 53% female.

MINI started a great project“Wash me” at retail on the 3rd of November “when 10 different artists are each presented with a MINI to deface — ahem!…design at will”. See what these guys came up with…

News Update – Best of the Day

daily1Social network users love to spend time watching videos according to the latest Nielsen figures. The total amount of time spent was 999.4 million minutes in October – an increase of 98% to 2008. People watched 349.5 million videos (up 45%). Facebook was the No. 1 online social networking and blog platform for video consumption in October with 217.8 million total video streams, followed by MySpace with 85,2 million video impressions.

The latest CMO Council study shows how relevant it is to provide good content, as well as sending out mass mailings carefully. The study, “Why Relevance Drives Response and Relationships,” states that 91% of respondents have unsubscribed to e-mail newsletters. 46% of those said that the content wwas not relevant.
Even worse is to receive emails with product promotions people have already purchased. 22% won’t buy from the company after receiving such irrelevant mails.

Connecting offline and online in a funny and intelligent way by iCarphone Warehouse. Can somebody explain why it got banned?

PS: Also found some good new videos – check out my new The Strategy Web YouTube channel.

The Evolution of the Engagement Economy

Banner Social NetworksTalking about new trends on the social web, marketers always love the point of view when brands are involved. They love to negotiate, as I call it, on the “cost per engagement (cpe)” level. Businesses and their communication suppliers always try to get customers engaged in brands. Some years ago, this was difficult. Now, it seems easy. And this topic becomes even more relevant for future marketing strategies when you think about today’s engagement economy.

The engagement economy nowadays is doing things companies never thought would happen: There are people forwarding brand videos (which generate massive engagement), admitting to be emotionally involved in brands. We’ve got people publicly telling their peers how much they love products, services or companies. And then there are people discussing about products and how they would change these products and services in order to make them more profitable for the manufacturer. This is all happening right up to the point where people are basically saying “I am a brand maniac of…” – fantastic and unbelievable in one go, right?

So, if we take a look back and analyze this trend from a long-term web-strategic point of view, companies need to rethink the future of their web-marketing efforts as the social web transforms the value of processes in sales and marketing.

At an event last week a marketer I know quite well took me aside and asked: “Why are people not as engaged when clicking banners as they are when becoming fans or followers of brands on the social web?” And my first reaction was to give a shrug. But then I realized the huge potential of the thought and I said: “Gimme some days and I will try to blog an answer.”

whyblog_1In my view, a major part of the explanation to this phenomenon lies in the evolutionary process of the engagement economy and their brand commitment when people even want to become social VIPs or brand-vangelists and accept the ads from their favorite brands in their social graphs.

Emotions
The emotional-impact of banner advertising and of “social media engagement” is completely different – on those who ‘follow’ the people that click on traditional advertising (display or affiliate) and on those who become fans or followers.

Somebody who clicks a banner ad is not engaged in any kind of brand emotionality: This person is just interested in the offer or the message that grins in his face saying: “I am nice, ain’t I?!” So, why not take a glance at the offer (especially when coupons or incentives are involved) as it is a short-term sales boost via email or some other traditional online advertising format. The person who is clicking on a fan page wants to know more about the brand values, why people have become fans, who they are. This is someone who wants to give some kind of emotional kick back to the brand and the “engaged brand peers”. And just by becoming a fan, they give the brands more positive rewards than they probably realize – kind of like an ultimate pay back which has never existed in that form or to that extent before.

Action
People who participate in banner advertising come from the passive “lean-back economy”. Some experts are already wondering, if banners are dying. My answer is: No, as banners follow a different purpose than the social web marketing activity! The benefit for traditional online advertising is the click, resulting in the quick consumption of news and information. The engagement economy loves to lean forward and get in the driver seat of the brand communication and discussion. Emotionally motivated by the sweet feeling of competence, this engaged person argues about the good and bad of the brand values. When you look at Nespresso and Starbucks social media activities and other impressive examples on Facebook or Twitter, or you take the latest example of the IKEA Facebook campaign all what companies are doing is throwing some communication crums in. And the fans “crowd together” and pick them up with greedy brand enthusiasm. They give the companies and their peers input and feedback with comments, questions and by sharing the brand content and ideas. The emotions get their pay-off by little brand incentives and keep the wheels of engagement buzz turning.

Time
Think about how much time people spend with a brand when clicking on a banner versus being on a fan page. A banner is meant to save time – as does an offer – just by its intention and nature, as well as the message it carries. Check the offer and then be off as quick as possible. Is this the way a banner works? I think so. Rate this short interaction against the time of a brand experience on a fan page. People listen, learn and participate in the conversation about the brand, and come back to see how the communication proceeds. Not because a banner asks for their time to do so, but as the people want it themselves. The customer is the active part of the brand communication, not the company. The customer pays attention to the brand and donates “engagement time” as the new value or ROI for all brand communication efforts.

And then, why do they stay longer on a fan page? The answer is easy: Their “brand friends” are there. They feel to be in good company and this is what builds comfort, driven by a “warm feeling of friendship, networking and community”. You are not alone, you have something in common just by spending time on the same topic: a brand commitment.

Spot On!
The engagement economy is in charge of brand communication and brand commitment. The company still owns it but they are being managed by engaged brand fans. Now, my question to you: Is this true? What is your experience and your strategy when working with this new engagement economy?

IKEA, Facebook and photos

The ‘mantra’ of this blog and my vision is: connecting offline and online. I remember being at IKEA some days ago and thought about the idea to take photos of typical IKEA people.

So, there was this mid-aged couple sitting on a sofa in the middle of the big round tour paths. They did not bother about the hundreds of people passing by. I saw them and thought: How long have they been sitting there? And all of a sudden the woman takes out of her ruck-sack a thermos jug, two mugs and sandwiches. No lie! And be sure… these two were really relaxed and it seemed to be ‘living’ the IKEA dream.

I would have loved to take a picture of them but they did not want to be ‘in the internet’. Shame…

Why do I tell you that? IKEA started a well-thought promotion that let’s users win stuff by tagging photos of IKEA rooms on Facebook. (Agency: Forsman & Bodefors).

News Update – Best of the Day

daily1Apple is one of the most mentioned brands in the bloggosphere. CNET editor Tim Lieberecht takes a different approach to argue about Apple -as a company- in the social media era – and compares them with another media company: Bloomberg. He asks: “But in the long term, can Apple sustain its community of loyal users without becoming a more transparent organization?” Good question…!

Is your company thinking about social media ROI – This video by Socialnomics author Erik Qualman showcases several social media ROI examples along with other effective social media strategies.

Sometimes, you just cannot decide which commercial is better – both are focusing the difference between men and women…

News Update – Best of the Day

daily1The net gen world is exploring and surfing on the Google wave. As not everybody is familiar with the options of Google Wave, here comes a comprehensive user manual for those who want to have their questions answered and problems solved with their account.

The video to the book “Throwing sheep in the boardroom” by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta (see: The Strategy Web book-shop in ‘Social Media’) is a must for companies thinking about social media engagement.

Have a laugh, carnival starts in Germany today – sometimes you stumble upon funny commercials these days…

News Update – Best of the Day

daily1How important it is to have a clear cut goal with your social media strategy shows an interesting auto comparison by Jeremiah Owyang. He compares two approaches: Shotgun (Toyota’s Yaris) vs Laser (Ford Fiesta).

Are Twitter an LinkedIn moving closer to each other? Seems like that – the basis is status updates.

“When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool.”

LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman and Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone discuss the great potential of the integration between their companies.

Guerilla Marketing can be quite simple – Money rules the world by Lichtkunst24 for The Zeitgeist Movement