A couple of days ago I told you about the socialmediaworldforum Europe event, Shaping the future of Social Media.

This is Europe’s premier social media event and not one to be missed. Here’s our preview of what you can expect to get from the event.

First, you’ll have access to more than 120 top speakers from a huge range of companies, all of them experts in social media. You’ll be able to learn from real examples from worldwide brands and find out how to adapt a similar social media strategy for your own brand.

You’ll also be able to learn how advertisers are making the best use of social networking to set up and develop revenue streams.

Spokespeople from leading social networks will be discussing their strategy and how they approach the future, and there’ll also be an in-depth examination of the current market as well as predictions of what the future holds.

If you are attending, you can make use of socialmediaworldforum Europe’s pre-show online meeting planner to arrange meetings in advance, helping you improve your connections.

As I say, this is an event not to be missed. We’ll have an in-depth preview next week.

Social Media Marketing Shaping the future of Social Media, social media strategy

A little something interesting dropped into my inbox today; information about the Shaping the Future of Social Media event held by Social Media World Forum Europe.

The social media event of the year, at least in Europe, takes place at London’s Olympia on 15 and 16 March and is something anyone serious about social media for business can’t afford to miss.

This two-day event features four dedicated conference streams, workshops and an exhibition. Key speakers from a number of global brands, organisations and developers, plus leaders in the field of social media, content producers and agencies will be taking part, alongside many others.

Topics of discussion will include developments in brand engagement via social media, social media monitoring tools and building social media apps; there’ll also be a look at the impact of social media on politics, which will be fascinating with the general election in the offing.

Social media marketing is a hot topic in many industries right now, but is something many smaller businesses (and some large ones!) have failed to grasp. This conference will no doubt provide a great deal of enlightenment.

A free to attend exhibition only pass is available here.

Find out more at socialmedia-forum.com

Social Media Marketing facebook, Google Buzz, Social media for business, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy

I’ve just finished listening to a very interesting webcast by UK Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, during which he was asked about the competitiveness of the UK’s digital economy.

Osborne likened the development of super-speed broadband to that of canals, railways and road systems in centuries past, and I think that’s a fantastic analogy.

Should the Conservatives get elected at the next election (rumoured by pretty much everyone to be in May) they have plans to utilise part of the BBC Licence Fee to pay for the rolling out of superfast broadband to help ensure the UK remains and grows as a competitor in the digital economy.

Listening to Osborne’s speech, I couldn’t help thinking that the same was true for the UK’s millions of businesses.

A recent report by Kelkoo reveals that UK consumers were responsible for almost a third of all European online sales in 2009. The average annual spend by consumers in the UK was £1,102 on 37 items, while the rest of Europe spent, on average, £774 on 20 items.

Kelkoo forecast that in 2010 UK online retail sales will grow by 12.4% to £42.7 billion, while total retail sales will grow by just 1.7%. European online sales will grow by 20% to reach £153 billion.

Bruce Fair, Managing Director of Kelkoo UK, said of the findings: “2010 is when we will really start to see online sales achieving a significant share of overall retail trade in the UK. While the retail industry is showing slow signs of recovery, the online shopping sector bucked the trend in 2009 delivering double-digit growth, and is expected to continue to perform strongly in 2010.”

That means that getting your online marketing strategy right is more vital than ever this year.

With so many businesses, large and small, online, what you first need to think about is what makes your business stand out from the crowd. Can you offer the best prices, the fastest service, the most knowledge and professionalism in your market?

Identifying what it is that makes your business unique – and will attract and retain the customers you want – is an essential part of your business’s online strategy. Then there’s social media – how best can you use it to market your products and services?

These are just a couple of points you must consider when planning your online sales and marketing strategy. For expert advice on all aspects of online advertising, marketing and web design, contact LexisClick today.

Marketing General, Social Media Marketing Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social media for business, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

Google have unveiled their latest attempt to crack the social networking market, which they’ve called Buzz.

It integrates with the Gmail and enables users to post status updates, as well as sharing content from the likes of Twitter and Flickr. Buzz launches directly into competition with Facebook, but as well as being a social networking tool for private users, Google hope that Buzz will be taken onboard as a business tool (a business model is to follow shortly).

The key selling point for businesses will be real-time collaboration, which will enable feedback from customers and the incorporation of social information at an earlier stage of product or campaign development. This has, obviously, massive potential benefits to businesses of all sizes, although the similarity of this function to that of Google Wave has led some to speculate that Buzz for business is really an improved version of Wave.

Wave’s reception thusfar has been less than blistering, and, as Tony Bradley points out in an article for PC World’s Business Center, there are some serious limitations for Buzz as a business tool, as users of Google Apps Premier Edition are unable to access many of the consumer applications such as Picasa, which takes much of the fun out of the whole Buzz experience.

Businesses are still working out how to fit social media into their marketing and sales strategies. Let’s hope that soon Google will successfully integrate Buzz’s business and consumer services into a truly valuable tool.

LexisClick specialise in social media marketing for businesses. Contact us today to see how we can help your business grow its online presence.

Read the excellent article by Tony Bradley at PC World’s Business Center blog here.

Social Media Marketing Google Buzz, Social media for business, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy

A new poll by web security software provider Sophos has ranked Facebook as the biggest threat to corporate security, according to IT managers.

In a recent report by Yahoo!, it was revealed that 60 per cent of IT managers named Facebook as being the highest risk, with its 350 million user base being a prime target for malware creators.

Most business owners now realise that Facebook is not just a way for employees to waste time during the working day. It’s also a major platform on which businesses can legitimately promote themselves to potential customers. Facebook and other social networking sites are increasingly large parts of businesses’ marketing plans – but the key to success here is to use social media effectively. Ensuring Facebook pages and Twitter feeds are kept up-to-date and are targeted at the right audience can bring huge benefits, and potentially huge exposure, for your business.

For more information about LexisClick’s social media expertise, click here to speak with one of our team.

Read the full Yahoo! report here.

Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing

This morning I have been reading an interesting article in a relatively new digital marketing magazine figaro digital, by Alan Moore the founder of an engagement consultancy SMLXL. (Yes I was reading a print magazine… a well earned rest from the monitor and iphone!!). The article looks at the explosion and importance of social media in today’s connected society. Using a number of intellectuals’ writings throughout history, there was a clear message of the importance of community and relationships in our sense of identity. It is actually our engagement and relationships with others that forms our individual identity. To sum this up, he used Carl Jung’s famous quote “I needs We to truly be I”.

The importance of community and to our sense of self, explains why social media has exploded. The resounding message for all of us marketing our businesses online is the importance of engagement and relationships when marketing in our online information age.

Just as when you visit a shop, restaurant or pub, that you frequent regularly, you are recognised and pass the time of day with the staff, it improves the experience and helps you develop a relationship with the business. You’ll probably also find that you will feel a closer connection with the businesses that really stand out in your life. It is likely that you feel a connection with other customers of those businesses, in some way they are like you and enjoy similar experiences. In turn these are the businesses that you’ll enjoy visiting on a regular basis and are likely to recommend to others.

This is really what social media marketing is all about. In an online world where you don’t have to converse with your customers for them to buy from you, it is very easy for them to become anonymous and for you to become detached from their real needs.

This makes developing engagement with your customers and potential customers and having conversations with them so important. If you can develop the community where you can converse with your customers and listen to their needs and where they can speak with other customers and develop a relationship around your business  it helps your business stand out from all the others competing for the same customers. It gives your customers trust in your business and helps them develop a relationship with your brand. And ultimately relationships and a sense of community are fundamental elements of the human race.

Developing relationships takes time. You don’t win trust overnight. However, working on this will build very strong foundations and develop real conversations with your customers and potential customers. If you are really listening to your customers and developing your business based on what you learn, there is no doubt that your business will benefit hugely. It will give you the competitive edge over those that aren’t investing the time to develop the relationships.

Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized

It has taken a while to get my notes from this key note seminar at the TFMA (Wednesday 25th Feb 2009) event in London together. There was a very interesting panel of speakers with a number of important points raised that should be considered when developing a social media strategy for any business. We’ll be building on some of the points raised in future posts.

On the panel were key representatives from Facebook, Reuters, BBC and YouTube, read on for a summary of the key points raised .

The session opened by explaining the success of social media marketing in President Obama’s campaign for the White House. It was the first time that social media had been used on such a scale in a political race and was used to great effect by Obama’s team to gain massive advantage in terms of winning support and engagement from voters.

Blogging was discussed as an important element of any social media strategy. Pete Clifton, Head of Editorial Development at the BBC, commented that his view and that pushed at the BBC, was if the content is no good there is no point in having a blog. Blogs need to be updated regularly and provide value. Key to this is that the person responsible for the blog needs to be prepared for the commitment (although it doesn’t look like Pete is as his blog was last updated 9 months ago – at the time of writing). He explained that the stronger the focus of the blog the more likely it is to provide value. Interestingly he commented on how his editorial team are using blogs to explain the difficult decisions that they make and how they can use it as a device for being open and accountable.

This really reinforces the advice that we give to our customers on blogging for business. Through out the discussions, there was a recurring theme that marketing needs to be authentic. Customers are much savvier to marketing and respond much better to honest messages. Blogging is a fantastic way of presenting an open insight into your business or organisation and expressing its personality.

Tim Faircliff, General Manager at Reuters Media explained some of the challenges and opportunities social media is presenting at Reuters. How it is very important that they integrate the latest technology without undermining their core values. He explained how the business’s core values are clearly set out for all members of the business. He also stated the importance of having an anchor around an individual or subject when using social media. This point reinforces the message of focus when using blogs and social media.

Another interesting example that Tim raised was Twitter. He explained how their lead business editor David Schlesinger posted on his Twitter feed from the Davos World Economic Forum. These tweets beat the Reuters wire and apparently caused a bit of stir.

Stephen Haynes, UK Sales Director at Facebook, was asked about his view on Facebook’s meteoric rise to success. His view was that it was Facebook’s simplicity, its ability to encourage users to express themselves and the priority of the whole business to put users first, that are the secrets to its success.

A question was posed about where a not for profit should start in the world of social media promotion. The advice was to look at it as a long term strategy. Facebook would be a good starting point with its primary user demographic between 24 and 40. Creating a page on Facebook and allowing supporters to engage with the brand would then drive awareness to friends through their newsfeeds.

Marmite was given as a good example of a brand making use of a Facebook page for engaging with customers. Using the love it or hate it approach Marmite has built a substantial following on Facebook, providing an important marketing channel for the brand.

Another important concept expressed by the panel was that brands are owned by the consumers not the companies that legally own them. This is the power of social media to tap into the real owners of the brand the consumers, get feedback on it and engage in real dialogue with the people whose opinion will really affect the success of the brand.

The challenge of how to measure the success of social media marketing was raised, especially advice on which are the best metrics to use. Pete Clifton explained that the BBC bases their metrics around measuring unique users against weekly targets and expected targets for the year.

User interaction was also a key factor; however he expressed the BBC’s challenge with the current levels of volume of user generated content and how it should be managed. He also explained that the BBC was going to be much freer in letting more of the content go, to maintain the reach of the business. He gave the example of BBC produced and hosted video content which will be able to be taken and placed on own readers own blogs and websites, so that it can be consumed where ever viewer are most comfortable consuming the media.

A marketing director of a consumer FMCG brand expressed that whilst they loved using social media for themselves, how terrified they were of how to protect their brand. This really came back to the message that the business doesn’t own the brand the customers do. The example of using Mentos and diet coke to create a fountain was used. Coke tried repeatedly to prevent the video being shown on YouTube. However, they finally realised that it was a great marketing opportunity. The message was that there is always going to be good and bad feedback and that it was best not to try to control but embrace the energy to your advantage and to act on the feedback it is now so much easier to receive.

Brands that are completely open and embrace the openness of social media get a much better response. Negative comments generate positive comments

Pete Clifton from the BBC explained how twitter is changing the traditional media landscape. He gave the example of the Mumbai bombings where twitter allowed their journalists to tap into exactly what was happening to real people on the ground. He also gave the example of how the technology editor can use it to tap into bang up to date user experiences of software and the latest technology releases.

Another question was raised by WPP a leading advertising agency, who expressed that they were finding that social media isn’t generating returns.

To counter this the example of Youtube was given. Bruce Daisley explained that the site is very big with under 34 audiences. Monty Python episodes were very commonly viewed on the site and Monty Python kept fighting to have them removed. But then they realised that it could be used to promote their full films and DVDs. Using this realisation drove up sales of Monty Python DVDs by 23,000 percent, pushing them to second in the Amazon chart.

Closing comments expressed by the panel were as follows:

• Advertising formats are going to change significantly over the next few years, becoming far more interactive
• There will continue to be an explosion in the mix of business models, with Spotify as an example of this
• Traditional media sites like the BBC will be embracing more of the functionality like Facebook

With the closing thoughts:

• Transparency is vital to success– Barrack Obama
• Be yourself – don’t do a Cillit bang and try to be something you are not
• Nobody is in control

Social Media Marketing blogging, facebook, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy

Enabling readers to comment on your blog has just become easier, thanks to a new widget from Facebook Connect. Called, simply enough, The Comments Box, it enables anyone with a Facebook account to log on to any supported site with their Facebook details, and leave a comment. This is all done by adding a few lines of code to your website, and could be a vital part of your social media strategy.

While this isn’t really anything new – Google Friend Connect has a similar, widget-based system and there are commenting services such as Disqus – it will help raise awareness of your site

When a user logs in to your site and uses The Comments Box to leave a comment, they are able to post that comment to their profile and share what they have said with their friends, and by using Facebook’s APIs you can access related comments and find out what’s being said about your organisation or products. You can then retrieve these comments and display them as ‘recent comments’ on your site.

The Comments Box also lets people without a Facebook ID, or those who don’t want to use it, to comment on your site.

For full instructions on how to add The Comments Box to your site, click here:

http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=198

Social Media Marketing blogging, Social Media Marketing