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Archive for July 2010
This week has been a big learning curve as I sink my teeth into a new client assignment. Here are some of the tips I’ve learnt recently about how to use social networks to grow your business, whether it's big or small.
I'll go through each of the social networks with some key tips for each
Why should I do anything?
Firstly you might want to ask why should I do anything in social media so here are some key reasons to consider it:
1. It can improve your search engine optimisation and I've seen anecdotal evidence in travel that it can increase your web traffic by up to 30%.
2, It can reduce the costs of market research and new product development as you can use it to test out new product ideas with your customers. However the key question is to ask if you are ready for it as it does change how you do business so the earlier you start listening, learning and experimenting with social networks, the better.
3. It can reduce some of your customer service costs if you proactively map some of the key information requests and then put up solutions to known customer pain points with your product or service.
If you are a company that has banned social media networks like Facebook in your company, this is unlikely to deter those that already have it loaded on their phones. We are starting to see the uptake of smart phones using the new Google platform called Android and the number of applications for Iphone and Blackberry is now exploding, albeit with some very short lifespans. It is likely that 2011 will see social networks going mobile. There are a raft of new platforms which are now delivering location based services such as Foursquare.
Linked In
This has become one of the most useful tools for business networking with more than 70m users as of June 2010
[1] and head hunters now use it extensively. It's important to keep your profile updated and ensure you network with your existing contacts. You can let Linked In review your email list so it can identify people that you can invite to connect.
The great thing about Linked In is that you can join up to 50 groups and through these you can be making new business contacts. Use the search groups tool to target those groups where you can see the opportunity to make some contacts and then network with them. The "Lions" are those that have 500 contacts and who have worked through the groups to build their contacts. However it's not about quantity and more about making contact with those you connect with. As with the principles of good networking it's all about what you can do for them first and not about selling. Sharing some interesting news item or learning is going to build more friendships and goodwill than any type of selling. It also helps to make comments and give feedback to groups as this will drive interest in your profile. Make sure you feature any events you are running on your linked in pages and there are free tools like Eventbrite which can also help you with registration and sign up to reduce costs. It helps to personalise your invitations to connect on Linked In so that people understand why you have contacted them.
Facebook
This network has seen astonishing growth and has just reached 500 million users which represents 10% of everyone on the planet. It has grown by 42% since July 2009 and 138% in UK over past 2 years and now boasts 26.5 million users.
[2]
In order to use Facebook it's best to split your personal and business facebook presence and make it clear via your email address and welcome as to which facebook page is for each. Make sure you load a company profile for your business Facebook pages. You also have the option of loading your logo and information about the company. As with Linked in join some groups and if you cannot see one for the area you are interested in then look at creating one. Facebook is not a minority sport and has gone mainstream so is now used by those both young and old.
Twitter
This is used a lot by TV personalities and musicians to create a following together with You Tube and is a great way to build some timely communications with customers at busy times or during a crisis. It has also been a way that many hotel groups such as Hyatt have started to leverage Twitter as a 24 hour concierge service to complement their customer service response. Tracing people in Twitter who have similar interests to you is easy using the search facilities and you can also use some of the additional Twitter tools like Twellow and Tweet Deck.
You Tube
This network has an amazing array of viewers and is ideal for sharing videos. You can now create your own You Tube Channel and customise this to your company look and feel so it looks like your corporate website.
Corporate Blogging
There are a number of sites that are geared up for blogging which include Blogger, Wordpress and Type Pad. All these blogging platforms enable you to integrate your blogs into all of your social media sites and will generate RSS feeds which means that feeds of your blogs can be put on other websites which further increases their visibility across the web. Be careful about trying to import text from Word into Blogger as it has become harder of late and there are quite a few gripes on this in the help section.
General Tips
Make sure you upload a photo on each site as this really improves networking.
It's best to do a little bit each day than to try and do it all in one go.
Whenever you meet someone always follow up with them on Linked in and other networks whilst the contact is fresh.
Think of all these social networks as interrelated and you will find that posting tweets can often help with driving traffic to your blogs or content on your other social media channels.
Do post a comment and tell us if you found this blog of help and what else you would like to know about.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn
[2] http://www.nickburcher.com/2010/07/facebook-usage-statistics-by-country.html
Posted: 26/07/2010 22:54:50
It’s clear that Google have now rattled a lot of travel players and especially the price comparison sites. The latest news that Google has acquired ITA Software, a travel technology player for $700m is a big story and there are those predicting the demise of the travel meta search players and those who reckon it will be what every consumer has been waiting for.
Google has the benefit of some smart brains back at their US headquarters who have cut their teeth in the travel industry. It has slowly but surely developed its capability and insight from looking at the patterns of travel search. However you only need to see the recent developments in Google maps to see what was coming. The beta trial they have been running has been visible for all to see where hotels were able to load more information than just their location.
For any travel company still hugely dependent on Google for their traffic the next challenge is to work out smart ways to reduce your dependence on this search engine for your future customers. I remember being taught in business school never to have too many eggs in the same basket. Just as we never want to be reliant on one customer so we don’t want to be dependent on one sole channel of distribution, especially in these times of economic uncertainty. The latest ONS travel trends for 2010
1 showing we’ve just had one of the worst years for outbound travel from the UK with 13% decline to yr ended April 2010 on previous year with business travel down 20% . Inbound travel to the UK was also down 5%. There is a need to focus on innovative ways to build a greater share of the customer wallet rather than throwing more money at pay per click. As we all know if we did our pareto analysis there are probably 20% of customers delivering 80% of the value to a business – it’s just a case of identifying who they are and targeting more of them. If you have a website open search function and a database of FAQs you could also, like Google better understand what customers are looking for and track your performance using insights like data from Skyscanner showing the top 50 search travel destinations from UK
2.
Many industry colleagues complain to me that pay per click (PPC) has been delivering increasingly poor returns. It appears that the largest companies who can benefit from the large economies of scale in monthly online ad spend exceeding several hundred thousands pounds per month are the ones winning in this game. However it’s not worth Google just focusing on these players as they know that the UK economy is principally made up of SMEs which is where their future growth lies, hence their smart move to make PPC more pervasive. My view is that this will drive advertising costs up not down as a larger number of players compete on price on their enhanced platform using ITA.
Many companies have diverted spend away from PPC into SEO
3 and social media as a consequence. You can see this trend markedly in the US where a Nielsen report shows advertising spend in travel on social media increased by 384% from August 08 to August 09 whereas digital spend across all travel sites decreased 11% over this same period. Even the latecomers to the digital marketing space such as the FMCG players have been busy talking to the social media networks and Unilever last week announced its plan to double its digital spend
4.
Google is not going to risk its advertising revenues with the big online travel agents (Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity) which Goldman Sachs claim in Travelmole last week
5 are worth up to 8-10% of its global revenues. Google recognises that it has failed to engage with many SMEs and convince them of the benefits of their pay per click model and it wants to build scale so it sees a chance to take a bigger slice of the total advertising pie. Who can blame them, but I would love to see the arguments that Microsoft will surely be making as the acquisition is approved by the US authorities. How the tables have now turned!!!!
1 ONS produces the Annual International Passenger Survey source:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=8168
2 http://www.skyscanner.net/news/articles/2010/06/006915-skyscanner-flight-trends-june-2010.html
3 SEO= Search Engine Optimisation focused on improving your page rankings in Google based on a combination of using the right keywords, the right linking strategies and the right website structure making it search engine friendly.
4 Times Sat 3 July, Business section
5 http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1143090.php?news_cat=&pagename=searchresult
Posted: 16/07/2010 10:58:41
I was discussing brands this week with some of my clients and was interested to learn that Amazon has now crept into number two global retail brand position without a single shop front
1.
Many technology brands are now entering the Global top 100 list issued by Millward Brown
2. and this demonstrates the power of the internet and technology to transform our buying habits and our lives. Samsung leapt up 80% powered by our desire for sleek LED flat screen TVs and whizzy mobiles and Baidu the Chinese search engine increased its value by 62%. Other brands performing well in 2010 report included IBM, Google, Apple, HP and Sony with the brand value of the technology sector increasing 6% in a relatively flat market.
Even the brand agencies like Millward Brown are now proclaiming that brands cannot ignore social media but it has to be delivering a customer experience that is in keeping with the brand values. I notice that young people are now using their mobiles to price check for items before buying them as useful mobile applications proliferate. Multi channel marketing is here to stay meaning that agencies have to work closely together on client accounts or confusion reigns.
Some brands (especially FMCG manufacturers with no retail outlets of their own) are finally discovering the value of social media as a great new product development asset as they can directly communicate with their most loyal customers to test new products and are now starting to sell directly online. Given the threat from retailers’ own label product, this is no surprise.
The next interesting trend will be to see how brands start to personalise their customer experience using social media and mobile applications to deliver relevant brand experiences at the right time and place. Location based applications are likely to drive this trend and I can see how group buying of products with friends on applications like Facebook will be an interesting development to watch with manufacturers keen to target their chosen customer groups. We’ve already seen the model used in travel with Priceline so I’m just waiting for the opportunity to get a great deal on some bicycle gear with some cycling friends. As the marketplace gets tougher with cuts to curb the deficit is this the point at which brands start engaging with online communities of interest? The technology is ready and waiting so watch this space.
1 Kantar Retail Top 20 brands
2 Millward Brown Brandz Top 100 Most valuable global brands 2010
http://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/mbOptimor/Ideas/BrandZTop100/BrandZTop100.aspx
Posted: 08/07/2010 10:02:16
It was a welcome signal that Unilever, one of the FMCG giants has finally recognised the power of digital marketing and has decided to double its spend in this area.1 It has recognised that many of its customers are watching less TV and spending more time on the internet and on their mobile phones. I’m sure their traditional marketing agencies are now thinking about how their marketing is going to become that much more measurable and the accountability this will bring for their campaigns.
This brings me to the topic of how you can as a supplier and consultant to a company be a challenger to ask the awkward questions and challenge the status quo. I have a bit of a reputation for doing this but it always surfaces the right issues. However the key learning for me is that unless you have a board sponsor and are working at board level you cannot drive the right change agenda. This doesn’t mean change for change’s sake but change that is in tune with changing consumer habits and market forces. I drill into my programmes the need to start with the market and the customer in any analysis. It’s amazing how so often we get fixated with our products and services and forget about the need or pain points they are designed to address and before we know it the market has moved on and a new raft of competitors has entered the fray to meet these new demands.
There are many companies pitching online marketing campaigns as a tactical solution with short term objectives for raising awareness or changing customer behaviour. However brand building in the digital space is no different to the traditional ways of taking the customer along what we call the “customer bonding staircase” from awareness to advocacy – a coveted market position that few brands have achieved with the exception of brands like First Direct or Amazon which have high levels of retention and customer champions and focus on bringing additional value to their customers.
The announcement this week that Amazon has started to sell music equipment has sent a shiver through the UK small music store industry. Which industry sector will they target next and are you delivering enough customer value to survive the Amazon threat? Maybe the FMCG manufacturers and the innovative online players have an opportunity to work together to counter the balance of power which currently favours the UK retailer. If you look at many US websites today you can buy your health and beauty products directly online from the manufacturer and what a great opportunity that offers to have a direct relationship with your most loyal customers.
1. The Times 3 July 2010
Posted: 05/07/2010 15:24:58