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Social Twitter presentation

I promised a friend to blog more about social media during 2010. Not been living up to it much, have I But a good start is this presentation I just held for a bunch of Swedish production managers. Great group, lots of questions! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or tweet @DangerousDolly

Check out the social Twitter presentation here, since I obviously don’t know how to embedd stuff

Also Prezi.com is an awesome presentation tool!

New Swedish tool for selling books online

Just trying out PocketDirekt - a Swedish site that lets you sell books on your blog (site). No hassle.

So far, pretty good. Except the fact that I couldn’t get it to work with my book blog

Love of books and branding combined

Some times my love of books and my love of marketing just meet.

Read this first post on PockeShops entering of a new era. Even better, even brighter? I hope so!

Pond-celebrity and the normal kind

Anyone loves celebrity gossip right? Wrong. But anyone likes to think/read/hear about people they see as celebrities!

With fame comes perks, but more so responsibility and the “right” for people to have an opinion about your personality. I’m not applauding either, I’m just calling it the way I see it.

Andy Warhol coined the “15 minutes of fame” expression, something that people tend to call “15 seconds” nowadays. Regardless, god knows we’re close to actually getting our 15 minutes. Not only because the entertainment industry is bigger than ever – but because we’re constantly creating small duck ponds where people can know and admire each other.

Twitter is one pond – given, it’s quickly being flooded – and there is actually people that are part of the “twitterati”. Some of them are famous for other reasons (and might even be seen as a twitterati for the wrong reasons), but many of them are a force to be reckoned with on Twitter, and much because of Twitter.

I’ll give you some examples from the areas were I move – SEO, SEM, web analytics, social media marketing etc. Avinash Kaushik is one of my “idols”. He’s has a lot of smart things to say, is very credible and in many ways a person to admire. Have you heard of him? (chance are you have, after all, you’re reading my blog ) And Peter Cashmore at Mashable? Or Anna Talerico? I dare say, none of these people are celebrities – but all of them are pond-celebrities. Known and reputable in their area of expertise, by people that want to be in their business, and people that want to make money of that business If you know them, that probably means they have a stake in your success. Either you want to employ them, be employed by them, learn something from them or sell something to them. It’s not a matter of me being cynical – it’s a matter of networking!

You’re nothing without a network, and through connected people you have a good chance of expanding your own.

Compare that to being a  a pop musician, TV personality, fashion blogger etc – you might have tens of thousands of readers/viewers every day – most of them with an opinion of you, all of them a part of your income, but non of them with a stake in your success. No reason for them to reveal their identity, and so easy for them to air their discontent with you (or more probably, themselves).

Personally, I think haters are a sign of celebrity status. And although to some it might be alluring to be know by “everyone”. Given the real perks (acknowledgment,  discussions, though leadership, job offers…) I would pick being a pond-celebrity any day! The only risk is, if you’re prone to drama – remember not to poop in you own pond

So, what do you think?! Are there other important distinctions in celebrity status? Does the “normal” kind of celebrity trump the pond-celebrity in any way? Might there even be a reason to NOT strive for acknowledgment from “fans”?

Corporate responsibility is a fashion word

Sweden’s beloved (and hated) H&M got caught doing the doo doo in New York.

To be honest, Wal-Mart got caught too…but they had a spokesperson saying “Strange, I will HAVE to investigate this” or something of the sort… H&M made the journalist call someone else, that then didn’t answer…and OH-OH, who got to be the bad boy in this?!

The HUGE problem I see is actually not that it happened! The ENORMOUS problem is that H&M has a Corporate Responsibility executive employed(!!) And that they have only been able to say this on their Facebook Fanpage:

H&M is committed to taking responsibility for how our operations affect both people and the environment. Our policy is to donate any damaged usable garments to charity. We’re currently investigating an incident in a NY store that is not representative of our policy. We will follow with more information as soon as we are ab…le. H&M’s US sales operation donates thousands of garments each year through Gifts In Kind Int’l.

You probably won’t be able to find it – it took me 4 clicks 12 hours after the statement. My first reaction was “damaged”?!! – this clothes weren’t damaged before you slashed them!

So WHAT is the issue?! Well, totally disregarding the cruel and NON-responsible way this H&M store handled old and unsellable items – H&M has had all the chances to make amends!
Please just say, “This is appalling, we will certainly go to the bottom of this!” and then publish your corporate responsibility strategy (One you MUST have if you aren’t make “corporate responsibility” into fashion as well…)

Everyone can make mistakes, and a world-wide company will most definitely make them. But, you MUST find a way to handle PR in social media! Hint: it’s not via your PR agency… Social media is about participation, not control!

If you don’t like it, don’t EVER ask us for “our opinion” that is “very valuable” to you – you won’t like the answers!

——- update 11-01-10 —–

See this in the light of a bigger issue at SEO & Social media by Jesper Åström – H&M’s twittering has bothered me for some time, since they seem to think it’s just another “spray&pray channel”, but maybe they’re just suffering from the issues raised by Jesper. Maybe they should even get Jesper & Honesty to help them out!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… C: wait…

Brand identity

This post is partially in Swedish, and I apologize for that. I’ll translate bits and pieces, but as you know, it’s never the same as the original. Nevertheless, I read a blog post that struck a cord with me – because it was well-written, but also because the issue currently is extremely relevant in my work life.

I’ll steal a picture from this blog post (in Swedish):

Basically this picture, and the blog post is centered around not the identity of a brand, but the level on which the brand identity is attached. Either you have a brand connected to a Product (PR), a Category (KA), a Competence (KO) or an Attitude/Role (AR).

There is a connection between brand extension success and level of brand identity. If you want to do what Virgin does (music, airplanes, coke) you have to find your bottom line in your Attitude, your Role in the market.

I would like to think that many would thrive if they just got out of the Product-focus or even Category belonging and instead zeroed in on their core Competence to see in what other areas that would make them more money, more fame. Of course Coca-Cola as a product is doing pretty good on it’s own, but I don’t think anyone minded when Ikea started to sell food and build their own shopping centers. (Well, possibly some people did mind, but none of them collected the revenue).

A slightly different problem, and perhaps a cause of getting stuck in the Product/Category part of the pyramid is this:

Mycket av att skapa starka varumärken handlar om sånt som en del av oss betraktar som självklarheter – konsumentnytta, tydlighet, konsekvens i alla led, öppenhet o.s.v.Men däremot helst inte om att försöka sammanfatta varumärket i några enkla “värdeord” utan någon som helst koppling till konsekvenser i ändrad attityd och ändrat beteende. Vi behöver modeller och systematik för att kunna förstå och tolka vår omvärld, men behöver samtidigt också inse att enbart några enkla modeller eller värdeord räcker inte för att skapa starka varumärken.

The comment is from this Swedish blog, and I’ll try to translation:

Creating strong brands has a lot to do with stuff that some of us sees as given – consumer benefit, distinctiveness, consequences in all aspects, openness etc. But preferably not to do with trying to summarize the brand in a couple of “brand values words” without any connection to consequences like a change in attitude or a change in behavior. We need models and systems to grasp and interpret our surroundings, but at the same time we need to realize that a couple of simple models or brand values won’t be enough to create those strong brands.

Said and done! Both the post and the comment above are written by Mats Rönne, and the blog post is addressing a “You”, a “You” that made Björn Alberts (author blog post 2, where Mats commented) ask – Who are “You”?

That You are me – and hopefully you (!) – and all the other people that want to care for the brand they work with, and that want to see it succeed. People that see a brand value stating “Innovative” and actually keep that in the back of their head throughout the workday. People that sees the “employee cult” of Ikea and Google as something working in favor of their brand. People that believe in “living the brand” and that would act as brand advocates out of their own will. Hell, even people that understand the business and take responsibility  but know zipp about branding will due

However, “You” are not the people that sit in a seminar, come up with 3 words and then go back to doing business the way they’ve always done them. However those guys NEED You to help them!

Surfing the Google Wave

I started this post back  in June, but it got stuck in draft mode. This is what I’d written:

Google is changing the rules of internet sometime during this year.
I would argue they HAVE already changed it – they made me watch a 1 HOUR and 20 minutes video of them marketing their latest product.
I ask you – HOW many commercials are allowed to be 1.20 hrs?!

I was skeptical, I really was! And I still am – but just about the release date. I guess I just have to admit to having drunk the Google kool-aid. And it’s okey, because I think ppl who do good marketing are allowed to be successful.

Although I have a hard time doing stuff “half-ass”, I do say: It’s not about KNOWING what you do, it’s about LOOKING as if you know.

So, WHY have I swallowed the Google buzzwords? Because I LOVE technology that allows my messy brain to stay messy. I use Gmail because it group conversations, and because I can search for any keyword and get all matching messages.

And Google “promised” me that Wave would be even better – and since I don’t expect YOU to watch the entire video, here are the goodies:

For some reason I never listed the goodies!! Now I wish I had, because I feel like the dumbest person alive for hyping Wave the way I did, to get the preview and find “poll gadget” and “collaborative sudoko” as the exciting functions.

There IS a way around it, it’s just I haven’t really found it. There are several really good apps/gadgets/add-ons/thingies – it’s just TOO DAMN HARD to come across them.

And for the 3rd time I’m wishing I knew more about writing code – then I could create what I wanted, or at least explain to ppl.

There ARE stuff I like about Wave! Like the fact that there is a “Swedes on Wave” wave created. I mean, things like this can only happen when services are small! Imagine “Swedes on MSN” or “Swedes using email” – those list have probably existed in some form at some point, but WAY before my time. This is realtime history people. And as always, nothing is as straight forward as it will seem looking back.

I’m still effected by the Wave kool-aid and it won’t take much to get me advocating the brand, but it will take a couple of things:

• Speed-it-up! There is just no way around this. The window of opportunity is starting to shut.
  A wave with 300+ user CAN be slow – but not ALL waves! There is just no way for me to internalize wave usage at this point. And there is no way I can leave wave open without it slowing down the entire web browser.
• Gadget URLs – great that I can add them! BUT, once I’ve added a new one, it should really show up in a list of some sort! I mean, there is no way I’ll keep a separate list of URLs for adding to waves. (Taskboardy, Napkin gadget)
• In a long wave – I have to be able to skip all old items and just see the new ones. Maybe I can, I don’t know – maybe it’s just the UI
• If you can’t speed up all of wave, then at least let me see WHAT I’M WRITING! Honestly, it’s cool to see stuff written real time – BUT as a viewer I’ll get annoyed if someone misspells due to not knowing how far he got in the sentence. And as a writer I get even more annoyed, since it’s not real time when you’re forcing me to think and write slower for the system to keep up

I wanted wave to use it as a real time project tool in my small marketing team – but reality hit me and now I’m looking at traditional tools instead. No way to revolutionize the web, if you ask me!

 

Anlytics Awesomeness from Avinash

I am great at taking notes. I mean, really great… as in I do it thoroughly because that’s how I learn, but then I just leave ‘em – used and forgotten.

But it dawned on me – a blog is there to use however I want! And a lot of my notes are about marketing stuff so it’s a pretty good match.

This is from a webinar that Avinash Kaushik held for Inbound Marketing University:

Disclaimer – the smart things are all Avinash’s, but he can’t be blamed for my way of dividing it, nor for all comments and examples.

Clickstream

Clickstream is HUGE amounts of data!
But the insight you can get from it is very limited.

So;

Clickstream                                What?
Multiple outcomes analysis        How much?
Experimentation & Testing        Why?
Voice of customer                      Why?
Competitive Intelligence            What else?
Insights                                     THAT’S the stuff!

Bounce rate

Check bounce rate of top pages, top referrals & fix those with the highest BR.

Good rules of thumb:

• Landing Pages that correlate with search term!! ( Think: I don’t want to guess/Don’t make me think/Keep-It-Simple-Stupid)
• No choosing country – IP recognition baby
• If you have a blog you’re probably safe even at 80 %
• If you have a site with more than 1 page – 25-30% is OK, over 50% = freak out!!

Analyzing

1. Look beyond the top 10 of things. (Example: Rising & Falling keywords/pages)
2. Segment data! (Example: Dept of visit >3 pages)
3. Define goals (What pages in your site do you REALLY BADLY want people to look at)
4. Think micro vs. macro conversions – you do want both, so measure them.

Added smartness

Learn to be wrong – Quick!

It’s not the recession, you just suck – Lisa Barone via Avinash Kaushik

10/90- rule = Spend 10 % on the tools, 90 % on the people
Because: Data is free – Effort & Imagination is NOT!

Social-Engine-Optimization

Real-time search… Taste the word for a bit, it is fabulous, isn’t it? And at the same time, not.

Google will without a doubt (and quite often) serve me results that are years old!
Twitter will not give me results from 2 days ago if the subject is popular enough.

And Google (et al) are the ones talking about real-time.
Would you like Google to serve you vitally different pages today and tomorrow, on the same keyword?
I wouldn’t!

So, search engines need to be more stable than real-time search, more reliable and predictable.

The SEOs job is to predict! But a increasingly important role of the SEO is to create (well, force others to create) content! And content is really only good if it’s talked about, linked to and someone “told a friend”.

The necessity to KNOW social media is a no says Bruce Clay, and I agree. They don’t need to know Email marketing or Affiliate marketing either.

Search Engine Optimizers should be a bunch of wanna-be techies that can program test sites on a Sunday morning just for the heck of it. Search Engine Optimizers should know what Google are planning before they do it – sort of like a good check-player!

HOWEVER! The need to understand the world after SEO, and be humble about the fact that it’s all a loop!

And then there are people like me – I do Search Engine Optimization, and I’m probably the most well-read in the company on that area. I KNOW how to get good ratings on a site, I just can’t DO it by myself. I’ve manage to chant the URL,Title, Description chant enough times that content creators actually remember it.

But I know ZIPP about programming. I know marketing. Marketing is a huge part of the loop. And social media is becoming a huge part of marketing.

Enter: Social Engine Optimizer (or Social Media Optimizer, but that would kill the acronym…)

Social Engine Optimizers should understand SEO (the original kind), they should grasp the basic, but also the implications good/bad/non-existing SEO will have on marketing (and in the long run business).

With a Social Engine Optimizer in place, the Search Engine Optimizer would NEVER have to bother with anything from the time of launch to the time of update. The SMO (Yes, I give up) would be there as a project manager to ensure SEO and social focus through the loop.

What say you? Good suggestion? Horrible idea? Write, yell, maybe a good old handshake?!