eCommunications for global organisations

I just read a post from Gitte Gorzelak called You mean..having 57 blogs is not a good idea? and as I found myself commenting on the post it made me think about when is having too many platforms, blogs and social networks running at the same time is a waste of time.  I tried to answer in my comments, but I feel that this question deserves a more thorough examination.

To take ZN as an example we have quite a few ‘digital assets’ running.

First we have the ZN site (www.zn.be).  It has a hyperlink on the homepage to our blog (Hyperthinker.com).  So far, so good.  However we have a page called ‘The Lab’ which links to another initiative which is our NIng platform.  The later platform has links to the blog as it feeds it through an rss feed.  We also are able to import videos from our youtube channel which means that actually there is a lot linked to the ning platform.  We also have two other ’groups’ on Xing.com (actually two: one called hyperthinker and another on emarketing).  Interestingly  the latter has continued to survive despite being neglected (I had some difficulties with lack of applications and the lack of integration with the outside world).  But they both have over 400 members and as I checked earlier, both had posts dated December. 

We also created several facebook groups (some private, some public - but to be honest this generated little impact from a business point of view but it was great to connect with old friends).

Finally we created a platform on linkedin.  This one is very interesting as it well designed, and has a great facility to share articles (automatically creating a clean title and summary from a url).

All these experiments are very useful in approaching clients (we have replicated a ning platform for client recently around a packaging competition) and we have also started many blogs and facebook communications programmes which have met with some success. 

The Xing group actually generated a few leads and some positive referrals and so did some of the other initiatives.

The main puropose of these online ‘assets’ is that they serve as a place of learning.  I am also finding that a good blog serves to focus the mind on key questions (like this one) and helps to share your thoughts and feelings, especially with your own team and clients (and perhaps prospects but I feel this is not the main aim of this).

So I guess so far we are making slow and steady progress up the learning curve.  I would like to see as much hyperlinking as possible between those different platforms so people can choose how they want to consumer their information, which profile they want to use and what ways they want to choose to express themselves.

The simple blog seems to be the most ‘mature’ of the lot, but it takes hard work and discipline (something that was a missing a little in the past).  However I have seen the various communities serve very effectively the purpose of client if the fit with the campaign was right.   We will continue into 2009, with more experimentation and look forward to meeting you there…

We have reached the point in the year when we all feel compelled to make predictions (or perhaps just me).  So here goes:

1. Financial crisis will get worse, hit rock bottom and start getting better but reports will continue to be gloomy.  Towards the end of the year a slow and painful recovery will be under way.

2. Expect a few more dramatic surprises in the economic sector (more countries going under?) and companies doing things they have never done before.

3. Advertising and marketing budget will remain frozen - leading to the start of  reorganisation of the marketing organisation (firing of people and suppliers)

4. The Web will be the only channel that continues to grow - getting the attention of CEO level as core business tool (often for the first time since the last bubble)

5. Change in advertising will be permanent - as in: no going back to the old ways of excessive spending on TV and traditional advertising (although some milder form will be back in the later part of the year)

6. Social networks will continue to grow, more scandals will emerge on privacy and consumers will continue to ignore them

7. Someone will try coining Web 3.0 but people will resist as they will still be recovering from Web 2.0

8. Technological innovation will continue and the mobile phone will begin to appear as the next main channel for internet consumption

9. Obama will create a new american image and will benefit from an extended honeymoon period (and a virtual absence of organised opposition) which will take him into 2010 (at which point he will remain popular, but opposition will start returning and the republicans will start reforming)

From time to time a strange discussion takes place with one of our clients, prospects or someone I meet at a party.  In the later case I was discussing what a viral marketing campaign was and whether it could actually be commissioned by a client.  The scary answer by inexperienced (or dishonest?) marketing agencies is horribly consistent: let’s do a one minute video - it will be funny and maybe a bit outrageous and as a result we will have ourselves a viral marketing campaign.

This kind of answer makes me sad and a little angry.  I must also admit that I was once involved in a project like this and had to fight with the ‘advertising people’ about the fact that a funny video alone simply would not do it.

Recently Seth Godin, the man who ‘owns’ the concept of viral marketing (calling it ‘ideavirus) has revisited the subject on his blog.  He wrote a post entitled ‘what is viral marketing’ which is a great recap of the meaning of the concept.

He summed up my feelings better than I could:

The reason for this post is that viral marketing is getting a bad name, largely from clueless marketing agencies and clueless marketers. Here’s what they do: they get a lame product, or a semi-lame product, and they don’t have enough time or money to run a nationwide ad campaign. So, instead, they slap some goofy viral thing on top of it and wait for it to spread. And if it doesn’t spread, they create a faux controversy or engage a PR firm or some bloggers and then it still doesn’t work.

My word of advice next time the topic comes up:

1) You can never predict whether a campaign or video will go viral

2) The real question is why do you want something to go viral and what you are trying to accomplish: the answer to this is often that you want to get your message out and get a discussion going on a topic or raise awareness of some issue.  Instead of trying to create a viral marketing video, why don’t you concentrate on doing just that?

3) Stop using the word ‘viral’ - if you want traffic, say you want traffic, if you want people to forward the message, say that too.  Nobody wants viral marketing for its own sake - and the most successful viral marketing video were accidental (ask the Star Wars kid).

I want to end this with another quote from Seth Godin’s post:

Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing. Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way.

Marketers are obsessed with free media, and, as is often the case, we blow it in our rush to get our share. We create content that is hampered or selfish or boring. Or we create something completely viral that doesn’t do any marketing at all.

In the past couple of weeks, my interest in blogging has been renewed by a couple of projects and client conversations we have had.  In the past we have been involved in setting blogs for a few clients and also finding ways to engage with bloggers.

The conversations we have with clients often start with the reasons why they feel a blog is a risky proposition and is fraught with potential dangers and difficulties.  Debbie Weil does quite a decent job at giving practical advice on how to approach this in her book ‘The Corporate Blogging Book’

Check out here presentation on Blogging and E-retailing

Although blogging continues to grow as a tool of corporate communication, we still find that some clients are very reluctant to test it as a marketing or simple communication tool.  The reason for this, in my view, is not because of the technology or legal consideration.  The main obstacle is a mind set.  From outside it looks strange and dangerous.  The idea of people communicating in a company with their own voice is still a major paradigm shift.  The good news is that once they start blogging they usually realize that it is enjoyable and works.  It also opens the door to changing the tone and manner in which they communicate.  So there is hope for 2009.

Understanding what happens behind sites and where people come from is a constant challenge of emarketeers.  I just found this very nice post from a blog called socialfishing which identified a great tool to get detailed demographic about big sites, including social networks, search engines and other sites that qualify. 

It’s called quantcast and it seems to deliver some great insights.  Check out the summary of soime of the key networks by socialfishing:

“So here’s Facebook. 52 million US people. It skews slightly younger, female, educated (college), with children. (Click on the “demographics” tab for the summary).

Here’s LinkedIn. 9.3 million US people. It skews slightly older, male, highly educated (grad school), no children, more affluent.

Here’s Twitter. 2.4 million US people. Skews more female, more Gen-X, less affluent, educated (college and grad school).

Here’s Blogger.com. 23.5 million people. Skews male, younger, middle income, post grad.”

Worth a look.

If you want to start looking at the predictions being for made for 2009 in emarketing, check out this compilation made by Zazoo.

It’s time to start working on those plans, make those assumptions and figure how to prepare for a year that will be a year of change, unpredictable events and plenty of surprise (wait a minute, that was 2008!).

One of my favourites is from Integrated campaign metrics - “The holy grail of marketing will get one step closer as technology starts to allow a more integrated metrics reporting of campaign media.” - but then again we having been getting closer to this every year for the past ten years…

And also from ClickZ comes the predictable prediction: “The coming year in advertising is predicted to be, if nothing else, unpredictable.”

Watch this space and you will see my own predictions for 09.

http://www.zazoo.com.au/2008/12/18/and-this-is-the-year-that-will-be/

A few months ago, when the crisis/recession started dominating the news in Europe, we tried to understand how these changes would affect our business - that is the business of online marketing.  We shared with you a couple of articles from McKinsey, the Economist and other sources (on this blog and on Ning) that all pointed to the possibility of the trend not affecting the web in a direct way or perhaps even the opposite.

Over the past two weeks I have been observing, first hand, the consequence of this trend in our day to day activities.  I have had a succession of meetings with new clients, sometimes old prospects, who have been very open to the very serious exploration and use of the internet as their core marketing channel for next year.  They all agree on the same thing: traditional marketing has been ‘frozen’ or cut or put on hold completely.  On the other hand they recognize that the web is a comparatively low cost alternative and is measurable.  Many of these companies or individuals have never taking this line before, and I think that it is actually being driven by the environment.

So it seems as if 2009, might be the year of the shift to online that we have been expecting for some time, driven not by hype, but by necessity, experience and an almost inevitable transformation of the marketing landscape.

We have yet to see how far and how deep the transformation will be, but 2009 will probably mark the no return shift to a new marketing structure.  Clearly, this is a very bad time to be in traditional advertising.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aGTKcg0QHs[/youtube]

Everything you need to know about search engine optimization but never dared to ask…seriously.

Interestingly enough John Quelch recommends companies in one of his HarvardBiz blog entries to keep up Marketing spendings for next year. His reasoning: especially in difficult time it is important to reassure consumers.

With all the uncertainty brought to us by the recession people have the tendency to go back to basic values.
Families & Friends matter. Familiar brands as well.

However, be sure to review what your customers’ needs are. They might not be looking for the same solutions as they did before the ‘big crisis’. Not the same products will matter anymore - time to review your portfolio.

He also emphasizes that promotions will work well since people will be increasingly looking at opportunities to save a few pennies.

Something to keep in mind: Reassurance is not only important for the brand image amongst consumers.
Don’t forgot to reassure your employees, your partner network & key clients. What support do they need right now?
Remind them of key values and intentions of your organization.

Last but not least: be the change you want to happen. If you are worrying how can you expect employees and clients to stop caring?
(Hyper)thinking beyond the crisis is the first and most important step towards growth.

Find out more and read the full article here

Watch this video and see Tim Brown from Ideo talk about a link between creativity and play at TED. You will get some inspiring ideas to fresh up your next brainstorm session. I personally like the ‘finger blaster’ the audience fires at the speaker but I guess that’s open for discussion.

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