NZ social media: The best and worst of 2011

2011 saw social media in New Zealand move from being part of most marketers agendas to central to almost every marketing conversation. Here is our best and worst of the year.

McDonald’s embraced check-in rewards at store level, which was a great initiative and showed they now take social media seriously. They also had great success with the ‘Flick Rugby’ game, which was an app that sat on the Facebook page and let people to flick a coin across a counter full of McDonald’s food to win points. It wasn’t ground-breaking, but it was a nice tie-in with the Rugby World Cup. It was also simple, very addictive and had strong engagement numbers.

The Pedigree adoption campaign ‘Doggelganger’ was a real social media success. Doggelganger allowed people to find which dog they should adopt by uploading a pic of themselves to see which canine they looked most similar to. The idea was fun, very sharable and had a good truth (people often buy dogs that look like themselves).

Westpac’s ‘Gen W’ - a Facebook page specifically for the next generation of customers where they could win cash and a financial mentor – is a favourite of ours. Again, it taps into a core human emotion, in this case that everyone loves sharing their baby photos. Plus, it gets potential customers at an underused customer lifecycle point. Read the rest of this entry »

Public Relations and Voyeurism 2.0

The PR ideas that get the most award-winning attention tend to be experiential/ambient/stunt related. There is, of course, plenty of great PR work that intentionally flies under the radar, but that’s for another discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

Sharing & consuming: the PR implications for the internet of the future

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, there will be some interesting shifts in internet usage come 2015:

- Global internet traffic will quadruple by 2015
- Asia Pacific will be the region doing the most file sharing, dwarfing North America and Western Europe
- North America and Western Europe will lead the way in business IP traffic
- Western Europe will be the dominant VoIP market, driven by services like Skype
- Asia Pacific will be the number region for internet gaming, followed by North America
- North America will watch significantly more internet TV than other regions Read the rest of this entry »

Social media for retailers

I recently spoke to the Dominion Post for an article about social media for retailers. The full article is here, but my expanded comments are below.

In New Zealand, social media has enabled retailers ranging from House of Travel to Hell Pizza to local coffee shops to demonstrate a point of difference and stand out from the crowd. Do retailers have to be on social media? Well, they’d be missing a trick if they didn’t. But, in addition to being properly resourced, it has to be relevant to the target audience. If you’re looking to talk to the business community, it might be wise to set up a blog where the senior management can lay out its strategic point of view about the industry it operates in – like national retail chain dtr has done with talkingshop.dtr.co.nz. If you’re simply wanting to stay in the minds of your customers then Facebook activity and competitions like those of House of Travel are good options. Like any marketing, getting it wrong happens sometimes; just make sure you learn from it and never lie as this has a way of magnifying itself online. Read the rest of this entry »

Defending your brand online: why fruit trees need social media

I had the opportunity this week to travel to Napier to do a presentation to the Summerfruit NZ conference about social media. The question I was asked to address was whether their business could survive without it.

Questions of survival are particularly to the forefront of the minds of this industry, especially when you realise that they live with the potential of crop disease affecting their harvests every day. Consider the attention that the Kiwifruit vine-killing PSA bacteria has received in the media over the past year and you’ll understand the concern is justified. Read the rest of this entry »

If it ain’t fun, why are we doing it?

This morning at the Marketing Association’s Brainy Breakfast, I heard from two speakers: Tarver Graham of Gladeye, a digital agency, and Shane Bradley from daily-deal website, GrabOne. It was the best brainy breakfast I’ve been to because I took away some confirmations of what I already thought (always a nice feeling) and some other fresh takeaways. This is what it told me… Read the rest of this entry »

The Future of Social Networking is Smaller. But what does this mean for PR?

There is a growing realisation that smaller groups are the future of social networking. Sure, Facebook is a behemoth and isn’t going anywhere in the short-term. But, working on the social media principle that you are trust/are interested in what your friends say, surely there is a place for smaller social network groups where conversation flows more freely.

This seems like it will be the theme of this year’s SXSW. Companies like GroupMe are banking on us wanting to be part of these ‘private chat rooms’ and it could be the differentiator in terms of location-based services genuinely hitting the global mainstream. ‘Acts of Sharing’ is a different beast in that it’s more about sustainability and not purchasing stuff that someone else can lend you, but it still supports the notion that online sharing is changing. Read the rest of this entry »

Will Facebook enter banking and why is it important for PR?

As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of geo-location services like Facebook Places and Foursquare. I can see the value, but it’s not great enough for me to be bothered about doing it for myself. I enjoyed the novelty factor of it all when it first came on to the scene, yet I struggled to stay interested in it as people started to spam each other with their irrelevant location.

Anyway, there is a buzz on the interwebs at the moment that could change the way we all see location. In very broad and sweeping terms, Facebook could be on its way to becoming the world’s biggest bank. It makes total sense when you think about it. As ‘The Next Web’ informs us, savvy brands are already facilitating some purchases through their Facebook pages. However, this is still pretty limited in its scope. It would be relatively simple for Facebook to allow its 600 million or so users to start buying all kinds of products and services directly on Facebook. It would go from being the facilitator to the transactor and suddenly start making infinitely more money. Read the rest of this entry »

When a brand becomes super – what PR professionals can learn from Starbucks #markchat

I recently read a great article in The Economist about Starbucks decision to change its logo. For those who haven’t seen, Starbucks has removed the words ‘Starbucks’ and ‘coffee’ and also the circle around the mermaid, or whatever she is.

As the journalist says, there are relatively few brands that are recognised purely by a logo – think Nike, Adidas, Playboy, McDonalds and Apple. It’s part of the evolution of a super brand to announce itself as such an integral part of our lives that words are no longer needed. The company now transcends the product itself, which tends to be tied in to the fact that the company then starts selling more stuff it wasn’t traditionally associated with. For Starbucks, this means alcohol and various beverage accessories.

I won’t go into any more detail about why companies do this and why it works or doesn’t as The Economist covers this off well. Instead, I’d like to discuss the other element of this move – the community and ownership of a brand. Read the rest of this entry »

Location based online marketing – it’s about context

Location based marketing is about a whole lot more than telling people you’ve checked in to the local burger joint. With this in mind, I recently read an article on The Daily Beast in which it discusses how Google is gunning for social having conquered search, video and mobile. The article confirmed my belief that, in the not too distant future, we will all be following each other’s geographical movements. If this seems strange to you, let me assure you it seems very strange to me. I’m not the biggest fan of location based services like Foursquare and Facebook Places. I jumped onto Foursquare in early 2010, used it for about three months and then abandoned it when I got bored of competing with colleagues to see who was Mayor of the office. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that it’s like a digital loyalty card for discounts and freebies; I just can’t be bothered checking myself into places all the time and spamming my social network with my mundane movements. Yet, at the same time, I feel like I should re-engage as soon it (or something similar) will be like not being on Facebook – i.e. socially frowned upon. Read the rest of this entry »

PR People Take Note - Targeted Social Networks Are Coming

We have Twitter for instantaneous news collection, dissemination and research; Facebook for a mix of personal and professional networking and larger community collection; LinkedIn for keeping our professional profile updated and for recruitment; Foursquare for broadcasting your location; Facebook Places for following the location of others, blogging for deeper content and so on and so forth.

It seems we have all we need in terms of the large social networks. What we need now is services that filter, structure and personalise the kind of information that flows through these channels. In essence, this is the reason why the Old Spice virals took off. The minute the personalised videos started appearing is when it went from very successful to stratospheric promotion for the brand. We also need products that better connect the ‘real world’ with the internet, in a meaningful way of course.

A couple of resources come to mind here. One is Planely, a service that allows you to see if anyone in your network is getting on the same flight so you can meet for a drink or share a cab. That’s all it’s for, and therefore some would say limited. However, I’d argue that it’s useful for the very same reason – there is no confusion as to why you are using it so you are more likely to achieve outcomes for your input of time. Read the rest of this entry »

What will be the key social media theme of 2011?

What will be the key social media theme of 2011?

Many people may be bursting at the seams to answer this question with ‘mobile’, but I would argue that was last year’s theme. It seemed to me like last year was the year people outside of tech and media circles bought a smartphone, started using apps like TweetDeck and it was also the year Apple released the iPad, thus adding another dynamic element to mobile communications, whilst not actually being a phone.

For my money, 2011 is the year we get to grips with content and work out the specifics around delivering that content to a particular audience. Two elements are key to the delivery of content. The first is authentic tone of voice that resonates with the audience; the second is timing. Sure, responding to comments within 24 hours and general community management are important, but get the tone of voice and timing right and the rest should follow.

To give an example, I’m currently managing the Contiki NZ Facebook page, which has been an interesting case study in content delivery. It’s a great idea to have a content calendar, even if it is superseded by breaking news or competitor developments. That said, I probably stuck to this calendar too rigidly at first and tried too hard to mix up the content with news from around the world. I’ve learnt that, on this page, people just want to answer and discuss more generic questions about travel. And international news is only mildly interesting. I assumed people on the page would be interested as they obviously like travel, but I guess it’s one thing hearing about a place and another to actually go there! The content is now more about the people than the tours. Read the rest of this entry »

#markchat : The Idea Economy – how do we think creative before delivery?

We increasingly speak about the difference between online and offline and how, sooner rather than later, we will all be walking around with iPad-style devices. In a few years, we won’t read print newspapers, certainly not on a daily basis, and we will consume only nuggets of information. Anything bigger than that will be too big for our shrunken attention spans to comprehend. And Social media has been the greatest accelerator of these trends. As a result of this wave of digital activity, you’d think it’s made the world more creative and more linked to the business objectives because there are more opportunities to talk direct to consumers and more channels for releasing ideas into the world. But, I’m not sure this is the case. Read the rest of this entry »

#markchat : Personal Authenticity vs Professional Brand – Where Do They Meet & Diverge?

We all have perceptions about ourselves that aren’t necessarily what we would want them to be. Think you’re known for being really creative? Maybe you are. Or maybe you’re known for being really resourceful, but lacking the spark that generates relevant ideas.

Either way, how others perceive you is, ultimately, very important when it comes to your business life. Whether you like it or not, your personal brand impacts heavily on your business brand, whatever sector you’re operating in. This is especially true for those of us who operate at least part of the time in the online marketing world.

So, have you ever gone back and re-read your personal tweets, Facebook or LinkedIn updates from the last month? And, if you blog, have you taken a look at what the content of the few months of blog posts has been like? No? I hadn’t either so I thought it wise to take a look and see whether it gave the impression I would want to project.

To use the example of Twitter, I separated my updates into the following categories:

· @’s where I was asking or answering questions to people in my network

· Re-tweets

· Independent updates where I wasn’t asking or answering questions (this consisted mainly of my own, self-absorbed musings)

· Sharing personal links (i.e. those related to Bullet PR or other associations I’m involved with like Social Media Club)

· Sharing other links to sites on the web with which I have no relationship

NB – I excluded #markchat updates as there were so many and I felt this would skew the results Read the rest of this entry »

Two Ears, One Mouth: Social Media and Continuous Dialogue

I’ve heard or read that many marketing types believe that one of the themes of social media next year will be continuous dialogue with customers. For a while I thought this sounded great; ongoing dialogue means more opportunities for marketing. And this is all synonymous with social media, or so they have us believe…

Having mulled it over, I’m not convinced that ongoing dialogue is the right way forward for most brands. Let me quickly clarify something. I feel that, broadly speaking, there are two types of brands when it comes to social media and online marketing: those that I call ‘utility brands’ and those that aren’t. Utility brands are those in the utility sectors themselves, along with pseudo-utility brands like telcos, banks and public sector organisations. Utility brands are those where we have few opportunities to switch (think long term contracts with electricity companies or telcos). Non-utility brands are those that we can pick up and discard easily. If a restaurant is rubbish, we just won’t go back, for instance. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media Junction 2 - The Public Sector Workshop

For the opening day of Social Media Junction 2, we held a Public Sector Workshop, spearheaded by Simon Wakeman. Simon is Head of Communications for Medway Council in the UK and is considered a thought-leader in online communications within the public sector. He regularly speaks at conferences and blogs on his personal site, which you can find here.

The day began with audience members being asked to write down their expectations for the workshop, along with their personal role within the public sector. This was a useful way for people to get to know each other and a timely reminder of the importance of sharing information and experiences between delegates as much as gaining insights from the speakers themselves. Read the rest of this entry »

Does a smaller budget increase creativity? #Markchat tomorrow at 12.30pm

I’ve often heard people say that a smaller budget increases creativity. They argue that because you have less money and fewer resources, you have to think harder. The brain working on overtime produces better results because you don’t have the option of throwing cash at marketing without much forethought. I certainly agree that massive budgets often breed lazy marketing; however, I’m not sure the opposite is a truth that can be confidently stated.

Sometime it’s true that a smaller budget increases creativity, but smaller budgets just as often deliver rubbish ideas. For me, it’s a bit like the kids at university who claimed that doing their papers on the night before they needed to be handed in was preferable as they ‘performed better under pressure’. I didn’t buy that line then and I don’t now. How can necking copious amounts of Red Bull and coffee and staying up for longer than anyone should be awake deliver your optimum effort?

Anyway, we digress. Tomorrow, at 12.30pm NZ time, we are doing #markchat and we want to hear your opinions on the topic above.

To kick-start your thinking, I had a look for great examples of small budgets delivering great creativity. I didn’t come up with a huge selection; partly because I wasn’t sure what people would define as a ‘small’ budget (I would guess it is relative to the competition). That said, this guy has done some very cost-effective marketing over the years, despite a large personal fortune. And these guys have long driven an idea/campaign I love, which hasn’t been expensive compared to others in the market.

On the other end of the spectrum, here is one terrible piece of marketing that would have cost a fair wedge of budget and here is another, more recent example that has received a fair amount of criticism. Oh, and here’s another for those of you who want more.

Does NZ ‘ness’ matter for brands? #markchat

Is there a New Zealand quality to New Zealand brands? Does it truly come through and is it useful? Should we express New Zealand ‘values’ to brands?

These are the questions we kicked off today’s #markchat with and it stirred lots of useful debates.

The general feeling seemed to be that a Kiwi flavor to the brand is useful and relevant so long as it isn’t forced. The brand is partly responsible for fostering this ‘NZ-ness’, but the consumer will ultimately decide whether it feels right and whether it sticks. Speaking of brand perceptions, the consensus was that people have long memories. Both Bullet PR’s Jennifer Duval-Smith and Gen-i’s Chris Quin had interesting points and questions on this subject. Read the rest of this entry »

PR talking point: Size does matter, just not in the way you think

Excuse me while I get slightly philosophical. 18th century Swiss philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, said that true democracy couldn’t survive in states of more than 50,000 people. I would argue that effective social media, and by that I mean social media that holds real value and meaning for both the consumer and the client, cannot be achieved in communities bigger than 50,000 people.

Hell, I’m not sure that, for most brands, it can be achieved in communities bigger than 40,000 people. If you are one of those brands that appeals to just about everybody, like a telco or a retailer that sells all and sundry, then it’s probably a little different. But how can you communicate with a group any bigger than 40,000? How can you possibly expect to have the kind of conversations that social media is meant to facilitate? Read the rest of this entry »

Does branding enable B2B business? #markchat

Does branding enable B2B business?

This is the subject for tomorrow’s #markchat. And here are a few questions and points to get you thinking in advance.

Perhaps senior decision makers choose partners and suppliers based on existing relationships. But these relationships could also have started due to intelligent B2B branding. There may have been a moment in time, perhaps before the decision maker was senior or even in the position to make these choices, when a brand got the message right and established the connection. Or maybe not. Sometimes these business to business agreements are a case of circumstance, such as when two offices are located near each other, for example. This could be the main reason why a business uses a printing company. It may have nothing to do with their logo.

Speaking of logo, to what degree does design of a logo contribute to the credibility of the business? I’d wager that it’s quite influential, although it’s up for debate how much of a factor this is. It’s been suggested, for instance, that the new BNZ logo was a result of a need for a more serious symbol in the corporate side of the banking operation.

And when it comes to the differences between consumer focused and B2B branding, what about websites? How does the choice of what information we share contribute to branding? Taking it one step further, in this amalgamated world of information we all live in, how much of a difference is there between consumer and B2B branding these days?

Please join us at 12.30pm tomorrow for #markchat; we’d love to hear your opinions.

PR Conundrum: How to turn ‘like’ into ‘I’ll buy’

We are all in the business of encouraging as many people as possible to be more engaged with the products of our clients. And we want this to lead to increased sales and revenue. The issue is that ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ don’t necessarily translate into ‘buys’. There is a big difference between the ‘like’ of the potential customer letting you converse with them and the ‘love’ of actual purchases.

But how do we untangle this complex situation? A friend recently alerted me to a cool set of new adverts by Foster’s, the beer made in Australia and consumed primarily in the UK. I think the adverts are really funny; they also make me feel more engaged with the brand and I’ve already told plenty of other folk about them, so they have the talkability factor.

The problem is that I would never buy Foster’s. It tastes god-awful and I only bought it when I was a broke student. I’d like to buy it because I love the adverts. I just can’t bring myself to get a crate of something I wouldn’t use. I imagine the adverts will help increase sales as it will influence people choosing between Foster’s and a beverage of similar quality. So I guess it’s done its job. It did get me wondering though whether the quality of the creative was directly proportional to the effect it will have on selling more beer? Read the rest of this entry »

#markchat round three: social media and ROI

We held the third #markchat yesterday, with the aforementioned topic of ‘Social Media Engagement and ROI’.

Plenty of great points, suggestions and debates appeared in the tweet stream and it really feels like we have something with huge potential on our hands. It even climbed up the trending ladder in Auckland, which is cool.

I’m going to struggle to articulate all the salient comments, but here we go… Read the rest of this entry »

Bullet PR speaks on ‘Social Media for Professional Networking’ at Social Media Club

We were part of an interesting Social Media Club on Tuesday night. The topic was ‘Social Media for Social Networking’, an important topic for us all.

Our speakers were:

Linda Coles, trainer and speaker on building and maintaining relationships online (www.bluebanana.co.nz; @bluebanana20)

Jane Kennelly, Company Director of frog recruitment, industry veteran and innovator (www.frogrecruitment.co.nz; @frogrecruitment)

And me, Alex Erasmus of Bullet PR (www.bulletpr.co.nz; @AlexErasmus)

Linda mainly discussed LinkedIn and we can all use it for establishing and strengthening business relationships. I think her talk reminded everyone of the points of difference that LinkedIn has over the likes of Facebook. The most pertinent point for me was that it only takes a few minutes a day to keep your online profile looking good. In many ways, it’s simply a ‘hygiene factor’ for when you’re looking for work, but it’s a good habit to get into.

Jane Kennelly of frog recruitment showed she is one of the few in her sector who is embracing social media. There is certainly a sea change in recruitment, where employers are now often looking at LinkedIn profiles and not CV’s. This is especially true for those working in media, but will surely be true of many more jobs in future. This is, like a lot of social media related subjects, heavily tied in to faster broadband, free wi-fi zones and smart phone adoption. Jane gave the example of MOTAT, who produced a great recruitment video, which beats traditional methods.

I finished the evening with a quick run-through my take on online networking. My opinion is that you should start by being interested in what others are saying and listen to their responses. It also pays to have a clear understanding of what you are looking for from the relationship. Networking for networking’s sake doesn’t do any of us any favours. Moreover, are you actually adding value online? Rather than trying to connect with as many people as you can, why not try and do something different from others in your field so that people want to connect with you? This is a much better way of approaching it. Read the rest of this entry »

#Markchat: social media engagement is fine, but how do you evaluate and define ROI?

To those who are new to this #markchat business, it’s a weekly Twitter conversation at 12.30pm (NZ time) every Thursday. Each week we have a different topic and encourage new people to join us. We started it as a way for people to have a conversation around a relevant topic amidst all the clutter we see online. We co-host it with one of our clients, Michael Holt, CEO of gardyneHOLT design. To follow the conversation, simply search for the hashtag #markchat using TweetDeck, Seesmic or a similar tool. Alternatively, you can go to www.wthashtag.com/markchat

This week we will be talking about how you take social media beyond engagement to the point of evaluating ROI. This is also the over-arching topic of the conference we are hosting - Social Media Junction – on November 16^th and 17^th. This time, we will look to focus more on B2B brands, rather than the typical consumer brands people reference in these conversations (Apple, Coca-Cola etc.) Read the rest of this entry »

Twitter chat: a short relevant conversation about marketing and PR

We will always be emotionally driven. It’s part of our DNA. But how can we harness that truth for better, more effective marketing?

Today, I co-hosted a Twitter chat on this very topic. To give a little background on the Twitter chat idea, it’s basically a 30-45 minute online conversation on a particular marketing topic. We use the hashtag #markchat so we can all follow the conversation without the distractions of all the other Twitter updates. The aim of the game is to have an informative and intelligent chat about marketing at the same time each week that people know they can tune into. For more information, click here.

The inaugural chat was about ‘Head vs. Heart’ and how rational people really are when making a purchase decision. It was lively, with lots of interesting points from a range of people. In total, there were 133 tweets from 16 contributors. Read the rest of this entry »

The Future of Real Estate – Social and Digital Engagement

I recently delivered a presentation at Realestate.co.nz’s ‘Future of Real Estate Conference’. I spoke about how real estate agents could use social media to engage with potential customers.

One of the overarching themes of the event was how real estate agents can make themselves a central part of their local communities. This can be achieved through a mix of talking about the local property market and also about news in the surrounding area.

This can be anything from local festivals to new shops opening. It’s another example of how online communications are becoming more personalised in order to increase their relevance. Here’s a great example of a real estate agent leveraging the most out of online. Thanks to fellow speaker, Joel Burslem for highlighting this one.

In terms of my presentation, these were the main points I discussed:

· The relationship between PR, SEO and the real estate industry

· The changing nature of being an influencer

· The differences between a journalist and a blogger and why this matters

· Business outcomes off the back of social media Read the rest of this entry »

Where PR Fits into the Social\Digital Media Mix

I delivered a presentation this afternoon to the B&T Digital Bootcamp on where PR fits into the Social\Digital Media Mix.

For the full presentation, please click here.

However, here is a summary…

Read the rest of this entry »

The Complexities of Social Media Monitoring for PR Agencies

I’ve been doing a lot of research recently on online monitoring case studies. They all talk on about how the monitoring tools reduce the time it takes to track mentions, buzz and sentiment for their brands.

While this is certainly true and useful, I haven’t read many people who mention how the requirements of a tool vary dramatically from client to client.

This is especially important in New Zealand. For some brands, it is interesting to monitor global trends. For example, a coffee company locally can be ahead of the curve by watching trends from the North American market around the pick-up of geo-location services.

On the other hand, for some brands it is near-irrelevant what’s happening abroad. Kiwi supermarkets should be primarily focused on comparative online activity locally, for instance. This is magnified by the duopoly in this market. Read the rest of this entry »

Music, Social Media and PR

I gave a talk the other night to the NZ Music Managers Forum. Broadly speaking, it was about how music can benefit from social media. However, I tried to focus on how to engage, rather than the tools.

The overarching points I made were:

· Have a goal

· Get everyone on the same page

· Choose the platform wisely Read the rest of this entry »

The missing link: when sales, PR and advertising are disconnected

Apparently, the recent Old Spice ad has been right up there in terms of ‘talkability’, ‘buzz’ and ‘engagement’. This much is true, proven by the fact that the video, and the personalised re-incarnations (which was a great idea, by the way), have been viewed by approximately one zillion people around the world. They have been watched and passed on to friends and family because they are very funny; it’s that great content thing again.

But is this ad going to sell more product? I would never buy OId Spice, nor would my Dad, my brother, my boss, my flatmates…I’ve questioned them all and nobody I know buys it and the ads have, if anything, simply re-enforced this notion. Read the rest of this entry »

Beyond the guff, is all this social media stuff just advertising and PR in disguise?

I went to an NZ Marketing Association event this morning that featured the head of Facebook for Australia and New Zealand as well as the Online Editor team at Rugby World Cup 2011.

It was interesting to get an update on what Facebook can offer and it was also good to hear the inside story on how the Rugby World Cup is being promoted.

The talk did, however, raise a few questions in my mind about the ongoing role of social media.

Social media is all about sharing and it’s all about user-generated content (70% is the target according to Facebook) and…you’ve heard this before so I won’t bang on about what it is.

Driving Facebook followers or ‘likes’ is mainly achieved through advertising. Seeing as social media’s based on non-advertorial pledges, isn’t this oxymoronic? Read the rest of this entry »

Online public relations and the privacy debate

There have been lots of conversations recently about privacy, specifically in social media. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and head-honcho at Facebook, got very sweaty when discussing the topic recently. If Mark Zuckerberg, one of the pioneers of the share everything world we live in is getting sweaty about ongoing privacy concerns, then perhaps we should all be worrying.

But I don’t think it’s really about privacy. It’s actually about money. And egos. Read the rest of this entry »

Are location based services the next wave of social media or just hype?

Interesting guest post here on Mashable from Chris Treadway, about the future of location based services.

It raises interesting and salient points around, say, the number of people using LBS only manifesting itself into relatively small groups of people in individual areas.

The article also touches upon an ongoing, but rarely discussed, issue for PR and Social/Digital Media: are we just talking into an echo chamber? Read the rest of this entry »

Wave goodbye to Foursquare and Gowalla

It had to happen. It was inevitable. Rumours are abound on Mashable and Advertising Age that Facebook is adding location features this month, which probably means the end for existing location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Facebook’s huge critical mass allows it to get to where its smaller rivals could only dream of being and at the flick of a switch. Read the rest of this entry »

Not mobile optimised? Then you’re not in business

Research giant Nielsen recently released a study that confirmed what we have all probably known for some time: optimising your site for mobiles is the next game-changer for global business. The research features on Australian SME website, Smart Company and highlights several salient points, notably the relevance of Google maps via smartphones. As Matt Bruce, managing director of Nielsen’s online business, says:

“Google is making big plays in mobile, both in terms of maps and mobile search. I think businesses need to pay attention to local business listings, and that type of activity, because people are increasingly using these tools to get around.” Read the rest of this entry »

Let battle commence: Facebook vs Google is about to get serious

There is an interesting guest post on Social Media news site Mashable about the ‘billion dollar battle’ between Facebook and Google to be your default social profile.

It highlights how the talk around location based services and group purchasing tools hasn’t yet gone mainstream, despite the hype. The real questions are whether Google Buzz and Wave are going to reach their much vaunted potential and if social commerce (the ability to buy ‘direct’ from within Facebook) is the way forward for retailers. Check out sites like Payvment to see what this is all about.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not all about Gen Y: why age is just a number in social networking

Check out an interesting breakdown of the different demographics from online monitoring company, Pingdom (via BrianSolis.com). It details how, despite a similar look and feel, the multitude of social networks have a very different make-up in terms of participants.

PR and Marketing thought-leader Brian Solis highlights a few interesting findings. For instance:

“The 45 to 65+ group, those who are usually considered laggards in the technology adoption cycle, symbolize almost one-third of total users of social networks. They’re equally connecting with not only each other but also the younger generations.” Read the rest of this entry »

Mashable declares “Google’s got a monster on its hands” with Buzz

Social Media site Mashable asked its community what the number one reason people found themselves using Buzz (and therefore why it had gained traction so quickly). The summary?

· Easy to use

· Accessible

· Convenient

· Closer social circle

· Moves in real-time

· Engaging

While one might argue this is a list that any Social Media platform would be aiming to achieve, it’s easier said than done. Read the rest of this entry »

The rules of social media

Rule number one:

There are no rules.

Sure there are ways that you should do things and a lot of ways that you shouldn’t, but for all intents and purposes social media and the law by which it is governed, is not too dissimilar to how we live in the real world. ‘Do unto others…’, build relationships, show respect and generally be nice; all of these social etiquette practices apply online and act as a guide to how we should behave.

If understood, the success of campaigns, initiatives or ideas that people/companies have will rise and fall on the response of the desired recipients: the community you are looking to engage with.

Read the rest of this entry »

Defining ’success’ in Social Media

Nobody has the definitive solution for how to measure the success of Social Media. At least not yet.

Sure, you can talk about online ‘buzz’ created by how many blog posts, tweets, videos, status updates etc. that occurred for a certain brand, person or topic, but what’s ‘buzz’? Virtue, a company which does ‘technology solutions for social media marketing’ has just released its second annual list of the ‘most social’ companies in the world on this basis. I was interested in the result, which was, unsurprisingly, the iPhone, but took it with a pinch of salt. Of course, Apple, and others on the list, have built strong online reputations, but ‘buzz’ doesn’t necessarily mean success and it certainly doesn’t guarantee revenue as the mentions could as easily be negative as they could be positive.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Importance Of Face-To-Face Networking

With the huge increase in the role of online in the media world, in particular social media, it’s easy to forget the importance of face-to-face networking. It’s great to ‘connect’ with people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like, but nothing beats having a drink and chewing the fat in person. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it a trend or is it a ‘megatrend’?

In the media we are always speaking about ‘trends’. Twitter was/is a trend; Google Wave is a trend; apps that drive core business revenue also seem to be an increasing trend (just take a look at the Pizza Hut app )…but what’s a ‘megatrend’? Well, according to Adam Kleinberg , CEO of a Traction, a creative agency out in San Fran, it’s something that transforms society as we know it; “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” and all that malarkey. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media to bring world peace?

At what could be described as its ‘beta’ stage, social media was a tool for people to stay connected within restricted groups (think Facebook’s origins within American colleges). It obviously widened considerably after that and is now on a par (or even beyond) with us checking our emails everyday. It then became a tool for businesses to have a stronger online presence; one where they could communicate better with their customers and potential customers. In even more recent times, social media has evolved into an almost catch-all term for digital marketing. While those in the know will tell you there is more to digital than purely social media, it certainly plays a large part in today’s media landscape. The advent of Twitter has meant social media is now an information swapping super-highway and full-on customer service portal, in addition to all its other guises. Read the rest of this entry »

The ’socialisation’ of the internet

SEO and SEM specialist First Rate recently pointed out how data from Hitwise (the online data monitor) shows that Facebook has overtaken TradeMe as New Zealand’s second most popular website (after Google, of course).

With the rising popularity of other social media such as Twitter and Flickr and the further news that Facebook has just signed a deal with market research company Nielsen to boost its credentials as a genuine advertising platform, businesses in NZ need to be aware of how these events are changing the way they need to work. This ’socialisation’ of the internet is not simply a way for people to stay in touch; it’s bigger than that. The use of social media tools to speak to potential and existing customers has broken down the traditional barriers between businesses and the man on the street.

Read the rest of this entry »

US elections: Online playing its part, but ad spend short of expectations

It was widely assumed that one of the chief battlegrounds of the 2008 US Presidential elections would be online.

While various social media channels have provided fertile ground for debate and engagement with the political process, online ad spend itself has fallen well short of predictions, as reported by ClickZ. Media research firm Borrell Associates estimates that, of the $2.27 billion total spent on political advertising, less than 1 percent of that has gone towards online.

I’m curious to know what the breakdown is for election ad spend here in New Zealand, where Kiwis will go to the polls four days after the US, on 8 November. We’re seeing online channels (see TV One’s YouTube debate, Google’s ‘08 Election Gadget) play a much more prominent role than in the last general election in 2005, but banner advertising has been minimal, and parties don’t seem that savvy to the use of AdWords. Google ‘tax cuts’ or ‘education’, for example, and only Labour pops up in the sponsored links.

There are, of course, a myriad other ways of utilising online channels. But for all the talk of how the fractured media landscape has diminished the effectiveness of traditional above the line, it still seems that in the election campaigns here in New Zealand and in the US, parties are still putting their faith in traditional advertising over online.

Five reasons why blogging makes sense for smaller businesses

I spoke at an Auckland Chamber of Commerce event this week on the benefits of blogging for small to medium businesses. It really is an ideal channel for companies offering niche products and services that lack the brand presence of larger organisations. Here are five reasons why blogging is such a great tool for SMEs:

1. Cost - Access to free software such as WordPress make a blog an extremely cost-effective branding tool for companies that lack a substantial marketing budget
2. Presence - A blog site external from an organisation’s website expands its online footprint, increasing its visibility. There are a lot of poorly-optimised company websites out there, making a blog a particularly vital SEO tool
3. Personality - Blogging gives a business a means of breathing a bit of personality into its brand, conveying an authenticity that engenders loyalty and trust in consumers. Many small businesses are run by the individual(s) that started them, so why not give an outlet for the passion they have for what they do?
4. Conversation - A blog is a great opportunity to instigate conversation with a customer base. I spoke with a lady at the event who was a naturopath. A blog is an ideal communications channel for such a business, allowing it to hold conversations with customers who are seeking advice or who might have queries about natural medicines. That one-to-one relationship adds significant value to a company’s offering
5. Community - As I have noted, with many SMEs operating in niche spaces, a blog is an opportunity for them to position their brand as a community hub. For example, I spoke with a chap who sold kickboxing equipment. Setting up a blog on kickboxing would give him a platform to position himself as an expert, provide his customer base with a focal point to discuss the discipline and deliver his company with excellent brand positioning, and an avenue back to his sales channel.

Jimungo launches Pulse of the Nation virtual election

We don’t usually go in for shameless plugs here on Bulletpoints, but this is pretty cool. Our client Jimungo has created and launched an online competition called Pulse of the Nation, allowing players to participate in a virtual New Zealand election and win prizes for accurately predicting the winners.

You may be familiar with Jimungo if you’re one of the 150,000 who play Telecom Virtual Rugby each year - Jimungo has been running that for some time. In the last few years, they’ve also launched Jimungo League and Jimungo Netball, but an online competition around a political election is a world-first as far as we know.

Pulse of the Nation is essentially an online community with a competitive element - you can take on your mates and your family, and see who comes out on top after each virtual election every two weeks. Since it went live three days ago, 3000 players have already signed up. The Jimungo boys have got some neat stuff up their sleeves for developing the ?community’ aspect of the game as we get closer to the election proper here in New Zealand later this year (yes, our electoral cycle is coinciding with that of the United States in 2008). So sign up and see how good you are at picking which way the political winds are blowing. You don’t have to be domiciled in New Zealand, though you need to be to win the iPod Touch prize for the most accurate prediction. (In case you don’t understand Pulse of the Nation’s proportional allocation, New Zealand has an MMP electoral system) Good luck!