Posts Tagged social network
UN High Commissioner for Peace On… line
It had been an epic battle between two titans of the Irish online world. Multi award-winning and perhaps Ireland’s most influential Cork blogger Damien Mulley went head to head with the Goliath of social networking in the form of Bebo’s Philip Macartney. It was a veritable war of worlds. The blogging world versus social networking in a battle that would see only one victor. The prize? Control of the World’s bread supply. It read like an Ian Fleming script.
Few would have thought that the annual gathering of the glitterati of the Internet in Ireland would have presented the UN’s peace envoy with the opportunity to broker a truce. Both sides it seems had been softened by the headiness of the night. Mulley was spotted drinking Bollinger at the bar with sworn enemy of old - eircom’s head of communications. Macartney having been dressed down by compère Des Bishop had capitulated and agreed to investigate the four fake Bebo profiles of the comedian. The envoy sensed that this might just be the ideal opportunity to bring the two sides face-to-face for the first time.
The results, to be frank were quite surprising…
First this:
(Note the anxious grin from Mulley as he realises how big Macartney is in person)
Then this:
(Macartney acknowledges Mulley’s greatness)
Followed by this:
(Macartney’s grip on Mulley was absolute)
And ultimately this:
(My work here is done)
Add comment November 21, 2008
What the hell is “Twitter”?
Sometimes when you’re doing something for a while you start to take for granted that not everyone knows what you’re talking about. I’ve only been on “ Twitter” for a short time and while I know what it is, and why I’m there, I still get blank looks from most people I mention it to.
If you have a blog then you like to share your thoughts and ideas with people. If you use Facebook then you probably “update your status” to let friends know what you’re up to. If are away, you may send group emails to let people back home know how you’re doing. If you use discussion boards you probably ask others in the community questions, or give advice, or share opinions and experiences with them. If you use instant messaging services then you like to have short snappy conversations with pals.
Twitter is just another way to do all these things. You can tell hundreds of people or just one or two people what you’re up to, what you’re thinking. You can share an image, a link or a video. You can have conversations with lots of people or with just one other in private.
You’re “updates” are limited to 140 characters so you keep it short… this works because it means that it’s easy to do the updates and you’ll probably do more of them. It also works because it’s easy for your friends to read the updates.
Is Twitter for you or your business? If doing any of the things above are important to you then it is probably worth checking out. Visit Twitter.com and register.
You can see what I’m up to at twitter.com/brendanhughes
These guys do a good job of explaining Twitter:
If you do get going on Twitter check out Bernie Goldbach’s views on the the pros and cons. Bernie is a most prolific Twitterer (or “tweeter”) so he knows what he’s talking about.
2 comments November 19, 2008
The Business Case for Social Media - Part 3: Opportunity
Before reading this you might like to read Part 2: Challenge
While the challenges posed by social media are clear, the opportunity for traditional bricks and mortar businesses is not so obvious. Practitioners of social media, Neville Hobson included, tell us to focus less on Return on Investment (ROI). Instead they tell organisations to identify concrete measurable goals which they feel can be delivered by social media. Social media is not traditional advertising. Social media doesn’t work like direct response advertising where there is a clear call to action to buy product, ring a phone number and so on. It is in the first instance a social activity and hard sell simply does not work.
We do need to identify the business opportunity presented by social technologies. Consider social media not as a money maker but as a relationship builder. You won’t make money through your social media activity but because of it. There does need to be a return on investment, but how the return is measured needs to change to reflect this new way of connecting with customers.
Here’s my C.R.A.B. :) model for considering where social media fits within your marketing and communications mix, and how it will ultimately deliver on the bottom line, whatever that mean for your business:
v
2. Relationship
v
3. Advocacy
v
4. Bottom Line
Think of this as a sales funnel. The basic premise is that open, transparent, two-way conversation (stage 1) will lead to the development of a relationship between your customers and you (stage 2). Your business will not make money per se out of stages one or two, having conversations or building relationships. However once a relationship exists then the customer is far more likely to be an advocate (stage 3), to speak and act positively towards your brand, and this is what will ultimately deliver on the bottom line (stage 4).
So, for example I converse on behalf of my business with people on a blog, on Twitter or some other social utility. I do so first and foremost to build a relationshipbetween them and my business. They might not head over to my website straight away to buy my product, or do whatever it is that I ultimately want them to do. However, I know that because of the relationshipI have with them, when they are next considering a purchase in the area I service that they will visit my site. Also, I know that if one of their friends asks about the type of product I sell, that they will be directed to my site. We know this is how business relationships work offline - good sales people have for years been bringing clients to football matches or golf outings. And there’s no reason why relationships should work any differently online.
In the C.R.A.B. model above, stages 1 and 2 revolve around a business’s engagement with social media. Stage 3 is the outcome - the shift in the customer’s attitude towards my brand. This advocacy will in today’s world occur increasingly in spaces facilitated by social technologies. Stage 4 is the ultimate desired result, and good business practice will make it easy for customers to transfer easily from social utilities to their own website where the desired transaction or interaction can take place:
v
2. Relationship = My Social Media
v
3. Advocacy = Other Social Media
v
v seamless transfer v
4. Bottom Line = My WebsiteSince much of this activity is now taking place online it is infinitely trackable and measurabe. The success or otherwise of each stage can be readily measured. Remember that the investment is different and so the return will be different. The following table identifies the types of metrics that can be used for each stage:
1. Conversation - Number of visits/comments- Tone of comments / feedback
- Quality of conversation
v
2. Relationship - Number of subscribers
- Number of repeat visits
- Number of repeat comments
v
3. Advocacy - Conversations on other sites
- Tone of those conversations
- Net promoter score
v
4. Bottom Line - Referring links to your website
- Results generated from links
2 comments November 11, 2008
The Business Case for Social Media - Part 2: Challenge
Before reading this you might like to read Part 1: Context
Make no mistake, social media is a disruptive technology. It is a challenge to the existing order; to existing communications practices. If knowledge is power, then it is the masses that are gaining in power. Organisations that can leverage the tools to support their objectives are the ones that will prosper.
I see two marketing and communications challenges posed by social media for businesses today. The imperative for not burying our heads in the sand lies in our need to address these. The challenges that organisations face are how to:
- Regain control of the message
- Cut through the noise to have their voice heard
Much of the business case for engaging with social media lies in addressing these challenges.
1. Regaining control of the message
The communications model is clearly changing. Control of the message is being dispersed with customers now more likely to log on to social media websites to inform their purchase decisions than to rely on what the read on a company’s website or advertisement.
The most significant challenge for business is the fear of losing control. I regularly hear communications executives in many types of organisations express concern about the risks of participating in social media. “If we engage are we merely providing a very public platform for the expression of all the negative sentiment that we have been trying to hide?” “Will we be targeted by competitors masquerading as disgruntled customers?”
Conversations about our brand are happening anyway, regardless of whether we are engaged or not. In our conversation with him, Neville Hobson highlighted that by creating their own spaces for participating in social media, organisations are putting themselves in the strong position from where they can start to regain control. One approach suggested by Neville is that when we see a negative blog post or bulletin board discussion, we reference that discussion on our own blog and address the negatives there. We have now started a conversation that we are in control of.
Journalist and PR consultant Emily Tully contends that social media is perhaps the best place for organisations to conduct crisis management. Negative news stories and rumours spread at lightening speed online. The web is, for many, the first port of call to find out more about breaking news. The BBC’s recent crisis over the Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross prank call was in large part sparked by traditional media. However, the first place many millions looked to find out more, to actually listen to the recording of what happened, was the Internet. Within just a couple of days of the crisis breaking the interview had been downloaded 500,000 times on YouTube and that figure quickly grew to several million. What a powerful response it would have been from the BBC to have their official response/apology posted alongside the recording on YouTube. The speed of communications online is incredibly fast and managing crises solely through traditional media is no longer adequate.
Many organisations are realising that there is a new dynamic in the communications world. While PR executives are still delivering press releases to journalists, they are increasingly focusing on what are termed the “influencers” in social media communities. These are the individuals who have the largest share of voice in this space. They have the most subscribers or followers. PR practitioners are realising that this group can have a significant influence on a brand reputation, either positively or negatively. Organisations are starting to deliver their message to these individuals in the hope that they will become advocates for their brands. Press releases are being complemented by “Social Media Releases” - content tailored to the needs of these influencers; less formal, with web links to other related resources and information, photos, videos and facilities for comments, questions and feedback. European organisations such as Electrolux and General Motors are creating “Social Media News Rooms” to complement their existing Press Rooms, ensuring that they regain some control over the messages that exist in social spaces online.
2. Cutting through the noise
With so much noise - so many communications, so much content and so many messages - traditional methods of business communication are becoming less effective. Advertising and PR communications, and even traditional retail channels such as shops/branches or telephones are being bypassed or ignored by consumers. We are listening less and less to corporate communications and more and more to what friends and other individuals are saying. How can organisations have their voices heard in this new era of social media-facilitated communications?
Neville Hobson suggests that social media is quickly becoming “the most important communications channel for directly connecting with customers.” The dynamics of communication are changing, shifting from a one-to-many model to a many-to-many. Customers’ expectations and behaviours are changing and forcing organisations to communicate differently. Organisations will now be expected to communicate directly to customers in more open and informal ways. Think of it as a mid-ground between mass advertising and face-to-face meetings with customers.
Connecting directly with customers in a personal manner is the only really effective way of cutting through the noise. Consumers are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content available. The guaranteed way of having your message heard is to make your communication direct, personal, relevant and open. Your customers will not only listen, but they will respond and be engaged.
Part 3: Opportunity, will hopefully be along tomorrow…
3 comments November 10, 2008
The Business Case for Social Media - Part 1: Context
This blog post comes from a discussion on the business case for social media hosted by the IIA Social Media Working Group with well known UK-based communications consultant Neville Hobson. We were joined in what turned out to be a worthwhile and sometimes heated discussion by a collection of people (in person and virtually via onlinemeetingrooms.com) from many sectors of business and social media practice. Roseanne from the IIA posted a good review of the meeting which is worth a read.
The question we were discussing was whether there is a role for social media in business that can be expected to deliver a real measurable return. I was planning to write this review of the meeting as a single blog post. As I started to write, it has grown legs and I’ve now decided to break it into a mini-series. It is now not so much a review but a reorganisation in my own mind of the various themes we talked about.
The series will be broken down as follows:
- The context of where we now find ourselves and the contention that we are witnessing a revolution in communications.
- The challenges for business are twofold; regaining control of the message and cutting through all the noise.
- The opportunities that now exist for business who engage with social media. I’ll offer a model that will help business think about what social media can mean for them and how they can measure it.
Here’s the first part. The others will follow shortly.
Part 1: Context - A Revolution in Communications
We are witnessing a revolution in communications called Web 2.0. Social media technologies are facilitating wider social interaction and helping individuals to grow their networks of friends and spheres of influence to extents that simply could not be imagined even twenty years ago. Calling this a revolution is appropriate since we are in the midst of an unprecedented shift in the balance of power within communication.
The “digital natives”, those who have grown up with Internet technologies, but increasingly the rest of us “digital emigrants” also, are the revolutionaries. One-to-many corporate communications are being ignored in favour of peer-to-peer conversations. One-to-one private conversations have been replaced with open public discussions. Everyone is publishing or broadcasting. Social networking websites such as Bebo, Facebook, or Nimble.ie boast Irish membership in either the millions or hundreds of thousands. There are thousands of Irish people who write their own blog.
This quiet revolution is resulting in the democratisation of communications. The tools are making it easy for individuals to broadcast and publish. Control of the message is dispersed to the masses. Traditional word of mouth communications are being amplified. There is now much more “noise” but people who never had a voice that could be heard now have a voice.
I believe we are still at the start. It is a revolution that no one really knows the final outcome of. We can take the position of wait-and-see, however the potential is already being realised by some. Barack Obama’s spectacular defeat of John McCain last week is being dubbed by many ( Irish Times, Business & Leadership and NY Times for example) as a victory for the masses facilitated by the social technologies he employed right from the start of his campaign. He announced his intention to run on the Internet. He fought his campaign using his own social network on his own website; raising more money through it from individual donors than any candidate in history. He brought his campaign to YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and the myriad of other social utilities that exist. He gave a voice to people who never previously had their voice heard. If he continues in his presidency in this manner he will surely be dubbed President 2.0 - a new type of president for a new type of society. John McCain on the other hand professed that he didn’t use computers or email.
The world is changing because of social media - are you there yet? If you are not then there’s a good chance you will very soon be your competitors’ own John McCain.
I’d love to hear your views on this so please leave a comment. If you agree with everything then read Part 2: Challenge.
Add comment November 9, 2008
Ireland Network - Great Britain
A group of Irish people living and working in London have been roped in by the Irish embassy there to help kick-start a new social networking site. The site Irish Network Great Britain is aimed at Irish people working in the UK.
The Irish community has always been very strong in the various UK cities. This new initiative illustrates how things are changing and perhaps how the ties with Ireland and other Irish working in the UK may not be as strong as they used to be.
I know a few of the people involved in the project and was asked to contribute and article which I did, called Connecting Remotely. Wander over to the new site if you get a few minutes. Make a contribution if you can… I’m sure it would be encouraging for the organisers to see some support from the home country. The site is due to officially launch on November 11th but it seems to be open to the public already so you’ll be getting a sneak preview.
Add comment November 9, 2008
Podcamp Ireland 2008
I was going to do a review of Podcamp Ireland 2008 which was held yesterday in Kilkenny. It’s Sunday evening now and there are already a couple of very good reviews completed by Keith Shirley and John Keyes. I’ve decided I couldn’t do a better job than the two guys, so I’m not doing mine now.
My Podcamp 2008 badge from MadeMarian
I will say however that this was one of the most engaging conferences I have ever attended. The atmosphere was very relaxed but more than that there was a real focus on sharing. It was all about conversation; talking to each other about our individual experiences and listening to each other to learn what we could. A huge amount was crammed into a short day and I will pick off topics over the coming weeks to share here. I met so many new people that I am a bit overwhelmed today to put it all in perspective - will hopefully touch base with many of them via social media in the next while.
On a personal note I enjoyed what I thought was a decent discussion ( photo here) with Minister John McGuinness and Gabriela Avram on how business and government can make greater use of social media. This particular conversation was sprung on all three of us at short notice - thanks Bernie - but I think it worked okay. A key focus for me was that both the existing community online and business/government have a part to play if meaningful engagement is going to happen. Business/government will only continue to engage if their overtures are not roundly shouted down by over-the-top cynicism and rebuke.
Thanks to Bernie, Krishna and Ken for organising an extremely professional un-conference. A special mention goes to MadeMarian for the lovely badges (given to me by Grannymar) she made for people who were speaking yesterday - I was really chuffed to get one. I’m wearing my first social media badge proudly today.
Well done and thanks to everyone who was there for collectively making it a really worthwhile trip to the lovely Kilkenny. (A piece of trivia about Kilkenny - that website kilkenny.ie was first put together in 1998 by a group of graduates from the TCD MSc in Multimedia including Vincent Dermody, Karen Curley, Anne Conway and yours truly.)
2 comments September 28, 2008
Time-off(line)
I’m just back from a two week break in the Costa del Sol - a lovely town called Nerja where friends of ours graciously let us use their apartment. It was a much needed break from Ireland (weather included) and this year for the first time a break also from the Internet. In the past year or so I’ve spent more personal time online. I have Internet access on the phone and on my oh-so-portable Asus Eee, with the result that there is hardly any time I am not ‘networked’. To be fair, I don’t bring these devices to the bedroom and they’re not much use to me on the bike for the 20 minutes it takes me to get to work… but at most other times I am tapped in to the web.
http://hews.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/nerja.jpg I did bring the phone and the laptop with me on the hols, but (thankfully in hindsight) I didn’t manage to get any form of Internet access where we were staying. I’m not an Internet junkie, (well I’m certainly not as hooked as a lot of people I know) but the first few days of cold turkey, of not knowing who was doing what, of being afraid I was missing something, were a little harder than I expected.
What’s different is Web 2.0. In Web 1.0 land, the Internet was my job and proved useful for finding out things and buying things. In Web 2.0 land, the Internet has become much more personally meaningful. I do things that have much more personal or emotional significance. It is another place for me to express myself, share ideas, chat, engage, catch-up, have a laugh and so on. I used to do this in the pub, but I don’t seem to go there as much these days. The Internet certainly won’t replace the pub or other offline (traditional) ways we interact with each other, but it is complementing and supplementing them.
This new social dimension of the Internet is great, but it does mean that we never/rarely switch off. As the network grows there will be fewer places we can go where we are not online. When time-out means socialising with friends, this is fine. When time-out means chilling out in my own space, ‘me-time’; it now involves switching off all our devices. How long have you gone recently with all your devices switched off?
Add comment July 20, 2008
Will Self-Publishing be the Big Thing in 2008?
megaphone
Self-publishing is a term used to describe the publishing of media works by the author of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers. A conservative estimate would suggest that well over a quarter of Ireland’s population are self-publishing on the Internet. Anyone who has a blog, a social network site, has uploaded videos or photos onto file sharing website such as YouTube of Flickr is already doing this. Is 2008 the year that self-publishing will come of age, becoming more mainstream, purposeful and relevant to business? I think so.
Facebook was certainly the big news story of 2007 with the accumulation of over 100,000 Irish users by the end of the year from a base of zero. However Bebo already had over 1 million Irish subscribers and MySpace claims to have over 100,000 Irish users. Irish social networking site nimble.ie claims to be about to reach the golden 100,000 subscribers and there are many other such sites. There are over 53,000 videos on YouTube with Irish content. Flickr hosts over 1.2 million photos that were taken in Ireland. There are over 4,000 Irish blogs. There are hundreds of Irish discussion boards with tens of thousands of Irish people interacting with them every single day. All of this indicates how active Irish people are in self-publishing online; a nod to our insatiable appetite for chatting, gossiping, bitching and having the last word.
What will be new for 2008 is that self-publishing will continue to grow, becoming evermore mainstream and purposeful. It will be less and less the preserve of the younger generation and become more and more a tool for us oldies (relatively speaking of course). We will use self-publishing to promote ourselves for personal and career reasons ( LinkedIn), to advance social and political agendas ( politics.ie, irishelection.com), to inform our purchasing decisions ( askaboutmoney.ie).
However the time is now right for Irish businesses to actively consider how they might captialise on the phenomenon of self-publishing in order to grow their market share. While most larger businesses have a traditional website from where they publish the content that they want to communicate with their customers, it is the smaller and usually more technology focused operations that are putting more emphasis on their blogs to communicate with customers ( cix.ie, Blacknight Solutions, The Log House Company ). And with good reason - a blog allows smaller businesses to differentiate themselves from the larger companies by enabling the establishment of personal relationships with their customers. Larger companies simply don’t have the time for this and are more involved in mass communications (advertisement, PR, DM etc). While this makes sense; larger companies are missing the opportunity being seized by the smaller players to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. There are plenty of arguments against business blogging the general agreement is that the potential benefits outweigh the pitfalls. This year I predict that we will see more larger Irish businesses harnessing self-publishing to build deeper relationships with their customers and ultimately grow revenues.
There are examples of big business making use of the self-publishing to engage more deeply with their customers and thus improve their foothold in their markets:
Novell Blog - Novell is a large technology solutions company that has a number of different blogs that all help to position them as experts in their sphere. One blog comes from the CTO and another from the CMO and two other blogs are co-authored by a number of key employees.
Palm Blog - From the people who bring us Palm Pilots, this blog is a marketing blog that provides a platform for Palm to talk about their product features, demonstrate these and highlight how others are using them.
Johnson & Johnson Blog - From the media relations team in J&J with a very good rationale - “everyone else is talking about our company, so why can’t we?” and “we will try to find a voice that often gets lost in formal communications”. Its a nice read too.
1 comment January 12, 2008
Golden Spiders - Something for every palate
This year’s Golden Spiders shortlist has been announced and if you’re interested in seeing what new things Irish companies and organisations are doing online this is probably a good place to start. You should keep in mind that companies enter themselves into the Golden Spider competition and so the shortlist is limited to those companies who think they are doing something innovative and are willing to pay the competition entry fee to ensure that others think so too. Among the usual collection of to-be-expected websites of some of the larger Irish companies there are plenty of ventures worth a second or third look. I would draw your attention to the smaller less commercial sites and the sites that are enabling user-generated content - plenty to whet the appetite in the “community or charity website”, “best blog”, and “best social networking site” categories. These sites have a lot to teach us about how to engage users with our brands.
Menupages Logo
I was particularly drawn by the menupages.ie site which is shortlisted under both the “best new indigenous website” and best “user generated content” categories. This website gives me everything I as a consumer could ever want when deciding where to dine out, and for that reason as a restaurant owner I would be a fool to ignore it. (more…)
6 comments November 9, 2007