Sales, Social and Tech

I recently blogged about the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that showed personal recommendations were the most trusted globally . In a recent article at Marketing-Interactive on the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, Singaporeans have highlighted that they too trust personal recommendations the most. Wrote John Davidson of Marketing-Interactive , In Singapore the results were fairly similar, except that editorial such as newspaper articles was the second most trusted form of advertising (80%), after personal recommendations (93%). In comparison, newspapers were ranked 4th globally. I wonder if the print publishers and PR agencies caught this statement as this shows the importance of Singaporeans looking at newspapers as a trusted source. With personal recommendations still ranked as number one in Singapore, are the big brands here ready to take social marketing to the next steps?

Catch this interesting clip on how Kevin Spacy tried to explain to David Letterman how Twitter works. Guess Letterman still has a long way to go before he gets Tweeting. How about reaching out to new audiences?

Nielsen recently released its Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of up to 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries and it was found that recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising. 1 up for social marketing/PR. Image from blog.nielsen.com. I am not surprised by the findings. More often, some friends would come to me and ask me to recommend which DSLR they should buy. I would usually tell them how I felt about a Nikon or Canon DSLR and the difference both cameras bring to the photo. A friend bought a Canon compact digital camera and it broke down a couple of times in less than year. She has been complaining of the brand since to her friends and this has resulted in their distrust for the brand. Recommendations have been the most trusted since the beginning of mankind. The cave drawings of mammoth was in a way recommendations made by hunter to another. The medium has, however, changed...

I had an interesting email conversation with a marketing manager today about social media marketing. The conversation was interesting because it revealed some the myths that marketing people have about social media. But that also got me thinking to how such myths can be overcome to give more positive results in social media marketing. Myth 1: User generated means user will generate content If you create a social media platform for the social, don’t expect that users to automatically generate content to an extend “that it becomes a movement by itself”. Every movement needs a leader and social media is no different. Without a leader, users will get just go around aimlessly until it does not make sense to be part of this social platform anymore. Forums still require moderators. Online communities exist because of community leaders. Hence, if you start a social media platform for your users, you need a leader to lead the interaction. Mind you, it is not pushing about pushin...

Finding it hard to inform your engineers what the client or customers want or need in the next version of your solution or product? Seth Godin suggest that you use a your video recording device in your mobile phone to ask you customer and replay it to your engineers. Wrote Seth , How do you get your boss to approve something, the customer service people to understand the pain a system is causing or the folks in engineering to see things your way? Powerpoint was invented for this precise function, and we all know what's become of that. Here's a new way that's extraordinarily effective: Make a video. Invest an hour and suddenly, it's not you who's talking, asking, complaining or being ignorant. It's your customers. An example would be of this Google video asking New Yorkers what they a browser is.

It used be the rage to start Facebook Groups, however, with Fan Pages, you can do more. Facebook recently introduced the Fan Box for their Fan Pages and this Fan Box allows you to add it to your website or blog. Here’s a sample from the Supermodelme.tv Fan Page. Supermodelme.TV on Facebook There are much more to Fan Pages these days. One of the most important feature of Fan Pages is the demographics option.   This fan demographics is a useful tool to help in creating copy for the Fan Page. For example, the Supermodelme.tv Fan Page have more female than male fans and a huge majority are from the 18-24 and 25-34 age group. Hence, the administrators of the Fan Page should have focused content and copy that target this segment. For example, instead of promoting “Skin, skin and more skin” copy which might attract more male fans than female fans, it should have looked at copy which talks about beauty or even beauty tips from Supermodels. Another interesting feature of...

Social PR or marketing seems to be picking up in the second half of 2009. Maybe by 2010, it will be part of the overall marketing strategy. Whatever the possibility, I would dare say that corporate blogs has to be the the anchor for any social PR or marketing strategy. But why do most corporate blogs start off with a big bang, only to crash and burn a few months later? It is probably due to the lack of direction and planning. Also, most PR and corporate comms teams also lack the publishing experience. Keeping a magazine or newspaper running a long period of time isn’t as easy as most would think. At a MNC that delivers networking products and solutions, I started a print newsletter targeted at the channel partners then. A print newsletter costs more than a blog to start, but I gave it an editorial calendar which informed the other product, sales and marketing department how they too can play a part in the newsletter. The first step is to have a theme for each issue and hi...

Online newsrooms for corporations are often the most neglected section of any corporate webpages. Most online newsrooms I have seen just slaps links to a press release or corporate coverage and that’s about it. As a follower to David Henderson’s blog at www.davidhenderson.com , I came across this “ideal newsroom” that he and The News Group Net created for the Imperial Sugar Company (ICS). Is it a blog or a newsroom? It is Online Newsroom2.0! David wrote, To have a meaningful conversation online, a company needs to: Articulate clear points of view on the things that it cares about the most. Identify its own experts and champions to tell compelling stories to advance its case and strengthen its market position. Create ever-evolving public platforms/forums where it can consistently and frequently showcase its views – along with other respected industry experts and thought leaders. Create a forum for sharing comments, generating a conversation ...

If the transition to 2H2009 have been a rather stressful one for you, take a 5 minute breather with this video.

It seems more and more brands are looking to embark on the path of engaging social media as I been getting a couple of queries about it. Starting any marketing activity requires a plan and to start a social media campaign isn’t any different. Yet, social media sounds so new that it seems that it actually requires a new pitch to it. Googling (that’s so web2.0, lol), I came across POST – a systematic approach to social strategy by Forrester’s Josh Bernoff of the Groundswell blog. The approach is two years old but I believe it still applicable for brands looking to cross the chasm into the realm of social marketing. I have added two of my own components (EM) to make this approach a little more complete. “ P is for People” said Josh and rightly so. Identifying your audience first helps you scope the rest of the strategy. Who do you want to target? Are they bloggers in a certain age group? Are you looking a communities instead? Are you looking to engage the influencers, ...