Nick Baggott's CRM and Digital Marketing Blog

Social Media Channel Selection Flow Diagram

Thanks to Paul D'Souza or Sunguard in India for bringing this to my attention. It is only meant as a piece of fun, but there is a lot of sense contained within it.....

 

Digital Training in India

Thank you to Valiant Business Media for arranging a wonderful 2 day digital training workshop in Mumbai last week. I was really impressed with the desire to move to digital and the knowledge and open-mindedness of the delegates. The channels that are popular in India are similar (Google, Facebook, Twitter etc), but you need to really understand the cultural differences and the compexity of Indian society to make campaigns effective.

I have also been impressed by the desire of the delegates to network with each other and share knowledge post training. Here is a picture of the Mumbai delegates...

 

Microsoft produces truly interactive billboards

Thanks to Jason Stone of JLL for pointing this out on Twitter. @jasonjamesstone...

It looks to me like Microsoft are using their XBox Kinnect tech to create really interactive billboards. I've pasted the full article from Marketing Week below:

 

Internet Explorer is to use gesture controlled digital billboards to showcase how its latest browser offers consumers “the beauty of the web”.

 The outdoor sites will let consumers use hand and arm movements to control the content they view and engage with through an interactive menu.

The Microsoft-owned software giant says it is the first time the technology, created by 3D Exposure and Clear Channel, has been used in a commercial format.

blockbuster’s microsite.

Gabby Hegerty, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Windows Live lead, says: “It makes sense to use creative and interactive marketing channels to promote the best of the web.

“We hope this new format will create a buzz and generate a positive perception about what the Internet Explorer brand is about.”

The outdoor activity is part of a brand campaign from Internet Explorer to showcase the “beauty of the web” as viewed through its latest IE9 browser.

The campaign, which includes online, cinema and TV activity, is Internet Explorer’s biggest marketing push for several years. The brand is usually promoted through tie-ups with other Microsoft products.

Hegerty says the campaign is not intended to boost Internet Explorer’s long-standing dominance of the browser market, but it is hoped it will “drive the web forward” and encourage users and developers to explore all of its capabilities.

“We are taking a market leader approach to show what’s possible on the web; people care about the web but they don’t necessarily care about the browser we use [which is why] our proposition is about welcoming the world to a more beautiful web,” she adds.

Internet Explorer marked its first growth in global usage in recent years in March, boosting its market share by 1% month on month to 53.8%, according to web analytics company Net Applications. By comparison, Firefox dipped 0.3% to 20.6% share and Google owned Chrome fell by the same amount to 18.6%

 

Business Biscotti Day Pics

I really enjoyed speaking at the Business Biscotti day in Burnham, Berks last week. If you are running a business in Berks, UK, I would definately recommend joining this group. Have a look at the Business Bioscotti site.

Here is a review of the Business Biscotti Digital Day

Here is some pics....

Facebook webinar recording for the Marketer mag

This is the link to the recording of the webinar that I did for the Marketer mag last week. It is an hour long. There is also an excellent case study from YoSushi! in this which is well worth a watch....

The Marketer Facebook Webinar recording

I have joined the international school of advertising and communications faculty

The headline to this blog post says it all!

I have joined the faculty for the International school of Advertising and Communications. You can see my biog and mug shot on the web page as well as a full description of the services offered by the School. Here is some copy from the school site, which explains their proposition:

The School was launched in 2009 by the European Association of Communication Agencies (EACA).  Its purpose is to help raise professional standards across the communications industry by training and developing the skills and talents of its practitioners.

To do this, we have recruited 20 experienced trainers, all of whom have many years experience both within communications agencies and as professional trainers.  Our vision is to become the premier pan-European training and education partner for the communications industry.

The EACA believes that it is only by raising their members’ professional standards that communication agencies will increase both their real and perceived value in the eyes of their clients and thereby ensure that their long term contribution is more highly valued and, ultimately, they become more profitable.

“The School has been developed for the benefit of all EACA members, and will continue to consult with them to ensure it offers the training and direction that brings maximum value. The success of the EACA International School is in the long term interests of all our members.”

Dominic Lyle, Director General, EACA

In planning the curriculum, we have focused on the three key skill areas required by practitioners throughout the industry:

Craft Skills The specific skills that individuals in the different communication disciplines require to do their jobs; these will range from creative, media and strategic skills to finance, production and writing/presentation skills.

Business Skills The skills needed to understand business, looking at how client companies work, the roles and interaction of the different departments and the role of marketing, sales, communication and procurement, and the central roles of finance and operations.

People Skills The softer skills needed to work in, and manage, teams and ultimately run agencies. They include skills such as change management, team building, leadership, negotiation, feedback and coaching

 

Turaz (formerly Thomson Reuters Risk Management) web site now live

I have been involved recently with helping Turaz build a CRM and digital marketing strategy. Turaz is a new business that was formerly Thomson Reuters Risk Management division. I also introduced them to the excellent agency who built the site. I am not sure if I can say who they are, but if you like the site and want an introduction, then drop me an email or contact me on Twitter @njbaggott and I'll do the introduction. The new site for the new brand, Turaz is now live. 

Which social media monitoring tool should you use?

I have been working recently with Richard Lucas of Tangent90. Richard has compiled a concise review of Social media monitoring tools for the client and he has allowed me to share this review with you. So, thank you Richard....

Brandwatch

Overview :

Brandwatch enables the user to set keywords and start the search across websites and social media platforms. It includes scan search of Twitter, facebook, youtube Blogs, forum and news . brandwatch offers  a user friendly interface, easy to set up.  Sentiment  accuracy in the standard market range. The tool offers a customisable dashboard to have all the available data in one view, and exports report in cvs and email format

£: Reasonably priced, from starting packages

Synthesio

Overview :

The syntesio platform offer a wide range of analysis tools. In addition to the standard sentiment analysis , number and localisation of mentions, it offers multilingual and multi-regional support.

The platform is user friendly and easy to set up

The sentiment analysis however, relies strongly  on human intervention. The sysntesio team offers data analysis together with the subscription, and it doesn`t not come cheap. The system also, at the date of testing ( Spring 2011) presented numerous bugs.

£ : starting package expensive

Radian 6

Overview :

Radian 6 is possibly one on the most powerful social media monitoring tools on the market. As its competitors it offers sentiment analysis, customisable dashboards, and powerful data analysis across the widest range of sources, unlike its competitors , it can be integrated with Salesforce and webtrends. The reports can be exported as emails,cvs and PDFs

The learning experience with Radian 6 can be frustrating,  with a steep learning curve, to utilise the tool in all its features.

£ : starting package expensive

Addictomatic

Overview :

Addictomatic is a free web app to locate  content on the web based on any topic, event or subject and provides the users with a windows containing the mentions for the brand or topic searched.

Compared to the other mentioned tools, Addictomatic is more news and social media oriented, but it doesn`t offer the complex automatic operations as Brandwatch or Radian 6

The tool doesn`t offer a dashboard or sentiment analysis, and any further operation offered by other automatic tools, is left to the user.

£: free

iGoogle

Overview :

iGoogle is a free web app which requires quite a lot of customisation and configuration, it is meant as a consumer tool for managing a personal experience and not as a shared business tool.

£: free

Personal Mashup using WidgetBox

Overview :

WidgetBox is a collection of over tens of thousands of Widgets which can be turned into mobile Apps and into ‘Blog Embed’ Components for a simple low cost subscription.

Some widgets quickly hit the refresh limit on services such as Twitter and Google and so pages can be denied access to these services.

This requires the use of a Web Designer with basic knowledge of HTML and web design.

£: free

 Postscript:

 Since I wrote this post, I have been contacted by webfluenz - see below. I have reviewed it and it looks to me like a good value low cost tool that is certainly well worth considering. The costs start at $99, but rises based on numbers of users etc. This is the note they sent to me originally which includes a link tio the site

I came across your review on social media monitoring tools and wanted to bring a tool to your notice called webfluenz. I wanted to inquire about whether you will be interested in reviewing our tool. To give a brief introduction, webfluenz is a social media monitoring and measurement tool that allows users to listen, monitor and enagage with social media conversations in real-time. For more information, please visit our website (http://www.webfluenz.com/) 

New Linked In Privacy Settings Advice

Thanks to my LI friend, Debra Mann (@Debra_Mann) who sent this through to me. She has suggested we send it onto our LI contacts, so I thought this was the best place to share it...

Linkedin have very quietly introduced some new settings that potentially seriously affect your privacy and your ability to prevent unwanted emails (spam). These new settings are defaulted ON and include allowing Linkedin to use profile information, names and photos in third party advertising. Please see the links below for opting out. You might want to consider alerting your contacts on Linkedin.

To reach the hard-to-reach settings options the following URL's should take you directly to them (cut and paste into your browser if they don't work as live links)

You will be asked to login again with these links - that is totally ok - its only because you are going to your settings panel - just click on each link and UNTICK the checkbox that you see and click save - its very simple - honest!

Manage social advertising: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-social-advertising&tab=account

Manage enhanced advertising: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-enhanced-advertising&tab=account

Data sharing with third party applications: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-data-sharing&tab=groups

Partner InMail: https://www.linkedin.com/settings/?modal=nsettings-partner-inmail&tab=email

 

The Benefits of Social Media (McKinsey stats)

Just saw this in an excellent social CRM pdf from salesforce.com. Sent to me by my friend Paul Vernon at Oegen. It is from a McKinsey report from December 2010. It shows that companies who use social media achieve the following:

- increased marketing effectivenes & c-sat

- reducing marketing & support costs

- reducing tiome to market of new products

- increased innovation

- increased revenue

It still looks like the cost saving elements are driving the first four benefits on the chart below. I believe that if brands focused on using social media to build engagement and trust more and cost saving less, then they would drive the revenue number as well as reduce the costs. To do this, social media needs to be more integrated with traditional channels as part of an over arching CRM strategy. 

What do you think?