Kwai Chi - Head of Social Media at Total Media presented these slides for Team London Bridge at Brigade Bar & Bistro on the 26th April and 3rd May 2012. To watch the presentation go to http://youtu.be/VcCKriGFo2o
Kwai Chi – Head of Social Media @ Total Media talks to Team London Bridge about being the trendsetter online.
If you have a new Android or blackberry device ie bought this year, then you will probably have NFC on your phone. There are several NFC stickers and artefacts dotted around the room with the branded ones syncing you directly to the wifi hotspot. All you have to do is tap your phone next to the sticker/card like Frank is doing now. There’s also a QR code on the screen if you prefer. If you like it old school, then please feel free to manually input the details on the screen.The plain labelled NFC stickers have been programmed with various Linkedin & Twitter pages related to today’s event. If you would prefer to find us directly through Hootsuite or Twitter, then go to twitter dot com forward slash totalmediauk or to me directly at kwaichi. Emma will be live tweeting, so feel free to drop comments, feedback or questions live and I’ll take them at the end.Today, I’ll be talking about what you should be doing right now, what’s coming up in the next year or so and finishing off with a spotlight on the upcoming Olympics.
Compuserve was first online service provider to offer technical support in 1979 – 2 years before IBM launched their first PC for the homeMosaic was first web browser with graphical support in 1993 – 3 years before internet explorer by which time Mosiac got rebranded to Netscape navigatorMirc 1995 – The birth of chat rooms and lolroflAOL popularised the chatroom with AOL instant messenger in 19971999 Napster ran for 2 years running into all sorts of legal issuesMyspace launched 2003 but started to go downhill after the acquisition by News corp in 2005. They lost their status as the largest social network to YouTube by 20062005 Jan Bebo stood for blog early blog often. AOL spent $850m in 2008 and sold it 2 years later for $10m costing the CEO of AOL his job.2005 Feb YouTube was in beta. Nov 2006 saw Google buying them out for $1.65bn. Time named the person of the year as You for ‘youtube users’2006 Sept facebook opened up to the masses having been available to select groups from 20042008 Getglue2010 Pinterest2011 Google+2004 web 2.0 became a buzz term Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference2004 New media became another buzzword to the mix2005 Social media term was used more widely
I’m going to explore what is essential for most businesses right now, whether that is a better strategy, better procedures or getting on the right platforms. I’ll also take a brief look at how to integrate different touch points into a social media led digital framework.
You need a blog. Having a blog or a series of blogs allows you to take a stranglehold of your brand properties on Google search. Your aim for a business is not only to hold the top spot on Google, but to also take the rest of the first page. A well maintained blog will help you achieve that. Blog on Blogger, Tumblr or your own website.
Total media is a Twitter partner in the UK & worldwide for promoted tweets, trending topics and other new products in the pipeline. It’s not all about the media buy though as it is just as important to have a great engagement strategy in place. Most of the top brands on Twitter use it as a direct customer support channel open 24/7. In between, quirky, personable information is given out through it’s status update.
Most of the top Facebook brands have some kind of feature based on their origins. Arsenal football club is one example which has now become the norm. Facebook apps are widespread, but to capture a useful audience, apps need to be great and have a revisiting purpose like the Unilever VIP example which allowed consumers to advise Unilever on what changes should be made to it’s products. Users were incentivised with regular prizes by size of contribution.
Google has been beefing up it’s social media offering Google+ immensely. I’ll go into the acquisitions in the Future section but the important considerations are that Google are continuously consolidating it’s products into a tighter ecosphere. Things like Picasa have been entirely integrated into Google+ under the photo option. Take a photo on your Android device and it will automatically be uploaded to a private folder on Google+ through instant upload. I would predict another evolution where YouTube will be entirely absorbed into the Google+ service. You may notice that there are currently very few to no videos on Google+ itself yet there is a placeholder for the function. Many of the new PPC formats will be centred around Google+ and it’s functionality.
The Fat Duck is Britain’s best restaurant and has a good social media presence when people search for it online. As well as having their data on their own website optimised for Google’s spiders, they have taken the time to make sure it’s available on relevant social media platforms too.
Google uses other sources for it’s aggregated ratings scoring as we see form this example. It has been important for the Fat Duck to keep up to date information on Zagat (which Google owns), Tripadvisor and Urbanspoon.
As I talked about before with Google’s ever tighter ecosphere, Google’s mobile products allow users to search for the best restaurants close to their current location and then take you there through it’s navigation software. Keeping up a consistent high level of service has never been so important as users can give negative feedback straight away on their mobile phones. No matter how spontaneous, services like Tripadvisor will not allow reviewers to delete or amend their reviews.
Nike in Copenhagen - To promote the customisation available for a new line of Nike trainers, a giant billboard was put up in Copenhagen that was updated in real time, based on interaction with the Facebook Page. This shows how the offline element can be used to capture people effectively, but bringing them back online completely to enter the purchase cycleA team of graffiti artists were recruited to transform the billboard, according to which designs received the most Likes on the Free 2 Run iD Facebook Page. This was an integrated campaign that also had one eye on sales throughout, as the Facebook Page also contained an app whereby people could customise designs for their own trainers, which had a direct link to purchase on the Nike site.
One thing love to debate with other social media practitioners about is automated sentiment scoring. This whole area is statistical nonsense. Having used all of the market leaders in Radian 6, Sysomos and Synthesio, I can guarantee that the same set of comments run through the platforms, will spit out very different scores. Have an arbitrary comment and have 5 humans score how positive, negative or neutral the comment is and you’ll only get 4 out of 5 people agreeing on the same result. That is 80% for accuracy. Automated software is nowhere close to that at the moment. It doesn’t understand context through a running thread, nor does it understand sarcasm or regional differences eg. English in India vs English in the USA. There is also no point tracking low volumes of conversation or uncontroversial brands as the score is unlikely to move significantly month on month.
The consumer needs to sit at the heart of everything a business does. It’s often said by business, but often decisions are led by margins rather than actual need. Out goes the traditional forces of the 4ps, 7ps or other marketing theories. In comes the consumer. It’s so simple too. Simply put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and experience something completely from that point of view.Product vs consumerPrice vs costPlace vs conveniencePromotion vs communication
I’ve explored what is emerging as the next big things over the next 12 months and beyond and I have also taken a punt on where I think the whole landscape is shifting in the following section.
Instagram just got bought out by Facebook in a deal worth $1bn. With Facebook likely to raise $5bn at it’s upcoming IPO on either the 17th or 24th May, $1bn is 20% proportion. Time will tell whether this is a wise move and it has been reported that it was a Zuckerberg solo deal – leaving out a role for his board of directors. Having to announce quarterly results after the IPO will majorly shift the way Zuckerberg can work and he almost certainly will not be able to pull off deals like this without jeopardising Facebook’s share price. Zuckerberg is hoping that iPhone’s #1 app will be worth $200bn in the future which is highly unlikely as it would be in the realm’s of Google. Instagram does however help bolster Facebook’s photo sharing capabilities as well as fending off Google’s audio visual offerings in Google+ and YouTube.
Viddy comes hot on the heals of Instagram. It’s pretty much the same product except this time we’re dealing with videos instead of photos. Viddy allows users to change 15s clips and upload them to Facebook in a one touch style operation. I imagine a battle between Google/YouTube and Facebook for this one in the next 12 months.
Spotify has done a massive deal with Coca cola crossing their brand values and products for the next few years. Sean Parker has been a key player in this as Spotify’s main backer and Facebook’s first president. He was the guy played by Justin Timberlake in the Social Network. I will take a punt that Facebook will buy Spotify once the IPO has gone through.
Recent Google acquisitions since August 2011 show their intent to bolster their mobile & Social media offeringAugust 15, 2011 Motorola MobilityMobile device manufacturer USA$12,500,000,000September 7, 2011 Zave Networks Digital couponsSeptember 8, 2011 ZagatRestaurant reviews USA$151,000,000 September 19, 2011 DailyDealOne deal a day service GER$114,000,000 October 11, 2011 SocialGrapple Social media analytics serviceNovember 10, 2011 AptureInstantaneous search November 14, 2011 Katango Social circle organization December 9, 2011 RightsFlowMusic rights management December 13, 2011 Clever SenseMobile apps April 2, 2012 TxViaOnline Payment
Zeebox is being advertised heavily at the moment by Sky who own them. Zeebox allows for the dual screening effect that shows like the Apprentice have helped to evolve. People want to talk to other people about the program that they are watching live and Zeebox is effectively a feed from Twitter and Facebook for any given program. Zeebox will monitise the platform which will take away from Twitter & Facebook’s ad revenue. A stream that could literally be cut off instantly if it grew to critical mass. I will take a punt again that Zeebox will be bought by Twitter as it fits well with their platform. Big brands will continue to develop dual screening apps like coca cola did during the superbowl. 2 polar bears supported their American Football team and would react live to what was happening on TV.
Something that you can get straight into is Pinterest, a visual platform that allows content to be stripped out, autoresized and pinned onto virtual boards. The platform is not yet open to brands but it has not stopped brands from using it. As there is no real engagement platform, this is a trickier one to run campaign on but use Total Media and we’ll find a plan that works for you!
Get glue is an app that lets you check in to books, movies, music and events to get free stickers sent to you for things like movie buff, music buff, couch potato. Think foursquare but for movies. GetGlue offers virtual stickers for upcoming releases and limited runs for new releases.Once you have 20 virtual stickers, Getglue will send out actual physical stickers.The platform is currently only open to business in the USA but we are talking to them to expand to the UK & Europe.
Crowd sourcing projects for campaigns have been going for a few years now. Total Media recently ran a successful crowd sourced campaign for Total Greek Yoghurt where Facebook fans wrote a healthy recipe book which got to #3 on Amazon Kindle. In the USA, a site called Kickstarter has changed the way funding is sought for startups. Pebble watch, a smart watch that allows users to interact with their iPhone or Android devices through several downloadable apps found it really hard to get any interest in software and web focussed Silicon Valley. As a last resort, they aimed to raise $100k over 5 weeks on Kickstarter. They offered incentives to those who wanted to give money to Pebble including discounts and free products depending on the level of investment. Through the power of word of mouth through Social Media, Pebble raised $1m in the first 24 hours! To date they have raised over $6m with over 20 days left to go. In the UK Crowdcube does something similar to Kickstarter except users actually get to own a piece of the company. The USA is likely to follow suit as Obama passed the JOBS act allowing companies to have 1000 shareholders before having to declare finances.A similar product to the Pebble watch has already been developed by Sony and is available in the USA. I expect these products to really take off over the next 12 months. The key will be Apple’s next Nano product. The current one already has a watch functionality.
All the way back in 1997, the Octopus card was made widely available throughout Hong Kong. Today, Hong Kong residents can pay for a whole array of small ticket items with their Octopus card. London followed with similar technology in 2003.Barclaycard have been at the forefront of innovation in this space launching Onepulse which allowed users to use their credit card as their Oyster card too. Taking the product one step further, customers could also pay for products up to £15 through the contactless RFID technology. Last week, Barclaycard released an NFC sticker to attach to the back of mobile phones to pay for items in the same way. With the emergence of Smart wear, it’s likely that we will begin to see a convergence of products very soon. Cambridge University have ben developing a wearable touchpad with Nokia. This kind of technology could form the basis of future smart watches or smart bands that will allow users to pay for goods with a swipe of their wrist. Richard Branson has been investing heavily into Square which provides sellers the ability to take real card payments on the move. They take 2.75% transaction fee and provide the swiping equipment (which attaches to an iPhone headphone socket) for free. The flip side of Square allows users to store all of their different cards on the system to negate the need for physical cards. They are looking to raise $4bn of investment and are likely to hit their target as the big players of AMEX, VISA, Mastercard, Google Wallet and Paypal look at ways of buying their technology or the company. I expect further consolidation of electronic payment over the next 5 years.
I’ll leave you with 3 key things to take away from today
Listen and monitor what your customers want from you and use that as the start point for your campaign ideas. Experiment with brand new platforms as well as existing ones so that you have the knowledge to push the boundaries with your campaigns. Social Media campaigns are often dull due to cut and paste strategies that have been executed hundreds of times before. The final take away is to stay focused on what is relevant. Social Media strategy often wanders off in so many tangents with no overarching strategy that brand messaging gets lost.
The evolution will be a permanent connect between you and society at large. Wallets will be redundant as the chipsets will get down to nano size allowing us to simply inject our data into our bloodstream, transmitting data via our own natural magnetic field. Head up display technology will be embedded into our brain sensors to allow us to use robotic artificial intelligence to heal ourselves and store knowledge.
I’m happy to take any general questions now, otherwise there is an opportunity to speak to me or one of my esteemed colleagues on a one to one basis after this session.
A little bit about Total Media UK, London
Total Media is a leading independent and integrated media agency that provides all the services you might need under one roof from media planning and buying off and online, through to Social Media, PR, SEO and PPC. The result of this approach is that our clients’ money is spent where it gets the best return on investment and our advice is completely independent. We are an agency that are committed to working hard to achieve real and significant growth for businesses, and have a track record of successfully growing an extensive range of brands built up over the last 30 years. This is evidenced through our two IPA effectiveness winning campaigns for Jungle Formula and Maxinutrition, which were won as a result of our thorough understanding of their businesses, our strive to challenge conventions and our use of media which broke through the clutter to help them stand out from their competitors. The Social media department offer a full suite of services covering creative, engagement and paid for products.
Whether you would like us to work with you on a consultancy or a full service basis, we have the knowledge & experience to handle all your social media requirements. With network agency experience, we offer independent agency pricing and media neutral solutions.Please feel free to contact Kwai or Frank at any time to discuss your requirements.
