Branding, creativity and the importance of a good story. The Servant of Chaos blog covers social media marketing, digital and brand strategy and the art of storytelling for brand engagement.
While the retail sector continues to flounder, the Financial Services industry seems to finally have cottoned on to the digital business opportunity presented by social media. A new report published by ING shows that frequent social media users (ie that lucrative and market-making early adopter segment) view social media as being as reliable as other online media.
Moreover, social media goes beyond simple information dissemination. The report indicates that “financial information posted on social media changes opinions, preferences or behaviour more often”. Clearly, as we have noted previously, our connected consumers are discovering, debating and deciding what to purchase and when independently of our marketing funnel.
Financial services leaders will increasingly need to develop and execute strategies that reach, engage and transform their relationships with their connected consumers. The impact has been felt in 2012, but the power will grow through 2013. Is your company ready?
When you think of Facebook, the scale can be confronting:
1 billion members
45% of the North American population
42% of Oceania
35% of South America
270 million members in Asia
But who really uses Facebook? What do they look like? How would you characterize them?
The clever folks from Soap Creative have done us all a service by providing this neat snapshot of the 36 Faces of Facebook. See which one you are. And see if you can see your grandmother too.
I must admit to being a reluctant cyclist. Sure, I like the benefits and I even like getting out in the weather – but it can be hard to overcome the initial inertia. There is one thing, however, that fascinates me about cycling – and that is the way that your mind begins to make the most wonderful connections as your body starts to get “into the zone”.
As I start to feel my body warm up and my heart rate hit a comfortable cadence, there is always a collision of thought and experience. Here are five things that I learned as a cyclist that I value in social media:
It’s harder to build momentum than to maintain it. As you approach a hill on your bike, it can appear insurmountable. But on the flat you have momentum – it is easier to build your pace down low and to carry that up the hill. If save your effort until you lose momentum halfway up, it takes much more effort achieve a much smaller outcome. When it comes to social media, keep a steady pace. You’ll find it much harder to re-start if you stop, pause or suspend your efforts.
It’s no point being in the right and being in the hospital. Cycling can be dangerous. There are potholes, glass and plenty of cars around you. And while taking five seconds off your personal best time is an achievement, if you put yourself at risk in the process, it’s not worth it. Ease off, suck up the 5 seconds and finish in one piece. In social media, you are bound to come up against people with opinions that rub you the wrong way. Are they the audience you are seeking? Are they provoking a response from you? Maybe they are just trolls.
Five minutes of planning and preparation can change your day. It’s easy just to jump on your bike and head off for a ride. But have you got water? What about a spare tyre? A pump? If something goes wrong and you get a flat, it’s great to know that you can fix it and keep going in a matter of minutes. But realising that you left your repair kit on the bench and walking your bike home can be demoralising. The same applies to social – when you step out online, make sure you know where you are going and that you have what you need to enjoy your efforts. Don’t be caught short.
Based on a survey of over 1400 marketers in North America, the report reveals the trends impacting corporate marketers across the full spectrum of business size:
Content marketing remains a priority: With 90% of marketers using content marketing in some form, using up to 12 tactics to deliver on their programs
Social media leads the way for content marketing: With an 87% adoption rate, social media has become the #1 tactic for content marketers
Budgets will grow in 2013: Content marketing accounts for 33% of marketing budgets, and more than half of those surveyed indicate that budgets will increase in 2013.
While the trends are good news for content marketers, there are TWO revealing insights based on this report:
Marketers will demand content performance analytics. While content marketing has the CONFIDENCE of marketers, there seems to be a gap between that confidence and hard figures around effectiveness. As budgets increase, so too will accountability. Marketers will demand performance-oriented analytics to justify budgets, prove channel and content effectiveness and optimize campaign performance
Brands will turn to agile content producers. The survey indicates that the #1 challenge is producing ENOUGH content. While there has been a trend towards in-sourcing content (56%), we are also seeing the rise of agile content production agencies and sole traders (which is part of the Constellation Research business theme the Future of Work). Faced with increasing demand for content and supported by content performance analytics, content marketers will turn to agile content producers to fill the gap in their content marketing schedules
It is often said that companies only have two functions - marketing and innovation. Despite this, most corporate marketing practices are based on century old theories and frameworks that no longer adequately accommodate the complexities faced by today's CMO. Rather than the inside-out view offered by the traditional marketing funnel, marketers need to develop a view of the customer journey that takes into account the challenges and opportunities presented by digital and social technologies.
To be released tomorrow this "big picture" report provides an outside-in view of the “connected customer” and key stages in next generation customer experience. The report provides a vital framework for marketing leaders seeking to move from a transactional relationship with their customers to one based on what I am calling the “5 Ds of Customer Engagement”.
But wait! There’s more!
You can go beyond the report and join me for a webinar on this topic to understand:
1. Six trends driving change in digital marketing 2. How the 5 Ds of customer engagement reflect the new realities in customer engagement and marketing 3. Key recommendations for marketers seeking strategic approaches rather than simply digitizing "business as usual"
And the best thing to remember about a webinar is that they are recorded. If you can’t join live, register and watch in your own time and tweet me with any questions.
We don’t have to look far to see that we are living in a digital world. On my desk sits half a dozen connected devices, wifi enabled, flashing, beeping, spewing updates from sites, friends and acquaintances thousands of miles away. But for me, this is a world that I have chosen to participate. For many in the Gen X and Baby Boomer demographics, adoption of technology has been a conscious choice. We grapple with this changing world for work or for pleasure – sometimes for both … but always with the knowledge that the off button is only a short distance away.
But for succeeding generations – the always connected Gen Y and Gen Z groups, there has never been a time of “non-connection”. A battery or wifi failure is not just a technical issue. It’s an existential crisis.
In May 2012, when young Chinese student, Xiao Zheng, sold his kidney in order to buy an iPad2, the headlines around the world amplified the outrage. From the outside it’s easy to point a finger and call out the insatiable materialistic desires of a morally bankrupt generation. But surely there is something deeper going on.
Graham Brown’s new book The Mobile Youth digs below the surface to reveal a compelling story of dis-ease. Peppered with statistics, insight – and most importantly – an anthropologist-cum-storytellers eye for observation, Graham reveals a hard truth that we all share in:
The rise of technology isn’t undermining the social fabric of society. Technology’s rise is a response to our loss of a meaningful social world.
As a reader of a lot of business communication (books, blogs, papers, presentations), I am often disappointed that the power of the writing doesn’t match the power of the ideas. This book is the opposite. It’s a business book written in the style of a page-turning blockbuster. For anyone interested in the changes taking place in our society and the collision of generations, culture and communication, it makes for compelling reading.
But most importantly, it provides an insight into the seemingly disconnected nature of our ever-more connected lives. Download your copy of The Mobile Youth and let me know what you think. I found it fascinating.
Facebook’s recent decision to shut down The Cool Hunter’s Facebook page should have sent shivers down the spine of every marketer. For years the vast scale of Facebook has attracted brands like a moth to the social media flame. Promising TVC-like reach with the added benefits of interactivity, community building and interest-graph targeting, it seemed that Facebook was the answer to the prayers of digital marketers the world over.
But a Facebook only strategy is doomed to fail:
Facebook is well-known for changing their terms and conditions without consultation. If you are not on top of those changes you can find yourself in breach and at risk of being shut down
Many brands run competitions on their Facebook pages without understanding the restrictive rules for doing so – see particularly Item E (iv) about the use of the Facebook “Like” button as a competition entry mechanism. Again, transgression could see your page shut down
Facebook is a walled garden designed to keep interaction and activity firmly on the inside. If you are going to the trouble of engaging your connected consumers, building your community and deepening the brand relationship, you run the risk of being “Cool Hunted” and losing that entire investment if you are shut down
Facebook, while large in scale, is only one social network. Digital marketers should be aiming for quality of engagement and deep next gen customer experience over “reach”
Three steps to reclaim your digital strategy
Facebook can still be a useful (and powerful) platform – but it should be part of your strategy to drive marketing and business outcomes. For example, it should not BE your strategy. There are three steps you can take to reclaim your digital strategy:
Use a continuous digital strategy. In a digital world, strategy is not “set and forget”. Following a proven approach to set, refine and extend your digital strategy provides deep resilience in the planning and execution of your strategy
Strategy drives decisions. You must have a clearly articulated and documented strategy. It should provide a guiding principle. “Share the Message, Own the Destination” will not only drive the content and conversational approach, but will also inform your technology choices
Use technology to scale. While social media offers one-to-one communications, this cannot scale in a business context. There are a range of technologies that can assist you to scale the execution of your strategy. This topic is the focus of my future research, be sure to subscribe for updates.
If marketing technology vendors had doubted Australian marketers’ hunger for innovation, then the recent turnout to the Marketo Rockstar Tour laid those doubts to rest.
Stretching out of the main bar at Sydney’s Establishment Hotel and down George Street, a queue of 300 or so patiently made their way to the upstairs ballroom to learn about Marketo’s software as a service based marketing automation platform. Punctuated with case studies, driving rock music, audience questions and a keynote from founder Phil Fernandez, it was a glitzy launch with plenty of substance. Follow along with the tweetstream below.
Fifty four percent of the world’s population lives in Asia. That’s 3.7 billion people. And according to We Are Social, Singapore’s recent report, Asia is home to over 1 billion internet users – 80% of whom use social media (see full report below).
The numbers are impressive. And yet, they tell only part of the story.
The most compelling aspect is the trajectory of digital consumption across Asia:
New internet users every month: 11,350,000
Videos watched (in June 2012): 45,000,000,000
New Facebook users each month: 10,000,000
Mobile internet users now outnumber PC-based internet users in China: 388 million vs 380 million
Consumer Adoption is Disrupting Patterns of Media Consumption and Impacting the Buyer’s Journey
The shift to digital in Asia is characterised by the widespread use of mobile and smartphones. Almost half of the people in Asia are willing to make transactions on their mobile phones (43%). And 60% of internet users in Asia use social media to inform purchase decisions. This combination is impacting not just the top end of the marketing funnel but various points across the buyer’s journey.
Digital Adoption Will Drive Marketer’s Thirst for Mobile Solutions
Given that more than half of Asia’s population is under 30, marketers seeking to engage these high spending, younger audiences will need to develop new digital approaches.
However, with 82% mobile penetration across Asia – and a growing population of mobile internet users - digital approaches should increasingly follow a Mobile First with a Social Heart strategy.
Marketers Will Turn to Marketing Automation to Scale Execution
While digital and social media marketing promises one-to-one conversations with customers, the rapid growth in the population of “Connected Consumers” challenges marketers’ capacity to scale. As a result, marketers will begin turning to marketing automation vendors to provide personality rich brand communications at scale.
The Shift to Digital Requires a Re-casting of the Marketing Funnel
While the information in the We Are Social report focuses on Asia, we are seeing similar shifts in markets the world over. Marketers can no longer rely on past practices as a relevant method for predicting future outcomes. Forward thinking marketers will need to begin rethink their understanding of their consumers from the outside-in. This will require a re-casting of the marketing funnel.
Look for my upcoming report CMOs: Re-casting the Marketing Funnel for Consumer Engagement, available for free later this month to all Constellation Research clients. Want to know more? Email me.
It was a welcome return and a good, vocal crowd at the Shelbourne Hotel, for the topic of Blog Monetisation at Sydney’s Social Media Club event. A panel comprising bloggers, agency folks, digital publishers, journalists, PR and digital strategists kept the conversation going and got the crowd tweeting.
digs below the surface to reveal a compelling story of dis-ease. Peppered with statistics, insight – and most importantly – an anthropologist-cum-storytellers eye for observation, Graham reveals a hard truth that we all share in:
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