List of Posts

Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

Repeat after me, part II: ROI bad, VRM good Monday, December 8th, 2008

Following on from my post the other day about the problems of using traditional return on investment (ROI) measurements for web activities, I’ve discovered another useful acronym - VRM, or Value Reference Measurement. Lewis Green, writing in the bizsolutionsplus blog, has produced a concise definition of this measurement, developed by the US Federal Chief Information Officers Council in 2002. He quite properly distinguishes it from ROI and suggests VRM, which is measured over a lifetime of sales and relationships, may be more valuable for measuring the impact of social media and social networking than ROI, which is strictly how much money was returned against an investment.

“Don’t say ROI unless you mean it,” he writes. “Instead, use metrics that measure both ROI and Value, and help decision makers understand how they differ and how each grows a business. ROI hits the bottom line; Value hits the top line.”

“Keep in mind that ROI might be either positive or negative, so to avoid what at first glance appears to have been a bad decision, it is smart to also measure Value through intangible benefits such as customer experiences, customer loyalty, and word of mouth to justify any expense. ROI is an important metric, but it needs to be balanced with a rigorous analysis of all the value factors.”

“….When discussing marketing and communications with C-level executives, do not say ROI unless you mean it in dollars and cents. Instead, offer up both ROI and VRM and then you will be speaking your client’s language. Be patient and know what you are talking about.

“Finally, don’t sell tools, sell goals and  strategies to achieve a company’s objectives. Do it in concert with the Marketing, Communications, Sales, and Customer Service departments. Executives and business owners don’t want to buy a tool; they want to buy a plan for success, and they want both ROI and VRM. Some of the tactics (e.g., SM [social media] and SN [social networking]) likely will drive Value more than ROI. Others (e.g., advertising and direct marketing) likely will drive ROI more than Value. Together they will produce dynamic results.”

Social media blogger Peter Kim agrees with Lewis’ assessment, but argues that you need to present ROI measures as well as VRM measures to C-suite executives, writing that “If ROI doesn’t apply to social media marketing, then social media should not be used for marketing.” His views sparked a flurry of comments both supporting and rejecting his position - check out his posting to see them.


Social media - the Australian list Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Gotta love the power of social networks! After my post yesterday analysing a list of international social media marketing examples and wondering whether anyone had done something like this for Australian businesses, the compiler of the original list, Peter Kim, has worked his contacts to find one. Here it is: Steven Noble’s Australian Social Media Case Studies. Many thanks, Peter, and good on you, Steven, who is an analyst for Forrester. I will have a closer look and post more about this later, but wanted to get this link up ASAP.


Brands OK - as long as they’re relevant Friday, November 21st, 2008

eMarketer declares that Millennials aren’t brand resistant, but “irrelevance resistant”. Reporting on the results of a Synovate study released this week, eMarketer claims 18-24-year-olds ”are not solidly opposed to brands themselves, and are willing to spread the word about the ones they like.”
When asked about their “online brand engagement” in the past month, 28% had talked about a brand on a discussion forum, 23% had put brand-related content on their IM profile, and 19% had added branded content to their homepage or social networking site.
Interestingly, the worldwide figures were similar to those in the US, with slightly higher results for favourite sites and personal start pages:

According to the report, “Respondents were most likely to pass on comedy clips (62%), followed by music clips (40%) and clips featuring friends (27%). Almost one out of 10 passed along viral advertising and marketing clips.
Meanwhile, eMarketer reports that word-of-mouth is an ever-stronger way to market to young people. A recent survey by Alloy Media+Marketing found that uni students thought word-of-mouth was the most useful type of advertising. Samples—always a bonus for students on a budget—ranked second.
Showing that students do still consider traditional media relevant, TV and magazine ads also ranked highly—higher, in fact, than online ads and sponsored Web applications.


Not the death of blogging, but a new phase Monday, November 10th, 2008

Some of the earliest proponents of blogging are moving on to other things. The Economist reports that the founder of Weblogs, Inc., one of the first blogging networks, has announced that he is giving up on blogging and going back to email to distribute his opinions. Meanwhile, the founder of Blogger, arguably the biggest blogging tool, which was bought by Google, now runs Twitter, the mobile-phone-based micro-blogging network with a 140-character limit on messages, and he says Twitter is the future.

But as the Economist report points out, “Blogging has entered the mainstream, which—as with every new medium in history—looks to its pioneers suspiciously like death. To the earliest practitioners, over a decade ago, blogging was the regular posting of text updates, and later photos and videos, about themselves and their thoughts to a few friends and family members. Today lots of internet users do this, only they may not think of it as blogging. Instead, they update their profile pages on Facebook, MySpace or other social networks….traditional blog pages tend increasingly to belong to conventional media organisations. Nearly every newspaper, radio and television channel now runs blogs and updates them faster than any individual blogger ever could.

“….Simultaneously, companies far outside the media industry have embraced blogging as just another business tool. They are using blogs both to get corporate messages to the public and as an internal medium for staff. Companies like Six Apart, which provides Movable Type, TypePad and other blogging tools, see firms as their most promising market.

“Gone, in other words, is any sense that blogging as a technology is revolutionary, subversive or otherwise exalted, and this upsets some of its pioneers. Confirmed, however, is the idea that blogging is useful and versatile. In essence, it is a straightforward content-management system that posts updates in reverse-chronological order and allows comments and other social interactions. Viewed as such, blogging may “die” in much the same way that personal-digital assistants (PDAs) have died. A decade ago, PDAs were the preserve of digerati who liked using electronic address books and calendars. Now they are gone, but they are also ubiquitous, as features of almost every mobile phone.”

In other words, blogging is now acceptable and understood widely enough to be embraced by traditional companies. Roll on the revolution!


Social networking a plus for business Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

I had to check the date - was it April Fools Day? Nope, Melbourne Cup Day. So it must be true - a just-published study has recommended that bosses allow their employees to use their Facebook and MySpace accounts at work because it helps them build relationships with customers and colleagues.

According to Reuters, the study’s author said that, “while companies were using specific systems to share information, online social networking sites could also play a role, helping with productivity, innovation and democratic working.”

“In today’s difficult business environment, the instinctive reaction can be to batten down the hatches and return to the traditional ‘command and control’ techniques that enable managers to closely monitor and measure productivity,” he said.

“Allowing workers to have more freedom and flexibility might seem counterintuitive, but it appears to create business more capable of maintaining stability.”

Robert Ainger, Corporate Director of Orange Business which co-produced the report, said it would be wrong of businesses to ignore the importance of networking in the current economic climate.

“The report points out that the value of networking within an economic downturn is perhaps more important than ever and I believe it could mean the difference between a business collapsing or capitalizing on the tricky conditions,” he said.


When you can’t control ‘Whassup’ Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Like it or loathe it, Budweiser’s ‘Whassup’ campaign of a few years ago resonated throughout the world as an irritating but catchy and wildly successful way to promote the beer’s brand. Well, the Whassup guys are back, this time on YouTube, and they’re barracking for Barack Obama - and there’s nothing Budweiser or their ad agency DDB Chicago can do about it. Apparently when the ad’s creator Charles Stone III (gotta love those triple-barrelled American names - grandpa would be proud) came up with the concept, DDB licensed the concept from him for five years - an agreement which finished three years ago.

The Whassup ads first appeared in 1999, just before George Bush was elected US president, and the new video shows what’s up eight years later for the original characters - they’re fighting in Iraq, caught in a hurricane, unable to pay medical bills and attempting suicide as their stock portfolio tanks. In 2008, ‘Whassup’, is change, in the form of Obama.

I feel for Budweiser and DDB, but this is a classic example of social media at work - companies no longer have control over their brand and the way it is used. They just have to embrace it and see what the effect is on their brand and their sales. Look for more of this type of consumer power to come in the future.

You can see the ad, which has already been viewed more than 2 million times, here.


Social media: companies are welcome Friday, October 17th, 2008

A study commissioned by social networking marketer Cone has revealed that 85% of social media users thought companies should interact with their consumers through social media, at least when needed.

The survey, reported by eMarketer, also found that nearly 60% of Americans who use social media interact with companies when they’re on social media websites.

“Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” said Mike Hollywood, director of new media at Cone. “It isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”


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