Social Networks. Age is definitely more than just a number.

Februar 28th, 2010 • Reports, Social
Tags: age, Cool, Diagram, pingdom, Presentation, Reports, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, visual, World

First of all follow Pingdom on twitter. Seriously.

Secondly, it is not common for me to quote the research results of one thinktank for the second time in two days. Here I will make an exception. Simply because Pingdom respects the golden rule of being quoted on the social webs in perfect harmony with the four key elements of social nerd buzz:

• do the research/poll/well argumented guess about Planet Earth
• follow up with number crunching (if there are numbers)
• draw a great looking diagram
• tweet the hell out of it

Today we talk about age distribution and social networks. It’s neither a secret nor surprising that there is an age gap between LinkedIn and Twitter. But as long as you don’t nail down this fact into a diagram you don’t make a point on the intertubes. Right? Right.

Here we go…

Fact: Age distribution in social networks varies among social networks

High five! We are number one. If you are a 36 year old tech savvy, male, digital nerd the following diagram enlightens you with one key information – you will meet the ones you like (and who are like you) over and over again. Your mom probably isn’t yet a registered member of Facebook and your teenage cousin probably isn’t as well. But be prepared for the next generation to be 150% part of the game. Unfortunately they are not really relevant yet marketing wise (but they will follow….muahahahahahahahahahahahaha).

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Technographics. Forrester’s Ladder just got a new Rung.

Januar 19th, 2010 • 1 comment Reports, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Conversationalist, Diagram, Forrester, Groundswell, Model, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Technographics, Tool, Tools, Twitter

In 2007 Forrester’s Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff introduced the world to the Groundswell model. It has become something like a standard (if there is one) in Social strategies, summarizing data-based strategies for companies that want to harness the power of social technologies. One key aspect of it was the Social Technographics Ladder that profiled users from all over the world according to their level of tech-savvyness in the social realm (plus, they offer a handy online tool too).

No doubt, the Technographics Ladder was a great first model to profile overlapping customer groups and their ability to move in the social space. And – what I liked most about it – Forrester fed it with up-to-date data to turn it into a valuable model for marketers. Nevertheless there were too few rungs on the ladder. We understood that there are Inactives, Spectators, Joiners, Critics and Creators…but something was missing.

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2010. What’s going to happen in 140 characters or less.

Dezember 23rd, 2009 • Business, Reports, Strategy, Twitter
Tags: Brands, Business, Cool, Diagram, Experimental, Ideas, Prediction, Presentation, Reports, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Trends, Truth, Twitter, World

As the year ends it’s time to think of the next big…year. 2010 is coming closer and while the Mayan Calendar seems to save us from the rapture for two more years, it is still time to think about next year’s trends. Okay…we get drown in trend predictions lately, but I liked this one – Trendspotting‘s third annual prediction report following major trends in six categories. This time with trend predictions by the industry’s rock stars in 140 characters or less. Good to go?

Adaptive Marketing. How not to go the Dodo way, Part 2.

Dezember 9th, 2009 • Business, Intelligence, Reports, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Business, Forrester, Future, Ideas, Reports, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, speed, Strategy, Trends, World

I did write about the concept of Adaptation Marketing two weeks ago. I admit, it’s another buzz word in the digital/social realm. But it’s a meaningful idea for what brand management might be like in the near future. A model which enables brands to deal with the social sphere without necessarily focusing too much on Facebook, Twitter & Co. A thoughtstarter for rather traditional as well as new marketers alike.

Adaptation is a term from Darwin’s evolution theory. Wikipedia knows that “when the habitat changes, three main things may happen to a resident population: habitat tracking, genetic change or extinction. In fact, all three things may occur in sequence. Of these three effects, only genetic change brings about adaptation.”

The life of the last Dodo ended in the 17th century. His habitat changed drastically when men appeared. An unwelcome surprise for Dodos as for brands who also struggle with real people who behave different than what they are used to. They talk and they walk and they don’t necessarily care for Dodos and brands. We, marketers or advertisers may like it or not – but things in our habitat change. Quickly. And two key aspects of it are  feedback and real time.

How social will we have to be?
The Dodo formula is simple: Humans arrive = Problem. Brands know this problem since the social web startet going mainstream. Some of them adapt quickly. But most of them behave like rabbits in the headlight.  Caught between a rock and hard place, the challenges seem to leave no other way than to use it or lose it, Facebook Fan Page or nothing at all.

I think there is a third way.

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FEED. New Razorfish report on how brands and consumers interact.

November 9th, 2009 • Reports, Trends
Tags: Agencies, Business, Feed09, Presentation, Razorfish, Report, Strategy, Trends, World

My employer Razorfish has once again published its annual FEED report. The document sums up findings from surveys among online users with the goal to answer how brands and consumers interact in the digital realm.

In August 2009, Razorfish surveyed 1,000 U.S. “connected consumers” across four major age groups. FEED focuses on “connected consumers” because this is the demographic our clients care most about; they are defined as consumers who have broadband access, regularly spend money online, and who actively consume or create digital content.

This year’s report differs from its predecessors because its focus is not on how consumers are adapting new digital technologies, but trying to understand how their adoption of these technologies affect the ways they engage with brands. Some key findings are:

• Digital brand experiences create customers. The overwhelming majority of consumers who actively engage with a brand digitally are much more inclined to purchase products and recommend the brand to others.

• Consumer wants to interact with a brand: 73% have posted a product or brand review on a website like Amazon, Yelp or Twitter, 70% have read a corporate blog, 65% have played a branded browser-based game and 40% have “friended” a brand on Facebook. These interactions are shaping their perceptions of the brand.
  • The other major driver of digital brand engagement in customer service. Being responsive and solving customer problems in real time builds brand loyalty.

• Digital can make or break a brand. 65% of consumers say a digital experience, either positive or negative, changed their opinion of a brand. And in that group, almost all (97%) indicated their experience influenced whether or not they eventually purchased from the brand.

• Read more »

Adaptive Marketing. How not to go the Dodo way, Part 1.

November 5th, 2009 • 7 comments Intelligence, Reports, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Business, Forrester, Future, Ideas, Intelligence, Reports, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, speed, Strategy, Trends, World

Forrester has just published an article called “Adaptive Brand Marketing: Rethinking Your Approach to Branding in the Digital Age”. This article comes up with a couple of thoughts which aren’t completely new but leave you thinking. Agility and adaption are defined here as preconditions for brands to survive. Not new, you think? I think it is new in a certain way…simply because it left me with a couple of questions (which I try to discuss in the second part of this article, next weekend).

It’s good to have clever buddies. One of them is Johannes, my colleague who regularly sends me the articles I miss to read and starts a good discussion about it, usually. I had read a good post by BBH labs about a Forrester article which wasn’t even published at that time. But I missed the original Forrester report. Johannes made me read it (thanks again). And I recommend it as well now. Key question of the report: How do organizations respond to an even faster world in which they struggle to survive?

The challenges of speed and dynamics were always hard to put into a model for our social web driven world. All too often we focus on a different question as marketers: How do we respond to customers at all (not even really focusing on the real-time aspect of our digital world)? The question on how we hold conversations at all took our full attention away from its inlying dynamics and what it does to companies. But it’s crucial.

Think of the Dodo. A flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter tall, weighing about 20 kilograms , living on fruit and nesting on the ground.

The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century. It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity, hence the phrase “going the way of the Dodos.” (thx to Wikipedia). The Dodo and his ancestors were intelligent enough to survive for millions of years. But as his environment (well, humans came) changed he could not adapt fast enough. And this is a perfect example to introduce the topic I actually wanted to write about: Adaptation. Because evolution is a process that rewards the organism most capable to adapt to new environments, not the biggest or most intelligent. It’s an opportunistic and fast system…for the Dodo as well as for brands.

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Shiv Singh. Social Media Marketing for Dummies.

Oktober 8th, 2009 • 2 comments Reports
Tags: Books, New, Shiv Singh, Social Influence Marketing

Time for some advertising.

I mean…real advertising. Shiv Singh, my Social Influence Marketing Lead at Razorfish NYC, is about to publish a book (yes, a book). It’s got the catchy name “Social Media Marketing for Dummies”. And as we know there are a lot of dummies out there (pretty often I am one of them), I guess it will be pretty successful.

Here at Razorfish we use the word Social Influence Marketing to describe how we think brands and consumers do interact in our decentralized world. Shiv’s book (will be available in Germany in early November) targets small businesses and start-ups looking for low-cost online marketing strategies, as well as marketers at larger companies who want to add a social media component to their campaigns.

Obviously the title of the book gave Shiv quite a hard time:

Social media marketing is about using the social media platforms to market to customers or in other words to participate in the conversations wherever they maybe taking place in an authentic, trusted and human manner while achieving your marketing objectives too. Social Influence Marketing is about harness social media and social influencers to achieve the marketing and business objectives of an organization. (…) The reality is that social media marketing is the more understood and recognized term so that’s why the “Social Media Marketing for Dummies” title was chosen. (via goingsocialnow)

I am looking forward to reading this introduction. And if you want to preorder your copy, do it here.

Wave 4. New global report published.

Juli 28th, 2009 • Reports, Trends
Tags: Agencies, Business, Presentation, Reports, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Universal McCann, Wave 4, World