Archive for Social Business
Social Currency. Where Brands meet Dynamic Context.
Mai 2nd, 2010 • 1 comment Brands, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Adaptation Marketing, Brands, Business, Report, Reports, Research, Social, Social Business Design, Social Currency, Strategy, Study, Trends, Vivaldi, World
One of the really good studies about brands and their social environments has just been published jointly by NYC think tank Vivaldi Partners and Professor Johann Füller (University Innsbruck) in cooperation with Lightspeed Research.
The report ‘Social Currency’ asks what a brand’s social currency is, and what it takes to build and nurture it. And, the report indeed brings a couple of crucial things across – it defines the buzzy term Social Currency and attributes success metrics for brands here.
Defining Social Currency
So what is Social Currency and why is it important? From the report’s perspective it is the contextual sum of experiences users can have in relation and interaction with a brand. And a brand’s social currency is bound to a dynamic process that we call reality.
Social Currency is the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand as part of their everyday social life at home or at work. (…) It is neither a product feature, nor a communications or PR campaign that is completely managed by any one company. From this perspective, social currency is a far more delicate asset to build, nurture and maintain than is brand equity.
Social currency represents a shared asset of consumers and company-owned brands. It originates from interaction between customers and consumers. And it is the material a brand’s success will be fundamentally influenced by…
- Across categories and brands, 53% of consumers’ brand loyalty can be explained by social currency
- Users of brands with high social currency show a significantly higher willingness to pay a price premium (correlation=0.73)
The study’s explanatory strength does not only lie in these results – it is remarkable as it tries to define what social currency is made of. Since the research assumes that social currency is crucial for brands to create customer loyalty it consequently also reveals its components. No, a brand does not necessarily have to access all levers – this varies in regard to which industry and brand is involved…
Bring the Noise. Why google Buzz will Fail.
Februar 11th, 2010 • 15 comments Social, Social Business
Tags: Brands, Business, Facebook, google, google Buzz, google wave, Social Networks, Strategy, Tech, Trends, Twitter, World
Two days ago google announced google Buzz, a new socialnetworky add-on to its well known and beloved gmail service. As expected, google is trying once more to advance into enemy territory – social networking. Since its foundation the company is great in search and media but it sucks big time when it comes to content and real, human interactions.
So, yesterday morning I found this google Buzz Button in my gmail account. And what I saw next was nice but two years too late.
One day with google Buzz
google Buzz tries to do anything at once and doesn’t do anything really good. Basically it’s a mixture of twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and Foursquare. That does not sound too bad, unfortunately I have no idea where google is in this concept.
Apart from the lack in own, new ideas the first finding is – the UX is horrible. Years ago google was on the forefront of UX design. But google Buzz almost looks like google Wave light. Do you remember google Wave? Sure you do (I have 1 gazillion invites left if you like). In short, google Buzz combines at least four specialized interoperable social services in one shitty interface, spices it up with even worse than ususal privacy flaws, integrates it into gmail an calls it Buzz.
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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.
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.
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.
The X. Paypal goes open source.
November 4th, 2009 • Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Brands, Business, Cool, New, Open, paypal, Paypal X, Social Influence Marketing, Social Shopping, Strategy, Tech, Tools, Trends
Payment provider Paypal has just launched Paypal X. The new system opens up Paypal’s API and lets developers work on new solutions based on one of the world’s best online payment providers. Bascially it is about integrating payment functionalities with drag and drop or making them embeddable. And yes, the preview of the platform is a Wow!
About a year ago Jeremiah Owyang, (then Forrester) published his well known article ‘The Future of the Social Web‘. He sketched the likely evolution of the internet in five overlapping phases, taking us from the ‘Era of social relationships’ to the ‘Era of social commerce’ (an era which he expexted to start in ~2011.
In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.
What has happened today may not yet be the start of Owyang’s era of social commerce, but it’s a dramatic step. Paypal has launched Paypal X – a platform which the payment provider is going to present at Innovate09 these days. PayPal X basically opens up the services of PayPal and gives developers worldwide access to open payement functions like the following (via Techcrunch)
Dear Brands. Please learn to say I am not sorry.
Oktober 18th, 2009 • 1 comment Brands, Ideas, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Ads, Brands, Fail, Ideas, Motrin, Pepsi, pepsifail, PR, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, World
This article is a rant. A classic one.
Lately (I have to admit) I more and more get sick of the keepers of the holy grail of Political Correctness whenever a brand launches some kind of ironical, stereotype-laden communication tool in the social space. But wait, it’s not that simple! Actually I am more hacked off by brands who bow down to these people and beg for forgiveness whenever a group of these people start mocking around on twitter.
Pepsi and the score advisor app
Probably you have heard about the so-called Pepsi AMP fail. Early in October Pepsi has launched an iPhone application for its AMP range of energy drinks. The idea of the app is simple and (more or less) funny. After downloading the tool the user may choose between 24 different stereotypical female characters, ranging from “athlete” to “cougar” to “punk girl”. The app will then support your nightly challenge at the bar with helpful tips, pickup lines and conversation snippets to spice up your ‘pre score’ conversation with the respective woman of your choice.
Lufthansa. Getting jiggy with social inflight data.
Oktober 7th, 2009 • Business, Ideas, Social Business
Tags: Airlines, Facebook, Ideas, live data, Lufthansa, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, Tools, Trends, Twitter, World
Social Media and Airlines share a long tradition (if you can talk about tradition in this field). The reasons seem obvious: Travelling is about people, about service and quite often about the good sides of life. JetBlue just broke a million followers on twitter. And Virgin America replaces advertising with Social Media pretty often with a focus on micro Communities in flight.
Apart from many other aspects, onboard Wifi seems to be the magic word. It can turn customers into a small social network and makes them spread the word from inside a 747. Southwest Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa Virgin…everybody seems to work on his own respective inflight Wifi Solution.
Tara Hunt. Your Social Media Strategy won’t Save you.
September 27th, 2009 • Business, Social Business
Tags: Brainfood, Business, Presentation, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy
I have to admit, I had to reread this deck by Tara Hunt a couple of times. Maybe I am a bit slow or it’s the fascination of watching the results of Germany’s general elections right now 
…but it’s got something to say. The key argument of this deck is “Social Media itself is not relevant” if you don’t head towards user happiness. Good one, Tara. (via jkleske)
Social Business Design. Birth of a new industry?
September 12th, 2009 • 3 comments Social Business
Tags: Altimeter, Business, Dachis, Debate, Future, Headshift, Prediction, Presentation, Social Business Design, Strategy, World
I just read metarand’s article about Social Business Design. It reflects Anne McCrossan’s article Re-turning the returns which assumes that a new post-marketing industry is materializing currently. An industry that shapes institutions and companies, not brands and brand messages. Her definition is…
…Social business design sits at the intersection of organizational development and marketing, and can loosely be described as the practice of developing communities of engagement to develop ideas, activities and outputs for commercial and social benefit.
As organizations adopt the principles of social business design, intangible, soft assets like brand value, purpose, human resources, processes and capabilities come to the fore. Social business design is about engendering involvement and it’s inbound.
Slightly differently, marketing services and ‘broadcast’ media operate on the basis the message and transaction are the means to the end. Marketing services communicate primarily outbound.
Anne’s article reacts on the forming of a new key players in this field (Dachis Group/Headshift), along with the hiring of Social Media Rockstar Owyang by the Altimeter Group.
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