Social Media Management Software. Check Out Altimeter’s New Buyer’s Guide.

Januar 9th, 2012 • 1 comment Reports, Social, Tech, Tools
Tags: Altimeter, altimetergroup, Business, Facebook, Presentation, Reports, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, Strategy, Tech, Tools, we are social

So once you have given all the presentations about the value of Social Media and explained that a fan is not worth $2.38 (or something) you will – at some point – face the challenge of managing real time interaction with your customer. Here SMMS, a type of software especially designed to support the management of complex social interaction platforms, are usually your weapons of choice. Especially in a world in which any major enterprise has to be able to manage its 178 social media accounts in average.

A Social Media Management System (SMMS) is a software tool that uses business rules and approved employees and partners to manage multiple social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This system contains features such as governance, workflow, intelligence, and integration capabilities across the enterprise. The success of these tools is dependent upon a business-led strategy, defined processes, trained staff, and ability to measure efforts.

SMMS are there to reduce the complexity of large real time social media platforms. And there are many, many different vendors on the market. From Hootsuite to BuddyMedia, from Wildfire to Spredfast, no two vendors are alike and there is no one-fit-for-all SMMS-solution. Altimeter’s new “Strategy to Manage Social Media Proliferation” serves as a great overview over the SMMS-scene and offers metrics to support the choice for specific vendors based on the social objectives of your organisation.

If you have ever tried to give your customer a founded recommendation on which SMMS to choose you will know how important the following report is. In a market as cluttered and dynamic as this we need more top-level reports like the following one instead of infographics on Mashable.

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Klout. Why It’s not a Metric for Influence.

Dezember 20th, 2011 • 2 comments CRM, Tools
Tags: Analytics, Influence, Klout, Metrics, Social Infliuence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Truth

My colleague Heather – Strategy Director at StrawberryFrog here in Amsterdam – has posted quite an interesting article on her personal Quest for Klout.

This is the story:

A little over a week ago, a comment was made by a client responsible for social media that they would expect someone offering advice on social media to have a higher Klout score than themselves. I wasn’t in the meeting, but one of our art directors made the comment “Wait until you meet our head of planning. She’ll give you a run for your money.”

When my colleagues return and tell me about the meeting we go online and compare Klout scores. Mine is 40. The client’s is 51. I’ve never paid any attention to Klout before this but they insisted I try to do so and get mine up. So I connect my Facebook account. Then Foursquare, Instagram, Google+ that I never use, and LinkedIn (that ought to take care of this competition). And then I simply put attention into all of these networks. After 24 hours my score had gone up 6 points. By the end of the week I was at 53 and it seems to have leveled off there. But that’s still 2 points higher than the client’s.

We had a bit of a conversation about Heather’s challenge with her client. Of course it was just a game but an interesting one as the client really defined Klout as a crucial metric that really describes Influence.

The problem? If you are all up for lifting your Klout score all you have to do is to basically connect every social profile you have and get retweeted constantly. In the end you get something like this (which basically says nothing but…wait…MY KLOUT SCORE IS HIGHER HEATHER!!!! ):

Klout does not get tired to pretend it is the standard when it comes to influence metrics in the social web. It’s true: if it comes to asking how to measure influence somebody will mention Klout pretty quickly. Or in other words, I think Klout did a great job in making people believe they can measure influence. I think they can’t. My reason? Klout does not measure influence. It measures blah blah.

Angela Merkel’s Klout Score is only one point higher than my own. British Prime Minister David Cameron is even less influential than I am. And do you think this comparison makes sense? No, I don’t think so either. Because we all know Klout does not work that way.

My problem with Klout is simple: Klout defines itself as the ‘Standard for Influence‘. Sometimes – in more humble moments – as the “standard for Online and Internet Influence”. As a Strategist interacting with marketing clients (such as Heather does) this is just fine print when it comes to explaining if we are able to measure success.

“It’s simple, isn’t it?”, Klout is the metric for influence. And even though we all know that real influence cannot be split into an online influence and a real world influence…and even though we all know that unless I become German Chancelor or British Prime Minister I will never be as influential as two Politicians mentioned above…and even though I know that if I go on vacations tomorrow without tweeting for two weeks my Klout score will half: we still seem to accept it as a metric for influence.

Klout is not a metric for influence. It is something like a counter that tells the world how many e-mails I sent or how many telephone calls I answered yesterday. Oh…of course it turns that into a nice info visual and awards me a ridiculous set of badges (I am a “Klout OG”).

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China. Ogilvy’s ‘Social Media Equivalents’ in China 2011.

Oktober 17th, 2011 • 2 comments Social
Tags: Agencies, China, Media, Ogilvy, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tools, Touchpoints, visual, World

Ogilvy China has re-created the well-know Conversation Prism to show some of the Chinese local platforms thriving in place of major international equivalents. Practivally the diagram is actually as useless as the original Conversation Prism (‘Did anyone ever look at this diagram of 250 platforms to find the right one for his purpose?’) but it nevertheless gives you a good understanding of the vast Chinese digital landscape.

Do also check out Ogilvy China’s study ‘Connected’ on digital marketing in China.

via Penn Olson

Mobile Apps. Why responsive design actually begins on the server.

September 28th, 2011 • Mobile
Tags: Apps, Mobile, Presentation, Strategy, Tech, Tools

Yiibu is a small office in Edinburgh specialized in Mobile marketing. And they spent quite some time to think about more efficient processes in creating mobile apps – particularly in replacing native with web apps.

If there is such a thing as a superhit on Slideshare their first presentation Rethinking the Mobile Web comes pretty close to it. And the deck embedded below is again a strong statement for web apps.

It is long but very smart.

It is just a bit more than a year that Chris Anderson on Wired claimed that the future will be “driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule.”

I guess this one time he was wrong.

Dear google. google+ is getting a bit boring.

September 7th, 2011 • 1 comment Allgemein, Social, Tools
Tags: google, google plus, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools

Hi google.

I guess it wasn’t your intention. But I have to say google+ is rather boring right at the moment.

Yes, I know. When you sent out the first g+ invites everyone was extremely positive. It felt a bit like complimenting a rather slow kid for the nice picture it has sketched. And yes, a lot of people really, really wanted an invite.

Fast forward two months: I still really haven’t figured out why google Plus is meant to be a revolution. Interface-wise it is a good hybrid between Facebook and twitter. And yes: the Circles concept is a nice iteration to social networking as well as its likely future search relevance.

But a revolution looks different. Particularly as the most interesting stuff that’s happening on google Plus is exactly the same stuff that’s happening on all the other platforms.

Right now the google+ party…

• almost exclusively consists of Social Media Gurus, Personal Coaches, and bizarre Small Businesses who don’t want to be late adopters again (‘this time I won’t join it 5 years too late’)
• derives its right to party from the claim that it offers better functionalities than other platforms from which it has stolen its concepts – I still haven’t figured out how a Skype-like functionality should motivate me long term
• gets more and more intolerable due to its real name policy
• still has not communicated when it is likely going to be more exciting

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Oh Boy. How to Fuck up the Announcement of a Great Invention Big Time.

August 11th, 2011 • Tech
Tags: 802.22, Cool, Experimental, IEEE, innovation, Tech, Tools, Trends, WLAN, World, WRAN

Engineers just know how to ruin a good story.

The thing which has just been announced as a new technical standard by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) will probably really be a revolution. But instead of giving this thing a really cool name they called it ‘WRAN’. Or to make it even more cryptic: 802.22.

‘WRAN’ stands for ‘Wireless Regional Area Network’. It basically takes the idea of your WLAN at home one step – or more – further and offers wireless internet access in an area up to 62miles/100km wide. We are talking about 12,000 Square Miles aka a lot. (via PCMasters)

As far as I understand this means we are getting one giant leap closer to Internet wherever we go. The potential implications of this new standard are absolutely breathtaking – just think about the challenge for Mobile carriers as well.

But anyway. It is good to see that there is absolutely no need to revise my stereotype of Engineers. You guys have possibly just invented one of the greatest technical solutions of our time and you call it “802.22″? Seriously IEEE: What the Fuck? This could have been the greatest product announcement since sliced bread. But you ruin it because you name it like a species of Alien Bacteria.

If you want to check out more of the IEEE’s fancy marketing concepts go check out their ‘Product page‘or the Wikipedia article.

It could have been good.

We Like. Credit Card Payment via Webcam.

Juli 27th, 2011 • 2 comments Tech, Tools
Tags: Cool, Creativity, ecommerce, Experimental, Future, Ideas, Jumio, Tech, Tools, We like

Every morning I am trying to fight my way through the world’s startup concepts on betali.st and other sites. And to be honest, most digital enterpreneurs do not have very good ideas.

Jumio Netswipe is different. Sounds like just another startup that…connects you with your friends/let’s you check in to dog poo. But it’s actually extremely purposeful. It’s the first Creditcard payment provider that scans your card via webcam. And yes, I think this really is pretty cool and can potentially be used in the future.

Jumio introduces Netswipe from Jumio Inc. on Vimeo.

via Netzwertig

google Plus. Why it’s not about becoming another Facebook.

Juli 2nd, 2011 • 6 comments Social, Strategy, Tools, Trends
Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, google, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Twitter

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you probably have heard about google+ or you are already registered user. And just in case you hid under a rock, I let the guys from NMA News explain what google+ is…simply because I love their videos.

So after testing google Plus for two days I am as positive about it as most others I talked to. google simply built a platform with more Pros than Cons. Something you can imagine to use in the future because it combines some of the best features of everything you already use and wraps them in one platform. Ooooh…and a couple of nice new concepts come with the package: google hangout for example (definitely a winner). And I guess Facebook really jumpstarts now to get the Skype cooperation up and running. Among other things.

Stupid debates usually start with terms like (fill blank) killer. Can you remember one game changing product that was announced as the iPhone/Facebook/whatever killer and lived up to it? Not one product out there. And I think the industry has become smart enough not to put this into the focus of discussions around google+ too much. Simply because it is pointless.

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Genius. Diesel launches Excelbook.

Juni 18th, 2011 • 1 comment Brands, Ideas, We like
Tags: Apps, Brands, Campaign, Cool, Creativity, Diesel, Experimental, Facebook, Fashion, Funny, Ideas, Lifestyle, Media, Tech, Tools, We like

I just stumbled upon this wonderful concept gem: the Diesel Excelbook. Even though its branding value as an application is close to zero it is just one more amendment to the great platform that Diesel created with its Be Stupid philosophy. Simple, fun, stupid…well done Diesel. Check out the video…it is pretty selfexplanatory.

via Digial Buzz Blog

Gaming. EA’s Call of Duty Elite explained by TheLegendofKarl.

Juni 3rd, 2011 • Games
Tags: Black Ops, Brands, Cool, Creativity, EA, Funny, Gaming, People, Social Gaming, Social Networks, Strategy, Tech, Tools, We like

For me as a digital market guy the gaming industry is in many ways a blueprint for what is happening later on social networks, mobile phones and on websites. Gamification? I think the concept of social networks itself was invented by the game industry years before anybody ever heard of Facebook. For years many games had more social network elements embedded than many social campaigns today. Do for example check out the new Call of Duty Elite trailer which is all about EAs new multiplayer service. It’s not a campaign, it’s not a mobile app – it’s a pretty comprehensive social product which will now become organic part for some of the most popular entertainment products ever.

Thanks to creativity online for the link.