Frontiering Talk

People are continuing to talk about brands, and a recent Mediapost  article by Jack Loechner suggests that there are 3.5 billion word of mouth conversations every day in the US alone.

Whilst 90% of these conversations take place offline, that still means that 350 million discussions are happening daily.  Can you afford not to start listening?

Tags: Social Networks, WOM, Word of Mouth

Gooruze is a social network for online marketing.

Nearly 1000 members have already writtern 176 articles, joined one of the 50+ groups on subjects such as Social Media, Advertising Metrics, and Search engine marketing.

I like the way the site is laid out, and have already found it useful.

Perspective: Often in social networks, the people who are claiming to give advice in this area are not actively involved themselves. This is a little like buying financial advice from someone who doesn’t actively invest themselves.  So I would encourage anyone in the Online Marketing industry to get involved in Gooruze.

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks

Yourstreet, which will officially launch tomorrow has created something of value by plotting news and discussions from various major news sources, as well as providing the environment for discussion.

I organise a street party every year as a way to keep in touch with the neighbours, and it certainly helps create a sense of localised community.
I think this is where Yourstreet may be onto something. Afterall, who isn’t interested in a view of news of the street where you live or work.
How better to get a community group to voice opposition or support to planned developments.

There are other social networks that have emerged specifically targetting local communities such as Life At, which hosts software specifically aimed at Properties such as large inner city living, retirement villages etc.
Meet the Neighbours is also a service aimed at apartment dwellers.

Yourstreet’s contents are focused on US cities, such as New York, Chicago, but will no doubt expand driven by community involvement.

Perspective: I like Yourstreets content, allowing them to create something of a critical mass of information, which so often is a barrier for new startups. As anyone can add news, I can immediately see some opportunities for advertorials. For example, “123 XYZ street just sold for this much”, as a way to promote local real estate. Yourstreet does list the authority of various articles, which presumably could be used to prioritise content based on a reputation indicator. One also wonders why various local search offerings like Yellowpages are not providing localised news to complement their listing services.

Tags: Maps, Social Network, Social Networks

SpinVox which offers technology to convert audio to text, will soon be offering users of facebook the option to dial a number and then dictate updates which are then converted to text and posted to your profile.

Perspective: I first trialled text to voice technology in the mid 90’s as a potential solution for busy on the road sales reps to connect with email conversations. The technology has improved since then, and Spinvox seems to have found several applications for it’s tool. For instance, Lawyers use the tool to enable them to “read” their audio to text converted voice mails in court. Transcribing of podcasts might be another application. It will be interesting to see the take up of SpinVox facebook service.

via CNET

Tags: Frontiering Products, Social Network, Social Networks

Marketing Spending on social media will surpass traditional marketing spend by the end of 2012, according to a study conducted by TWI Surveys, writes New Communications Review.

260 senior PR and Marketing Communications professionals were surveyed and the results surprised even me.

- 81% of survey respondents said they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing by 2012.
- Two-thirds of respondents plan to increase their spending on conversational marketing in the next 12 months.

The top obstacles to increased spending on conversational marketing, according to survey respondents:
- Manpower restraints: 51.1%
- Fear of loss of control: 46.9%
- Inadequate metrics: 45.4%
- Culture of their organizations: 43.5%

I would add to these obstacles the following :-
- Agencies do not have the necessary skills to capitalise on emerging marketing trends
- Changes in ownership and consolidation of the large social networks

Perspective: I have always been one to research and explore emerging marketing trends, and whilst I agree that social media spend will account for an increasing portion of marketing spend, I am not sure it will overtake traditional marketing within 5 years. There will also be a convergence in the media channels which will make it increasingly harder to categorise something as traditional or emerging. What I am convinced of is the need for brands to start experimenting with how to engage consumers where they will no doubt be spending more and more of their time.

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks

Genius Rocket, is a community designed to allow companies with Creative needs to connect with Creative resources, who submit creative entries which are then scored by the members of the Genius Rocket community.

The concept is valid, but whether the site is successful will depend on the quality of creative talent it can recruit, and then whether it has enough “assignments” to allow this community to be rewarded. I suspect agencies and perhaps small businesses will be the main users of this site seeking cost effective creative input.

Perspective: Crowd Sourcing is a topic that i am convinced will grow. It’s also interesting to watch the various implementations of how sites like Genius Rocket execute this. So far, they seem to have implemented a rather simple rating system which allows the community to rate various entries. I think these systems are prone to abuse until you get a large critical mass of people are active. Otherwise, the submissions who have the ability to call for votes from their friends will bubble to the top. I think with Creativity, you ideally have a process where people can collaborate and build on the best ideas.

Tags: Social Networks

Renovation has got to be one of the most talked about topics, and so it’s no surprise to see a social network built around sharing advice.

Refurber is a well laid out site, and built on the same platform as Minti (the parenting advice social network).

Refurber has some cool features such as Latest Activity which shows by timestamp how long ago the social network was updated and by who. It’s a good indication that this social network is very active.

The company behind Refurber is Vibe Capital and they are also offering the network engine to people wanting to build an advice driven social network. An example is Building London.

Perspective: Social networks will continue to appear and over time, there will be a place for just about every conversation. So think about the category your brand is in and explore what social networks are emerging. Make sure you establish a program to monitor the conversations as this is a valuable source of research. Then, figure out ways to engage in the conversations, such as establishing advice services, or sponsorship of existing social networks. Conversations in social networks are growing .. is your message being heard?

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Social Network, Live Mocha launched this week.

The site describes itself as “The social way to learn a language”, and the site is built around these 3 areas.

1. Community. Livemocha is the first-of-its-kind online language-learning community.
2. Lessons. Fun and interactive lessons that move at the right pace for you.
3. Motivation. Track your progress and reach your goals with Livemocha tools.

It is very well laid out and even includes integrated chat so you can get help for the language you are learning as well as give help to those learning your native tongue.

I worked in Asia for many years and managed to learn some basic Japanese, Chinese and Thai. Almost all of this learning occured in the country where you can interact with real people, using necessity such as needing to find transport or food to inspire learning.

Learning languages should be fun, and you do need help from a community. Whilst I still think learning languages in the country where it is spoken is the best method, Live Mocha will be a great way for people to learn online. I love the concept, have signed up and are in the progress of doing my first course .. Chinese 101

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks

Bob Dylan is using a very clever facebook application to promote his latest album.

The application allows you to add 10 messages which are then displayed on the sheets of paper in the famous music video of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Check out my script here

Perspective: Simple, powerful and has a strong tie to the actual product .. i.e. the new album.

Tags: Social Networks

Riding the social network phenomenon is this new social network, known as Babyfy in the UK which combines product reviews, hospital reviews as well as special content features to provide a platform for new and existing mothers to communicate.

The site is well presented and there is already quite a lot of content and well worth a visit if you are in this category and live in the UK.
Babyfy is asking for expressions of interest with respect to Advertising and it will be interesting to see how they combine “consumer reviews” with “product ads” if that is planned.

Perspective: The name Babyfy is quite clever, glad it wasn’t called “Mumify”. I think review sites like this offer a great service to consumers, but I can’t help wondering if the brands who are trying to target this demographic will bother listening to these conversations.

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

In an attempt to attract young people, Leader Newspapers (owned by Newscorp) has created a local search site called Nook.

The site is intended to be a lot more than just local search, allowing users to join the conversation and write about local venues such as restaurants, review local tradesmen, as well as discuss local issues.

There are no ads on the site yet, but there’s little doubt that the site will start to run ads once the content and audience numbers grow.

Where I live is a similar site servicing Sth East Queensland.

Perspective: One of the challenges from the existing local search models such as Sensis’s Yellowpages and New’s Truelocal, is that they don’t provide facilities for consumers to review businesses. This is mainly because their listings are subscription based, and they haven’t found a way to juggle charging businesses a $1000 listing fee, while allowing consumers to publish a bad review next to their listing.
However, I think that consumer review sites have a definite place and if executed correctly, even the reviews get reviewed and rated, thereby providing a much richer source of information for readers. Amazon and Cnet are perhaps the best examples of this where professional reviews are mixed with consumer reviews to provide a rich source of product commentaries. Ning’s Restaurent Reviews with maps is another example that is purely consumer review driven. If Nook strikes a chord in Melbourne, I have no doubt that News will expand the service to other cities. I also think there is a place for professional consumer review organisations like Choice to take the lead in this space.

via Search Engine Room

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Who says traditional companies can’t play in the social media space?

I remember subscribing to J&J’s Babycenter’s weekly email just over 10 years ago, when my wife was pregnant with our first child. You got a very well packaged 1 page email explaining what part of the baby was growing. Babycenter has continued to grow, providing advice related to planning and having babies.

This week Paidcontent tells of Babycenter’s purchase of Mayasmom, which is a social network aimed at mothers. The social network will be extended across the Babycenter network. Along with this purchase, there are plans to create an Advertising network for this category.

Perspective: This is a smart move by J&J, and just shows that finally some big corporations are not just placing ads on existing social networks, but providing consumer driven communication channels.

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Facebook is set to capitalise on it’s massive growth and the depth of knowledge it has within the millions of profiles by providing an Ad-targetting service that goes beyond the current selections of age, gender and location of the user.

The new service will allow targeting based on the profile’s favourite activities and preferred music. Currently Facebook displays ads in flyers around the border of Facebook pages, but the new ads will appear in other places interspersed with profile content.

This follows on a report commissioned by Newscorp called Never Ending Friending, which discusses two campaigns from Addidas and EA there were run on the Myspace network. The report was compiled by Forrester research and argues that communication should be measured by the spread of a message not just from a business to a consumer, but also the ongoing discussions from consumer to consumer.

Perspective: Social networks can no longer be ignored as a serious communication medium. Determining how to “join” the conversations for marketeers will require innovative value equations. For example, a health business might decide to sponsor a niche health groups, providing free consultations as well as relevant advice to facilitate conversational engagement.

via Wall Street Journal

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth