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fredag den 30. december 2011

Social Media trends 2012 - Happy Social Media New Year!


During 2011, the second most interesting tech story was how social media, made the Arabic spring possible with as little violence as possible and how demonstrations all over the world have been spread by the use of YouTube and other social media. The use of small handhold devices such as mobile phones and I Pads and other such devices will be even more interesting in 2012. Getting social Media to grow in 2012 has to be looked, upon, as Mark Zuckerberg from FaceBook described the social media to come “We exist at the intersection of technology and social issues”
Having this in mind for 2012, we will see a lot will happen to expand the use of Social Media both in the area of C2C but also B2B and B2C. I have chosen to divide the new trends in two categories:

·         Social technology expansions trends
·         Social issues trends

Social technology expansions trends
One of the platforms that social technology will expand on is the mobile platform. This platform is a cheap way for C2C to be in touch with their friends while on the go.  As mobile devices will continue to get smaller and cheaper and the integration with provider services such as Twitter into IOS5 will bring social sharing on the mobile device and secure that C2C will be even more interesting in sharing. Tablet and mobile computing, empowering our ability to stay connected to networks in even virtually ways, this will change the marketing game, and you will have the ability to move products and service via social and mobile. The combination of Social and Mobile will be a new game changer.
The next thing you will see is Social Media as a Service – SmaaS. One SmaaS that will be able to secure more openness in the world is the rapid translation function. This is a technological landmark, which will ease the collaboration among people in different geographies and herby help both C2C and B2C to sell services and products with the “word of mouth” that is when, Social Media ends up as a service, a SmaaS. The transition into 2012 is going to be about social service and product selling and social media as mobile platforms. Mobil is about the ability to be anywhere, at anytime getting the proper information for the social content in the proper social context.

Social issues trends
As Social media creates demand for real time and timely response from companies, who want to sell products to their costumers the issue is to be the company in their segment to be their first (first mover). The next important issue for social media costumers is the relevancy of content and context. As in 2011 the more relevant the information you produce to your costumers the “word of mouth” you will get and the bigger interest for your products and services. An evergreen will be an issue again in 2012 – Think before you engage – if you want to be judged, on you influence in Social media it is not the quantity of information you engage with it is still the quality that will make you a winner. Another issue we will have to learn is convergence between the world of marketing and IT. We need to combine resources of the two to reach costumers with relevant content on the platform they desire.

2012, will be an interesting social media year focusing on speed and handheld devices having rapid translation incorporated to make sure that you as a consumer get the proper content in a context that suites you in real time. This is Social Media 2012 – happy new year.

lørdag den 3. december 2011

Using Social Media in your company - will that be rewarded?


What is Social Media? Social Media is like the old word of mouth concept. Studies show that the effectiveness of using word- of- mouth is huge. Word- of- mouth converts a sale order of magnitude more than paid advertising. You can even say that social media represents a source of competitive advantage.

Is social media “old wine on new bottles”?
The difference from word-of-mouth only is the use of digital technology and advanced analytics, companies can create a one-on-one relationship with every consumer. The more intimate the relationship, the more indispensible social media becomes. The digitization and herby the use of social media has its implications on the company people and culture, as it creates new relationships and interactions with your costumers, and your brand/products will get an awareness which in positive and negative way have not been seen before. As you get closer to your costumers, you need to be aware that you can’t, hide good as well as bad things for the costumers. The real time comments from costumers about products and services characteristics can be both helping and terrifying  for the company in, their us of figuring out how to best join in the discussion on social media.
P&G uses comments about their brands, which allows them to have knowledge of what is going on in the marketplace. Highly regulated products, with a challenge mission statement towards their target group, can have an extremely good outcome of using social media. These “troubled products” can by listening to what is going on in blogs and tweets creating forums and universes where their costumers can talk about products and the usability of the products.

Where is the reward?
According to a number of big companies in the FMCG sector the use of Social media and advanced analytics is:
  • Better innovation
  • Higher productivity
  • Lower costs
  • A promise of higher growth
This should be the outcome of having a closer dialog with your costumers and listen to their concerns and use of products and services. Social Media has a powerful impact on the entire structure of the companies.