HotHouse makes brands work for people online

Back in the 1980s, when the development of personal computers and desktop publishing software made it easy to change page layouts without expensive typesetting, it was said that anyone could become a publisher. Yes, it did increase the flexibility and reduce the cost of putting out a publication, but you still had to sell enough copies to pay the printer, the truck driver and the distributor – there was still a sizable cost risk for independent publishers.

But today, with the advent of the Internet and free blogging tools, the phrase “everyone’s a publisher” has now come to fruition. Millions of individuals and small independent publishers create their own news, comment and videos to share with friends, family and the rest of the world.

Not surprisingly, this has had a devastating effect on traditional media outlets. With people splitting their time between TV, radio, magazines, newspapers and now millions of websites (not to mention the reduced spare time all these self-publishers have to consume media), TV audiences are splintered, radio is slumping, and print circulations are steadily dropping. Newspapers have been particularly affected as one of their major sources of revenue – classified advertising – migrates to the web at a cracking pace.

Australia  - hanging onto eyeballs

But, as with the global financial crisis, the situation for the traditional media is not as bad in Australia as it is in the rest of the developed world. Consumption of traditional media and associated revenue, while dropping across the board, hasn’t fallen off a cliff the way it has in the US and Europe, with newspaper and magazine closures tossing more than 25,000 journalists out of work in the past two years.

And while media proprietors in those countries decry the rise of the Internet, Australian media companies are making the transition to integrating their online and offline presences with a fair degree of success. Take a look at these traffic figures for page impressions (PIs) on Australian media websites, compiled recently by News Limited:

Network     PIs June 2008; PIs June 2009; Change
Fairfax          593,081,202    745,199,109           +26%
News           377,282,786    510,713,402           +35%
NineMSN    378,976,447    465,449,832           +23%

That’s nearly 2 billion page impressions per month to the top three media web portals, up more than 30% from 12 months ago. And while I have my own questions about the measures used to compile these numbers, and the revenue from those impressive statistics still doesn’t compare to the rivers of gold from their traditional activities, at least the Australian media giants are maintaining some semblance of reader loyalty.

So what’s different about the Australian market? I asked Andrew Jaspan, former editor of The Age, when interviewing him for our most recent HotHouse podcast.

Andrew puts it down to geography. Our continental isolation historically kept publications from outside our borders gaining a foothold in Australia, while the distance between our major cities limited our choices for local news.

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Simon van Wyk talks to Andrew Jaspan, former editor-in-chief of The Age, about the future of online content and why Australian media moguls are better positioned than their American and European counterparts to make the transition from traditional media to online. He says, “There’s never been a more exciting time to be a journalist… with convergence you can do everything - writing, audio and video.”

Listen to the podcast below.

 

 Andrew Jaspan Podcast [41:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Earlier today Twitter launched a guide called “101 for business”. As the name suggests, it’s designed to explain to businesses how to use the popular Twitter service and  how to get the most out of it including  case studies.

“Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter.”

Some of the case studies are facinating:

Dell - uses Twitter (@delloutlet) to raise awareness about the brand, increase sales by selling product through special Twitter-only deals, and connect with customers via any one of their 80+ Dell branded Twitter accounts. Read the case study here.

JetBlue the US arline was one of the first major brands to join Twitter (@jetBlue) in 2007. They set out to help customers with travel problems, and also to provide customer service. Today they have more than one million followers and are often pointed to as an example of “smart corpoate twittering”. Read the case study here.

Teusner Wines is a boutique vinyard in the Barossa Valley “producing kick arse wines from some of the oldest vines in Australia”. For Teusner, Twitter (@Teusnerwine) is about building trust and loyalty with followers - and not selling to them. Teusner reach out and connect with people talking about the vinyard. They find out what they like and don’t like.  They provide third paty reviews of the wines. Read the case study here.

Pepsi is using Twitter as a faster and more personal way to connect with soda drinkers (the brand twitters as @Pepsi; the corporation twitters as @PepsiCo). They use Twitter to listen and talk to customers in an attempt to humanise the brand “and make it more accessible to consumers”. Read the case study here.

Read more case studies on Twitter 101 for business guide.

Audrey Myrden  is a friend of our colleagues at Marketing Angels and she needs our help.

Audrey is 42, 3 kids (7,5,2) + hubby but no family here and has already battled and beaten breast cancer.

Now she’s been diagnosed with a virulent form of brain cancer (think Chris O’brien, Stan Zemanak & Andrew Ollie).

Because of her breast cancer she’s been uninsurable and is rightly worried about the family she’ll leave behind.

Her friends and local community have organised a number of events starting in July to help raise funds.

We’re doing our bit and have put a team together for a tournament at Manly Golf Course on Thursday July 30.

To find out how you can help, visit the website Audrey’s Wish here. Every little helps.

Online brand communities take a lot of work and time to nurture and grow. How do you know they’re providing value for your company? Some recent work in this area includes:

Social Media Metrics Superlist – From the Interactive Insights Group, this is a constantly updated mega-list of measurement, ROI and key statistics resources. Bookmark this one and keep coming back to it.

The Five Ps of Social Media – Where do you Start? This is an excerpt from Lon Safko’s Social Media Bible, published on Fast Company. Check out the fifth P, Progress, for a brief discussion on measuring the value of your social media marketing.

LinkedIn – the Network Effect Revisited – From the IT World website. Quotable quote: “According to experts, Metcalfe’s Law of the network effect should not necessarily be employed by users in determining how many users to connect with on a service like LinkedIn.”

LinkedIn Superguide – Also from the Interactive Insights Group, this is a comprehensive list of links to help you understand and fully use all aspects of LinkedIn. Another one to bookmark.

As mentioned in our most recent podcast, LinkedIn can be used for personal and corporate branding. But does that translate into business? Here are a few case studies showing LinkedIn in action:

The Weather Channel – A video and article about how having a personal/business profile on LinkedIn can lead to an acquisition opportunity.

Comparing the marketing effectiveness of LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Stumbleupon – An e-business consultancy reports on the quality of traffic coming to its site and downloading whitepapers, etc. – LinkedIn stands out as the most productive feeder of traffic.

Networking with LinkedIn – If you’re into some offline reading, this page contains reviews of a few books that offer scores of case studies on how LinkedIn has been used successfully by businesses to “research prospective partners, find industry experts, locate and get background information on potential employees, perform research on competitors, contact media, and close sales.”

LinkedIn Blog – Yes, you’ll only hear positive stories here, but it’s a good place to read about the different ways LinkedIn is being used by its 41 million members.

It’s a grey line between your corporate presence and your personal brand when it comes to social media.

As the name implies, social media is about people – not just your customers, but also you and your colleagues. As such, it’s as much a personal branding tool as a corporate branding one.

When you set up a Twitter account to build relationships and (gently) talk about your company /product/service/event, you’re also building your own profile. If you’re writing for your corporate blog (like I am right now!), you and your company are in a symbiotic relationship that benefits both of you; if you broadcast your company connections on your Facebook account or are the admin for a Facebook fan page, you’re blending your corporate and personal image on several levels (which is why a lot of people choose not to do it).

The most obvious social media tool where this blending occurs is LinkedIn. LinkedIn has variously been dubbed an online resume, an online contact list and Facebook for business people. The idea of forming networks to advance business aims online is a powerful one, and more than 41 million people in 170 industries in more than 200 countries have bought into the concept.

Unlike most businesses, LinkedIn has experienced enormous growth during the global financial crisis as redundant or worried individuals join to extend their reach in the search for possible employment opportunities.

It’s also being used by more and more businesses as they encourage their senior employees to sign up (following the lead of junior employees who’ve already registered) and connect with potential customers (as well as potential future employers – such is the double-edged sword of social media).

Linking tips

The top social media experts use LinkedIn as a key component of building their personal/corporate brand online.

Chris Brogan who has built a vicarious interest into a career as a strategist and commentator on social media and whose blog is ranked in the top 10 of the AdvertisingAge Power 150, says that the most important thing to remember when putting together your LinkedIn profile is to think about who’s going to be reading your profile.

“The first horror show I see when reading other people’s LinkedIn profiles is that they’re written completely dry, as if robots are the only thing that will read them. Though one should write with (search) robots in mind, this is still a human network, so write as if you want someone to actually read your profile.”

He goes on to say that, “Make sure that when people read your job description, they are thinking about how to put you to work on their issues. I state my company’s primary functions in the first sentence of my current role, so that people can see what I’m bringing to the table alongside my own personal skills. Thus, my job description states what I’m doing, but also what I can do.” read more

HotHouse content director Ray Welling talks to communications director, professional networker and author Chuck Hester about using social media tools like LinkedIn to build both your corporate and your personal brand.

He says an attitude of helping others is the key to social media success. “The social media highway is littered with the bodies of companies who have tried to sell through social media and have failed miserably in the process.”

Listen to the podcast below.

 

 Chuck Hester Podcast [19:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Online brand communities take a lot of work and time to nurture and grow. How do you know they’re providing value for your company? Some recent work in this area includes:

• Online Community ROI (Return on Investment) TCO Analysis (Total Cost of Ownership) – this worksheet helps you work out ROI and TCO for implementing an online community or social network.

• Online Community ROI – A collection of statistics that build a solid case for building online brand communities. Accompanying PowerPoint here.

• Measuring Success in Online Communities – Summary of a presentation on the topic at the recent NewComm Forum.  Accompanying PowerPoint here.

• Measuring the Success of Online Communities: the academic view – a link to articles on this topic in Google Scholar.

• How do you measure success online? – A blog and robust set of comments on the topic on the Econsultancy website.

As mentioned in our most recent podcast,  online brand communities are effective when integrated with overall business strategy. Here are a few places where you can find good examples of these communities in action:

Harley-Davidson case study – A comprehensive examination of the Harley brand community phenomenon on WebProNews. Quotable quote: “It’s one thing for people to buy your product or service, but it’s another for them to tattoo your logo on their biceps.”

Komjuniti case studies – A spin-off of the Brand Science Institute, Komjuniti is an agency dedicated to setting up brand communities. This page links to case studies about the creation of online brand communities for companies including Nutella, Coke, eBay, BMW, Nike and 3M. Quotable quote: “Investing in your own brand communities allows you to moderate brand specific dialogues and build long-term relationships.”

Duck Brand Duct Tape: Commodity with a Community – Here’s an entertaining story about a community which, as they say “really sticks to the brand” (boom, boom). Quotable quote: “What can be so fascinating about duct tape that consumers would actually care enough to form a community around?” Well, for one thing, you can make a prom dress out of it.

Should You Launch a Brand Community? – Not strictly a case study, but a comprehensive look at the pros and cons and steps involved in launching a brand community, produced by MarketingProfs. Quotable quote: “What’s important isn’t the platform or the tools that you choose – it’s starting a productive dialogue between customer and brand.”