Socialbakers launch Vkontakte monitoring

Business has always been and always will be about change. Change usually leads to success, if it is planned strategically and managed systematically. Change is dynamic in nature and requires flexibility and competent leadership. Successful businesses master change either in form of new products and services or improving the existing ones. One of the latest changes in the world of social business is introduction of hashtag by Facebook.

Facebook has global presence but struggling to win one of the most lucrative markets, Russia. Facebook managed to penetrate in many markets including the Eastern Europe where local social networks gradually lost traffic and members to Facebook; apart from Russia’s VKontakte.

Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers, believe “Facebook will never win in Russia”, because of VKontakte; simply because VKontakte “innovates faster”.

Socialbakers is known for its band monitoring and analytics services covering most popular social media channels as well as brands using those channels for their marketing communications purposes; but they never monitored VKontakte! Actually, they were secretly developing plans just to do that; monitor VKontakte.

Three weeks today, possibly by 5^th July 2013, Socialbakers will have social media data and analytics on VKontakte. This may not be a big thing for many brands operating outside the Eastern Europe but certainly a big thing for brands operating in that market as well as brands with presence in that region.

Innovation culture is formed by personal values

Innovation may lead brands in their respective industry but culture defines success and sustainability of brands within their markets. In this day and age culture and innovation are technically inseparable, which calls for strategic management and leadership; free of subjectivity and manipulation. When brands go through expensive change management and re-branding exercise; that means their culture has been suffering.  Therefore, it is incredibly important to get things right from the beginning; recruitment. By hiring people who are not like you but more experienced and knowledgeable than you; not only you do not lose your job but in fact you earn more credibility and loyalty amongst your colleagues and more importantly in your boss’s eyes.

Culture is nothing other than actions and actions can make or break reputation and credibility. Innovations can be easily imitated even if patented but hard to imitate good culture; simply because culture is all about people and their attitude.

People innovate, people run businesses and people do business with people; people do not want interacting with those who constantly think “what is in it for me” (WIIIFM). No matter how innovative one’s business is, if their business culture is based on WIIIFM; failure is guaranteed. In fact, this is the modern version of exploitation. Simply because mutual benefits are not considered in such way of thinking; principles of ethics are undermined. Brands with such attitude would immediately question their own authority and credibility within the market. For example below is a very nicely worded request from a reasonably successful PR software company to a reasonably successful social media consultant to provide strategic consultancy and commercial training to 15 business development managers in return for a cup of coffee:

1. So, what do you think about this organisation and their culture? One may argue 
2. How respectful their innovation would appear to you based on their culture?
3. Would you like doing business with them?
4. Would you like to use their product?
5. What have brought you to your conclusion about this particular organisation?

Innovation is not necessarily about coming up with new things; it is however about doing things in a new way. Simplifying is the new  sophisticated; and as Mark Zuckerberg once said “The trick isn’t adding stuff, it’s taking away”. So, it is obvious that innovation itself got to have some kind of culture and innovation culture is vital to innovation success. To ensure innovation success, brands need people with sense of purpose with good personality and personal values; as these are fundamental elements of culture. As it is obvious, using the terms culture and innovation as buzzwords are quite different to live the values and principles of culture and innovation.

To create an innovation culture within an organisation brands need to look for inspiring individuals with leadership qualities while giving them the authority to change; this will ensure improved productivity and profitability. This is widely due to a genuine relationship which will be built between a business and their audience.

Innovation can be easily bought but culture is priceless; so first comes culture. Put your house in order first then think of innovation. Without the right culture even the best innovations won’t get the credit they well deserve.

The Chat Diary for tweeps

Not so long ago brands were reluctant in investing in social media and taking the medium seriously; even some called it “chatter”.

Social Media undoubtedly has changed and still is changing communications and business operations across the world. Likes of Twitter gave a different dimension to what perceived as transparent and authentic; simply because ethics has one single universal definition.

Individuals from all over the world have been using Twitter for real conversations and sharing experience; which in many occasions led to international travels for meetings and seminars. More and more people showed interests in conversations taking place outside their immediate location; would it be on the other side of town, different city or even totally in a different country. This is how hashtags became the Twitter currency; what people use to interact with one another over a shared topic of interest. This is widely known as twitter chats; and thousands of them are taking place everywhere in the world that you can imagine. The most popular ones get trended or recommended by people; but there is not a place where one could find a list of twitter chats. This was the gap in the world of Twitter up until few days ago; until Mark Shaw set up The Chat Diary. This is what Mark had to say about the new service he founded:

“Twitter Chats are great, but how do you find them, how do you know when they are taking part? The Chat Diary will alert you via Twitter to Twitter Chats that are about to start so that you can decide if you want to join in.”

The idea is new and genuine; everyone is running a twitter chat may wish listing their Twitter handle and respective hashtag on The Chat Diary.

Success is based on audience not influence

Success in marketing and communications is mainly based on audience not necessarily influence; combination of the two will of course ensure sustainability in presence of authenticity. British Airways and the Arsenal Football Club are prime examples which shown in the presentation below.

What Facebook ‘Likes’ Brands ‘Dislike’

Businesses have been deploying social media as part of their marketing mix over the past few years and spent millions, if not billions of dollars on social media advertising and acquiring more Facebook “Likes” for their pages. Almost every brand wanted to be on Facebook and have more “Likes” than their competitors. That in a way, undermined the value of social media and what the medium is in fact capable of delivering. Some brands decided to buy “Likes” or to practise “Like-baiting” just to have more “Likes” on their pages; and believed this would increase their reach. Many even counted number of “Likes” on Facebook page and followers on Twitter towards their CRM databases.

Above activities turned social media to a numbers game but, recent changes announced by social network sites owners and investors seem promising; for example Facebook is now deleting fake profiles and “Likes”.

Obviously, owners and investors of social network sites aren’t spending their time and money on social media for fun, they’ve made social media their business. So, ROI is as important to them as it is to brands. They want to have real and active members subscribed to their services ensuring they serve their clients (advertisers) as profitable as possible.

Businesses have been hiring different consultants and agencies to make sense of social media marketing. Roles which didn’t exist 5 yeas ago are now amongst top well paid jobs; all meant to ensure brands are investing their money where their mouth is. Social data and social media user behaviour (what I call social media psychology) are incredibly important to brands to understand and  measure; and this is one of the jobs if one does well, it pays well. Understanding social media psychology and turning social data into insights help brands in their targeting and marketing; what can in fact justify social media ROI. Some agencies and brands have been struggling with this while seeking strategic solutions.

As you may imagine, past few years have been quite challenging for both businesses and social network sites to fine-tune social media targeting and marketing; largely due to existence of  unreal social media profiles known as bots. Facebook announced in 2012 that around 9% of Facebook accounts aren’t real; and this announcement alone sent the social network’s share price below $20 in addition to unwanted negative publicity in the press. Furthermore, Forbes reported in 2012 that up to 80% of Facebook ad clicks came from bots; and this is certainly worrying for brands spending time and money on Facebook advertising. A serious action is seen inevitable not only by Facebook but by every major player in social media space.

As Facebook is serious about their business, they decided to protect their reputation by making sure their platform is home to real people; hence their effort and promises to advertisers for more genuine and targeted users. As it appears, the move is to once again introduce Facebook as an attractive and relevant advertising platform. As part of this exercise, Facebook is even asking their members report anyone they know using names other than their own names.

Some brands have already lost up to 18% of their Facebook pages “Likes” as a result; they are questioning this move by Facebook. Brands are concerned that why they should be losing the “Likes” they invested time and money in but, Facebook aims at promoting integrity and transparency on their platform.

In the end, what Facebook has started doing is beneficial to brands too and the changes will translate to less ad dollars spent and less spam comments; which undoubtedly will lead to better sentiments and more meaningful content and community management. Last but not least, lower “Likes” but more engaged and targeted users, as well as accurate social data add more commercial value and boost loyalty.

How to create content and collaborate with influencers

Creating content is not expensive if you listen to your customers and build relationship with those who matter to your brand and business sustainability.

To create content, you don’t need a lot of money, you just need to listen to your audience and interact with them. You customers create you content, the most invaluable content; UGC. What do you reckon?

What you need to know about Social Business

If you want to increase your brand or even your personal credibility and authority on Social Media channels you just need to be:

• funny
• creative
• friendly
• collaborative
• engaging

What would encourage people to follow you on Twitter or like you on Facebook, is you, your personality! If your or your brands’ conversations are clear to people, they would listen to what you have to tell them and rest assured that they will follow you on Twitter and like your Facebook page, simple!

Entrepreneurs are made to inspire

Entrepreneurs are always looking for opportunities to grow their businesses which often lead to job creation and partnership developments. Entrepreneur Country Forum is an event for entrepreneurs to gather together exchanging thoughts and business cards, while listening to top notch speakers. Most of the established entrepreneurs didn’t have an easy life; for example one of the speakers at the Entrepreneur Country Forum in February 2013 was unemployed for well over 14 months and another one used to be a used cars salesman prior to starting of something their own; what is now businesses with employees or partners.

Everyone’s background, both speakers and attendees, were very different but they all had one thing in common; passion for business and building their own brand.

During the breaks everyone was trying to find out what their fellow entrepreneurs are doing or speaking to the Entrepreneur Country’s partners; in particular to Skype Workspace, Constant Contact and Talk Talk Business. This type of interest by entrepreneurs led me to think that businesses of all size and form are looking for ways that they can simplify communications while boosting their marketing activities through fast and effective technology enablers.

Skype Workspace is trying to make communication between businesses simpler and more effective; while Constant Contact aims to make interactions between businesses and their customers more meaningful and targeted. Both sponsors have great presence on social media channels and actively engage with their audience; in fact they were amongst those brands actively tweeting during the event sharing insights.

Social media was an important topic of conversation amongst businesses and individuals; in fact the quality of conversations online attracted people from other towns and cities around the UK to take part in the event via the event’s Twitter hashtag; #ECForum. Entrepreneurs both within the event and online expressed two main concerns to set up and or continue their business:

• Difficulties to secure fund
• Access to markets

Conversations during the breaks and lunch time amongst the attendees, sponsors and speakers were incredibly interesting; 27 February 2013 was an insightful day for those attended the event.

Below is list of top 7 users created most of Twitter content using #ECForum:

As a result of conversations created online, both attendees and those who followed the event’s hashtag, mentioned or retweeted the following users the most:

 If you couldn’t make it this time to Entrepreneur Country Forum, make sure you will next time. It’s worth attending this event, full of inspiration and potential future partnership opportunities. Remember, collaborations are the future competition.

Where Waitrose stands in the horse meat fields

Some supermarkets in the UK have been caught by the Food Standards Agency for selling beef which in some cases contain up to 99% horse or pork DNA. Supermarkets obviously have suppliers which aren’t necessarily all from the UK. As a result of an internal investigation by the supermarkets, it appeared that the meat in question was supplied from countries like Poland and Romania, as well as the UK itself. It is a very hard time for all supermarkets as the public don’t know which supermarket they can trust. Supermarkets are in hot water, as well as their suppliers and all concerned have published apologies, however the British press and media picked up on a very important point; timing of apology.

Unfortunately not all supermarkets and suppliers in midst of this scandal acted swiftly. This lack of responsiveness left plenty of room for speculation; which made the situation even worse for themselves by losing consumer confidence and trust. On a different note, even some evidence showed pork DNA in Halal meals served in number of British prisons; and the government acted swiftly and immediately on that.

One supermarket didn’t need to apologise but felt they need to assure their customers that their beef is 100% beef; that supermarket is called Waitrose.

Waitrose are doing a good job on Twitter with regards to horse meat scandal. The supermarket has been giving assurance to all their customers. They don’t throw words at people; they give evidence for what they say and do this with confidence. In simple words, this is just great! They clearly communicate with their customers in-stores in simple and plain English, and they do this through their staff; what makes their words believable.  The supermarket also monitor all relevant conversations on Twitter and step in to further assure the public about their meat products.

To their credit, staff working at Waitrose are well trained and educated to give confidence and assurance to customers. Below is a conversation on Twitter about the confidence level of customers buying beef burger from Waitrose:

Although such conversations aren’t detrimental to Waitrose’s brand reputation, but Waitrose decided to step in to once again use the popular breaking news platform, Twitter, to assure everyone that they use 100% British beef from their very own selected farms:

Being responsive and professional at all times is key to any business; and Waitrose just did it well. This says a lot about their business ethos and clear communications planning. As it is clear above, Waitrose very systematically integrate offline and online messages with a single tone of voice. It seems Waitrose is amongst those businesses that fully understand and appreciate the power and value of content.

Social Media Story

In order to guarantee sustainability for your Social Media and online communications, you need thoroughly thought through 5 answers to 5 simple yet key questions.

1)     When did the Social Media game start?

Social Media has been around forever, just in many different formats. Since biblical times we have seen examples of the “power to connect and engage” with each other, in the same way this is displayed through Social Media.

But today Social Media has taken on a very high profile and all-important role in a new age world of super-highway information, with a 24-7 world of Twitter where we clock-in and clock off on a ticker-tape way of life.

2)     How should we be playing the game?

The most important thing to note is that the game is there to be played, not won! It’s about communicating and sharing. It is about connecting and engaging with your network and building powerful relationships 24-7 while creating your very own social environment to communicate with other like-minded people. The rules are simple:

1) Listen
2) Share
3) Engage
4) Connect

With these four we can start the ball rolling, the rest will follow on; if and only if we follow these simple four steps of course. Other important elements are to invest in people and influence them; but do not forget to let you be influenced too by others’ best practice. Life is all about sharing and learning, so is business – in particular Social Business.

3)     Is it Social Marketing or Social Media Marketing?

Both terms are used often; however Social Media Marketing is correct if we look at Social Media from a marketing perspective.

Social Media needs breaking down for better understanding and ultimately best practice. It is social, it is media! Social Media is a two way avenue, whereas marketing usually tends to be one way with quite a few things attached.

4)     Why Social Media communications and not Social Media Marketing?

As soon as we talk about marketing people switch off and see the messages as spam; whereas if we see Social Media as a communication channel, we start talking and interacting with people. This is what encourages people to listen and engage.

People are on Social Media to communicate with one another and of course sometimes to find out more about other people’s experience with brands. Brands can in a way use the medium for their marketing purposes, but in a smart and creative fashion.

When it comes to Social Media, it is not about marketing, it is all about communications; so better to use the term Social Media communications.

5)     What does Social Media best practice mean?

Social Media best practice is about the sense of transparent and ethical communications we should be developing; and indeed all about an ethos and integrity of operation. It is something that develops in its own time and way, naturally and with an embryonic growth that needs nurturing by us all.

Social Media has always been with us, technology has just made it more accessible. So it should not be a surprise if I say, Social Media has lived with us throughout history. Below I display my reasoning…

Before modern day society, we know that there were:

• Stories about cavemen
• The engraving of images and symbols on the walls of caves
• The use of basic sounds to communicate

Today, with the presence of technology and innovation, we have:

• Residential and holiday homes
• Graffiti as well as creative graphics and illustration
• Languages and psychological analysis

Storytelling and conversations are not anything new; in fact storytelling and conversations began when human kind acknowledged they cannot live and progress without communication and interaction. We have been constantly and in a way consistently looking for ways to improve our communication skills; our first words were sounds and we were alerting each other through smoke.

Now, we receive alerts via Google Alert and some of most sophisticated algorithms behind monitoring and listening tools for brand reputation management. Mobile technology, videos and pictures are increasingly becoming other sources of communications; transformation of languages I would call it.

You may ask ‘what is the best practice in this ever changing and evolving space and what is the best possible Social Media brand positioning?’ Fair questions! A short but effective answer to both questions lie on two simple models (which work best when combined), regardless of your industry and size of your business:

At last, never forget commitment and consistency upon implementing HTC and LCD Models.

Now, may I invite you share your thoughts, arguments and comments with everyone about what you just read?

Post by: digiconvs