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April 16, 2011
 

Social media science and statistics will kill our creativity (please retweet)

Yes, the topic of this blog post (and probably the content of the tweet you followed to get here) are completely loaded, horrid, spammy and designed to go after easy traffic. The thing is, and we all know this secretly, these things work. Along with the attention grabbing headline, I'm also begging for twitter users to retweet... something I hate doing but sadly something that also works.

Why would I do these nasty spammy things?

There are two reasons for doing this. Firstly, I wanted to share social media scientist, Dan Zarella's "Science of social media" video with you because if social media marketing (or personal brand posturing) is your thing, you'll do well to listen to what he has to say if you want to get your message out there. A lot of it you'll already know but won't necessarily like. Don't take my word for it, check it out for yourself:

Secondly, I actually have an issue with these techniques. Sure, they work, and they work well but does this make it right? By doing this are we just upping the noise level? This actually relates nicely to the mini blog post I wrote yesterday on cutting through the noise. Not only does it up the noise level but if we start applying too much formula to our marketing message, it can become a little dry... but who cares if it works, right?

 

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Filed under  //   Category: Social media   dan zarella   hubspot   marketing   noise   retweet   science   social media   twitter   video  

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April 15, 2011
 

Do we cut through the noise or take advantage of the quiet?

This is one of those blog posts where I make an observation in the real world and apply my thoughts about it to social media. I'm not going to bother you with lots of statistics or tell you that your Twitter or Facebook marketing strategy is wrong or that I know better than you, at least not today. Today I will just leave you with my thoughts and let you work the rest out for yourself. Please share any thoughts you have in the comments area below the post.

Commercial-jet-airliner-plane

My thought of the day

This evening I was walking through my home town of Burgess Hill and a plane flew over, I'm guessing it was at around 10,000 feet. I heard the plane coming and looked up. Nothing funny or odd about that at all. I heard a plane, I looked up, I saw a plane. There were two other people walking on the same street that did the same.

Earlier today I was walking through London to work, just happened to be looking up and saw a plane fly over at what I'm guessing was about 3,000 feet. There were literally hundreds of people on the same street as me and not one person looked up, at least not that I noticed. One thing that was different was that I couldn't hear the lower plane because London is a lot noisier than Burgess Hill. London is noisier because (once you get to the root of it) there are more people.

 

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Filed under  //   Category: Social media   aeroplane   aircraft   facebook   marketing   social media   thought of the day   twitter  

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May 19, 2010
 

Foursquare Direct Marketing

So I'm at Haywards Heath station, checking in to Foursquare because I'm sad like that and I see a little yellow tab saying "Special Nearby". I click it and it takes me to the screen shown in the attached image.

Photo

If I become Mayor of the Haywards Heath branch of Domino's Pizza I will get a free pizza and I've no doubt there's probably a badge to go with it.

To become "Mayor" of a location a foursquare user has to be the most frequent checkin there.

You want proven ROI from social media? Get your chops around this spicy meatball!

More info:
http://foursquare.com

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   dominos   foursquare   marketing   pizza   social media  

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April 26, 2010
 

What Is All This #32dishes Stuff About?

Dishes

The other week I received a coded message from a secret agent whose name I cannot reveal so I shall call him Mr. D.  The message read as follows:

Agent 007,

Hope you are well.

Can I introduce my colleague Fox who is working with *******  on a new mission which I thought you would like to get involved in. It’s called 32dishes and it involves us sending you packages.

We are only sending these assets out to a very small number of agents, so do not leave the country.

They will not fit in the letter box, so please send over an address where you would be able to collect the package.

This message will self destruct,
D and Fox

I know it's a bit cliché but my number really is 007.

Shortly after this I received a phone call from Agent Fox telling me to unlearn everything I had learnt from previous messages and conversations or pay with my life.

I was a little concerned...  Perhaps even a little nervous...  I waited for the first package to arrive.

The package arrived the next day, as expected.  It was soft and round.  I opened it cautiously to find a foam football (that's a spherical ball that some folk call a soccer ball) that had been cut in half to serve as a transportation device for four very small men as pictured here:

Players

I'd love to say that the picture became clearer at this point but I just couldn't tune in.  What did it mean?

While all this was going on I had received word that a giant of a man only known as "The Big Fella" had been traveling the length and breadth of the country installing what appeared to be a network of microwave frequency antennae disguised as satellite dishes.  The total number of dishes will be 32 if he completes his mission.  These dishes had been painted in the colours of various nations to make them less conspicuous.  The Big Fella is a fully trained ninja.  He once told me that to blend in, sometimes you need to stand out.  I guessed that was the case with these dishes.

Details of his travels can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32dishes

Days passed.  More of the 32 dishes were erected.  Things were hotting up out there but I was being left in the dark until today.  I knew I was being kept out of the loop for a reason.  Perhaps this was the end for me.  I was ready to make my peace with the world and move on.  I have had a good run and let's face it, in the secret agent business you're lucky if you live past 30.

But earlier today another package turned up for me.  I quickly scanned and swabbed it to make sure it wasn't going to explode on me and opened it up.  It contained four Dutch beers, some beermats and a pint glass:

Img_2282

I think this was my contacts at the agency's way of telling me to disappear before they make me vanish.  A leaving drinks party of sorts.  Usually agents have to become ghosts if they are to leave the service alive so leaving drinks have to be done like this.  There's no other way.

This is me, though.  I wasn't going to leave it there so I had to find The Big Fella.  He didn't know it but I planted a bug in his mobile handset some time ago.  I did this with all agency contacts.  You don't want agency folk creeping up on you unawares so it's good to know where they are at all times.  I switched on my iPhone and homed in on his beacon.  He was with agent Fox and a cluster of other agents in Soho so I made my way over there.

After an initial struggle with The Big Fella I made it into a building where lo and behold, Agent Fox appeared to be making adjustments to the remaining numbers of the 32 dishes.  I could tell she was lying.  She was a terrible liar.  She tried to tell me that the dishes were a part of a campaign for UK satellite TV company Freesat who were promoting the fact that you can watch the FIFA 2010 World Cup via satellite, in HD and without subscription.  Poppycock.  Like that's ever going to happen.  According to Agent Fox, they were running a competition to win a load of Freesat HD gear including receivers, recorders and a massive TV too.  I didn't believe a word of it and I still don't now.  I know it looks like that is exactly the case when you visit http://32dishes.co.uk but I don't trust these agents.  I know damn well that they are trying to intercept our communications with these dishes and we must be vigilant.

Img_2290

If you want to be safe, secure and value your privacy, I suggest lining your walls with lead and your windows with aluminium foil.  It is also worth making a hat out of the aforementioned foil in case you have to leave the house to get supplies.

I actually made all that up.  It really is a campaign for Freesat and there really is a competition.  More details can be found at:

http://32dishes.co.uk

Filed under  //   1000 heads   2010   32dishes   fifa   free   freesat   marketing   satellite   television   tv   uk   world cup  

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April 17, 2010
 

Pruning The Gumtree - Gumtree UK is Branching Out

Logo_medium_gumtree
Last week I attended a rather fun event involving pizza, sushi, cupcakes and cocktails at Gumtree's HQ in Richmond.  The main aim of the event was to give an overview of the changes they are making to gumtree.com and to tell people like us about it...  The other aim was to have a bloody good time drinking cocktails and eating cupcakes.  Unfortunately a combination of me being chained (voluntarily of course) to my desk at work and crap trains meant I missed the presentation but I actually saw the site beta a few months ago so I already had a rough idea.  Also, since the event have been bothering the Gumtree team (Thank you Tara, Dees & Nicola) with phone calls and emails so that I have something more than just food and booze to blog about!

It's not just for London people

One of the problems Gumtree UK has faced for a while is that you hit the site and it stinks of London.  There is so much London related noise that you wouldn't even know you're on a site that caters for the whole UK.  You can change your city and all but that doesn't really help you if you don't live anywhere near one of their predefined "popular" cities.  All that is about to change.  The new design still makes use of the faceted location options but a better search and generally improved layout makes it easier to find stuff local to you.

Find stuff near you

The old location search gave you a dropdown menu of cities to narrow down your location which was OK to a point but not really granular enough to get really local.  The new search is a massive improvement on this.

(download)
Searching for stuff in your town or postcode area is a great start but you might also find it useful if someone in a village or district a couple of miles down the road has what you're looking for.  The new search will also make this possible and will continuously improve over time due to a very clever back end.  I won't bore you with the tech details but for the data mapping and search geeks out there, it's polygon based.

It's not scary

The old Gumtree site is scary.  There's stuff everywhere and it's not helped by inconsistent theming and navigation.  To a new user these things are intimidating and might be enough to put you off before you've even had a proper look around.  The new site utilises space on the screen in a much better manner, is cleaner and is consistent throughout.  Just simple things like having all your account controls top right all the time make a big difference.  Where facets or hierarchical menus are required, they are always on the left, all the "other" navigation items that are necessary but not a part of a user's workflow are down the bottom so as not to confuse.  There is however one thing that bothers me a touch about the new design and that is that the search box is in different places on different pages.  Please make up your mind where it's going to be!

Paper classifieds are a thing of the past

By my reckoning the new site makes it as easy as those old fashioned, tree killing paper classifieds but more granular and/or diverse when required.  Whether you're buying, selling or looking for somewhere to live, Gumtree makes it easy and doesn't waste any paper in the process.  Not only that but the social features built into the site make it easy to share what you find with your peers. 

Cocktails & cupcakes

Did I mention that Gumtree also know how to throw a good party?  :D

(download)

Pictures courtesy of Nicola Jackson (@NicolaJ88) & Benjamin Ellis (@benjaminellis)

Video courtesy of James Whatley (@whatleydude)

Filed under  //   1000 heads   ads   benjaminellis   classified   classifieds   cocktails   ebay   free ads   friday ad   gumtini   gumtree   gumtreemeet   gumtreepeople   listings   local   marketing   meetup   networking   nicolaj88   richmond   surrey   whatleydude  

Comments [4]

February 18, 2010
 

The Social Media Disconnect

Businesses STILL don't seem to get it, do they?  More often than not, the corporate world leave the management of their social media up to the marketing department or simply outsource to to an external marketing agency.  Nothing wrong with this but if a company has a social media presence, they really need to be social.  It's not about broadcast, broadcast, broadcast.  That's just spamming.  There are also many cases where an external agent is used to manage a community for a brand.  Again, nothing wrong with that either but when that brand is a product that requires genuine end user support, it would be nice if the "social" arm of these companies were actually able to do this.

If I have a problem with a product and require support, is it too much to expect to be able to talk to the person/team representing them on Twitter about it?  Apparently so.

The problem is that as a company grows it tends to divide its self up into departments.  This department deals with this and that department deals with that.  If you're not careful this can create disparate silos within a business.  Where this is evident on the social web is marketing and customer support.  Why are companies marketing on the social web but not supporting their customers on the social web?  I'm going to use the word "social" as many times as possible here because I'm trying to drop a rather unsubtle hint.

I really began to notice this problem when I was having problems with my O2 phone.  I don't have a land line and my mobile phone wasn't working so I couldn't phone their helpline.  I went to their support page on the web, went through their FAQ/troubleshooter thing and still didn't find an answer so I used their online support form... Which didn't work.  After getting a little pissy about it someone reminded me that O2 had a twitter stream so I contacted them.  Their initial responses were to contact the support number or use the web support.  Not very useful.  In the end (after several days of to and fro because it takes them a whole day to respond when there's actually a problem) they said they had contacted support and I would get an email from them explaining what the problem was and how I could go about sorting it.  That email never came.  I did eventually sort the problem out but I did it on my own, completely in the dark and with no help from O2's customer support.

The problem with O2 is that (as it says on their twitter profile) their twitter stream is maintained by their press team.  They just don't have the information or tools to hand to deal with customer support problems.  This begs the question: Why are they trying to support customers if they aren't equipped to do so?

I'm not blaming O2's press team because I believe they did the best they could within their mandate.  I'm not certain but I expect their press team is an external entity.  Most likely a PR/marketing agency.

The problem is a corporate one, not any one department's fault.  The problem IS the departmental structure.  On the social web, the very least you need to be able to do is support those to whom you are preaching and selling to.  If your brand is something that requires support, you need to be doing this on the social web as well as selling.

How you go about this depends on the product you're trying to support but there are so many ways and with a decent bit of community management you can get the community to do a lot of the hard work for you at little to no cost at all.

Imagine going into a shop and buying a TV.  It goes wrong so you take it back to the shop.  If that shop told you they couldn't help you because they only sell the stuff, how happy would you be?  This is exactly the same scenario.  It's unacceptable, don't you think?

Good customer support is one of the best marketing tools available.  If you want people talking about your brand positively online, give them an experience worth talking about. Where social media is concerned, it's all about their communication and what they are talking about.  It's not about your press releases.

Anyway, you get the point.  I'm done with this now.  I need a cup of tea.

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   agency   business   community management   corporate   customer support   disconnect   marketing   mobile   o2   operator   outsourcing   phone   public relations   silo   social media   social web   telco   telefonica   twitter  

Comments [0]

February 8, 2010
 

SEO Is Dead!

Oooh, that's a controversial title, isn't it?  I suppose I'd better substantiate this wild claim...

What is SEO?

From Wikipedia: "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web sitefrom search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence."

Surely search is still important?

It is.  Saying "SEO is dead" is a bit of an overstatement really.  It's still important as people still use search engines but it's not as important as it used to be because the realtime web and and viral propagation are taking over.  This means that when you do search for something on Google (or whatever) the realtime search results will come up before those with high page ranks.  Also, which is better: A search engine listing or a recommendation from a friend or trusted source?

So what is more important than SEO?

Anyone that regularly reads my my posts will probably already know that my answer for this question is social media!  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this does not mean banging your press releases out over Twitter and leaving it at that.  It's much more than that.  You've got to engage and above all else, you have to listen!  Only with real engagement will you be able to build a community of evangelists.  You need to build a relationship with your target demographic.  Engagement leads to trust, trust leads to evangelism, evangelism leads to virality, virality leads to WIN.

So should we forget about SEO?

Definitely not.  You still need it because there are always those special deep searches for finding out the stuff that not a lot of people know.  Also there are always niche applications where you may not easily build a community (although I'm yet to find one).  There is also the added bonus that someone might find you via Google and enter your community via the back door.

The back door

So SEO isn't dead, it's just that since building the extension, what was your front door has now become your back door.  Social media is the new front door!

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   marketing   search   seo   social media   techforce   twitter   viral   virality   web  

Comments [0]

November 20, 2009
 

Marketing On Twitter... So Many Still Getting It Wrong

So you've got a business, you're on Twitter and you're auto adding people based on keyword searches in the hope that they will follow back.  Some do, some don't.  When they follow back you hit their DM inbox with a link to your product/service and you can tweet all day about your awesome things, right into their stream.  Perfect, right?

WRONG

Sure it's very low cost and due to low cost if it only works occasionally that's fine and dandy but you could and should be doing much better.  I'll ask you one simple question: What happens to spam if it ends up in your inbox?  You delete it, am I right?  I know I'm right.  The same thing happens with tweets but users are also blocking these days and enough bocks can lead to exclusion from search and in some cases an account suspension.  Great plan.  How's that working out for you?

So what's the right way?

Successful marketing is about communication so that's what you have to do.  Keyword searching is still a good place to start and with tools like Twitterfall you can even refine your search to a geographic location.  So let's say you fix thingies in London and you've set up a search that will highlight people with broken thingies in the London area, that's a perfect start but what next?  Simple, when someone in London has a broken thingy you can respond by letting them know who you are and how you can help.  It's always good to strike up a little bit of a conversation and show that a) you're human and b) that you have the knowledge to help them out.  Once you've done that they will probably ask you for more details on your service.  That's the trick, making them ask you!

So you've made a new customer and they are happy with what you've done.  They will probably now follow you on Twitter and because you made them happy they are going to tell other people.  By engaging with that person you have just extended your potential reach to everyone they know too.

Building a fanbase

So you're getting followers and making new business left right and centre.  Good work but you can still do more and expand further on this.  Now that you're building a fanbase you can start publishing information to your feed that they will find useful and informative...  No, I don't mean spamming them with links to your products but you can inform them of any special offers and/or promotions and depending on your demographic link them to things they will want to see or read.  Now would also be a good time to start a blog if you don't have one.  If you're a local business, people like to know how and what you're doing.  If you're investing into their community or taking part in something fun in the area, that's exactly the sort of thing they will want to read about.  Publishing your blog posts (once is usually enough) to your Twitter feed keeps them in touch with you on a more personal level.

Blogging is easy these days and with sites like Posterous (what I'm using right now) it's as simple as sending an email.

Just the basics

Those are just a few basic tips on how to push your business or service on Twitter but there is still more that you can do but that all comes down to your own entrepreneurial spirit and creative mind.  There are many more social media tools out there that can help you out and Twitter is a good place to be looking for them.  The most important part (and I've said this so many times before) is engagement.  Make friends with people and talk to them!  One human being to another... Just like we used to do but digitally.

Of course there are automation tools out there that can make your life easier but you're talking to human beings (mostly) and they like to know that you are one too.  If your information stream is purely robotic people will soon lose interest.

If you're looking into promoting your business on Twitter, I hope this information is of some use to me.  Feel free to comment on the post or shout at me on Twitter ( @LStacey ), I'm always happy to help if there's anything you don't quite understand or if you're struggling to make it work.

Happy Tweeting!

Lee Stacey

Filed under  //   Category: Social media   blog   blogging   business   engage   engagement   fanbase   lee stacey   lstacey   marketing   posterous   pr   promote   promotion   social media   spam   tweet   tweeting   twitter   twitterfall  

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November 9, 2009
 

Lee Needs A Job

Now that we're firmly planted in November I can officially announce that after two good years working as an IT Manager for a prestigious property development/investment firm based in London's Mayfair district I too have become victim to the dreaded economic downturn and find myself seeking employment.  Usual story, the company needed to downscale considerably and that meant downscaling IT also; so here I am, looking for work!

I'm unemployed but not unhappy

I could get rather upset and wallow in misery but that's not how I roll.  I see this as an opportunity to find a nice new challenge to sink my teeth into and I'm rather keen on finding a role in digital marketing and/or community management as these are things I've actually been doing for a number of years but more as a hobby or a bolt on to previous employment roles.

Social media maven (tongue in cheek :p)

I think it's fair to say that I have a rather good understanding of social media and it's associated tools and techniques.  Amongst other things, I have over 12,000 followers on Twitter, a very well read blog and I'm not a spammer so that's got to mean something, right?

Are you looking for a job too?

This blog post actually has a dual purpose.  Obviously my main objective here is to promote myself and find some work; preferably something I WANT to do.  The other purpose is that I firmly believe that in the current climate anyone in my position (and there are quite a few) needs to stand head and shoulders above the rest so now is a good time for polishing that personal brand!  If like me you're looking for work, get out there and shout about it!  Get blogging, get tweeting and get engaging (does that work in that context?).  Of course if you do nothing but shout about needing a job you won't get much of a following so you'll need to do a bit of work.  You've probably got some time on your hands now so start creating content that interests you and I can guarantee that it will interest others too.  If you're writing about things you enjoy, it's actually pretty easy.  Try it.  Out of that your personal brand will be born, you will gain a following and opportunities to network.  Don't go follower crazy either.  There are various techniques for gaining followers quickly and I advise against all of them.  The best thing you can do by far is be yourself and engage with other people sharing your interests.

Hire me... Please...

At the moment I'm collaborating with a professional copy writer on my CV (resume) using Google Wave, which in it's self is pretty exciting but I can send you a draft version if you're desperate to employ me right now. (I'm being positive here, OK?) 

If you know of any positions currently vacant that might fit someone like me, please contact me by one of the means listed below:

Email: me@leeneedsajob.com
Twitter: @LStacey
MSN: msn@leestacey.com
Skype: pilchardmusic
GWave: lee.a.stacey@googlewave.com

Thanks for reading and...

Giz a job!  :D

Lee Stacey - Musician / Geek / Thinker

Filed under  //   brand   branding   community   digital   google   it   lee stacey   leeneedsajob   lstacey   management   manager   marketing   personal   redundancy   social media   twitter   unumployment   wave   web  

Comments [1]