Social Media: How to destroy your brand on a budget

I get it, not everyone has social media figured out yet. But really breast feeding Tele Tubbies? There is no excuse for taking fabulous brands and make them look like they belong in the discount bin at the dollar store. Rule 1, if you are running a company do not leave your social media strategy to your teenage nephew, unless of course he happens to be Mark Zuckerberg.

Let’s take a look at some factors that make a solid social media campaign and compare them against a recently spotted Facebook page debacle. We learn from both our mistakes and the mistakes of others, and the Cotai Jet's Facebook page is a real learning opportunity. Cotai Jet is the flagship ferry service for Macau tourism, the Venetian and the Four Season's.

1. Content - “is king!”. Just like you would have a party and not forget to bring music, food and drink you should not create a social media destination like a Facebook page and not have a content strategy in place to ensure a fresh stream of interesting and engaging content to your fans. Communication strategies are foundational.

1. Really is this the best you can do? Macau is the playground of Asia and the Cotai Jet is the chauffeur for such luxury properties as the Venetian and the Four Seasons. A place that brings you Lady Gaga and the Gran Prix can’t come up with some pictures? Everybody has something interesting to share, except Macau apparently. . .

2. Engagement/ moderation - If you think you are special enough to attract fans then you should be prepared to sign autographs! Talk to your fans! You are a superstar because of them, don’t forget to mingle and have your moderator be appropriate.
1. Who would you pick as you moderator? Well it appears that Macau likes Tinky Winky and Tinky Winky like to breast feed. It appears that Tinky Winky has almost no friends and only likes to engage in lactating behaviour. Who am I to judge, but really???

3. Authenticity - All aspects of a social media campaign need to ring true. It is very easy to detect Bullsh*t and fans do it faster than anyone.
   
1. 154,542 friends for Tinky Winky the breast feeding TeleTubby (copyright infringement?) is a bit of a stretch. Considering there is no content or real conversation on the page this looks more than a bit suspicious. There is a reason that Indonesia has the 3rd most registered number of Facebook users. They are called friend farms. Yes, just like hookers you can also buy Facebook friends. And also like with hookers you probably don’t want your real friends, fans and customers to see you with them. Facebook pages are for real fans, keep your “paid dates” private.

4. Brand appropriateness - any social media campaign needs to align with the Brand. A significant contribution of any professional social media agency is to help their client find their “voice” online and to responsibly extend the brand into social media spaces.
1. We have discussed a number of issues with this page that call into question the appropriateness of the branding. It is difficult to imagine that the management of any of the Macau brands have reviewed or actively participated in this campaign. Like with any media campaingn, management buy in and support is critical to a successful social media campaign.

5. Just doesn’t suck - social media offers so many opportunities to do real cool stuff. Your page may not be the best, but there is no reason for it to suck.
1. Social media is quickly becoming the most important medium for brands to project themselves to their customers. However, it still seems it is not taken seriously. I feel there will be many more lessons to learn from before many brands get it right.
   

PRDA has been helping brands find their voice online for years. Our mistakes are behind us to ensure yours are not in front of you.


Much success,

Doug

Social media: No obstacles just road signs

China is a unique place by almost every measure. They have their own way of doing things for sure. When managing social media or attempting to quantify consumer behaviour it is not wise to reference other country data to base your assumptions. An article, economically titled "China: An Update" by Yuping Liu-Thompkins, Ph.D provided a tidy summary of China consumer differences. She highlighted several trends that are of particular interest, and maybe not that much different from rest of world.

China – An Update « Ping! – Loyalty Science in Practice via kwout

Grouping -- This is a advertising/sales technique being used by an emerging type of online sites. They offer discounted products to persons (or groups or persons) that register on the site or perform some other task. In exchange for surrendering their personal details or participating in a small marketing activity such as filling up a form or posting a brand message to their social site wall, they get a discounted price. A win win situation for all. The discounted price is not a loss for the business and in exchange the business gets an expanded database or their brand promoted online.

Cash instead of cards -- Yuping describes the unique set of conditions in China, e.g. low labour cost, long history of shipping goods to villages and a cash based economy to detail how COD (cash on delivery) is more effective and less costly than online credit card transactions. A very different way of doing business that may make many Western businesses nervous, but it works.

The lessons we learn when we take the time to really listen can be very rewarding. There is not one solution to every problem and when using social media that crosses so many borders it is critical to be aware. There are no obstacles only road signs keeping you informed along the way if you are so inclined to notice.

PRDA has been delivering successful social media programmes in Asia for many years. With hundreds of successes we have learned well the unique and wonderful tapestry that is Asia. Look to experienced professionals to reach your fans.

Much success,

Doug

Social media: The fans win

There has long been speculation and gut instinct that social media produced ROI. However despite many promises of being able to track online behavious accurately, there has been few statistics come forward. This has been primarily because of the weak link between online content and point of sale. However, this gap is quickly closing as brands pour more and more budget into digital and expect to see results. A recent study by Syncapse and reported by Haysam Fahmy in the blog Asia Digital Map shows, what all of us had thought true for a long time, people who invest energy in becoming fans of a brand in social media tend to spend more, be more brand loyal and are more likely to be brand amabassadors. Social media does payoff and in a big way.

Fans spend more!

On average a Facebook fan will spend almost US$80 a year more on a product than non-fans

Fans share more!

The most intreguing aspect of social media is converting customers to brand ambassadors. Fans of brand are 40% more likely to share brand information. This is powerful marketing.

The long and the short of this is that brands now have definite proof and measurement tools to show the clear value of social media. What is done with this is yet to be seen. Social media is still largely unknown and only few companies like Prosperity Research have the expertise to navigate social media effectively.

Social Media? 12 reasons plus 2 more

Social media is becoming an undeniable option for business. Some are still uncertain why or how they should use social media, but the tidal wave of users make the need to move into social media fell like a "must do". Fortunately there are good reasons and this article released by Social Media Today provides a compelling argument. Social media budgets are exploding and according to the author there are 12 reasons to jump in. That alone should be enough, but I can think of at least 2 more to add to this list that make the value proposition impossible to resist.

• Listening -- the single greatest differentiator between social media and traditional is the opportunity for engagement. To be able to receive customer comments and product information in real time is extremely valuable. Traditional media can not provide this. Brands that recognize the value of receiving customer engagement and leverage this will outpace their competitors.
  
• Community building -- social media is about community building and engaging customers. Many brands are still stuck in the "broadcast" mode of communicating and missing the great opportunity for becoming "friends" of their customers. When the shear volume of information that is pushed out into social media each day, the idea that someone "chose" to listen, opt in, comment on or subscribe to your message is remarkable. Once you have their attention, it is best not to lose it. Treat them well.

Social media is all about being "Social". The most successful brands recognize this. Brands that let their ego go for a bit and truly focus on their customers will enjoy success.

Much success,

Doug

Prosperity Research helps brands find their voice online. PRDA has significant experience and can help businesses find the value in all the
commotion.

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Social Media: Mind blowing stats counter

We are all very much aware on the fast pace of social media. We usually think of it in terms of people around the planet. I came across this in Social Media Today. It is a social media stats counter created by Gary Hayes at Personalize Media. Whether you are a numbers geek or just trying to better understand social media and social networks, this widget is a great motivator.






Much success,

Doug

Social Media Success: China video sites critical factor

It is well understood that consumers are viewing a significant amount of video online. It is quickly becoming the CMO's media of choice for online marketing. However, creating a video is not in and of itself sufficient to make it successful. There are many variables that can effect the success of online videos. This post focuses on social media video views based on hosting location and the top sites from data collected between December 2008 and May 2009. The two main locations where consumer uploaded video is hosted are China and US/Europe.

The videos tracked were part of social media campaigns launched by Prosperity Research for a range of clients which include fashion, sports, legal, charities, hospitality and many others. During the period from December 2008 to May 2009 101 videos were released. The majority of the videos were English language videos with Cantonese and Mandarin subtitles. The break down of number of Chinese and US/Europe video hosting sites were about equal at 24 US/Europe and 22 Chinese. After review, sites with negligible views or were closed during the study period were excluded. The remaining sites totaled Chinese (18) and US/Europe (19).

The videos were posted to the sites using the same title and description across all sites. The only differentiating factor was that on Chinese language sites the title and description was translated into Chinese. The views tracked were those recorded by the site. This study makes no claims to the accuracy of view counters on these sites with one exception. The China site www.9mv.com recorded view rates that appeared too exaggerated to be accurate and the site was eliminated from the analysis.

The two comparisons of video views are a comparison of total views during the period on the sites included in the study. The second comparison of views on the top 3 sites from China and US/Europe.

Total views of videos by location:

Top viewed sites for China and US/Europe

Summary:

The results of the analysis provided some surprising information. The expectation was that the US/Europe sites hosting predominately English language videos would receive the majority views. However, the China sites significantly outperformed based on number of views. There was also the expectation that popular China video sites www.youku.com and wwww.tudou.com would have been top performers but they did not make the top 3 spot for China. This first analysis does not provide clear reasons on why China video views outpace those of US/Europe at this point, but the results clearly point to the importance of China video hosting sites as a critical component of a social media campaign.

Social Media Example: Global Real Estate Investment

IP Global's Managing Director is very charismatic and knowledgeable when it comes to international real estate investing. It was a logical fit that he should utilise video to fully capture his compelling delivery of current real estate investment insights.

IP Global has a long standing in Asia as a premier real estate investment group by creating wealth through sound real estate investments for their clients. With ever increasingly geographically diverse investment opportunities and an increasingly mobile investor group, moving their messages online seemed the right choice. Starting with a redesigned website that provided deeper information was a first start. But to relay timely information to clients a podcast was recognised as a highly effective tool.

IP Global is looking to produce regular updates of their investor podcasts to keep their savvy investor base up to date with economic and invest information in a manner that is quick, concise and portable.

Below is the first podcast released to the public. It was posted across a large number of strategically targeted Social Media sites to ensure that what sites their investors are most comfortable viewing their information they will be readily available to them.

Marketing Minute: Business needs Social Media

The business opportunity with Social Media is enormous. There are more than a billion people online and 60% of those are in Asia and using social networks. Social media sites are out pacing all other Internet areas by a margin of 2:1. Prosperity Research has been pioneering social media for a significant amount of time in Hong Kong. This V-blog quickly defines why "Business needs Social Media". However, that said it is a tricky place to do business and the inexperienced may not fare well. It is best to understand well before entering because the backlash for mistakes can be unmerciful.

Marketing Minute: What is Social Media

Funny that we can find ways to keep talking about the same thing in so many different ways. I revisited some writings I made 3 years ago and pulled out a very familiar message. I then reviewed a blog entry I wrote 2 years ago and found it to be virtually the same. I am now creating v blog entry saying much the same, but this time I am moving. Well I hope you like my good effort. And I hope after 3 years of reading and hearing me talk about it, there is still something fresh and exciting to be found.

Asia to dominate online video market

Recent statistics coming out show Asia, China, South Korea, and Japan, to grow at a significant pace for online video viewing as reported by ReelSEO. These countries, along with Hong Kong and Singapore, enjoy huge Internet penetration rates and access to broadband. Consumers in these countries are showing an enormous appetite for online video as it quickly replaces TV and DVD sales as a primary source on information and entertainment. Keeping pace with this is online marketing spend. It is expected that in 3 years this will exceed 15 billion USD per year demonstrating a 50% increase. Prosperity Research has been anticipating this trend for more than 4 years now by advocating the use of video as a key marketing and communication tool. Now commonly referred to as Social Media it has many advantages over traditional models.

• Video is more compelling and engaging than static text or images
• Video crosses culture and language barriers better than text or still image
• Significant reduction in video production costs makes it competitive
• Effective alternative to TVC
• Affordable for SMB's
  
• Aren't things just better when they move?!

In summary Asia is seeing great resilience in surviving the U.S. based financial crisis and is poised to take the world's marketing solutions to a new level by leading in online video dominance.

Business says video most effective

It is an otherwise gloomy outlook for business with consumers spending less. Both offline and online marketing strategies delivering disappointing results for business. However, there does appear to be a silver lining shining through; video.

A recent interview with Schwab's Mike Naughton, VP of media and central marketing has put a focus on the effectiveness of video showing a 20% increase in consumer response over nonvideo online campaigns (banner) as reported by emarketer.

"We noticed that consumer interaction with video ads [in the “Talk to Chuck” online campaign, which ran from September to December 2008] was 20% higher than it was with nonvideo creative."

These results are being repeated with great predictabiltiy. Therefore it is no surprise that business is positioning their marketing strategy around these impressive statistics.

A study by Reardon Smith Whitaker and recently releaseed in emarketer shows clearly that online is a priority for advertisers and marketers, but in a consistent trend, banner advertisment (nonvideo) has fallen significantly out of favour.

Top Tactics for 2009 - eMarketer via kwout

PermissionTV also conducted a survey of advertisers to gauge the “tactics on which US marketers plan to focus their online marketing budget in 2009”, with the top response being video.

• 66.8% of marketers suggested that video would be their among their priorities for 2009,
• versus 22.8% for banner advertising.

Though most of the statistics are based on U.S. data they are no less credible when applied to global or more specifically Asian markets. Asian online spend is growing at a pace impossible in the sated North American and European markets. It stands to reason that by logical extension, a trend that is siginificant in North America and Europe becomes history making in a market like China.

Data Driven: Game Score West 1 China 50

It is early in the game but it appears that China is the clear winner. Whereas in the West only about 1% of Internet users create content, about 50% of Chinese are contributing online. Additionally the type of content contribute by the Chinese is more substantial. Where in the West most use email as the primary tool, Chinese are writing blogs and actively participating in online conversations making them significantly more influential.

What even further skews the score is that the Chinese are currently spending approximately 570 million hours a day online!!! This is very significant since the Western usage of Internet is only making a slow upward growth the China market is just getting started. Opportunities are huge and can only be expressed using phrases like WOW, OMG, and This is SUPER HUGE! Well established companies, like Prosperity Research, stand to do very well due to their proven track record and early in. But clearly this is a big room and the current quantity of service providers is insufficient to fully meet demand.

China Herald: China's internet users are having more fun via kwout

Chinese internet users "huge potential e-commerce market" via kwout

Data Driven: What Men, Rich Women and China Love

Men love sex . . . and the Internet

Rich women love to shop online

China's loves the Internet

Men, Sex and the Internet
Unremarkably, Break Media reported that men prefer sex to most anything else. That is not terribly remarkable, but they also reported that for the first time men spend more time online than watching TV -- that is remarkable!

breakmedia-men-time-spent-internet-september-2008.jpg via kwout

Women love shopping . . . online
Another unremarkable set of data reported by the New York Times shows that women love to shop. Wow, that is a show stopper. What is remarkable is that affluent women love to shop online. The urban myth has always been that ladies who lunch prefer to do their shopping in person. Whereas it is very important to see and be seen, who wants to be seen squeezing your size 8 bum into a size 6 pair of jeans? Some secrets are better left to the privacy of home I guess.

Affluent Women Dramatically ‘Multiply’ Major Purchases with Word-of-Mouth via kwout

China loves the Internet
Unremarkable is that online ad/ marketing budgets are gaining an increasingly larger percentage of total spend. Even in these uncertain economic times, digital budgets are increasing because they have a a more accurately measured ROI. What is remarkable is that China is exploding!!! A 40% year on year increase in online budget spend tops anything imaginable. Go China go!!!

China's digital ad spend to rocket to $5.2bn Media guardian.co.uk via kwout

Internet in Asia Population Statistics and B2B goes Social

This weeks data blog highlights the immense opportunity in Asia for Internet anything. Asia has approximately 56% of the worlds population and 39% of the Internet users. It is the fast growing rate of Internet usage and the hottest and most promising economy. Hong Kong has the highest penetration rate in Asia matching South Korea at about 70%. Hong Kong is not on this chart because its total population is less than 8 million.

Asia Internet Usage Stats and Population Statistics via kwout

B2B is the big spend. Social Networks are not just for consumers. Businesses are flocking to this format as a flexible way to engage in commerce. Without the same constraints as traditional vertical business sites, exchanging information becomes easier and more engaging.

B2B International Marketing Budgets Growing via kwout

Businesses are pouring on the spend. Below are the biggest corporate spenders of online ad dollars. This spend represents old school type online advertising of banner and paid search. This is a gold mine for Social Media proponents as the advantages of Interesting over Advertising creates a overwhelming argument for business to radically change the way they position themselves online.

comscore-online-display-advertisers-june-2008.jpg via kwout

China, on your mark, get ready, SPEND!

The China people need to spend more money!! That was the clear statement from the China government several years back. Or at least that is what I heard. For any right-minded business person this is an invitation of a life time. So we ask,

Why did the government issue this statement? Also, with sales of western products, with the exception of highend, largly falling short of expectation, what can we do different?

The answer to the first question:

• The average Chinese consumer saves 90% of their earning wage
  
• The China economy and their middle class are, arguably, the fastest growing in the world
  
• China has the largest population and by logical extention the largest potential consumer market by country
  
• The trade imbalance between China and the west is huge and unlikely to be sustainable
  
• Growing the Chinese consumer market will help in buffering against a weakening of orders from the west
  
• Spending puts more money back into the economy Well hell, spending is just so much more fun than saving!
  
  
  (This video was done by a friend of mine, Patrick Carr a film maker in Shanghai, and provides an excellent look into the emerging consumer market in China with an angle on the easier to penetrate highend brand market – please note my interview!)
  
  

Question two:

Well all of this sounds pretty easy, if the China consumer is buying then all there is to do is sell. It must be as easy as falling off a barstool. Well, many Western brands have thought that and not succeeded. The solution lies simply in having a better understanding of the Chinese consumer.

Simply put there is no China consumer and therein lies the problem! The China consumer has not had access to consumer goods or freedom to enjoy lifestyle and luxury products. Therefore the problem lies in knowing how, what and why to buy rather than to buy or not.

There is a significant opportunity to provide guidance to the emerging China consumer on shopping behaviour. Providing the confidence to spend their money and showing them how it will enhance their lives is an important first step to energising the China consumer.

Online Activity Dominates Our Lives

8 video myths debunked - iMediaConnection.com via kwout

Just 10 Sites, Apps Averaged at least 500MM UK Online Minutes per Month via kwout

A new online game in China every 10 days; 79.5 million Internet users via kwout

The Giant Is Awake!

If there was any doubt where and when the next major boom in online activity was going to be, there clearly is none now. Asia in general has always had a reputation as being technologically advanced and this reputation is well deserved.

This year Asia will expand to over half of a billion internet users and China will surpass North American for the number of internet users. This will make China the world leader for internet penetration.

500 Million Internet Users in Asia-Pacific - eMarketer via kwout

There have been a number of factors that have facilitated China's leapfrog over North America as the highest rate of internet penetration and greater degree of acceptance in daily life. These are both economic and political in nature.

1. Economic rise of the middle class in China has greatly accelerated the internet culture. New money buys new things. A sudden rise in disposable income allows for purchases of goods that only a short time ago where not available or affordable. Whereas the West has been spoiled for choice for a long time and therefore people wait to "trade up" their appliances. The Chinese are buying for the first time, and they are buying cutting edge and embracing it fully.

2. Freedom of communication and sharing of ideas. The internet and mobile devices have provided modern Chinese a level of freedom in sharing ideas and communicating with others that has long been taken for granted in the west.

3. Weak infrastructure actually facilitates the growth of internet and mobile communication. Wireless commications -- mobile phones -- can be quickly installed at a relatively low cost compared to dedicated land lines. Therefore a in country that rapidly demands modern conveniences; a mobile phone is more likely to be available than a wired phone in the home. As an extension to this, Internet cafe's have gained strong cultural and social promenance by providing services that may not yet be available otherwise.

With 80% of Chinese internet users stating that it is an important part of their daily lives we can be asured that the rise of consumerism in China will quickly overshadow Western Countries. What is most interesting to watch is how this is approached. China is not the West and any attempt to treat it as such will most likely meet with disapointing outcomes.