Penny Saved is a Penny Earned

Social Network Marketing is all about the "Social". The fundamentals are the same as we learned as a child and developed through adult hood.

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
2. Don't lie -- be yourself
3. It is better to give than to recieve
4. Turn down a couple of invitations and they stop comming

So it should be no surprise that recent finding have shown the same to be true in Social Network Marketing.


The only thing worse an online marketer can do for the relationship with their client than lying is to start something that they can not finish.

Time is the most precious commodity a customer can give. So if a customer is willing to invest time in you then you had better be prepared to follow through. Like in real life the relationships that last are the ones in which both parties invest and believe that it is mutually beneficial.

Traditionally, business has only been interested in the short term. Using a series of stand alone campaigns to promote products. However, with the move to lifestyle marketing it is critical to establish a psychological presence that is omnipresent. I hope this does not sound too spooky -- ha ha. But like a good friend or lover it is good to be thought of often.

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.

Leo Burnett and Douglas White; the story of

The key to any successful campaign is to clearly identify your objectives before starting.

Message
Target Population
Concept
Delivery Strategy
ROI

Below is a summary of two approaches to Social Network Marketing that were used in a recent campaign for G.O.D. founded by the style gurus Douglas Young and Ben Lau; one of the most recognised brands in Asia.

Heavy weight Leo Burnett and new kid on the block, Prosperity Research Ltd. used different approaches to achieve success for the client. Below is a summary of how this played out.

Pitch – Effectively use online or Social Network Marketing to increase visibility of Delay No Mall a new concept mall opening in Hong Kong.

The Top Down Approach

Approach – Leo Burnett conceived a highly stylised series of videos that were placed in a limited number of the internet sites (youtube). They then used their significant industry presence to drive buzz through mostly industry related online publications.

Outcome – Decent amount of views, high industry recognition and good WOW factor. But unclear on how this targeted the important demographic – customers that have access to the retail outlets. This approach of getting high level industry acknowledgement has significant value in securing G.O.D. international recognition. However, by directing the campaign toward industry and insiders, the benefit to the average customer is less clear. Additionally, this appears to be a one off campaign so the opportunity to build an audience maybe lost, meaning that money spent on this campaign did not add to the equity. Many of this campaigns attributes appear better suited for a print campaign rather than Social Network Marketing.


The Bottom Up Approach

Approach -- Prosperity Research Ltd. conceived a series of 3 videos examining different stages of the development of Delay NO Mall. Key personalities, fun and music were integrated into the videos to gain a wide fan appeal. Without having industry leverage, Prosperity Research Ltd. did it the old fashion way – hard work. After identifying key sites that were demographically rich information was seeded. This was in the form of still images, news releases, and the 3 videos. The process was:

Research
Build buzz
Release video
Interact with viewers
Repeat for next 2 videos

The effect of this process is profound. Instead of creating a sliver of interest in an infinite amount content choice, we started to build an audience. By interacting with the key demographic in an ongoing and natural manner; we built expectation of what was to come. The fan base continues to grow because we are spending the time to nurture the relationship with the customer. By building the audience we create greater value.



Points of difference

Leo Burnett –

Brilliant concept and well placed
Glaring absence on search engines
Seen in online industry magazines limited access to key demographic
Short term strategy that you would tend to see in print campaigns
High WOW factor
Entrance into the big league

Prosperity Research Ltd.

Scaled down concept (no budget!)
Captured front pages on all major search engines (English and Chinese) for 3 weeks running
Seen more (by count) by customers
Fully utilised the democratic space on the internet to build a bottom up campaign – people first
Long term strategy in place to build the fan base
Effective honest solution that delivered
Added value by creating equity in the campaign – investment in your customers and brand should continue to create benefits long after the campaign is done

In summary there are two very succesful campaigns that took distinctly different approaches and arguably had different goals.

All the best,

Doug

Where We Get What We Need!

The latest hoopla about the United States political elections has raised my eyebrows. Not so much because I am an American and this stands to be an election of greater historical significance than most -- first African American or woman president -- but because so many of my non-American friends, here in Hong Kong, are fascinated by it. Like a soap opera on crack it has a ferocious grip on their attention. I am curious where and how they get this constant fodder that feeds their rabid speculation. Surprise! -- Social network sites on the internet.

New Data Confirms Growing Influence of Internet on Politics, But Not Quite Yet the Deciding Factor via kwout

Social Network sites and news aggregators, bookmarks and feeds have all made the gossip mill a powerful machine. It is long past the days of exchanging gossip over the back fence. Now legions of pundits can rapidly access, summarise and trivialise immense amounts of data and send it to all of their friends with an emoticon and embedded video in the blink of an eye.

Facebook Up, But MySpace Still Leads By A Very, Very, Very Long Way via kwout

I find this amazing in many ways. I have a degree in statistics and though I have always been terrible with numbers, I have found the pollsters an amusing past time. Historically they have sent out questionnaires or conducted phone interviews of a “representative sample” to get the real dope. This all made sense when people more or less received the same news feeds, either through the newspaper or evening news. However with the internet everyone can, and does, receive an individually select feed of information. Uniformity of content delivery is not there. How do people make decisions now, how is opinion influenced? The puzzle has become much more complex – this is so fun!

Huge Mob Rushes the Gates!

Run, run, run as fast as you can in the direction of online video. Video becoming the dominant means of communication is clearly articulated through both ad revenue and behaviour. There are many motivations why persons are shifting to digital for their primary sources of information and entertainment:

Truveo Index Hits 100 Million Videos via kwout

1. Convenience -- mobile everywhere
2. Green -- read once and toss magazines and papers now come with a guilt factor
3. Current -- Digital gives you the "right now". Anything on paper is guarnteed to old news
4. Interaction and sharing -- If you see something cool then send it on. You can't do that with a newspaper
5. Individual -- in the digital world you can see what you want and disregard the rest -- print media is made to appeal to the widest range of taste. Whereas digital is served up the the audience of one.
6. Culture and Languge -- Video or showing someone overcomes many cultural and language barriers that print can not address.
7. Emotion -- Site, sound and moving images can convey powerful messages with great economy.

Thanks Striking Writers, Online Video Going Up, Up, Up, Up via kwout

Prosperity Research, Asia's most innovative online marketing company gets this. We have been on the fore front of placing quality video that people want to see in places they like to go. www.Prosperity-Research.com