How Web 2.0 can benefit your website and business
On the 3 September 09 the 6 Degrees team were guests at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) seminar at The Royal Scots Club, Edinburgh, Scotland. The seminar was presented by Mark Hunter from Tartan Media Productions and the subject was Web 2.0 websites and podcasting. Below is some of the main points from the seminar along with 6DN’s design agency’s experiences of using these channels.
For those who don’t know, Web 2.0 is the name for a relatively new website technology. Chances are you are probably using these websites: YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, Wikipedia, to name a few. Such websites basically allow you to interact with the content or add your own content such as photos, videos, music and text. This is also known as social media.
Podcasting is also another means of delivering video and speech online. Apple’s iTunes is one of the most popular channels for downloading podcasts. 6 Degrees Networking’s podcasts can now be obtained from the iTunes store and this blog (see podcasts category). More podcasts will be available soon.
Blogs
Blogs are a great way to attract traffic to your website, especially if its updated with new posts every week. Google loves blogs and many viewers often find your website by visiting your blog first. Marketeers are savvy to this and a good example of maximising this is the blog written by Bill Marriott, CEO of Marriott Hotels. Mr Marriott writes succinct posts about issues he cares about and his travels. As a result the blog has proved popular and had generated business for the hotel chain. Many readers will no doubt have the blog in their RSS reader to keep up-to-date.
YouTube
Having a YouTube channel is a great way to drive traffic to your site and create awareness about your company. Most of you will have noticed while using Google to search for something YouTube videos appear in the results. Google owns YouTube so it naturally wants the videos to appear highly in the results. YouTube generates advertising revenue for Google so it wants as much traffic as possible.
Simply posting videos is not always enough. Very often the views will be less than a 1,000. The videos need to be compelling in some way and inspire the viewer to share it on Facebook, Twitter or simply email the link to someone else. This viral effect is something marketers should try to achieve with their content.
I know from experience that YouTube channels take time to establish (3-4 months at least) and the content must have a decent production values or work well on an emotional level. 6DN are establishing their channel at present.
Below, is one of the most popular YouTube videos of all time. It resonates because the parents have unwittingly filmed their sons just being natural, yet it is very funny and endearing. It was only posted on YouTube for fun but to date it has been watched over 100 million times. Any business would love this level popularity but it is very difficult to create on demand.
However, some brands have been created a buzz on YouTube. Cadbury (confectionery brand) was able to reverse it’s fortunes after a health scare in some of it’s chocolate brands. The series of adverts show on UK television were quickly posted on YouTube by the public and watched around the world. There is no dialogue in them so their appeal is far ranging.
YouTube can also be used by the public to vent their anger after receiving poor service from well known brands. Some might argue that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Perhaps Comcast have improved their customer service due this incident being posted on YouTube by an angry customer.
The desire to be successful with YouTube has lead to some companies and organisations to create videos that are essentially deceptive propaganda, this is known as astroturfing. Obviously, if a company is guilty of this the damage to their brand would be enormous.
Twitter
Twitter has received enormous publicity in 2009. While some are sceptical about its merits, companies can use it as an effective marketing tool. The website Twitter 101 gives various case studies. Dell computers use Twitter to publicise sales and discounts on their products, thereby increasing business as a result. 1 in 30 web hits comes from Twitter. The UK high street furniture chain Habitat got into trouble recently for exploiting Twitter in an unethical way. Read more here.
Finally
Thanks to Carl Gardiner from CIM for inviting us to the seminar and Mark Hunter for the excellent presentation. If you are concerned about the use of social sites affecting your employees productivity in the workplace the implementation of a system by Productivity Software would help restrict access to these websites during working hours.
Links, resources and books
Slideshare – PowerPoint slide sharing resource
Book: New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott
Book: Naked Conversation by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel
Book: Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
“Only memory affects behaviour” is the key message at The Rhetorical Company’s talk
Attendees at The Business Grapevine event on the 30 July 09 were given a short talk on how to get their message across when speaking in public by Andrew Forbes from the The Rhetorical Company.
You can view Andrew’s talk in three parts below.
Gerry Fitzgerald offers guidance to those facing redundancy or business failure
At our networking event on the 23 July at La Cantina, Edinburgh, guest speaker Gerry Fitzgerald explained his plans to launch a new service to help those facing redundancy or business failure.
You can watch Gerry’s talk in two parts below.
If you would like more information about this service you can contact Gerry Fitzgerald on 07717 741288 or via our contact page and we will forward his email address to you.
Part one of Richard Thomson’s workshop 19 May 09
Richard Thomson of TW Associates delivers an interactive workshop on making the most of business networking at Chez Pierre, Edinburgh on the 19 May 2009. Parts two and three of this video can only be viewed by members of 6 Degrees Networking.
Marketing seminar with René Carayol, John Leech and Russell Ferguson
On Wednesday 22 April 2009 I attended a selling and marketing seminar “Creating buyers in difficult markets’ organised by Scottish Enterprise. The venue was the Norton House Hotel, Edinburgh, UK.
It would be unfair to reveal all the compelling points made in the seminar, so I will highlight a few of key points that resonated the most with me.
After an introduction from Mark Hastings from Scottish Enterprise, 3 guest speakers took to the stage. First up was René Carayol (MBE). René is a broadcaster, columnist, business and leadership speaker. René’s compelling business philosophy is founded on his own board-level experience with brands such as M&S and Pepsi. Watch his show reel below. Read his biog here.
Many of René’s points in the seminar were drawn from his decade at Marks & Spencer (major British retailer). He recalls how staff and management ‘worshipped at the altar of St. Michael’. M&S and its sub-brand St Michael enjoyed huge success for 30 years without much marketing activity as customers were very loyal to the brand. UK citizens will be aware of problems at M&S and how it’s stores have struggled in recent years. M&S boss, Stuart Rose has made dramatic wholesale changes, which have improved performance but M&S has many challenges ahead from the major supermarkets and current economic climate. Utimately, M&S must continue to innovate and introduce new business models in order to survive.
With the current economic downturn, many businesses are in crisis and must re-invent themselves or improve their marketing and service to the customer. Such improvements needn’t cost a fortune. Free advertising and brand awareness can achieved using technology such as YouTube. David Holmes, a member of South West Airline’s cabin crew rapped the safety announcement which was posted on YouTube and watched by half a million viewers.
This flight attendant is definitely a brand ambassador. He would be a brand assassin if he did the announcement in slovenly way with no one really paying attention. By rapping the everyday task of the safety announcement he was able to add value to the flying experience with SWA and generate publicity around the world on YouTube, newspapers and blogs like this one.
Some passengers have said that his rap version made them listen to the safety announcement for the first time.
René asks if you and your staff are brand ambassadors or brand assassins, as having the wrong attitude can have negative impact on the business. As he adds:
“how can you reach altitude with the wrong attitude?”
Overall René is a world class speaker and offers stimulating insights into business and how to be successful. More footage of him can be viewed on YouTube.
The second speaker, John Leech, CEO of Winning Pitch. WP deliver practical high impact solutions that are proven to create sustainable growth in sales and business development performance.
He emphasised the importance of living in your customers world and connecting with them. Selling skills can be improved by practice and a good salesman keeps going when times are tough.
John lamented the lack of good selling courses in the UK. However, Jan Thomson from Carnegie College, Dunfermline pointed out that they offer sales and marketing courses with Professional Institute qualifications. Course one, course two.
He also regretted how ‘selling’ still has a bit of a stigma and is a role not everyone likes to do. He believes that through good training staff can become more confident and generate more sales for their company.
How your business is positioned in the market is also crucial. The re-invention of Lucozade is a favourite case study of marketers, but it’s transformation from a popular drink for hospital patients into leading sports energy drink in the eighties is an re-positioning example UK citizens can easily relate to.
The final speaker, Russell Ferguson, from RFM also offered low budget marketing ideas. Key among them were using PR. He gave an example about how a Scottish manufacturing business got coverage in a Moscow newspaper. The business told it’s customers and suppliers about this unusual piece of PR. News about news is an effective tool for raising a company profile.
On a final note, all 3 speakers agreed that discounting on price was not always an effective way to differentiate in a recession. A business should find other ways to add value and persuade customers to buy from them. For example, M&S and Subway are now available at petrol stations around the the UK.
Overall it was an inspirational seminar that provided plenty of food for thought. It’s up to the members of the audience now to take action.