It’s all about timing…

Today we are going to have a quick example of bandwagon mixing.

Take one spoonful of an existing viral creator, you can choose any of those out there. You might decide on the well known Elf Yourself viral but today I’ve gone with Russell Athletic 80’s maker.

Then add a variable amount of celeb factor. I’ve added two lumps of Simon Cowell and Louie Walsh, with a sprinkling of Cheryl Cole – Simon Cowell looks awesome as an 80’s aerobic dancer!

I already had a copy of Rage Against The Machine: Killing In The Name Of on my iTunes but you can buy one here for only 29p and fuel the crazy buzz around Xmas number one. (In the spirit of fairness you can also buy the X-factor Xmas song from http://tinyurl.com/joemcthingy.)

Give them a nice little mix up and sit back to enjoy the results. It literally only takes a few minutes and then you can successfully sit back and know you’ve taken part in the latest internet-bandwagon-buzz-thingy! Well done.

Kudos to our agency mates at Scorh London for putting way more effort in and coming up with this nice little video:

Social Media, like most industries of today, is experiencing an increasing pressure for metrics and deliverables upon project completion. It is interesting to meet up and chat about how others do it. Measurement Camp is a public project that is open for anybody and which bring together quite a diverse group of people to discuss how to measure social media activities.

It seems that wanting to measure media is related to how people like to use familiar and perhaps ‘safe’ business terms such as transactions, revenue and customers when taking about returns on investment. And it’s up to the ‘social media guy’ to be creative around how to meet these requirements.

But why is it that no one seems to know how to measure ROI for social media? Could it be that ROI is a business metric inapplicable in this instance?

One of the many suggestions that came up during the last camp involved going back to basics, and therefore monitoring the baseline before and after social media activities. This has proven to work in a few cases where ROI has increased as brand image and customer communications has improved. However, on big projects social media might not have any threshold weight and so it is very unlikely to be measured against the baseline… Also, how do we apply this when the social media activity is no longer new to the business, but rather built in? I’m afraid, this evening Measurement Camp didn’t manage to measure a lot…

Two final notes: Firstly, although this may sound obvious, organisations should really get better at saving buzz and sending over a copy to the RnD department. Talk about valuable leftovers! And secondly, a little bird tweeted in my ear and said that ‘if it easy to measure it is useless’. The debate about how to best measure social media is not over yet!

Grandma loves Tweet(y)

Some still struggle to see the point of being on Twitter. Because how could a simple 140 character platform bring any sort of value whether for your personal social life or for an multinational organisation? Yet many others will say that their Twitter account is their claim to fame, others again will show how the platform has developed their brand, introduced them to their clients and now function as their main port of contact with the surrounding world.

There is no doubt that lies great value in identifying what types of people use different social media channels, how they use them, when and why. Reports from 2008 (PEW Internet and American Life Project) presented a picture of how the younger Internet users, 18-24-year-olds, were more likely than any other age group to be found on Twitter. Back then, users aged 50+ accounted for somewhere in the region of 4% of the total usage.

But as Twitter continues to see an incredible growth rate we see tendencies for more mature users turning to the site. Recent research issued by Nielsen Online confirms that twice as many 50-64-year-olds than 18-24-year-olds in the UK are now using the platform. This shift is visible throughout the whole user population. Today, the 50+’s account for over 22% of the entire Twitter audience, making them the second most frequent user group after the 35-49-year-olds (33%).

Check out Ivy Bean who is 105 years old and tweeting away – to 50,000+ followers!

So what is it with Twitter that attracts the 50+’s? Are the younger users loosing interest? What are the implications for organisations? Is this an opportunity for new types of businesses and industries to join? These and many more questions answered by getting in touch with us at Neoco towers. We are helping brands communicate and engage this audience already.

Last Monday WOM UK organized another debate, this time the topic was whether social media should be paid for or not. They panel consisted of; Molly Flatt, President of WOM UK and WOM Evangelist at 1000 Heads; Kate Box, Head of Social Media Sales at Microsoft Advertising; Steve Filler, Commercial Director for Unruly Media and Ciarán Norris, Head of Social Marketing at Mindshare.

It would probably have been useful if the organisers had determined the definition of social media before the debate begun, as this was the main part of the whole debate and its aftermath.

There were a few interesting questions that came up during the debate though; if you pay for viral is it still viral? If you pay for social, have you really earned it? Are social media users, and more importantly bloggers, really in it for the money, or for increasing status, their passion and personal expertise?

For sure, the social platforms are all out there, open for any user or organisation for free. But there is a huge benefit from getting help from people who knows the drill. The debate took silly proportions as there is no way of neglecting the value time and money spent on social media brings to businesses. Social media management is a long-term investment that requires people’s time. The pay-offs are amazing though.

At the end of the event all present took a vote, and it became clear that over 65% of the audience thought that social media could or should be paid for – and thereby got Neoco’s sign of approval!

Mashup* runs a series of industry networking events over at Monument. This time around the focus was on the ever-increasing social media sphere. The event kicked off with the Social Media Guru video – If you haven’t seen it yet, have a look, because it is really quite funny http://bit.ly/5Z2Hgc

The main act, Chris Thorpe from Jaggeree, delivered a presentation on his views of the social landscape, something he described as odd shaped, in constant change and… very hard to describe! Having been a chemist prior to starting to play and work with computers/digital and online he likes to refer to the different elements of social media as our new ‘raw materials’. Examples of these materials, which are all based purely on data, include Identity [ID], Intention [In], Attention [Atn] and Location [Lc]. These building stones shape the foundation of what we call social media. He continued with asking:

But where does ‘media’ enter the picture? Is social media not in fact separated from media, and something solely produced and spread by social people?

I think that Chris is on to something here – this is why social media does not equal advertising, just as talking doesn’t equal broadcasting. The great thing with social media is how it is authentic. We find ourselves in a world where the digital life is very much identical with real life – there is just a keyboard in-between.

After the key act followed a number of 30 sec introductions by members of the audience, intended to stir up conversation. Sadly, many took this opportunity for throwing out a 30 sec sales pitch, which can only be blamed on them. I felt a little sad looking at the faces of the organisers. Cold beer and cold pizza followed, all in all a pleasant evening. Well done to Chris and Mashup*!

1. Twitter: Monday is the peak day for re-Tweeting

There are two ways of looking at this – either it is best to Tweet about your event on a Monday when, seemingly, most Twitter users are receptive to the message. Or there is the other school of thought, that being that Tweeting on a Friday (when fewest users are re-Tweeting) is the best day, i.e. when Twitter noise is at a minimum, but users may be less receptive to the message.

Try it out – let me know your results!

2. Event branding: “If you don’t brand your event, someone else will”

Basically, if it isn’t you taking the first step to communicate the appeal of your event, it will be someone else, and they could have a much less favourable view of what you’re doing.

3. Opinion: Ask questions of your potential attendees

Make them a part of the event by inviting them to comment on how you plan it. There are a massive range of tools available for gauging opinion on your ideas for the event. A great example is Google Docs – this lets you create forms which act as questionnaires. Keep it simple – send a few questions to key people that give a sh*t.

4. Find like-minders online: Look for people dedicated to the same cause

What is your hook for the gig? What’s its raison d’etre? Who else is interested in whatever it is that’s different about your event? Find them online.

a. RSS newsfeeds and iGoogle

Look for key words that sum-up what it is you’re trying to do. Set up Google Alerts for these keywords, wire it into an RSS and have it appear as a feed on your iGoogle homepage. This will basically provide an up-to-minute newswire linking you to all relevant content surrounding the theme/hook for your event online (everything going through Google anyhow!). This should not only help to inspire you and provide you with more ideas but, most importantly, help you find the people online who have a similar interest or opinion.

b. TweetDeck

Get a Twitter account, wire it into TweetDeck and have a search column for your keywords. For those people mentioning either you or your themes/keywords, add them on Twitter – get chatting.

c. Guest blogging

Once you’ve found these people, get a feel for what they’re publishing online. This could be potential punters, small-scale promoters or established DJs/promoters. Spend maybe a few weeks with their blogs. Get a feel for what they’re trying to achieve and where they’re coming from. Once you’re confident they are people that are worth building a dialogue with, either ask to write a guest post on their blog, or alternatively email them and ask if they’d like to contribute their opinion on yours (this may be for more experienced events organisers/promoters). The smaller-scale guys will be happy of the content and recognition, the bigger boys will be happy to flout their experience and gain additional coverage.

5. Be ‘altruistic’ with your potential attendees online

The definition of this term from Wikipedia is as follows:

Altruism (pronounced: /ˈæltruːɪzəm/) is unselfish concern for the welfare of others.

In essence, always remember that your event is all about your crowd. Period.

More soon…

Disco x

dj coxerino spins dem wheel of steel innit!

Hi, I was recently involved (via WOMUK) in bringing the great Emanuel Rosen to London to talk about his revision of the seminal classic The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited: Lessons in Word of Mouth Marketing. Read more about it here (including a slideshare).

Anyway, in all the excitement I totally forgot about the signed copy he gave me… which I thought would make a great treat for anyone who comments a good reason why they should receive it 

Tomorrow the team will be at the latest WOMUK Espresso briefing.  Why not come down. Many of our client’s enjoy these events due to Benn Achilleas’ involvement on WOMUK council. The info is below and just let Ben know if you want a ticket.

October Espresso Briefing: Global PR leaders Porter Novelli present their latest WOM case studies

Yesterday morning’s inaugural WOM UK Thought Leaders event kicked off with a bang (or should that be a buzz…) with Emanuel Rosen’s fantastic presentation The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited: Lessons in Word of Mouth Marketing. Benn Achilleas (part of the WOMUK leadership council) invited down several clients to join 100 WOM practitioners, marketing agencies, brands, academics and curious individuals packed into Ogilvy’s luxurious Canary Wharf pad armed with coffee, carbs and a free copy of Emanuel’s book, there was a great atmosphere and a high level of debate.

Emanuel’s presentation clearly outlined 7 key strategies for stimulating buzz, along with an overview of research, a cautionary note of common misconceptions, and a quick look at the future of the industry.

His use of inspiring and original case studies showed how the theories of WOM marketing are already being used across the globe with great success, and the exhortation running through the session – that brands find ways to use WOM for genuinely positive and socially beneficial purposes – brought a great sense of empowerment to the room. See his presentation below.

Rosen press cut

On 8.30am Wednesday 7th October, Emmanuel Rosen talks about ‘The Anatomy of Buzz (Revisited)’, the newly updated version of his WOM guide which topped the bestseller lists in 2001 and became an instant international classic. Drawing on his own experiences in high tech as well as hundreds of interviews with consumers, researchers and marketing executives, Emmanuel will discuss proven techniques for stimulating buzz. It’s another morning session lasting until 10.30am at Ogilvy.

We have a few guest seats available for Neoco clients so do get in touch if you’d like to come along for FREE! You’d have to sit with Benn Achilleas (elected member of the Word of Mouth UK council) though  heehee

The Guardian and Observer have just released some insight from their latest Word of Mouth study. It’s good in covering established points and exposing a powerful marketing channel to a new audience. Below is info on Weak Ties but there is more at the main website here.

Weak Ties (in Word of Mouth)

Word of mouth spreads through people’s connections with each other. The looser those connections are, the faster and farther it can spread…

In 1973 sociologist Mark Granovetter published what is now regarded as one of the most influential and cited sociology papers ever written. ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’ explores the idea that society is held together by weak and strong bonds that exist between people. Crucially Granovetter pointed out that most advantage is conferred through Weak Ties – as he, at the time, proved by demonstrating that most people found new jobs through their Weak Ties, rather than through their Strong Ties.

What are Weak and Strong Ties?

Strong Ties are the relationships we have with close friends and family which have more bearing on our identity. They are our support system, the relationships in which we invest more of our time and energy. Weak Ties are the more distant, functional relationships we have with colleagues, friends of friends, or people we may have met through an activity, interest or online that have less bearing on our identity. The two types of tie have very different functions. Strong Ties provide our emotional safety net, they are our social glue. Weak Ties help us with social mobility, they are our social oil.

With regard to word of mouth Weak Ties are an important part of what makes someone influential. To explain why we must first look at how information travels. Clearly information spreads from person to person, but when a social network consists of a large number of Strong Ties information can become trapped. This is because the lack of Weak Ties in the group reduces the opportunity to transfer information to another social network. For the same reason members of very close friendship circles based on many Strong Ties tend to be exposed to fewer new ideas. The absence of Weak Ties in their network impacts on their ability to connect to other social circles where different information is being discussed. Weak Ties act as the conduits for new ideas, helping information to move from group to group.

This means that Weak Ties are essential for word of mouth and influence. They are the channels through which people access information and resources beyond those available in their own social circle. It follows, therefore, that people with a greater number of Weak Ties are more exposed to new ideas and are in a stronger position to inject those ideas into otherwise unconnected networks.

Weak Ties increase massively in a digital context. People who actively participate online – in terms of social networking, social media, and the maintenance of their relationships through email – are able to sustain many more Weak Ties than they would otherwise achieve offline. Moreover, because of the functional nature of Weak Ties (i.e. largely informational rather than emotional transactions), people who use review aggregation sites, pay attention to peer rating systems and follow threads effectively establish a Weak Tie with every contributor. This exponential boost to the volume of an individual’s Weak Ties also increases their access to new information and their ability to spread word of mouth to new networks of people.

Information flows more easily, traverses a greater social distance and reaches a greater number of people through Weak Ties. Weak Ties are a key component of word of mouth.

We suggest going over to the site and reading up on the other content too.

There is also a PDF report that you can download:

Guardian Word Of Mouth report – Word of mouth is a very big topic, and one that is being discussed by many brands and agencies across the world at the moment. Read on to find out how we have built on existing theories and developed a new way of understanding and identifying influential people…

Here’s a good blog post from Effective Marketer on Social Media including 3 simple steps.

“While many are in love with the whole concept of Social Media as being the next big thing in marketing, the holy grail that will lift sales and enhance your brand, I have seen some detractors that insist in calling out the faults and dangers or adopting Social Media as part of your marketing strategy.

Social media is just another media

Experts, personalities and false prophets are all clamoring that social media is king. We’re told that if you have a good plan , if you follow a proven framework for rolling out your social media activities and integrate them with your sales efforts , then the ROI will be clear . That is, if you can translate all those additional site visits, downloads, and re-tweets into sales. Otherwise it’s just buzz.

Some blasphemous professionals on the other hand, caution us to be careful in our efforts, telling us we should really focus on those customers that love our product and not use social media targeting everyone. They caution us saying it could be dangerous to our business if incorrectly used and it’s only helpful to build relationships and goodwill .  Sales? Maybe not so much.

I don’t know about you, but so far it seems like Social Media is nothing more than just another media, another tool in the marketer’s arsenal. It’s like saying everyone should do email marketing, everyone should do podcasts, print ads and TV spots…”

To read more, go here.

Lots of stuff rolling through the Neoco Twitter – are you following?
Here’s a quick run down of our fave recent Tweets:

Living Sasquatch enables you toa cool animated bigfoot monster on your webcam – which can be a lot of fun. Check out the user gallery.

what would you do with a living bigfoot?

Then there is the We Choose The Moon website, which celebrates the moon landing mission 40 years ago. This is just a bloody great website with a sweet buzz campaign that built up to ‘launch’ date.

"fly me to the moon"

This one’s not pretty but so useful… GetHuman is a directory website that lists direct numbers or tricks to get around corporate automated systems and speak to a real person.

There were loads of online tributes to Jacko when he popped his white socks, but this has to be by far (and we mean country miles) the best of lot. It’s called the Eternal Moonwalk and it’s for fans to upload a quick video of them moonwalking from one side of screen to other. All the videos are then linked to each other to create one monstrously long moonwalk for MJ. It’s a simple idea that looks awesome and is very viral.

MJ will live forever on this site

Godsboard is a message board of all things relating to God… from a different viewpoint. People submit the messages and then vote on them. Our disclaimer here is that we know the person who set it up but it’s still a nice idea and picking up a lot of messages, from the obvious to the thoughtful to the seriously funny.

Finally, here’s a blog to celebrate what the internet is all about – seriously weird people and embarrassing personal photos. Dont Judge My Hair is one of those blogs you just keep going deeper in to.

a place for everyone to judge other people's hair... and there is some seriously bad hair out there.

Well, that’s it for this month. Remember to follow our Twitter for the full selection. I’m off to get my hair cut…

Nice little article over at Guardian Media relating to the power of the social media starlet:

Susan Boyle: to appear on NBC’s The Today Show tonight. Photograph: NBC

Who is the most powerful person in the free world? If you’re telling us it is US president Barack Obama, you would it wrong. It is, of course, Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle. When the White House told US TV networks to clear their schedules tonight for a live presidential address to the nation at 9pm, the powerful NBC network said no. The reason? It had an exclusive interview with Boyle for that night’s edition of America’s Got Talent. The White House swerved, and rescheduled Obama’s address at 8pm eastern time, which means many Californians will be commuting home and will not see it. Not that the White House will admit it, reports the Independent. “In speaking with various media outlets, we found that rescheduling for one hour earlier would help us to arrange for as many Americans as possible to hear directly from the president at the press conference.”

Susan 1 Barack 0.

Our office opinion is that she is still soooo over-rated. Her voice was not that great.

The latest stats show Facebook now has over 250 million users. But the real story is about how the platform is maturing. Unlike that (disgusting to work on) Myspace, Facebook goes from strength to strength and some of the most recent campaigns are showing tremendous ROI in terms of reach and revenue (finally, eh!)

One of the age old gripes is about social media activity failing to deliver usable data or revenue.

This new campaign for Hed Kandi (music label) is based on fans getting the chance to play for the well-respected music label.

This is being backed up with a rich Facebook campaign where people can post their own video links, vote on others and encourage friends to vote for them.

Hed Kandi competition page

In terms of results, the competition is delivering a fantastic ROI with over 100,000 new fans joining and over 50,000 email addresses collected – that’s a 50% conversion rate (in case it was too early for your maths)!

Then there is Moby…

listen to Moby's new album, the more friends you invite, the more discount you get on purchase.

The new Moby album is available for fans to listen to in full – via a video/ audio stream. You can also purchase a CD or MP3 version. Here’s the cool part; for every friend that a user invites to listen to the free music (who then listens to the music), the original user gets discount on the CD or MP3. This encourages fans to share the music with as many people as possible, rewarding the stronger advocates and massively increasing exposure and sales of the music. This is what good social media is about. And it’s not just music that we could do this with – think of any media product, from music to movies to tv shows to books and beyond!

We’re so happy having won a pitch to deliver a rich digital campaign across social media for the new Wii survival horror game Cursed Mountain, published by Koch Media. The campaign features 10 short ‘night vision’ video clips featuring real people with real reactions as they play the game in ‘the dark’.

The clips are being seeded in a 2 part campaign across key gaming, teen, student and video communities. Neoco have also secured a deal for high exposure across teen social network Refresh, with homepage takeover including MPUs, an integrated quiz section and email campaign.

Cursed Mountain is a terrifying survival horror game for Wii set in the rich and atmospheric world of mystical Tibet, backlit by the desolate icy peaks of the Himalayas. Cursed Mountain features a rich and comprehensive story while using the tools of fear and scare to immerse the player into the gameplay experience complete with unprecedented high quality graphics that push the Wii to it’s limits.

We’re super excited to be working with Koch on this and can’t wait to sit down and spend some serious time with this quality title.

You can also check out the website here.

Re-posted from Mashable email: 08 Jul 2009 01:44 AM PDT

When Yiying Lu designed the Twitter Fail Whale, she probably didn’t expect it to become very popular; after all, it’s an image that appears only when something isn’t working. However, a year ago Twitter was so unstable that the fail whale image popped up to hundreds of thousands of users almost daily, and history was made.

The image was quoted, linked to, used and reused so much that it became almost iconic. To capture how this motif – a huge, sleeping animal lifted by a flock of tiny birds – has been used in pop culture in the last year, Lu created a site with all of the Fail Whale related images she could find. It’s a fascinating (and huge) collection: from tributes, to statues, to cakes, to beer labels: it’s everywhere. Check out a couple of our favorites below, and see the entire collection on Lu’s website.

"the Park & Ride shoppers definitely looked different this year"

Because the Wii girlfriend was just to subtle, Alton Towers and Ultimo combined for this viral.

“Alton Towers Resort teamed up with Britains leading underwear brand, Ultimo to make sure women don’t make a boob on the rides this summer.

A group of test-riders donned a variety of Ultimo bras and were put through their paces on several rides, including Rita Queen of Speed and Spinball Whizzer, to test the durability and lift support of bras-and to make sure they were a snug fit.”

Whilst it’s an obvious viral choice for the guys, it just feels a little a little wide of the mark for the core audiences of Alton Towers and Ultimo. Yes, it will no doubt get a lot of viewers and maybe even some press but are they right viewers? Will it be the right press? We constantly work with clients to educate them about the difference between quantity and quality when it comes ot social media and this is a good example of quantity at the expense of quality. It’s much better to have lower exposure but to a more targetted audience. Neoco have delivered loads of word of mouth, viral and social media campaigns and consistently, when you look at the ROI, 1,000 qualitive targeted users are better than 50,000 quantitive broad-base users. Don’t fall for the trap of thinking high viewers/ fans/ friends = success.

"you got more chance of getting in Wimbledon, son"

Our summer event for I Love Design with Quark and Design Week has already sold out – 3 weeks before the event! That’s how we roll at Neoco – if we’re behind the scenes it’s going to get traction!

With a fabulous line up and some great social media coverage the event looks to be something very special.

We’ll be posting lots of content here during and after the event from some of the most inspirational speakers around.

Pats on back to:

Quark XPress

Design Week

Live Union

habitat look to Iran to help boost sales!

Furniture retailer Habitat has come under fire after it spammed Twitter users through the use of hash tags.

The retailer had been using hash tags, which help users track conversations on the microblogging site, to promote marketing messages that had no relevance to the topics used.

The company’s Twitter feed, HabitatUK, was putting out marketing messages such as ‘Our totally desirable Spring collection now has 20% off!’ on Friday, using tags such as #mms, #Apple, #iPhone and even used an Iranian election hashtag #Mousavi.

The brand pulled all the messages the next day and replaced them with standard marketing and sales tweets, but many members of Twitter had already seen the messages and publicly spoke of their annoyance.

A spokeswoman at Habitat said, “This was a mistake which we’re looking into. What’s important to us is that we always listen, take on board observations and welcome constructive criticism. We will do our utmost to ensure any mistakes are never repeated.”

Rhys Willians, managing partner at Agenda21, said it was another example of a big brand poorly executing a social media idea.

“In its response it has also gone for corporate behaviour, which doesn’t really work,” he said. “It made a mistake. There’s a general acceptance from Twitter users that it won’t operate for free and that there are going to be ads, but brands need to know what they’re doing and execute it correctly.”

Antony Mayfield, head of social media at digital agency iCrossing, said brands need to understand social networks before using them for marketing.

“You need to understand your networks and Habitat understood on a technical level but not on a social level,” he said. “Brands also have to understand that just because it happened on a social network doesn’t mean people outside it won’t know about it too.”

This has just been picked up by the news sites and featured on NMA,

Now, for those of you working in London, no doubt you will have had a nightmare getting to work for the last 2 days, but one cheeky chappy, with a passion for tweeting, decided to bring some cheer into people’s journeys by offering a ride on the back of his motorbike.

Another satisfied tweeter!

But Paul’s real motivation behind it was to get people thinking. What he has done is show how social media can react in a very short space of time to real word events and how social networking tools aren’t just about small bits of information that are bound to remain digital. Tiny tweets can make real things happen! If you want more info on how Neoco can help your brand react to whatever you may be facing, please get in touch with Neoco!

Read the whole article here
Follow paul @Paul_Clarke

In the stampede to embrace all things social we have to understand that in the same way it enables people to expose more of their life to their friends, people are exposing more of their lives to strangers.

Meet the Smiths.

This is a photo they took for their family Christmas message that was sent out to friends via Christmas cards and a blog message.

Now look at this advert for a local grocery in Prague, Czech Republic.

It seems someone Googled something like ‘happy family’ , saw the Smiths and thought it made a great image.

Fortunately for the Smiths, they have a well-traveled assortment of friends, one of whom saw them in Prague and let them know. You can read the rest pf the story on the BBC site but the question here is one about permission. Increasingly, ‘copyright’ as a subject is being assaulted by the ‘democratisation’ of the web. Whilst many of us sit home and steal music, video and game entertainment at the expense of the large (and sometimes very small) corporates, suddenly we feel very unhappy when the shoe is on the other foot.*

Here’s a thought, instead of suing everyone, the corporations who are victims of piracy should download photos of the pirates and then use them for free in their advertising. 

*my legal disclaimer: I’m not implying the Smiths illegally download any content.

How does it relate to you?

Social Media/”Consumer Generated Media”, although fairly new compared to other forms of online communication is the third most popular way to spend time online, in fact 1/5 of all time spent online, in the UK is spent on Social Networks. Added to this is the perception, among the more traditional among you is that Social Networks are there just for younger audiences that just spend most their time on Facebook/Myspace/YouTube. Yes these are key sites, and yes young people are still in these spaces, but there is a huge space online that is inhabited by all ages, in fact between April 08 – April 09 18-34 age group lost a 8.3% share of online user composition, in community member sites. There is almost an equal share between 18-34 and 35-49 age groups, if you then add in 50-64 group, the share held by 18-34’s is looking rather small.

Once you take away the big sites I have mentioned above, naming another 7 Social Media sites which reach over 3m unique users (in the UK) per month might be a bit of stretch and no Twitter isn’t one of them! But this just points out there is huge untapped market, where you can interact, it doesn’t have to be through the initial channels that you would think of.

So basically, pretty much all age groups are using Social Media, you know their interests, age group and where they live. For Marketers, this is a dream, as all over the internet users can be talking about your brand, doing some of the leg work for you.

Who rules online?

This would be fantastic if everything being said was positive, however as we all know, this is not the case! What has happened is that control has been taken away from brand’s and instead given to the public. A scary thought indeed, but you can help even the balance through buzz monitoring, such as Neoco’s PoNo service. But added to this you can interact with disgruntled consumers in a very public place and can in fact turn negative publicity into a very positive outcome. Toyota did this in the states with one of their best selling car’s, the Camry. They opened a dialogue with key bloggers who were unhappy with the product, helped improve the product and in front of a huge audience of readers solved the problems for them. This was great PR, and was widely praised in blogs. For organisations who do latch on to this new approach to marketing, that sometimes you do make mistakes, but you are happy to rectify them, its a huge step forward and can forge trust in a brand that cannot be repeated elsewhere.

One thing you need to think of before approaching the world of social media is planning. With both negative and positive outcomes in mind, knowing how to react to them before they come. Having key set of objectives and KPI’s in place so you can track how well your campaign is doing, whether this is brand awareness or ROI. When it comes to planning and experience Neoco are digital experts, so please drop us a line to find out how are tools and services can help you.

Thanks to the guest speaker Alex Burmaster, from Nielsen.

Our latest event for the website ilovedesign.com, 8×8 (in association with Quark XPress and Design Week) went live about 20 minutes ago… and almost crashed the server. We’ve been working on a low level buzz campaign amongst the creative community which is still yet to reach it’s peak so this is an amazing result for the event, client and our activity.

8x8 ilovedesigncom Live 1st July 2009

What 8×8?

8 talented creatives have just 8 minutes each to share with us where they find their ideas, what inspires them and what motivates them to get out of bed in the morning.

Why 8×8?

The format will ensure a high energy event, with new ideas coming at you thick and fast from our stellar line-up of speakers. There’ll also be the chance for a bit of networking and a few beers.

Who 8×8?

1. Iain Tait, Creative Partner at Poke
http://www.pokelondon.com

2. Vaughan Oliver

3. Joel Gethin Lewis & Pete Hellicar (They come as a pair and together form Hellicar & Lewis)
http://www.hellicarandlewis.com

4. Richard Hooker, Designer and Art Director at Wieden+Kennedy
http://www.wk.com

5. Matt Dent
http://www.mattdent.com

6. Alex Bec & Will Hudson, Co-founders at HudsonBec
http://www.hudsonbec.com

7. Jamie Wieck, Designer and Illustrator at Airside
http://www.airside.co.uk

8. To be announced soon…

And your host ladies and gentlemen… Ben Terrett, Partner, Really Interesting Group and blogger http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com – so it’s set to be a rollercoaster evening!

When 8×8?

7pm Wednesday 1st July. The speakers are due to finish around 9pm for those of you who need to get trains home, but there’s no need to rush off.

Attend 8×8?

The Mountain, a small T-shirt manufacturer are having a bit of bother at the moment, although most would argue that a 2300% increase in sales is usually a good thing. After one seemingly innocent ironic review, hundreds of people have since posted similar reviews, with number of reviews now just over the 700 mark.

One user posted “I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women.”

But unfortunately manufacturers don’t quite see the funny side and were quoted on the BBC saying “Not everyone can start out at the top and not everyone from our neck of the woods lives in a trailer or cruises Walmart to hook up.”

Quite… But not everyone has a Three Wolf Moon T-shirt!

Improve your life

This is great example of a successful (although involuntary) seeding and viral campaign. Neoco help brands do this all the time to great effect. Look at the brand, product or service that needs promoting, then identify a niche that we can use to amplify the message.

Thanks to BBC