Sunday, October 17. 2010
Live & Interactive WebTV for Internal Communications
Posted by Russell Goldsmith
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Internal Communications
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11:45
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We recently attended the CIPR's Internal Communications conference and were showing examples of how companies had used live & interactive webTV to engage with employees. Our slides are now available at Slideshare, showing example case studies for M&S, e2v and Pernod Ricard
http://www.slideshare.net/russg/live-interactive-webtv-for-internal-communications
http://www.slideshare.net/russg/live-interactive-webtv-for-internal-communications
Sunday, October 17. 2010
Last Tuesday I was kindly invited by Webgains to present at the a4uexpo London show to discuss how our work in using live online broadcast and interactive videos can add value to affiliate marketing programmes.
My presentation is now available to download at Slideshare -
http://www.slideshare.net/russg/a4uexpo-using-broadcast-and-social-media-to-acquire-customers-in-affiliate-marketing
My presentation is now available to download at Slideshare -
http://www.slideshare.net/russg/a4uexpo-using-broadcast-and-social-media-to-acquire-customers-in-affiliate-marketing
Thursday, August 19. 2010
Enjoy playing Foursquare, but only in moderation.
Posted by Russell Goldsmith
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Social Media
at
07:12
As a member of the IAB Social Media Council, I posted the following entry on their blog this week - www.iabuksocial.co.uk . . .
Earlier this week I checked into Sa Fàbrica de Gelats on Foursquare to let my friends know that I’ve just bought one of their speciality Orange ice creams whilst in Soller in Mallorca on holiday.
Now, why they would care to know that is another debate! The reason I did it, however, is because as part of my job, I’m still trying to understand the benefit this latest alleged Social Media star can have to my clients, and at the moment, I’m still struggling to find the answer.
I’ve spent a good six months ‘playing’ on Foursquare, going through the similar patterns as many others – checking in to everything I could, realising that on some occasions, I’m not checking in to the official pages of said venues, taking pleasure at becoming mayor of my company, and even the IAB for a day, and then realising the few friends I had in the game are people doing something similar to me for a living, i.e. those in the industry trying it out too, and I assume, similarly getting bored, by the frequency of their check-ins drying up! In fact, the lack of interest from those outside of the industry highlights half the problem. Back in April, I had the unfortunate pleasure of going to support Spurs in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley and watching them lose to a bankrupt Portsmouth. I checked in to the Stadium on Foursquare to see how popular it would be from a decent sample of 90,000 people in one location, and there were a total of 7 players checked in, one was me, and 2 others I knew! The warning signs were there already.
However, as I’ve read with interest the stories about Foursquare looking to raise money, I’ve continue to think there must be a benefit to it to a brand’s marketing. So it was that I recently tried to claim ownership of a page that had already been set up for my company – misspelt I might add - and set up a page of our own for Studio1 in our office. In fairness, Foursquare were quick to respond that I now managed the page I set up, but the one already in existence – an unofficial page for my company markettiers4dc – still exists and still has someone unconnected to my company managing it.
With this in mind, I then looked at testing how to monitor and moderate any comments/tips that are added to my page before recommending it to a major client of ours for a campaign we were planning. After all, given another flaw in the Foursquare game being that one doesn’t even have to be in the venue itself to check-in, any passer-by to my office could add any tip they want about Studio1 – positive or negative. Now I know the whole point of social media is to allow a freedom of dialogue, but I’m only interested in what actual visitors of ours have to say about their experience in our studio, not any random person who hasn’t even stepped inside our reception. I therefore contacted Foursquare to ask about how I could moderate my official page. Here’s the official response:
Are you kidding me? I have to send comments that I am not happy about on my own page to Foursquare to decide if they should remain on there or not!
Decision made! Foursquare, you need to seriously consider your strategy if you want my budgets. Quite timely, therefore, that this week I’ve read more and more stories about Facebook setting itself up as a geolocation challenger - http://mash.to/2nZKq. Oh dear Foursquare, if Facebook really did offer you around $120 million or so to acquire you, why oh why not take the cash and Foursquare off?
Russell Goldsmith
@russgoldsmith
Earlier this week I checked into Sa Fàbrica de Gelats on Foursquare to let my friends know that I’ve just bought one of their speciality Orange ice creams whilst in Soller in Mallorca on holiday.
Now, why they would care to know that is another debate! The reason I did it, however, is because as part of my job, I’m still trying to understand the benefit this latest alleged Social Media star can have to my clients, and at the moment, I’m still struggling to find the answer.
I’ve spent a good six months ‘playing’ on Foursquare, going through the similar patterns as many others – checking in to everything I could, realising that on some occasions, I’m not checking in to the official pages of said venues, taking pleasure at becoming mayor of my company, and even the IAB for a day, and then realising the few friends I had in the game are people doing something similar to me for a living, i.e. those in the industry trying it out too, and I assume, similarly getting bored, by the frequency of their check-ins drying up! In fact, the lack of interest from those outside of the industry highlights half the problem. Back in April, I had the unfortunate pleasure of going to support Spurs in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley and watching them lose to a bankrupt Portsmouth. I checked in to the Stadium on Foursquare to see how popular it would be from a decent sample of 90,000 people in one location, and there were a total of 7 players checked in, one was me, and 2 others I knew! The warning signs were there already.
However, as I’ve read with interest the stories about Foursquare looking to raise money, I’ve continue to think there must be a benefit to it to a brand’s marketing. So it was that I recently tried to claim ownership of a page that had already been set up for my company – misspelt I might add - and set up a page of our own for Studio1 in our office. In fairness, Foursquare were quick to respond that I now managed the page I set up, but the one already in existence – an unofficial page for my company markettiers4dc – still exists and still has someone unconnected to my company managing it.
With this in mind, I then looked at testing how to monitor and moderate any comments/tips that are added to my page before recommending it to a major client of ours for a campaign we were planning. After all, given another flaw in the Foursquare game being that one doesn’t even have to be in the venue itself to check-in, any passer-by to my office could add any tip they want about Studio1 – positive or negative. Now I know the whole point of social media is to allow a freedom of dialogue, but I’m only interested in what actual visitors of ours have to say about their experience in our studio, not any random person who hasn’t even stepped inside our reception. I therefore contacted Foursquare to ask about how I could moderate my official page. Here’s the official response:
Only we can delete tips and will only do so if they are using profanity or for another misuse. You can bring those to our attention at bizhelp@foursquare.com always.
Are you kidding me? I have to send comments that I am not happy about on my own page to Foursquare to decide if they should remain on there or not!
Decision made! Foursquare, you need to seriously consider your strategy if you want my budgets. Quite timely, therefore, that this week I’ve read more and more stories about Facebook setting itself up as a geolocation challenger - http://mash.to/2nZKq. Oh dear Foursquare, if Facebook really did offer you around $120 million or so to acquire you, why oh why not take the cash and Foursquare off?
Russell Goldsmith
@russgoldsmith
Tuesday, July 20. 2010
Taken from this month's issue of Onward.
Oh the irony. I’ve been asked to write an article on how we are integrating social media into our business, and like the people who brought us Twitter, my Onward editor has limited my word count!
I’ll therefore spare the statistics as I think we all now know just how much social media is taking over the consumer media diet and instead, I’ll get straight onto where we see a new opportunity for brands to embrace two areas of the markettiers4dc group business that we have so much passion about, Broadcast and Research.
No matter which social network you happen to favour, the one consistency in this increasingly important space, is that people like to share their opinions in a live environment, creating discussion and debate. So it’s quite handy that we have a research agency called Opinion Matters and a TV studio that allows us to create live broadcast content for people who are engaged online to talk about.
Welcome to Social Media TV research.
Monitoring discussion within social media about your brand and knowing when to respond, or when to just listen, has become a key part of the ongoing communications mix. But finding out about conversations on the likes of Twitter, Facebook etc is a reactive process. So how beneficial would it be to embrace the technology that consumers enjoy, i.e., the live conversation, but be proactive by inviting them to join in with a live debate. This whilst all the while engaged by the other aspect of online that they enjoy doing - watching video, now made a daily experience for most of us.
Opinion Matters Live! (OMLive!) is a service that is now coming into its own. It gives clients the chance to replace the age old tactic of traipsing up and down the country in numerous viewing facilities and hotel rooms organising focus groups. Instead, in one evening, they can invite a group of screened individuals to watch, what is in effect, a live online TV show; broadcast from our studio, with the participants answering quantitative and qualitative questions that appear on their screen during the broadcast. The results of those questions are analysed immediately and can be viewed by brand observers anywhere in the world as they too can take part online. At the same time, viewers can join in an ongoing debate in a moderated discussion board that sits on the same page.
This is exactly what The Blue Door did for their software client that wanted feedback for a new product launch in May. We invited 30 respondents, predominantly parents, from across the UK to log on and join us for a 40min live show with the objective of getting feedback about potential new advertising creatives and website design pre-launch.
At the end of the session, we asked our live panel for their feedback on what it was like to take part in the process.
The response was tremendous –
here’s what some of them said about the event:
“Hi, I’m new to this and really enjoying this format”
“Hi - Just to say I love this way of research - works really well for me - do invite me if you do it again!”
“Enjoyng it, very interesting giving live opinions”
Take it from someone who was sat in the studio gallery watching these responses come through, this is a fantastic and exciting way for a brand to embrace Social Media . . . and we even allow our live participants to tell us what they think in more than 140 characters!
For more information on OMLive! go to: http://bit.ly/tvresearch
Oh the irony. I’ve been asked to write an article on how we are integrating social media into our business, and like the people who brought us Twitter, my Onward editor has limited my word count!
I’ll therefore spare the statistics as I think we all now know just how much social media is taking over the consumer media diet and instead, I’ll get straight onto where we see a new opportunity for brands to embrace two areas of the markettiers4dc group business that we have so much passion about, Broadcast and Research.
No matter which social network you happen to favour, the one consistency in this increasingly important space, is that people like to share their opinions in a live environment, creating discussion and debate. So it’s quite handy that we have a research agency called Opinion Matters and a TV studio that allows us to create live broadcast content for people who are engaged online to talk about.
Welcome to Social Media TV research.
Monitoring discussion within social media about your brand and knowing when to respond, or when to just listen, has become a key part of the ongoing communications mix. But finding out about conversations on the likes of Twitter, Facebook etc is a reactive process. So how beneficial would it be to embrace the technology that consumers enjoy, i.e., the live conversation, but be proactive by inviting them to join in with a live debate. This whilst all the while engaged by the other aspect of online that they enjoy doing - watching video, now made a daily experience for most of us.
Opinion Matters Live! (OMLive!) is a service that is now coming into its own. It gives clients the chance to replace the age old tactic of traipsing up and down the country in numerous viewing facilities and hotel rooms organising focus groups. Instead, in one evening, they can invite a group of screened individuals to watch, what is in effect, a live online TV show; broadcast from our studio, with the participants answering quantitative and qualitative questions that appear on their screen during the broadcast. The results of those questions are analysed immediately and can be viewed by brand observers anywhere in the world as they too can take part online. At the same time, viewers can join in an ongoing debate in a moderated discussion board that sits on the same page.
This is exactly what The Blue Door did for their software client that wanted feedback for a new product launch in May. We invited 30 respondents, predominantly parents, from across the UK to log on and join us for a 40min live show with the objective of getting feedback about potential new advertising creatives and website design pre-launch.
At the end of the session, we asked our live panel for their feedback on what it was like to take part in the process.
The response was tremendous –
here’s what some of them said about the event:
“Hi, I’m new to this and really enjoying this format”
“Hi - Just to say I love this way of research - works really well for me - do invite me if you do it again!”
“Enjoyng it, very interesting giving live opinions”
Take it from someone who was sat in the studio gallery watching these responses come through, this is a fantastic and exciting way for a brand to embrace Social Media . . . and we even allow our live participants to tell us what they think in more than 140 characters!
For more information on OMLive! go to: http://bit.ly/tvresearch
Thursday, July 15. 2010
NMA tweeted this story this morning http://www.nma.co.uk/third-of-radio-listening-now-via-web/3015851.article
Nearly a third (31%) of radio listeners tune in via the internet, according to the latest Rajar figures.
Of that percentage, 29% of people claim they listen live, up 2% from November last year, and 25% use listen again services, also a 2% rise.
The results, which covered listening via mobile for the first time, showed 1.4m people have downloaded a radio app; 20% of smartphone users, with 53% of them claiming they use the app at least once a week.
The results also showed 16% of the 1,083 people surveyed downloaded podcasts.
The Rajar Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 6) was carried out last month by Ipsos MORI.
For more, follow the link to NMA's website
Nearly a third (31%) of radio listeners tune in via the internet, according to the latest Rajar figures.
Of that percentage, 29% of people claim they listen live, up 2% from November last year, and 25% use listen again services, also a 2% rise.
The results, which covered listening via mobile for the first time, showed 1.4m people have downloaded a radio app; 20% of smartphone users, with 53% of them claiming they use the app at least once a week.
The results also showed 16% of the 1,083 people surveyed downloaded podcasts.
The Rajar Measurement of Internet Delivered Audio Services (MIDAS 6) was carried out last month by Ipsos MORI.
For more, follow the link to NMA's website
