Filed under: Advertising, Platform, content, marketing | Tags: Advertising, Bluetooth, marketing, mobile, proximity marketing, service
In a previous post I’ve written about the use of Bluetooth SMS proximity marketing and how it is reaching out to people in unexpected ways. Well, I was walking along Aberdeen’s Union Street and my mobile phone went off again – asking me if I wanted to accept an unsolicited message. I accepted and received a message asking if I wanted help escaping the debt trap!
This technology will soon be picked up by every type of business. I can see me walking down the street on a Saturday evening being Bluetoothed by bars, shops, lapdancing clubs, gyms, supermarkets, solicitors, accountants, recruitment agencies – all with offers of services and bargains.
But when that does happen, how will I pick and choose which to accept? I’m only accepting now because it’s a novelty. That’ll wear off if dozens start coming my way.
Social web applications are swamping my feed reader inbox.
If I tell you my Google Reader has returned 6 items from the Feed My App website today already, each of them a new social application, then you start to get an idea of how many of these social applications are out there.
Go to the Feed My App website and you’ll see they featured 283 applications in the month of May 2008. Their archive reveals a total of 2,964 featured since the site began back in June 2007.
No in case you’re new to the world of social applications let me recap: social applications (apps for short) are software tools which enable people to socialise in a variety of ways online. So the most commonly known ones today are social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, but alo recommendation sites like LastFM and Digg, bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and wiki host collaboration services like Wikidot.
Hear “Social web apps” – think sharing, collaboration and participation.
Feed My App is a terrrific website. You can sign up for any of these applications – I have done and they’re fun. They’re all free (probably). But how many bookmarking sites can the online world support? Likewise with recommendation sites, and so on?
While I believe the social web is here to stay and will become a way of life for future generations, I do wonder what will happen to the housands of apps being sent to my inbox.
Filed under: Basics, Definitions, Platform, content | Tags: audio, business, content, conversation, Definitions, marketing, Platform, Social web, text, video
The social web can be a confusing realm for the business considering using it to market its messages, ideas, products or services. And no wonder, it’s a very broad cross-section of the internet with surrounding edges which are large and grey. So in order to understand it and exploit it I divide it up and categorise it.
The point of the social web is that it empowers individuals enabling a free flow of information (via cheap digital distribution) between all members of a community. This vastly reduces the power imbalance enjoyed by established media businesses forcing them (if they wish to continue selling in the way they do) to listen to individuals and communicate on a more intimate level.
To this end businesses now need to find ways of using popular web features to exchange with their customers. So, they should visualise two things:
- Content
- Platform
CONTENT
Businesses have always created content in their marketing, but now they should create digital content by listening to their customers or community. Larry Weber says in his recent book ‘Marketing to the Social Web‘, that ‘Marketing to the Social Web is not about getting your story out, it’s about your customers.” All content, no matter in what form, should be focused solely on the customer. Content can come in a variety of forms:
- Text (blogs, website copy)
- Audio (podcasts, audio files)
- Video (videocasts, video files)
Social web marketing begins with the customer, and a business idea, message, product or service. In order to sell it they have to create that content in such a way that people want to consume it. The more compelling the content the more people are likely to seek it out and therefore the more popularity the creator will gain. And so the greater they chance they have of selling a message etc.
PLATFORM
It sounds daft to even write this, but Platforms differ from Content in that they are platforms for content. Whereas Content can be dressed up in an infinite number of ways to appeal to customers, Platforms are a conduit for more straightforward conversations with customers. Businesses may simply create discussions in order to inform about a product or ask questions to get feedback. They may take many forms, including:
- Social networking sites
- Forums
- Wikis
Platforms enable a business or agency to interact directly with a community. They can either create their own platform (these could be custom-built, or paid-for enterprise level, or simply free-hosted application, such as Ning, ProBoards or Wikidot) or establish a presence on an existing network (eg. Facebook, LinedIn etc).
Content and Platform both offer the business a means to connect to communities. But there are other steps which need to be fulfilled before the marketing cycle is complete:
THREE STEPS IN MARKETING
I visualise the process of marketing to the social web in three steps:
- Content creation (you gotta make it before you can ’sell’ it)
- Optimise that content (tweak it so it’s visible to its intended community)
- Market the content (get linking, connecting, pushing, selling)
There’s much more to say on this, but I’ll continue in another post.
Filed under: Advertising, Platform, content | Tags: Bluetooth, cinema, content, pubs, social, video
In trying to sound as knowledgeable and professional as I can in this blog I’ve been overlooking just how much fun the social web can be!
For example, I went to the Vue cinema yesterday evening to see Iron Man (…and no, I’m not too old for that) and as I strode across the lobby to buy my ticket my mobile phone gave the double beep signal that I had received a message. As I stood in the ticket line I discovered that Vue was asking me to accept an incoming text. It downloaded, I opened it up and played two short videos. The first was a colourful, 22-second Warner Bros compilation trailer advertising cheap DVDs.
The second video was this 1′42″ film about bullying, part of the Cut it Out initiative run by Vodaphone and charity Beatbullying.
Now that made me stop and think about bullying and then about the potential for this technology. It was done via Bluetooth (I leave my Bluetooth connection enabled and always visible) by a a company called Bluepod Media. This article in Brand Republic gives more details.
This ‘proximity advertising’ is a really exciting development. Many of us will have heard it predicted when Bluetooth came on the scene about 5 years ago. Think what this could do for museums, galleries, attractions, schools, hospitals and so on. The possibilities are almost endless.
Perhaps the Portman Group should consider this as the delivery platform for when they finally develop their responsible drinking message. All those Witherspoon pubs, and similar chains, could have similar set ups for getting relevant movies, messages etc out to customers.
But now I think about it, the delivery platform is the least of their worries. Getting the message right (ie. in a form the target audience will actually pay attention to) will be an enormous achievement. If they succeed, then the Bluetooth technology will pale into insignificance.
