What to expect in 2014 when it's already 2014?!?!

Aloha!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe that is really happening? Me neither, but that's for real - I am back for regular contribution to this blog, full of genious ideas and ready to impress you with every new post.

In this first paragraph let me quickly update you on what's happening in my life and on the 'where you have been hiding for the past little-bit-more-than-a-month' issue. I returned back home from Glasgow, celebrated Christmas and New Year, had great birthday party, celebrated Chinese New Year, got Glasgow-homesick (Glasgow-sick doesn't sound right...;) and have been actively looking for the perfect job! I have already had a number of interviews and almost been offered the President of the World role, but I will tell you more about it in my next post, while now I offer you to read the hopefully-still-relevant ideas on the Marketing/PR/Advertising trends of 2014!

I know it might be a little bit too late as 2014 has already arrived, but I tried my best to reflect this issue in the headline for this blog post to avoid confusion, disappointment and all those sad things. On the bright side, I had more than enough time to think this post through, read everything relevant news media had to offer on this topic and come up with some interesting ideas. Enjoy! And, please, come back for more, as I realised it will be too difficult to fit all 5 trends into one post. Hope, I have not lost your attention already...

The trends of 2014, according to me, are:

1. Storytelling is the thing of 2014

2. Transmedia storytelling/
cross-platform PR is hot

3. Old school is good as new

4. E-commerce is rising

5. UX is all about simplification 

1. Storytelling is the thing 

I don't think this will come as news to you that I advocate storytelling as the core to successful comunication. Not only have I finished online courses regarding this trend and already posted my ideas here, but started reading some cool literature on the topic as well! I am going to share it with you after I explain what is going to happen with storytelling in 2014. Wait for it. :-)

'No matter what you do, always and forever, our job is to tell our story, and that is never going to change. The way you make real money, the way you make real impact, the way things get changed is by great storytelling [...].  My biggest problem right now, in general, is that I feel that far majority of people, businesses, organisations, media organisations all across the board are storytelling like it's 2007 in 2014's world!' - says Gary Vaynerchuk in this inspiring video I have just found. In case you are to busy to watch it, here are some key notes I made from his talk:

• 2014 is the year of micro stories and 'breaking news storytelling' as opposed to 'heavy and thick movie storytelling' (which still works in some cases). 

What has happened is that everyone suddenly got ADD (by the way I read that the guy who invented this disease admitted it was not a real thing, anyway). Therefore, supply and demand of attention is completely out of control. I do agree. Have you noticed that even dinners with friends in restaurants and cool coffee shops are now all about Instagramming the food, checking-in for Facebook and spending more time with your smartphone that your actual smartfriends? I wake up every morning and the first thing I do - check my phone, not that I am addicted, but yeah...that's my first source of news and I just can't not check them.
 

On the other hand, the one thing we totally do have control over, or at least think we do - is time. We like text messages, because we can respond to them anytime we want. We tweet, because we want to capture this exact moment. We watch all 3 seasons of Sherlock in one night and do not really care about BBC programming. 

Those two factor (our control over time and our lack of attention) are the biggest challenges for storytelling in 2014. What this means for storytellers and marketers is that, according to Gary, 'you have to tell your story where the eyes and ears of everybody are'. To illustrate, you spend money and kill trees to send catalogues to your 'potential' buyers and they end up in a trash bin without even being opened. Moreover, that huge expensive billboard will never be seen, as your target audience 'is not looking on your billboard, they are not even looking on the road, because they are too busy texting'. 

• Quality storytelling always wins

The second cool thought I borrowed from Gary is that marketers ruin everything. They've ruined email marketing (which is now 'delete-spam-unsubscribe'), they are ruining Groupon, even Google Adwords is down by 15%. People don't watch YouTube ads, people hate annoying pop-up banners, journalists don't even look at our press-releases. To the contrary, P&G's 'Thank You, Mom' story is so touching, I can watch it forever. The same can be told about Dove's 'Real Beauty'. Those are not just commercials or instruments of selling stuff - they are stories of really high quality! If we think about marketing and PR in a broader sense, quality storytelling is recent Facebook 'Look back' tool (p.s. Happy Birthday, Facebook!!!). Moreover, I guess this is a highly valuable tool for brands who have their Facebook pages (I guess all of them do). Not sure if it is possible to create such video for business pages, but I guess it would be cool to see how their stories look like. Anyway, SMMs can ask themselves what those 'lookback' will look like for their products/pages/services. Will it all be about 'buy this/check this out/buy 2 get 1 free' or something meaningful/bright/hilarious/fascinating/shocking? 

I also think that product placement and branded entertainment are the most promising means of storytelling in 2014. With the first - you don't have to tell the actual story, but feature your product in the right story in a right way. While with the second, you get to tell a story with your product, about your product and in a way that is not as pushy as it is with commercials. Tough challenge which I guess is worth accepting! To provide you with at least one example of branded entertainment, IKEA and their 'Easy to Assemble' web series had really nailed the task.  

• It's not about the CONTENT, it's about CONTEXT

Surprisingly, although IKEA, P&G and Dove excite us with brilliant content, Gary argues that in 2014 'where everyone gets fucked up' is that 'we think it is all about the content, and all the action right now is in the context'. Thus, social media channels are mainly considered by marketers as means of distributing information and this though is wrong. When this is your image of SNSs, you use them accordingly - write and share the same stuff on all the different social networks (it's like email distribtuions). The correct or the 2014's way to tell stories is to respect the psychology of different channels and their users. We should ask ourselves what people are doing on Twitter and what they'd like to see you, as a marketer, doing there. It may seem like a very 2007s advice, but never ever handle your Instagram/Facebook/Vine/Tumblr/ Twitter identically. I would also suggest to think twice whether your brand needs all of those contexts, because Instagram for a local dentist sounds too odd to me. ;-)  To sum up with Gary Vaynerchuk's quote: 'The context of the room changes the way you storytell'. 

Well, I guess that is too much of What's Trending talks for one blogpost! In my next 4 posts I will explain the rest of the tendencies, so don't give up on reading me just yet. 

See you soon!

P.S. This is the promised short reading list.

Avi Savar, Content to Commerce: Engaging Consumers Across Paid, Owned and Earned Channels

John Truby, The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller

Digital and B2C Marketing Lessons to Learn From the new GTA and LFW

Hi guys! Monday time: new week and a new blog post to keep your brains busy :)

It seems like the world of technology, gaming and fashion decided to have it all these past few weeks, providing marketing practitioners with so many great case studies, tips and lessons. From London Fashion Week we can borrow some original social media marketing tools, while Grand Theft Auto V seems to be a true encyclopedia for the traditional b2c marketing. Finally, the new iPhone release demonstrated an updated marketing strategy.

Grand Theft Auto V - great marketing always pays off 

GTA can be considered as a wonderful example of something being more than just a game/product, I guess. The gaming industry masterpiece, a real legend and a true brand - Scotland can be absolutely proud of its creation. And I can be proud to be a part of Scotland for this year :). Interestingly enough, this franchise represents the case of every ancestor being more successful than the predictor, which rarely happens for the movies. I compare the game launch with the movie premiers on purpose as it seems to be the strategy chosen by the Grand Theft Auto marketers. With all the digital resources and social media effectiveness, GTA team decided to follow the more traditional advertising and marketing path. Outdoor advertising, such as billboards (first to be spotted in Warsaw, Poland) and posters; video trailers and pictures leaks - helped created the demand months before the ‘supply’ was offered to the customers.

The approximate amount spent on the developing, production and marketing of the last GTA version accounts for £170 million, according to The Scotsman. This not so much tells us that expensive products require to be promoted accordingly, but illustrates the importance of the products’ quality which can be monetized afterwards. Over 300 people, including programmers, designers and mappers worked closely together to deliver outstanding results, making the launch of the updated game similar to the movie production. (By the way, it turned out my classmate`s husband has something to with the new GTA release, like he is a part of the development team or smth! It`s almost like I know a person who knows a real celebrity!) The preparation stage accounts for some great research made for the game to look as realistic as possible. Thus, the possible explanation for the choice of traditional marketing tactics can be the following: if a brand has to offer significant value, marketers should not be reinventing the wheel.

However, a couple of innovative things from the phenomenon of GTA could be noticed in the field of advertising. Thus, in one of the recent Forbes articles by Paul Tassi, the interesting question of in-game ads is explored. Product placement in movies as well as games can be considered quite a common technique. What is new, is the issue of whether every ads are helpful. Thus, Dodge (the most frequently featured vehicle in the game) does not hurry to take advantage of such free (?) promotion. Firstly, it is not clear if women represent the main target audience for Dodge (because 47% of GTA players are actually female). Secondly, the widely criticised violence as one of the game`s distinctive feature could be seen as rather harmful for the brands, apart the Grand Theft Auto per se. Overall, the record of £1 billion in sales within three days may only suggest that games are as good a place for product placement as the most successful Hollywood hits.

London Fashion Week - sometimes the only thing your customers need is a cup of tea.

On the contrary to the GTA marketing strategy, LFW demonstrates the excessive usage of the social media channels, apps and tools for making retail. For instance, Topshop involved in their fashion week campaign two different apps: sound recognition technology ‘Chirp’ and ‘Customize the Catwalk’ application. The first one, despite the expectations did not work exceptionally well, as the software requires users to be present somewhere close to the actual location of event in order to receive information, in case of LFW - exclusive backstage pictures, videos and latest trends.

On the other hand, ‘Customize the Catwalk’ idea allowed Topshop fans to change the colours of the outfits at the very same moment they appeared on the runway. Overall, these social media and digital activities gained Topshop 8,130 Twitter mentions, says Marketing Magazine. This does not look bad at all for the mass market retailer when competing with high fashion brands.

Speaking of which, marketing chosen for the LFW by Burberry can be seen as a winner. With total number of 285,110 Twitter and Instagram mentions British trench coats icon proved collaboration strategy to be fruitful. Thus, Burberry and Apple worked together so that all the sharable content, such as pictures and video, was made before, during and after the catwalk with the use of iPhone 5S. The buzz around the new phone and the new cloths resulted into the doubled excitement of the trend hunters both in technology and fashion with a subsequent social media coverage.

Finally, the third LFW label by the number of mentions is Mulberry. Interestingly, the brand almost reached Topshop (6,540 mentions vs 8,130) without any apps, softwares or collaborations. The pick of the social media resonance around Mulberry happened even before the start of the LFW. Invitations for the show is what made Mulberry the most talked about designer at those days. More than half of all the Tweets received were about the Wedgewood tea cups that the brand sent to the members of the guest list. These invitation were granted with a special hashtag #mulberryteacup, which received 147 mentions itself. To sum up, traditional ‘giveaway’ tactics may be as useful as innovative digital cases.

This seems like a hell of an article :) Sorry, I mean it is so long and comprehensive (I hope you agree), that I am extremely proud of it. Time to have a cup of tea and enjoy the rest of the day!

See you all soon,, here and in London!

Social bookmarking and why you need it

Hi folks! How`re you doing? ;)

I feel so terrible for leaving you here, all alone, in this lonely Internet, without any new posts for a couple of days. That`s not that I have been procrastinating, in fact, I was doing the opposite - working as a tutor on the Freshers Week in the University of Glasgow. This was so much fun! :-) So great to be in the shoes of the 'university person' again. Oh, I just realised how much I miss my recently ended student days!!!

Anyway, you are probably hungry for some food for thought, don`t you? And I am going to give you some regarding the social bookmarking: what it is, why you need to know about it and how to do it. Enjoy!

1. Social bookmarking is...Well, in a non-digital word bookmarking is a process of putting something (card, piece of paper or a fancy silver bookmark) into the book to note your favourite pages or those that are importnat to you. In the digital word, information in the virtual space can be similarly organised through social bookmarking services. These are the online services where content is 'tagged' and shared in a way so the other people can find their way to what actual interests them. Hm...how can I make sound even simplier...well, most of us use Internet as a source of news: some of you are not necesserly keen to know what is happening in the financial sector, but rather stay updated with the recent technology innovations. Therefore, on social bookmarking website you can go and search directly for the information based on your preferences and using the 'keywords' (say: iPhone 5s, Apple, smartphones).

2. I need to know about social bookmarking services (SBS) because...There are three main reasons, I wouldsay, depending on who you are. (This sounds like a very phylosophical matter - knowing who we are and what we want in this life;-).

As an Internet user in general, you would use SBS because it is an easy and fast way to search for the information, especially if you want to track everything that is online regarding a particular issue. This may be also useful for you professional and studying purposes when you are researching a topic.

The important thing to mention here is that SBS do not actually contain materials (news, resources) per se, but links to those materials, so it kind of looks as a library catalogue or a huge list of references.
So, if you are a student, you would need to know abour SBS to save some time finding sources for your essays and projects.

Finally, if you are PR-person, you should think of SBS as a great tool for driving traffic to your press- and publised campaign materials by tagging them with the relevant key words. For instance, if you are performing a new product launch campaign and have the press release about this e.g. new fabulous fishing kit by FishWithUs you can save the link to this press release on the SBS. Adding the keywords such as 'fishing', 'fishing kit', 'outdoor activities' etc. you will make users who search for this keywords see your press release! Is not it great? Especially, if you think of it from the SEO point of view.

3. I like the idea, tell me how to start! So if you are fancy trying to 'socially bookmark' something, just register with one of the SBS I provide below and see which one you like the most. Finally, I guess for the PR-people it might be a great idea to try using all of them at once (does help to generate traffic).

- Twitter (are you surprised?). By hashtagging people and stuff in general you also bookmark and sort the information, so for the PR - tweeting about your event or product is a great alternative (compliment) to the traditional press release.

- StumbleUpon

- Reddit

- Delicious

- Digg 

- Scoop.it 

- Chime.in

P.S. I know this is not a full list - just those I had in mind. If you know more SBS - let me know. :) Have a great night! I will see (em...talk/write to) you soon!

P.P.S I just realised, another way to use SBS is to promote your blog!! Or my blog :) Feel free to try tagging some of my posts, I will be very grateful :) By the way, many thanks to +Eduardo De Sales for always reading me and commenting on my posts! 

Why your business should be on Google+

Good afternoon, my dear friends, readers and followers! Hi, Mom and Dad, I know you always read me! :)

Today I will share with you some up-to-date piece of knowledge regarding the use of social media channels for business purposes. So, I am sure all of you guys use Facebook and/or Twitter (Vk.com in post Soviet Union countries) as main online communication and connection tool. Obviously, businesses use these SNS for the marketing purposes. For instance, H&M Facebook page with its 16 million Likes can really be named 'encyclopedia example of the social media channels use for retail sector'. On the other hand, Instagram has also proved to be valuable network for fashion brands' online presence. I was always fond of the fashion it-girls like Mira Duma (429k Instagram followers) and how they personalise their businesses (Buro27.ru). Or, as another example, what do you think about Jobs movie promotion campaign? 15 seconds Instagram clips as an alternative to a traditional YouTube trailer looks smart and innovative! (Can you say so about the new iPhone(s)?)

A couple of years ago social media marketing was considered the biggest trend in the industry. I believe it still is important with all the efforts big brands invest into maintaining their SNS pages and even making CRM platforms out of them. One trend I have noticed while in the UK is the emphasise put on Google+ as a No.1 social network for businesses. So, have you heard of Google+?

Google+ is a relatively new SNS launched by Google (obviously) in 2011 and outnumbering Twitter users in just 2 years period! I have been using it for 3 months only, but  can already share with you some hints on why it is important to have your business 'google plused':

1. Search engine optimization  is the biggest concern. On the contrary to websites like YouTube or Facebook, whose content is quite restriced from SEO assessing, Google Plus represents the social network automatically indexed by Google Search. Just like any ther web page, content on the Google+ appears on search, can and does influence your page rank. Moreover, the high ranked information shared on this SNS stays in top search results for years. To compare, your awesomely popular Tweet will be lost in the Net within minutes. Interesting study published by MOZ suggests +1 action on Google+ (smth similar to Facebook`s Like) is 'more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage'.

2. The new old Authorship. I find my self producing Facebook masterpiece-posts, sharing genious 140 words on Twitter (occasionally) and writing this, hopefully interesting, blog ; clearly, I want the whole world to know who the author is. It is not like we live in the 100%-piracy-copyright infreengement-free world, you know. :) Anyway, Google Plus have introduced this new feature called Google Authorship which works in the following way. First, you should register your email as an author. Secondly, when you share your publications from other web sites (e.g. http://whatiknowishare.blogspot.com) on Google+ do not forget to mention your authorship. As the result, when somebody will google an article written by you, your profile photo from Google Plus will apear next to the search result. 

Again, it is important for search optimization, for promoting your content (as in 'more by Fabulous Author') and building personal brand. 

3. Google Timing+ my third favourite feature offered by G+. How do you know when your readers/customers/clients/fans are online? When should you send our your press release, Tweet latest rumors or post picture of the recently launched products? One way to go, is to read this study by Buddy Media naming the end of the week and weekends better time for online engagement. Thus, B2B Twitter  is more efficient on weekdays, whilst on B2C works best for Facebook on the weekends. You can find even more impressive data there, but another way to discovere the right timing is to go on Google+. Timing+ allows for automatic calculation of when your content gets the highest attention through +1 and re-posts. Therefore, you will always be smart in time managing your content. By the way, did you know that the best time for David Beckham to be active on G+ is Thursday between 20:00 and 21:00? Now, you know! 

There are so many more great features Google Plus has to offer, have fun trying out! 

'Wrecking' Hannah Montana Part 2

Hi guys!

I knew this was coming! Remember what I`ve told you about Miley Cyrus a couple of posts ago? Just today the girl released her new video 'Wrecking Ball' where she is nacked, rides the big steel ball, licks the thing and smashes everything with a baseball stick. I say 'weird'! What do you think?

In terms of marketing part of the whole event, the video aims on beating new record on Vevo (previous one was for the song 'We Can`t Stop'). By the time of me writing this post, this video already had more than 14 million view. Good luck with that!

By the way, did you know, that the outrageous VMA performance made Hannah Montana the most widely mentioned person on Twitter with 4.5 million mentions during the performance only?

Enjoy the video, tell me what you think about this new image of Milley and come back tomorrow for a really serious post! 

4 Tips to Get the Best out of Social Media for your Business

Morning guys!

Today I am an early bird producing more interesting and hopefully useful tips. Here you are. :)

With all the amazing online shops the digital world has to offer, how do you attract the customers to really come to your retail store? Is online world for your Forever 21 a chance or a Catch 22?

In a nutshell, it is all about motivating and rewarding with the decent amount of support. Here are some simple tips on how to turn your ‘followers’ into the frequent customers:

  1. Use your social media as a Loyalty Programme Platform

Loyalty programs have become quite a popular tool for the retail stores to attract and please the customers. Similarly, to how the discounts and special deals are received as the award for spending the money, complement your customers for spending their time.

Make the process simple and engaging. Set the price list or assign a value for every Like, Tweet and comment and make it be easily converted into the real money or discount point that can be spend in the store. But does the exchange of Likes into the money really result in brand loyalty? Let`s just say: depends on how you approach it. If your circuit is reduced to a simple ‘bribing’, it will probably result just in a one-day (night) stand on your social media page. The real relationships begin when you show the audience you are on the same wavelength. This is how you do it:

• Do not forget about non-monetary rewards, because their symbolic power really helps building relationships and gaining loyalty from your audience.  Chose ‘the fan of the month’, vote for the funniest tweet or pick ‘the most dedicated customer’. These meaningful achievements may be seen as the online equivalent for the VIP treatments.

• Take it to the next level – give those ‘friends of the brand’ a chance to participate in what you are doing: invite them on a tour around your office, give a chance to dress the window of your store or share your wi-fi password.

• Be creative. (This might not be the best advice to give from the practicality point of view, therefore, you can look up for the examples here:

2. Everybody likes to play, just set the rules

Hopefully surprising, this is not about the Apps and Facebook games. Another way to invite people from and through Social Media to your store is quest – little adventure that integrates online and offline tasks into one big game, making it fun and useful.

• Think about the mechanics of the quest. How many tasks will there be in in adventure? Will you reveal all of them at once or keep the intrigue by posting one task a day (week/hour)?  Will you use only one social platform or integrate Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare all together?  

• Motivation is a king (queen). What is the purpose of the quest and why would people want to participate? It is not only about the prize in the end, so you should make the people feel what they do matters. Perhaps, connect the fun to something bigger (for each person who completes the quest, the company will donate certain amount of money to charity or plant one tree in the local park).  

• Examples of tasks: check-in, take a picture, find, post (anything that will benefit the brand and engage the audience).

3. Use social media as an emergency line

With any business customers will always have queries, questions and seek for assistance, so create a customer service desk on your social media page.

• CRM. Good CRM requires a lot of resources and contribution; however, even if you cannot afford helping your clients online 24/7, they should still feel your support.

• Do your best. Sometimes simply having a FAQs section or image on your Facebook will help. For more serious issue, establish the rules of when and how you will deal with them if you the instant response is impossible.

• Share the duties. Educate your audience with basic tips and advices on what to do if…, so they become experts and help you with the customer service. More on CRM and customer service online here.

That is it for today. :) Let me know if there is anything you want me to write about and thanks again for reading me!!!!!