Tuesday  night we headed to the Networx 2012 marketing trends forecast, to hear what a panel of those in-the-know (including Nigel O’Rorke from Microsoft Australia, Lucinda Barlow from Google AUS/NZ, Seamus Byrne from CNET, and Steve Fontanot from Chieftain Communications) are predicting for 2012. While the topics weren’t that new, it was good to hear different viewpoints from the panel and the diverse audience members, which made for an interesting evening.

Overall, the feeling was that 2012 will see the continued adoption of smart phones and associated technology; augmented reality will start to find its feet in brand communication; and more than likely, we’ll see the death of the flashmob, thank goodness!

Here are my top three takeouts from the night:

NFC technology

What is this, I hear some of you ask?  It’s near field communication (NFC) technology, which exists within next generation mobile phones. This very clever ‘tap and go’ technology allows us to conveniently undertake payless transactions with an instant receipt of information anywhere, in real time. Mastercard has jumped on this ‘mobile wallet’ concept, partnering with Commonwealth Bank and Hoyts Cinemas to offer La Premiere customers the luxury of ordering and paying for food, from their seat, through their QkR app. Handy! Coincidently, this morning I received this latest trend in a briefing from the lovely folks at Trendwatching, which also predicts Point, Know and Buy as one of their crucial consumer trends for 2012. Check it out and see what brands like Google, Heinz, Adidas and Amazon are also doing to capitalise on this opportunity.

Gamification

Our own research and tracking of trends has told us that gamification is a biggie this year, with more and more brands looking to engage audiences through the use of gaming technology across multiple platforms. We are excited to be investing opportunities like this for clients.

Google+

We all know that Google+ is still the relatively new kid on the social media block, but it’s quickly being used by brands who want to offer their different communities targeted ways of engaging with them. Seamus Byrne told of how Logitech Australia is allowing its followers to ‘circle’ themselves, so they can choose to only receive the information they want. This granular approach ensures the brand maintains a good relationship with its customers, without overloading them with irrelevant material. Makes sense right? Google’s Lucinda Barlow highlighted how the ‘hangouts’ feature had particularly caught on, not something Google had originally expected. Obama even did a live Google ‘hangout’ earlier this week, so if it is good enough for him, then it is good enough for me!

What is your top prediction for 2012?

Posted by Jane Outen

Organically growing a Facebook community can be a hard slog, unless your brand is iconic or has a cult-like status (Coca-Cola), or unless it’s just really awesome and lots of people want to find it and like it (Bubble O’Bill).

Many brands feel like they must have thousands (even millions) of likes / fans to prove they are more popular than their competitors, or to generally keep up appearances.

This race for numbers has always bothered me, because bigger isn’t always better. Bigger is sometimes really crappy.  Bigger on Facebook can mean more random, less engaged, more noisy, less manageable, more time consuming, less meaningful.

To stimulate the growth of Facebook community the options are usually: hit the Facebook advertising button; run a cool competition / promotion; or have a big idea to accelerate the number of likes on your page.

Hands down, Facebook advertising is the quickest, easiest and sometimes the cheapest way to get a surge in likes, as the graph below shows (in October we hit that advertising button for a client).  But don’t think more people will guarantee more comments or more engagement, because it won’t.

I think Facebook advertising is about the best form of advertising there is, because of how targeted it is. In fact, I’m all for it, but only in certain situations.  If you want to give it a go, here’s what I suggest:

1/ If your brand is already on Facebook, with an engaged and active but small community, and you want to attract some new likes / fans etc., I recommend short bursts  of accelerated growth, via highly targeted Facebook advertising, that offers something of value to users (people get fatigued with Facebook ads pretty quickly, so short bursts are better). But, be prepared to potentially dilute the quality of the community. Also be prepared with more excellent content and more time to manage new community members. You’ll organically attract more people from the ads after they stop, which is a knock-on effect, and then you can continue on your way, integrating new fans. Follow this with long periods of organic growth.

2/ If your brand is already on Facebook, with a dead community, I recommend going back to your brand, your comms and content plan, your social media strategy (is there one? There should be!) to make changes that will increase the likelihood of engagement, before you drive a bunch of people to a page that’s not working.  Tweak things, develop better content (by asking people what they need or want from your brand), ask for feedback and then, once things are better, go for advertising, as per the above.

3/ If your brand is really new to Facebook or about to create a page, I recommend starting with organic growth and sticking to it – for a long, long time.  The people who like your brand, in the early stages, will have specifically sought it out. They are interested in engaging; they are the true fans; they are your people!  During this time you can hone your content and conversations, and get a feel for the community and what works for them. Then, if you want to reach some fans that might not have thought to find you on Facebook, go for small bursts of advertising,

So, buck the trend!  Stick mostly to organic growth, which attracts quality, not quantity, and your brand will reap the rewards.

Posted by Renee Creer.

Social media growth in Australia 2011

Here are some key stats:

• Facebook growth and engagement continues to rise. Many are speculating Facebook will reach a whopping 1 billion users globally in 2012.
• Twitter and LinkedIn have almost doubled their user numbers.
• YouTube increases its Australian audience by 4 million every month.
• WordPress and Blogspot are on the rise with considerable increases.
• Reddit has capitalised from users moving across from Digg with Australian traffic increasing 3 fold.
• Photo social networks like Flickr and Tumblr are still gaining popularity.
• MySpace continues its slow decline which is expected to continue over 2012.
• A re-design of Digg’s user interface has had an impact on long time users with numbers dropping by 60,000.
• Google+ is one to keep a close eye on with over 500,000 Australians signing up since it launched earlier this year.

Posted by Ashley Gatte.  Infographic by Erica Hardwick at www.digitalglitter.net.  Published on Social Media News.

If you haven’t read these books (which cover social media, measurement, marketing and more), get going! Grab that extra Christmas cash, stock up and settle down for some quality reading time in 2012.

1/ The New Rules of Marketing and PR
2/ Engage
3/ Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
4/ Secrets of the Social  Media Marketing Superstars
5/ Groundswell
6/ Content Rules
7/ The Cluetrain Manifesto
8/ Measure What Matters
9/ The End of Business As Usual
10/ Marketing to the Social Web
11/ The Tipping Point
12/ Naked Conversations

Also, check out Amazon’s Best Sellers in Public Relations list or this list of 10 Must-Read Public Relations and Marketing Books.  Then PR Daily has this list of 12 Helpful Books About Social Media.

On the Stellar* reading list for 2012, so far is:

1/ Enchantment
2/ UnMarketing
3/ Linchpin
4/ Likeable
5/ Steve Jobs Biography

What have been your all-time favourite industry reads or what will you read in 2012?

Posted by Renee Creer.

1/ What are the main social pages (Sydney based)?

• The key outlets are The Sun Herald ‘S’, Sunday Telegraph Insider and the Daily Telegraph ‘Confidential’
• Other print outlets include SMH P.S., The Wentworth Courier, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, GQ and more
• Online outlets include Nine to Five, Pedestrian, Two Thousand, Concrete Playground, and various radio station websites

2/ What do they want?

• Each publication has a style guide and rules in line with the photos they like to run. These are available upon request from the picture editor
• Generally celebrities, exclusives and anything with a unique or quirky angle
• About 10 shots with captions, however be sure not to repeat the same people in more than one image

3/ What happens at the event?

• Each paper has a regular photographer who is great at recognising faces, knows the picture brief for the paper well and generally like to work independently
• They’ll arrive and scout the room for recognisable faces, or fun, quirky shots that fit the outlet’s style guide
• If they can’t send a photographer, book a photographer and brief them to shoot in the style of the outlet you’re aiming for
  

Social photography dos and don'ts

4/ What photos do and don’t work?

Socials are looking for these kinds of shots:

• A mix of horizontal and vertical and good proportioned / framed shots
• No chopped off limbs – everyone must have feet!
• Mix of singles, couples and group shots
• Bold, fun, candid images – no blank faces!
• No repeating people in final selection – one person, one shot
• All shots must be captioned with full names

I hope you’ve found these tips useful.

Posted by Phoebe Jackson.

Timothy is now getting friend requests from randoms and as a consequence, has posted this message on his wall: “Due to the increased demand for my friendship I am now implementing a new friend accepting policy… Please understand that my viral status has forced me to take these actions.”

Obviously people shared this photo because it’s funny, cute, creative and ironic.  But why else do people share content?

According to research by the New York Times, people share content for the following reasons:

• To bring valuable and entertaining content to others
• To define themselves
• To grow and nourish relationships
• For self-fulfillment
• To get the word out about a cause or brand

As content producers for brands and companies, understanding these insights is important.  Using them as a guide or benchmark when producing content could increase the likelyhood of your content being shared.

Below is a great (and credible) infographic from Add This on sharing content.

What’s interesting to note is that for all the sharing buttons, bells and whistles we put on websites and blogs, the old copy and past of a url is still the way most of us share content online.

Posted by Renee Creer

Reporters are increasingly getting pressured, encouraged and cajoled to build their online profiles and at last month’s PANPA (Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers’ Association) Future Forum 2011, I gave a talk on best practice social media, which was aimed at giving journalists some tips and things to mull over before they wander, some like lambs to the slaughter (just joking) into online social networks.

While journalists are finding their way online, the big four (not the banks, I mean Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn) have been doing their bit to support the media’s use of social platforms.  Here’s what they’ve got going on, plus some Mashable guides for journalists.

Facebook and Journalists

Launched in April this year, this page provides really insightful articles, tips, case studies, videos etc. for using Facebook as a journalist, as well as being a community for journalists.  The page provides links to other journalists on the platform, so you can see how they are engaging with audiences. The poster boy (or should I say, man) for journalists on Facebook appears to be Nicholas Kristof, of The New York Times, who has over 200,000 likes and uses the platform for crowdsourcing, listening and extending his reporting.

Facebook and Journalists
Mashable – The Journalist’s Guide to Facebook

Twitter Media

Launched in early 2010, Twitter’s media blog is aimed at media companies that want to integrate Twitter into their sites.  It showcases work and provides practical tips and case studies, however the blog hasn’t been updated since May this year, except for the release of their guide called Twitter for Newsrooms.  There’s also @twittermedia to follow.

Twitter Media
Twitter for Newsrooms Guide
Mashable – The Journalist’s Guide to Twitter

YouTube for Reporters’ Center

Launched in 2009, the YouTube Reporters’ Center is a resource to help reporters learn more about how to report the news. It features some of America’s top journalists and news organisations sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.  Unfortunately, there has been no new content for some time, which is a shame for the 20,000+ channel subscribers!  In addition, YouTube is considering launching a service dedicated to investigative journalism in response to the decline of in-depth reporting at traditional news outlets.

YouTube Reporters’ Center
Mashable – The Journalist’s Guide to YouTube

LinkedIn Press Center

Finally, we come to LinkedIn. If you head to their Press Center you’ll find some information for journalists in a section aptly named, How Journalists Use LinkedIn, which has tips on searching for sources, building networks, promoting work and more.  There’s also the official LinkedIn for Journalists group, plus LinkedIn Skills pages, for broadcast journalism and newspapers, so have a poke around in there.

LinkedIn Press Center for Journalists
LinkedIn Skills for Broadcast
LinkedIn Skills for Newspapers

You might also like to check out this site: Social Media & Journalism.  If you’ve come across any other interesting guides or websites, let us know.

Posted by Renee Creer.

To help with general way-finding, the awesome folks at Overdrive Interactive in the States have just released this little gem.  It’s a succinct, high-level look at the main social media tools and websites and where they all fit.

The map will help you to explain the landscape to clients, colleagues – even your mum, and it will help you to organise and categorise the main sites and tools, or the ones you should care about, as Overdrive Interactive says.

What I especially love about this map is that the links on the PDF are live – easy.  You can download it from their website and even submit any site or tool you feel should be added via the form at the top right of the page.

Posted by Renee Creer.

I found myself saying, “This would actually kill two birds with one stone and you know what, a bit of hard work never hurt anyone.” Then, when it got to the free coffee and stay in bed if it’s raining part, I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t live in the eastern suburbs (…typical, they get all the good stuff).

This little gem found its way to my email via Facebook.  A Stellar* friend captured it on her iphone while at the bus stop and posted it on Facebook.  It was then ‘Liked’ and made it from Facebook to an email that circulated our office.  We forwarded the emails on to friends and now I’m blogging it.  And so begins the elusive viral / word of mouth process.

The ad is a great example of what happens when you create content that’s worth sharing and it demonstrates how things that we see or experience in the offline world spark sharing in the online world.

The fundamentals of creating great content are simple: know your audience / customers / community intimately and then go about creating stuff that really resonates with them, appeals to their emotions, or helps them in some way.

What makes this particular content piece successful is that it’s out of the ordinary and the producer understands exactly the type of person they’re speaking to and they appeal to specific emotions, desires and needs.  They’ve got a tough sell and they know it, so they make the most of it with cheeky humour; they stick to the positives, but they also address the negatives; they do this so well that we all got sharing and talking as a result.

Moral of the story? Tick some of these boxes when creating content:

• entertaining
• relevant
• engaging
• helpful
• humorous
• unique

You will increase the likelihood that people will share your content both on and offline and you’ll create some kudos for your brand.

Posted by Renee Creer

1. Start with firm objectives and measures

There is no end of sponsorships deals on offer and some of them can seem like a no brainer, but be clear on why you’re seeking a sponsorship deal, what you intend to get out of it, and how will you prove the sponsorship was a success.  Set clear objectives e.g. brand awareness, data acquisition or product trial, then measure and calculate the cost / benefit so you can evaluate what the relationship offered.

2. Know both target markets

The sponsorship opportunity will be a waste of money if you don’t get this first step right. Know your target market segments in detail; drill down on them, create different personas and then match them to the sponsorship opportunity.  The company offering the sponsorship deal (if credible) should have detailed information about their audience, members or attendees.  Interrogate the information and be sure you’ll reach the right people in the right way via the sponsorship deal.

3. Take a different approach to benefits

Think outside the box. Things have moved on from the days of ‘logo placement’ on X and Y. To stand out in a competitive sponsorship environment look further than standard branding inclusions or activations and search for innovative and exciting ways for people to engage with the brand.  Take a ‘value add’ approach, ask: “How can my brand add value to the target audience? What are the consumer pain points and can I ease them in a clever, engaging way? How could I surprise or delight targets?”

4. Plan for extra costs

Investing $10k on a sponsorship deal is really just a deposit before investing more funds.   In PR, a common rule of thumb is to take the sponsorship investment and add another 50% to 100% to better understand the cost required to properly leverage the opportunity.  Also think about the added extras in promoting your product and the brand via the sponsorship e.g. for an event sponsorship for a spirit brand, extra costs would be an activation (a bar), stock, staff, stands, glasses, ice, mixers, marketing material etc all of which can add up.

You also need to understand that good sponsorships take time to build so if it’s one event held annually, ideally consider the costs involved with committing for 2 – 3 years to properly understand the leverage potential of the audience and opportunity.  If you are able to show the person or company seeking your sponsorship that you are willing to invest for an extended period it may also be worth scaling your investment costs so they increase over time in line with your projections of increased leverage success.

5. Collaborate

Set the expectation of collaboration between you (as sponsor) and organisation from the outset.  This collaboration needs to be maintained throughout and the sponsorship manager must gain a real understanding of their potential sponsors marketing and business objectives.  In the wooing phase, check who will manage the relationship once the contract is signed as you might find you’ll get passed down the line once confirmed.

Posted by Renee Creer