Dear Reader, Welcome to the world of Socialnomics

Apart from what you’ll pick up from the stats, I think it’s a wonderful piece of production!

Here are some to the quotes that stood out to me.

“Savvy retailers are making sure their fans receive value in exchange for their digital vote,”

“Nordstrom began encouraging store employees to use Facebook and Twitter to talk with customers about work-related matters — everything from new handbags to holiday hours.”

“You’re not there to sell,”

“It’s not that we don’t ever do offers, because we do, but that’s kind of secondary,”

“For us, social media is about extending our lifestyle to a broader audience. We’re not so driven by the need to monetize it.”

“You can’t just set up a Facebook page and that’s the end of it, you have to have someone running that page, reading comments, responding to questions and making sure you’re promoting the growth of that group.”

And what can customers expect to see & experience on businesses social media sites? here are a couple of examples.

• Costco Rotisserie Chicken
• Mighty O Donuts
• Starbucks

I heard this programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday and thought it gave some great example of how a small food companies have used  social media successfully to market their services.

BBC Radio 4 The Food Programme

Programme Details: “Sheila Dillon visits the Food and Drink Expo 2010, at Birmingham’s NEC. With more than 600 suppliers exhibiting, it’s a chance to get an idea of where the food industry’s heading. Sheila will be exploring, amongst other things, the way food producers are using new media to communicate with customers…. To Tweet or Not to Tweet? – that is the question.”

Broadcast on: BBC Radio 4, 4:00pm Monday 29th March 2010

Duration: 30 minutes

Available until: 12:00am Thursday 1st January 2099 (so hurry, don’t miss it!)

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Headline reads: Redundancy package podcast unlikely to sound appealing

CANTILLON: INSIDE THE WORLD OF BUSINESS: STAFF AT Anglo Irish Bank are expected to get details next week of the job cuts and associated redundancy package currently being negotiated between the bank’s management and the Department of Finance.

Anglo Irish Bank

Rumour has it that chief executive Mike Aynsley will break the news via a podcast to all staff. It’s all very high tech but will not disguise the fact that the bank is expected to shed anywhere between 200 and 500 jobs in a package targeted at staff with short service.

The terms are said to be something in the region of five weeks salary per year in respect of the first two years and then two weeks salary for every year after that.

Presumably it will appeal to younger staff who might be thinking of emigrating or changing career.

It will be interesting to see if it proves tempting for any of the senior management, whose close associations with the previous regime, are causing some discomfort to both the bank itself and also its new owner, the Minister for Finance.

Redundancy payments – generous as they might be – are unlikely, however, to make much of a dent in the debts owed to the bank by some of its top management cadre.

Pat Whelan, the head of the bank’s Irish business, had a loan of about €5 million when it was taken over by the State, while his salary was €650,000.

The executive in charge of Anglo’s UK business, Declan Quilligan, had a loan of about €3.3 million, compared to a salary of €770,000. Anglo’s director of group finance, Matt Moran, had loans of about €2 million while the head of Anglo’s US business, Tony Campbell, had a loan in the region of €5 million. Their salaries are not known.

The bank’s best chance of ensuring this money is repaid may yet be to keep on paying their salaries.

 

 

 

 

They’ve followed the New Rules of Marketing And PR (As in that fab book by David Meerman Scott)

• A company that blogs about what is important, relevant and interesting to their customers. http://info.4imprint.com
• A business that has a human face by showing it’s staff on the front of their website. www.4imprint.com
• A company that offers free advise and information to anybody who wants to take it. They’ve been podcasting since June 2006

For me this is a company that believes in the new rules and the effect they can have on their business.

By the way if you’ve not had a look at what they do, they produce promotion merchandise and what’s that got to do with podcasting?

ANSWER: Everything!

Austereo Logo

This is taken from the annual report 09 of Australian broadcasting company Austereo.

Today a significant and growing number of our audience stream Austereo’s stations online, listen through mobile phones or download podcasts. On-demand use of our content has increased in the ’09 financial year with podcasts up to a monthly average of 2,619,486 reflecting a 255% increase on the ’08 equivalent. This follows a 40% increase in the ’08 financial year. The new platforms are ensuring that radio remains in growth and in strong demand, in contrast with the declines in audience reach of certain other key media options..

Podcasting still has along way to go before it can truly be classed as mainstream media. Although it’s been around for 5 or 6 years it still is in it’s early stages of mainstream adoption and the real benefits of what podcasting can deliever for consumers and content providers still has to be realised by the majority.

This is why imperative that “traditional” media continues to raise the awareness of:

1)    “what a podcast is”

2)    the benefits a podcasts can deliver.

News that Austereo has seen an increase of 255% year on year in downloads means that it’s only a matter of time before your customers and clients will be “podcast aware”.

So the question is, is your company, business or organisations ready to exploit the podcasting opportunity when it arrives?

The article is from resourceshelf.com

Library embraces social media

In Canada Government Librarians Utilize Social Media to Stay Relevant
From the Article:

Here’s a Text Summary:

Far from the stereotypical image of a stodgy old librarian shushing those who rustle book pages too loudly, librarians in Ontario’s public service are embracing new media to keep their clients up to date.

Whether it’s Twitter, RSS feeds, podcasting or social bookmarking services, librarians are recognizing that information comes from more multiple sources these days. From politicians to firefighters, government workers are turning to new media for the news that matters to them and librarians are keeping pace with Web portals that deliver social media mash-ups.

Martha Murphy is the librarian for the Office of the Fire Marshall. She uses the office’s Web site “Fire News” to push out news information about the ministry, and a subscription-based e-mail newsletter. She is able to automate much of that news gathering with the help of RSS.

Source: itbusiness.ca

Question: How can social media help you stay relevant and connect with your customers?

Article taken from podcastingnews.com

Sep 30th, 2009 | By James Lewin | Category: General, Making Money with Podcasts
Good news for new media publishers – Internet media is rapidly becoming the biggest channel for advertising.

The Guardian reports that the UK has become the first major economy where advertisers spend more on internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75bn online spend in the first six months of the year.

This overturns nearly half a century of dominance by the television broadcast industry:

UK advertisers spent £1.75bn on internet advertising in the six months to the end of June, a 4.6% year-on-year increase, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. To put this in perspective, in 1998, when the IAB first measured internet advertising, just £19.4m was spent online.The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets.

The IAB originally predicted that internet ad spend would overtake TV at the end of 2009; however, the crippling advertising recession accelerated this by six months. TV advertising fell about 17% year on year in the first half, t

o about £1.6bn, according to the report.

This is an inevitable trend, but this switch is a milestone for online advertising.

One possible threat to the growth of online advertising an online media is concern over tracking. The New York Times reports that 2 out of 3 object to online tracking. Any changes to regulations around online ad tracking could delay migration to online ads.

If you think social media is a fad, you might as well pack up now.

Taken from Practical eCommerce

MAY 15, 2009 · BY LISA WEHR

Gone are the days when a search is performed and only a list of pertinent websites appears in the search engine results page. Instead, what can be found now is a blend of websites, videos, images, social media profiles, blogs, news stories, press releases, podcasts and maps. With blended search, all findings— official company websites and YouTube videos alike— are joined together on the search engine results page. By integrating this blend of media into your company’s site and marketing plan you can obtain search success and improve customer satisfaction, ultimately boosting your company’s overall sales. Below are four ways that your company can get started to ensure successful search marketing results.

Create a Company Blog. If your company doesn’t already have a blog, now is the time to create one. Even if your company has one, keep reading. It’s vital that this blog is updated on a regular basis with relevant information pertaining to your industry. Encourage employees to write posts about the company, industry, products, services or events that affect your business. Blogs bring business to a more personal level and provide a forum for valuable consumer feedback. Ultimately, your blog will gain tags and links from other relevant blogs and websites as it gains recognition, providing indexable content that can improve search results for your company.

Incorporate Video and Images. While uploading company videos to sharing sites like YouTube is a great way to gain exposure, it’s also valuable to incorporate video and images into your site. Be sure that these videos and images are relevant to your business. For example, if you own a car detailing business, include videos of customer testimonials on your site or before and after images of the cars you’ve worked on. In order to maximize indexable content, be sure to fully describe and tag your videos and images. Incorporating this rich media into your company’s website can improve its search rankings and enhance the customer experience.

Utilize Press Release and News Sites. News sites are increasingly popular and are impacting blended search results. Many news sites have become more social and are encouraging users to post what they deem to be “newsworthy” content. Additionally, widespread distribution of press releases that incorporate rich media has become popular. If your company has recently received an award or taken part in a significant event, let it be known. Submit your story to a news site and take advantage of distribution outlets. Companies that seize the opportunity to optimize and market press releases containing rich media on a regular basis can dominate higher search positions. Occupying these higher positions will ultimately lead more traffic to your site, further increasing your probability of driving sales.

Start Podcasting. Podcasting has experienced exceptional growth in the last few years. Podcasts can be optimized (similar to blogs, images and videos) and tagged and linked to your company website. Visitors who download your podcast can also tag, evaluate and share your podcast, leading to more traffic to your company website. Record podcasts on a regular basis that include newsworthy or interesting information from your company newsletter, blog or elsewhere to drive traffic and rankings.Embrace Blended Search

Overall, the sites with the most successful search positions are integrating and optimizing all of their content—including blogs, video, images and press releases. In order to keep up with your competitors, it’s vital for your company to embrace blended search and begin implementing various forms of content into its site. These enhancements can lead to a better user experience, higher search rankings and increased sales.