Last year I was part of pretty epic moment never seen before at The Next Web Conference. I got my hair shaved on stage by Patrick (organizer) in exchange of HTC Desire HD. Watch the funny video below!

See you around!

This video was created by Skillshare, a community that encourage people to teach what they know to anybody that wants to learn. Cool concept.

Yes, Spotzer is again looking for an smart/cool/geek intern to help me- Nicolas Griffioen and Gyula Polonyi (the SEO Manager) to get the videos of our clients to the first page of Google search results as well as help us in other digital marketing tasks. You think this sounds good? keep reading because here in this blog post I’m going to share some inside info of what Spotzer does and what the internship is all about.

Who’s Spotzer and what does it do?

Spotzer aka “Spotzer Media Group BV” is a marketing company that specializes in creating remarkable and affordable advertising for small and medium businesses in the US, Europe and Oceania. We create websites, mobile websites, videos and social media campaigns. Check our website for more info> www.spotzer.com and watch the video below:

What does a Digital Marketing intern do?

A Digital Marketing Intern watches a lot of videos! Well, let me be specific. We create a high amount of short promotional videos showcasing the products and services of a small business around the world and then we upload that video to different video sharing sites such as Youtube. The real deal for the owner of the video is to be found on Google by relevant potential customers so it’s our job to make sure that the video gets high up enough on Google so that people watch it and make a call and buy. How do we do that?  We have a super sophisticated system with Excel spreadsheets + databases that get all the information together and then almost magically the video gets online (I can’t tell all the details, it’s confidential you know). And one of the steps in the middle is to actually watch the video. Depending on your language skills you might also be asked to create relevant keywords using some professional tools we have in-house.

There will be some social media action too since nowadays the combination of SEO + Social Media is boosting search results so there will be some integration process to develop with your help. However be warned that it is mostly SEO stuff.

Who are we looking for?

We are particularly looking for a bachelor student, somebody who’s still at school and is eager to learn and come up with fresh ideas. Somebody who is internet savvy, that reads blogs, that’s active on social networks, that follow the latest tech trends, that wonders how the heck Google algorithms work. But also a person that has the eye for detail and is not shy to ask questions over and over.

How to score this internship?

You must be currently a student at an university (Hogeschool). Please bachelor graduated people or even those with  Master and PhD’s, this is not for you

Be awesome in Excel (or smart enough to learn quick)

Like Spotzer on Facebook (facebook.com/spotzer) and follow on Twitter (@SpotzerMedia)

Follow me (@NicoGriffioen) and the SEO Manager (@GyulaPolonyi)

Follow and ask questions to our current intern Bertram Croes (@BertramCroes) and ex intern Vivien Bresson (@VivienBresson)

What you get

• Personal coaching. Basically I’m going to be sitting on the desk next to you, training and guiding you.
• You can be online on Facebook and Twitter as long as you do your job (remember, I’m next to you, I can see your screen)
• Cool and fun international colleagues
• LinkedIn recommendations if you are good
• We drink beer at the office on Fridays
• Early December we have the company end of the year party so hurry up and apply now!
• Standard Dutch salary intern compensation

How to apply

[UPDATE]: Position has been fulfilled for the first semester of 2012. Feel free to send your open application and tempt us with hiring you. We are always open to get to know talented people.

The internship is based in our Amsterdam office. If you think you have what it takes to tackle this position and you are available for at least 5 to 6 months, send your CV and cover letter to Gyula Polonyi (gpolonyi@spotzer.com) and Nicolas Griffioen (ngriffioen@spotzer.com)

Audience Engagement, User Experience and Social Monetisation

Upon receiving my nametag, we headed into the large conference area of the hotel, where we docked and prepared for the first panel discussion on Audience Engagement, User Experience and Social Monetisation. Here we got the inside scoop from social media celebrity and VP Brand Development at Tampa’s Head of Lettuce firm, Amber Osborne (@MissDestructo) as she shared some funny anecdotes on yams and experiences on what got her where she is today. I was particularly keen on hearing what Warner Music’s Ritch Sibthorpe (@RitchSibthorpe) had to say, mostly because of my interest in music and the industry. We got kicked off with a successful campaign they collaborated on with pop sensation Katy Perry. I jokingly tweeted that I wondered if I could slip him a demo, instead I did the next best thing.

As soon as the panel was over and all the speakers and guests assembled near the entrance for coffee and cakes, I hunted down Mr. Sibthorpe and introduced myself. I asked him for some insight on how Warner targets artists and songwriters and he replied that nowadays, they look for folk that have:

• Already created some kind of following
• Have successfully shown entrepreneurial skill.
• Some talent and charisma would not hurt either.

Forget the days of getting discovered in some obscure bar, the power is now in your hands to put yourself out there and be seen online! The most important thing he had to say on the matter is that “the first 5000 fans are the hardest to get and the most important ones”, I assume because these would be the innovators who will no doubt assist you in carrying your product to the next stage of adoption. Be prepared to spend some time engaging with your audience, but careful, mindlessly pasting your YouTube video or SoundCloud link on people’s wall can be interpreted as spamming by some.

Engage Your Audience With Mobile Apps

Recording artist aspirations aside, we refilled our coffee cups and prepped for our next session on how to Engage Your Audience With Mobile Apps. In this session, I was surprised to hear how low the survival rate for apps are, where 80% of apps released are flops; all having less than a thousand downloads! Also, Shazam (@Shazam) representative Alex Musil (@amusil) highlighted the importance of having multiple revenue streams, which is something all business should definitely keep in mind. He also stated that he is not worried by the success of counterparts SoundHound, because this “stimulates” the market in a way that is beneficial. I wonder where the line is drawn between ‘stimulation’ and lost profit.

Social Media In The Offline World

Nevertheless, next on the agenda was the Social Media In The Offline World workshop, given primarily by Dorst & Lesser’s Robert Withagen (@RobertWithagen), which I just realized is a pretty creative and cool name for a company, Dutch for ‘Thirst’ and ‘Quencher’. He shared a few case studies, first of which was an online Facebook campaign for a hotel in Ibiza. Their concept:

• Make Your (Facebook) Friends ‘Jealous’
• Share Your Ibiza Experience With Your Online Friends
• Let The Guests Tell Your Story (User Generated Content)
• Give The Guests An Experience

With the use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) bracelets, guests could check-in or make Facebook posts based on their location on the hotel premises by swiping these ‘social-accessories’ across sensors. Mr. Withagen made a good point by saying these campaigns should be above all, enjoyable to the user and not a hassle.

Read more about RFID technology and watch the video case studies here> Social Media In The Offline World

How Brands Can Work With Start Ups

While these guests were basking in the sun, we were discussing the trappings of a large company over lunch, where an online campaign can easily get lost in a huge organization. During the conversation, my mind was drifting towards our next split stream panel discussion on How Brands Can Work With Start Ups with Spotify’s Chris Maples (@BigChrisMaples), Voddler’s VP Communication Anders Sjoman (@AndersSjoman), and SoundCloud’s VP Marketing Thom Cummings (@ThomCummings).

As you can imagine, I was excited to see SoundCloud present, since it is a service I use as well and would love to be convinced as to why exactly I should upgrade to the premium account. He made solid points on the importance of their API and targeting their relevant audience, but I felt I could use some more info, which meant I would have to stalk him after the session. Little did I know that later that day, SoundCloud would launch their iPad application, which is what I assume Mr. Cummings was vaguely referring to when I approached him after the session and he said that “…something big is around the corner”.

Without getting ahead of myself, I enjoyed hearing how the collaboration between a giant like Facebook and a start-up like Spotify went. With tongue in cheek, Mr. Maples stated that those first 5 million users might have had something to do with the force of nature known as Justin Bieber mentioning Spotify. Also, I appreciated Voddler acknowledging the intrusiveness of banner ads when streaming videos by introducing a ‘no interruption marketing’ strategy, where ads appear only when you pause the streamed video. Nice!

BankToTheFuture.com

In between our next session, was a pitch for BankToTheFuture.com, a ‘crowdfunding’ concept presented by founder Simon Dixon (@SimonDixonTwitt). In all honesty, I see the benefits of the idea, creating the possibility of finance for one and all, but as soon as he mentioned social scoring part right at the end, is when the majority of attendees tuned out. Imagine if your Klout score determines whether you get a mortgage or not. Scary!

Social Commerce and Branded Content

No matter, we were already geared up for our next Keynote Session with Yann Gourvennec (@ygourven) from telecom operator Orange on Social Commerce and Branded Content, which was essentially about measuring ROI in social media, that just like Google+, was not mentioned very often that day. In my opinion, this was the best-delivered speech and had the most value. It was a real ‘you had to be there’ kind of deal where he gave us little nuggets of gold like “With the number of fans increasing, your engagement rate drops” and “…if it takes too much time, its not worth it”, referring to the scalability of engagement in social campaigns. He also presented their own custom made social scoring dashboard, giving hope to those that have no trust in Klout, who by chance were tweaking their algorithms that day, slicing most people’s score in half, including my own.

A “Wiki” Future

Last, but certainly not least, “the godfather of crowdsourcing” and founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales) took the stage as the closing keynote speaker. Kids nowadays, who are part of the quote “Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter generation: the W-T-F generation” unquote, ask their teachers if an encyclopedia is something like Wikipedia. He also made us “imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge” and took us step by step through their fiasco with the Chinese government. Excellent!

At the end of the day, I left the conference feeling refreshed and inspired. My fingers were sore from keeping up with the iStrategy hashtag on Twitter, where valuable observations were shared, questions were directed towards the speakers, and a new way of networking was taking place. Did I seize the opportunity given? I only have two words to answer that: Carpe Diem’d!

(Read the summary of day one here.)

Written by Bertram J. Croes
@BertramCroes
Spotzer Media Intern
Budding Writer, Marketer, Musician, and Observer of the World

Special Thanks to Nicolas Griffioen

Evans came up with a new terminology for the new email landscape: Mobile + Social + Local = Mocial. This goes about how emails not only need to be socially friendly but also mobile friendly. This affects the layout of an email since not only it has to be optimized to the eye of the reader but also to be accessed and clicked by “the finger” of the user on a mobile device.

In order to master email marketing in a “Mocial” world there a couple of basic steps to have under consideration:

#Integration: 

It is important to integrate Opt-in email newsletter plugins into your online assets such as a tab on your Facebook page, widget on your site and just literally ask your fans if they want to join your mailing list.
Examples to check: Silverpop, Fabric.com

Sometimes it is needed to give a reason to join the list such as “We’ll give you free shipping codes there too forom time to time”. SMS to opt in for email newsletter can also be used.

Most important, add social icons and tell users to follow you and/or like you!

#Context/Design

An important factor on designing email campaigns is to consider the context of where is the email being read. Nowadays more and more people check their emails on a mobile device therefore the information within the email should be clear enough for them too. Context means:

• Scannable
• Singular calls to action
• Larger fonts
• Single columns
• Bullet-proof/Large CTA buttons
• Design for touch

#Humanisation

The new rule in marketing goes as: “Educate people, give tips, create an experience with your product”. Giving a personal/human touch to the emails make people feel that it is not a robot sending the email but a real person. Not only do selling but educate your audience and even feature them.

Example: Air New Zealand actually puts the flight attendant photo on the newsletter received by the passenger 2 days before the flight. When boarding, passengers can see a familiar face.

Get real. Get Human. Add Value.

#Automation/Triggers

Email analytics provide a huge amount of information about what links are click the most and who shared what. With this insights it is important to identify the most influential people on the database and act accordingly.

Full presentation here below:

The Future of Online Branding

The first keynote was given by Randi Zuckerberg, former marketing director at Facebook. She talked about how people have adapted their life activities with their online networks, specially on Facebook. Of course she had some interesting insights such as while an average user spends around 40min per day on Facebook, new moms spend 2 hrs on the site and this segment has a huge purchasing power. Makes sense, who hasn’t seen pictures of babies or stories about them on your news feed? This example refers to the fact that it is extremely important to understand the demographics of your audience and engage with them at the right time as well as with creative and valuable content. Randi also shared her top 10 Facebook tips:
.

#1: GIVE PEOPLE A REASON TO LIKE
#2: DELIGHT YOUR CUSTOMER BY FEATURING THEM
#3: GIVE BUSINESS A HUMAN FACE
#4: DETAILED INSIGHTS HELP YOU TAILOR YOUR MESSAGE
#5: STAY TIMELY, RELEVANT AND FUNNY!
#6: CROWD-SOURCING
#7: NEW E-COMMERCE OPTIONS
#8: NEW CUSTOMER SERVICE CHANNELS
#9: REAL-TIME INTERACTION
#10: A BEAUTIFUL MOBILE SYSTEM

.

How To Build Your Brand and Make A Great Video Go Viral

The second keynote was a panel discussion about how to build your brand and  make a great video go viral. The chosen speakers were the global directors of Heineken, Everything Everywhere, Barclaycard, eBuzzing and Youtube.

They started talking about the key caracteristics of video: Video makes people really get into the content. Video is compatible with almost every mobile devices and it is extremely shareable content. However, it’s difficult to make a great video since there is a high demand for it and competition is tough. After all, the real challenge is how to get the viral effect. Everything starts by asking yourself why would people share your video and after understanding your audience you then go and create the video. Spencer McHugh (Everything Everywhere) mentioned that timing is key when launching a campaign and he gave the example of their successful viral video about the Royal Wedding in the UK. On the other hand, Floris Cobelens (Heineken) said that they uploaded the walking fridge video by accident to Youtube and a couple of hours later it had a couple of million views!

F. Cobelens (Heineken) pointed out that for them it is really important that people talk about their brand, “it’s better than just nothing” – he said. Nevertheless people think that it is worth that a brand talks back to them and that there is a two way communication.

Moreover, the next discussion turned into whether paid advertising should be used to push a branded video or not. F. Cobelens explained that in general they do need to put some money to get the video started, Heineken approaches influential bloggers to first release the videos on their blogs and then they move towards TV commercials. In conclusion, a viral effect on branded videos need a financial push, otherwise it needs a “miracle”.

Integrating Social Media into Email Marketing

Next, there were a couple of workshops and I chose to go to “Integrating Social Media into Email Marketing” since lately I’m doing a lot of email marketing using Mailchimp. Here Richard Evans, marketing director of Silverpop talked about how they see the integration and synergy of email and social media. He highlighed 2 important facts: the email market is still huge with 2 billion email active users and it is going mobile. In addition, he mentioned that companies have seen an increase in engagement and on followers/fans base since they included social icons in their newsletters.

Evans came up with a new terminology for the new email landscape: Mobile + Social + Local = Mocial. This goes about how emails not only need to be socially friendly but also mobile friendly. This affects the layout of an email since not only it has to be optimized to the eye of the reader but also to be accessed and clicked by “the finger” of the user on a mobile device.

Find more insights and see the presentation here> Integrating Social Media into Email Marketing

Top Tips for Creating, Sharing & Consuming Information with the B2B Community

This panel was moderated by David Chalmers (Former Head of Digital Marketing Europe, Cisco Europe) and the panelist were Lot Keijzer (Director of Marketing Solutions BeNeLux, LinkedIn), Thomas Schmidt (Head of External Communications & Spokesman, ABB)  and Shimon Ben Ayoun (Managing Partner, SpotONVision).

One of the first statements mentioned by D. Chalmers quoted Mark Zuckerberg and what he said about communities: ”Communities already exists. Instead think about how you can help that community do what it wants to do.” So building up on this, these are the key learnings of this session:

• #Purpose: make sure it is clear what is your community for
• #Audience: find out who your target audience is and what they do, what they share, and if they are in other community already and what kind of value they add
• #Platform: Find out where your audience interacts with each other and consider engaging in that platform, creating your own platform is difficult “do not create your own island!”
• #value exchange: exchange value directly with people online. For example: online customer service
• #Influencers: Identify and reward the evangelist members of your community. They will help spread the word and build the community

.
Lot Keijzer from LinkedIn pointed out that a moderator plays an important role on the health of the community  “A small number of people can disturb a large community. Invest time and moderate properly”.
.
From .com to .brand, the Bridge Between On & Offline Marketing

This keynote was about the introduction of a new TLD (top-level domain) extension: “.brand”. Basically Tim Callan from Melbourne IT DBS explained the new opportunities that this new extension can bring to brands. For example companies besides having the standard “.com” extension, in the future they can also acquire extensions such as .music .shop .bank .pepsi .anything! T. Callan backed this new extensions saying that 55%  of internet users considers friendly domain names to be more noticeable, 90% consider them to be more memorable and that they commonly influence Google search results. Among other details, the cost of this extension will be around $200k!! and they will be available to use in 2013… btw, the whole keynote had a clear sales intent which didn’t sound very appropriate.

How to Partner with Facebook to Improve Your Brand

.

#1 Focus on people
#2 Enable great storytelling
#3 Create great experiences
#4 Use Sponsored Stories (Facebook ads)

.
Moreover he explained the viral potential of a post on Facebook. On average a user has 130 friends that if content is shared through his 130 friend’s friend can ultimately reach 2.1 million people.
In the Q&A session he mentioned that “Timeline” profiles will be rolling out for users at the end of this year but there is still no official plans to roll out this profile for brands.

Read summary of day 2 here.

• Social Media
• Mobile Marketing and Applications
• Display Advertising
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Pay-per-Click (PPC)
• Email Marketing, Database Marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Web Analytics
• E-commerce
• Content Strategy Including Video, Viral and Blogs

Video of the event: