Infographic: Why mobile will fuel the future of business…

Mobile apps and technology is becoming increasingly important for companies in order to increase productivity, generate revenue, approach a new client generation and to get rid of paper. Thsi states a study by Zendesk which highlights the results in a nice infographic… and it reminds me of some research data of a Microsoft study.

The Zendesk research found out that 43% of businesses are planning to increase mobile technology for business purposes by 2015. Corporate networks will see half of all devices being mobile devices until that date. The business use of mobile apps is expected to grow on a worldwide basis up to of $25 billion by 2015 (approx. $6.8 billion in 2010).

A great Twitter campaign or just a brand campaign?

Some Twitter campaigns from companies and brands are outstanding and become brilliant case studies. This one from a Turkish telecoms company keeps users engaged on the micro-blogging platform by using most common Twitter features. Just by removing post-it’s for a chance to win the phone, Twitter users spread the word around the new technology with 56,000 Tweets around the competition over the 3 days that the activity was run. The “crossword puzzle like” competition ended with users trying to get a celebrity to Retweet them to win the phone. Nice idea…!

However, there are some questions that arise from this Twitter campaign case study for me…
Are such campaigns only possible with heavy Twitter and mobile users?
Is this campaign buzz getting out of the inner circle of the heavy social web users?
What is the long lasting ROI effect this creates (if at all it does)?
Are such campaigns more efficient from a branding perspective than using PR briefings?
I am sure you can think of many more questions…, right?

If this is an outstanding social media case study, then it would be good to hear what makes this campigns so compelling? Wanna watch the video and give me your views? Really looking forward to it…

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News Update – Best of the Day

About one year ago Twitter started introducing their new monetization model: Promoted Tweets. Twitter expects 150 Mio. USD revenue this year with the program. Now, one year later the first “success story” have been published, and Gordon Mc Millan writes a nice summary “Do Twitter ads work?“. Not really, it seems…

Is tablet computing changing the future of the whole computer industry? Who can say that today? However, since tablets are equipped with advanced sensors like high-resolution cameras, augmented reality has become an interesting opportunity to facilitate help for customers, i.e. in the form of manuals. Metaio explains in their latest video how this works…

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Have you ever wondered why Microsoft bought Skype? This infographic by Jess3 might have an answer for you. The infographic highlights the dynamic of geosocial networking, and the relative size of social networks, like Skype, Twitter or Foursquare among others.

How displays will organize our day and influence purchase…

We have seen different versions of the future of digital displays. They tell us how all these displays will organize and manage our daily business and lifes. Remember the TAT and their Open Innovation project? A nice idea…

Today I came across another display vision looking into the future called “A Day Made of Glass” was made by Corning. You should watch it…

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Just imagine what it means if other technologies like Immersive’s software will be combined with these displays of the future. The Immersive software is built on artificial intelligence software. It calculates the probability of success for each impression and serves the most appropriate ad. It learns how people give feedback and improves response targeting over time.

The software works with existing digital signs, uses anonymous facial recognition and takes advantage of given data through APIs, i.e. from social networks like Twitter or Foursquare, weather data and time of day. Thus it determines the age, gender and attention time of people passing by. No matter if you are in busy atmosphere or at home…

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Immersive Labs – Wiji Software Demo from Immersive Labs on Vimeo.

If these technologies would be combined in the future, and I am sure we will see derivates some time soon, then it could well be that you don’t even have to look at ads again. Ads will catch your attention in your house whilst you are cleaning your teeth, taking a bath, via head-up display while driving, or when you are passing by a billboard. And you will touch the screen and just purchase the offered product by wiping your mobile (see latest study by VISA) over the screen, or simply by the fingerprint. Just imagine…

Study: Succession planning – HR Execs don't give best grades for leadership roles…

According to an online study conducted by Right Management, HR and talent management executives give not the best grades for the quality of their own organizations’ leadership pipelines. The poll by Right Management surveyed the 1,262 executives. It found that there are gaps in the leadership areas of most companies in North America. Just 6% of organizations were reported to have future leaders identified for all critical roles.

The Poll Question…
Do you have future leaders identified for critical roles in your organization?
6%: Yes, for all critical roles
17%: Yes, for most but not all critical roles
55%: Yes, for some critical roles
22%: No, not for any critical roles

“We learned that organizations are all over the map when it comes to implementing a coherent leadership development program. (…) A majority of organizations seem to have ‘some’ critical roles covered, but that’s barely reassuring. What’s really striking is that fewer than one in five has no one slated to take over any key positions. And we’re not talking about small companies.” Michael Haid, Senior Vice President, Right Management

Succession planning seems to be growing when executives rated their leadership pipelines, and were asked if there had been any recent change in their organizations’ approach. 57% stated that succession planning had become a higher priority in the past year. 17% replied it was made a lower priority.

“There’s a growing recognition that management succession is no luxury. Board members, executives and business leaders are now openly acknowledging that talent management plans —which include succession management — are absolutely essential for sustained performance in today’s organizations, as talent is now seen as one of the only competitive differentiators left,” (…) “The world is chaotic and unforeseen events can change a company’s situation overnight, so having a depth of leadership talent as well as a genuine plan for all eventualities are more important than ever. In fact, weak bench strength throughout the company can erode employee engagement and reduce overall performance.”

Spot On!
It is reported by Haid that the study shows how the need for succession planning is becoming more evident, but actual succession management strategies and implementation plans are lagging behind. The question stays whether succession planning is not been overseen by “replacement planning” for key roles very often. Scotiabank offers some education with four videos in their Get Growing for Business blog. For me succession planning is all about the challenge of businesses to continously evaluate the USP of their valid business reason to find evidence for their employees. It is the basis to be able to handle the daily business challenges. It is vital for the long term health of your business, brand and product strategy.

Another Earned Media example – A machine that unites people…

It is always a challenge to find good stories for Earned Media. They center around trust in custromers, believe in their desire to want the product, reunion of interests and the power of the community. Ideally, your marketing idea also includes some kind of innovation. HonestTea was my favorite case study so far. Now, the Coca-Cola Friendship Machine is showing another great idea how to generate Earned Media, apart from getting people to collaborate and push their limits just to get a Coke. Is there a better way to showcase the desire for a product…?

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What is Social Media? – Famous quotes from the istrategyconference Amsterdam

After the first day of the istrategyconference in Amsterdam, I briefly wanted to share some insights in how Twitter caught some famous quotes about “What is Social Media?”. The people who brought these quotes up in their presentations, or the people that (re-)tweeted those might forgive me if I am not quoting and linking back to every single tweet, or Twitter account where it came form.

Why I am not quoting? Apart from having to listen to Power Point presentations, the challenge for presenters and moderators is to attract the attention of a crowd. And for the audience it is becoming more and more some massive workload to do multitasking, and participating an offline event in a 2.0 manner. A thought I have explored in a German post, and definitely need to translate when I find the time for it.

“Sometimes it makes you mad to listen to speakers and keynotes, write tweets, and respond to mails and Facebook at the same time. Not to mention blogging… How do you handle this?” A question I asked my friends on Facebook today. And I know from studies that multitasking is becoming more difficult the older we get, and that we are only able to do maximum two things at the same time. I don’t know how you see this but participation 2.0 is nearly impossible if you want to be share the way people would love you to do it.

This is just a random collection of different quotes that shows how Social Media was defined at the conference. Maybe you add some more quotes…?!

“Social Media is like sand: you can play with it and have fun but sometimes it gets into your underwear and becomes very annoying.”

“Social Media is like gardening: the real hard work starts after the seeding and planting.”

“Social Media is like … a dance with the right music (content) and partner (fan). It never needs to end!”

“Social Media is like an icecream, it’s delicious, everybody wants it, but it melts if you are too slow.”

“Social Media is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done its a surprise it’s not better.”

Spot On!
In the B2B SocialMedia panel, which I had the honor to moderate and talk to Ed Bezooijen (Citrix), Paul Dunay (Networked Insights) and Menno Lijkendijk (Milestone Marketing) I also mentioned a quote that I think is going to be the main challenge for B2B marketers in the future. The relationship of content, distribution and perception which was (and in my eyes still is) the advantage of publishers to other content producers and curators. Publishers have all three of these as main pillars of their business…

“Content = King – Context = Queen – Community = The Empire”

If you see it different, tell me. If you like it, do so. If you want to add something, go ahead…

PS: THX to a great team from istrategyconference in Amsterdam for the good organization and the diner yesterday night.

UK Study: Facebook versus TV (Infographic)

When you are working in the UK, you want to get more information about the people who are your colleagues, especially from a social point of view. And I found an interesting study on how the inhabitants of a very much digital country is changing their habits. A recent study by eXpansys of 3,000 people in the UK states that Britain prefers Facebook over TV. Britains spend an average of two and a half hours going on Facebook every day. And TV only gets two hours of their attention…

News Update – Best of the Day

IBM just recently published their study “The State of Marketing 2011”. The study that asked 300 online and direct marketers from different companies, industry sectors and sizes gives some interesting insights.

– Marketers are not only trying to go “measurement, analysis and learning”. The next challenge will be “IT support of marketing needs”.
– Marketers see technology as the key to productivity (let’s bear in mind it is an IBM study).
– Marketers see an integrated marketing solution as the driver of future business. 87% stated interest in a marketing suite that is better integrated.
– Marketers trust in Interactive Marketing. 57% adapt inbound marketing tactics (personalized targeting/messaging) for their Web activities.
– Social Media Marketing stays a challenge. 53% use it currently for their efforts but have to justify their workload with it now.
– Marketers love web data. 92% appreciate the value and importance of Web data. Most of them don’t apply the data to their campaigns though. Just one third thinks they are effective.
– Mobile Marketing is increasing. 43% use it currently for their tactics, 23% planning to start this year.

Craig Hayman, General Manager of Industry Solutions at IBM Software Group, talks in a Forbes interview about IBM’s conclusions from those study findings.

How Social could meet POS? Just look how PepsiCo’s Social Vending System offers full touch screen interactive vending technology, “enabling consumers to better connect with PepsiCo brands right at the point of purchase”. The prototype of the Social Vending System debuted at the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s One Show in Chicago last month. The question is if people really would share their contact details with a machine (humanization of companies?) but the idea is great. Just imagine you could log in with your Twitter account and share with your network how enjoyable it is to have a “Coke” now. I am sure the brands would love you then…

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The next wave of the new Passat commercials also surprises with another nice story (although not as brilliant as the Darth Vader one). If I was a surfer, I would have a closer look at those who are jumping in the sea with their boards with me…

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News Update – Best of the Day

Marketers see many studies like one of the Morgan Stanley reports which state that there are more social network users than email users. And especially in the B2B sphere the research makes clear that 80% of business buyers today say that they find their vendors as opposed to vendors finding them. Tony Sambito writes advices that compasnies and brands plan for the Social Buyer before it is too late. I absolutely agree with him…

Business decision makers often ask me how much I think Social Media goals have to be linked to business goals to drive success. A new report, “The State of Social Media in Credit Unions: Opportunities and Challenges,” from 187 credit unions of varying size and composition across the United States and Canada now allows some insights in that question. According to the study, companies using Social Media with more than two years of experience are the most likely to report success (57%), while those that have three months or less are least likely (17%).

Still thinking what will be the Social Media trends for this summer? Tim Gray has an answer for you. Find the 5 trends that he advices to watch out for. Location based topics, group buying, “swiming in the stream” (social stream), social search and mobile. Don’t know if this is really social only but still good in terms of your web-strategy.