Three examples how to use social media for medical needs and purposes…
UNICEF – The association are running a campaign to raise money to eliminate a preventable disease that kills a child every three minutes: newborn tetanus.
Physicians – See this presentation on how physicians use social media in medicine (US example).
Medicine 3.0 25 Excellent Social Media Sites for Your Health
For top management there is a significant change in how to run a successful company – not only because social media turns the world upside down. On his blog, Gary Hamel, Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School, gives some insight in a two-day work-shop of top managers and what they think will be essential values for today’s management. Read the 25 challenges for top management in the future in the end of the paragraph, and think about it and how far you are embracing the future with your company…
Social Media seems to becoming the topic for 2009…. and there has been written a lot on social media marketing in the last 12 months. If you have the time, read this great collection of posts. It is a helpful source of social media marketing best practice cases, and will push your business if used properly. Sometimes it is better reading some blogs and leaving the books were they are.
We all know that using social media can be very powerful for our career. For those who have not yet considered working a bit more on a personal blog, social media or Twitter, read this post from Strategic Social Media ‘Candidate 2.0- Using Social Media to Promote your Personal Brand‘ and you will get a interesting and helpful tips. Sure, you don’t want to start using it?
A recent study by Hitwise reveales that UK Internet users are spending more time browsing online media than ‘going’ online shopping. In March 2009 9.8% of all UK Internet visits were directed to social networking websites and 8.6% to online retail websites. Compared to 2008, the figures turned around (online retailers 9.7% – social networks 8.2%).
In the passed year, online retailers sawe a downsize in traffic from paid search like sponsored or paid for links on search engines (i.e. like Google, Yahoo!, Live and Ask) – 2009: 8.9% and 2008: 10,1% of visits to online retailers came from a paid search listing.
“The growth of social networking, online video and the continuing popularity of news websites has meant that an increasing proportion of consumer’s online time in the UK has been devoted to online media,” commented Robin Goad, Hitwise’s Director of Research.
The traffic that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and the likes generates for online retailers increased in one year from 5.2% to 7.1%. And social networks now generate 58.3% more traffic than webmail providers (Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and GoogleMail). The best performing categories in 2009 were Auctions, Fashion and Department Stores.
“Social networks are a relatively small but fast growing source of traffic for online retailers,” commented Goad. “At present, only a minority of retailers pick up a significant amount of traffic from social networks, but many of those that do have seen a positive impact on traffic. For example, fashion retailer ASOS has a strong presence on Facebook and in March received 13.3% of its traffic from the social network. Another example – in a very different market – is online bookseller Abebooks, which currently receives a quarter of all its UK Internet traffic from social networks, more than it gets from search engines.”
Spot On!
Is this showing a trend that people are willing to buy products in social networks? In the UK, it sounds possible. It could be the next step. We all know that the easy purchase process is a winner – for companies and customers. Thinking of the future of social networks, companies should consider engaging with customers much more on social networks while also integrating ‘light’ e-commerce opportunities in their Facebook Fan pages or in their company profiles at XING. Or at least indicate and lead the way for customers to some good offers or marketing activities. And re-thinking efforts on big spendings for paid search is definitely something that needs to be thought about…
A recent study from Marketing Profs and Forrester Research amongst 300,000 marketing executives and other management professionals, conducted in late 2008, offers insight in the latest b2b marketing strategies, budgets, tactics and attitudes.
The key findings are that marketers have three deeper needs for the future: measuring effectiveness becomes increasingly important (i.e. webinars and search provide great tactical benefit), understanding customers deepest needs and wishes, plus exploring and learning from best practices for daily business implementation is crucial.
The report makes clear that top marketing business decision makers are relying much more on digital marketing tactics. With a high percentage of respondents saying that their company web site (91%) and email activities (81%) are the top media used for their tactics. Still, it is interesting to see that a lot of marketers work with traditional tactics like public relation (72%) and tradeshows/conferences (70%) as very important lead generation tools.
With the increasing importance of web 2.0 and social media platforms and tools for customers, companies are changing their media mix from ‘[more costly] traditional media and toward [less costly] new tactics’. Nevertheless, the marketers knowledge on tactics for the new social media platforms is still in an ‘infancy’ status.
In average, the budgets are still spend in an ‘old-school’ manner with tradeshows/conferences (20%) and TV advertising (18%) leading the marketing mix spending, followed by inside sale/telemarketing (16%) and print advertising (13%) – the leading field only interrupted by one digital marketing activity: direct mail (14%).
Spot On!
The report reflects in some way the economic crisis when the executive summary is talking of reducing spending and focusing efforts on a narrower segment of their target markets. Meaning… the so called ‘watering can’ marketing strategy is vanishing and marketing strategy will be focused much more on the digital ‘1-to-1’ as well as ‘1-to-many’ approach. The real (or potential) customers, their environment and the people influencing them has reached the marketers mind – so social media is not too far away for them to understand, and offers great opportunity to learn much more needs and wishes.
Cloud Computing spaltet die Gemeinde der IT- und Business Entscheider immernoch. Eine aktuelle Studie des IT-Beratungshauses Avanade zeigt, daß Cloud Computing zwar Punkte bei Wirtschaftsentscheidern sammelt, aber ebenso wie das Thema Social Media haben die meisten von ihnen laut der aktuellen Studie Sicherheitsbedenken und befürchten Kontrollverlust.
So wird der Umzug in die virtuellen Rechnerwolken wohl doch bei den meisten auf nicht absehbare Zeit verschoben. Die Studie von Avanade unter 500 befragten CIO’s und IT-Entscheider aus 17 Ländern besagt, daß für mehr als 50% der IT-Leiter Cloud Computing grundsätzliche eine nützliche Technologie-Option sei, der Zeitpunkt für den Unternehmenseinsatz aber aufgrund des Sicherheitsrisikos und der Zukunftsfähigigkeit des Konzeptes wohl noch nicht der richtige sei. 42% wollen sich demnentsprechend erst später dafür oder dagegen entscheiden.
Daß Cloud Computing das Kerngeschäft unterstützen kann, davon sind 60% der befragten Wirtschaftsentscheider überzeugt. Zudem gehen 55% davon aus, auf Bewegungen im Wettbewerbsmarkt und auf Businessveränderungen schneller reagieren zu können.
„Die globale Studie zeigt, daß Unternehmens- und IT-Manager die Vorteile von Cloud Computing bereits verstanden haben – sie wissen, dass die Systeme entscheidende Verbesserungen bedeuten können”, sagt der Avanade-Manager Tyson Hartman. „Unsere Branche steht nun vor der Herausforderung, mit diesen Bedenken aufzuräumen und handfeste Strategien und Wege aufzuzeigen. Cloud-basierte Services sollen schon heute implementiert und ein langfristiger Plan in die Wege geleitet werden, um einen wirtschaftlichen Nutzen für die Zukunft zu schaffen“, erklärt Hartmann.
Ein entscheidender Vorteil für Cloud Computing ist die Kosteneffizienz. Dies sehen auch 42% der weltweit befragten Studienteilnehmer, die zugeben, daß die aktuellen internen Systeme zu teuer seien. Dennoch ist das Verauen in die eigenen Systeme höher. 72% und 80% der befragten Entscheider in Deutschland trauen eher ihren eigenen Systemen. Da wird der Einsatz von Software und Hardware als Internetservice von Drittanbietern noch skeptisch beäugt. Der Grund sind Sicherheitsbedenken und Verlust über die Kontrolle von Daten und Systeme.
If you are on Twitter there are three things we don’t like: people that talk to much, the speed of the service and the interruption time. Now, there could be a new alternative to Twitter called Flutter.
This nanoblogging service will restrict users to blogging in 26 characters or less. A new blogging trend? At least if you believe in the theory of Matt Ibsen, founder of Flutter…
The cool idea about Flutter would be that you can update your updates from other social media sites and Flutter will automatically cut them down to the 26 character limit. A brevity which all our followers and friends will appreciate…
Sure, this is a fictitious parody on the latest innovation drive in the ‘social media industry’ by the Slate Magazine. The world needed someone to make some fun out of the latest madness around Twitter.
Spot On!
Some questions we do not need to ask for evaluating Flutter: Did we all get the benefit of the business? What is their 
business model? If it is really a great concept… why do we see such a ‘poor’ delivery on the concept by the execs? Why don’t the execs explain the essence of their business model in 26 characters? This could be an interesting approach for Twitter’s 140 as well…
In some way this parody reminds me of…
The latest report from Bredin Business Information (BBI) finds that SMB’s will not become customers with the common marketing strategies: Marketers are going online while small and medium-size companies are still living the offline world of direct mail and tradeshows.
The two surveys by BBI, conducted in late January and February, combine the findings of 50 leading marketers and 741 SMBs. While marketers were asked about their outreach and research efforts for 2009, the SMBs had to give some insight about their online and offline media preferences, top business issues and brand ratings. The findings show that both sides don’t go and-in-hand to reach their targets.
The marketers world
What marketers know…
SMBs rely less on traditional marketing tactics but that’s one of the top ways they like to receive product and service information.
What marketers do…
Marketers’ spending will increase spending on every online tactic (especially microsites and resource centers, social networking and webinars) but decrease budgets in direct mail, print advertising and trade shows – only PR and telemarketing will increase.
The SMB world
What SMBs rely on offline…
– 43,6% newspaper and magazine articles
– 43,5% direct mail (including letters, postcards and catalogs)
– 32% radio/TV ads
– 27,4% phone calls
What SMBs rely on online…
– 72% online referrals (friends and peers) most popular information source on products and services
– 57% search engine marketing
– 44,5% educational websites
What SMBs favorite in social media…
– 19.7% Facebook
– 15,6% LinkedIn
– 11,3% Twitter
“Marketers are clearly reacting to the difficult economy by using offline tactics much more selectively. They are also moving online aggressively, to reach SMBs efficiently and learn how to get the most from new media opportunities. (…) However, our survey of SMBs indicates that business owners are not nearly as enthusiastic about many online formats for business purposes – such as social networking – as marketers are.” said BBI CEO Stu Richards
Spot On!
The high percentage of marketers more focused on winning new customers than keeping current ones surprises… : 48% balancing their acquisition and retention efforts, 32% concentrating more on acquisition and 20% focusing more on retention. In my experience it is easier keeping clients and trying to meet their needs. Marketers should try to face the difference between customers who really ‘live and communicate the web’, and those that don’t. Going online will be the future, sure, but step-by-step with training the customers the benefits of receiving the information online. Today in some industry sectors, marketers can still put into question the high priority of moving online (3,5 on a scale of 5) and slowing down offline tactics (2,6 on a scale of 5) if the target group is not ready for listening online.
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council’s Marketing Outlook 2009 states that CMO’s see their budgets stable. Almost half of all asked CMO’s (54,1%) say their budgets will increase or at least remain.
What is the value of a click? Obviously, the best deal is transforming a consumer into a customer. For 36% this seems to be the biggest issue: converting clicks to sales and finding the value of online marketing. Just 9% of the chief marketers argue about their online performance capability as being “excellent”.
The outlook in the recession is not too bad… The majority of top marketers answered their traditional marketing focus (print, outdoor and TV) remains the same, and especially digital advertising (also social media and search marketing) will increase. But it also has to me mentioned that 45.7% said their spending budgets will decrease.
“Senior marketers are looking to hold budgets steady and not make tremendous cuts in headcounts,” said Liz Miller, the council’s VP of programming and operations. “Instead, they’re reallocating both their budget and talent into those areas that better engage and communicate with core audiences and customers.”
Spot On!
The loyalty of customer becomes more and more an issue for marketers. Who would be surprised… Those who want to study as deep as possible how the customers thinks, don’t ‘owe’ the sovereignty on customer service and support issues, nor have they big influence on CRM, the survey says.
The question remains why the majority of marketers rely on old online measures (i.e. page views and registrations 64.6%) and not focusing on more modern online engagement opportunities which keeps the consumers with the brands. The most obvious options could be personalization and client first programs (i.e. client opinion platforms or community building) which could replace the old-school “watering cans” techniques. The more companies focus on the client, the ‘happier’ the revenue lines will show.
The report was co-sponsored by Deloitte, Jigsaw and Ad-ology and asked 650 worldwide marketers.
Most of big companies are not really relying on social media, nor evaluating it seriously. Susan Rice Lincoln found some answers why ‘big brands struggle with social media’. She found six reason.
Social Media is…
– … often viewed as just another marketing channel.
– … does not fit into current structures
– … a long term proposition
– … promises no guaranteed results
– … measured differently
and… Communities and content are global and corporations are generally national. – A lot of option if you tackle these issues from the right angle…
In some way Twitter is like a search engine. Have we ever thought on how we use this search option?
Danny Sullivan started a research and – although someone might be there who does not believe in research results – there is definitely a very interesting trend in the findings. Yes, I would say, Twitter is an ‘additional search engine’…
– Half ask a question on Twitter at least once per week
– Nearly 40% are “usually” satisfied with the answers they get
– Half “sometimes” or “often” turn to Twitter for questions rather than a traditional search engine
– Only 4% said they’d give up a traditional search engine for Twitter
– Nearly half said they ask questions on Twitter because they trust their friends or followers more than search results or are seeking expert answers
– 40% said they seek answers to “real time” issues or they want a variety of opinions
– Nearly 70% said questions they asked were related to computer or the internet, followed by 44% asking questions about Twitter, then 41% asking about shopping or product advice
Advertising in a social media world always carries the problem that people might abuse your brand in some unfavorable way. Last week some boys made up the idea in “How to Smoke Smarties”. Adage focuses on this latest YouTube phenomenon and posts some important hints how to handle situations where people are ‘messing messing with your brand online’.
1. Don’t fight it. (Brands cannot control client communication!)
2. Survey the extent of the problem. (Brands need to know how big ‘the damage’ is!)
3. Turn to your social-media crisis plan. (Develop one!)
4. Be open with employees. (Social Media guidelines will help!)
5. Respond accordingly. (All spokesperson should have the official response statement asap!)
The fifth annual Digital Outlook Report from Razorfish helps marketers make smarter decisions about their digital media spend – especially in a recession. The latest executive summary of the 2009 DOR summarizes three main statements: Portals continue to lose their grip, social media becomes social influence and long tail TV rises.
Measurement on the spot: How effective are your social media programs? Want to know the ROI of your social media campaigns? Need data on how to make strategic decisions to refine your social media programs? Robin Broitmann has created a ‘Social Media Metrics Superlist’.
Will our business of the future be without email communication, simply done by social networking? Adam Ostrow finds new stats from Nielsen Online showing that social networking has overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach already at the end of last year.