You may notice that the internet is slightly quieter than you are used to tomorrow.  This is due to numerous internet giants protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Opponents to the bills state that if passed into law, they will stifle innovation and undermine free speech through unreasonable internet censorship.

On 18/01/12: Wikipedia, user-submitted news site Reddit, the blog Boing Boing and the Cheezburger network of comedy sites all plan to participate in the blackout.  They will follow in the web steps of the Italian Wikipedia site following similar anti piracy legislation proposed in Italy last year.

According to Wikipedia, SOPA “would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.  Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.  The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.”

I urge you to read this today as Wikipedia will be ‘dark’ tomorrow.  You can find more about the Wikipedia: SOPA initiative here.

Both bills appear ill thought through and have been condemned by the internet at large.  You can see a pretty reasoned argument against both bills in this video by Cynical Brit, a UK gaming journalist and learn more about the bills themselves in this handy infographic from AmericanCensorship.org.

As a social media consultancy that generates revenue and jobs directly through a healthy and free web, both of these bills need to go back to the drawing board.  It is obvious that companies that produce games, music, film and other IP need to be protected from piracy, but knee jerk legislation is not the answer. There needs to be future consultation with the internet big guns, Facebook et al.

SOPA was ‘shelved’ yesterday awaiting consensus on the bill. PIPA advocate and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a vote on the bill on 24/01/12.  Swot up on this subject, because if you operate online this does effect you.

Tweet #stopsopa

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There is no doubt that the growth of Slideshare has got B2B marketers excited about using social media again. It has become the world’s largest content sharing community. Combine this with the reach of Twitter and LinkedIn and the platform has become a vital part of the best B2B social media strategies. The site has seen dramatic growth amassing more than 60 million visitors and 3 billion slide views a month.

For those in the B2B arena it is clear that certain social media platforms just do not facilitate engagement with the right target market. Are you really going to engage a key business decision maker or Managing Director in and around the topic of advanced web analytics on Facebook? More often than not B2B marketing involves the creation of thought leading content, traditionally this would have been in the form of case studies, reports, factsheets and brochures. In the digital age, users are looking for digestible content that they can use within their own presentations as well as research into new products and services.

Presentations by their definition look to condense key information into a series of impactful slides, a perfect social object for distribution as part of a content strategy. 71% of B2B companies are doing more content marketing than last year and in some cases are estimated to be spending a quarter of their marketing budgets on content marketing.

Here are some nice little tips if you are developing a Slideshare presentation as part of your B2B social media campaign or ongoing content strategy;

The Slideshare sweet spot is between 10 & 30 slides! Keep it succinct, it is not a numbers game!

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19 images is the average per Slideshare presentation, equivalent to one per page.

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Average number of words per Slideshare presentation is 24! Don’t dribble on and stick to the point

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Slideshare Infographic

Sources: Infographic by Column Five.  Column Five infograhic sources: Content Marketing Institute, Slideshare.net, Quantcast, Comscore

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There is a perception in the industry that B2B “doesn’t do social”. I have often been asked if B2Bs “should use Social Media?” as part of their marketing mix and if “B2Bs can utilise Facebook?”

GlobalWebIndex – B2B Social Media Strategy – Research Report – 2011

However the results from our recent analysis of GlobalWebIndex data that was published as “Social Strategy for B2B Marketing” could not be more different from this perception. B2B decision makers are the most socially active consumers for all markets and demographics. If anything B2B marketing is a more obvious fit with social media than consumer marketing.

In addition GlobalWebIndex trend data shows that activities such as profile updating and microblogging are expanding quicker among business users than your average consumer. This underlines how B2B decision makers have used social media to develop personal brand and drive their influence.

Interestingly this difference is most marked in developed internet markets where B2B decision makers stand out most from consumer behaviour and usage of social media platforms. In growth markets such as China they are still more active than the norm, but the gap is significantly smaller. This means businesses that operate and sell in the US, UK, Germany or any other high penetration internet market need to focus marketing and sales through social media.

Crucially it’s not just B2B decision makers’ behaviour that leads the way in social media; marketing communications via social channels are also perceived as having an impact on purchasing decisions for products and services they buy for business.

At a global level, social media communications outranked even face-to-face meetings, conferences, client entertaining or traditional trade advertising in most markets, as an influential communication channel. Based on data fielded in June 2011, global decision makers said “Conversations with people from a company/organisation on a social network” was their leading influence scoring 15%; the second ranked motivation was “direct mail”, scoring 13%. Among senior decision makers – those at senior manager level and above – conversations were level with “sales presentations”, both scoring 16%.

The fact that a virtual conversation is seen as more influential than a real life one shows how social media has permeated their lives and importantly for our industry, underlines the importance of empowering all employees (not just sales people) to be active, visible and representing the business online. This fact alone would highlight the need for a radical shift of budget from traditional B2B marketing activities into proactive social media engagement.

In addition “branded communities created by a company or organisation” are seen as more influential than corporate events and entertainment. This prompts the question, is social media changing the way business operates?

One note of caution, company blogs and branded Twitter profiles rank last. This we believe is not necessarily bad news, but very telling in terms of how social media works in B2B. Buyers want to interact online with people and companies need to create structures that enable this. This shows that the true value of social media lies in people, not the platform.

To succeed in this new era of socially enabled B2B communication, firms will have to empower staff to act on a company’s behalf and give them the platform to build a profile, content and relationships in this space.

Tom Smith is MD of Trendstream, a consultancy dedicated to understanding trends in technology adoption and what they mean for consumer behaviour, marketing communications, media and content

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41% of UK businesses (up from 33% last year) are winning new customers through social media – this is according to a global survey of 17,000 businesses by Regus Group

The infographic outlines global social media adoption by businesses. Interestingly, it is China and India that lead the way. But, when it comes to the UK, there are some useful findings too:

• • 48% of UK  businesses use social media to engage, connect with and inform existing customers
  • In the UK 50% of firms encourage their employees to join business networks, compared to 53% globally
  • A third of UK companies devote up to 20% of their marketing budget to business social networking activity

Regus also draws a correlation between B2B social media and financial success too. You can find more in the full report on “a social recovery”

The real nugget of insight though is that most businesses, almost half the UK companies surveyed, are using social media to stay connected with customers. It sounds indicative of early adopter behaviour: playing it safe and developing skills with customers that companies already know. The opportunity that’s still up for grabs is lead generation. Certainly, in this, China is leading the way.

Speeding up progress from good customer relations to a focus on lead generation starts with training and empowering employees. Rather than letting staff learn organically, a structured focus works better. A proper plan can advance staff from relationship maintenance to generating advocacy and ultimately new contacts.  You can find out more in our white paper on B2B social media.

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This ash cloud has been quite a strain, my wife and baby are still stuck in Dubai five days after they were due to fly home. The good thing is that they are staying with friends and have a great support network.

What it has shown me is how great the internet really is. Searching for information on Twitter, airline websites with the latest information (sometimes), news sites with real time video and Skype to stay in touch and more has provided real peace of mind.

Let’s talk specifically about use of social media platforms to help deal with the crisis. Twitter has become the web user’s right hand. The way the platform is set up allows a number of really useful things. You can choose to follow everything from airports to sports personalities, each wrestling with the problem of the lack of air travel in their own way. I have put together a targeted list of some of my key sources for keeping up to date. It just takes a little time to search on the site.

With a mix of journalists and news sites as well as the likes of Jake Humhprey and the Formula1 teams struggling to get home from last weekend’s race in China, there is a lot of information out there to wade through. It gives real world insight into what might work for getting the family home and is building camaraderie online.

The next key feature of Twitter is the hash tag, a really useful way to gather conversations on the same topic together. You just need to make sure that you include the right one. It is also proving a great platform for people to help each other out. The #getmehome tag has been widely used and is enabling people to share rides across Europe. I have even seen organisations and companies – one is a car share organisation called Roadshare – that are using these tags to communicate out their services to people with a specific problem; clever.

What will be interesting is to see if there is any direct increase in Twitter users as a result of this. I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter does see a European surge on the back of Iceland’s latest contribution to the global economy – I know, an act of God.

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We are launching research exclusively at the Online Marketing show this week. The study looks at the Interbrand top 100 global brands, to reveal which brands have the largest share of voice and the most positive conversations.

The report measures brand mentions across blogs, social networks, video and photo sharing sites, social bookmarking and news sites, to provide a snapshot of brand share of voice. It also details sentiment (positive and negative conversation) in social network groups. A section of social media that is increasingly being adopted by consumers in order to discuss brands.

Come and visit us on stand V6 at the business design centre (26^th and 27^th June) and you can get your free report, along with a whole range of guides and tips (a social media toolbox).

I am speaking at the workshop too, at 1pm on the 27^th – worth a visit if you prefer an explanation along with case studies on how to engage with social media.

Drop me an email if you want to meet up during the show.

Now off to frantically look for a four-gang adapter so I can power up my laptop at the show.

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I am speaking with the fantastic Ruth Speakman from Sony Europe (declare: client) at the IAB conference on the 26^th July. Together we are going to take a look at how Sony BRAVIA fuelled the conversation online by engaging with influencers.

Often when I speak with marketers and PRs, they understand that they should be active in social media. The problem occurs when thinking how to engage with their audiences in this space. Particularly for big global brands knowing how to be part of a conversation, or inspire positive comments is difficult.

For many companies understanding how to trigger conversations is complex. What if your brand isn’t ‘exciting’. What if the brand isn’t tied to an emotion or desire. People blog, comment and chatter about interests and passions. What do you do if your brand doesn’t communicate at this level. It is hard to start a conversation about toothpaste, bottled water or cream crackers – and then keep it going!

Having read Douglas Rushkoff’s book, Think Inside the Box,   I was very taken with his explanation of social currency. The idea that we need to offer something of value in order to gain the conversation and facilitate advocacy. People want an simple excuse to interact. It is my belief that brands too can help with this interaction. By giving people the ammunition they need to have conversations.

Rushkoff says: “In an age of interactive media, customers don’t want to communicate with brands or their spokespeople, anymore. They want to communicate through them. Brands for this era can become a form of social currency, offering opportunities for affiliation and, at best, even authorship”.

I shall be talking at the IAB conference about how we have evolved this theory of social currency into a workable model. One that helps brands to engage with social media and become the vehicle for conversation.

Technorati Tags: Sony Europe, IAB conference, social media, Rushkoff

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A rather clever idea by our friends over at Picture Production Company has just launched: a wiki for Fox’s Fantastic Four film release.

The idea is simple, viewers can change, edit and submit to the website in Wikipedia style. The base level content is everything you expect to find on a film site – background, trailers and more about the Marvel comics.

Without the need for registration, no one is accredited for adding to the site. And I wonder if this makes a difference. Do fans want to have their names associated with the film content? My gut feel is that they would love their names in lights – an ego thing!

It is also rather difficult to see what has been recently added. So looking through, it is impossible to asses whether fans have made a contribution yet. It seems the site has only just gone live so may take some time to develop. May really take off when the film launches in each country and the trailers and PR machines start up proper.

A quick check on Google shows that it already has 19 links from niche sites and bloggers. Technorati uncovers 30 sites linking to the URL and a good positive sentiment. One would hope that this increases as the film rolls out.

I have to say, I love the idea. It is participation, and relinquishing control of a brand, at its best. Created in multiple languages it allows for regional variations too. There is also a sister site that lets you download and grab games for your blog and website. A very cute way of ensuring the spread of information and branding across the web.

The bit that appears to be missing, and in all fairness might be in the pipeline, is alerting the blogosphere. A bit of relationship building with influencers would help spread the word. The conversation activity so far seems to be a bit organic and random. A general thumbs up from me though: great to see companies experimenting with wikis.

Technorati Tags: wiki, Wikipedia, participation, blogosphere

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Well I am posting again on infographics sooner than I first expected! Two separate initiatives have recently gone live on the BBC – showcasing great use of visual online tools.

The first is a visual timeline allowing the viewer to ‘explore all of British history, from the Neolithic to the present day’. You can zoom in and out of different periods in history, following pre-set themes or jump around to learn about specific points in time.

The second again is based upon a timeline, showing the seven ages of rock music. Designed to support a TV series, the site also incorporates some great functionality – from video content that can be grabbed and posted on blogs and social network personal profile pages, to ‘tag clouds’, showing what music acts people are most interested in.

So the US isn’t as far ahead as I first thought! There is plenty of functionality that brands can use here to support their marketing activity online. If the BBC simplify something as complicated as Britain’s extensive history from Neolithic times, there is plenty of scope to describe products and services in an interactive, engaging way.

Also, the more something can be grabbed and shared with family and friends the more success you’ll have in this spread across the web and reaching the right people. The BBC definitely has cottoned onto this – will be interesting to see where this ends up.

Technorati Tags: infographics

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I’ve been finding myself using the word ‘infographic’ more and more frequently recently. The online medium offers PR new tools and areas of creativity previously just not possible. Increasingly, we’ve been finding that the best solution to communicating complicated messages and concepts online has been to use visual representations. These can be anything from still images or video content to widgets and interactive micro-sites.

Whereas in the past, PR traditionally relied upon words, images, interviews and the odd real-life stunt or event to communicate, online offers whole rafts of new, different ways to get across a message.

There are suddenly far more tools at our disposal. Our role is taking a client brief – understanding what they want to communicate – and translating this into the best online medium for the target audience group. The key aim being to create social currency: Valued content for a specific audience group that inspires them to talk about and share it with friends and contacts online.

So we are always on the look-out for new and different ways to create social currency, to inspire conversation and debate. When fresh, new examples pop up I will run these on this blog – giving some insight into what is happening online and how it can be best used to support a company’s communications.

To kick this off, I’ve turned my attention across the pond to the recently updated USATODAY site – who seem to have experienced a Eureka moment in the past few months. There is now a dedicated ‘Interactivity’ section on the site, which uses all manner of different online tools to track news developments and provide entertainment respite. Have a play around and see what you find.

One infographic that particularly stands out is ‘Going Green’ a visual depiction of what can be done to lower the average home’s carbon footprint. This follows an earlier journalist article and invites user contributions, with readers being able to add their own suggestions and send on to friends.

Its great to see a traditional media site beginning to creatively play with the Internet as a medium – this is only the beginning…..

Technorati Tags: infographic, social currency

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