Social media has emerged as a platform for consumers to air their opinions on companies and products, broadcasting, re-tweeting and posting their views for millions of online users to see.  A YouTube video by folk singer Dave Carroll, slamming United Airlines for their mistreatment of his $3500 guitar reached 9.2 million views in just 4 months.  The video sparked an increase of complaints by other unimpressed customers and snowballed into mass criticism of the company.  After nine months of several failed attempts to gain compensation and being rudely spoken to and treated by staff, Carroll decided enough was enough and made a sequence of three songs slating the company.  As well as self promoting himself and his music, this is an extreme way of publicly criticising a company.  The review is available to everyone and when it’s broadcasting such a negative message about the company, it can definitely be seen as an example that social media reviews should be held at the highest regard by companies.

Social media and networking could be seen as a mood ring for companies to look at, and instantly get an idea of their public brand image.  They can also check how many people are receiving their message and more importantly digesting the information and using it.  This real-time feedback allows companies to assess and act quicker, hopefully saving any damaging effects, or making decisions to better their status.  Twitter has found that it can predict the films it believes will perform best in the box office by those films that are trended and mentioned most in the weeks leading up to the release of a new film.

Therefore, it is important for a company to have a strong presence on social networking sites, to reassure customers about their values and ethos.  A marketing or branding strategy which didn’t have some focus on social media could be considered flawed.  However, a social media image for some companies is sometimes seen as a too public or open to customers.  It could be argued that an open image makes a company more appealing to the consumer, with no secrets or hidden messages it makes it considerably easier to trust a company who presents an uncompromised brand image.

With companies now very active on social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, the message they portray is important and must represent the company values.  Starbucks for example has 14 million fans and if they were to begin receiving material which may be unsuitable, then it is a vast consumer base to offend.  It is very important to come across as natural sticking to the core values of the company not changing your style for social media, but portraying the core values of the company appropriately through the media vehicle.  If used effectively, social media is an important factor in modern marketing, resulting in new subtle techniques to gain a prolonged interest in a company and their activities.

BlackBerry recently announced the launch of their new touch-screen tablet computer, 7 months after the most popular tablet computer; the Apple iPad was released.  One look at the specifications for the new BlackBerry PlayBook and it is easy to see just who they are trying to match and surpass, Apple.  But do they really appeal to the same consumer market?  BlackBerry has been associated with professionals, where as Apple products are seen as the forefront of modern technology available to the masses.

Is it any surprise that the PlayBook has video conferencing, quick browsing and a dual-core processor, things which can’t be found on the iPad?  The PlayBook is being released before Google and Samsung release their tablet computers, and Apple inevitably releases an updated iPad with some of the features from the iPhone 4.  BlackBerry’s first tablet computer is actually competing with the next iPad, which will more than likely be released around the same time.

BlackBerry claim their tablet to be “the first multiprocessing, multi-tasking, uncompromised browsing, enterprise ready, professional grade tablet”. Everything you want from an item that is called a PlayBook.  The PlayBook offers different options to an iPad and therefore it surely has a different target market.  When the iPad was released it was fresh, innovative and inspirational, browsing on the move, email at the touch of your hands.  Apple like the link between their technology being accessed through your fingertips the iPhone and iPod Touch being prime examples

BlackBerry has always been associated with professionals and businesses, so to release a tablet computer called the PlayBook may be seen as ironic.  However could it be aimed at a different consumer market?  An iPad is very much seen as a young product to have, with the brand’s sleek and stylish layout is a contrast to the organised and business like image BlackBerry.  So why don’t BlackBerry attempt to control the slightly older, professional market?  This would strengthen the brand image of professional technology for professional people.  With the PlayBook, Blackberry appears to have fallen into the trap of trying to beat Apple at its own game, rather than playing to its own considerable strengths and niche market.

Online marketing is now seen as a vital part of any advertising campaign, with the internet many peoples ‘go-to’ tool when searching for products or companies.  The brand identity of a company is very public as it is available for everyone with internet access. Serious spending on online marketing began in 1996 with $301 million spent, this figure rose to $119.6 billion in 2009 catapulting online marketing to the forefront of many businesses minds when advertising their products, brands and services.

The types of online marketing have evolved over this time from visual techniques such as banner bars and pop ups to more subtle techniques like SEO (search engine optimisation) and newsletters.  The internet has been incorporated into all marketing campaigns, as it is no longer seen as revolutionary but instead, a necessity.  So how far has internet marketing come?

One of the earliest internet marketing campaigns, saw pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. launching a new product and wanting to build its brand awareness on a finance website to cure ‘tax headaches’.  This was incredibly effective with 30,000 names added to their customer list in just one month and at only half the cost of traditional methods at that time.  This was the start of the revolution of online marketing, with IBM and Microsoft pumping millions of dollars into their online campaigns.

Internet marketing campaigns have evolved into complex systems with SEO, targeted marketing and social media advertising which consumers are constantly open due to the availability of the internet with Wi-Fi and smart phones.  SEO has developed into a carefully thought out process of back linking, blogging and relevant copy and is now very much a case of quality over quantity.  The results Google produce are important, as consumers trust that the content they are clicking on is relevant to what they searched for.

Targeted marketing such as email or newsletters are designed to keep the consumers level of interest in the company at a constant.  If a consumer is aware of what strides the company is making then they will keep them in mind if ever they needed a product provided by the company.  This is a subtle technique which can also be seen in social media advertising, with companies having fan pages and groups for them and their product.  Facebook have an advertising section where the company can target who they want to sell their product to using the information held by Facebook.  This is mirrored in the advertising techniques seen on Spotify, the music streaming site which became so popular, invitations to the site were stopped, with thousands still on the waiting list.  Spotify is set out so after every few songs an advert is played, on the free programme, companies can pinpoint their target audience through the music listened to.  Spotify is mainly used by a younger audience so a lot of the adverts are targeted at them.

Internet advertising has grown and become so much more prominent than banner bars and pop-ups, with carefully thought out campaigns targeting certain groups through different media vehicles.  The amount of money spent on advertising shows its importance to these companies, with just as much emphasis being placed on online campaigns as television and print advertisements.

The tech press was abuzz this week with rumours from seemingly well-placed sources that social network giant Facebook was developing a mobile phone designed to compete head-to-head against Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android OS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 offerings.

Facebook attempted to quash the story early on with a curiously-specific statement of; “we are not building a phone”, which only served to add fuel to the rumour as it followed a similar tone to Google’s claims during the development of the now-established Android mobile OS. The inference being of course that Facebook could still be preparing some sort of an assault on the mobile market with third-party device manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung doing the actual phone ‘building’.

With Facebook’s dominant and constantly-growing position on the social networking scene and 500m+ registered members already sold on the web, a mobile OS based around the service would certainly make sense to a vast number of people.

While it remains to be seen whether there’s any truth in the Facebook-phone rumours, the story adds yet more weight to the viewpoint that mobile is the key area in which the major players will battle for the foreseeable future.

Although smartphones have been around in some form for a number of years, it’s only now that they’re finding their way into the pockets of the average mobile user, and they’re certainly not limited to the tech-savvy corner of the market as previously. The functionality of the latest batch of competing smartphones – full internet, html email, apps, GPS, HD video recording and playback, hi-res digital cameras, music, video calling, organisers and of course voice calls – underlines just how far the technology has come, along with how many other areas it is successfully invading.

The landscape of the mobile market these days means that the decision for the consumer isn’t as simple as choosing a phone anymore, it’s more often than not a 24 month commitment to a company and its operating system, and everything that comes with it… and it’s not hard to see why Facebook would want their share of that.

Social networking is here and the importance to your business is that it can develop your online presence and authority through multi level communication channels.

Use it correctly and you can create marketing awareness that you may never have thought possible. It shouldn’t be feared or ignored but embraced as an extension to your marketing force.

Social networking tools if used correctly can have numerous benefits on how your business is perceived online.

It’s in its early days but the results for businesses across the globe prove that this is where its customers are: online. This new advertising platform allows business to converse messages to a ready and waiting audience; the trick is to be where your potential consumers are going to be communicating via sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. One of the most important areas is to learn and understand how social networking sites operate in order to develop your business.

Social networking sites work with your website presence. The key thing is to not forget or disregard your website but enforce it through the means of social networking.

One of the most visible and encouraging things is that it they can drive traffic to your site, create the interest and desire to look further at what you do and who you are and most importantly create enquiries and sales.

Engage with your customer base, release promotions and encourage your product/service or brand recognition through careful manipulation.

A brilliant example of a business using Facebook with great results is Pizza Hut, a global brand it has successfully integrated through to its consumer market base and with the advantage of the order app brings more appeal to its online customer base.

Social networking sites are proving popular to various age demographics and all market sectors providing you with an excellent opportunity to nudge consumers and make them aware that you exist!

 It is now not only the young market sector that is enjoying social networking but the older generations too, you can build your reputation and online credibility through flexible medium.

An advantage of social networking is that you can interact and engage with your consumers on a level not previously accessible. In the past surveys and questionnaires provided businesses with something of an indication as to how they were perceived by customers and the wider world. The data collected was not always fully accurate and usually an incentive would be offered to encourage feedback.

Now businesses can get down to the ‘nitty gritty’ of consumer perception through online conversation; this allows you to understand the needs of the customer or potential and delve into their purchasing behaviour.

Measure and control your reputation with the added value of building your online presence and nursing your brand values attributing to customer perception.

Customer retention can also be gained through this medium; you can find out the truth of what your customers really think about you.

The end result is to create more enquiries and increased sales for your business; social networking can be likened to cultivating your own online garden, plucking out any weeds of negativity or potential damage to your business and growing your business ideals.

Take Absolut Vodka for example; they have combined their Facebook page; Top Bartender with online videos. This facility has allowed Absolut to target their respective age demographics.

The launch of the new app for the iPhone ‘Drinkspiration’ allows the user to recommend and customize drink ideas. The app has proven very popular and opens Absolut into the social mechanism for interaction.

Social networking is going to move and develop, if this is the beginning there is plenty of room for new platforms and invaluable ideas. New technology is always emerging; your business must be flexible to react and engage in the new marketing tools available.

Personalise yourself with your consumer but remain vigilant to what you want to achieve.

For your business it is best to approach social networking with direction in mind, your networking strategic needs to be carefully grown in order to keep control of your business communication. The key to success in this new marketing area is recognising and appreciating that social networking is a powerful engine for business advancement and must be carefully maintained to achieve your business marketing plan.

Social networking has only just begun; all businesses must see it as the opportunity to market themselves in an ultimately online world with the advantage of maintaining and strengthening website performance.

Viral Marketing is a marketing tool in which businesses can advertise their product through video, game and social networking to intercept their marketing message in an online capacity. 

Viral Marketing is generating awareness for business like never before, and can be said to be one of the biggest shifts in marketing to consumers.

Communication with your customer is changing and it’s a good idea to think about how viral may affect your business.

New types of social media are allowing businesses to move forward with marketing generating an exciting buzz in the marketing world.

Viral provides business with an opportunity to market products through an interactive medium allowing the marketer to convey a message that is reactive to the audience.

It can also provide excellent ROI through a campaign that has the ability to cross through cultural barriers for instance, expressing the meaning of the product through a new marketing portal.

There can be a lot of cost benefits to a viral campaign and the message can be transmitted by word of mouth as consumers experience your marketing; generating high awareness.

This means that customer acquisition costs can dramatically reduce from one single media project.

Viral offers the opportunity for businesses to demonstrate their creative flair; focusing on the brand and taking it somewhere that can build credential and awareness through communicating product benefits in a fresh and innovative medium.

This allows the consumer to identify the brand in a relative format that is accessible for most and can correspond to either multiple sectors or be targeted at niche markets.

In this new marketing format it allows your company to become more personable and expressive, creating interest and conversation. It can change your business persona and can help you evolve your brand and company identity through relating to your customers social networks.

The way in which we advertise has changed due to consumer demand and technological movement, many have researched that consumers are no longer as receptive to ‘traditional’ marketing methods such as the Television or Radio, with a 41% increase in consumer awareness of a product via online marketing; this de sensitisation has moved advertising to a new platform; Viral Marketing.

www.marketingcharts.com

A good example of the strength and power of a viral campaign can be the release of the Nike campaign ‘Take it to the next level’ featuring Ronaldo; 500 million views later it has been one of the most successful and well noted viral campaigns of the last few years.

It was relevant to the audience it was presenting to, highly inspirational and allowed the viewer to feel as if they were on the football pitch with the famous names.

This reflects not only the mass intensity of social media but the popularity and user engagement through viral means.

Viral marketing must be conducted through a clear marketing strategy. What type of message do you want your campaign to create and portray. There must be an emotive conclusion for the consumer such as thought provoking, shocking or humorous.

Most importantly it needs to reflect your product and service USPs.

Groundbreaking for the beauty industry was the Dove Evolution campaign, showing the process of a model being transformed for a photo shoot the message, embedding the message of natural beauty. A series of viral videos showed models being photo-shopped and air brushed to perfection sparking media frenzy and topical debate which gave Dove the perfect opportunity to market its ‘real beauty values’.

The results of the high visibility campaign have morphed Dove into a trusted brand by the female market; the clever marketing by the company translated the message to women everywhere that natural beauty is a positive thing. Women agreed and Dove now has millions of females who are brand loyal and most importantly increased sales.

The advantage of viral marketing allows you to connect in an interactive medium, this gives you the opportunity to relay your brand values and spark conversations relating to your product or services. This gives you the opportunity to cross communicate your marketing message to an expansive market.

Feedback can be one of the most invaluable things for a business and actively listening and reacting to it can mould your company to where you want to be.

Communication of your message is the most essential; through reaching a wider audience you convey your message across an intricate market platform.

People like to see imagery, colour and movement and that’s where a video for example can benefit you, it allows the online viewer to have an insight into your brand behaviour and furthermore give you the capacity to grow your ideas, become part of the online community and allow you to network your business potential

The tools of communication are forever changing due to technological advancement and this process will continue to progress through heightened use and popularity. Viral has quickly integrated itself into the marketing model for businesses large and small. It can also allow a gateway between usually unreachable brands and consumers creating the right vibe and feel for your online business.

If you want to learn more about viral marketing and what we could do for your business please contact us here at Greenmedia on 01912759777.

We’re proud to announce that Green Media is ten years old this month.

We launched way back at the start of 2000, offering the core services of web design, email marketing and SEO that we still provide today. Of course the online landscape has changed remarkably in these last ten years, and we’ve adapted our portfolio to suit – some of the services that we’re offering now didn’t even exist back when we started out, and those that did have changed beyond recognition several times over. In this incredibly dynamic industry – with a seemingly endless number of competitors appearing (and disappearing) all the time – we’ve kept at the front of the pack and still continue to move forward.

One thing that hasn’t changed in this time is our continuous innovation, technical ability, high standards and constant drive to provide the very best digital services to our clients. Most of these attributes are the reasons behind our longevity as a company.

Our clients have included the likes of Sony, Audi and Business in the Community from the outset, and we’ve been directly involved in some of the first ever digital marketing ventures for these companies and other world-renowned market leaders across a broad range of sectors since our launch. Green Media’s links with blue-chip companies continue into 2010, with our always-growing client portfolio as impressive as ever.

As well as working for household names, we’re just as proud to have been instrumental in helping launch and grow some of the most exciting new small businesses in the North East and nationwide over the last decade. Our SME and micro-business portfolio is an eclectic mix of names providing a diverse set of services, and all of them have been supported and guided towards success by our expertise.

Thanks to all of the companies and individuals that we’ve worked with since 2000, you’ve helped make Green Media what it is today.

Bing – Microsoft’s much talked-about new search engine – achieved a 10%+ share of the overall US search market in August, according to newly released figures from Nielsen. As well as the respectable market share percentage, Bing also registered the biggest month-on-month growth of any search engine by some distance, upping its usership by more than 22%.

Google, of course, still dominates proceedings with a 64.6% share of the market, followed by Microsoft’s new search partners Yahoo! in second place with a 16% share. Notably, Yahoo’s month-on-month usership dropped by more than 4%, perhaps giving an indication of where some of Bing’s new users are coming from. Google’s userbase crept up to 2.6% in the same month.

So it’s good news for Microsoft then?

Yes and no. Yes because it’s moving in the right direction and registered a fairly huge jump in users in a relatively short space of time. No because the shift in users looks like it was Yahoo!-to-Bing as opposed to Google-to-Bing as Microsoft would’ve no doubt been aiming for. If Bing’s userbase is going to grow in this fashion long-term then there’s a clear ceiling to how far it can go. Unless it starts winning Google’s audience over on a significant scale then it won’t make much more of a dent in the market share ratings.

Also, we’ve got the inescapable fact that Google isn’t going anywhere.

Google is still big news

Google set the blogosphere alight yesterday by simply posting a cryptic crop circle symbol in its usual logo space, without explanation. The move, whatever it was about, even achieved references on international newspaper websites as well as the usual tech blog soapboxes. This is the sort of position that Google is in now – getting major publicity without even trying. It’s a position that Microsoft – at the moment – can only dream about achieving with Bing.

However, at the end of the day it’s just a month’s worth of stats. The real proof of any progress will come in 2010 when Bing has been around for a full year. Perhaps only then will the true size of the task become clear.

Details of a search engine collaboration between two of the three major names in the industry were revealed today, with Microsoft and Yahoo announcing a partnership.

Under the terms of initial ten-year deal, Yahoo’s popular search engine is likely to be enveloped into Microsoft’s Bing platform, with search technologies and profit shares from ads distributed accordingly.

The move is the latest ominous sign that Microsoft really does mean business with Bing, because however mutually-beneficial the deal is dressed up to appear by the respective marketing departments, it has essentially swallowed up it’s nearest competitor in the field. Also, the ten year timescale of the agreement is an interesting note to the episode, suggesting that Microsoft isn’t expecting an overnight result and is in it for the long haul.

However the size of the task in attempting to overthrow Google hasn’t got any smaller. Even combined, Bing and Yahoo’s current share of the search market (28%) doesn’t come close to Google’s domination (65%*).

All in all, Microsoft’s recent moves on search show a certain tenacity for the fight, but it doesn’t look like it has produced a genuine gamechanger… yet.

* Comscore. July 2009.

Microsoft has announced its new line of retail stores are on schedule to open before the end of 2009, as part of their ongoing marketing strategy. Interestingly, or perhaps oddly, Microsoft claimed this week that their shops will be springing up right next door to Apple Stores, highlighting the clear head-to-head idea behind the venture.

In direct contrast to the thinking behind their newly launched search engine Bing (an unofficial acronym for “Bing Is Not Google”), Microsoft is spelling out their aims for the retail store in unambiguous terms, making it clear that it sees it as a like-for-like competitor to Apple’s store.

Whether it’ll be a good move for Microsoft remains to be seen, but there are a number of reasons why the company’s established behemoth status might just not be enough to guarantee success on the street;

1) A Zune is not an iPod

Microsoft’s proprietary products aren’t exactly exciting. If they’re going to fill the shops up with copies of Windows7, Zunes and peripherals then the doors aren’t likely to be broken down with a customer stampede.

2) If it isn’t broke…

The high streets and retail parks are awash with PCs, with the vast majority tied in with Microsoft operating systems and software packages. Adding yet another option for the consumer with a purely Microsoft store risks cannibalising the retail model that helped make the company such a success in the first place. While it might just be intentionally targeting Apple Stores, Microsoft will also need to compete against the major established PC outlets whether it wants to or not.

3) It’s not very 2009

As primarily a software company, Microsoft is in the best possible position to make a stand for the reliability and robustness of downloadable products and services. The company’s own Xbox360 games console is a positive trailblazer in downloadable content and potential – so why not take the expensive and hard-won lessons from the Xbox Live community and create a purely online centre for retailing all things Microsoft? It’s obviously the future of the market, so why not bring it forward? Launching a brand new bricks and mortar venture in 2009 seems bizarrely, almost surreally late in the day.

4) It shows competitive concern

Coming so soon after the negative retort of the the “I’m A PC” advertising campaign, it’s yet another sign that Microsoft strategises in direct response to Apple’s activities. As the vastly smaller of the two companies, being recognised and referenced in such a clear way helps to validate Apple. Maybe Microsoft would be better served by emphasising its market dominance for the right reasons. It’s not through luck that Microsoft finds itself at the top of the pile – perhaps it should be pushing the positives and getting on with its own thing, without looking over its shoulder at whatever Apple are up to.

5) It’s unknown territory

While it’s undoubtedly the biggest fish in terms of market share, Microsoft is taking a leap in the dark on the retail store front, and it couldn’t have picked on a more polished opponent. Apple has already got it right with most aspects of their retail stores. They’ve got the clinical feel of a futuristic spa waiting room, and are stacked with products like iMacs, iPhones and cinema display monitors – all of which perform a tractor-beam pull on passers-by of a certain disposition. Even the exteriors of the stores are desirable – typically chromed steel and glass framed, like artworks planted into the street by a spaceship. Microsoft has its work cut out in providing a style that will match this, let alone surpass it in direct competition.

With the first of the new stores opening in the US in the Autumn, we won’t have long to wait to see if it’s a gamble too far for Microsoft.