Online Reputation Management and the risk of fakery


The issue of fake online content recently gained prominence in the business pages following an investigation by The Independent and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The investigation uncovered the widespread manipulation of Wikipedia entries by the UK Public Relations firm Bell Pottinger in order to improve their client’s reputations. The most notable changes by Bell Pottinger include the removal of a reference of the university drug conviction of a client and the editing of material relating to the arrest of man accused of commercial bribery. Undercover reporters posing as representatives of the Uzbekistan Government were told by Bell Pottinger that they could provide a service ‘sorting’ negative coverage and criticism on Wikipedia. The exposure quickly led to the widespread criticism of Bell Pottinger’s tactics by rival PR companies, however it’s also cast a stronger spotlight on the tactics of businesses – large and small alike- who seek to improve their online reputations.

 
There is actually now a term for this type of manipulation – ‘sock-puppetry’. The term was first coined in the 1990s to describe the behaviour of people whouse false identities while pretending to be another person with the purpose of deception. As the power and influence of the internet has grown, businesses and organisations have become more concerned about the need to create a positive reputation online. Unfortunately some organisations have sought to post fake comments and misleading reviews on social media to improve their reputations. The last decade has been littered with examples of politicians, business figures and organisations being exposed for sock-puppetry. One of the most infamous examples in recent years surrounded the case of Historian Orlando Figes who penned a series of damaging reviews of his professional rivals on Amazon.com.
 
The sheer level of online fakery is hard to quantify, but there’s no doubt that it’s a very significant and growing problem. One of the overall consequences of businesses creating fake sock-puppet reviews is the damage to the overall trust we have on online communities such as TripAdvisor and online encyclopaedias including Wikipedia. Unsurprisingly the leading online publishers and review sites are starting to take the issue of fake online reviews and sentiment very seriously. Earlier this year, the world’s largest online travel community TripAdvisor, announced new measures to track false reviews created by owners of hotels and restaurants and to warn users that they suspect the certain reviews may be fake.  
 
I believe there are more than a few misconceptions about how to create an effective PR presence online. A lot of people still assume the internet to be a wild west and that anything goes online. However, it’s actually illegal to create deliberately false information online.
 
The second misconception surrounds the widespread assumption that all online reviews are anonymous. Again, not true. Online publishers including TripAdvisor and Wikipedia have access to IP tracking software and teams that allow them to identify if there are multiple reviews coming from the one physical computer address. Indeed, IP tracking software was probably used by Wikipedia to discover that Bell Pottinger were posting numerous reviews on the site and from the one IP address which was registered to the company’s actual physical address. And in the case of University historian Orlando Figes, he made the discovery of his identity that bit easier by using the online identity ‘Orlando-Birbeck’!
 
However, I believe that there is also a fundamental misconception about how to create influence online. Gaining influence and being persuasive online isn’t that dissimilar from the tactics you might employ to improve your standing with journalists. If a business continually approached journalists with lies and falsehoods it’s not long before they would be exposed and lose credibility.
 
Seeking to manipulate reputations on social media also ignores the nature of the medium. If you are a London PR firm representing arms manufacturers and despotic African regimes and try to present them online as paragons of virtue, then the social communities will be quick to counter your claims with the truth (or their version of it). It’s a similar situation for some small businesses owners who believe they can game the system by posting false 5* online reviews. Fake online reviews penned by businesses on TripAdvisor or Google are often exposed and ridiculed by actual customers who have had a negative experience. As Abraham Lincoln said “you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.
 
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 
 
 
 

Daily Discount Deals; Dont Ignore Economic Fundamentals When Selling on Groupon

  • Posted On: 13 December 2011 09:32:00
  • In: General

 
This week’s viral news story centres on Rachael Brown, owner of the Need a Cake Bakery in Reading, who has accused discount deals service Groupon of wiping out her year’s profits as a result of a cupcake offer. The baker promoted an offer via Groupon earlier this year offering a 75 per cent discount on 12 cupcakes, which normally cost £26 (yes, that’s right, a hefty £2.16 a cupcake!)

However Rachael Brown ran into serious problems when the deal was hugely over subscribed from Groupon members who quickly snapped up the apparent bargain. The excess demand – 8500 boxes to be exact - meant that she ended up losing between nearly £3 on each batch sold and had to pay £12,500 for the additional costs - wiping out her yearly profits.
 
On face value the story has a ‘David versus Goliath’ element to it. However the more interesting and valuable lesson surrounds the cold hard economics of selling via online discount deals sites.
 
Online Discount Sites
 
In the past five years there has been a rapid increase in the popularity and volume of discount deals sites. The growth of sites offering ‘exclusive’ deals on luxury brands soon led to a growth in deals sites offering member discounts on goods and services ranging from holidays, restaurant meals, make-up sessions and of course cupcakes. You might have heard of a few of the largest sites including Living Social, Grab One and Groupon who all offer daily deals. They work by benefiting the consumer with a discounted price and the benefit the sellers by giving them an opportunity to sell to thousands of consumers.

Groupon
 
I have mixed opinions about discount deals sites and the benefits they purport to have for sellers. As the economic theory goes – the businesses stand to benefit from ‘economies of scale’ and the expanded market it brings. However, I suspect that many businesses find that the supposed advantages of economies of scale offered by Groupon don’t fit well with the hard practicalities of making a profit.
 
From the supplier side I think there are two main hurdles to success on Groupon. The first concerns consumer psychology. Groupon’s model is based on offering discounts of over 50%+ on products and services. But by discounting on this scale it’s very easy to attract the wrong type of customer - people looking for champagne at lemonade prices. Yes, you can price low and attract a massive volume of sales but you then need to convert your new price-hungry customers into repeat custom. And given the price motivation of these customers, gaining repeat custom could be a very difficult task.
 
The second hurdle to success on Groupon again comes down to business fundamentals. I think Groupon and similar deals sites encourage some really sloppy business practice from small businesses and particularly start-ups. New businesses are quite often seduced by the mistaken idea that it’s easy to grow a business. While it might be easy to start a business, but successfully growing the business and securing a profit is a lot more difficult.
 
Groupon has attracted a lot of criticism over the cupcake debacle. But I’m not all at convinced that they are at fault in this instance. To me Groupon are essentially facilitating a marketplace for buyers and sellers. But surely it’s up to the individual businesses owners to ensure they factor in at least some sort of profit margin or are able to convert some of their Groupon sales to repeat custom? In the case of Rachel Brown, her Groupon deal was always doomed to failure because she was making a loss on each cupcake sold. Why sell one box of cupcakes at a loss, never mind 8,500?
 
I think that in limited circumstances Groupon can work for businesses that hold a lot of excess stock or for start-ups who crave brand awareness and can gain repeat customers. But ultimately, economic fundamentals and profits are just as relevant on Groupon as they are on the internet or the high street.
 
 
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns. www.OctaveOC.com 
 
 
 

Ecommerce; The importance of selling online at Christmas

  • Posted On: 06 December 2011 16:38:00
  • In: ecommerce
 
Looking at the seemingly endless line of traffic jams in December fills a lot of people with dread. And just like pension contributions and Eurozone bailouts, the longer you delay the Christmas shop - the worse it gets. I’m sure avoiding the rush and crush of the high street is one of the factors fuelling the rise in online shopping at Christmas, which according to the latest figures, has increased dramatically in the past year.
 
Indeed, for the past decade the sustained and rapid increase in online spending highlights the critical importance for retailers to sell online, export more and reduce reliance on their bricks and mortar stores. Last December, UK online sales increased 22% to £6.93 billion compared to the same period in 2009. Looking forward to this year’s xmas season, industry analysts expect the figure to witness similar increases. According to  IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, £7.75bn will be spent online during the 5-week shopping month of December (starting w/c 28th November) – an increase of 14%. Almost half of this (£3.72bn) will be spent in the first two weeks alone. Interestingly, the report authors attribute some of the expected growth to mobile e-commerce.
 
Commenting on the figures, David Smith, managing director at IMRG, said:
“The shopping behaviour displayed by the agile consumer reinforces the importance to retailers of offering a multichannel solution. Consumers want choice and continually demonstrate their willingness to switch channels to suit their specific circumstances and secure the best deal for themselves. Anyone focusing too heavily on a single channel is certain to miss out on opportunities for engagement as and when they arise.”
 
Online retailing operations
 
It’s interesting to take a look at how businesses have adapted to the massive growth in demand from people shopping online.
 
Large stores that have dominated the high street for years including Debenhams, Argos and Boots have also been at the forefront of selling online. Over the past decade they have been reacting to changing consumer preferences and improvements in ecommerce technology to sell more online. The result is that many of the big brand stores have been able to soften the blow from a decrease in high street spend and capitalise on greater online spend.
 
But it’s not just the big high street brands that have succeeded through ecommerce. Many smaller businesses have shown they can be very successful at selling globally online. Urban Pup, based in Bangor, are a great example of how an agile, export focused business can really thrive online. UrbanPup.com is an online store providing the fashion conscience with stylish clothes for their dogs. Yes, that’s right, clothes for dogs! The business model dictates that they have to sell online to different global markets because it’s a niche audience and product. Now you might think that Bangor is stuffed full of fashion boutique owners and barristers strutting out of Jeffers Restaurant with Chihuahua’s sporting the latest diamante encrusted clothing – but apparently there’s not that many. Hence Urbanpup.com needs to sell to a wider audience online as opposed to a traditional retail shop.
 
However at the other end of the scale, there are still a lot of retailers and businesses who have yet to try selling online. A lot of the time many business owners are put off by the fear that ecommerce ‘is too complicated’ or a fear of changing their very traditional business model. However with the Christmas period comprising such a large percentage of annual sales for small businesses, coupled with the rising trend for people shopping online, most small B2C businesses require an effective ecommerce operation. In fact, if the current economic contraction shows us anything, it’s that companies and business need to rapidly react to a fast-changing world. That could be through selling more online or exporting more – as long as you’re not standing still and doing the same old thing.]
 
 
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Digital Marketing; Universities playing a greater role in teaching digital marketing

  • Posted On: 18 November 2011 17:03:00
  • In: General
 
The growth of digital media has not only changed and challenged marketing teams but it has also had a real impact on the teaching of marketing. It’s no secret that third-level marketing, communications and PR courses need to have a far greater reliance on digital media elements. Indeed for many years University marketing courses failed to plug the gap between over-reliance on traditional marketing elements and rising demand for digital marketing skills from businesses. Thankfully, the situation is starting to change as undergraduate marketers are learning more about digital and social media. And in an exceptionally tough employment environment, teaching core digital skills can only be a positive development for marketing graduates and future employers.
 
University of Ulster
 
Since 1997 University of Ulster has offered students a module in what was originally entitled Internet Marketing – the first of its kind in Ireland. The Ulster Business School is now offering students a new opportunity to engage in the exciting area of new media with the launch of a module focused on Digital Marketing.

The new module is designed to unravel the key marketing issues within the digital world and to equip participants with relevant digital marketing knowledge.   On graduation it is hoped that students will be better armed to embrace new marketing methods adding significant value to companies either working within the digital space or planning to do so in the near future.

Module designer of both the original Internet Marketing course and the newly launched Digital Marketing module Professor Mark Durkin says, “Many companies are grasping at digital and social media opportunities without due consideration as to how such opportunities fit with their business model. Trying to force-fit digital into a business model without proper consideration and management will undoubtedly lead to a wasteful allocation of valuable resources.” 

There are currently 113 final year BSc Marketing students enrolled on the new Digital Marketing module who, according to Professor Durkin, “will be positioned to add real value in marketing to a wide range of companies across Northern Ireland on graduation next summer. Knowledge of digital is a critical USP for these graduating students”.
 
Partnership with local business

The syllabus for the new module represents a marriage between latest international research and the practical application of problem-solving skills to real-life company problems and opportunities. Supporting the roll-out of the new module is local entrepreneur Philip Bain Director and Co-Owner of ShredBank, a leading on-site document shredding company based in Carryduff.

Philip is working with Professor Durkin in helping the students apply their learning to a live digital case study. “Having graduated from Ulster in the late 1990s it is fantastic to go back into the lecture hall to share my experiences since, and to challenge and shape what the graduates of the future are learning. Knowledge of Digital Marketing is critical in my view.”

Philip on his role within the new module comments “I got involved because I have a great relationship with the University of Ulster and with Mark Durkin going back many years when I used to study there.  I am delighted to have been asked to speak on this important subject and also looking forward to learning more from the University and the students about new developments in this area.”

As part of the module, Philip will be giving a very practical overview about how ShredBank was set up and how he adopted a marketing and sales strategy to rapidly grow ShredBank. He will also discuss the challenges he currently faces in terms of digital media and exploiting this great marketing medium.
 
The future of Marketing

The recent emphasis on digital elements can only increase given the growing importance of technology in marketing. And with digital communications encompassing numerous disciplines in today’s business environment from PR and marketing to customer services, new product Development and HR, there is further scope for a much greater focus on digital across a wide range of university business and marketing courses.
  

Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 
 
 

Online Video; Using Online Video to Improve Marketing

  • Posted On: 02 November 2011 09:26:57
  • In: Online PR

 


Using Online Video to Improve Marketing

 
In my previous article I highlighted how leading companies such as Carlsberg are promoting their brand virally through online video. But it’s not just the big brands that are using online video to connect with key stakeholders and the wider public. Small businesses are using video to demonstrate products to customers and can reach interested audiences across the globe. The public and not-for-profit sector are also starting to embrace the power of video to educate people and promote their campaigns online.
 

Online Video and Content Marketing Strategy

One of the biggest challenges in the digital age surrounds content. A lot of businesses and organisations are at a crossroads in regard to their marketing. They may have a basic web presence and a Facebook and twitter profile, but they then quickly come up against a fundamental problem concerning a lack of web content. In order to connect and engage with people you need to develop interesting and useful content about your products and services. Modern online marketing needs to go way beyond text on a website and you need to engage with people through online content.
When you start to look at the challenge of creating content, you quickly get to see some of the opportunities available. And there’s probably no greater content opportunity than online video. Used well, online videos can be interesting, engaging and overall it can be a very efficient way at getting a strong message across to people quickly. Video is also a format that is increasingly popular, especially with younger people who grew up with the internet and have a stronger affinity with visual content.
 

Small Business and Video

Online video presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs and small businesses to go beyond the ubiquitous ‘words and text’ marketing approach. Many small businesses are now creating online videos to promote a product or educate an audience. Recently US small business Orabrush decided to adopt a digital approach to marketing following years of expensive investment in traditional TV advertising. As the story goes, directors of Orabrush – a unique tongue cleaner and bad breath cure - were speaking to a group of marketing students when one of them suggested selling Orabrush online. The students helped them record and promote the demo video online and their You Tube channel has now surpassed an incredible 35 million views and 116 million subscribers. In fact, the online video was so successful that it soon became the bedrock of how Orabrush products were promoted and sold.
 
 
Charity Sector and Video

Charities have been able to respond rapidly to disasters by creating celebrity-backed video appeals. In 2010 leading UK charities such as Oxfam were able to drive awareness of the Haitian Earthquake by enlisting the help of leading celebrities on how to make appeals through online video which could be quickly hosted and promoted through their websites and shared throughout the internet. And as the months progressed and the clean up operations continued, the charities were able to demonstrate how the aid was benefiting Haitians and their communities through short videos.
 

Video: Getting it Right

While there are some great examples of creative video use by small business and the public sector, there have also been a lot of poor examples as well. Probably the biggest mistake in online video is the ‘talking heads’ approach that adopts the same tone as a corporate report. The result is a plethora of stale, overly long and boring online videos served on corporate websites - 90% of which consist of a 30 minute interview with the Chief Executive. In the age of information overload and time pressure on our working day – very few people will watch this style of video. So what makes a good online video?
Probably the most important factor in online video is the engagement factor. If you want to inform people about your product then it needs to be interesting, engaging and show people visually the unique selling points of your product or service. Remember video is a visual medium. As anyone who has been to film school will tell you – some of the best films can be enjoyed with the sound turned off! A skilful film director will be able to tell a story through a collection of visual scenes and shots – and the same applies to corporate video too. And last but not least – keep it short. Nobody wants to watch a 30 minute monologue from the Chief Executive ….. apart from the Chief Executive!


 
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 
 
 
 

Online Video; How brands are going viral through online video

 

How brands are going viral through online video
Carlsberg have proved to be a big hit in the fiercely competitive world of the ‘viral’ internet video. Videos become viral by becoming massively popular very quickly as they are shared by millions of people using video sites, social media and email. The benefits for a major brand or small business in achieving viral success can be huge in terms of brand exposure, however the video content itself needs to be very original or funny for millions of people to share it.
Hats off to Carlsberg then, for creating one of the most successful viral videos of 2011 called ‘The Cinema’. The video features couples who go to take their places in a cinema which turns out to be filled with 148 bikers with only two seats left in the middle of the theatre. It’s well worth checking out at www.youtube.com/user/CarlsbergBE .
Apart from being a funny and engaging advert, it’s a great example of modern brand marketing and advertising in the internet age. The advert is designed to work effectively both as a T.V ad and on the internet. Because the advert is original and funny, people across the world have shared it with friends via popular online video sites such as You Tube and social media sites including Facebook and Twitter. Carlsberg’s creative investment has paid off as the video has attracted 2 million views in a five day period.
It’s not just large multi-national companies that achieve success through viral videos. One of the most celebrated examples of a viral video is from BlendTec, a US manufacturer of food blenders. Stuck with low brand recognition they produced a series of videos called ‘Will it Blend’. The series features Blendtec founder and CEO Tom Dickson blending unusual items ranging from golf balls to iPhones in his state-of-the-art blender! It wasn’t long before the Will it Blend video went viral and gained huge brand reach by being promoted by millions of people for free across the internet. I also love it because it exactly the kind of crazy marketing idea that would have got the marketing manager fired at all the rival Blender manufacturers.  Most of the time it pays off for being innovative and different.

Growth and importance
By creating and marketing online videos, companies such as Blendtec and Carlsberg are tapping into a rapidly expanding market for online video. According to digital training company Econsultancy, “Online Video has exploded in the past five years. It’s not simply here to stay, video is already an expected part of the user experience online and is fast becoming the most powerful way to reach new audiences.” Technology networking company Cisco, forecast that 90% of web traffic will be video by 2013.

Why Now?
So how do we account for the growth in online video? The first reason is that people, particularly young people, can consume TV content at a time and place of their choosing. Over the past decade, there has been a massive cultural change in how people consume media. For the most part we are moving away from watching visual content at defined times and places (a family watching Fawlty Towers in their living-room in the 1970s). There is now much more emphasis on people consuming video through sites such as You Tube in their own space and time.  
But perhaps the real revolution in online video is how people, particularly young people, can create, upload and promote their own online videos with relative ease on the myriad of video sites from You Tube to Google Video. Indeed, it’s the modern trend for producing organic style videos that brands are trying to reflect in their own advertising and marketing. The old saying ‘You can’t beat a trend’ is certainly true when it comes to modern broadcast advertising as more brands are producing videos that are centred around real people, that are funny and engaging and are designed to be easily shared and recommended across the internet.

Impact on marketing
Of course, very few videos from businesses actually go viral and get shared by millions of people and I think that trying to create the next viral video would just end in failure for most businesses and organisations. But there are a myriad of ways in which businesses can promote themselves, their products and services in a very visible and effective way through online video. In the next edition of ‘Online Insight’ I’ll explain how organisations, charities and small businesses are successfully using online video content to improve their communications and marketing.
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 
 

Social Media Marketing; Facebook and Google Battle for Social Media Supremacy



Facebook and Google Battle for Social Media Supremacy
The battle lines were drawn many years ago but now the fight has really begun. During the past fortnight Google and Facebook have both made very significant advances in their own respective social media products. Internet search giant Google has announced the public launch of Google+, a new social network, while Facebook unveiled its ‘Timeline’ – that turns a Facebook profile into a virtual scrapbook of your life.
Certainly the stakes are high. Both companies are multi-billion dollar businesses who have managed to become the dominant brands in their own respective area of internet media. Just as Google became the most dominant Internet search engine, so Facebook rose to be crowned the ‘world’s biggest social network’. The current media age is marked by an almost exponential curve in technological innovation and major internet companies such as Facebook, Linked In, Twitter and Google have to continually strive to improve their customer experiences. Google has known for years that they have to successfully create their own social network to rival Facebook, while Facebook’s recent Timeline innovation is a defensive move aimed at protecting its dominant role as The social network.
 
Google+
So, what is Google+? Basically, it’s a social network with a number of social products, or features, that allow you to create a wider social experience online from managing contacts and friends to creating and recommending content. The individual features include Circles (a friend and contact management service), Hangouts (a video chat service), Stream (an online newsfeed), Sparks (a recommendation engine), Huddle (a group texting service) and Photos.  It’s called Google+ because Google want its social network to act as an extension to its other products and services such as Internet search and email.
One of the key features of Google+ is the ability, through Circles, to create different groups of friends and contacts. Google’s thinking here is that individuals don’t have a monolithic group of friends but instead have circles of contacts ranging from best friends, acquaintances, colleagues, and business associates. So Google has created a social network that allows you to create multiple social groups and, most importantly, to communicate with these groups separately. Indeed, this innovation is designed to target Facebook directly. Google has spotted a major chink in Facebook’s armour as Facebook profiles are built around a general network of friends which many people find impractical and even risky. In short, you might have attracted lots of friends on Facebook but you might not want to share comments and photos from your hen night with your boss or your fiancé!
It’s early days yet for Google+ but the developments have attracted a lot of positive feedback from users. Personally I like it. It’s simple and easy to use and looks uncluttered compared to Facebook, but most importantly, it fundamentally works better as a system for communicating and sharing with friends and contacts in different ways.
 
Facebook
Announced last week, the launch of Facebook’s Timeline was designed to counter the social media attack by Google. Facebook Timeline is an audio-visual map of a user’s profile shown as a vertical timeline of major life events, made up of photos, videos and other items. The aim here is to create an open sharable map of your life that evolves with you and that you can add to on a regular basis. In a nutshell, Facebook is trying to place ‘stories’ at the heart of its social media experiences. It’s smart thinking from Facebook as its Timeline is basically a mechanism for telling and sharing your life stories with your friends.
Facebook’s latest changes also include a very strong emphasis on sharing content and experiences and engaging with people – so they are essentially reinforcing the fundamentals of social media. As Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg put it "Being able to click on someone's music is a great experience, but knowing you helped a friend discover something new and they liked your taste in music, and that you now have that in common is awesome,”.
 
Impact
It can be helpful to stand back and ignore the technical aspects of the recent changes from Facebook and Google and look closer at how both companies are trying to create a richer social media experience. Social media are fundamentally about community (communities of friends on Facebook, or business contacts on LinkedIn), sharing content (commenting on a fun video and sharing on Facebook or Twitter), conversations (chatting about a recent event on Facebook) and engagement (having a discussion on Facebook or a brand asking for feedback from followers through Twitter)
If you look closely at each development from Facebook and Google, they are really refinements on the social themes above. Time will tell how successful and popular the changes are and who ends up being the victor on the social media battlefield.
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 

Government Restrictions on Social Media; How Government Seek to Control Internet Freedoms

  • Posted On: 13 September 2011 10:11:28
  • In: General
 

How Government Seek to Control Internet ‘Freedoms’
A cursory glance at The Daily Mail’s front page headlines often reveal a permanent state of continual fury about one of five issues (a) hoodies (b) young people (c) anything that might have an effect on property prices (d) people lighting outdoor fires without the express permission of the local Council (e) the internet and social media. Admittedly, it’s a rare event that sucks in all of the above issues into a huge maelstrom, but the August Riots across England managed to do it.
It wasn’t long before David Cameron sprung up to join the Daily Mail’s anti-internet chorus. Following on from where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown left off, Cameron wasted no time in suggesting a meaningless and unenforceable solution to a public issue. In this case - that social media services like Blackberry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook could be shut down temporarily to prevent disorder during future unrest. The call was swiftly rebuffed by Google’s Chief Executive Eric Schmit who claimed that “It’s a mistake to look into the mirror and try to break the mirror”. Well said, and anyone who still thinks shutting down the internet is an effective way of containing social disorder should probably have a chat with the growing line of deposed Middle-Eastern dictators. 
 
The Master Switch and the New Delusion
The debate about government restrictions on social media fit into a wider environment about who controls the internet. Earlier in 2011 two major books were published on the theme. In The Master Switch, Tim Wu points to history and shows how every information industry has been taken over by some ruthless monopoly. He argues that as most of the world media is now travelling on one single network, there is a risk of the internet being ruled by one corporate leviathan. It doesn’t take a massive leap of thought to imagine that the resulting centralisation of power by a single corporate might not be great for freedom of speech.
Internet freedom of speech is a theme explored by Evengy Morozov in the Net Delusion: How not to liberate the World. Written as a counter-punch to digital utopians, Morozov works to demolish the cosy ideas about internet freedoms, which he argues are an illusion. Authoritian regimes from Russia to China are using the internet to stifle democracy, planting propaganda and censor its citizens. 
The issues raised in both books highlight some of the trends and arguments challenging the free flow of information. Some of these challenges are valid and others less so. One person’s freedom of expression could be another’s breach of copyright. Never the less, ultimately there will be more clashes over the freedom of people to communicate what they like when they like over the internet.
 
The freedom to ‘be an idiot’ online
One of the unintended consequences of the recent August riots might well be the greater realisation that the internet information is incredibly open and searchable and preserved for a long time. Hundreds of people on trial for looting and rioting found their defence fatally undermined by the fact that they either tried to sell stolen items online, where caught on you tube setting fire to a building or, in one case, were recorded trying to start a riot on Facebook using their real profiles (no-one turned up to the now infamous ‘Northwich Town Facebook’ riot but the ‘organisers’ both received four year jail sentence). Just as the internet allows people to say and do whatever they like online, police forces can also use the internet and online monitoring facilities to easily record evidence of intended crimes.
The internet can’t be viewed as the one-way street of expression as it once was. Indeed in the debate between cyber utopians and cyber-realists, the latter might have painted the more realistic picture of the future.
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 

Online Listening; The Power of Listening to Online Conversations

  • Posted On: 13 September 2011 09:34:31
  • In: General
 
The Power of Listening to Online Conversations  
The father of Psychology Carl Rogers maintained that “man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively”. I wonder what conclusions he might have drawn if he was around to analyse corporate organisations who, for years, relied on their own internal PR and focus groups at the expense of actually listening to their customers. It’s a bit like speaking to someone who won’t let you finish your sentence because they have to keep telling you about themselves. Sometimes we are all guilty of this over-enthusiasm. In the rush to tell people about our new venture or product we can forget to take time to listen and gain some feedback.
The mix of increased competitiveness and digital media now allow businesses to listen much more effectively. The online environment provides a really rich sea of information and opinions that we can tap into to gain market insights. Online sites, forums, communities, product review  sites and social media channels present opportunities to discover what people think.
 
Dell / Forrester Consulting Research
Hot on the heels of the new trend for online listening, Dell commissioned Forrester Consulting to examine how US companies are using listening and engaging strategies online. The report shows that companies are now using learning how to engage more effectively with their customers by empowering their own employees to utilise social media tactics as part of their wider marketing and research activity. Online and social media have allowed these companies to build better relationships with their customer base through monitoring, measuring and participating in online conversations.
The report also revealed two further significant findings. Firstly that marketing departments are increasing staff resources and spending on listening and digital engagement initiatives. And secondly, that companies are moving beyond simply monitoring and measuring customer sentiment and are actually incorporating customer sentiment into product development creating deeper relationships with customers through customer communities and incentive programs.  
 
Online Listening and engagement methods
Companies and organisations are now using a variety of means to listen and engage with customers. There has been a huge growth in online communities from sites such as Mumsnet the hugely successful network that allows parents to share advice on parenting and family issues. The power and influence of the Mumsnet community has grown hugely in the past few years. The site now attracts 25,000 posts per day and has 1.3 million members and it really does pack a punch in terms of the commercial pressure it exerts and the success at shaping government social policy. Companies and organisations from baby food businesses to The NHS have incorporated the views and opinions of the Mumsnet community in their online PR activity. In fact, the site has a hugely influential reviews section where the Mumsnet community review and provide feedback on new products – everything from ovens to baby monitors.
Mumsnet is just one example of a social community that brands can use to listen and engage with their target markets. Part of the online PR mix involves researching the online media where your customers and target audiences are having conversations - from blogs, online forums, social media channels such as Facebook, Linked In and Twitter – and then using this range to listen to the conversations. And it’s not just the private sector who are turning towards online and social communities for feedback. The Public sector and government are using the online world to learn more about the opinions and attitudes people have towards their services through online media, communities and even their own social media sites.
However unlike a paid-for focus group, there are very different rules for listening and engaging online. While online listening and engagement can have real benefits, there can be a backlash against any activity that comes across as overly commercial, or even worse, insincere. Online communities and forums have their own social rules so you have to take care when communicating through them.
But the opportunities are there for companies and organisations to become more customer-centric. There is a brave new world of customer interaction online – but before we learn we have to listen.
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps business and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 

How to make a business case for digital marketing

 

It’s safe to say that all organisations and businesses are not at the same table when it comes to adopting and utilising digital media. Some businesses, particularly those with a global customer focus or younger target demographic tended to adopt online media and marketing earlier than others.The same can be said for marketing managers and senior directors. On balance younger, recent graduates have adopted online and social media into their skills base compared to more senior staff. Of course this is understandable as todays corporate leaders have grown up with and relied on traditional direct media during their careers. 
But the overall trend for digital media adoption and use across all demographics is now encouraging senior managers to explore the merits and benefits of online marketing – and encouraging them to allocate a greater slice of the marketing budget towards it. So it you are a marketing manager or senior director you are likely to have to make or consider the business case for digital marketing sooner rather than later. Below, I’ve outlined a few of the key areas that you might have to consider as part of an overall business case for digital media investment.
 
Media and Marketing Trends
Businesses and organisations are now faced with several media and marketing trends.
Changing Media: New media, ranging from search engines, social media to mobile present genuine opportunities for companies and organisations to reach out to and engage with their customers. According to recent figures, Social networking accounts for 23% of all time spent online in the UK and UK internet users now spend 64% more time using search engines than they did in 2007.
Changing Marketing: Businesses need to reach and influence consumers who are using online channels. So your marketing needs to include a greater level of online activity. Marketing activity and budgets show clear evidence of moving away from traditional media such as print and broadcast adverts and direct mail and towards online marketing methods. What’s especially interesting is that the economic recession has acted as a catalyst for this trend as marketing managers are looking for more cost effective ways to market more effectively and are reinvesting more in digital marketing.

Changing buying habits: Growing customer trends for researching products and services online and the growth in ecommerce mean you need to promote your brand online and sell online. 34% now research online to purchase the actual product at the store
 
Benefits of Digital Marketing
Budget Pressures – Back in the early 20th Century, a leading businessman said ‘you know you are wasting half your marketing budget, you just don’t know what half’? Well now businesses can gain a much better idea of how effective their marketing spend is through online channels. Indeed, businesses and public sector organisations are under pressure to reduce marketing spend, gain greater value for money and improve overall marketing effectiveness and online marketing can help reduce marketing inefficiencies.
Global Opportunities: Targeting people and consumers from around the globe who want to buy your products or services has very distinct benefits compared to an over-reliance on local markets. Internet marketing strategies including search engine optimisation and email marketing and online channels such as Linked In allow companies to reach wider and more diverse markets.  Ultimately if you are targeting new markets then your main objective is to drive sales. Sales software, use of online affiliates and internet retailing in particular has really opened up global retailing opportunities.
 
Next Steps
Although there is no harm in testing different online channels, if you want to make the most of your online presence you need to plan and produce a suitable strategy. In essence this process isn’t really any different from traditional marketing planning and you might want to consider some fundamental areas such as: What do you want to achieve online – sales, brand promotion, etc.?; target markets; online methods such as internet advertising, email marketing, online PR; Measurement (web analytics)
 
To find out how to make a business case for digital investment, how to create an online marketing pan and more facts and figures on internet media and marketing you can visit www.octaveoc.com/downloads.asp.
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