Is Your Business Missing Out On The ROPO Effect?

Learn more about how the ‘ROPO’ effect - the process of researching online to purchase offline, has impacted on modern business and retail.  

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Social Media Policy Can Help Minimise Online Risks

Learn how to help mitigate social media risks through a social media policy for employees and members of the public.

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How Journalists are Using Twitter

  • Posted On: 13 March 2012 15:08:00
  • In: General

The implications for journalists of the fast moving, viral news environment.  

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The Battle for Trust on Trip Advisor


Regular viewers of the BBC consumer programme Watchdog in the 1980s might remember the regular ‘holiday horror’ reports. Nearly every week, the programme featured a ubiquitous crap hotel in the Mediterranean which had managed to con holiday-makers into believing they were a functioning hospitality business with a roof. When interviewed, the poor customers – usually called Richard and Susan from Sevenoaks, Kent – held up photos they had taken showing an unfinished concrete shell that looked more like a 1970s Beirut car park. Their own images were juxtaposed against glossy hotel promotional photos of models laughing merrily by the pool being fawned over by flunkies in waistcoats. In the backdrop, the hotel architecture would be a temple of modern design - shining, majestic …… and sporting a roof.  

Up until the arrival of TripAdvisor people like ‘Richard and Susan’ would have found it pretty difficult to solicit accurate feedback about hotels. Consumers held less power and were more reliant on the trust they placed in a brand or product. TripAdvisor works so well because it’s able to rank hotels and restaurants according to actual customer reviews, and these peer reviews are treated with a high degree of reliability. Essentially what TripAdvisor is selling is trust. But in the past 18 months, the trustworthiness of their reviews has been called into question, not least by the Advertising Standards Agency who recently ruled that Trip Advisor “could not claim or imply that all the reviews that appeared on the website were from real travellers, or were honest, real or trusted”. The ASA’s ruling followed on from a campaign from website KwikChex who are representing hoteliers who claim their businesses have been subjected to malicious or negative reviews on the site.
 
The TripAdvisor authenticity debate is one that stirs up a lot of strong feelings. On one hand there are business owners who object to the fact that people can say what they like in a review and that reviews can be unfair, wrong or even written by hostile competitors. On the other hand there is a strong body of people who believe TripAdvisor reviews still give users an enormously reliable picture of destinations, hotels and restaurants. Personally I’ve come down on the side of TripAdvisor on this one. The site has worked to expose and clamp down on businesses writing their own reviews and sockpuppet reviews from rival businesses. TripAdvisor might not be perfect or even 100% reliable but it’s a lot more trustworthy than corporate marketing spin, glossy PR pictures and advertising slogans.
 
Fundamentally user-generated reviews and their incorporation into online and social media are a reaction against one-way elitist media – from the puffed up marketing brochure to the newspaper advertisement – which have all suffered from a crisis in consumer trust. Since the 1970s, trust in businesses and their messages has fallen sharply. The depth of mistrust has imploded since the current financial crisis, according to The Edelman Trust Barometer 2012 and people are increasingly likely to trust people like themselves compared to business leaders. The rising trend for trusting ‘people like us’ sits perfectly with the ability and ease with which people use and rely on internet reviews, and the trend certainly isn’t going to decrease anytime soon.
 
And talking of meaningless and unreliable corporate slogans,  a new T.V advert for a high street bank proclaims they’re ‘On Your Side’.  Yeah right! A case of The Advertising Standards Agency if ever there was one!
 
 
Paul McGarrity is Director of Octave Online Communications, an internet marketing consultancy based in Belfast. The consultancy helps businesses and organisations to benefit from online marketing strategy and campaigns.
 
 

New Guide Launched To Help Manage Social Media Risks

Octave Online Communications has launched a new guide for businesses and organisations on social media policy. The guide is designed to help senior managers and directors in corporate, public sector and government organisations understand more about social media risks and how they can develop a social media policy for their organisation. Social media policies define what is acceptable and unacceptable from employees representing an organisation through social media channels or their own personal profiles and from members of the public who post comments to an organisation’s social media profiles.

Over the past year, social media policy has become an important area of business management within organisations as they strive to use social media sites effectively and safely.

Managing Director of Octave Online Communications, Paul McGarrity said:
“The rapid growth in social media usage has led to more organisations embracing sites such as Facebook and Twitter as part of their marketing and customer services activity.  However, there are certain risks and challenges when using social media and there is no doubt that an increasing number of senior managers are concerned about managing and mitigating these risks. Creating and implementing a social media policy that is robust, effective and workable is now a vitally important part of social media planning for large businesses and public sector organisations.”
The publication of the guide by Octave Online Communications follows a rise in the number of cases of reputational damage caused to organisations and businesses through misuse of social media, including:
  • Nestle: In 2010 Nestle encountered a backlash on social media when it responded unprofessionally to negative comments from members of the public on its own Facebook Page.
  • Habitat: In 2009 furniture retailer Habitat attracted a wave of adverse publicity by trying to push their brand into Twitter conversations about protests in Iran.
 In the past two months, a number of public sector organisations have issued warnings about the misuse of social media by employees, including:
  • Scottish Teachers: In January 2012 The Scottish Secondary Teachers Association warned teachers that revealing too much personal information on sites such as Facebook and Twitter could put their careers at risk.
  • Police: In December 2011 it was revealed that over 150 police officers in England and Wales faced disciplinary action following activity on Facebook which included harassment and racial abuse.
The Social Media Policy Guide is available free to download from our website: www.octaveoc.com/downloads.asp
 
 
 
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 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.
 
 
 
 
 

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