The New Facebook Profile - Explained

Until now, the Profile has included basic information about the user: our name, hometown, schools we attended, the place where we work. In the new features, which will be gradually rolled out to the user base over the next few weeks, the Profile now includes the last five photos in which the user was tagged. If you're wondering why would photos come in the limelight first - here's the motivation Facebook supports: “There's often no better way to learn about a person than through photos,” as mentioned by engineer Josh Wiseman on the Facebook blog. Also, according to Facebook - every day, a staggering 100 million photos are uploaded on to the site. You may see an example below:



New Options?

The new profile lets users list a wider variety of experiences. For example, under the Education and Work section, you can list more than just the schools you’ve attended and the jobs you’ve had. You can also list meaningful projects you’ve worked on. And the top interests on your profile page will now appear as a row of images, instead of just text.



"You can see all the things that you have in common with that person," Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg told "60 Minutes" interviewer Lesley Stahl Sunday night. "It gives you this amazing connection with that person in a way that the current version of the profile that we have today just doesn't do."

At the same time Facebook becomes increasingly bloated with user-created content, which means that it also becomes easier for users to feel overwhelmed and view "Facebook as a time suck" (Kit Eaton, www.fastcompany.com.)

You may now wonder:

So What's Different about the new profiles?

Current Facebook profiles list personal information such as birthday, relationship status and city of residence in a left-rail column underneath the user's single profile photo. The new design moves that information up higher, in a more conversational format - offering basically a "mini-portrait" of a person.

Another new feature, called “the friendship page,” pulls up a history of your relationship with any of your Facebook friends. It displays such details as comments you've exchanged and places you've visited together.

Moreover, Facebook engineers have came up with several new features, including a new section, located on the left of the profile page: where you can now list the important people in your life, like your parents, siblings, spouse, roommates, or friends.

So - Does my profile page have to change?

Eventually, yes.

The new profile page will be rolled out over the next month or so, according to a blog post from Facebook. If you do nothing, you'll log on to your profile page one day soon to find that Facebook has rearranged your information to fit the new layout.
But users who want to update now can do so by following a prompt from their profile pages.

How will this change impact the information I choose to share on my page?

According to Facebook blog, the change does not affect users' existing privacy settings. A quick attempt to web-search for a user's Facebook page (which had been updated) on Monday revealed the same information that was public before the switch.
And if you don't like the five photos of you that appear near the top of your page, you can hide them or swap them out for different ones.

What should I do to update my profile?

• Log in to Facebook and go to www.facebook.com/about/profile/.

• Click the green "Get the New Profile" box.

• Your new profile page will appear. At the top, you can update personal information about things like your job, current city and relationship status.

• You can click the "Edit Profile" link to change any other information.

• If you don't like the photos that appear, hover your cursor over them one at a time. A box will appear at the top right that you can click to remove that photo.

This will not make the photo disappear entirely or remove your tag; it will just mean it won't be one of the ones people see at the top of your profile.

Ok, so the info can be edited - a relief. Still, I'm just wondering who would rate their friends, relatives, etc - by matter of importance? Isn't that just too private to make it public? Or, should there be in time options to create Tier 1 TOP Friends List, Tier 2 TOP Friends List? As ridiculous as is sounds..is Facebook just getting too bloated or it's becoming a "necessary evil" we have to keep up with but know how to protect ourselves from?



Curious to hear your say,

Yours,

@Digilunch

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Facebook - launching "New Generation Email"

In February we've heard about a new project Facebook was secretly working on, called "Project Titan" (a web-based email client) which according to TechCrunch findings was internally unofficially referred to as “Gmail killer”. This has now officially turned into a personal @facebook.com email addresses for users!


As Telegraph mentions - "Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief has effectively hailed the end of email for the next web generation calling the system ‘too slow and formal’, while launching the social network’s new messaging service".

Although it might be too early to end a long-lasting dispute of Facebook vs. email vs."battle", the social network founder insists on its several competitive advantages:

- the new system will combine Facebook’s instant messaging system, SMS, Facebook messages and email in one place,
- it will also keep all conversation history in once screen shot (on both emails or IMs);
- also, it would allow people to reply seamlessly across multiple devices to different types of messages.
- an finally - the new system will be based on the premise of the ‘social inbox’: it would have certain "filtering options", which are announced to be able to work better than email spam detectors and will prioritise key contacts’ messages. Quite frankly, this statement reminds of Google's Saint Graal "relevancy, relevancy and again - guess what?.."

Thus, the intended aim is to combine all types of messaging in one place, allowing people to reply in real-time.

In terms of future plans, Zuckerberg has announced that the system is intended to be able to sync with other email accounts in the future - in which case an alliance with current competitor Google would be inevitable?

Keeping an eye on e-curiosities,
Yours,
@Digilunch

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New Drop Down Adwords Ads - PPC gaining or losing?

The below might be a proof for a new PPC-oriented beta-project launched by Google and currently being tested in the US. Although there's no official statement made by the company yet, the screenshots I've collected today on the web have just been placed on some US-based PPC/SEO blogs who may have noticed a new feature for web search users - the new drop-down Adwords ads.

The screen shots below show how AdWords top ads can expand to eight additional ads. When expanded, you may see a total of 11 ads, followed by the free organic Google search results:



and an expanded view:



An other US-based PPC blogger has noticed a 3 ads drop-down listing:



Quite an interesting move, right? Although both sources are seeing it mostly beneficial for traffic drive I'm just wondering:
- what if the new drop-down arrow will prove less popular than expected?
- what if the add-on ads will remain mostly..unnoticed?
- would that really be an "additional" #1 spot or just a new advertising push - relevant (according to Google) but "fluffy" enough to eclipse natural search listings?

In a dilemma..

Yours, @Digilunch

P.S Many thanks to Boris who has shared with me the 1st source, so that I could pick it up and share the news.

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Weekly Review - Introducing AIType Text Predictor

Hi everyone. I've started a new section aiming at reviewing sites that either I or you stumble upon while browsing the web and find it both handy & entertaining, basically anything you'd consider worth sharing.
I'll start the ball rolling out with AIType - a handy online text predictor for those finding writing texts both challenging and time-consuming.

AIType kicked off as a tool for folks who generally speak and understand a language but aren’t quite secure with some of the rules and conventions:



The tool promises to become very helpful to foreigners who find it often difficult to build up phrases in the context a native speaker would do. Some of its major advantajes:

- Auto-Correction and Auto-Replacement (The Text Predictor will suggest the correct spelling of words);

- Getting Translation to your native language (currently 13 languages are supported). The translation is online, and it helps you pick the right word by looking at the desired translation:



and...

- Suggests words and phrases according to their context The Text Predictor claims to be able to understand the context in which the text is written and suggests accordingly the next word to be written.


Being based on a catalog of phrases, the system searches for the next applicable word and lets you translate that word into your own language, ensuring you mean what you say. To be fair, as any beta-verson t’s not perfect. For example, some words feature more prominently than others in the list, leading to mistakes in word choice.

Nevertheless, tools like AIType are meant to help folks write better. It works like a 3 in 1 "writing kit": a combination of spell check, grammar checker, and Google Scribe. AIType is free and you can download it right now to add its features to almost any Windows application (no OS X support yet).

Hope you found it useful. Also, if you've spotted a nice handy website, offering some tools/add-on benefits - feel free to share!

Always positive,

Yours,
@Digilunch

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How to Schedule Your Gmail/Outlook emails?

Have you heard so far of Boomerang for Gmail? The service claims to be able to help you schedule the exact time and day for sending your emails. Say you'd like to set a recurring task for certain days, to be able to notify your colleagues or maybe clients (in which case that could be an add-on to your e-mail marketing campaign), or just to send a greeting card to your friends on a Birthday occasion? Would be a nice idea,wouldn't it?

Since Gmail doesn’t allow you to schedule your emails - there's instead a third-party application claiming to be able to do that - Boomerang for Gmail, which is an extension for Firefox and Chrome browser (also available for Mac).

I've found about its existance today and here're the benefits & drawbacks I learned from:

1. Benefits:

- You can schedule when to read/answer on your incomming emails:




- You can set and automatic delivery of your draft emails at any time in the future



2. Drawbacks:

- There may occur mistakes while scheduling emails containing attachments:



Possible mistakes - the email body may disappear, while the attachment may be duplicated. Obviously, not a welcoming occuring.

- Lack of data integrity (the email may be sent with or without the intended attachment).

Whether it was just in my case or it's more of a common issue Boomerang is currently facing - we don't know, as there hasn't been any official statement on it so far. Anyway, you're more than welcome to check it yourselves and decide if this free app would be useful for yourselves: http://www.baydin.com/boomerang4gmail/

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Facebook - now as a Hollywood Movie..about Facebook!

Facebook will soon have its own story told.. Will it be a success? At this point the buzz figures are already speaking out loud, potentially powered at least by one in 12 human beings on this planet who now "happen" to be Facebook users, numbering already 500 millions chaps! If it will prove more popular than the social website itself - not sure, yet - “The Social Network” is quite an ambitious production: take a look at the trailer released just a few days ago:



The movie is based on a book written by Ben Mezrich, “The Accidental Billionaire”. Although it speaks about Facebook's foundation history, it's using primarily co-founder's side of the story - Eduardo Saverin. Mezrich stated that he tried to get in touch with Mark Zuckerberg for his own views, but was unable to reach him.


The movie begins with Zuckerberg entering Harvard College, showcasing him wanting to become a part of the popular circle in high school and inventing the idea of a website where people can post their college experiences, photos, and innermost thoughts. This is how Facebook was born..

The movie literally follows Zuckerberg through the ups and downs that fame and money can sometimes bring.




A few curiosities to take away:

- Facebook was launched in 2004, firstly within Harvard Colleage walls (for internal access only);
- within 2 hours of the site being made available to the public, Zuckerberg recieved 22,000 facebook hits;
- Mark Zuckerberg's character will be played by Jessie Eisenberg (starred in “Zombieland”);
- The movie is set to be available in theatres on October 1, 2010;
- It was directed by David Fincher, known for previous productions “Fight Club”, “Zodiac,” and “Seven.”

Enjoy!! Barely wait to exhange some reviews as soon as it comes to UK..and yes, don't rush into falling in love with this incredible success story as yet, it might be a bit biased (remember there's only one side of the story in place, plus it's all about the new emerging form of marketing - the social media one!)

Cheers,

@Digilunch

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Google Search will Differentiate Retailers by – Consumer Reviews!

Beware: Google announced its debut as Online Consumer Reviews Aggregator.
Retailers and merchants should now be aware that consumers’ reviews will from now on be integrated into Google Product Search, which makes it both attractive and tricky.

It’s already a fact that two of the most utilized tools for consumers on the Web are search and consumer-generated product reviews. It proves that we no longer care for the actual search results only, but also consumers’ reviews related to the products we’re enquiring about. We tend to “listen” to what other online users say about the products we’re searching for. Why? Obviously, because that’s a convenient, free-of-charge and usually unbiased “back-up”.

The most curious is that we’re more likely to trust positive sentiment in order to make purchase decisions.

Thus, Google has now decided to deliver both the actual search results with a “bonus” on top of it: online consumer reviews, related to your product search queries. Firstly: it’s a premier initiative and will soon be fully implemented.

Now - what is it & how it works?

Firstly - that’s how it looks like:



As you can see, beneath the actual ad listings for a randomly picked “appliances” term (within the Sponsored Links field) Google suggests a few merchants who acquire now “star ratings”. You may also see the number of reviews next to each merchant domain: (426 ratings for AppliancesOnline and 223 for John Lewis).

As mentioned on Google’s Official Blog, this advertising feature is called “the Seller Rating Extension” and it aims at “making it easier for online users to identify highly-rated merchants when they are searching on Google.com”. Basically, it does it by attaching the merchant star rating to Google Product Search.

To be able to attach the star ratings, Google has partnered with Bazaarvoice - a technology provider in hosted social commerce applications, which in turn connects online users with ratings from third-party seller rating websites (such as : Kelkoo, ReviewCentre.com, Dooyoo.co.uk,etc)

It’s really important to note that the Seller Ratings will always provide review ratings for the advertiser, not the product!.

So while searching for the term “notebooks” for example, you won’t get ratings related to the quality of the notebooks themselves, but more an appreciation of the merchant or the retailer, who should be eligible to be automatically “assigned” the seller reviews:



The feature is now running for online merchants only , triggering only English/google.com. This means that any advertiser running on this domain may have a review showing against their ad.
Also, the names used in these ratings are the same as the advertiser’s Display URL.

Requirements:

• Google Products will only show a review if there are more than 30 unique reviews and if the advertiser has 4 or more stars!
• AdWords links these Seller Ratings using the domain of the Visible URL on the advertiser’s ad;
• Important: existing plusboxes or sitelinks on the ad should be removed, so that it becomes “attractive” for seller rating extensions.
• Ad quality doesn’t trigger the ratings - the number of unique reviews and the number of stars – does!

It’s an opt-in feature, updated automatically as soon as the merchant qualifies, but what happens if the company wants to opt-out?

• The retailer can add their domain to Google blacklist using this form:
this form: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/ratingsoptout

• Blacklisting turnaround is usually within 48 hours.
Improving the Reviews:

In order to improve the online consumer reviews, a focus on providing excellent customer service within the online space is essential.

This can be done by ensuring that you:

• Read reviews entered by your customers – identify previously flagged up problems/complaints and post any solutions provided (to show receptivity and action: this increases consumers’ trust)
• Make sure that review sites display the correct name and home page URL. If you have a Merchant Center account, you should additionally ensure that the name and URL are consistent here too.

Finally, even though the feature sounds exciting and curious, also as an advantage to highly ranked merchants, in order to be able to build more trust among their consumers, it still leaves 2 major questions behind:
- How accurate enough will the selection process be for the rating sources that Google will rely on? (Bazaarvoice confirms to have partnered with over 800 consumer rating and review sites)
- Also, since the ratings refer to the brand itself and not the product you’ve searched for (brands might have a plethora of products/services) how relevant will the ratings be to the individual product searches? Do we want to know how reputable the merchant is or how reliable his certain products are?
So far so good, you’re now able to dig into social e-commerce and build on your brand’s quality ratings (except for your product quality ratings..).

Good luck,
Yours,
@Digilunch

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The Official "Quit Facebook Day" - on May 31st!

Not sure if there's anyone yet who'd receive any greetings on this occasion, but it's curious to know that privacy issues which Facebook has been facing almost from its inception has stimulated someone to actually set up a "Quit Facebook Day":



Reasons behind? The group which now counts over 11000 subscribers consider that even you update your security settings on your Facebook profile, that doesn't really save you from having your data exposed publicly. Moreover, you may now see over 33 million search queries on Quit Facebook term, while on Facebook itself you may join over 5000 fans of Quit Facebook Day. All you have to do is..click ony any Facebook apps or "suggested links" and you're there! Anyway, quiting Facebook might not be an option for those who make their data public on Internet anyway:) Out of curiosity - you may now see over 33 million search queries on Quit Facebook term, while on Facebook itself you may join over 5000 fans of Quit Facebook Day.

Finally - additional precaution wouldn't harm, so beware of where Farmville may lead you to and enjoy your online well-being!!

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An Out-of-Box use of Facebook Connect by Stella Artois

Why I've chosen to share this campaign' link? As mentioned in previous post, brands are currently targeting consumers wherever they go: be that outside - on the streets, inside - on message boards, on newspapers' pages, on TV screens, online and even on mobile phones. Reaching consumers and holding their attention is an uneasy task today, since consumers became prosumers and their voice may put the brand forward, in exchange for a swmall "reward": motivational engagement.

Stella Artois seems to have learned the brand engagement lesson: instead of simply announcing a new competition,it created an entire scenario for Facebook users, ready to entertain themselves by becoming part of a personalized "detective-like" movie scene:



What's required? By connecting your Facebook page you're allowed to enter the competition. You will then be witnessing the unfolding investigation aiming to find the missing heir of the last will: you'll be surprised to see who bacame the target, since the personalized features will show up at precisely this stage:



Even if the competition results won't determine your candidature as the legitimate heir entitled to experience an unforgettable trip to the Cannes' Festival, you'll be still having some "gift" options:

- to share a movie featuring your friends as actors and
- to watch online one of Cannes' winning movies for free, at your choice.

Clever approach. Btw, the brand will have its most precious reward instead - free word-of-mouth, shared earned media with a bit of user-generated-content taste.

Enjoy! http://www.stellaartois.com/Cannes/website/index.php?country=US&language=en

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How Much is Too Much? - when it comes to : Data Overload...

Have you ever wondered what's the average daily exposure of commercial data per person? Researches claim that consumers' are exposed to nearly 3500 brand messages per day. I was surprised seeing a curious video reflection of what we call today "commercial overload": Studio Smack delivers an interesting execution captured in a black & white theme to help "notice the unnoticeable", via Blogilvy.nl. Enjoy the virtual trip:

KAPITAAL from STUDIO SMACK on Vimeo.

P.S. What might be the solution? Personalized data filters - our conscious efforts tailored to what we really want to see/hear. Here's what Clay Shirky mentioned on a recent Web 2.0 Expo in NY: http://ow.ly/1AbOW

Yours,
@Digilunch

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3 Major Twitter Changes - comming up soon..

1. News - confirmed: Twitter is just a few miles away from its new-look change. Appearantly the real-time micro-blogging platform is about to undergo a major redesign:



Details of the redesign have been disclosed as soon as Doug Bowman, Twitter's creative director, posted a picture showing a new-look which clearly indicates that a key element will be the use of more statistics.

"Terrific start" - was the overall online reaction to the new Twitter look posted on Dribble, showing a predominantly positive sentiment. Anyway that's not just it..
Twitter has proved its efficiency as a mainstream broadcast channel when it comes to massive word spread - a few cases a worth mentioning: Chinese and Chilean earthquake (signups spiked 1200%), Shashi Tharoor political moves in India (signups have increased nearly 100%, whereas Indian audience witnessed 550 million mobile phone users sending and receiving tweets via SMS in 2010 already) etc.

Today Twitter population expanded largely across the world, where 60% of registered Twitter accounts come from outside the US, making it incredibly culturally & geographically diverse. That means an entirely new play ground for advertisers and social searches. Here it comes the 2nd change:

2. Twitter launches a new advertising programme:

The new ad programme, Promoted Tweets, is based on a similar approach to Google, with marketers purchasing keywords, and their posts appearing at the top of a list when users enter relevant search terms.

If you're wondering what may've served as purspose to this initiative, then the answer is in the nature of online comments - Promoted Tweets will be basically putting forward the content added by source-companies about their products/services, making the "official" information come first (as in a press-release when you first learn the initial source' view).

Chris Bruzzo, vice president of Starbucks' brand and online content on Promoted Tweets: "When people are searching on Starbucks, what we really want to show them is that something is happening at Starbucks right now, and Promoted Tweets will give us a chance to do that."

Clearly, what brands are anticipating with the new ad offer is its: alarm & reach options, but also challenges, such as moderation of negative word-of-mouth, which would come much easier under a single umbrella (in this case - being triggered by the company-owned content). The initial charging model will be cost-per-thousand, planning to expand as soon as the programme catches on. And here it comes the 3rd new feature:

3. Twitter's new integration solution - @Anywhere, promises to tick the following boxes: traffic, engagement and insight. How? By embedding a Tweet box into your sites and enabling further sharing options:




Although we've already witnessed similar ideas with Facebook Connect and FriendFeed, Twitter's new @Anywhere platform hopes that publishers will find the integration options easier and choose to use the tools to keep site visitors more engaged: auto-linkification of usernames, hovercards (similar to ones we see on Twitter.com), follow buttons, tweet boxes and user login/signup options .

Publishers are welcome to start using the new feature - as of today: http://dev.twitter.com/anywhere

Finally, couldn't overlook this cute poster uploaded by Ev Williams - Twitter Co-founder on current Twitter stats - definetely some food for thought...- let's digest together:



Hope you've found this useful. Looking forward to hearing your new comments/suggestions on our next Menu choice.

Cooking for you, Digital Lunch Team

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Google AdWords against Louis Vuitton Trademark Rights

Paid ads are the backbone of the Online business model. While Google, the world's largest search engine, does not detail sales from its paid ads, it makes 97 percent of its annual revenue of nearly $24 billion from advertising.

Google's AdWords platform has been often put against trademark rights and not alongside them for the reason of deliberate "liberalization" of online consumers's choice: each time a consumer searches for a certain company's name on Google's search platform - he may first stumble upon competitors' offers, who have placed higher bids for precisely these keywords!

Louis Vuitton has fiercely argued that it alone should be able to control ads related to its brand.

The luxury goods group had already won a French court action in 2005, which resulted in Google being barred from using Louis Vuitton's trademarks in its advertising on all websites accessible in France.

Louis Vuitton complained that some of the links which appear during a "Louis Vuitton" search are for companies marketing counterfeit or replica goods.

In June 2006 Google appealed to the French Court of Appeal in Paris, which upheld the original judgement and increased damages awarded to Louis Vuitton from €200,000 to €300,000 (BrandRepublic)

In a statement, Google said at the time: "We have a trademark policy, which prevents bids on other people's registered trademarks, and we do not allow people to advertise with AdWords for counterfeit products."

Curiously enough - in June 2008, a French court ordered auction site eBay to pay £30 million to Louis Vuitton for allowing online auctions of fake copies (235 000 pieces!) of its goods.

As a second side of the coin - David Wood, the legal counsel for ICOMP (Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace), explained that it's all about whether Google can continue its policy of allowing advertisers who are not the owners of trademarks to buy up those trademarks under the AdWords programme."

Today however, the European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday concluded that "Google has not infringed trademark law by allowing advertisers to purchase keywords corresponding to their competitors' trademarks."

What do you think? Even though clearly AdWords is the major profit platform for Google - is it also the symbol of "online freedom of choise" or just an other Internet must-do side effect?

Yours,

@Digilunch

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Digital Marketers' Buzz on Main ROI Trends

US vs. UK Marketing Executives: this article shows the challenges that both camps are facing when it comes to Marketing ROI, especially when Social Media is at stake. A recent study conducted by Anderson Analytics shows that "Marketing ROI" is the top concept mostly buzzed about among the US Marketing Executives - surpassing “Customer Satisfaction” & “Customer Retention”. Interestingly enough - “Social Media” officially made the top-10 list for the first time this year.(the study was conducted among +1,800 active members of Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG).


1. Social Media ROI - Marketers' Ever-lasting Concern or an Opportunity?

Even though the study revealed that "Social Media" is "one of the buzz words US. marketers are most tired of hearing", most of them recognize the importance of social media marketing, since about 70% of interviewed marketers are planning new social media initiatives in 2010. Below you're welcome to see Top Marketing Buzzwords in US:



These stats show that digital marketing involving its main branches (SEO, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Blogging, etc) is now highly paid attention to alongside universally acknowledged marketing terms as: Customer Retention, Brand Loyalty, Positioning/Differentiation and Customer Satisfaction.

An other counterpart study was undertaken by The Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) and Cyance Limited among major UK Marketing Executives(a sincere Thank you note to Mike Housley for sharing the research report). The study showed that 74% of respondents rated the
importance of social media policy/guidelines, but only 28% actually have them.

Moreover, 53.7% actually said they do not know what kind of ROI they are achieving from Social Media. Appearantly the main reason for these feedbacks is the lack of training/knowledge, which translates into a
barrier to their use of social media tools (as seen by 37% of the respondents):



Also, the study showed that SEO, E-mail Marketing, Social Media and Affiliate Marketing are the most important to UK Marketers in terms of marketing ROI:



2. Marketing Budget Change:

In regard to budgets, marketing executives at larger firms are somewhat less optimistic than those at smaller firms.

These findings belong to Andersen Anaytics, which also revealed that fewer marketing executives believe their use of marketing research will be reduced in 2010 than was the case in 2009. Moreover, company size does not appear to be a significant factor in planned usage of market research:



Obviously, digital marketing raises in importance driving companies to change their marketing budgets, whereas in terms of digital marketing ROI, there aren't yet universally accepted metrics, which might help standardise the costs and thus, regulate marketing budgets. For example, the UK report shows that most companies aren't yet measuring their social media activities:



How about your organisation? Have you been using Social Media for business purposes? Would apprecuiate your voice on our related Poll: What are the Main Benefits of Social Media for Business? (see on the right-hand side of the main page).

Next on our Digital Lunch menu: Personalization - the Tool to Leverage E-Mail Relevance and Sales.

Yours,
Digital Lunch Team

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4 Reasons Why I Believe in Digital Marketing

“Content is king” – this statement is used today more and more often, since both offline and online audiences are beginning to look for more relevance, accessibility and transparency from their daily brand experiences.

The days of consumers passively absorbing a TV commercial or a banner advertising – are over. People research their purchases as never before and they read peers’ opinions about brands and products.

1. Reach:

Through the Internet, organizations can reach audiences of unprecedented scale at a low cost, but also, for the first time in human history, individuals can make their personal thoughts, reactions, and opinions easily accessible to the global community of Internet users. Thus, websites are becoming more transactional over informational.

2. Accessibility:

Today global audience is facing a rich media production, when common users are becoming media participants as opposed to media buyers (raising blogging trend, video sharing (YouTube), micro-blogging (Twitter) as part of user’s generated content).

3. Trust:

Trust becomes a defining factor for accepting market messaging, so that according to latest Mintel study (2009), consumers’ friends and relatives are becoming primary trustworthy sources for product recommendations, as opposed to advertisers.

Mass-media are not regarded today as the only influencers, as consumers themselves are becoming to influence the perception of brands.

4. Cost-effective 2-way Communication:

When used properly digital marketing can identify, target and deliver supporters, translating online Word-of-Mouth into its offline counterpart stream. Also, digital marketing tools have been proven efficient for: brand monitoring, detecting potential crisis communication cases (via online media monitoring), brand positioning, sentiment analysis, product innovation and development, using consumers reviews as free focus group insights in co-creation techniques (e.g. Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions program looking for innovative ideas, Google’s Contest on Innovative projects, called Project 10100, P&G consumers’ insight program, etc).

Social Media has given consumers tools to participate in online communication platforms in order to create and share their content, whereas marketers are given digital marketing tools to build viable brand experiences, where consumers' voice - matters.

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Q&A: How Should Brands Earn Our Trust?

I've recently asked my LinkedIn colleagues to answer this question and decided to share their insights. Below I'll list the best feedback collected and would appreciate you to choose the Best Answer or Leave Your Own View:

- 1st Answer:

"That's a question which every marketer needs to focus at. Our perception about a particular product and company is significant to make a brand die or achieve success. When a brand fails to provide the key services promised,customer's go next time to someone offering the same service. The magic that can make one trust a brand is its consistency,transparency of services it has promised to provide. It's simple but hard to be followed by present marketers."

2nd Answer:

"Do what you tell/promise. Keep the gap between expectation and experience as minimal as possible and thus meeting your promises constantly."

3rd Answer:

"A person earns my trust. I earn a person's trust. Or a person extends their trust unbidded... in a kind of paying forward... which in turn makes me even more careful about how I receive and honor their gift.

I don't want brands in the middle of something so important... and valuable. I certainly understand why BRANDS want in the middle of all of this. They have a strong financial interest in ensuring that I bond with them. But I don't want them playing that kind of role in my life."

4th Answer:

"Branding can be tricky as there are many factors to consider. However, I would have to say if you can connect with a consumer on an emotional level you'll have a loyal customer. There are many factors that affect branding other than emotion. These are:

1. Being able to connect at an emotional level
2. Offering Quality
3. Trust/Honesty
4. Great customer support
5. Ease of doing business
6. Competitive pricing
7. Packaging
8. Understanding your customer base (demographics, listening and crafting the right message)
9. Being consistently in the consumers face
9. And then there is the Advertising"

5th Answer:

"Very simply - Consistent Quality and Consistent Value."

6th Answer:

"There is nothing worse falling in love with a brand (wine for example) and all of a sudden seeing the price go up and the quality go down. I would rather pay a higher price for a brand that is consistent every time. But if you raise your shelf price and the quality drops, I won't be a repeat customer."


7th Answer:

"Substitute "people" for "brands" and the answer becomes self-evident."

8th Answer:

"1. Quality
2. Consistency
3. Service & Support
4. Metamorphosis
5. Style "

9th Answer:

"I also agree that it's important to develop consistency, trust and quality. In addition, brands need to give their customers reasons to believe in them. This can be done in a few different ways:

1. Guarantees. While it may be obvious, those ironclad guarantees give people the confidence that if a product/service is not right for them, they can get their money back.

2. Demonstrations. It's pretty safe to say that few people truly trust advertisements, so what better way to develop trust in a product than showing it in action? Show off the quality of your product/service by giving live demonstrations in areas where your customers frequently visit.

3. Customer Relativity. People like to see others that relate to them use a product/service. If people like them use a product/service, then a customer may have more incentive to purchase it. This comes in the form of testimonials, case studies, etc.

4. Spell It Out. If customers can't figure out why they should use your product or service, why would they want to buy it? Providing customers logical, easy-to-understand explanations as to why they should buy your product/service will help them realize why they should get it for themselves.

5. Company History. Company's that have been around for a long time are usually a testament of their business practices and how they treat customers. Also, if you have received any awards, they should let their customer's know about those as well."


Waiting for your decisions of the Best Answer on this question

Yours,

Digital Lunch Team

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The World's Most Trusted Brands: Amazon, Nokia..

What do we trust the brands for? Is it their image that associates to our own, their usage that meets our needs or their promise that we usually see in advertising messages or communication platforms?

Some statistics first:

- 85% of consumers around the world are willing to change the brands they buy or their consumption habbits; (Environmental Leader, 2008)

- 72% of consumers say they purchase a brand because it supports a cause they believe in; (PR Week, 2007)

According to the study released today by Milward Brown - Nokia was named the Most Trusted Brand in 8 out of 22 listed countries: Italy, Russia, China, Taiwan, Poland, Hungary,Thailand and Sweden. The research company used metrics based on "trust" and "recommendation" asking customers to answer on 2 questions:

1. "how trustworthy is the brand?" and
2. "would you recommend this brand?"

Although "trust" is a rather stretched term meaning different things to different people, the answers collected in research gave a hint to determine brands' "likability" and "the power of purchase", according to their "recommendation" index.

It's curious the fact that different countries "trust" different brands, still the chosen ones are: either global or local - leaders. Thus, Amazon.com scored the highest in the US (where online shopping became a "no-wonder" habbit), Toyota - in Canada, and Pampers - in UK, Germany and France, as shown below:



Even though online brands such as Amazon and Microsoft are showing up in major world markets, apparently people are more inclined to trust and recommend "material" goods, rather than intangible assets. Should the reason be in "the engagement power"? If so, than online brands might be soon keeping the pace with offline performers.

What's your call? How should a brand earn your trust?

Curious to hear,

Digital Lunch

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Smartphones Drive 600% Growth in Mobile Usage!

Ever noticed how often we're starting to forget about the basic purpose of a mobile phone - voice communication? We text, share, transfer data, browse the Internet etc - and all that because there's a constant lack of time and there're new options that smarty Smartphones are happy to serve with. Yet, how popular these options have become?

Bango Analytics registered 600% growth in traffic to mobile websites. The company analyzed traffic to a range of mobile sites over the last 12 months, sampling across 50 million phone users worldwide.

Main findings refer to :

1. mobile usage: 6 times higher number of visits to mobile websites, when comparing December 2009 with the same month a year earlier;

2. Average time spent on site (ATS): 3 minutes and 21 seconds;

3. Average number of pages viewed per visit: 5 pages, as compared to only 2 pages per visit a year ago.

Also, these site-level figures have increased by an average of 230% compared to only a year ago. The main categories for mobile browsing are news, sports and general media sites (including newspapers), mobile content downloads, social networking and retail sites.

The study has also noticed that major mobile web support comes from smartphones, with Blackberry accounting for 17%, followed by Nokia and iPhone.

Does that mean that we're facing a trend of users' migration: from online to mobile platforms? That brings me to an other curiosity: Who's going to win the debate in future: Face-to-face communication (FFC) or Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)?

I guess that's an other E-marketing Food for Thought...

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Breaking: Google Buzz - received an Unwelcomed Online Bzz..

Are you ready for an other Facebook or Twitter only this time from - Google? The Internet Search giant announced yesterday its new "Social" product aimed to let you share links, photos and videos with your friends and other contacts. Also, it automatically retrieves the recent online activity (from Picasa, Flickr, Twitter and Google Reader - no embedded Facebook ties!) and all that only among your Gmail contacts. Via buzz.google.com, it's also available on Android and iPhone smartphones.

What was yesterday's reaction on the Web? Appearantly Facebook and Twitter users haven't been impressed much, since Buzz is mainly viewed as an add-on Gmail feature and just an other social network. So what was Google main competitors' reaction yesterday?

Microsoft: "Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation," a Microsoft spokesperson told seattlepi.com.

Yahoo: "It’s been almost a year and a half since we first launched Yahoo! Updates – a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities and stay connected to what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo!" sais Yahoo! rep on Businessinsider Besides, Yahoo! has created Yahoo! Buzz - over a year now.

So is Google Buzz new? Does it offer any competitive advantages, except that it's integrated into Gmail (which many view as a drawback rather than benefit):

Dave Winer (a pioneer facilitator of RSS widget, cited by The Guardian):

"One of the big values of Gmail is its spam filter. Now all of a sudden it's as if the exhaust was reversed, and it was spraying dirt into my message stream, instead of filtering it out."

Beside spam mentionings an other issue refers to privacy concerns: Google Buzz can put the contacts you automatically follow, those you most frequently email or chat — on a public profile page
. Lifehacker shows you how to Stop Google Buzz From Showing the World Your Contacts: basically you should uncheck the box "Display the list of people I'm following and people following me" from your Privacy settings on your Google Profile.

Again, additional vigilance saves you from a potential headache. To me - there are too many social networks that just seem to "copy paste" each other multiplying so much, that it becomes truly difficult to spot their unique benefits (USPs).

What's your view? Will Google Buzz become just an other Social Network or it will be convincing enough to determine many to leave Facebook and Twitter in favour of the new e-journey?

Curious to hear,
Yours,

Digital Lunch

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..And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to - the Internet!

Actually not yet, as the winners have not been announced, but it doesn't eliminate the possibility since for the 1st time in history an inanimate object enters the Nominee List for the Nobel Peace Prize - The Internet itself ( as announced today by Forbes).

The Nobel Committee maintained its tradition to preserve the contenders' names secret for 50 years. Still some nominations were made public. According to Associated Press, nominees include the requisite European human rights group and a Chinese political activist. You may well wonder how come such a contraversial medium as the Internet became listed for Nobel Peace Price, when despite its whole package of benefits it comes with a number of backbones as: cyber crimes, privacy issues and many more?

Eventually it looks like these "side-effects" haven't stoped the Italian version of the Wired magazine to launch the "Internet proposal campaign" last year in order to support its nomination for Nobel Peace Prize 2010, entitled "Internet for Peace" .

The Wired main argument was that “the internet can be considered the first weapon of mass construction, which we can deploy to destroy hate and conflict and to propagate peace and democracy,” (citing Riccardo Luna, editor-in-chief of the Italian edition of Wired magazine). Additionally The Wired brought up Iran's latest election case to praise the spread of E-WOM ahead of any censor attempts, which makes "the internet become a weapon of global hope.”

As you see - Internet's major assets - Twitter and Web 2.0 tools alike were major arguments for the Internet's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, which by the way last year was awarded to President Obama.

What would be your reaction if the prize would indeed go to..the Internet?

Curious to hear,

All yours,
Digital Lunch

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Measuring social media ROI - "hard" vs. "soft" metrics. Interview with David Meerman Scott & Ogilvy PR and digital specialists

Today brands are facing the challenge of becoming "sociable", or as some analysts describe - "open source brands". This means higher transparency, accessibility and obviously - authenticity.

Although new media "pushes" brands to speak to consumers, interact with them or even ask for advice , many executives perceive "being sociable" as an equivalent to "over-exposure", showing fear in front of web democratization.

Well, now when the benefits of social interactions are gradually becoming obvious (e.g.Dell reported $ 3 mln sales via links posted on Twitter, Zappos extended hugely its customer base, Ford launched their first Social Media Press Release and got free publicity during their new Ford Fiesta campaign, etc), managers are starting to wonder: how do we measure the effectiveness of social media?

I addressed a few questions to Ogilvy PR and digital specialists: James Poulter, Rebecca Perfect and John Heredea (Ogilvy PR Worldwide):




Digilunch: Do you think that certain companies (industries) should avoid social media?

Rebecca: It could be applicable to any brand if used strategically, whether it's for internal or external use. The major question is : what type of involvement is right for your brand/company?

James: Social media is extremely diverse in its use. There're so many applications for social media in customer service, knowledge management, asset management, human resources, etc. As for marketing perspective there're no particular limitations by sector, it's the strategy companies use to socialize.

John: Also, interaction with consumers adds to the level of trust the brand could benefit from.

James: Trust is key, since there's natural human ability to trust in people. We trust people implicitly day and day out, which could not be told in the same manner of companies. So it makes sence for the brands to come out from their "shells" and start talking to people.

Digilunch: What do you think are the main mistakes companies make when they first start using social media?

James: Spamming is one of the biggest mistakes companies make when using Twitter, for example. Remember the Habitat case? In order to get its tweets noticed, the company used Iranian election # hashtags that had nothing to do with their own tweets:



Digilunch: An example of negative public reaction:



Rebecca: That is why a massive re-education is needed in order to understand this phenomenon!

James: Eventually, the biggest mistake companies might do is: not listening. All brands should stop thinking like companies and start thinking like people!!
Also, when engaging, companies should think of long-term relationships. You've got to relate to it in the same manner you maintain a relationship with a friend: if you suddently break your relationship, you no longer can rely on this bonding as initially - it's commonsense!

Digilunch: Since there’s a strong debate about whether B2C companies should measure social media against brand awareness or tangible revenue figures. What would you say?

James: Any Marcomm methods are measurable. Social media could be addressed by: reach, perception change (measuring positive and negative sentiment) or ROI figures (PR/advertising equivalents) - which are the most debatable, because at the moment there's no universally accepted benchmark in the industry to measure social media ROI.
That's why each agency provides its own metrics to cover the client's objectives.

Digilunch: I've asked the opinion in this matter of David Meerman Scott author of the award-winning Business Week best-selling book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”(2009),

his answer is below:

I’m often confronted with the issue of how to measure an online initiative’s results. Executives at companies large and small as well as marketing and PR people push back on the ideas of a World Wide Rave because they want to apply old rules of measurement to the new world of spreading ideas online. The beauty of the Web is that you benefit from instant access to conversations you could never participate in before.

The old rules of measurement used two metrics that don’t matter when spreading ideas, especially online:

1. We used to measure “leads”— how many business cards we collected; how many people called the toll free number; how many people stopped at the
tradeshow booth; and how many people filled out a form on our Web site, providing their email address and other personal information.

2. We used to measure “press clips”—the number of times our company and its products were mentioned in mainstream media like magazines, newspapers, radio, and television.

While applying these forms of measurement might be appropriate
offline, using them to track your success on the Web just isn’t relevant; they don’t capture the way ideas travel. Worse, the very act of tracking leads and collecting email addresses hampers the spread of ideas.

Digilunch:

Generally, companies executives are looking for "hard" measurement tools, to see social media through "revenue lenses", whereas pactitioners incline to the importance of long-term engagement, suggesting "soft tools" to measure the interaction rate, customers' satisfaction and feedback.
And guess what? building strong relationships with consumers was never a short-tem task.

Sources that caught my attention while exploring this topic:

1. eMarketer "No single metric for digital success": http://ow.ly/nOTd

2. eMarketer "A tool for every purpose": http://ow.ly/nOTK

3. ReadWriteWeb "Social media ROI - Dell's $3 mln on Twitter..": http://ow.ly/nOUq

4. PageonePR "Using cost per click social media ROI" : http://ow.ly/nP6a

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