2:34PM September 2 2011

Best Practice in Social Media with the IAB

It’s seven in the morning and I’m sitting on a train thinking about best practice guides. Actually, I’m thinking about what is best practice for writing best practice guides. Headstream is part of the IAB social media council and we’ve taken the lead on putting together a best practice guide for advertisers deploying social media. By lead, I mean that I have promised to write up what we agree together. The team is a very talented collective of social practitioners, refreshingly not all from agency land. Katy Howell (Immediate Futures), Amy Miller (LinkedIn), Hussain Chowdhury (Habbo), John Pritchard (Microsoft), Daan Jansonius (Socialmedia8), Tom Gray (Imagination) and Sophia Amin (IAB). A useful bunch, which is helpful considering the task.

So best practice. First, the definition:

- Generally accepted
- Informally standardised techniques, methods and processes proven over time to accomplish tasks
- Commonly used when no formal methodology is in place or when what is in place is insufficient
- Through processes, checks and testing the outcome is delivered efficiently, reducing risk and complications
- Best practice maintains quality without formal regulation
- Needs to balance the unique qualities of the advertiser with the practices common to others

At the last meeting, we were asked to organise ourselves into four teams; strategy, measurement, regulation and best practice. Obviously I picked  the last, not because I didn’t want to stand up and move, but on the basis that this is the sharp end of social. The stuff people really need. So next, what should go into the guide? The good news here is at least three of the sections will be covered by my colleagues in the other teams, so strategy, measurement and regulation are in. But what else? Starters for ten:

- Making the business case
- Resourcing
- Deployment
- Campaign or programme management
- Risk and rewards

Thanks to Katy’s Hospital Club membership, we’re meeting up to talk further in one of the few bits of London that I know well enough not to get lost getting there. No guide needed.

10:10AM August 25 2010

Is the spreadsheet stopping social media?

How many times has a spreadsheet stopped you doing what you know is right? 

It’s a regrettable truth that our best thoughts and most innovative ideas rarely fare well in columns and sheet 1. It’s not auto sum’s fault. It’s the simple reality that to gain acceptance in commercial terms, things have to be planned and most organisation’s go-to tool for planning is Excel.

For a few years now, I’ve spoken about the virtues of transmedia planning and the belief that a brand’s story should be told in different spaces. That the story should encourage engagement by being in different places. In reality, it’s not just that the story needs to be told across different media and channels simultaneously, coherently and independently, but that the story needs to be told in different columns in the spreadsheet.

What’s fascinating about social media is that it lends itself very nicely to the spreadsheet, but only if you turn your screen on its side and treat the columns like layers.

Social media is all about layers and creating, co-creating, sharing and commenting on what we find within each layer. It’s collectivism at its best. It’s participatory nature means that the layers are deep, often unexpected and rewarding once discovered.

If I had to create a plan for social media, I wouldn’t start in Excel (I love the circles too much), but I would recognise that for my plan to be activated, it’s going to end up here. 

Don’t fight the spreadsheet. Make it work for you.

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

10:35PM July 27 2010

Pay with a Tweet, Pay with a Like: New Social Payments Platforms | Social Commerce Today

Head over to paywithatweet.com, and you’ll find an intriguing new social commerce model – where you can buy digital goods (music, software, ebooks, videos etc) and pay for them simply by tweeting them. It works like this; you simply click on the ‘Pay with a Tweet’ button, are asked to login to Twitter (or Facebook), edit the proposed tweet/wall message – and click the download button – whilst your message is syndicated across your social graph. Simple.

Pay with a Tweet is billed as a ‘social payments system’ designed to create viral buzz for content creators and marketers alike who want to promote themselves, their brand, product or service.

It’s an interesting model, and one that is set up and run out of Hamburg/New York by the creative duo at Innovative Thunder (@innothunder) - Leif Abraham and Christian Behrendt, of BestBuy’s much lauded Twitter-based Twelpforce fame (Pay with a Tweet app developer is John Tubert).

To launch the service, French electro pop band ‘The Teenagers‘ (breakthrough track “Homecoming” – a French tongue-in-cheek take on American sexuality), have released their new single “Made of” from their upcoming album exclusively with Pay with a Tweet (video below of the band wooing tweets).

And if electropop is not your thing - you can buy Innovative Thunder’s ebook on digital business for a Tweet (16,000 downloads on the first day).

The logic behind Pay with a Tweet is compelling; the same logic that has spawned a successful sub-industry in PR where editors, reviewers, celebrities and journalists are sent swag bags for free in return for (hopefully) positive words. Sometimes word of mouth – particularly at product launch – is worth more that the product itself.

Pay with a Tweet is free and simple to use; vendors create a Pay with a Tweet button using a simple form on the app’s site, entering their Twitter account, desired message to be re-tweeted, and the link to a digital download. Then just copy and paste the button code to the web, push the button – and let viral tweeting take over.

Pay with a Tweet is barebones, and feels like a beta version of something much bigger – we think this or a similar social payments model could evolve in to a powerful word of mouth marketing platform for brands, bands and content producers.  For example, Pay with a Tweet could be used to download not only promotional content, but also links/codes/coupons to exclusive promotions/previews/or even live events such as fashion shows.

Similarly, by auto-embedding the Pay with a Tweet buy button in a Google/Facebook ad – you could create a truly viral promotion. Another option would be to flip the process, so people do pay for digital downloads,  but are then reimbursed for a Wall/Twitter review that reaches x number of people.  (A simple mechanism could be added to the platform so if the review is negative it gets shuttled privately back to the sponsoring brand for ‘insight’ rather than shouted out on Twitter).  Likewise, by teaming up with a sampling company – Pay with a Tweet could offer a viral sampling service; Tweet and get the sample delivered to your door.

As Pay With a Tweet evolves, we think it’ll have to be beefed up to host digital downloads (with virus scanning) onsite, offer a decent analytics dashboard, and propose a premium paid-for service (perhaps where the promoted tweet can’t be edited so tweets go out ‘on-brand’).  Expect a Facebook ‘Pay with a Like’ service to appear soon (the service already uses the retired but not quite dead yet Facebook Connect).

In the meantime, Innovative Thunder suggest their fledgling social payments platform can be used by;

  • DJ’s: Sell your latest mix for a Tweet to promote your next show or just to bring more people to your website.
  • Other music artists: Sell your new single or music video for a Tweet in order to promote your new album or tour.
  • Journalists and Publishers: Sell your leading article for a Tweet to promote your magazine, newspaper or charged online service.
  • Authors: Sell a teaser version of your book with a Tweet to boost your sales.
  • Consumer Brands: Sell your latest commercial for a Tweet and make it go viral.
  • Creatives: Sell the access to your portfolio for a Tweet and increase your degree of popularity.
  • Business Professionals and Scientists: Sell your master thesis, study, paper or presentation for a Tweet and increase your popularity in your special field.
  • Service Provider: Sell a basic version of your service for a Tweet and bring more people to your website where they can learn about the benefits of your charged premium service.
  • Film Directors and Entertainment Companies: Sell the trailer for your upcoming movie for a Tweet and maximize the viral momentum of your marketing campaign.

We like.

The Teenagers Promoting their ‘Buy with a Tweet’ Track on YouTube

via socialcommercetoday.com

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

8:41PM July 5 2010

Creating social currency #brsms

Brand Republic: Connecting advertising, marketing, media & PR

Really enjoyed the day. Here's my contribution: social currency creation. A few thoughts about what makes good social media currency, how to create it and how to come up with ideas that can be shared.

Case studies from Obama – getting the basic right by keeping it simple, Will it Blend? – problems we didn't know needing solving, TMobile – people not abstractions, Dell IdeaStorm –  credibility through letting people get involved, Seal the Deal (one we did) – connecting with people in a meaningful way, Ford Fiesta and Sony MAG (another one of ours) – story-telling that involves the community.

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

6:12PM April 20 2010

Figaro Digital – Social Brand Fitness

The legs are like lead, the heart is beating, the back aches but we keep pounding the road. Lifting a heavy head, we look up to realise we haven’t even done the first mile. That can’t be right. We’re giving it everything and we’re near the bottom of the tank already.

Then the reality hits; we weren’t made for this. We simply weren’t built for this relentless effort. We weren’t created to converse. We’re brands, this isn’t what we’re used to.

Social media is no jog around the park. It’s a marathon. So how do you know if you’re ready to get on the starting line? Have you got the legs to make it to the end? Do you even know where the finish line is?    

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

5:53PM April 20 2010

Get your running pumps on!

Figaro Home

Looking forward to my bit at the Figaro Digital Conference tomorrow. My subject: Social Brand Fitness. With the marathon this weekend, the theme seems right. Main message from me; social branding is no jog around the park – it's a relentless slog that you need to be race fit for! 

Here's the spiel about the day:

Will 2010 be the year when social media becomes a mainstream and effective channel for marketing? 

Perhaps, but what’s undeniable is that more and more people are using the internet as a way to be social. Whether with friends, colleagues or brands, people are engaging in new and powerful ways. Yes, it’s disruptive and full of potential risks, but it also presents exciting new opportunities to capture the imagination, change opinions and behaviour.

Marketers and their brands that take these opportunities can win new customers and loyalty that can turn into positive business results. Figaro Digital’s Social Media Conference will allow you to learn from people who deeply understand the role that social media is playing now, and will play in the future for achieving marketing and business results. 

On at 10.30, so here's hoping the trains do what they're supposed to do!

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

4:09PM April 6 2010

How socially fit is your organisation?

Most brands want to do something in social media, to make a difference in social spaces. So what stops them? For many, one of the main barriers to ‘diving in’ is an inability to answer a simple question: is our organisation ready?

FMCG and ‘consumer’ brands have an inherent advantage when it comes to social media. Neatly defined products, with neatly defined attributes that can be amplified in social media with confidence. For most brands however, the dimensions of social media are significantly broader. It’s not quite as easy to transfer brand performance, behaviour and reputation into social spaces without getting a little twitchy about what could go wrong.

Add the additional element of brands that are regulated, self or otherwise, and the social media opportunity rapidly changes into a problem. If you’re a business that gives advice or provides products and services to the public under strict rules, regulation or compliance, social media is a headache.

Rules and guidance on usage to staff encouraging them to ‘do the right thing’ in social media doesn’t cut it. What’s needed is a comprehensive understanding of what will happen when you ‘open the door’ and let people in, or perhaps more scarily, open the door and let your people out.

There is no silver bullet solution, but an important place to start is by understanding the level of social enablement that is already present within your organisation and to map this against your social ambition. This is what we call establishing your social brand fitness.

For the last few months, we have been working to put shape around a diagnostic that reflects social brand fitness. The result has been the naming of nine key indicators of social fitness that need to be considered in developing a social brand strategy.

Under each indicator is a series of questions that allow us to audit your current reality, flagging those areas that are ready to run and those that aren’t even on the starting blocks. Trying to keep the consulting jargon where it belongs (locked-up in a box under the desk), the outcome is set of insights that help us create a simple road-map that gets you from where you are now, to where you want to be.

If you’re responsible for developing a social brand strategy for your organisation and reviewing where to start, please get in touch.

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

5:36PM March 15 2010

Good leaders become better leaders in social spaces

Was asked a few weeks back by the Leadership Trust to write a short piece on my views about Leadership for their website. Here are my thoughts. I would be interested to know what you think.

"I took a leadership role on the Board of our agency at the end of 2008, just ahead of things going bad in the economy. It’s been a baptism of fire, and there are many lessons I’ve learnt about myself that I shall take forward in life.

 
The recession has presented real challenges for good leadership. An issue which has arisen during this period in the economy is around staff who, because of the employment market, find themselves ‘job locked’ when they might have naturally moved on otherwise. This situation eventually creates problems in terms of managing their performance and maintaining a culture of high achievement in the organisation.

Fear of the unknown can restrict innovative thinking and risk taking. A business’s vibe or character can be lost almost overnight. During these times many companies and organisations make the mistake of focusing on the numbers, and ignoring the people.

For me leadership is about serving a community. It’s about having a clear focus and vision, and successfully communicating your intent. The most inspirational leadership happens when you capture both the hearts and minds of those around you.

The ambition of a leader should be more than an alignment of goals to resources. It should be about sharing a hope and desire and helping people find what can be done, rather than focusing on what has to be done. Leadership, whatever your personal style, should always be visible and achieved through a strong strategic narrative.

Our agency is involved in helping organisations achieve better engagement with its stakeholders, whether these are investors, consumers, service users or employees. If the global economy has been the biggest downside, the biggest upside I have experienced during my time as a leader has come from the positive and unique opportunities social media and social networks present to me as tools to engage people. There is much noise around social media (Facebook, YouTube, Linked-in, Blogs), that can make it feel inaccessible to those at the top of an organisation. It’s tempting to think that all this stuff is just for the kids and has no application in the real world.

In truth, the adoption of social networks and platforms is rapid and inclusive of all age groups and demographics in our working population. The increasing importance of mobile, which will by 2012 represent 40% of all web traffic by volume, will only make digital communication more important in the future.

It’s not the technology that is exciting, it’s the social behaviours it helps create and enable. If good engagement can be measured in terms of advocacy for your organisation, increased levels of discretionary effort, better communication between peers, improved performance and ultimately a bottom line enhancement; then appropriate social behaviours between employers and employees will be critical. It plays to every part of what we do, from finding talented people to join us, to retaining them. In a few years time, what happens in social media will impact on the reputation of an employer in a far greater way than any other activity we are involved in. If we aren’t good leaders, then this will become apparent to those inside and outside of our organisations.

For me, the rewards of using social media come in the form of an ‘always on’ means of keeping in contact with those I lead wherever they are located. The ability to share news (good and bad) and being recognised as a transparent and authentic individual is invaluable for a leader. I don’t believe social media will change what makes a good leader (as I don’t think the principles of leadership have changed in the last 2,000 years), but it will certainly help good leaders become even better".

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

2:17PM February 26 2010

What can a 2 year old teach us about social brand strategy?

Yesterday, had a cracking day in the company of some people interested in social media. Here are the bits of the story I told about the role creativity has to play in creating brand strategies that excite!

Chapter 1: Meet Benjamin Buckley – What can a 2 year old teach us about social media strategy? Well, quite a lot actually.

1. Life is augmented – not about platform or technology – real and virtual environments are combined.
2. Wireless, but connected.
3. Blended and seem-less brand experiences.
4. Content moves between media – portable and sharable.
5. Content has value – utility, entertainment, personal value, information and monetary.
6. Things have to be worth doing!

Chapter 2: Where do social ideas come from?

1. It’s not blank paper we fear, but blank screens.
2. We live in a three screen nation.
3. Was your brand built for a pixel world?
4. Our advice? – focus on people by doing an engagement brief – be better creators by telling better stories.
5. Lovingly borrowed from Chip and Dan Heath – Made to stick: be masters of exclusion, generate interest and curiosity that lasts, explain things in concrete ways, let people test ideas, make someone feel something about your content and multiply stories through exciting story telling.
6. The barriers? tools are limited, budgets run out and we don’t focus on what is in it for me.

Chapter 3:

1. Active listening is about finding out what people care about and is more than tracking and measuring ROI.
2. John Carver (policy governance guru) reminds us that it is better to measure less of the right stuff, than all of the wrong stuff.

Chapter 4:

1. Appropriate social behaviours come from being compelling, true, authentic and transparent.

Chapter 5:

1. Win-win relationships happen when you understand people better.
2. Results are not what you might expect in social spaces.
3. People love content about them. 

Posted via email from Thoughts from Chris Buckley

5:13PM February 18 2010

Best bits of Figaro Digital

Last week, I spoke at the Figaro Digital seminar on social media. It's always great to hear what others have to say, so here are a few of the best bits for me.

For those who still need a little convincing, we saw some compelling numbers around the adoption of social media by marketers. The rapid consideration and inclusion of social spaces in communication planning and branding is impressive. Also interesting was the number of people who feel training is a key area. It's nice to know brands recognise the importance of understanding what makes appropriate social behaviour in social media, rather than treating it like any other channel.

Tony Effik, Chair of the social media council at the IAB, captured a very simple truth that can be lost in all the noise around social media; people are still people. Some things change, other don't. In social media, we have found another form to express our basic social needs. 

The Dunbar number, the magic 150, was highlighted as a phenomenon that continues to play out in social relationships. 

Whilst we have the capability to reach many, do we have the capacity to maintain intimate and meaningful relationships with such large numbers? Anyone who has experimented with technology to swell followers and friends alike is probably at risk of pushing messages, rather than building relationships.

Nick Jones, Director of Interactive Services at the COI gave an interesting insight into how his clients perceive social media. As the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications, how this organisation approaches the opportunities presented by social media, and how it mitigates the risks, is very useful guidance for us all. 

The quote from William Perrin (Policing 2.0 conference, National Policing Improvement agency) perhaps reminds us all of how our fears around social media need to be put into context?

"If you can let police walk the streets with guns, you can manage the risks of letting them use Facebook".

Posted via email from chrisbuckleyuk’s posterous