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My Networked Life

My Networked Life

Cisco’s newsroom has featured topics; one of these looks at how technology enables people to thrive in today’s connected world.

The hero image is an interactive picture that allows you to expand and play videos of real people discussing how networks impact on their lives and businesses. The videos are from around the world, from artists to entrepreneurs, and the page provides further links to the subjects’ and/or their company’s social media.

We like this because it is an interesting and well presented way of showcasing the variety of ways that connective technology can be applied, and promotes Cisco as an authority in its field.

Benchmarking Your Analytical Skills

IBM offer a self-assessment tool that allows you to answer questions to receive a personalized account of how well your organization is doing in making best use of analysis, against the industry average.

It then provides a more detailed breakdown of your score, and provides a link to which particular one of IBM’s services can be used to improve each area. This is useful as not only is it customized to the user, it provides

  • a basic overview of what your organization is doing well, and where it’s falling short in easy to understand terms
  • a suggested solution and invitational link to “Learn more” about that specific IBM service.

All in all, an engaging and informative way to promote IBM and their technology solutions.

Should Your Brand Have a Mobile App?

iphone and ipadIf your brand hasn’t jumped onto the mobile app bandwagon yet, should it? There is no doubt that the future is mobile, and it could be argued that all brands should be investigating ways to deliver value to consumers in a mobile environment. But is a mobile app right for your brand today? Should you bump mobile app development up to the top of your brand priorities?

The answer isn’t simple. You really need to evaluate your goals for joining the mobile market to identify if now is the time to devote money and resources to app development. Following are five things to consider as you make a decision for your brand:

1. Your target audience must be mobile and comfortable using apps.

If your target audience isn’t currently using mobile apps on smartphone or tablet devices, then developing a mobile app shouldn’t be at the top of your list of brand building priorities. Do some research before you invest in mobile app development and make sure your target audience has the ability to use your app if and when it rolls out.

2. You need to have money and manpower to build the app now and manage it throughout its lifecycle.

Unfortunately, mobile app development doesn’t come with a one-size-fits-all solution. Different devices require different coding. It’s easier to only create an iOS version of a branded app for iPhones and iPads, but doing so leaves a large audience unable to use your app. Furthermore, the work isn’t over when the app is launched. Updates, enhancements, and more must be done on an ongoing basis to ensure the app works, is generating the results you need, and is evolving in order to stay relevant and useful to consumers.

3. You need to promote your mobile app.

Visit the Apple App Store or the Google Play app store, and you’ll find a lot of apps and a lot of clutter. Unfortunately, people won’t find your app unless you promote it before and after launch. That means you need a marketing budget to develop awareness of the app and drive downloads (or sales if it’s a paid app). You also need a team to put the marketing plan into action, monitor the app’s performance against goals, and calculate ROI.

4. You need to develop an app that your audience actually believes is useful and/or adds value to their lives.

The barrier to entry in the mobile app market is almost non-existent, but if you launch an app that no one finds useful or meaningful, the app will fail. Even the biggest marketing budget can’t save a mobile app that is irrelevant and useless to consumers. You need to do your research up front and get a clear understanding of the type of app your customers want from your brand. Don’t assume you know what they want, because you don’t. This is an area where making assumptions will lead directly to failure.

5. You need to develop an app that actually does something and builds a deeper connection between the brand and consumers.

Don’t just make your corporate blog content available in a branded mobile app. Instead, make sure the app you create for your brand taps into consumers’ emotions and builds connections with them that lead to brand loyalty and advocacy. This is where the marketing team can show off their innovative thinking and turn the data collected from market research that identified consumers’ wants and needs into a successful branded mobile app.

Image: Yutaka Tsutano

Seeking Young Talent

When asked “what do you want to do when you’re older?”, most young people will tell you that they have absolutely no idea. This response isn’t surprising, and it would probably be not too far away from the answer you’d get if you asked most professionals.

However, one thing that we all share, young or old, is that we want to experience the world, we want to try out different ideas, different careers and different ways of working. It’s because of this that so many young people are seeking internships and placements to get them started on the career ladder. Of course, work experience is a two way relationship, and companies stand to earn a lot from taking on young talent straight out of school.

The Accountancy Model

For a long time accountancy firms have led the field with youth recruitment and ‘Big Four’ firms have been taking on undergraduates for years. The normal practice is to issue a contract which includes a work experience element during a gap year and then offers support and work experience throughout university. After graduating, employees often rejoin.

The beauty of this model is that it takes in the top talent very early on and also provides these firms with an essential resource: a voice within a university. This can be a very powerful tool and can really help encourage applications.

Filling the Role

It’s not always easy to mould a role for a seventeen or eighteen year old in a company packed full of talented and motivated graduates, but it’s actually a wonderful opportunity to bring in fresh ideas. Even your average school leaver has the sort of social media knowledge that some SEO experts would die for, and often a clever head for marketing.

Of course, it’s important to interview stringently for such a role: it’s likely that your candidates will already be a step ahead of the competition just by virtue of having thought so far in advance about their careers, but a lot can change during university years. Trying to retain talent you take on is important, but if you select well and invest in their development you are likely to be rewarded.

Recruiting early can be a risky business, but it can also be immensely rewarding if you pick the right undergraduates. The important thing to remember is to treat very young recruits as an investment: don’t expect them to be perfect out of the box, but do hone their skills. Not only can they then act for you as a valuable marketing tool but they may even turn into fully-fledged, and exceptionally well trained, employees.

How To Create The Perfect Corporate YouTube Channel

YouTube seems to be lost on many businesses as they don’t understand how it can benefit them. They therefore choose to set a basic channel up and ignore it for months at a time, or don’t bother to set one up at all.

The reality is over 800 million people worldwide watch videos on YouTube each month, and millions of subscriptions to channels happen daily. Meaning YouTube is a form of social media that can no longer be ignored by businesses, but some don’t quite know where to begin. That’s why I have put together this guide to creating the perfect corporate YouTube channel, with examples of corporations who do it well and why.

 

Step 1: Test The Water

Online marketing and social media are ever-changing, as are your audience’s reactions to them, and therefore experimentation and adaptation are musts. When you first create your channel it won’t be perfect instantaneously, as you will need to use analytics and insights to shape your channel’s design and content according to your audience’s reactions and engagement (or lack of).

Instead of concerning yourself with gaining thousands of views and subscriptions straight away, use this time to test the water. Set up a channel with a simple but customised design—something that reflects the look and feel of your website often works well—and populate the channel with some content along the lines of what you plan to add more of. Then post some links to this content on your other media, write a blog post about your new channel and ask people for their feedback.

 

Step 2: Set Objectives and Plan Campaigns

dell youtube Dell’s YouTube Channel[/caption]Now you have received some feedback and a general response to your first few videos and the overall look and feel of the channel, you can now start to make some changes and plan marketing campaigns.

When planning the campaign it is important to determine what your marketing objectives and overall brand strategy is, and how YouTube fits into this. Are you planning to use the channel for customer support, to promote brand awareness with a list of subscribers and/or generate leads? It is important to remember that it is likely each video you upload will not be able to encompass all of your objectives, so decide what content will cover which objectives, and where possible group them. A good example of this is large B2B and B2C technology company Dell. They have encompassed lead generation, brand and product awareness, and customer support all in one YouTube channel by using tabs to group the different categories of video.

 

Step 3: Perfect The Design

The overall look and feel of your YouTube channel should feel comforting in a way that it doesn’t differ too much from your website design and the feel of your brand. It should also be engaging and exciting in that it offers something slightly more than your website in terms of video. Siemens is a prime example of this. Using a custom design they have turned a generic social media channel into a unique place of their own, almost like having a second website. A home from Siemens home in effect.
siemens youtube
 

Step 4: Never Let Things Get Stale

Now you have set up your channel, customised the design and got the right content balance, don’t be tempted to sit back and relax. Keep using analytics and insights to gauge your visitors’ reactions and engagement, see what gets their juices flowing and what’s boring them. And use this information to tailor your future content and adapt new design tweaks to the visitor’s preferences. You may even find this information makes you change your original objectives and strategy, but that is what it is there for. Keep mixing things up, experimenting and adapting to your visitors, and they will keep coming back for more, guaranteed.

 

1 out of 2 Consumers Think Brand Facebook Pages Are More Useful Than Websites

According to a survey by Lab42, about one out of two consumers think a brand’s Facebook Page is more useful than a brand’s website. Of course, it’s imperative that brands maintain their own controlled online presence via a website as well as a Facebook Page as parts of a comprehensive, integrated marketing plan. However, for brands that aren’t completely sold on the value of a Facebook Page, the results of this study simply add to the ever-accumulating data telling us that consumers want to find brands on Facebook.

For example, the study also revealed the following statistics related to consumers’ opinions and preferences about brand Faceboook Pages:

  • 87% of people like brands on Facebook.
  • 82% of people who like brands on Facebook believe that Facebook is a good place to interact with those brands.
  • Out of the people who think Facebook is a good place to interact with brands, 35% believe that brands listen to them more on Facebook.
  • 75% of people who like brands on Facebook feel more connected to those brands.
  • 69% of people who like brands on Facebook have done so because a friend liked the brand.
  • 34% of people like brands on Facebook in order to get discounts and promotions
  • 21% of people like brands on Facebook in order to get free giveaways.
  • 14% of people like brands on Facebook because they are already loyal customers of the brand.
  • 11% of people like brands on Facebook because they trust those brands.
  • The top three ways consumers interact with brands on Facebook are: print coupons, like/comment on the brand’s page, and learn about new products (in that order).
  • 46% of people who like brands on Facebook have liked brands that they have no plans to purchase. 52% liked those brands to get a free item. 46% liked those brands because they actually like the brands but can’t afford them, and 24% liked those brands to help a friend.
  • 73% of people who like brands on Facebook have unliked brands on Facebook.
  • The top three reasons consumers unlike brands on Facebook are: the brand posted too frequently, they stopped liking the brand, and they had a bad customer experience with the brand (in that order).
  • 47% of people do not like brands because brands clutter their news feeds. 36% don’t want to be contacted by brands. 30% are concerned about their privacy, and 27% only post things relevant to their own lives.

You can see all of the data from the Lab42 study in the infographic below. Click to view it at full size.

facebook brand likes infographic