Is social media adding value to your business?

The question isn’t about what it is doing for you. Its more about what would you like it to do for you. Does it tick your business objective boxes?  What do you want to achieve: drive traffic to your door - get the right people to take action - reduce business costs?

What are your social media objectives?

Knowing what your objectives are - tells you what to measure. It also tells you to what extent you measure those items and the effort to gather the information. It is a matter of priorities and what’s important to you.

What are your business objectives?

For many companies its about increasing web traffic, increasing sales revenue, improving search engine rankings, increasing lead generation, increasing brand or product awareness or reputation. For others it is about customer relationships, improving customer support, reducing the cost of customer acquisition, and reducing the cost of customer support.  

The social media metrics companies are measuring …

According to Marketing Sherpa’s November 2009 Social Media benchmark Survey, companies are measuring:

1. Visitors and sources of network traffic - 72%
2. Network size in terms of followers, fans and members - 63%
3. Quanity of commentary about brand or product - 56%
4. Sentiment and quality of commentary about brand or product - 50%
5. Search engine ranking position - 48%
6. Leads generated - 48%
7. Progress toward achieving social objectives - 38%
8. Engagement with influential bloggers, journalists, twitterers - 38%
9. Sales conversions and other Return on Investment (ROI) metrics - 35%
10. Competitive share of social media coverage - 19%

What are you measuring - and why?

The tweets cover insights into marketing and value creation, how to use the internet to spot trends, and how businesses can use twitter and other social media to improve business.

If you’re not on twitter or a regular follower, here’s a quick overview:

1. Five areas businesses spend too much or too little: underspend on copywriting, marketing: http://bit.ly/cfJ5im

2. Marketing innovation: Find your core value. Keep asking “why”: http://tinyurl.com/ycldh23

3. The internet is not a meritocracy. What matters? The value your product delivers: http://bit.ly/9r7WIH

4. Charities are not the only organizations that need to be bolder and braver online: http://bit.ly/cIBNw1

5. Technology companies: 7 easy ways to keep up with trends: http://bit.ly/d9TVGd

6. Latest social media statistics: exponential growth of facebook, twitter, LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/cjsmmw

7. Reasons why social media is killing search. Social recommendations. Better curating. Bitly a challenger? http://ow.ly/16nQT

8. Top twitter tools for small businesses: http://bit.ly/5lCySy

9. How to use Twitter to win new business: http://bit.ly/cMncKX

10. Ultimate social media job? Tweeting for President Obama: http://bit.ly/afFCPv

That’s it for today folks … more to follow

I can see the appeal. However, twitter has its critics. And rightly so. You need to dedicate real time to twittering. Keep up with news and views. Contribute meaningfully to the conversation. And, acquire and look after your followers. There is a whole new etiquette to be learnt.

According to The Nielson Company, we’re spending more and more time on sites such as twitter and facebook. The average user spent five and a half hours on social networking sites in December 2009. In December 2008 that figure was three hours a month. An 82% increase.

The UK has over 29 million unique users, spending over six hours per month on social networking sites. France, Germany and Switzerland are lagging behind at around four hours per month. Australians, on the other hand, with around 10 million users, spend nearly seven hours a month on social networking sites.

Twitter is the fastest growing social networking site, with a 579 percent increase in unique users in the US - in comparison with December 2008. Source:cnet news

Judging from the activity online, its apparent that businesses need to get actively involved in social networking, or risk being left behind. It is the new way to search, find and connect with the world. The new way to be found. However, there are caveats …

Achieving end-to-end stakeholder approval is a significant achievement: Congratulations go to Sharukh Kotwal, Parag Doshi, Ken Muira, Gabriel Donkoh, Ginelle Roberts, Tushar Khera and Avani Doshi on successful completion of the customer case study project.

The LATI project, now in its second year, mentors MBA students in the art and science of creating successful customer case studies.

The feedback from LATI members has been very positive:
Patrick Eaton of bd3T said: “This work was undertaken with enthusiasm and has helped to raise the professional image of my business, bd3T.  The work was completed with good attention to detail to achieve the desired final document and with appropriate and regular communications to ensure the desired result.”

John Bennett of Bennett Engineering added:”I really enjoyed and appreciated the briefing session: we met all of the students and had the opportunity to work with them.  I understood the process that they had been asked to follow so was (probably) more focussed on where the student was coming from with his questions.  An unexpected outcome is I suspect that my business is more respected for participating in these types of programs”. 

Students too, have been delighted with learning opportunity:
Parag Doshi said: “I would like to thank you for the support and understanding you gave me during the period. It was a wonderful learning experience and I am sure will be helpful for my career.”

The completed case studies will be published on the LATI website.

* LATI is a membership organisation that provides networking and business support for companies and individuals involved in the innovative use of science and technology.

Over the last few months, a select group of MBA students from the University of Leicester School of Business have worked closely with a number of local businesses (all members of LATI) and their customers to create customer success stories.

This blog briefly outlines what the LATI project is all about…

The LATI case study project involves a number of distinct phases. Firstly, a couple of practical teaching workshops - run by aardmaan - on how to produce a customer case study: the structure, interview process, writing a compelling story, managing the customer and end-customer interaction process and obtaining customer approvals.

The students then get to meet with their allocated LATI member, to interview them about their customer project. Once they are fully briefed, they need to make contact with the LATI member’s customer (or customers in some cases) and interview them about the specific project they were briefed on. This can be challenging - as the students only has around 20 minutes to interview the customer over the phone. Students need to make sure they capture pertinent information - ensuring the customer talks freely and openly, and provides great customer quotes. All this information needs to be meticulously recorded and documented - as even the most experienced case study writer can’t rely on memory and notes.

aardmaan use the latest digital recording software - provided by Truelog to record all customer interviews. Not only is it a good reference after the call, it frees the interviewer to use the time more constructively asking the right questions - rather than furiously taking notes. And, adds value to our customers - by providing them with an audio file which they can use on the web, in customer presentations, as part of staff training and more.

The case study then needs to be crafted.  Once written it needs to be approved by all stakeholders: aardmaan, LATI, the LATI member and their customer. Throughout the process, aardmaan mentor and support the students - to ensure the students are on target to produce a quality case study.

The aim is for students to gain practical experience in the field of marketing, and for the companies involved to use the customer case studies as a marketing tool.

Social event with 2008/09 MBA students: Arthur Katende, Edward Kapili, Rob Crane, Carmen Lo, Gillian Hunter and Bodunrin Oyedele

Thanks to all the University of Leicester Business School students who took part in the 2008 /09 LATI case study project. You worked hard - and are now reaping the rewards! Deservedly!

Case studies created by students from the University of Leicester can be viewed on the LATI website … see left navigation: member case studies.

Dubai Marina in January 2010

In the summer of 2000 we created the vision for Dubai Marina - working in Dubai for a good few months showing Emaar and the powers that be how that vision would work. A small team of very talented web developers and a digital graphics person developed a extremely advanced web demonstrator - showing a city connected at 100MB/sec. Phenomenal - even at today’s standards! 

Our Dubai Marina demonstrator showed how the entire city would be connected and integrated. It would be the city of the future. A great place to live, work and play. A place of family and community.

The great thing was the idea of applications integration. Over the last ten years we have slowly seen the introduction of great new applications over the web: home shopping, social networking, healthcare online, education, eGovernment - over the web and mobile. It’s all happening.

I’m just waiting for the next leap … into real applications integration.  Real intelligent connections with people, places, organisations, and public services. If we could imagine it and demonstrate it in 2000 - it can be achieved now. The technology and infrastructure is there. In most cases.

We were a little ahead of our time in 2000. However, if you look at how seamlessly people have adopted new technologies and applications over the last ten years. How our lives have been transformed by the simplest of applications and services. How much more connected we are. Then, it’s only a matter of time.

Not that I haven’t had plenty to say. The opposite in fact. My head’s crammed with things to say. It’s time to clear the head-clutter and start blogging again. Because, I enjoy this writing process - putting thoughts and words on screen. There’s nothing more rewarding than the process of writing.

However, all of us get writers block at some stage or other. How do you overcome it? By writing. By just sitting down and letting the words flow…

MarconiCalling demonstrates just how much the world has changed in the last decade. It gives us a glimpse back to what “ambitious” websites were like in the early Noughties. How the world has changed … 

The “About this Site” page is worth a visit and in case it disappears - here are a few paragraphs from the page: “Named MarconiCalling, the visual style of the site pays homage to the period of the Italian Futurists and the German Bauhaus, artistic periods of the early 20th century that celebrated science, invention and industrial manufacture. It is also a style that lends itself perfectly to Flash technology used on the internet.

MarconiCalling is designed as a highly interactive site and provides a number of intuitive ways of accessing information. It requires the latest version of the Flash plugin.

The Home Page provides a number of entry points…

Visiting MarconiCalling will require considerable time - even a quick visit could take 30 minutes. If you are not paying for the connection time please get consent from the person who is.

For visitors without Flash capability there is an HTML version which does not have the Exhibits 1.2 & 3.

You can click this flash detector and download the software from here.”   Now, wasn’t that fun …

Marconi plc: The Torch is Passed page makes grim reading. It says: Information concerning Marconi plc on this site was correct as of mid-2001. “Today, the company that bears his name is at the forefront of the next generation of communications, developing technology that enables the world to communicate more information, faster.”

The archive on the Search page is worth dipping into too - it tells of a bygone era of wire messages between Royal households and yachts in 1898, Isle of Wight tests to Lizard, BBC begins wireless transmissions, plus photographs, sound clips, film clips, newspaper archives … its a treasure trove for historians.  Navigation is a bit odd - but this is a history piece in its own right.

Will the last person to leave - please NOT switch off this light!

Marconi logo circa 2000

Guglielmo Marconi

I think of the skills, knowledge and industry contacts that have also been lost. I think of the awe-inspiring £multi-million projects we used to work on across the world. I think of the visionary integration projects. The pioneering work done developing new products and services. What went wrong? Plenty it seems.

See what the press has to say:

ZDNet - 700 jobs to go as Ericsson abandons UK R&D

Reuters - Ericsson to axe 700 jobs from UK facility

BBC - Hundreds of jobs to go at Ericsson

A sad day for the telecoms industry … but then only those who can adapt quickly to change survive. Understanding trends and where your customers are moving wasn’t exactly a strength.

Ericsson say their decision to abandon UK-based R&D is “partly attributed to the fact that the UK no longer had a “high-growth” mobile telephony market.”  That says it all for me. Ericsson have been focused on the product - not the customer. A fatal flaw it now seems.

Looking back - this is the moment we lost the Marconi name. Who would have dreamt in the bullish 90s that Marconi would be bought by a Swedish mobile phone manufacturer in 2006.

Anyone remember the heady mass company acquision days of 1999?  The cocky confidence of 2000?  And, the dramatic fall from grace in 2001? Here’s a reminder of what Marconi was like - they were the best of times and the worst of times …

Even more scary … found this on the internet today - the only bit of Marconi that still survives in the ether on a forgotten website, marconicalling:

MARCONI TODAY

Information concerning Marconi plc on this site was correct as of mid-2001.
For current information please refer to www.marconi.com

Marconi plc is a global communications and IT company with around 48,000 employees world-wide. Marconi has research and development facilities in 19 countries, manufacturing operations in 16 countries, and serves customers in over 100 countries. It supplies advanced communications solutions and the key technologies and services for the Internet.

Marconi plc consists of the following business divisions: Communications, Services, Mobile, Systems and Capital.

Marconi Communications:
A leading global provider of high performance communications solutions for public and private networks, Marconi Communications has a long history of innovation and technological breakthroughs. It is one of the world’s rapidly growing broadband communications companies, helping to enhance the Internet with greater capacity and speed.

Marconi Services:
Marconi Services is focused on creating the communications solutions, architectures and networks of the future, offering customers the best in class services and products to meet their network needs.

Its portfolio of services are marketed under a ‘Plan, Build, Operate’ banner. Its ‘Plan’ offer includes business and technical consultancy, network architecture and finance. ‘Build’ covers project management, civil works, network design, and integration. ‘Operate’ includes network support, network upgrade, network management and training.
… and so on …

The only bit to survive in any form seems to be the Services business - now telent. Who’ll dare analyse where it all went wrong …