Just back from Bizcamp, a fantastic event ran for the second time (venue was the Guinness Storehouse here in Dublin).

So here comes what I learnt (or at least remember right now) from the different talks.

On funding (talk by Gerard Brandon):

Investors don’t care if your idea is the best in the world, they simply want to know what’s in it for them. Tough one and usual one, but still worth keeping in mind.

Preparation is key and you have to be ready for every single answer.

If you don’t have a team don’t even bother showing up to pitch. Investors can’t rely on a one-man-band, because if you die, their investment is in danger!

Here’s some stuff I never thought of:

Accountants and lawyers can prove to be very good investors due to their contacts. This is a great reminder, since in the current times these two proffessions may be a little bit low in workload, so are likely to partner up with the promise of future earnings.

Investors want to know 3 main things: What’s in it for them? How much could they lose? And, above all: Who are you?

If you have no convincing background buy yourself one by partnering up with an expert (but make that person non-executive!)

There’s no such thing as 2 minute elevator pitches in Ireland because buildings are not that high!

On making mistakes as a start-up (talk by Steve Gotz):

CFIMITYM (Cash-flow is more important than your mother)

In front of people, storytelling is more important than any plan, no matter how well presented.

Regarding Online business models (talk by Caelen King CEO of WhatClinic.com) :

There are three main questions to answer:

Who will pay?

How much will they pay?

How will they pay?

The CFIMITYM rule applies to online as well, so watch out.

Advertising (selling advertising) in your site/ web application is far from exhausted, you just need to do it the right way.

There are 5 main business models online and 7 ways in which those models can make money (not all ways apply to all models). See the Caelen’s slides below and pay special attention to slide number 11:

WhatClinic.com has recently expanded to cover plastic surgery in the UK and dentists in the UK.

Understand the meaning of waht you provide. People do not want a specific drill, they want to hang a picture on the wall. Technology is just an enabler.

Check out Justin’s blog with a clear example of great service design
Ok folks, that will probably do for a Saturday evening post.

So what do you think? Help us improve this social media SWOT by leaving a comment below and sharing the post.

Later,
Facundo

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Mike Roche, Chief Architect, IBM

“Social Networking in the Workplace – The IBM Experience”

Aengus McClean, Vice President, AOL Technologies

“Social Media as a profitable Business Tool”

Rick Kelley, Head of European SMB Sales, Facebook

“Acquiring new customers & engaging existing customers through social media”

Ronan Harris, Director Online Sales & Operations, Google

“Increase revenue & generate business intelligence using Google Tools”

Richard Develan, Managing Director, McConnells Digital.

“Coping with constant change”

A few people including us were tweeting LIVE during the event with the hashtag #profittools, so you can check out all the comments HERE.

It was a good event in general, more suitable for those making their first steps into the digital arena. I have to say though, lately, these events with big names, are not covering the basic questions that 90% of the SMEs have.
For example:  “How much will it cost me? How do I go about it?”

To Channelship, it was a perfect opportunity to see who was interested in the subject and listen to their feedback and queries about social media. Watch below the questions from Cathy McGennis (SPSS), Evelyn Fitzpatrick (Financial advisor) and Lynda McCracken (Innovation Employment). I’ll try to answer them below:

“What’s your main concern about social media?”

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1. “Quality control of the message and bad language”: One of the first acknowledgements we need to make in social media is that we will lose control of the message.
   People make comments, recommend services or say good or bad things about a brand online, exactly the same way it happens offline.
   Now, what happens if someone says something negative about my company and uses bad language? First of all, it’s OK. Social media gives you an equal opportunity to join that conversation (imagine before, you would’ve never heard of that complaint, right?) an get a customer for life. Also, when you engage, ask and answer questions as a business, you’ll keep your audience always interested in your message (Hosting company, Blacknight are a good example of this).
   Also, as Rick Kelley from Facebook highlighted: “Sometimes, your fans come in your defence with good feedback and stories about your product or service“. I bet many people never thought of that
   When it comes to blogging for instance, you control the comments to be published. So, if someone used bad language or made an inappropriate comment you may simply not “approve” it. Ideally you will want to publish all of them, including those of people disagreeing with your company or post. It will make your company more transparent.
2. “What happens with the personal information you put out there?” Years ago, the Internet was simply another spot, full of data made simpler to find by search engines. Nowadays, all this data became “sociable” and thousands of social networking platforms contribute to deliver tones of conversations and comments to the Internet everyday. This means that we need to think about our message before we “put it out there“. As a business, I would even recommend that you plan for this.
   In each one of the social networking platforms, you will find “the button” that lets you edit or remove a comment immediately. The problem is when some time has passed and you can’t go back to change it.
3. “How much time will it take me?” Well, this question was answered by Richard from McConnells Digital and he suggested “to invest 5 to 10 hours a week”. I would agree with Beth Kanter that those hours should be used just for LISTENING. I believe that what’s critical here is that when we answer this question, we are all on the same page: You are NOT advertising in social media, you’re trying to build a relevant community around your brand and strong, long term relationships (as anything good in life, it cannot be built overnight).
   Most SMEs, literally think that by engaging in social media, they would have to drop everything else and, obviously that can’t happen.
   My advise: Engaging in social media and creating that community does not differ much from the concept of building your community through traditional face-to-face networking. The main differences with social networking are that you can get to know a lot more people, even from other geographical regions, stay in touch, learn more about them, etc. In other words, take the traditional networking concept and multiply it by 1000
   In order to do that well, get advise from someone that are using social media, go to a workshop or simply try it yourself and see how you get on. Then, you DO NOT need to go with every single tool, simply pick one or two and learn from those that are using them already.
   When you plan your day/week, simply plan to use the platforms chosen during the periods that you will be in front of your computer ONE STEP AT A TIME. The more value you find every day, the simpler it’ll become to use these tools and the better you will be at judging the time you need to invest.
   I feel that if you explain the “time investment” like these terms, everybody will take their own time and approach, instead of starting by having in mind that it’s “X” amount of hours… That’s a turn-off, especially for those that haven’t made a move yet.

Did you like the post? don’t be shy, make a comment below and share it!

Have a look at the pics from te event here or at our Facebook page!

Best,

Fred

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Over the past few months we’ve been working closely with our clients covering different social media aspects. There are plenty of factors to consider regarding the hows, dos, don’ts and understanding the possibilities and challenging implications around social media.

Based on the usual concerns, we thought it’d be helpful to work on a quick SWOT analysis of social media as an information vehicle for any company. It’s be great if you could leave your comment below so we can work on a final, more official version of this SWOT. Thanks in advance!

Here they come:

Strengths:

• Direct contact with audience (almost like face-to-face)
• Allows for conversations (deeper engagement and relationship building with audience)
• Somewhat more measurable than other traditional channels e.g. Url shortening / Web Analytics / Twitter Apps that tell you about followers/activity/ level of engagement, Facebook & You Tube Insights, etc)
• Leverage of reaching more and more people with less effort thanks to technology (i.e. spreading the word).
• Cost-effective in the sense most of the platforms are free. They just demand time.
• It is a channel in continuous change and improvement
• Human factor: Your brand becomes more HUMAN (i.e there are REAL PEOPLE behind your Twitter, Bebo, LinkedIn, Facebook account)
• Build strong, long term relationships through online social networking, at a faster pace than just relying on traditional face-to-face networking

Weaknesses:

• Effort vs results: Even if it is more measurable than other channels, it is  difficult (especially for small business operations) to balance the effort put on social media against the results obtained.
• Very personal: To ensure you get the best out of social media as a channel, these efforts should handled by individuals who understand the company (i.e Watch out if you are going to outsource these efforts)
• Ever-changing environment: Because the channel is in continuous change/improvement, this means that companies have to adapt effectively and promptly.
• Consistency: Engaging with your audience at a direct level means more efforts in terms of keeping a consistent message/ corporate image (e.g You may get away with not advertising in one month on the radio, but if you develop a following online, you just can’t disappear all of a sudden.)
• Making up for mistakes: The time-frame to correct errors that affect your audience is less. Because you are heavily exposed, your company has to take action more promptly than if you weren’t (especially if people are having conversations about your brand, you will have to engage and clarify)

Opportunities:

• Being present where stuff happens: People (b2c or b2b) research for products and services online and value more the opinion of other individuals than whatever a company may say about their own offer. If your company is present in an interactive environment like social media, the opportunities for engagement, conversion and most importantly clarification of doubts regarding your brand, are countless! Think about connecting with people that already want your product, but also recovering unsure prospects and building a relationship with them.
• Developing a following/ audience that auto-nurtures itself: Your efforts in Social media, together with the effort of your following may mean that your audience become your best sales people
• Talent coming your way effortless: Because of the possibilities of exposure that Social Media allows for, interacting here, may mean that future talent (in the shape of employees, partners or, you-name-it) will come your way through the power of connecting online!

• Reach out to certain groups that traditional media didn’t allow you to:  Because Social media is for everyone, sooner or later you’ll come across people you never though of as your client. This opens the doors to building new relationships but also to valuable feedback that can help you develop your products or services more intelligently.

Threats:

• In the loop: Heavy brand exposure (for the good or the bad)
• Espionage? Your competitors are more likely to know what you are up to
• Besides trial and error: Your “Social media officers” have to remain human. While this is an opportunity it is also a threat because during conversations humans can make mistakes and your following will notice.
• The giants are close: Other stronger competitors that will be in social media too may result in your efforts having to double in order to reach out to your audience.
• Consumers DO judge: Your mistakes are noticed and the consumer WILL expose you. Get ready for prompt action.
• And happily ever after? Access to continuous information and direct contact with brands sometimes means less faithful customers:

  If good service meant a customer for life in the past, now it is not enough.

  All your retention efforts through social media, may mean nothing if your audience engages with you competitor all of a sudden for whatever reason. (Dog-eat-dog environment)

• How happy are your employees? You have to accept that your employees’ skills are more exposed: Either if they blog/facebook or have a strong LinkedIn profile, their own views are out there for headhunters to take them away from you. Value the good people. Also, as everything gets more and more social, this means that employees may talk about your brand online, for the good or the bad.

So what do you think? Help us improve this social media SWOT by leaving a comment below and sharing the post.

Later,

Facundo

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So, we attended the SFA event at the new Eircom building yesterday where Piaras Kelly and Colin Hetherington gave a presentation on Digital Marketing. Good content and advice for companies on how to get started with online social networks, blogging and some other cool examples.

I saw plenty of jaw-drops within the audience when some basic things were discussed. As Evert Bopp wrote recently: “Think that a blog is a character from Star Trek?”

Here are a couple of videos with the speakers’ advise on how to get ready before approaching  a digital marketing agency and whether outsorucing your social media efforts is viable or not :

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There is tremendous opportunity for traditional SMEs in going online and doing it themselves. There’s only 1 accountancy firm in Ireland that has a blog!!! (???) I believe that the more events like this one, the less jaw-drops we’ll see.

The concern is: After these events, how many SMEs seriously sit down to evaluate their online strategy? How many try social networks and just quit after a few days? How many think (if they have the budget) that they can just outsource their efforts and forget about it?
According to Colin, 60% of people quit Twitter after a first few attempts. This, of course, leaves room for the consultancy and training work that companies like us provide

Consultancy and training only come in when the acknowledgement is made. I wonder what other alternatives, besides this type of “creating awareness” events, are out there to help companies understand the importance of the Internet.

Best,

Fred

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