Pinterest ... or Pi-no-interest ?

Social is everywhere, anytime. Social is between people and people, between people and brands, between brands and people, across the networks and through the networks... Social is just that, social ;-)

Social media has fueled the birth of dozen of business initiatives, some turning rapidly into skyrocketing business stars - Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, ... -, others sunk for ever into the dark sea of unachieved promises - do you still remember Google's wave ? - and the last ones rising quickly into the social media space yet without a clear landing field (read "success or failure") - Google+ ? -. Among those ones, the last kid in town : Pinterest.

 In January 2012, comScore reported the site had 11.7 million unique users,
making it the fastest site in history to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark.

Waow, such impressive figures:

• joined in December 2011 the Top 10 most successful social networks with 11 millions visits/week
• more retailers referrals than Linkedin, Youtube or Google+ during the same period...
• highest female rate audience (82%) among social networks...

Started in December 2009, the Palo Alto's based start-up has quickly grown into a drawing point of interest for digital adventurers, investors, so-called digital experts... And of course, for Brands marketers. And today's version is still a Beta / on invitation only version...

Pinterest is said to be a genuinely innovative platform: it allows people to "pin" interesting stuff they come across (pictures, posts, boards), to rank them into categories and to share this across their social network.

In that way, Pinterest allow people to share stuff according to personal centers of interest and not only by binding them to a community of fiends, fans or followers, as common practice in many other social networks

But is that really new and innovative ? Let's have a look...

I have tried to learn a little bit more about it and have opened a few weeks ago my own Pinterest account, have surfed across the boards, select stuff I have then published, followed some fellows, got followed by other ones including unknown ones... (you remember that feeling in the early stages of Facebook, when unknown people was popping from nowhere just asking you to be their 'friend'?).
And actually, after some weeks of (yes, unregular) usage, I'm already bored...

Why ? Just because Pinterest doesn't bring me any added value in an already overcrowded social landscape, doesn't make me happier, more informed or curious... It's just that : yet another way to look at infographics, beautiful pics and, more annoying, brand messages in disguise... Does this bring any value to the people ? Maybe from the point of view of a tricky financial investors in track of new potential uplifts for his investments and trying to find the new 'Facebook' of the decade...

Garther - Technology hype cycle

Something social guru's often forget to mention is that in our growing digitally connected world, people have to make choices according to one criteria that will for sure never change : a day is just 24 hours, and you should allow you time to eat, sleep, have fun with friends and take a beer... Add on top tweeting a bit, upgrading your personal branding on Linkedin, snuffing around for last friends stories on Facebook and trying to add a new Circle on your Google+ backyard... Oh, yes, I was forgetting those average 75 emails a day you have still remaining in your inbox... ;-)

No, really, Pinterest shows not a clear value and interest for the common people with a common agenda and a common way to look at things... And when I say common, is not minimizing people's merits... Is just because the web is, in a huge majority, composed of common people like you, and me ;-)... not only of early-adopters and geeks centered on the last so-called innovation in town...

In that way, we are with Pinterest now in the early stages of a cycle phase that Gartner known as  the 'technology hype - trigger area', where geeks and guru's are looking at innovation from the only angle of 'is this new ?' and make a lot of noise (called buzz) around it.... But, as stated by Seth Godin (yes, another Guru...) : "Only when an innovation is dead can the real work begin".

Here is a list of potential reasons for people just to skip the Pinterest current craziness, if they want to search for any excuse...
- If I want to share photos, I have Facebook, or more stylish I have Instagram, or Flickr available. I could even Google it. And actually, my personal stuff I would like to share is most probably already stored on those platforms...
- If I want to follow people according to their center of interest, I can manage my way through Facebook (joining groups) or Twitter (making lists)... Or on Linkedin if it is more professionally related. Actually, the stuff I'm interested to follow in Pinterest are already my center of interest on other places (wine, traveling, art, digital stuff, technology, ...)

AND YOU? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT PINTEREST ? Pro / Con's ? Fan / Not fan ?
What do you think ? Give us your opinion...

How to perfectly... spoil your QR code "campaign...

QR codes are quite hype currently. Look at retail shops, touristic guidelines, cereal packagings or newspaper advertising.
A lot of them are figuring out QR codes in an attempt to facilitate off-line / on-line conversion and to enhance customers access to additional background information, videos, pictures, release notes...

Some weeks ago, Inside Digital Media issued an interesting paper on the usage of QR codes, asking some of the most prominent digital market experts to give their opinion on the exact role of QR codes in the marketing landscape. Interesting stuff for you to read if you want to know more about it !

Waow, a great promotion !

Last week-end, I have discovered another "OMG, I-thought-it-was-a-good-idea !" promotional campaign. You know, this everyday-promotion campaigns you find on your coffee package, corn flakes box, soft drink can or milk bottle. The one that just say "Enter your unique code somewhere on our website and win something exciting" (like a coffee cup, a cereal bowl, a soft drink glass or milk mug...).
Usual business for MarCom agencies, you may say. Indeed.

But, there was probably a kind of 'Harry Potter' in disguise somewhere in the briefing. The guy or girl who has probably jumped out of his/her chair saying something like "What we need to do is to generate traffic to our website in an efficient way... Let's stick a QR code there and allow people to easily access the website !". "Oh yeah, wonderful. Great idea, Bob ! That's just the innovation we were looking for !". Business as usual for a marketing team. Business as usual for the MarCom agency probably.

Cécémel is a very popular drink brand in Belgium and the Netherlands. They are supplying delicious choco-milk since years to generations (including me a long time ago) of children (and their parents...). Winter is a quite ideal season to see an increase attention drawn towards choco-milk because it could be drink cold or...warm. A promotional action has been build around the seasonal peak and a nice - flash based - website has been build to support product information and as a hub for promotions (www.cecemel.be).

Easy, a QR code to scan !

Ooops ! WTF is this ?!

Let's go back now to our QR code campaign idea...

The products holds a sticker with a call to action to win a patio heater. When the foil is opened, it dispatches a QR code and a unique code allowing consumers to participate on the website.

But... what do you think is happening when you are scanning your QR code with your favorite scanner on your favorite smartphone ? Yes, you are getting it... You arrive on a page which is just non readable for iOS users ("please download Flash Plug-in") and not optimized for smartphones. As a resulted, the excited customer that was prepared to scan and participate is just doing what I did... Giving up ! No conversion, no data capture, and a frustrated customer.

Lessons learned ?

1. QR codes are made for mobile ! The primary access device in a QR code campaign is always a smartphone. Make sure you integrate this into your user experience approach. Don't overlook the way people use their smartphones : make easy to reach links and buttons, avoid overloaded pages, highlight action steps in a way which is logical to the end users.
2. Always think on the digital journey as a whole. A digital campaign is not only ending when the traffic has been generated. Think about the full  conversion journey...
3. Optimize landing pages. Make sure that when people arrive, they are welcome in a way they could easily understand. Asking for a plug-in installation or presenting a landing page that looks like the one above is just wasted money.
4. Test, test, test ! A quick testing of the campaign results on different mobile devices would give you an immediate warning on some  awful renderings as the one shown above... Just test thoroughly before going on air...

Lessons learned... How Nespresso's turns on effective Customer Engagement Management

Remember, the Greenpeace vs. Nestlé case ?

Well, I will not put the whole story here, since this huge social media clash case has been analyzed and commented many times.
For the ones willing to have the long story short, you could visit this post.

Main conclusion of the case was, no doubt : in crisis communication, you should better have strong social media guidelines (and the right people to operate it) in your company if you want to avoid any major social media  #fail...


Since then, Nestlé had probably improved and learned from the past, at least on how to deal with communication crisis, but I didn't actually have had any opportunity to notice how effective this learnings were integrated into the #1 worldwide food manufacturer marketing approach...

And then suddenly, Nestlé hits again the buzz world, with one of its iconic brands, Nespresso...
Solidar.ch, a Swiss-based non profit organization supporting fair trade policies, launches a web-based buzz campaign portraying a parody of Nespresso's George Clooney acclaimed "What else ?" advertising spot...

The message, in a nutshell : "This multinational is serving you the most expensive coffee cup in the world ... while exploiting third-developing countries farmers. Ban Nespresso from your shelf and tell to George Clooney how bad you feel about it"...
In a few weeks, over 10.000 YouTube views and negative comments on the brand appearing in social networks...

I joined the wave, mainly because the parodic George Clooney's spot was quite funny to see and compare to the original one...

But also because, yes, Nestlé was in my eyes probably acting the wrong way with their supplying chain, at least, that was my though at that time... I have been working for about 10 years in the food industry and have some knowledge about food supply chain practices in the farming industry...

So I posted it on my Facebook wall and share it through my professional Twitter account.




Surprise : I got very quick an answer from Nespresso (who is really monitoring social media activity...) : to the point, a link to the official press release issued by Nestlé's management on the subject, and, even more convincing, a video testimonial of a Colombian farmers association delegate. No personal attack, no threat, just a simple "Hello" and facts...

I read of course the PR statement and watched the video testimonial... Nespresso succeeded in getting me 180 ° back on my point of view... From a negative post they have turned me in into a hot brand defender...  

This could have been the end of the story. Negative buzz managed efficiently and ending up into a positive end-statement. Everyone is happy...  

But this is not the end of the story. I am a Nespresso client/consumer... (because yes, I really enjoy their coffee !).

A few days after this conversation occurred, I got in my mailbox a promotional email inviting me to discover Dhjana, the first AAA Sustainable Quality coffee of Nespresso ...

Waow ! Since this was just the "trigger" that pushed me into my initial postings, having such a message was, no doubt, a perfectly timed and appropriate marketing answer... 

Of course, I have placed an order ;-)

There is no way for me to know if this was a conscious follow-up step in my engagement with the brand or if it just accidental... (but I would really appreciate having some comments from Nespresso marketing people on that... please feel free to share a comment ;-) ). 

Although I guess that this was for sure a just-in-time managed product launch to counter negative Solidar.CH buzz on Nestlé supposed negative impact on farmers sustainability...

Conclusion : through a close monitoring, social engagement, non aggressive but assertive arguments, Nespresso has been able to turn me from a quite critical consumer  into a positively convinced Nespresso brand ambassador... And all this by having added up some Euros onto Nespresso's bank account ;-)

Chapeau guys, good job and an interesting for marketers still looking at cases that show R.O.I. on Social Media... ;-)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD4wi__8rwo

The death of CRM and the birth of CEM – Customer Engagement Management

On the CRM planet, the last couple of years have been largely dominated by what is now identified has « social CRM ».

Quick reminder : in the 90’s, Database Marketing started to develop itself, largely supported by new technology (PC era, database oriented software platforms). Quite soon, the way to manage those ‘data files’ led to birth of ‘Customer-Relationship-Management’ tools, largely technology oriented and focused on ‘Customer Support’ (how to better serve and follow up current customers demands and claims) and ‘Sales Force Automation’ (how to help sellers to better target and follow up potential customers). Storing data, segmenting and managing it where the primary functions of CRM platforms. The ‘R’ of CrM was rather in small caps…

It was all about storing and retrieving efficiently client, prospect and supplier data in order to optimize the commercial relationship. Corporations were looking then at improving their knowledge in order to better adapt their communication campaigns and to level up loyalty.

This common approach is still largely popular within companies, but too largely dominated by a top-bottom approach, where the client is at the end of a well lubricated chain. This chain is made of email marketing automation and timeline based or behaviour based triggering actions.

But with the huge development of social networks, this approach has progessively been put under pressure. The ‘interaction’ which was mainly symbolized and measured by a specific clic on a web link has now been replaced by ‘engagement’. This covers well the interaction concept, but makes it broader, more impacting. Customers do not limit themselves to ‘interact’ by triggering an opening or CTR rate, but would moreover express their feelings with their own words to the brand. This brand personification is so important and close to traditional human concepts that people start ‘loving’ brands (‘I like’) or shouting (re-tweet) at others their own perception.

Measuring this level of ‘engagement’, those ‘I like you’ or those tweet-shouts and follow up the dialogue with customers on social networks is what we call today ‘social CRM’.

Engagement is perturbing marketers, who ask themselves how they will be able to manage all those ‘conversations’ and, more important even, how to orient and use them, without being able to control them.

That’s why I strongly believe that we are entering now the era of CEM - “Customer Engagement Management” that will replace the traditional CRM terms.

Understanding ‘engagement’ principles is now key for most marketing strategies. It has been the base for new ‘functions’ within companies, such as ‘community managers’. It is also the source of new business opportunities, combined with new technology developments, such as mobile and geo-located marketing.

Facebook dominates Social Networks world map...

Acoording to a  recently published post of TechCrunch, Facebook is continuously gaining popularity and market share in the world, and the "blue wave" is know covering massively the world map... Yes, but which world exactly are we talking about and what are the "Facebook" competitors still able to survive in a monopolistic game...?


Let's have a look to it :


- First, Africa is by far lagging behind in terms of internet penetration and therefore statistical updates are quite impossible. With the exception of Northern arabic african countries and South Africa, most of the continent is showing the world that pauverty is also caused by digital gap : no access no information is one of main cause and consequence to pauverty. In our globalized world, African governments should fight, next to already known "diseases" (corruption, health system, education system,...) to give access to their citizens to the digital world and its information content. Social networks could have a major influence on allowing Africa to massively catch up with the gap. But of course, Maslow's pyramid has already shown us that culture, information and technology come by far after basic needs such as food, water, education and health.


- Secondly, China, Russia Japan, and Brazil (but for how long ?) are momently keeping out of the Facebook leadership. Russia and China have set up their own social networks some years ago and we may consider that political aspects next to language barriers are involved here, when trying to keep away social giant away from their markets. Nevertheles one may consider, as it was the case for India or Mongolia, that local owned social networks will not cope with Facebook continuous market share progress. A particular mention for Brazil, where Google's network Orkut is still leading the market, with over 36 millions visitors/month. Facebook is even ranking only 3rd, behind Windows Live (source : Comscore). Notably, Orkut is showing a socio-demo profile quite different from Facebook's one, with a majority of younger people addicted to Google's SN there.
Japan shows also a particular trend, due to the high consumption of mobile traffic overthere. Mixi, the most popular social network offers a mobile and 'game' oriented content, which compares to more 'content' oriented  networks such as Facebook or Twitter. 


As conclusion, we may think that the map shown here will most probably evolve in the next 6 months to a even more 'blue' one, as Facebook mobile features (such as Places) will grow in popularity and penetration (e.g. would be key in Japan for instance) and with a globalization trend that will push further to countries still based on local initiatives... Over the last 12 months, Poland, Netherlands or Mongolia have lost the battle against Palo Alto's social network king...

How mobile is changing Social Media...

Flowtown.com has recently published a very interesting paper on Mobile web and the link with Social Media.The mobile web is growing at an exponential rate, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Not a surprise as mobile devices are at the center of how people communication is flowing nowadays.This infographic illustrates the rates at which people use the mobile web for social activities.

It highlights a few intriguing facts, such as that there are more than 100 million active Facebook mobile users, 20 % of claimed 500 million users, and that those mobile users are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users. It also notes that 18-34 year olds account for about 50% of mobile social networking usage, with female usage higher than male usage.


Full article : http://www.flowtown.com/blog/how-are-mobile-phones-changing-social-media

Social Networks analysis matrix

When talking about social networks, most CMO's get lost with straight forward questions like "I guess we need a Facebook Fan page" or "Should I post our last ad campaign on YouTube ?". Hence, this led certainly to a kind of gap between strategic objectives and operational ones...
Here is a small tool than could help CMO's in stepping back and overview a short SWOT analysis of most popular Social Media networks, all at once in a glance...


This infographic describes and ranks 10 popular social media channels by customer communication, brand exposure, traffic generation and SEO impact, which enables us to get a good grasp of how each tool helps users achieve business goals.

It acts as a roadmap of the social web and demonstrates which social channel will give the most bang for the buck in terms of customer communication, brand exposure, traffic, and SEO.

Source : Mashable and CMO.com