Question of the Week: UK/London

Every week the members of the class will answer a new question on this blog. We’ll focus on a different region of the world for each week throughout the rest of the class.  Here is this week’s question:

From your reading and research on the United Kingdom and London, highlight one key insight or finding you found unique and interesting and discuss what implications it has for brands wanting to use social media to reach an audience in the British market to promote their products or services.

Tweet the Power!

Twenty years ago, the rap group Public Enemy dropped one of the greatest rap songs of all time, Fight the Power! It appears two decades later, my brothers and sisters from across the pond have begun to fight the power via twitter.
Over the past week, I’ve been trying to master social media in the UK, it turns out that Gordon Brown,  Britain’s Prime Minister, would provide one of the best examples of social media mobilization campaign. The Leader of the Labour Party has begun to defend Britain’s National Healthcare System (NHS) by joining a Twitter campaign defending the health service from attacks by Republicans intent on derailing President Obama’s healthcare bill.

Britons angry at the attacks have organised a campaign on the micro-blogging site, which has also been joined by the health secretary, Andy Burnham. The social networking site crashed yesterday with the volume of messages for the #welovethenhs campaign.

It is because of a social media tool like twitter that this cross continental campaign is possible. This will no doubt be an exciting exploration of how social media tools impacting politics. This situation wasn’t created in a vacuum but a culmination of several factors.
UK is an engaged social networking community. Of the 34 million internet users, 27 million actively visited a social network site. However, individuals in London are leaders and are even more actively engaged. The city was recently declared as the new twitter capital of the world. The city has embraced the idea of creating a community on line to share and communicate. They have taken it a step further and have mobilized to influence change and stand up for themselves.
Moreover, this situation has generated additional attention because of the use of traditional media as well. Brown and other ministers have begun campaigning on American soil giving interviews to tell and share their story and not let the country be exploited and misrepresented unfairly by the hard right.
I can’t help but wonder would American’s collectively rise up against another country via social media? I doubt most Americans would rally around just one issue in another country. We all know the exploits of the Obama campaign to use social media to secure the election. However, this case should serve as a solid reminder to US politicians to remember that politics are no longer local, but global. 2009 may serve as another summer where we’ll see power may belong to the people as you gotta Tweet the Power!

Skypin’ Around

Social media seems to be enjoying a great degree of popularity in the United Kingdom. According to eMarketer, 39 percent of UK Internet users (over 15 million people) will use social networks least once a month in 2009. Recognizing the potential, many advertisers and marketers have not missed the opportunity to tap into social media to help their clients.

One case study stood out to me—Albion’s award-winning Skype Nomad campaign, in which they sent a woman on a 33-day world  tour to near and far-away places from which she communicated via Skype.  (A fun assignment except for the possibility of sleep and food deprivation, though.)

It seemed like an efficient and creative way to demonstrate and showcase the product to its intended audience. As someone interested in learning more about Skype, this campaign resonated with me primarily because of the way Albion and their client chose to communicate to their audience to achieve their business objective of helping Skype raise awareness of the company’s mobile solutions.

Skype Nomad followers engage in conversation with the Nomad.

Beside the fact that they knew their audience (early adopters), three other things  stood out about their approach:

1. They made it personal.The Skype Nomad, Rebecca,  posted updates about her daily experiences (good and bad) on Twitter and Facebook, among other social networking sites, photos on Flickr and (with some help from the Albion crew) videos on YouTube. The Nomad’s initial posts focused on the technology and whether/how it was working, but as the 33-day campaign progressed, followers also saw how she was reacting to her environment and circumstances: “The mountains so great that u can’t help but feel small. These mountains that minutes earlier I was cursing are now my comfort,” she wrote after what sounded like a particularly trying day from a technology perspective.

2. They were authentic. (See #1.) There was no sugarcoating—when Rebecca was having a bad day, her online friends and followers new. (“When she was down, or the technology didn’t work, she was brutally honest,” according to the Albion website.)  Followers also knew when something was good or worked, because they could see her using the product out on the field, much like they would be.

3. They started (and maintained) a conversation.While on the road, Rebecca “asked the community to help her make decisions about her trip.” This helped engage stakeholders even further by inviting them to be participants instead of just observers. (Albion states that after establishing a relationship with the audience and posting her field-based product demos on YouTube, sales of the 3 Skypephone rose.

Not only did the campaign result in increased awareness of Skype mobile solutions in the UK and the U.S. (9 and 18 percent, respectively), but Albion reported the following data points because of the campaign (or Rebecca’s personal and authentic ongoing conversation for the campaign’s duration):

• 800,000 unique blog visitors
• 140,000 Flickr page views
• 300,000 YouTube video views
• Over 175 stories in global blogs, press and television

London Calling–But are marketers answering?

Forgive the cheesy title, but after studying social media use in six different countries, we are heading to London to work face-to-face with actual clients and The Clash has been in my head, along with numerous other songs about London. London has a particular allure because 1) it’s my favorite city and 2) I assume there will be a parallel between the marketing practices of the UK and the US, thereby making it an interesting study (plus the fact that everything is in English makes the research easier). Upon beginning initial research into the use of social media, one of the first things that I found is the dichotomy between companies using social media and those not using social media. Anybody who studies or works in social media knows that social media is still in its infancy. Though many organizations (government, military, nonprofits, corporations) do engage in social media, there are just as many, if not more, that do not engage. Some organizations do not because they question the value of the current available tools, and others do not participate because of issues with access to the tools.

A recent survey (table at left) by McCann Erickson Bristol shows that “two-thirds of marketing experts admit they do not understand social media despite acknowledging it is here to stay. The Social Media survey of marketing professionals found that 86% of them thought social media is more than just a fad. However, 65.6% of them said they did not know how to use it for the purposes of marketing.” This survey shows a common refrain. Communicators are beginning to see that social media is a viable tool, yet many are struggling to find an appropriate or effective use for it. Throughout the semester, we’ve seen numerous examples of effective social media, but as this survey shows, there is still trepidation to embrace the tools.

So while this survey shows that marketers do not know how to use social media, there are many UK (and European) companies that are using it effectively. The British candy maker Cadbury recently started a social media campaign to promote the new Crème Egg Twisted candy. “Dubbed “Operation Goo, “the initiative invites British consumers to become CIA agents. (That’s Cadbury Intelligence Agents, of which there are now 9,082.) The participants search out the candy bars across the country by finding clues on Cadbury’s Website. The top ten agents then create videos “with Flip cameras supplied by Cadbury, upload them on YouTube, and win points for generating the most social media exposure via tweets and videos. The agent with the most points by mid-July gets $33,000.” What Cadbury is doing here is creating engagement and conversation. Engagement is probably one of the most important aspects of social media. The sheer numbers of people who participate in social media means that the word can reach many more people than traditional media.  One analysis of the campaign stated, “Overall, it’s win-win for Cadbury. They promote one of their latest products through others via a social media experiment and then use and analyse the successful techniques used by the Super Agents to gain the most attention on each YouTube, Twitter, blogs etc.”

Overall, the biggest take away from my own perspective of managing and strategizing social media at work, and studying at school, is that there are numerous opportunities for brands, regardless of what country they are in. With a little bit of research and a Website survey of the brand’s relevant competition landscape, a marketer can help spread the word very effectively, and cheaply. But brands need to realize that they should not engage in social media just because everyone else is doing it. They need to have a strategy just like they would use for every other communication campaign. One thing that should be readily apparent is that an understanding of social media will be in great demand, so there should be future career opportunities for those of us who study it.

Meerkats Stink in South Africa, But Smell Like Roses in the UK

In our class research on social media in South Africa, we learned how viral marketing using social media can go very wrong. Case in point: Mo the meerkat, Vodafone’s short-lived mascot. Capitalizing on the interest in the cute, furry animals popularized by the television series “Meerkat Manor,” the mobile phone company took the live animal and created a cartoon version that walked a very warped path with commercials of Mo stripping and ogling a female meerkat.

Rather than elicit a positive buzz online, many people wrote about their hatred for Mo. Rightly so, I had to agree. There is something wrong with taking a beloved animal, targeting him to children, and having him cross the line. This is a key point for companies considering social media: Do Your Research and Know Your Market.

Success can be had, even with meerkats. Across the pond, jolly ol’ England found meerkats to be social media gold. The company Comparethemarket.com, which offers care insurance and encourages its visitors to compare its rates to other insurers, launched a social media campaign called comparethemeerkat.com, fronted by an imaginary Russian meerkat named Aleksandr Orlov.

The mock website actually lets you compare meerkats. I picked a scuba diving Berliner mixed with a miming meerkat in Cairo.

All in good fun, comparethemeerkat.com continues to make references to the real comparethemarket.com company with a similar logo, similar color scheme, and even referencing the other site that offers cheap insurance. These not-so-subtle references ensure that you never lose sight of the actual company behind the campaign.

If you can’t get enough on the site, you can follow Aleksandr elsewhere in cyberspace. He has a Twitter account with 21,992 followers and growing. And he has more than 500,000 fans on Facebook.

But none of these friends would mean anything if the real company behind the campaign wasn’t seeing a benefit. According to Michael Litman, the comparethemarket.com saw success quickly.

In the first 3 days of the campaign over three quarters of the monthly quotes target had been achieved. The year on year uplift in quotes was 45% and vitally, over 50% of the site traffic in the first week was going directly to comparethemarket.com. Finally, the number of quotes is up by 90% on the same period last year.

Comparethemarket.com’s success proves that:

1. They did their research and knew their audience.
2. They never lost site of their own business, despite the online phenomenon of comparethemeerkat.com and Aleksandr.
3. Their social media platforms worked well together, giving the fans seamless integration.
4. They had fun, but never crossed the line.

Note to other companies: Remember that meerkats can bring success, but not when you name him Mo.

Spain & Social Networking

I struggled this week to find a country I wanted to explore when I decided to examine one of the countries on my travel schedule when I go to Europe: Spain.  It appears this European nation is one of the few countries where Facebook hasn’t pulled a Napoleon Bonaparte can have complete world domination; they must supplant Tuenti in Spain. 

Tuenti is Spain’s dominant leader for social media.  The site is targeted at the Spanish audience predominately teens and the twenty something crowd.  

Approximately 13 million Spanish Internet users visited a social networking site in December 2008 – up 41 percent versus the previous year. The most popular social networking property was Spanish site Tuenti.com, which grew 770 percent over the course of the year to 5.6 million visitors in December 2008.

Tuenti retains is elite status by only being accessible via invitation only.  Tuenti faithful can choose their network of friends, “ such as college dorms or favorite hangouts, as well as the more general categories, including city of residence or university attended, on which Facebook networks are based.”

Although this is a targeted demo for any marketers, advertisers beware… the Spanish site aims to change how they do advertising.  “To lead a change in the Spanish advertising market, by investing in a new relevant and segmented communication model, more efficient for advertisers and pleasant for users.” 

So what is this new “Spanish advertising market?”  I don’t know? I tried to uncover what will ultimately separate Tuenti from Facebook, but I kept reading rhetoric from the company’s CEO that keeps investors intrigued. However, it makes me increasingly concerned because sometimes being first isn’t enough.

I’m left wondering….

What is ultimately the difference between the local favorite and the Facebook? 

Can Spain support two social networking sites? 

Where will social networking and Tuenti be in one year or even 18 months in Spain?

7/7/05 London Bombings and Citizen Journalists

During my very first visit to London, I woke up to a morning similar to any other — except I slept in later than usual;  after all, I was on vacation.  I had my morning cup of coffee and turned on the TV only to discover that July 7, 2005 would not be like any other. 

Explosions had taken place in the London tube at various stations.  One being Edgware Road, the area where I was staying.  To say I was scared would be an understatement.

At first, the media and government announced the explosions as underground ‘circuit shortages’ that had occurred throughout the lines.  A map of the entire tube was pictured on the news report indicating each affected station with a red circle.  But to me, it seemed much too coincidental that this happened at so many stops throughout the tube; and, sure enough, 20 minutes later, a double decker bus exploded.  At that point, all of the explosions were verified to be bombings as part of a large calculated terriorist attack.

I was shocked, stunned, scared, and confused all at the same time.  I could hear engines outside and people in the streets.  My initial impulse was to stay locked inside and wait it all out.  However, my travel buddy thought otherwise.  His initial impulse was to run to the streets and find out the facts of the story.  After much convincing, and perhaps a feeling of obligation to make sure he was not harmed throughout our trip, I agreed to go outside with him and find out more information about what exactly happened.  After all, the media didn’t get the whole story right the first time (‘circut shortages’), we wanted to get to the bottom of it.  Plus, we were in the middle of it all.

We stepped outside to find chaos everywhere.  The tube stations were closed and filled with police and caution tape lining each corner.  We couldn’t get very far.  But, the looks on people’s faces, including the police, told it all.  Everyone felt the same way as I did: shocked, stunned, scared, and confused.  But many of them had something I didn’t (due to traveling abroad), a camera cell phone.

 

During the summer of 2005, camera cell phones were the rage.  A relatively new product (at least to those will a normal-sized bank account), they were just beginning to become a cell phone ‘norm.’

According to the BBC, this day in history, 7/7/05, was when “the phenomenon of “user-generated content” (UGC) or “citizens’ journalism” came into its own in Britain, as members of the public took over the roles of photographers and news correspondents.”  And I fully agree.

I was there to witness the massive amounts of people who had their cell phone camera on them and used it, over, and over, and over.  Even without a cell phone camera in hand, I began to feel guilty for just wandering the streets.  Like a car wreck, people were drawn to the tube stations.  The sidewalks and streets were filled with onlookers.

Building on the BBC article on citizen journalism, The Online Journalism Review  claims that 7/7/05 marks the day that the UK public became citizen paparazi, not journalists.  From my experience there, I would have to agree with this as well.  It seemed that the general public went overboard with their camera-happy involvement in the activity both in the streets and underground. 

On the other hand, however, how else would the rest of the world hear and understand the tragedy?  A major image that sticks with many of us is the bus explosion, a photograph taken by a civilian.  This citizen journalist, who choses to remain anonymous, won the Nokia Citizen Journalism Award for this photo.  This image allowed people to see firsthand the impact of the terrorist attacks — giving them a personal and emotional connection.  Anna Shipley, Communications Manager of Nokia UK said: “…Citizen Journalism is very much being recognised as a credible part of the media agenda. The increasing quality of camera phones has meant that more and more people are able to capture spontaneous and newsworthy moments whilst going about their everyday lives.”

Similar to many other countries, participation in online social networking and media has incrased in Great Britain. The reports on the 7/7/05 bombings proved that the work submitted by citizen journalists is unmatched by any mainstream media news source; a comprehensive and truthful story can be told by working with, not against, each other.

It is clear that citizen journalism took off on 7/7/05 in London, and has little signs of ever stopping.

Lessons Learned Part 2: What UK Marketers Can Learn from Other Nations

As recently as May of this year, two-third of marketers in the United Kingdom (UK) said “they don’t understand social media,” according to a survey from McCann Erickson Bristol.  Interestingly enough, 86% believe that that social media is here to stay.  So while a specific social media skill level may not be on par, the conceptual understanding of social media’s importance is.  Therefore brands that want to incorporate social media into their UK-based Communications and Marketing plans should a) focus on the basics and b) look to other country’s success stories.

Back to Basics

In my first blog entry of the semester, I discussed three things – Authenticity, Transparency and Relevancy.  Without sounding redundant, I believe that these important characteristics can serve as framework for UK marketers to test the social media waters because they are both broad and easy to understand.  These are not only social media concepts, but in general good PR practices.  Therefore, marketers can easily apply these theoretical skills to concrete social media software programs such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Best Practices

Countries such as Brazil, Russia and China are experiencing social media growth at a rapid rate.  While there are certainly a number of cultural nuances among these diverse nations, they can (and should) serve as models of successfully integrating social media practices into traditional communication plans. 

Fortunately, UK marketing professionals understand the power of social media, which is the first and (often most vital step.)  By following a basic framework and a other’s examples, UK marketers are sure to find success.

Unsocial Social Media: A Recipe for Brand Destruction

UK Social Network Statistics (July 2009) posted by Clicky Media reports that on-line social networking has become very much a mainstream activity for UK Internet users of all ages.   The report states that 80% of ALL the UK’s on-line population visited a social networking site in May 2009 and the average UK Internet user spent 4.6 hours on Social Networking sites over  a one month period.

Among the UK’s most popular Social Networking sites Facebook has long ranked #1 with over 19 million active users.  Bebo followed as the second  (8.5 million visitors), then Windows Live Profile  (6.9 million visitors) and MySpace (6.5 million visitors).

Last, but certainly not least in the UK top five social networking sites is Twitter (2.7 million visitors)  which has vastly grown  in site visitors numbers by 3000% over the last 12 months according to ComScore.

In efforts to capitalize on the growing Social Media phenomenon of Twitter, one trendy UK furniture store, Habitat UK, began microblogging on twitter to spread word to consumers about upcoming sales and store promotions.

Sounds innocent enough except, Habitat decided to use trending topic #hashtags at the start of their tweets to gain exposure.  Habitat used top trend hash tags such as #iPhone, #mms and #Apple–a somewhat clever, yet very messy strategy on their part.  The spamming quickly became noticeable and the Twitter community tweeted about it for days voicing their disappointment much to the embarrassment of the HabitaDt.

Sample tweets regarding Habitat’s poor marketing strategy included:

“…Sad day when reputable brand resorts to using trend hash tags to advertise”

and

“…not what you expect from an otherwise classy brand…”

Habitat’s response to this backlash was to delete their offending tweets and replace them with some generic product and sales promotional tweets.

But can the reputation damage  this brand suffered be repaired so easily?

Later realizing that perhaps not enough was done on their part to clear up the messy hash tag incident, Habitat released this apology:

I know people have been waiting for a response tweet from us; we are treating this very seriously and wanted to offer a longer message. We have been reading everyone’s comments carefully and would like to make a very sincere apology to any Twitter users who were offended.

The top ten trending topics were pasted into hashtags without checking with us and apparently without verifying what all of the tags referred to. This was absolutely not authorised by Habitat. We were shocked when we discovered what happened and are very sorry for the offense that was caused. This is totally against our communications strategy. We never sought to abuse Twitter, have removed the content and will ensure this does not happen again.

It has been really valuable to hear how users would like us to use Twitter and we are determined to do better for the Twitter community.

I find this Habitat case study well  illustrates the power of social media and how its user-generated comments and conversation can build or destroy a brand. Ignoring a conversation in social media and not responding effectively can greatly  impact a brands bottom line.  If unsocial social media is a recipe for brand destruction, then Social Media Monitoring is surely the only cure. It would be wise of brands to be prepared for the negative impact social media sites can wield via preventive measures in “Social Media Monitoring”.

Steps to effective Social Media Monitoring include:

Start by listening to social media.  Free tools such as whostalkin.com, socialmention.com or Google alerts can help you track down buzz around your brand to get an idea of what a brands on-line social media landscape looks like and to identify brand mentions and conversations around your brand.   If the  brand is global with a huge web presence, then it may be best to use a social media agency to produce an audit or on-line landscape analysis.

Join the conversation. The key to managing and maintaining brand reputation within social media is to be part of the conversation.  Investing time in engaging with customers through social media helps brands build relationships, developing trust and show value to their customers.
If a brand discovers negative or factually incorrect buzz –they should react quickly so the information is not spread further via blogs or micro-blogging sites.    A recipient of bad service will tell at least ten people and many more  if they are a blogger or active on social networks. The earlier a brand learns of dissatisfaction the faster they can react.

Transparent Communications.  Open and honest communications can protect your brand against the perils of social media.  If something goes wrong, brands should not be defensive as it will encourage further negativity.  Instead, brands should simply explain their position, let their customers know how they plan on rectifying the situation and invite feedback.

Social Media Strategy.   Brands can push down negative posts indexed by search engines  If  a company has a blog, they can respond with a formal blog post making sure that its title features keywords that match the negative posts or content. This will help to add positive search engine results, .Counteract anonymous and negative comments by highlighting testimonials from some of your best customers. In support of the blog post you can use your Twitter account to raise awareness of your response. Depending on the scale of the negative reaction you can respond via video or audio in the form of webcasts and podcasts. If you have an on-line community, you can host the conversation on your own website, confining the negativity to one area and allowing you to respond immediately.

With ever-increasing popularity and immediacy of social networking sites such a Twitter on the rise in the UK, brands would be wise to recognize the value of proper engagement strategies and incorporate social media monitoring in their communications plans otherwise risk becoming victim of unrepairable brand damage.

London what’s your Social Media iQ?

Toyota’s Hypermiling Social Media Success

Wrapping up my tour of social media across the globe with the final stop in London. This week I focused on Toyota Great Britain its use of social media in one successful case and what insight other brands can use to reach audiences in Great Britain – and globally.

The social media campaign centered on raising awareness of the Toyota iQ among influential blogs connecting to people interested in technology, autos and the environment. The iQ is a very small four-passenger car with low emissions and high MPG car designed for hip young city dwellers.

Two members of the content team took a hypermiling road trip (act of driving using techniques that maximize fuel economy) in the iQ attempting to drive 500 miles on one eight-gallon tank of gas and along the way create editorial content that would grab reader interest and drive traffic back to the Toyota iQ blog. The trip hit 18 cites and on every stop the progress was shared through social media.

The key insight in this success was how Toyota created and leveraged unique editorial-style content full of great stories others wanted to read, link to and spread using social media.

The hypermiling attempt reached over 105 million people worldwide and 3.7 million people in the UK alone as a result of coverage on high profile blogs, including Wired magazine, and led to a 200% uplift in traffic to the iQ blog.

The old saying that ‘content is king’ reinforces if you want others to be interested in your brand you can’t just expect them to find you online. You have to have something interesting to say, do it in a non-marketing way and seek out your audience to help them find your message.

YouTube and the United Kingdom

In January 2007 British Airways threatened to strike causing the airline to cancel departing flights for two days.

In 2008, United Airlines damaged a passenger’s guitar. When he inquired about reimbursement the airline gave him the runaround. Finally, he was able to get their attention through the creation of a YouTube video.

British Airways needs to heed the strides United Airlines has made in order to ensure the satisfaction of its customers as well as its employees. Utilizing social media to listen to your audience is important in order to intersect any potential problems.

I don’t think customers should have to go to such great lengths like writing a song and posting the video to YouTube in order to secure proper customer service. Everyone should know by now that engaging in customers online has proven to be a success as long as the company is secure enough with its product that they can relinquish control of the conversation.

Social media in the United Kingdom is very influential. Robin Goade found that “The successes of Facebook and YouTube, along with similar sites, meant that social networks accounted for 1 in every 10 UK Internet visits during Christmas week. For the week ending 27/12/08, our Computers and Internet – Social Networking and Forums category accounted for 10.09% of all UK Internet visits, the first ever time it has passed the 10% threshold.”

Social Networks continue to dominate online activity and usage across the globe and this is no more evident than here in the UK. A recent report from ComScore reveals some very interesting UK Social Media Stats. Of the 36.9 million UK internet users in May 2009, 29.4 million visited at least one social networking website.

These are not statistics companies should ignore.

Queen for the Day

The use of social media in the United Kingdom is increasingly becoming the main reason why the Internet culture is rapidly growing among young adults.  Bebo, the second largest social networking site in the U.K. shows the influence and impact social networks have on British teenagers.

 Bebo, a significant competitor of Facebook allows teenagers to stay in touch with college friends, connect with friends, as well as share photos and discover new interest.   The U.K. teen favorite has 22 million unique visitors and of the five top social networking destinations in the UK, Bebo has the highest number of page views, at 11 billion pages views monthly according to Comscore data.  AOL who acquired Bebo for $850 million in cash last year said Bebo users spend an average of 40 minutes a day on the site.

 As the influence in social networks in the U.K. continues to grow, it is important for brands and marketers to use sites such as Bebo to market to younger consumers. While Bebo’s success stems from the teenage ripple effect of “everyone else is using it,” Bebo may have trouble expanding beyond the audiences of the U.K. as other sites, such as Facebook is successfully doing.   To sustain a competitive edge against Facebook, Bebo is available to mobile phone users thanks to a deal with Intercasting Corporation last year.

Some 40 million Bebo.com site users will now have availability to produce and share content, view photos, send and receive messages, post comments and search profiles on their mobile devices through the Anthem platform.  Bebo also has a deal with T-mobile in the U.K. where it has an existing partnership with operator Orange.

With AOL’s acquisition of Bebo, brands should recognize the social networking site as an instrumental way to target young adults in the U.K.  The partnership helps to secure brands with the growing power and potential Bebo has to leverage them quickly to target audiences. This tactic will help brands engage with communities or audiences for faster more reliable results of their message or product.  With AOL’s help, Bebo has the impressive capabilities to surpass Facebook and accelerate growth in the U.K. and to other countries.

Does Super-viralocity Equal Sales Potential in the UK?

As we come to the end of our blogging and coursework for Global Communications in a Digital World, it seems fitting to end where we began.

In our first blog post, we each named one US brand that uses social media well, and one that doesn’t (either because they are doing it wrong, or doing nothing). 

Today, if I had to choose one global brand that uses social media well, I’d reference my blog post on Doritos Sweet Chili in Brazil.  Using augmented reality (AR), Doritos created product packaging that creates the illusion that a virtual, computer-generated object actually exists in consumers’ worlds.  As of May 2009, 23,000 of these objects have been released on www.doritos.com.br/.

And if I had to choose one global brand that has missed the mark, I’d reference a recent campaign from London-based agency Nudge. In 2009 Nudge created a Facebook app with self-proclaimed “super-viralocity” for the launch of Britvic’s beverage “Tango with Added Tango.” 

The “Tango Head Masher 3000” app accesses Facebook users’ profile information, photos, friends’ information, and other content to enable consumers to create photo mashups using their own photos.  Consumers can replace friends’ images or faces in a photo with ridiculous images offered by the Tango Head Masher.

These photo mashups can be posted to the Tango Head Masher gallery on the campaign’s Facebook page.

Given the popularity of Facebook in the UK, this was a logical platform from which to launch Tango’s product.  According to market research firm comScore,  80 percent of the UK’s online population visited a social networking site in May 2009, a nine percent growth across the board in a year.  Of teens and early twenty-somethings, Tango’s target demographic, 86 percent of Internet users visted a social networking website.

The Facebook app is part of a full-scale consumer marketing campaign, including a Britvic-sponsored voice-activated freephone helpline that jokingly “offers advice on any side effects consumers might be suffering from after consuming Tango.”   As a reward for calling, consumers can enter a prize drawing for “some great Tango swag including a Sony PlayStation, some Sennheiser headphones, a Cannondale Bad Boy 2009 hybrid bike and a Sony iPod docking hifi system.”

Currently the Head Masher app has 10,745 monthly active users, but has garnered only 2 out of 5 stars based on consumer ratings.  Further, all of the posts on the campaign’s Facebook wall have been posted by members of Nudge’s staff.

Nudge claims that The “Tango with Added Tango” social media campaign is in still its soft launch phases, meaning they will have the opportunity to optimize the app later based first users’ initial impressions.

But Nudge needs to do more than just optimize the app.  They need to infuse their social media campaign with a key element of Doritos’ strategy – sales potential.

Consumers can create an infinite number of mashups using the Tango Head Masher 3000, but where’s the incentive to actually purchase Britvic’s product? 

Consumers could not activate the social media element of Doritos’ campaign without purchasing a bag of chips; consumers don’t need to purchase a can of Tango with Added Tango to use the Tango Head Masher 3000 Facebook app.  This could be problematic for a brand campaign whose primary mission is to sell more product and keep consumers coming back for more.

As we head into our week in London and are asked to develop digital communications strategies that both engage consumers and keep them coming back for more, let’s take a look at where we began.  Let’s ask ourselves the most basic of questions – what has worked for brands in the past and what hasn’t?

This is How You Tango

80 percent of the online population in London are actively engaged with social networking sites. That’s approximately 30 million UK citizens. This demographic usually in the 25-34 age group spend roughly 5 hours on social networking sites.  Facebook leading the way has the most popular social networking site in the UK. Also, in 2008, 65% of households had Internet access. Therefore, companies have invested in launching online efforts to reach their consumers.

BritVic, the number 2 soft drink British producer in the UK. The company owns a number of leading brands in the UK including Britvic itself, R. White’s Lemonade, Tango, Pepsi, 7 Up, Robinson’s and J20, and launched Gatorade in the UK after securing the rights from PepsiCo. Tuesday of July 14th, the soft drink maker recorded revenue of 249.1 million pounds in the 12 weeks to July 5th, which is a 5.9% increase from the previous year.

Tango,is the BritVic brand known for it’s edginess and appeal. The marketing team have done very creative work, to keep people engaged and interested online. In 2006, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) recognized Tango Clear for developing a basic spoof campaign. The Tango ad was released virally with the help of a website formed by the fictional Swansea North Residents Association. the local action group were protesting the damage caused by the Tango film crew. After just one day of the viral release the site had received almost 200,000 hits. Due to it’s online popularity, the video finally made its way to television.

However, the creativity doesn’t stop here. In 2008, the BritVic brand Tango launched an integrated campaign to promote Tango. In a strategy to bolster sales, the company launched ‘Save Tango‘ campaign, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, that aimed toe raise public awareness of the threat Tango is facing as a carbonated drink for those individuals who rather consume healthier products. The website created for the campaign had a video component, a blog, a call to action for the customers, a online petition, and a game. The campaign was ultimately a success which caused an eight per cent increase in sales. To compliment the efforts, the company rebranded with a new design packaging. A limited edition can was premiered with the wording Thanks instead of Tango.

New Design

Limited Edition

Tango doesn’t rely on their laurels. They continually launch new campaigns to engage their customers. Their recent endeavor with the help of Nudge London, a social networking agency, has launched a Facebook application, Tango Head Masher 3000. In it’s infancy, the campaign only has 76 fans and on their main Facebook page for Tango only has 706.

Tango has definitely made an impact on their customers, yet could definitely make some social networking improvements.  Streamlining their social media campaign to the actual Facebook page would help keep those 706 fans. Yet, they have high potential in reaching their British market.

“Just Dance”

One busy London train station, 350 dancers and an unsuspecting public = Viral Marketing Magic for T-Mobile.

This week I decided to review T-Mobiles recent and incredibly viral campaign that brought the company’s motto “Life’s for Sharing” to life. The goal behind a viral marketing campaign is to use social networks to produce or increase brand awareness. If you have not seen the video yet, take a look. It is safe to wager that T-Mobile certainly increase its brand awareness after this:

In my research what I have found is that across all countries the successful viral marketing campaign is one that connects people over a common feeling of community, excitement, celebration or enjoyment. In Brazil we saw people getting excited about a giant bag of Doritos but we know it wasn’t just the cheesy goodness of the chips it was the entire brand experience the product delivered. In Brazil, Doritos understood how to tap into the interests of its people and then used social media tools to keep their interest and involvement. T-Mobile figured out how to do the same thing in the UK.

As a mobile phone provider a company has an interesting challenge because people are attached to the service a mobile phone provides but not necessarily where they get that service from and at the end of the day the customer cares about price and quality of service. So, how can a brand get the publics attention and stand out among its competitors?

In this case T-Mobile turned to the folks at Saatchi & Saatchi London to create a flash mob of dance on January 15, 2009 at Liverpool Station in London. The result was a viral marketing sensation with 13, 378, 210 views on YouTube. This was a big win for T-Mobile because they made a connection with people beyond the purposes of a cell phone. This is how you can create brand loyalty. We also know that YouTube recently replaced Wikipedia as the number one social networking site in the UK so this strategy leveraged an online tool that the Brits are already inclined to use. T-Mobile went were the conversation was already happening and gave people something to talk about. You can see the reactions of the unsuspecting public here. The honest and authentic reactions from the people in this video are worth millions in marketing dollars.

One thing is for sure – “Just Dance” isn’t just a catchy lyric from Lady Gaga but a sure-fire way to garner the publics attention. It’s also been proven that large choreographed dance numbers in the middle of train stations can work in Belgium too. This one is from VTM in Belgium. Although it is for a different company the strategy is the same. VTM created an event that communicated beyond the service or product the brand provides and connected with people.

As I prepare to join the rest of my GlobalCC classmates for a week in London I am secretly hoping T-Mobile attempts to pull off another hit!  No doubt I would join in on the dance party.

Feel free to follow all of us on Twitter at our group tweet account http://www.twitter.com/globalcc

User-Generated Content and WIFM

A key component of successful social media marketing in the UK is user-generated content. Social media campaigns led by user-generated content (UGC) are becoming the norm for marketing strategies. Getting the consumer involved is a fast way to stir interest in a brand and generate buzz about a product or service.

According to Bazaarvoice:

• 56% of UK website owners say that user-generated content lifts conversion levels; 77% say it increases traffic; and 42% say it increases the average spend on site.(eConsultancy survey of 360 website owners across all sectors, November 2008)
• In a study of online UK retailers, 59% reported that the consumer-generated activity leads to better search engine optimization.
• Online UK retailers reported improved customer retention and loyalty by 73% once they implemented consumer-generated rating and reviews.

Walkers Crisps

Walkers Crisps: Do us a Flavour, Pick us a Winner

Walkers Crisps, one of the UK’s oldest chip brands, used a UGC strategy with its new campaign called “Do us a Flavour, Pick us a winner.”

The competition asked consumers to vote on one of six of the top possible new flavors: Builder’s Breakfast, Cajun Squirrel, Chilli & Chocolate, Crispy Duck Hoisin, Onion Bhaji and Fish & Chips. The contest resulted in 1.2 million flavor nominations. The winning flavor, “Builder’s Breakfast” became Walkers’ latest brand and the person who thought it up will received 50,000 pounds and 1% of the flavor sales. Each of the remaining five finalists received 10,000 pounds.

Participants were asked to purchase each of the new flavors at participating grocers and pick the one they would like to see stay on the shelves. They then voted online at the Walkers Crisps’ website, through text, mobile, Facebook or email.

But what if the product is less well-known? Would a UGC contest be enough to keep the conversation going once the contest is over? At the heart of social media strategy is a company’s willingness to understand its consumer- Especially when a brand is up and coming. It’s a good idea to start with what has been proven successful.

Start with Content. The most popular type of social media property amongst UK users is “content communities,” such as YouTube, Digg and Flickr. Not surprisingly, Youtube and Wikipedia are the most popular sites in the UK. They are both popular and FREE. It’s always a good idea to stick your toe in the water before diving right in.

Social Media in Britain: Not Just For The Common Folk

Great Britain is not just tea and watercress sandwiches. It is also the land of twitters, tweets, webs, youtubes and podcasts. 40,2 million people are online – 66% of the population of 61,1 million people.  The colonial masters are leading the way over their former colonies with the USA, Canada and Australia lagging well behind.

A newly released emarketer survey reveals that more than 15.4 million people – or nearly 40% of all UK Internet users –will use social media websites at least once a month this year. Looking at the top 20 websites in the United Kingdom rated by Alexa, an online website ranking service, reveals a nation with a great affinity for social media:  Eight of the top twenty internet sites visited regularly are social media sites – #2 Facebook, #4 Youtube, #9 Wikipedia, #11 Blogger, #12 Twitter, #15 MySpace, #17 Flickr and #18 WordPress.com. Emarketer predicts by 2013, 50% of all UK Internet users will have joined the social media community.

This fact has not escaped Buckingham Palace. As part of modernizing the Monarchy, the Palace has embraced social media with fervor.

The Royal Family has got its own Youtube Channel, called The Royal Channel -“The Official Channel of the British Monarchy”. From small beginnings in October 2007, the Channel today has more than 27.500 subscribers. Those people and others with a fascination for the comings and going of her Majesty at al have made more than two million hits since the site was launched. For the interested, there are details of which member of the family has royal engagements and whose common hand will be shaken that day. Nearly 60,000 loyal subjects watched the Obama cavalcade go through the gates of the Palace, a moment so solemn that the video was without commentary.

The Youtube initiative has been so successful that the Palace has embedded itself even further in the social media culture. The Family has its own Twitter account @BritishMonarchy that has already attracted more than 11,300 followers. Not bad for something that is less than a month old! It is not all good news for those of us who hang on every personal detail of the Family for, a Buckingham official announced that Twitter will only be used to publicize general news about the Royal Family. No royal family member would be tweeting about own lives. Tweets rarely vary from proclamations of official royal engagements, such as “The Prince of Wales, as Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, addresses 4 Regiment Army Air Corps […]” It appears that the contents of the Royal handbag will forever remain a mystery.

But there’s more!  www.royal.gov.uk is more than just a homepage -it is an information center with a simple but very efficient and innovative structure, which makes it easy to navigate and uses the latest online must-haves, such as RSS and an interactive calendar. One can find out where a Family member is, online, real time!

Obama had not done his homework when he gave her Majesty an I-pod on his recent visit to the Palace, he may as well have arrived with a Walkman. Her Majesty had already embraced this technology and was moving onto the next must-have. Obviously, he missed the Queen’s 2007 annual Christmas on his iPod!

– Moritz

Political Communications in the UK? Twitter, and Bob’s Your Uncle.

Microblogging is all the rage in the UK government sector.

Twitter in the UK image from anglotopia.net

Number 10 Downing Street’s 1,400 tweets are followed by more than a million people. Staffers not only cover the Prime Minister’s every move but also do an admirable job of ensuring a two-way exchange with the public. In the Twitterverse, @downingstreet is joined by central government accounts including BIS, DFID, FCO, DCSF, HMT, MoJ, DFT, UKTI, Directgov, Businesslink, NHSChoices, EHRC, CRC Ofcom, Cabinet Office and Cabinet Office/DDE. Communities and Local Government tweets. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office tweets. The British army plans to recruit using social media. The Labour, Conservative, Green and Communist Parties all utilize Twibbons, a Twitter application allowing supporters to show party support. Even Buckingham Palace has gotten into the act with 700+ royal tweets at @BritishMonarchy. [Question to self: is “at @” redundant?]

The tendency to use Web 2.0 is so strong that an official publication advises UK civil servants on social media best-practices.

Not everyone got the memo it seems. The wife of MI6 head put her husband Sir John Sawers on Facebook in his Speedo, creating an uproar in the UK. Thankfully he wasn’t wearing a 100% polyurethane racing swimsuit or the media would have really gone wild.

Some UK politicians choose to stay offline, and that’s probably a good thing. The government advises use of “informal spoken English” for tweets. I won’t quote David Cameron’s colorful language here, but the British Conservative party leader’s interpretation of that standard is a bit too liberal for everyone’s taste, party affiliation aside.

Most everyone in UK government is Twittering, but looking at new/recent reports concerning the UK private sector, microblogging has corporate marketers befuddled. Research released by Brightwave on July 29^th claims 41% of business decision makers don’t understand the value of social media.  Back in May, a McCann Erickson report claimed  66% of UK marketers didn’t know how to use social media.

Will British corporate leaders catch up with their government colleagues? According to a new report from Emailvision, of digital marketers who attended the Online Marketing Show in London last month only 3% are looking at social media for promotion purposes. The research was sponsored by a company whose services are in the Web 1.0 arena, so we might take the findings with a grain of salt, however the statistics from Brightwave, McCann Erickson and Emailvision taken as a whole clearly show that English business microblogging is in its infancy.

–“Political Communications in the UK? Twitter, and Bob’s Your Uncle.” posted by Gregg Rapaport

Brands Beware

 

In December 2008, Oliver Beale, a passenger traveling on Virgin Atlantic from Mumbai to London, was so disturbed by his in-flight meal that he wrote a complaint letter to Richard Branson, complete with photos of the food. Copies of the letter spread rapidly via e-mail and the story was quickly picked up by bloggers and traditional media. To read Oliver Beale’s letter follow this link: The best complaint letter ever?
In response to the media attention surrounding the letter, Virgin Atlantics public-relations team quickly got out the message on Facebook that Mr. Branson had personally phoned Mr. Beale and invited him to help select food and wine for future flights. According to Paul Charles, a Virgin Atlantic spokesman, “Our response was so fast, some people even accused us of setting the whole thing up as a publicity stunt, We took that as a compliment.”

Letter Excerpt: “It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast.”

 
Honestly, this is one of the funniest letters I have ever read and it shows how quickly a company’s brand can be damaged through social media if they are not prepared with the correct response when issues arise. In this case Virgin Atlantic got off easy, Richard Branson made a call to Oliver and everyone had a nice laugh about the situation and now both Oliver and Virgin Atlantic have tons of publicity to help them sleep at night.
But as the recent United Airlines guitar debacle shows, this is not always the case. Twitter, Facebook and other social media are changing the world of consumer complaints and brands must remain aware that consumers can and will use social media to tell their side of the story.

Mind the Gap

Social media in the United Kingdom is becoming more popular according to a survey conducted a few months ago. According to Hitwise, “UK Internet users are spending less of their online time shopping and more time browsing online media.” 

This  is a reported reversal from one year ago.

 Twitter use has also registered a huge spike in the UK.  Just this week, it was reported that “the micro-blogging site has popularized amongst the UK masses to such an extent that it attracted traffic 22-fold in just a year, being the fastest amongst all other sites.”

Not suprisingly, with these kinds of numbers, the UK is seeing the same kind of defection from newspapers to online news sources that is being experienced around the globe.  Another Hitwise survey found that in the UK, “print readership of newspapers has dropped by a staggering 5 million in 15 years. This equates to nearly a 20% decrease.”  

According to Social Media Trader, prominent newspapers in the UK have recognized the shift and most are responding.  Most newspapers’ online editions now are Web 2.0, as detailed below.   

Newspapers	Icons*	Popular**	Video	Blog/Profile***	Digg FP
Times					310
The Independent					139
The Telegraph					183
The Daily Express					0
The Sun					18
The Mirror					14
The Guardian					443
The Daily Mail					309
The Daily Star					1
Financial Times				Planned	44

*Social news and bookmarking Icons for easy submission.
**Shows most popular, most emailed or most commented stories on the front page. Front page content determined by users.
***Has own blog or profile

There is an slogan in England, “Mind the Gap”, that refers to the divide between the platform floor at the Underground and the train idling at the station.  It is a phrase that has worked itself into the vernacular and warns of the dangers associated with a disconnect between two areas.  It is an interesting reminder for us as we head to London with all its grandeur and history, to learn more about how respected brands like The Times of London – in print since 1785 – are working to adapt to the new world of social media. Just yesterday stateside, a respected national news brand, The Washington Post  announced the launch of a brand new mobile Web site characterized as “the definitive mobile news source for Washington. Unparalleled local and national news and analysis helps you stay informed and connected on-the-go.”  The swift shift in how the public now receives its news could not have been predicted even a decade ago.

As we spend our last week of class together, I know I’ll be thinking of these dichotomies, how fast social media is changing our field and how this class is working to arm us in real time with what we need to “mind the gap” in our own lives – both personally and professionally.  

Censorship Does Not Stop Chinese Bloggers From Advocating Change

Say the words China and Internet in the same breath and someone will undoubtedly think censorship. It gets attention from websites ranging from broadcast news to international human rights organizations and even online encyclopedias. The censorship, which the government positively refers to as the “Golden Shield Project,” to protect its citizens from online dangers, is more commonly referred to as the “Great Firewall of China.”

Despite the catchy nickname, the issue of censorship is a very serious concern among bloggers and other frequent users of the Internet. With some creativity, netizens have learned that it is possible to bypass the government’s firewall, as evidenced from an interview with writer James Fallows in Atlantic Monthly, but the government’s plans to install web filtering software on computers sold in China has caused a grassroots online uproar.

T-shirt design by http://www.raywow.com

The Green Dam Youth Escort software has been given a rousing thumbs down by more than 32,000 people who voluntarily answered an online survey. In addition, IT software engineers gave the software a test run and quickly learned that it was antiquated and had too many vulnerabilities, which could make computers more vulnerable.

When the government finally decided to delay the July 1 rollout of the software, around 200 people celebrated in the streets of Beijing wearing anti-Green Dam t-shirts. Despite the excitement, everyone realized that the software could still be installed:

” ‘It has not been canceled, just put back, so it’s possible that after a certain amount of time it will be pushed back out,’ said Liu Xiaoyuan, who wants the government to explain why a software ostensibly designed to protect a minority of users — children and teen-agers — must be installed on all computers.”

Created by Gaurav Mishra with Universal McCann data

Despite concerns about the government’s censorship, blogging has given Chinese citizens a newfound freedom to speak out. More than 60 percent of active Internet users in China have started their own blog, according to the Power of the People Social Media Tracker by Universal McCann and interpreted in the graphic above by  Gaurav Mishra. This means that Chinese netizens blog more than other BRIC citizens and Chinese netizens read blogs more than than BRIC citizens. Their blog reading outweighs any other social media use, except for watching videos online.

With blogs having such an importance among China’s Internet users, companies in China must pay attention to blog chatter and take it seriously. Recently, Apple computer is facing a public relations crisis in both the mainstream media and the blogosphere because of the suicide of an employee at Foxconn, a major China-based supplier for Apple. According to news reports, Sun Danyong jumped to his death from a high-rise. Blogger Jim Dalrymple reported on CNET that:

“Danyong was responsible for shipping iPhone prototypes to Apple. Danyong reported the missing device to Foxconn after realizing that one of the 16 iPhones he received was no longer in his possession.”

Despite the buzz online about Apple, the company does not have a statement anywhere on its website. Another issue is that China’s citizens are once again connecting Apple with Foxconn, the same supplier that got into hot water with bloggers in 2006 after it sued a journalist and editor at China Business News for reporting supposed poor conditions at a company plant. Foxconn’s answer to the recent blogger backlash related to the suicide was to to suspend a company employee, despite that employee’s assertion that he didn’t do anything wrong and that he, in fact, was now experiencing harassment by bloggers who released his name and address online.

Whether or not the employee or Foxconn were to blame for Danyong’s suicide, the abundance of blog posts point to the need for Foxconn and Apple to make some necessary changes in China and in their crisis communication methods. The news of the suicide has now reached across the ocean to mainstream U.S. news sites, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and to U.S. bloggers.

I suggest that Apple make the following changes:

1. Speak Up. Story after story accuses Apple of creating a culture of secrecy with its products, implying that the company’s actions may have contributed to Foxconn’s problems and the suicide. By not answering, Apple is letting readers fill-in-the-blanks. It is time for the company to speak for itself.
2. Talk to the Local Media. Apple should not ignore the power of the Chinese media and bloggers. Giving an interview or statement to a U.S. newspaper or blog demonstrates to the Chinese that Apple’s investment in their country is only surface-deep.
3. Diversify. Despite the fact that a majority of Apple’s suppliers are based in China, Apple’s executive team is predominantly white men. Suppliers may feel that Apple does not understand them or their unique issues in China. With a company based in California, the suppliers may not feel a connection to Apple or the company’s philosophy. With such a disconnect, why should suppliers and their employees follow the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct?
4. Look Around. This is the second major PR crisis for Apple and Foxconn within three years. Apple may need to consider looking elsewhere for a supplier, possibly a company that would draw less attention and controversy. If after two crises Apple does not penalize the supplier for failing to follow the Code of Conduct, a supplier will not change.
5. Invest in Frequency. There were some blatant violations of the Apple Supplier Code of Conduct in the company’s most recent report online. It would be worthwhile for the company to invest in more frequent audits of suppliers who have violated the code. One audit of each supplier once a year would be best to ensure that suppliers do not relax in their adherence to the code.
6. Act instantly. Apple needs to quit waiting for the blogosphere to bring complaints to attention. It needs to be in frequent contact with suppliers to know when there are potential crises. And when a problem occurs, Apple must act quickly, getting out to the forefront on any problems. A slow response implies that the company does not care or that the problem is not a priority.

   My final three steps for change are the ideas of blogger Richard Brubaker, founder and managing director of China Strategic Development Partners. Among his ideas on his All Roads Lead to China blog:

7. Contact Nike. Brubaker recommends that Apple turn to Nike to learn lessons from Nike’s own problems and successes.
8. Get Boots on the Ground. Unlike my suggestion to invest in doing audits more frequently, Brubaker advocates for inspections “NOW.”

9. Invite in third parties. With continued problems with suppliers like Foxconn, Brubaker believes that no one will believe Apple’s reporting and should instead turn to a third party for assistance in auditing the suppliers.

Social Networking Gone Niche

According to Gaurav Mishra, CEO of social media research and strategy company 20:20 Web Tech, out of the next billion Internet users (and the next billion mobile users), a substantial number will come from emerging economies like China. To understand the future of new media in China, it’s important to understand how new media is currently being used in China. Of China’s more than 120 million Internet users, 43 percent are using online message boards, 76 million are using online video sharing sites and 24 percent are using blogs.

Sam Flemming, CIC CEO

‘Social media is alive and well in China,” says CIC CEO Sam Flemming. CIC is the leading Internet word-of-mouth consulting firm in China. Because China is a culture where listening, community building, loyalty, trust and high-expectations are encouraged, a company trying to market its brand or product in China must first do so by identifying and targeting niche social networking and media communities that are in or related to its market. Chinese flock toward those who they trust and who share common interests. Once a company has successfully captured the trust and respect of that target audience, word-of-mouth should fan the flames of the initial buzz and spread conversation to more populous sites.

According to Traffickd:

Most social media marketers tend to focus on the largest, most popular sites, like Digg and Facebook. These sites are appealing because of the huge traffic potential that they present. These sites have more users than smaller, niche social media sites, so they receive most of the attention. Although niche sites may not be able to offer the same traffic potential (in terms of numbers) as the major players, they should not be ignored by marketers. Because exclusivity and word-of mouth from trustworthy sources are inherent in China’s culture, the smaller number of users means that it will be easier for marketers to achieve success and popularity with core audiences who are more likely to spread the word and be repeat consumers.

Heard of Neocha? It’s China’s own version of MySpace that specifically targets people who are interested in creativity, from art to fashion and music. Many companies have partnered with Neocha to hold offline events aimed at marketing its brand or product to creative minds who flock to Neocha’s site.

Helpful Hints in Implementing Niche Social Network Marketing:

Look for relationships with other social media sites: Use niche sites as a backdoor to your site.

Use a few different sites if possible: Spread the word to expand your social media marketing “broadband network”

Get involved and know the users: Know the desires of your consumers and deliver!

Try to get in early: If you see a Niche site that appears to have a growth potential, jump on it now.

Gaurav Mishra

“Internet users in China have large social circles both online and offline and are heavy users of social media, possibly because of a strong early adopter bias,” says Mishra.

Promote the content of others in your niche: Helping others find content is effective for growing with a social network.

Remember, the Chinese value quality, high-end and exclusivity. Niche social networking holds value by being functional, while also being extremely relevant and exclusive. While some may argue targeting a less trafficked site is risky because of the smaller group size, I believe that it is more benificial because the value lies in the quality, and not the quantity.

Reaching Chinese Audiences Through Social Media

Despite reports of the various problems in China, the country’s economy continues to grow, serving as an enticing target to local and foreign entities wanting to expand there.

Skyline of Shanghai, China's largest city and mainland China's business center.

The country is positioned to surpass Japan as the world’s second largest economy (after the recession-stricken U.S. economy) at the end of this year, according to Tom Rauch of the Associated Press.

Although the use of the Internet and various forms of social media are heavily censored and monitored, Internet and mobile phone use in China is on the rise. This provides organizations willing to make some investment in social media as part of their strategy with plenty of opportunity to make inroads into the Chinese market.

Much like in the U.S. market, being informed, being authentic and engaging in conversation would serve a company well. But to successfully carry out a social media campaign in China, companies should also recognize the differences in the Chinese market, and tailor their strategies and choices of social media tools to the conditions of that market.

In a recent article, Forbes stated that Chinese Internet users, also known as netizens, spend nearly two billion hours online each week, compared to 129 million hours per week for users in the United States. These numbers reflect only a limited portion of the population, not a majority, so the growth could be significantly higher in years to come.

The 298 million people online only account for 23 percent of the Chinese population and may not offer the greatest reach cities beyond a certain tier, according to Sam Flemming, CEO and co-founder of CIC, a leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) Research and Consulting firm in China.

Despite the small percentage, for those on the web, it is indeed a primary media, according to Flemming.

“Numerous studies have suggested that Chinese netizens spend upwards of twice the amount of time online as they do watching TV,” Flemming wrote. “Compared to traditional media, digital is so much more varied, exciting and open. It serves the primary platform for consumers to find information, be entertained and socialize: 81.5% of netizens get their news online and … QQ, China’s leading social internet platform, is bigger than Facebook.”

Social networking site QQ claims to have had more than 200 million monthly active users in January 2009.

Flemming added that China has the most mobile phones in the world, and more people there access the Internet via mobile phone than other methods (they often access a site trough their phones before accessing via computer). According to Forbes, 400 million use cell phones in China, with over 6.1 million mobile users connecting online.

[The Forbes numbers are attributed to Dr. Charles Zhang, chairman and CEO of Beijing-based Sohu.com, an Internet company. The numbers are higher than those reported by other organizations, such as the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). According to Forbes, Zhang’s internal research revealed that Chinese Internet users numbered over 150 million (possibly up to 200 million) and that Sohu.com was in the top five most trafficked sites in the world. Zhang attributed the discrepancy and “lower-than-accurate” CNNIC numbers to the organization’s polling methodology (calling land lines).
“Young people do not use fixed line phones. They all have mobile phones,” Zhang said.]

Blogger Enid Burns quoted Netpop Research President John Crandall’s suggestion that businesses create unique experiences tailored to both the Web and mobile Web.

“It’s more important to do so now more than ever, and provide them [mobile users] with that experience that is tailored to that device, because it might be their first experience to the brand,” Crandall said. “Then bring them back to the PC, through the consistent login experience, a consistent branding experience, offering more marketing abilities through the computer, because the computer may offer more marketing real estate than the mobile device.”
Although the Chinese are using applications like Facebook and Twitter, and their equivalent or similar Chinese counterparts, Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes) seem to be the most widely used form of social media. In 2008, there were over 3 billion registered BBS users in China. (A user may register on multiple forums.)

Although the relatively low Internet penetration rate, Flemming said, social participation is very high, with “more bloggers (162 million) and more places online to be social than any other market in the world.”

According to recent statistics on Internet use published by Shanghaiist, blogging is about five times more popular in China than in the U.S. Their report also states that the typical Chinese Internet user is likely to simultaneously listen to music online and use an instant messaging service.

Flemming had some recommendations to connect with the online community in China. Loosely paraphrased and augmented, they include the following:

Find out who’s talking and what they are talking about. Flemming wrote that to build connections, communicators must conduct a “community audit”, similar to a media audit. The community audit involves a systematic mapping out of key blogs, BBS forums, QQ groups and other community channels for the brand and its industry. As a result of conducting this audit, businesses gain insight into the communities and their culture, Flemming stated—including conversation topics, which topics are the most sticky or talked about, how topics are handled and how different groups (e.g., teenagers) are discussing them.

Contribute value to the community. By gaining insight into the various communities, marketers can identify opportunities to reach out and connect with the communities on another level. Flemming mentioned sponsorship of “fubai” or offline meet-ups by companies like Crocs as one example.

Connect with “efluencers”. Just like a business person maintains mutually beneficial relationships with traditional business contacts, marketers must also remember to maintain similar relationships with “effluencers”, or influencers.

Find your voice and use it. Engage consumers by listening and communicating with them online, not just in times of crisis, but also as a regular activity, such as providing advice on a specific topic or recommendations on the use of the company’s products. In discussing the challenge faced by computer manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo “is to find an authentic voice to talk back and participate in the conversation,” Flemming said. He added that Dell has multiple blogs, including one in Chinese, along with microblogging accounts on Twitter and the Chinese site Fanfou. (The latter was not available at the time this post was published.)

The Great Wall of China. Government efforts to monitor and censor the Internet are sometimes referred to as "the Great Firewall of China". Photo credit: National Geographic

Marketers should also remember that, with the high engagement and high participation also comes significant government monitoring and censorship.

As evidenced earlier this month after the Xinjiang riots, the government can swiftly block or limit Internet and cell phone access as a means to control information flow to and from all or part of the country.

Disturbing though these practices might be, the situation is not likely to change any time soon, so marketers should remember that:

• Social media should be treated as an element of their overall strategy (not the strategy)
• Relationships should always be developed and maintained
• Offline relationships are also valuable and can be key to maintaining continuity of operations in case of an online outage

Pepsi Targets Online Influencers in China

With their Voice of a New Generation campaign, Pepsi demonstrates itself to be a strategic player and early leader in the social media space in China.

Some bloggers have been critical of the campaign’s offline logistics, others see a error in going after a small niche audience and the available metrics indicate relatively poor initial online performance compared to other examples. None-the-less, I think Pepsi is blazing an intentional trail that other companies looking to enter the Chinese social media scene should consider following.

Voice of a New Generation is an integrated real-world/broadcast/digital program focused on the “alternative” or “underground” music scene. Battle of the Bands events are held with contestants earning slots on a branded American Idolesque TV show, with buzz and voting taking place in the Web 2.0 space.

Voice of a New Generation Performance

Pepsi’s effort follows the successful Mongolian Cow Yogurt Super Girl contest (seriously, that’s the name). Super Girl generated 400 million TV viewers a month who voted for their favorite performer by SMS. Other talent search shows have been quite popular on Chinese TV as well. While the TV tie-in is certainly interesting, it’s the social media aspect of this campaign that is most intriguing and the real subject of this post.

Online, Pepsi is smart to create a social media ecosystem with many complimentary platforms:

• Tudou–video sharing
• Baidu–forum
• Sina–blog
• Tiany–forum
• QQ–game
• Douban–social networking

SMS/Twitter is missing, which warrants further investigation, but note the somewhat unusual inclusion of gaming. We see the implementation of a holistic plan strongly positioned to drive interactivity with the intended audience.

Why then are the numbers so small, as littleredbook.cn points out? More importantly, why do I think that’s just fine where many bloggers see Pepsi having misstepped by targeting “underground/alternative” music artists and fans instead of going after more of a “pop” audience where the numbers would be larger?

Two reasons.

1. I think Pepsi is going after cultural INFLUENCERS, not the broadest cross-section of the population. In the Coke vs. Pepsi war, it is important to differentiate the brands from one another and Pepsi has clearly decided to be the edgier player. Picking up market share can best be done by having a different personality than the leader. Read Bharghava and also Ries & Trout who explain this type of strategy in detail.

Creating an edgy brand promise is something that requires association. It’s one thing for a company to say they’re about individuality and fun, but another for those that actually live that individuality and fun lifestyle to provide the validation. So what we see here is Pepsi making a strategic choice to go after the small group of influencers. There is adequate literature on the power of influencers in the U.S. market, but I reference a Power of Influence blog post as it pointed me to a new international study (in which influencers are called “Global Multipliers”) for it has one particularly important finding:

“Among Global Multipliers in all markets, those in China are the most likely to use the Internet to share their recommendations.”

Pepsi is dead on target with the Voice of a New Generation strategy. Going after influencers that have their own social media connections on other platforms and in other communities can have great impact in the market. The metrics on the Pepsi sponsored pages alone are simply not painting the correct picture.

2. Pepsi is in the Chinese social media game for the long haul. Compared to Coca-Cola’s 2008 revenues which predominantly took place overseas (75%),  only 48% of Pepsi’s 2008 revenues were generated outside the U.S. That’s clearly got to change for Pepsi to stay competitive. As Fortune magazine points out, PepsiCo’s Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi (formerly of Boston Consulting Group) is a strategist well aware that “the U.S. marketplace [is] in slow-growth mode even in the best of times, [and] the biggest opportunities are overseas.” Reuters reports that given the enormous potential of the Chinese market, Pepsi is investing $1 billion in China over the next four years. So looking at short-term ROI (using the regular social media measurements) of the Voice of a New Generation campaign is meaningless. The game Pepsi is playing is for billions, not the cost of a one-off campaign.

Whether the underground music approach to tapping the emerging youth consumer segment of China works or not, Pepsi is on the right track looking to engage Global Multipliers in the Chinese social media scene. They should continue to identify these segments and engage them with other creative campaigns.

— “Pepsi Targets Online Influencers in China” posted by Gregg Rapaport

Mobile Netizens

Everyone is aware of the vast number of “netizens” in China which has grown to almost 300 million Internet users. However, a significant portion of these individuals are connected via their mobile phones. Behind the Great “Fire” Wall,  this vibrant community has grown significantly and utilize their mobile phones to stay connected to their peers and engage social media.

In a report released today by the Ministry of Industry and Information and Technology, they claim phone users in China have surpassed the one billion mark at the end of June. Of these one billion phone users, 155 million have access to the Internet through their mobile phones which is an increase of 32.1% since 2008. This increase has been contributed to the launch of the third-generation (3G) network. The 3G network allows mobile phone users to download data faster, make video calls and watch TV programming.

This group of mobile netizens are primarily comprised of the “mostly curious 20-something” crowd known as the “Post-80s”. This outspoken generation grew up with some affluence as China began emerging as a country and are perceived as spoiled and outspoken. This group of mostly urbanites were born of the one-child per household social policy in China during the 1980s are a marketer’s dream! There are nearly 200 million people who are actively engaged online for entertainment using their mobile phones to access sites for email, games, music, and videos.

Last year, PUMA targeted this market by launching a program around the Shanghai Grand Prix, which takes place on Sunday. The campaign utilized the existing global mobile platform by launching a mobile Internet site featuring PUMA’s ‘F Wan’ (Wan in Chinese means ‘play’). The site offered interactive activities as well as being able to connect them to store locations:

It offers mobile users the chance to play an F1 battle car racing game that can be downloaded from the mobile site. Phonevalley has also created a build-a-points system to encourage gameplay and viral activity: players who submit their scores by SMS or who forward the games to friends will earn new points. Every week, the top three players will be rewarded with PUMA F1-branded merchandise.

The mobile site also has a store locator function, with details of in-store promotions, and PUMA F1-branded screensavers and wallpapers. Other marketers can learn from Puma by staging things around existing events that already resonate with the Chinese audience. Secondly, partnering with the leading mobile networks. Puma sought a relationship with QQ, the most popular free instant message and mobile gaming platform in China. Moreover, they encouraged a progression with users by encouraging them to “submit their scores by SMS back to the Puma website” to obtain merchandise and participating in competition among your peers.

Other brands like Coke and China Merchant Banks understands this concept of hitting the post 80s market with their targeted campaign with “World of Warcraft” and “Hello Kitty” msn campaings. The continuous engagement and interaction is critical for marketers to resonate with the fickle, post-80s mobile netizen Chinese market.