Sammlung von Newsfeeds

Gespräche mit meinem Therapeuten Kurt über das Fernsehen (4)

Carta - Do, 05/17/2012 - 22:12

Der TV-Autor steht kurz vor dem Ende. Sein imaginärer Therapeut Kurt überlegt die Behandlung abzubrechen. Letzte Möglichkeit: Eine Woche totaler Fernsehentzug. Doch der TV-Autor und TV-Junkie hat auf ganzer Linie versagt.

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Kategorien: Carta

WSJ reveals readership trends across different devices

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 18:56

The Wall Street Journal revealed some interesting data about readership trends by device and time today at the Business Development Institute's social and mobile conference for Financial Services.

While a live Twitter feed streamed the thoughts of the audience, Michal Shapira, Associate Vice President of Digital Marketing noted that the organization is not just a traditional media company anymore and claimed that, compared to a jury of it's peers, the company is number one in terms of mobile access.

Supplementing print readership, the WSJ's desktop, tablet, and phone applications extend the companys product consumption levels far beyond it's traditional reading hours.

The news organization's tablet usage (mostly iPad) begins first, at five in the morning, with print following shortly thereafter. As people transit to and arrive at work those consumption methods fall precipitously.

Subsequently, mobile phone and desktop access rise, then hold steady throughout the remainder of the working day. Tablet usage begins to pick up again in the evening, and usage of WSJ Live, the company's streaming video app, peaks in the evening at 10pm.

Shapira said that this is evidence of either digital video consumption replacing television, or, additive second-screen viewing. 

In either case, this level of advanced penetration of owned properties throughout an array of devices and content-formats is an impressive success for the 123 year old brand. 

In part, the success of these products is no doubt attributable to the company's aggressive participation in numerous public-ish social media channels. According to a shared slideshow from March, the company maintains over 100 Twitter accounts, with over 2m followers.

Social sharing within Facebook is the largest source of traffic referral, and the company maintains 14 brand pages with 600k likes. The company has additionally embraced Pinterest, and is active on Instagram, where it has over 15k followers.

As brands consider implementing content strategies, they would be wise to pay attention to publications like this. At one point, the Wall Street Journal was just a newspaper. Now, it has the potential to poach eyeballs away from TV advertisers.

It isn't that every brand should desire to become a full-fledged news service, it's that the opportunity to deeply penetrate into the lives of consumers is there, for those who can figure out how to do it.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Your tablet loves Mad Men: new report explores the multi-screen reality

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 18:18

Econsultancy has just finished a new report, The Multi-Screen Marketer, written on behalf of the Interactive Advertising Bureau and based on a survey to over 1,800 consumers.

The goal was to find out how they use a second screen while watching television and to help us understand the impact of these behaviors on advertising and marketing.

There's no shortage of research on the topic, so we focused on areas that believe to be the least examined (and most useful), including how different types of content correlate with multi-tasking, how the distraction of the second screen affects advertiser awareness and what consumers expect from their TV experience in the future.

There has been a great deal of attention and research directed at the multi-screen recently, and with good reason. 65% of the respondents with a tablet in our study said they were likely to be using a second device while watching television...and that number goes up for those 18-44 years old.

Even most people with only two screens (TV + computer) are more likely to be online while watching than not (52%).

The Multi-Screen Marketer explores some of the effects of these behaviors, and tries to lay out an approach for publishers and advertisers.

How does the distraction of the second screen affect attention? 

When someone has another device at the ready, their attention can shift from the screen the moment they lose interest. Whether it's a commercial break or just a break in the action, they're off and mentally running. Studies have already shown that commercial blocks invite the heaviest multi-screen behavior.

We wanted to measure how this could impact advertiser recall. Respondents were asked to identify their favorite television program, and then asked if they could identify specific advertisers associated with it. We expected that the less people fit the mold of the multi-tasker, the more they would recall, but that's not what we found.

Overall, 46% of survey takers were able to identify between one and three advertisers. Surprisingly, four screened respondents (TV, computer, smartphone and tablet) were more likely (53%) than those with only two screens (42%). Again, younger tablet owners did even better...61% could recall at least one advertiser.

Of course, this doesn't capture some very important pieces of information; we don't know anything about messaging recall or sentiment. You can be sure that studies will fill in these gaps.

Does the type of content (TV program) correlate with multi-screen behaviors?

Television programs aren't all the same, even if it feels that way when you've got a remote in your hand. Respondents were asked to identify their preferred program types (procedurals, sports, reality, etc.) and given three randomly chosen questions about their behaviors from a total of six possible questions (to avoid overload).

Three of the behaviors were "commercial" - related to online shopping, product searches, etc., while the others related to general online surfing and searching for media-related information.

Findings are broken down in detail within the report but one of the highlights was discovering that independent drama (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, etc.) is a hotbed for both commerce and non-commerce related second screen behaviors.

People are somewhat more likely to shop for products they've seen during the program (show + commercials) and to do things like connect on social networks, than during any other program type. At the other end of the spectrum are procedural dramas.

Where are we headed?

Connected TV is already here, but few people have bought them so far, and those that have often aren't using them to their full potential.

We asked respondents to describe television of the future and the televisions of the future, and to gauge the impact of these expected changes. At the top of the list is the ability to watch anything, anywhere, anywhen. Not surprising and unlikely to be fulfilled any time soon, because of the basic business models of the primary players.

The second highest priority is for a television that listens and more importantly, does what we tell it. Voice recognition scored well, as people acknowledge that between multiple remotes, hundreds of channels and piles of accessories, it can be complicated to find or record the content we want. 

Other top priorities center around the multi-screen experience. People expect to be able to watch programming on any device, and then move it simply from one device to another as they travel.

Naturally, we gravitate to the best available device, but often that is the most available device. Watching a film on a smartphone is sub-optimal, unless you're on a subway, in which case it's sublime.

Other Findings

The Multi-Screen Marketer looks at a number of other topics including how social is really a private activity, how multi-screeners use online information during the purchase process and how TV viewing is shared among devices.

Thanks to the sponsorship of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the report is available to all Econsultancy members, bronze and higher.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

J.C. Penney shows the danger of the discount

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 18:11

Before Ron Johnson joined department store giant J.C. Penney as CEO in 2011, he was the SVP of Retail Operations at Apple Inc., where he was responsible for developing the Apple Store and its Genius Bar.

Apple's retail strategy was a major contributor to Appl'e's mind-bending success over the past decade, and for his seven-plus years of work, Johnson was handsomly rewarded.

Needless to say, given Johnson's accomplishments at Apple, J.C. Penney shareholders had high hopes for what he might do for the century-old retailer.

Earlier this year, Johnson unveiled his bold vision: radically alter J.C. Penney's pricing strategy.

Instead of using coupons and discounts, something the department store had done extensively for years, J.C. Penney would offer "Every Day", "Monthly Value" and "Best Price" prices on its merchandise. And instead of selling items for $x.99, it would use round numbers.

At the time, it was clear that Johnson was taking some cues from Apple. Make things simple, and the market will reward you. What wasn't clear was whether or not Johnson's strategy would work. Some liked it, while others suggested it could be disastrous.

Unfortunately for J.C Penney and its shareholders, the new approach isn't producing the expected result. Last Wednesday, the company reported its earnings for Q1 2012 and the numbers were ugly. Same-store sales dropped nearly 19%. Online sales plummeted 28%. All told, J.C. Penney reported a net loss of $163 million, or 75 cents per share; analysts had expected a net loss of just 8 cents per share.

Not surprisingly, the results have sent J.C. Penney shares reeling. They're down more than 20% in the past week, and the company has suspended its dividend to save cash. And it appears things might get worse as reports say that the retailer is looking to wholesalers for steep discounts.

The cause of J.C. Penney's disastrous quarter isn't hard to identify: shoppers aren't liking its new pricing. As C. Britt Beemer, chairman of consumer research firm America's Research Group, told the AP, "Consumers want deals, and they're willing to wait for them...When you train customers to shop at big discounts, that customer is not going to change".

In other words, J.C. Penney might be offering merchandise to customers at great prices, but they simply won't recognize that they're getting a good deal because, for better or worse, there's no, well, "deal." The result: they don't buy.

For his part, Johnson believes he made the right move, and is confident that in time, J.C. Penney customers (or, more accurately, former customers) will come to their senses. Clearly, Wall Street's reaction to the early results indicate that investors aren't so sure about that.

There's a timely lesson here for companies using the internet to acquire new customers or reward existing customers. Whether you're promoting a daily deal on Groupon or offering a coupon for a Facebook 'Like', discounts usually carry a cost. When customers come to expect those discounts, the cost is easy to significantly underestimate.

This, of course, doesn't mean that all discounting is bad. Coupons and deals are valuable tools when applied appropriately. But when a brand becomes known for its discounts, as was the case with J.C. Penney, it can be very, very painful to separate The Brand from The Deal.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Facebook-Aktie ist für Muppets: Finger weg!

Carta - Do, 05/17/2012 - 18:03

Am Freitag ist es soweit: Die Aktien von Facebook werden an der New Yorker Nasdaq erstmals gehandelt. Die spannende Frage ist: Wie wird der Markt Facebook bewerten? Und: Soll man den Titel kaufen?

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Urheberrecht: Verwirrung wegen Offener Briefe

Carta - Do, 05/17/2012 - 17:45

In der Urheberrechtsdebatte sind gerade Offene Briefe en vogue. Mit unterschiedlichen Anliegen, aber ähnlichen Titeln sorgen sie für Irritationen: Wer will denn nun was?

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Kategorien: Carta

Because one size doesn't fit all: A Redken case study

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 16:29

At OMMA’s one-day summit for mobile marketing, Sarah Liang Kress, director of interactive marketing for L’Oreal USA, had the chutzpah to tell the crowd:

Technology, for us, comes very much last. It’s not about the shiny object. We look at the audience, and we look at our objectives and then come up with the right solution and the right execution.

She said this as a keynote speaker for the event, which took place on Monday as part of Internet Week NY, and anyone doubting Kress’s claim had only to follow the tidy case study she presented to know she meant business.  

So, if L’Oreal is downplaying technology, what’s fueling the global company’s mobile marketing?

The purchaser reigns supreme

For Redken, a hair-care brand and L’Oreal subsidiary, the purchaser rules the day. The company demonstrated its commitment by funneling funds toward a third-party research effort last May before it embarked on a large mobile initiative.

It was a key decision that helped the company better understand its industry; for instance, Redken learned that 16% of the hair-care sector uses iPads and tablets, with the former predominating. Of that percentage, 44% skewed towards a younger age bracket. 

The company also learned that 63% of hair-care professionals owned smartphones, a finding that had Kress skeptical. Hairstylists have “always been late adopters,” she said. “They don’t sit at a computer. They’re never online.” Not so the modern stylist.

The findings prompted the company to design mobile strategies unique to its three target groups:

1. Cosmetology students,
2. Hairdressers.
3. Consumers.

However, this still allowed it to apply an overall strategy to make the most of Redken’s existing network and existing purchaser behaviors. Next the company identified business objectives for each group because, like its mobile strategies, no one objective unified all.

Approach to students

For its student target group, education was Redken’s goal. The company used its nationwide network of franchise schools, and because it had learned that iPads predominated among that group, created an educational site designed especially for that device.

Emphasizing responsive design in its approach and understanding that visual learners compose its audience, Redken produced 100+ videos for the site and partnered with YouTube to stream the videos in a cost-effective manner. 

The results?

The company has saved on textbooks it formerly published for its schools. Redken has also saved on time and labor because it finds it easier to update the site than to revise textbooks.

Plus, applications to its schools are up, and the company can now capture student data in a way not available to it in the past.

Approach to stylists

Although stylists are now online more often, they’re still on their feet during most of the workday. That understanding pushed Redken to focus their attention on apps informed by stylists’ habits and what actually takes place in a salon.

Following the customer journey, for example, a stylist’s client would first decide on a color shade. Hair swatches are typically used during this step, but Redken created an app that displays different hair colors:

Most people follow routine and gravitate toward the same 10-15 shades, but Redken wanted to expand that selection to include its underperforming products so it began integrating those products into the formulas for the dyes that stylists would have to mix.

Finally, its app incorporated a look-book feature that allows stylists to capture cuts and dyes they’ve done in the past to not only show off their work, but also to give clients options.

Throughout the mobile push, the company was focused on frequency or how many times their app was used, not how many times it was downloaded. “We didn’t want to just have a download party,” said Kress.

 

The results?

Redken saw a 13% increase in the usage of its underperforming products, as well as an 18% jump in the sales of new products. (The app gave the company another forum in which it could showcase new products, Kress said.)

It also saved costs because the company no longer had to print books that featured its hair-color formulas.

Approach to consumers

Here Kress was adamant about Redken’s attitude toward the wide swath of consumers it targets (women age 18 and older): “We are not ecommerce,” she said. “We believe in the hair stylist and the hair professional, so it’s really about driving consumers to the salons and services to buy our product”.

To that end, the company had to make a choice: Did it want to focus its attention on a mobile website or an app to get consumers to salons?

Redken chose the former, with Kress supporting Redken’s decision by leaning heavily on the recent finding that more Facebook traffic arrives via the mobile site than through the company’s app.

She explained how Redken partnered with Google for paid search and SEO, which yielded the perhaps unsurprising finding that Saturday is the most popular day for mobile traffic seeking salons.

Other results?

The company learned that 18% of traffic to Redken.com is via a mobile device. There’s also been a 22% rise in visitors using the company’s salon-locator feature.

Conclusion

1. Know your audience. Conduct thorough research, said Kress. While ComScore data is valuable, you shouldn’t rely on it alone.

2. Understand the technology but don’t get caught up in it. The hype around Pinterest is exciting and important to follow, she said, but marketers should be more cautious in their approaches.

3. Evolve. Of all the platforms, Kress believes mobile changes the fastest, and marketers should be flexible about their strategies and workflow.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Yahoo's ten biggest mistakes

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 14:48

The resignation/termination of now-formerly new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson amid a resume scandal was an embarrassing moment for the once-great internet giant.

For most companies, such a collosal blunder would represent a faux pas of the highest order, but that's not the case for Yahoo, it's just one more in a long line of mistakes. 

Here are the ten biggest mistakes the company has made...

Not buying or licensing Google's technology in 1998

In 1998, Google's two young co-founders approached Yahoo when they were making the rounds for backing in Silicon Valley.

According to a book written by John Battelle, that opened the door to an investment, licensing deal or an outright acquisition of the duo's technology. But Yahoo (and other major players) weren't interested.

Turning to Google for search results in 2000

Two years later, at the height of the first .com boom, Yahoo saw that search was becoming far more important than it had anticipated and it looked to third parties for search technology while it worked on its own.

One of those third parties was upstart Google, which it struck a deal with to power search on yahoo.com. That deal, of course, was far more favorable to Google than any deal would have been in 1998.

Paying billions for Broadcast.com in 1999

While Yahoo's 1999 acquisition of Broadcast.com for $5.7bn didn't kill Yahoo, it is arguably one of the worst-timed acquisitions in tech M&A history, and one has to wonder how the ill-fated acquisition impacted Yahoo in subsequent years.

Not buying Google in 2002.

According to reports, Yahoo had the opportunity to purchase Google for $5bn in 2002. Although that price was high for Yahoo in relation to its own value at the time, it would prove to be the last chance Yahoo would have to acquire Google.

It didn't, and the rest is history.

Failing to take full advantage of its Overture acquisition

Google AdWords may be the king of pay-per-click advertising, but the model was pioneered by Overture, a company Yahoo acquired in 2003 for $1.4bn.

As part of a patent lawsuit settlement, Google obtained a perpetual license to a key Overture patent that would spell trouble for AdWords. The price: 2.2m shares of Google stock.

While there were questions about the legitimacy of Overture's patent, and some suggested it would be found to be invalid, in retrospect, Google got a bargain of a settlement.

Hiring Terry Semel as CEO

Some consider Yahoo's second CEO, Terry Semel, the worst tech CEO in history.

While that may not be entirely fair, one thing is hard to dispute about Semel's reign at Yahoo: with his total compensation pegged at some $500m or more over his tenure, he has done far better than the company he ran.

Botching the Flickr and Delicious acquisitions

While there's no denying that Web 2.0 upstarts Flickr and Delicious wouldn't have saved Yahoo, the company's failure to manage the assets it purchased, particularly given its built-in audience, represented another huge missed opportunity that could have helped Yahoo find its way on the modern internet.

This excellent article from gizmodo looks more deeply into this. The restrictions on Flickr's mobile development is a particular missed opportunity, opening the door for the likes of Instagram. 

Not buying Facebook

If watching as its Flickr and del.icio.us acquisitions stagnated or went south wasn't bad enough, Yahoo's failed attempt at acquiring the social networking behemoth adds insult to injury.

 

As the story goes, Yahoo was nearly able to acquire the popular social network in 2006 for $1bn but due to a faltering stock price, Yahoo lowered its offer to $850m, allowing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to walk away from the deal.

This Friday, Zuckerberg and company will take 900m-plus user strong Facebook public at a valuation exceeding $100bn.

Rejecting Microsoft's buyout offer

Yahoo has made plenty of bad moves in acquiring (or not acquiring) other companies, but its crowning failure was its handling of its own potential sale.

In 2008, the Redmond software giant, eager to compete with Google, was willing to pay $44bn for Yahoo, but thanks to what many considered gross incompetence, Yahoo's board rejected the offer.

Today, Yahoo's market cap sits at just below $19bn.

Partnering with Microsoft

Months after having failed to make it to the altar with Microsoft, the worst financial crisis in decades hit. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, must have breathed a sigh of relief and he capitalized on his luck by inking a partnership that gave him most of what he wanted without having to buy Yahoo.

 

While this deal may have been a convenient way to turn back the hands of time for Yahoo, at least partially, it was a far better deal for Microsoft, and didn't help Yahoo answer any of the fundamental questions crucial to its future.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Twitter's three rules for mobile success

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 13:47

Mobile services need to get better at “filling the gaps” in our daily lives, Twitter’s Bruce Daisley said at an IAB conference today.

In a talk about “Mobile and Social”, Daisley said that in order to succeed businesses need to follow three rules.

They must be:

• Authentically mobile.
• Simple to understand.
• Easy to action.

By adhering to these rules, services cater to the consumer need for mobile activities that fill the “interstices” in our days.

Some of the businesses doing best in mobile are those that started off filling the gaps – YouTube, Facebook, Path and also Twitter.

Daisley said businesses need to seize the opportunity in the interstices and “think about how you can harness the gap”.

He highlighted Angry Birds - which recently achieved 1bn downloads - as a service that succeeded by being inherently mobile. Twitter also published impressive mobile stats this week – 80% of its 10m active UK users access their account through mobile.

The focus on 140 characters also fits the second rule of being simple to understand. Daisley said the average email takes two days to be opened, whereas SMS messages are opened in four minutes.

While email used to be much quicker than old ‘snail mail’, you’re now better off posting a letter than sending someone an email. Marketers need to take this into account with mobile marketing, as short interactions are more effective. People look at their phones 150 times a day - once every 6.5 minutes. It’s about fast, easy interactions.

Daisley said this focus on short engagement had inspired Twitter’s ad strategy.

Promoted Tweets achieve engagement levels of 1%-3%, compared to an industry average 0.05% CTR for display ads. He highlighted a Promoted Tweet campaign run by Lynx, which achieved engagement levels of 6%.

However it should be noted that an engagement on Twitter refers to when someone “retweets, replies to, clicks or favourites your Promoted Tweet.” Therefore, there are more opportunities for engagement than on a simple CTR measurement.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Handling online returns: 14 best practice tips

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 13:13

Returns are an issue for every retailer, and some sectors more than others. They could be viewed as bothersome, but the returns process does offer an opportunity to showcase your excellent customer service and can have a positive impact of future retention rates, if done well. 

There is much you can do to reduce returns rates, providing better imagery and information on product pages, but even the best site will experience returns. 

So then it comes down to how you handle the returns process, and the better you handle this, the better your retention rates. 

Here are 14 tips to help you to avoid annoying your customers...

Make your returns policy easy to understand

Whether they are checking before purchase, or finding out how to return an item they've just received, the policy should be clear and easy to understand. 

Compare and contrast these two returns pages. The first, from Sports Direct, seems designed to deter returns and contains lots of scary language about legal obligations:

Lovehoney, on the other hand, explains its policy clearly:

Make your returns policy easy to see

The returns policy is often a link in the footer, which is fine to a certain extent as people will expect to see it there. 

However, the returns policy can influence a purchase decision, particularly in cases where customers aren't 100% certain about a product. 

Therefore, a prominent link to the returns policy on product pages can offer customers reassurance that they can return an item easily if they find it's not right for them, and push them towards the purchase. 

 

Don't charge for returns

Of course, there are costs involved if you allow free returns, but these costs need to be weighed against the extra conversions it brings, and the potential boost to retention rates. 

I bought a £40 lampshade from one retailer a year ago, and had to pay a hefty £10 return fee when I found it didn't fit. I appreciate the retailer has costs to cover, but this charge put me off looking for another on that site, and would make me think twice about ordering from them again. 

Also, as Zappos has found, people who regularly return items can be some of your best customers. It says that clients buying its most expensive shoes have a 50% return rate. 

According to Craig Adkins of Zappos:

Our best customers have the highest returns rates,but they are also the ones that spend the most money with us and are our most profitable customers. Zappos' modus operandi is not to give its purchasers the cheapest footwear on the block, but to give them the best service: hence, a 365-day returns policy, and free two-way shipping.

Include clear returns instructions in packaging

This is about not annoying customers too much. I get the sense with some retailers that they think making returns harder will reduce overall rates, and help increase profits. 

If this is the case, it's short-sighted thinking. It simply means that customers will get so annoyed that they are unlikely to shop with you again. Even worse, they may tell their friends about it, online and offline. 

Make it easy for customers. Provide clear instructions and even include a returns envelope to make sure no mistakes are made with the address. 

If you offer free returns, shout about it

Offering free returns is great, but you should, as with free delivery, shout about it so that customers know about this when they buy:

Help shoppers with great product images and video

One reason for returned goods is that customers haven't been able to get a decent idea of the product before they place the order. Thus, when it arrives, and isn't as expected, it has to go back. 

Retailers can address this issue on product pages, by ensuring that customers get as much visual information as possible. 

Simply Group found that using 360 views and instructional videos of its ski products not only increased conversions, but also reduced returns rates, as customers were able to see exactly how each product worked. 

Provide detailed product information

As above, if customers are armed with all the information they need, they are less likely to return items. So, for items like computers, sites should be clear about the specs, as well as the accessories and leads which are required. 

Combining this detail with excellent imagery and video can reduce the need for returns. 

User reviews

Of course, user reviews are great for boosting sales, but they can also help to reduce returns rates. 

They can allow customers to avoid potential issues with products, or to find the product that is best suited to its intended use. 

Kiddicare is a great example of this. It gets plenty of detail from it user reviews, such as pros and cons, the type of person using it, and best uses. 

Here, in a search for car seats for babies, customers can use feedback to find the best car seat for newborns, for everyday use, for grandparents, and so on: 

Fitting tools and virtual wardrobes 

This is something that has been adopted by fashion sites, as they attempt to get around the fact that customers cannot try before they buy. 

One such example, the Shoefitr app, helped an online footwear retailer to reduce fit-related returns by 23%. Others are variable in quality, but anything which can help customers to find the right fit, or to find outfits that match has the potential to reduce returns. 

It's not just fashion either, MyDeco's 3D room planner tool helps shoppers to try out room looks before buying furniture: 

Offer free home trials

Glasses Direct offers shoppers the option of a free home trial. Customers can select up to four pairs of glasses and try them on at home before making a selection. 

This neatly gets around one of the major problems of buying glasses online, and the fact that Glasses Direct trusts the customer enough to send frames out creates a great first impression. 

Don't quibble over returns

Customers will return items for spurious reasons, or will call something a fault when in fact they have broken it. 

If a particular customer does this again and again, this can be dealt with on an individual basis, but it's best not to be too strict when customers are returning items. 

If retailers do drag their heels on returns, it can be infuriating. I once returned a stairgate which didn't fit to Toys R Us. The member of staff initially refused to accept the return since the box had been opened, and then begrudgingly offered a refund of one third of its value. 

As a result, none of my kids' Christmas and birthday presents are bought in that store, and the company has lost sales far greater than the value of that item. 

Again, Lovehoney is a great example of this. All manner of returned items, which may or may not have been used, are refunded without question. Many have to be thrown away, for obvious reasons. 

It takes the view, that for long term customer retention, it's better not to argue with customers over this. 

Ask for feedback when customers return products

This is simple, but makes sense. A quick question or two on the return slip can help retailers to uncover problems or trends in returns and enable them to address these issues.  

Provide multichannel returns

If you're a multichannel retailer, allowing people to return items bought online to local stores is a must. 

This is often due to the separation of web and offline channels, and there are organisational issues which many brands are now dealing with. 

I've had this experience in the past with Orange, as my father was unable to return a faulty phone ordered online to his local store. 

It seems that, while competitors like O2 allow multichannel returns, Orange has yet to change this policy, instead insisting that returns requests are routed through its telesales team. This is a mistake in my book. 

For the brand refusing the return, it's a missed opportunity to educate customers about a complex product, or to upsell or cross-sell while the customer is in the store. 

Snow Valley's 2011 Online Returns Report found that just half of the mulitchannel retailers it studied allowed in store returns for online purchases. 

Customers appreciate the flexibility and convenience of multichannel returns, and will be far more likely to shop with such a retailer in future. 

Keep customers informed

Let them know when you've received the returned item, and when the refund is being processed. 

This will save customers from chasing this information through your customer services team, and they will appreciate the effort. 

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Google: a third of people use the mobile web every day

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 12:16

Almost two-thirds of UK smartphone owners (59%) access the mobile internet everyday, according to stats published on Google’s 'Our Mobile Planet' site.

With smartphone penetration now at 51%, this equates to more than a third of the total UK population using the mobile web on a daily basis.

Google’s industry leader for technology and hardware Simon Morgan used a speech at IAB Mobile Engage to highlight statistics that show the growing importance of mobile for marketing.

He said that:

• Mobile search has grown 500% in the past two years.
• 28% of smartphone owners check their phone before they get out of bed.
• YouTube mobile traffic tripled in 2011 and it now gets 600m views on mobile a day – equating to 10% of overall traffic.
• 75% of these users say that mobile is their principle way of accessing YouTube, and three hours of video is uploaded to the site using mobile every minute.
• 85% of UK mobile users seek local information on their smartphone, and 81% take action using the local content.

Morgan said that the rise of mobile was inevitably having an effect on retailers, with 17% of UK shoppers changing a purchase decision in-store after using a mobile.

He highlighted Oasis and Debenhams as two retailers who had embraced mobile to improve the customer experience. Realising that people hate queuing, Oasis installed iPads in their stores to allow customers to order products without waiting in line for the checkout. As a result they now see 20% of orders coming through the devices.

Similarly, Debenhams used an AR mobile app to allow customers to try on clothes virtually before they buy. Morgan said that Google was trying to become a “mobile first” company and said that marketers needed to adopt different marketing stategies for desktop and mobile.

He also urged the audience to consider how their organisations can adapt to mobile:

Find someone in your organisation to pull together a cross-functional team that can work together to produce a mobile strategy.

You can find more fact and figures about mobile commerce in Econsultancy’s UK Mobile Statistics report.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

How will the new “cookie” tracking regulations affect email?

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 11:47

The new e-Privacy Directive which came into force last May has spurred some exciting dialogue in the online marketing world. The Directive has been called many things (some not so polite) but one of the few certainties about it, is its confusing and unclear language. 

The ICO, in an attempt to turn it into something people can work with, has produced a number of guidance documents to help online marketers. This has mostly (and unsurprisingly) been written with websites in mind, although it has become clear that the Directive could affect other types of online activity as well.

Email marketing is one of those “other types” and plays a key part in the marketing efforts of most online marketers and e-commerce businesses. The questions most online marketers are now asking; how will email be affected and how can we work towards complying with the regulations? 

The e-Privacy Directive

Before I go any further, I must point out that the Directive covers more tracking than just cookies. In fact, it includes most types of tracking that track the individual at a personal level.

The regulations (and the need for them) show marketers that there is a perceived lack of transparency and trust surrounding tracking used on the internet and what data is used for. It is this lack of transparency that needs to be addressed, regardless of the technology used to track the individual. 

Modern internet marketing can be a sophisticated beast, focused on delivering the most relevant content and best experience for the user. The problem is, the majority of the general public may not realise this, in fact some might view marketing tracking as some sort of dangerous spy software, poised to sell you something, when you are least expecting it.

And even if they don’t see the way they are tracked as particularly intrusive, do they understand how tracking is benefiting them and helping to improve their experience on the web?

Information is the key. The clearer you are about how you plan to use data and the more accessible you make this information; the easier it will be to educate the internet user, and the more “informed consent” could be implied.

What about email?

For almost as long as email marketing has been around, marketers have been tracking the opens and clicks of the campaign recipients.

They have also more recently been using post click tracking to inform the success of the campaign, either using third party solutions such as Google Analytics or solutions served directly from the website domain. Because of this, some of the tracking used in email marketing may be affected by the directive.    

That said, email is different from web visits, as the recipient has requested the email communication from the marketer. However, this “difference” does not exclude email tracking from the regulations, and give the marketer “carte blanche” to use the data for all forms of use.

It’s fairly safe to say that most people, who sign up for marketing emails, will have some expectation that what they open or click will be tracked by the organisation sending them.

It would also be safe to say that they would expect you to be doing this to track campaign performance, as well as to ensure the campaign delivery.  This can all be taken as a given, as long as the information required by the recipient, is readily accessible from the data collection point, and written in a clear manner.

It also follows that if the use to which the tracking and data is being put goes beyond that which the recipient is likely to expect or understand, a higher level of information and consent would be required.

This is not quite as onerous as it sounds. As email marketers we always obtain consent before we send marketing emails anyway. The initial sign up process is an ideal place to engage with the potential recipient and offer information on data use and tracking.

The DMA, in conjunction with the IAB, have recently issued guidance that sets out a number of opportunities to comply with the regulations.

Various studies recently indicated a clear link to the privacy policy and transparent disclosure actually makes people feel better about signing up for marketing emails. So, for the email marketer, the new regulations should be seen as another opportunity to build trust with customers, not a barrier to business.

For consumers there has always been a love/hate relationship with direct marketing. When we get it right, and deliver relevant and timely material, they love us; when we spam, they don’t.

It’s up to the marketers now to inform their customers about the efforts they go to deliver more of what the customer wants, and less of what they don’t.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Pinterest joins the billion dollar club with $100m funding from Rakuten

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 11:37

A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? A billion dollars.

The words made famous by the movie that dramatized Facebook's beginnings may soon be passé in Silicon Valley, as investors clamouring to get in on funding rounds for the hottest tech startups seem increasingly willing to put their cash in at billion-dollar valuations.

Crazy? Perhaps, but Facebook's $1bn Instagram acquisition shows that big valuations don't exclude companies from the startup lottery, at least for the time being.

The latest entrant to the billion dollar club will be Pinterest, thanks to a $100m funding round led by Rakuten. The funding round puts a $1.5bn valuation on Pinterest. 

Rakuten Ichiba is the largest e-commerce site in Japan and among the world's largest by sales. The compaby has recently acquired Buy.com in the US, Priceminister in France, as well as Play.com.

According to Raukten CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani:

While some may see e-commerce as a straightforward vending machine-like experience, we believe it is a living process where both retailers and consumers can communicate, discover, and curate to make the experience more entertaining.

We see tremendous synergies between Pinterest’s vision and Rakuten’s model for e-commerce. Rakuten looks forward to introducing Pinterest to the Japanese market as well as other markets around the world.

Although Pinterest is one of the hottest new social media players to emerge in recent years, and is, according to Experian, the third largest social network in the United States, some will naturally point to a $1bn valuation for Pinterest as further evidence that we're in the midst of a huge bubble.

Yes, such a valuation would appear to be frothy, but if there's one hot startup that everyone agrees has the potential to develop a solid revenue model, it just might be Pinterest.

Many of the images that Pinterest's users are pinterested in are products, and the company has built an audience with a very appealing demographic. For online retailers, that's apparently translating into more than just potential. According to a recent report, Pinterest revenue per first click beats Facebook and Twitter by 27% and 400%, respectively, making Pinterest a potential game-changer for social commerce.

The big question for Pinterest is how well it can execute a monetization strategy. The company must take care in adding commercial aspects to the service, lest it upset users. And the social media darling will want to ensure that the backing doesn't limit its potential to work directly with all retailers.

If it can do all this, the future would appear to be bright for Pinterest. Whether the company's possible trajectory justifies a $1bn-plus valuation is another matter altogether but for the Pinterest team, taking advantage of the current market conditions to obtain such a valuation is probably pretty cool.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Performance Marketing Awards: the winners

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 11:24

On Tuesday night, the sixth annual Performance Marketing Awards was held in London, attended by more than 800 people and judged by Econsultancy Research Director Linus Gregoriadis, among others. 

The event was previously known as the a4u Awards, but the name was changed to broaden the remit of the awards, allowing entrants from the various sub-channels of performance marketing, including social, mobile, email, search and display, not just just the affiliate sector.

One of the new categories was Best Consumer Targeting, which was won by Criteo for the way it advertised relevant vacancies for jobseekers once they’d left Totaljobs.

Surprise of the night went to TradeDoubler, which forced Affiliate Window to relinquish its grip on the Publishers' Choice of Network award. Until this year's awards, Affiliate Window had won in this category for five years in a row. 

According to the awards' founder Matthew Wood: 

Stepping up from last year, the winners demonstrated a significant focus on greater collaboration, multi-channel exposure and data utilisation. Enabling all parties to contribute towards effective and smart consumer influence and loyalty.

You can view the full list of winners and commended entries here. 

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Is Google selling leads in the UK?

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 11:04

Every so often a simple Google search reveals a hint at a new Google initiative.

In recent months we've seen various different types of ad extension formats and it seems that selling leads rather than clicks could be the next big push in Google's continuing search for revenue streams away from the simple click.

Peter Bell from Fuse Lead Marketing (@fuselead) recently alerted me to an interesting discovery which seems to have appeared over the last few weeks in the UK.

If you are signed into one of Google’s services (LeadPoint uses Google for email) you might stumble across a new type of ad extension in the top ranked ads – namely a way for the advertiser to capture your contact information and permission to contact you without clicking through.

Peter Bell from Fuse Lead Marketing (@fuselead) recently alerted me to an interesting discovery which seems to have appeared over the last few weeks in the UK.

A search for “voucher codes” presents a paid ad for a well known UK voucher code company and below the ad the consumer is presented with a pre-filled email data capture field with an accompanying “Get Offers” button.

Yes, that’s right the email field is pre-filled so no extra heavy lifting for the casual browser that can’t quite manage to find the energy to click through onto the site to look for any specific offers!

Once you hit the “Get offers” button you then see a simple confirmation appear in the same place on the ad.

 

For anybody that might be concerned about privacy and how your data might be used by an advertiser or Google themselves then don’t worry because Google of course has this covered off with a handy “privacy link” in the ad.

When clicked a pop up box appears helpfully informing the cautious form filler that “When you submit this form, your email address will be sent to the advertiser”. Phew, thanks Google!

If this is something that is going to be rolled out across the UK it raises some very interesting questions.

Is Google really planning to charge per lead for these enquiries? If so, is it really sacrificing clicks for leads? How much are leads likely to cost? Will more data fields be captured in the future? How do these site extensions affect click through rates? Is the consumer contact opt-in for the advertiser only or for Google as well?

There are also more prosaic lead gen specific questions such as is there any validation on the leads? Do lead buyers pay for all leads or just valid ones? Are the leads time-stamped and sent to the advertiser in real-time (as recommended by IAB best practice) or are they batched up and sent sporadically?

Whatever the answers to these questions, it seems like yet more evidence that Google are getting very serious about online lead generation. As they increasingly go head-to-head with Facebook for precious advertising dollars, moving down the funnel from clicks to leads might help to consolidate their place as the real online advertising super power.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Q&A: Boohoo's Chris Bale on digital marketing for fashion retail

eConsultancy - Do, 05/17/2012 - 10:24

In the early days of e-commerce people assumed that consumers wouldn't want to buy clothes online.

Along with big ticket items like beds and furniture it was thought that customers wanted to be able to go into a store and see the products first hand.

That assumption, while understandable, has proven to be totally incorrect and online fashion retailers are flourishing - but it is still a difficult business model to get right.

Boohoo.com has achieved success by selling affordable women's fashion while also providing customers with style and fashion content.

I sat down with COO Chris Bale at the E-commerce Futures Conference to find out what digital marketing tactics Boohoo uses to promote the brand and set itself apart from the competition...

What is different about your business model that has allowed you to succeed where others have failed?

It’s a combination of three things really. Boohoo.com was established on an existing wholesale business, so we had a solid supply chain in place. 

Part of the success has been down to the fact that we are still able to buy in relatively low volumes with very short lead times of about four to six weeks from source to live on the site.

The second factor has been the way in which we bought media to promote the brand. We were founded when traditional above the line media was struggling to get billboards filled, so we were able to grab some good opportunities to buy ad space above the line.

And I think the third aspect is a focus on styling and trend information. Because we sell our own brand, we can’t use the collateral of a better-known brand to do some of that work for us so we’ve had to design the product in and around trends.

We spend a huge amount of time creating editorial and engaging pieces on the site to get that across.

Which digital marketing channels do you see as being most important for your particular industry?

For us, I think PPC still plays an important part and affiliates is still a huge part of the business, but the nature of the relationship with affiliates has changed.

When you want to establish yourself within a market, the types of affiliates who are very fashionable within a market are hugely important.

However, your dependence on them wains over time as your own brand gains recognition.

Do you run blogger outreach or community management programmes?

We probably hold three or four blogging events each year. We bring them in and give sneak peaks and previews of where we’re going with the ranges.

So, where we might be doing a complete change for our seasonal collections we’ll always engage with the blogging community.

The original content you have on your site must be good for search rankings. How much is the content about improving the brand versus the SEO benefits?

To be honest, we concentrate on the content being right first and then we build the SEO strategy around it. There are obviously other parts to the SEO strategy, such as link building, etc.

It’s more about being customer-centric, and we would never sacrifice customer experience to improve rankings.

In terms of customer experience, what tactics do you use to engage shoppers on the landing page and make sure they don’t bounce off?

Perhaps unlike our competitors, we do spend an awful lot of time and space on splash images. Because again, I think when you’re not a clothing brand with instant recognition, like a Levis for example, we rely very heavily on selling desire, and we do that by using emotive splash images.

So, rather than being seduced by including hero products or offers that naturally create journeys through the site, we prefer to have a really strong image, but also we make it easy for people to locate and browse the editorial content.

Shopping online these days is as much about entertainment as it is something that’s practical and required. It’s something that people do in their downtime.

We’re not worried about the site being almost magazine-like in its structure.

If people do bounce off the site, how much re-targeting do you do to encourage people to come back and complete the purchase?

We do it, but it’s not our favourite form of marketing.

Display re-targeting has a place, because there’s so many websites you can go to today that you can easily lose track of which ones you have seen, so a gentle reminder is ok. 

I think when it starts to chase you round the internet and gets a little bit spooky, that’s where we draw the line. I would say we use it sparingly, and we’re always careful that we don’t re-target ads for a product that has then gone out of stock in the customer’s size.

We spend a great deal of time making sure that doesn’t happen as it just creates disappointment.

Abandoned basket re-targeting is another area we are sceptical about, such as begging the question: “Are you sure?”, because I’m pretty sure that there is always a valid reason for abandoning the basket in the first place.

Do you require customers to register or create an account before they can checkout?

Up until last week we didn’t, we allowed guest registration instead, but the problem with guest registration is that you don’t have an identity if you decide to return a product.

That means you can’t do an online return, and the great thing about online returns is that it expedites the whole process.

So, when it arrives back in the warehouse we already know there’s an inbound product and can speed the whole thing through and turn the refund around quicker.

Guest registration means there’s a lot more investigation to do to process a refund so when we looked at it, we had to decide what we were gaining by giving our customers anonymity and allowing them to shop without feeling we were tracking them.

When you look at it, most of our competitors don’t offer guest registration and the whole returns process was upsetting customers so it was something we had to address.

So we decided to make everyone register.

How important are customer reviews and do you have any ways of encouraging them on your site?

Absolutely. We have probably spent about 18 months building up a good customer review database. Now we want to take it a few steps further, as we like our customers to tell their friends about us because the most influential people are your peers.

Every email we send out requesting a customer review offers a discount if they complete the feedback form, and every so often we select one review and offer that customer a credit to go shopping on the site.

We also want to move towards video reviews, which we’ll place halfway between the haulers you see on YouTube and a simple straightforward textual review.

So it improves engagement as people get to appear on the site, but it also validates the whole process as you can see the customer endorsing the product.

At the moment you don’t have a mobile site. Is that something you’re looking to address?

We’ve actually decided to split our mobile strategy into three pieces, but we’ve been holding back to make sure we get it right and at the moment our mobile site is the main priority.

We didn’t want to go down the scraper site, which is the nice easy way to get your site converted, but it causes issues with the product catalogue and merchandising, which is hugely important to us.

The second part of our strategy will be our app. It won’t be about buying products, it is a magazine app that offers style and fashion information.

We don’t see any value in simply creating a shopping app when you can cater to that need with your mobile site.

And the third solution will be to put a new app out there every few months that is just for fun.

So it could be that you go to a festival and download a boohoo app that allows you to win a pair of wellies at the event.

It’s a bit of fun for a few weeks, but it’s also a simple marketing device that keeps the brand alive and hopefully should drive traffic to the magazine app and the mobile site.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Making tag management work for you: new report & infographic

eConsultancy - Mi, 05/16/2012 - 17:34

The digital world is complicated and website tags sit at the heart of online businesses and marketing. In fact, effectively managing website tags, or tracking pixels, is fundamental to digital marketing. 

In the ROI of Tag Management, a new report released today in partnership with Tealium, we explore the role, challenges and opportunities for technology in handling vendor website tags.

The tracking pixel enables communication between vendors and websites and is key to most digital marketing technologies. Site analytics, optimization and personalization all depend on them, and while these technologies provide valuable data and capabilities, they also create complexity and work for the marketing department.

The ROI of Tag Management Report looks at one of the rare opportunities to increase ROI and simultaneously simplify life for the marketer, while giving them greater control over digital assets.

Tag management systems (TMS) were developed to counter a number of challenges, especially those brought about by the reliance on technology department resources. Survey respondents cited the top issues with manual tagging, including:

• Delays in implementation as the tech department is overworked
• Product and site development is slowed
• Tag implementation is often incomplete
• Tags slow down the website

What are the benefits of managed tag implementation?

The complexity of the digital world is increasing as data-driven tools infiltrate most levels of digital marketing. Tag management gives marketers greater control over the chaos. The respondents to the Tag Management ROI Survey highlighted the benefits of moving from manual to managed implementation:

• Tag management saves money as marketers can swiftly make changes to vital assets without enlisting the help of the IT department. Less people and less time means less cost.
   
• Time to market is dramatically reduced. 70% of tag management system (TMS) users create and modify tags in less than a work day with almost half of them reporting it takes them less than an hour. Compare that to the industry standard of over a week for manual implementation, and you can see how significant a managed system can be.
   
• The marketing department can be more agile which releases the IT/ Tech department for higher level tasks.
   
• Website speed is increased as multiple tags are replaced with the single universal tag of the tag management system.
   
• Privacy tool are easily enabled site-wide which will be key as privacy concerns begin to force marketing technologies to offer "do-not-track" options.

To find out how tag management can benefit the work that you do, download our ROI of Tag Management report, created in association with Tealium. This comprehensive survey will help you better gauge the industry's attitudes around perceived value, critical challenges, important vendor considerations and more.

 

Some of the top findings from the report have been captured in this infographic:

 

 

 

Kategorien: e Consultancy

Facebook: Most Engaging Brands

The Strategy Web - Mi, 05/16/2012 - 17:02

Tweet

On their way to the IPO planned for later this week, some new data released by the social marketing firm SocialBakers might boost the company valuation from Facebook to a new level. A new infographic takes a look at which global brands have the best Facebook presence.

With 901 million registered global Facebook users, the numbers show that only 17% of the Facebook members are based in the US. The impact and opportunity for companies is massive. The five biggest companies generate each more than 26 million fans with Coca-Cola being the winner, calling 42 million fans their territory on Facebook – more than 21%! The runner up are Starbucks that are best in the food retail sector and Converse.

The SocialBakers figures also show the winning countries where global brands are most engaging their audience. Although the U.S. might be ahead of other countries in population penetration with brands like Starbucks, McDonald’s or Xbox. Brazil is the number two with L’Oreal Paris and Trident (Kraft), India number three with Vodafone and Pepsi, and Germany at least number 10 with McDonalds as well.

It was interesting for me to see that the fastest moving global brands are Halls, Axe, and Nokia – brands that have left my scope of attention in the last three years. Now, it would be freaking cool if we knew which ones of the 488 million mobile users are the most active on brand engagement?

Which brands catch your attention most and where are you most active?

©2012 The Strategy Web™. All Rights Reserved.

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Tags:Brand, Facebook, Food, Infographic, Marke, Marketing, Mobile, Starbucks, User
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Kategorien: The Strategy Web

More than a third of Homebase customers research online before going in-store

eConsultancy - Mi, 05/16/2012 - 14:01

More than a third of Homebase customers research online before going to a bricks-and-mortar store, according to the retailer’s head of multichannel.

During a speech at the E-Commerce Futures Conference this morning, Andy McWilliams said it highlights the need for a joined up approach in-store and online.

Even if you think you’re a multichannel retailer, online and offline often act almost independently. You get different offers online vs. offline. They have to be the same, and communication has to be the same.

One of Homebase’s key multichannel tools is reserve and collect, which allows customers to buy online and pick up in-store.

McWilliams said this was essential for destination stores, as consumers expect to know if their chosen product is in stock otherwise they will look for a more convenient place to shop.

It also allows multichannel retailers to stay ahead of pure play e-tailers like Amazon.

The challenge for Amazon is that they don’t have a store network. People often aren’t at home, so home delivery is ok for small things like books but for bigger purchases I want in-store pick up.

McWilliams’ approach to multichannel retailing stems from his experience as a founder of Ocado.

When we built Ocado, one of the key ideas was that every touch point counted – so whether that was with the vans or the call centre or online.

He said that retailers needed to be aware that the old days of simply “shouting at customers” through TV ads and direct mail are gone. Digital has changed the landscape as consumers are now exposed to marketing messages from a number of different touch points, and they expect a consistent experience. 

Supermarkets used to be all about driving customers to the store, then they could ignore us and take our money.We probably still do a bit of shouting at our customers, but we now also have conversations with them using social media.”

He said that while social media can be a retailer’s friend, it also leaves brands exposed and can come back to haunt them.

Customers can get quite noisy and angry. They know where you are and they can find you, so you have to be ready to engage with them in the right way.

Kategorien: e Consultancy

How to be a formidable content curator: a 17-step guide

eConsultancy - Mi, 05/16/2012 - 13:25

Over the past few years I must have heard the phrase ‘everyone is a publisher nowadays’ a thousand times or more. It’s largely accurate, due to the rise of social media, but I think we are mainly ‘curators’, as opposed to ‘publishers’.

Content curation is something that many of us will be familiar with, even if we don’t think of ourselves as curators. We instinctively find and share interesting content with our personal and professional networks. We follow others who share the kind of links that engage and entertain.

Yesterday the clearly charming Adam Vincenzini described my Twitter feed as "all killer and no filler". I know perfectly well that a bunch of my tweets can be filed under ‘utter rubbish’, but I must be doing something right.

As such here are my 17 tips to help you become even better at content curation, with one eye on Twitter, my platform of choice for sharing. 

Set up some feeds

It is a good idea to automate content discovery by plugging feeds into your dashboard of choice, be it Google Reader or some other tool.

All blogs and news sites offer feeds (either full or partial text), but you can be a bit more specific than that as search queries on the likes of Google News and Twitter can also be turned into RSS feeds, for example: ‘content marketing’.

Make the most of email alerts

If you are a heavy user of email then the likes of Google Alerts should come in very handy. Results can be filtered by type, e.g. ‘news’, ‘blogs’, ‘video’, or ‘everything’.

For example, here’s a Google News search for ‘content marketing’.

Get to grips with Twitter Search

Twitter Search is remarkably useful for unearthing great content (and great content curators, for that matter). I use it every day. 

You should also save your regular search queries, using Twitter’s ‘saved searches’ feature. 

Use advanced search queries

When searching it is a good idea to make the most of Twitter’s advanced operators, which allow you to filter out the rubbish.

For example, here’s one of my saved searches for the exact match phrase "love this" and ‘marketing’. 

• Note that I have included ‘http’ to only return tweets that include links. 
• I have also used the minus operator twice, ‘-youtube’ and ‘-RT’, to remove any tweets pointing at YouTube, as well as any retweets.
• See if you can spot which other minus operator we need to add to that query, based on the screenshot below... 

 

Follow the 70/30 rule

There is more to life than talking about yourself. Promotion is not curation. For this reason I don't share all new Econsultancy blog posts on Twitter. 

Todd Defren says it best: “70% of content [should be] curated, 30% branded. Why? Because the rest-of-the-world is at least 70% more interesting than your brand; and, promoting external content builds social capital, makes grateful fans of influencers.”

Smashing Magazine does this brilliantly on Twitter, by pointing to third party content rather than directing all links at its own (excellent) website.

Find the right tools for the job

One of the best tools I’ve discovered recently is Buffer, which allows you to pre-populate your Twitter feed. You can determine your publishing schedule, and there’s a neat bookmarklet for Chrome. It means that you don’t need to share interesting content the very second you’ve finished reading / consuming it.

There’s another fantastic tool out there called ifttt.com, which is well worth checking out if you’re interested in creating a rules-based content curation ‘dashboard’.

Here are a bunch of other Twitter tools which many prove useful. 

Own a niche

Craig Sullivan is a master of this. He shares lots of wonderful posts that will be of interest to e-commerce / user experience professionals.

Don’t be afraid of exploring subjects beyond your niche – a little personality can go a long way.

Read, read, read!

My mantra to all new recruits is that “reading is 20% of the job”. Our own blog and the reports we produce are crammed with the kind of insight and tips that should appeal to anybody interested in digital marketing and e-commerce. There are many thousands of other sources out there too. Expand your mind!

I use the Byline app on my iPhone as a mobile RSS reader. Once synced it can be read offline - perfect for the London Underground. 

Write, write, write!

In school I was absolutely terrible at revision. Teachers would tell me to write things down in order to remember them, sage advice that I totally ignored. However, as somebody who has been a blogger / writer for the past decade, I can confirm that this works!

You can really explore a subject by writing about it. You will discover lots of new sources, tips, techniques, insight and tools along the way. As such I recommend writing to everybody interested in content curation. 

Timing is crucial

This is about the distribution and digestibility of your tweets, and the content you share. 

It is really important to understand that what works at 10.30 on Monday might not be appropriate for 4.30pm on Friday.

Also, with regards to timing, it is essential that you do not overcrowd yourself. Avoid sharing three tweets in quick succession. 

A good curator will leave plenty of space between tweets, and will share the right kind of content at the right times.

Aggregate the good stuff 

Since you have gone to the trouble of finding all of that hooky content, why not create a special home for it?

We’ve talked about the importance of feeds. Consider plugging your own Twitter feed into something like paper.li, or setting up some rules on ifttt.com to populate your very own Tumblr blog. 

Tune in to the right people

You can do this via the RSS feeds I’ve mentioned above, if these folks are blogging, but I’ve found that many experts don’t have the time to blog. But many do have the time to tweet, and the links they share have definitely helped me to wise up in certain areas. Use your network as a filter.

Twitter lists can come in handy for sorting experts by topic or sector.

Mix up your tweets

Let’s keep in mind that Twitter is inherently personal in nature (or at least it should be). If I think I’m following an automated feed then I’ll slowly start to tune out, or maybe unfollow the ‘person’ in question.

One of my best friends, who shall remain nameless, barely uses Twitter other than to push out his own blog posts using Twitterfeed or similar. There’s no real communication or conversation beyond that. I frequently tell him to mix things up with his own brand of observational comedy, and to chip in to discussions. Otherwise he risks losing followers. 

Don't be afraid of the detail

We’ve written about button optimisation on this blog before, but we haven’t written about the psychology of rounded corners vs right angles! I researched this topic and there are a surprising number of in-depth blog posts out there. I’ll be sharing them in a forthcoming blog post (which is another way of curating content). Dig into the detail.

Consider repeating yourself 

I used to think that posting the same tweet twice was akin to spamming your network, but my views have changed. I think it is acceptable to share content at different times of the day to appeal to people in different territories. 

Try to avoid the obvious

I don’t tend to share Mashable links because so many other people do. There’s not much point in sounding like a broken record. Instead, I try to find eye-opening posts on niche blogs. Mine the gold.

Also, beware dragons. I don’t care how good that Mail Online article is, I’m not sharing it. Ditto Fox and Business Insider. I think ever so slightly less of people who point me at these sources.

Use a notebook

I thought up this blog post last night at about 2am (that’s the kind of saddo I am). On the train into the office this morning I spent a good five minutes trying to remember what it was. Word to the wise: it is important to take notes. 

Invest in a Moleskine and keep it close at all times. Mine is full of notes from events, headline ideas, wireframes for the 50 web apps I want to build, URLs to check out and topics to explore.

So there you have it, 17 tips that I hope you find helpful. What else have I missed? What's working for you?

Kategorien: e Consultancy