The impact this has had , and the opportunities it presents, for marketing is immense.

Whilst all other channels that marketers use to reach individuals are things they turn on when needed and off once they’ve finished with them, mobile phones are different – they are part of everyone’s lives, always on and always with you.  Added to this, in the last year the growth of smartphones has been huge with  27% of UK adults now owning a smartphone and almost 47% of 12-15 year olds own one.   In fact, more people globally now have mobile phones than bank accounts and in the UK alone the penetration is 131% of the population.

This growth will lead to a fundamental shift in the way we live our lives.  M-commerce, which is already big in Asia, will gradually make its way here.   We can then choose to pay direct with our phone rather than carrying a separate wallet and/or credit cards.  Rather than being just another thing in our pockets, soon your phone will be the only thing in your pocket.

As marketers we also need to accept that the consumer has more power and information than ever before.  Whilst out shopping in the high street they can check which store has the best price for the product they want to buy, get recommendations from friends and instantly feedback on their experiences via social networks.  However, it also gives marketers the power to totally customise their campaigns to that individual at the precise point they are making a purchase decision.

This is helped by the fact that your phone is also the only device which always knows exactly where you are.  By leveraging this information in the form of location-based marketing, companies can tailor their offer to those people in the immediate vicinity.  Shifting the advantage back to businesses with physical locations, rather than just virtual entities, these targeted promotions could include incentivising visits through coupon use or rewarding frequent check-ins (such Starbucks giving free drinks to their FourSquare ‘mayors’).  Although some people believe this is an invasion of privacy, it is solved through the customer opting in and by a value exchange – like any commodity people are willing to trade privacy if the perceived benefit is greater than the cost.

Having said that, when using mobile as a marketing channel, it is vital to remember it is an immensely personal space.  Marketing messages should not be intrusive (old style banner adverts and overt messages will not be effective) but rather concentrate on fulfilling a need.  Developing an application with no user relevance will fail since, unlike any other marketing message, the consumer makes the choice over whether they receive it.

Successful mobile marketing is more than just developing an app or ensuring your website is compatible with the latest devices.  As a channel it needs to be integrated with your wider marketing strategy; recognising that, as a device, it will ultimately become more and more entwined in our lives until it is the single piece of technology we use all of the time.  It is here to stay and it is our responsibility, as professionals, to understand the opportunities and challenges it presents.

To learn more about the opportunities surrounding mobile marketing, come along to our next branch event – much more than just a phone –  on 22nd February 2012.

Unlike Twitter where a constant stream of information is displayed from everyone you follow, Facebook sorts and prioritises what’s in your news-stream based on an algorithm called EdgeRank. This comprises three main elements:

Affinity

Facebook recognises that not everyone in your circle of friends is equal – some people you will talk to more and some brands you will follow more than others. Therefore, those friends/brands which you regularly converse with (i.e. by posting comments on walls or sharing information) will be displayed on a more frequent basis than people/companies which you have not interacted with for a little while.

Within the affinity section though there are a couple of elements which it is important to note:

• A hierarchy exists with comments ranked higher than simple ‘likes’. Therefore, if, as a marketer you can convince people to enter into a discussion with your company rather than simply liking your posts they will have a higher affinity score with you and therefore have a greater chance of your news being displayed in their feed.
• Affinity is strictly one way. Just because you visit their profile or comment on their posts does not mean that they will see information that you post – this only guarantees that you will see their status updates since Facebook assumes you have a high affinity with them.  In short, they need to engage actively with you.

Edge Weight

This is the second element of the algorithm and examines the type of content which you post and which your fans click on. Different media types have different levels of importance – videos have the highest edge weight, followed by photos and then by links.

However, since it examines the type of media your fans look at, and each person’s Edge Weight is different, just including videos with everything you post will not work. You may get through to the people who regularly click on and watch videos but those people who click on photos or links may not see the post. Therefore, as a marketer you would need to consider what is the best media to use and maybe conduct the same announcement with different accompanying elements to see which one works the best.

Age

The final element examines how old the post is. Unlike Twitter which displays everything, if the post is reasonably old it is unlikely to appear within the news feed when your fans next log on. Therefore, as marketers you need to look at the times your audience is using Facebook (either by looking at Facebook Insights or looking at the times people are referred to your website from Facebook) and create content during those periods. No matter how high the Affinity and Edge Weight is, if the content is old then it will not appear.

By understanding how EdgeRank works you can refine your Facebook marketing strategy so that it starts to work for you. For example, if you want to run a campaign on Facebook in a couple of weeks then start to build affinity now with some posts that invite comment. You campaign should also include things which give Edge Weight such as videos and links (mixing these up so that as much of your audience as possible gets exposed to your messages) and be released at a time you know your fans are using Facebook.

Facebook is a very powerful tool if used properly. To find out more about how businesses can use it, the Kent branch is running a 3.5hr training workshop on 29/11/2011 at the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce building in Ashford. For more information, or to book, just visit the CIM website.

What is Google+?

There are three main elements to Google+:

Google Circles

Based around the premise that we all have more than one group of friends (for example school/university friends, family, work friends, friends from the gym/sports club), Google+ gives us the opportunity to categorise these friends into individual circles.  When you post an update you can then choose whether you want the update to be seen by everyone, or just certain circles, and can also limit their ability to re-post it.  This means, in effect, that your family will not be subjected to your embarrassing antics on a Friday night with your work colleagues, whilst they will not be bored to death with photos from the family birthday celebrations held on the same weekend.

As an aside, this can also be achieved in Facebook through the list functionality but is, I suspect, seldom used and not as interactive as the Google+ interface.

Google Hangouts

Similar to Facebook Chat, Google Hangouts are live video chats (similar to Skype) with people in your circles.  Maybe you want to arrange a reunion with your university friends, or discuss the latest work project with some colleagues, Hangouts has been hailed by some as its killer application and one which no other social media site offers.  Granted you can have video chats on Skype, but unless someone pays for the premium service they cannot be group video chats.  On Google+ it is free for up-to 10 people.

Google Sparks

Similar to Twitter where you can follow hashtags, Google Sparks is basically an RSS feed where you can follow your interests.  Google pulls in all the content from the Web on the areas you select and, when you find something that is worth talking about, it can be shared with your circles and a impromptu debate can start.

Why is Google+ Special?

There are lots of applications for the functionality offered in Google+.  For me, working in the education sector, I am excited by the fact you can keep your circles separate and choose what each one sees.  This means, in theory, lecturers and tutors can add their pupils/students to one circle and their personal friends to another.  Unlike Facebook, the students will never see the personal life of the lecturer and hence a major safeguarding issue has been resolved.  Plus, by using Google Hangouts, tutorials and future assistance can be given without the students needing to be in the same place.

There are other applications though.  Prospective students could create circles for colleges/universities that they’re interested in attending or a Hangout could be launched as a select press briefing, possibly as a teaser before a product launch.

One thing is certain though – Google+ is still in its infancy and, when business pages are launched, it will take another massive leap forward.  The impact it has on SEO is only now starting to be unearthed and this, in my opinion, is where it’s USP is.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

People do business with people. If your business is reliant on building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with customers and/or suppliers then you need to create your marketing strategy with this goal in mind. Relationship Marketing is about maximising the lifetime value of a customer through a basis of trust, bonding, commitment, reciprocity, empathy, and good, two-way, communication. It can be hard to get all this working in your favour when you only meet in formal business settings – or even if you are relying on social media rather than face-to-face.

Getting social works

Taking people into a social environment makes them more relaxed and open. In the research I did for my Marketing Masters dissertation attendees at corporate hospitality functions reported the following benefits:

• They feel greater loyalty – it is harder to change suppliers when you like the people you are dealing with
• Problems are more easily forgiven and overcome – you are more likely to give someone a second chance if you feel looked after
• Closer relationships mean better communication – people are more approachable
• They learn things they would never learn elsewhere – about markets and competitors as well as about people
• Relationships build over time – conversations start with business as the shared interest but progress to a more social level

Corporate hospitality functions can provide great opportunities to meet with business colleagues away from the pressures of the work environment. Sharing interests and experiences with other people, learning about their families and personal life, helps develop those all-important bonds of trust and liking.

If you want to use corporate hospitality in your business as part of your relationship building strategy then follow these simple rules:

• Show you understand your guests by choosing an event they will personally value. Select an activity you know they will find attractive/fun/challenging – as appropriate. The nature of your audience will dictate how unique or prestigious the event needs to be.
• Pay attention to detail – a badly managed event will reflect badly on your reputation and relationship. It is not enough to meet guest’s expectations – they must be exceeded!
• Consider the mix of guests – you will be judged on the quality of the guest list as well as the event itself. Aim to provide good networking opportunities all round.
• Brief your team to be good hosts – relaxed and informal is good, overly casual or inappropriate behaviour is bad. Never forget this is business.
• Hold a debrief – after the event make sure your team share their experiences. There may be issues or opportunities you need to follow up on.
• Set objectives to measure your corporate hospitality programme by – but be prepared to track results over the long-term, not expecting overnight success.

Don’t forget to measure results

Setting objectives and expecting a return is important – but not necessarily easy to measure. While you may be able to track the initiation or culmination of a particular deal back to a discussion held on the golf course or at the racetrack, it is more likely that you will have to focus your measurement on the lifetime value of a client. Consider not only the additional revenue earned, but also the ability to retain, or even recover, sales that you could be at risk of losing.

So don’t rush to chop the ‘frivolous’ from the budget. You may even want to consider adding social events into your programme where you never have before. Corporate hospitality can be a brilliant tool for helping to develop strong, long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with customers and suppliers – use it wisely and it will serve you well.

So, how private is the information posted on the Internet, and should we expect social media sites to protect identities?

Your data is not your own.

To paraphrase Erik Qualman in his book Socialnomics, what happens in Vegas stays on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter etc.  As soon as you publish any information onto the Internet you lose a certain amount of control over it.  This is regardless of the privacy settings you’ve configured for your Facebook profile or Twitter account.  By making it available to your friends and followers, you have opened up a Pandora’s box of possibilities and relinquished control of where it ends up.  Therefore, if you’re not comfortable with everyone, even those people you don’t know, knowing something, don’t tell anyone.

To illustrate this just consider the following.  It is predicted, according to an article published around 6 months ago, that children growing up now will need to change their identity when they get to adulthood.  This is because so much of their early life is now on the web (through photos & videos posted by family and friends) that what seemed amusing then could harm their prospects when going for a first job interview.  Now I think this is a bit extreme but the point is there – people are entering into social media and technology in general without thinking through the long-term consequences of what they are doing.

Take responsibility for what you do.

Once we’ve accepted that we’ve not got an invisible cloak around us and that everything we do has, to a greater or lesser extent, got the ability to be seen, the next logical step is that we need to start taking responsibility for what we publish.  Just as a journalist needs to independently verify and corroborate what they report, so too should bloggers and micro-bloggers.  It should not be a ‘publish and be damned’ mindset.

I am not saying here that it was wrong to use Twitter as the vehicle to unmask “ctb”, just that it is unrealistic to expect Twitter not to release the names of those who did tweet the identity if asked to do so.  Equally, the blogger in South Tyneside who used the micro-blogging platform and identity “Mr Monkey” should not be surprised that Twitter has granted access to the Council.  The Internet and social media sites especially should, in my opinion, be regulated the same as any other publishing medium.  Yes, freedom of speech is important and the Internet gives us the opportunity to exercise this like no other generation before us has had however, with that opportunity there is also a duty to uphold the basic values of respect and honesty.

That’s my view.  What is your’s?

Firstly, for those of you who haven’t seen, or heard, of a QR code here’s a brief explanation.  A QR, or Quick Response code is basically a two-dimensional barcode which can be read by most smartphones (as long as they’ve downloaded an app) and direct the user to a specific site.   More details, including their history and wider applications, are available on Wikipedia.

So, that said, how useful are they for marketing?

An obvious first use is that you can directly link your online and offline presence so that your customers can seamlessly interact.  This means a recruitment company could use QR codes on the job advertisements it places in a newspaper or trade magazine, or a high street retailer could direct people to independent reviews of the products it is selling.  Before you do this though remember to check that the website you are sending people to is mobile friendly – there is nothing more annoying as a potential customer to be directed down a virtual dead-end because the supporting technology is not in place.

Secondly, QR codes can be used on brochures and other printed media (including press releases) to direct people to your social media sites (how about a QR code on your business card directing people to your LinkedIn profile?) so that they can connect to you.  This could be a Twitter stream, a Facebook fanpage or the company blog.  Whatever you think is appropriate.

Or, how about exhibition stands and name-badges?  Rather than giving people handfuls of printed matter at events let them scan the stand and be directed to an enquiry page.  They can then receive a personalised follow-up after the event which cuts down on your costs and leaves them with both hands free to carry on browsing. 

There are so many possibilities it’s difficult not to get carried away and further uses are described on both the Social Media Examiner and Econsultancy blogs (as well as numerous other sites).

However, although they are growing in popularity they are still regarded by many as ‘new technology’ and are not as widely recognised as some people may think.  Indeed, I have seen reports that a number of teenagers think they are magic eye pictures!  Whilst I am confident that, with mobile marketing becoming more important and the use of smartphones for mobile search increasing, they will gain critical mass do not be surprised if after starting to use QR codes you get a few puzzled expressions and questions along the lines of ‘what’s this’ from your customers.

Do you have any experiences you want to share about how you’ve used QR codes?  Please leave some comments below.

However, there is more to getting the most out of an exhibition than just the above.

One tip I want to give is to make sure that your stand is as welcoming as possible; minimising both physical and psychological barriers to customer engagement.  Consider the average shell scheme where the two sides and a back form a booth of approximately 3m x 2m.  The only way on to your stand is through the space at the front but, how many of us proceed to place a table here for our literature with a pop up banner behind that?  This physical barrier (which we then proceed to sit behind) stops people really entering into ‘our’ space where we can talk and engage properly.  Instead, consider putting the table at an angle to one side or place yourself in the aisle so that you can greet people personally.

On this subject, remember that the employees you choose to man the exhibition stand are, for that day, an embodiment of your company.  They need to be properly briefed, look smart and also know what you are aiming to get out of the exhibition.  If there are key things which need to be said then your stand personnel need to be briefed beforehand.  They should also leave their laptops in the office and answer their mobile phones off the stand.  There is nothing more off-putting for a potential customer/client than approaching the stand only to find the person manning it is either catching up on their e-mails whilst out of the office, or busy on a phone call to another customer.

Finally, during the exhibition it’s important to qualify leads as you go so that in the immediate aftermath you’re aware of the contacts who are vital to follow up versus those who have only a passing interest and can therefore potentially wait for a couple of days.  All contacts should be followed up with either a e-mail or letter since this gives you a chance to re-iterate what your company does and why you think your product/service is the solution they’ve been looking for. 

So, these are my top three tips for exhibitions.  Please tell me your ones below.

Now, I’m no expert in branding.  However, if asked I usually explain it as such:

 As an individual you will have a set of values which, on a day-to-day basis, guide you in how you behave towards other people.  Majority of these values are common to everyone but some will be uniquely personal based on previous experiences and/or beliefs.

These values, and your behaviour, make up your personal ‘brand’.  To some extent the same is true for a company. 

Although many people often confuse a company brand with its logo, we all know it’s much wider than that and is instead more about customer perception.  This perception is created through your communications, your products and generally how you, as a company, behave.  Therefore, whilst you can and should be influencing your company brand you can never control it.

You should however understand it and respect it.

Once this understanding has been gained the brand becomes the filter against which new ideas and products are measured, as well as the catalyst from which different ideas appear.  A true understanding of the brand should prevent decisions being made which undermine the company’s very existence (even if there could be a short term financial gain made) and help create a tight knit portfolio of products. 

This is not to say companies cannot or shouldn’t diversify.  They should, providing the filter of the brand is used.  It could be the brand stands for simplicity and innovation and can therefore comfortably produce MP3 players, mobile phones and small computers.  Or it could stand for easily accessible information and its portfolio include a search engine, cloud computing applications, maps and e-mail.  These all complement each other and, more importantly, the brand positioning statement.

Those really successful companies truly understand their brand.  However, unfortunately all too often short-term gain is prioritised and a decision is made which, in retrospect, can only be called silly.  So, what examples can you give of when a brand has got it disastrously wrong?

The majority of us will, I imagine, work to a similar cycle each year.  It could be that this cycle is shaped by new product launches or by particular trade shows (these could be B2B or B2C), or indeed just by the annual demands of the clients you serve.  There is something reassuring about this routine; it enables us to plan our workload and also anticipate when there may be high levels of demand.  But, how many times have we (and I include myself in this) dusted off last year’s ideas to a product launch or trade show and recycled the same approach?  After all, it worked fine last time we did it that way.

This approach ignores the fact that external market conditions change and that the channels of communication are now greater than they were this time last year.

By all accounts 2011 is going to be another tough year for both individuals and businesses; we may once again run out of money and have to think.  The 2.5% rise in VAT will have a knock-on effect throughout the economy with consumers tightening their belts and potential price rises across a range of items as distributors seek to pass on the increased fuel costs.  The public sector squeeze will impact with a rise in unemployment and a further loss of money on the high street.  All of these factors will make any marketing plans we devised in 2010 (or earlier) redundant.  The assumptions from which they were crafted are now erroneous.

All of this is no bad thing.  After all, the marketing department should be one of the areas in a company where creativity is encouraged.  So, let’s make 2011 the year when we get creative.  Let’s make a pledge that in December we’ll look back on this year and be able to proudly say that not only were all of the set objectives met, but that they were met through coming up with a host of new ideas.  Otherwise, instead of having 5, 10, 15 or 20 years of experience in marketing we may only have 1 year’s experience repeated 5, 10, 15 or 20 times.

• Dedicated marketing column in the Kent Messenger Kent Business publication
• Exhibited at the Kent 2020 event in April, delivering marketing advice for small businesses through one-to-one consultations.
• Expanded the series of relationships we have with other Kent based organisations to include the Chartered Management Institute, Chartered Institute of Public Relations and the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce. This is in addition to those we built in 2009 which include the Institute of Directors.
• Organised and ran a series of well-attended events culminating with 85 attendees at the annual lecture in October and 50 attendees at the November copy-writing workshop.
• Launched an informal networking initiative – Marketing over a Pint – with the first meeting taking place in November.
• Re-launched the ‘Simply Better Marketing’ series of workshops which are focused on the SME market. These will be run with ‘Best Business Events’ and the first one will take place in February 2011.
• Assisted the Kent Branch Student Chapter (based at Canterbury Christ Church University) in achieving their aims.
• Supported the Kent Excellence in Business Awards, communicating what marketing can deliver to a wider audience.

Oh, and last but not least, we have delivered a monthly blog on marketing topics.

All of the above successes we are going to try and build on in 2011 and early indications are that it should be equally as good. We already have two events planned for the January – June period (more details available on the CIM website) and have also scheduled in some more of the informal networking evenings. Other initiatives are in the pipeline.

As always though, if there are things which you as a member (or non-member) would like to see the Branch deliver, then please get in touch. Planning for the 2011/2012 financial year will begin early in the New Year.

Until that time, have a safe and happy Christmas.