360DigitalInfluence

The new era of consumerism is one in which each and every consumer has a powerful voice. It is one that touches brands across the spectrum, from the families of food, beverage and personal care brands within multinational CPGs all the way to modern B2B technology companies who are in turn focusing on the new voice of the consumer and how this affects their lead generation and sales cycles.

As marketers working with social platforms we focus a lot on influencers and building influencer relationships. However this new social consumerism means that we need to turn our attention to looking at the empowered customer as the new powerhouse that must be considered and included in any advocacy program. This does not need to be a huge expensive operation and can start with something as simple as a thank you.

Here follows five easy things any company or brand can do today in taking the first step to growing a new breed of influential and empowered customer advocates, both on and offline:

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Events season is well underway and in two weeks time we will present an invitation-only breakfast roundtable at this year’s PivotCon. This is a two-day event, October 17-18, 2011, for brand managers who seek to bridge the gap between their brand and the rising Social Consumer, the topic at the heart of this year’s event.

Ogilvy’s John Bell, our Global Managing Director of the Digital Influence practice, will host a breakfast on Tuesday October 18th, entitled True Social Stories: An Insider’s Look at Transforming the Enterprise.

Taking place from 8:00am at the Crowne Plaza Times Square, this fireside chat will look at how marketers can look at the social transformation of their business, focusing on questions including designing an effective social infrastructure; integrating social media so that it both enhances both reputation and delivers customer value and using social media to create strong brand advocates among employees.

John will host an intimate gathering of panelists from blue chip companies including IBM, Unilever and American Express who will share their success in these areas — what they did, how they overcame obstacles and what’s next for them.

Do you have questions for our panel? We would love to hear more from you here, so we can include them in our session. Post them here, or send to me @gemsie before October 18th.

With those summer whites put away, most brands are now in the midst of planning for 2012. As well as brainstorming big ideas, this involves looking at which marketing activities worked well and those that were not so effective to decide the exact mix for the next year. Which for many includes looking social media. 2011 has certainly been a break out year for social as brands continue to move up the social media adoption curve from the late adopters to brands where social is being applied across programs and being operationalized regionally.

Our series of posts this week casts a gaze ahead for those planning the next 12 months and look at where social media fits in the mix. We aim to provide practical takeaways as well as predictions for the platforms that should feature in your  planning, starting with 5 key considerations for social media when in those ideas meetings over the next few weeks.

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We met with Heather to talk about the evolution in travel booking online, due to the huge growth in peer recommendations, and the continued growth of travel clubs such as Jetsetter. Jetsetter is a community of travelers that provides members with insider access, knowledge and exclusive deals on vacations.

Heather describes how social media is used by her team, the travel brands she sees as doing well in the space and makes her predictions for the future of social travel.

Exclusive for our blog readers! You can join Jetsetter via this  link: www.jetsetter.com/register/promo/ogilvy

Show of hands time. Have you been asked in the past month  “So what are we doing with Google+?”

And did you know how to answer?

Fear not, there is a Strategy For That. And one that is already in market that you can easily adapt. This is the Five Platform Social Media Strategy.

Today many brands are executing across multiple social platforms because they understand their consumers are also engaging across multiple platforms. They also know that the nature of how these consumers engage with each other in social spaces continues to evolve. They know they need to fish where the fish are, and this might mean casting a line into multiple ponds.

So What Has This To Do With Google+?

Well, the June 28th launch of Google+ meant there is another platform we will soon need to include in this framework. So consider this a guide to being ready to integrate G+ into your Five Platform Strategy framework when the time is right.

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Looking back on last week’s Social Media Week 2011,  one thing is clear.  The event that was born in New York in 2009 has certainly secured the title of “Best Newcomer” on the conference circuit. And Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence jumped at the chance to host events in several hub cities including London, San Francisco and New York.

Since February marks Facebook’s seventh birthday, what better way to celebrate in NYC than to host an interactive workshop with partner and Facebook powerhouse Buddy Media? Entitled “It’s 2011…How’s Your Facebook Strategy Doing?” this session brought together the industry’s top experts in branding and platform development to share their experiences.

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AOL just announced it is paying $315 million to buy the liberal news commentary site The Huffington Post; a move coming not long after forking out $25 million to buy TechCrunch, a Silicon Valley technology news blog.

Founder Arianna Huffington’s decision to fold her ground breaking community-based news site into one of the web’s struggling legacy Internet companies came as a surprise to many, in the same way Michael Arrington’s Big Announcement at TechCrunch Disrupt last year managed to upstage all the start ups at the event.

Why the Huffington Post?  It has been wildly successful due to several factors, including its ability to find stories across the Web, couple them with well-created headlines and ensure a strong audience sees them. It is also popular as a progressive American news website.Yet the main factor that attracted AOL could in fact be the Huffington Post’s community.

In addition to columns by Arianna Huffington and a core group of contributors the site has over 3,000 bloggers. These range from politicians and celebrities to academics and policy experts to Digital Influence’s Kety Esquivel — all of whom contribute in real time, on a wide-range of topics.

In any vibrant community, online or off, people connect with each other because:

1. They can do so easily and confidently
2. They keep coming back because they satisfy certain needs or wants by taking part
3. They feel their contributions are valued and can identify with the wider community group and its goals

All factors which until now, have been prevalent at the Huffington Post during its five-plus years of existence, with over one million comments made on the site each month. However, it is this community management which is exactly where new owner AOL is walking a fine line.

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Sin City has long been the ultimate venue for a weekend of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. Well it seems as that party might just be over.

The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas ended Sunday, and in doing so, set several new records. This included the 30,000 international attendees descending on Vegas last week, and the 2,700 technology companies exhibiting – both record numbers according to the organizers, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

However, the trade show also is the first such event to generate such a widespread buzz in social spaces around the world. What made 2011 the year social media hit the tipping point at CES?

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Twitter has long been the social platform with both millions of dedicated users, alongside tens of millions who can’t quite figure out what the fuss is all about, and until very recently lacking any visible business model. However we could be on the cusp of the biggest change coming to the platform in its four years. This began with the launch of promoted tweets earlier this year, which let marketers pay to get a tweeted message in front of a wider audience. Promoted trends and accounts have since followed, expanding the possibilities for a brand to build a Twitter following.

A site redesign, rolled out slowly this past fall, opens the door wide. Most Twitter users on the web are now accessing the service through this shiny new interface - when not using a smartphone or other popular dashboards such as Tweetdeck. This new UI has one standout feature: the entire right side is ultimately a vehicle to deliver additional content; already coming complete with a dashboard of followers and trends, as well as the ability to integrate pictures and video.

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We have been speculating exactly what Facebook was up to since the launch of its location based offering Places back in September. Yesterday our favorite social network made the mobile check-in application available to major merchants and thousands of small and midsize businesses with the announcement of Facebook Deals – news made public in a hyped Silicon Valley press event not dissimilar to those hosted by Apple.

So what is the Deal behind Facebook’s latest move?

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