39 posts for May, 2011

Location: Chicago, IL

Speakers: Dion Hinchcliffe, Dachis Group Senior Vice President
Dachis Group Senior Vice President, Dion Hinchcliffe, will be presenting at a private client event in Chicago on June 8.

“Big data, cheap processing, and social media, are changing the advertising and marketing landscape. IT has been quietly hammering away on advanced analytics systems and platforms to aggregate and filter data, while sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can provide exactly the detailed demographic data that marketers say they need. Put it all together and [...]

One of the biggest issues we see today with branded customer communities in the enterprise is the creation of digital islands failing to foster an engaged community. We often find this issue is due to lack of careful planning that accurately illustrates the level of commitment required to build and sustain the community. Many companies dive right into building a community before realizing just how time- and budget-consuming such an initiative will be. Building a branded community ain’t cheap, ain’t easy and ain’t fast. Take the time to plan for success and build a detailed business case for community.

In the almost two years I’ve been with Dachis Group there is one question that I’ve been asked over and over again. “What is social business?” I’m sure my colleagues have had the same experience. The challenge I have is that social business is comprehensive in nature, and therefore defies trite explanations.

My dilemma would be made simpler if “social business” were just another name for something you already know, like “social media marketing” or “enterprise 2.0″ or (god forbid) “knowledge management.” But it’s not. It’s a term for something new and different, and our journey is so early that I don’t think any company would declare victory on being a social business in 2011. Many of our clients are definitely taking the right steps, however.

Location: Cavendish Conference Centre, London

Speakers: Lee Bryant, Headshift | Dachis Group Managing Director
Social Media Influence is a specially tailored and curated conference for corporate communications, major consumer brand and internal communication executives who need to understand how social media is shaping the way they do business. It is an issues-led event and not exclusively focused on any one communications sector. The challenges of social media affects multiple [...]

People are “winging it” with measurement in social today. Marketers embarrassedly tell me this daily.

In my social psychological opinion, those of you who aren’t abiding by any standards, measuring a little sentiment here, a little influence there, and a lot of buzz everywhere are falling prey to a cognitive bias: The Imposter Effect. You’re denying yourselves the credit of being bona fide experimenters.

Location: Provence, France

Speakers: Peter Kim, Dachis Group Chief Strategy Officer
Dachis Group Chief Strategy Officer, Peter Kim, will be presenting at a private client event in Provence, France on June 14.

Quick response (or QR codes) are 2D barcodes that allow the consumer to decode text, a hyperlink, photo, video, or other data using a scanning application on their mobile device. It is a form of pull marketing, rather than push, which allows the consumer to request more information. However, nobody wants more information. Matter of fact, the consumer wants as little information as necessary; they want more value. So when experimenting with QR codes, as with any form of subscriber-model marketing (much of the social space), ensure that you’re providing added value, not just a URL with more information. Over the past few years, there has been a mixed reaction to leveraging QR codes as a marketing tactic.

Any good social business is built on two carefully balanced pyramids, which mirror two different approaches that are required to coexist in a business that wants to thrive in a world where its customers are highly connected.

I have been thinking more and more about the various strands to Social Business Intelligence, which is a major area of focus for us here at Dachis Group in 2011. At our London summit earlier this year, I spoke about the way open data inside and outside organisations can uncover new sources of value and help drive performance improvement. Yesterday, at the lovely Social Media Influence Conference, I spoke about how the field of Social Media Monitoring will become more real-time, operational and valuable as it moves towards Social Business Intelligence.

In summary, I think social media monitoring will evolve towards real-time data-driven business improvement based on socialising customer insight within the firm as a whole, not just within marketing and outbound communications.