The Chameleon Net blog

Be Smart, Think Mobile

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:23:33 GMT

Over the past few weeks we have seen the launch of the iPhone4, heralded by Apple as yet another re-invention and revolution of the mobile phone market. While I wouldn’t quite go as far as Steve Jobs has put it, the handset did sell 1.7m units globally in just THREE days and the number could have easily been higher but for stock issues. Factor in the 50m iPhones that have been sold worldwide since its incarnation as well as the 160,000 Android phone activations Google processes daily and you begin to see how being prepared to engage your audience via mobile web is going to be very important in the next 12 months.

The growth of the smartphone market has been reported by comScore as expanding at a rate of 70% year on year in the UK, so there are now approximately 11 million smartphones in use, meaning that one in five Brits now own one. In December 2009 alone, these people viewed 6.7 billion web pages and spent an incredible 4.8bn minutes online via their mobile, of which 2.2bn minutes were spent on Facebook alone.

So it would seem that phones are no longer just a device for calling and texting your friends. In fact iPhone users only spend 45% of their time actually making voice-calls on their handset and the average Android & iPhone user spends 80 minutes per day using their apps, whilst downloading an average of 9 apps per month.

It must also be considered that smartphone ownership is actually double in teens and students compared to the rest of the population, making this generation the most receptive to mobile marketing. This younger generation is choosing their handset based on its ability to help them connect their online and offline lives into one harmonious existence. It’s no longer about the amount of megapixels the camera has or the size of the phones’ built-in memory, instead it’s the number of apps to download, the speed it browses the web, multi-tasking functionality and the ability to access their social media personas. Watch the first two minutes of the below video clip and you can hear some US students discussing why they bought the phones they did.

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So why have we really seen the smartphone become such a booming market? The massive improvements in mobile web browsing speeds to 3G from WAP and the expanding 3G coverage across the UK (now at 54%) can be seen as a similar turning point to the ‘broadband revolution’, which saw faster internet speeds reach the whole country. In addition, the increasing reductions in mobile browsing tariffs to much more affordable levels for ‘unlimited download’ packages have made these phones more accessible to a mass consumer market.

There is a steady move towards the saturation of the mobile market by smartphones (currently at 20% in the UK and rising) and network operators are constantly making mobile browsing more affordable, so considering mobile web as a potential marketing channel and engagement tool is essential. Mobile browsing is only going to get faster, with 4G on the way and open Wi-Fi networks becoming more prevalent. If your organisation isn’t already thinking about how to approach mobile web, now’s the time to start. Don’t be left behind by more forward thinking competitors!

Chameleon Net is currently offering UK universities the opportunity to build their own Fresher’s Friend Mobile App at a discounted rate of £5,900 throughout the month of July. Please contact Ross on 020 7332 6373 or e-mail rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk for more information about this geo-location, campus navigation mobile tool with social media integration >.

The Un-Measurable Success of a Profitable Poker Night

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:00:44 GMT
The general consensus is that no matter how good your idea, strategy or marketing campaign, without KPIs or specific goals it is hard to qualify the success of what you have done. Also, when it comes to social media activity RoI is notoriously hard to measure.

So how much is a positive mention on Twitter really worth to your brand or product? If you cannot measure something and assign it a monetary value, does that then make the actions that caused the comments harder to justify? Why am I even asking these questions!? Well I recently attended a networking event for people in the digital and eCommerce industries in the guise of a poker evening, paid for by my employers under the agreement that I was to return and blog about my experiences, so let me continue…

The event was definitely well received. It ran smoothly and was carefully organised with the 60 players drawing their table numbers before play started, with professional dealers on each table. The venue was pleasant, centrally located and the staff were always accommodating. We got a free drink, some dinner and the cash prizes were certainly well received by the top 6 finishers. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am already looking forward to its next incarnation later in the year. I should probably add a qualifier that I finished in the money and went home with a tidy profit. However, regardless of my financial gains I enjoyed the experience and would happily attend again. But was the event a success?

Strictly speaking we were at an industry networking event. Before we were seated and the first cards were dealt, people seemed to keep themselves to themselves, with the conversation limited to colleagues advising less experienced colleagues on the rules of Texas Hold ‘em. As soon as our chips were on the felt steely glares were exchanged and any chatter between players became poker related.

After one hour we broke for the buffet dinner where people joked about the lack of networking taking place around the tables and the serious nature of play! However, this did prove to be an ice-breaker to allow us to at least exchange business cards.

After around another 30 minutes of play ‘Barry the Broker’ jokingly introduced himself and laughed at how we hadn’t even told each other our names after an hour and a half of play! As the hands went on and players dwindled the tension on the tables led to more banter, but again, it wasn’t as if we were discussing possible business partnerships as the re-raises went in.

By the time we reached the final table of 10 rapport had been built through shared experiences and bad beats. Even some of the players who had been eliminated were hanging around, gathering around the table watching as we duelled out the final hands as the blinds and antes escalated at an alarming rate. It was around this point that I began to realise that by virtue of staying alive by the skin of my teeth a few times and making some outrageous bluffs (which I then showed) I had become a recognised figure at the table which put me in the enviable position of being ‘rememberable’, which is surely the purpose of such an event for me!

The morning after I made an effort to track down anyone tweeting about the event, send a quick e-mail to those I exchanged business cards with and added one contact on Linkedin. People tweeting about the event were positive and even those that mentioned their losses did so punctuated with emoticons. Did I uncover any immediate opportunities for Chameleon Net on the night? No. Did I leave enough of an impression for people to remember me? I hope so… I just have to hope they also remember I work for a Digital Solutions Agency!

So why the intro about measuring success and RoI? Well I was trying understand if the poker night was a success in terms of it being a networking event. Strictly speaking on traditional criteria it would be hard to say yes, but in those difficult to define, social-esque ways, it was. My positive feelings towards the event organisers have increased. No-one I encountered had a negative word to say about of the event. I did hand my business card out to several people, some of who eventually saw me make some ballsy bluffs on the final table (all-in three times in a row with 2 6, 2 3 and 2 7 on flagrant steals!) which meant I was someone they now remembered rather than just a random card in their pocket the next day.

In the same way that it can be hard to quantify my success with interaction via social media, it is difficult for me to quantify my success in selling Chameleon Net during that evening, but what I did do was establish personal connections with people on a real one-to-one basis, which hopefully makes me an approachable person when their company needs a digital solution.

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Social Media by the Book: A Publisher’s Guide

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 10:29:43 GMT
Do you need a social media strategy?

If you’re dubious about the benefit of social media to your business, it’s useful to go back to basics and think about the power of word of mouth. How many restaurants have you eaten at, hairdressers visited, books bought, as a result of a recommendation made by a friend?

In the case of social media, we are talking word-of-mouth; only typed up. An effective social media engagement strategy that creates a constructive dialogue with your audience can and does lead to tangible results.

What happens if you don’t have a social media strategy?

Social media has significantly changed the media landscape. A company’s public relations or marketing department can no longer dictate the agenda in the way that they traditionally have through TV, print, radio and the first generation of websites. Failing to engage with those who are talking about your brand online could mean that you miss out on business opportunities, or damage your reputation.

In order to succeed in PR in an online environment, you must first accept the loss of control that that environment brings, and then work at socialising your way to your desired result. Sound fun? Well it’s not quite as simple as that, but hopefully you’re on board with the idea by now.

Join the party

The difficulty with social media is that it is a constantly evolving and relatively new marketing medium, further complicated by all the separate channels and sub-channels that sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and the user-created groups within those sites, present. So engaging with, and influencing, these online communities, as well as contributing to conversations that might be taking place on your own website, is no mean feat. Here are a few pointers to working your selected social scene:

1. Where’s the party at? Find out where your audience resides online; this could be in well-known or more ‘underground’ locations

2. Know who’s talking about you, and what they’re saying: analyse conversations talking place online

3. Go where the in-crowd go: identify the most influential online touch-points for your audience’s demographic e.g. fan pages, online book clubs

4. Stay on the scene: Commit to internal resource and / or external assistance to create and maintain a presence in your selected online communities

5. Be yourself: Know your voice, and research how best to communicate with your audience

Be the party

The publisher, with its access to authors, critics, readers and the wider public, is in an ideal position to build and place itself at the hub of an online community. So one option is to connect to all the relevant social networks through your own site or microsite. This is like choosing to hold a big social gathering at your house, the advantages of which are:

You can chat to all your friends, and potential friends, under one roof

Because the party’s in your house, people have easier access to your stuff (a good thing when you’re also selling books, remember)

You can keep an ear in on, and engage in, the conversation

Being the host means you can watch your guests’ every move, meaning you can also more easily measure the success of your social engagement in monetary terms (it’s easier to keep track of how many people actually ended up buying the book you’re trying to sell as a result of social engagement)

Whether you decide to join the party or hold it, you can get more advice on social media strategy from us by reading the dedicated pages on this website or giving us a call on 020 7332 6360.

Chameleon Net blog highlights for book people

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:58:17 GMT
With the London Book Fair taking place early this week, I thought it'd be worth putting some signposts up in time for the first morning of the Fair proper to highlight some of the digital publishing entries that have been posted so far on our blog in 2010...

Chris Thorn gave us his view of the impact the iPad may have. Hopefully Apple will get around to launching it in the UK sometime soon (I heard May from an industry source last week).

Jeremy Davis suggested that the ebook format in itself might be a distraction.

And I gave a viewpoint on how publishers should look at social media and marketing to engage more effectively with readers (first published in The Bookseller) as well as a write up of the Publishers' Associations Digital Forum in January.

There will also be a couple of new Publishing-related posts, one each on Monday and Tuesday, so keep checking back!

It’s all about user-centricity

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:54:03 GMT
We all know that achieving success online is about more than just having a great website.

Now, more than ever, taking a holistic user centric approach to online activity means that we can create effective, joined-up communications, and an integrated online strategy.

It’s difficult to focus on one specific online tool in isolation; you can’t think about the website without thinking about how to maximise your SEO and PPC advertising. And once you’ve got people hitting your site, what tools are available for them to interact with it, and also engage with you without needing to come back? RSS feeds, blogs, social engagement and online communities all spring to mind. So how do we decide where to begin?

You probably already have a clear idea of what your objectives as an organisation are, so a good place to start in figuring out your best approach towards achieving those objectives is to concentrate fully on understanding your target audience and how they want to be communicated with. Without doing this you will have little chance of building a relationship with them that will benefit both parties.

So put your customer hat on! A user-centric approach makes your content, communications and online functions focus on the needs and desires of your audience, helping you to:

Reach out to your audience and engage with them, wherever they may be

Pull them into your site or online portals

Get them to interact with you

Keep them connected to you in a way that’s easy for them

One great example we have been involved with that epitomises this thinking is the innovative 'Challenge' site we created for Diabetes UK. It's a great example because it puts users (supporters and fundraisers) at its heart.

People who use the Challenge site are able to connect their supporter profiles to their online social networks, making the user experience easier, while extending the reach of the Diabetes UK brand further.

Did you know, for instance, that on average Facebook users have about 150 friends? Every time someone posts an update from Diabetes Challenge through Facebook Connect, that message is multiplied to their friends.

And very importantly this site does not work in isolation from Diabetes’ other online presences. For example, it communicates in real-time to their CRM system, helping Diabetes UK achieve a 360 degree view of their audience members, and allowing the charity to communicate with its supporters in a more tailored fashion.

At the concept stage of the Challenge site, we worked strategically with Diabetes UK’s to consider who their audience was and how best to target them. This strategic slant is essential for any agency to work effectively. If you don't let agencies into your strategy or at least your key objectives, start now!

The results of Challenge have been extremely good, exceeding expectations, and the site is a major success. Amanda Neylon, Digital Media Manager at Diabetes UK, will be telling the story of how the Challenge site evolved at our next seminar on 22 April, so to hear more about it, please do sign up to come along...

Are publishers getting the most out of social media?

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:53:25 GMT
In case you missed it, here’s my article that appeared in the 5th February issue of the Bookseller, entitled ‘The Long Game’:

There is an interesting discussion taking place at the moment on how useful social media is as a marketing tool for those in the book trade.

While many in the sector feel that the potential of sites such as Twitter and Facebook to fuel sales of books is limited, others see social networking playing a huge role in publishers’ and booksellers’ marketing strategies.

Many readers agree with this latter view, with many having acted – and spent money – as a result of recommendations made across the social networks.

One crucial factor that is extremely important in this equation is that social media is a communications mechanism in which you can have a constructive dialogue with people. Sales and marketing impact can be a consequence of an effective social media engagement strategy. That is to say, sales and marketing results are a secondary, but still very much ‘real-world’, effect of social engagement.

Fortunately what most people on both sides of the debate recognise is that social media as a marketing channel is still in its infancy. Couple this with the fact that technologies, particularly those that integrate different channels, support digital products, and are based on mobile devices, are still young, and what you have is a vibrant and constantly evolving environment.

The challenge of influence
As many brand owners now recognise, social media has deprived them of the ability to reliably control the conversation. No longer can they dictate the agenda as they could with TV, radio, press ads and the first generation of websites. One of the first rules of embracing social media is to acknowledge, and embrace, this loss of control.

At first glance, the social media landscape appears as a bewildering array of separate channels offering access to distinct audiences. Your average Twitter user, we are told, is older and more likely to be male than his Facebook counterpart, though the age gap is closing. Bebo and Piczo by comparison are significantly more popular than Facebook amongst the under-18s. Within these communities a range of forums, groups, fan pages and other facilities is to be found, allowing like-minded individuals to connect and share their views on a range of interests.

Participating in – and influencing - these threads, as well as contributing to conversations taking place on one’s own website, is a challenge for even the most assiduous of online marketers in the publishing sector. Even more disturbing is the potential risk that something might go wrong in the communication, making the community turns on its host.

The publisher, with its access to authors, critics, readers and the wider public, is in an ideal position to build and place itself at the hub of this resource. One way to mobilise this advantage is to create a distinct online destination that enables conversations about authors and publications taking place across the internet, and externally-created user generated content, to be brought into a single site.

We are increasingly seeing organisations appoint Community Managers, staff occupying a role that encapsulates a participation-rich model of interaction where book clubs, blogging and forum discussion can all be steered by the Publisher. This role fits perfectly with such ‘destination sites’.

And far from competing with the established channels such as Facebook and Twitter, your sites can connect and draw content in from them. This enables readers to stay a part of, and post content at, the sites they are most comfortable with and still be part of the conversation on your site. It is also possible, meanwhile, to create a social media environment within an existing website that connects to social network sites in a way that’s appealing and seamless to readers, for instance by allowing them to log into your site with their Facebook credentials.

The idea of a social media focal point, either within your main site or as a separate destination site, creates opportunities for publishers and booksellers of all sizes to get closer to their target audiences, develop brand identity and grow their online presence. For publishers, it also re-invigorates their original role – that of a creative selector, an authoritative commentator, a lens for talent – something that is hard to find amongst the sheer quantity of content that exists online.

And it doesn’t need to be prohibitively expensive. Many publishers have already invested in interactive functionality within their websites – and many more are gearing up to do so in the knowledge that the initial outlay will generate valuable dividends, and be offset by repeated PR campaigns in support of an extensive backlist and constantly flowing number of new publications.

Linkage
None of which means, of course, that publishers should abandon their existing activities on social media sites. Quite the contrary: the interactive element to their own sites will benefit from the linkage between their presence on Facebook, Twitter, LastFM, Bebo, You Tube.

All of which means that, a concerted social media strategy, supported by your own tailored web presence, offers an excellent way to bring authors and readers closer together - with the publisher and/or bookseller at the heart of the dialogue.

And a final cautionary word - it is, however, a mistake to expect an immediate and direct increase in sales as a result of engagement. Consider engagement the initial goal and decide how much you value it. Using interactive channels to show a human face, join in conversations, get to know communities and add value to users’ experiences takes time. The rewards however, such as trust, customer loyalty, consolidated brand positioning and the resulting sales uplift are similarly long term.

‘Tis the season to be social

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:26:34 GMT

This week will go down as another milestone in the development of social media, with a major news story being shaped by hundreds of thousands of web users across popular networking sites.

Unless you live under a particularly well hidden rock, you’ll know that right now, across the nation, a campaign is being waged to ensure that “Killing In The Name” by Rage Against The Machine is Christmas #1, and that “Geordie Jer Mcelderry” and his X Factor overlords are left crying into their turkey dinners.

The scale of this challenge is worth thinking about: The X Factor final was watched by 18 million people. Mcelderry’s record should clear 500K copies this week, as the faceless masses up and down the nation rush to buy “wor Jer” for their Nan. Other record companies like Universal, with endless resources, don’t even bother to compete.

So how have a husband and wife team managed to mobilise around 1 million people and leave the most powerful man in music helpless?

• Audience - Tracy & Jon are tapping into a rich seam of support; those that Tommy Morello called “the silent majority”, who dislike the constant stream of manufactured pop X Factor spawns. Brits have always loved an underdog, and many people find the arrogance of the X Factor winner expecting a #1 reason enough to get behind an alternative. The group’s core is urban, young, and in the main educated, loyal to music outside of pop, and are perfect for amplifying the campaign’s message as they are extremely social literate.

• Community - The inclusiveness of the campaign allowed it to develop momentum. Most people will join the facebook group before downloading, and the activity of this group clearly communicates the “wonderful dose of anarchy” RATM4XMAS represents (e.g. “just went to HMV and hid all the copies of Joe’s single”). You’re not just downloading a record, but being a co-conspirator.

• Product - Whilst the song might not be “Christmassy” enough, its popularity proves how good a choice it was. The infamous final refrain is a perfect rallying cry for the target audience, and it’s been popular with fans of alternative music for nearly 20 years - meaning a large potential support base. The juxtaposition of KITN and “The Climb” by Mcelderry is almost hilarious - listen to them back to back and try not to snigger. Finally, by linking up with homeless charity Shelter, RATM4XMAS exhibits a softer side and broadens its appeal and advocacy base dramatically.

The tactics which have naturally occurred in a group this dedicated are staggeringly sophisticated. Here’s a few I’ve observed:

• Reputation management: constant messages are posted reminding people about messaging should they get on radio or TV, many of these read like a set of brand guidelines.

• Crowdsourced marketing collateral: banners, profile ribbons, videos, posters, tee shirts, email copy; you name it; someone’s created it! A huge collective body of marketing material now exists, with specific messaging for different target groups, and is distributed across various platforms round the web.

• Buzz monitoring: The Facebook group’s wall reads like a newsfeed on the campaign - each new TV appearance, radio phone in or article is seized upon, including the already infamous “radio 5 incident”. Unhelpful or critical articles are quickly highlighted and people head off to register their disapproval at source.

• Online PR: Journalists and radio / tv presenters email addresses are added to the wall regularly and members are encouraged to get in touch with these people, urging them to spread the word through their shows or columns.

• Measurement and forecasting: several members have taken it upon themselves to research past Christmas chart battles and armed with this information plus current sales figures have forecast the trend in sales for both records until Saturday - for instance recent years have shown a surge on Saturday mornings in single sales and action is already being mobilised to counter this.

• Social optimisation: members are encouraged to use the share facility to ensure that the campaign appears in as many users feeds as possible.

• Focus on conversion rate: the ratio of group members to download sales is under constant scrutiny, with the groups profile photo currently geared to make members who haven’t shelled out yet do so. Active members use white label message content to send reminder messages to random group members about the need to buy the song.

Whatever happens on Sunday (here’s hoping Rage win out!) it’s clear this Facebook campaign represents a watershed moment in the battle for dominance between two marketing channels: TV and the high street vs. collaborative social networks.

So if you’re looking to improve or launch a social engagement strategy, you could do worse than learn from the elements that make up Jon and Tracy Morter’s success.

Effective Tweeting Made Easy

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:58:25 GMT

As I have grown more accustomed to Twitter I have created a way of managing what I am doing to maximise what I can get out of this short-messaging system and this blog post is intended to share that with you... and to throw in a few handy tips on best practice too!

The first and foremost thing for effective tweeting is a 3rd party app that allows you to tweet from your desktop. For me this is important as the website itself is a little clunky and limited in what it can display for you at any one time. Running a dedicated Twitter app from your desktop makes it easy to access and manage. My own personal favourite app is Tweetdeck, but it has a worthy rival in Seesmic Desktop. You can check out a comparison of the two here by Mashable. There are plenty of other clients out there such as Twhirl and Digsby that also do a great job, which can all be found at this handy wiki: Twitter Apps Wiki.

The reason I choose Tweetdeck originally was the ability to see all my tweets, @replies and DMs on one screen and be able to filter in/out certain search terms. This is still an extremely useful function that I use all the time, but the functionality of Tweetdeck in general as multiplied many times over! It now supports multi-account sign-in, the ability to update Facebook and MySpace, URL shorteners, organisation features via group creation, not to mention text translation options and spam reporting. Tweetdeck has quickly become the most powerful and popular 3rd party app for a reason...

One of the main problems people find with Twitter is how to process all the incoming tweets and still be a valuable contributor yourself. It is easy to get washed away in a tide of information, some of it relevant, plenty of it not. Rule 1 here I’d say is DO NOT just auto-follow people who follow you. There are a lot of junk/spam accounts out there. It is not a social faux pas to not follow someone back! My method is to quickly skim over the latest tweets and profile of anyone who has followed me and make a quick decision on if I want to follow them myself. Rule 2 is that setting up auto-DMs for new followers is a bad idea. People can tell they are not genuine. Those using auto-DMs and auto-follow are concerned with their number of followers. It is much more important, in my opinion, to have quality, not quantity, when it comes to twitter. Another tip I think worth noting is to have separate accounts for tweeting about work and/or personal musings. My love of American Football and discussion of the St Louis Rams has no place on my work account and I’m sure 99% of my followers would not be interested in receiving tweets about them. On the flipside, I don’t think my fellow NFL enthusiasts want to hear about Digital Rights Management and eBooks. It is a slightly grey area in some ways as you do want your ‘work’ Twitter account to have a personal side to it so you do not seem robotic link machine. The best way to do this is engage followers, RT their tweets and @reply and comment when you see fit. You can manage both accounts easily from within Tweetdeck these days which makes this very easy to manage.

As mentioned above I think it is far more important to focus on quality Tweople that you find interested and useful, rather than blanket following anyone who mentions your brand, industry or product etc... If you do find yourself in a position of following thousands of Twitterers you need to start really managing the information you will be receiving. Jesse Newhart’s HOW TO video here really helped me understand how to use Tweetdeck to keep on top of the torrent of tweets. I would note this video is several months old now and Tweetdeck has been massively upgraded and re-tooled since then, but the general principles still apply and can be used to great effect.

Once you have begun to tweet regularly and have built up a follower base you should use Tweetdeck’s group creation functionality to help organise the incoming follow of information. By creating separate columns showing tweets from a group of pre-defined users it makes it a lot easier to scan for relevant tweets. For example I have separate groups created for my work colleagues, target sectors and clients. If I want to know what people in the Publishing industry I follow are tweeting about its easy to scroll down and see etc...

So now you have a desktop Twitter client, a value-adding network of friends and a process of filtering the wheat from the chaff, but how can you provide useful content in return without coming across as a spammer? Well firstly it depends on the amount of tweets you send. If you are posting upwards of 5 tweets a day (not @replies or RTs) I would strongly consider using a tweet scheduling service such as Tweetlater, FutureTweets or Twuffer. I have always felt that posting several tweets in a row appears somewhat spammy and I also like to spread out my activity during the working day to maximise my chances of ‘being seen’. My own personal preferences are to tweet once an hour throughout the working day (starting around 9:30 and finishing at 5:30). Of course if I want to retweet or reply to anything this happens on an ad hoc basis. A few useful facts for you to help you tweet effectively: most RTs happen around 11:30am and 4:00pm. Tweeted links are clicked more often between 1:00pm and 2:00pm, while 2:30pm to 4:30pm is when there is the most conversation. Tuesday and Wednesday are the busiest days of the week and the weekends see a large drop in activity.

Valuable content is one thing, but it needs to be tweeted in a way that will encourage a click-through. Check out this blog post for more info on writing effective twitter headlines. Tweetdeck automatically shortens the URL which is handy, but I make a point to copy and paste the article’s title and add credit when I know the Twitter handle of the author. Sometimes I might edit the title if it’s unclear what the article I’m linking is about, but my general rule is to use the title. It’s also important to add hashtags in order for other users to find your tweets (and you if you tweet about the topic regularly). It is certainly worth being aware of the commonly used hashtags for topics you tweet or read about in order to fully engage users in the same genre. For example when tweeting about Social Media I will use both #socialmedia and #sm. When tweeting about the Third Sector I’d add the hashtag #nfp (not for profit), and so on. To save characters I will make any keyword in the article title a hashtag rather than adding it again at the end (i.e. Case Study and #ROI of a #Twitter Engagement (by @socialmedia2day) http://bit.ly/2dPreF#sm #socialmedia). I’d also add that where possible you should also leave 20 characters so that it is easier to retweet. By easier I mean that the user re-tweeting you is less likely to have to re-word your original tweet in order for it to fit the 140 character limit including the name-check to the original author. In summary, my basic tweet format is:

(by )

(i.e.) The 5 Big Myths of #SocialMedia (by @socialmedia2day) http://bit.ly/12jTIG #sm

When it comes to hashtags it is important to use them correctly. By correctly I mean using those that are relevant to your tweet. By hijacking popular hashtags in order to get your tweets seen you are open to heavy criticism for breaking social media protocols, as seen by UK furniture brand Habitat’s foray into social media. It is also important to hashtag your tweets as you will become much more visible to people that use the search functionality, or those looking to aggregate tweets of a particular topic.

So, in summary:

• Use a 3rd party desktop app (I recommend Tweetdeck).

• Create separate accounts for work and personal use.

• Focus on the quality of people you follow, NOT the quantity.

• Organise those you follow into quick reference groups.

• Engage those you find interesting. RT, comment, reply!

• Do NOT use auto-follow or auto-DM services.

• Use a tweet scheduling service rather than send your tweets in quick succession.

• Make your tweets concise, clear and give credit to authors.

• Use relevant hashtags to help yourself be found.

Facebook Applications from a Marketer's Perspective

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:19:13 GMT

This week's internal Chameleon Net seminar was run by Louise Ryan, our Head of Pre-Production Systems, who shared a developer's perspective on Facebook applications.

During the session, I briefly tweeted about Facebook applications from a business developer / marketing perspective:

RT @vickyreeves looking forward to hearing the internal @Chameleon_Net seminar on facebook application development from @louzoid

Internal seminar focused more on developer's perspective. Let's see what marketing / business uses I can pick out from it.

Facebook apps: publishing to the stream is most important in @louzoid's opinion - gives application a wide reach to user's friends...

Facebook connect allows your website to connect up to the user's facebook account so they can quickly publish news items on their stream.

The facebook OpenStream lets users read their streams wherever they want: mobile, desktop, etc. This means multiple interaction points...

Facebook have placed restrictions on apps to reduce spam - considerations: developer credibility, app popularity, if app verified...

Internal teams are considering niche facebook applications that our clients could develop. Your ideas for Higher Education apps..?

@louzoid Thanks for good overview of developing Facebook Apps - interested to see what specific apps we can create for our clients.

If have you ideas for a Facebook application which you'd like developed at your organisation to achieve specific objectives, then leave a comment below or tweet me @surajshah.

International Student Recruitment for HEIs

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:23:14 GMT

How to digitally attract, engage with and recruit international students, while mobilising your existing students to help with language translation, to overcome cultural barriers and give them valuable online marketing work experience.

There are websites, blogs & social networks such as facebook and twitter, all crying out for your prospective students' attention. I'm sure you'll agree that there is simply a lot of noise that they are exposed to. For prospective international students, that noise online is amplified, as you are competing not just with other UK Higher Education Institutions, but also the hundreds of institutions around the world.

Play this slidecast (7 mins 37 seconds) to get an insight into the 3 stage process to run an international Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) campaign at your university that spans across 12 to 24 months. The campaign involves forming a team of International Student Ambassadors, the creation of an optimised online destination, and digital community engagement to attract visitors to your new online destination and raise it's profile in search engines.

The slidecast also touches on a handful of tips to run a successful campaign and gives you a glimpse into what's involed in a 3-month international Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign if you want more rapid results.

International Student Recruitment for HEIs
View more presentations from Suraj Shah.

Twitter For B2B Websites

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:27:39 GMT
Like everyone in the digital marketing space, here at Chameleon Net we are twitter junkies. Even our table football has its own feed! The phenomenal growth the service has enjoyed over the last 5 – 6 months means that Twitter is the platform switched-on marketers are buzzing about right now. However, as with any service growing at an exponential rate, there are problems. This recent article warning of a “Twitter bubble” summed up some of our fears about the service and the industry springing up around it. The challenge Chameleon faces is to make Twitter part of the range of e-marketing services we offer to clients, in a way that can best guarantee a good ROI for both our clients and ourselves.

Many of our more forward thinking clients have expressed an interest in developing a Twitter account, and as a result this week we launched Drivers Jonas on Twitter. DJ is a commercial property consultancy turning over nearly £100m per year and employing over 700 staff, yet they remain remarkably agile when it comes to marketing their website. We're excited about this project because we feel that with the right aims and expectations, a B2B Twitter feed can easily harness all the best aspects of Micro-blogging.

As a B2B company Drivers Jonas is using Twitter to provide the company with a more human face than their corporate website can, as well as develop their reputation as a ‘thought leader’ within the property industry. We believe that in time, being active on Twitter will help Drivers Jonas unearth business leads, connect and interact with potential new recruits (especially undergraduates), as well as doing more routine things like publicising DJ events. One thing Drivers Jonas recognises is that Twitter isn’t a marketplace in which to sell, it’s a watering hole at which they can meet their stakeholders; something I believe is vital to good big-business tweeting.

We’ve also envisaged that in the absence of a DJ blog (which would be time consuming and difficult to operate in line with internal compliance procedures) the Twitter feed could be used as a rapid response in the case of a major PR event. This flexibility is something many B2B companies would love to have; for some blogging is the answer, but for marketers at larger companies getting sign-off for a controversial blog post is ‘worst nightmare’ territory. Twitter restricts you to 140 characters, and at the same time, restricts the barriers to getting a message out into the public domain.

I hope to blog again with more on this project as it develops, as I think it will provide some interesting insights into ‘corporate tweeting’. In the meantime, if your company thinks they could benefit from being on Twitter, but want a helping hand building a business case and launching an account, get in touch.

Seminar on Digital Student Recruitment - an overview

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:36:38 GMT

Chameleon Net held a seminar on Digital Student Recruitment for the higher education sector yesterday, Tuesday 24th February 2009.

Drew Davies, Head of Online Marketing at Chameleon Net spoke about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies for student recruitment.

Helen Aspell, Head of Digital at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and former Head of Digital Marketing at University of Southampton, spoke about User Experience, the heart of an engaging digital presence.

Drew Davies then spoke about Protecting Your Online Brand, where he shared a case study of the work Chameleon Net has done with Barnardo's UK on their opinion-polarising "Break the Cycle" campaign.
> > >
The seminar was well-received with feedback such as "Very useful & thought provoking", "Excellent - one of the best I've been to", "Impressive venue and tasty danish pastries in the break!", "Stimulating & Exciting", "Very well organised & professional", "Engaging & felt very current" and "Very interesting, frightening & enlightening!"

More on Chameleon Net's work in the higher education sector can be found at www.chameleonnet.co.uk/education

The Rise of Twitter

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:22:22 GMT

Social Media is a fast-growing and rapidly evolving beast, and the latest website to be the darling of the Google Generation is micro-blogging site Twitter. The idea is simple, you have 140 characters, including spaces, to answer the question- What are you doing now? This however, as with all things Web 2.0, doesn’t tell the full story. Twitter acts as a bulletin board as well, where titbits of information, via links, can be shared between users. UK Celebrities such as Jonathon Ross, Stephen Fry and John Cleese are all advocates, and Barack Obama used it during his election campaign to motivate the masses (he has over 144,000 followers). Twitter has seen its popularity grow 10-fold in the UK in the past year and traffic rise 750% in the US where it is know a more visited site than Digg. As I write this blog post just under 2 million tweets are being submitted worldwide every day!

Whilst to ‘outsiders’ it might seem a trivial and almost pointless service, only for users with high levels of deluded self-importance, but Twitter played notable roles during a several significant events in the past 4 months. The part Twitter played in providing break-neck speed updates on the Mumbai terror attacks in November led Forbes Magazine to write Mumbai: Twitter’s Moment. Before News services had broken the event on television Tweeps such as @rakesh314 posted “I'm hearing news of gun-firing in Mumbai. Can anyone confirm?”. Updates from people involved even led to an internet myth that the terrorists themselves were following events on Twitter itself to counter the actions of the forces sent in to stop them.

The much more recent plane crash into the Hudson River was another example of Tweeps providing a rapid reaction. One Twitterer, @jkrums, took a picture of the half-submerged aircraft with passengers standing on the wing from a passing-by ferry which quickly went viral and eventually landed him an interview on CNBC. Others tweeted about how they stood watching the drama from their office blocks. What was the most notable though was the integrity of the tweet-reporting which cited accurate numbers and stories relating to the event as information about what had happened disseminated among users.

As great as all this impartiality and interactivity sounds, how can Twitter serve the business community? And that’s exactly the point, this notion of impartial interactivity. Twitter provides a transparent window into an organisation for the consumer, a portal in which to directly interact. Several brands are using it as such a device to. @ScottMonty is the face of car manufacturer, Ford, on Twitter (who have multiple employee accounts) and says “It’s part of a larger social media strategy to humanize the Ford brand and put consumers in touch with Ford employees”. Lisa Kim @AmericanApparel is the Website Manager for American Apparel and is another advocate of Twitter as a way of increasing customer care, “We saw a tweet from someone who received less than stellar customer service at a store in Canada & we got in touch with them to sort it out.” Children’s Charity Barnardo’s used Twitter alongside their blog to engage the media storm around their controversial ‘Break the cycle’ ad campaign (managed by Chameleon Net) so successfully that Barnardo’s own staff kept abreast of the situation by following the charity’s own Twitter feed. Higher Education Institutions are now looking at using Twitter as a Personal Learning Network in which students can ask questions of their peers and teachers in order to increase feedback and accessibility.

Twitter is quickly evolving to become fundamental in the development of any digital strategy and with its thrust into the UK lime-light thanks to varying celebrity endorsements, its popularity is only set to grow. Businesses need to educate themselves and start twittering soon or risk being left behind by more media-savvy rivals.

CREDIT TO:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/Revolution/News/875017/Celebs-start-tweeting-Twitters-UK-popularity-rises-10-fold-year/

http://nielsen-online.com/blog/2009/01/16/tweeting-the-us-airways-flight-1549-plane-crash/

http://popacular.com/gigatweet/analytics.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/twitter_the_mumbai_myths.html

Audio Books – Who’s Listening?

jeremyd@chameleonnet.com (Jeremy Davis) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:12:18 GMT
My Dimbleby mission continues. Seriously, David, look over your shoulder and you will see me there…albeit with the need of the Hubble telescope.

I was invited to be a panel member for The Bookseller’s “Audio Revolution 2008” – a one-day Publishing industry seminar focussing on all things audio book-related.

My session was the last of the day and I must say that it showed in some of the faces but nonetheless Jo Henry chaired an interesting discussion about how audio books could/should be marketed.

I was representing the web marketing side of things, with Tony Lynch of Gospoken making an excellent case for the viability of audio books on mobile phones and Madeline Milne of e-Music discussing the success of their subscription-based download model.

It was difficult to do justice to this very broad topic in fifty minutes and I was very surprised at how few questions the panel got from the floor. I think this represented a general feeling that I got from the afternoon. No one was really talking about marketing audio books. By which I mean getting them out there and selling them.

I spent the afternoon thinking that audio books are like this little-known secret and it surprises me that the industry isn’t shouting about them more. I mean, they are really great!

I was speaking to one of our recent recruits at Chameleon Net – young, early twenties, bright – and, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, he said “I don’t like reading books, but I really like audio books. I wouldn’t read a book on the train but I just put on an audio book – it’s great.”

And there it was…a new market for publishers. So why, I wonder, isn’t the industry shouting from the rooftops about this amazing format that means people who don’t like reading can enjoy books? I mean, some people are just mainly auditory – that’s how they like to learn and that’s how they like to consume information.

Surely the industry should be running massive campaigns about audio books?! Publishers should be giving some away as tasters…get people using them!

I think if the publishing industry could unite, get over all the internal issues like audio book rights, royalties, investment in recordings, etc and just get the message of audio books out there, the response would be huge! Just get people aware of them, using them, liking them. There’s a market out there and most of them don’t think about audio books. And they are not all old women and travelling sales reps.

So, “quit your whingeing” I hear you cry “and do something to help”. Ok then, I will. Here are my top ten tips for marketing and selling audio books:

1.   Get all over social networks – they are still the fastest growing sites in the UK and your target market is using them every day. Sometimes for hours and often when they should be working. Create groups, use Facebook advertising, run competitions, give-aways (i.e. free downloads)

2.   Use ePR (or an agency that knows how to use it :)) to target key influential bloggers and get them blogging about you and your products. Credibility online is everything and all votes are not created equal. Make powerful friends and work together.

3.   Get all over search engines. By which I mean Google. They have nearly 90% of UK searches and 94% of people use it, all of whom are qualified as having an informational need (otherwise they wouldn’t be searching). Where else would you want to advertise? Do this by PPC ads and also by optimising for organic search results (see below).

4.   Optimise for natural search. This gets its own number coz it’s so important. It’s by far the best ROI when it comes to search engine marketing and every day that you don’t do it and your competitors do, the lower you will show up in the searches. In natural SEO, doing nothing just means you keep getting lower. More of this below….

5.   Use metadata: use target key words to describe your audio files and make sure they are on optimised pages: page titles, H1 tags, alt tags, copy, etc. SE’s can’t listen to audio books (yet…I’m not kidding, speech recognition software is getting better and Google may soon be able to index the spoken word) so give them lots of thematically-relevant content to help them.

6.   Think Accessibility. Audio books have a perfect market in people with visual impairments. Make sure your site works for screen readers. If you’re not sure, get an audit (“from us” is the answer to your next question).

7.   Speaking of sites…get a good one. There’s no point spending time and money marketing products if your site is rubbish at converting visitors to customers. You’ll lose sales and damage your brand in the process. Make sure your site makes buying mind-numbingly easy. Joyful even. People should leave your site happier than when they arrived. If not, your site is letting you and them down. I mean, nobody likes to be made to work hard to buy something – it’s just not polite.

8.   Don’t worry about DRM. There are so few audio books out there that there is not much of a market in illegal copies 9unlike music). It’s about creating the market at the moment – better to have a million audio books out there with 10 per cent buying them than ten thousand with 100% of them buying. DRM can always be adopted later.

9.   Create added-value content. Like extras on DVDs…publishers can offer something more than the retailers…exclusive interviews with the author, an introduction, an otherwise unpublished epi/prologue, etc. This will really help the ePR and build buzz.

10.   Sell ‘em direct. Find out what your customers like and talk to them about it. Don’t let Amazon have all the fun.

Of course audio books are part of a seismic shift in the Publishing sector that is happening in order to adapt to digital content and multiple delivery platforms and formats.

For an excellent analysis of these changes, I recommend Sara Lloyd’s insightful article “A book publisher’s manifesto for the 21st century”.

If you are a publisher and want to know more of our thoughts on this and other Publishing-related topics, you may want to attend our free seminar: Quick Web Wins for Publishers, on Tuesday 25th November at London Chamber of Commerce, EC4. There’ll be exclusive content and an opportunity to ask us questions.

The Blogosphere: Friend and Foe

lucie@actualmarketing.co.uk (Lucie Bickerdike) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:57:30 GMT

Like Suraj, I’ve been thinking a lot about online PR recently.

Public Relations traditionally holds a reputation management role, making sure its organisation is kept in the public eye, regarded positively and protected from the damage caused by public criticism. Crucially, the internet offers companies the opportunity to engage with their target audiences in new and exciting, more productive ways – but it also gives consumers a platform from which to vent about poor experiences, and negative reports can spread like wildfire. I need say no more than ‘Dell Hell’.

This topic was touched upon by one of the speakers at a CIPR conference I attended this week, and the Q&A session was indicative of how wary much of the PR industry still is on the subject of online PR. One exec said that her company had so far omitted any online activity from their communications strategies, but that they had realised they really should get involved. However, her particular organisation was subject to a certain amount of public criticism. Her question was this: if we begin communicating with our audience online, will we be opening ourselves up to more criticism and will we in fact be focusing people on the negative story?

Of course, the answer was this. People are talking about you online, positively or negatively, anyway – would you rather stick your head in the sand and let the conversation go on without you, or engage in it and take some control of the messages being circulated?

I think an important point to make about PR is that it’s not always just about the protection and management of company reputation. Yes, a company’s reputation is arguably its most valuable asset – after all, consumers listen to each other and if they’re all slagging you off you’re unlikely to make enough money to survive. But PR can also be used to communicate with customers on a more equal level, where you’re not trying to impose your own interpretation of their needs upon them, but really listening to them and building their feedback into your product or service.

The internet offers some exciting possibilities for companies wanting to place customer requirements at the centre of their business. If you do it right, you can get valuable feedback from your target audience that would cost you thousands in focus groups and surveys. Perhaps this is the most valuable PR opportunity presented by new media at the moment.

The fact remains that organisations can no longer hide from the fact that the web now has the power to make or break them. The ‘blogosphere’ should be ignored at their peril.

A little CASE of Reputation Management in Higher Education

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:42:11 GMT

In August, Vicky (our MD) and I spent an afternoon at the CASE Europe Annual Conference in Brighton. The conference was attended by Alumni, Communications, Development and Marketing professionals in the Higher Education sector across Europe, although mostly the UK.

CASE, which stands for Council for Advancement and Support of Education, is an international network of professionals leading the advancement of education. CASE runs a number of conferences, seminars and workshops, and the CASE Europe Annual Conference dealt with some of the big issues as well as the smaller, day-to-day matters that occupy those immersed in the Higher Education sector.

The first session I attended was titled Crisis vs. "No Comment", where a panel of speakers explored a number of situations where they talked about whether to consider the issue a crisis and do something about it, or simply state "No Comment" and let it slide. It was encouraging to see that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) generally respected other HEIs and would be more interested in supporting each other rather than make the others look bad. The sector as a whole seems to really appreciate the karmic philosophy of "what goes around comes around".

This first session allowed for a large amount of audience participation where representatives from various universities were able to either share their own experiences of how they handled situations, or ask questions to the panel. One situation I had read about before attending the conference was about a university student who created a video that slated the course she was studying on and posted it up on YouTube. This student was subsequently suspended from the course, and I was curious about how other universities may have treated this situation...

From the response given by the panel that I posed the question to, it appeared that most universities would rather sweep such a situation under the carpet and 'let it go away' rather than engage in an online conversation to resolve the friction created on the web. It turns out that although most universities have grievance procedures in place to handle complaints offline, many universities are simply not yet prepared to deal with issues that arise in the digital landscape. This tends to 'lettings things slide' which unfortunately snowballs into prospective students wanting to back out of courses that they are just about to start. More on online reputation management at the article "How To Manage Your Online Reputation".

The panellists of the Crisis vs. "No Comment" included Tara Brabazon, Professor of Media Studies at University of Brighton, Ann Mroz, Editor of the Times Higher Education magazine, Peter Slee, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Student and Staff Affairs) at Northumbria University, and the panel was chaired by Ian Rowley, Director of Communication and Strategy at University of Warwick.

The second and final session that both Vicky and I attended (remember, we were only there for the afternoon!) titled "Buzz, brand and budget" was presented by Helen Aspell, Head of Digital Marketing Communications, at the University of Southampton. As we are the official digital marketing partner of the University of Southampton, it was only right that we attended the session to support Helen, and I'm glad I was there as it was really very well presented. Helen talked about why social media technologies such as Facebook, Second Life and Twitter are crucial to your brand, how to choose what to get involved in, and how the effects can be measured.

One area that Helen touched upon was the use of video to promote your university, which certainly peaked my attention. From the informal research I've been doing recently, there are many universities at the moment who are putting their promotional glossy 'corporate videos' up on YouTube, and clearly these videos are taking a lot of heat from the universities' own student - see comments to the following promotional video at University of Coventry's YouTube channel.

> >

This video attracted a mix of comments such as "Just graduated from there, that video makes it look so much better than it is." and "Cov Uni should be knocked down and replaced with a duck pond.", to "Im a student there and i love it. great place. quiet city. perfect for students." It also attracted comments from Coventry University's own reputation management team such as "just to let you know that a lot of the campus is being knocked down and rebuilt over the next few years, so expect things to look a lot better"

What Helen Aspell at the University of Southampton pointed out is that YouTube is NOT the place for 'corporate videos' of your university. YouTube is the place for 'authentic' videos that portray student life as it really is, ideally filmed by the students themselves. There was one incident that Helen mentioned during her talk, where one of their freshers posted a video about how hard she was finding her first week at the university, and that she really didn't like her halls where she was staying at, and was considering leaving her course and the university. The following week she posted a second video that shared about how actually the course isn't so bad, and she's making friends, and she now will stay on the course. This is the kind of video that is better to have on YouTube, as it gives a genuine account of university life. I wonder how other universities are using YouTube and other video social networks as part of their digital marketing strategy...?

Attending this conference in Brighton was certainly worth the trek from London down to Brighton, and I intend to be there next year. The next CASE Europe annual conference is 24-28 August 2009 in Liverpool (England) and you can register to attend at www.case.org. If you're attending, be sure to come over to our stall (yes, we intend to have a stall there) and say hi!

Also, if you are in a strategic role within Higher Education and want to know more of our thoughts on Online Reputation Management and other HE-related topics, you may want to take a look at a summary of our free seminar: Quick Web Wins for HEIs, which took place on Tuesday 25th November at London Chamber of Commerce, EC4.

Digitise or Die (or “Much Ado About Digital”)

jeremyd@chameleonnet.com (Jeremy Davis) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:12:00 GMT
In my ongoing mission to become the David Dimbleby of the Web Industry (and beyond?) I recently spent an afternoon chairing a “Question Time” style event for movers and shakers in the UK publishing industry: “Digitise or Die” was the inaugural annual event run by The Bookseller, the leading trade publication for the book industry, with the sole intention of focusing on the issues facing the book business in the digital age. And issues there are.

Pretty much ever since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, the only way you and I could get our hands on a book would be if a Publisher printed it (the only way to create multiple copies on anything like a large scale) and a bookseller sold it to us. Simple. Oh yes, and of course and author needs to write it.

So, publishers find authors, groom them, coach them and generally hone their talent so as to (hopefully) create not only a great piece of writing but also a rampant commercial success. Of course the publishers would have to kiss a few frogs but hey, sometimes when you get your prince he turns out to be a darned good catch (JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Dan Brown anyone?)

So, that model’s clear: Publisher finds the creative talent, publishes the work, markets it, sells it to retailers and then you and I buy it. Hang on a minute…that sounds familiar…creative talent…publisher…seller…consumer…Ah yes I’ve got it! It’s the music business!

And that is essentially the problem facing the book business – how to not do what the music business did. In the digital age the roles are unclear: anyone can be an author (just add talent), publish a book, mass produce it, reach an audience (if it’s any good) and distribute it worldwide, absolutely free.

Perhaps books are just content, and the web is very good at distributing that for free. So who’s going to pay for it? Yes, the book business is probably going through its biggest change in over 500 years, when Gutenburg, quill in hand, said to himself “there MUST be an easier way of doing this!”. Anyway, back to my Dimbleby impersonation....

With research done and cue cards in hand, off I went. There were several speakers in the morning and then my session was in the afternoon. Tension was in the air…what does the future hold? speakers included Jason Hanley from Google (who are digitising content at a rate of knots) and he aptly demonstrated the speed at which the internet, in only 15 years, has been able to reach an audience of 1.5billion – way faster than the decades it took TV or radio to reach anything like those numbers. Yes, the internet is REALLY good at delivering content.

All in all the event was developing a fairly dramatic atmosphere and like any drama there had to be a bad guy. And there was. Enter, stage left, Andrew Keen, self proclaimed “Anti-Christ of Silicon Valley” and both irreverently funny and deadly serious all at the same time. And his message? That book publishing is finished as a business, either for the publishers or the authors. Content has gone digital and digital content (as the music business is finding out to its cost) is largely free on the web.

As a popular author himself he should know – most of his money, he says, comes from live appearances (c.f. Madonna, Rolling Stones?), not book sales. Although a word of qualification here: as far as I know Andrew has one popular book to his name and that’s hardly a career. Most creative artists would expect to have to produce a substantial body of popular work before they can think about retiring…but I digress. And so to the afternoon session....

In front of an audience of book industry bods I chair an interesting discussion that ranges from the role of the author to the role of the high street bookseller. My fellow panellists included Andrew Keen, Kieron Smith (MD of BookRabbit.com) and Yang May Ooi, who introduced interesting ideas about how the nature of storytelling has changed with the digital age – maybe the book is a format from another time.

Our session was then followed by an excellent presentation by our very own Drew Davies who gave the audience a whistlestop tour of effective SEO techniques.

One thing was very plain throughout the day: Change is afoot. There is fear. There is excitement, anxiety, confusion and (as in all times of change) opportunity. My sense is that there will indeed be winners and losers in the publishing sector over the next few years and the landscape may look very different.

When the dust settles we will see who grasped the opportunities for delivering high quality digital products in a way that consumers want. Content is here to stay and if it’s good enough I think people will pay for it too. The challenge that faces the book business (and the music business) I think is how to position itself so that it adds value, not just the mechanism for distributing content. Value is always attractive....

Next question…ah yes…the man at the back with the yellow tie…yes you, sir!

Will the semantic web save the planet?

stephen@actualmarketing.co.uk (Steve Thorn) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:38:57 GMT
^{Last week I attended the annual Digital Marketing Conference in
Cambridge to hear what those with a vested interest in the rise and rise of the Internet
had to say about the digital future for all of us.

Presentations were on subjects like the power of mash-ups, the
belated arrival of the mobile revolution, the next generation of web connectivity
and the dawn of ‘intelligent agents’ on the web. (As a side note, watch out for that
phrase, ‘intelligent agents’ - I predict we’ll hear more and more about the chips
and processors behind the web descending upon humankind and making our lives ever
simpler).

This wasn’t the first time in the week that the emerging revolution
in internet and mobile communications was brought home to me. Just the day before,
on Radio 4 Today programme, Tim Berners-Lee had been talking about the future of the
web – and how the progress being made on the development of the semantic web will
reduce the workload on our poor human brains.

Two days later Apple launched its clever new iPhone 3G with camera,
satnav and push e-mail. The device was greeted by Tom Dunmore, writing on Stuff.tv:
"I can prove that the iPhone 3G is 31% better than the original. That's 31% better
than the Best Thing Ever." Blimey.

And then to finish the week we wrapped up the work on a couple
of recent news stories for Chameleon Net (you knew I’d get a plug in there
somewhere), both of which demonstrate ways the internet is being deployed for social
and environmental good.

First, there was the news that they’d been working on a ‘mash-up’
of data drawn into the Medicins Sans Frontiers website where the extraordinary work
of the agency in remote field locations was brought elegantly to life through the
plotting of those locations on Google Earth maps. This reflects MSF’s philosophy of
‘temoigner’ (act as witness) brought firmly into the 21st century. (By way of complete
digression, that’s also the title of a book by Nicholas Sarkozy!)

Secondly there was, on the face of it, the not-very-sexy news
that Chameleon Net have been working with the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Environment
Forum (YHREF) and Yorkshire Futures to create a dynamic shared online diary
for environmental groups and those working on regional information sharing.

With their newly joined-up ability these groups can work together
to ensure that environmental issues and concerns can now have greater impact on the
local, regional and national agenda. I’d give that a ‘hurrah’.

From all I’ve learnt recently about the rise of the semantic web
intelligently connecting like-minded global communities, added to the long-awaited
mobile revolution to help disseminate their joined-up thinking, I can’t think how
else we’re going to effectively communicate the changes we need to make to our society
to increase the planet’s survival.

Let’s just hope Tim Berners-Lee gets a move on – the clock’s ticking.

Steve is MD at marketing and PR consultancy the Actual group
(www.actualgroup.co.uk)}

A media insight into Chameleon's online world

lucie@actualmarketing.co.uk (Lucie Bickerdike) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:01:32 GMT

Lucie is Chameleon Net’s PR account executive at marketing and PR consultancy the Actual group (www.actualgroup.co.uk)

When Chameleon Net asked me if I’d like a regular ‘blog spot’ on their site, I was chuffed but a little nervous. Surrounded by the creative and technical insight provided by the blindingly bright Chameleon Net team, how would my PR perspective of the company and their work fare?

But the fact is that Chameleon Net do some really exciting work that deserves to be shouted about. This month, .Net magazine was so impressed with Chameleon’s new Médécins Sans Frontières website (www.msf.org.uk) that they asked us to produce a tutorial that walks readers through the process of creating the dynamic homepage banner. The piece, written by Daryl and Louise (with co-ordination and proofreading efforts from myself!), has not yet been published but watch this space for the finished article!

Chameleon Net are also pleased to share the expertise used to create such innovative work. I had the pleasure of attending their latest seminar, titled ‘Quick Web Wins’, on 24th June. Offering ‘practical, tactical ways your organisation can harness the web for short-term results’, the seminar was a great way for non-technical folk (myself included!) to get a better grip on the latest web techniques – and, most importantly, how to translate this knowledge into visible results.

At the seminar Jeremy observed that, while the media continues along its doom-mongering ‘recession’ track, the online industry is thriving. Still effectively in its infancy, the industry is constantly innovating and creating new opportunities for companies to increase their revenue using online methods. It’s an exciting time for companies to explore the possibilities on offer.

Drew’s talk on blogs and social networks was bang on trend. You can’t move in the new media press for articles on how social media can be exploited for by business. Bloggers have gained a name for themselves as pretty useful journalistic commentators on a broad range of subjects, and it is because of this that search engines tend to place blogs near the top of results. Many companies are now regularly contacting bloggers as part of their online PR activity and targeting users of networks as potential customers - but what we all really want to know is, as one member of the audience said, ‘how do you begin to measure ROI on this type of investment?’ It’s a sticking point faced by PR – and, to some extent, marketing – practitioners across the land, and there is no absolutely scientific answer. Perhaps the most successful companies are those willing to take a chance on new methods?

Speaking of hot topics in the new media press, Dan touched on one at the seminar that seems to have got them all a-froth: user-generated video content. According to .Net (177, July 08, p.15), Flickr users are none to happy about the possibility of video, or ‘long photos’, as well as photos being uploaded and shared on the site. Not everybody’s a fan of social networking sites, it seems, with one Flickr user commenting: ‘What will be the next step? Pokes? Third party applications that you have to invite 20 friends to use? Music playing on each member’s page to slow the site down even more?’ Ouch. I have to say I agree with the mag when it suggests that comparing the ability to upload simple video to an all-out MySpace style assault on users is taking it a bit far. It got me thinking, though: are social networking facilities actually a hindrance to users when they’re misappropriated? Perhaps this is an issue worth exploring for companies looking to monetise these sites – user experience is the all-important factor.

Last year, Chameleon’s ePR campaign for Tefal’s Jamie Oliver Survival Kit cookware sensitively navigated the rocky terrain of blogs and user videos, achieving high visibility for the product on dozens of UK blogs and a fantastic level of consumer participation on the mini site, which invited user video content. The success of the project showed that while these techniques are still in development, if you approach them with a real understanding of consumer requirements your brand will almost certainly be enhanced.

Chameleon Stands Out....On Facebook!

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:02:47 GMT

Having just got back from my round the world, (well, Vietnam and Cambodia ) charity travels. I arrived back at work and like any good employee, headed straight for Facebook.

I am really excited about Facebook this year (especially now I’ve posted the video blogs from my trip.)

Actually it’s the advertising on Facebook that’s really caught my eye.

I’ve been checking out Facebook’s advertising interface and the list of targeting parameters is endless, gender, location, relationship status, political views, workplaces and stated interests to name but a few! And, for each parameter you add, a calculation is made on how may people you will be targeting. The whole process is quick, simple and so very attractive to the eyes of an online marketer. – You can even choose your favoured pricing model (CPM / CPC.)

Seen as Facebook advertising is still relatively new I predict that costs will be low and conversion rates will be good. Mix that with the fact that campaigns are highly targeted and you’ll be bound to see some great ROI.

In order to jump on the Facebook advertising bandwagon you’ll need a Facebook Page. I have just set Chameleon Net up with our very own page – Take a look.

It’s important to remember not to just use the page as a stepping stone to allow you access to the advertising features. A page must be managed and kept up to date. Once you have your page Facebook users can become fans of your company, service or product. The Page then acts as a great way to interact with, and contact your customers and also spread the word amongst their friends.

As with a Facebook profile, Facebook pages also have many features such as adding RSS feeds, linking del.ici.ous accounts, galleries, videos, events etc.

I really urge you to take a look and try out Facebook (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme!)

Check out the Chameleon Net Facebook Page for inspiration and if you need any tips, why not post a question on our discussion board.

“Facebook” ad platform to be popular in 2008

kelm@chameleonnet.com (Kel Miah) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:00:02 GMT

2007 showed phenomenal growth for “Facebook”, by the end of the year it had 7.6M active UK users, that’s 12.5% of the population. With so many active users participating on the social networking site some form of advertising system to target these users was inevitable.

Social networks such as Facebook create groups of niche users by gathering some personal information about them, such as hobbies, interests, marital status, and age. This information is primarily used to provide users with a compelling and interactive experience, but they also help build an advertising profile.

What these niche groups create is the opportunity to target very specific audiences with relevant ads which they may find interesting. As an advertiser you would expect more ROI or a higher click through rate if your ads were being served to pre qualified traffic.

Facebook’s ad platform consists of 3 major types of platforms, Facebook Pages, Facebook Social ads, and Facebook Beacon.

Facebook Pages - allows brands to have profile pages on in the same way that users have them.

Facebook Social Ads - allows advertisers to use the full range of profile information to target people by age, gender, relationship status, location, and so on.

Facebook Beacon - is a widget-like system being adopted on 44 third party partner sites. Activities on sites using Beacon will flow back into a Facebook user's News Feed or Mini-Feed, allowing their friends to know some of what they did at that site.

The basic principle of the advertising platform is similar to conventional platforms, using Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Impression (CPM) pricing models.

I can imagine a lot of UK advertisers experimenting and trialing the Facebook ad system, and just as Facebook demonstrated phenomenal growth in 2007 I believe their ad system will prove very popular in 2008.

I expect users to be highly receptive to these form of ads, my first impressions are that the ads to not lower the user experience and because the ads are highly targeted the users see them less as advertising and more as recommendations.

If one of the user’s hobbies is listed as reading comic books and Formula 1 racing, then ads for Formula 1 merchandise and reviews about the newest comic book will be seen as recommendations rather than traditional advertising.

'Tis the season to give online...

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:05:45 GMT

Does anyone recall those childhood Christmassy charity drives? You know, those ‘Sponsor me to eat 10 mince pies’ type of things.

You were cajoled into walking around in the bleak mid winter weather, knocking door to door with a soggy piece of paper asking for sponsorship – only to have to go through the same dreary saga after the event itself just to collect the money? – All that, and I don’t even like mince pies!!

Well, what with the latest in internet trends, social networking and fancy applications, fundraising has never been so easy – or fun for that matter! You no longer have to brave the extremes (until the event itself that is!) You can do all your fundraising and collecting online from the comfort of which ever festive environment you prefer.

I recently decided to take on the challenge of cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia (much better than 10 mince pies, I know!) In my efforts to raise as much as possible I have been throwing myself into web 2.0 as only an online marketer knows how!

Websites like Just Giving offer you a secure online sponsor form and a quick and easy transaction process – they charge a small percentage, but allow you to claim gift aid and better yet they send the money direct to the charity on your behalf! You may also have noticed a number of the bigger charities, like our client UNICEF, creating personal fundraising portals for themselves, where all the money goes straight to them.

Once you’ve got your interactive sponsor form then why not utilise another one of our web 2.0 friends – You Tube. Create a video, post it on You Tube and promote your event. It will spread the word quicker than your waist line spreads at Christmas! – Take a look at my You Tube effort – it’s worth a hearty chuckle or two!

Try creating a Facebook group to publicise your event, post pictures of your training and links to your sponsor form. My group is a right little hub of activity with 77 supporters to date!

I’ve been fundraising for a few months and am already 64% on the way to my target – Facebook has introduced me to other supporters of the charity I am cycling for and I’ve even had sponsors from some very generous people that I don’t know!

So if you’re in need of a boost to your door to door fundraising then I say ‘give online a go’. If you’re interested in taking on a charity challenge take a look at what’s on offer from Barnardo’s, and if you want to sponsor me then make a swift visit to my website!

'New Web' seminar - three hot discussion points

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:29:00 GMT
I thought it'd be worth outlining three particular areas discussed in conversations at breaks and during the Q&A slots at the end of each session at the recent seminar.

Attendees were asking:

1. Should we set up a corporate Facebook profile?

2. What are the pros and cons of implementing AdSense on our site?

3. How much of a risk is it to allow UGC on our site and deal with negative comments?

So here are some thoughts...

1. Facebook. Clearly this is one of the most popular online social spaces going at the moment, and naturally companies want to know if it's appropriate for them to get set up with a presence on Facebook.

The simple answer is to decide whether or not you have anything useful to contribute in the context of connecting individuals within your company with the other individuals using Facebook to communicate.

If the answer is a strong 'yes' then it may well be worth looking at what you might achieve and how.

If the answer is a 'maybe' or a 'no', then I'd question whether it is of value, because the risks of blundering in and making yourself unpopular, or of spending budget on something that delivers poor return, could rule it out as an avenue.

Even if you don't set up a Facebook profile, one thing is for sure though: your target audience is out there networking, so it is definitely worth considering which methods could work for you to communicate directly with them, something we are helping a number of clients work out.

If you haven't given much thought to whether it's appropriate or not, but are pressing on regardless, it probably won't end well!

2. AdSense. Monetising your website can be an attractive proposition, and Google's AdSense (the system whereby you can opt to display adverts through Google's AdWords programme on your website) is one of the main options.

Our experience is that AdSense is limited in how effective it can be to generate income, and that ensuring that appropriate ads appear on your site can require a significant management overhead.

Here are some specific criteria to help determine whether AdWords can be of benefit to you...

1. You run a site in an industry where people are used to seeing advertising (e.g. magazine style content). This will mean people find them less intrusive and that a portion of your visitors will have a propensity to convert.

2. You have enough traffic to make it financially viable. There's no sense in spending a lot of time and resource managing the ads if there is not enough revenue in it to make that profitable.

3. You are willing to accept that ultimately you do not have total control of some content that is displayed on your site.

4. You are also willing to accept that, despite the tweaks that can be made to the visual format of Google Ads, some visitors will find their experience devalued, given the presence of AdSense on many poor quality, cheap and 'spammy' sites, and possibly will think less of your brand.

The short answer is that there are a few situations where we would recommend AdSense is used, but they are exactly that - few.

However, if you want to look at the revenue streams through on-site advertising, a more worthwhile option could be either niche providers who specialise in syndicating certain types of advertising, or to set up your own ad management functionality and solicit ads yourself, and only select those you feel are a good match for your site's content. It may require a little extra effort and cost up front, but you get greater control, and of course you get to keep all the income too.

3. User Generated Content (UGC).

In our view, getting involved with user generated content is one of the great opportunities of doing business on the new web.

The reason for this is that it creates a dialogue between you and people you communicate with, and it shows to everyone you engage with that you are a transparent, customer-facing organisation that is happy to talk to people, confident about its product or service, and comfortable with dealing with all situations, both positive and negative.

OK, negative comments about your brand can be a bit scary, because if you allow people to post content on your site, they may well say what they think, so some companies are understandably nervous of this.

But the greatest risk is not participating.

People will make their thoughts known online whether you like it or not. They are probably talking about you right now. Do you know what they are saying? And if so, would it be appropriate to join in?

At least on your own site you know how people are feeling and what they are saying to each other. So why not be part of that conversation, and fix problems when they go wrong. If you do that, not only have you engineered a 'brand success' with an individual when you remedy an issue, but everyone involved in the dialogue can see it too.

'New Web' seminar - quick update

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:20:37 GMT
Just a quick thank you to all who attended the latest in our series of free educational seminars on Thursday 11th October at The Groucho Club in Soho.

The event was titled: Debunking New Web Myths - The Realities of Commercial Success with Web 2.0.

We felt Web 2.0 had been in circulation long enough now to warrant a bit of scrunitising, breaking down the fact and fiction, and making some sense out of what is effectively the Internet's buzzword du jour.

We really felt the seminar was a great success, in fact our most subscribed to date with around 60 attendees, particularly important when trying out a new topic and slant.

It seems that sentiment was echoed by the attendees, especially those who have kindly allowed us to publicise their comments, such as Catherine Demajo, Head of Magazine Marketing at Time Out who thought it was “a great seminar”, Andrew Oldfield, Website Resources Manager at The Housing Corporation who thought it was “fantastically useful”, and Emma Simon, Marketing Director at Walker Books who said we were “engaging, enthusiastic and informative”.

It's great you guys felt the seminar was suitably valuable to share those comments with a wider audience. We appreciate it too, so - thanks!

We'll be running the seminar again very soon, so keep your eyes peeled...

(BTW, I'll be submitting a specific post or two on more topical seminar-related stuff over the coming days.)

Can old dogs learn new tricks?

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:02:52 GMT
Apparently they can. But what about the old tricks?

At a dinner out on Friday with a friend I hadn’t seen in a few years, the conversation got around to Facebook. One of the questions we considered was whether it serves to reconnect you with friends you should’ve kept in touch with, or whether we are all in touch with the people we want to be and that Facebook is a good tool to help manage those relationships.

We didn’t reach a consensus on the use of Facebook over dinner, (although we did resolve that none of us is using MySpace anymore, except to look up new music). So, admitting that I had previously considered Facebook the domain of those younger and significantly hipper than myself, and in the fresh knowledge that a whole crop of my peers are on there, I decided it was time to jump in.

Over the weekend I set up my Facebook account and also found some time to try out Twitter properly (more on that later). I did this while alphabetising my vinyl record collection (sad, yes, but true) so as to keep at least one foot in the dusty old analogue world to which I still feel a connection, despite spending every day at work immersed in the web!

As you’d expect, Facebook is a piece of cake to use. If you’ve never tried it, the setup is quick and easy, the interface is streamlined with nice AJAX-ey bits and pieces, and it plugs into other apps you might use, like IM, email and RSS feeds.

Having set up my profile, I made my first friend by inviting my wife to join my network (it’d be a bit rude of her to decline, so I figured I was on safe ground). Of course she accepted, and promptly proceeded to write on my Wall to ask me to make her a Gin and Tonic, even though I was a mere floor away, upstairs in the same house.

Larking about aside, social apps like Facebook are making distance irrelevant for all sorts of interaction, but an interesting side effect is that we are seeing them being used at the expense of other forms of communication. So seduced are we by the simplicity and immediacy of these applications, that they can become the preferred medium for personal contact.

After the initial period where social apps shed their buzz and become web mainstays (for instance, Facebook is 3 years old, but only expanded outside educational networks last year), I’m hopeful for a world where we can mix and match, and that we don’t over-rely on these apps to keep our relationships going, but rather that they enrich them.

Something I have in common with everyone born before the late 80s is that I didn’t grow up with the Internet. We all have a memory of life without computer-centric communication, even though we’re making the most of the web and all it has to offer.

The fear, I guess, is that today’s generation of children, and those who come after, won’t remember a world without the Internet, Google, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MMO games, iTunes, and whatever comes next.

Of course, there are many generations in modern history that can lay claim to technology innovations that changed their lives compared to their antecedents, from automated industrial machinery through to mobile phones. But no previous technological changes come anywhere near close to the sheer dizzying pace of the last 10 years of online advancements.

I think it’s key then, that whatever technology comes next is geared to enable people to communicate both on and offline.

Twitter is a great example, and one I’m hoping my social groups will catch onto. In case you don’t know, Twitter is an app with only one purpose: to let your friends know what you are up to at any given moment in time.

The main reason I can see this taking off and bringing offline benefits is that not only is it interoperable (you can add Twitter to your Facebook, MySpace, etc.) but also that it’s mobile. Users can text twitters to update their status and receive texts back from their twitter group to let them know what their friends are doing.

So, ‘Thinking of going for a pint at the King’s Head’ becomes ‘Having a pint at the King’s Head with Bob and Phil’ becomes ‘Sitting having a good chat with Bob, Phil, plus Gary and Dave who have joined us’, and so on…

Overall the benefits of social applications are immense, bridging distance, breaking down barriers, and helping to form and maintain relationships. If we can ensure we retain what was good about the old way of interacting with each other too, then we’ll all be a lot better off in the Web 2.0 and beyond.

Now, when sorting out my records I found out some were missing, and that others on my shelves aren’t mine. I think maybe I need a Wiki so people can let me know what records of mine I’ve lent them but forgotten, and I can list the seven inches people have left round my house. But I think I’ll arrange to meet up in real life to exchange them back again.