A brand and marketing whizz, Mark Glynne Jones worked with a number of the UK’s leading marketing and design consultancies, culminating in the role of Creative Director with an Omnicom Group Agency, a global leader in marketing and creative communications. In 1994 he founded the Jump To consultancy. During his career he has enjoyed working with leading global brands including Reckitt Benckiser, Toyota, Citroen, KFC, Panasonic, Ubisoft Entertainment and Heineken International as well as many of the UK’s leading FMCG brands including Tyrrells and New Covent Garden Foods. We caught up with Mark, a judge in this year’s
Website of the Year Awards on The Good Web Guide to discuss the growing importance of social media.
In what ways has social media changed the way we do business online?
Social Media now accounts for almost 25% of time spent online. The speed with which it has barged its way into the places that traditional marketing and advertising have reigned for so long has caught many brands and organisations by surprise. This has not only happened in the form of Facebook and Twitter, but also the resulting spin-off channels, starting with forums, then moving into communities, blogs and, latterly, location based tools such as Foursquare, which cleverly incentivises and rewards users the more they participate.
How important is it to have a social media strategy?
There is still a question mark in many people’s minds as to how utilising this new and, in the main, free technology can benefit a brand and show a return on investment. It’s all too easy for a brand to wing it when engaging social media; as with other marketing channels it’s vital there is a strategy in place. This can be formed by asking yourself some straightforward questions, such as: who is your audience? What is the right tone of voice to use to engage with this group? Which of my competitors are involved in the conversation?
Establishing a goal for social media is important: is it to build brand awareness and buzz online when you have a large following? Or more about following up individual leads? Some form of tracking is a must, be it for sales, email sign-ups, direct messages, click-throughs to website etc Those using social media to their advantage understand that any strategy is actually a work-in-progress.
Which social media platforms should online businesses be using?
There are an overwhelming number of social media and networking sites and the list keeps on growing! It very much depends on what your goals are, if it’s to reach influencers in a particular sector, say food or fashion for example, then blogging and bloggers are one option. I’ve witnessed a growing number of PR agencies seeking out and employing bloggers for not only their reach and influence but also because they are genuinely passionate about their subject.
Networks such as Linkedin are growing in popularity, particularly in the business community, but, last week, having passed the 500m active user mark, Facebook released some impressive stats about how 50% of these users will log in on any given day and, on average, will have 130 friends. The USA leads the way when it comes to tweeting followed by Japan - helped in no small way by Twitter launching a Japanese version in 2008. The UK and Europe trail some way behind.
Why is social media important to a brand?
With the growth of user generated content and the dwindling relevance of search results, people will gradually shift their trust from large aggregators like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and move to searching and finding content at specific locations. Eventually, they will create and integrate their own content hub into their personal digital experience. Brands and organisations will need to be informed and agile enough to be there to meet them. Ignore this fact at your peril!
What are the biggest mistakes people make when using social media as a business platform?
Language and tone of voice are incredibly important: imagine walking into a party and shouting over everyone else about just how great you are and how they would be foolish not to drop everything and come speak with you. The language of social media is not about being false, ignoring negative references or forcing your views on others. People will see through this, Twitter and Facebook are littered with brands that have made this fatal error and have not been able to claw their way back. This does not mean you have to be informal; if those you are trying to reach are receptive to a more considered and formal approach then that’s the way to go.
Where do you see social media going from here? Will Twitter still be the platform of choice in the future? How do you see social media improving over time?
Twitter is growing in leaps and bounds but do they know what they exactly want? Only time will tell. Twitter has been working to move away from the social networking site image it has had since the very beginning, claiming to be an information network or a source of news with social elements. It will need to address pretty quickly some of the stability problems it is having as a result of the huge amount of data and tweets the 190m unique monthly users are causing.
The success of the iPad already has spawned some great apps that will feed people's addiction to social media. Witness how demand for the social magazine app
Flipboard forced the company to introduce an invitation only system after only two days while they dealt with capacity issues!
Some observers are saying that social media may become less ‘social’ as groups, lists and networks grow and become more exclusive. Meanwhile, there are already signs of a massive increase in the adoption of social media across product, services and solutions companies. Enterprises will determine the next generation of social experiences by pushing technology enhancements that meet their needs, specifically around monitoring, automation, alignment with sales and integration with existing systems.
Mark Glynne-Jones is a judge in
The Good Web Guide's Website of the Year Award 2010.
Click here to find out more.
28 July 2010
