Going back to Google Analytics

There comes a time in your life-long learning where you decide not to keep up with certain subjects.

The latest HTML / CSS code, the specific configuration of some lesser-used Content Management System functions and whatever is number one in the pop charts.... Are all items of information I no longer learn or retain in my brain.

And to be honest this is the same for the finer and more recent workings of Google's free website analytics package. As I've used a number of web analytics packages over the last few years, my reliance on Google Analytics has reduced and I've now realised that, along with the product updating, my understanding of the entire suite of tools within Google Analytics is not up to scratch.

I'm therefore putting my nose back into the latest version (3rd edition) of the GA bible, Advanced Web Metrics by Brian Clifton.

I think the current aim will be to wade through this book again (I used to have a version of it a couple of years back, but gave it to someone) and possibly sit the Google Analytics IQ qualification tests...... depending on how much time I actually get.

Why has your SEO stopped working?

Have you started noticing that a lot of your efforts to push your site up the search engine results pages (SERPs) are now not having as much of an effect as they used to?

If so, then there is a good chance that your website has been penalised by Google’s algorithm updates.

Google's Panda and Penguin updates over the last 9 months have heavily targeted content and link spam.
Therefore these "less than white hat" tactics which used to work in the past (e.g. content farming, link networks, etc.) aren’t so effective anymore and in fact are much riskier now. This effect on your site could well be because Google has significantly changed it's ranking algorithm to penalise websites that breach their best practice guidelines. In fact, Google is known for making around 300 changes a year to this algorithm, which has over 200 factors (or 'signals') that affect it.

The Panda updates were meant to affect sites that depended on poor or duplicate content. It therefore hit sites that pulled or 'scraped' content from others.The Penguin updates that came a little later then affected sites that purchased links from other sites, rather than building them up correctly over time.

Now, the very work that has previously made your website rank well, may be having the opposite effect.

Note: I've been told by a few people recently things such as "we like your blog, but sometimes it gets too technical. Can't you write something a little less complex?". This posting is in response to that feedback and therefore I'd appreciate any further comments about its content.

Does big data mean big problems?

The subject of Big Data is currently reaching the level of hype previously reserved for Social Media, Web2.0 and the dotcom boom & bust before it. Just like these previous concepts... big data is large enough, complex enough and technical enough to bewilder a lot of 'normal' people. And like its predecessors, it is sufficiently hard enough to describe... however I like the explanation:

"Big Data is anything that doesn't fit into an Excel spread sheet"

However it is obvious that some companies are making progress with big data... whilst others, especially the consultancies, are keen to make out they have been involved with big data since before it was big news.

Of interest to me was this video posting by McKinsey, which explains how to deliver big data and the necessary analytics tools into the hands of  managers who need it.
http://www.mckinsey.com/features/advanced_analytics

However I think the challenge with all of this talk about big data is not only of defining it , but also getting started in the subject. You can talk about big data all you like, but how do you actually start making progress with analysing it and when does it actually become database administration (which has been dealing with gigabytes of data since before the dotcom bubble).

The Service Orientated Architect

With the innovation of service orientated architecture last decade (a set of principles and frameworks for designing and developing software around the re-use of back-end web services) complex web properties  became easier to develop and maintain. Key functionality was separated out and structured along business-focused processes, then integrated back together when required.

But do you ever get the feeling when working with digital technology (and therefore the technologists that wield the magical power to understand and work with it) that your business needs and issues are a mere distraction from their principle aims?

Yup, you're not alone.

It's not uncommon for a lot of Information Technology people, regardless of their level, to consider "the business" as an annoyance or actually having requirements counter to their technological aims.

Perhaps IT people need to be more service-orientated too? Structured and aligned to wheat the business needs, then integrated with their customers.

The overuse of the word strategy

The other day I was asked what online jargon ticks me off (to give it a polite title).

My first thought immediately went to the complete overuse of the word 'strategy' amongst a lot of people in the online industry. Here's my reasons why I think the word has become so popular:

1. Agencies and online consultants can charge more if they use the word strategy
(yup, for some reason, using the word automatically means you understand it and how to apply it to a client's business)

2. It has become incorrectly interchangeable with the word 'plan'.
(All too often I hear things like "we need an implementation strategy" when what is really meant it "we need a plan to put this website live correctly")

3. Clients feel reassured by the use of 'strategy' to define their aims.
(Admit it, no client wants to label their approach as anything but strategic. It would be counter to a lot of anyone's ambitions to say something like "here's a presentation of our content marketing tactics")

4. There are too many digital strategies
Yup, that's right.... The equation to calculate the number of digital strategies within any organisation is:
(Number of people who think they 'get' the Internet + 1).

Perhaps we need a strategy for digital strategies?

Where have all the website analysts gone?

All to often I speak with clients who have great websites and have therefore implemented analytics, such as those by Google, Webtrends, Omniture / Adobe, etc. However a lot of them also admit that they are not getting as much from these analytics packages as they should be.

They often claim that they either don't have the skills in-house or an aligned digital agency who can give them timely and relevant insight. This is a real shame, as these organisations usually understand that their business could be that much better if they could just gain better explanation of what their customers are doing (or not doing).

To back this up, a recent posting from eConsultancy highlighted an important and worrying trend..... website analysts are disappearing.

If you look at the graph above, you will see that in the recent survey, for a question asking "How many dedicated employees does your organisation have doing analysis of web data?" the number of organisations with zero staff responsible for web analytics has actually increased.

Increased? Surely it doesn't make sense that, in an increasingly digitally-savvy business environment, companies are downsizing their online analytics capability? It would seem so, and this is further backed up by the other data in this survey.... that clearly shows that most companies (i.e. those with up to 3 people responsible for online insight) have been reducing their focus on this important function in the last year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only those large companies with five of more dedicated website analysts have increased their numbers.

It seems that the either role of website analyst is disappearing, or the smart staff required to fill these roles just aren't around any more. Where have all these people gone?

Above the fold?

"Out of sight out of mind"

It's a pretty blunt saying, but for me it kinda sums up my thoughts about the 'fold'....that part of any web page that you have to scroll below to read stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_the_fold

And although we now have a generation of smartphone users who are accustomed to scrolling with their thumbs, I still believe users on PC's and tablets are less likely to scroll to content below the fold as it means they have to carry out another action.

Jakob Nielson also agrees with me:

Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information above the page fold. Although users do scroll, they allocate only 20% of their attention below the fold.

Obviously this topic is entirely subjective and a lot has to do with the user experience and design of the page. Plus there are now a LOT of different screen resolutions out there, meaning that content pushed entirely off of one screen could well be sat in the middle of someone else's. On top of this, a lot of people think that fold issues are a myth.....

But a recent Google update may make more of a difference to those interested in the benefit of the fold, especially those with more advertising at the top of the page. Now Google have updated their Page Layout algorithm, which is designed to reward sites with content, rather than ads, above the fold.
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2216227/Google-Updates-Above-the-Fold-Page-Layout-Algorithm

7 steps for creating a content marketing strategy

In my previous post, I mentioned that content marketing is easy. Well here's my thoughts on how to create and run a successful content marketing strategy:

1. Have a strategy

Yes, I know this I'd obvious. But if you set-off without knowing what you're doing, you stand a chance of going nowhere quickly (See my posts on agile digital strategy for my approach on doing this)

2. Have a strategy that can be measured

Yes... I've purposely made this a separate point and I think you need to be clear exactly what your KPI's are and what success looks like. These figures should also be stated within your business justification (e.g. for further resource to assist you or to explain why additional effort must be put in).

3. Create an editorial calender

Your content plan should not be a hand-to-mouth process of a weekly meeting to just plan the next few days of content production. Products are seasonal, demand is seasonal, budgets are seasonal and therefore content needs to be seasonal... or at least adapt to the changes needed over time.

4. Build an editorial team

Ok, not every organisation can have a full-time team of one, two or more people doing their content marketing. However this doesn't mean you don;t need to have the input of (offline) Marketing, Comms/PR, Product/Proposition and your own digital marketers (and/or agencies).

5. Don't just create content, share content!

It's simple enough to forget, but you're not just encouraging visitors to enter and read your content, you're hoping they share it via more traditional (email) as well as social channels. Therefore do what you can to encourage this via the use of social sharing functionality (usually via the typical array of social buttons) on your site.

6. Make it usable and beautiful

Ok, maybe not beautiful, but at least consider that your content isn't just for the search engines..... it has to be read by a human too!

You however notice that I've really not focused on Search Engine Optimisation in a post about content marketing. "Surely that was a slip?" you're thinking "SEO is key here, why not cover it?".... Well to tell you the absolute truth, we all should know that content marketing IS about SEO anyway and a lot of the points mentioned above should consider this all the time. I'm also keen not to promote a specific formula for search engine spamming within a content strategy.... or maybe I'm saving that for a later post?

Content Marketing is easy!

Or that's what those who don't understand the subject say anyhow.

However the recent wholesale adoption of the use of the term seems to imply that nobody was doing content marketing beforehand.... when in fact content has been at the heart of marketing for decades (if you don't believe me, just remember that the terms 'advertorial' and 'soap opera' were created by marketers to explain certain types of content created to promote their wares).

Having done, run and eventually made a success of content marketing, I can safely say it can be a complex beast. Not only because it involves different skills (not just copy writing), but also because in large organisations it typically involves several people or even departments. It is also an ever-changing discipline, that now has far more technical considerations than it used to.

In a recent eConsultancy survey,

90% of respondents felt that content marketing would become more important in the next 12 months and 93% said their companies either had a defined strategy in place or were planning on having one within the next year.

I therefore assume that if you're reading this you're planning on creating or improving your content plans into 2013. I therefore guess that for you content marketing is easy.... if it wasn't for the content and the marketing bits :-)

Agile digital strategy - an overview

Over two years back I created a set of slides about how digital strategy should be agile and not like the industrial age of strategic planning (e.g. not responsive to changes, etc.)

Well, I recently had to point people to this information, only to find out I'd not actually uploaded the entire presentation. So rather than have to sort through all the slides individually, here's the whole thing uploaded to Slideshare:

Agile Digital Strategy from Hayden Sutherland

BTW: The individual posts, along with an explanation of each slide are still available here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 & Part 6

A surplus of creative feedback

Just ask anyone in the media, marketing or promotional industries and they will tell you how difficult it can be to get sign-off of anything creative.

From clients that "just want a few extra changes" through to the wholesale madness that is "I don't like it, do it again".... Everyone has an opinion on creative work, everyone.

But just like every waiter in LA being an out-of-work actor and every taxi driver in London having a cure for immigration or Chelsea's failures in European Championships... Everyone seems to think they know how what good design looks like, even if they're not even asked.

You never get this in other industries (usually). Architects don't get treated like second-rate draftsmen, car mechanics are taken at face value on the quality of their work and I've never heard a hairdresser told "oh just do something and I'll tell you if I like it when it's done".

But give a client a single website design at breakfast and you'll have 10 different pieces of feedback by elevensies, plus a few more contradictory ones by lunchtime.

Has Google Plus lost the game?

In a recent piece of research, I was not surprised to see Facebook and Twitter taking up the lion's share of attention.

Using their online research tool, HighBeam (www.highbeam.com) looked into the total media attention received from the eight major social media tools / platforms in September 2012.

Although Twitter dominated with 55.84 percent of the media attention and Facebook had 40.30 percent, Google Plus received less than 1 percent of media attention. In fact it only had a meagre 0.08%, although they are keen to mention that their "Google+" search had to be performed as “Google Plus” (so results may not have contained all mentions).

However, this is yet another indication that the Google Social Network is really not getting the attention (and therefore the eyeballs) it needs, if is to compete with the big boys.

Are UK Financial Services cracking Social Media?

To a large extent the Financial Services market in the UK is still finding its feet with Social Media. This is strange, considering they have typically been at the cutting edge of digital adoption. Sure, most companies in this sector have raced to use Twitter and Facebook, but in my opinion a lot (and especially the bigger players) are still at the early stages of the Social Media Maturity Matrix.


However the  comparison sites are proving to be better at engaging customers with this channel than high street banks. Compare The Market’s position at the top of Stickyeye's recent Online Consumer Finance
Intelligence Report for social media reflects the online and offline branded campaign to “Compare the Meerkat”. The report gives the aggregator one of the highest engagement scores, despite claiming:

"Among the retail banks, social media remains a relatively under developed channel, with many operators not integrating their main site with key social media assets such as Facebook and Twitter.."

The UK however should look to the USA, where some FS companies have really found their way in this space:. For example American Express has been at the forefront of Social Media since launching its first online community in 2006 and then launching OPEN Forum a year later (a community project which focuses on small business owners).

Is your site ready for an ecommerce Xmas?

Yes, I know it's still 81 days until Christmas, but if you run an online store you're probably already preparing yourself for the busiest online sales period ever.

Or more to the point..... If you have not already prepared your website for the expected peak in Internet retailing in 2 and a half months, then you're leaving it very late to do anything about it!

Why?

1. Because as people feel the nights drawing in, they start to consider their Christmas presents for others. This means they're already browsing your site and some are carrying out early purchases to flatten out their seasonal spending.

2. Because properly assessing how to test your site for peak visitors and transactions takes time. From my experience: analysing, setting up tests and preparing for any volume & performance tests typically takes anything from 2 weeks upwards to do correctly.
Note: this can take far longer if you only have one environment (e.g. Live) to test against.

3. Because you don't just run one test during the middle of the day. You really should arrange a few tests over a longer period to get an average (Especially if you have any shared infrastructure).

4. Because there will always be something that needs to be fixed after you have tested your site. It may pass the expected volume tests, but if your developers or operational IT staff are watching carefully.... They will always find something to improve (meaning you should test again just to make sure).

A broken Mercedes website speaks volumes

Would you buy a new car from a website that didn't work?

How about one that, no matter what browser you used, still wouldn't let you view and configure a vehicle online?

No, me neither!

But in my search for a new car tonight (and on the recommendation of a friend) I tried mercedes.co.uk to check-out the latest range. And lo and behold, it didn't work. It literally gave me a grey screen and no content, no matter how often I tried.

Needless to say, I'm no longer in the mood for Stuttgart's finest. A shame really.....

IRIS : Internet retailing in store

Congratulations to Internet Retailing Magazine and Expo for their introduction of the term IRIS which is short for Internet Retailing in-Store.
Not only is it a great term that is easy to remember, but the eye-based connotation is also clever and relevant.
http://www.internetretailingexpo.com/

These days the use of mobile devices to shop online has grown to become a major revenue channel for all but the most resistant of retailers. But as more and more people shop with their smartphone in stores, and use other connected devices when they are there, then the in-store Internet retailing experience is going to become of increasing importance.
Note: connected commerce happens anywhere you can get data, not just at home on the sofa via a fast broadband connection (as I'm sure a lot if ecommerce traders still believe).

The Government's High Street Review revealed that retail spending has fallen by 42% in town centres and is forecast to fall further to 40% by 2014. So one could therefore argue that the more recent developments in online retailing such as click & collect now need to connect the digital experience with the physical one. Not just to increase the revenue for online traders, but as a potential way of boosting the stores income too.

Insurance data - is Google the answer?

I've been told I'm blogging a little too much about insurance aggregation. But the main question I still have is "where will a customer's driving data be stored, so that they can have ubiquitous and instant access to it (and preferably at almost zero cost)?"

Yes, the answer most likely is..... Google 

They are probably the only company set up to store this amount of data and make it available online at an almost free cost.

Also, if they now own a price comparison site as well, they may be able to crack the complexity of  mapping of user driving data back to the policies of the relevant insurers(and displaying it in a coherent manner).

BTW: If you think motor insurance is a 'big data headache' - wait until you get into Smart Metering for utilities.

Getting email personalisation wrong

This morning I received an email from the popular discount / voucher service Vouchercloud.

Now I'm sure I would have noticed calling myself 'Louise' when signing up for this service. But a quick check shows that all previous emails they have sent me are addressed to 'Hayden'.

Phew..... For a minute there I got confused. I therefore wonder if anyone else got the same issue.

Perhaps a simple slip, but poor personalisation can't help deliverability or click-through rates.

Who do you trust with your Big Data?

OK, I admit it..... I think Big Data is pretty sexy (But then I find anything remotely sexy if I don't fully understand it and want to. Its why I married a woman far more intelligent than me!). And if you're also a regular reader of this blog, you'll have noticed that I've recently been going on about the use of data in the motor insurer and aggregator market.

For me, the challenge with collecting vast amounts of data on each individual person's activity, such as driving speed and their late night policy breaking trip to the nearest supermarket, isn't about how an insurance company is going to calculate exactly how much extra to charge you for running out after midnight for those cigarettes, nappies, etc. but how you are going to get hold of that data when you decide to change suppliers. Because surely if you find it difficulty to move your own data away from one company who stores your data, they have an advantage over you?

So surely the answer is to not put your data with any one specific insurance company, as they could well have the advantage mentioned above. But to put your data in the hands of an intermediary service.

But again, you have the issue of who you trust to hold this data on your behalf. Perhaps a company with the infrastructure to easily hold your data securely, who can have access to a complex search service to be able to find trends in big data and who understands the online insurance aggregation market?

Which company could provide such a service? I must Google it......

Big data and telematics insurance challenge

In my research on the development of the telematics and the insurance industry  I have realised that my slide and previous post on the maturity of the aggregators needs to change. This is caused by the addition of data..... Big data!

As premiums get more specific to the individual driving behaviour and more data is collected on each policy holder, there are questions that I've got:

1. If I want to have access to all the data about my driving behaviour, can I?
2. How much data is this and how do I get it & store it?
3. How do I provide this data to another potential insurer to be able to compare their premium?
4. How would I then provide it to several insurers at the same time as part of an aggregate service and are they able to produce comparable policies?

So far there doesn't seem to be any easy way of taking one set of telematics driving data and moving it across to another company. Surely this will become of more and more concern to drivers and also to the people that set legal policy & regulations? So if the Data Commissioner's office and even the financial service regulation bodies are not taking an obvious interest, you can be pretty sure they will do soon.

In the end, telematics does not become an issue about creating a comparable policy from insurer to insurer, it is about the bigger issue of how user data is collected, where and who stores it, who has access to it (with and without the insurers permission) and what eventual use this is put to.

Will telematics save us from aggregators?

If you read my earlier postings on telematics (otherwise known as 'black box' or GPS car insurance) and the recent post on the new insurance aggregation service provided by Google, you may have combined these two things. You may have then, like me, asked how motor insurance comparison will work for those who opt for a little electronic box in the boot of their car.

In theory, telematics should give more personalised insurance premiums, as more data is collected and more relevant policies are created for each driver. The technology is used already in Brazil, South Africa and now also Australia, which have all apparently seen reductions in road deaths as a consequence.

UK insurers are starting to get more interested in telematics and so is Go Compare, one of the UK's leading aggregators. Go Compare initially approached telematics provider Wunelli to work on a 'black box comparison site' to understand more about telematics products. This led to Wunelli spending six months developing Compare the Box's price and product comparison facility.
http://www.comparethebox.com/

So far each insurer is compared using a number of a number of factors, including the location of the car and time driven (some charge extra for late night driving), but also other more detailed information such as acceleration, braking & cornering.

Back in April 2012, Compare the Box was the only telematics insurance aggregation website. But if the history of the web has told us anything, it is that when something unique and successful is developed..... a number of other similar services rush into this space very quickly.

The era of tCommerce

It seems that for the last decade, every successive year was going to be "the year of the mobile"....  up until last year, when it actually was! However, if you asked someone 10 years ago when the "year of the tablet" was going to be, they would probably have shrugged their shoulders or maybe muttered something about having "seen some devices back in the 90's that never really took off", etc.

But the tablet has arrived and now is a major platform for the consumption of online content (although perhaps not for the production of content).

This is exemplified by the recent statistics from the BBC, that showed how Olympic viewing on connected devices peaked in the evenings, when the tablet became the most popular device as people settled down either just with one or together with their TV (in the so-called 'second screen experience').

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/08/digital_olympics_reach_stream_stats.html

Furthermore.... if you'd suggested to anyone sane, even 3 or so years ago, that ecommerce transactions on a tablet would be a major revenue stream for a lot of businesses, they probably wouldn't have believed you, me included. But as we all know now the tablet, mainly in the form of Apple's iPad device, now makes up a significant proportion of our modern device usage with  a great deal of this activity naturally  online. And online activity for a lot of people means shopping (especially if you're my wife!).

So has the era of tCommerce or tablet commerce arrived?

In my opinion..... most definitely.

Telematics : the future of car insurance?

Telematics in its most general sense is the combination of technology and moving vehicles. However this is most generally used when referring to the tracking of motors via GPS technology and therefore it's application in vehicle insurance.

There are several ways this technology can be used and insurance companies are still looking at different ways to best offer a product to the motor market. Some providers offering a ‘pay-as-you-drive’ model similar to the way you get ‘pay-as-you-go’ tariffs for mobile phones. But others can set up restrictions for drivers, with time and geography both being possible means of restricting customers.

This in theory means they can keep premiums low by agreeing with customers that they will avoid high risk / cost activity (e.g. Away from accident black spots) or only do a specific amount of annual mileage.
Taking this only a tiny step further, this therefore can be a system for rewarding the insured for positive driving.

That little box of electronics in the boot will know everywhere you go, the speed you do it and the time you got there... then it will always report this activity back. Making it a cross between the black box flight recorder, your little brother and a trucker's tachograph.

The impact of Google aggregating insurance

I thought I'd follow up my earlier post, where I mentioned how the entrance of Google into the online UK insurance space was more of an issue for the aggregators than the individual insurers or brokers.
Note: those brands you think are insuring your car are actually fairly likely to be brokers, trying to earn a profit by selling you insurance from a smaller set of insurers.

In 2010 over 50% of all private car insurance was purchased with the use of the Internet, so it is only sensible to assume that has only increased over the last 18 months. It's therefore surprising that many insurance brands in the UK have made the decision not to have a large online marketing presence and take advantage of this traffic and growth. Sure, some companies are targeting organic or paid search online, but the major search terms are now pretty much dominated by the primary aggregators (MoneySupermarket, GoCompare, Compare The Market & Confused)*.

Either through a conscious decision, a lack of securing funds or some other factor, many insurance companies now accept the dominant role of the aggregators and pay them handsomely. In fact some even accept that up to 80% (or possibly more) of their business comes from the big players.

This current situation may not be permanent, but climbing above the big aggregation and comparison sites in either SEO or PPC is something that would take a lot of time, effort, skill and therefore money.

And this is why aggregators have more to lose now than the companies they provide customers to. They have more at stake when the biggest search engine places its own sponsored box just beneath the top two PPC adverts on a search results page. In effect giving itself a free third place listing and thus siting this service above the organic results.

For any other company this third place Pay-per-click position and top SEO place would cost a fortune to establish and maintain. Save nothing of the improved experience of a comparison service being built into the search journey.

*Sure some are spending significantly on TV (e.g. Direct Line, which is trying all it can to build brand loyalty in the run up to its proposed extraction from the now mainly Government-owned RBS group), but these cases are the exception.

Google enters UK insurance comparison market

The big news in the UK motor insurance market over the last few days has to be the entrance of a new comparison site. Usually this wouldn't be big thing, as there are a number of established players already fighting over each other to grab the remaining market share from the insurance companies they supply with leads.
However in case you're not aware, this isn't just another small startup hoping to grab a small but growing piece of the action. This is one of the biggest Internet companies out there..... Google.

Now, when searching for things such as "cheap car insurance", in addition to a couple of pay-per-click adverts appearing about the search results.... you now also get a box sponsored by Google above the search results that then takes you into a price comparison engine process that compares prices from over 120 insurance companies and brokers.

So whilst this means that insurance companies now have a new and significant entrant into the market that has a considerable influence over the search market (to say the least), I can't help but think that this move by Google is a more significant one for the aggregators.

The church of Apple

I don't know if it is just me, but has anyone else noticed the similarity between the modern Apple stores and churches?

This occurred to me when I was in my local Apple store only last week and then I started to see just how similar the technical Mecca is to a church.

Here's some things I found similar:

• Wooden bench seats arranged like pews in two parallel lines down the middle of the store
• Bright product posters / adverts lit from behind and high up on walls looking like the modern equivalent of stained glass windows
• A guru bar at altar height, with a smiling person stood behind it with the Apple logo around their neck
• A six pointed emblem (the 'Genius bar' logo) looking incredibly like the Star of David

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the religious-like following that Apple has built up in recent years.

However if you want to full ecclesiastical experience, you should try visiting the London Covent Street branch.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/owen-b/4918511046/

 

Note: Image used is copyright to Kitty Hill

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/apple-genius-at-making-customers-feel-good-20120831-254uc.html  

Predicting the digital future

The eCommerce and online marketing industry is one of constant change and if you don't like that.... too bad! Tools, practices & technology are permanently evolving in the online world so much it can feel like you're walking just to stand still.

So to be of any lengthy use in this industry you do need the acceptance of change, coupled with the acceptance that you can not know everything there is or what will be.

Consequently, when asked to pull together a strategy for a client that looks at the longer term digital vision, it can often be hard to come up with anything too specific without drifting off into SciFi territory.

So when asked to predict the future, you end up stating the obvious trends such as:
- Internet (especially data) usage will continue to grow
- mobile use will increase further as smartphones continue to become more prevalent
- device manufacturers will release further versions of their equipment to try and identify (& profit from) different consumer segments

Perhaps predicting the future isn't what it used to be.

Retention optimization

Building an ecommerce site is just the beginning of a long optimization process. It doesn't matter how much thought and effort you put into the initial planning of the user experience & design.....You then have the task of tuning your site to get the most out of it.

All this work is typically focused around the transaction path (also known as the 'booking funnel'). Visitors journeys are scrutinised and optimised in an effort to squeeze the most revenue out of each individual visit.

However, building a site that just takes the money (and let the customer run off) is an incredibly short-term approach to ecommerce that gives no consideration to the longer term customer lifetime value.

So ask yourself:

How are you calculating lifetime customer value?

Where's your email communication plan beyond the latest transaction?

Where's your overall customer segmentation and customer journey planning?

In essence, isn't it time you looked at the ways to retain your customers, rather than just trying to get new ones?

--
Hayden Sutherland
www.idealinterface.co.uk
Digital Strategy - Website Delivery - Online Marketing
+44 (0)780 1341955

Quality Score & on-page optimisation

Recently I've been a bit of a Quality Score fanatic, trying to get it as high as possible in my Google based PPC campaigns.

Although this has been a quest to find out the best way of optimising marketing budgets, it's also been a method for understanding just what does and doesn't affect on-page Quality Score.

As you probably know, Quality Score is calculated by Google via a mysterious combination of the advert, keywords used and the page you're directing users to. The more relevant Google thinks these are to each other, the better your QS. The best is 10 and the worst is 1. 

A quick point, if you want to find out your Quality Score, you can by looking at the 'keywords' tab in the 'campaigns' tab in your PPC account. Clicking on the white speech bubble  next to any keyword's status will reveal this calculated figure.

So what on-page attributes makes a difference? Well officially the three important factors affecting landing quality score are: relevant & original content, transparency and navigability (although page speed has been mentioned in several blogs, I'm uncertain about its actual influence in this metric).

Helpfully Google publishes its own advice on how you can optimise your site to make your Adwords efforts more cost effective:

http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2404197&from=46675&rd=1

Still treading lightly with Social Media?

Social Media is everywhere now and is almost become a laughable topic (if you follow the exploits of fake PR person @perfect_siobhan from the tv show TwentyTwelve, then it really is).

To me it seems that nearly everyone in all parts of the business is now talking about "social media", "engagement" and other similar buzzword. It's like they have just learnt how to play Social Media Bullshit Bingo.

It is now part of various job descriptions across organisations and, for a lot of middle managers, if you don't mention it at a job review or interview, then you kind of feel left back in the 20th Century.
Also (finally), pressure is now coming from the top of the corporate tree to "do something social" or (if they are a touch enlightened) to "create a social media strategy".

But hang on. We've had the issue of 'Return on Investment' to deal with for several years now. And in my words from a while back... If you can't justify moving up the levels of the Social Media Maturity Matrix, then don't!

So before you tread heavily with Social, tread lightly but quickly.

Is the concept of a page now defunct ?

The page is a metaphor that has existed since the web began. It's a simple device that allows users to navigate around the Internet easily and provides a unique location for each individual piece of content & functionality. Big sites have a lot of pages and even bigger sites have loads, that was the way of the web.

However, there are several current trends that could see the end of the page paradigm as we know it:

1. Parametised search

Have you ever gone to a major ecommerce site (e.g. www.johnlewis.com) and started to browse their catalogue of products? If so, then you may have noticed that the multi-select options, typically shown down the side, allow you to repeatedly filter your choices. In a lot of cases this doesn't refresh the page, but just redisplays the available products in the main viewing area. 

2. Browser address bar prominence

As browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox have developed over the years, the actual address bar showing the URL has become less prominent. So much so that for a lot of users, this once obvious feature is now relegated to a small letterbox more useful as a way of seeing if a site is secure (using https and sometimes turning green to depict an extra level of security). Conspiracy theorists may say this is a ploy by the browser makers of reducing our dependency on URLs as a way of navigating the world wide web, however I think it's just a natural move to provide more screen real estate and a sign of how the address bar has become less used (perhaps as we now follow more links from Social sourced?).

3. Constant scrolling 

If you use sites like Twitter and LinkedIn you will notice that you no longer have to click 'next page' or anything similar when you get to the bottom of the page you are on. Instead the next set of tweets, timelines, results, etc. automatically appear. This use of clever results that display more when you need them may seem useful, but what if every site did it? Would you ever need more than one page of results? 

And more to the point.... What if Google and other search engines now did this? 

(For one thing, it would certainly make the client demand of "get me on the first page of Google" far easier to achieve)

What it means to be Head of Digital

I've had senior online roles for way over a decade now and have met some of the best people in the UK digital industry along the way. This also includes individuals who have been given or earned the title of Head of Digital (as well as having done the role myself).

I therefore thought I would explain what I think the Head of Digital's role encompasses and perhaps give some food for thought on the subject:
Note: it should go without saying that this also refers to a significant extent to other similar titles such as head of online, vp of ecommerce or director of digital and multi-channel.

1. Leadership
First and foremost, any Digital head must possess leadership. Just because online is a relatively new route up the corporate ladder, it doesn't mean we have to ignore one of the key characteristics needed. I will also go as far as saying that they also need to have two specific leadership qualities:
a) To lead change wherever and whenever they can
b) To provide thought leadership (and not just by repeating and re-processing the ideas of others, I mean by having new and original ideas that are innovative and still add business value - and you though this stuff was easy?)

2. Strategic vision
Clarity of what online success looks like and how to get there is key. You don't necessary need an MBA from one of the top business schools, but you need to have the ability to understand where digital is going within your market and what the latest trends are. Also being able to communicate this vision is also really important (as there's no point having a vision if you don't share it).

3. User Experience insight
Its imperative to have an understanding of the key ways to optimise the online customer journey. From minimising bounce rates on the homepage, through to sharpening up the conversion processes across your site. Note: I'm not saying you need to be a leading information architect (and very few Head of Digital people I have met have actually come directly from this route), but an appreciation of the main concepts and having an understanding of when to focus on this is essential.

4. Advanced Digital Marketing skills
Yes, an understanding of the main digital marketing channels is vitally important for this role. However more and more I'm seeing the combination of data and marketing to optimise the customer contact opportunity (and therefore the revenue).

5. A passion for numbers
Sure, there's all the great innovative stuff to look at, but the data you can now pull from your web analytics and associated packages is immense, not including the challenge that comes from 'big data'. If you're a Head of Digital and you're not prepared to stick your nose into a cross-tabulated spreadsheet now and then.... you're probably in the wrong job.

6. Technical expertise
How to split your readership in one easy way..... by insisting that the most senior digitally-orientated person in an organisation has to have some technical nous. But its true!
Note: I'm not stating that the VP of Internet needs to have the same level of technical competence as your Development Manager, but I'm definitely suggesting they should at least be able to confer on a lot of technical issues.

Have I missed anything?

Getting ecommerce product images right

We should all know "The 4 P's of Marketing" by now, of: product, placement, price and promotion. However for selling online there's a 5th... Photo

If a picture is supposed to 'paint a thousands words', then a product image on your ecommerce site speaks volumes to your potential buyers (did I mix my metaphors there?).

There are a number of factors to consider with images, including their: size, quality, background, etc. Each can help to contribute to a sale and several of them can further help a customer make the important decision whether to buy or not.

Obviously the most important thing is to show the right image for the actual product, unlike this photo on Amazon I found..... Supposedly for a gas barbecue, but actually showing a white striped polo shirt.


Ooops!

Everything online is crap - fix it!

I'm going to approach things in a slightly new way from now on and the title of this post might just give it away.

If you make the assumption that every single website that is out there in some way needs fixing, then in my opinion you are on the right track.

I've previously stated my friend Tristan's thought that "if your ecommerce site isn't broken, you're not looking hard enough" and my approach is really a development of that.

Every website in some way needs help.

Here's what i mean by that comment. It is either:

1. Not fully compatible with all browsers
(a moving feast of web standards and evolving interpretations by the different browser makers - with Microsoft being the primary but not exclusive culprit over the years)

2. Not optimised for the user
(Even the most applauded websites have some barriers to their target users being able to complete all their tasks with the minimum of barriers. From eCommerce sites that sacrifice the smoothness of the user journey by trying to place more buying options in front of the potential purchaser, through to content sites like newspapers that interrupt the reader flow to insert advertising)
Note: and before you comment.... Yes, I know there's a commercial driver to both of these examples, where the site owner seeks to maximise the revenue from either sales or advertising, but this balance between revenue and user experience needs constant review to keep it in check.

3. Not optimised for speed and scale.
(It's actually pretty amazing, given only a few years ago we had to wait ages for a single image to come down the digital pipe via a chirping modem, that we now have such bloated websites that nobody has taken time to optimise the code, images and other assets. I've often criticised the flabby weights of major brand home pages and this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Only a decade ago I had to make sure my online production team got the most out of every kilobyte downloaded, now pages of over a megabyte are not uncommon. Have we not learnt anything from those days from around a decade ago? Apparently not!)
Note: And these site owners wonder why their beautiful, newly-built and interactive platform goes down as soon as more than a few visitors come and take a look....

4. A bunch of other reasons I've previously gone into.
(From bad error messaging through to sites that decide to just break for no apparent reason..... the world wide web is awash with mediocrity that the people commissioning, building and testing them should be ashamed of).

But that's enough ranting. Just accepting it is all crap is not the answer. "Be the change you want to see" said Ghandi (allegedly) and this is what we must all do online.

If you manage a site and it is crap, fix it! If you use a site and it doesn't do what you expect, complain. If you try to buy stuff online and the site does everything it can to make it difficult to transact, don't buy anything (but do feel free to give feedback on why you didn't).

We owe it to others and ourselves to improve the online user experience wherever and whenever possible. We need to fix things and fix them fast!

What is your digital vision?

I hear a lot about corporate online strategy and the need to outline 'roadmaps' for: functional website & mobile development, integrated digital marketing and even business-orientated data approaches.

These are all great things (which sometime even co-exist and work together for some organisations).

However, what is sometimes missing is the even bigger picture. For example "engage existing customers via social media" is not an over-arching digital vision. In fact, that's not even a mature & considered social media strategy! However, I hear lines such as this regularly uttered (or was that muttered) my senior teams in strategic planning sessions about their online presence.

So here's a thought.....

Before trying to document your lengthy digital strategy and outlining the different deliverables you think are necessary for online success, take some time to paint the overall vision of what success actually looks like.

For example, I'm sure Jeff Bezos didn't initially say "I'm going to build automatic product recommendations and a handy one-click ordering system". I think he said something like "I'm going to be the number online bookseller, with fantastic features to help people find & buy what they want as easy as possible".

Have you therefore considered your vision of what success looks like first?

Combining paid, owned and earned media

In a post from earlier this year, I gave my thoughts on the blurring boundaries between paid, owned and earned media http://press20.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/paid-owned-and-earned-blurring.html . I was therefore very keen to read the report from research and advisory company Altimeter Group on 'The Converged Media Imperative'. This paper lays it out clearly, that brands now need to combine the different media channels of paid, owned and earned to get the most from them.
http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/reports/how-brands-must-combine-paid-owned-and-earned-media 

Now to me, this is hardly a revelation and it is great that this report has been published. My post from last April suggested that rather than there being definitive boundaries between the three, there's significant cross-over. And this is the point Altimeter have explained too. In fact our models of this integration are incredibly similar, see below:

My diagram to show the blurring

(The star representing press releases)

Altimeter's diagram showing the convergence of paid, owned & earned

Is your PPC agency working hard enough?

I've worked with paid search campaigns long enough now to have more than just a basic idea of how the main bid systems work. I've also learnt that there's numerous ways to waste money on PPC campaigns, when just a few changes can yield much better results.... Meaning your online marketing budget can go further. Much further!

This issue can sometimes be amplified when you use a digital agency to run your paid search campaigns. Especially when said agency gets paid a percentage of the budget for setting up and managing these campaigns.

For example, why wouldn't an agency bid on higher priced terms and use up the budget quicker? (Compared to structuring the account around a lot more mid to long tail terms).

There's also no point in the agency advising you when your search campaigns are yielding a low quality score. Why would they? An improved QS merely means there is more work to be done for the same amount of commission.

Why I'm moving to Scotland

A personal post from me today.

Most friends and family will know by now that The Sutherlands are moving to Scotland in matter of weeks. For some this will come as a shock, but for others it will seem an obvious step.

Most people who know us, know that my wife Moya is originally from the Scottish town of Paisley near Glasgow. There she has a large & welcoming family, plus a great set of friends she has had forever. Not forgetting that our kids were both christened in the local cathedral where we got married there.

Moya and I have been discussing and subsequently planning our move (to what my brother once 'politically incorrectly' called "North England") for a couple of years now. So this most definitely is not a short-term venture, this is a change of country, lifestyle and outlook. One of us is going 'home' and the rest are either going because we want to (me) or to get our own bedroom (the kids).

I'm also longing to get out on my bikes more, as both the mountains and road in Scotland are better for cycling compared to West London. This is part of my commitment to lead a healthier lifestyle (and lose that spare tyre that seems to be inflating around my midriff).

So what am I leaving behind?
Well, it's fair to say I've built up a great network of contacts, clients and colleagues in London and the South East. I know my way about very well and I know where to go for business drinks, impressive dinners and the best burgers (Wolfs near Covent Garden do an amazing wagyu beef burgers that IMHO hard to beat). I don't have this sort of knowledge where I'm going, but I'm not one for standing about....

Yes, I will miss running the Ealing Tweetup, something that I've coordinated for about a year and a half. That's been a great event for me, with the chance to build up friendships, meet local social media users and even to sing at the top of my voice whilst backed by a live band (thanks to Brace Yourself).

One question I have been asked several times by those who already know of our departure and that I've avoided answering, is whether our decision to move away from Ealing was influenced by the riots last year. The honest answer to that has to be "no". You see we'd already decided to move by last Summer, however the madness that happened across the UK (but not Scotland) only ratified our decision.

One last thing. Just because I'm moving to Scotland, it doesn't mean I'm not going to be down in the metropolis. You see....

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-84)

How O2 is responding to critisism

Although I am currently suffering from having no mobile and data signal for around 7 hours now, it must be nothing compared to the stress O2 must be going through, given the network issues they have all afternoon and evening.

I therefore turned to Twitter tonight to see what is being said on that account. Take a look at this insult from an unhappy customer and the UK online service centre response.

Well done to O2 for being assertive and yet not patronising it it's response.

What your insurance website UX says about you

I've been reviewing a number of insurance websites lately and have been genuinely surprised by the poor user experience they have.

Its not just a few tiny things either..... There's some pretty important issues you can find if you take the time (and boy have I!). These issues include: a lack of contextual help, incorrect or missing error messaging, system time-outs for no apparent reason and accessibility failings nearly across the board.

Are we actually in the 21st Century?

Surely these pretty basic failings (that are more suited to sites 10 or more years ago) actually tell us something about the companies that create them and rely on them as an important revenue stream?
IMHO is says they are still treating the digital channel as an addition to their traditional business.... Even if the web makes up the majority of their revenue now.

It's not all negatives though. Some insurance company sites I've looked at do cover (most of) these essential requirements and a few provide an intuitive experience that seems to have the right balance of mandatory information fields and optimised user journey. These organisations have obviously taken a more considered and user-centred approach. It shows.

Companies in every market really need to keep developing and evolving their ecommerce experience, with insurance companies being no exception.
Because if you don't, then your users will notice and vote with their mice.

The confusing Microsoft messenger

The World's largest software company has me confused (again). But not this time over the naming of their software development tools or their licensing agreements for SME's, but over a seemingly small piece of technology, the enterprise messenger tool set.

It's pretty obvious that Microsoft's general consumer instant messenger product is no longer used by half as many people as a few years ago. In fact a quick sign in to MS Messenger (something I've not knowingly done in years) shows very few of my old contacts do the same. I guess the complete take-over of the social space by Facebook, which has its own messaging service, and Twitter has taken its toll. So many people now use Twitter as a peer-to-peer messaging service, as well as a way to broadcast their thoughts...it's taken over (within my sphere of friends anyway) as the primary online tool for 1-2-1 dialogue..... with mobile chat & text still the major platform with the younger generation.

I've also recently started using Lync, the computer-telephone integrated software that is described by Microsoft as their 'Enterprise-ready unified communications playform'. If you've never used it before, it is: part Messenger, part Skype, with Outlook integration. Note: it even has a mobile app, that I've not yet got to work.

So why then did MS this May just pay $8.5billion for Skype (making it their biggest every acquisition) and then only a couple of weeks ago agree to purchase Yammer, a leading provider of enterprise social networking services for $1.2 billion in cash?

Although Skype will create its own division (department not rift) within the software giant, Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division. Potentially meaning that it will be integrated somehow with Lync and possibly Skype & Messenger?

This sounds like too many packages all doing the same thing to me. Each has it's own unique productive functionality, but they all also have significant functionality overlap, that will have to be integrated, standardised and quite possibly rationalised.

The challenges of the modern digital marketer

Having recently asked the question of several job applicants "what are the biggest challenges currently faced by the digital marketer?" I thought I'd give my own answer (coming perhaps a little too late if, dear reader, you were looking for any pre-interview insight).

1. The speed of change
The rate things change in the online marketing industry is amazing. What was accepted practice only a month or so, e.g. in a field such as search engine optimisation, is quickly outdated or even counter productive.

2. The complexity of technology
It is no longer enough these days to say "oh, that's technical, I don't need to understand that". Technology is now an intrinsic part of digital marketing and it is only getting more intertwined with other strands (such as content & customer data) and complex.

3. The increasing demands of the user
Although I state that user needs are increasing, I should point out that a lot of their requirements (e.g. An intuitive interface, the ability to do what they want on any device, etc) are not new.... They have just not been possible to deliver, due to technology, budget or other constraints). That said, there's no doubt in my mind that the target of your marketing efforts now expects: timely, relevant and engaging contact via any channel and in a more personalised manner. Gone are the days of 'spray & pray' email campaigns and woe betide any company that doesn't produce a suite of different creative options targeted at specie groups of users.

4. The social feedback loop
There can be no excuse these days for tuning into the social back-channel for your brand or service. Tools are now freely (or paid for if you want a better service or experience) available for listening to what your intended audience is saying. Sure, it comes with its own unique challenges and difficulties, but surely part of the 'fun' is finding these out and solving them?
If you're not listening, you're not marketing.

The 5 steps to creating a successful Digital Strategy

Here’s my 5 steps to creating a successful Digital Strategy

1. Understand …

…. not only the commercial goals, but the stakeholders & team involved. Take time to then walk through the current digital requirements (priorities & dependencies) and all the relevant internal processes that you have to work within  (there will be some, even on a ‘green field’ project – or as I recently said to one senior marketer, who said there were no restrictions: “every green field has borders eventually”. 

2. Review …..

all existing projects, including any project interdependencies with the work done by other departments (e.g. IT),  current suppliers of online services (e.g. Digital Agencies) and make sure you know what KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) are reported against across the business. 

Note: You should also take the time to identify the immediate wins (e.g. is there something so obvious and easy that is can be done now?)

3. Document…

Key Deliverables. This means writing up what has to be done and when it is expected. Focus both on commercial optimisation (operational efficiency) and innovation to gain competitive advantage. Consider all digital touch-points, where possible adopting a user-centred approach and cover all lines of business, such as: B2C, B2B, Back office (e.g. purchasing).

4. Plan….

for success by creating a rolling 30 day plan that keeps delivering wins and fixes over the short and medium term. From this build up a longer-term roadmap that integrates functionality with marketing activity (content, campaigns, etc.). Where necessary develop robust justifications (business cases) for large pieces of work.

5. Future-proofing…

means considering all changes likely to occur over the roadmap timescales. I use the “STEP” acronym as a handy way to classify the different innovation drivers:

a.       Social (what will individuals and groups do differently?)

b.      Technological (what new software or devices are expected?)

c.       Economic (how will and increase/decrease in household income affect you plans?)

d.      Political (why legislation is due that could cause an impact to the organisation?)

 

Aggregator Maturity

Recently I've been posting my thoughts on the online aggregation services, including the more mathematical Herfindahl Index.Last month I was attempting to explain to someone how aggregation got more technically complex as the product or service became more complex and I quickly drew out a table that explained it. So now I have put it up online to shame and to get feedback.Aggregator Maturity

View more PowerPoint from Hayden Sutherland

As always, I see this as 'work in progress' and never a definitive completed concept.

Aggregation and the Herfindahl index

The Herfindahl Index (AKA the Hirschman-Herfindahl Index or HHI) is a measurement of the competitiveness of a particular industry. The index gives a figure between 0 and 1, with those markets closest to zero being more competitive and those closest to 1 being an (almost) monopoly.


An increase in the index typically means that there’s been a decrease in competition and therefore greater market power to those still operating. Whereas a decrease towards zero indicates more companies fighting over the same customer base and therefore the existence of a more ‘perfect’ and competitive market.
So why is the Herfindahl Index important in the online aggregators markets? Well, over the last decade, the appearance of aggregators in different online markets has created a more level playing field for customers; by collating the rates and fees for different suppliers and presenting them to the online user in an easy-to-compare format. Therefore in those markets where price is so-often the defining decision factor, such as utilities, financial services and travel, the use of aggregators increases competition and pushes the Herfindahl Index figure closer to zero.

Take the UK motor insurance market right now. As you will see from the diagram below (sourced from Towers Watson’s report ‘why aren’t we making money’
www.towerswatson.com/assets/.../Why-arent-we-making-money.pdf

In the last 10 years (really since the appearance of confused.com which was the first UK motor insurance aggregator) the HHI has moved closer to zero.

So what are the implications of this? Well, if anything is predictable, it is that the UK motor insurance market is going to get more (not less) price sensitive over the next few years, becoming more like the oil and airline industry in its competitiveness, unless something happens to interrupt this trend……

eCommerce Directors for Dummies

I think there needs to be a new book added to the 'Dummies' range. One that explains the basics for some people on the subject of leading an ecommerce department. Why? Well, it seems that not everyone who reaches this role necessarily knows all the key points needed to stay in it.

Ask yourself:

• Have you told everyone that you know all about pay-per-click strategies, but secretly wonder what all this chat about "AdWords" is?

• Have you got an understanding of conversion rates, but aren't too sure if it is orders divided by visitors or orders divided by visits?

• Do you think data-driven marketing is looking at your Google Analytics to see how your email campaigns are going?

If so, then perhaps you need a copy! (if it is ever published).

Note: Apologies to the 'Dummies' books for such a blatant copyright infringement

the corporate layers - an idea developed

In a recent post I started to work through my thoughts around the development of McKinsey's company software layer concept. I mentioned that I thought there was at least one obvious omission (e.g. web services) and that a single layer to explain it all was too simple.

So now I find myself putting forward an evolved version of this idea, unashamedly taking McKinsey's model as the basis of it.

Corporate layers

View more PowerPoint from Hayden Sutherland

As you can see from my embedded presentation there are now five proposed layers rather than just two.

1. Core business processes
2. Web services & API’s
3. Owned media such as website(s), Apps, Kiosks, etc.
4. Paid media such as online advertising (PPC, etc.)
5. Earned media such as Social, Word-of-mouth, etc.

Although I believe the lines between owned, paid and earned are now becoming increasingly blurred, there is a place for each of the different communication media in my new model.

The digital age – a new world?

The following is a guest posting by entrepreneur Ben Blomerley

I read Hayden’s last blog post about innovation with interest. I was fascinated by the line ‘adaptation and change are just business-as-usual’. It is absolutely true – okay, maybe the pace of change is faster than it used to be, but there are more tools and skills out there than there used to be that help you deal with that pace. But businesses have always had to adapt and innovate to survive – I’m sure Thomas Edison wouldn’t recognise GE now, and what Charles Flint would make of IBM is anyone’s guess!

It’s interesting to take a few examples. Pinterest is fascinating for me, given the way that it seemed to explode from nowhere (it didn’t – it’s over two years old). But what did it do? Revolutionise a business model? Create something completely unexpected? No – what it did was look at the market and realised that social networks massively underserved bored Midwestern housewives. They wanted a way to share, in an incredibly easy way, the things that interested them. And that’s Pinterest – social media for an under-served category. 

And let’s look at that, too – the idea of successful social media (or social media campaigns). Every day I read a story about how people can’t get their social media campaigns moving. Corporations big and small throwing money at it because they have to be ‘in’ social media – or even worse, not throwing enough money at it, leaving it to the interns who, being young, must ‘get’ it. But the principles of social media are easy –something that someone wants to share, someone who wants to share, someone who wants to listen, a call to action, and monitor what’s happening.

A final thing I find very interesting is that I see people who are worried about barriers to entry in this new digital age. If any kid with a laptop can knock up a website, how can established players protect their markets? Whilst it’s true – and fantastic – that you have punchy upstarts shaking up the established order, looking at competition is not a new thing. And there’s plenty than can still be done – punchy upstarts can’t build quality content, for example. And people still want to see something on a website, they need a reason to be there. I found this post by Mark Schaefer fascinating on what the new careers in social media will be (and no reason to think it stops with social media!) 

So – what do these three examples say? Is Pinterest a revolution? Is social media an alien concept? Can nobody defend themselves against an engineer with an idea? No. These are three age old concepts of business. You need to look at your customers. You need to execute well. And you need to look at what your competitors are doing, how you can entrench your position. 

Is innovation new? No. 

Are the fundamentals of doing business in this new world different? Well, what do you think?

Bio:

Ben Blomerley is the founder of AskHerFriends (www.askherfriends.com), which aims to apply some digital age solutions to an age old problem – how a guy can get better gifts for the women in his life!

Are you employing the right digital staff?

As I speak to various companies in my consulting travels around the UK, I meet a lot of boards who are looking to hire senior digital staff.

They look internally and then externally, but don't find the people they think they need.
In my opinion this can be for a number of reasons including:

1. There is nobody else in the organisation to benchmark senior digital people against. The digital 'all rounder' often needs to be a combination of creative marketer, technical geek and strategic thought leader. But often they might also call themselves a planner, architect or programme manager (and a lot more besides).

2. Internal staff and HR interviewing them might not be up to speed on all the latest tools, techniques and technologies. So therefore the selection and interview process is flawed.

3. The small number of truly good people in the market means that candidates are thin on the ground and snapped up quickly.

Therefore my advice for those organisations looking to hire someone like this is:

- focus on what candidates have done, rather than what their titles have been

- consider bringing in an independent specialist just to help you define, search, filter resumes and interview candidates

- move quickly when you think you've found the right person

Infographication

Infographics, they're everywhere you go online these days.

Follow someone on Twitter?
Then watch them link off to an image full of bar graphs, circles and calibrated scales.

Reading an online news site?
Then expect a convoluted embedded image showing growth / decline in this commodity or that financial product, when all you really want is a green tick or a red cross (or just the words "Buy" or "sell")
Note: Some are now animated or allow you to see progress over time.

Attending an industry presentation?
Expect the occasional slide pulled together in Adobe Illustrator that baffles more than it explains.

Infographication, the practice of using too many complex infographics.

Sure, a picture does paint a thousand words, but what if you only need to say a few?