May 2014

When E-commerce And Social Media Collide - #AmazonBasket

It’s late afternoon, your rate of procrastination is at its highest and you’re scrolling through your twitter feed trying to pass the time until 5.30, when you see it. 
That laptop you’ve had your eye on is now on sale. 
Mental note: Get that later. 
But by the time you’ve made your way to the bottom of your feed, you’ve forgotten all about it, it remains forgotten about for weeks, even months and by the time you remember it’s gone back to full price. 
To combat this, Amazon and Twitter have combined forces to create #AmazonBasket. It allows customers to shop via their social media feed, keep tabs on their favourite items and is a lovely little way for retailers to engage with current and prospective consumers. 
#AmazonBasket (or #AmazonCart if you’re in the US), allows Twitter users to save products to their Amazon carts to purchase later. You first need to link your Twitter account to your Amazon one and from then on, anytime you see an Amazon product link in your Twitter feed, all you need to do is reply with “#AmazonBasket” for the item to be immediately added to your Amazon shopping cart. To finalise the purchase, just log into your Amazon account and hey presto, there will be a list of the items you’ve added from Twitter in your cart. 
The practice of tying ecommerce with social media will not only save consumers’ valuable time but retailers can also use it as a tool to remind users of their product.  
Amazon have also told a source they are open to working with other social networking sites meaning the trend is growing… 

It’s late afternoon, your rate of procrastination is at its highest and you’re scrolling through your twitter feed trying to pass the time until 5.30, when you see it. 

That laptop you’ve had your eye on is now on sale. 

Mental note: Get that later. 

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29 May 2014 by Vicky Laing

Social Media In Ten Years - A Prediction

Over the last decade, so many of us have become slaves to our Twitter feed or Facebook posts. With Twitter turning 8 this year and Facebook turning 10, who could have predicted how much these networks would take off. Klood takes a look at what social media might be like 10 years from now. 

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28 May 2014 by Vicky Laing

The Plug Has Been Pulled On Twitter And Soundcloud Collaboration

Soundcloud may be known as the Youtube of audio but will it really enhance the core service of Twitter? With a huge number of music celebrities already using the site to communicate with their many followers, it does seem a sensible progression for the company to evolve into a music service. 
SoundCloud is a free service that lets users, from individuals to DJ collectives to bands, upload and share audio files around the Web and according to Relode, Twitter were in talks with the Berlin-based startup to strike up a deal.
This would have been a huge move for Twitter and it’s investors, who are becoming concerned with the slow growth of the company. After going public last November at $26 a share, it quickly rose to $74.73 before beginning a long downward slide.
However, it’s now come to light that Twitter have said no to this new deal. Why? Well we’re not 100% sure, but we could hazard a guess. 
Users 
With over 250 million users and estimated value of $700 million, Soundcloud are certainly attractive to Twitter’s big guys, however a large number of the DJ community are abandoning ship and joining other services such as MixCloud, MixCrate and Play.fm. 
To cover their back, Soundcloud use Audible Magic technology to flag up unlicensed songs. Soundcloud then issue a take-down notice. Unfortunately, errors often happen with this technology and users are ordered to take down their own music, resulting in some miffed off customers having to defend their own compositions meaning more and more are switching. 
Revenue 
Soundcloud isn’t particularly well set up for advertising in the same way similar streaming services are so its revenue is limited. Of course, there is the option to pay for higher tier service, complete with unlimited uploads & detailed statistics on who’s listening but we all like free and so the majority of users just stick to the free stuff. 
Licensing
Possibly the biggest red flag. Soundcloud doesn’t have any licenses from music labels or publishers meaning for a smaller entity like Twitter, obtaining these licences could be hugely expensive and full of hassle. 
So Twitter may need a way to kick up its stock price, but it would seem they’ve seen the light and would agree Soundcloud isn’t the way to go. Back to the drawing board for Twitter then. 

Soundcloud may be known as the Youtube of audio but could it really enhance the core service of Twitter? With a huge number of music celebrities already using the site to communicate with their many followers, it does seem a sensible progression for the company to evolve into a music service. 

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27 May 2014 by Vicky Laing

10 Local "SEO Tweaks" for Your Small Business

Network marketing isn’t hard, but it takes time and strategy to perfect. Following these tweaks will allow your small site to compete (and in many cases beat) larger sites by targeting your local area.

Just ask DigitalHealthPost or Dubli, who had to learn the hard way after getting bombarded with fake local profiles.

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21 May 2014 by Jeremy Page

Chinwag Psych - The Wrap

chinwag psych 9th may header

We just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who came and helped make our second Chinwag Psych Conference a success.

So just in case you missed the day, we have a quick snippet of the roundup here, for the full run down visit PsychMatters. 

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21 May 2014 by Vicky Laing

Boost Your Brand Awareness with Traditional Marketing Merchandise

The old ways are sometimes the best ways. While many businesses are investing a lot of time, effort and money in trendy marketing strategies such as social media marketing, others are still using traditional marketing strategies.

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20 May 2014 by Anna Jones

One-to-One Personalisation Will Boost Conversion

The quality of data available to digital marketers is a concern. The goal is a Single Customer View (SCV) but, as the Digital Marketing Insights Report 2014 highlights, a lack of accurate data could have major implications for analytics and personalisation.
Today's digital marketer must understand, identify and adapt to opportunities in a world which generates data on an unprecedented scale. However, with the level of sophisticated analytical technology available, they are better placed to deliver a level of individual personalisation than ever before. 
Having the correct analytical tools in place, in combination with the right data, will enable them to develop a greater understanding of big data and provide a stable platform from which to create personalised customer campaigns. 
Email continues to be the prevalent method of personalisation with 92% of the survey's respondents claiming to use it. Email marketing tools have been around for decades so that's no surprise, but it's more remarkable that 33% reported they undertake no website personalisation efforts. 
This is not because digital marketers don’t recognise the importance of it – 51% responded that personalisation is currently either very important or critical to their digital marketing efforts – so what is the problem? 
The answer: access to real-time data to drive that personalisation. The report showed that at present, half of marketers do not have access to real-time data. Encouragingly, by 2016 a huge 78% reported that they will have implemented a solution that utilises real-time data in one of three forms: website specific personalisation (21%), individual level interaction data (26%) and multichannel real-time decision technology (31%). 
Brands recognise the need to behave in a truly integrated, omni-channel way. Digital marketers must understand how customers interact with their brands in real-time across multiple channels and devices. Investment in the right data and analytical tools to extract actionable insight from detailed customer data will ensure they treat “always on” customers in a coherent multi-channel way.  
In practice, a call centre could offer a customer credit for a high value item they have browsed online. It also enables the company to avoid customer experience mistakes - such as offering a cheap insurance quote via email when the customer has just purchased via the website. When dealing in industries which have complex sales processes or registration processes, real-time synergy between the online and offline environments allows brand representatives to provide a customer service based on individual preferences, actions and online behaviour. This can lead to increased trust, an improved experience and/or increased sales conversions.
When asked to look forward to 2016, an impressive 80% believe that personalisation will be key to their digital marketing success. To achieve it, investment is planned in both the analytical expertise and technology. 
Modern omni-channel consumers expect to have relevant and personalised interactions with a brand. The survey demonstrates that more digital marketers are preparing to do just that.

The quality of data available to digital marketers is a concern.

The goal is a Single Customer View (SCV) but, as the Digital Marketing Insights Report 2014 highlights, a lack of accurate data could have major implications for analytics and personalisation.

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19 May 2014 by Chinwag Team

Converting Social to Sales

 
All but one of the top 100 global retailers fail to convert social into sales. 
That's the claim from a new report, The Three Stages of Social Maturity, from social commerce specialists Buyapowa. The lone success?
Tesco. 
While most companies invest in creating a multi-platform presence, they aren’t chasing sales by using co-buys, gamification and dynamic pricing.
The report's key findings include:
• Only one global retailer has reached stage 3 of social maturity (building a social sales channel) while 82% are stuck firmly at stage one (concentrating on attracting fans and followers). 
• Follow for a follow. For every 100 followers they gain, 66% of leading retailers follow five or less, meaning the giants are more concerned with broadcasting to their audience rather than listening to them. 
• Have you reached that point when you want to complain about a service but the company's Twitter feed is full of funny/silly pictures? It intensifies the annoyance. 
• The social media doghouse includes Lidl, with 72% of their posts being about products, and Aldi, whose audience is four times less engaged with their content than M&S or CostCo. 
Social media doesn’t just have to cost you money; it can help you make it too. Someone tell the big boys. 

All but one of the top 100 global retailers fail to convert social into sales. 

That's the claim from a new report, The Three Stages of Social Maturity, from social commerce specialists Buyapowa. The lone success?

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14 May 2014 by Vicky Laing

Steal A Creative's Idea Today

Inventing is no easy feat; we just have to watch an episode of Dragons Den to appreciate that. 
Remember some of the more, shall we say, interesting ideas?
Mike Carr who entered the den with an idea to solve all Expats driving nightmares. A single glove that you put on your right hand when you travel abroad to remind you to drive on the correct side of the road.
Yes, that’s right. A glove. And for this glove, he wanted £100,000. 
Then there was SuperkneeS. Essentially an ugly pair of rollerskates to strap to your knees to go from one kneeling job to another at high speeds. Erm what?  
But what if these ideas (or maybe some of the better but rejected ones) could be given a new lease of life as food for thought for others. 
Well they can. 
A new website, Ideas To Steal Today, offers just that, Created by Kalle Everland and Timo Klaarenbeek, the site encourages creatives to post their rejected work, with a short explanation and a visual. So all those creatives who poured blood, sweat and tears into their ideas, can now see it put to use. All of the ideas on the website are free to use as long as their new co-owners credit the person who originally posted it. 
There is a huge range of ideas on the site. There’s an App that connects to your Nike Fuel Band but rather than urge you to pick up the pace, it urges you to take it easy, relax and enjoy what’s out there more. 
A website that allows you to look busy for your boss using Excel/photoshop backgrounds while you can actually ‘be busy’ still reading your ebook. 
And even an app that lets you find your keys, with your phone. How has that one not taken off yet? 

Inventing is no easy feat; we just have to watch an episode of Dragons Den to appreciate that. 

Remember some of the more, shall we say, interesting ideas?

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13 May 2014 by Vicky Laing