Filed under: social media
Great article here from the Harvard Business Review on the importance of brand management, especially in real-time, as companies get to grips with the frenetic pace of social media.
Former Harvard professor John Sviokla cites the recent example of a Virgin America flight from LA to NYC, which ended up being diverted to Newburgh, N.Y., due to bad weather, leaving the passengers sitting on the tarmac for four hours at Newburgh. Documenting the whole affair was Kontain CEO David Martin, using his company’s social media iPhone app.
Martin was soon contacted by the Virgin America CEO offering him and his fellow passengers a full refund and $100-per-person vouchers for all.
This is fantastic example of how social media has shifted the power of a brand away from companies and to consumers, by responding swiftly Virgin America were able to retain the trust of their customers and avoid a wider backlash (are you watching United?). Sviokla describes the need for every marketing executive to have a “brand radar system”, always watching and listening to the conversations concerning their brand. And with social media moving so fast, a real-time solution is the only real option.
March 22, 2010
The BBC World Service director, Peter Horrocks, has spoken on how social media and news are becoming ever inter-linked and how the two forms of media can compliment each other. This comes after the Beeb has told journalists to make use of social media, holding the view that the new forms of technology are changing the way journalism operates.
Horrocks describes social media as a vital source of a opinions and voices, along with the credibility that audience driven content brings with it. And with that brings a new understanding and appreciation of social media for the BBC, who just last year remained cautious over its use.
It is great to see a leading news outlet as the BBC embrace social media in such a way, following in the footsteps of CNN who during a recent site redesign have also tightly integrated user-generated content into their news content.
February 11, 2010
Integrated Marketing Solutions provider Alterian have released a pertinent study into the approaches and investments that marketers are presently utilising to work with their clients.
The CEO gives an interesting quote, stating “2010 marks the start of the digital decade for marketing” with the study going on to show that 66% of all those surveyed are planning to invest in social media marketing in the coming 12 months. The report also touches upon the growth of social media monitoring, with almost 40% of respondents intending to spend on social media tracking tools as we enter the new decade.
Alterian reflects upon the growing understanding that a forward thinking marketing strategy now has to listen to potential customers, especially if a ROI in social media is to be realised, with marketers now being required to appeal to customers at a one-to-one level. A growing power shift that is seeing more control in the hands of the consumer as networks of friends and influence continue to evolve over social networks.
For a full breakdown and details of the survey, sign up here.
January 22, 2010
The issue of online privacy, or lack of it, has been a hot topic the past few days as the week started with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg declaring that people no longer see privacy as a “social norm”. Arguing the rapid rise in social media has seen people become more and more at ease with sharing personal information, and Zuckerberg states that companies like Facebook need to respond to these changes in online behavior to stay competitive.
Watch the entire interview hosted by TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington here : http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3848950
However, the major story this week has been Google v China over the issues of user privacy, cyber attacks and the Great Firewall of China resulting in Google’s likely exit from the Chinese market. Our old friends at VeriSign’s iDefense have indicated they “believe the attack is the work of actors operating on behalf of or in the direct employ of official intelligence entities of the People’s Republic of China”, which could have serious ramifications both politically and for the search engine space.
While Google may be basking in glory over this move to “not be evil”, and Zuckerberg’s comments have been met with some cynicism over whether Facebook, incidentally blocked in China, is reflecting social change or (with 350 million users) driving it. Both acts raise interesting discussions over online privacy and what it means in an increasingly connected world, who do you trust? Let us know your thoughts below!
January 14, 2010
As we approach the end of the year we’d like to announce a number of enhancements to both our News and UGC Metabase products.
Over the past few months we have been particularly busy growing our coverage of news and social media sources, with much more still to come in the New Year. The UGC Metabase now serves around 750k posts a day from our spam-free White List of social media sites. This represents a 200% increase in volume from earlier in the year, and coverage has now jumped to 435k feeds watched with a further increase due by year-end. Coverage has particularly been boosted over platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia to deliver a rich and diverse range of social media sources now being watched, along with other microblogging platforms, consumer reviews, forums, Q&A sites and more. We have also increased the number of social media feeds with geotagging, so users can now easily list and organise sources by nationality and region.
On the News Metabase side of things we now index over half a million news articles a day from 32k sources, a twenty percent increase in recent months. Other improvements to the news side include enhancing the way we identify and tag article authors and recently growing the number of news categories available to 800. The full complement of news feeds can be seen here : http://w.moreover.com/public/free-rss/prebuilt-feeds.html
We’d love to hear any queries or reactions to these changes, so feel free to drop us a line below!
December 18, 2009
Sifting through news and blogs, as we like to do here at Moreover, we’ve found this great post on the ROI social media on What Was I Thinking? blog. The post gives a great overview of the many facets of social media, the measurements and metrics around it and the value in social media monitoring for your company’s brand.
The post serves as an excellent resource for anyone interested, or yet to be convinced by, the power of social media and the benefits to be gained from a coherent strategy around it.
December 16, 2009
CrunchGear have posted an excellent piece on the recent Tiger Woods brouhaha, discussing the relationships between the more traditional forms and the newer forms of media.
The connections between the two are something we’ve blogged about in the past here on the Moreover Blog, and a somewhat sensationalistic story like the Woods crash is a great example of how the different media types coexist and compliment each other. CrunchGear post a detailed dissection on real-time discussion (e.g. Twitter) and real-time reporting (e.g. broadcast), wherein the value in each lies.
Twitter will help a story like this spread like wildfire, although it is (generally) still the mainstream media that provides the initial “spark”. While Twitter users will proliferate any discussion, it is still journalists who are at the scene of a breaking news story reporting on the issues soon to be propagated by Twitter and the likes.
While social media certainly has an important role to play in today’s news, it’s worth will been seen in real-time discussions rather than real-time reporting. For more in depth (and more insightful!) analysis check out the full CrunchGear post : http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?x3718989676u&f=2179
When a major news story breaks are you more likely to turn to Twitter or the BBC/CNN for the breaking details?
December 2, 2009
Our Social Times have posted a great digest of resources and photos from this week’s Monitoring Social Media event which is well worth checking out here. Many thanks to Luke and the team for making everything run so smoothly and we look forward to the next time!
November 19, 2009
The dust is settling on yesterday’s Monitoring Social Media conference #msm09, so after many insightful and intellectual speakers it is time to ponder on what social media monitoring offers us now and where it can grow in the future.
The value of social media lies in people, as consumers help to shape or influence reputation it’s clear that media has already changed. While conversations occur around products or brands the key is knowing where these are happening, your role in them and which conversations you should be involved in. This is the value of listening, what issues matter to your customers and what drives that passion on particular subjects.
A great quote from yesterday was “Social media is word of mouth on crack” (I believe original credit for this goes to Scott Seaborn), and if you’re not sure what that means just ask Domino’s Pizza. It can work both ways though, as smart brands will use social media to involve and cultivate a fan base as well as to identify risks and improve their products.
While the case for listening may be strong, the case against such monitoring tools was also a point of discussion with Asi Sharabi’s controversial blog post inspiring a lively panel debate. No solution (right now anyway) is perfect and the current limitations in technology are important to discuss, along with the many strengths and benefits. All this can only be advantageous as we move forward and the social media monitoring industry matures. Social media is fundamentally changing the way we do business, while change can often be a challenge, the social Web is here now for the long term and the sooner we can integrate it into our business intelligence solutions the sooner we can all profit from it.
MSM09 has already sparked a spirited conversation here at Moreover Towers, as we look to continue growing and innovating in the space, we’d love to hear from you if you attended the event or have any words of wisdom on the subject, if so drop us a line in the comments below!
November 18, 2009
Monitoring Social Media 09 is taking place in London early next week, a first of its kind event for Europe, bringing together leading marketing professionals, brand managers and the virtuosos in the field of Social Media Monitoring.
The Moreover delegation are ready and raring to go, with over ten years experience in the business of media monitoring we look forward to the joining in the debate and offering some intellect of our own. Key speakers include Matt Atkinson, CEO of EHS Brann, and Paul Alexander from Beyond Analysis with host Luke Brynley-Jones giving his views on the inspiration behind and aims of the event at ‘we are social’ blog here.
We’d love to hear from anyone else attending in the comments below, any particular highlights you are looking forward to? And should you be unable to attend remember to check-in at the Moreover Blog over the latter half of next week for our thinking and thoughts on what promises to be a very influential meeting.
November 13, 2009
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