Category: Digital Strategy

Building Trust Through Participation

Authenticity, Digital Strategy

T R U S T

I have been ruminating on the linkage between trust and participation over the last couple of days … particularly in light of Mario’s post on the Fifth P of Marketing — participation … and trying to piece together a sense of where this is all heading. As you have all probably experienced, there is a converging of technologies and processes — the distinctions between work/life, professional/private, author/collaborate are collapsing before our very eyes. Meanwhile, the institutions that we have, in the past, trusted (from banks to governments) are coming under fire and are heaving under the stresses of our cynical consumerist glare. Even the darlings of our new connected universe, Google, are feeling this strain.

Where once we turned to Google to sort through the dross of the ever-expanding Internet, we now turn to our personal networks. The difference now, however, is that our personal networks are dispersed across geographies, timezones and languages. We use tools and sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter to mine specific answers to our global and local needs. Robert Scoble calls this "social graphing" — take a look at the second video here.

One of the ideas that interested me most in this concept was the linkage between how social networking activates and validates inter- and intra-community trust. Basically, this means that I am more likely to make a decision based on feedback or information garnered from my network of trusted advisors. For example, I am more likely to try Facebook if all my friends are using it — even the stalwart David Armano has finally capitulated 😉

From a brand and marketing point of view, these networks are strategically important … but as Robert Scoble points out, they are, thus far, impervious to search engine optimisation. This means that ONLY those brands that are ACTIVE in social media will have any chance of reaching and activating these networks. In short — brands need to participate … for only through participation can they DEMONSTRATE the qualities that will lead to trust. So if you are asked "should my company be blogging"? The answer should be clear.

With thanks to Spell with Flickr.

Blogged with Flock

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The Permanent Revolution

Digital Strategy, Smart Bloggers

This is a presentation that Philippe Deltenre delivered in Belgium earlier this week. He uses some nice philosophic references to describe and contain the complex ways of being that epitomise our contemporary existence. These are applied to new strategic directions that Microsoft’s marketing efforts could take in the years ahead. Just the fact that this discussion is occurring within an organisation such as Microsoft is heartening.

And judging by the feedback, the presentation was a great hit with the audience!

The Engagement with Engagement is Over

Digital Strategy, Social Media

Super Patrick
Originally uploaded by ocellnuri

I love the feeling I get when a long dormant part of my brain is reactivated. It energises me. It feels like the intellectual equivalent of an endorphin rush.

The other night I heard a great quote "The Spectacle is Everywhere" — and it comes from Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. When I first read this during my university days I became a little obsessed with the situationists and a radical, very French, way of thinking — but what I found particularly liberating was the poetic use of language within a more formal "discourse". And the more I thought on this, the more it made me reconsider social media and what we, perhaps lazily, call "engagement".

So now I am toying with the concept that "engagement" is just not good enough. Not for brands. Not for marketers. Not for consumers. Come join the discussion around this MarketingProfs article.

Every Page is a Landing Page

Branding, Digital Strategy

You never know how someone is going to come to your website. Sure, you can narrow it down — you can funnel your visitors through online advertisements, place links on blogs, seed discussion forums, even advertise on TV. But it is a big, dirty world out there full of hypertext and email. And if you want to take advantage of this to start a conversation, convert a sales opportunity or make the world a better place, then you need to be ready for your online visitors, no matter how they find you.

As I said the other day, every page is sacred. Seth Godin is right, and provides some solid advice — a landing page can only do one or two of the following five things:

  • Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone else’s)
  • Get a visitor to buy
  • Get a visitor to give permission for you to follow up (by email, phone, etc.). This includes registration of course.
  • Get a visitor to tell a friend
  • (and the more subtle) Get a visitor to learn something, which could even include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback

But this applies not just to your landing pages. It applies to EVERY page. You need to consider the upstream and the downstream — where your visitors came from, and where they go to. You have to make sure your story makes sense as part of the rich tapestry of hypertext life. Your site needs to be as connected as your readers, and your story has to be able to stretch and flex to fit.

S.