The All Blacks already have a powerful website providing information to fans. Now they will be introducing an IM platform and adding video and audio download services.

The soon to be released film 'Australia', directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman has been releasing 'behind the scenes' footage and will continue to do so up until the release date.

Not only does it give some unique insights to the filming and production but it also helps build interest in the film.

Normally a 'directors' mini production would be used to support the film once it went to DVD (an extra DVD in a special version at a higher price) but in this case the content is being used as part of a WOM and online marketing campaign. There is nothing to stop the podcasts being included in an extra DVD with or without additional scenes and comments/interviews.

Looking at the Forum section shows there are many active threads. In total these threads have been read almost 200k people. The numbers of comments made also run into many thousands. That is a good deal on online buzz that will help drive the audience when the film opens later this year.

For other businesses you have only got to look at what Lego has done in engaging with its community to launch pre-release products and create an online buzz to see what would be possible. Many companies will have products and services that during the product life cycle can be opened up to community engagement and conversation.

Looking back at my career every product launch we had to work really hard to get bums on seats on a pan-European seminar and demo roll out tour. It was a massive marketing exercise to promote it via direct marketing, local advertising and channel support and promotion activities. What if we already had an active community that had been engaged as part of the product development and testing phase? As and when we came to run the local events we would have had a core potential audience who we were already in conversation with! By offering them a chance to invite friends and business colleagues we may have been well on the way to getting our audience!

AmEx are launching a new community site aimed at anyone connecetd with the business travel market.

In the press release Charles Petruccelli, president of American Express Global Travel Services, is quoted as saying

"...With the advent of new technology we're witnessing the business travel industry moving toward online resources and automated services, and our objective with this new, interactive network, is to continue to revolutionise the business travel experience..."

Certainly AmEx are well placed to provide core information to travellers and use their brand strength to help generate content and comment from business travellers and those involved in the industry.

Saw this post from someone who has been invited but cannot make Nokia's weekend bash. Shows you what they say when they contact people and what they offer (and hope to get in return).

Forrester reports on their latest B2B marketing teleconference which highlighted that a large percentage of marketers are holding fire with actively participating in social media as they are unsure of the value.

Having said that just over 1/3rd say they are using blogs, podcasts and other 'Web 2.0' type tools. The details are shown below:

I am not sure if it is traditional ad agencies or companies at fault but if companies think the answer to declining effectiveness of advertising on TV, radio and in TV is to social networking site advertising they will be in for a rude awakeing. Check out this blog posting on American Apparels activities and results and questions their ROI.

Social networking is not about another form of interput marketing. It is about community or sharing. It is about participating and engaging. It is not a one-way communication channel.

Now compare that to what Kettle Chips Inc, Wiggly Wrigglers, Lego, Dell and a host of others have done to engage and build rapport with their communities.

The problem is most ad agencies are driven by an inside-out focus. Teams of extremely clever, creative people focus on how best to get peoples attention. They know all the best techniques and practice it to a high art. Social networking is an outside-in approach. It is scary as it says we do not know what our customers are really thinking. Let's ask them and then respond. It is a cultural shift of massive proportions. For the traditional agency and client. Does it still involve adland creative people? Sure but NOT as the starting point.

Take Kettle Chips. They got many thousands of new product ideas from their customers. They could have also asked for some packaging design ideas and ad ideas. Think of it like a massive online Focus Group. Then have the 'professionals' work up the designs and the outreach (ads, DM etc) programmes. Kettle also have to ket their R&D people actually prototype the new flavours and then get them to the point they can manufacture them. Give credit to those customers who's ideas they were but take those ideas to the next level. Share the project at every step of the way so the community is involved. Seek their feedback and comments. Create a massive online buzz that can take advantage of WOM marketing. There are still all sorts of creative opportunities for community engagement. Why not a 'cook off' with two or more competing flavours? Invite customers to participate. Why not a road tour around major retailers to get tasting feedback on the 'peoples choice'? This would be a great outreach programme to non-customers as part of a 'try before you buy' campaign. Why not get the ad agency people to come up with a couple of packaging designs and have them do 'town hall meetings' to pitch their ideas?

A great piece of work by Brian Solis and blog post on what he calls the 'Conversation Prism'. A must read for anyone interesting in Web 2.0 customer/community engagement.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) of the USA has awarded Kettle Foods, Inc. one of the two 2008 Awards for Innovation and Creativity.

Kettle Foods, Inc. won the award for its annual “People’s Choice” campaign.  The campaign, which is almost totally run online, combines consumer interaction, PR and R&D into one program. According to the press reports the company has had than 11,000 new business leads, more than 7,000 new flavour suggestions, and 75,000 unique Web site visits all for a low cost investment.

As Kettle Inc they say on their web site…

“…In 2005 we realized that some of the best ideas out there came from our fans and we turned over product development to our loyal "chippoisseurs." The People's Choice campaign was born and we welcomed aboard the first winning flavors, Spicy Thai™ and Cheddar Beer™. The program has continued ever since, bringing new taste adventures to our loyal flavanatics….”

In the UK they are currently running a BBQ Chef competition. Again this is a community outreach programme. Helping the company connect with its customer base.

A social networking and shopping site aimed at 8 - 15 years has just been launched in Canada. Called ShopLikeAnna it aims to provide a safe environment for young people to chat and share shopping tips and activities. Given that a large percentage of young people are actually on sites such as MySpace and Facebook which are restricted to older people this could prove very successful.

Business Week looks at the value of Social Networking sites to SME businesses.

Their conclusion? I suppose it has to be ‘could be’.

The sub-headline of the article says it all: 

“….To get the most out of social networking sites, small companies should look past the hype, set concrete business goals, then start experimenting…”

Our experience with a larger client (Poundland) was that using Facebook as a community information point worked well. We posted updates on new store openings, new stock lines and special offers. The customers used it as a way of asking questions of the company and sharing information with the company and among themselves. It also became a place for ex-employees to communicate amongst themselves and catch up with old friends and workmates. It was not used as an advertising platform but as a community where the customers shaped the ongoing conversations. The company already had established communication tools with customers but this opened up a new method and one to a previously difficult to reach group of younger consumers.

Another company (not a client) puts most of her success in building a £2.5m+ business down to the power of social media. Check out the Facebook pages of Wiggly Wigglers, their web site and podcasts. Almost 800 members on Facebook and a monthly audience of over 50k for the podcasts is a great ROI for something that takes them little time and money to update. Heather Gorringe, the MD talks about what she has done and the results. 

Borders have announced they are launching a podcast series featuring various music artists and authors being interviewed.

Digital Marketing Executive at Borders Nick Atkinson said: "The podcasts complement our mix of products and enable us to build communities and reach out to a new demographic. None of our competitors are offering them."

If you click on the link you get to the podcast page and this text...

"Borders is delighted to announce the launch of its new audio podcast, hosted by Susan Spence. It features exclusive live tracks from Martha Wainwright, recorded at her recent event at Borders Oxford St, interviews with top crime writer Jeffrey Deaver, Kite Runner author Khaleid Hosseini, the 'Cityboy' Geraint Anderson, Mercury Music Prize nominees Portico Quartet, British Sea Power and Neon Neon as well as the latest news on the hottest August releases in childrens books and fiction from the Borders buying team."

It is well produced and as you can see from the detals above it has a great mix of content appealing to a range of people. My only issue I have with it is that it lasts almost an hour but it has no sectional feeds or indication of what time the various interviews start. From this wide range of content in the podcast I would like to dip in to only those bits I wanted to listen to and not be forced to listen to all.

What they could do is have the podcast page list the times of the various sections so I could move straight there or offer segment subscriptions based upon the listeners interests. You can keep the play all option but allowing people to 'cherry pick' would provide greater flexibility.

The SEC has announced it will change the rules on company financial reporting to taking into account the emergence of social media.

Chris Cox, SEC Chairman was quoted in their press release as saying:

“The last time the SEC issued guidance in this area, the idea of ’social networks’ hadn’t yet been developed, and creating a social network where shareholders could meet and exchange views was barely imaginable. Ongoing developments in technology have increased both the markets’ and investors’ demand for more timely company disclosure on the Web, and in turn, raised new securities law issues for public companies to consider.”

A recent report by JupiterReseach has shown that marketing people are being slow to adopt social media communications as they do not feel they have the ROI metrics and case studies necessary to evaluate and recommend the technique as part of the communications mix.

This makes the work of the MeasurementCamp group even more important. This is a group of agencies (PR and digital agencies plus analytical tool people) and end users who meet monthly to look at the the measurement of social media and WOM campaigns and to share best practice.

If you are interested in participating come along to the next meeting on 3rd September, 2008 - 10am till noon at Fishburn Hedges in London.

Check out the resources section on the Wiki for case studies and tools.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream is using a variety of social media tools as part of a community engagement project. The campaign should work well as its subject reflect the brand values of the business very well and are tied into a specific product promotion and event.

Latest research shows Instant Messaging, blogging and other social media tools grow in use to over 50% of all Americans.

Interesting to read Jonathan Mills, Event Director, talk about the use of podcasting to engage with a wider audience.

Interesting article on putting SM measurement as part of CRM.

SM is measureable in itself. Some measures could be:

• Number of online mentions before, during and after specific activity
• Number of responses to your comments on someones elses blog
• Number of subscribers to your blog
• Number of comments on your blog
• Tone and sentiment (positive, negative or neutral) of the online buzz before and after online activity
• Tone and sentiment on your comments and blog
• Link throughs to web site or mentioned resources (your blog may menton specific sources of information on the web site or a specially created microsite - what traffic do you generate and to where)
• Survey results before and after activity
• Level of activity on any community that you established

Some tips on building an active online community.

Communities are a powerful tool for businesses to use to support the brand...

• Market research - it gives instant real time measures of what people are thinking and feeling from the comments and conversation htreads plus you can always use online survey tools to ask specific questions.
• Product testing - put the product out into the community for feedback and beta testing
• Product message testing - thinking of running a new campaign? Why not ask for feedback from the community? Ad agencies would always suggest running Focus Groups. Why not use your community for some of this? Want a wider feedback? Ask the community to recruit friends and family and help.
• Product ideas - current customers are a great for new ideas. New products, new services and new ways of engaging with them. Ask them for ideas. *

* When I worked at 3M the R&D teams would regularly put out sample technology and ask for employees suggestions. They also had an internal employee shop where you could buy discounted products as sold in stores. Again they asked for branding, price and packaging suggestions. Is it any wonder that 3M was often cited as one of the most innovative companies in the world. That was 30 years ago! Now imagine they could use social networking tools to extend this to their customer base.

Watch out for the next movie from Spike Lee. It will be produced from movie clips supplied by people using the video function on their mobile phones. it is being sponsored and promomoted by Nokia using mainly online WOM techniques.

An article in the AsiaTimes says that internet connected consumers in China are increasingly using 'cloudclout' (taungou) to help their purchase decisions. Online recommendation through WOM which fits in well with Chinese culture and social practice.  

I love the word 'crowdclout'. Sums up what retailers actually feel. Consumers banding together to share information on what is best to buy.

I took to heart what a Chinese friend said to me years ago. Want to go eat the best Chinese food in Soho/China Town? Go to where the Chinese families eat. It may not be the smartest one on the street but it will serve the best food at good prices. Beware of ones frequented by only young Chinese - they maybe less interested in good food and more in latest 'hot spots' to be seen in. The advice has never failed me.

Interesting research into social networks within a work environment. Anyone who has worked in an office knows that the jungle grapevine has been a well established communication channel. Researchers are now tracking how it works in practice. It would be really interesting to know where new social networking tools like Facebook and twitter extend the networks as a bridge to other networks and so driving a WOM message viral.

It is always interesting to see how companies are using social networks. A very topical one with an Olympics theme has just been announced by Sun.

The US based networking site for lawyers is expanding to other markets.

Recent research by Jupiter shows many marketing people are cautious of the use of social media tools and techniques because of the lack of case studies and ROI metrics.

This highlights the importantce of the work being done by the MeasurementCamp members. Come alongto the next session on 10 am - 12 pm, Wednesday 3 September 2008 - at Fishburn Hedges  

Neilsen BuzzMetrics have placed 11 of their case studies on the Wiki.    

Check out how hundreds of companies are using it.

Another academic study into the use of podcasts for student education.

This one supports the trend from most. What has reseach shown?

• Podcasts are most effective when interagted with other forms of learning (workgroups, classroom etc)
• Podcasts are very useful for revision or 'fast facts' type learning (within a corpororate environment they could be used as part of the CPD process)
• Podcasts supplement texts and lecture notes but are not as effective as class room based learning
• Interactive podcasts requiring use of other source of materials or engagement with the podcast via a web site are more effective than simple play and listen podcasts

Twitter has proved itself to be a great tool for 'breaking news'. Instant updates from 'citizen journalists' anywhere where the action is and as it happens.

Now with Number 10's Twitter feed and updates we are getting news of Odama's visit as it happens - from the inside. Check out the pictures on Flickr and also the publics tweets on Twitter and videos on Qik. The press are out in force. But they are not necessarily feeding 'live' unless they link back to the studios and then the 'live' is only applied to the allocated slot in the programme.

Company lesson? Want to squeeze that extra bit of coverage out of some event or marketing activity then start to Twitter, stream video and create podcasts. What to increase on that? Invite some bloggers along.

As a business if you have been wondering about the use of webvideo and video podcasts to communicate with employees or your customers here are four bits of information to factor into your decision making process.

• Broadband charges reducing – meaning more people will upgrade top speeds that makes multi-media data use possible (60%+ already on broadband according to the last Ofcom survey)

• BT’s plans for fibre optic connections – increased speed will allow even greater use of on-demand video (but maybe not rural areas with limited demand)

• The BBC’s announcement of hitting 75 millions streams via their iPlayer plus….

• Virgin Media announcing 10 million streams via their TV implementation of the iPlayer – showing downloading and consumption of video is becoming more mainstream with consumers.

Hot on the heels of Gordon Brown answering peoples questions on YouTube comes news that the Number 10 web site is being re-designed around WordPress and will have video podcasts as well as RSS feeds and Twitter integrated. All part of the continued drive to communbicate direct with people. The fact that it will mean Number 10 does not have to rely on traditional media (considered hostile) to get his message across is a bonus I guess.

Lessons for business? A lot!

• Employee cascade communications - survey after survey highlights that employee communications from senior management is not working. If senior management had a communication platform like this would that still be the case?
• Marketing - with ever greater pressures on tight budgets cost effective 'narrowcasting' looks even more enticing
• Community - the interactive nature of the tools themselves builds relationships
• Surveys - used creatively interactive tools give you a real time idea of peoples attitudes to your products or services
• Beta platform/customer feedback -a step on from surveys. Why not follow the lead of others (Dell, Lego etc) and get active active engagement with customers of new products and services before launching them formally.

People often ask me what is the use of Twitter. I give them my answer but I usually find it is best to give them examples of how it has helped me or other people I know.

Here is another one. Paul Gillin is a US based author. I loved his first book 'The New Influencers' so much I interviewed him for a podcast. I highly recommend his book so when he posted via Twitter and his blog that he was sending drafts of his next book out to 250 people lucky I tried to request a copy. Sadly, due to cost he is only posting them out to US based people.

This is what he just posted on Twitter...

Power of Twitter: Free book offer (http://tinyurl.com/5cos49) gets 7X signups in 30 mins on Twitter as in 24 hours on three blogs.

So now I can add 'sales promotion tool' with an example to my list. 

Next time I speak to Paul I must as him how many people follow him on Twitter versus read his blogs. I bet you that his Twitter followers are lower which makes the above comments from Paul even more interesting for marketing people who need to get news out fast and wide.