Tag Archives: innovation

Brand Focus #10: A Grouposal and 4 things Marketers Can Learn From It

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The proposal on Groupon Malaysia

Okay, this isn’t exactly a brand but it won my vote for being innovative – this guy proposed to his girlfriend using Groupon.

How did it work? He ‘sold’ himself by publishing his deal on Groupon Malaysia, knowing that his girlfriend checks Groupon on a daily basis. The deal garnered almost 48,000 ‘buys’ which indicated the support he received for the proposal. The girl said “Yes”.

4 things Marketers can learn from this proposal:

#1: Know your target audience

How many marketers out there actually sit down to really understand their target audience? I ask this because it is tough. Many businesses out there want to expand too soon, without thoroughly understanding their existing audience and it goes beyond just demographics. What are their behavioral patterns online? What are their interest? The closer you get the better it gets, just like how the guy knew the girlfriend checks out Groupon every morning without fail.

#2: Don’t limit your marketing tools even before it starts

A common scenario
Client: I want a Facebook campaign.
Marketer: Sure! Let’s do one.

I must admit I fall into that once in a while too, simply because it is the easy way out. However the real question to ask is: Will _________ be THE effective tool? Could there be a better tool out there that your target audience is using? Many pick Facebook / Twitter simply because it has a huge user base. But let’s face it – how many will actually participate in your marketing campaign? Think of other tools that can make your campaign fun and memorable outside of the usual Facebook.

#3: Get people talking

Mark Hughes in his book Buzz Marketing says that there are 6 buttons to get people talking (buzz): the taboo, the unusual, the outrageous, the hilarious, the remark-able and the secrets. In the case of the Grouposal, it is the unusual – and it generated more than 6,000 shares on Facebook alone. How’s that for a proposal? Give your campaign an angle that people can talk about.

#4: Be on the look out for opportunities to promote

Ridding the hype

Sometimes you do not need to create your own successful marketing campaigns – you can hitch a ride on the hype. Traditionally, marketers rely on festive seasons such as Christmas, New Year’s, Halloween and etc to market themselves. What about weddings, birthdays, anniversaries or proposals such as the above? This hair salon saw the opportunity to promote themselves using this proposal that was stirring much buzz.

See the Grouposal here

What do you think of this Grouposal? Is there anything else that can make a better campaign?

Are You Building Engagement Points for Your #SocialMedia Campaigns?

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The objective of this article is not to remind you how powerful and important social media is to your business today but to tell you that being on social media is not the solution to stay competitive in the market.

We all know that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are great tools to maximize online visibility. The question is, how can your business capitalize on the growing evolution of social media and not fizzle out?

If you already have a social presence, great! This may help you enlarge your ‘territory’. If you’ve yet to integrate social media into your business, consider this as a point for having one:

Creating Social Engagement Points for Your Business

Yes, you may have a blog or a Facebook page but do you know how many engagement points are you using? In other words, how are you allowing your customers to engage with you? Identifying your engagement points can maximize your effectiveness on that platform simply because you’re allowing your audience to engage with you differently.

Take a look at the video below:

Now this video has nothing to do with blogs, Facebook or Twitter but it holds one powerful concept to being successful on social media: enlarging engagement points so that their customers can engage with them (through purchasing) even outside of their stores.

Tesco realized 2 important points:

1a. To increase engagement points does not mean they have to be opening new outlets everywhere. In social media, that also translates to you do NOT need to be on every social media platform just to be seen engaging with your customers.

1b. To effectively engage with your customers, you need to be where they are at and in this case, it was the subway. Where are your customers congregating? Are they even on Facebook to begin with? Or would they be hanging out in technology forums? DeviantArt, perhaps? Know where they are and be there!

2. The power of having 1 platform but multiple engagement points. Tesco used the subways as the platform along with QR codes – not one, but one for every product. Think about it – Tesco could have done only ONE QR code and redirect the customer to their online shopping site for the purchase to take place but they chose to have them individually. This boosts interactivity and allows customers to actively engage in a different way.

How are you allowing your customers to engage with you on social media? Only on your Facebook wall? Your comments section? How many engagement points do you have?

17 Simple Engagement Points for Your Blog and Facebook Page

Facebook

#1: Wall (yours)
#2: Wall (your customers’)
#3: Questions / Polls
#4: Contests
#5: Welcome Page
#6: Subscription Tab
#7: ‘Like’ / ‘Share’ Button
#8: Profile Picture (e.g. fan of the week)
#9: Photo Tagging
#10: Events

Blog

#11: Comments
#12: Social Sharing (Retweet, Share, Digg, Stumble, +1, etc)
#13: RSS Subscription
#14: Email Subscription
#15: Contact Page
#16: Links to your Social Profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc)
#17: Guest Posting

What are your thoughts on having multiple engagement points? What other engagement points you think businesses and individuals should also implement?

The Digital Economy

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The economy as we all know relies a lot on trades, in other words, buying and selling – the focus is on the money. Is that all there is to the economy?

“Economy is also defined as: The wealth and resources of a country or region, esp. in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services” – Google definitions

I would like to suggest that there’s more to that today – in this digital economy.

What drives the digital economy?

#1: People

Erik Qualman mentioned in his book “Socialnomics” that social media is a people-driven economy that will change the way we live and do business – no longer a ‘toy’ for kids anymore.

Relationships and networks, that’s what the digital economy is all about and both cannot be bought with money alone. It takes time, effort and commitment and buying fans / followers won’t speed up the process. Think about it – gone were the days where people were influenced by well-crafted sales pitches. It’s all about real, human recommendations. That’s where comments, ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ come in and many businesses have seen (and reap) the benefits.

#2: Integration

This is an era of integration. You see the latest electronic devices being integrated with so many functions from touch screens, web browsing capabilities, cameras, GPS and even near field communication functions. In business, you see companies merging together to achieve competitive advantage and outsourcing somewhat becomes a norm unlike before where companies hire their own developers, support teams and graphic designers.

This is also true in advertising / marketing campaigns. Companies are using what I call integrated media, combining both social and conventional media for better reach, control and effectiveness. Printed ads are no longer limited to static information with QR (Quick Response) or AR (Augmented Reality) codes; customer interaction goes beyond phone and email support with the inclusion of social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook; events become more interesting with visitors literally ‘liking’ a particular product / display on the spot!

#3: Minimalists

Businesses and companies are moving towards the minimalistic approach. Today’s websites are a good indication – most websites are clutter free unlike before where they are overloaded with information. They understand that more is not necessarily better thus small businesses are also becoming more focused, from total solution providers to specialized solution providers.

Is your business ready for the digital economy? What are your thoughts on the digital economy? How will it evolve further?

 

Social is the New ‘E’

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Just a couple of years back, the world was into the ‘E’ phase – ‘E’lectronic Mails, ‘E’lectronic Commerce, ‘E’lectronic Portals and the list go on. What’s happening to the ‘E’ today? How are the ‘E’s holding up?

7 ‘E’s that became Social

from e to socialWhat other ‘E’s have I missed? What’s the ‘Social’ equivalent of it? Do share them below!

How to: Be Successful in Business? Back to Basics

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Startup Weekend MalaysiaRecently I have been invited to the Startup Weekend Malaysia to experience the program and mingle around with people with great ideas. If you’re wondering, the Startup Weekend is a global initiative to assist aspiring (serious) entrepreneurs in making their first step to realize their business ideas. Each participant is given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to the room in 1-minute and the top 10 ideas (based on votes) will be selected and that’s where the real work begins – from forming teams, brainstorming, market research to prototype development.

The beauty of this program? Everyone leaves with a developed business idea. Cool, huh?

As I was listening to the individual pitches, observing and talking to these entrepreneurs, it made me once again realize the secret ingredient for success – whether it is in business, social media campaigns or even in life – and they really are the basics, nothing fancy or extraordinary.

One of the plenary sessions at the Startup Weekend Malaysia

Here are the 7 basic attributes to be successful:

#1: Dream

Every participant that came to the program had a dream – an idea, a business plan waiting to be fulfilled. They’ve probably been sleeping on it ever since it popped into their heads and they are just waiting for the opportunity to get it started.

What About You?: Do you have a dream? Do not be afraid to dream. Ideas only stop coming because you allowed it to. A rule – don’t set boundaries to your dream. Dream big!

Further reading: It’s time to dream!

#2: Passion

Even though the participants were only given 1-minute to pitch, their passion and enthusiasm is unmistakable. They are eager to see their business idea come to live and they obviously do not care if the rest thinks it is a silly / inviable idea. It’s theirs and they are proud that they own it.

What About You?: Do you have an idea but am afraid of what others might think? Stop yourself from thinking that way and let your passion take over. Sometimes, a silly idea turns great through passion – simply because you never stopped believing.

#3: Action

Passion is put to test when the participants are required to form teams to actually work on their ideas. This is where the participants had to really do something about it – to make the idea work, beyond just talking and sharing.

What About You?: Maybe it is time for you to take action and put that passion of yours to good use. Sitting on it won’t do any good. Action makes things happen.

Further reading: Passion without Action is dead!

#4: Determination

Let’s take a step back – even before the participants had to form teams, they had to gather votes from everyone present as only 10 ideas with the highest votes will be given the opportunity to form teams to drive the idea further. I particularly remember this participant, Aaron, that came up to me saying “Sir, will you give me an opportunity to share my idea with you?”. His idea wasn’t extraordinary but his passion and determination (and preliminary idea research) won my vote.

What About You?: How determined are you to make your idea a reality? Remember, it is always easier to give up but being successful in most cases, is like running a marathon. It’s a long journey but the reward is great.

#5: Team Work

It is interesting to see how the teams were formed at the Startup Weekend. Almost every team were looking for a developer, marketer and finance person simply because they understood that they cannot do it alone.

What About You?: No man is an island. You’ll definitely need a team to make up for your weaknesses. Get your team together and you’ll find that that’s the best decision you’ve ever made! It also helps you focus on what you need to do – managing and keeping the vision intact.

#6: Focus

From time to time again the participants were reminded to build a MVP – Most Viable Product, forgoing fancy features and functions and focusing on the must-haves, the actual benefits that the consumer wants.

What About You?: It is easy to get caught up with the cool features and add-ons of your plans but if you do not have anything to begin with, your ideas are nothing to begin with. Focus on getting the core benefits right THEN the add-ons. Remember, build a MVP!

Further reading: The 2 Secret Ingredients for a Successful Product

#7: Anticipation

People say that when Apple is building the very first iPhone, they already have the iPhone 4 and the iPad in mind, just waiting for the right time to roll them out. Build with the future in mind! Anticipate opportunities for expansion and problems that may occur.

What About You?: It is all about preparation. A scalable product will definitely have a larger potential and you may just capture the attention of investors are venture capitalists. Always be on your toes – you’ll never know when you’ll need to sprint forward ;)

Do you remember the time when you were just starting out? What drove / motivated you? I would love to hear your experience :)

 

Introducing the BufferApp – Social Media Done Right

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Just about a week ago I talked about the various 3rd party applications I use to enhance my Twitter experience and if you remember, BufferApp is one of them. Despite it’s awesome functionalities (especially after the recent update which I’ll share with you a little further), what makes BufferApp awesome is beyond that. It actually lies in how the founders and creators of BufferApp actually ‘humanize’ the application, and here are 2 simple reasons why I say so:

#1: They LISTEN

Truth be told, I’m even more impressed with the people behind the product than the product itself. Both @LeoWid and @joelg87 are amazing people. They are on a consistent look out for ideas, listening to what each and every user has to say about BufferApp to improve its usability. Crowd sourcing – that is what they are doing. And they are doing it right!

This also reminds me that many projects / products fail because someone tried to pack too much into it at one go – resulting in an overly complicated product or an extended timeline to which sometimes lead to no ending. What they did is to launch a simple and lightweight product that works, THEN rollout updates that caters to the users.

What do they get out of it? They save time, and they can get the functions right.

What do we get out of it? A product that we love!

#2: They ENGAGE

The worst thing that can happen is to drop someone a DM or @mention and you get a reply days after (or never!). As for BufferApp, you can be assured that they will respond to you – whether it is a simple ‘hello’, a complain or a complement, you can expect a reply. Don’t believe me? Put them to the test and experience for yourself!

Simple as it sounds, the above is really the essence of being social and businesses should realize that social networks are not a place to rack up the fan / follower count and blast them with sales pitches.

Now, the BufferApp

You simply tell Buffer your schedule... once!

Okay, enough about the great people behind the product – now the product itself. I started using this nifty tool a few weeks back and what really caught my attention is the ability to automatically schedule tweets periodically but yet have so much control over the tweets. What I really meant is that you do not need to schedule every individual tweet manually anymore, unlike TweetDeck, HootSuite or etc.

What makes Buffer different is that it also comes with optional add-ons (or goodies): a Google Chrome, Safari or Firefox browser extension.

This means that you can even schedule your updates OUTSIDE of BufferApp.com by simply clicking on the Buffer extension on your browser window to reveal…

 

this!

You can opt to “Tweet Now” where you share the content immediately or “Add to Buffer” where the content will be added to your queue of updates on Buffer. Did I also not mention the “Shorten Links” feature? These 3 are perhaps the most sought after functions when it comes to sharing a Tweet (at least for me).

Buffer did not forget about the mobile users, too! Instead of developing an individual mobile application to suit all existing smart phones, they took a step forward (or backward) to come up with a very simplistic yet smart way of making Buffer happen for a larger population – through email. Yes, all you need to do is to share your content via email on your mobile and send it to: [email protected] where the subject is your tweet, and the body is your link – and it will automatically be added unto your Buffer queue.

 

Tweet Suggestions - plenty of them!

Now comes my all-time favorite function – “Suggest me a Tweet” where Buffer generates a random tweet for you! I spend quite a bit of time looking through all the tweets at times just to see what will I get. Quotes by the famous, articles by bloggers and even jokes – you can get them all in a click.

That’s not all!

I find it really fascinating to see how Leo and Joel is able to roll out updates almost every single week at such a rapid pace – something many projects (especially startups) aren’t able to do. Their dedication says it all and they are making it happen beyond a great social product – but being social themselves.

My Description of Buffer in 140 Characters

If you’re interested in looking up what are all the other functions of Buffer (analytics, bit.ly integration, button for blogs and more), click here to see a full list of them (and be prepared for more to come)!

Don’t believe what I have to say about Buffer? See what others have to say over here!

important note: this article is not by any chance a paid review, advertorial or request by anyone representing BufferApp and / or its founders and it is solely written on my experience with @LeoWid and @BufferApp itself.

How to: Integrate Social Media in Offline Operations

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“Is online / social media alone the way forward for your business?“

Being a huge believer of the importance of INTEGRATION instead of implementation, my answer to that is NO. Businesses today are too caught up with the ideology of social media but fail to realize the huge potential social media can bring when integrated into traditional marketing efforts.

It is important for businesses to realize that social media integration does not mean that by having social media presence everything will fall into place. If you take a look at same of these real life integrations of social media with Facebook and Twitter, you’ll find that these companies are successful online because they managed to integrate it into existing OFFLINE business operations.

Here are some integration ideas for you to maximize your marketing potential:

#1: EVENTS + SOCIAL MEDIA

5 Ideas on how to enhance your events with social media on MashableHave an event coming up soon? Whether it is an exhibition, launch or a regular meetup / happening, explore how you can spice up your event with available social media tools. You can use Facebook to share photos leading towards the event to build hype and organize giveaways; use Twitter to share real time updates on what’s happening on the scene and behind the scenes, facilitate tweetchats or setup a Twitter wall at the event with a contest mechanism to build followers; rewarding visitors that check in to your venue on Foursquare or even a treasure hunt!

There is a timely article written on Mashable yesterday on this very topic with 5 ideas on how you can enhance your events with social media. Click on the thumbnail to check it out!

#2: ADVERTISING / PROMO + SOCIAL MEDIA

promotion and advertising on social media

You have a new product or service and is wanting some follower / fan love? Facebook can be used to disseminate information regarding your product or to give out demo units; if you have an existing network, identify strong personas and request for them to review your product and service on blogs; use Twitter to it’s fullest potential by sharing exclusive deals or twouchers (vouchers) to start a string of retweets; perhaps the mayor on Foursquare entitled to a VIP-class treatment of your service?

#3: CUSTOMER SERVICE + SOCIAL MEDIA

customer service on twitterI can’t stress the importance and the effectiveness of customer service using social media. The more active channels you make available for your customers and prospects to approach you, the better.

The 2 common mediums are Facebook and Twitter. If you can capitalize on these 2 you should be in the run of something good. Do not leave questions unattended for days, reply to every enquiry within 1-2 hours consistently and your customers will find GREAT value in your service.

One thing to note is that you should never, ever give out inconsistent / inaccurate information on social media as you could cook up a storm in a matter of minutes, especially if you have a huge network.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even use Twitter to take orders for your business like Coffee Groundz did!

#4: ON-SITE INTERACTIVITY + SOCIAL MEDIA

Who says social media are only limited to virtual interactions? Coca Cola brought the ‘like’ feature on Facebook to life! Check out the video below to see how it happened:

I agree that this setup can be a little too complicated for some to take on but it sure triggers some simpler ideas. A giant photo tagging wall or a mini wall in front of each exhibitor for visitors to ‘post’ on, the only limit is your imagination :)

Have you come across any interesting social media integrations into real life (offline) operations?

Do share them here!

Citibank with Card 2.0

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If you’ve read my previous post about an innovation about the next generation of credit cards (Card 2.0), I mentioned two things:
1. Some banks in the US have been running tests and prototypes on Card 2.0
2. I personally think that this concept would not go too far as the next generation payment may go beyond cards (mobile, maybe?)

Well, Citibank is seen to be the first heading into the Card 2.0 world with two buttons – giving cardholders to have the option to pay either via credit or Citi Reward Points anywhere the card is accepted. Introducing to you the Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard and PremierPass Elite cards from Citibank! It is said that these cards will officially launch in May 2011.

Citibank Card 2.0

Pretty interesting, huh? Instead of sticking to the concept of having 2 different cards represented in 1 Card 2.0, they made it simpler for their cardholders to make different modes of payment. Simple, yet smart.

Do you have a better idea for Card 2.0? I’d love to hear them :)

The Next Generation of Cards: Credit Card 2.0

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You’ve heard about Web 2.0. How about a Credit Card 2.0? That’s the evolution of credit cards – really cool features, secured, water and scratch proof. Imagine a card that can tie in multiple accounts into one card, password protected, hide certain digits of your card number with a push of a button (yes, a button), but yet retain it’s card-like plastic features and remains just as thin!

All in all, it is definitely what credit cards should be like right now!

According to the creators of Card 2.0 (Dynamics Inc.), several banks in the States are already undergoing stealth testing with prototype cards and may be launching soon, although an exact date is still unavailable at this moment.

My description of Card 2.0 does not do justice to this awesome innovation. Hear it from them directly in the video below, thanks to Mashable (note: it is pretty noisy so you may want to jack up your volume a little lot!

So, what do you think? I can so imagine myself carrying one of these right away!

“However, the video does not tell us where the battery will come from and it may be really costly for them to produce these in the mass. Plus, security may still be a problem since passwords aren’t exactly safe as well. Let’s see how far this innovation will be able to travel as Cards may not be THE next generation for payment! For all we know, Google may just come up with a Google Bank that allows you to use your Google Account sign-in at banks and transactions… scary much”