As part of my role as strategy executive here at 1000heads, I’m constantly tasked with finding new ways to improve our in-house reporting tools. On that note, I recently came across Socialbakers (formerly Facebakers) and, while I haven’t yet fully explored their features, it brings to mind a type of question that always seems to come up when talking social analytics:
“We’ve got X fans/posts/impressions in three months. What does that actually mean?”
Let’s try and find out -
One thing that Socialbakers allows you to do is to put Facebook activity into context. It gives you the ability to look at various brands’ and countries’ top-line performance metrics such as cost-per-click and growth (and doubtless much more when you have full/premium access).
This means that you are able to compare what you are doing relatively.
For instance, if your Facebook page has grown by 40% in just under a month, that sounds pretty good right?
But what if all of your closest competitors’ pages (or even Facebook itself) has grown by a similar amount – how impressive is it then?
Statistics and data, when viewed in isolation from the influential factors in their environment, can sometimes begin to lose value. What Socialbakers tries to do is a good start, but placing what we do into context should be considered with everyinsight that is found, action that is taken and result that is reported. That doesn’t just mean within social media, but looking at the business context that the social activity falls within.
While we are all looking to develop strong relationships with our consumers, enhance passions, drive recommendation and make brands and products common social currency (both for ourselves and for our clients), it is the ability to move the needle on the bottom line that counts.
Have you got any case studies where you’ve used context (or seen it used) to turn an insight on its head?
Since the start of the year, I’ve been heading up our Social Business Consultancy here at 1000heads, and I’ve been spending a lot of my time this month listening rather than talking; seeking ideas from a huge range of people on what a ‘social business’ of the future really should look like and the challenges in implementing some of those changes now.
Our social consultancy clients include Mars, Heineken, Nokia, Cancer Research UK, Veria and LocateTV, so we well know that being social can mean something very different depending on what sort of company you are – the approach has to be bespoke.
However, I’m also a believer in starting with what the ideal social business might be and being bold in challenging businesses to question and evolve themselves as radically as possible.
Last week’s #trulondon Social Recruiting Unconference provided some provocative insights. Far from just looking at social recruitment, the discussions ranged from corporate culture and internal blogging to personal branding and legal issues. One of the best (and most divisive) sessions looked at The Future of Work, where we discussed whether (and which) businesses really will move towards a decentralised, networked and mobile way of doing things.
A particular inspiration was Kevin Wheeler, whose Future of Talent Institute has some valuable insights on working culture, structure and tools in a social world. Browsing his site, I was reminded of this Clay Shirky video on Institutions vs Collaboration presented at TED in 2005.
Yes, 2005.
The ways in which work is going to change have been obvious to many people for a while, but businesses are only just starting to take baby steps towards implementing them. It’s time to accelerate the rate of change. Businesses have always been slower than people, but that excuse is wearing increasingly thin.
I am, as you can, tell, on a mission. Get in touch if you want to join in.
Three and a half years ago, I joined as a ‘copywriter’. It was a bit of a misnomer, as back then every ‘head did pretty much everything – research, engagement, client services, reports. But although I have now moved into the more strategic realms of our social business consultancy, I have always remained a logophile at heart.
Talking about copy is slightly unfashionable in social media; it has intimations of that awkwardly formal, bizarrely enthusiastic, one-way unpersonalised PR-speak most of us have experienced via letter, email, or tweet.
But great copy is still just as essential nowadays, perhaps even more so. Our conversational world demands a sophisticated brand voice that combines the personal and professional, the emotive and the direct, the casual and the respectful. Most of us find it easy to strike that balance when talking to people face-to-face, but social media, particularly for brands, is a bizarre mixture of publication and conversation, requiring a balance between the natural and the self-aware.
Competitions such as the recent London Long Copy Challenge run by CBS Outdoor have attempted to prove that long copy is still an effective word of mouth trigger – judge the results for yourself – and The Chip Shop Awards always demonstrate some great examples of WOM-worthy words.
But conversational copy is no longer the preserve of the ad man. It infiltrates most consumer touchpoints, from the Twitter feed to that email approaching a prospective advocate.
I was reminded of this last year when I stayed in the Felin Fach Griffin Inn in Brecon, on my way to talk WOM with Arts Council Wales. With gorgeous food, warm service and meticulously designed rooms, the inn drove my advocacy simply with the quality of its product, not to mention some basic word of mouth tactics:
However, the detail that really got me was the in-room pamphlet:
Any regular traveller is used to these ordinarily dry and functional documents informing you of WiFi passwords and breakfast times, but this was a very different compilation of quirky, witty copy, written by the owners of the inn themselves and really articulating the warm, witty and personalised ethos of the inn – as well as specifically encouraging word of mouth online and offline.
What are the best and most subtle examples of conversational copy you’ve seen?
“1000heads is an imaginative collection of illustrations in which the human head experiments the strangest transformations, actions and variations.
Let this video guide you in this imaginative, fascinating and mesmerizing trip through the world of symbols, associations and memories.”
No no, we’ve not decided to change our business model (word of mouth is still our favourite thing) but rather an interesting find when our Google Alerts went off this morning.
It’s all about the jazz…
While this book of madness is three and a bit minutes of your life you’ll never get back, it has got us thinking; if 1000heads did have their own book, what would it consist of?
Case studies?
Advice?
Photos of our pets?
Perhaps the medium of print is too old and staid and we should instead get our very own iPad publication…
We love to showcase the best conversational work being done by brands, and this ad by BMW is no exception. It’s based around the Chinese proverb “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand” – as good a mission statement for consumer engagement as I’ve heard.
Innovative tech, an inspiring narrative and a collective experience in a real space. Old-school cinema ad plus new WOM thinking equals win, win, win.
Now close your eyes.
(OK, so I tried to transmit a 1000heads logo through the screen, but I’m not quite there yet. Imagine it instead.)
You remember Frank Carson right? Northern Irish comedian, star of Opportunity Knocks and uncle of Trevor Carson bright hope on the Northern Irish goalkeeping scene (currently under contract at Sunderland)? Of course you do. Then you’ll remember his catchphrase ‘It’s the way I tell ‘em’. And Frank was onto something there…
The way you receive a message is often just as important as the content of the message itself. Sometimes it’s more important.
If for example, you want to tell people you have a lawnmower for sale you could stick up a sign in the supermarket. But that isn’t very exciting.
You could dial it up a little then, by sticking your lawn mower on your front lawn with a nice hand painted sign. And that might turn a few heads.
Or you could hire a flock of sheep to crawl through the streets of London followed by a blimp with ‘You could have these sheep, or one lawnmower to keep your grass tidy – I know which one costs less in ongoing vet bills’ scrawled on the side. Same message, different methods.
Now, this is hardly startling stuff, marketers of all types are always looking for new ways to make their message to stand out. But what is often missing from the context, is any emotion. A sense of resonance that brings the content alive in a smart, and engaging way. Sure we can make the sign a different shape, or bigger, or project it on a building, or write it in the sky, or tattoo it on the knuckles of a bus driver, but unless that builds the message and becomes part of the interaction itself, we could be doing more.
A great example of this, is a neat little idea I picked up from Make Magazine…
When you leave a house, especially if you’ve lived there for a long time, it can be a little sad. Sometimes you might want to leave something behind, but not something too conspicuous. So how about a message hidden behind a light switch?
Imagine the moment: you’re doing a little DIY, it’s a lazy Sunday and it’s raining outside. You unscrew the light switch because you want to fit a new dimmer let’s say. As you take it off you see this text, and reading it, you discover the story of someone who lived there before you. Maybe recently, maybe many years ago. Now I don’t care what that message says, you’re going to read it. And you’re going to smile. And you’re going to talk about it.
In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with more and more messages in more and more invasive ways, the discovery of something unexpected becomes all the more precious.
Now, it’s unlikely that Mega Corporation Ltd are going to start putting things on the back of light swtiches, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the media we use to promote messages from a much more emotional angle. Discovery, disruption, secrecy, personalisation and wit all have their part to play and when they collide the connection between the message and reader can go even deeper.
Have you seen any great examples of messages resonating in new and unusual ways? Do share in the comments…
You remember Frank Carson right? Northern Irish comedian, star of Opportunity Knocks and uncle of Trevor Carson bright hope on the Northern Irish goalkeeping scene (currently under contract at Sunderland)? Of course you do. Then you’ll remember his catchphrase ‘It’s the way I tell ‘em’. And Frank was onto something there…
The way you receive a message is often just as important as the content of the message itself. Sometimes it’s more important.
If for example, you want to tell people you have a lawnmower for sale you could stick up a sign in the supermarket. But that isn’t very exciting.
You could dial it up a little then, by sticking your lawn mower on your front lawn with a nice hand painted sign. And that might turn a few heads.
Or you could hire a flock of sheep to crawl through the streets of London followed by a blimp with ‘You could have these sheep, or one lawnmower to keep your grass tidy – I know which one costs less in ongoing vet bills’ scrawled on the side. Same message, different methods.
Now, this is hardly startling stuff, marketers of all types are always looking for new ways to make their message to stand out. But what is often missing from the context, is any emotion. A sense of resonance that brings the content alive in a smart, and engaging way. Sure we can make the sign a different shape, or bigger, or project it on a building, or write it in the sky, or tattoo it on the knuckles of a bus driver, but unless that builds the message and becomes part of the interaction itself, we could be doing more.
A great example of this, is a neat little idea I picked up from Make Magazine…
When you leave a house, especially if you’ve lived there for a long time, it can be a little sad. Sometimes you might want to leave something behind, but not something too conspicuous. So how about a message hidden behind a light switch?
Imagine the moment: you’re doing a little DIY, it’s a lazy Sunday and it’s raining outside. You unscrew the light switch because you want to fit a new dimmer let’s say. As you take it off you see this text, and reading it, you discover the story of someone who lived there before you. Maybe recently, maybe many years ago. Now I don’t care what that message says, you’re going to read it. And you’re going to smile. And you’re going to talk about it.
In a world where we’re constantly bombarded with more and more messages in more and more invasive ways, the discovery of something unexpected becomes all the more precious.
Now, it’s unlikely that Mega Corporation Ltd are going to start putting things on the back of light swtiches, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the media we use to promote messages from a much more emotional angle. Discovery, disruption, secrecy, personalisation and wit all have their part to play and when they collide the connection between the message and reader can go even deeper.
Have you seen any great examples of messages resonating in new and unusual ways? Do share in the comments…
Here at 1000heads we aim to be thought leaders in the word of mouth industry by pioneering new research, creativity and strategy; challenging assumptions about what WOM is; and using innovating influences to improve our work from psychology, sociology, anthropology – hell, even theatre, literature and gastronomy.
However, we’re keenly aware that to most of the population, word of mouth is still a rather baffling thing to ‘do for a living.’ So sometimes we like to get back to basics and present some simple education around what the approach is and why brands should care.
One very popular creation in this vein has been our What is WOM? infographic which you can download as a PDF - or email us for an actual full-sized poster to stick on your wall.
And if you liked that, you might like this: a neat little WOM 101 deck presented at this year’s WOMMA Summit and designed to help you explain the importance of WOM to your boss, your colleagues, or even your mum.
If you have any questions about word of mouth, however basic they may seem, do post them in the comments below and we promise to give you jargon-free, down to earth answers anyone can understand.
It’s five tick boxes, and a bit of text. That’s it.
But it makes a huge statement.
This is the current menu they’re using in Ping Pong (a London based dim sum restaurant with awesome prawn balls, for those not in the know…) Ping Pong’s menus are fairly unique, in that you use them to fill in your order (just put a mark next to the item), and hand the whole thing to your waiter. It’s easy, and it’s simple. And it’s always been that way.
What’s new however, since my last visit at least, is this top section. Five simple tick boxes that put you at the centre of the evening. Now that’s what you call service. Especially for a UK audience with our reserved ‘don’t want to make a fuss’ attitude. Everyone wins. And it takes 10 seconds.
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the most helpful ideas, and those with the most impact, can be achieved without the need for fancy technology, or expensive gizmos. Sometimes all it takes is a little thought and a second print run of menus.
Cost to do it? Minimal.
Cost of not doing it? In today’s climate, who knows…
It’s five tick boxes, and a bit of text. That’s it.
But it makes a huge statement.
This is the current menu they’re using in Ping Pong (a London based dim sum restaurant with awesome prawn balls, for those not in the know…) Ping Pong’s menus are fairly unique, in that you use them to fill in your order (just put a mark next to the item), and hand the whole thing to your waiter. It’s easy, and it’s simple. And it’s always been that way.
What’s new however, since my last visit at least, is this top section. Five simple tick boxes that put you at the centre of the evening. Now that’s what you call service. Especially for a UK audience with our reserved ‘don’t want to make a fuss’ attitude. Everyone wins. And it takes 10 seconds.
It’s easy to forget sometimes that the most helpful ideas, and those with the most impact, can be achieved without the need for fancy technology, or expensive gizmos. Sometimes all it takes is a little thought and a second print run of menus.
Cost to do it? Minimal.
Cost of not doing it? In today’s climate, who knows…
