October 27th, 2009 by Sten Franke
“Birth announcement of Social Media Brand Building” of Sten Franke and Roman Schael is now available as a presentation, which visualise the Social Media elementary principles.
Enjoy!
October 22nd, 2009 by Sten Franke
Consumers today are everywhere not easy to grasp, whether from the perspective of the classic channels such as TV, Print, Radio and particular not from Social Media perspective. Media usage behaviour has become fragmented that the close bond between many brands and consumers is disbanding. The medium Internet enables users to move exceedingly selective. In doing so, they mainly come into contact with what owns specifically relevance to them only.
The challenge of strategy development for Social Media lies in coping with the phenomenon Real-time. As Brand Affinity Specialist, ethority develops sustainable strategies that standardise “bonding” brands and products to consumer potentials. Such strategies are built consistently that they match up with today’s decentralised and individualising tendencies of the altered media usage behaviour.
1. Social Media implies “Online-isation” of everyday life!
Inside internet time does not exist per se. Each user has to ascertain and set his proper time and determined georeference when ether he goes online. Each and every entry produces “sense of time” that entails the phenomenon Real-time. Therefore reality claims “to be online”!
2. The mass consumer turns into an individual consumer!
The process of shaping purchase decisions is fundamentally altered by Social Media. It is extended and infused by mutual recommendation, advice and finding closing decisions. Purchasing processes become “social-medialised”.
3. Real-time triggers brand swap behaviour
Real-time reference cause a serious critical maturity among users. Hence the social-medialised purchase decision process is from now on deliberated, balanced, and will be always negotiated as it is newly-made.
Each time when consumers go online they wade through markets, bazaars (forums) and sales stores (Branded Channels), and just if it happens that he shortly turns around just before the cash point, in order to consider just another object of purchase, it reveals brisance power of the Social Media elementary principals.
4. Expiration of brands and products as “Impulse Buy Items”!
Brands and products are not be advertised and sold as “Impulse Buy Items” any longer. Due to the Social Medialisation of purchase process, Social Media conversations can no longer be labelled as trivialities. Quiet the contrary, conversations in forums, blogs and on twitter we depicted as ,openly thinking`. Here users ,voicing ones thoughts` and feelings aloud.
5. Social-Medialisation puts brands and products under permanent test!
The effect of the phenomenon Real-time is that brands and products are at all times put on the test. Each time again and again as if they were brand-new! Everyday life of today’s consumers is infused by Online-isation. This requires to move monitoring continuously under the condition of comprehensive survey of Real-time. And this in order to be in the know wherever users move, mainly concerning where, when, and with what one to address them.
6. Comprehensive survey in Real-time only!
Solely in Real-time, it can be found out when it is appropriate to go into a dialogue with users individually.
7. Social Media requires permanent presence!
Social Media always require to be online. Each and every moment when consumers as users are archetypically be “on the prowl” online. The opening of a social-medialised purchase process will only succeed when empathy and knowledge about the precise and appropriate moment are applied. Whoever does not agitate in presence at the precise point of time with the user, misses to sell his advice and trading to the users interest.
8. Brands and products need to be permanently tied to consumer potential!
Sustainable strategies in Social Media and comprehensive monitoring secure that ,unmet needs´ can be detected and identified before time in order to be fulfilling when leveraging them by brands and products.
9. Not isolation, but integration!
Social Media Brand Building enables to get the Real-time phenomenon under control. One sided monitoring is not sufficient when it comes to fulfill consumer needs adequately. Usage of isolated Social Media tools (onesided non-comprehensively monitoring and manual research) can not capture many things and thereby exclude much in their search. Social Media Monitoring should not be a “tunnel vision” observation.
10. Sapere aude*!
Social-Medialisation produces “non-indebted” business maturity. Because inside the online medium consumers as users handle their intellects more courageously and responsibly. In particular when they turn into their purchasing modus operandi.
*ethority, as an advocator to respect users maturity, pull up the philosopher Kant without decidedly intending to apprehend him or grasping him entirely.
The elementary principles of Social Media Brand Building create facts!
Social Media is not just another channel of the Marketing Mix. The reason lays in well-founded social-medialisied two-way communication that multiplies the advertising impact and justifies a shift of Media Spendings. In the States and in Great Britain Online Media Spendings already exceed TV Media Spendings. When a consumer is online he does not sit passive in front of TV at all. On the contrary, when it comes to dialogue he looks for affirmation and debates on his way towards a brand or product inside forums and branded channels. Thereby he only purchases what is debated online; meaning what is social-medialisied.
The consumer does no longer look on things without comment as it is when he watches TV. He is demanding when he emits his comment and he prefers that brand with which he can collectively live the medialised going along with the brand’s product.
Social Media Brand Building is the sales trigger for two-way communication towards a 24/7 online infused everyday world. Social Media Brand Building accomplish essential “Brand Bonding” and realises that “branding together with users will be mutually shaped “.
September 24th, 2008 by Nils Maier
With regard to the image a network presents for the users, DaWanda from Berlin scores best. Contrastively, in a comparison of image values, Yigg, the participation news portal, received bottom marks. These are the results of the first German Start-Up Monitor of Hamburg’s social media specialists ethority. Concerning the quantity of comments on the web, StudiVZ as well as Xing are in the lead. Alongside the networks, blog merchandiser Trigami and T-shirt designer Spreadshirt are represented in the Top Ten of the German buzz.
ethority GmbH & Co. KG examined this novel branch more closely, in cooperation with Wirtschaftswoche, resulting in a Buzz Monitor of the German digital founders. For this monitor, comments from news sites, online communities and weblogs within the German internet are automatically registered and classified via gridmaster internet search technology.
Online start-ups are notably dependent on discussions and recommendations on the internet. In online channels, the overall volume of statements concerning the respective start-up and its products might be a major indicator for its economical success. Moreover, the online communication between users about the particular start-up provides a fundamental basis for customer growth. Thus, the buzz exerts direct influence on the foundation’s financial success. These emerging online companies, such as StudiVZ, impressively illustrate the effectiveness of digital word of mouth for company success.
Star-Ups: Tops and Flops:
Start-Ups-Buzz Top 10:
August 14th, 2008 by Fiana de Guzman
At the moment ethority is working on a study about the US presidential elections 2008. Our database for this study is a compilation of user opinions found in social media such as forums, weblogs and newssites.
These user opinions concern the two candidates Barack Obama and John McCain in general, as well as their image, climate protection, immigration policy and campaign topics such as education, trade, health, foreign and security policy. Since this is an international matter, we will account for English speaking as well as German and Spanish speaking internet users. Our crawler technology searches for all relevant user postings, verifies and categorizes them automatically.
The Financial Times Germany (FTD) will be presenting this study exclusively for the German market in August. Moreover, to accompany this study, we interviewed Stefan Prystawik (Republicans Abroad) and Shari Temple (Democrats Abroad) and produced a podcast focusing on campaign strategies 2.0 in the USA. The podcasts will soon be available on our Website.
Another highly interesting project we are working on at the moment, is a CEO reputation index of the Fortune 500. In collaboration with manager magazin, ethority already conducted a similar study focusing on the “German” Fortune 500.
Now, we are looking for a partner outside of Germany who is interested in presenting a social media study. Of course, we are open to further suggestions and appreciate new ideas. You can contact me directly at Fiana.de.Guzman(at)ethority.de
I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Fiana de Guzman
July 10th, 2008 by Nils Maier
The innovative means of online marketing are the future. Thus, the results of a study conducted by Harris Interactive can be summarized. On behalf of the PR agency Fleishman & Hillard, 5000 European consumers were questioned about any influence the internet has on their purchase decisions. The results were classified by the CEO of Fleishman & Hillard towards the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) as follows:
“The influence of the internet is much stronger than expected – and much bigger than the marketing budgets which are fed into the net. I expect that the budgets will soon be rearranged towards the internet.”
The future for online marketing in the collaborative media seems to look very promising. According to the results of Harris, however, the traditional forms of online marketing virtually have no influence on the individual consumer’s purchase decisions. On the other hand, market researchers were able to observe the fact that the more complex a product is, the higher will the influence of user opinions on an individual consumer’s purchase decisions be. If the data is to believed, the internet will become the major field for marketers in future. The change of media use in favour of the internet alone already illustrates this consequential development. However, in the field of e-business, it is not at all sufficient to rely on the traditional elements of online marketing. In fact, it is of greater importance to utilize the communicative character of collaborative media for a successful marketing. But how could such marketing tools look like? How much effort will it take and which range can be covered? Maybe the illustration below can provide answers to these questions:
May 15th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Social networks enjoy increasing popularity with internet users. There is hardly a better way to take care of one’s personal circle of friends or business network. But which communities enjoy a good reputation with their German and English users and which do not? Which networks within the eight surveyed linguistic areas is talked about most frequently on the web? Which opportunities do network operators provide for marketers to use these platforms for advertising purposes?
The international social network study illustrates: within the channels of communication in German user generated media, SchülerVZ receives the worst image values according to the evaluations. In English-speaking areas, xanga.com achieves only bad image values whereas the international buzz is focussed on Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. In German-speaking areas, StudiVZ achieves the first place in the buzz index ranking. Concerning marketing strategies, traditional banners are still the prevailing choice for marketing within the social networks. Widgets are up and coming. The appeal of these small web applications lies in their immensely far range of coverage and they are increasingly provided by networks.
„The results of this study illustrate the prominent role of social networks within the environment of user generated media. No matter if within the EU, North or South America – In the future, social networking will more and more become one of the established social channels of communication. This is the specific reason why the appeal of networks will become particularly stronger for marketing departments. Although the first large-scale behaviour-targeting attempts of various network operators had to be classified as failures, the general marketing qualification of social networks should not be questioned. Take widgets, for example. These small programs are just one of the possible methods which lead to successful marketing.
But although they have many tempting possibilities in social networks, advertisers should not lose contact with the users. The key for successful marketing of social media offers lies in the direct and outspoken communication with the users…” says David Nelles, Company Spokesman of ethority GmbH & Co. KG.
For more than 10 years, ethority GmbH & Co. KG is successful at the market being experts in semantic web analyses and online marketing. ethority’s expertise includes market research and online marketing as well as the analysis, initiation and realisation of word of mouth campaigns in Germany. Here, ethority is not confined to the German-speaking market but is able to serve all international markets by means of their multi-lingual approach.
May 13th, 2008 by admin
With immediate effect, the ethority GmbH & Co. KG includes the web service Twitter und large networks such as Xing in their monitoring and advisory portfolio. According to NZZ (Neue Züricher Zeitung), the number of twitter users has doubled within the past six months. But also the many-to-many communication within the online communities of major networks becomes increasingly important for the social media analysis.
With this extension, ethority is the state-of-the-art provider in the field of social media analysis. Micro-blogging and communication in online communities within the major networks produce a flow of information which should not be underestimated and which has to be evaluated accordingly.
Nils Maier, Director Business Development and Operations at ethority, states: “Monitoring the micro-blogging service Twitter enables us to be directly located at the pulse of sentiments and opinions of the consumer generated media. Not only the ordinary internet user has discovered Twitter but also journalists and news agencies increasingly use this service in order to spread information within the web. This development indicates that ‘twittering’, as a type of communication channel, will establish itself more and more and, thus, becomes highly interesting from the perspective of social media analysis. A specific field of application for the twitter survey is the utilisation of received information as a leading indicator for the issue management. In the United States, it is customary that companies keep an eye on twitter. On this point, see also Michael Arringtons experiences with Comcast. We have modified ethority’s range of services in order to provide our clients with an overall insight into web 2.0 communication. Hereby, overall means not only the conventional websites, weblogs and online communities but also network communities and twitter streams. “
May 13th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Within the channels of user generated media, family holidays are the most frequently mentioned issue. Users in weblogs like to discuss the topic of winter holidays, whereas a vacation in the snow does not enjoy great popularity in online communities. Here, users prefer to talk about cruises, while this topic cannot be found under the bloggers’ top 5 ways of travelling. Moreover, and in contrast to active online community members, bloggers rather choose to have conversations about package tours. Concerning the ways to travel, bloggers and online community members seem to agree on adventure and city travels. In both channels of communication, they are the most frequently discussed.
Top Ways to Travel – Online Communities:
Cruises
Last Minute
Adventure Vacations
City Trips
Family Holidays
Top Ways to Travel – Weblogs:
Package Tours
Adventure Vacations
City Trips
Winter Holidays
Family Holidays
Users in weblogs and online communities also agree on the way of booking travels. At this, statements for booking offline have the lion’s share of the topics. About 2/3 of the statements on both channels are allotted to the traditional booking method. This confirms the results of the recent AGOF study. Consumers like to obtain detailed advice in the user generated channels but prefer to book offline in a travel agency.
Booking Methods – Online Communities:
Internet
Travel Agency
Booking Methods – Weblogs:
Internet
Travel Agency
The here described booking behaviour indicates the path that marketers have to take in the future. The increasing consumer focus on information concerning products or travels in online domains sets new benchmarks for a successful marketing mix. No matter if it is a large-scale print campaign or an elaborate TV spot – traditional forms of advertisement impress consumers to a lesser and lesser extend. Therefore, it is essential to meet the consumer where he increasingly searches for information. More and more often, customers use portals such as Holidaycheck, TripAdvisor or Opodien in order to obtain information about their potential travel destinations and holiday accommodations before booking. In any case, marketers of the tourism industry should be prepared for this tendency, especially in consideration of the current number of internet users. By now, according to the latest survey of Bitkom, already 63% of the Germans roam the internet.
May 13th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Regarding travels outside Europe, the US and Asia are clearly the main topics in weblogs and online communities. This resulted from the quantitative analysis of consumer comments in the current study. For the intense buzz in the United States, surely the decisive factor is the favourable dollar exchange rate because of which the US has become something like a shopper’s paradise.
In online communities, the African continent ranks third as a potential travel destination, whereas it ranks fifth concerning the overall buzz in weblogs. Bloggers show a greater interest in American Oceania and South America.
This quantitative netnographic study was based on 6500 user opinions in weblogs and online communities concerning the topic of Social Networks. The categorized and evaluated comments originate from ca. 1000 blogs and 400 online communities which have been located with the assistance of the gridmaster technology. Within the scope of this process, the respective channels of communication, topics and the tonality of the comments have been recorded.
The ethority study illustrates the importance of the channels of communication within web 2.0 for the tourism industry. Online communities and weblogs are increasingly used by consumers as relevant sources of information. Furthermore, recommendations, which are exchanged in these channels of communication, exert direct influence on booking decisions. The studies conducted by the American market research institute eMarketer, in collaboration with Deloitte (2007), are able to document this influence by means of their data.
April 7th, 2008 by Nils Maier
Surely, several families are already busy with planning their next summer holiday. By now, as the recent AGOF Study was able to show, about 50% of the internet users arrange their holidays online. On holiday portals such as Opodien, users exchange their opinions about their favourite travel destinations and types of leave. The study Travel Trends 2008 conducted by ethority GmbH & Co. KG intended to record the holiday-buzz, at which the base data were provided by 6500 authentic user opinions. Here, the first part of the study was concerned with the evaluation of the most popular destinations within weblogs and online communities.
According to the ethority results, Germany is the top destination for german bloggers and community users. In the course of the analysis it became clear that the German’s favourite type of leave is a short trip betweentimes. At present, short trips to Berlin or to the Baltic Sea at weekends are extremely popular. The top 5 ranks regarding travel destinations are represented by the German tourism industry’s usual classics such as Austria, Italy and Spain. However, it is astonishing that the classics Greece and Turkey cannot be found among the most popular destinations of German internet users – both travel destinations are not represented within the 5 top countries. In the second part of the study Travel Trends 2008 the international top destinations of German users, the top types of leave and the favoured booking methods are presented.
