Last week on ViralBlog among others “KLM’s Meet & Seat Social Seating Is Live”, “Why CMOs Will Focus On Social Media Metrics?” and “Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2012 Winners!”.

Mexican Football Team Managed By Its Fans

Recently we mentioned the very first article on ViralBlog written by our founder Igor Beuker, who announced, after his subscription to MyFootballclub.co.uk, that he proudly became, along with 50,000 other fans, the club owner of Ebbsfleet United. But guess what Igor! Mexico Second division club Murcielagos takes it even further! The club has no coach; instead…. the team is fully managed by its fans!

Top 10 Social Media Blogs: The 2012 Winners!

In December 2011 we found out that ViralBlog was nominated to Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2012 at Social Media Examiner. Earlier this month we were among the Top 20 Finalists and waited impatiently for the results. On the 30th of January the winners were announced, and guess what?! Thanks to you we made it!

Why CMOs Will Focus On Social Media Metrics?

In 2012 CMOs will focus more on social media metrics, says eMarketer. We do believe that content is king, distribution is queen but metrics is the emperor… The eMarketer study shows that CMOs were focusing on soft metrics in 2011, and feel they can’t gauge ROI.

Sign Of The Times: Zeitgeist By Slideshare

SlideShare is an active and engaging community where people post their thoughts on marketing, business, best practice or anything the community wants. In the above SlideShare presentation they give an overview of 2011 and analyse and share their summary. Below a short recap of this presentation and insights that struck me the most.

The Next Social Wave Of 2012: Pinterest

Pinterest, a social visual network that was launched back in March 2010. While the site is still invite-only it’s been very popular among their 4 million users logging 421 million page views, according to The Next Web. Of course Pinterest isn’t on par with smashing numbers like 800 million Facebook users or 465 million Twitter users. The invite-only system is keeping the Pinterest eco-system small for the time being, but is it ready to fully open their doors to the public in 2012?

Viral Friday: Matthew’s Day Off

A weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.

Mobile Gaming: State Of The European Market

The Mobile Gaming is still growing, not only in the USA but also on the “Old” continent, Europe. This comes hand in hand with the increasing penetration of smart-phones and Mobile Media. These are the findings from comScore‘s report Mobile Gaming: State of the European Market, having a deep look on the details how Europeans use their smart-phones.

KLM’s Meet & Seat Social Seating Is Live

Last year we told you that KLM would launch its social seating service in 2012. Well, Meet & Seat is live now. Facebook and LinkedIn users can now meet interesting passengers on their flight. Check the video below… What is Meet & Seat? Our industry tends to call it social seating. As seen at i.e. TicketMaster before.

In the above SlideShare presentation they give an overview of 2011 and analyse and share their summary. Below a short recap of this presentation and insights that struck me the most.

To start off with what struck me the most is that even though women are the most active in communities and on social channels; on slideshare the men seem to be posting the majority of content.  Probably due to the reason that men use it work related and this is endorsed by the most popular keywords: business, marketing, design, research, internet etcetera.

My thought on this is that this will change over time; I really believe that woman will dominate the marketing industry eventually. Men used to have the buying power, so advertising was aimed at men… but think about it: who has the most spending power and which group has the highest engagement levels…?

When we take a look at the globe, people do not really think the Dutch as a force necessarily to be reckoned with: however the Dutch rank the highest (I mean a global #1 position) on Twitter and within SlideShare they have the 3^rd place in the highest usage of slides (US is nowhere to be found). These Dutchies have always been known for their innovation, knowledge, mercantilism and their…horticulture

Thanks to SlideShare and their active community we can gain insights into marketing, development, learn how to do stuff and get a grasp of the vision people have on the world.

Here the most popular business presentation on slideshare:

 
SlideShare increases traffic to your site, offers you a possibility to include a clear call to action that provides you with HOT leads and just as important; gives you the opportunity to position yourself as an authority in your field.

Inspiring, informing and activating business professionals over the world.

Are you sharing your slides?

Last week on ViralBlog among others “How Social Commerce Influenced The Holidays”, “Dolce & Gabbana – Walking In The Line Of Fire” and “ViralBlog: It All Started With MyFootballClub”.

How Social Commerce Influenced The Holidays

The Holidays are over and this brand new year has started. We can all start with best practise, so wondering how social commerce helped suppliers in selling their products during Christmas?

ViralBlog: It All Started With MyFootballClub

We’re proud to announce that ViralBlog is nominated for the third-annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs Contest hosted by Social Media Examiner!
After 4,5 years of sharing viral ideas and social trends, our weekly Viral Friday and already 4 years in a row AdAge Power150 ranked, it’s great being aknowledged by another inspiring and influential blog.

What’s Obama’s Social Tool Of Change In 2012?

On February 6th 2009 we published the groundbreaking and inspiring social marketing program by Barack Obama. What happened next amazed us even more. We toured 21 cities with this story, which is watched 111,000 times at SlideShare already…

Who Are The Social Gamers?

Social gaming is expanding since 2010 and there is no sign that this trend is going to decrease in 2012. It’s exactly the opposite. It has impact on many business and companies, injecting gamification to many aspects of daily life.
So who are these people?

Viral Friday: Smart Thief Caught On Cam

A weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.

Dolce & Gabbana – Walking In The Line Of Fire

Last weekend quite a crowd were protesting in front of the D&G flagship store in Hong Kong. Hong Kong citizens were furious at the Italian fashion brand.
What exactly went down?

In this infographic you can see how Social Marketing and Commerce has influenced the seasonal consumers converting their needs into a purchase…

What will be the most important social commerce trends for 2012? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

Follow us on Twitter for more Social Commerce updates.

Source: SocialCommerceToday

Last week on ViralBlog among others “China’s Social Media Revolution”, “How to Buy Social Media Snake Oil” and “Facebook 2012: Placing Ads In User News Feeds”.

Non-Linear Media And Advertising Changes

The Internet has changed media and entertainment in ways that we are only now beginning to understand. The linear, or broadcast, model of content delivery is rapidly coming to a close as people switch from devices, media types and sources dozens of times per day.

Facebook 2012: Placing Ads In User News Feeds

Facebook will feature its Sponsored Story ads in users’ News Feeds per January 2012. This will greatly increase brand presence in Facebook. Mark and the rest of his gang did not meet their 2011 revenue targets and will have to show new revenues before Facebook’s expected IPO.

Putting The “Social” Back Into Network

Checking up on what closest friends are doing and getting into contact with family abroad that’s why some pick Facebook as primary social network. As a broadcasting platform and to keep up to speed with the thoughts of great minds, here goes Twitter. But both these platforms are loosing their playful charm, as they are turning into powerful marketing platforms. Now let’s meet Path…

China’s Social Media Revolution

Chinese citizens have clearly massively embraced the internet and the social web – with 500 million internet users! Even more stunning, a quarter of all global social network users are Chinese…

Viral Friday: Top 11 Virals Of 2011

A weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread. This week we made a slight change and present you Top 11 Virals of 2011!

2011 In Social Media – What’s In And Out

With 2011 over, it’s time for a recap, what was In and Out this year, what really mattered in the field of Social Media. Have a look on two reflections of 2011 in two infographics - What Mattered In 2011 For Social Media and Out With The Old, In With The New.

How to Buy Social Media Snake Oil

3,000 Facebook Fans! 5,000 Twitter Followers! Engage in conversation! Sound good, right? Wrong. Too many businesses are being duped by social media “experts” who promise brand building and more relationships. Words like relationships and trust make many people feel warm and fuzzy inside.

But both these platforms are loosing their playful charm, as they are turning into powerful marketing platforms. Now let’s meet Path…

Path2

Click here to view the embedded video.

The people behind and using Path share a philosophy and that philosophy is that you want to share rich information with the ones close to you, so the platform enables you to have a 150 people on board; max.

“The idea has always been to give you a trusted place to share with your close friends and family,” Morin said. “Now that the (mobile phone) is the accessory you have in your hand all the time, it’s become a journal.”

Path is designed to not only be a sharing platform, but a journal of your life and it will document it digitally. If required Path also shares your info with other social networks such as Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. Funnily enough endorsing Zuckerbergs law on cumulative sharing: check out techcrunch article. This will enable you to expand your reach over the 150 followers of your Path.

Path was co-founded by an ex-Facebook employee called Dave Morin, currently CEO. This year Path has reached over a million subscribers and has just hired their 20th employee.

Usage And Interface
I have fooled around with the app and I think the interface is stunning and I genuinely love the journal side of it. This would have great business opportunities for me, keeping track of meetings I attend, who and where I was visiting, keeping my agenda, and showing back thoughts or presentations I had or shared and so on…. perhaps they should team-up with LinkedIN, FourSquare and Twitter to create an enterprise edition. But then again; it is a Social Network.

Safe
As my business is Social Marketing I check what I show online and only show what I am comfortable with. Privacy is important to me, also because I know that the more information I give, the more relevant information I will get; but I also receive more ads of organizations that do not have Social DNA and are bombarding me with advertisements on my social network. Trust me I will become a loyal customer if you treat me right: you can’t buy my love, you can earn it! Path is private; due to the cap on a 150 friends and the closed environment I’m in.

Try it
So Path is a mobile platform that keeps track of what I do; shares it with my closest peers and provides me with a new way of maintaining a diary. You can download it here.

I am curious to see what changes they will have the years to come. How would you use Path and who would you share your Path with?

Last week on ViralBlog among others “The Perfect Storm: Retail And Social”, “Addressable TV: Re-evolution Of The Medium TV” and “What Channels Influence The Social Consumer?”.

How To Boost Holiday Sales? Free Shipping Day

Q4 is the most hectic, stressful and at the end the most profitable quarter of a year for most of the marketing industry, retail and other businesses. There are several different ways how to approach this season of the year to boost sales and get as much as possible – by strategic planning, special promotions or with a simple Free Shipping Day.

Samsung Galaxy Note: Who is Notasso?

In order to show the immense diversity of creative possibilities of the new Samsung Galaxy Note, Spanish street artist Notasso was asked to participate in a new campaign from Samsung, named after the artist himself, Who is Notasso.

What Channels Influence The Social Consumer?

Nowadays practically everybody consults the web in any kind of way when it comes to purchase decisions. So for CMOs out there it’s vert important to understand that some aspects of digital marketing deserve more attention than others…

The Last Advertising Agency On Earth?

As CSO I love disruptive ideas that can break through conventions. I love commercial ideas that leads creatives into new directions. And I do not like the lame excuses I so often hear: “but that’s our current business model”. Change it, losers have excuses! That’s why I love this video…

Corporate Social Media Summit – Part III

ViralBlog were kindly invited to join the Corporate Social Media Summit hosted in London on the 28^th and 29^th of November. This is the final part of our full coverage of both days.

Addressable TV: Re-evolution Of The Medium TV

One-way communication and Television ran the show for about 60 years. We now welcome CMOs to the re-evolution of the medium Television. Will Addressable TV finally make TV the efficient and accountable marketing medium…

Viral Friday: FedEx Guy Throwing My Monitor

A weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.

The Perfect Storm: Retail And Social

Boutiques are dying off, big multi and mono brand retailers are taking over the show. Online shops are increasing, e-commerce is being perfected and social commerce is on the rise. Does this mean our physical shopping experience is about to whither away?

The Changing Costs Of Christmas

Christmas, the time we all come together with families and friends to celebrate this special holiday. As 2011 is almost coming to an end let’s take a look at how UK consumers spend their hard earned cash for Christmas.

No, there is light at the end of this tunnel: great shopping experiences for consumers and high revenues for businesses…

Significance And Trust
In a study done by the University of Minnesota two groups of women were sent into a shopping mall; group A carrying branded bags and group B carrying unbranded bags. Guess which one of these groups had a better shopping experience and was actually feeling better about themselves?  Obviously group A.

When shopping online we hardly get to flaunt our choices and get endorsed by the brands we pick. It doesn’t really reflect our identity. Thanks to Social Commerce, connected consumers can now share their online purchases and show which choices they make.

Here lies a great opportunity for retailers; consumers don’t only have to show their stuff in the streets, but they can now extend their reach in their social networks. This does however mean that retailers need to facilitate these connected consumers to share their purchase…

Retail traffic is decreasing, people are visiting shops to have the physical experience, check the prices on their mobiles and then go home and order the stuff online where the prices are usually lower. Have a look at your shopping street; more and more outlets are popping-up and empty shops belong to the scenary…

Due to a lot of vacant shops we see more and more pop-up stores and temporary outlets which sell their stuff for such low prices other retailers do not get the traffic they need. So how do we get consumers to visit shops, to have a great shopping experience, buy products and share their experience and purchases with their peers?

Geolocation
The power of giving is enormous and helps change consumers from clients into loyal customers. Businesses have to earn their way into the circle of trust of these connected consumers: where decisions may start with search, connected consumers are now taking to their social networks for advice and direction (check out this article by Laurens Bianchi). Consumers are checking in to locations to share their activities with their peers and earn rewards and recognition of the shops they visit and the brands they buy. The connected consumer increases his or her social stature and builds their personal brand.

Geolocation apps such as Facebook Places and FourSquare offer consumers not only to show where they are, but also helps them to find tips of others, offers from businesses and getting scoops. The connected consumer expects to be rewarded for their endorsement and check-in. Not only by getting a badge of seeing what their personal location diary is; but they want special deals, offers or even getting stuff for free.

They will reward you with more traffic, more impulse purchases and they will amplify your marketing power immensely. The connected consumer will earn you the trust you need.

Shopping Experience
Make sure that you deliver your connected consumer with the best shopping experience possible. The main advantage of having a physical shop is that it can be easier to provide the connected consumers with great shopping experiences. Train your personal to put the customer experience first, package all products you sell tidy and pretty and make each personal interaction count.

Through geolocation apps you can reward the most recent visitors or the ones that visit you most often, you can reward them for their first time visit. Give them incentives in the form of a coupon or a freebie and make sure they can share their purchase in their social network.

The ROI lies in more traffic, increased sales, lower marketing costs, more effective marketing and identifying and tracking your consumers. All whilst building a fun win-win relationship where you reward your consumer and they reward you.

Images provided by Shutterstock

The short film about what the future of advertising might look like was produced by Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, Tool, Pirate, Rooster and Lunch.

It promotes the FITC Toronto Design & Technology Festival on April 23-25 in 2012.

Having looked at the video, I visited the website immediately, expecting a groundbreaking list of disruptive topics. And must say, I was a little bit disappointed to next discover 2D and HTML5 Games, Flash design and development etc.

I do love great design, UI and technology. And believe me: I am convinced that Aesthetics – the philosophy of dealing with the nature of beauty, art, taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty – is one of the must haves for brands to be able to pull digital natives gently through their funnels.

But that the advertising agencies will only survive with games and flashy interactive designs, I doubt it. So love the film, but would have expected some slight other experience (topics) at the event, after having seen the video promise.

In my opinion authenticity, under promise, over deliver and an accountable attitude are more important survival mechanisms for advertising agencies to be the last on earth.

Am I being too harsh now, or is the event not fully living up to the expectations you got from the film?

Are you ready to harness the power of social commerce?In the world of e-commerce, Europe is leading the way with 40% of the European internet population buying things on-line in 2010. How will 2011 be? We’ll see by the end of this year. E-Commerce helps small businesses grow, gives consumers access to all the products, doesn’t have closing times so a 24/7 window to sell and is being more and more integrated in daily life.

Consumers nowadays expect flexibility and thanks to our smart-phones they are always connected and start purchasing whenever and wherever they want to.

Social Commerce is buying where you connect and connecting where you buy… this provides our sales targets with:

• better knowledge before they initiate a purchase,
• better pricing for all
• a fun and interactive shopping experience
• an improvement in customer experience and
• personalised experiences.
• instant satisfaction

Social Commerce will improve your ROI on e-commerce… really? Yes, research shows:

• 47% product increase of shopping basket
• 40% increase of conversion rate
• 45% decrease of product returns

This will mean for you that you do not have to hide behind advertising any more, you will have better informed customers, you can target your customers with better deals, get rid of overstock, increases your longtail and lets you tap into a new place to sell your products or services.

There are several forms of social commerce, ranging from; crowd sourcing that cuts down your marketing and R&D and provides customers with the products and services they want; to rating and reviews on your products which customers assess and build trust so increasing purchase frequency.

The good thing about social shopping is that it also drives traffic to your retail environments by providing coupons, gift vouchers and loyalty programs on location based services as an extra for retail incentives.

You do not have to go to all lengths to sell your stuff though social commerce; thanks to Open Graph you can easily integrate it to your own e-commerce environment. Adding this social sauce will give you a load of the before mentions against low costs. You can integrate the following social platforms through the Open Graph codes; Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Google+, MSN, LinkedIN, AOL and MySpace.

What ingredients drive social commerce in respect to e-commerce?

1. scarcity – less is more
2. affinity – like minded people buying your product
3. reciprocity – a payback or a favour you provide
4. authority – people follow the leaders
5. popularity – people follow the crowd
6. consistency – one step at a time

Ask your agency what their vision is on growing your SoM, Customer Satisfaction, Sales and ROI… I assume these are the conversations you are having?