The brand pages posed an opportunity for Google to give a superior offering to Facebook. At first glance they’ve failed to deliver with no unique functionality that a brand couldn’t be leveraging in another social channel.

So what can a brand do. …

The same as the rest of us. They can upload photos, videos, status updates, start a hangout (The muppets launched one at 4:30PST today) but the issue still is the lack of consumer penetration which means the numbers just aren’t there. All of this is evident from the small followings that brands are picking up, with even Kermit the frog failing to achieve big numbers!

There is also the key issue that any brand needs to consider ” How does a consumer truly see me”.

The whole premise of Google is based on circles. You HAVE to place anyone you want to follow into a circle.  Consider this…

Your mum joins – you add her to your family circle. Your Best mate joins – you add her to friends. A one night stand joins – you create and add them to a circle called “Ex-boyfs”. You see Toyota and create a circle called…. “Brands”.

In no way will brands be able to connect in the same emotive way because consumers will simply put you in a sales / marketing / product / brand bucket. It’s auto-pilot and that’s the whole point of circles. You don’t have to think to use it, it’s intuitive. And intuitive isn’t great when you’re trying to be disruptive or get under the skin of the consumer who’s given you a “marketing shit” label. Yes – until people have organised their feeds you will show up in their central thread but, after then, you are unlikely even to get exposed to your consumers updates and, be honest, how interesting is that? (I’m sure Toyota isn’t interested that I’m drinking a cuppa and eating a hobnob? Nor can glean any insight from it) Where as Facebook clearly got consumer penetration and it then took a while for brands to get on board, brands and consumers are adopting + in tandem and, as yet, the benefit (or opportunity) for brands seems to be limited.

So what should brands consider as useful for Google+ right now….

- Inexpensive market research. The ability to recruit individuals for online, Live streamed, focus groups using hangouts – despite only 9 people being able to interact at any one time, this free service definately has value for quick and fast research.

- Advocacy programmes: Being able to classify, and then market to consumers, based on actions you want them to perform and even talk directly to them – truly being able to differentiate your brand fans from brand consumers. Only snag is you have to know who they are and then create the relevent circles!

- YouTube: It’s massive and it’s inevitably going to have to be THE channel for Google getting this to all work. Video content (and capabilities) are far superior to Facebook’s offering and, as Google+ continues to evolve, and becomes integrated into YouTube’s service, it will become critical to how consumers adopt and use the service.

- Watch and learn: Yes, it’s going to get press but, at the moment it hasn’t got the numbers or reach. A bit of “watch and learn” and a slice of budget pushed aside for if it does hit mass in 2012 is the cautious marketers option….

This is sure to be a massive viral hit so check it out and, when details of where this has come from (and to prevent me giving the game away) – freak yourself out a little bit and check this out….

So go on… Take this lollipop

In both articles they report a negative reaction to the new campaign, designed at getting overseas visitors onto our shores, pulling apart the campaigns portrayal of GB citing the big complaint at intending to get

“people to think, British people are the most talented in the world. That’s wonderful, I’ll come’ The alternative is that they will think: ‘Says who? I’m from the United States and I think we’re better”. – The Times.

Mother's latest ad campaign

This is a valid point. Yes, the advertising undoubtedly reeks of us Brits going out there and boldly claiming that Creativity, knowledge, heritage, music, sport, entrepreneurs, innovation, shopping, green and countryside is Great (Britain) . And yes, by claiming they’re great appears to claim by default that we’re superior but, let’s be honest, all advertising is self-obsessed “look how great our product is” in one way or another, more so when it comes to travel. Let’s take a reality check perhaps you just wouldn’t meet many Americans anywaywho dont believe we are a nation of pompous old fools who believe in an empire, wear tweed and definately think we have the upper hand.

In 2012 there will be only one place to be. There are so many great things about  Britain and we want to send out the message loud and proud that this is a great  place to do business, to invest, to study and to visit – David Cameron IN Metro

Yes David, I agree with all of the above but to then state that its a great way to counteract the rioting picture,  showcase modern Britain and celebrate Olympic excitement  (which is increasingly creeping up on us like a corporate wicked witch) is definately not the case.

No it doesn’t address Britain as a multi-cultural destination, it doesn’t challenge perceptions or showcase the reasons why Britain should be a must-visit destination in recession hit times. It simply reads as a conceited CV of someone you wouldn’t employ. A list of all of our Greats and no acknowledgement of the human qualities that actually make Britain great and totally unique. The family-owned bakery, the old man’s pub (if you can find one), the iconic curry house, the crazy man on the corner and the fish and chips on the pier. In keeping it Grand  we’ve lost the reality and charm that people do fall in love with.

Maybe the line should have been “Holidaying is Great <Britain>” – cue picture of suitable old guy propping up the bar with fag in hand and guiness in the other. Actually scrap that. There is no bar, there is a smoking ban and, god forbid, we even start to suggest binge drinking…..!

From a methodology point of view the study was done by compiling a list of 20k top pages and then looking at 15k individual posts (Phew). Based on this they were then able to develop some key learnings (distilled into a whitepaper that is accessible here).
Check out some of the key findings below!

1. What is the best time to post?
a. Weekends and off-peak hours.

2. How many times should I post
per day?
b. As many times as you want.

3. What type of content elicits the
most interaction?
c. #1 Photos, #2 Statuses

4. Should I ask fans to Like and
Comment on my posts?
d. Yes! Asking to Like increases interaction 216%

5. Should I ask my fans
questions?
e. Questions don’t increase interaction rate, but they
do increase commenting rate. Make sure to ask
fans to answer your questions with a comment.

6. How long should my status
messages be?
f. Long or short, we found no correlation between
length and interaction rate.

7. How long do my posts last in
the Newsfeed?
g. 50% of clicks happen within 1 hour, 90% happen
within 9 hours.

I think whilst this can provide some great cues to point brands in a direction that could be more effective this should by no means be taking as red. Take, for example, the comment that photos then status’ work best for interactions. Their methodology is based on total numbers of likes and comments / number of lifetime fans – argely because imps isn’t an available metric if you’re not a page admin. In addition (and perhaps this is a UK specific trend) our experiences on some of the leading brands we work with shows that it’s actually polls that generate the highest interaction rate, whilst status’ win every time if you’re wanting written feedback.

Another note worth remembering is that Impressions can play a vital part in formulating when’s best to post. Not only should you consider your interaction rate but also your reach – at first glance the recommendation is that off peak hours cause the highest interaction rate. Yes – this makes sense. Think of your own facebook feed. You personally will see a dip in the volume of items from your friends, and brands as it gets later in the evening or early hours in the morning. You have less to compete with at this time and, as a brand, can benefit from more interactions but an issue with this is that the impressions will be a lot lower. Is it interactions or Opportunities to see that are more important to your brand or your message as this should also play a vital part in informing when you’re posting.

Toffee frijj - not my cup of tea!

Having a snoop around online when I got back I soon found this is a new brand launch and has been supported by a digital campaign to embrace the unexpected – with an initial digital game of “You LOL you lose” which will be followed in September with a pet translator app…

The game sees you confronted with multiple YouTube clips and using webcam technology you have to keep a straight face.

I get that when new channels emerge new specialists spring up. Mobile = mobile agencies. AR = AR agencies. Apps = Application agencies I agree with this, I’d use these agencies and I understand the logic that not all agencies have all the skills (nor should have the skills to do everything under one roof) but what I am getting increasingly frustrated with is agencies that call themselves “social”.

Social agencies, as they call themselves, are positioning themselves as the future of digital. Clients, whom previously have never seen senior support are suddenly being asked “how will this campaign work on Twitter/Facebook” and, in response, we’re seeing new agencies being added to rosters as the social specialists.

Okay – I work at 20:20, a full service digital agency and yes, I’m responsible for social media so perhaps I am bias BUT I dont believe the future of social is going to be maintaning a brands Facebook Page or Twitter account. Give it 18 months and consumers (and brands) will be sick of receiving status updates from brands asking them what they are up to this weekend and, yes, yet again, we will be back full circle to it being about content. Yes social agencies can create applications (or at least have the ability to outsource them) but it’s back to the age old problem. Digital is constantly changing. A good full service agency will evolve to take into consideration these skills because, of course, they are VITAL to the success of the brand and use these, along with the skills and experience it’s learnt over the last 10 – 15 years to understand it’s role in the digital strategy.

Facebook isn’t a strategy – just like ITV isn’t a strategy. It’s a tool. There are lots of them about. Understanding what’s in that toolbox and using everything to the best of the ability is what makes great digital campaigns and for the future creating meaningful connections via social channels is key in that success.

Earlier on I saw a study by Google that spoke of a fall in CTR year on year (0.09% down from 0.1%). Whilst only 1 click in every 1000 feels extremely low when you compare that to that age old, did they actually read our magazine ad (let alone bother to action anything on the back of it) it suddenly feels slightly more positive.

It does make you wonder though whether creativity has gone out of the display ads. I remember  would labour over a display creative brief and agonise over whether this is the right ad for the target audience, the brand and the website. Now, more often than not, these briefs go straight over my head. Seen as production jobs not as a creative, or consumer challenge. Is this really the case? Should we not be nailing creativity in each and everything we do?

Interestingly I think it was the arrival of social and the focus more on getting the content right that saw this shift. Suddenly the destination has become more important than the journey to get there because, if the interaction is right, they’ll tell their mates and you wont have to spend a penny more on the ads…

This is a naive approach and, if anything, this article serves as a reminder to me that each and every stage of the journey needs to be as important – how to weave it into the thinking at the start needs to become critical so it doesn’t become that forgotten craft and CTR continue to plummet as creativity, and consumer apathy, increases to our faithful internet wallpaper friends – All hail the banner!!

If you start off and use the latest Kate / William Royal wedding saga it’s evident how much digital chat it got purely from looking at your own social media pages but, in actual fact it score 74 updates  per second (facebook) and 68 updates per second (Twitter) – Unbelievable numbers but still only rated as Number 6 in the top 10 web events of all time. 

Royal wedding: 2011.

So what was the top 3 (according to Akami)

1. World cup qualifiers/Wimbledon match   (June 24th) :   10m vpm (meaning 10 million page views per minute: to the web)
2. Champions league / European cup   (Nov 3rd):                     6m vpm
3. Wold cup championships   (June 3rd):                                       6m vpm

Interestingly again is that this trend appears to only be going from strength to strength as all of the top 10 happened in the last 12 months (suggesting ongoing growth or accessibility of WWW) but also 4 were current affairs driven and 6 were sport driven.

Even when we can’t be out of home, involved in the action be it with mates or in the local – we’re still craving opinon, debate and banter – and logging in is giving us the ability to do just that.

For brands the impact of real time advertising to move to the next level is immense (for brands brave enough to take that leap) and, for people, we continue to shun real world and become more involved than ever in relationship with our brightly lit, temptingly tappable, laptop friends.

Today was THE day I was going to “seriously” start preparing for the 1/2 marathon I decided to do back in March with my post baby body and, now here we are in June, and I have put on my new trainers once to jog around the nearby field with my bewildered staffie who couldn’t work out was going on with me.

Today though, today I was actually going to start training and, from the luxury of my laptop I have almost convinced myself that I have. I have downloaded a running app from my iphone, sorted out a menu plan for healthy eating, read about building up muscle and interval training for my stamina. I’ve done everything to feel like I’m taking this whole marathon thing seriously without actually having to move my arse off the sofa (other than to get a few more pringles).

So 13 weeks to go and 13 miles to master. Surely it’s possible…… Stay tuned!

Yes I’m enjoying the sunshine, having a good easter, the bunny has got me eggs, I’ve had a roast dinner and the BBQ has been on which I enjoyed with chicken and a glass of Jacques cider (seeing as you asked) but for the love of god why does a brandreally care…

You don’t.

AND more importantly (as your digital agency should be pointing out)  you shouldn’t.

I think there is a big piece of education work here for brands… Would you have sent out an email everyday asking people how they are? (NO) would you have posted a constant stream on your website for people to read what they already know is happening? (NO) Would you talk in you TV advert about the fact it’s BBQ time even though you’re a healthcare brand? (NO)

so please STOP doing it in social media. It’s not big and, although someone has probably told you it is, it isn’t clever.

I don’t want to harp on about content is king and relevancy is queen (see other posts!) but go back to the basics (please!!) social media isn’t a stream of status updates, nor is it a competitions application. It should be part of your digital strategy not a stand alone broadcast .

Right that’s more than enough Facebook anger for one day. Back to the sunshine….