Jumat, 21 Agustus 2009

Branding With Word Of Mouth Marketing:

Ashe Test - 005Have you implemented Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) as part of your branding plan?

Do you feel that WOMM can help build your brand and bring about brand awareness for your business? Just to explain, brand awareness is how you measure whether your brand or business is easily recognized or springs to mind for your industry.

WOM_EAR

When you are using WOMM as part of your branding message, it’s key that you understand the basic usage for WOMM.

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Below is a simple list that can help you with your WOMM implementation:

  • Keep it simple. Determine what topics will be shared.

  • Find people who can be “announcers” for your brand/business.

  • Make sure that you have tools that your “announcers” can use to easily spread the word like Tell-a-friend forms on your website.

  • Participate on forums by leaving comments with links back to your website. Ask others to visit your website and participate on your forum also.

  • As you implement your WOMM plan, make sure to track your results.


Any how we hope this has given you a few extra idea's when it comes to branding your company, if you want some more ideas, me or Tobz always love to start a further conversations about WOM, so just drop us a line so we can get talking, ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke - London.

Kamis, 13 Agustus 2009

Pirate Party UK officially registered:

Toby ~ IT BlokeHuzzah at long last, The UK's very own version of Sweden's Pirate Party has been officially recognised by the British electoral commission as a legitimate political party, according to a blog post from the party's leader, Andrew Robinson.

pirtate IIThat means that it can now raise funds and put up Pirate Party candidates for the next general election, which is due in the first half of 2010. The party is requesting that people interested start to "make things happen".

"Now the party can really start. It's time for us to tell the world that we exist, to recruit members, raise funds and gear up to fight the General Election. The officers and web team have built the framework that the party needs to get going, now it's time for YOU to make things happen", said Robinson.

Robinson has said that the party is "Very similar" to the Swedish Pirate Party - Piratbyran, which won a European parliament seat in the last Swedish elections - but will have its own policies and officials.

For Further Details GOTO: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/ , ~ Regards, Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

Kamis, 06 Agustus 2009

SELLING WITH W.O.M. IS OK:

Ashe Test - 005Sceptics of social media ROI take note: last week ReadWriteWeb has used the news to reinvigorate the debate about what exactly brands should be using Twitter for. Should we be expecting social media to deliver these kind of direct sales? Does it encourage brands to think in terms of one-way messaging without respecting microblogging’s two-way, conversational roots?












Regular readers of this blog will know how much emphasis we put on helping clients


understand the value of word of mouth beyond precisely measurable stats and sales.  However, it’s important that we don’t forget that consumers out in social media also want a brand to be a brand: to provide easily accessed, accurate information and expertise - in fact, to sell us stuff, albeit good stuff, that we want, and that has been developed thanks to plenty of listening to our feedback and needs.


dellh


As ReadWriteWeb point out, Dell can get away with tweets geared towards ‘hard’ ROI because they also invest in ’soft’ ROI by engaging in listening and conversation as well as pushing deals and product pages. OK, so @DellOutlet is only following 23 people - not exactly a model of reciprocity - but its 644,016 followers don’t seem to mind. They know what it’s there to do. Dell keeps its tweets regular, simple and up-to-date, and the strength of its voice and clarity of its purpose - to help people find the best products for them - is refreshing.


Many companies I talk to have a crisis of confidence in social media, almost feeling that they should hide their commercial priorities under a patina of irrelevant chat.  The truth is,  I don’t really care what the CEO had for breakfast or what he’s listening to on Spotify.  Branded social presences need to strike the balance between listening and responding to consumers, but also actually being open, direct and unashamed about who they are and what they have to offer...  ~ Regards,  Ashe…  IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

Selasa, 04 Agustus 2009

FREE ~ HOW TO USE ZERO PRICING EFFECTIVELY:

Ashe Test - 005Free is tricky.   Free is great for consumers but difficult for business and creators. It is becoming a serious economic force (thanks to digital technologies and automation) but no one is really sure how to use free to, well, make money. Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired, offers the best utilitarian knowledge about the economics of the free I've seen yet.  I believe this book will clear up many misunderstandings about this "radical price" and assist creators (that's us these days) in pricing our offerings in a world of "freeconomics."



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The hardcover book costs $27, but of course if Anderson is serious about what he is saying the book should be free somehow. And it is, in many versions. You can get free versions on the Kindle, you can get a free unabridged audio version on iTunes or Audible (but note the shorter abridged edition is not free. Time is money!).  There are free ebooks on Google, and on Scribd. You can get a free paperback version in the UK.  Some of these offers are time limited (that is called a "freemium", free first pay later), others are indefinite. New free versions will be announced on the author's blog at The Long Tail.


You need to take the free seriously. Pay attention to this book, and to Anderson's experiments in practicing what it preaches. ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke - London.


Sample Excerpts:



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In Denmark, a gym offers a membership program where you pay nothing as long as you show up at least once a week. But miss a week and you have to pay full price for the month.  The psychology is brilliant.  When you go every week, you feel great about yourself and the gym. But eventually you'll get busy and miss a week.  You'll pay, but you'll blame yourself alone.  Unlike the usual situation where you pay for a gym you're not going to, your instinct is not to cancel your membership; instead it's to redouble your commitment.


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Commodity information (everybody gets the same version) wants to be free. Customized information (you get something unique and meaningful to you) wants to be expensive.


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As Lee puts it, "This large audience acts as a powerful motivator for continued contribution to the site. People like to contribute to an encyclopedia with a large readership; indeed, the enormous number of 'free riders'--aka users--is one of the most appealing things about being a Wikipedia editor."


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Piracy accounts for an estimated 95 percent of music consumption in China, which has forced record companies to completely rethink what business they're in.  Since they can't make money from selling music on plastic disks, they package it in other ways.  They ask artists to record singles for radio play instead of albums for consumers. They serve as a personal talent agency for the singers, getting a cut of their fees for making commercials and radio spots.  And even concerts are paid for by advertisers brokered by the labels, which pack as many of their artists on stage as they can to maximize the revenues from sponsors.  The main problem is that the singers complain that the endless touring, which provides their only income, is tough on their vocal cords.