Internet Marketing and Digital Media Strategy Sydney Australia

Hi, it’s me, I haven’t updated my blog for awhile - haven’t had much to say.

I suppose it’s because a lot of the work I’ve been doing is about cutting out the noise and clutter - you know, taking long, wordy pieces of writing and ruthlessly cutting it down until the message is clear.

I wonder if that’s the main difference between quality writing and rambling blogs or quality video versus the large amount of crap in the 25+ hours of content uploaded to Youtube ever minute?

In today’s digital age creating content is easy BUT creating good content is harder than ever.  Below is a snapshot of the amount of content created in 60 seconds - it's bamboozling and makes you wonder how you can create cut through?

The analogy I often use is the best designs are those that appear simple - the iphone comes to mind; a duck gliding across the water - below the surface there’s a whole lot going on.  

Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers

Did You Know That - In 60 SECONDS

• Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries
• 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
• 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
• 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Social Networking site Facebook
• 70 New domains are registered
• 168,000,000+ emails are sent
• 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
• iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
• 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
• Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
• Popular blogging platform Wordpress is downloaded more than 50 times
• WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
• 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
• 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
• 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
• 1 new article is published on Associated Content, the world’s largest source of community-created content
• 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
• 1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
• 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
• 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
• 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company

Creating Compelling Content

Here’s five tips for creating content that hopefully engages and shares

1. What's your objective?  Is it just to express your personal opinion OR does it have some other objective?
2. Who is your audience and what are their needs? You can't be all things to everyone so visualise the types of readers you want and understand what they want.
3. In terms of content there are six key questions to work with - Who, What, When, Where, How Much and Why?  What answers are important for your reader.
4. Tone: Is easier to be yourself - be real, natural and conversational - we’re all becoming highly tuned at filtering irrelevant BS.  As a reader I want to get to know you - your opinions.     
5. Is the content likely to be shared?  Does it have a call to action?  Does it entertain?  Does it have a logical flow so that it is easy to read?  Write - proofread (something I'm guilty of often neglecting) - rewrite - cut - post.

Whether your advertising, blogging, tweeting or updating your status, what's the angle? Is it interesting or just more noise?  What are you trying to say and can you please get to the point quickly - we all say we're time poor (but around 24% of Internet time is addicted to Facebook) and time is money baby!

We all know that in today's customer centric, digital communications marketplace that customer advocacy is the primary marketing objective - to create tens, hundreds, millions of loving, sharing, influencing fans and customers who'll spread our content; influence others and buy our stuff.

Global

On Sunday, Manchester United passed 16m Facebook fans (in less than 11 months); MU want to hit 17m by their July Anniversary.

We've been told that sport is only second to religion in terms of Facebook groups.

But the web is not just about quantity - that's the old mass media model, it's also about quality and niche digital marketing - right down to your local small business.

National

For example, let's take the NRL - National Rugby League (the toughest gladiator team sport in the world IMHO - that and ice hockey and UFC).  Rugby League is the major sporting code in the Australian states of NSW and Queensland.

Although league doesn't have the global reach and audience of soccer, the recent NSW vs Queensland State of Origin game reached a record 4m television viewers (the combined population of these two  states is only 12m) - ie 33%.  Note: The games media rights are up for negotiation at the end of the year (cha ching)

Within every major social tribe are sub-tribes, for example the Dragons (50K Facebook Fans), the Sharks (25K) , The Broncos (190K) and Russell Crowes Rabbitohs (51K).  Each team actively building and incorporating social media into their own marketing strategies, that is, connecting 1:1 with fans, creating compelling content that informs and shares (increasingly video); developing new digital inventory opportunities for sponsors; connecting and selling memberships, merchandise and game day experiences.  

AND, like all brands in all markets, they are not only competing against each other (and other codes) but for yours and my time and attention, as fans or customers, our piece of mind-share and heart against every other marketing message out there who wants to love us.  

Some do that better than others (more on that later).

So what are your fans and customers saying (are you listening and replying) and what do they love about you?  

The answer is often the things you're most passionate about are the same ones that attract new customers or deepen your relationship.

Creating Compelling Content

As mentioned, as consumers we're all bombarded with thousands of messages per day trying to get our attention and influence our buying behaviour.

We all make decisions on whether we like that product, service, person or not, whether a message earns our attention, book-marking, likes, purchase, trust and advocacy.

Case in point - there's a guy down the local mall who plays bad guitar and sings out of tune (I'm not saying busking becuase that's an insult to the trade) - I'll never be a fan - no matter how many songs he performs.  Many products, services, ads and sales people are like that.

If you're in tune with your customer then your messages should get cut-through and spread. 

The Ultimate Fighting Championship

Has 5.7m Facebook Fans and seen as one of the leaders in sports digital marketing.  They deliver content their fans love.

The St George Illawarra Dragons

The Dragons are a client - over six months ago we came on board to help them develop their digital strategy.  Some milestones include -

• Charismatic Ambassador Wendell Sailor on Twitter (now over 22,222 followers).
• Passed 2,000 members this week (highest level of digital customer) on mydragons.com.au - a new Fan Hub including user generated content (UGC), forums, blogs, polls, gallery and live game chats.
• The new Dragons i-phone app passed 15K downloads
• Dragons Facebook group page passed 50K fans
• New Dragons online merchandising store exceeding budgets

• Every brand would love to have the passion people have for their sports team.
• Sponsorship offers brands association with sports team (and usually good tickets at the game).
• The challenge is how to incorporate new sports sponsorship opportunities within the new social media customer experience.
• Digital media offers unlimited shelf space and the opportunity for sports teams to provide new highly scalable digital inventory.
• Sports teams already have assets that resonate with fans - for example - players, cheerleaders, mascots, grounds and other fans.
• They already have entertainment and drama (stories to tell) - competition, injuries, wins, losses.
• Their website becomes their own media channel.

This blog is the ongoing chronicle of our own application to our business of the theories; ideas and lessons we are sharing and recommending with our clients.  

Taking Risks

If you're not taking risks then you're playing it safe.  It's one or the other.

Yes, it's hard for some people/ companies/ brands to take risks - there's the natural fear of failure, but today, the paradox is it is more risky to maintain the status quo - you risk become commoditised and irrelevant - easily replaced.

"If you or your brand does not have relevance and create passion from your customers and fans then long term you're in trouble - you're no different than washing powder."  Franklyn Un

Much of the current marketing talk today is about online social media, building and connecting with fans but social media is more than just about setting up a Facebook fan page or Twitter account.  It's about creating social objects says Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod.

Facing Problems

I faced a problem with the CLIVE stuff we were creating - namely potential customers where comparing us with inferior produced competitors.  Our key messages were not being heard.

The reason - our website - (which is where most of our customers find out more about us)  did not clearly communicate our unique selling points - we looked like our competitors - ie just selling the technical video production ability instead of where we wanted to play - our creativity, our online marketing understanding, our script writing, our production quality, presenter coaching, technology platform and analytics. 

We had to change the way we sold and move from a volume production view of the world towards a very customer centric, creative, niche approach.  Less how many video jobs but more about developing the whole of customer experience - right through to their customers experience.

Seeds take a while to germinate

It took a very long time (in web years) for my team to actually understand what I was saying (and I suppose my deeper understanding of the space and ability to communicate).

Lonely Girl 15 (2006)

We'd all seen the Lonely Girl thing way back in 2006 but what was the end result today? Did it eventually ever sell anything beyond building the Directors profile? Was/ where's the long tail benefit to fans?  What's the point if those no end in sight?

Beached As

I'd seen the clips years ago but the guys appeared on one of the national morning TV shows - I sent the interview to my guys - it's when they saw the commercial return from the books "they got it".  In many ways many businesses are like this - they need to see someone else successful before they have a go - it reduces their perceived risk - they need to be sold and convinced.

For every huge success there will tens of thousands of failures - today there's 37 hours of video uploaded to Youtube every minute.

"It ain't viral till it's viral" but there are some common elements to viral video success - low budget; humour; topicality; provocation; surprises and strategies - piggybacking on trends or celebrities; kids and cute animals.

If you focus purely on the $$$ then customers will soon see through your work.

2010 - Doing Incredibly Boring Work and the Creative Stuff that inspired.

My video guys were stuck on a very boring government job - we done a hundred simple presenter to camera CLIVE clips, it was the creative ones like Wendell's Dancing Reebok that got the most Click Thrus and results - social media was focused on how many fans or Twitter followers - the next metric is engagement. 

2011 - Focus on Creative Inspiration 

Less now on volume and more focused on customer experience.  The development of characters to deliver key communications messages to targeted audiences; a platform for companies and brands to engage online; a framework for new talent to be involved.

Introducing The Characters

Each character went through a behavioural profiling approach (60 questions) used by Human Resource consultants around the world - developed to hopefully resonate with each customer segment.

The Hard Arsed CEO	The Punchy Salesman	Online Presenting Diva	Viral Video Expert	The Nerd
Facebook	Facebook	Facebook	Facebook	Facebook

Each character a Facebook fan page; Twitter account created and behind the scenes video element created. 

The rest to unfold - I'll keep you posted.  

S*x Sells - Setting the Scene

The room is very dark that you can only sense it's small size by the steamy confined heat and the short re-verb of the pulsating sounding background beat.

Each beat the sound gets louder.

Through the dark a single light beam shines cutting through the dense smoke. A body lies near naked - a voluptuous and scantily clad woman.

Camera cuts to a man, he's all green, standing over the body.

He pours liquid, much like maple syrup, over her body - she awakens and screams with delight.

The camera zooms onto the jug label - "Create Compelling Content" scrawled across its bright label.

Cut to green man taking a photo with his new Smartphone.

The man laughs loudly and smiles devilishly (even though he doesn't have a mouth) - he looks for a pocket to put his phone but he doesn't have one - fade to black -

title card - "capture the moment".

"Cut", the camera pulls back wide to capture the whole studio. Chisolm explodes!

Note: Reminder to self - need to add something so that potential clients understand this is a marketing vehicle to promote products or services using brand ambassadors. The key to all of this is developing characters and stories that resonate with your audience.

Reflection

OK - maybe the ad concept above is not going to work for most (any) potential client but that ad is not designed for everyone - that's the key message - as guru Seth says "it's about products for customers not customers for products". We explore characters and ambassador authority.

Developing Characters

We finished shooting the last few CLIVE clips this week - Sales guy Ernie Cash, CEO Franklin Un and Creative Director Chisolm Van Schwizer. We'll have the very short, professional corporate CLIVE clip and then a background behind the scenes video where you learn a bit more about the team. As Ernie says "it's people and stories that sell" and Franklyns swear jar rises quickly - I'm not sure how well this will go?

Filming, Scripting and Creativity

We look at the draft edits - they're amazing - you just couldn't write those sort of dynamics quickly (I don't think). Chisolm tells me the sytle is called "Dogma" - yep - I'm sure there is some academic out there who will tell me what the term is for what we've done - the approach we've taken. My thoughts are that by doing we learn - by sharing we understand. There's a continuous cycle here somewhere.

Roll out

I'm still playing with ideas on how to roll the whole new site - the phased roll out gives us the ability to easily add layers more layers and elements as we go. As you know the web is not the big bang media launch but a long tail customer and fan engagement strategy. Don't get me wrong we still need to develop some promotion element at the front end to get word spreading faster. Ideas take a while to cystalise.