Social Media in China

Servus Erdnuss


Unbelievable but true: Over 1 Billion people worldwide use Facebook. Isn`t that crazy?

Therefore it comes not as a surprise that regional as well as global companies market their products and services on Facebook. But just because from our European perspective Facebook is the number #1 global social media marketing site does not automatically imply that this is the case all over the world. China is one of the most flourishing market in the world but due to China’s censorship, worldwide social media sites have been banned, including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Therefore, China has their own versions of everything, which is used religiously by the Chinese citizens. Therefore it is essential for western companies to understand that not only the culture and therefore what they like and buy is different but also what social media is the most popular. Here is an overview China`s social media platforms.

Source: www.e3reloaded.com

The social media langscape of China shows how many different website there exist. In the inner circle you can see the platforms which are know to us (Twitter Google, Ebay...) and in the second circle the Asian counterparts. We would like to give a few more informations on the following three.


Sina Weibo

Weibo is a microblogging-sit which can be compared to Twitter. The features such as 140 signs per post or hashtags you already know from the American counterpart. But what really sets Weonp aüart from twitter is the direct incorporation of multimedia, a great e-commerce-system which are used by companies to integrate their product catalog into their profil. Another great tool is the subscription functions which helps to address subscribers with text or voice messages. Global companies such as Coca-cola or KLM already have a profil on Sina Weibo.

RenRen.com

Or in other words “Facebook of  China”. Even the color of the logo has similarities with Facebook. Next to the classical function of sharing user-generated content, RenRen has a special focus on multimedia-extras. They have their own produced online-games, e-commerce and music library, which makes RenRen a multimedia experience.

Youku

is China’s leading Internet television company. Its Internet television platform enables users to search, view and share high-quality video content quickly and easily across multiple devices. Youku, which stands for “what’s best and what’s cool” in Chinese, is the most recognized online video brand in China.


As you can see the opportunities in China are great for companies to market their products or services online. More and more global companies join these site in a bit to win over customers in China.

Here is the CNN report that inspired this blogpost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mknHwhntZ-M

We hope you enjoyed learning mor about this topic and hope you come back soon, and alway remeber:

If we can do it you will do just fine. Let's conquer the digital world together.








Sources:

http://ir.youku.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=241246&p=irol-homeProfile
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Weibo
http://www.renren-inc.com/en/


 

Example Swisscom

Servus Erdnuss

In our last digital marketing session we had the great opportunity to learn more about how social media can be used for digitial marketing. Swisscom is one of the leading telecommunication networks of Switzerland. They are a great example of how social media can be used to your own advantage and what huge potential there is if these tools are used right. Here are the social media activities of Swisscom.



Swisscom
On their own website they have several interesting tools which they use to inform customers and of course market their products. One of these tools is the support community. The idea behind this site is that customers help customers. Swisscom states that actually almost 90 percent of the problems that customer/users report are solved by other users of the support community. From a customer point of view it is great because they have their problem solved and from Swisscom`s side it is even better because they can decrease cost. Swisscom is quite clever in assuring that these users keep answering their customers questions. Here is how it works.

1. Users get points for every time they solve a problem from another customer. The more points you get, the higher the users get on the ranking.
2. At a certain stage of the ranking you become a superuser and you get some benefits. These are for example: new gadgets for free, get information about new development earlier on or get invited to a superuser gathering.

The superusers are a very important part of the success of the support community of Swisscom.

Another tool Swisscom has on their site ist the Swisscom Lab. The goal of this tool is to collect new ideas. If the ideas are of good use, they later get developed by Swisscom.

Facebook
Probably the most famous social media platform Facebook is used by Swisscom for sharing their news with the customers. They post new videos, show their new advertisement, announce the launch of new products or do other promotional work. Swisscom has three different accounts on Facebook: private customers, Swisscom business and KMU business world. 

Twitter
Swisscom not only uses Twitter for the same reasons they are active on Swisscom, they also address the challenges they have. Swisscom states that twitter gets not only more important to keep everybody in the loop what is happening but also for them as a company to be informed. In 2010 the network of Swisscom broke down at 7.45am.  Swisscom did not take notice until 10am. It took them until 13pm to address the problem on their site. Later on they realised that by following the news on twitter they could have become aware of the situation earlier on. Since then the number one social media site when it comes to trouble-shooting is twitter.

Youtube
Youtube offers the great opportunity to share new advertisement videos and promotional videos but foremost helpful instructional videos. Swisscom started to produce informational short videos. They can be produced in house, with employees and are therefore very cost-effective. On their youtube channel we could find very interesting videos such as the  latest advertisement. Here it is:

After we had the great opportunity to get a very close insight into the online work of Swisscom we are impressed at how much work they put into their social media activities. Even though at the moment only a big percentage of the customers still prefer to get their information directly in the stores or by calling the hotline. Swisscom is prepared when the trend changes. They have a wide range of tools they can use and cover every customer need.

If you still do not have enough of Swisscom and their social media activities. They are also active on Xing, Linkedin, Kumunu, Slideshare, Flickr and of course Instagram.

We hope this blogpost gave you an idea of what is possible with social media!

Visit our blog soon again to learn more about digital marketing, and remember:

If we can do it, you will do just fine. Let's conquer the digital world together.

How to get more followers on Twitter

Servus Erdnuss,

Big name marketers are testing just about any type of interaction on Twitter in order to stand out. While some marketers are bulking up their tweets with buttons to drive sales, brands like Heineken and Evian enlist Twitter in conjunction with traditional tactics such as on-the-street or video marketing.

A recent Evian Twitter campaign reveals how the marketer uses real-time campaigns to shell out product samples and build brand buzz.

In summer 2014 Evian began its Twitter push in New York from August 19 to 21 under the hashtag #Evianbottleservice, targeting consumers in city parks like Bryant Park and Madison Square Park at hot times of day. To participate, consumers had to use the hashtag to tweet a message to Evian describing their current location. A team of Evian then responded to the tweets, triggering a team of brand ambassadors on the streets to deliver a bottle of water within seven minutes to each participant.

Before the campaign was launched, Evian teased it via Social Media starting the 15^th of August. During the time period of August 15 to August 21, Evian earned around 147 new Twitter followers per day. This number represents an 11x increase from the same time period in July.

It is also to mention that there were 3.5 times more daily mentions of the brand during this period compared to competitors. (Source: Link)

We found an interesting statistic about the increase of Evian on Social Media platforms. If you are interested in finding out more about Evian click here.

This example of Evian is very nice in showing the effect of a good combination of using social media and real-time marketing. On one hand, the social media ensures to reach a great number of potential customers and to inform them about the project. On the other hand, the real-time marketing enables the customer acquisition on a more personal level. 

As you have seen in the video people getting a bottle of water were very grateful and happy. What is better in producing good word-of-mouth than happy and satisfied customers?  

Visit our blog soon again to learn more about digital marketing, and remember:
If we can do it you will do just fine. Let's conquer the digital world together.

Content is king

Servus Erdnuss

Here we are again. Writing about a very interesting topic called  CONTENT MARKETING!

The traditional world of marketing has changed. While consumers continue to tune out traditional, intrusive marketing communications, they increasingly crave the type customer-focused information that content marketing delivers.

But what exactly is content marketing?

"Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."

Content marketing is about providing relevant and valuable information or content to current and potential customers for the purpose of attracting and retaining customers, building trust, branding, awareness, and positive sentiment. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it. By 2014, Forbes Magazine's website had written about the 7 most popular ways companies use content marketing. In it, the columnist points out that by 2013, use of content marketing had jumped across corporations from 60% a year or so before, to 93% as part of their overall marketing strategy.

Content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. You are delivering information that makes your customers more intelligent. By delivering consistent, ongoing valuable information the buyers ultimately reward the company with their business and loyalty. (Source: Link)

Content marketing is being used by some of the greatest marketing organizations in the world. Why? Because it works.

How Red Bull takes content marketing to the extreme. Find out here

How a content marketing plan could look like according to Bruno Bucher. Let’s have a look:

The content marketing plan

1. Summary

In the abstract it comes to the following question: What are the critical areas of the content marketing plan which are relevant for decision taking?

A. Specific target size

B. Type of content

C. Content topics

D. Communication channels

E. Resources

2. Target size

Which objectives should be achieved through content marketing?

What benchmarks of key performance indicators will be defined?

3. Target group

The target groups will be defined according to the following criteria:

A. Are they looking for information?

B. How do they use social media?

C. Which networks do they prefer?

D. What professional responsibility do they have?

E. What problems do they try to solve?

F. What keep them off a cooperation?

G. How do they measure success?

H. What do they read, listen, see? 

4. Areas of responsibility

For each content project a competent person will be defined for the
project management.

5. Editorial plan

In the editorial plan the individual topics will be determined to
which content will be generated and published.

6. Content WorkflowThe Content Workflow is described as a process which describes all continuous positions and shows the interfaces to all involved. 

Interested in finding out more about the seven content marketing trends 2014 ? Find out here

And remember: If we can do it you will do just fine. Let's conquer the digital world together.

Discovering Google AdWords

Servus Erdnuss

We are back and facing the next challenge in the world of digital marketing, Google AdWords:

The good thing is we know what Google is but what does AdWords stands for? 

Can you imagine having a great product or service but everytime somebody types in your product name into Google, the link to your company's website won't appear.That's exactly where Google AdWords comes in.



Let us show you the ABC of Google AdWords.

Google AdWords is an online advertising platform that helps drive interested people to your website. It helps your business to reach people as they search for words or phrases or browse websites with themes related to your business. The words and phrases are called keywords, which are the words or phrases which are used to find your products or services. As you realize keywords are very important for successfully reach your potential customers. Wrong keywords could lead to addressing the wrong people. 

Doesn't it sound great? If you ask us, too good to be true. Here come the costs... 

The solution is called CPC. The system actually is quite easy. You only get charged when someone clicks your ad, therefore cost-per-click. You can decide on your own how much you pay per click but you should be aware that the more you pay per click the higher is your ad position on Google. 

At the end the question you have to ask yourself is how much money is your positioning worth.  

We hope that you have enjoyed learning more about this interesting topic and remember:

If we can do it you will do just fine. Let's conquer the digital world together.

Ps: If you are interested in finding out more you will find it here.

Storytelling

In our second lesson of marketing we were speaking about storytelling. But what is storytelling about and why is it so important for branded content? Let’s find out…

Source: POSTadvertising

When most people think about marketing, these are the tools they think of: print media, radio, TV and of course the web. None of these, however, are ingrained in us as much as storytelling. We’ve been telling stories for thousands of years, but we don’t have to go back that far to understand storytelling’s powerful effect on our hearts and minds. Go back only as far as your childhood, when you begged your parents to read your favorite story—the one you already knew by heart—just one more time. Why did you do that? Why was it so important to hear that story?

Stories and the art of storytelling play a major role in content marketing today. Not all brands realize the importance of unearthing their core story and learning to tell stories in ways that endear new fans and motivate advocates. In case you need even more reason to learn to weave an effective narrative throughout your marketing efforts, here are seven reasons storytelling is important for branded content.

1. Stories produce experiences
2. Stories reveal what makes your message unique
3. Stories are the emotional glue that connects you to your customers
4. Stories shape information into meaning
5. Stories can motivate an audience towards your goal
6. Stories are more likely to be shared
7. Stories are less likely to be resisted

With only 23 percent of consumers trusting ads on TV and 20 percent trusting ads in magazines or on the radio, it’s more important than ever for brands to integrate their marketing into their story. Otherwise, what are you marketing?

(All information in this section according to postadvertising.com)

That’s what it is about. Isn’t it? We think that a good story needs to cause emotions in order to connect you to your customers. We found a very nice advertisement of Budweiser which we like very much. Check out the video and decide for yourself whether you like it or not. Have fun!!!

YouTube Budweiser ad “Puppy love”:

Your digital personality

Servus Erdnuss (Welcome peanuts)

Let`s start this blog entry with a first task: google yourself! 

The results google spits out are the traces you left in the World Wide Web. Scary isn`t it? This is the so called footprint as we learned in the first lesson of Digital Marketing with Bruno Bucher. 



Our digital footprint


When we first thought about our traces, we only came up with the famous three. FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM. As you can see, we are probably the opposite of digital trendsetters. Especially because after a few hours of hard thinking we discovered not only old forgotten logins but also even email addresses we totally forgot about. OMG! There were some old embarrassing no filtered pictures.

All the social networks you ever used together create your digital footprint.

Do you feel inspired? Try to list all the social networks you have. We know there are for sure logins and passwords out there that you forgot or some you do not even remember making.

Let`s conquer the digital world together.

If we can do it, you will do just fine <3