Work Life Balance

In the last week or so it has been a tough time as two of my best friends fathers have passed away and had their respective funerals here in Melbourne Australia.

And to top this off, I have just heard a little earlier today that a good friend of the family died suddenly of a heart attack and was also buried yesterday.

Now this blog is usually all about business and more specifically about key aspects of marketing sales and social media, buy today I think a more important post is about maintaining a healthy work life balance and ensuring we all give ourselves every chance to maximise our time on this amazing planet with our wonderful families and friends.

For one let's forget about Facebook, segmentation and SEO and think about even more important things.

Until next time, good marketing and good luck.
Regards,
Daniele.

Salesforce.com Buy Radian 6

Interesting news emerged recently that leading social media monitoring software platform Radian 6 has been bought by C.R.M system giant Salesforce.com.
The reported sales price is $326 million dollars.

This purchase underpins the growing need for accurate ROI information and platforms such as Radian 6 provide true insight to clients by way of their various monitoring tools which allow accurate appraisal of sentiment around all relevant discussion.

It's the first big purchase but no doubt not the last and a precursor I suspect of things to come.

Until next time, Good marketing and good luck.
Daniele.

Incresing Time Spent on Social Media is the Real Proof

In the recently released 2011 Social Media Marketing update report by Michael Stelzner from the Social Media Examiner, we see more proof that people are voting positively on the acceptance of social media by way of their commitment in time to it.

That being said it is interesting to see exactly how much time individuals are devoting to their favorite websites, platforms and blogs day in and day out.

In the report it is noted that, a staggering 58% of marketers are using social media for 6+ hours each week and 34% are spending 11+ hours online each week. And almost 1 in 6 spend above 20 hours per week on social media.

Also of great interest is the observation that as people become more experience on the medium they spend more and not less time on it, with 63% vs. 41% of people spending 10+ hours per month on the internet when comparing those with 3+ years vs. those with between 1 and 3 years.

As someone put it once, "time really is the most precious resource because it's the only thing that no one can give you anymore of." And if this is true than people are using their most precious resource in greater amounts on social media.

Until next time, good marketing and good luck.
Daniele.

Think broadly about the business you are in.

It may seem to be a silly thing to say, but it is important to understand exactly what business you are in.

Have a look at the three columns in this example. In the first column, the names of a number of well-known businesses are listed. The second column displays their respective product offerings.  It is, however, more important to identify what the customer is actually buying beyond the product itself. This is found in the third column.

Business	Product Offering	What's in it for the customer?
Universal	Movies	Entertainment
Revlon Cosmetics	Make-up	Beauty
Telstra	Telephones	Communication
Carrier	Air-conditioning	Comfort
Metrail	Trains/Trams/Buses	Convenience
Coca-Cola	Soft Drink	Acceptance
Club Med	Travel & Tourism	Escape

From this type of analysis, the broader offering of a business is quickly revealed.

Consider the Cadbury Schweppes Company.  Their product offerings are confectionery, food and beverages.  But what are the customers really buying?

Mark Smith (Former Managing Director of Cadbury Schweppes – Australia & New Zealand), said:
"I work for an outstanding company. And I'm really passionate about what we do, which put simply, is to bring delight into the lives of millions of consumers."

Therefore, Cadbury Schweppes is in the business of putting joy and fun into people’s lives.  Not just to sell confectionery, food and beverages.

Please consider.

Do you have any other examples you can add to this list? Please send them through and until next time,

Good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Update on the Pending FDA Announcements of Social Media in Pharmaceuticals

Long time pharmaceutical management consultant Frances Alexandria Walls - Ayalasomayajula wrote in a recent post: on Facebook the following brilliant preface to upcoming changes to social media guidelines by the FDA. Specifically:

"The FDA will be coming out with preliminary guidelines on the use of Social Media in a few weeks. Regardless, the guidelines on SM will not be the industry’s miracle pill to handling this form of branding . Though the US is a DTC market, many pharma companies are still very shy when it comes to the use of social media. Many may have profiles on FB and other channels, but mostly the communication remains static, stale, and uni-directional for fear of something being said off-label...or heaven forbid, someone might actually stumble upon an adverse event. But alas, resistance is futile. We are in the midst of a true paradigm shift. The continued empowerment of patients is making great strides forward. The notion that pharma companies will actually be dialoging directly with patients is a prime example of this shift. The longstanding traditional route of communication with patients is still through providers or other healthcare educators. I think that the further application of SM and the personification of brands reflect heavily the reality that patients are consumers. They have choices, unique & specific needs, as well as a right to choose how, when, and from whom they will receive (and even demand) information. And as consumers, if pateints don’t like the practices of a company, the why the products make them feel, or the ever increasing price of medication…Guess what?...Companies along with millions of others are going to hear about it via these channels. I imagine this will be somewhat similar to how physicians are being put in the hot seat now that patients are educating themselves online about their health conditions, and challenging their doctors on the therapies being prescribed. Alas the industry can no longer afford to wait, Pharma is going to have to dive in, grow some thick skin, and be prepared to handle the complexities of what may be found through this medium. “Let’s get personal Mr. Pharma. I’d like to get to know my drug maker better. “" 

Well said Frances. And here in Australia of course there is the added layer of complexity that pharmaceutical firms are not allowed to speak directly with the consumer, but rather need to direct all their communication to medical personnel such as doctors and pharmacists.

I suspect then that in Australia, Medicines Australia will use these guidelines as a stating point and then   overlay the additional layers of compliance necessary to adhere to the Australian Code of Conduct.

Please let me know what rules you think will be put in place locally.

Certainly interesting time ahead and naturally we'll keep you in the loop as soon as we know any more.

Until then, good marketing and good luck.

Regards,

Daniele.

Facebook Changes

Hi everyone,
I read a wonderful post today by David Berkerwitz on the recent changes to the Facebook platform and how they can help your brand.
I think everyone should read this article.
Just go to:  http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/facebook-s-redesign-change-marketing-strategy/149322/

You will see that the trend of brands behaving like people and firms starting to use their Facebook pages to  start interacting with other brands Facebook pages is a strong trend that I'm sure will continue as businesses look to establish and build strong strategic alliances with complimentary and yet, non competitive firms and brands.

Let me know what you think and whether you think it could be a good approach for your brand.

Until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.

More Work Still Needed on Integrating Traditional Marketing and Social Media

As has been widely reported, the majority of business are now consistently starting to ramp up their social media marketing expenditure as a percentage of their total market spend based on the fact that it remains a relatively inexpensive yet concurrently effective way to interact and engage with your market.

despite this however, a recent report showed that CMOs still believe that there are significant challenges involved with integrating social media marketing  into their the overall marketing planning process.

Recently the AMA and Duke University conducted a survey with over 400 marketers as part of the 2011 CMO survey. Apart from the fact that they confirm a trend of increasing the amount spent on social media in the order of 10% over the next year, thereby almost doubling its current rate.

Alright so business wants to use more social media moving forward. Nothing surprising there.
The real issue of course is that too often companies are still grappling with how to use it and effectively combine it with the more traditional marketing platforms as part of their overall marketing strategy, with 25% of CMO respondents saying that social media is not effectively integrated at all.

Moving forward then there has to be a greater emphasis placed not on one form of marketing or the other, but rather how a business can seamlessly work to combining and ideally gaining synergy from the two together.

Let me know your thoughts on this ongoing challenge and perhaps we can discuss them as part of the ongoing forum within the blog.

Until next time.
Good luck and good marketing.