Think social media and conversational marketing might be the next train to heaven for your brand but don’t know where to board? Well, here’s three social media marketing models that will make sure you’ll find your station.
If you wanna get moving into the social country of love where conversation rules you’ve gotta get one thing straight. Valuable content is king. Buying a loudspeaker and start tweeting wont get you anywhere. Swedish brands like Comhem and Boxer have effectively proven that just twittering the 140 sign language doesn’t earn you any followers. Every social network will provide you with it’s own possibilities and traps. A well executed strategy is a must or you’ll end up in a minefield.
Here are 3 models by Johan Ronnestam that will guide your brand towards a successful social media strategy.
3 Models That Will Guide You Into The Social Media Landscape
The Social Staircase
The Social Staircase is a model that focus on the overall process. It’s the stuff that pays for your ticket to love.
The Social Tool Matrix
Now you know what kind of presence your business needs. Now it’s time to map the tools to make sure you know what to keep your mouth shut, when to speak and when to listen.
The Social Viral Spiral
This is about speed. Spread that love I’m talking about below. But make sure you do it with finesse and timing. Create a couple of Social Viral Spirals and you’re ready to make out!
A couple of hours ago the New York Times launched an update of the skimmer interface I wrote about earlier this year. It’s an alternative way to browser their online magazine. They call it The Times Skimmer. The new interface let’s you navigate between different sections of their paper by only using the arrows on your keyboard. The GUI also lets you switch fast between articles and once you’re done reading one you can easily move on to the next.
Times Skimmer features the following seven display options:
Stories displayed in a grid
Content displayed based on editorial ranked feeds
Headlines displayed in a list
Content presented in the classic typeface Helvetica
Content displayed against a black background
Headlines and brief summaries displayed in a wrap-around format
Headlines, bylines and brief summaries displayed in a design similar to word magnets for refrigerators
After I’ve been spending a couple of minutes with this updated interface I’m struck by what now seems obvious. Isn’t this interface perfectly adapted to be read of a 16:9 touch screen. Of course it resizes as you scale your browser, but that only means it will support a rotation.
Is The New York Times preparing for an Apple Tablet or maybe a reading device of their own?
Every time Apple has launched a new gadget they’ve made sure they gained some support by a selection of leading brands already tuned into their new shit. Well, in that case – could the Skimmer interface from The Times be exactly such a partner. If so…will we finally see an Apple Tablet in the near future?
Well. I’m sure about one thing. I’ll get my hands on one asap!
Update!
It seems more mags than The Times are preparing. I spotted this one this morning yesterday on YouTube. It’s Sports Illustrated’s version of a tablet prepared digital mag.
United States Postal Service has launched this augmented reality application that allows their customers to find out if a certain shipment fits the box and thereby also finding out what it actually costs.
Yesterday ReadWriteWeb reported on a new article skimmer interface over at New York Times. It’s a stunning new way to let you quick read the headlines of all the latest news from the Sunday Times. The simplicity of this thing is striking yet genius.
And as often before it turns out that content, usability and simplicity beats smart, strange and unique solutions online. Just have a look at Craiglists, the mother of simplicity.
Navigating on a website is merely a road to our goal ›› the content. By creating an interface that consist of a number of boxes that contain a small image, headline and an intro text, this new prototype makes it very easy for me to come back and browse the latest news in all categories. It doesn’t take me more than a couple of minutes until I’ve browsed the first page and another 16 sections.
The navigational experience is very close to my personal favorite RSS tool Netvibes. I bring all the feeds I want to read into my Netvibes account and then it doesn’t take me long to browse through the latest news online.
One of Johan Ronnestams Netvibes tabs.
The great benefits with these kind of solution is the way everything is equally weighed in terms of size, colors and content. The eye races over the screen and we’re not far from the offline morning paper behavior when we skimmer the newspaper before actually reading it. This was of course something that the Times wanted to replicate. Once they launch this simple interface as an iPhone widget then I’ll be the first to start using it. Until then I’ll continue to read my favorite Times sections through Netvibes, basically the same except for that Netvibes is actually better since you can read the entire article without leaving the interface.
One of the worlds most awarded websites has been redesigned. And the way Absolut.com is heading doesn’t come as a surprise. The new site has been give an slick, well designed user and SEO friendly interface. Many parts of the site has been moved from a flash based interface to a classical CSS based interface. Everything is done with the touch of Absolut.
This is definitely a first switch from Flash based sites of many to come. I’ve personally been part of building lots of flash sites through the years. But the possibilities to create rich user and SEO friendly interfaces with CSS gives us no reason anymore to use Flash for entire sites.
Also the fact that marketing departments around the world have undoubtedly noticed that their visitors leave after seeing that first loader will lead to change.
All in all I like the new Absolut.com better than the old. But there’s a few things I would have done differently: [click to continue…]
In order words. You sure as hell wanna make sure that brand of yours is found among the top searches on Google. SEO is more important than ever. Building websites that get listed and linked up is key.
So, if you wanna get our management team on board, do the following 3 steps:
As I’m sitting listening to people on stage talking about viral communication a great post flips by in my RSS reader. The post talks about 18 rules that the best web developers follow. The list is a great compilation of what’s important. Still I’d like to ad two rules.
Hey, before you read – feel free to comment and ad your own ones. Let’s write a new bible on web development.
19. Implement atomization where ever possible.
Make sure that whenever you post things on your website, make sure it spreads out through RSS feeds, ping mashups, post information to the cloud and onto social networks. And also make use of potential ways to snap content from the web that is related to your business. Yahoo Pipes or Tarpipe can make the difference for you.
20. Don’t underestimate copy.
Involve a copywriter early in the process. Copy can make the difference between a site that delivers on target or not.
Here’s the original list. And make sure you head over to the original post as they have elaborated on each and every bullet.
1. Don’t push information on your visitors.
2. Poor advertising is evil.
3. Be a source of information.
4. Develop your own style.
5. Obey the standards.
6. Be clear.
7. Use Internet Explorer as a baseline.
8. Content is king.
9. Web-crawlers and SEO should be an afterthought.
10. Share content naturally, don’t spam.
11. Answer your e-mails immediately.
12. Engage in Social Media.
13. Make connections, and nurture relationships.
14. Take advantage of the “worldwide” web.
15. Build sites for “users”, not the site “owner”.
16. Always keep learning.
17. Find inspirational resources for creativity.
18. Beautify the Web.
Microsoft Research is obviosly a pretty cool playground. At first glance you might think this is another video of Microsoft Surface, but it’s not. This new 3D monitor/touch screen is called Second Light and it at least makes my brain go wild. Imagine what you could do with this thing if you had one to play around with. Who knows, maybe we’ll be walking around with balls in our pants instead of mobile computers. (I know…cheesy but I couldn’t resist)
Aha. So you’re still at home crying about that car you drove of the bridge while texting ‘Look, I can drive without holding the steering wheel’. Well, not to worry. Vlingo has got just the thing for you. These guys have launched an application that allows mobile phone users to speak and look-up information such [...]
If you got an iPhone. If you every now and then visit Ronnestam.com. Then you’re in for a new experience optimized for your phone. Thanks to the excellent plugin WPTouch I’ve made sure the site loads faster, is easier to use and renders better on iPhone. Now you know.
I presented an idea in front of the board members of a leading Swedish company a while ago when one of them suddenly, quite downgrading, commented on the lack of history in terms of best practise comparison in my case. “How can you even suggest an idea that isn’t supported with at least 5 years [...]
Business Week posted a great article on the 10 commandments of webdesign. The list is short but well thought thru. Thou shalt not abuse Flash. Thou shalt not hide content. Thou shalt not clutter. Thou shalt not overuse glassy reflections. Thou shalt not name your Web 2.0 company with an unnecessary surplus or dearth of [...]
ronnestam.com was voted Sweden’s first blog on Innovation, future trends and digital communication. It’s written by Johan Ronnestam. He's widely regarded as one of Sweden’s leading speakers and authorities in the field of modern creative and conceptual thinking and skill of innovating brands and their communication.
