conversation

15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation on stage

January 12, 2012

in Innovate,Just another day,presentations,Speaking,The trend is my friend

Inspired by Swedish blogger Fredrik Wass who stated that he will blog for a 100 days in a row I felt I had to get my blog going again. So here we go!

Photographed by Paulina while forecasting trends at the Creative Summit together with among others Brian Solis and Alf Rehn.

In 2011 I was honored to be selected as the keynote speaker for events all over Europe. I delivered more than 80 keynotes on entrepreneurship, creative ideas, future branding, communication and business development, some of them shared here on Slideshare. In more than 90% of the occasions I was given the highest ranking of all the speakers by the audience. Hell, I even spoke for 24 hours in a row without any sleep. In other words – I’m confident I have some thoughts to share on how to deliver a great keynote presentation.

Here are 15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation.

1. Before even getting on stage – make sure you’ve got your logos, pathos and ethos wired.

What you speak about is 50% of your keynote, but the way you look and sound giving that keynote is the other 50%. The worlds first branding expert Aristotles knew how to make people buy what he sold. He divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories; Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

- Ethos: the source’s credibility, the speaker’s/author’s authority

My credibility when I’m speaking is of course a mix of how I look, my credentials and the way I bring my message forward on stage. A common mistake I see over and over again is when speakers enter the stage and then go; “Before I speak, let me tell you about who I am and the company I’m representing.” This is more or less totally unnecessary since you’re there for a reason. If you do your thing right people will understand [click to continue…]

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3 Social Media Models That Will Guide Your Brand Into The Conversation Landscape

February 15, 2010

in branding,Innovate,SEO,Social communication,The trend is my friend,Usability

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

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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!

How your brand makes good use these three [click to continue…]

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Svenska politiker i sociala och digital media under valet 2010. Några råd på vägen – Det handlar om vem du är, vad du tycker och hur vi kan bli vänner.

January 5, 2010

in branding,Innovate,Link of the day,People,Social communication,Svenska

Det började igår med att jag läste en artikel på SVD där man skriver: “Sociala medier ny PR-kanal”. Strax efter retweetade jag @byBalsam som uppmärksammat chefredaktören Martin Jönssons morgontweet (som senare bloggade om allt buzz). Inte många timmar efter postar Brit Stakston en strålande betraktelse av hela historien som hon idag följde upp med en Del 2.

Artikeln i Svenska Dagbladet förenklade kraftigt vad sociala media handlar om och därmed gjorde mer illa än nytta. Jag kastade mig såklart på tangentbordet men hindrades av kissiga blöjor, pulkaåkning, lekstugor, sällskapsspel och annat som hör ledigheteten till. Dagen gick och jag hann får ur mig vad jag tänkte. Men nu är jag hur som helst på banan igen.

Tillbaka till politiker och sociala medier – varför blir alla så fokuserade på Twitter och Facebook och hur gör man egentligen? Det här går nog inte riktigt att svara på, men man kan definitivt lägga fler kort på borden än vad Svenska Dagbladet gjorde.

Om vi ska prata om politik och sociala media måste vi först fråga oss – varför väljer jag egentligen ett politiskt parti? Det kan tyckas vara en komplicerad fråga. Men egentligen är den rätt enkel att svara på:

  1. Politiskt söker jag ett parti som tycker som jag. Jag söker ett parti som representerar mig i sveriges riksdag.
  2. Likt vänskap måste vi komma överens emotionellt och inte bara åsiktsmässigt. Jag och era representanter alltså. Gör vi det har jag överinseende med mycket. Vänskap väljer man inte bort så lätt.
  3. Om vi har varit vänner länge och tycker olika vill jag att du ska lyssna på min åsikt.

Det parti som lyckas svara upp mot de här tre faktorerna på bästa sätt får mig på fall. Det är utifrån det här perspektivet svenska och såklart alla politiska partier borde verka i sociala media eller som jag helst säger – digitala media. Sociala medier i sig har inget egenvärde utan det handlar om totalt integrerad kommunikation.

Olika sociala kanaler/verktyg är bra på olika saker och bör såklart användas utifrån en övergripande strategi. En sådan har helt klart alla politiska partier fått på plats. Men det taktiska genomförandet sviktar [click to continue…]

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It’s not about learning how to use Social media but instead learning about how to constantly change

February 10, 2009

in branding,Innovate,Just another day,Social communication,The trend is my friend

constantly_change

Twitter and microbloggning has been getting a lot of attention recently. Finally companies are learning that Twitter can get your conversation up and running. Companies are getting it. These are words that I’m reading all over the internet on many different blogs, including mine. But I need to make one thing clear.

It’s not about Twitter. It’s not about social media. It’s not about search.

It’s about staying on your toes! It’s about making your status q = constant change.

Just like any other real world hangout Twitter or Facebook for that matter won’t stay talk of the town forever. And when something cooler and better comes up you can be sure the digital natives takes a hike and suddenly your left behind on your own.

Conclusion.
As a company you should put as much effort into getting into and using the existing possibilities as constantly searching for the next place to be. Cause when that turns up it’s being in there that will define you as an innovative brand – not being left behind with a bunch of losers in a club soon to be closed.

Staying on top when it comes to tomorrows communication will be all hard work and no rest.

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An answer to Jonas Söderström and 15 things to think of when getting into conversational brand marketing.

February 5, 2009

in branding,Link of the day,Social communication,Svenska

Blogger and planner Jonas Söderström a nice guy who’s running his own company – Planning STHLM posted a question the other day. I started to write an answer to Jonas in his commentators field but then felt I needed to elaborate a little bit more. On top of that I think my thoughts might be of value for you guys as well. Hopefully it’s caught up in Jonas trackbacks.

Jonas post is in Swedish but I’ve translated his main question (the best I can):

“What I don’t get is what all these companies and marketing directors should speak about. Could it be that their non differentiated products suddenly becomes interesting because their being broadcasted in a new medium? Or do the consumers fall in love with their products due to the fact that the companies open up a conversation with them and therefor run straight to the shops and buy everything they can get their hands on? Or is conversation all about listening to consumers in order to produce better stuff?”

Conversation as defined by wikipedia: A conversation is communication by two, three, or more people, or by one’s self. A conversations is the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. A speech, on the other hand, is an oral presentation by one person directed at a group.

Herein lies the answer.

“since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other”

Most companies seems to think that social media enables yet another speech platform for them when in fact a conversation is about sharing different point of views, ideas, thoughts, praise and critique. Modern companies have understood this. They’re building their brands on conversation, becoming a part of the community, listening, learning, adapting and showing your brand fans that you listen to their thoughts.

Jonas also talks about blogs and microblogs and how companies talks about establishing these platforms to talk about their products. My personal opinion is that corporate blogs are good but first and foremost corporate sites should be the optimum platform for product showcasing and then the actual sharing should consist of mashing up the conversation from other platforms than your own. Just like in real life you should get into the hot clubs, cool events and beautiful places instead of trying to bring everything to your home turf.

So, to sum up. What should companies and marketing directions talk about? They should listen, learn and give answers. Talking is secondary – at least on other platforms than their own.

15 things to think of when getting into conversational brand marketing. (in no specific order)

  1. Listen, learn and adapt
  2. Involve your target group in your product development (Dell Ideastorm)
  3. Create dashboards to keep track of the entire social conversation and get involved in conversation that are relative to your brand
  4. Share competence not about your brand & products but how you actually develop and market your product
  5. Create at least one open presence online where you mashup all conversations you’ve been involved in online
  6. Let people from every department in the company get involved in conversations but make sure you establish a code of conduct first
  7. Establish a global conversation even if your company only sells product locally. If a conversation might be relevant in Portugal and you’re selling products in Sweden, get in there and talk.
  8. Steer media budget away from paid media to conversations. It’s free to talk but someone has to be good at it
  9. Establish your company early in every new social tool. Social profile napping is not that common but tomorrow you can be sure someone has stolen your brand nick if you’re not fast enough.
  10. Implement conversational tools in your own campaigns where possible (CNN & Facebook)
  11. Always link to blogs and microbloggers when referring to their input. It’s what builds the conversation.
  12. Don’t get caught in longer negative discussions. When you’re at a stand still, offer a phone call, personal meeting or at least an email.
  13. Broadcast everything you do. Video, photography, blogs and microblogs. When Obama was waiting for the final results in the Presidential election he published personal photos on Flickr. These gave a fantastic resonation all over the web due to their openness and honesty.
  14. It’s never to late to get started. Many companies seems to think that they’ve missed the train, but this train will go on for ever so come aboard and try what fits your company the best.
  15. Start now. Before the day is over. Start a profile on YouTube, Ustream, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Bambuser and GetSatisfaction. Launch and host your own WordPress blog. Set up an RSS based dashboard based on Twingly, Icerocket and Social Mention and track the 10 most common words associated with your brand. Then continue with one for each and every product you host.

So, what are you waiting for?

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If you wanna get some brand love tomorrow you better get into the conversation today

January 28, 2009

in branding,Innovate,SEO,Social communication,The trend is my friend,Video

conversation_marketing_social_media

Branding today is about creating a brand platform, then dramatize it and start screaming to people – COME ON AND BUY MY PRODUCT. IT’S GREAT. Of course in a slightly creative and modest manner than that. But it very often about traditional advertising in classic media channels.

Branding of tomorrow is about knowing who you are, what your brand stands for and start experimenting with innovation, partnerships, entertainment and above all involving your potential audience as a part of your product development. And note – call them audience, cause the will pay to stay but leave if they don’t like the show.

It’s all about constantly innovating your brand and then making sure you know what people think of your work. Do they like it? Do they hate it. What do they miss, what would they do differently. Speak to them. Learn their language. Once you think you know the formula to success – erase your brain and start all over again. We do not want repetition from brands that lead we want the new stuff, the shit that makes us go wow!

The first step to keeping on top of your game is getting into the conversation. There’s no need to wait even if people aren’t talking about your brand just yet. Get in there and learn!

First step – automize your intelligence information
The key to becoming successful when becoming a brand conversationist is to know…yep, you guessed it, where people who talk about your brand are hanging. Put your ears to the rail and listen for. And remeber that most of these things you can output as a RSS feed into Google Reader or Netvibes. Built a dashboard!

  1. Google alerts
  2. Twingly blogsearch
  3. Twingly microblog search
  4. Get Satisfaction
  5. Co-comment, Backtype, Intense debate
  6. Google analytics
  7. Have a mint
  8. More statistics…you can never get to much!

social_services_friendfeed

The 59 services you can currently keep track of using Friendfeed.

Get into the discussion
Once you know where people are discussing your products, your brand or anything else related to your mission (cause you have one of those huh). These are the tools you should get accompanied with.

  1. Twitter & tweetdeck
  2. Bloggy
  3. Brightkite
  4. Jaiku (still not dead)
  5. Messenger
  6. Friendfeed
  7. Co-comment, Backtype, Intense debate
  8. And don’t forget to get into blogs and comment on subjects relevant to you!

Spread your digital presence
Getting into the conversation is not only about spying on others and then going after the buzz. Your digital presence – website, campaigns, digital events, groups…everything has to go beyond their own sphere and servers. In order to do this you’ve gotta start spreading your information socially. There’s tons of tools but a first must have are these.

  1. The god of spreading content – SEO (Note, not paid search)
  2. Ping.fm
  3. RPC all content that you write to leading aggregators and mashups on your local market.
  4. Send images to leading photo sites like Flickr and Picasa
  5. Send videos to leading Video sites like YouTube, Blip, Vimeo and others (See earlier post on this)
  6. Socially share things with Share This
  7. Connect your RSS feeds to Twitter, Jaiku, Bloggy, Friendfeed and other social plattforms.
  8. Constantly create playlists that are killer in your office and spread them on Last.FM and Spotify
  9. Post book marks on Delicious
  10. Pixelpipe
  11. Tarpipe
  12. Feedburner
  13. Widgets
  14. Facebook groups (and others)
  15. Wikipedia if possible

And more and more and more and more. This goes on forever. But you’ve gotta be everywhere!

Last but not least! Create advertising and communication that matters to people. We want to have fun – as I said earlier this year. You’ve gotta be a clown!

Ok, that’s it for now. I’m aware that I’ve left a couple of question marks in the heads of you guys who don’t know what RPC, RSS etc is. But I don’t have the time to elaborate on that now. I’ll get back to it soon :)

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Absolut.com gets a more user friendly user interface but I lack Innovation.

December 19, 2008

in Just another day,Link of the day,The trend is my friend,Usability

absolut_vodka_redesigned

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…]

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Why conversational marketing is the communication of tomorrow

December 11, 2008

in branding,Innovate,Research,Social communication,The trend is my friend

In this recent study Forrester asked people in North America what information sources they trusted. Look at the 2 bottom bars. The least trusted source of information is a company blog and social networking initiatives from a company or brand.

Lately I’ve been talking a lot about how communication must shift from event based communication (launches, seasonal etc) to conversational ongoing brand communication. This study in my mind is a great proof of that. The strong brands of tomorrow really must change how they communicate their products and their brand.

Think about it. If you took your entire marketing budget (including media budget) and directed it all towards keeping conversations alive. Making sure you’re the talk of the town constantly. Stopping all paid marketing activities and instead focus on establishing and maintaining a dialogue with your target group. What would that do for your brand. Which TV channels would then talk about your product on prime time anyway. What blogs would follow your every move. How many viewers would you have on YouTube and other online channels. How would this support your sales force when they’re trying to get space on that tight shelf?

One thing is for sure. Your brand would be included in more emails from people I know, you would be rated higher on sites like Pricerunner and Compricer, Google would upgrade your SEO value, people would look for your products in the Yellow Pages, newspapers would write articles about you, your latest innovation would travel through social networks at the speed of light, radio channels would report on your success, the news anchor would speak about your product and somewhere in the end you might get more people to trust your company blog.

Of course I understand that you might still have to spend some dough on visibility, but the visibility of tomorrow is not about traditional media channels. Instead its about supporting your conversation on and offline. And this is something you shouldn’t pay your traditional media agency to do.

psst – Found the study through ReadWriteWeb.

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