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 that you know your shit. After all, someone invited you so the people in front of you in the crowd will surely expect you to deliver. Remember that no one knows what you will say before you say it so don’t be to hard on yourself if you forget something you were supposed to say!

Who would you listen to if you were a banker? Who would you listen to if you were an Art Director?

An important thing though is to avoid making people angry (if that’s now what your assignment is) by dressing totally wrong, swearing or making fun of things that matter to the people in the room. A certain amount of selling should always be taken into account even if it requires you to dress up differently than you’re used to.

- Logos: the logic used to support a claim (induction and deduction); can also be the facts and statistics used to help support the argument.

When it comes to logos there’s different ways to handle this. Reliable statistics, famous quotes, facts and but also your own observations. However if you only bring up a observation as a proof of your theory you’ll tend to make people feel unsure about your whole presentaiton. But if you make sure to find patterns in historical information and present them in an understandable way you’re usually home free.

In 2007 I spoke about how Facebook would be the worlds most trafficked site with the help of this technical analysis of site traffic.

After all – if you are giving a keynote about future trends or an idea the world have never seen you will have to present logics that support your claims. The history if often your best friend when speaking about things in the future.

- Pathos: the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language and numerous sensory details.

Mirror mirror on the wall! Yes it’s actually true. The more you rehearse the better you get. Use your face, eyes, arms, voice and your whole body. Once you’ve got it wired get out there and rock the party!

2. If you don’t know the subject – don’t speak at all.

The worst presentations I’ve ever given over the years are the ones where I didn’t really master the subject. Avoid moments like that. Of course that shouldn’t keep you from challenging yourselves every now and then. But don’t choose the big arenas for those crying games.

3. Ask what your contractor want

I’ve learned that no one knows your audience better than your contractor. Therefor it’s key that you ask what they want to achieve with your keynote. Make people happy? Make people angry? Make people scared or give people hope. Still I don’t want to much information. It’s important that the contractor doesn’t shape my presentation After all, I am the professional. My solution is the five bullet point rule. Before every presentation I’m expected to give I ask my contractor to send me five short bullets that explains who I’m speaking in front, what they want them to learn, how they want the audience to feel once I’m done and what the goal with the event is.

4. Sell one thing!

This is an easy one so I’ll keep it short – If you’re selling fish don’t make up stories about dead meat. Make sure people understans that know one knows big fish as you do!

5. Drop the corporate bullshit

If you’re representing your company and is expeted to sell something then make sure you share your knowledge and people will ask you in the end what you sell. Nothing sells as competence. Trust people to contact you if they thought you knew what you were talking about.  If you’re on stage purely focused on selling no one will listen to what you’re actually selling.

6. Drop the bullets.

Sometimes the best solution is to make fun of the worst.

No one wants you to read bullets from corporate slides. We’ve all been there. Stuck in the middle of an audience listening to some boring odd character looking not on us but instead on his own presentation and reading those bullets like dead people read poems…not good. Please stop giving keynotes if you don’t know how to sell your shit! Tons of corporate CEO’s are really good at this. They’re sent off to a stage somewhere in never-never-land expected to deliver a keynote with a deck of slides in their hands prepared by a assistent somewhere. I hate CEO’s speaking of shit they don’t know shit about. What’s up with that?

7. Drop the corporate fonts

Every slide in your deck should be there for a reason!

There’s nothing as boring as a presentation with one headline font and then another one for the rest. You’re on stage to inspire people, teach them something and especially keep them awake. No two slides should be the same.

8. Tell stories from your own life.

Preparing a keynote and a story about how my snowboard career ended.

Nothing brings life to a presentation like your own life. True stories that are coming from your own life are the best. People have never heard them before, they’re authentic and people out of some reason always count them as real stories. Of course, if you end up telling stories about Marsians and shit like that people will probably not belive you.

9. You’ve also got ‘black’ slides in your deck!

This is your most valuable slide!

In the world of photoshop, keynote, powerpoint and prezis maybe the most valuable color of them all – black – is often forgotten. If you’ve got something to say that you really really really want people to listen to. Place a black slide in the middle of the deck and let those words out without distraction. If you’re doing it right you’ll have your audience spellbound.

10. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse some more.

This is one of the things I’m really bad at. But every time I’ve done a presentation that I’m really proud of I’ve almost rehearsed it. I even rehearse presentations that I know by heart already. You can never rehearse enough!

11. It’s your stage. Then make sure it fits your needs.

One of the key factors to delivering a great keynote is the actuall stage. Far to many times have I entered a stage that didn’t match the venue. Maybe the stage was to big compared to how many people visited the event or vice versa. Every now and then someone has placed a wide table between you and the audience – remove it. If people take their places far back in the room – leave the stage and get closer to them. The last thing you want is an audience that thinks your on stage acting superior and distant.

12. One minute before entering the stage

An audience in Zagreb minutes before I’m entering the stage.

Ok, so you’re all done and prepared to give the speech of your life. Remember those five bullet points I wrote about. Now it’s time to get into presentation mode. When I’m waiting to enter the stage I think about these five bullets. The most important one however is how did my contractor want people to feel once I’m done. If they wanted me to make people happy I’m smiling like a dumbass those last 60 seconds. I they wanted me to provoke the audience I’m getting myself psyched up and angry. If they wanted me to make people feel enlightened I’m getting ready to enlighten people. And then I do my best to keep that feeling alive all through the presentation.

13. If something goes wrong – restart yourselves.

Once you’re up there doing your best you will experience moments of dispair. You might see someone in the audience looking bored, someone looks tired or maybe you’ll get an angry comment. Now is the time to seek your inner strenght. Think back to that presentation mode you were supposed to deliver upon. Take a breath, pause, make people wait and then restart. You’ll notice that this will get you back on track!

14. Never lose track of time.

Make sure you prepare your presenter display right.

Rule number one of all presentations. If you’ve got 20 minutes it’s 20 minutes. Not less and definitely not more. If you’re using Apple Keynote you should make sure to set up your second screen with timer and a clock. Another good idea can be to download an app that Per Axbom told me about. It’s called Timer for iPhone and let’s you set up sections to keep track of time. It’s a great help!

15. Shine!

Now it’s up to you! Rock on!

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 models is entirely up to you. When I’m working with brands within this area I off course spend quite a lot of energy and time on getting it right. But hopefully it will be of value for you without my help. Here we go:

1. Get your strategy right with the Social Staircase

The Social Staircase consists out of 4 steps that guides your brand into the conversation landscape called Social Media

I have outlined 4 steps that make up the Social Staircase. These are the ones I’d suggest you’d use too when you wanna move into the social room.

• Step 1 -Strategy
  Establish a strategy that supports your business. Whatever you do in life you should have a strategy in place that supports your business. In other words this means you should strive to achieve your vision, your goals and making sure you don’t loose money while doing it. This should be your approach to social media initiatives too.You should of course be prepared to risk money since it’s still an early adoption initiative. But still you should strive to measure results and revenues. Sooner or later your boss will ask you what he’s paying for and then that answer should be well prepared.

• Step 2 – Presence
  The mother of all conversions is content. Think about it – when you’re at a party, how long do you think your conversation would last if you didn’t provide any true value. Bullshit or merely staying quiet wont earn you any new friends. Of course some people you’ve known since way back will stay put but sooner or later even them will stop inviting you to their party.

  I haven’t bothered to create any models for this step. It’s a simple rule. Think about you and your business. What value can you provide people with and in what format? Blogs, Video, Photos, Podcasts, Livestreams, Advisory, Games, Knowledge etc. Based on your strategy in step 1 – what kind of value can you provide your target group and potential fans with? Cause that should always be your goal – turning people into fans! If you’ve done your homework this should work like a charm.

  If you’re looking for inspirations. Head over to the Social Media Wiki.

• Step 3 – Tools
  Ok. So know you know that kind of presence you’re after. Then it’s time to gear up. Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare, WordPress, LinkedIn, Scribd, Google Buzz might be the obvious ones. But dig deeper – there’s something for everyone out there and you should consider where your content will do the boogaloo at it’s best!Tools defined? Then move on and figure out when to run with it and when to slow down. Move over to the conversation step, create a set of social viral spirals and get down to business.

• Step 4 – Conversation
  Listen. Talk back. Listen. Talk back. Listen. Talk…This is what a conversation is all about. We could actually call it interactivity. You create valuable content and then once you let it out in the open – listen and learn how to fine tune those spirals of yours.

  (I’ve posted stuff before on the listening part and so have others – that’s of course crucial in this phase. Since neither me or them have posted a tip on Silverbakk then here it is.)
  

  You should avoid creating to many spirals. They will only confuse you. But on the other hand if you got to few you might not hit the right spots. After all, segmentation has been around for ages and it’s not for the fun of it. Segmenting who and how to target your audience is essential.

Let’s move on and a have a look at the Social Tool Matrix.

2. What content goes where – Outline your tactical tools with a Social Tool Matrix

It’s all about structure, planning, organization and control (once you have something to say)

Don’t pick any tool out there for the fun of it and definitely don’t let one person in your organization handle them all. Every tool has it’s own advantages and should be treated that way.

Once you’ve passed the strategy and presence step in the Social Staircase it’s time to map which tools can do the work for you. It’s now time to create a Social Tool Matrix.

The Social Tool Matrix basically makes sure you and your organization analyze and choose a set of social tools that can deliver on strategy. While you’re entering stuff into the matrix you’ll be forced to answer the following questions:

• What tools shall we use to fulfill our strategy?
  Choose your tools carefully. Just because your competitor is riding the wave over at Facebook doesn’t mean you should. Look back at the social staircase. What strategy and what presence should you support?
• Why should we use this tool?
  Publish, interact, spread, buzz, images, video etc. Remember that sometimes you’ll be better off with more than one tool doing the same thing. Video for example. YouTube, Viddler and Vimeo are all about video but have different advantages.
• Who should be responsible for the updates?
  Don’t drop the entire load on top of a webmaster. Make sure your social marketing is spread out horizontally on your organization. The right person for the job huh?
• What’s the naming / domain conventions?
  I use ‘ronnestam’ everywhere I can. What’s your strategy? Think before you act and then keep track of it!
• When can we say we’re successful?
  This is a hard one. People that comment your blog posts. Diggs. Linkups. Facebook recommendations. Re-tweets. SEO effects. Actual sales. You pick your own index but make sure to pick a couple. Both qualitative and quantitative cause they’re both important.
• Can we measure the return of investment (ROI)
  If success was hard this is pretty darn impossible when it comes to social media. Some of you might say it’s not. But isolation of social media effects are hard. One of the few examples I know of is Dells Twitter outlet and that’s pretty unique.
• What social spiral shall we use (this will be defined in the next stage)
  You’re not here yet. But once you get to the next stage of this post. That’s when you decide on the social spirals. Every time you activate a tool. Remember what and what good it does. The Social Spirals will lead the way!
• And whatever more you think should go into the matrix.
  Last but not least. This post is inspirational – not an actual guide. You have to do your homework and your business might need a lot more inside the matrix than my actual example. Get it right and you shall succeed!

Once you got the social matrix mapped you and everyone in your organization is prepared to start the conversation it’s time for one last thing – the Social Viral Spirals.

3. Get viral with the Social Viral Spiral

Choose your tools wisely and start a conversation

Many of you have of course seen Brian Solis Social Conversation Prism.I love it too but it’s more of a wonderful image that maps all the possibilities with the social web than help for brands who are trying to figure out what to do and where to do it. Of course you can do everything and in some cases maybe you should. But what you really need once you’ve got an idea what you can do is a tactical tool.

I’ve created the The Social Viral Spiral for exactly that purpose. Use Brian Solis Prism and then translate the tools and services you need and create your own set of Social Flowers depending on what you are trying to achieve.

What the Social Spiral does is basically define where, what, how and when you should seed that content of yours into the social web. Triggering conversations online must start somewhere and then continue over a series of social networks and tools depending on what your purpose is. Marketing campaigns are in need of a lightning speed spread. Corporate information might not need that spread at all but still needs to go social due to SEO reasons for example.

A brand or company can have as many spirals as they want but I personally think you should aim for 3 or 4 depending on what kind of product and services your brand produce. The purpose of these spirals differ depending on a set of factors and you will probably have to adjust them over time.

Once you’ve got an idea on what kind of content and activities should be matched with a certain spiral you will surely have better chances in succeeding and most importantly you will have moved the knowledge about conversation from a specific employee to your organization!

Things that affect the intensity/speed of your spirals.

• Type of content
• Timezones
• Time of actual publishing
• Internet behavioral patterns
• Where did you act the last time
• Number of followers on Twitter
• Number of friends in social networks
• Amount of social networks where you intend to interact
• How unique is the content you intend to promote
• What brand do you represent?
• Purpose – marketing, operations, news, etc…

Got that wired? Good. Then it’s all about creating that content and spin the wheel.

Right now you might have tons of open questions about this post OR it seems perfectly clear. I really don’t care which since I’ve gotta get this thing published before it consumes me.

Best of luck!

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 i stort sett överallt. Det här beror helt klart på att man inte har tillräckligt stor förståelse hos partiledarna, övrig ledning och resten av partiet. Det är kanske inte så konstigt med tanke på hur fort det här går men det är då konsulter och rådgivare skall visa vägen och även här verkar kompetensen svikta. Helt säkert vänder man sig till traditionella reklam och PR byråer som i sin tur rekryterar in digitala byråer som inte lyckas få fram sitt budskap hela vägen upp till Mona, Fredrik, Maud, Maria och vad de nu heter.

Men, om ni lyssnar kära folkvalda representanter, då vill jag ge er några råd på den digitala och sociala vägen fram till makten över mitt kära fosterland. Nu kör vi:

1. Webbnärvaron måste vara på riktigt

Här i princip alla partierna börjat nosa på både Facebook, Twitter och YouTube. Socialdemokraternas huvudkanal på Facebook är väl inte så mycket att hänga i julgranen. Men däremot har man lyckats etablera lokala grupper som Socialdemokraterna i Haninge på ett bättre sätt. Valet av Grupp framför Fan Pages (vilken ska man välja) ställer möjligen till en del problem när det sen gäller att bygga specifika applikationer och implementera dessa. En annan fördel med Fan Pages hade varit specifika URL för varje kommun/förening eller vad det nu heter. Moderaterna har en bättre närvaro för hela partiet och har även de etablerat lokala initiativ.

Än så länge har ingen av partierna kommit upp i någon märkbar följarskara men någon stans måste man börja. En sak som jag saknar är möjligheten att via moderpartiernas Facebook sidor hitta fram till sin lokala organisation.

Både Centerpartiet, Socialdemokraterna och Moderaterna har etablerat sig på Flickr. Men hur man använder de här kanalerna och till vad skiftar. Märkligt är till exempel att majoriteten av Centerpartiets bilder på Flickr är stängda rättighetsmässigt, även pressbilderna. Konstigt egentligen eftersom just Centerpartiet gjort sak av att publicera sin webb under öppna Creative Commons rättigheter.

Den här bilden från Centerpartiets Flickr konto var ‘all rights reserved’. Så därför täckte jag över ögonen så att ingen ser var den kommer ifrån.

Uppdatering: Efter att Centerpartiet läst den här bloggposten är misstaget med stängda bilder på Flickr åtgärdat!

Socialdemokraterna kallar sig ‘flickr-s’ med title tag Socialdemokrater’s photostream vilket gör det svårt att söka sig fram till deras konto. Moderaterna väljer att kalla en bild på Fredrik Reinfeldt för ’11 (Foto Markus Nordström, Statsrådsberedningen)’ och har inte uppdaterat sitt konto sedan mitten av Juni 2009. Samtliga slarvar med taggning, namngivning av bilder, kategorisering, uppdelning på sets och galleries, geo location osv.

Wikipedia? Ja, där finns alla från Fredrik Reinfeldt till Mona Sahlin. Men gör en snabb jämförelse mellan Moderaterna och Barack Obamas administrations sida när det var dags för val i USA. Obamas sida var 25 meter hög!

Resten då? Webben är så mycket mer än dessa kanaler/verktyg. Utgå från vad ni faktiskt håller på med för tillfället och välj kanal/verktyg. Slideshare, Scribd, Gowalla, Bloggy, LinkedIn, WordPress.com, Bambuser, Qik, Livestream, YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, Disqus, Social Mention, Twingly, Postrank och mycket mer. Bäst kanske det här förklaras med hjälp av Brian Solis Conversion Prism 2.0:

Kärnan av Brian Solis Conversion Prism 2.0

Jag tog ett stickprov och tittade på vad partierna hade gjort på Slideshare – ett av världens främsta sociala nätverk för delning av presentationer och dokument.

Socialdemokraterna – 1 presentation och 20 dokument. Ett plus för närvaron.

Moderaterna – ingen närvaro…

Kristdemokraterna – ingen närvaro…

Miljöpartiet – ingen närvaro…

Vänsterpartiet – ingen närvaro…

Folkpartiet – ingen närvaro…

Centerpartiet – 5 presentationer och 140 dokument. Här har vi det partiet som har etablerat sig bäst på Slideshare. Det beror troligen på Ulrika Ingemarsdotter och Mattias Östmar som båda är passionerade medlemmar av den svenska ‘bubblan’. De gör ett strålande arbete men kämpar säkert i motvind mot förlegade åsikter och hierarkiska strukturer.

Nu hade jag tänkt gå vidare till LinkedIn, Bambuser osv men här någonstans tappade jag sugen. Det är tydligt att svenska politiska partier oavsett om de tillhör högern, vänstern eller mittemellan inte riktigt funderat över vad sociala media egentligen är. Istället har man valt att hoppa på Twitter, Facebook och YouTube – det vill säga några få kanaler/verktyg som fått mycket uppmärksamhet. Öppna API, multipla domännamsstrategier, fritt innehåll, kvalitativt innehåll, närvara överallt osv lyser med sin frånvaro.

2. Fokusera på politiken och ert budskap. Låt andra användare stå för underhållningen

Sitter och tittar på ‘En liten julhälsning’ på Socialdemokraternas YouTube kanal. Texter går något sånt här: “Nu är det kris, tom är vår gris, Reinfeldt är kommen hopp trallalala. Allt går i stå, många får gå, många får gå.”

Nej. Det här hör inte hemma på Socialdemokraternas officiella YouTube kanal enligt mig.

Jag förstår att det finns en vana hos politiska partier att skända motståndare och agera opinionsparti när det behövs. Det här hör dock INTE hemma i sociala media. Använd sociala media till att komma närmre era väljare och lyssna. Fokusera på att tydliggöra vad ni står för och skapa engagemang för detta.

Humor och satir ska inte underskattas. När man talar om Barack Obamas storhet i digitala media ska man inte glömma att humor, underhållning och satir stod för merparten av all trafik. Obama Girl och Ill Willy drog mer än 50 miljoner tittare på YouTube till förmån för Obamas budskap under valrörelsen. Men alla initiativ var tagna av människor som ville få Barack Obama vald. På så sätt kunde Obama fokusera på vad han ville åstadkomma som politiker istället för vad han tyckte om sina politiska motståndare.

Rätt använt så kommer era följeslagare skapa humor åt er. Låt det stanna där.

3. Kvalitet ÄR viktigt i sociala media också

Genomgående blir man chockerad över hur svenska partier verkar ha lämnat allt vad kvalitet och kommunikation bakom sig när man äntrat den sociala arenan. Bara för att något verkar gratis ska man inte försumma vikten av hur man framställer sig, sin åsikt och sitt parti. Sveriges politiska partier är otroligt rika och har avsevärda summor allokerade för kommunikation. Ni borde alla ha team som arbetar med att fotografera, filma och spela in ljud för att på så sätt få fram era åsikter och budskap på bästa sätt.

En skärmdump från YouTube på en skarp Obama och en trist Per Schlingmann

En vanlig invändning här är att det kostar mycket pengar att producera bra bild och ljud. Det stämmer inte. Däremot kan ni inte vända er till era ordinarie kommunikationskonsulter. Ni måste helt enkelt dammsuga frilansmarknaden och skriva långsiktiga avtal med fristående kreatörer som levererar till en lägre kostnad. 2 minuter högkvalitativ film ska kosta maximalt 20000 kronor. Mer än så, då pratar vi reklamfilm och det här handlar om redaktionellt innehåll – inte reklam!

Om jag eller någon annan pallrat oss hela vägen till er webbplats, YouTube kanal, Facebook Fan Page eller annat fritt valt forum kan man i alla fall förvänta sig att ni talar till oss genom kvalitativa filmer, välskrivna texter och bilder tagna av människor som vet hur man håller i en kamera.

Blanda inte ihop sociala media och öppenhet med brist på professionalitet och kommunikativ kompetens!

4. Förflytta media pengar till innehåll

En av de största investeringar en politisk organisation gör under en valrörelse är medierelaterade investeringar. Det vill säga ni köper fyrverkerier som får folk att titta upp en stund och sen när spektaklet är över är det dags och köpa mer. Om det nu ger någon avsedd effekt är chansen stor att er potentiella väljare ger sig iväg på nätet och då är det andra krafter som styr.

Motorn i all verksamhet på nätet idag och än mer i framtiden är innehåll. Ska man vara ännu mer drastisk kan man säga att motorn i all kommunikation idag är eller kommer bli innehåll. För även om ett parti basunerar ut sina budskap på affischer, i tidningsannonser eller på TV så hamnar människor förr eller senare framför Google och söker på saker. Vad som träffar högst har helt med partiernas samlade innehållsmässiga närvaro på egna och andra webbplatser. Kort och gott. Ju fler som länkar till innehåll hos exempelvis socialdemokraterna – ju fler hittar er i Google.

Flytta budget från betald reklam till socialt och digitalt innehåll. Ur en av mina presentationer på Slideshare.

Vi befinner oss i ett paradigmskifte ur ett kommunikationsperspektiv. Det här innebär att vi måste fortsätta precis som vanligt med traditionell kommunikation, det är ju ändå det som ger bäst effekt. Samtidigt måste vi föda nya initiativ. Vi måste innovera. Utan innovation står vi maktlösa när omvärlden förändrar sig. Och ja. Innovation kostar pengar och ger inte alltid tillbaka pengarna på en gång.

Jag har för avsikt inom kort att skriva en längre bloggpost specifikt om hur reklam som vi känner den håller på och tar sina sista andetag samtidigt som den fortfarande ger fantastisk effekt. I den kommer jag göra en jämförelse mellan reklamen och den klassiska produktlivscykel modellen. Tills dess får ni hålla till godo med bilden ovan som visar var vi befinner oss idag.

Se modellen i sin helhet på mitt Slideshare konto

Traditionell reklam har nått den sista mognadsfasen innan det är dags att ersätta den med ny typ av kommunikation. På samma sätt som när ett företags produkter når den här nivån måste vi se över vårt sätt att kommunicera. Vi måste experimentera med nya format, nya lösningar och nya innovationer. Det kommer innebära höga kostnader, ingen effekt, många felsatsningar men också förhoppningsvis framgångar som såsmåningom ersätter vårt gamla sätt att kommunicera helt och hållet.

5. Samling framför folksamling

I artikeln gör man stor sak av hur många followers en politiker har jämfört med en annan. Det handlar inte om det. Sociala media handlar inte om folkmassor och tävling i mest antal followers och vänner. Det handlar främst om mindre nätverk av människor som delar någon form av uppfattning. Det här tycker jag Socialdemokraterna har lyckats med bäst av alla partierna. Samtidigt saknar jag helt politikernas närvaro i mindre forum och communitys. Visa er också där vi vanliga medborgare rör oss. Blocket, Bilddagboken, Lunarstorm, Grannar.se, Odla.nu, Compricer, Knuff och såklart mycket mycket mer.

Satsa som sagt ovan inte bara på Facebook, Twitter och YouTube. Visa er på de digitala småstadstorgen!

6. Hur differentierat är ert budskap egentligen?

Vad händer när alla partier använder samma argument? Vad skiljer dem åt?

I takt med att de politiska partiernas åsikter verkar flyta samman vänder vi oss tillbaka till våra fördomar. Moderaterna och det borgerliga blocket lyckades uppenbarligen väl med att förflytta sin åsiktsgrund och få människor med sig på tåget under förra valet. Men vad händer nu 2010 när alla partier mer eller mindre finns på nätet.

De digitala medierna kommer spela en stor roll när väljarna söker svar på sina frågor. Då är det viktigt att budskapen är enkla, tydliga och samtidigt förmedlar det som gör partierna unika. I takt med att valrörelsen rullar på måste partierna fundera på vad de fyller sin sociala närvaro med – inte bara kopiera varandra och fylla ut tomrum med icke unikt material.

Jag vill förstå vad som är skillnaden på de olika regeringsalternativen. Det vill jag göra genom att komma er nära. Inte genom att läsa slagord, se filmer där ni framhåller er egen kompetens och titta på generiska bilder. Vilka är ni, vad tycker ni och vad står ni för – på riktigt?

7. Slutligen – Hur är det med språken?

En svensk-finsk klassiker från min barndom

Slutligen förundras jag över hur få utav de svenska partierna som faktiskt väljer att erbjuda sina egna webbplatser på mer än ett språk. Visst, Socialdemokraterna, Moderaterna, Vänsterpartiet och de andra partierna översätter några dokument men ingen erbjuder hela sin webbplats på alternativa språk. Med tanke på att mer än 10% av vår befolkning talar ett annat modersmål och att vi har fem nationella minoritetsspråk borde man kunde förvänta sig nytänkande på det här området.

Det här är inte svårt. Det kostar en slant, men absolut inte mycket i relation till vilken effekt det skulle ge. Jag själv har exempelvis arbetat med globala kampanjer som översatts till mer än 20 språk. Tillsammans med byråer som Translations.com går det att upprätta processer som enkelt systematiserar översättning av webbnärvaron. Självklart måste man tänka på det här redan när man designar och bygger webbplatsen och det är tydligt att ingen av partierna gjort. Men å andra sidan kanske man inte kan förvänta sig mer när inte ens vår Riksdag går i bräschen på det här området.

Jag är dock övertygad om att det partiet som åtgärdar det här omgående (det är gjort på någon månad) tjänar ett antal viktiga procent i årets valdebatt.

Sammanfattning

Det är tydligt att alla svenska partier sakta men säkert känner sig fram i den digitala djungeln. Den sansade och eftertänksamme tycker säkert att man inte ska experimentera för mycket och att det här är en bra strategi. Personligen ser jag ingen som helst anledning till det här beteendet.

För att lyckas i sociala media och på internet i stort måste man springa, falla, resa sig igen, springa mer och falla igen. Mark Zuckerberg sade i en intervju förra året – “You have to break it to make it” och det är väldigt talande.

Nu är det valår. Det parti, eller vi kanske ska säga block, som vill gå vinnande ur den här valstriden måste höja tempot. Ni måste släppa allt var internpolitik heter och istället sätta fart. Dela med er av era åsikter precis överallt. Ta diskussionen överallt. Producera bilder, filmer och dokument med hög kommunikativ kvalité.

May the best man or woman win!

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.

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?

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!

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

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:

The flash intro
Get rid of it. It takes time to load. We’ve seen it before and it doesn’t ad anything. There must be something different you could do with it?

Products
Why do you still separate the product experience from the brand campaigns. Integrate this better. The shouldn’t be any need for me to visit both products and a campaign site anymore. Mash it up! Also, why can’t you let people rate, comment, trackback, tag etc. Afraid of getting bad publicity?

YouTube integration?
The site has taken a step from interactivity to passivity. Why aren’t there any videos? Absolut could easily create the worlds most visited YouTube channel that could be reflected on Absolut.com. I think the time is over for sites that look to draw all traffic to their own site. You’ve gotta distribute your content in all different channels in different ways. And Absolute should be ahead of their game here.

Where’s the conversation?
Ok, we’re aloud to comment on blog posts etc. But where’s the stuff that generate conversation. Google Friend Connect, Facebook Connect, social sharing, commenting, reviews, ratings, user generated drink recipes, ideas etc. 

The blog?
Jacob Nielsen once said “People spend most time on other sites”.

Why is the new blog some sort of innovated blog that actually works bad compared to established blog standards. I think we could have expected more from Absolut. And why not base it on WordPress? This way it would load faster, it would give you access to hundreds of thousands features created by the open source community. It would give you credibility too.

Innovation?
Last but not least. I definitely think that this new site is nice. But it doesn’t ad anything in my book. Absolute has taken a step 5 years back from an innovation stand point of view. This is an ordinary site with some flash content and beautifully designed pages. I sure hope we don’t end up seeing this site staying on as a launch platform for new flash based campaigns but instead see more true but user friendly innovations that reach the broader audience with the Absolute brand message still intact.

So, conclusion

Original conclusion
This new site cannot be a strategy coming from online savvy people cause the tactical execution is great. Someone has identified that Absolut.com as it worked before didn’t deliver on usability and SEO and therefor needed to be changed. The project must then have been controlled by people within Absolut’s organisation who doesn’t understand how to create the next generation web presence.

Alternative conclusion
I’m totally wrong and this is the first to come of many releases that will put Absolut.com on the map again. But then I also expect a switch to open source, mash ups, conversation, openness etc.

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.