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Back in 1980, Michael Porter (most famous of creating Porter’s Five Forces) published the study Competitive-Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. It was more or less the beginning of what you today would call Competitive Intelligence - the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.

Be Curious. Wonderfully photographed by Patricia Glogowski.

Personally I think that time has come for change. Organisation and brands today tend to believe managers are supposed to create business development departments that make sure the company stays ahead of competition. I don’t agree. In the complex world we live in it’s time to make each and every employee a part of that competitive intelligence process. In other words it’s up to you. You are the ones that can make it happen.

A constant flow of information.

The world is becoming smaller and smaller. The Internet has erased borders and will sooner or later erase even language barriers. As a result your company isn’t fighting the local competitor around the corner [click to continue…]

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Yesterday Facebook mail was launched here in Sweden and it’s been said it’ll be a game changer. This morning I had to give it a go. After all, if I’m supposed to use it in one way or another it’s good to know how it works…or not works. After a quick analysis I’d say [click to continue…]

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A common question I get from companies is “How do we get people inside our company to spend time on our intranet”. My answer is always – “make sure you tie your intranet closely to your daily operations”.

Make people feel visiting the intranet has something to do with their work and not only for the fun of it. Only this way will you create the need for the collaboration, socialization and engagement that an active intranet (and your company) needs. This however turns out to be a major problem for most [click to continue…]

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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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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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Last week I was contacted by Superbrands. The company that releases a book with the same name. I was asked to write a post on their blog about Branding. I know I’ve got some followers interested in that subject so I’ve decided to post the same article here too.

Back in 2000 a flash based message containing the phrase ‘All your base are belong to us’ spread like wildfire through emails and internet forums. Back then most of you had probably not heard about viral marketing, web 2.0 and social networks. Facebook and Twitter were still 6 years away from being established and most brands didn’t bother to much about digital marketing.

All-your-base-are-belong-to-us

About the same time Nike took their first stumbling steps towards a digital brand strategy. Back then Nike would probably not know that their global strategy would be [click to continue…]

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Today Google launched their latest resource called the Google Internet Stats. It contains industry facts and insights from across five different areas – Macro Economic Trends, Technology, Consumer Trends, Media Consumption and Media Landscape. This is a great resource for us who are trying to make people understand what the future is all about.

google_internet_statistics_resource

I bet that we can expect more in the near future. Anyway it’s a great little tool for people like me who want more ammo in the fight for change. Here’s a little something that gives you an idea about what to expect:

  • 5% of all time online is spent on Facebook.
  • By election day, fully 25% of people who pulled the lever for Obama were already connected to his campaign electronically
  • early three in five (57%) of youth consumers logged on to YouTube to watch a music video in the last 12 months, compared to 56% who watched a music TV channel
  • Social networks have a penetration of nearly 75% among European Internet users
  • According to Nielsen, 67% of the global online population visited a “member community” site in Dec 2008.
  • 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

Now go dig on your own.

Ah, by the way. Thanks @stefanronge for waving your flag about this!

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facebook_vs_branding

Found that great qoute by Mike Arauz on Advertising Lab

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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

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 [...]

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After all, were only humans

January 15, 2009

Following my new years prediction it’s easy to suddenly find oneself trying to write smart posts. But there’s one thing we must never forget – communication and especially advertising is relying on loaned time. Once our target group think we become boring we loose them! Whatever you do and whatever the purpose never forget to put [...]

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Facebook deliver the crowds – CNN deliver the Barack Obama Inauguration

January 14, 2009

So you think Superbowl is the event of the year. Well, think again. 427,563 confirmed guests and rising has signed on Facebook to be part of the Barack Obama Inauguration on January the 20th. It’s a brilliant move by CNN to create this hype around their live web casting of the event. It’s also interesting [...]

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Get your clown suit ready if you wanna reach out to consumers in 2009

January 2, 2009

A couple of days ago ComScore published a Top Social Media Sites 2008 list. The list that I found on Techcrunch is an interesting read since I for one thought that Facebook and MySpace would be on top. But instead we find Blogger as the largest social media site in the world. Blogger and WordPress [...]

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