Blog of Ronnestam » marketing

If you wanna be my brand!

ronnestam — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:11:20 +0000

If you’re my brand: Never let me down. Keep on making me smile. Stay cool. Always surprise me. Change when you need to, but stay true to your heritage. Dress nice. Make sure I don’t have to hide our love. If you do something bad – stay honest and tell the truth cause I will forgive you. And finally! Never ever take me for granted.

Tokyo in sunrise – A Brand that didn’t let me down. Taken from my Instagram feed.

If you’ll stick to these simple guidelines – I’m prepared to spend the rest of my life with you and give you my all my love. If not – get lost!

AIDA Transformed By Digital Media. What Does It Mean To Your Brand Communication?

ronnestam — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 23:03:11 +0000

The other day I wrote quite a long post on the future of integrated communication from a digital perspective. I stressed the fact that in order for your brand to create and maintain strongs brand in the future you’ve gotta provide people with true values not just fun stuff that entertains. On top of that I’ve also written a quite extensive post on how all your brands belong not to you, but to the consumer. You might wanna tap into that one too before reading this post. Here we go:

You’ve lost control of almost all of your sales process. Accept it and change or die. (Had to go punk style)

That actually happens to tactical communication as we know it when all rules are changed? What happens to ads, prints, point of sale, direct marketing etc?

Let’s me elaborate on that based on an old communication model called AIDA, Attention, Information, Desire and Acquire, first described in 1898 by E. St. Elmo Lewis. Some people say it’s dead since way back. I say it’s more alive than ever but it’s transformed.It serves a great purpose when explaining to you guys and girls heading brands and companies out there how you’re supposed to rock your brands in the future.

Information, desire and acquire in the hands of the consumers

How your brand communication is changed on every level as we move into the future of communication.

A- Attention (Awareness): attract the attention of the customer

Yesterday: Use creative advertising that intercept whatever the consumer is doing and make him/her crave your brand

Tomorrow: Here’s the good news. If you know branding, advertising and all that good stuff we’ve been doing for years. You’re in for a ride. Brands will realise that TV, Print, Outdoor, Banners – all those yummy above the line things – will rule the next 10 years. There’s simply now way to grab peoples attention but to shake them around in a medium where you cannot miss them. Of course, people say young kids does not watch TV, but they still do if it’s relevant. On top of all those old things you of course gotta get your shit together when it comes to the product. In transparent times – failure is not an option!

I – Interest: raise customer interest by focusing on and demonstrating advantages and benefits.

Yesterday: When we tried to get hold of more information about products our resources were limited. Of course we could ask friends. But what were the chances of us having the exact same crave for a product. We then relied on newspapers, magazines and TV channels. Honestly. Who believes the reporter for a car magazine wasn’t bribed in one way or another when writing that excellent article about the new BMW 3 series you’re looking for. On top of that you can be sure the PR people did their best to make sure he was positive anyway unless he didn’t fall for fancy dinners and test drives accompanied with wonderful wines and spicy women in the south of spain. We even had use for the phone catalogue. That pile of paper served its purpose.

Tomorrow All changed. Let’s say the advertising agency has gotten your blood running in your veines. What’s next? Easy. Google or a status update in Facebook. And BAM – you’ve lost control. That Google search will turn up, not that brand that he or she is looking for. Instead we’ll land on review sites, price comparison sites, blogs, forums, social networks and more. The results in Google will all be based on the intelligence of the people, or at least the people that knows how to build brands for the future.

What to do: Start changing your mix. Head over to that post of mine that I mentioned above and study how to change your media mix. Build value. Make sure people benefit from linking to you. Set your prices so that Pricerunner and other comparison sites list your shop first. Spread content everywhere.

D – Desire: convince customers that they want and desire the product or service and that it will satisfy their needs.

Yesterday: You OWNED this one. Clever managers educated clever sales people. The consumer, stuck inside your defined space where you built up a POS (point of sale) presence that made him/her crave your products. Of course you spent money on industrial design and shit. But compared to today you relied on the retail channel to do their work.

Tomorrow I OWN this one. Me and my friends. As I’m getting closer and closer to deciding upon which product I’m gonna get I ask around. What does people think, what do my friends say, comparisson sites etc.

What to do: Make sure you focus ten times more on your product development, turn your industrial design department into GOD. They should steer the entire company forward. If you’re lucky we’re coming to visit you. But like a kid, armed with her/his wishlist for Santa Claus, the consumer of tomorrow knows exactly what she/he wants and what the right price is.

A – Action: lead customers towards taking action and/or purchasing.

Yesterday: Let me follow you to the cashier” – Remeber this one? To break free and decide not to buy your product when been given a 30 minute sales pitch is prettyd darn hard.

Tomorrow If you’re unlucky (or lucky depending on your digital competence) you’re looking at closing the deal online. Usability, language, design, visualisation, payment processes etc etc etc. Alone behind my computer or mobile device, that’s where I’ll be. And the second I feel insecure, doesn’t find where to go next and so on, that’s the second I leave without buying anything.

What to do: Get wired. Never again hire marketing people that doesn’t know how to convert people. Change Microsoft Office into A/B testing in your hiring profile. Send your troopers back to the school. Have them learn everything there is to know about online commerce – cause you’ll need it.

Last but not least. Of course there are brands out there that doesn’t have to give a shit about this. After all, we will not buy nuclear plants for some time still over the Internet. The rest of you – get going!

Social Media. It’s There To Give Your Brand A Body

ronnestam — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:05:53 +0000

We’ve all heard it before. A brand is not a logo, nor is it your products or services. Your brand is the sum of peoples feelings when they think about your brand. Or said in a more ‘techy’ way – An emotional translation of what first comes to mind when neurons fire in the brains around the world when your brand, products or services is mentioned.

As people spend more and more of their life socializing online and searching for products and services your brand is naked, exposed and on it’s own. There are no sales people telling people about your product anymore, you’re left with seconds to raise interest before people leave you and most important – your brand no longer belongs to you, it belongs to all those people online who either say good things about you or worse, tell people that your brand suck!

Here are 5 things to think about when keeping your brand together in the future social world.

1. Brand presence not brand site

I’ve written about this and that before. But it’s something worth repeating. You should not – I repeat – you should not focus on driving traffic to your website. Instead, focus on spreading your brand over as many social networks and websites as possible. If you do and do it good, people will end up finding you anyway. Funny, by not focusing on driving traffic you’ll end up driving traffic

2. Paint it all in green (or whatever you need to paint it in in order to create brand recognition)

Cover the social web as best described by Brian Solis and Jess3 with your brand colors

Socially spread content must always do good. This means you should create 2 second intros for all your videos, take the time to ad the right metadata to social sites like YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare, Vimeo, Viddler and more. If we like what we see, read, listen to and experience your content will enforce your brand in a positive way. Don’t overestimate that people will search for your brand. The attention span today is more or less null. So brand recognition is a must.

3. Share value not tag lines

Don’t think social communication is about advertising inside social networks. Focus on value creation. Once you start focusing on value your getting back into the digital value chain that now is being hijacked by your customers and other people.

For example, If your into consulting your best chance of getting new customers is actually to blog and share content on how people could do without you. That’s content the people will link to, share and promote. That way you’ll end up in top positions in Google, you’ll be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other networks. In the end you’ll earn new customer who does not want to do it themselves but intead hire a consultant that obviously knows what they’re doing – that will be you.

So, do what Gary Vaynerchuck is doing to promote his online Wine shop on YouTube, Viddler, Twitter and Winelibrary TV or American Express does with Open Forum – share value. Sooner than later customers that does not wanna do it themselves will find you – and they’ll of course choose a provider that knows what they are doing, something you’ve already proven.

Gary uses Viddler to create chapter value while YouTube serves traffic purposes

4. Know Your fans

Spend time tapping in to the constant flow of social interactivity. Head over to Socialmention and search your brand. In seconds you’ll enter a universe of conversations that revolves around you and your brand. Or better yet, set up a dashboard and automatize your brand monitoring like the big brands do.

Once you’ve cleared that step, start Googling keyword and phrases connected to your product and services. Aim? Find those closed forum and communities that Socialmention and other tools cannot find. This is probably where your true fans spend their time online. Now enter and listen – DON’T interact. It’s their arena not yours!

5. Make sure your organization truly lives and breathes digital communication

Education of course. But first and foremost – have your organization live and breath digital communication. No modern brand should have marketing people on board who doesn’t understand the Internet.

Why not implement things like Yammer internally to ensure that each and every employee truly understands how to interact socially. Even better – have employees start Blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts and then help them/teach them to track the conversation. In the end, the only way to fully go social is to upgrade peoples knowledge about future communication.

That’s all for today. Gotta board a flight!

Common Sense Communication

ronnestam — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:46:35 +0000

In the offline world, if your customers didn’t find what they were looking for inside your store and left without shopping.

Would you:

a) Rethink the layout of your store today
b) Rethink the layout of your store next year
c) Rethink the layout of your store within the next three years

I think the answer is quite obvious. Then why the hell doesn’t more brands and companies care more about how people being converted through their online presence today, this hour and this minute.

Whenever you have questions about your online marketing and communication activities simply ask yourselves – What would I do in the offline world. The answer to that question can always be translated into a digital solution. It goes for marketing, design, online events, social communication, choice of technology and more. I call this Commons Sense Communication.

Common sense really!

I’m On The Jury ›› The First International Social Media Award Show. The Bees Award

ronnestam — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:06:15 +0000

I am pretty darn proud to announce that I’ve been picked as a member on the jury of the first international social media award show for communication and marketing professionals. The award show called The Bees Award will be held in San Francisco on November 9 later this year and it’s open for submissions as of today.

The Bees Award have gathered some of the leading social media experts from around the world to judge this award and I’m honored to be included in that list. Apart from the honor it’s also a great opportunity for me to scan some of the best case studies in the world when it comes to social media. I’m sure once the 9th of november has passed I’ll be packed with inspiration to share with you guys.

This new buzzing contest will award winners in the following categories:

Best 140 Characters (SMS, Tweet)
Best Use of a Micro-Blogging Platform
Best Use of a Social Media Platform
Best Use of mobile
Best Relationship With Bloggers
Best Conversation with Customers
Best Use of Alternative Tool(s)
Best Use of Media Press Room
Best Writing
Best Art Direction
Best Social CRM
Best Student Work
Best Innovation
Best Campaign
Agency of the Year
Client of the Year

And besides me, here’s the jury and their twitter accounts and blogs:

Liz Strauss – Chicago, USA (@lizstrauss)(Liz’s Blog)
Gary Goldhammer – Los Angeles, USA (@g24khamr) (Gary’s Blog)
Paul Hoffman – Woodstock NY, USA (@hoffmanpaul) (Paul’s Blog)
Mitch Joel – Montreal, Canada (@mitchjoel)(Mitch’s Blog)
Helder Araujo – Sao Paolo, Brazil (@haraujo)
Jesus Hoyos – Mexico City, Mexico (@Jesus_Hoyos)(Jesus’ Blog)
Ralf Rottmann – Dortmund, Germany (@24z)(Ralf’s Blog)
Matt Rhodes – London, UK (@mattrhodes)(Matt’s Blog)
Eric Maillard – Paris, France (@PRland)(Eric’s Blog)
Gaurav Mishra – New Delhi, India (@Gauravonomics)(Gaurav’s Blog)
Rajiv Dingra – Mumbai, India (@rajivdingra)(Rajiv’s Blog)
Andre L. Pan – Shanghai, China (@popoever)(Andre’s Blog)
Isaac Mao – Boston, USA/Shanghai, China (@isaac)(Issac’s Blog)
Li Ang Wang – Shanghai, China (@WebLeOn)(Li Ang’s Blog)
Gao Ming – Shanghai, China (@gaoming)(Gao’s Blog)
Toru Saito – Tokyo, Japan (@toru_saito)(Toru’s Blog)
Alister Cameron – Melbourne, Australia (@alicam)(Alister’s Blog)
Dave Duarte – Cape Town, South Africa (@DaveDuarte)(Dave’s Blog)

So, what the heck are you waiting for. Make sure me and the other jury members eyeball your social ideas!

Social Marketing Simplified

ronnestam — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:52:43 +0000

There are no secret formulas, no secret recipes or magic potions when it comes to social media marketing. All you’ve gotta do is take in one single fact: People have moved lots of their behaviors online and you’ve gotta follow.

To succeed in moving your business, communication and advertising into the digital world, ask yourselves the following questions:

If people search for things related to my business via Google - how can I make sure they find me?
We’ve used to organize events in the real world - where can we organize events in the digital world?
When people started to use phones you gave your sales people phones - why are you not giving them Skype, MSN, Twitter, Facebook and live streaming accounts?
You would never automate a personal relation that could lead to sales - why are you automatic every single sales process online?
People don’t listen to brands, they listen to other people - how can we make sure other people say good things about us?
Since people tend to spend their time alone behind the screen - how can we continue to build human digital relations using video, photos and copy?
In the real world you do PR towards paid media – how can you shift your PR activities to be picked up by earned media online?
Traditionally you’ve spent lots of money on media - how can you shift focus to spending lots of money on value that leads to eyeballs online?
In the offline world you would value how people navigate in your store - how much do you value how people navigate in your online world?
Building a great house requires an well paid architect – why then are you hiring the cheapest architect when building a great online presence?
In the old world comparing products was hard - does your products stand the future transparency were everything can be compared?
Back then you could create a 3 year marketing plan – what can you do to turn it into a 3 month marketing plan?
Focus groups used to lead you right - is your organization prepared to listen to real time data instead?
Building brands took years and years - how can you build your brand in months?
Competitors introduced themselves at the next fair - are you prepared for the ones who wont introduce themselves at all and don’t care about the old way of doing business, only your old customers?
You used to write business plans - how can you get moving and learn on the way.

If you’ve got 15 right answers then you’re fine. If not – start running!

Simon Pestridge From Nike Make Future Advertising Sound Simple

ronnestam — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:18:29 +0000

Apple, Nike, adidas, Google and so on. It’s always easy to point the wow pointer to these huge brands that have massive amounts of brand fans world wide. But sometimes you’ve just gotta remind people about why these brands often are leading the pack.

I have just gotten of stage in Tallin, Estonia after speaking on the future communication landscape. Right now I’m in a sofa listening to James Matthewson who seconds ago quoted Simon Pestridge from Nike and I just have to share that quote cause it’s what it’s all about:

Nike’s point of view on advertising: “We don’t do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff…It sounds a bit wanky, but that’s just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that”

Simon Pestridge – Nike UK

And boy do they deliver on that promise. Here’s just one of thousands of projects they do every year to make people join their brand.

Do great stuff and people will follow you. That goes for products, services, support, communication and advertising. It’s a simple as that!

Case ›› Re-branding: Turning A Diving Brand With A Heritage Into A Brand With A Future

ronnestam — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:04:20 +0000

Last summer I got on a train leaving Stockholm for Gothenburg. Together with freelancing project manager, planner and colleague Caroline Karlström I had a meeting set up with diving brand Poseidon. This was the start of a project where I truly had the opportunity to work with all aspects of branding and creative communication.

A dream project.

Ingvar Elfström, the founder of Poseidon back in 1958.

The Background

Back in 1958 this brand was founded by a young Swedish diver, Ingvar Elfström. Since then the brand has become famous for unique, different and great products. However over the last couple of years they’ve lost speed when it comes to innovation and marketing initiatives.

But then something happened. The company was bought by a small group of investors three years back. Headed by visionaire Kurt Sjöblom they set out on a journey – to develop the first ever automated rebreather for recreational divers.

This was why we were there. About a year from launch Kurt and his team felt they needed to do something about the brand. And after a successful meeting that actually started with me diving with this new product we had ourselves a new client. The mission. To re-brand Poseidon and bring their marketing strategies into the 22 century. The full guacamole!

The Problem:
Poseidon has since long been loved by advanced divers. People who know how to dive love Poseidon. As a result of this the brand has slowly been turned into a brand by extreme divers for extreme divers. How copy was written, photos were styled and packaging looked was all steered towards a small part of the diving world that in the long run wouldn’t build a broad user base for Poseidon.

A typical photo before we started evaluating how Poseidon should be communicated

As Poseidon now develop new and groundbreaking products and target the recreational divers, the tourist that may bring his own gear on his vacation but might just as well rent the stuff, a new position is essential.

The old start page of Poseidon.com before we started the re-branding journey

Finally Poseidon is a global brand. With a presence on 28 different markets we also, from a visual and tone of voice point of view had to turn the brand into a global one that not only matched it’s competitors but beat the hell out of them.

So there we were. Now it was time to rebuild this brand.

The Solution – What was our mission and what was the result?

Our task was to create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the Poseidon brand. Once that was done we set out to design and dramatize a differentiated brand experiences across the entire value chain and customer journey.

My parts in the project included working with the overall strategy together with Caroline and then develop a fully integrated creative direction that I later art directed. Once I had designed most parts of the project we brought in designers Kristian Packalen and Esa Tanttu whom I had been working with before to finalize my visions. Early in the process we also brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean parts of my conceptual copy but above all write all the copy for the new Poseidon website.

The re-branding of Poseidon Diving has included:

Create an over all brand strategy that would steer all communication initiatives.
Develop an integrated visual platform for a marketing components
Typography
Point of sale
Packaging concepts
Photography
Website design and strategy
Offline advertising
Online advertising
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Event concepts
Copy platform

After about 6 month of strategy, creative and art direction, design, photography, copy writing, 3D modeling, website design and production we’re now closer than ever to accomplish our mission - ‘create a cross-functional and multi-dimensional definition of the brand’. This is parts of the visual result:

A selection of the units I’ve created for Poseidon, The visual system is clearly visible.

The Poseidon Brand Manifesto

Once we settled on a strategy (not to be communicated here) one of the first thing I did was writing the Poseidon manifesto. When I’m hired to create a new positioning for a brand I think it’s essential to put words to my thinking. This way both me and everyone else involved, both on the consulting side as well as the client side, will stand on a common ground. Once this manifesto was approved we brought in copywriter Judy Olsen to clean it up. This resulted in the following:

The Perfect Photographer For The Poseidon Brand Campaign – Wayne Levin

What we needed from day one was something that made people understand Poseidon is a new brand. Traditionally Poseidon has been all about hard core diving. Basically the military look above has been spot on. But now Poseidon is to be positioned towards a broader audience. We needed photography that clearly communicates the Poseidon brand.

We searched all over for something that could differentiate Poseidon from it’s competitors. Something that inspired people and engaged them emotionally. Something that made people dream about diving. On top of that I also thought it was of great importance to find a photographer who also cared for the ocean and represented sustainability. Basically something that expressed the heart of Poseidon’s philosophy.

I found Wayne Levin. Some of you might recognize the black and white style from the photos I took myself last year on Hawaii. Now you understand that those were of course inspired from the master himself. Wayne Levin is interested not only in seascapes and animals, but in the ocean itself: the texture, movement and volume of the water. It is this visceral sense of power– of how it feels to be right there within the vastness of the ocean – that accords perfectly with Poseidon’s dedication to a pure, unrestricted diving experience.

So far Wayne has shot a limited series of photos for Poseidon. The purpose is to continue the collaboration with Wayne and shoot a series of videos too. Nothing can be more inspiring than to follow Wayne diving with the Poseidon Discovery taking pictures of some of the most inspiring animals on earth.

This photograph was taken at Ho’okena Beach in South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. The Spinner Dolphins often come into Ho’okena, and many other Kona Beaches and Bays in order to rest in shallow waters during the day after a night of hunting in the deep waters several miles off the coast. Ho’okena is a beautiful bay with very interesting sand formations caused by the waves and currents in the bay.

This photograph was taken off Mahukona in North Kohala on the Island of Hawaii. Wayne scuba dove at this location with a friend, and was very surprised to find this young female Monk Seal. The Hawaiian Monk Seal is extremely endangered so he felt very fortunate to have this encounter. Actually she was anything but shy constantly approaching Wayne very close.

The photo of the Spinner Dolphins used in a full spread print ad.

Creating posters from a photo taken about three miles off the Kohala Coast near the North tip of the Island of Hawaii. The Mellon Head Whales are quite rare to find in Hawaii, and this was Waynes only encounter with them. He was on a boat, looking to photograph Humpback Whales when he spotted what he thought were dolphins near the Humpbacks. When Wayne approached them he realized that these were either Melon Heads or False Killer Whales. There were at least 200 individuals but when he entered the water he could see that the large pod was broken up into groups of about 20 individuals.

Turning packaging into something emotionally engaging

Already from the start my point of view was to develop a visual system that engaged people in every part of the customer journey. The of course included the packaging of the products. As a result of this we planned to use Wayne Levin’s wonderful photography on the packaging too. Along with the Brand Manifesto and the new product photography we’ve created a strong link from the advertising, the website, the point of sale material all the way to the actual product that you bring home.

On top of serving as packaging this concept also works as point of sale displays when used empty.

Wayne Levin’s photos along with the Poseidon brand manifesto creates a great platform for the packaging too.

Making sure the Poseidon brand stays strong in point of sale environments.

Having worked with advertising for quite many years now my belief is that no matter how strong your advertising is, how smart your website communicates your brand and how great your products are it’s all about the physical environments. Once you enter the store actual sale is about in-store presence. Even though Poseidon is a small brand compared to some of it’s competitors we’ve strived to dress it up like a market leader. Strong visual appearance. On brand. Emotionally engaging. This is what shop owners want from a brand and we’ve tried to deliver just that.

Making good use of Wayne Levin’s underwater photography

Product display concepts that builds the Poseidon brand story while serving as a demo platform for the new Poseidon discovery.

The New Poseidon Website Design

One of the core components in the new brand platform is of course the digital presence. As we set out to revamp the brand online we first developed a series of different designs. All in all we designed twelve different layouts before deciding on the final design. It was key for us to find a designed that appealed both to the client as well as the target group. Once the site designs was approved and copywriter Judy was well on her way to revamp the tone of voice we brought in open source developers Devcore to help Poseidon bring the site to life.

Designing our way to a ‘on brand’ website

The finalized start page

Explore diving is a content driven section that will be filled with relevant brand content over time.

It was important for us to develop a design that felt dynamic.

Increase the overall look and feel

Overall one of our objectives was to increase the level of quality on all kinds of communication material. Among other things I developed photo briefs for both products as well as corporate information such as press photography and portraits. Once we’ve shot the photos together with Poseidons ‘house photographer’ Anders Kämpe I worked together with my homie retoucher and photographer Andreas Lübeck to bring out the best in the photos.

Making the product photography more engaging

An extremely short depth of field to ad a more personal look and feel to portrait shots.

Making product catalogs more engaging.

Finally I think this 4 page product catalog serve as a good example what happens when all this great brand material comes together into one simple yet important point of sale piece.

Poseidon Diving -A dream assignment

To work with Poseidon has been fantastic. To be part of a journey like this is great. To be able to control every component from strategy to tactical execution is even greater. The result is there to see but it’s just the beginning. As we speak we’re getting ready to initiate social media strategies including presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr and much more. We’re only just starting.

4 Exiting Speaking Appearances On Marketing, Social Media And Future Communication

ronnestam — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:19:29 +0000

Right now I’m trying to find the time to finalize a couple of posts hidden among my drafts. However I’ve got a quite tight schedule right now with 4 exiting speaking appearances (and another 4 closed ones) where I’ll be speaking about future communication, social media, branding and creativity the coming 2 weeks.

So, if you wanna tap into my brain before Easter you’re probably better off meeting me in:

Stockholm, Sweden 16th March – The Conference by Wednesday Relations
Tallin, Estonia 19th March – Password 2010 by Best Marketing
Zagreb, Croatia 24th March – FutureAd 2010
Stockholm, Sweden 25th March – Social Cash by Disruptive Media

See you there?

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

ronnestam — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:26:17 +0000

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!

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!

A Book, MashUp, PDF or Whatever You Wanna Call It By Johan Ronnestam

ronnestam — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:27:37 +0000

I’ve always wanted to write a book. This is NOT it!
So far this year my blog have had more than 115 000 unique visitors and just over 240 000 visits. I’ve written more than 500 blog posts covering everything from design, gadgets, trends, technology, advertising, innovations, personal things, branding and more.

About 28% of the visitors during this last year have ended up reading a post that was tagged with branding. That’s probably not a coincidence since besides trends and creativity I’d say branding is the subject that is the most dearest to me.

When I’ve been looking deeper down into the stats I’ve seen that many of you visitors haven’t really explored my blog beyond the posts on the first page or the actual post you came to read. This is why I thought it made sense to gather them all like this – ‘Top 10 Blog Posts on Future Branding and Communication From Ronnestam.com’ - My first book.

A Book, MashUp, PDF or Whatever You Wanna Call It By Johan Ronnestam

Even though this isn’t actually what I would call a book it’s been the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with the production process of a book. I’ve put a big block in my calendar covering January, February and March and if everything goes right I will present my ‘real’ book sometime in April or May next year. It will be a book on how to integrate future communication with product and service development. One things for sure – I’m doing it on my own. But for now you have to do with this first book, mashup, pdf or whatever you wanna call it.

4 Ways to get your hands on Top 10 Blog Posts on Future Branding and Communication From Ronnestam.com With Love

1. Buy a signed copy of the printed book – 39€ including shipping world wide.

I’ve printed 150 books in Denmark at Norhaven. Out of those 150 I’m giving 50 signed copies away to the first 50 Twitter retweets of this post (if you live outside Sweden you have to pay for the shipping). If you wanna get your hand on one of the other 100 signed ones you either hope to get one at one of my speaking occasions during 2010 or you contact me to buy one for €39 including shipping costs.

2. Download the PDF for free (pay by linking or tweeting this blog post)

Here’s the PDF if you wanna download it and read it off your screen (lower resolution due to file size) or maybe print it yourselves. Like everything else on my blog it’s licensed under my Creative Commons license.

3. Read it on Slideshare or Scribd

Head over to Slideshare or Scribd, it’s your choice. But remember to spread the love and tweet the book.

View more documents from Johan Ronnestam.

4. Read each and every blog post here at Ronnestam.com

This is of course the simplest and fastest way. Get going below and if you like it tweet it!

Blog Post 1 – { Originally Posted October 7, 2009 }
All Your Brands Are Belong To Us

Blog Post 2 – { Originally Posted October 7, 2009 }
If you wanna get some brand love tomorrow you better get into the conversation today

Blog Post 3 – { Originally Posted September 26, 2009 }
Dear CEO’s, Board Members and Top Management – what’s more important? Wine or Change?

Blog Post 4 – { Originally Posted February 18, 2009 }
Let’s start a revolution – get of the boat and build yourselves a new brand transportation system.

Blog Post 5 – { Originally Posted February 1, 2009 }
Controlling your brand with creative excellence

Blog Post 6 – { Originally Posted August 25, 2009 }
Seduce us or excuse us – 11 ways to bring your brand up to date

Blog Post 7 – { Originally Posted January 2, 2009 }
Get your clown suit ready if you wanna reach out to consumers in 2009

Blog Post 8 – { Originally Posted March 4, 2009 }
WWRD – 36 things Ronnestam would do differently if he had control of brand that delivered broadband, telecom and television services

Blog Post 9 – { Originally Posted September 8, 2009 }
Why SAAB, Volvo, Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Peugeot, AUDI, Chevrolet, Buick and the rest of the car industry should the adopt the iPhone model and develop the InCar OS

Blog Post 10 – { Originally Posted December 29, 2008 }
Brand and communication predictions for ?2009 by Johan Ronnestam

ps. At the moment I’m trying hard to finalise my predictions for 2010. Keep a look out for that.

Happy New Year!