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 companies since it’s to freaking hard and expensive to integrate ERP systems with existing intranet technologies.

Well – not anymore. Through Mashable I learned today that Salesforce is launching Salesforce Chatter. This is a Facebook lookalike that integrates email, intranet, office solutions, ERP systems and more into one platform built on the cloud concept Force. On top of that Chatter actually lets you connect the real Facebook and Twitter. (Sad for you companies that doesn’t allow your staff to spend time on Facebook and Twitter).

Salesforce, that for example also provides the engine behind Dell Ideastorm and My Starbucks idea and Salesforce CRM has got things wired huh?

Honestly there’s simply no need for any company to keep their building on their own intranet. Press delete and move to something like Chatter and you’ll see people will start to interact. After all, if their not they’re loosing business.

If you wanna stay ahead of the game tomorrow you can simply not stay put in systems that cost a fortune and becomes updated every third year.

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!

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.

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 a virally driven online content strategy but the first step taken with Nikefootball.com, that I personally took part in initiating, was a clear step in that direction.

Now, 9 years later when the internet, web 2.0 and social media are well established, Facebook has got +300 million members and Twitter is reckoned to be one of the most important conversation platforms when it comes people driven brand impact. I think we can all agree that the world has changed and so has brand strategies although most companies don’t really get it yet.

So, the title ‘All your brands are belong to us’ has a double meaning cause back then in 2000 when that wildfire started it also marked the day you lost control of your brand. Today that fire is burning faster than ever and there’s really nothing you can do to stop it except but getting used to being burned while fighting for your lives.

It’s time to move. In order for you to continue to build your brand value in the future you’ve gotta revamp your strategies and adapt them to the future of communication.

Here are 10 strategies you’ve got to adapt to the next couple of years if you’re planning for your brand to stay on top!

1. From Brand Promise to Brand Fulfillment

You might have set out to deliver services and products that create some sort of value for a large consumer base. All of your branding activities focus on telling your story. What makes your brand unique, what’s your unique, emotional and even archetype selling points. Shortly. What’s your brand promise?

Now in a world where all information is accessible on the fly. Consumers share experiences on comparison sites like Pricerunner, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Personal blogs and Getsatisfaction. People even post sites about brands they like and dislike.

In this world there’s no more room for brand promises only brand fulfillment. Honesty comes first. Do what you say and you shall be the one.

2. From Offer to Interactivity

If you’re one of those brands that still spend tons of time drawing up strategies on how to approach the market with new offers, new products and services then you’ll see your brand fall within the next couple of years.

Instead, learn from brands like Starbucks, Dell and not the least Zappos. These brands have moved into the future of product development.

What Dell has done with Ideastorm.com and Starbucks with Mystarbucksidea.com has not only turned their brand around but also enabled them to deliver products and services they know their customers want. After all they’re the one that have suggested them. Zappos strategy in moving from a shoe store online to simply deliver better services, or ‘Power by Services’ as they say, has earned them an unmatched loyalty. Zappos CEO Tony Hseih has got more than 1.4 million followers on Twitter!

These brands understand they’re not owning a one way channel straight into the heart of consumers. Love goes both ways!

3. From Control to Transparency

About the same time that viral flash video was circling the web I also started a website called Kaminsky.com. It was sort of an early version of YouTube but it focused on movie trailers and advertising. However after only 8 month we had to close the site down cause we were being threatened to be sued by Brindfors, at the time one of Sweden’s leading advertising agencies. Why? Well, the reason was cause someone had uploaded a TV commercial Brindfors had created for Scandinavian Airlines. Can you imagine something like this happen today?

In another example Pepsi gets a beating on Twitter by @christinelu for posting an ad in German magazines.

When Pepsi pulls back their advertising immediately as a response to what @christinelu Tweets it’s a clear sight these large brands have understood the power of asynchron networks like Twitter where information spreads faster than ever before.

You simply cannot ignore conversations that regard your brand anymore. Dominos Pizza obviously has taken this into account when they’re speeding up the process of replying to a consumer called @interactiveamy on Twitter. Amy Korin who had some problems with her Pizza Delivery earlier this year got answered within 24 hours. A video apology from @Ramon_DeLeon quickly solved the situation.

So where does your brand stand in all this? You ready for transparency or still believe hiding information is the way to go? Do you know what people are saying about your brand?

4. From Stability to Adaption

Open Source and democratization of technology is turning the world upside down. The music and travel industry has already been hit bad. Traditional mobile companies like Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola are all getting beaten by Apple, Google and soon Microsoft. 3D printers is available today from $14.000. Within 5 years time you’ll be able to print LEGO in your home for the cost of a printed paper. If LEGO owns the 3D model or not remains to be seen.

When it comes to systems development we’re seing tons of new applications and webservices that are based on Open Source platforms. WordPress for bloggers, Joomla for communities, Magento for e-commerce and Drupal for overall site building are only a few examples. PHP and MySQL is driving change in a speed we’ve never seen before.

The brands of tomorrow will be all about adaption. So companies that turns change into status Q are the brands that will live. Brands that spend their time protecting existing products will be passed by smaller, more agile and more innovative brands. Brands that change will stand the test of times.

5. From Monopoly to Creative Execution

Nothing can be owned. The only competitive edge you’ll have in the future is creative execution. Consumers of tomorrow might try out relations because of monopoly. However, it’s a very risky position to take as we’ll be open to switch the second a new player comes along. And as I stated above – the democratization of technology will drive change, so staying ahead will be harder and harder. Instead focus on building fans through your creative execution. How do you package your products and services. How do you communicate. How do you entertain us. How do you stay fun to be with. How can you make our day better. Focus on the values that makes us talk about your brand – in a positive way.

6. From Brand Positioning to Perceived Brand Positioning

Following transparency is our perceived view of your brand. This means when we search for a brand, and that’s what +80% does before entering a relation with a brand, our point of view is primarily based on what other people say about your brand – not what you say.

Brian Solis social flower. Is your Brand out there yet?

You can spend as many millions you want on positioning your brand through traditional media. But if you don’t engage in conversations, provide us with distributed marketing, content and applications your brand will be positioned through the voices of millions of people online – and they’re not paid to position your brand the way you want. They position you any way they like.

So. Start question if you really ought to spend all that money on traditional media and instead think about moving it over to digital presence. Then we might do you right!

7. From Product Development to Fan Based Innovations

Threadless.com. They’re selling T-shirts online. All T-shirts are made by their visitors. Their selling like hell. Yamaha have already tried out fan based industrial design. As we learned above Dell and Starbucks asks their fans – What shall we do? And all of these brands do it in the open.

Reach out and deliver tools that let the fans you have create your future products and services. Believe me – you’ll be amazed how many people are prepared to help you.

8. From Structural Bindings to Trust

Bankers and Telco’s all talk about how to structurally bind clients to their products and services. What they’re saying is basically “Our product is so shitty so once we’ve sold it we’ve gotta glue people to it, otherwise they’ll leave”.

Future brands are built on relations, trust and loyalty. If you do bad you deserve bad. If you do good you’ll deserve good.

9. From Marketing to Entertainment

Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Can you sense it.

The pure thought of a time makes people stressed. Time is the most precious thing we have and yet brands are wasting it.

In a recent global study I was involved in we identified four factors that matters to guys and girls in the age-span 18-25. The study was performed in so called style cities – New York, Rio De Janeiro, Stockholm, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong etc.

Innovation, entertainment, interactivity and creativity. The two that stood out the most was entertainment and innovation. One kid said – “I’m bored so if I’m supposed to choose a brand I choose the one that entertains me and ad something to my life” A guy in Tokyo said – “If I’m supposed to show up with a pair of new sneakers to school I’d like them to be different than anyone else’s”

Your brand has to stay on it’s toes. If your into making cars you’re not only competing with other car manufactures, you’re competing with time to. If I am to interact with any kind of communication coming out from your company it better live up my day. If not I’ll go somewhere else!

10. From Customers to Followers

I’m not your customer. I’m temporarily following you. The second you show me disrespect I’ll follow someone else. Cause change is only a click away. In the pursuit for new customers Banks, Electricity Companies, Telcos, Car Dealers and many more have all made switching brand easy. A phone call and the Bank take care of the entire process.

However today we’re seeing this being moved over to digital. Head into Compricer and compare your bank, insurance company or Telco provider and you can change faster than your bank man says ‘Ho ho’.

In this world you have to start respecting your clients for what they are – temporary followers that will stay on as long as their relation to you is good. The second it turns bad they’ll leave without saying good byes – case we all hate good bye’s don’t we?

Your Future Brand Value then?

To sum this post up. What you’re looking at is a brand new world where information flows free. Whatever you do will become transparent. You’re loosing the competitive edge based on physical innovations and ideas, intelligence and innovation will prosper. Loyalty is no longer based on structural bindings and price. The consumer of tomorrow values sustainability, freedom of choice and humbleness.

What ever you do, you can expect a global competitor that can deliver their products and services from anywhere in the world. Personally I use a computer I bought from the states. My mobile was bought in Hong Kong. My software’s are all bought online from abroad. My backup service is located in the States. Hell, even my notebook was ordered from abroad.

Brands that can translate these changes in how people consume information are the winners. Brands that try to protect what they have, not opening up and milking every last penny out of that old cow of yours will be the losers.

If you don’t adapt – All your brands are belong to us!

Early this morning I stood in the ‘Story’ bar in central Stockholm and explained to one of my friends what Twitter is all about. As I explained trending topics I noticed RIP MJ hitting the charts and of course Tweeted it myself.

Michael had been declared dead only minutes earlier when people went crazy on Twitter. According to Ethan Zuckerman 15% of all posts on Twitter mentioned Michael Jackson. He saw Iran or the swine flu reach over 5%.

My real first memory of Michael goes back to 1984. Michael Jackson had just reinvented music video with Thriller. I loved it and I’ve loved Michael Jackson ever since.

Michael was the king of my generation just like Elvis Presley was the king of his. Rest in peace my one and only superstar!

The image you’re looking at above is my first page on Twitter when searching for the #iranelection. Notice the fact that a lot of those avatars have turned green? That’s the Twitter way of saying we support your fight for freedom! Sites like HelpIranElection and IranGreenThumbnails help you color yours. CreativeBits provide a set of icons that let’s you show your colors.

Twitter icons over at CreativeBits

On top of this TED rushed out a speech and an interview with NYU professor Clay Shirky who earlier this year revealed how cellphones, the web, Facebook and Twitter had changed the rules of the game, allowing ordinary citizens extraordinary new powers to impact real-world events.

Since the Iran election last week the ‘hash’ tag #iranelection has been the trending twitter and it doesn’t seem to loose it’s grip. People all over the world are showing their support and as the Iranian government is shutting down all information sources Twitter and a few other social networks remain the single place for information to sip in and out. Hackers from around the world (and Sweden) struggle to break down the IP wall defense and thereby free information.

We, the citizens of the NET come together once again for something outside our own country, continent or part of the world. We don’t care about borders, race, religion, culture or other differences. We only care about what’s right and wrong and we’re prepared to help to change it.

So, what are you waiting for? Spread the news.

People tend to share a lot of information online and not the least on Twitter. All that information is possible to access by using the Twitter API. Jer Thorp, digital artist, thought about that for a while and then he decided to extract and visualize travel information from people’s public Twitter streams by searching for the term ‘Just landed in…’.

This was the result and it’s stunning.

As we publish more bits of conversations online the data we leave behind produce some freakin’ cool building blocks for people with ideas. So far most of it is used for good. But sooner or later we’ll end up seeing a lot of bad stuff.

Stay righteous and you’ll be ok. Move over to the dark side and expect bad mojo. Something for brands to think about.

Infostethics delivered the information in style as always.

As Twitter grows bigger and bigger I came to think of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds. What looks like a flock of beautiful birds end up being our worst nightmare.

Everyone are going bananas over Twitter and the marketing potential with micro blogging. People who are into it are totally sold. People who are not doesn’t understand jack shit.

The thing with Twitter is that you’ve gotta get yourself in there, start listening to the twitter and slowly adapt to a strange new culture. Once you’ve done that you can start using it for more intelligent things.

My personal top tip about Twitter is; think really carefully what you want to achieve with it. For me Twitter is not about twittering every 2 minutes but instead listening to people that i respect. Personally I’ve decided it’s my business platform, not personal funfair. At least so far. It’s not unthinkable that I might end up having different account in the future.

This morning I got a tip from OnlineBestCollages. They have gathered a list of 100 Twitter tools. The list is divided into the following categories: Twitter Analysis, Information Gathering, Network Building & Management, Twitter Management, Sharing Tools, Organization & Productivity, Life Tools, Business & Finance, Health and of course Blogging.

I’m aware that they’ve created this list in order to drive traffic to their site, but hey, that’s a tip in itself. This is marketing of tomorrow. Give and you shall recieve. I’m giving back cause it’s a great resource.

Go on and rate yourselves up in Twitter!

Candy brand Skittles have produced some kick ass TVC’s (Skittles leak being one of my favorites) through out the years and now they’re innovating the use of social media within fast moving consumer goods.

This blog post started in my head after seeing this discussion below between two of the bloggers I’m following. David Armano from Logic+Emotion and Jackie Huba with Church of the Customer Blog. They’re talking about Skittles and how they changed turned their entire website into a Twitter search for the keyword skittles. Jackie doesn’t like it, David does.

Skittles is of course not the first FMCG brand to do cool things online. Altoids has been rockin’ the web with cool content since about 2001. Jackie Huba mentions Jelly Belly and their content heavy site. The thing though with strategies like this is that you’re not taking advantage of the social crowd out there. Instead you’re constantly paying to pull traffic to your own site instead of placing yourselves where the customers are on their terms.

What’s really cool with all this to me is not the fact that Skittles is using Twitter but instead the little widget they’ve created that goes on top of whatever they want.

So, instead of building they’re on site or even mashup, they’ve created the ultimate mashup – a Skittles widget that navigates you directly to the respective channels online – Youtube for video, Twitter for chat, Facebook for friends, Flickr for photos and ultimately Wikipedia for product info.

This case is a simple yet cool explanation what you can do online today. I’m speaking quite often about the power of distributing your content outside of your own domains and this is a good example of it.

Sum up. Experimentation has to be a part of your communication. Sitting at home waiting for the ultimate strategy won’t work cause the net is ever changing!

Aloha!

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.

[updated]

It turns out someone fooled us all and created the Dalai Lama name on Twitter. At more than 16,000 followers in one weekend, the fake Dalai Lama was one of the fastest growing accounts that Twitter has ever seen.

If you didn’t know about Twitter before you’ll definitely learn about it now. The American microblogging service has gotten their latest user – The Dalai Lama. His holyness will be twittering under the name @OHHDL.

It wasn’t many days since we heard that Pope Benedict XVI opened his YouTube channel. And now this. 2009 will definitely be the year when social media got accepted by the public. This is freakin´cool huh!