Branding With Word Of Mouth Marketing:

Have you implemented Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM) as part of your branding plan?

Do you feel that WOMM can help build your brand and bring about brand awareness for your business? Just to explain, brand awareness is how you measure whether your brand or business is easily recognized or springs to mind for your industry.

When you are using WOMM as part of your branding message, it’s key that you understand the basic usage for WOMM.

~

Below is a simple list that can help you with your WOMM implementation:

• Keep it simple. Determine what topics will be shared.
• Find people who can be “announcers” for your brand/business.
• Make sure that you have tools that your “announcers” can use to easily spread the word like Tell-a-friend forms on your website.
• Participate on forums by leaving comments with links back to your website. Ask others to visit your website and participate on your forum also.
• As you implement your WOMM plan, make sure to track your results.

Any how we hope this has given you a few extra idea’s when it comes to branding your company, if you want some more ideas, me or Tobz always love to start a further conversations about WOM, so just drop us a line so we can get talking, ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke {G.B.}.

Pirate Party UK officially registered:

Huzzah at long last, The UK’s very own version of Sweden’s Pirate Party has been officially recognised by the British electoral commission as a legitimate political party, according to a blog post from the party’s leader, Andrew Robinson.

That means that it can now raise funds and put up Pirate Party candidates for the next general election, which is due in the first half of 2010. The party is requesting that people interested start to “make things happen”.

“Now the party can really start. It’s time for us to tell the world that we exist, to recruit members, raise funds and gear up to fight the General Election. The officers and web team have built the framework that the party needs to get going, now it’s time for YOU to make things happen”, said Robinson.

Robinson has said that the party is “Very similar” to the Swedish Pirate Party – Piratbyran, which won a European parliament seat in the last Swedish elections – but will have its own policies and officials.

For Further Details GOTO: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/ , ~ Regards, Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

Firefox OS: Why My Hard Drive & Software are Obsolete

While the debate of Windows v. Mac v. Linux rages on, at times rising to a roar in certain circles, I meekly raise my hand and offer a newly emerging fourth choice: none of these operating systems really matter anymore.

Why not? Because for a writer/Blogger/WOM Marketeer,  like me, and for many others, all the software and storage space you really need is now online.  All that matters is that you have your browser — and at the risk of sparking another flame war, I recommend Firefox.

Need a word processor, spreadsheet, photo program, or really most anything useful? Old-fashioned desktop applications aren’t necessary anymore, for the most part.  You can fire up your browser on any computer, and given a decent internet connection, you’ve got your entire OS and hard drive right there, from anywhere you log in.

Now, before people start chiming in with “But I need X Application in order to do my work!” I have a disclaimer: my needs are relatively simple, so you may not be able to do what I’ve done.  But I’ve intentionally simplified my needs, and for many people, this simplification can not only work, but be better than what’s offered on the desktop.

Here’s my Firefox OS, with an intentionally heavy reliance on the Google suite of software:

* Word processor.  I use Google Docs & Spreadsheets.  I used its predecessor, Writely, in the past, and it works well.  I’ve never been a fan of the bloated MS Word … until recently, I used the much smaller and faster open-source word processor,  Jarte.  But when I would forget to email myself a text file from work to home, I cursed myself and made the switch to Google Docs.  I haven’t regretted it yet.

* Spreadsheet.  Again, Google Docs & Spreadsheets.  It isn’t as feature-rich as Excel or OpenOffice yet, but it does the job for most of my needs.  In fact, it’s rare that I ever need anything more, and I suspect that’s the case for most people. And I expect the software to improve over time.

* Email. This is a no-brainer. Gmail, all the time.  It’s so much better than desktop email apps, and better than its competing webmail apps too. Fast, easy to use, powerful searches and features … enough can’t be said about Gmail.  It’s my No. 1 app for work and personal use.

* Feed reader. I’ve tried a lot of blog readers, including some good desktop and online readers.  But Google Reader is by far the most efficient.  I read it 2-3 times a day, and crank through my feeds.  I can get through 100+ posts a day very quickly.

* Blogging software.  For my main blog at IT Bloke, I’ve tried various software, but so far the best for my needs is WordPress.  It has everything I need, and is very extensible with lots of great plugins.

* Photo software. One of the biggest reasons I need a hard drive is for all my photos, at work and home. I’ve solved that with Picasa Web Albums — another Google solution.  I tried Flickr, but their free account is too flimsy,  and Picasa just works better.  Plus, if you like their great desktop software, it’s so perfectly integrated.  I just uploaded all my thousands of photos from home,  and it’s nicely organized online.

* Hard drive. What do you need a hard drive for? Besides the space needed to run your system, and software such as your browser, we use hard drives for file storage — for our word processing and spreadsheet documents, photos, music files, PDFs, etc.

Well, for the most part, all my files are now saved online. Between Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, and Picasa, everything I save is stored on the internet. The one thing I haven’t found a perfect solution for is mp3s, but I haven’t been using those much, and I’m sure a solution will turn up soon (let me know in the comments!).  Another great solution is online storage such as Box.net, MediaMax (25 GB for free!), Gmail Drive and the like.

* File management.  The main reason for an OS is to manage your files.  Well, since all my files are online, that’s now a moot point.  How do I manage my files now? Well, as I use mostly Google software, I use Google’s philosophy: tag and archive everything, and use the tags or Google’s fast and powerful searches to find anything you need.  This takes a bit of an adjustment on the user’s part, trusting this new paradigm to work, but trust me, it’s much better than filing stuff in folders.  You save a heck of a lot of time filing and finding stuff. It’s not hierarchical, so that’s difficult for many people — but it works.

* Backup system.  One of the big problems with a hard drive is the very real possibility that it will crash sometime during its lifetime. And unless you’ve been good at backing up your files, you will lose that data. With all my files saved online, there’s no need to back up these files, which can be time-consuming and troublesome. Good news: most of these services do a good job of backing up your data for you.

* Calendar. For its ease-of-use and simplicity, Google Calendar (of course). It doesn’t have all the functionality of certain desktop calendar programs, but it works great for me.

* Bringing it all together.  I use a lot of Google apps, but Google’s main problem (for me) so far is that it doesn’t integrate these services well {as yet}.  Well, enter another Google solution: the Google Personalize Homepage. It’s now my home page.  But I don’t use it like many others do, with all kinds of fun and distracting widgets, or to read all my blogs.  No, I just have all my Google services on this page for easy access, along with quick bookmarks for all the other stuff I use for work and for my blogging and IT Bloke, and some stickies for taking quick notes. One page to rule them all.

* Miscellaneous.  I’m a fan of GTD, so I use Tracks for my to-do lists. I use other online software, such as Backpack for keeping other lists, but the ones above are the main apps.  I also use AutoHotkey to quickly bring up the pages I use a lot, like Gmail, my to-do lists, my story ideas file, and the like, as well as to type my different signatures and other shortcuts.

* Firefox, of course.  All of this is possible with Internet Explorer or the very good Safari or Opera browsers, but Firefox just makes it that much better. It’s so easy and fast to use, plus there are certain extensions I can’t live without — Foxmarks, Gmail Manager, FireFTP, Download Statusbar and Web Developer among them.  Give me Firefox, and I don’t care what brand of OS I’m using.

Is online software as feature-rich as desktop software? Not yet.  But it’s good enough for my simple needs, and it’s getting better all the time.

Have I really gotten rid of my hard drive and software? Not yet. I still have all my old files on my USB portable hard drive, but they’re collecting dust.  I no longer store my new files on my hard drive, and I rarely use my old desktop software. I keep them on my computer just in case I need to open up a specially formatted file, but for my nitty-gritty daily work, I don’t need that old software anymore.

Anyway I hope that has given you an idea into the IT Bloke way of doing things, I hope that like us you to give this new way of operating a go, you never know it may just work for you to? ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke {G.B.}.

3 to launch Wi-Fi service in December

3 is launching a mobile Wi-Fi service that will allow consumers to access the internet on the move through any Wi-Fi enabled device. The service, called MiFi, will be launched in time for Christmas and can connect anything from a netbook to an iPod touch to the internet on the move. It is effectively a small wireless modem.

The wireless modem sends out a Wi-Fi signal so that no fixed-line is needed – customers only require 3’s 3G coverage to connect. The modem is 86×45x10mm and allows consumers to connect multiple devices to the internet at the same time.

Users will need to switch on the wireless modem and connect to the mobile internet using a Wi-Fi signal. A Wi-Fi enabled device will automatically pick up the signal and ask for an eight-digit network key which you will be asked to input just once for every new device you want to connect.

3 UK sales and marketing director Marc Allera said: ‘There are millions of Wi-Fi devices out there, but they can only be used in fixed locations.

‘Consumer demand for easy and affordable internet access on the go is growing fast and we’re responding to that by announcing the UK’s first wireless modem.’ ~ Regards, Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

SELLING WITH W.O.M. IS OK:

Sceptics of social media ROI take note: last week Dell announced that links from its @DellOutlet Twitter account have now generated over $3 million in actual sales. Excellent as this is, ReadWriteWeb has used the news to reinvigorate the debate about what exactly brands should be using Twitter for. Should we be expecting social media to deliver these kind of direct sales? Does it encourage brands to think in terms of one-way messaging without respecting microblogging’s two-way, conversational roots?

Regular readers of this blog will know how much emphasis we put on helping clients understand

the value of word of mouth beyond precisely

measurable stats and sales.  However, it’s important that we don’t forget that consumers out in social media also want a brand to be a brand: to provide easily accessed, accurate

information and expertise – in fact, to sell us stuff, albeit good stuff, that we want, and that has been developed thanks to plenty of listening to our feedback and needs.

As ReadWriteWeb point out, Dell can get away with tweets geared towards ‘hard’ ROI because they also invest in ’soft’ ROI by engaging in listening and conversation as well as pushing deals and product pages. OK, so @DellOutlet is only following 23 people – not exactly a model of reciprocity – but its 644,016 followers don’t seem to mind. They know what it’s there to do. Dell keeps its tweets regular, simple and up-to-date, and the strength of its voice and clarity of its purpose – to help people find the best products for them – is refreshing.

Many companies I talk to have a crisis of confidence in social media, almost feeling that they should hide their commercial priorities under a patina of irrelevant chat.  The truth is,  I don’t really care what the CEO had for breakfast or what he’s listening to on Spotify.  Branded social presences need to strike the balance between listening and responding to consumers, but also actually being open, direct and unashamed about who they are and what they have to offer…  ~ Regards,  Ashe…  IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

3 MOBILE ~ INQ ~ SOCIAL MEDIA MOBILE.

Ever wanted a laptop that makes calls {including Skype to Skype calls}, looks good, fits neatly in your smallest pocket and allows you to socially network wherever you are?

Let me take you into the fully connected and terribly social world of  3  Mobiles award winning new INQ Social Mobile, believe it or not a fully featured  Social Media Phone for a just £69.99.

At first look, its a smart compact slide phone with a nice minimalist look that has more than its fair share of style.

However under the hood this little pocket power house has a lot more to offer than mere style.  It also has real substance and muscle in abundance especially when it comes to interacting with the ever growing universe of social networking sites.

Most amazing of all the INQ’s address book is fully integrated into your  Facebook account,  letting you easily see all your contacts along with their Facebook profile pictures and of course includes the option to poke them! {OBVIOUSLY}.

The Facebook application on this phone is clear concise and easy to use.  Also should you have friends on Facebook but not there mobile numbers, then the INQ can even send a request to their Facebook account for their number!

Your Facebook inbox, poke notifications, Windows Messenger, text messages and E~Mail are all compiled into a single inbox onboard the INQ saving lots of time when you want to get social.

With its 3.2 mega pixel camera you can party and upload the pictures you take directly into your Facebook account on the fly wherever you are.

Got friends on Skype? No problem.

The INQ has it covered and has a  Skype interface built directly into  it, Find your friends and call them anywhere in the world for free! and also save a bundle on calling your friends on there phones abroad with Skype out credit.

This phone along with the 3 Mobiles new Pay and Go account {which Ashe has  previously reviewed} truly has the potential to cut your mobile bills right down to size {especially if you get lots of your friends on 3 as well} and to make your PC content truly mobile for the first time in such a low priced unit.

This became truly evident to me when I suddenly realised that I was actually making a Free Skype to Skype call and updating my friends as to what I was up to on Facebook all whilst sitting on the bus.  The INQ can also access Windows Messenger and Myspace with total  ease so you are fully covered whatever social network you use.

In essence this is a bill cutting, award winning, social networking mobile device that your social networking dreams may just be made of’ that has style in abundance and real bang for bucks at a very affordable price.

Anyway the powers that be are making me live with this phone for a while,  so I will keep you updated with how I get along with it in everyday use so please pop back and see how I am doing ~ Regards, Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

FREE ~ HOW TO USE ZERO PRICING EFFECTIVELY:

Free is tricky.   Free is great for consumers but difficult for business and creators. It is becoming a serious economic force (thanks to digital technologies and automation) but no one is really sure how to use free to, well, make money. Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired, offers the best utilitarian knowledge about the economics of the free I’ve seen yet.  I believe this book will clear up many misunderstandings about this “radical price” and assist creators (that’s us these days) in pricing our offerings in a world of “freeconomics.”

The hardcover book costs $27, but of course if Anderson is serious about what he is saying the book should be free somehow. And it is, in many versions. You can get free versions on the Kindle, you can get a free unabridged audio version on iTunes or Audible (but note the shorter abridged edition is not free. Time is money!).  There are free ebooks on Google, and on Scribd. You can get a free paperback version in the UK.  Some of these offers are time limited (that is called a “freemium”, free first pay later), others are indefinite. New free versions will be announced on the author’s blog at The Long Tail.

You need to take the free seriously. Pay attention to this book, and to Anderson’s experiments in practicing what it preaches. ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

Sample Excerpts:

In Denmark, a gym offers a membership program where you pay nothing as long as you show up at least once a week. But miss a week and you have to pay full price for the month.  The psychology is brilliant.  When you go every week, you feel great about yourself and the gym. But eventually you’ll get busy and miss a week.  You’ll pay, but you’ll blame yourself alone.  Unlike the usual situation where you pay for a gym you’re not going to, your instinct is not to cancel your membership; instead it’s to redouble your commitment.

*

Commodity information (everybody gets the same version) wants to be free. Customized information (you get something unique and meaningful to you) wants to be expensive.

*

As Lee puts it, “This large audience acts as a powerful motivator for continued contribution to the site. People like to contribute to an encyclopedia with a large readership; indeed, the enormous number of ‘free riders’–aka users–is one of the most appealing things about being a Wikipedia editor.”

*

Piracy accounts for an estimated 95 percent of music consumption in China, which has forced record companies to completely rethink what business they’re in.  Since they can’t make money from selling music on plastic disks, they package it in other ways.  They ask artists to record singles for radio play instead of albums for consumers. They serve as a personal talent agency for the singers, getting a cut of their fees for making commercials and radio spots.  And even concerts are paid for by advertisers brokered by the labels, which pack as many of their artists on stage as they can to maximize the revenues from sponsors.  The main problem is that the singers complain that the endless touring, which provides their only income, is tough on their vocal cords.

BLOGS WILL CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS:

Companies world-wide are cutting costs as well as looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing. With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing,

A recent poll  of 17,000 subscribers at an Online Marketing Blog showed some really interesting facts about their intentions with reference to digital marketing tactics in 2009.

Poll respondents cast 1,559 votes for their top three digital marketing tactics (from a list of 45) for 200. Blogging, Twitter and Search Engine Optimization topped the list. Out of the top ten rated marketing tactics, six fell into the category of Social Media Marketing.

The actual question asked was, “What 3 digital marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2009?” Here are the top ten tactics selected:

• Blogging (34%)

• Microblogging (Twitter) (29%)

• Search engine optimization (28%)

• Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%)

• Email marketing (17%)

• Social media monitoring & outreach (17%)

• Pay per click (14%)

• Blogger relations (12%)

• Video marketing (10%)

• Social media advertising (7%)

Email marketing rated higher than PPC which is surprising given the budgets spent on PPC vs email. Some tactics are much easier to implement than others, or less expensive, which may explain a few of the top choices, such as Twitter.

Corporate web sites didn’t rate in the top ten tactics. Does this mean the death of company web sites? Some companies are succumbing to the social media perspective to extremes, like the Skittles site which had been simplified to a page of search results from Twitter and then changed to their Facebook page. Others are adding social features to their company sites to complement existing messaging and functionality.

By now, most companies have their 2009 online marketing plans in place. Does this ranked order of tactics mean you should change up your online marketing mix? The answer is that digital marketing tactics should match the needs of the situation, company resources, the target market and end consumer preferences. The proper tactical mix for a digital marketing program could be anything from the 45 tactics listed in the poll and still be successful as long as they support a valid strategy.

Some companies are prepared for digital and social media marketing programs and many are not. To get “ready”, companies need to develop a social media roadmap and get up to speed on both best and worst practices. Whether those methods of reaching and communicating with customers reconciles with existing marketing plans or not, companies would do well to allocate resources to some level of ongoing social media training.  ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

BUSINESS TIPS FOR TWITTER:

More and more businesses are using Twitter. However, the return on the investment of time and money needed to use Twitter effectively might be stopping some businesses from using Twitter. Other companies might still be confused as to what Twitter is, why it matters, and how it can be used.

If your business is still on the sidelines when it comes to Twitter and you, as a marketer, need some ammo to better sell-in the benefits of using Twitter … consider reading the just published TWITTER 101 GUIDE. It’s written by the folks at Twitter and the guidance they share is helpful for small businesses, big businesses, and non-profits.

I’ve whipped a What? | So What? | Now What? abstract of the Twitter 101 Guide using verbatim snippets. Read below, then read in full.  ~ Regards, Ashe… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.

WHAT?
“Twitter connects you to your customers right now, in a way that was never before possible. As a business, you can use it to quickly share information with people interested in your company, gather real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers, partners and other people who care about your company.”

(“As an individual user, you can use Twitter to tell a company (or anyone else) that you’ve had a great–or disappointing–experience with their business, offer product ideas, and learn about great offers.”)

SO WHAT?
“For example, let’s say you work for a custom bike company. If you run a search for your brand, you may find people posting messages about how happy they are that your bike lets them ride in the French Alps—giving you a chance to share tips about cyclist-friendly cafes along their route.”

“You don’t have to run a bike shop or a relatively small company to get good stuff out of Twitter. Businesses of all kinds, including major brands, increasingly find that listening and engaging on the service lead to happier customers, passionate advocates, key product improvements and, in many cases, more sales.”

NOW WHAT?
“So you’re ready to be interesting on Twitter—but what are you going to post about? That depends on your goals for using Twitter, which may include things like building deeper relationships, getting on the radar of potential new customers or partners or providing customer service.”

“You can meet several communication goals simultaneously by thinking about your Twitter account as a friendly information booth or coffee bar. It’s a good place for people to ask you spontaneous questions of all kinds, and it’s also a good spot to share juicy information they might find useful. When you hit stride with these exchanges, they often lead to unexpected, valuable relationships.”

LEARN MORE
business.twitter.com/twitter101

TERMINATE THE RATE:

3 & BT TEAM UP TO FIGHT MTRs

HIDDEN MOBILE PHONE CHARGES, THE FACTS:

When you call a freind on a different mobile network,  or call there landline from you mobile, their network will charge your operator a fee for carrying the call.

This is called a Mobile Termination Rate or MTR and is currently charged at around 4.7p or more for every minute of the call.

The billions of minutes for which this fee is charged adds up to billions of pounds for UK consumers every year.

A new campaign has been launched called TERMINATE THE RATE that thinks Mobile Termination Rates are excessive and distort competition. So they want the industry regulator, Ofcom, to lower the rate to reflect actual costs.

The trut is that bundled minutes have become ever more generous as the years have ticked by because of two good reasons 1. Competition and 2. the slowly building threat of VoIP – but there’s one barrier to truly affordable calling: MTRs.

‘Mobile Termination Rates’ are the bane of the telecoms industry.  In short they are the charges paid by operators to connect calls to mobiles and currently account for 4.7p or more of every minute of a call to a mobile. This is more than 10x the termination rate charged to call a fixed-line phone. Consequently BT & 3 have come out to demand a rethink.

The duo have teamed up to start a campaign called ‘Terminate the Rate’ which is hoping to pressurise regulator Ofcom to reduce MTRs to their real world cost of “around a penny or less”. As it stands, the 4.7p MTRs earned operators more than £750m just to connect calls – equivalent to £2m per day. This rate is protected by Ofcom until 2011.

Why would 3 and BT want to end such a lucrative charge? Because they are the biggest victims of it. You see MTRs only exist when calls are made from one network to another so all BT calls to mobiles are subject to this charge while mobile operators pay a fraction of this to connect to landlines. As for 3, since it is by far the smallest of the UK telcos, the majority of calls made by its customers are to other networks while there is far less incoming MTR revenue so it actually loses money through the current system.

Perhaps most interesting however is what a 1p or less MTR could do for customer call charges. 3 says it believes packages offering unlimited cross network minutes would be available for less than £35pm. “When this happens we will be able to provide flat rate, unlimited calling offers which include numbers on any UK network,” said 3 CEO Kevin Russell. “This will give consumers real freedom.”

MoneySuperMarket.com, the GMB, the NUS (National Union of Students – naturally), the Federation of Small Businesses and Carers UK have so far thrown their weight behind Terminate the Rate but don’t expect the likes of Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 to be fans of the idea.

Cutting MTRs would be a major win for the consumer, so it gets a big thumbs up from us. There’s a petition which can be signed on the site.

For further information or to sign there online Petition follow this Link:

Terminate the Rate:

~ Regards Toby… IT Bloke, {G.B.}.