Archive for June, 2009

The Future of Digital Marketing 2009

Updated (19/06): Included a new blog #FODM event summary below…

Unfortunately my experience of the event was a very distant one, but I caught occasional tweets from various people attending The Future of Digital Marketing event organised by the excellent Econsultancy. There were some real gems of wisdom in there, below I’ve picked out the 10 best:

  1. Social media is about engagement. Use to engage, not direct sales (via @econsultancy)
  2. Twitter and its like will be a greater source of consumer traffic than paid search by 2012 (via @tanyagoodin)
  3. Twitter’s not going to be around forever, Twitter shows the limits of current technology (via @econsultancy)
  4. Telling me my own name after asking me what it is does not count as personalisation (via @econsultancy)
  5. Google sending Adwords vouchers because they’re scared of social networks pulling eyes away from search (via @aizlewood)
  6. Social networks represent the most significant consumer marketing opportunity since Google (via @tanyagoodin)
  7. Social media is the result of social change, not a technology revolution (via @econsultancy)
  8. 65% of users say online compliments the shopping they do in-store…(via @ZiaZ)
  9. Twitter is about brand exposure, sharing content, engagement, not SEO, or link building (via @econsultancy)
  10. Retailers looking to integrate online & store: don’t lose customers because they don’t want to buy online (via @econsultancy)

Only one blog summary is online so far, but I’ll add more links as more appear:

There was even some interesting digital marketing intelligence shared:

  • BBC have 110 newsletters delivering 360m emails each year (30 m per month) (via @juliansambles)
  • Approximate Twitter numbers: 6m users, $250M valuation, and yes, u can make money (Dell – $3m to date)
  • 98% of high net worth individuals are buying online. 35% of Britons are spending more online. (via @econsultancy)
http://twitter.com/Aizlewood~

iPhone 3GS Launch and Twitter

After following a couple of liveblogs reporting on the Apple WWDC last night and the launch of the new iPhone 3G S I turned to the retailers websites to find out how to get hold of one. Neither the O2 or Carphone Warehouse website had been updated to reflect the announcement. For neither site to even have a holding page or even basic information for about 3 hours after the announcement surely was a missed opportunity. It may well be the lock down that Apple puts on the information it announces at these conferences, but the time delay still was pretty bad.

So in my time of I need I turned to the ever-reliable Google for the latest information and it was after a number of searches that the weakness of Google for breaking news was exposed. Saving the day came Twitter! Yes there was alot of noise on there from people, like me, despairing over the lack of information available, but eventually the O2 and Carphone Warehouse twitter streams started to post information. O2 broke first with estimated pricing, but then around 9pm left a message saying they were finished for the day. Carphone Warehouse then picked up and exceeded O2′s early strong position with Twitter user ‘@guyatcarphone‘ posting useful links and responding to peoples enquiries.

Around 11pm the retailers websites kicked into life with the bare essential information, tariffs appeared on O2′s site, then Carphone Warehouse again outdid them with a simple, but effective iPhone 3G S pre-registration system.

All in all, an interesting launch to follow online and Carphone Warehouse clearly went the extra mile in providing the personal touch for the UK early adopters amongst us.