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IIA Members share Christmas and New Year gifts
Recently IIA Members shared lots of great gifts with each other and now we’re happy to pass some of these great opportunities on to you. There are discounts on products and services galore so please enjoy and make the most of the IIA Annual Virtual Christmas Hamper!
For your information the IIA offices will be closed from midday on Christmas Eve (24 December) until 9am on 5 January 2010.
The team and board of the IIA wish all our subscribers a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Social Media Working Group, Guest Blogger, Membership
Guest post: The thorny business of measurement and who blinks first.
A guest post from IIA Social Media Working Group Member Eoin Kennedy of Slattery Communications. You can check out Eoin’s blog here. (I particularly like his most recent post at time of writing about the implications of using multiple usernames across social networks.)
IIA Member Company SimplyZesty recently ran another successful measurement camp. The session itself was attended by less than normal but ran to a familiar structure with two presenters followed by a group activity based on three case study scenarios.
Overall although online is much more measurable than traditional media the demands to quantify it financially have not been met to date. The first wave of measurement has been around physical numbers i.e. numbers of followers, number of posts. These give a topline indication of engagement but translating this into actual worth is tricky. How much is a follower/friend actually worth? Sure it’s great to get some “thumbs up” and “love” but what are these actual measures worth? For property owners such as bebo this poses real challenges. Engagement models are generally built around the pushing and advertising of the page profile but savvy brand holders want more. The burden of responsibility is getting pushed back to the property owners as marketers want more metrics to gauge success while platform owners need agreement on values attached to elements so that they can build charging models. Currently the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) advertising model is the main charging structure used. If the platform owner is charged with the financial delivery then they need to have full control over the creative, which again would pose problems.
Philip McCarthy now ex Bebo gave a good overview of some campaigns that they have run and admitted that measurement is still at an early stage. Bebo does engagement very well but an experience with Coca Cola Burn posed interesting questions about what he should have charged. Current values are around 3 euro cost per thousand which would indicate a value of €60k for the Coke campaign that achieved 20m impressions. The campaign achieved 17,000 visits to the site, 126 comments, 7 photos, 70 quizzes, 679 skins used.
Engagement is something that social media does really well and according to Philip there must be a value to it.
Philip debated using traditional rates that are charged for advertorials, something that is pretty much set and understood with traditional media. Basing digital charging models on established off line models has merit in that brand owners understand them but is probably not the best starting point.
The establishment of a base line measurement was discussed that could be used across other media but no one has yet taken this step to any great degree.
Where this gets particularly difficult is in getting values on things like thumbs up, love and other signs of engagement used on different social networks. It’s great to get them but what do they really mean and what value could be put on them?
One of the areas discussed that could help on measurement in the real world was the use of redeemable bar codes. The idea being that rather than a virtual present that people could send a ‘printable’ bar code or even one that could be displayed on a phone. This could be taken to an outlet and redeemed. This could help track social media activity to actual sales. For example a coffee shop could build an app that allows users to send a coffee to friends. The friend could print out or show the barcode that would be scanned through at an actual coffee shop. By doing this the coffee shop could measure the actual sales generated by the voucher and social media activity. Some good work in being done in this area by IIA Member Company Zappa but problems still exist for terminals to read bar codes on screen.
The overall feeling from the event was that some leadership needs to be established in measuring the value of online campaigns and that the current metrics, while good, are not financially based enough for brand owners. The UK Measurement Camp has also suffered from similar problems.
My own observation is that once criteria that are reasonably sound are established Klout, TweetLevel for Twitter, or Technorati for blogs could start to become industry standards. At some point someone needs to take a brave step. The online community will undoubtable respond and some progress could be made.
International Strategy Working Group
International Strategy Working Group Case Study: MUZU.TV
The IIA International Strategy Working Group have released another great case study. This one focuses on MUZU.TV which frequent readers of this blog and our site will know were chosen as the 2009 Overall Net Visionaries. You can download a PDF of this case study from the Resources section of IIA.ie. One of my favourite parts of this case study was the response to the question:
What is the advice you would give companies starting out on Internationalization?Buy a suitcase, register for air-miles.
There is plenty of other insights into the strategy of this fascinating company who were “born global” as Caelen King from our previous ISWG Case Study on RevaHealth.com described his company.
This case study was compiled by Jonathan Kyle of IIA Member Company Greenjobs.ie. (who incidentally also won a Net Visionary award for 2009 Internet Entrepreneur!)
Membership
I said it would be annual…
Last year I delivered a special virtual hamper to all of our members. I said it would be annual so the time has come again to gather up all your goodies and share them with your fellow members. Your gift can be a discount on a product or service, an hour consultation, a free trial, whatever you would like – just use your imagination.
Send your special offer to members at iia dot ie before Friday 4th December at 5pm and I’ll wrap it up, shake some elve dust on it and send it on it’s merry way.
Thanks!
State of the Net
State of the Net Issue 15 available
State of the Net Issue 15 is now available to download from the Resources Section of IIA.ie. This publication, produced in association with IIA Member Company Amas, and indeed all those from 2009 provide invaluable business intelligence for decision makers in Irish business today. The Winter 2009 issue covers:
- An overview of the results of the Amas/ Marketing Institute of Ireland 2009 Irish Online Marketing Sentiment Survey,
- Top 10 iPhone Apps for Ireland (I have 2 of them and I’m embarrassed to admit that one of them is Sonic the Hedgehog!)
- Broadband growth figures for all platforms and mobile specifically from ComReg
- An overview of research from the EU commission on cross border product abvailability
- Year end details on top news searches from Google
- Usage of price comparison sites by product/ service from Amárach Research for the National Consumer Agency
- A cost/ benefit analysis of Social Media usage by Irish SMEs.
If your company has produced research that you feel might be suitable for publication in the next or other upcoming issues of State of the Net, please feel free to get in touch with me, Roseanne, to discuss.
marketing
Slides from Hotel Website Marketing Conference online
Have I ever mentioned to you that I love my job here in the IIA? One of the things that I love about it is that I often get to some great events. We recently sponsored IIA Member Company Meetingbooker.com’s Hotel Website Marketing Conference and I would definitely count this as among the best that I attended this year. The speakers were all good and varied but mostly I thought it was very clear that they had done their research about the audience and were aware of the issues and processes effecting the hotel industry’s day to day work.
I live tweeted the event and hope that I shared some of the nuggets. However MeetingsBooker.com have made the slides not only from this conference but their other conferences in 2009 available via Slideshare.
International Strategy Working Group
Get the facts fast
Did I totally rob that title from somewhere else?
The International Strategy Working Group had a very successful event last week about Winning International Business with the Web last week. You can find the event presentations in Resources section of IIA.ie and great post from Una Coleman here on the brill new Bloggertone about the key lessons from the day.
To support and continue advising businesses planning to go global the International Strategy Working Group (ISWG) are preparing a series of fact sheets, kicking off with the IIA Quick Fact Finder: Channel Partner Management For International Markets which is now available in the ISWG section of IIA Resources. This will be available to all for two weeks only and then will become a members resource.
Guest Blogger, statistics, new technology
Guest post: CIO survey – What does 2010 hold for CIO’s and IT Managers?
Harry Goddard, a Partner in IIA Member Company Deloitte, has submitted a guest post below. Deloitte have relesed the results of their recent Chief Information Officer Survey and are interested to hear your thoughts on it. You can leave comments below or on their own site.
We’ve just released the results of our first survey of CIOs and IT managers in Ireland in what we hope is the first in a new series of annual surveys dedicated exclusively to the state of Irish IT. The survey provides some good insights and indicates that, at best, a return to ‘business as usual’ for CIOs and IT departments is still some way off or, more likely, that business as usual is changed for good.
A couple of key findings emerged from the survey – enabling business cost reduction is the number one priority for IT departments through 2010; however, for many organisations, this will be done against a backdrop of falling budgets. It seems also that IT cost reduction has not gone away and the challenge for CIOs and IT managers will be achieving incremental and sustainable IT cost savings beyond what they have achieved in 2009. What also came across loud and clear is that IT needs to deliver value to the business – IT is still not seen as a strategic partner.
We have created a dedicated results Deloitte.
Guest Blogger, events
Review: Driving Self-Service Online
A big thanks to Laura Kelly from IIA Member Company AXA who submitted the following review of our recent event “Driving Self-Service Online”. A special thanks for her patience as I grappled with the recent blog issues while her concise review languished in my inbox. Her review shows that this event did not stop at examining online customer service. Of course this is exactly how any customer service should be: multi-faceted. I also attended an event similar to this by IIA Member Company iQContent at their Bootcamp last summer and agree with all her points. (But I would, of course, so it’s nice to get an unbiased opinion!)
As a firm believer in customer choice in servicing, I went along to the “Driving Self Service Online” seminar to understand how I could better improve AXA’s current online self service functionality.
Colin Bentley of iQContent proved to be a worthy guide on the journey through the topic, warning us all from the outset that it’s not as easy as we like to think!
Starting with the link between self service and customer experience, Colin gave us some great examples of online customer experiences that worked, and more importantly and often remembered those that don’t (all companies shall remain nameless here!)
Key Steps in the Online Self Service Journey
- Convince your CEO that online self service is right for you,
- Really listen to what your customers have to say, and understand the areas in which they seek help
- Be clever about the medium you use to answer your customers questions. Examples include forums, avatars (e.g. Anna for Ikea) and Twitter
- Understand more about the type of tasks you want to provide online, and how appropriate it is for the user and you. Tasks can range from useful, to usable, to lovable where companies really go the extra mile.
Finally Colin finished up a very informative half day by discussing the promotion of online self service, including educating staff and customers, as well as less subtle strategies such as financial incentives for transacting online.
A very informative and well presented seminar – my thanks to Colin Bentley from IQ Content and Irene from IIA.
– Laura Kelly, AXA.ie
(And the appropriateness of a CAR insurer writing a review of DRIVING Self-Service Online has just dawned on me. Ever the quick one on the uptake, Roseanne!)
Uncategorized
Joan Mulvihill appointed as IIA CEO
Mulvihill took up her position this week. Speaking about her appointment she said, “I’m delighted to be joining the IIA at this critical time. As Ireland aspires to a Smart Economy, it’s vital that the necessary supports are available to business owners, in terms of infrastructure, investment and expertise. Already, we have some fantastic Irish success stories of internet businesses across a range of sectors; financial services, leisure and travel, retail and media. The internet brings so much opportunity for cost saving, process efficiency and customer care – way beyond simply having a website. As a Smart Economy, Irish businesses can and will be at the forefront of innovation and optimisation of internet usage. The IIA is a member based association and so my vision for the IIA is to see our members, Irish businesses, leading the way in the development and application of internet capability and in doing so growing new markets in Ireland and abroad”.
“The Irish Internet Association is unique among Irish business associations in that it offers all companies the opportunity to network beyond and across sectors and scale. Membership of any association must bring value for money, value to the bottom line. IIA members benefit from excellent networking and business development opportunities. seminars, training and our Net Visionary Awards programme. Members also have the opportunity to participate in our working groups which provide a platform for policy and best practice development”.
Mulvihill has a strong background within the Irish SME sector having previously held the position as Senior Manager for Family Business Advisory Services at BDO Simpson Xavier. Mulvihill also has extensive retail experience having spent eight years in London and Amsterdam with the Kingfisher Group. She was at the forefront of managing one of the first transitions of a major UK retailer from high street to online and has also worked as a consultant to a number of new business start-ups.