Interest in the value of Big Data continues into 2014

I'm not sure whether to be impressed by this infographic or annoyed. It shows both what's powerful about infographics and their weaknesses.

With the right headline, data and design, infographics can help raise awareness of an issue and associate a brand with a theme.  Kudos to McKinsey for getting the basics right, leading to it being shared by tens of thousands on Slideshare - interesting they're getting good exposure using the new infographic feature on Slideshare, maybe just because it's new. Expect Slideshare to be polluted by a lot of infographics in 2014....

Anyway, here's the infographic in question, weaknesses to follow...

The biggest weakness is that the claim of the headline isn't backed up by the data and worse still, the data sources they use are out of date - 2011 - heinous! Not…

Engagement tips to drive offline action - a not-for-profit campaign example

At charity @vInspired, digital and social media is key to engaging with our young audience. Retweets, mentions and comments can be an early indicator of success, but they are only transitory metrics and not our end goal.

Source: All images: vInspired

If we're not getting young people to take a real-world action, to volunteer, then we are just measuring digital outcomes - what some call vanity metrics.

Our recent research, 'Online Engagement, Offline Action' explores digital behaviours that can be harnessed to help young people discover the value of volunteering. We identified four digital trends that can help us and other organisations use digital engagement to drive offline actions.

Four digital trends to help digital engagement drive offline actions

1. How can…

Using Big Data to optimise engagement with your customers 

How to use big data to create better relationships with your customers as individuals instead of as a generic demographic

Enhancing consumer engagement and promoting loyalty is one of marketing’s key goals. But as technology advances, processes are changing. To boost engagement and loyalty, brands must use data to understand how multichannel consumers choose to engage; learn who your consumers are and what they want, and you can adapt to match.

Most organisations are well aware of this data advantage. But data analysis is not simple. The increasing availability of options from channels to devices means opportunities for consumer engagement are expanding, leading to an incredible increase in data generation. This volume and velocity can be difficult for organisations to manage in house initially so they invest in data experts to develop a solution to collate, curate and utilise data in the…

How Big Data and Predictive Analytics improve marketing

Predictive Analysis research and 'Big Data' is helping companies to improve their marketing, through accessing multiple sources of data and employing specialist staff to 'understand the data', providing actionable data which Marketers and Decision-makers can use to improve performance. This IBM and the Aberdeen Group  'Big Data for Marketing' research set out to identify the ‘Best in Class’ practices for companies providing accurate information in an efficient way, to support key Decision-makers and their planning processes. The Infographic below summarises the top strategies, results and capabilities: It highlights that it has helped companies to become more efficient, improve their decision-making and overall performance, through actionable high quality data analysis. The detailed report draws out the technologies and business…

Tips on keeping your online customers active

One of the most fundamental lessons that every marketer learns during the first day on the job is that it costs around six to seven times more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one. So says Daniel Binns of Epsilon. In today’s ultra-competitive market, where revenues are under pressure every quarter and margins are continuously squeezed, this lesson is more relevant than ever. The problem is that we now live in an omnichannel world. The brave new realm of always-on communications means consumers are presented with more choice through more channels than ever before. Brands have more opportunities to connect with customers than in the past, but also have to fight harder to win a share of attention in a fiercely competitive market. Winning customers is only half the battle though. Once a brand has connected with a consumer, it needs to devote…

5 marketing approaches from Harry Gordon Selfridge that still matter today

I've been following the Selfridges TV series and, although it's great, there's something that really bugs me about it. It feels like, as marketers, we spend a lot of time re-learning how to do marketing well? In case you've not seen it, the simplistic take on what Harry Gordon Selfridge believed is to… build your business (and so your promotion of it) around the customer.

Are we lost?

Over 100 years ago, retailers such as Harry Gordon Selfridge and John Wanamaker - credited with being the inventor of advertising and a marketing genius, alongside pioneering advertising men such as Claude C Hopkins who wrote Scientific Advertising in 1923 - seem to have had marketing licked. Browse popular marketing sites today though, and you'll see these lessons being shared as…

10 tips to developing your online community

The emergence of social media platforms, online forums, and company or product blogs has led to a number of consequences for brands, including an opportunity (and compulsion) to embrace new ways to connect with their target audience and a desire to build thriving online communities. The ‘secret sauce’ that gels a community around a brand can be hard to find, but there are certainly a number of principles which can help take the right approach.

How to lay down the foundations

Preparation tends to play a key part in success, and this is no exception.  Make sure you establish a few fundamental pieces as you embark on a mission to develop your brand’s online community through: 1. Internal buy-in Developing and nurturing online communities is an Art. It requires a specific skillset, time, dedication and perseverance. Don’t underestimate the resources required and make sure that you get buy-in from…

Four segments that look to community reviews when selecting products

Leading customer community platform company GetSatisfaction  recently conducted research on the kind of person that values a customer community as part of a purchase or brand experience. This cleverly put together infographic explains the four active consumer types within communities that were highlighted by the research. While the data is largely American I don't believe the types will differ in the UK, although I do wonder whether the grouping is too simplistic. Customer communities are a fast growing requirement for businesses that need to connect with their cosumers (so all businesses in my opinion). Allowing customers to feedback (good and bad) and connect with one another about using your products services. They can help bring new ideas to your business, some you would have anticipated. If your consumer…

5 reasons why organisations should develop their own online communities

In this multi-channel digital world within which organisations now operate, social engagement is a priority for many. With the growing use of social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest many companies see their communities as solely developing on these social networks. But should their online communities be limited to the social networks? This recent social media benchmark research from the CIM showed that just a quarter of companies have their own proprietary online community. So, in this post, I'll be looking at why this may be limiting your options for engagement through social media.

Is Social Media Marketing a burden for organisations?

Organisations have been attracted by participating on the public social sites through the promise of greater brand and business engagement, but for many, whether their investments are delivering…

Pebble is a cool example of an alternative to traditional concept-testing for start-ups and small businesses

One of the most exciting aspects of social media is the many diverse opportunities these spaces offer brands to connect with their publics and potential publics in new and meaningful ways. Here's a great example of ‘crowd power’ in action - it's for Pebble - a new E-paper watch, promoted via Kickstarter, ‘the world's largest funding platform for creative projects’:

About Kickstarter

Kickstarter exemplifies just how effective crowdsourcing, concept testing and buzz generation can be in launching new creative projects. The figures speak for themselves; $200 million pledged to projects 1.8 million people have backed a project 20,000 projects successfully funded Every Kickstarter project is set up and controlled by the project’s organisers. Each project offers an appropriate ‘reward’ to encourage potential supporters and people can decide to become involved in…