Wednesday, 01 July 2009
BabelWithMe is a real time multilingual conversation tool that is free to use. I think it will take off in some form; it certainly has lots of potential. One of the main problems we encounter when helping international technology brands communicate in a social sense is doing it in multiple languages.
Too often this holds companies back when they are thinking about how they can embrace digital communications within the social space. Take Twitter for example: shall we translate one Twitter feed into many different languages? Sometimes the time it takes to translate kills the spontaneity of the message. The other alternative, having lots of different Twitter accounts for all different languages isn't always possible, for many reasons. Besides, sometimes when using Twitter as a broadcast tool you want to have unity over the messages you are sending and this is harder if 20 different people are Twittering for you.
If BabelWithMe worked alongside Twitter somehow, then this would be real progress. Similarly if you could embed it, it would be even more useful. For now, I think you could utilise this BabelWithMe tool to continue the conversation in one place. You could encourage people to use it as a neutral site to send users to, after a webinar perhaps, or during an event to have a multilingual conversation. Let's wait and see what becomes of BabelWithMe; we predict big things!
Labels: multilingual blogging twitter in different languages babelwithme social media languages
Posted by Rachel at 17:37
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
With margins under ever increasing pressure, many IT solution providers and VARs are looking to the brave new world of Managed Services as a route to survival and hopefully long term prosperity. It's one of the few growth areas during this Recession, and we recently brought to market a new
Managed Service offering for a major technology client. In doing so we learnt a few things about the marketplace...
One of the key challenges that existing IT providers face is not a technology one; it is a commercial and personnel issue. Talking to many small IT companies it became clear to us that their sales approach has always been about leading with the technology. This has resulted in haphazard sales with limited opportunities for regular, retained revenue.
If they are to benefit from the retained revenue Managed Services can bring, they require a very different approach to how they present themselves, moving away from delivering technology projects to delivering business solutions. It's is about the following:
- Simplifying the language and removing technospeak
- Learning to speak to the Managing Director not the IT Manager
- Demonstrating benefits to the business not the features of the technology
- Offering an insurance against failure not a fix to a problem
For many smaller firms this can take them outside their comfort zone and one many will struggle to achieve. Take a look at many small IT companies’ websites and you will usually see a plethora of vague, unquantifiable services littered with technology jargon.
We believe the first step to building a successful Managed Service business is to
create a really clear offering. Prospective customers need to understand what is being offered, how it will benefit them, and how much it costs. A website is the shop window and should reflect this and present this clearly and concisely. Pricing should be transparent with different services for different types of customers.
We have lots of experience helping to market Managed Service offerings, making them viable business growth oppotunities for the IT solution providers and VAR marketplace.
Labels: managed services msp
Posted by Roberto at 15:46
Monday, 22 June 2009
Zunavision, created by Stanford University researchers studying artificial intelligence, is a new piece of software that can easily embed adverts into any video. This technology could be utilised to great effect as a reseller tool, allowing a vendor to create high quality promotional videos about the latest products and services. Resellers could then easily co-brand the video incorporating their logo or other content directly with the clip and embed it on their own website. We are looking at the possibilities so watch this space.
Labels: resellers zunavision advertising in video youtube
Posted by Steve at 16:41
Monday, 22 June 2009
You will most likely have heard,
Facebook has launched vanity URLs ( for example, facebook.com/yourcompanyname) for individuals and companies. This is an opportunity to increase your
coverage online, but you must be quick or else someone will beat you to it. Even if at this moment in time you are not thinking about creating a
Facebook group my advice would be to go ahead and register your vanity URL anyway. Most well known brands have made their move already, so don't delay.
What does this mean for the B2B sector? Well, although
Facebook is thought of very much as a B2C social media tool, we would recommend registering your brand name anyway.
Facebook is one of the most popular social media tools out there and this is something you cannot ignore. There is a lot of nice functionality in
Facebook that could be utilised by a B2B company: letting people know about events, uploading video and pictures, engaging in debate etc. Don't rule it out just because it is used mainly as a social facilitator.
Update: It has since become apparent that
Facebook set some prerequisites to the vanity URL for companies. Firstly they have decided you need 1000 fans or more to have a vanity URL on your fan page. Secondly, you must have had a page since 31 May 2009.
Another update: Good news for smaller companies:
Facebook will lift the ban on 1000 minimum fans on June 28
th.
Labels: vanity urls b2b and facebook facebook
Posted by Bright Digital at 11:36
Monday, 15 June 2009
This isn't a new subject,
Josh Bernoff of Groundswell fame has spoken about it previously. But it is a subject that crops up when speaking to clients and potential clients. Is it right to pay bloggers to blog about your product or service? Josh Bernoff'asserts that is OK, as long as the blogger is transparent (a key concept when operating in social spaces) about the fact that they are being paid, and that they can speak freely about it, i.e. if they think it's pants they can say so!
I agree with what Josh says (he always has a balanced view of brands operating in social media and I can recommend following his work). But I would extend this question further to reflect an issue many companies are having right now: how do staff internally make the time (and hone the skills) to blog themselves? Is it right or wrong to have an agency help you write your blog?
This is more dangerous territory as it threatens to undermine the very core principle of social media: authenticity. Here at Bright, we understand that people are time pressured and also lack the confidence to blog. We help people make the time by hosting weekly calls where we talk about what's going on in the community and suggest articles for blogs. Then we help facilitate the blogs themselves. This means we get the staff members to write the bones of the article, and we, if needed, tweak or suggest ways to improve it.
We want to encourage as many brands as possible to engage with their audience using social media, so if we can help them blog successsfully by facilitating content with them then that's fine with us. The content comes from them and we help them get it right. A perfect balance.
Labels: should you pay for blogs paying bloggers
Posted by Rachel at 09:10
Friday, 12 June 2009
I have been attending lots of events recently for marketing people who are interested in how social media strategy can help them achieve their B2B marketing objectives. They have been popular and have had great turnouts, but I still think social media is a cult, esoteric concept to most marketing people. There is still a long way to go to get past cynicism and internal 'poo-pooing' to the idea that social media is about more than Facebook! When I meet marketing folk at these dos they normally tell me that they want to learn more but they still seem tentative about how they can incorporate social media into their strategy. And if they feel like this can you imagine what their colleagues internally think! These keen but still unsure marketing people have often got a battle on their hands to get budget and backing to invest in this new area.
What people need is some simple and practical entry points (baby steps!) into this unchartered and exciting territory. Here's what I suggest:
1. Start using Twitter yourself first to get the hang of it before you set up your company on there(
follow us if you like!). Have a play and see what it's all about - it's the only way to understand it. Don't worry about what to say, just say whatever pops into your head! You need to talk to have a conversation so just say something!
2. Start listening to what is going on out there in your target community. See what people are talking about on the specialist sites, what groups exist on social networking groups, what people are saying on blogs and forums. Have a weekly call internally to formalise this activitiy and task each person with the job of bringing at least one thing of interest to the table.
3. After the call, start brainstroming the type of things you might blog about, using the stuff you've come across as inspiration. Subjects should be of interest to your audience (obviously!), and be written by someone who cares about what they are writing about - this is key.
Once you've done these three things, you will be much more prepared to enter this arena, instead of getting stuck straight into it and feeling unsure about what lays ahead.
Let us know how you get on... Good luck!
Labels: social media cultural change social media cynicism
Posted by Rachel at 12:32
Tuesday, 09 June 2009
This article on the B2B Marketing website states that Twitter has become the most popular social platform for senior marketing professionals. Whilst it makes me happy, it also makes me think "Hmmm, why is it that people are more comfortable Tweeting than using other social tools?". A few reasons I can think of:
- Twitter is easy
- Twitter is free
- Twitter is quick
- Twitter is set up in minutes
- Twitter is fast becoming a household name (ride the wave)
As opposed to blogging, creating groups on social networks etc, Twitter is very appealing to marketeers due to its accessibility and instant results. The fact that it is
senior profs rather than marketeers in general is, I think, indicative that they are confident enough to convey opinion. The problem many marketing departments have with social media is that they do not trust their employees to speak on behalf of their company, but if the CEO or Head of Marketing is doing the Tweeting, then that's a different matter. These people often make the best figureheads of social activity for this reason: confidence. So, let's hear more from the horses' mouths!
What's next? How do these social-technology-embracing marketeers and senior professionals refine their Twitter campaigns? At the minute a very spammy trend for reciprocal following is occuring (this reminds me of the equally spammy reciprocal links days of SEO). My advice: don't succumb to this approach; only follow people you are genuinely interested in.
Labels: twitter for marketeers twitter strategy
Posted by Rachel at 11:18
Monday, 08 June 2009
I've heard plenty of people say "Email is dead" over the past year or so, often in relation to the exponential growth in the use of social media. Normally such rhetoric is making a statement about the fact that people are interacting with brands in a new, more personal, touchy-feely way and therefore don't respond to the old fashioned model of Brand > Customer communication using an official and authoratitive voice. Whilst I agree that the way brands speak to their customers is changing (we are the first to encourage more open channels of dialogue using social media!), I don't agree that email is dead. Email can go hand in hand with social media.
The fact is that people
do still rely on email for essential information from companies they are interested in hearing from. The reason I think open rates are down is that people's inboxes are just
too full of emails from companies. As we spend more money and time online (and as a result subscribe to more emails, knowingly or not) we are being inundated with email. If you are anything like me you have thousands of unopened emails in your inbox from brands that I simply cannot be bothered to unsubscribe from. (I don't know why these companies just don't unsubscribe me after a certain time of not opening any of their emails?)
What if you continue offering emails, but supplement these emails with other ways of delivering your news, offers, updates (or whatever else you put in your emails)? Use your email as a
roundup, a regular (weekly?) communication that acts as a kind of 'best of'. Then deliver your time sensitive messages using RSS feeds; your more editorial, chatty messages using a blog; your response-required communications via Twitter. Of course, include all this in your round up email too so no-one misses out.
No-one here will ever suggest you bin your email marketing communication. What we will suggest is that you evolve your email marketing strategy by integrating your email and your social media efforts.
Labels: email and social media email is dead
Posted by Rachel at 12:59
Friday, 05 June 2009
Are you interested in how to integrate social media into your marketing strategy? 'Yes' I hear you exclaim! Well you're in luck; we've just published a
Straightforward Guide to Social Media for IT Channel Marketeers. Even if you are not an IT channel marketeer you will find the insight, tips and advice in this straight talking guide helpful (especially if you are work in technology).
Email Rachel to receive your free guide today.
Labels: social media for technology guide to social media social media strategy free social media guide
Posted by Bright Digital at 11:15
Tuesday, 02 June 2009
I found a trip to this year’s Channel Expo at the NEC extremely useful for assessing how the credit crunch is biting the IT and Telecoms industry. In particular Tiffani Bova, from Gartner, gave us all some excellent insight into the priorities of CIOs. As you may expect in the current environment, cutting costs is the big priority for 70% of the CIOs researched back at the start of the year, but I think it’s a little worrying that only 50% said that growing sales revenues was important and that was the lowest answer. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see whether those few companies come out of the recession the strongest?
Tiffani’s slide on how CIOs intend to build value from their existing infrastructure was extremely useful particularly the growing interest in collaboration and virtualization. We are interested in these subjects from two perspectives – 1) helping clients move their business towards cloud computing with a stronger interface online and 2) putting some of the theories into practice for the communication services we offer. We want to move away from a project by project costing model into providing recurring services that help our customers generate leads and convert business online.
I am also interested in developing the idea of a completely virtual organisation and the presentation just spurned me on to consider it a little more deeply … imagine really low (read ‘no’) office overheads and totally outsourced services and a completely mobile dynamic workforce, who meet only when they need to and spend the whole time constructively meeting customers, working in peace, networking with peers in the real world and the virtual and developing their own skills! But I need to develop that idea quite a bit further before I can start convincing people it’s the way forward for communications agencies! More to come on that subject from me soon!
Labels: collaboration and virtualization
Posted by Bright Digital at 12:03
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
In the rush to join the ‘big conversation’ website content is increasingly bookmarked and twittered. However it seems the humble ‘send to a friend’ email option is often missing from the list of possible actions.
There are still plenty of occasions when I want to send some content to one person or a small select group because it fits with the very specific conversation we are having. That being a relatively private conversation or one where the value is in a certain context.
So, when you build your website or blog please remember that private conversations still happen and that I still like to ‘Send to a friend’!
Labels:
Posted by Kate at 13:54
Thursday, 07 May 2009
I know I am going to regret saying this but AudioBoo just makes me want to cry. After 10 minutes listening and adopting a ‘I really must try to get into this’ attitude all I can say is that I now hugely appreciate the talent of even the worst radio DJ. I know we live in a brave new world where everyone is a publisher, video maker, commentator.... but ‘blah blah blah’ is all that springs to mind after the AudioBoo experience. But maybe that is because the booers I listened to just aren’t interesting enough and that is maybe not the fault of the format itself. Twitter is an excellent means of broadcasting ‘news’ snippets and thoughts to people with vaguely similar interests to you. But I can’t imagine a situation where I would want to listen to what is in effect is a very short podcast from either my nearest and dearest or people in the industry I highly respect unless they seriously master the art of wit and can keep it brief.... and think about whether anyone is really interested in the cat or the fact your girlfriend has detoured into Karen Millen whilst you sit in your car! If you want to waste time listening to what sounds like a bunch of abstract, boring answer phone messages ... take a look
www.audioboo.fm ...
Labels: social media workshops; social media agency; social media experts; social media marketing twitter
Posted by Kate at 17:43
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Creative Director Kate and Social Media Manager Rachel (that's me!) will be visiting several well-known technology companies over the summer talking to them about how Bright Digital can help them achieve their marketing objectives utilising social media technologies, platforms and applications. The
Social Media Workshop day is very interactive and, rather than killing the audience slowly and painfully with PowerPoint presentations, we have group exercises to really help the attendees understand and engage with social media as a valid and effective marketing discipline. Key points we cover are: what is social media?; how do different groups use social media?; case studies of where we have used social media effectively; incorporating social media into email marketing communications; and measuring social media campaigns.
A great day to educate the team, have fun and hopefully come up with some ideas that you can put into practice!
Email Rachel if you are interested in us hosting a Social Media Workshop at your workplace.
Labels: social media workshops; social media agency; social media experts; social media marketing
Posted by Rachel at 16:01
Wednesday, 06 May 2009
Compared to traditional agencies, digital agencies have always had the very difficult job of getting creative and technical people - 2 personality types that are often polar opposites – to work together effectively. Creative technologists, as we shall call them, can be the vital link, and at Bright Digital there are several of these people who bring the creatives and techies together.
The aspiration of Creative Technologists to be designers means they often understand the language used by both camps and have the patience and interest to deal with both types of personalities. This makes them a vital glue in the whole creative process – communicating and translating ideas so they are understood, injecting a balanced view and keep the client's objectives at the forefront of their mind.
Labels:
Posted by Roberto at 15:43
Friday, 27 March 2009
Bright Digital has been ranked no. 14 in the
Crain's 2009 List of Digital Media Agencies in Greater Manchester. Given this was after our first full year of trading and one in which we have stayed below the PR radar it is a great reflection of the hard work that has gone into getting the new venture off the ground. The team have done some superb work this year in the technology sector creating pan european lead generation campaigns, managing creative content for digital marcoms, establishing and implementing social media strategies and engaging multimedia event kiosks.
The list is a bit of an odd one with a mixture of 'real' digital creative agencies, media agencies, traditional agencies and software service suppliers. It is also generated mainly from self submissions from agencies themselves so I think some of the figures maybe a bit on the creative side - either the % of digital work, how much of this is retained revenue and not media and also how much was actually generated by a Manchester office.
Regardless of this we are still showing one of the top revenues per head in the region which we are delighted about. The list is available from
Crain's website or if you drop me a line I will look at sourcing a copy for you.
Labels: Bright Digital technology sector business
Posted by Roberto at 17:44
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Social Media is fast becoming a very important part of what we do... so much so that a separate arm of the business dedicated to it is in the making as we speak, the imaginatively named Bright Social (more info coming soon). If you are a social media nut who has IT / marketing experience, technical ability (can code in HTML) and an almost scarily organised approach to work, then
get in touch with us, like, NOW! (
Read the job spec here first though please!)
Labels: social media job social media assistant
Posted by Rachel at 16:19
Friday, 13 March 2009
As well as helping businesses grow using digital media and marketing, recently we have been very busy helping well known brands 'join in the conversation' that millions of people are having about their business, right now, online. Social media is a major buzz word that marketeers must be sick to death of hearing about! Some people might be afraid of embarking on a social media campaign, worried that they may be jumping on an overhyped bandwagon whilst it speeds uncontrollably into an unknown future without a metric in sight! At Bright Social (the new arm of the business dedicated to brand engagement with social media) we take a very different approach.
First we LISTEN to what's being said out there. For quite a long time if necessary. Then we put together a realistic strategy that focuses on how we can help you make a MEASURABLE difference to your business objectives by utilising social media. We're going to be posting regularly on subjects like 'How do we measure social media activities?'; 'Is it OK to recruit a copywriter to write our blogs?'; 'Creating video for social media consumption: high value production or low-fi approach?' so come back soon if you'd like to share in our expertise. You'll be able to sign up to our RSS feeds, follow us on Twitter and more...
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Posted by Rachel at 13:51
Friday, 30 January 2009
We had a great day on Wednesday hosting a workshop with one of our international technology clients about how they can harness social media to achieve some of their business objectives in 2009. It was a really practical discussion in which we pitted their own internal objectives against the end customers' goals and then considered some social media tools to see which ones could work for them... watch this space! Here's a snap of a few of us outside the lovely building where we hosted the event.
Labels: social media
Posted by Rachel at 09:29
Monday, 19 January 2009
We need a confident person who understands technology to look after some of our most important and treasured clients. As many are based in London and on the M4 corridor you will be dividing your time between our office in Manchester and our clients, although mostly you'll be oop north. If you have a good few years' experience as an Account Manager in a digital environment and don't mind southerners then this might just be your dream role...
Read the serious stuff here.
Labels: Digital account manager manchester
Posted by Bright Digital at 17:25
Friday, 16 January 2009
We are looking for an experienced graphic designer (with web experience) to join us full-time. We don't just want someone who sits and does what they're told; we want a thinker, a do-er, a contributor, a creative all-rounder! First
read the proper job spec here, then if you think you have the both hard and soft skills to fit the bill then get diddlin' and
send us your CV with examples of work and a covering email now.
Labels: graphic designer manchester
Posted by Bright Digital at 17:14
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Social media has become part of many people's everyday lives: Facebook-ing friends when we’re supposed to be working; watching YouTube instead of Coronation Street; and Twitter-ing - if you’re not now, you soon will be - with people we’ve never even met. But what about social media as part of a corporate marketing strategy? Can companies be social in this sense?
The answer is yes, most definitely! Here are a few things to consider as you embark on your campaign...
Marketing managers need consider what they want to achieve with a social media strategy. If clear objectives aren't set the campaign will easily lose focus (like any good marketing campaign you will need to set out metrics to measure your success).
Next, think about your audience. Are they active in social media, even Internet literate? If not this doesn’t necessarily mean they never will be, but keep in mind the channels within social media that will be most appropriate. You should not rule any demographic out. If you are certain that your end customers aren’t active within social media now and never will be, consider communicating with their key influencers: children, friends, and colleagues.
Now consider that well-known brands are often perceived as monolithic, impenetrable presences: a ‘thing’ rather than a ‘them’. With social media comes an opportunity for brands to communicate with customers on a more personal level, literally human to human. The human face of a brand is its employees, and it is important that brands empower (and trust) their employees to represent them online. Forrester Analyst Josh Bernhoff asserts that brands are wasting their time if they are not prepared to let their employees, rather than the brand, do the talking:
“Your customers and your prospects are connecting and talking about your products and your company right now... You need to be part of this conversation... You might start a blog... a Facebook group... But until you start connecting as a corporate employee, you won’t understand what is going on out there.”Another way of putting it is: companies don’t blog, people do. It is difficult for brands to move away from wanting to control all corporate communication with the utmost diligence. But social media is about the moment; brevity is its defining feature. Status updates are changed hourly, blogs are hurriedly published with typos, comments left breathlessly without hesitation - the next day yesterday’s activity is on page 7, no longer important. In short, there simply isn't time for all comms to go through the usual sign off channels - so try and loosen the reins a little.
Authenticity is a key concept to be mindful of when it comes to brand engagement with your customers within the social media environment. People don’t want to hear ‘risk-avoidant lingoism’ (as one commenter recently put it), but instead real opinions and helpful advice from the experts, the employees! Be careful to keep alive the inherent spirit of authenticity and informality, or else your efforts will be less successful.
Lastly, remember that participation isn’t limited to ‘speaking’. Josh Bernhoff cites four other ways for companies to get involved with the conversations happening in social media: listening (finding out what your customers are really saying); energising (getting your best customers to evangelise your products); supporting (helping customers solve their own and each other's problems); and finally, embracing (working with your customers to make products better).
Labels: social media facebook blogging twitter groundswell
Posted by Rachel at 16:56
Friday, 03 October 2008
We've been doing some great work with the Institute of Directors, including helping them
interpret their brand online,
providing a multimedia micro site for their Annual Convention and also developing an interactive personalised zone within the login area (coming soon).
Labels: multimedia branding micro site
Posted by Rachel at 16:48
Friday, 03 October 2008
We took Henry Boot Developments out recently to celebrate the end of a project. We didn't spend all afternoon in the pub, honest. Here's a pic (unfortunately my ginormous bonce is obscuring the most important person, the client):
Posted by Bright Digital at 16:42
Friday, 03 October 2008
It's Kate's birthday today, and she's a laydee so I'm not telling you how old. Here she is blowing out candles on the cake that Rob slaved over for hours.
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Posted by Rachel at 16:35
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Another job for commercial property developers Henry Boot Developments, this one. They've bought a smashing listed building, the old court house, on Manchester's best known street, Deansgate. We're in charge of presenting the vision for the building to people potentially interested in letting a space in the development. It's going to be 'mixed use' (posh shops, restaurants, that type of thing). We are planning a very swanky piece of fashion-illustration inspired interactive animation, web-based of course. Here's a photo of the building. Be back soon with some visuals.
Labels: animation
Posted by Rachel at 08:56