Our trip to the Breede River certainly created an environment that stimulated these qualities, with team building river trips and the general ‘elbows up’ at the bar that accompanies any weekend away. On arrival at the Felix Unite ‘Round the Bend’ campsite (well for the most of us at least) we chilled and cracked open a cold one while waiting for the lost ones (Tom, Louis and Melissa) to pull in. It gave as plenty time to laugh with (or at) the racy Mina, definitely the loudest member of the group. When we finally gained all our members we geared up and made our way to the abseiling. In true style, Tom played the role of a fearless, leading director and abseiled forwards down the cliff face, running it in about five seconds. Our courageous Kat, as determined in abseiling as she is in her writing, also took on her very first abseiling experience facing the rocks below.

On Saturday morning we woke up blurry eyed and straggly tailed to face the Breede River rapids. Overall, it was a successful day of physical strength and endurance, except for the ‘newbie boat’ consisting of David and Bridget, who were the only ones to bail not once, but twice. The experienced Dave and Tom got stuck under a tree branch and also capsized, relieving some of the shame felt by team newbie. Nevertheless, much amusement was provided to all. After mild sunburn, endless banter and two snake spottings, our river adventure was over and we headed back to camp for the finale- our dress up party and awards ceremony.

Personality awards were given to the team; if you could meet our eccentric members you would understand why. Best dressed went to Paola who came as a reincarnation of her famous line in her September MediaVision interview, when she stated, “In a nut sack…” as opposed to, “In a nut shell…” when describing her amiable characteristics. Other costumes included the scary Stuart garden gnome, who once again proved his resourcefulness and ingenuity by creating a gnome hat out of used Santa gear and a plastic cone. On a more serious note, our brilliant Julia won ‘employee of the year’ for her outstanding work and for always being on hand to offer great advice on writing and SEO matters- congratulations. We were all sad to leave such a memorable weekend behind us, but it was back to work on Monday as usual, minds refreshed, bodies a bit bruised, yet ready for the wrapping up of a highly successful year at MediaVision Interactive.

Some last words from our CEO, Louis Venter: “After an outstanding 2011 we felt that we really needed to celebrate in style and the river rafting weekend was an obvious choice. It really fitted in with the work hard – play hard ethos that we expect from all employees. Needless to say the weekend was epic with a huge amount of fun had by all.
The current team has a great blend of talent, creativity and enthusiasm which helps us deliver such outstanding results for our clients.”

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3. MediaVision TShirt design contest

A Weekend on the River for Our MediaVision Team

1. Shorter, more concise copy.

Gone are the longwinded online articles that seem more like essay writing. Writers are slowly realising that shorter copy which makes its point quickly is more favourable to readers. Provide a way for them to contact you, and then if they want more information they can ask for it.

2. More professional input.

With companies getting busier there is less time to focusing on strategic online writing, especially if it is not the primary focus of your job. Unless companies are going to send employees out to online writing workshops, 2011 is likely to see more outsourcing of copy. Even small business are outsourcing as they realise the value of clear, concise and persuasive copy.

3. PDFs over print.

Clients are moving towards supplying only PDFs as these are cheaper to create and send than printed hard copies of text. They can also be changed, updated, customised and improved more easily than a printed item.

4. Less spin

While no one is denying the value of persuasive copy, it is set to become more factual to allow the reader to make up his or her own mind. However, many people have suggested that client swill request copy that looks more factual but is actually just finer spun copy.

5. Simplicity

Writers are hoping for the shift towards copy that is simpler in tone, structure, language and messaging. Copy has always had a more business- and impersonal tone, but we’re hoping that it will become more informal, similar to how people actually talk to each other

6. More risk

While we are expecting to be more factual in our writing, we are also hoping that clients are becoming more confident when it comes to taking risks with copy and being more flexible in terms of sentence fragments, use of the second person “you” and creative online copywriting.

7. More SEO web copy

If you want search engines to find your website you need to optimise your content. At the same time it needs to be accessible to the reader (see my previous blog post on this subject here).

8. More social media updates

These are no longer just personal diaries broadcast to the interwebs. Corporates are utilising social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs) to broadcast their message, products or services like never before. Many companies are creating jobs where the person must handle all of the setup and online writing for social media profiles.

9. Stronger, longer strategies

Instead of once off communications with target markets, companies are opting for strategies that last a few weeks or months in order to get their message across.

10. More auto-solutions

Communicators are going to reply on automated replies instead of using time and energy writing repetitive replies.

As we get deeper into 2011 we will see how many of these predictions come true for online writing.

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Online Writing Predictions for 2011

According to those in the know, one of the most imperative aspects of social media etiquette is to keep it clean. From what we have seen over the past few years, word of mouth is stronger than ever and in order to keep your own reputation squeaky clean, it is important that you do unto others, as they say. If you get attacked by another brand or another brand is doing something that you do not approve of, make your voice heard but do not lower yourself to their level and get your hands just as dirty.

Also, make sure you deal with any complaints or negative references to your brand in the same way that you would do so “in real life”. Meaning that if that particular person came into your office or shop and complained, how would you deal with it? I doubt that you would verbally abuse them back, even if you were the Grinch personified. If you get a verbally abusive tweet or wall post, do your best to reply to the rant as your brand but also use a personal voice, showing that you are not replying in a spam type of way, but as a person that is willing to help and who wants to know why that customer is so mad or disappointed.

And finally, give back in moderation with what you take. Conversation is not a mere monologue where you speak and speak but do not listen, and the public do in fact want to hear what your brand or service has to say whilst having their own say at the same time. If they can see the spark of conversation, they will begin to interact. If you can, share your own information as well as the information of others you respect, as it is just polite.

It seems that when it comes to social media, the buzzword “interaction” continues to remain. But in addition to that, another word that pops up in social media conversation (another buzzword, by the way) is “consideration”. Just as you would not go snooping through your customers bag or knock on their door at 3am in the morning, make sure you exercise a degree of consideration and give credit where credit is needed as it can be easy to forget that you are dealing with people and not just usernames and profile pictures.

You will realise that these pointers are simple as well as obvious, but many of us tend to forget where “we” end and “our brand” begins. And finally, do not forget your please and thank you’s, otherwise your mother will be highly disappointed

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Social Media Etiquette – Don’t forget to say Please and Thank You

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether acquiring a Twitter analytics package or system is worth it as many feel that free tools and general knowledge will let you do your own analytics for free. There is however a few Twitter analytics packages that will help you track as well as store and save all your related Twitter information under one roof.

I quite like Tweetmeme analytics. Basically, they track all of the links that get posted on twitter daily and through your Tweetmeme’s recourses, you can see what’s hot and what’s not as well as what stories are making waves. The data that Twitter collects and what you see in your Tweetmeme package is not only for trending topics though, Tweetmeme analytics also uses this information to find out how exactly those particular stories became as influential as they did. Tweetmeme analytics can also see who clicked on the “hot” topics on Twitter as well as who retweeted them. A highlight of this package to me is the retweet section where you can see exactly how your particular story spread as well as how influential your retweeters are.

Tweetmeme works pretty much like other analytics packages, so just as you cross reference keywords with rankings and other influences like you do in Google analytics, so does Tweetmeme analytics need a fair amount of lateral thinking. This package is only one of many that offer Twitter analytics as well as Twitter trends. Another great tool is Trendistic, which kind of like Google insights for your Twitter account. Type in a keyword and Trendistic will give you a graph as to how popular the topic is as well as a list of real time Twitter results.

I think that this using a Twitter analytics service will prove fruitful for individuals who rely on Twitter as their social media gateway to their customers and fans and for those who need additional analytics information as to how their social networking is succeeding or failing. Many are arguing that Twitter analytics is a waste of money as there are numerous free tools which can give you the same results but all know that you can never have too many resources, can you?

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Is a Twitter analytics package worthy of your time and money?

A recent social networking site that has caught the attention of parents is Togetherville – a social networking platform for kids and parents to use and enjoy together. Togetherville feels that is important to let your children discover the world of social networking but believe that this should be done in a more secure and safe environment. This social site lets children connect, network and play games with others and also lets parents join in. The social networking site for kids claims that it has everything viewed under a microscope and there are stringent security limitations on the site to make sure that every child is safe when utilising this platform. For the child to register on Togetherville, the parent must have a Facebook account. This means that the site will not pass on anything about your child to Facebook, making sure that your child will not be related to Facebook in any way. Parents accept friend requests and they also can find their friends children via Facebook.

Many parents might be intimated by technology so when their kid says that they are joining social networking; they simply leave them to it. The truth is that parents should be aware of their child’s social networking habits and try and involve themselves with their kids’ online community (without being embarrassed, of course). Even if Facebook and Twitter is not your thing, being a part of the same social network and being friends with your child is a safety measure that all parents should look into. Experts have been a bit sketchy on their views concerning children and social networking as a few weeks ago there was a report saying that social networking is bad for kids and now, a more recent report have claimed that social networking is “healthy”. I feel that there are obviously strong arguments on either side of the spectrum, but as we can see in adults, social networking can promote one’s self identity as well as destroy it.

I feel that no matter how much we would like to deny it, social media users are becoming younger and younger. There is no way in which parents can stop their child joining social networking platforms, because if they ban it at home, there is always a friend’s computer that can be used or easier yet – their very own cell phone. Parents should allow this social interaction but mediate it where possible, if that is even possible.

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Kids and social networking: keeping an eye on interaction

As we can see, some brands thrive on social media addiction just as much as the public do. It seems that even brands can be addicted to the bright lights of social networking sites and this can sometimes result in too much of an over share of information. Some brands are just as obsessed with social media as individuals are and their social media addiction runs just as deep. Social media is a fairly new way of marketing as opposed to other marketing methods and it seems that brands are still testing the waters to see what works well and what fails miserably. What brands do know, however, is that the public constantly seek knowledge and their requests for feedback on social media cannot hold individuals back from this new level of interaction and addiction.

A brand that has taken a new spin on the addiction that individuals have to social media networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter is Pringles. Their latest campaign is focused in sharing, but not in the way that you might think. Highlighting the obsession that the public has with social media and our addiction to social networking sites, Pringles asks you to visit the site and download an “over share” button for the social networking site Facebook and when you click this button on your friends status, they will be notified of their banal or annoying status updates and will be asked to report to the Pringles website for help on their social media addiction.

Basically, Pringles are poking fun at the sharing aspect of social media networking as well as some people’s addiction to the sites and therefore going against the grain on what it is to connect. We should not forget though that even though they are poking fun at social media, they are in fact asking their customers to interact with social media platforms in order to mock others.

There is no doubt that social media is here to stay, for a while at least. We are now determining how we see and how we judge brands according to their social media campaign as opposed to their traditional marketing methods, and we should not be blamed for the fact that we judge a book by its social media cover. Social media is effective owing to various factors but also because it feeds our addictive nature. We have become like fish with a three second memory and the only way to keep us engaged is to keep us occupied, and as we all know, our social media (addiction) can occupy us for hours on end.

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Social media over share: are brands just as obsessed with social media as we are?

The social media industry has now also taken on the use of infographics in order to engage customers with statistics and facts as well as involve readers with the article itself. One infographic that got an extremely popular response was the Mega Shark. This simple graph is based on a so-bad-it’s-funny B grade film and looks at the possibility of a shark eating a plane. A brilliant form of satire, this infographic is informative and highly humourous.

As we all know, readers come to a site, scan the content and leave. In the instance of having an infographic embedded within your article, the colours and shapes grab the user’s attention, and in many cases, readers will hover over the Infographics before reading on, or sometimes even scroll down to the image and leave the page before reading anything else.

Infographics are being used to visually stimulate readers and provide them with more than simply black text on a white page. They prove as a much needed break for many readers who sometimes only come across pages and pages of content with no visual break

Infographics can also convey a large amount of information in a confined space – so instead of scrolling down a list of numbers and percentages, you can merely see what you need straight away. Something like the Facebook Factbook has a vast amount of information, but all of the information is supplied in a simple and compact form.

People in the know suggest that you use infographics when you have lots of amount of information that might possibly come across as boring or a bit of an fact overload. When looking at infographics from an SEO point of view, this pretty picture has its ups and downs. Obviously Google likes words as opposed to images, but the potential to make your infographics viral is more likely, so a good combination of words and images or infographics is probably best.

The way I see it, infographics could go two ways. They could enhance the quality of content and really boost the appeal of articles that were once thought to be too boring or long to read and give them access to the “cool” factor..Or, infographics could enhance the laziness of the already apathetic reader, making it harder for individuals who write text only pieces to catch a break. You decide.

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Infographics: visual marketing tool or merely a pretty picture

The proposal of digital advertising restrictions look to limit the amount of advertising that companies do on social networking sites as well as the nature of the advertising. Company promotion might be rather limited in upcoming years if these proposals are accepted by the Advertising Association and full regulation occurs. These conditions, already agreed by the AA, are hoping to regulate digital advertising the way that other forms of advertising are restricted and promote “responsible, legal, honest and truthful” digital advertising. Just like print, radio and visual advertising is regulated in the UK, so will social media advertising follow.

I believe that there are certain brands that utilise social networking as a means of productive digital advertising and I enjoy their dynamic approaching to social media and using it to the best of their ability. One brand that didn’t push their social advertising but made an impact at the same time was IKEA. IKEA decided to utilise Facebook to their full advantage and incorporate a competition into one of the most simple Facebook applications – photo tagging. This straightforward non gimmicky approach caught the attention of IKEA lovers all over the globe and expanded IKEA’s presence in social media and their digital advertising influence. There are however just as many digital advertising disasters in social media as there are creative successes, and one that will not be forgotten was Habitat. Their spam tagging spree placed them in hot water and even though they apologized numerous times for their unfortunate faux pas, I doubt that they will have many Twitter followers in the future.

These digital advertising regulations will not only be focused on third party and social networking sites but also company’s websites as they are now included in print TV and radio advertising.

The question is – will this restrict digital advertising for companies that utilise social media as a primary advertising approach? I believe that this could go both ways. Advertisers always seem to find another way to promote what they want said and as they already push the boundaries, they will find a way to still use digital advertising and social media advertising to display their brand in one way or another. It could possibly restrict their creativity though as this form of advertising is still fairly new and has much room for creative expansion which might not happen now due to regulation. It is true that regulation should occur with any form of digital advertising that is public and with people using social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook more than they watch television or read magazines, regulation will be needed eventually.

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Possible digital advertising restrictions for UK companies that use social networking.

A brand that obviously knows how to create a viral marketing video that literally pops is Coca Cola. One of their recent viral marketing campaigns was aptly named Free Love and targeted young college students during their lunch break. Coca Cola put a happiness machine in an American college campus and watched as the students received free coca colas, flowers, pizzas and even a massive sub sandwich from the vending machine. By seeing the student’s reaction to the machine when watching the video, you are compelled to share it with others because of its lighthearted nature. Emotions stirred – check. Pass this video on – check. Viral marketing successful – check. The video ends with the tag “where will happiness strike next?” which is more fascinating than that frustrating “to be continued” tag at the end of your favourite TV show. This intrigue will keep the public interested and therefore keep this Coca Cola viral marketing video popular on the internet.

One of my favourite viral marketing videos is the series of Volkswagen clips entitled The Fun Theory. The first video in the series, entitled “Piano Stairs”, encourages individuals to take the stairs instead of the escalator by rigging the stairs near a transport system with piano sounds. “The World’s Deepest Bin” encourages the public to throw their rubbish away by giving a local bin in a park some quirky sound effects and the “Bottle Bank Arcade” persuades people to recycle by transforming the bottle banks into arcade machines. These viral marketing videos work because they not only tug at your heart strings with their happiness factor, but encourage you to change your lifestyle and enjoy daily tasks that you would otherwise find boring. We are all sick of serious marketing and watching something that lets us escape from our daily woes cannot be anything but successful.

All of these viral marketing videos have one thing in common: happiness. They look at human nature and emotion and how to make people smile in their daily lives. By making their brands real i.e. using real people to portray real situations, they can link their brand to real life situations and therefore make the public remember what they saw and who made them see it.

In the past, branding used to be all about superficiality – producing advertisements that had no relation to real people but rather to the selling of the brand. Nowadays, brands are focusing more on how to make people remember and “giving back” to customers that are loyal and recognise their brand.

Companies should not focus only on viral marketing though. Michael Donnelly, Group director for Worldwide Interactive Marketing, said recently in a presentation on social marketing for Coca Cola that “Viral shouldn’t BE your strategy – just part of a comprehensive plan.” It should be used in conjunction and in addition to your other marketing campaigns and enhance your brand name and aim.

So, pass these viral marketing videos onto your friends, make them smile and enjoy them for what they are, even if you do not remember the brand at the end of the clip – which is highly unlikely, if you ask me.

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Big brands approach to viral marketing video’s: don’t worry, be happy.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has passed an order that’s lets Google sell and buy electricity – enter Google Energy. Some of us who have recently discovered this news are beginning to wonder how it will affect us. Will we be buying electricity from Google instead of our own electricity companies?

The answer to this question is no. Well, no for now. According to Google, their new energy initiative has been established in order to have widespread control over their numerous data centres and by doing this, Google Energy hope to achieve carbon neutrality. Google Energy, a subsidiary of Google, will be able to buy and sell their own energy and their official spokesperson has claimed that this energy will all be renewable in Google’s efforts to move towards a greener energy solution. Google have made it clear that they wish to become more carbon neutral seeing as they consume a vast amount of energy within their empire and want to obtain more green credits, so to say.

If this seems strange to you, it must be mentioned that this is not the first time that a large company has been given the right to buy and sell their own electricity. Extremely large companies have in the past been granted the right to get involved in the wholesale electricity market. Google have had a keen interest on the energy market for a while and if you ask me, this is the best way in for them.

In addition to bettering their own electricity efficiency costs, Google Energy will be allowed to sell electricity to the public, but if this is a part of Google’s big plans, they have yet to say. A spokesperson for the giant says that this is not their immediate plan but could be a possibility in the future. And knowing Google, this possibility will definitely be an opportunity that they will not miss out on. Who knows, soon we could be using the Google search engine on our own PC, which is ironically powered by Google. Exiting or just a little bit scary?

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Google find themselves with a finger in yet another pie – cue Google Energy