On the whole I’m neither a great fan nor believer in the FMCG ‘brand experience’ website.

The first and only time I have visited the Persil website was just before writing this post and having visited it is safe to say it’s likely to be the last time. Similarly, If you’ll excuse the pun, it’s hard to give crap about your toilet paper brand isn’t it, so why would you go to look at the Andrex website? (oh alright it’s got cute puppies on it but you get what I mean right?!)

It would seem most UK consumers agree.. this unscientific look at traffic volumes to FMCG brand website  shows very low traffic volumes to these sites despite some of the largest above the line advertising spends in the UK.

You can clearly see that brands which struggle to enjoy an emotional attachment, such as washing powders, receive far less traffic than brands that have succeeded in bridging this void.

Up until now FMCGbrands haven’t had much choice but to try and provide, somewhat tackily in some instances, games and other “fun” things to attract & keep site visitors, after all, there really wasn’t any other reason to visit their sites.

Recently though we have seen more and more FMCG brands approach us to start exploring the role social media can play in their online activity, and what we’ve been seeing could be really exciting for the future of FMCG online. Social media finally gives digital a leading role to play in the promotion of, and emotional engagement with FMCG brands!

So how and why is social media changing the game? Here’s a quick introduction to how and why your FMCG brand should take a serious look at social media:

Why?

1. Establish an emotional connection with your brand!

Most FMCG brands are not related to things were are naturally emotionally connected to, social media enables brands to align themselves to causes that fill this void, have the potential for huge reach and enable a dialogue between the brand and consumers.

1. Enable word of mouth marketing

Successful alignment of your brand with issues and causes that people care about means your brand will be carried along with the cause. Social media tools such as Facebook enable people to quickly share events such as the charitable cause they are embarking upon, if you have thought carefully about this mechanic then your brand will get carried along too!

1. Drive sales

Successful use of social media marketing will drive an uplift in sales, if people care about your brand they will use you they will switch to you and you will make money, this is of course the only real reason to do this.

How?

1. Find a big idea!

You will know what your brand stands for, so look for causes, events, charities etc that make sense for you to get involved in (you may already support these through your CSR activity) and that have the broad or niche appeal required to achieve your ambition

1. Integrate

As an FMCG brand manager you are probably lucky enough to have a significant above the line marketing budget, you can use it to ensure that this is a success. Once you are clear about your ‘big idea’,  promote it! An integrated campaign will ensure that this builds to a critical mass.

1. Measure

There is a return on your investment to be had here, it may seem hard to correlate the uplift in sales to the social media campaign but there are plenty of ways in which to ensure that the campaign can be measured and its ROI calculated.

Image credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/earlysound/2186172726/

Remember Stephen Frygate on Twitter? This afternoon chief execs at Vodafone will be extremely red faced after a massive blunder on their Twitter account.

An employee managed to tweet a fairly offensive message to the world which resulted in a spectacular page of @replies:

The company has already issued two desperate pleas for forgiveness across to all people who responded to the tweet and appear to be frozen in panic as I write this post. The one positive may be that their followers will increase out of pure rubbernecking curiosity to see how this car crash pans out.

This perfectly illustrates the dangers of social media and why as a large corporate it is important to regulate access and activity to your accounts. We speak to a lot of big brands about these issues and whether it is right for them to dive into social mediia, as a result it will be extremely interesting to see the fallout of this event and how they handle it.

Oh and by the way Vodafone – if you need reputation management from an award winning digital agency just give us a call

Over the last couple of weeks, some users of DoubleClick may noticed server outages and massive spikes in server connections.  The connections were apparently referrals from DoubleClick banner adds, but coming in such massive waves that they caused the target servers to overload and stop serving pages. The flood of connections peaked between 6000 and 10000 connections in a 15 second sample.   In terms of website security, we call this a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack and would only ever expect to see it from a malicious source, such as a hacker or botnet.

Google don’t seem to have publicised this amazing blunder, although they have issued this statement to marketing campaigners who reported the issue :

Recently Google was notified of a problem being experienced by a small number of advertisers who were seeing large volumes of server requests from activity on the Google platform.  Following an investigation Google identified the problem and resolved the cause of the issue.  The problem related to ads being delivered across the platform that triggered a server request at the same time as the ad impression was delivered.

This issue was unforeseen, Google is sorry that the select client sites experienced problems with the volume of server requests.

Such heart warming remorse from the company comes only weeks after Chinese hackers launched attacks against Google’s systems and penetrated their security.  In those attacks, servers and accounts were compromised resulting in trojan horses and viral code being uploaded to Google’s systems.

In Google’s brief explanation of DoubleClick’s recent strange behaviour, they have not confirmed if the events are in any way linked and if DoubleClick’s servers have also been compromised.

I’m very pleased to annouce that our good friends over at Distilled have agreed a monumental deal with SEOmoz!

SEOmoz and Distilled are consumating their 2008 engagement as global associates with a full blow marriage of skills and minds; Distilled will become the consulting arm of the pair with SEOmoz concentrating on further developing their excellent set of SEO tools  and resources.

This means Distilled are going over the water, opening a US office and Rob is doing everything at once!

Many of the Bloomers here know Tom personally (I still can’t beat him at pool…), and Alex and I have been known to harass Will, Duncan and anyone else we can find at Distilled on a regular basis so I would like to extend our collective congratulations and wish Distilled (and SEOmoz of course) and prosperous year.

In the words of Alan Partridge – Spiceworld!

You can read the official scoop at the Distilled blog, the annoucement on Search Engine Watch as well as Mr Fishkin’s announcement over on SEOmoz.

We have a new vacancy within Bloom (see below) we are happy consider candidates that are on their way to becoming this rather than perhaps being there already.. what we do want is someone really bright, really motivated & excited by the social media revolution and its impact on digital/SEO & PR, really straight talking and personable.. this is a new discipline for us so we are looking for someone from a PR agency background who can add new strings to our bow!

Digital PR vacancy

Bloom Media is a leading digital agency in Leeds west Yorkshire, we are enjoying a buoyant start to 2010 and are expanding our team. Last year we won a prestigious Dadi award for an innovative social media campaign and are looking to strengthen our digital marketing offering with a specialist in online PR, content strategy and social media marketing.

You will be an online and digital PR specialist, you will love online PR and social media like it is your very own offspring! You will be an budding online PR and social media expert with at least two years experience in this field and an excellent understanding of the evolving digital landscape. You will be a digital evangelist, who are able to demonstrate the effectiveness of online PR to existing and potential new clients, as well as helping the agency as a whole stay at the forefront of digital innovation and trends.

You will have solid proven experience working on website content/copy, social media and digital campaigns and understanding of how to develop relationships with key online opinion formers and brand evangelists. A brilliant nose for news and experience working on crisis and issues would be useful as well as the ability to drive and direct campaigns to support traditional PR activity. Bringing blogger contacts would be advantageous and as would stakeholder and media relations and management experience/exposure.

The Role
You will join an existing team: setting the direction for all online PR activity within the agency, working closely with the SEO and development teams on new business pitches, and developing existing client relationships. The ideal candidate will have an excellent knowledge of relevant UK online media.

You will have:

- Great communication skills, both over the phone and face-to-face
- Excellent copy writing skills
- The ability to meet strict deadlines
- Proactive approach with the ability to use own initiative
- Ability to deal effortlessly with several tasks
- Excellent telephone manner and team working skills
- An obsession with digital media!

The Agency
We are vibrant digital agency with a great blue chip client base including some of the UK’s most innovative online brands. We’re passionate about digital and love our jobs, we’re looking for someone who shares this and wants to thrive in an environment full of likeminded individuals with a great team spirit.

We think we’ve excelled ourselves this year with our very own version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’ (eat your heart out Wogan & Jones).. I think its safe to say that Bloom isn’t a hot bed of vocal talent but those of you who know us, we hope this brings a smile to your face and i suspect a tear to your eye for those who don’t well this might be a little wierd..

Enjoy!

Video’s below.. sorry only got it to work once Nas was well on her way but she was without doubt a natural.. Norton… well.. not so much..

So instead of introducing myself I thought I would treat you to some of the worst social media introductory posts I have ever seen. Some of these are real corkers. To get the full effect I recommend that you imagine someone standing in front of you at a party, and these are the first words you hear from them…

Identity Crisis – would you let this person in your home

“Hi we are two male rats. I am all cream and Smokey is gray. We have moved into our new home last night when we left our brothers and sisters, We have come to live here with two girls and their mam and dad, we are getting spoilt already we had lots of loves last night and today for breakfast we had Tuna cat food and grapes we have a a bowl full of mix, We are going to get more cuddles later on today but for now smokey is eating and I am nodding off, Hope to get the girls mam to go on this site more to find out all the lovely things she can give and do with us”

Biggest Trout – How to establish yourself as the biggest trout in the room

“Hi all. My record brown trout is 5lb taken on a daddy longlegs at Swanswater fishery,unfortunately i had to return it as it was a week after the brown trout season ended.My record rainbow is just under 10lbs from Inverawe fishery.”

Doesn’t get out much – Whatever you do, don’t ask her how she is

“Hi All, This is [removed] reporting. Married to [removed] for the past 39yrs and reside in [removed]. We tow a Sprite Swing with an Isuzu Double Cab V6.Just bought this Van in January. Before that Sprite Solar. Caravan’s name: LIFE AT THE TOP as we think caravanning is absolutely just that. We have 3 children, 2 sons 45 & 43yrs and one daughter 36yrs(This age thing sounds strange but true. Work it out yourself ???? Also six grandchildren .Our Daughters two children [removed] 16 ½ and [removed] 12yrs camp with us most of the time especially December holidays. We camp every second month end, sometimes even more as I am sooooo scared the tyres on the caravan will go square if we don’t keep them rolling often. We like to camp close to home these days max 3hrs drive. We like it at Sondela, Monateng, Umoya. Mbize and also Atlanta (Going to Atlanta this coming weekend.) There are so many good camps in this area. We do our December stint at Monateng as we love the private ablution and kitchen, also very close to home and good entertainment for the kids at the Colonade in Pretoria. We both work at [removed] in Boksburg. [removed] a Draughtsperson and myself Telecommunications Manager. We always say camping & Africa is not for “” sissies”” so going camping in the winter does not bother us at all. Well that it for now Cheers [removed]

I’ve just gone deaf – There’s no mistaking when Jake enters the room

“HI BIG JAKE SCOTTISH REBEL MEMEBER OF NORTN CAROLINIA,S SOUTHERN HIGHLAND BRIGADE SCOTTISH DIVISION.”

My parties are much better - Ever get the feeling someone just doesn’t want to be there

“I joined mainly to get the free kits to use with my own scrapbook software. If this is still a beta then I forgive you guys. I use a lot of [removed] programs but this? Hmm good luck, I may check back now and then.”

So there you have it, 5 ways not to say hello. As for me, well all I can say is; Hi, nice to meet you.

Image Credit: With Thanks to Bump

image credit Love in a cold climate… Valentine’s Day message in the snow. Photograph: Anil Dayal/AP www.guardian.co.uk/…/feb/14/sayitwithpoetry

Following our recent .. ahem ‘award win’ for best use of social media we’ve been on a whirlwind tour of top 100 UK brands in Britain talking to them about the use of social media for their organisations. During these visits a familiar feeling came over me which will give away my age a little here. So first a little diversion before I get back to the point of the title of this blog.

When I started out in digital we used to have to persuade companies that they should get a website, they’d read the news, heard the hype, everyone was telling them to get one so they were listening.. sort of. After websites it was (and still is to a degree) the importance of SEO, now its social media. Meeting clients we can see that they are responding to the ‘hype’ around social media, some of them can also remember the process I’ve just listed so are resigned to the ‘fact’ that they should probably engage with this, after all the ‘hype’ was right about the website and was right about SEO. It’s a bit more straight forward because most clients have a facebook account whereas they didn’t have a website.. but still I can see the ‘fear’ on their faces and in most cases what can be best described as a grudging acceptance that they are going to have to get their heads around another complex digital concept and technology shift.

.. anyway back to the title..

The other day I was asked a direct question by a UK based car manufacturer, where in their organisation we felt that ‘social media’ should fit “ is it PR or marketing?” it’s a simple enough question right? And the answer is simple enough too but the implications are actually pretty far reaching I think (btw the answer is both, it sits across both) and poses a significant challenge for agencies wishing to offer social media campaign management to their clients.

Social media campaigns are challenging because they touch on so many parts of the Marcomms Mix and influence or rely upon so many different technologies. It occurred to me that both digital and PR agencies are seeking to claim this space as our own.. but look at each other with cynicism about the others ability to offer the best solution.

In a nut shell, those of us in digital look at PR agencies and are dubious about their grasp of the technology, particularly the overlap with SEO, I think we are also cynical about whether PR agencies really get ‘it’. By this I mean that PR historically has been based around pushing messages whereas Social Media is about conversations, we’d argue that we understand the medium in which these conversations happen ‘properly’ and therefore are better placed to advise upon their use. Finally we’d tag on points about measurability etc and consider the argument won.

In retort I get the impression that PR agencies look at the importance of social media to PR and crisis management and are cynical about our ability to produce the ‘right’ messages and rightly I think they’d be highly dubious about our media relations skills when advising a client upon crisis management issues. There are probably other points to add to this so I’ll extend an open invitation to PR’s to get stuck here on the comments.

Over the last 10 years I’ve had many causes to work closely with my clients media & marketing agencies, I’ve received briefs instigated by PR agencies but so far have had little need for the type of regular communication or even partnerships that I have enjoyed and still enjoy with my clients Media/Marketing agencies. BUT I sense this is changing.. looking at my followers on twitter and those I follow there are a lot of PR agencies engaging and rightly so.. looking at the social media campaigns we are running and being completely honest I increasingly yearn for a stronger basis in traditional PR and see some real opportunities here for us with our clients. From here it isn’t a huge leap of logic to see why finally I am finding myself thinking about PR agencies and my lack of strong relationships with you.. could it be that social media has finally brought us together?

If you’re a PR/PR agency and you are reading this I’d like to hear your thoughts I can’t help feeling that we could work well together here and that through collaboration offer a really solid service to our clients.. what do you think?

Digital Account Executive – Leeds

A leading & successful digital agency currently require a Digital Account Executive to join our expanding team. Due to continued success, our fast paced & fun agency have won several projects & have many more lined up next year.

The Digital Account Executive should have 6-12 months experience of online marketing or working in a digital environment, however being truly passionate about digital is more important. You will be responsible for liaising between clients and in-house teams to ensure digital projects are delivered smoothly and to an excellent level. Joining a team of developers, designers, and online marketing specialists, you will have the opportunity to work on major UK brands!

Digital Account Executive should have:

* Customer/client facing experience
* Confidence to take, understand briefs, and relay those briefs to in-house teams
* Solid knowledge of online marketing (seo/social media)
* (Desirable) Knowledge or usability/web design/development processes and methodologies.

This is a fantastic and rare opportunity to get involved with a young, dynamic and successful company. Applicants from a non-agency background will be considered for this role, provided they match the above criteria.

I have interviews available immediately so apply now to avoid disappointment!