Eggblogg

A day at Online Marketing & Media 08

Yesterday I was at the Online Marketing and Media 08 show in London. Sam McArthur and I have been going to these shows for quite a few years now, and to be honest I usually come away disappointed. This year was a bit different though, lots of interesting stuff.

First of all, we had booked to hear Adriana Lukas speak about 'new tools for marketers', and although most of the tools she showed us were familiar to me it was very helpful to have some of the functionality explained and demonstrated. It made me realise there's a LOT still to be done on this blog, and in fact I've a LONG way to go in social media generally! I liked Adriana's style, clearly a bit of a guru and a prolific blogger.

We also sat in on a session given by Katy Howell of Immediate Future, again an impressive presentation with a lot of freely shared info about how they monitor and measure online conversations. Good to get a decent seat at it was standing room only at the back - no prizes for guessing what the hot topics were at this show.

Something I noticed about the trade show was that although many of the stands were the same-old, same-old, interestingly there were a number of firms there operating in apparently quite niche markets: German SEO services, online marketing for retailers, email marketing for charities. Could that be how the industry is going, or is it just a case of starting up as a niche company and then being bought out by one of the big boys?

Speaking of which, prize for the most entertaining stand must go to Steak Media, although I'm not sure what the vegetarians thought of it!

I made a Wordle (or two)

Thanks to Libby for this!

Blackbird Song:

Blackbird Song reloaded:

eTips for June

As eTips goes monthly, today's issue includes 3 suggestions for increasing web visibility, beyond SEO.

Make love, not war

A few headlines pulled randomly from this week's marketing press:

"NI poised to parachute in chief marketing officer"

'"Lucozade Sport to target gyms"

"Sky uses viral ad to push golf and cricket"

Is it me, or is use of warlike language in marketing becoming increasingly dated? Parachuting, ambushing, targeting, pushing, campaigning, attacking and dominating. Clearly marketing is as stuck in the adversarial model as ever. It's all about us and them - we push, they resist, we find new ways to push, until they give in and buy.

According to Simon Sylvester in How to Think Digital, since 2003 consumers have been spending more on devices and services to avoid watching advertising than the entire advertising industry has been spending on media to reach them.

Marketing is going through a crisis – if it's not about targeting, what on earth is it about? In the Web 2.0 model it's about conversations – realising that the distance between businesses and their customers has shrunk – the relationship has changed. We need a ceasefire, a way of friendly co-existence. Consumers are our neighbours, not our enemy.

It's not just that anyone can now put up a website, say what they think on a blog, post a video and avoid watching advertising. There are still plenty of people who have no intention of ever seizing the means of media production. But the mindset, the culture has changed. Who will be the companies to succeed and prosper during peacetime?

*The peace symbol is 50 years old this year. The version pictured here is by Aurora Fox.

The UK political parties and social media

The US Democratic nomination race showed just how much more developed the US political parties are at harnessing the web and social media in particular. Barack Obama may have gone a bit quiet now on Twitter, but at least his office recognised the need for a presence there, as did the Clinton camp. Although unlike her rival, Hillary doesn't follow anyone back!

A quick look at our main UK political party websites and I see that Labour has an email newsletter sign up, videos of speeches and four blogs, although none are by named people. Gordon Brown is keeping a mysteriously low profile. Over at The Conservatives, things are more impressive. 'Show your support on these social networks' declares the front page, with logos and links to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Video is used well and the homepage also features an 'Ask David Your Question' box, an exhortation to subscribe to webcasts and and a link to 'Webcameron'.

Onward to the Liberal Democrats, and I was half hoping to see something akin to the Tory site, but instead the visitor is presented something rather lumpen. Pride of place is a news feed featuring what appear to be latest speeches by LibDem ministers accompanied by a less-than-enticing RSS button. The other main area on the page is taken up with a list of topical issues and a link to a film about climate change. OK so it's policy-led, but a bit unengaging, and not a personality in sight.

For news of Twittering UK politicians (the medium is made for them!) see http://shorttermmemoryloss.com/twitterpolitics/