American Airlines fires an employee for...customer engagement
Imagine for a moment that you're the CEO of American Airlines (AA). A customer named
Dustin Curtis comes to the conclusion that your website sucks after
booking a flight on it and finding the process to be a "horrific
displeasure".
A UX designer by trade, Curtis takes it upon himself to redesign your website's homepage and provide some suggestions. All at no cost, of course. He publishes this as a blog post that begins, "Dear AmericanAirlines". Shortly thereafter, the UX designer receives an email from an AA employee who does UX design for your company.
35 social media KPIs to help measure engagement
Social media measurement is something that I think should be undertaken with a sense of perspective, by standing back and looking at the big picture.
A widescreen approach to social media measurement ultimately looks at the things that really matter: sales, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Besides, honing in on the detail might not be the best use of your time, given the obvious difficulties that arise, particularly with attribution.
But standing back and looking at the bigger picture is not going to be enough for your data-mad boss, is it? It’s a bit too soft focus, right? He or she is going to want to see proof that all this social optimisation is actually working.
If that’s the case, then don’t worry: there are lots of things you can measure...
The ‘Vince’ update unravelled – does Google recognise brand equity? (pt 2)
Yesterday we took a retrospective look at the 'Vince' update, exampling the 'Poker' and 'Life Insurance' SERPs, and how Google has cleverly managed to identify and apply corrective adjustments to a small number of rankings for big brands.
Today we're looking at the 'Holidays' and 'Betting' SERPs and the possible methods behind these adjustments, as well as introducing data from the Stickyeyes data set, enabling us to dig deeper into the back-link profiles of these movers and shakers.
Travelocity brings search into its display ads — and increases ROI
Display ad campaigns have proven to boost brand searches online and even increase sales. But finding the right mix of search and display advertising can be tricky for advertisers. In the case of Travelocity, the popular travel website has moved towards using real-time search data in its display ads.
It seems like a simple enough strategy. The result? A 203% increase in bookings online. How'd they do it?
The 10 commandments of social optimisation (#SOCOP)
What is social optimisation? For me, it’s about how you structure your business in a way that increases engagement and participation.
Social optimisation (‘SOCOP’) is broader than social ‘media’ optimisation (optimising your presence on third party sites) and bigger than social ‘search’ optimisation (boosting your universal search results). I think of it as an umbrella term that combines both of the above strategies, and then some. It covers the wider businesses issues like customer service, usability and organisational structure.
While there remains a lot of hype in the social space we are starting to hear about some excellent results from companies that have embraced their communities, wherever they choose to hang out. We believe that a user-centric, community-focused business is one that will go a long way, assuming that a few other basics are put in place (such as competitive pricing and amazing service).
So to help you to see the light, I have defined 10 commandments that should help you to plan and structure your business for a more sociable future...
14 reasons why you should launch a pop-up store
A growing trend in the past few years has been that of the pop-up store. They often appear out of nowhere on our high streets and in shopping malls before vanishing into the ether.
Pop-up stores are popular with artists and designers, who create temporary boutiques and galleries, but they’ve also been used by big name brands such as Levis, Adidas and Nike, as well as retailers like Target, JC Penney, and Gap.
Pop-ups have also been set up by various online pureplays, such as lastminute.com and The Foundry. For these companies it is about experiential marketing, as much as anything, but they can also be used as sales channels.
Five ways to drive interest in your tweeting
Advice for using Twitter to build an army of engaged followers is prevalent. Less is suggested for the ways to drive awareness of your Twitter presence using other communication channels.
If you apply the basic logic of acquisition and retention, you can use Twitter innovatively to engage your current followers but if you do nothing to tell others, how do you grow this channel?
This blog looks at six practical steps to pushing your Twitter presence. It's not rocket science but good ideas shouldn’t be complicated...
Nokia officially announces Dopplr acquisition
Although reports of the acquisition had been circling since last week, Nokia made it official today: it has acquired London and Helsinki-based mobile travel startup Dopplr for an undisclosed amount. According to rumors, the acquisition price is somewhere between €10 million and €15 million.
Dopplr, which currently has seven employees, will join Nokia's services division. According to Nokia's press release, "The acquisition does not change the current Dopplr service which is available at Dopplr.com and on platforms where Dopplr is integrated".
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This article covers what I've learned from working with hundreds of customers on improving the results that they get from email marketing by optimising the subject line.
Whatever software you use for your email campaigns, these tips are worth reading...
Q&A: The marketing duo behind New York's social media hotel
The Roger Smith Hotel may be the most social media savvy hotel in New York -- if not the world.
There's a blog. A Facebook fan page. A YouTube Channel. Over 3,000 Twitter followers. A Flickr photostream. And two guys behind all these efforts, both of whom winnowed their way into overseeing online marketing for the property following stints in food and beverage services at the hotel.
We caught up with Adam Wallace, the hotel's new media marketing manager, and his sidekick Brian Simpson, whose official title is still assistant food and beverage director, to find out how they built a family-run, independent hotel into a digital force to be reckoned with.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
