Recently in social media

"Wetten, dass …?" was canceled last Saturday. Viewing habits are changing. Television’s dominance as the leading medium for entertainment is wavering. But what about television’s role as the leading medium for advertising? Television remains unquestionably strong and important. Nevertheless, anyone who didn’t start in 2014 will have to do so in 2015: venture into new territory. It’s almost midnight. I’ll skip the numbers, trust your powers of observation, and keep my feet on the ground. Instead of lounging comfortably on the sofa in flip-flops, we’re increasingly entertaining ourselves, staying informed, and connecting while on the go—wearing sneakers, ballerinas, or navy boots.

For us in the advertising industry, the shift from desktop to mobile is, in terms of impact, like jumping from a cozy sofa onto a noisy street. Starting today and continuing regularly in the future, we’ll be discussing how we can still make our messages heard in this changed environment. “New in Social Media” is my short-form column in *Werbewoche* covering the latest developments in social media and related fields. To get started, read the pilot post, which offers some well-intentioned guidance. We’re kicking things off with a bang.

EXPLOSIVE – Use the power of newly acquired knowledge to blaze a trail toward new solutions and perspectives. TNT stands for Techniques, Narratives, and Tools. Techniques are drivers of impact. Tried-and-true methods, such as the use of testimonials and experts, are combined with newer approaches, such as clickbaiting and newsjacking. Narratives are content that provides material for stories with the potential to go viral. Tools are all kinds of resources, such as those for networking (Facebook, etc.), publishing (blogs, microblogs, aggregators), data collection (analytics), or content creation (photo, video, and GIF apps). Unfortunately, risks are also part of the business. Anyone responsible for advertising investments in social and digital media must also familiarize themselves with these risks. A current example: bot fraud is a fraudulent computer program that automatically generates millions of fake clicks. Adweek reported that fake clicks amounted to $6.3 billion in 2015. Eleven percent of these were display clicks, and as many as 23 percent were video clicks. The equivalent on Facebook is fake «likes.» “10 vor 10” reported on this. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has launched a task force to combat this. The situation appears serious. There is a huge need to catch up on knowledge about the new media landscape. As an immediate measure, I recommend that all advertisers subscribe to the ADWEEK Technology Today newsletter.

A more comprehensive list of sources is available in the blog post. You don't have to be on par with your top specialists. But you do need to be willing to open the budget tap for the right reasons.

FOCUSED – Organize the wide range of options into a matrix based on objectives and focus on marketing. Perhaps the shift toward marketing has fallen somewhat behind in the battle for cubes and lions. Advertising is marketing communication. We’re talking about real-time engagement marketing as an alternative to classic transactional marketing. At its core, two completely different philosophies collide. The major difference is revealed in the entirely new roles of marketing managers and creative agencies. In the old model, the tasks of both parties are limited to marketing and promoting finished products, respectively, with mass messages via interruptive advertising. In the new model of engagement marketing, marketing managers and advertisers are already on board as soon as new and improved products and services are being considered. This is because the most forward-thinking among them are already taking the pulse of product experiences today by actively initiating real-time dialogs with users via monitoring and management tools on Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, or in-app chats to actively initiate real-time dialogs with users, thereby incorporating valuable insights and sentiment into the development and design processes without delay. General Motors provides a current example. Users of the new Chevrolet Trax are encouraged to share their experiences and impressions via Facebook and Twitter using the Trax’s built-in Wi-Fi. What’s innovative about this approach is that the feedback is sent directly in real time via an Oracle data dashboard to the development department, where improvement measures are initiated immediately. Seth Godin, a globally recognized marketing expert on engagement marketing, says: «If you are serious about engaging the customer, you realize that the most valuable moments you have are when the customer is using your product, on the phone with you, actually engaged with you.» The challenge lies in giving those particularly positive reviews an extra boost by tracking them down in real time, acknowledging them, and sharing them further. After all, nothing yields better results than so-called peer-to-peer conversations, in which users share positive product experiences with one another. This isn’t exactly a new insight. But now, for the first time, we have the opportunity to put it into practice as part of real-time marketing communication campaigns!

WELL-PLANNED AND ORGANIZED – Define clearly budgetable areas of focus, and above all: get started! Facebook for the masses and Twitter for influencers—in my opinion, these are the most important drivers when it comes to expanding and deepening your network. Native mobile apps with chat features, product finders, and store locators are just as much a part of a modern marketing communications program as web-based multimedia long-form stories. New forms of communication require new forms of organization. Conversations take place simultaneously in multiple locations with different groups of people. This presents a logistical challenge: How does the right content reach the right people at the right time, and what needs to be done to ensure that the content spreads further? Outgoing NZZ Editor-in-Chief Markus Spillmann sums up the change: «When you talk about an editorial meeting, you’re still thinking entirely in terms of the old world. Today, there isn’t just a single meeting anymore, but many, spread out over the course of the day, because we also have to manage various channels and offerings.» Replace «editorial meeting» with «briefing,» and the statement applies directly to the future work of creative agencies.

Beat Hürlimann

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Welcome! Otherwise, see you in January, when we’ll be back on social media.