H&M have undertaken a very central-lead approach to social media that means that most of the activity and all of the messaging comes straight out of the head office in Stockholm.  This has also meant that instead of starting up separate Facebook fan pages for each and every nation where they have a presence they run an international fan page that brings together all nationalities (do I need to mention that the language used is English?).

High quality video content from H&M

However, the pictures is slightly different if you have a peak at Twitter, where they have multiple accounts representing different countries including Norway, Israel, Spain, Canada, US… the list is long.  If you look at these channels the following is very different, and the UK based page has only 2,500+ followers (much lower than rivals such as River Island, All Saints and Topman/Topshop).  Why do you think that this is?  My take is that they use Facebook as a hub for activity and information, whereas Twitter is a more tactical channel that will benefit from using the local languages of the different markets.

I especially like their approach to video, and how they update their website and YouTube channels with regular and high quality content (H&M Fashion Video’s) from around the globe.  By glancing at views these are much appreciated by the fans and followers.

Shop H&M online in the UK this autumn

This autumn H&M will start selling clothes online to the UK market, which currently is only available to a limited number of countries (Scandinavia and a few select).  Further, they will introduce a new collection called ‘H&M Home’ with affordable fashion gear for your home – leopard print towels, sheets and cushions in current colors, lace curtains and more.  Do you think it will be well received?

Social media is increasing becoming a factor in how brands communicate with their customers.  The facts are hard to ignore:

- Facebook has over 400 million users worldwide

- 40 per cent of the UK population is on Facebook

- 2.5 million active Twitter users in UK

- Over 30 million tweets per day

- YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world

These are just a few of the social networks out there and there are many more…   However, you don’t have to be signed up to all of them to effectively communicate with your public.  Three regularly updated, channels are better than nine neglected social platforms.  Once you’ve established what social channels best reach your target audience, outlined below are a few tips to get the best out of what’s out there.

5 Social Media Top Tips

Keep updating

Creating a profile page is the first step, not the last.  Content needs to be refreshed, statuses updated, keep on top of it and you’ll find it becomes part of your marketing day.  Even better still is a customised page for your brand that keeps your visual presence uniform on various social websites.

Tone of voice

Social media is an opportunity relate to your audience in a more direct and open way.  Often it’s the personality of the brand or the more human qualities that distinguish your posts from other brands, and in turn will get you a reaction or comment from your audience.  This form of authenticity is in a sense a conversation rather than a lecture or company statement.  Plus you only have 140 characters (for Twitter) so make them count..

Don’t keep talking about yourself

Keep your communication varied and interesting.  You don’t have to keep pitching your product or service, as this can get repetitive and may switch people off your updates.  Remember not all news is newsworthy to your audience.  Do your followers or fans want to know about your admin issues?  Probably not, however they may want to know about a new innovation in the industry or a funny viral video that relates to your line of work.

Use multimedia platforms

Social video websites like YouTube are a great way of demonstrating how a product works in its optimum context.  This can aid the marketing efforts no end if produced correctly and with a bit of imagination.  Plus these videos can receive valuable feedback as well as integrate with other social platforms.

Make all your channels work for you

Combine the reach and high usage on Facebook with the status updates of twitter.  Also post YouTube videos of events or product demonstrations on your Facebook page.  Your social media can work together to provide a cohesive message for all you’re company communications.

Here at Neoco we can identify, consult and look after your businesses social media requirements.   Having worked with leading brands like Topman, Nationwide and Ubisoft – we can help you get in on the social act!

The spanking new Topman store in Bath, UK

Parts of the Neoco social team headed over to Bath on Tuesday this week to prep for the new Topman store opening. With the help of a street team (all geared up in Topman clothes – of course!) we kicked off a Facebook based competition called ‘Style Spotting’. This is a new type of activity which Topman will be doing at various events throughout the year, allowing stylish men to enter to win gift cards that they can spend in store or online. The competition is supported by a bespoke Facebook app built by Neoco.

If you hurry over to here: http://bit.ly/acAPwU you can still cast your vote for the men spotted on the streets of Bath yesterday! And if you’re considering what such an app could do for you, get in touch…

Lovely pastries from the Foxcroft and Ginger

On Wednesday last week, Soho experienced the first (of the new series of) Neoco breakfast event, which took place downstairs at the funky Foxcroft and Ginger. We were delighted to see the RSVP’s roll in – until the point when we realised that we would have to turn a lot of people down… If you were one of them, we are sorry! The details for the next event are coming soon so please do get in touch and let us know if you can make it and we will make sure to get your name on the list.

At 8.30am (we will have a later start the next time, we promise…) it all kicked off. Apart from offering amazing coffees and homemade pastries, attendees were given food for thought on several different aspects of the digital and online social environment with Brad Little from Nielsen as the first speaker. Brad gave a comprehensive overview of the ‘value of social collection’ and several examples of how organisations will benefit from incorporating social into advertising and marketing campaigns.

Attendees enjoying speakers and breakfast

Next, we listened to Claire O’Connell who joined us from Facebook. She explained how social applications have grown rapidly, and how different brands apply these tools onto their website and into their marketing mix to increase their reach and build communities. Last but not the least was our own Benn Achilleas who gave his perspective on why organisations need to seriously consider their social CRM and identify how they can make best use of the social environment, tailored for their own specific needs.

The event was hosted by Steve Barton (thanks Steve!) who is a key figure (with Benn) of the Word of Mouth UK association – he regularly contributes to the social and digital debate in the UK and abroad. If you are curious to find out more about WOM UK and their work pop over to www.womuk.net.

Claire O'Connell from Facebook talking about Social plugins

We want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all who came along and made it such a memorable event! If you missed out, or want to recap on all of the fantastic insights then the speakers’ presentations and also a video of the event will be available at neoco.com in a few days time!

Declare your Likes with Levis

Staying ahead of the game, Levi’s announced their new ‘Friend Store’ a few days ago, integrating the social networking ‘like’ function onto their e-commerce site at www.levi.com. The Friend Store allows people who connect through Facebook to rate different garments, and also see what products their friends have liked, making it easy to share the shopping experience.

Personally I quite like this, and well done for the good timing with the Facebook ‘like’ evolution this past week. Although I’m not completely convinced that I want to know what jeans others like. In fact, I would probably want to make sure that I don’t get exactly the same pair of denims as any my closest friends have…

I just checked but none of my friends likes any jeans yet. What about yours?

Peter Griffin hates Facebook new Terms too.

Sometimes you just wish for the freedom of being a cartoon character – even if that is Peter Griffin from Family Guy. He’s an idiot but fans of the show will know and love the episode where he gets his own News section on things that wind him up. If he were working in digital marketing I’m sure he would of adapted his famous rant to “You know what really grinds my gears America? Facebook. F**k Facebook!” because Facebook have recently changed their Terms and Conditions.

They say it is to improve the service, reduce spam and unwanted news feed items. The problem was that they then froze several client pages for reasons known only to the technical team. The UK account team were zero help. We were actually working with them in advance of the new T&Cs yet it turns out that everything they told us became null and void 48 hours later. Grr. So let’s be clear, no competitions run on or from Facebook.

Their change to the wall publishing nullified the functionality in several iPhone apps and Flash widgets. Great.

The main issue here is not all the wasted development time in corecting the functionality or the tiny amount of consideration given to our clients. It’s the fact they are working the circuit really hard right now trying to promote Facebook as the ultimate channel for brands to spend their cash. This is a hard pill to swallow when in the last 72 hours we’ve had several client campaigns hampered by new terms that for the most part don’t make much sense.

Oh and they could do with improving their targted ad service too.

interaction vs proximity graph

Brands are no longer able pitch the credentials of their products to the current social media generation. Push is almost out, but pull is sky rocketing in. Buyers and consumers want trusted and real information from people like themselves and know where to go, to get it. They need it stamped as trustworthy and good for usage (with extra features) not by any company that dreamed up the slogan at a coffee shop meeting, but by the members of a social network that they can see, interact with, and most importantly something that they chose to join. They all have an appetite for the real interaction that generate buzz in which they are a part of. Facebook’s 350 million user posts and its shared 3.5 Billion different content per week, is what these consumers want.

Talk about a lot of possible brand awareness and brand management. People know the members of their social media networks and trust what they have to say. They can access all this information quickly and easily to help them learn about the product, and step into a shop knowing more about the goods compared to the shopkeeper himself.

Social media is about investing in relationships that create more economic value than they cost. It is about engaging with the people who decide whether to buy or not buy what you are selling, like it or dislike it, recommend it or trash it, and even to mould it or to throw it out the window.

A great (and very fun) way to show the power of social media marketing is to enter “(BRAND NAME) sucks” into Google. Put into consideration the fact that around 80% of the information read on the Internet today is not read on the site that it was originally published, but through social media, the word is spread to different websites, blogs, forums and networks. It is no longer just a fad for kids or a way to spread the word about your fart app; social media is evolving as a powerful and a fast paced low-cost, high-reward tool for making the sales, turning profits and taking home the big prize.  The price tag is appealing and it is no holds barred.

Despite no-one saying it, Trevor knew people could tell he had not washed that morning...

At a first glance Seth Godin, the author of ‘Tribes’, comes across as an Americanized idealist. His narrative technique resembles that of an evangelist writing sentences which starts with “we need you to lead us” and finishes with an exclamation mark. But Seth somehow manages to melt down my defences and he does convince me that he is a really cool guy with heaps of cool stuff to tell.

In short, Tribes is about how people make crowds, and that crowds are really tribes waiting for someone to speak up and take the lead. He challenges any form of status quo, and blames unsuccessful ideas or business attempts on a combination of fear for risk and the unknown, with bad management and poor leadership:

“Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe“

Seth argues that any sort of movement, innovation or organisation can triumph with the right person showing the way. This type of leadership is something that requires dedication, charisma and faith. It could be you!

I found it particularly inspiring to read about the many people Seth refers to as good examples of tribe leaders, and how their stories validates his arguments for that change can come from the most unexpected places.

Regardless of whether you have a keen interest for word-of-mouth marketing, business development, leadership or simply just like to read a really good book, I would recommend you to read Tribes. Go on.  If you want I’ll even send you one of the many copies we have here (for giving our clients).

Channel Chanel

User-generated content is key to social media and fashion. From blogs to Facebook photo contributions to product reviews, the user-generated content is at its apex. One of the most notable and consistent campaigns that are built around user-generated content and social media has been from the brand Charlotte Russe, The brand’s weekly trivia contest on it’s Twitter channel or virals from their YouTube channel, drives the consumers to their website with the high hopes of snagging some great prizes.

Another great example of user-generated content used is Burberry’s Art of the Trench site. The people are encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature style, the trench coat. Burberry is on a roll when it comes to online advertising to showcase their goods.

Moving into 2010, brands and retailers will be delving deeper into social media to reach online audiences. Digital and e-commerce launches of new products have also been a popular way for brands to keep costs low in a tough economy for luxury products. A variety of mobile platforms have taken off as brands, magazines, and web sites to develop apps with the goal of extending their online presence and widening the distribution channels.

When it comes to developing apps, fashion brands are some of the fastest out of the blocks. Chanel shows its runway collections via iPhone app, and the Gilt Groupe app allows users to shop sample sales and receive alerts as to when sales are starting. Guilt free apps to download for the stylish brand hunter! We’re currently developing iPhone and Blackberry apps for fashion brands around London Fashion Week.

The future of fashion is in digital marketing, not only have these brands started to win over the consumers through social media campaigns, but are starting to create their own niche groups. Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and other major league heavy hitters in the fashion industry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing web sites. Or in the case of TOPMAN, we’ve worked to build their community over existing social networks and channels to lighten the load on the brand and keep things relevant to their audience.

It’s been a tough education, but we start to see less one-way discount promotions, and more genuine interaction between the brand and the people, it makes everyone happier and allows sales to boost, with satisfaction of personally acquainting yourself with who you are purchasing your new outfit from.

TOP 10 CAMPAIGNS 2000 – 2009

1.      2006: Eepybird.com – Mentos + Diet Coke experiments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoB0MHVBvM]

This campaign was never planned, neither by The Coca Cola Company nor Mentos. It started out as an experiment by Eepybird. A qualified guess would be that more than 60 million people have seen the clips that made Eepybird, Coke and Mentos internet stars.

2.      2006: Dove – Evolution:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U]

A great example of a corporate brand using the web to gain the trust of consumers. Taking internet users behind the scenes of the fashion industry allowed Dove to occupy the moral high ground, no mean feat I think you’ll agree!

3.      2006: Blendtec – Will it blend

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI]

Some people and marketing campaigns succeed in life against all odds. Tom Dickson and Blendtec are two great examples. 90 videos and 100 million views later he, Blendtec and “will it blend” are forever part of internet history.

4.      2007: Diesel – Heidies 15mb of fame

http://www.farfar.se/awards/cannes2007/heidies/

Heidies was all the reason Diesel usually succeeds. Doing something the others wouldn’t dare and doing it in a way that is highly surprising – and very sexy.

5.      2004: Burger King – Subservient Chicken

http://www.bk.com/en/us/campaigns/subservient-chicken.html

A man in a chicken suit willing to do whatever you tell him: what’s not to like? This is undoubtedly one of the most memorable campaigns of all time.

6.      2008: Obama’s online campaign

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/ofasplashpresident/

Barack Obama’s digital campaign was truly game changing. A great use of online advertising, social media and mobile allowed Obama to connect with millions of young, influential voters in a way that will act as a blueprint for all future political campaigns.

7.      2000: John West – Bear

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVS1UfCfxlU]

One of the most forwarded videos ever, Leo Burnett’s ad featuring a kickboxing Kodiac bear arguably marked the birth of viral marketing.

8.      2009: Tourism Queensland – Best Job in the World

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-rsong4xs]

This campaign extended far beyond the web to effectively become the world’s greatest PR stunt – generating more than £50m of equivalent paid-for ad space. Anyone still need convincing of the power of social media? No, I didn’t think so.

9.      2008: Burger King – Whopper sacrifice

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI4uzOAtPiE]

Delete ten friends and get a free whopper. Eventually removed by Facebook itself. Genius because it tapped into an existing truth – everyone has friends on Facebook you care so little about, you’d swap them for a whopper.

10.     2008: Cadbury’s – Gorilla

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo]

This was a game-changer in its humour, broad appeal and in showcasing that digital advertising can reach a wider (non-web-centric) audience.
Read the full article with analysis from Jimmy Mayman over at NetImperative