Social Media Darwinism » Mobile

Paul Dunay joins Networked Insights as the CMO

Paul Dunay — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:00:40 +0000

Almost 5 years ago I started this blog with the notion exploring the changing definition of Buzz Marketing in light of this new thing I saw on the horizon called “Social Media”.

I remember questioning where all this blogging was going to take us. I even asked others in my podcast series like Douglas Karr from the Marketing Technology Blog, who built strong following on his blog record time, where are we going with all this blogging and where will it take us? The answer was – neither of us knew!

Like Doug I was experimenting with this new technology in all of its forms from RSS, blogging, podcasts, videos, twitter, social networks, Facebook applications, mobile, location based applications and as you have seen me speak about before I think the role of marketing is changing to one that is becoming more like a Marketing Technologist. But it always felt like we were on 2 paths – our day job of running marketing and our night job of experimenting with these technologies to find something we could then add into the mix of our day job.

Well fast forward to today 5 years, 7000 tweets, 413 blog posts, 78 podcasts, 21 awards, 4 “for Dummies” books and numerous eBooks later and I am happy to announce that I have finally converged the 2 paths I was on into one meaningful path that really makes me happy.

After 2 years of developing a strategy to deal with various types of social media conversations within Avaya we finally got the monitoring and routing of those conversations to be institutionalized within the firm. No small feat by any means but I just couldn’t imagine that the sum total of social media in B2B was just about monitoring and reacting to tweets all day. I felt there had to be more we can do with the social data that we just cant get out of monitoring. So I started looking at the social media analytics space for social technology that can provide real insights. You can read about all of my findings in my post on Monitoring vs. Analytics [Infographic].

During the process of looking for the next big thing in social media, I ending up finding some really exciting technology at Networked Insights. Having owned both Radian6 and Networked Insights side by side I realized there was a big difference between “data and insights”. Data is reporting on what has already happened, Insights are ideas that come from the data that allow you to find new market opportunities, new ways to place media and new ways to find customers who exhibit purchase intent, which is why I hired Networked Insights in the first place!

I believe there is a vast sea of unstructured social data about everything you can imagine out there which can be used to help pre-inform your decision making in marketing, its up to the marketers to harness the insights of what the data is telling us to challenge the norm and transform marketing into the revenue generating center it should be!

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11 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2011

Paul Dunay — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:00:43 +0000

Around this time last year I wrote about the 10 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2010 and while I would say 7 out of 10 have already materialized and the others are on their way. So that begs the question – what’s on the horizon specifically for B2B Marketers next year?

Here are 11 concrete ways I think the environment in which B2B Marketers operate will evolve in 2011.

Enjoy!

Facebook Advertising – will continue to improve and unfortunately get more expensive. After 9 years of Search Engine Marketing – I think it is safe to say any keyword you are going to buy is maxed out when it comes to the Google AdWords auction process. So people are looking for an alternative and that’s Facebook Advertising. I even wrote a book this year on just this topic called Facebook Advertising for Dummies (Wiley). And as more people find out about this gem of an advertising experience CPC and CPM prices will continue to march upward – I have already begun to see this in my own ad buys!
Mobile Marketing – I know I said last year was the year of mobile marketing but I just saw a stat from a Mary Meeker presentation that smart phones will eclipse PC sales in 2012 (that’s just a year away) which will lead us to more mobile usage than PC usage so you better start your Mobile Marketing program now. Keep in mind we all start in the same place and that’s at ZERO! Mobile it totally optin and you need to start building your mobile optin list now.
Facebook will move into Mobile Ads – having said what I just did about us marketers not having a good mobile optin list – its just so natural for Facebook to ask you (you will ask us first Mark right?) if he can extend his advertising into your mobile device which he already has (if you put it on your profile). I have been thinking about this play for Facebook for a while – glad I am getting it down on virtual paper for my grandkids to see!
Social Media Strategists will become Chief Customer Officers – ok so you know I am also @Avaya_Support on Twitter so perhaps this is a closet fantasy for me but it may just come true – perhaps not this coming year but in years to come. Think about it marketers have been given this gift of Social Media which is reinventing areas of your company on the fly. In my company alone we have seen it touch Product Development and R&D, to Billing and Finance, to HR and Recruiting, to Customer Service and the Contact Center. You need someone to own the customer experience now in all those external channels and your internal channels as well!
Ecommerce will hit Facebook – Next year the deal that Facebook has with oodle.com for the Facebook Marketplace will be over. My predication would be they cut the cord there and open up a marketplace of their own. Startups like Payvment, and Alvenda will help companies large and small to open up shop in Facebook. Delta, Levis and 1800 Flowers are already there – can Victoria Secret, Brooks Brothers, and Godiva be far behind?
NFO is the new SEO – that’s News Feed Optimization on Facebook. Basically .2% of fans return to a fan page and in some cases it’s more like .02% (hat tip BrandGlue) So people on Facebook who “like” your Fan page basically never go back to it. So stop thinking of it as a micro site and making it all fancy. What you need to focus on is the content and optimizing the content to get comments and likes which will help you drive amount of people that Facebook will show your page to. It’s all based on Facebook’s algorithm called EdgeRank.
Advocate Marketing comes into Focus – you know all those people we are delighting with great customer service using Twitter – well they have become a strong voice for our brand. Now we are looking at ways of collecting and harnessing them. Tools like Zuberance are helping to do just that and allowing firms to do special things with their advocate base like provide them special events, invites to live events etc. We are just scratching the surface on this one but I can tell you its going to be big!
Reputation Management emerges in organizations – Toyota, United Breaks Guitars, Dominos Pizza, Motrin Moms, Dell Hell – we have had some major disasters all brought on my lack of speed in this market. Many firms are listening now for their brand (I know I spoke to 50 of them this year about this issue) but I don’t think they are ready for a crisis. I did a Reputation study on this topic two years ago and it proved how many companies lack the infrastructure then – we have come a long way since but do you really have a process to react quickly?
Real Time Marketing makes headlines – ok so I am reading David Meerman Scott’s latest book called Real Time Marketing but you know what – he’s right! He’s got tons of examples of firms that capitalized or failed to capitalize on Real Time issues (United Breaks Guitars!) We all need a lesson on how to be more real time – it’s a great book, I can’t put it down – I have read every book David has published and I can tell you – you need to read this one!
Someone better win the SmartPhone Application race soon – I can’t keep building 4 versions of the same application in order to cover the SmartPhone market – Blackberry aps, iPhone aps, Android aps (what the growth rate on Android) and Windows aps. Ok yes HTML5 should help this but throw in iPad and various other tablet aps and marketers are starting to look like Technologist which brings me to my next prediction.
The Rise of the Marketing Technologist – Marketers for the last few years have been closet techno geeks and its time for them to rise up – companies need digitally fluent marketers who can apply technologies to help make marketing more measurable and scientific. Then we can really change the dynamic from marketing as a cost center to marketing as a profit center!

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Could AT&T kill the iPhone Brand?

Paul Dunay — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:00:32 +0000

According to a study conducted by Gartner, the first quarter of 2010 witnessed a whopping 707 percent increase in Android sales. As a result, the sales of the Google Android OS-based smartphones have surpassed the sales of the Microsoft Windows Mobile-based handsets around the world.

And this month I saw a stat that said the sales of Google Android phones in the U.S. are rising so quickly, that they have outsold Apple handsets for the first time on record and it got me thinking. Could Apple’s decision to sell exclusively through AT&T be the very decision that kills there brand?

Hear me out …

Currently you really have 4 major operating systems in the mobile space (in order of market share trajectory): Blackberry 33% and declining, Android 27% and rising, Apple 23% and declining, and Microsoft 11% and declining (see graphic). So clearly Android has just vaulted its way into 2nd place over Apple and gaining on Blackberry. Ultimately, I predict you will see Android reach the top spot before the end of the year based on this trajectory. (humm Will 2010 be the Android Christmas?)

But as 4 time owner of the Apple iPhone I still don’t see a reason to switch. Yes I have seen the iPhone4 vs HTC Evo video (hat tip to my life long buddy Steve Schnoll at SuccessFactors for making me watch it!) which cost a Best Buy employee his job for posting it. But I don’t care either.

My advice to Google and the brand group at Android is this – stop advertising the phone and start creating exclusive apps that only are available on the Android platform. Ok I know they already have exclusive apps on the Android platform but I meant ones that I would care about. Call this the Howard Stern theory like when he moved exclusively to Sirius Satellite Radio. Why didn’t FIFA World Cup have an exclusive app that was only available on Andriod – that would get people to start switching to their platform!

AT&T has seen a 50 fold increase in the amount of data flowing over their network but I still don’t feel confident that they can keep up. As a brand manager I would feel constrained by the AT&T brand and be lobbing internally at Apple to set the iPhone free before it’s too late.

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Going Mobile with B2B Marketing – Part II

Paul Dunay — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:42:18 +0000

So in my last blog post – Going Mobile with B2B Marketing we discussed the basics of the mobile market and where to focus our attention as a B2B Marketers.

Now we want to move into the content. I would say that if “Content is King” on the internet “Context is Queen” on mobile. With only 160 characters for a mobile message you better be on target 100% of the time. Also a good best practice is to include opt out text in the message with brings it down to about 140 characters (sound familiar).

The #1 thing that people search for on their mobile devices is Location based information. This is why aps like Yelp and foursquare are so hot now.

I picked up this acronym from Mitch Joel author of Six Pixels of Separation its called NOW – you want your mobile content to be:

Nearby (location based)
Only (available for 2 Hours only or some time based special) and
Wow (not ho hum)

Remember you are going to want the experience to be very seamless for the user with NO behavioral changes. Mobile is a much more personal medium that is carried with the person all day long – so you want that content to be spot on!

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Going Mobile with B2B Marketing

Paul Dunay — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:45:41 +0000

As I mentioned in my Top 10 predictions for 2010 – I think the Mobile Marketing in 2010 will become more mainstream.

As a marketer I always like to play the “odds not the lottery” and to me when you have a market of 3.3 Billion Handsets worldwide (half the population) versus only 1 Billion PC’s with Internet access playing with a 300% larger base is pretty safe bet.

So then it becomes a question of where to start with Mobile and I have been working on this for a while now incorporating Mobile into some of our campaigns. Note: Avaya sells mobile solutions to businesses so I feel its my role to live by example and demonstrate to our potential clients how this might work.

Mobile campaigns that I have used typically have a higher response rate – I have seen our SMS messages get a 15-20% response rate which is huge if you think about that compared to standard banner ad response rates. The reason is that a message on your mobile device are more personal and are typically not avoided by the recipient. You really have a shot at getting some attention.

But that’s where it can also come to an end quickly. You must provide a truly valuable content or else you wont get a second chance. For someone to receive a “commercial” SMS message they must opt-in (true opt-in not – “hey look I got a bunch of mobile numbers lets send them all an SMS”). You are Legally required to get “express prior authorization” before sending any commercial message.

Once you have that you are good to go but there is an art to getting them to sign up in the first place and that has to do with content marketing. If you can hook them on the value of your content then its just a matter of getting them to agree to receive it in a new channel.

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Why is Google Scared and What it means for B2B Marketing!

Paul Dunay — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:23:21 +0000

At a recent dinner with a buddy of mine from Microsoft (who helped launch Bing) – I learned a lot more about the search market and a very important trend that can effect the future of B2B Marketing.

When you think about the search behavior of the average person online – we are mostly conditioned to search in very routine ways like pulling up a Google search page, using the toolbar in your browser etc. And we tend not to stray from that behavior now. It’s almost an unconscious choice for most of us.

But when it comes to search on a mobile device we mostly use very specific apps, like Yelp for Restaurants or Flixter for Movies – where the search result is much much richer – you not only get results that are more relevant but you also get a chance to make a reservation, get directions, buy a movie ticket right there within the application.

If you look at the share of mobile search that the Google app has it is minuscule compared to their share of the browser based search market. This is why Google is so interested in buying apps like Yelp or launching their own phone like Nexus One since they realize this is the year mobile search really takes off and if they just stick to browser based search their overall share will diminish.

OK so what does this mean to B2B Marketers?

While there is no app yet for finding and reading Thought Leadership on your iPhone or an app for finding advice from an Expert in a particularly difficult technology topic (business idea?) perhaps there will be shortly. Maybe apps like foursquare could have a business to business version in the near future. I think as B2B Marketers we need to be open to and looking for those types of opportunities – because one thing is for sure – the devices we have in our hands are going to only get better and traditional search while it may always be around in some form – new avenues on mobile devices are going to open up for us.

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10 BtoB Marketers Predictions for 2010

Paul Dunay — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Around this time last year I wrote about some Predictions for 2009 and while I would say 8 out of 10 have already materialized and the other 2 are on their way, it has become clear that this year was the year we past the point of no return on Social Media. Recession or not Social Media was on a roll ignited by the visibility of events like Obama’s win and Iran’s election protests.

So that begs the question – what’s on the horizon specifically for BtoB for marketers next year? Here are 10 concrete ways I think the environment in which BtoB Marketers operate will evolve in 2010. Enjoy!

Facebook Advertising will take off – This year Facebook saw their advertiser base triple! Facebook ads today remind me of Google AdWords in 2001 with low CPC’s on topics and segments many marketers will want to reach. I believe Facebook Ads will become the close “cousin” of Google AdWords – just with a more targeted and behavioral way to dial in your ads. BtoB Marketers should try it out for recruiting or even brand advertising – also don’t forget my book Facebook Marketing for Dummies comes with a credit for $50 Free Facebook ads (thanks to the good folks at Facebook and Wiley for agreeing to publish the book with that credit in it).
Mobile Marketing – Frankly I think Social Media is just a warm up for Mobile Marketing. Years ago we talked about how we didn’t want Mobile ads popping up just as you walked in front of Starbucks for example. But now new applications enabled by social such as Location Based Services (LBS) have arrived and give context to mobile marketing – I think you will see more of these applications enabled by your Social Graph become more important in the next year. For BtoB Marketers you might begin to experiment with Location Based Services especially at live events.
Social will leave Marketing – This year Marketing and Communications totally “got” social media but next year is the year it starts to transform the rest of your BtoB organization from Product Development and R&D, to Billing and Finance, to HR and Recruiting, to Customer Service and the Contact Center. Social Media is not like the dotcom rush to build a website and have a group of long haired people running it in a corner of your organization. Social is a process that has the power to transform your entire organization. Its time next year to embrace it!
Corporate Websites will become less important – As every company gets more experienced with Social Media you will see more consumption of content off of the corporate website in places like Facebook, YouTube, and relevant Communities and Forums. “Away games” will be the norm for your more opinion related content and the corporate website will be the place where you go to get just the more official product or service related content.
Lead Generation tools must combine with Social Media tools – Right now we have tools to listen, tools to monitor, tools to track clicks to the corporate website, tools to track leads that are being nurtured. But this has to change – its impossible to optimize based on each of these silos – BtoB Marketers need lead gen tools with social media built in so we can optimize effectively. There is a huge opportunity here that some company needs to fill fast.
Listening tools will also get much stronger – Another tool opportunity is for listening tools to do better sentiment analysis and routing of the real opportunities both positive and negative directly to the sources in the organization. The routing is key and having done this manually all year – it is just not a scalable model.
How to handle Advocates will become more important – having spoken directly with tons of customers this year and dare I say made (or at least identified) advocates in the socialsphere, we need a place to put them to collect them to harness them and energize them when we have something cool to talk about. This will increasingly become a challenge for most marketers. Having spoken recently to Pepsi, HBO, RIM, Warners Bros, and American Express about their challenges in this space – BtoB or BtoC this is an area where they want to focus on next year.
MicroVideo shops will start popping up – video is just still to expensive for many BtoB Marketers and with the advent of some cheaper high definition video cams – I think you are going to see many small video shops popping up. Young college students that are fluent in Video or creative types from ad agencies that might be out of a job can and should start up solo practioners video shops.
Businesses will demand Intelligence not Social Media – Next year I think you will see vendors announce tools that deliver intelligence from social media right where it is contextually needed – we saw a glimmer of this with SalesForce.com and the introduction of their new product Chatter. This is an early indication of the need for more contextually related Social Media data that can provide the type of intelligence that the business demands.
Facebook will surpass Google for the #1 site online – This one I have been tracking since the beginning of last year. Whether you know it our not Facebook has been inching closer to the #1 spot this year beating out Yahoo for the #2 spot in November (according to Alexa.com). The delta for #1 with Google is just 14 Million visits per month (18 Million if you ask Compete.com) which is nothing in the grand scheme of things! I predict you will see Facebook surpass Google by Valentines day 2010. Mark it down people

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Digital Signage – the Next Big Thing

Paul Dunay — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:27:00 +0000

Not long ago, Times Square was the epicenter of digital signage in the U.S. It may still represent the highest concentration, but digital signage is exploding and you see it just about everywhere now. Digital signage is officially “the next big thing” for a lot of marketers. In a recent Razorfish survey it was ranked second to mobile as the most important emerging media channel in the coming year. Roughly 51 percent of respondents ranked mobile as the most important, followed by Digital Signage with nearly 32 percent. Other channels trailed by a wide margin.

Interestingly enough in a recent article in Wired Magazine they featured a company called MegaPhone that combined both of these emerging areas.

MegaPhone is a mobile gaming company whose latest project is to connect cell phones with games embedded in big-screen billboards in places like you guessed it … Times Square!

People can interact with these billboards via a special phone number which will show them as special avatars identified by the last four digits of the caller’s phone number.

When I first read the article I thought it was just another super geek application but the more I thought about it – the more you can think up new applications for this.

For example, Jumbotrons at sporting events where they can pick attendees to play an engaging mini game of basketball, baseball, football, hockey, or whatever sport you are watching. Rock Concert goers could dial into the Jumbotron to participate in a live chat with the band backstage. Tradeshow events could use this to allow real time Twittering and live Q&A via mobile. Anywhere you are waiting in line – airports, hotels, on airplanes, amusement parks (read Disney) could not only pre-engage their audience with the ride – perhaps they could let us sign up for tickets once we enter the park and call us when we are due to blast off!

This one article opens up the wide world of mobile marketing, digital signage and more importantly a glimpse at the future of social media marketing (SMM).

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New Rules of Web Marketing – a podcast with Michael Mace

Paul Dunay — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:10:00 +0000

Many marketing teams are being asked by senior leaders in their organizations why they aren’t using the same cutting edge tactics as some of their competitors. When is it right to use cutting edge tactics? When is it right to use traditional tactics? When and how should you integrate the two?

To answer these questions, I interviewed Michael Mace of Rubicon Consulting. He runs a Web Marketing Boot Camp to help marketing teams come together, discuss these issues, and learn what Web marketing tactics link best to their corporate strategy.

Here is a taste of what Michael covers and what he thinks the future looks like for Web marketers.

Link to Original Audio Source

Signup for this Podcast Series

About Michael

Michael is a principal at Rubicon Consulting, where they help tech companies solve tough strategy and marketing problems. Michael is a former Chief Competitive Officer and VP of Product Planning at Palm, VP of Strategic Marketing at PalmSource, and director of Mac Platform Marketing at Apple. He also has served in many other roles. For more info on him please visit his website.

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Mobile Marketing: What you need to be doing in 2008

Paul Dunay — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:41:00 +0000

You can’t hop into a cab, step into an elevator or walk down the street without passing someone using a Blackberry, iPhone or other type of mobile device. Business professionals, students, police and even your kids are connected every second of the day. As a result, more and more carriers are recognizing the inherent value of mobile technologies as a productivity tool and have embraced them.

But what does this mean for the marketer?

I decided to dig a bit deeper with two experts in the field, Jeff Sass, VP of Business Development at Myxer, and Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Officer at crayon. I asked them to help us understand the state of mobile marketing and what we should be experimenting with in 2008.

Enjoy …

Link to Original Audio Source

About Jeff

Jeff Sass is Vice President of Business Development at Myxer, the leader in mobile content downloads. Jeff has more than 25 years’ experience in the technology and entertainment industries, with a major focus in the last 10 years in the Internet and mobile space. Jeff has also been the successful president/CEO of two Internet startups in South Florida and was a co-founder and CEO of mobile commerce pioneer BarPoint.com. He has also written and produced for film and television and has a deep understanding of the content business that is unique for a technology executive. He is a graduate of Cornell University.

You can text “Jeff” to “69937″ (MYXER) for more info. Jeff has two personal blogs, his Sassholes blog at and the parody blog.

About Greg

Greg Verdino is Chief Strategy Officer at crayon, a marketing consultancy that helps marketers join the conversation by leveraging the power of community, dialogue and partnership with consumers. Greg writes a widely read marketing blog, was a contributing author of The Age of Conversation (one of Advertising Age’s ‘Books You Should Have Read’ for 2007), speaks frequently at industry conferences and has been quoted in many publications including BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, AdWeek, Ad Age and more. Prior to joining crayon, he led the emerging channels practice at Digitas and toiled for more than 15 years in advertising, direct marketing, technology and media.

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