Facebook’s short tale and the mobile long tale?

The IPO of Facebook should have been the big NASDAQ event of the year…but after a few days it turns out that the Facebook story is short tale instead of fairy tail! However conclusions can’t be made over a few days, future will tell whether Facebook is able to turn his IPO into a long tail success. Mobile will be the key element in the success of Facebook’s long tail.

Convertising the connected customer

IAB – Belgium’s Think Digital at The Egg in Brussels today…After a great edition last year, I came with high expectations and in the end I got what I’ve paid for: Convertising the connected customer as the big challenge for every company, advertiser, …. the next 3 to 5 years. We’re entering great times where customers have a different media consumption, use different devices and connect through new applications. As a company, organisation (and advertiser for shure) you need to know how this will affect your business.  I’m going to quote a tweet a saw during the day to prove my point : “heard a lot about second screens today while many companies still struggle to use/optimize just one screen” . In this quote lays the challenge for everybody in us….society is changing, media consumption is changing, …. but companies keep doing business as usual…Time to act, time to change, time to start “convertising”

The Instragram added power for Facebook

With more than 40 millions users who are sharing pictures through the Instagram network, Instagram has given a whole new meaning (and destination) on photography in the 21st Century. While Kodak is fainting away, digital and mobile photography has taken over….with Instagram taking the lead.

Millennials, Technology & Education

Recent study of University of Ghent says most youngsters (millennial) own a smartphone (81%), BUT use it to text message ( an average of 71 messages a day).  This because online connection is to expensive (most of the time). Together with a couple of recent infographs on technology, millennials and education, I feel safe to say our youngsters are tech “nerds”. They never knew a society without mobile and connected technology….Off course this has an effect on their life, 70% of US students (but I see similar things happening in Belgium as well) take digital notes, 38% of US college students check email every 10 minutes (f.i.) – talking about compulsive behaviour -  but only 6% of teenagers use Email to communicate (so we already see new patterns between college students and teens).

Our 24h society – 4 trends of (r)etail

Recently Trendwatching.com released its trending report on the future of retail. 4 major trends: Everywhere, MEtail, Easy &  WWW, are coming along fast and will reform society into a 24h society. World wide we’re seeing a 24h society developing, but not in the old continent, Europe, were 9-to-5 still plays a major role in creating and shaping the society. It’s going to be a challenge for Europe to cope with this trends and keep their 9-to-5 society alive or transform to a 24h society.  Asia and the Americ’a are already in pole position to adapt to this 4 trends.

Bringing social to B2B!

When we talk social, social media, social business, …. everybody tends to stick to the B2C world…nevertheless “social” should be a part of B2B as well. At the “B2B goes Social” – symposium (at Nyenrode Business University – Breukelen/Utrecht) 5 inspirational speakers offered a frame-work to bring the social into B2B.

Everybody is doing social (media) today, social media is bringing people together, sharing thoughts ideas and is starting the conversation. Social media are building a community around your brand, company or organisation.  B2C is doing is this for 3 (-5) years already, but since B2B always tends to lack behind B2C a couple of years it time to act as a B2B company and start building a community around your organisation.

Customer Experience, Conversation, Content & Collaboration drive the conversation company

The official book launch of “The Conversation Company” – Gent

After writing the big success “The Conversation Manager” Steven Van Belleghem introduced his second (would-be) best-seller “The Conversation Company” today. After a hand full of warm-up speakers who gave us an introduction on “underutilized potential” (something we all have and should use), staggering numbers of “the conversation manager” (23 500 copies sold – best marketing book in Holland – more then 700 attendees today (probably the best ‘in-crowd’ of marketing & social media professionals today in Belgium – …), it was time for Steven himself to take the spotlight and talk about how to transform your company into a conversation company. It’s all about culture, people and, off course, social media to connect and take you organisation to a higher level.

The big little thing that drives Women crazy? This must be Pinterest!

Pinterest…It looks like something you cannot miss these days.
More so then Google+ Pinterest attract tons of new users who are active users of the (social) platform. For those who don’t know Pinterest, Pinterest is an online Pinboard on which you can “pin” and share stuff you like. With the linking to Facebook and Twitter, and the social aspect added by Pinterest self, this is an alternative way to share stuff you like. The difference from the Facebook  channel is you “pin” interesting stuff from around the web to the board, instead of telling what you like in a status-update. (Pinterest skips the 2 step Like function of Facebook, making things easier). But the integration of Pinterest on your Facebook Timeline makes this a winner!

True Internetentrepreneurs behind Netlog, knew what to do….find a new business: TWOO.Com ! A new succes?!

They had a dream….building the largest social network in the world….but they didn’t cound on Mark Zuckerberg to have the same idea, so Netlog (Belgian social network) founders had a bit of a downturn the last years when Facebook concurred the world of social networks and Netlog didn’t….BUT as good entrepreneurs they knew what to do! Find a new and better product to concur the world, and so TWOO.com was founded, and is on his way to concur the world, maybe not in social media but in dating, although they call it “social discovery).

eCRM and eMarketing Course at FHV – Powerpoints

Thank you very much for 2 fabulous days….It was fun working with you. I hope I could provide some insights on how Marketing and CRM are developing/need to develop in the “new” social web era.

As I promised,I’ve uploaded the class powerpoints on to SlideShare. I’ve embedded them all in this post, so you can find all together in one place.

I’m looking forward to your portfolio’s. Keep in mind the due date is February 19th, 2012.