Social Marketing & Digital Agency

Many rumours have been flooding the social media streams over the past few weeks about the possibility of Twitter business pages and verified business accounts.

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, confirmed that they are to ‘start charging companies for using the platform from next year’ according to The Telegraph.

The new paid business accounts will allow businesses to have feedback areas and also in built statistics.

Biz Stone commented “”This takes advantage of some of the commercial use of Twitter we’ve seen from businesses like airlines and big box stores.  We want to present to them a layer of features that allows them to become better at Twitter, show them some of the analytics.”

H.Samuel the jeweller has launched its own Twitter page, joining other
leading high street brands such as Tesco and Next on the popular social
networking site.

H.Samuel is following a growing trend in retail for engaging directly with
customers. Any retailer looking to maintain its brand presence in the
future and to stay competitive will be using social networking sites such
as Twitter and Facebook to engage with customers and manage brands and
reputations.

The H.Samuel Twitter page is designed to inform customers about offers,
promotions, new products and brands as well as keeping consumers up to date
with news about competitions and charity affiliations. The messages will be
a mixture of information and fun and will be aimed at consumers,
journalists and anyone interested in H.Samuel and its products, promotions,
offers and brands.

According to Jason Edworthy, Signet Digital Comms Manager, “We want to
engage with our customers, promote our offers and build our brand and
online presence with witty, fun and informative Tweets aimed directly at
our customer base.”

The benefit for consumers is access to up-to-the minute information about
new brands, new offers, competitions and an insight into products that they
might otherwise not consider or realise that H.Samuel stock, such as gifts
and collectibles. Other benefits include news on exclusive products and
competitions and the possibility for customers to engage in conversations
directly with the brand if they have queries.

Regardless of the topic, the company intends for each Tweet to link to a
promotion, information page or product. The Tweets themselves will not all
be directly sales orientated and are intended to entertain and please the
customer as well as inform them.

As well as promoting products and offers, H.Samuel is hoping to increase
brand awareness at a crucial time in trading for all high street retailers.
It is hoped that the Twitter page will drive footfall to stores and visits
to the website.

Wow!  Don’t things change fast.  Not so long ago, no serious marketer would’ve let senior executives talk off the cuff on a video and slap it up on the internet for all to see.  But after reading this article in US Advertising Age, that’s just what’s happening at MasterCard no less.

Quoting from the article, Andrew Foote, senior VP in the digital media practice at WPP’s Cohn & Wolfe, MasterCard’s PR agency, said unlike three to five years ago when web content had to be polished and professionally produced, MasterCard has gone the low-production route. It’s taping its executives using Flip video camcorders, editing the video on laptops and uploading them to YouTube.

“They’re realizing they can comment on issues and get the points of view of their experts out there and on the record,” Mr. Foote said. Once the videos are up, the company will often tweet the links and follow up with reporters letting them know MasterCard commented on the topic.

“Sometimes those videos end up on the blogs of those publications and [it] leads to building online relationships with reporters, analysts and industry influencers,” Mr. Foote said. He said MasterCard isn’t “necessarily becoming less reliant” on mainstream media; the company just realizes it’s not the only game in town, and, when speed is of the essence, creating its own content or relying on digital channels is the best approach.

“Sometimes mainstream [media] can’t keep up with the needs of the company to get stuff out,” Mr. Foote said.

Precisely.  We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.  Here are The Funky Agency we are all experienced ‘traditional’ marketing and PR folk, but also experts in the new shiny digital and social media.  Things have moved so rapidly that traditional and digital are of equal importance now – the days of letting a student or somebody junior with some spare time to ‘do a bit of Twittering and Facebook’ are well past.

We’re encouraging clients to take digital cameras and flip camcorders with them to meetings, so that they can capture material to use in their SM campaigns.  Of course, we are on hand to ensure that their corporate messaging stays true and that they are communicating the right information to their target audience. But the days of the uber polished corporate video and the ‘planned months in advance’ photo shoot, are diminishing.

Social Media is fast, furious but a deadly serious business now – you have been warned!