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I’m not generally a Daily Mail reader, but I’m a sucker for a catchy headline, so today’s front page article got me.

Daily Mail Headline 24th February 2009: “Social websites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist”

We all know sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are bad for you. Now, thanks to Baroness Susan Greenfield we now know why.

Social Networks (or was that websites in general), as well as computer games and fast-paced TV shows, are supposed to shorten our attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred

… sorry, got distracted, checking my latest video on YouTube … where was I … Oh yes.

According to the Daily Mail article, Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, believes “repeated exposure” to these social networks “could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain”.

Reporting her words, the Daily Mail quotes, “My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.”

Now, if you’ve been following the web links, as you should, you’ll have discovered that Baroness Greenfield, is also a director of MindWeavers, a Oxford University spin-out company that have developed MindFit - a computer brain training game. So it seems using websites and computer games to “rewire” the brain is not only good for us, but also makes commercial sense. Maybe then it’s only the Daily Mail, and a few modern anti-technology authors, who find these claims “disturbing”.

Personally I think following the social lives of your family and friends is a good thing, and logging onto our favourite newsfeeds, blogs and scientific websites helps improve our understanding of the world. If a shortened attention span, propensity to seek instant gratification and a slightly self-centred approach is the outcome, then it’s a price I’m willing to pay.

I was recently asked by the e-Commerce Manager of a major retailer how they would benefit from Social Media.

On the face this question seemed surprising, especially given the person who was asking was in theory the one person you’d expect to know the answer. But then I thought, maybe it’s not that strange to find major UK retailers struggling to see the value in Social Media; after-all only 59 of the top 100 US retailers currently have a page on Facebook. Given that this is free to set-up and has the potential to tap a US audience of around 50 million, mainly middle to high income college students and recent graduates, it seems strange the other 41 have not even taken this most basic of steps.

So, can  Social Media help UK Retailers?

Personally I believe the answer to this is YES, but let’s be more specific by focusing on several of the main social media applications.

Blogging is a very effective and more attractive way to make announcements than any ‘News’ system. As a retailer you will constantly update your stock, add new items, offer discounts and reward loyal customers. Blogging allows you to post time based announcements that include pictures, or video, and links to the actual items in your eCommerce application. What better way it keep your website users up-to-date and generate direct sales from featured items?

Social Bookmarks / Tweet This allow users to share items they find interesting with their friends. They also help build back-links and generate sales momentum; you’re a fool not to include these features.

Facebook Pages / Groups. These are easy to set-up and provide the retailer with free access to a potentially loyal customer base. If used to garner feedback on your store, or on specific items, events, etc. these pages provide an ideal way to measure if your efforts are working, or where they may be failing. Who needs expensive market research and focus groups when you have Facebook!

Facebook Connect. Another free service and relatively easy to install. Facebook Connect can be linked to your own login / comments system, allowing users to import their Facebook profile (name / image / etc.) and friends list, and post items directly to their Facebook news feed. What better way to encourage viral marketing!

Reviews, Ratings, Recommendations & Comments Walls. These are the stock and trade of all Social Media applications and provide honest and highly valued feedback on your offering. If you value your customers opinions, USE THESE. If, however, you’re scared by the inevitable ‘could do better’ responses, then maybe these are not for you.

YouTube. If you produce TV commercials this is a no-brainer as YouTube provides a FREE social broadcasting channel. If you’d love to produce TV commercials but can’t afford the £££s, then YouTube is also for you. All it takes is a digital video camera, editing software and some creative thinking and your DIY approach could pay handsomely.

Is social media the saviour of UK retail?

Unless you’re an online shop, the answer is probably no - your foot-fall, product mix and pricing are always going to be more important; although here too I suggest time will be the judge. But as we all need loyal customers and as Social Media provides the best platform available to engage ‘friends’ and build a following, it certainly won’t do you any harm. And if you wait for your competition to show you the way you’re probably not going to be around to find out.

According to the latest Nielsen survey on the Digital Divide “only 44% of small businesses have a website“; which if my maths are correct (and they usually are), means 56% of small businesses DO NOT have a website.

How surprising is that?

Personally I’m staggered. Websites are practically a free commodity these days. Well a web presence is at least; so WHY have so many small businesses not taken the first step on the digital business ladder?

Have all the Government schemes that “help businesses get online” simply failed to deliver, or is there some other reason that is preventing take-up? If anyone knows the answer, please let me know.

Possible reasons NOT to have a website include:

• It’s too costly - WRONG! There are now dozens of services that give you a free website with your mobile phone, Internet connection, or your packet of cornflakes. You can create a page on Facebook for free. You can add you business to dozens of free directories (including WalesCymru.com), and you can list yourself with any one of the thousands of community websites, industry sites, government sites and/or council sponsored sites that are out there. These days you can even have a social network or your own eCommerce site, with a CRM system, eNewsletters and Analytics for less than £30 a month; so please don’t tell me it’s too expensive!
• My customers aren’t online - PROVE IT! If someone tells me NONE of their customers are online, or that NONE of the people they sell to use the Internet they are either deluded or living in a community where technology is band.  According to the same Nielsen survey “63% of consumers and small business owners turn to the internet first for information about local companies”. So that’s 63% of YOUR customers who look for information about you and can’t find it. Maybe if we’re more accurate, that’s 63% of your ex-Customers, as they’ve probably gone somewhere else instead.
• It’s to complex. PLEASE. If you’re reading this you can set-up a website. If you can’t use a (mobile) phone, I’m sure someone else in your company will be able to dial the numbers for you.
• I can’t get broadband. NO, NO, NO. Amazon was founded in 1994 and went online 1995; if they’d waited for you to get broadband they wouldn’t have a $20b turnover company, that employs over 20,000 people and makes over $700m in profits. You don’t host the site yourself, so broadband is NOT REQUIRED to be online.
• It’s …. WELL. There are probably a dozen other reasons why you’re not online, but I really can’t be bothered listing them.

If you’re one of those 56% of small business who STILL doesn’t have a web presence, and you want to change this, please get in touch. We’re happy to help and it won’t cost you your children’s inheritance - in fact it will probably double it’s value!

As corporate adoption of social media accelerates, we’re all looking for great examples of who’s actually using these tools and case studies which report they’re working. While the case studies may be some way off, at-least we can provide the list of tools and examples of who’s using them.

If you’re in business and planning your first Web2.0 project, you’re probably going to be most interested in the top 22 social media tools you should consider; and you’ll also want to check out examples of notable US brands who are using them. So with this in mind I’ve prepared the following list:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, Kayak)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers, Innocent)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)
19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

(the UK list will follow shortly, while we may have to wait for 2010 to have a decent Wales list - if we’re lucky)

OK, I have to confess - this is not my list but Peter Kim’s @ Mashable http://mashable.com/author/peter-kim/); but in my defence this is a list I would have (eventually) compiled if I hadn’t found Peter’s.

Anyway, I hope you find it useful, I did.

Social Media Marketing is not a new trend. In-fact one could argue that all marketing is social, in that you attempt to engage a number of people who share similar interests, passions or outlooks. If you’re successful, the first group you reach help spread the word on your behalf and in so doing recruit your next audience level, and so on. The main difference between traditional word of mouth promotion and Social Media Marketing is where it’s conducted.

Social Media Marketing is generally carried out in Social Networks, or Online Communities; i.e. digital meeting places where an audience already exists and content is provided by the users. Entry to these communities is typically free and allows users to do many or all of the following:

• Create personal profiles/accounts
• Grow a network of friends/colleagues/followers
• Collaborate with other community members
• Join Groups
• Submit content
• Comment/Vote on content
• Tag content
• Share content - using social bookmarks, posted links and/or activity feeds

The ‘media’ in social media refers to the platform as well as the content and includes:

• Blogs (web journals/logs)
• Wikis (small items of content, often with shared editorial rights)
• News Feeds (RSS - used to push news to followers)
• Social Bookmarks (tagged/shared items)
• Discussions (heading, posting and comments)
• Comments Walls
• Media files - Photos, Audio and Video

While the current choice of Social Networks is rather limited, and for this reason has perhaps put off a number of companies from advertising; this situation is starting to change. In recent months a growing number of niche communities have started to develop, as more users leave the established players and as the software that runs these sites becomes more widely available.

The nature and form of these new niche communities is comparable to the readership of a popular newspaper or magazine, the audience for major TV channel or Radio station, or the membership of a large association and professional body. As these communities have a much clearer focus they also represent a more attractive advertising space to the average company.

A rise in these diverse and focused communities, with their niche interests, may be the catalyst business has been waiting for, and could lead to the long waited development of Corporate Social Media Marketing. Let’s hope so.

Although in the meantime there’s always Facebook Pages and Groups, esp. if you need to appeal to the wider population.

So it’s all doom and gloom is it? Well maybe we should start insisting the media publish a few ‘good news’ stories for each bad one. After-all they pride themselves on balance and impartiality to the point of being in-humane (sorry that’s an axe I should put to one side).

So where’s the coverage on the news from Amazon?

Perhaps you missed it; but yesterday Amazon reported revenue up 18 percent to $6.7 billion for the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. Wall Street had been expecting Amazon to generate sales of $6.4 billion for the quarter - but what do they know.

The increase was led by Amazon’s worldwide sales of its electronics and general merchandise which climbed 31 percent to $2.89 billion in the quarter, compared with its performance a year ago, thanks no doubt to our love of Abba songs, J K Rowling and Heath Ledger.

This is clearly good news for Wales as we have the largest of Amazon’s four UK distribution centres, which incidentally covers a mere 10 football pitches - in case you’re interested.

Apart from Amazon, the broadcaster BSkyB, supermarket giant Asda and Sandwich chain Subway are also doing well, and recently announced plans to create around 10,000 new jobs. And of-course we can’t overlook Shell and their record £22b profit for 2008, up 14% on 2007 - thanks must go to the Chinese and the commodity speculators for driving up the price oil (expect prices to return to $147 a barrel in 2011/2, so buy now while they’re low).

I’m not insensitive to the terrible news and the job loses at Corus, the Serious Food Company, or any of the dozens of other businesses who are suffering; but as we’re told the best cure is a restoration of confidence, then more good news is required if we’re to avoid Depression 2.0 (come on, the web is not responsible for this recession, so why hijack our terminology?). I just hope this article goes some way in that direction.

TripAdvisor rates Can-y-Bae Hotel number 1 in UK

Like many of you I’m convinced review sites can be trusted. They give a true and honest opinion about a place from the people who have first hand experience. OK, apathy and British reserve generally means good service is not publicly acknowledged anywhere near as often as bad. We are always quick to open our browser and rant about the overpriced starter, rude waiter, incomponent manager or dirty linen; but less inclined to do the same when the service has been unobtrusive and the standards high.

It is therefore very welcoming to see a Welsh hotel has been rated by its guests as the best place to stay in the UK. Now if this was some backwater review website with hardly any visitors we might expect this; but when the site happens to by called Trip Advisor and is probably the world’s best known travel recommendation service, then this means a lot.

For those who don’t already know, TripAdvisor provides recommendations for hotels, resorts, inns, holidays, travel packages, holiday packages, travel guides and lots more. According to their own stats, the TripAdvisor brand attracts nearly 32 million visitors each month and is used by over 20 million people to plan and book holidays. The site features around 1 million listings, including 25,541 hotels and other accommodation providers for the UK.

 Can-y-Bae Hotel’s TripAdvisor Customer Ratings

Please join me in congratulating Can-y-Bae Hotel’s owners Michael Thompson and David Preece for having the best hotel in the UK. Your efforts and £1m investment have certainly delivered the rewards.

The only question I have is “Why is the UK’s top rated hotel not listed on VisitWales?”

Thanks to the web, people (aka your customers) are becoming better informed, smarter and more demanding of their favoured brands. They are using social media to do this and creating in the process something that is being termed ’socially networked markets’. As these markets organise themselves, companies that have traditionally served the needs of these people (your customers) face a real choice - join this conversation or risk missing out on perhaps the most exciting opportunity your business has ever had.

But how do you join this conversation? Is social media marketing the answer?

If you read the latest blogs by Windchimes, Doc Searls or Brian Solis or the Cluetrain manifesto you’re likely think, probably not; and here’s why.

Social media marketing is not …

Social media marketing is not about “delivering messages”. It does not involve “talking to” an “audience”, or “driving the conversation”. It does not include “demographic sectors”, “surveys”, “positioning”, or “announcements”. In short, it is not social media + marketing.

Social media is about conversations between people as equal partners. It’s about an open and frank exchange of experiences, ideas and personal opinions; and it uses a language that is natural, open, honest, direct and funny. It can be critical and shocking and is sometimes offensive. In other words, it has a human voice that is unmistakably genuine and can’t be faked.

Compare this to the vast majority of company communications, including your own marketing material, where the voice is usually a soothing, humorless, monotone that is both contrived and artificial, and has been selected and carefully managed to ensure a consistent “tone” across all touch points. It is a style of communication that has probably severed you well up to now; but to quote Dylan, “the times they are a changin”.

With over 500 million users on social networks, socially networked markets are the new markets; but they require a new form of customer relationship and a new tone of voice.

It will be the nature and form that these new relationships take that defines your profile in these socially networked markets, and is why “relationships are the new metric” for the return on your marketing investment. While the voice in these socially networked markets is unmistakably human. Do you speak it yet?

Credits: Thanks to Windchimes, Doc Searls, Brian Solis and the Cluetrain manifesto for the inspiration and some of the words

Today sees the launch of a new VisitWales UK Marketing Campaign which aims to promote Wales as a leading ‘unpackaged’ destination. The £2.2million TV, Cinema and Web campaign is fronted by Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert, who gets to try out four distinctive flavours of the modern Welsh tourism experience (now that’s a job I’d like).

The series begins with Rhod visiting Aberaeron’s Harbour Master Hotel, where he quizzes the owners on their local credentials.  Next it’s on the National Botanic Garden where Rhod’s raft building skills are shown up by a group of children, who seem happy to have been dragged away from their X-Boxes and PlayStation’s to appear in this commercial. He then goes coasteering with TYF Adventure to prove you can indulge in adrenaline activities on the Welsh coast at all times of the year. Finally, he enjoys some wine tasting and a gourmet cookery lesson from Hywel Jones, Llanerch Vineyard’s Michelin Star Chef, where he learns that Welsh food is far more than lamb and leeks.

The main 40 second advert will be aired on TV this winter and will also be shown in cinemas for the first time; while the four 90 second web films can be accessed on the visitwales.co.uk website, as well as on YouTube and other video sharing sites.

The campaign will run from January to March 2009 and aims to generate 200,000 enquiries, comprising 100,000 brochure requests and 100,000 online enquiries. If my maths are correct, this prices each enquiry at just on £11 each - now that’s what I call a decent pay per click rate. Let’s hope that the interest and business this generates is well worth the investment.

These videos are now available at the VisitWales “Holidays unpacked” marketing portal: http://www.unpackaged.visitwales.co.uk.

The decline in consumer and business purchasing is depressing search engine marketing. Keyword prices are down by upwards of 30% from the third quarter of 2008; traffic to e-commerce sites is down on both last year and last quarter; and click-through-rates on ad listings are declining. Google stock has been given a SELL rating for the first time, ebay is loosing visitors by the million and Technorati has just laid off six “high performers” and cut pay for the rest by at least 10%.

The credit crisis has arrived and it’s clear the Internet economy is not immune.

When affiliate schemes provide limited returns, banks and investors avoid your calls, and credit card limits get reduced - what do you do?

I suppose you stop wasting time on social networks, stop playing online games during office hours, put off reading up on the latest tech news and blog post and get on with some real work.

… now where did I put that old copy of the Yellow pages?