What it comes to design, usability and interactive features our neighbour beats VisitFinland 6-0. It was really refreshing to see how VisitSweden and actually most of the people in conference are using social media like:
They have tons of user generated content, their traffic increases 50 % each year and they have over 6 800 registered members. Plus they calculate return on investment for their partners - costs of visibility vs. value of bookings through VisitSweden.com. Isn't this neat or what?
But Susan Rice-Lincoln and Patrick Schwerdtfeger remembered that social media is not just about tools. This is a great question from her:
"How can you use social media if you're not social yourself?"Corporates need to find their own humanity and corporate voice (CEO/CMO?). Companies need a clear and clean vision to create social media success. I really liked Susan's web wheel and how it's showing difference between strategy and tactics.
Mitch Joel is one awesome speaker - really easy and fun to listen (you can check out my video from YouTube or below). Actually IMC people got 2 in 1 when Mitch represented Search Engine Optimization trends and tricks in addition of his keynote. Here's couple of his lines that I want to share:
"Being findable is fundamental. SEO consultants don't have the power to manage outcomes."Mitch showed with couple of easy to understand examples what the search engine optimization is all about. Want to get #1 result in Google with "click here" term. Then you probably have to beat Adobe and get more than 2,1 million links to your site.
What's more important Mitch talked about social search optimization (Technorati, Twitter, Delicious) as they represent voice of customer right now. Make a social search with your brand and check out what people are talking about you as we speek. Tell me what did you find and what do you think about it. Local search, videos, images, maps and Google profiles - new stuff is pushing the old data down in search results. This is why you need a search engine strategy.
In his keynote Mitch challenged marketing people to re-boot thinking. During decades marketing has shifted from "how many" to "who" (and in my opinion where?). 40 % of all mothers in America are in MySpace, 48 % of leisure time is spent online and half of YouTube's audience is over the age of 34. Marketing is real interactions with real human beings and consumers have power in digital world. Here's couple of good lines from gurus:
“Your brand isn’t what you say it is… it’s what Google says it is.” Chris Anderson – Wired MagazineAnd here's some statistics:
- Community users remain customers 50% longer than non-community users (AT&T, 2002)
- Community users spend 54% more than non-community users (Ebay, 2006)
- Community users visit nine times more often than non-community users (McKinsey, 2000)
"Great marketing is not about technology, it's about understanding why people love you?” Mitch JoelChris Goward from WiderFunnel gave a usefull check list to improve your conversions. You can evaluate e.g. your search marketing landing pages and ask if they include the following:
- Value proposition
- Relevance
- Clarity (visual & content)
- Anxiety
- Distraction
- Urgency
Rufus Lidman from Anegy said that during the downturn clients are concentrating on nurturing those visitors (customers) companies already have. At the moment companies are doing kind of "free stuff" like search engine optimization, social media and newsletters.
There was also other good presentations about eye tracking, how Wehkamp.nl got their money back in 4 days with TeaLeaf and how small things at website can cost lot of money. I think it was a really good idea to get all the best speakers on stage during one day, congratulations Lennart and Lars. I thing the success day was a real success. Thanks for inviting me in, I really hope to see IMC in Helsinki too! : )