MS Podcast#154 : Guy Levine, Return On Digital

Investing in digital

(WORLD) The MediaSnackers podcast focusses on individuals, organisations or companies who are simply impressing us and which are crying out for more discussion.

Guy Levine is the CEO and owner of Return On Digital, a digital communication agency who focusses on creating “outstanding return on investment”.

0.00—0.16 intro
0.17—0.53 background on Return On Digital
0.54—2.10 what is the investment and what is the return
2.11—3.21 tangible example
3.22—4.55 digital vs traditional marketing
4.56—7.43 the rise of social endorsements plus open graph / facebook ‘like’ button
7.44—9.21 questioning the ethics
9.22—10.10 future
10.11—10.20 outro

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Continue reading MS Podcast#154 : Guy Levine, Return On Digital

Martini Media

A snack-sized insight

(WORLD) I first came across this adaptive term back in 2006 at a small gig with the BBC. It was coined by Ashley Highfield, who was the then Director of New Media & Technology for the Beeb (one of the main guys behind the iPlayer) and is cited in this speech he gave back in 2004 (when there was no iPad or iPhone let alone geo-location services or even YouTube and Twitter).

The term and idea has become a staple slide in all my speaking gigs up until today and is described as thus:

Martini media is digital content which can be accessed anytime, anyplace, anywhere (the strapline to the well known alcoholic brand).

We challenge our clients, and anyone who will listen, to apply this concept the next time they are in a meeting discussion any marketing or advertising efforts. It’s such a simple question to ask : how can this be Martini’d? Or put another way, can the content created become digital takeaways so it can be shared?

Check out our mobile vouchers idea : snacksize mobile movies which, when shown at the box office, will give a reduced ticket rate—demonstrating the principle in practice.

Is this something you can use?

MediaSnackers Speaking/Masterclass

The Golden Rule Of Social Media

The secret to all this stuff—just between you and me obviously!

(WORLD) The following piece of advice is shared often with clients and others who are trying to get their head round all this social media gubbins.

It’s simple, it’s obvious, and can be applied to any platform / situation / strategy / sector.

Here we go:

IT’S JUST LIKE BEING IN A BIG ROOM, FULL OF REAL PEOPLE.

This pearl provides something to check yourself against as newbies (and us oldies) craft their social media use with an eye on subsequent strategic development.

Here’s the rule applied—in a real room with real people would you:

  • talk about yourself constantly—we’ve all met these people and wished they had a mute button. Please don’t do this online. Here’s a nice test: check out Wordle and put the link to your blog/site in there, if it’s all about you then it’s time to shift the focus of your content.

  • cover your head with your company/organisation logo and/or introduce yourself just using the company/organisation name—time to step from behind the curtain and become human again. Brands can’t tweet, people have to tweet on behalf of brands. Being people is what it’s all about.

  • only talk in press release headlines—boring, boring, boring. If you are going to share this stuff make sure its in context and adds value to the conversation.

  • automate your responses without taking into consideration the person you’re talking to, their level of knowledge, why they are interested etc—of course we all have stock answers and similar things we say in certain situations, however, if you said the same thing EVERY time you’re not a person who cares but a robot who nobody cares about.

  • wear a dressing gown and expect people to take you seriously—being human does not equate to being unprofessional.

  • stand at the back, never engage with others and then call it a crap party—having a blog and not updating it or commenting on others is exactly the same. If you don’t know where to start ask those you know to introduce or recommend others. Seek out those who look and sound interesting. Ask questions. Make statements. Get involved.

Does this make sense?

What other things wouldn’t you do in a big room / using social media?

Image credit (slightly modded)

MediaSnackers is currently in 'permanent pause' mode—check out justadandak.com where most of the juicy action is at nowadays!