2011 August | The Conversation Manager

Monthly Archives: August 2011

Car rentals & the office manager: Brand stories from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna (Part 4)

by Dennis Clauson August 30, 2011in the categories Branding, Conversations
During my most recent holidays, travelling from Sofia to Budapest, I came across a mix of the things that I try to figure out when I am working: experiences with and conversations about brands. In a way, it felt like watching a movie for which you have written the script. As if everything I had told during presentations and written in reports was coming to life.
- Act, don’t tell. Promise whatever you want, but what you do makes the difference.
- Be a brand about it. If you are a brand, take your responsibility anytime, anywhere.
- Get the basics right. It is easier to do things right, than to screw them up.
In retrospect, these were three simple truths about running a business that were illustrated during a trip from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna. This is the final part.
Tags: branding, budapest, hertz, sofia Read more »
The end of the Conversation Manager?

by Steven Van Belleghemon August 29, 2011in the categories Conversations, Skills

Last week Mobile Vikings announced the end of their Conversation Manager. Their message is very positive: “We are evolving from a Conversation Manager to a Conversation Company”. I have to admit, that I loved this sentence right away .

Their announcement made me think: will a successful Conversation Manager become redundant after a while. Well, there are two sides of the story.

Tags: Conversation Company, Jeremiah Owyang, Mobile Vikings Read more »
Is Base pulling off a mobile flatfee miracle?

by Elias Verison August 25, 2011in the categories Mobile

Smartphones with mobile internet are a potential game-changer for many industries. Throughout Europe, around 38% of people have a smartphone right now, and penetration grows dramatically. 22% of Europeans state they are considering buying a new smartphone in the coming 6 months. 22% is quite far from 100%, so how dramatic is this growth in penetration really? Data tells us that around one-third of people don’t have a smartphone, are genuinely not interested. No added value for them, end of story. That leaves us however with 2/3rds that doesn’t have a smartphone yet because of other reasons. These are, in order of importance: “my current phone still works fine” (how long is that going to last?) and “it’s too expensive” (same comment). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict that a hell of a lot of people will soon walk around with a smartphone in their pocket.

Tags: base, flatfee, kpn, Mobile Read more »
Car rentals & the office manager: Brand stories from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna (Part 3)

by Dennis Clauson August 24, 2011in the categories Conversations
During my most recent holidays, travelling from Sofia to Budapest, I came across a mix of the things that I try to figure out when I am working: experiences with and conversations about brands. In a way, it felt like watching a movie for which you have written the script. As if everything I had told during presentations and written in reports was coming to life.
- Act, don’t tell. Promise whatever you want, but what you do makes the difference.
- Be a brand about it. If you are a brand, take your responsibility anytime, anywhere.
- Get the basics right. It is easier to do things right, than to screw them up.
In a series of four blog posts, I tell the story of these adventures, from the little conversations we had about brands over the big experiences we had with companies to the little stuff that happened in between.
Tags: brands, hertz Read more »
A new perspective on paid owned and earned media: The Brandsphere

by Matthijs van den Broekon August 23, 2011in the categories Social Web

According to Brian Solis, media are no longer limited to three groups (earned, owned and paid, as coined by Forrester or first by Nokia some years ago), but instead categorized into five key segments: Paid, Promoted, Owned, Shared, and Earned. To visualize the model that reflects this supposedly new state of media, he made a brand new infographic, that is hot on Twitter now: The Brandsphere. So…. what he added were two new landscapes: let’s see how that works out in the infographic below:

Tags: Brian Solis, earned media, forrester, owned media, paid media Read more »
Car rentals & the office manager: Brand stories from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna (Part 2)

by Dennis Clauson August 22, 2011in the categories Branding, Conversations
During my most recent holidays, travelling from Sofia to Budapest, I came across a mix of the things that I try to figure out when I am working: experiences with and conversations about brands. In a way, it felt like watching a movie for which you have written the script. As if everything I had told during presentations and written in reports was coming to life.
- Act, don’t tell. Promise whatever you want, but what you do makes the difference.
- Be a brand about it. If you are a brand, take your responsibility anytime, anywhere.
- Get the basics right. It is easier to do things right, than to screw them up.
In retrospect, these were three simple truths about running a business that were illustrated during a trip from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna. In a series of four blog posts, I tell the story of these adventures, from the little conversations we had about brands over the big experiences we had with companies to the little stuff that happened in between.
No tags Read more »
Car rentals & the office manager: Brand stories from Sofia to Budapest, with a stop in Vienna (Part 1)

by Dennis Clauson August 19, 2011in the categories Conversations

On a cloudy Thursday morning in July, I found myself standing outside an airport in Linz, Austria’s third-largest city, 30 km from the Czech border. Despite being on a holiday, I was on the phone with the InSites headquarters in Gent. Of course, there is always the inevitable e-mail or call from the office, but for once I was not getting in touch to discuss an ongoing project. This was definitely different and – to be honest – a bit desperate: I could not find a rental car to continue my trip. In a series of four blog posts, I will guide you through these adventures, from the little conversations we had about brands over the big experiences we had with companies to the little stuff that happened in between. This is Part I.

No tags Read more »
The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 ways to connect with customers

by Bjorn Verbruggheon August 17, 2011in the categories Conversations, Social Web

When most people think about content and conversation management they tend to think about the fancy, in the eyes of some marketers more “sexy” stuff: a Facebook page or even the wildest dream of each marketeer: a viral video, that really GOES viral. The SlideShow you’ll find here however gives some more inspiration and sums up 42 ways to connect with your customers. They even ranked them and for me the ranking is sometimes surprising. I will give you my “surprise top-5″:

Tags: connect, content, content marketing, contentmarketing, Conversations, marketing, playbook Read more »
Trendwatching.com’s 2011 most important consumer marketing developments

by Matthijs van den Broekon August 15, 2011in the categories Social Web

As a brand, you should have the “F-factor”, practice some Random Acts of Kindness and be aware of the rise of ‘citysumers’. That is, if you want to keep up with the most import consumer marketing developments, according to Trendwatching.com (briefing august 2011), via MarketingCharts. It’s all there in the conversation management strategy and philosophy, it makes our book still a relevant read, although it’s already a year old .

Tags: f, trends 2011, trendwatching Read more »
Focus: Marketers prioritize on social media monitoring investment in 2011

by Matthijs van den Broekon August 11, 2011in the categories Social Web

In a survey among 172 marketingprofessionals in different industries and companysizes, Focus’s found in a recent marketer’s benchmark (pdf) that the most important priorization of markter’s will be the investment in social media tooling. That is: social media monitoring, campaign management tools and analytics tools. This said, e-mail is still the most important while topperforming tool in the marketing mix in terms of ROI. The top performing content category are blogposts.

Tags: investment, Social Media, social media monitoring, strategy Read more »