The Conversation Manager

Tag : brands

• 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 »

• How Facebook forces gradual engagement.

  by Polle de Maagton June 9, 2011in the categories Conversations

  

  Many recent brand efforts are designed to end up in user streams, whether on Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. Campaigns should be ‘worth sharing’, ‘conversation worthy’ or ‘retweetable’. Aim is to being conversation worthy on every brand level, so that people will talk about you, whether it is offline or online.

  Often these ‘conversation-worthy’ ambitions are translated into short term social media campaigns. Success is measured in views, clicks and likes. In effect, the reach of Facebook social media campaigns and “success” is often guestimated by counting the number of people that shared a campaign elements, multiplied by the average number of Facebook friends (e.g. 2000 likes times 130 friends is a campaign reach of 260.000). That means that campaigns are deliberately designed to collect likes and shares. In result, some digital agencies and brands do the weirdest things to have a high number of likes: people who like a brand page are offered a bag, people are promised non-exisiting ‘fan’-only content and can win pretty much everything by liking, retweeting, sharing or subscribing.

  Tags: brands, Conversations, Facebook, gradual engagement, presence Read more »

• A plea for gradual engagement

  by Polle de Maagton June 7, 2011in the categories Conversations

  I have been working on the concept of gradual engagement for the last few weeks. It starts from the idea that true engagement isn’t in campaigns, but in small interactions between brands and consumers. Interactions, to engage consumers by little baby steps. Small steps that, all together, make a giant leap. But more importantly, steps that engage people 24/7/365, not just during campaigning season.

  Tags: acts, ads, branding, brands, conversation-worthy, Conversations, gradual engagement Read more »