eBusiness

Is Social Media All About the Numbers?

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Dec 17, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with , , ,

As he took down a mole poblano chicken drumstick over lunch, I posed the following question to Anu:

If Twitter let us hide the number of people who follow Naissance, would you want to do it?

The genesis of the question was a social media project for a client and the discussions we’ve had around measuring the success of such efforts.  I thought about the Naissance Twitter account and LinkedIn profile, and that people encountering them probably:

  1. Focus immediately on the number of followers we have, and
  2. Make some sort of judgment based on that number

What if the 19 was 1,900?

At first I felt frustration.  Yes, we have 19 followers, but we’re a new company and have never made an explicit ask/push to get people to pay attention to our social media presence.  How dare anyone judge the Naissance book by its cover!  This “reasoning” led to my question for Anu.

Then, of course, I realized that people DO judge books by their covers.  At least in part.  That’s the real world.

So since social media “ROI” is a fantasy for most firms, the easiest proxy for how well social media efforts are going is the number of friends/followers you have.  And so the real world for social media means promotion is as important as content.  Maybe more. Getting people over the initial hurdle of engaging you is the first and most important challenge.

As unappealing as it may sound, being shamelessly self-promoting is probably a good idea.

4 Web Tips for Asset Managers from Gawker (Part 2)

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Dec 06, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , ,

In a post last week, I suggested that pending design changes to Gawker’s popular blog family offer up 4 good ideas for asset managers and their Web sites.  The previous post covered two of those ideas; and without further ado here are two others:

  1. Appointment Viewing Works: Having experimented with pre-scheduled content and “theme” weeks, Gawker has found that they do well at attracting readers.  In the past I’ve advocated that asset managers too embrace programming practices from the media – preset publishing schedules that can be promoted in advance, serialized content that can stretch over time.  Gawker’s data validates that this works.

    2. Each week's Economic Calendar drives people to pay attention to information as it is released.

  2. Video is an Advertising Prerequisite, Too: The Web has gone way beyond static banner ads.  Gawker notes that 30-50% of potential sponsors have video ads to run online.  While asset managers have integrated more video into their Web sites, how fast can they start using video to support their online advertising as well?

Yes, Gawker is not an asset manager.  Content is their product.  But what they’ve learned in repeatedly trying to engage more people with their content parallels the similar challenges of asset management marketing and eBusiness teams.

4 Web Tips for Asset Managers from Gawker (Part 1)

Posted by Mike McLaughlin on Dec 03, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with , , , ,

For those of you unfamiliar, Gawker operates a network of (generally popular) blogs.  You may not know the individual brands, but you probably know some of things they’ve written about, such as when Gizmodo found an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar earlier this year.

This week Gawker announced changes to the page layout of its blog network.  This 1-minute video gives an overview:

Clearly Gawker’s business model does not match that of an asset manager.  But I found the detailed reasoning behind the changes to have 4 good ideas for the Web sites of asset management firms.

The first two:

  1. All-Text Content is Toast: I know.  “No duh.”  But this point can’t be reinforced enough.  Gawker is embracing the fact that the Web is increasingly all about the visual.  The chance that great content can overcome subpar packaging is moving closer to zero.  While firms have improved the amount and quality of audiovisual material, the typical asset management site is still a PDF and text-rich environment.

  2. Recent Does Not Equal Best: The traditional blog format and traditional approach to content management means that the most recent item almost always appears first (*cough, our blog, cough*).  But Gawker notes that  older content sometimes has more appeal and deserves longer premium promotion.  Their new design enables dual management of what’s popular and what’s new.  Asset managers – who tend to showcase the most recent piece of commentary or the most recent practice management offering by default – can consider doing the same.

Two more thoughts to come on Monday…

Online Strategy Challenges

Posted by Anu Heda on Oct 28, 2010, in Thoughts , tagged with

“All the things I thought I knew, I’m learning again.”

–          Don Henley

That quote came to mind in a recent discussion with an ex-head of global e-Business.  Over thirty minutes, we discussed the most critical challenges involved with improving an asset manager’s online presence.  We didn’t dwell on technology, budgets, staffing, or politics – though issues in those areas exist.  No doubt: it’s  a tough job.

We focused on two specific challenges.  Rather than recap, I’ll give a suggestion to each challenge.

  • Simplify, simplify, simplify: Naturally, we expect others understand as much as we do.  Time and time again that ruins communications.  This is often true in e-Business.  People rising to senior levels of e-Business have worked with the Web for 10+ years and know about the cutting-edge.  Their peers do not.  I suggest learning your peers’ knowledge levels and appetite for cutting-edge technology before communicating Web strategy and vision.  And most likely there will be numerous levels and appetites.  It can be humbling but effective. This approach means different decks and different communication approaches.
  • Avoid the black box:  Web sites can take a long time to build.  After gathering support and organizational buy-in, the firm may spend up to one year developing the site.  I suggest building a baby-steps approach.  Well-planned, monthly releases are effective.  Seeing progress builds comfort and confidence throughout the company.

While neither is revolutionary, I believe they’re crucial to successfully launching (or re-launching) a Web site and probably for most projects that span different parts of the company.