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  • Eva Mª Vaquerizo 9:00 am on July 24, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: digital influence, marketing,   

    Digital influence: “Don’t put words in my mouth. If you want me to listen to you, whisper in my ear” 

    Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

    Editor’s note: Today at Zyncro we would like to welcome a new contributor: Eva Mª Vaquerizo, expert in digital marketing, brand corporate communication and web analysis. She is defined by her passion, drive and enthusiasm for facing each challenge with a smile, a real commitment, a resolute attitude and a desire to overcome the odds. For that reason, she is here with much “ #enthusiasm” to zyncronize with our readers and we hope you will enjoy her articles. Welcome to the team, Eva ;)

    Many have written about the changes we are experiencing: the exponential development of technologies, the penetration of the internet, the new communication devices and media… The new reality in which we live, lacking the stability it once had. However, understanding the present means recognizing the backbone that underlies all them and that really determines them: we are not in an era of change, but in a change of era.

    The major transformation seen recently lies in the potential of the internet to open communication to us all equally. The message recipient (consumer) for the first time ceases to be a passive entity and is transformed into an active subject who intervenes and participates in the spreading of the message (Prosumer). The consumer is now a nano-medium

    THE CONSUMER, AT THE SAME TIME, A MEDIUM.

    A key insight that links with the idea of people marketing, which takes priority in current trends and is primordial in the sociocultural changes suddenly happening with the technology evolution.

    Now we all are a medium and our voice is listened to openly. Social media extend its condition to the nature of current communication and communication is socialized.

    THE POWER OF THE TRIBES

    In this new reality, when determining the communication strategy for a brand, one of the key steps we establish to win scope (coverage) and give the message notoriety and relevance is to identify the medium “influencers”, get close to them and establish links to integrate them in it. Associated with all that, we should draw our attention to the fundamental role of the “tribes”, “the follow the leader”. Something that, however, is not new.

    THE INDIVIDUAL INFLUENCE

    The accent that now marks the difference is that, thanks to the networks and social media in general, we all have a voice. We all have become a medium, with a greater or lesser degree of influence, but in any case, we all have an audience, and this is equally essential.

    When we think about it, viral strategies are based on the theory of incremental acceleration and six degrees of separation. For that reason, it is extremely important to identify the “influencers”, (the “mavens” or links who can act as a speaker for our message), but it is equally important to perceive the richness of digital “word of mouth”, where the true key lies in a brand’s ability to STIMULATE EMOTIONS, to connect at the deepest individual level with its audience.

    In fact, another important trend in current consumption, which shouldn’t be overlooked, is the personalization, the creation of tailored experiences ((M)ETAIL). Experiences that generate more personalized recommendations of “products” (services), designed to be personalized according to the tastes and preferences of each individual (to their circle of contacts, particularly relevant in the digital environment). Something that links us once again with that line of people marketing that we commented earlier and will truly result in a decisive degree of relevance, notoriety and influence for a brand.

    Converse Made By Facebook App

    To sum up, to understand the moment we live in means we have to consider that the message descends from its PEDESTAL of “influence”, which until now it shared with traditional communication media, and goes to being transmitted via the horizontal paths of PERSON TO PERSON COMMUNICATION (P2P), where the area of influence is displaced towards the user. The brand’s vertical message of yester-year must metamorphose itself into CONVERSATION, into genuine and memorable PERSONALIZED PRODUCTS AND EXPERIENCES (stories to share).

     

     

  • Mila Nikolova 9:00 am on July 5, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , marketing, ,   

    So, is your agency 2.0? 

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

    We live in a world in which communication today is a far cry from what it was 5 years ago, not to mention what it was like 15 or 20 years before that. We used to send letters and then emails, now we send messages by WhatsApp and Facebook. We used to go to the cinema, now we use online streaming and we have home cinema equipment and even 3D televisions. We used to use a map to get around the city, now we have GPS or Google Maps on a Smartphone.

    However, the latest technology we have adopted so quickly at a personal level, has always taken time to appear in our professional lives. It all started with the email revolution, which little by little has eliminated ordinary mail and which is about to make faxing obsolete.

     

     

    Over the last two years 2.0 tools have started to make an appearance in offices and although it may be hard to believe, agencies aren’t exactly revolutionaries in this process.

    A communications agency, be it marketing, advertising or public relations, is dedicated to creating or transforming a brand’s voice, adapting it to the media, to channels and of course to the target audience. What I have noticed since the boom of digital communication, is that agencies in Spain are taking longer than normal to adjust their structures and strategies to current times; above all, the ATL or Above the line agencies. And I refer more to their internal operations than their campaigns. If the people working at the agencies aren’t completely immersed in the infinity of possibilities of the 2.0 world, they will be hard pressed to help their clients create engagement in the new media.

    When I discovered Zyncro one of my first thoughts, as a communications professional, was that it is the ideal tool for an advertising agency. Why?

    1. Briefing and counter-briefing 2.0: gone are the days of emails and never-ending meetings. You simply create a working group for the client, you invite them to the group and exchange information in the documents area. Creative debates can be created, links and photos added… even a workflow created for the approval process.
    2. The creative process: What better way to discover how the creative work is going! In the case of collaborating with freelance designers, integration using the project management tool will allow you to monitor the number of hours dedicated to a task, its status and the budget. In addition it is easy to upload images, large presentations and videos. The best thing? You don’t even have to download them onto your hard drive, that’s what the Zyncro Video Player is for ;)
    3. Billing: Again I refer to the usefulness of Workflow for establishing the approval process by the client, the Account Manager and even Administration. What’s more, it is all securely saved on the cloud.

    There is also an endless number of low-cost tools that, combined with a Corporate Social Network, can make an agency’s life much easier.

    • Comapping.com is a tool for creating mind maps which should be a must for all planners.
    • Join.me makes travel unnecessary, thanks to low-cost videoconferences.
    • Zoho Invoice facilitates the management of invoices for Accounts and Accounting…

    So, what about your agency? Is it already using any of these tools? Is it planning to implement them? Join the Social Business revolution, evolve to 2.0!

     

     

  • Eirene Ramos 4:00 pm on June 7, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , marketing, , , WebCongress Barcelona   

    Experience the digital reality at WebCongress Barcelona 

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

    WebCongress is one of the leading international events on digital marketing. The ninth edition of the Spanish-language event will take place in Barcelona next week, and of course, Zyncro couldn’t miss out on this date. Our CEO, Lluís Font, will give a keynote on June 13 at 12 pm on a topic you’ve often read about in our posts:

    Business communication is now social.

    What is WebCongress Barcelona?

    It’s a two-day event that brings together more than 17,000 companies, SMEs and entrepreneurs, during which you can hear keynotes and practical workshops, where the latest trends in the internet, social networks and search engines will be discussed and presented. At WebCongress Barcelona, you can listen and chat to international online marketing gurus and participate in intensive group workshops given by the experts.

    Where and when is it happening?

    WebCongress Barcelona will take place on June 13 & 14 at Fira de Barcelona, in Halls 1, 2 and 5.

    Who is it aimed at?

    All professionals interested in social media, SEO/SEM, web analytics, mobile marketing, cloud computing, semantic web, interactive videos, digital advertising, apps and e-commerce, etc.

    What will be discussed?

    On Wednesday 13, there will be a number of keynote talks, which will discuss strategic topics like business on the cloud, the keys to performing a successful digital marketing campaign, augmented reality, online search engines, etc. You can check out all the conferences being held at this link.

    Thursday, June 14, will see a series of workshops on social media: SEO, SEM, web analytics, community management and more related issues. You can find out more at this link.

    What’s more, there’ll be an event to close the congress giving us all a chance to connect at the WebParty!

    Want to join us? Of course you do! Register here! See you on June 13 :)

     

     

  • Sílvia Majó 10:30 am on January 3, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , marketing, , ,   

    In 2012, communicate more than ever but with content 

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

    Since this is my first post of 2012, allow me to wish you all a very Happy New Year! I joined the team of #ZyncroBlog contributors a few days ago with the desire to share with you my thoughts on communication. Among them, you’ll frequently find an unarguable mix between corporate and business communication, style and journalist routines. In short, what you will read in post-form will be, without a doubt, the result of many years, working towards reaching out to the audience, be it internal or external, always with content. So here we go!!

    Together with the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes on the 12 chimes on New Year’s Eve, which they suspect was done for the first time in 1909 by a group of farmers in Alicante and Murcia to use up an excess in production, there’s also the tradition of making nine new resolutions to coincide with the start of the year. Today’s topic is dedicated to what deserves to be a key resolution for all companies this 2012: communication, both internal and external.

    Looking at the various channels available for communicating, some people will this resolution has already been met. However, more often than not, the main distinction between companies that communicate and those that don’t is not the tools used —traditional communication media versus social networks and media from the web 2.0— but the content published through them.

    Nowadays, in the same way as we did before, we only talk about communication if the information being transmitted is something new, useful, powerful, curious and cumulative. In other words, we communicate when behind that attractive channel we’ve chosen for it there’s content that helps us in our decision-making, that feeds our know-how, that impacts us for being previously unpublished or that ensures greater commitment from the people in the company. In short, we communicate if our messages has and achieves a function.

    The dawn of the social media and networks, their ease in passing on pseudo-elaborate content, has led us to forget that communication in general, whether corporate or institutional, is only useful if it has content.

    Along these lines, there are key points to ensure this condition:

    Planning. Having communication plans that prioritize goals, design strategies and propose tactics are essential for those companies that want to create a better, closer relationship with what R. E. Freeman called stakeholders—suppliers, competitors, employees, clients, financial backers and society in general.

    Professionalization. Allow me to touch on corporatism a little. On this point, let me say that journalists —so-called source journalists— are a good guarantee of ensuring when we communicate, using whatever tool we want, we do it with content. Professionalizing corporate or institutional communication means working to ensure that what the audience knows about you is the same as what you want them to know about you.

    Adapting contents to the channel being used. Companies save time by communicating the same thing in the same way, regardless of the channel chosen. Well, we need to avoid the temptation of publishing the same thing on our 2.0 channels as on our enterprise social network or in press releases, for example. Each recipient deserves and expects a specific form to that content being received. You will only achieve your desired goal with that communication action if you have made an effort to adapt its content to the channel and the audience.

    Without a doubt, the list of key points for ensuring great corporate communication could go on and on… But since this is my first post and it should be brief, I’ll sum up. That being said, I promise there’ll be a second part that will talk about other, no less important points: knowing your audience, mastering the channel’s language, directing communication times… and much more!!

    Happy 2012 to everyone!!!

     

  • Jose Luis del Campo Villares 9:44 am on October 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , marketing, , ,   

    10 tips for getting off to a good start with social media 

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

    We do not intend to lecture nor is this written in stone, it is simply advice derived from logic and from keeping up to date with social media developments and observing the actions of ‘benchmarks‘ in the world of 2.0.

    1. Really understand the meaning of social media. It is not Twitter, nor is it Facebook…  It is a new way of acting, thinking and overall, interacting with everybody else.  Something about interpersonal relationships has changed and we must understand this.  Your entry into social media will not be carried out appropriately if you are clinging on to traditional forms of communication.
    2. Not rushed but without time lapses.  Being successful with social media is not as quick as hailing a cab, nor is it as slow moving as ‘writing the Bible’.  Let us be clear, being hasty or taking too many precautions does not go with social media communications.  Neither is it about doing a 100 metre sprint or an olympic marathon.
    3. There is usually a reason for entering into something new.  Are you aware of your reasons?  Being involved with social media means interaction, not opening up an account on a social network and observing the scenery.  What do you wish to gain through this interaction?
    4. Do you like your presence in the world of 1.0?  So why change?  Always be true to how you are in real life because the world of 2.0 is just an extension of this.  Wanting to appear to be something other than the reality will always end up being discovered.  Be unique and genuine.
    5. Prioritze efforts.  Are you present everywhere within the 1.0 world?  Then why do you want to be present in all of the social networks at the same time?  Optimize time, efforts and resources.  Move into social networks that you feel comfortable with.  New tools appear everyday but there is only one of you and you can only do so much, it would be better to have a presence in a smaller number of networks and reach 100% of your potential.
    6. Make your contribution an altruistic one. Whatever you do, whatever you share, ensure you always have a group benefit in mind.  When one only seeks personal gain, where does it leave the height of all good win-win negotiation?
    7. Ensure your expectations within social networks are in line with your work.   Do not hope to have thousands of followers or fans if you do not follow or interact with anybody.  If you ‘go your own way’ do not claim that social media does not work, ask yourself if your actions are appropriate.
    8. As in real life, never look down upon a follower even if you only have a few followers or if what they contribute seems insignificant.  You never know what you might share with this follower or fan in the future.
    9. Respect all opinions courteous manner.  Arguments can be debated without having to lose one’s manners.  There may be times when you feel like leaving them behind but by doing this using social media, you end up having more to lose.
    10. Be aware that not everything you share within social networks will be of interest to everybody, but this is no reason to be discouraged nor feel the need to convince everybody of your good intentions.  The day will come when your contribution hits the sky and the next day, rock bottom.

     

     

  • Carlos del Pozo 10:02 am on October 6, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , marketing,   

    Is B2C to B2B a case of personal communication vs. corporate communication? 

    Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

    As I mentioned in my last post, the type of marketing to develop when we establish contact with people (those referred to as end consumers) is fairly different to the type of marketing aimed at businesses, as the decision making and aspects to bear in mind when making final decisions are also different in both cases.

    Something similar happens when it comes to communication when the recipient changes as do many other factors.  For example, we must always communicate with potential clients using a channel and language that they will feel comfortable with.  In B2C we must be clear on what our client profile is and know their hobbies (sports, music, film…) and interests are including the ‘slang’ they may use.  On the other hand, when dealing with businesses (B2B), there is not such a need to investigate that much about the person but it is vital to implement a correct communication and know certain information about the company such as the sector it belongs to, its size, its business or its contacts network.  Less personal information, more corporate. In this case it is necessary to know the terminology used by the sector the company belongs to.

    In terms of the channel, we should adapt to our target market and write e-mails, create television advertisments or write a press article in one way or another.  Nonetheless, these messages are unidirectional and it is difficult to obtain a direct response.

    In this way, social networks thesedays play a fundamental role when it comes to communicating with users/clients and are a very important source of information thanks to continuous feedback.

    They are a great tool but also oblige us to follow up.  Profiles and publications must be managed and communication with users should flow and be tailored to our audience as much as possible.  If we answer queries after 2 weeks of their receipt, the recipient’s state of mind will not be the same as it was when they decided to contact you.  They will probably be a little disappointed by the tardy response and may have decided to contact the competition instead.

    To conclude and to summarise in my humble opinion, the key to the Marketing, Sales or even the Customer Services departments communicating with their audience is:

    • to analyse and correctly tailor the message to the person you are addressing whether it is a business or an end consumer,
    • offer a product that meets their needs whatever they may be,
    • provide a fast and supportive service within proximity at all times.

     

     

  • Carlos del Pozo 10:01 am on September 16, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , marketing,   

    From B2C to B2B or from Passion to Reason. From a young Marketing Assistant’s perspective 

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

    To show that I have a valid opinion when it comes to naming and analyzing the differences between marketing applied to businesses and consumers, the right thing to do would be to introduce myself beforehand.  As one of my idols Jay-Z would say: “Allow me to re-introduce myself”.  My name is Carlos, I am 23 years old and I have been involved in the marketing world for about 2 years.  Not so long ago, I decided to get into the online business and to be a little more specific, I import American streetwear clothing brands to Spain that would not otherwise be available here, then I sell these via my online shop.  I am currently also collaborating with Zyncro as Marketing Assistant.

    To begin with and to put things into perspective, for me the main difference between marketing aimed at connecting people and that for connecting businesses (that are also people but people “obliged” to meet the needs of the organisation they belong to) is; to which organ of the human body is our message aimed towards?

    Allow me to explain: if you want to sell a corporate network such as Zyncro to the logistics manager of a large firm, you will need to convince them of the advantages that the organisation will gain from having incorporated a 2.0 communications solution into the business that allows all of its members to share documents from the same corporate intranet.

    A great deal of information will need to be presented to them as well as giving them a chance to try out the software, demonstrating that the functionalities add value to the organisation and will save time that can be invested into completing other tasks… in any case, information that will help to make a clear decision.  Organ aimed at: the brain.

    In order to sell basic consumer products with a specific usage to people, the complete opposite approach is taken: we try to block out all reason as to the buying decision so that desire and impulse can flow (as Kent Brockman says in an episode of The Simpsons: “Shall I tell you my secret of winning them over?  Tell human stories.  They go straight to the heart and cloud the mind)  I couldn’t have said it better myself!

    None the less, both in B2C marketing (Business to Customer) as well as in B2B (Business to Business), the first thing to point out is the your real business offering and how you differentiate yourself from the rest in order to  occupy a space in the mind as well as the heart of all of the clients interested in your business.  Once you have achieved this, they will then have you firmly in their minds: you will have positioned yourself.

     

     

  • Yolanda Torres 10:04 am on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: marketing, , ,   

    Digital Personal Branding 

    Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

    • My name: Yolanda Torres
    • Born in: Ibiza
    • My profession: Communication
    • My company: Equipo Singular
    • My personal digital branding: @yolandaibz

    I co-founded Equipo Singular 17 years ago, an agency that specializes in the strategic branding and positioning of products using all on/off line communication tools.

    I then revamped my expertise through ESDEN (In Spanish).  New technologies develop so quickly that I thought it necessary to have a masters in digital marketing in order to widen my horizons; and I did just that – I am currently developing various digital positioning strategies and the one that I am most excited about is for my homeland, Ibiza.

    Last night whilst having dinner with some friends, I revisited the subject of Personal Branding with one in particular who has a known brand named after him and who has gained immensely from having this type of Internet presence.  Why?

    • On the Internet we have a digital identity comparable to that of a brand/product.
    • Our name/pseudonym is positioned on the web, depending on our activity on/off line.
    • Our activity within social networks is another element that builds on our personal digital reputation.
    • With or without a personal branding strategy, I am my brand (In Spanish).

    At the agency, we maintain a privacy policy when it comes to our identity.  In fact, for many years the Team logo consisted of human shadow shapes “we have our clients backs” was our claim and that was what we were: A Team without a specific identity.

    The age of 2.0 has revolutionized and changed the rules of the game completely.  Nowadays we need to “have a presence using our names and surnames, a digital identity and a visible online fingerprint is a must”, Digital Personal Branding consists of tailoring that fingerprint towards our goals, seeing as we must have a presence, let us work on our online identity and in relation to our objectives: Personal Branding, how do we go about it?

    Designing our own personal marketing plan:

    • Mission what do I want?
    • Vision who am I? where do I stand against my objectives?
    • Objectives how do I want to be perceived?
    • Strategy what channels am I going to use?
    • Timing how much time will I spend on it?

    When we design what we want, we are carrying out not only a professional proposition but one that is more often than not vital, as we are already aware of how much time and effort the work requires…  With this in mind, here is a humorous link that describes this http://z.ync.ro/6lTwK (In Spanish) even if it is in a somewhat exaggerated fashion.

    Our vision as one of my idols in the way of thinking, Seth Godin says in his post “Mark Zuckerberg is not Mark Zuckerberg” we are ourselves with our pros and cons in the context we find ourselves in.

    The objectives are closely linked to the mission, in other words what do we want to achieve? Professional objectives are often in line with personal objectives, we are unique and Digital Personal Branding should encompass our life objectives.

    If we do what we gives us job satisfaction, we will be a lot more efficient.

    Regarding strategy – it is here we enter straight into tools 2.0, or How to manage talent via Social Media (In Spanish), my advice is: seek training on 2.0 tools which are fundamental for Digital Personal Branding.  It is virtually impossible to use channels we do not know about.

    The timing depends on the importance we give our personal positioning, based on their objectives, everyone will have a timing for completion.  Another piece of advice along with a reflection:

    Internet does not stroll along, it flies!

    “Think then act, the Internet flies and we need to know where we want to fly to before boarding the plane”.

    Are you ready for Digital Personal Branding?

     

     

  • Alexandre Lahoz 9:00 am on August 4, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , marketing,   

    Corporate Identity 2.0  

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

    The larger scale benefits of development within the IT sector are here already but have improved significantly in the solutions for mass communications field.

    Terms such as “competition” are losing their place within the corporate environment and are being replaced with others such as “collaboration“.  Could it be that a practical relationship exists between the visual identity of a brand and its products and services?  Welcome to communication 2.0 where feedback is immediate, precise and has a strong impact.  What is its main ingredient?  The interactive aspect of ideas generated.

    2.0 businesses posess one of their greatest assets within the brand. We can summarize visual identity as a set of absolutely unique symbols, basically drawn from identifying unique elements and characteristics that act directly upon the memories of the spectator by means of the appropriate language and appearance, dragging the accumulated experience of a particular entity, product or service along with it.  The result is what we can summarise as “an image is worth a thousand words”.

    It would usually be necessary for the company to invest a huge effort into what those “thousand words” would be through investigations, campaigns, promotions etc.  But now the promotions, 2.0 communications processes generate new models when it comes to creating a brand.  The spectator (employee, client, investor, provider…) becomes an asset and takes on an important collaborative role and gathers a lot of value in the brand creation process: interacting in its creation and upkeep, providing relevant information, content or tendencies in a cost free manner.

    In fact, this model is already a much less rigid reality being more organic in the design of certain brands.

    Thanks to all of this, the “target” in business marketing strategies is further segmented and its actions are a lot more precise.  In addition, when the spectator “collaborates” with the brand by interacting via social media and the brand responds, (always upon monitoring results using the most appropriate tools), very good brand communication results can be obtained.

     

     

  • Xavi Gracia 10:30 am on July 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , marketing, , , ,   

    Aligning “Social Media” with the business. A CIO’s view 

    Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

    We find ourselves at a time in which selling is difficult. Conventional advertising is not enticing enough, TV campaigns are very costly, TV spots are very long and on occasions don’t achieve the desired business objectives.

    On the other hand, we have the Social Media Marketing explosion, which appears to be the answer to everything.

    Social Media has come to stay. For this reason, we need to incorporate it on all levels of the business. However in all cases, it must be carried out correctly and in line with the business plan, rather than as an independent initiative from the marketing or on-line department.

    If we as a company decide to introduce Social Media Marketing, we should interiorize it in the same way as implementing a CRM system, so that all areas and departments work in a customer-oriented manner.

    Today, conversations take place on the Internet and we need to listen to them, though this is pointless unless we are capable of processing this information and able to make decisions.

    In short, if we introduce Social Media, we should do it considering all the consequences.

    • Alignment: Integrating it within the marketing, sales plan… and not as an isolated action that “someone” from marketing leads (generally the junior PM, because he or she is the youngest and has “Facebook” skills).
    • TV+Internet: If the strategy is TV+Internet, the potential impact is significant (if done correctly).
    • ICT: Have all of the IT systems (ICT) prepared for the possible outcomes and for the virility generated by social networks during the TV spot (I repeat, the combination of TV+Internet is very powerful!)
    • Sharing information: Everybody should know of the existence of the campaign (customer services, sales networks, call centers, etc), even if this is via “Facebook”. It will have an impact on all areas of the company (including finance!).
    • Actions: Conversations are on the Internet and it must be listened to, but there is no point if we don’t analyze the information obtained and take consequential measures.
    • Community manager: We need to take on the role of “community manager”… we know our brands best. :-)

     

     

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