Media, PR and Citizenship Seminar in Ireland

I will go to a "Media, PR & Networking" Seminar in Ireland for 12 Days. I`m sure that this seminar will be very interesting - provide a lot of knowledge, fun and new experiences.
Since I have never been in Ireland so far - I’m very curious about the country, its people and look forward to the training.

What is Viral Marketing

This is a Report on Viral, Buzz and Word-of-mouth marketing on German television show nano, including statments from vm-people CEO Thomas Zorbach and Martin Oetting, consultant and researcher from ESCP-EAP.

Explains a little bit better what word of mouth is, my it is necessary and how you can use it for your Business.

Why Word of Mouth is important

Paul Marsden gives a short summary why Word of Mouth is important and why you should use it in your Business.

Creating Radical Relationsships

Link: sevenload.com

Very interesting presentation from the founder of Sinner Schrader about how Brands can Create Strong Relationsships with their Clients. He uses the example of Nike who are doing a great job in involving their customers - building communities and making the connection between entertainment and Brand Loyality...

Word of Mouth Video Conference - Number III - Next 07

Link: sevenload.com

The Next 07 is the second Word of Mouth Marketing & Web 2.0 conference of "Sinner Schrader" and it stands under the topic - "All Power to the customers?!".

On the Website there around 20 high level presentations about:
- Web 2.0 & its opportunities
- How to use Second Life, MySpace & Co
- Brand Wikization - should you give your Brand to your customers?
- Innovation Camp
- Viral Marketing
- Customer & Web Psychology - how to use it
- Quo Vadis Marketing & Mass Advertising
.....

In my opinion - a very good and professional Conference!

Word of Mouth Video Conference - Number II - Next Ten Years

The "Next 10 Years" is Web 2.0 & Viral Marketing Conference of the marketing company Sinner Schrader and it has around 10 good topics to cover:

- What is Web 2.0 & how to use its potential
- Psychology of the Web
- How to use & build communities
- Long Tail Business
- Tools & Opportunities in Web 2.0
- How to use Word of Mouth & Viral Marketing
....

The conference & presentations are in  german - if you speak the language and you have some time you should take the opportunity and watch some of the professional speakers.

Word of Mouth Video Conference - Number I - Dresden Future Forum

Yesterday I found 3 interesting Video Conferences about Web 2.0, Word of Mouth, Viral Marketing....

This is the first conference - The Dresden Future Forum

If you register on their site and click on webcast - you can watch the following presentatitons:

Prof. Richard Scase: Globalization of Markets - Global Re-Mix and the New Corporate Playlist

Dr. Curtis R. Carlson: Innovation - The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want

Announcement of the winners of the Web 2.0 competition and presentation of the laureate of the 10th International Media Art Festival CYNETart_06humane

Jaron Lanier: Future of the Internet - The New Definition of Personhood

Tim O'Reilly: Future of the Internet - What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software

I have to say - the speakers are quite high level and bring good knowledge in their presentations - everybody who is interested in the new ways of Marketing and Web 2.0 EBusiness should check them out.

This is the description of the conference
On the initiative of Dresden-based T-Systems Multimedia Solutions, scientists, experts, entrepreneurs and other interested parties discussed the future of Internet technology at the 2nd Dresden Future Forum on 16th November 2006.

Particular focus was on the development of the Internet, which will rely on its capacity to organize social exchange based on new technologies. In this context, the primary focus has not been on technology but on reasonable ways of using it. These new opportunities of exchange, shaped by maximum transparency, are likely to revolutionize the way the Internet is used.

Highly renowned experts representing various specialized fields, including Tim O’Reilly, who has played a vital role in filling the term “Web 2.0” with life and Prof. Richard Scase, influential business strategist from the UK, Dr. Curtis Carlson, innovation-driving CEO at SRI International, as well as the computer scientist and artist Jaron Lanier presented their specific viewpoints and impressive visions as a basis for discussion.

Person-to-Person Marketing – Time to use the Power of your customers

I was just reading a very interesting report of Dr. Sandeep Krishnamurthy. He has some really interesting insights about Open Source Marketing and Consumer Generated Media.

Although this report is from 2001, it has still a lot of valuable for the marketers of today (I think even more valuable then in 2001, because most of his hypothesis became true with the evolution of Web 2.0 and Consumer Generated Media).

For example - some of his facts are:

Fact 1: For most companies, the volume of customer-to-customer
interactions is greater than customer to employee interactions.
Fact 2: Consumers purchase decisions and shopping or service
experiences are routinely affected by other customers.
Fact 3: Consumers find the recommendation of a fellow consumer
more credible than the suggestion of a company employee.
Fact 4: Consumer-to-consumer relationships are ill-defined, hard
to control, constantly changing and organic.

If you look at the development of social networks like “Second Life”, MySpace or StudiVz or on the rise of technologies like video platforms, online games or Blogs you can find a lot of truth in his report.

Brand Management in the Year 2007 and the years to come

I`m just listened to one of the Werbeblogger Podcasts about Brand Management. Werbeblogger is a German Blogger Team that blogs frequently about Advertising, Brand Management, Web 2.0… - each week they also release some Podcasts, which cover different topics from “Marketing in Second Life” to “effective PR” and this time “Brand Management for the next Generation”.

The guest they interview in the Podcast is Bernd M. Michael, a famous German Brand Manager who has worked in the field for over 30 years and has build famous brands like “Mars” and “Visa”.

He has some good topics to cover:
- the future and emerging trends in Brand Management
- how to differentiate your brand from the other 50.000 brands on the market
- how can you combine “new” (like Blogs, Social Networks, Second Life, Ambient Media…) and “traditional” (TV, radio, posters…) media forms together – which means which channel to you have to use to target your customers most efficiently
- managing and building international brands – for example – what to you have know to build / expand your brand in China or Saudi Arabia (this is big topic but he has some good insights)
- the importance of associating your brand in the mind of the customer (in NLP we call that anchoring or liking feelings / associations / images to a certain stimulus) – he gives some insights into Soundbranding

All in all the Podcasts are quite interesting, sometimes a little to polarising, but they still give valuable insights. So if you speak German – take a look at Werbeblogger Podcast Site.

How small Customers can bring large Companies into big trouble

I just found this video in one of Sascha Langners articles about Viral Marketing, Web 2.0 and what companies have to do in order to stay and become more successful.

This is a video of two Apple customers that were really unsatisfied with Apple Customer Service. After the video was released and spread over the Internet Apple had to spent a lot of Millions to fix this problem...

The Future of Brand Management

Marketing Professinal and Ex Grey CEO Bernd M. Michael talks about Brand Wikization

- what happens to your brand when you involve customers and Consumer Generated Media
- how can use the potential of Web 2.0
- how to make people interested in what you have to offer

For me as Business Psychologist this a very interesting topic - you can see that maybe the wants of the customers change within every 5 years, but the needs stay more or less the same. If you have a strong Brand and you give people a good enough reason to buy your products and services - then they will follow up -  if you do it right....


Link: sevenload.com

The advertising misconception

I think this video illustrates quite well what is going on
in marketing and advertising right now - Enjoy.

Introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming

Since I like NLP as a Model to understand how people think and how to make effective use of Psychlogy in Business, I post this small introduction to NLP by Clay Lowe on the Blog.

Clay was also my trainer in the Coaching and Teambuilding workshops at the Negotiation Days in Poznan and I liked his training very much.

Creating AEGEE Evangelists using the Hawthorne Effect

I was just thinking about how to transfer the knowledge from the book „Creating Customer Evangelists” into an NGO like AEGEE.

These are my ideas.

- the basic principle for companies is to find people that are interested in your product (High Involvement) and to involve / engage them into your marketing actions (Participation) to make them feel commitment and loyal towards your company
- the transfer to AEGEE would be to find people that are interested in:
o travelling & international exchange
o making friends all over Europe
o experiencing different cultures and getting to know other countries from inside
o getting organizing and socialising skills for their future life & career
o for people that are into business – to get some skills in the fields of PR, Leadership, Finance & Accounting, Fundraising / Networking, Public Speaking, IT…..
o getting involved in European politics & working on European Identity
o …..

and to give them the opportunity to get engaged in their favourite field – get some experience and to make them feel the AEGEE spirit. Once they are fully engaged they can tell their friends about the company / AEGEE and bring them in.

One of the underlying principles behind this process is the Hawthorne Effect. This is what Dr. Paul Marsden writes about it:

How to Influence People using the Hawthorne Effect

"If the psychology of the Hawthorne Effect all seems a bit abstract, try it for yourself and see how simple and powerful it is as an influence technique for getting what you want from someone. Just before asking someone for something, whether it’s a salary increase, a date or whatever, ask them their advice on something. It doesn’t matter what it is that you ask them their advice on; the important thing is to be seen to be listening to what they have to say, and to tell them you appreciate their opinion. Then, when they have finished giving you their advice, ask them for whatever it is you want from them. The chances are that your ‘research’ will have triggered the Hawthorne Effect and you will get what you want. By asking them for their opinion you will have not only created goodwill but also flattered their ego, and at a subconscious level they will feel indebted to you. This psychological indebtedness makes them significantly more likely to agree to whatever it is you are asking of them. By seeing the Hawthorne Effect in action as a very powerful influence technique, you will also know to watch out the next time someone asks you for your advice and then asks you for something! "

I also found two useful guides about "How to bind members to 
your Antenna"and  "How to promote AEGEE"- maybe this will help to understand the concept better.
 

AEGEE Advertising

Basic Advertising principles say – if you want to get the right people, you have to give them the right message and appeal to their values to get committed in whatever idea you are presenting to them.

For AEGEE this means – depending on which student groups you have as target groups, you have to use different messages to get them interested in joining and participating in this Student Organisation.

This means in practise:
- IT Students- appeal to their value of getting experience in the field of IT, having the opportunity to manage the IT Systems & Websites of the AEGEE local and meeting different people
- Business Students – opportunity to use and shape their skills in AEGEE projects, Networking with interesting people and preparing for their future career
- Politic Students – opportunity to experience European Identity, talk about politics, work on international relations
- Tourisms Studies – opportunity to travel, experience different cultures, getting to know different people from all over Europe
- Advanced students – opportunity to use their skills in practise (this is a general thing), teach other people – getting the skills as trainers, getting involved in seminars to get more experience and skills
- …

I think every AEGEE local should know about that fact to make their advertising more efficient and to appeal to the values of the students they are targeting.

Follow Up Negotiation Days in Poznan

I`m just back from my exiting trip through Poland. I visited the 4th edition of the Negoation Days, they provided me a lot of insights into myself and other people. For me it was especially interesting to combine my existing knowledge about NLP, Coaching and Negotiation with the knowledge of the trainers and participants and to work in international and diverse teams (as usual I was the only German / international participant at the workshops)

During the 3 days I attended the workshops about effective Teambuilding, Coaching and applied Negotiation Strategies, run by the trainers Clay Lowe, Peter Feeth and Chris Walker.
Also very interesting was the opening lecture which was run by the CEO of the Negotiation Academy Europe about “Strategies and Personality Types in Negotiation”.

There are also an interesting videos about the Leadership Seminar of Peter and Clay.