Let's face it. We love to hear the sound of our own voices.

When I was single, one of the best pieces of dating advice I ever got was to let the other person speak through the whole date because she will adore you by the end of it. The reason is simple: It is much easier to talk than to listen to others.

But the reality that just like in any relationship, one must listen to the other side in order to better understand them. Brands are facing the same situation on a daily basis. The holy grail of modern marketing is creating and cultivating relationships between brands and their target audience.  Therefore, listening is a key to reaching this goal

Thankfully, several companies are offering listening and monitoring platforms that makes this task easy. We've chosen Tra.cx due to their great team, technology, and customer service.

Conversation Distribution by Platforms via Tra.cx

But technology is not enough. It is all about what you do with it. So, with no further ado, here are some of the key ways to use listening as a strategic tool in your digital marketing toolbox:

Tweak your product and pitch - by listening to target audience conversations, we have been able to gain insight about general topics of interest. For example, when listening to online discussions of IT managers, we were able to ascertain their key concerns and challenges. This provided  valuable input to our client, as they could fine-tune their pitch and online presence.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing - one of our clients invested a lot of money in extending the warranty of their products. They saw it as a key way to differentiate themselves from their competition. A month after they launched their program we analyzed online discussions of potential buyers of their equipment, and saw that warranty was not mentioned as a key decision factor. Not only that, but we also saw that the amount of online conversations about their offering didn't change at all after launching their extended warranty.. These findings helped our client reach a decision regarding the efficacy and value of their new marketing program.

Prioritize your marketing efforts - the digital landscape is becoming more and more fragmented. Multiple social networks, the need to combine inbound and outbound marketing methods, the ever growing pressure to reach results, and the shrinking marketing budgets pose a challenge to every decision maker. The value of Inbound marketing increases based on corporate investment. This investment grows based on the amount of platforms and campaigns a company is managing at any given time. Therefore, prioritizing and choosing which platform to focus on is extremely important. By effectively  listening to online conversations  about your market, you can easily identify the hotspots that require attention. For some, LinkedIn is the key to success. Others  prefer Facebook, and others still – heaven forbid --continue to use good old fashioned forums to discuss their buying decisions. We are using a cool Tra.cx report to quickly plan and prioritize our marketing efforts, and make sure we are handling the most important platforms for our clients.

Listening in love -- and in marketing -- is a key to success. It is not a one time thing, but should be part of an  ongoing process interwoven in the world of digital marketing. We gave here only a couple of examples on how to use it strategically. Stay tuned for future posts with additional case studies. And in the meantime, we would love to hear your insights.

Happy Monday, Everyone!

We hope you had a peaceful, relaxing, and enjoyable weekend.

Now, go get your coffee on,  and check out these links.  We hope you find them as interesting as we did!

First of all, our client, Babylon.com, just started a new series on their blog called "My Life in Translation"

"How many of us have found ourselves visiting or even living in a country where we can barely speak the language?  Sure, while It’s an adventure to navigate new cultural terrain without being able to communicate the way you would ordinarily in your homeland, it is certainly not without its challenges."

Take a look at this diagram:

North American marketers see major improvements when integrating email marketing and social media efforts. This is another proof that the power of digital marketing lies in channel integration, and not in short term campaigns. As social web marketing requires an ongoing nurturing of branded online assets (brand's Facebook page, Twitter account, on so on), the biggest advantages are for those who combine different channels to utilize these assets.
This information also sheds light on the expected announcement of Facebook Mail today. My friend Yaniv Golan have some interesting thoughts about this move.

In a world were marketing ROI becomes critical for brands success, the combination of strong branding tools with direct marketing tools provide major advantages to the ones who use them well.

Related articles

• 360 Degree Marketing Redux: How the Social Web is Changing the Marketing Communications Ecosystem (gauravonomics.com)
• Three Strategies for Ethical Email Marketing (teachstreet.com)
• 35 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed (mashable.com)
• Why Email Marketing Still Trumps Social (webpronews.com)

In a world of likes, what is the value of engagement?
Facebook made "like" easy. Just a click. No comments, no attachment, no real interaction. Just a click.
So why do we constantly value our campaigns and social activities by this low effort measurement?
It might be that we don't have enough tools to really understand the value and quality of our social web marketing activities.
But it might be because it is easier to count likes and fans than get to the bottom of these new tools and platforms.
And maybe it's because we are working too hard to be cool and "social" and "new" that we forget that social marketing is at the end of the day a part of digital marketing - which in turn suppose to provide clear business value.
Engagement doesn't matter if it doesn't grow the business. Likes are useless if they don't help the company to grow by either lowering costs, increasing revenues, or increasing customer satisfaction.
Digital marketers have a huge responsibility - we are ahead of the curve for most of our clients. We should always remember that at the end of the day we need to justify our retainer and project fees, with proper increase in revenues - or achievement of a clear business goal.

So, what's the business value of Like?

A Friend

A lot of exciting things happened recently, and can't wait to tell you all about it. However they affected our blog updates, and we are now getting back to speed with that too...
The incentives of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is an important tool in online marketer toolbox. Companies big and small use this method to reach new audiences effectively. The principle is simple - Company A provides incentives to everyone online to promote their product. Usually a cut of the deal is paid to the affiliate. Companies such as Amazon provide dedicated links and widgets for these partners who in turn distribute them to their audience.
Besides Amazon and other well known brands, many found affiliate marketing a profitable business in other business line such as diet and nutrition and investment tools . In many cases a small operation of two to three smart people, with strong knowledge in SEO and PPC can make a lot of money in these activities.
Affiliate marketing is in many cases more a science than art. Where everything can be measured, smart affiliate marketers optimize their efforts again and again to reach the best conversion rate possible. The ability to instantly measure every activity as well as reassign resources makes it a very dynamic business.
Some in this business are using tactics that are ethically questionable such as fake blogs and spam.
Brands are interested in creating meaningful relationships with their audience, in order to make their brand affect buying decisions.
In short, while affiliate marketing is all about one night stands with customers, branding is more like a long term relationship.
Efficiency of Social Media
Social channels are all about creating meaningful connection with current and potential customers. Unlike other channels, here the brand is acting within the personal space of the customer. That's because people go to Facebook and Twitter to talk with friends and family, and not necessarily in order to consume content. The content they do consume is usually recommended by friends, or sent to them based on their permission (such as joining a Facebook page of a product or a brand). In social channels it is all about trust - brands can increase the trust of their target audience while engaging with them and giving them value. These channels offer many for affiliate marketers as well. Do a little test: twit several times about forex and diet and see how hoards of great looking, well endowed women follow you and offer you to get rich and fit in less than 10 days. Many find it rude.
This is the risk for brands. Let's say that Joann, 19 yo, beautiful brunette just offered me a unique diet that will make me the hottest guy around, and when I click the link I am getting to a reputable brand's page - how would it make me feel re this brand? Would I continue to trust it? And let say that I am looking for info about a company and see that the only mentions on twitter are by Joann and her friends - would I trust that company? And if all the raving reviews about this company are from blogs that look like fake ones - how would that affect my perception of the brand?
Brands, Short Term Relationships and Incentives
Everyone wants to make money. This is not a shocker. But there are different ways to make money. Some companies are focusing on short term gain, and some are focusing on building and maintaining a brand. The brand strategy takes time and effort. Not only that but association with spam and other ethically questionable tactics can harm brands more than the value of increased exposure gained by using these tools.
While affiliate marketers aim is to increase conversion, brands are interested in creating brand equity - meaning, making their brand count. This is a basic difference in incentives.
So while our imaginary Joann could provide great conversion rate for the affiliate marketer, the brand she is referring to might suffer from that activity even if in the short run they will sell more of their products. And while it was always true, the trust based system of social media increases the potential damage for brands.
So What Can You Do?
It all boils down to strategy. If your company doesn't care about branding - affiliate is the way to go. If branding is crucial, but so is affiliate marketing, consider separating brands, or find ways to impose at least some guidelines on your affiliates. It's tricky but feasible. As long as you know what you lose and what you gain in each strategy, you will be able to find the best way to grow your business.

Imagine a world in which it makes no difference how tall you are; what you look like. Imagine a world that doesn’t judge you according to who your parents are; what your education is; what your achievements have been. Imagine a social universe that rates you purely according to one criterion: do you have anything interesting to say?

Well, do you?

Stripped of our looks, of TV’s makeup artists, of screenwriters’ sharp verbal edge, are you still someone worth my time listening to? Am I?

While admittedly still hosting to old fashioned fan attributes of following landmark figures (such as Britney Spears and Barack Obama,) Twitter has become a very unforgiving platform. In a way, it is a harsh, brutally honest space. In this space, the reciprocal attachment that you have come to accept and expect in every other communication platform- no longer exists: In IMS services approving a contact will result in both sides appearing on each other’s contact lists (unless later blocked.) On Facebook, accepting a friend request joins both parties in a mutual connection of sharing. This is not the case on Twitter.

Twitter (and the Buzz adaptation of it,) allow users to choose to follow an individual or organization. This choice does not oblige the followed party to follow back. In many cases, people login to Twitter and begin to follow certain high-profiled people, watch their feed fill with 140 characters generated by people they often do not know and anticipate their contribution based on their great success in other platforms (such as sports, films or entrepreneurship.) Later they may find themselves bored to death by the person they chose to follow. Surprised, the followers realize that these seemingly interesting people- when scrutinized according to the great democracy of the limited Twitter API- are not that interesting (or rather, are quite boring.)
This is because on Twitter the first- and actually only- rule is that you have to say something; this is because Twitter is a tool of communication, and unlike prior tools of social networks, it brings forward the liberation of conversation: everyone can listen to what you have to say, everyone can reply to you and everyone can choose- at any point- to stop listening.

The text most commonly found on deserted Twitter account pages is: “So, at what point will real people start following me back?”

The answer is fairly simple: once you have something unique to say, and start saying it: that thing that is yours, that expresses your opinions, your thoughts. Most of all, people will follow if you talk to them. Reply to Tweets that you feel or think something and say something about them. ReTweet things that made you think or links that you liked. Immerse yourself in the ongoing flow of thoughts and conversations. You may find that the most interesting people are those you’ve never heard of before. When you are forced to simmer your thoughts, to boil down your experiences to 140 characters- to a haiku of thoughts- what is it that you have to say?

Ilil Ben Shalom works at Pravda Media, helping companies realize their digital potential. She makes great jams, loves Hapoe'l, but we love her anyway.

In my previous post we've discussed the challenges that brands are facing when required to interact with their consumers directly. The main point of the post is that consumers are not satisfied anymore with presenters or low level employees, and are looking for authoritative figure to represent the company.

This post generated some very interesting comments, especially in face to face meetings I recently had with CEOs of brand and service companies.
The main point raised was that relying a company value on one person is extremely dangerous, especially for the shareholders. Many mentioned the fluctuations in Apple's share price in response to Jobs' health as a showcase of these dangers.

Yes, star CEOs pose a challenge to  shareholders. Larry Ellisson, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and others are the real life incarnation of their companies. Without them, they will never be the same. But the fact is that the general direction of the relationship between consumers and brands is leading to an era that is  fundamentally different than what we were used to. Companies are already having hard time hiding behind PR pros and shiny logos. Customers want to talk, be heard, and in a sense have a meaningful relationship with companies they finance.  It is getting harder and harder to differentiate in products and technology. It is the feeling that matters. And if in the past the slogans and logos did all the work - now, the  social web is changing the expectation of consumers.

Brands are already part of the game - with their Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and such.

There is no escape from the demise of faceless brands. You might as well wake up and smell the coffee.

Social media, sophisticated customers, and lack of control of the conversation are all pointing to the same direction - brands can't afford to be faceless. But now they also need a soul, a spirit and a person that people can relate to.

If in the past, brands could use anonymous models, with shiny teeth and great curves, to lure eyeballs, If in the past brands could use celebrity presenters as a pillar of emotional attachment, now things are different.

You see, when brands are involved in social media tools, they are exposing themselves. They can't afford not to be there, but their involvement make them more accessible. Their involvement in Twitter and such has one more effect - as people using Twitter in order to communicate with friends, when a brand is getting into their personal space they expect the brands to be, well, real.

But what's real?

People are real. Individuals in the companies that are representing the values and position of the organization. But they can't be just a front.

AT&T's Blogger ads, explaining why iPhone customers are facing network issues, could have been great several years ago. The ad shows an AT&T blogger who explains why there are network issues. But then people realized two important things:

1. This blogger doesn't have any authority to solve those problems. Meaning, he is nothing more that a glorified spokesperson with touch of social glare.

2. He isn't  even employed by AT&T

I am certain it would have worked better if C level AT&T guy had taken the stage.

Think - who is the true face of Apple? Is it the dude from "I'm a Mac" ads, or is it Steve Jobs?

Being real is tough. Really.

But brands can no longer hide behind fancy ads and shiny logos. They need a soul.

If they want to talk - they have to keep it real.

Another great post on this topic can be found here.

You have a strong passion for media, marketing, and getting others excited. You are a hard working self starter and motivated individual, who get things done. You solve problems, and are considered an out of the box and creative thinker.

You are tech savvy and a social media enthusiast with REAL followers on twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. You speak Hebrew and English fluently.
And you love all things beautiful, and appreciate the importance of visual elements in everything we do.

It would be also great if you have project or account management experience, B2B or B2C marketing know how, you love all things Mac, have video editing, directing or shooting experience and you are an active blogger

We are a B2B/B2C digital agency, with publicly traded international customers, that is expanding its operation. We believe that the relations between brands, companies and customers are changing fundamentally, and there is a need for a new breed of marketeers that understand different platforms, know how to integrate them, and how to create value to for customers and brands/companies alike. We also believe that there are new ways to communicate with customers, that doesn't necessarily require buying expensive media.

If we work together, you will create and execute multi-platform digital and real life activities that challenge traditional advertising and PR industry.

If you'd like to apply - send us your CV. It can be video, images, or plain old paper. You can find us at Jobs AT pravdam.com or on Facebook (Kfir Pravda)