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Social Media Marketing

by Florian Nyffenegger on 29. Jun, 2010 in Conferences & Events, Humour, Social Media

Ist in aller Munde. Ist Trend. Alle wollen auch. Haben schon mal davon gehört. Rennen in Seminare und Vorträge. So auch kürzlich auf Einladung der Goldbach Media Group.

Social Media ist ein grosses Gebiet unter das sehr vieles fallen kann, denn das entscheidende Buzzword “Social” beschreibt eigentlich eine Verhaltensweise. Trotzdem werden vor allem Werber nicht müde, “Strategien” und “Techniken” zu präsentieren, wie man dieses “Social Media” zum Absatz von Produkten nutzen kann. Auch die Präsentation von Orange8 (gehört zur Goldbach Gruppe) hatte ihre 5 Erfolgsfaktoren (wie man in Social Media richtig verkauft). Die Wahl der Titel sagt schon einiges über ihre Haltung zur Thematik: Präsenz / Ausdauer / Interaktivität / Kreativität / Analytics.

Etwa anderthalb Monate zuvor habe ich selbst einen Artikel zu Social Media verfasst. Nicht zuletzt um dieser Haltung einen anderen Standpunkt entgegen zu setzen. Auch wir machen mit Brand Experience im weiteren Sinne Marketing. Wir hören aber auch auf den Benuzer / die Zielgruppe. Der Benuzter möchte nicht, das ihm einfach etwas angedreht wird. Der Benutzer möchte, das auf seine Bedürfnisse eingegangen wird. Dann kauft er auch. Entsprechend lauten meine 5 Erfolgsfaktoren (wie man sich in Social Media richtig verhält): Aufmerksamkeit / Transparenz / Aktivität / Selbstlosigkeit / Authenzität.

Lesen Sie den ganzen Artikel: Die fünf Erfolgsfaktoren für Social Media Marketing

Davon abgesehen wurde im “Seminar” nicht viel neues Präsentiert, da es hauptsächlich um Grundlagen ging. Dass ein Bedürfnis dafür da ist zeigten Fragen aus dem Publikum, wie: “Und was macht man, wenn Facebook in unserem Unternehmen gesperrt ist?” und Antworten wie “iPhone?”. Ich persönlich finde ja, ein Unternehmen, das Facebook für seine Mitarbeiter sperrt, hat Social Media grundsätzlich noch nicht verstanden und sollte sich hüten, darin werben zu wollen. Aber das ist nur meine Meinung.

Noch etwas Lustiges, das mir aus dem “Seminar” geblieben ist zum Schluss: Der Sprecher hält einen Vortrag über Social Media, bittet das Publikum aber: “Schreiben Sie sich diese tolle Virale Kampagne auf”. Tatsächlich. “Ich schicke den Interessierten den Link per Mail”, “Sie finden den Link in meinem letzten Twitter-Post” oder “Sie können die Präsentation in unserem Blog downloaden” wäre dann doch zuviel 2.0 gewesen. Hier nun, zu aktuellen Geschehnissen, einer der Links zum schmunzeln: BP Spills Coffee

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Zeit Online Talk – Das iPad ist da

by Vera Brannen on 12. May, 2010 in Branding, Brannen Usable Brands: News, Usability, User Experience

Hat das iPad unsere Mediennutzung revolutioniert?

Markus Heidmeier diskutiert mit Gästen über das iPad und die Auswirkungen auf die Mediennutzung.

Gäste
Armin Rott, Professor für Medienökonomie an der Hamburg Media School
Vera Brannen gründete 2004 Brannen Usable Brands. Sie ist Brand Experience Design Consultant.
Sascha Venohr, Entwicklungsredakteur bei Zeit Online

Hier zum Nachhören

Die Diskussion geht den Fragen nach: Was kann das iPad, was kann es nicht? Welche Nutzungsszenarien gibt es? Was macht die Konkurrenz?

Für Medienanbieter, zum Beispiel Verlage, schafft das iPad neue Angebotsmöglichkeiten. Zerfallen Printpodukte in Einzelerzeugnisse oder werde Magazine zu multimedialen Formaten oder kann das iPad am Ende sogar die Zeitungsverlage retten?

Auch Zeit Online wird eine solche fürs iPad optimierte Seite anbieten. Zusätzlich wird die gerade entstehende iPhone App der Zeit auch auf dem iPad laufen.

Schließlich stellt sich aber auch die Frage nach der sich ausdehnenden Marktmacht von Apple. Entsteht so nicht eine publizistische Abhängigkeit von den Regeln eines Unternehmens?

Auch für die Nutzer, die sich auf Apple-Produkte einstellen, könnte die Entwicklung aus dem offenen Netz etwa hin zu einem Netz der Apps werden?

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ONLINE-MARKETING MANAGER DIPLOMLEHRGANG

by admin on 12. May, 2010 in Brannen: Seminars, Trainings

MIGROS CLUBSCHULE BUSINESS

Ich freue mich in dem ganz neuen Diplomlehrgang neben Jörg Eugster, Peter Hogenkamp, Maya Reinshagen und vielen weiteren Dozenten ab diesem Winter Website Marketing und Usability zu unterrichten.

BESCHREIBUNG
Das Internet ist mittlerweile die grösste Marketing- und Verkaufs- plattform der Welt. Wie nutzt man das Internet kommerziell für seine Zwecke?

Im Rahmen des Marketing-Mix’ werden zunehmend Online-Marketing- Massnahmen genutzt. Doch welche Methoden sind am wirkungsvollsten? Ist es E-Mail- oder Suchmaschinen-Marketing? Wie gut wirkt Bannerwerbung? Auf welchen Portalen gilt es, Präsenz zu zeigen? Soll man bereits auf Mobile Marketing setzen? Ist der Zeitpunkt richtig für Social Media Marketing und wenn ja, wie soll man diese Web 2.0-Instrumente einsetzen? Was für Alternativen bieten sich an?

Im Lehrgang Online-Marketing Manager/in werden Sie schrittweise von ausgewiesenen Experten mit langjähriger Erfahrung in diese Thematik eingeführt. Dabei werden ldie aktuellen Trends aus der Praxis wie Google, Facebook, Twitter & Co. laufend berücksichtigt.

Die Inhalte werden detailliert, praxisgerecht und anhand vieler Beispiele dargestellt, so dass Sie in der Lage sind, diese direkt in die Praxis umzusetzen.

INHALT
Folgende Inhalte bereiten die künftigen Online-Marketing Manager auf Ihre Aufgaben vor.
Online-Marketing-Strategie (8 Lektionen)
Website-Marketing und Usability (8 Lektionen)
E-Mail-/Newsletter-Marketing (8 Lektionen)
Suchmaschinen-Marketing (SEO, SEM), (16 Lektionen)
Web-Analyse (8 Lektionen)
Social Media Marketing (12 Lektionen)
Online-Werbung (8 Lektionen)
Virales Marketing, Sonderwerbeformen (8 Lektionen)
Mobile Marketing und Mobile Apps (8 Lektionen)
E-Commerce und rechtliche Grundlagen (8 Lektionen)
Einführung in die Diplomarbeit (4 Lektionen)

Details und Anmeldung

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Navigation Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle

by admin on 19. Aug, 2008 in Information Architecture, Usability

One thing to consider when defining the navigational structure is the different target groups.
The other important thing is the stages of the customer life cycle.

What do I mean by this? Let’s go on the customer journey:

1) The first time visitor
The customer visits your site. He wants information about your products, prices, service and so on. He needs all this at his finger tips. Try to imagine all the potential questions a customer might have and make sure to answer them – and that those answers are easily accessible.

2) You are lucky
Your potential client has done all his online research and you are the lucky winner – that is why he is back. This usually happens not within the same day. So make sure that the returning customer is able to find the product again fast. In some instances it makes sense to offer a wish list or basket functionality.

3) The unlucky one
The product unfortunately did not get delivered properly. Or in the case of an insurance company – your client had an accident. So this is still the same website user but he again has totally different needs. He is rather likely upset right now and needs help and support fast. Make sure he can access it directly. And yes – in case the answer is a phone call – offering a real voice, without long waiting lines can increase the customer satisfaction and therefore the perception of your brand in many ways.

A good exampe offers Norwich Union. It is very easy to receive a free quote. In addition they offer the button “Existing Customers” on the upper right hand side where clients can “Make a claim”, “Manage their policy online” and much more.

Read the entire series:

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global Navigation

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Navigation Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation

by admin on 24. Jul, 2008 in Information Architecture, Usability

For all of you who are not sure what the difference is, let me explain briefly:

A static navigation is always visible and when you click on the first level navigation the items of the second level navigation appear and stay visible.

A dynamic navigation only appears when you hover over it with the mouse and then disappears again.

There are also combinations of the two on the market.

Static navigation:
The advantage is that after the user has clicked on the first level entry all the second level entries stay visible and the user has always the overview of all the other navigation points in that category. So if you assume that your users wish to browse within that category it is advisable that you give the user the overview.

Dynamic navigation:
The dynamic navigation has the benefit that you have not to give up any screen real estate for placing the navigation so you can full the entire website with content. As long as only one drop down opens it is usually easy to navigate. The user can also “preview” the content of all subnavigation items without clicking on them which can be very convenient. However, as soon as you have several sublevel menus it becomes more difficult to control the navigation with the mouse.

Combination of dynamic and static navigation:
An excellent example for a combination of the two is the website of John Lewis. The drop down navigation is even grouped in categories and after the user has chosen an item a static left hand navigation menu appears with further details.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 2: How many navigation points?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

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Navigation Part 2: How many navigation points?

by admin on 08. Jul, 2008 in Branding

It is very pleasing to hear in many concept workshops – “A maximum of 7 navigation items, correct?”
This truly shows that core elements of usability have made the round and that people are familiar with them.

However, real life is not always that easy. Let’s look at some issues:

The seven point rule:
It is true and has been psychologically proven that the human brain best can recall 7 items and that the brain capacity after that becomes lower. This is certainly true for example shopping lists. However, from this also the rule: No more than 7 navigation items has been deducted.

Is it applicable? Yes and no.

It certainly makes sense to try to reduce navigational points and keep the navigational structure precise and clear.

However, what are some exceptions?

# Familiarity with a different structure in the “real world”:

For example news sites: Users are familiar with the categories of their daily newspaper such as news, entertainment, sports, weather etc. There it is advisable to retain the structure readers are familiar with.

# Simply too much content

Sometimes it also can help to add an additional top level item to avoid that the site will have too many navigational hierarchies.

# Linking to sub-sites

For example yahoo links to many sub-sites from its main portal and offers a link to view all other categories. This is another way to structure a huge amount many companies are following: Showing the main entries to everybody and adding an additional link to view all navigation items.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

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Bill Gates on usability: His personal Windows’ experience

by admin on 25. Jun, 2008 in Humour, Usability, User Experience

Todd Bishop published in his “Microsoft Blog” http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/141821.asp an e-mail, which Bill Gates wrote after having a very frustrating experience trying to download “Moviemaker”.

The internal e-mails have been turned over in the antitrust suits against the company.

So we only can wonder: “Why did he not have a stronger impact on usability issues and who will promote usability after he is leaving the day to day life at Microsoft?

Image Source:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/

images/gateswinmcnameegetty.jpg

This e-mail is from 2003:

—- Original Message —-

From: Bill Gates
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:05 AM
To: Jim Allchin
Cc: Chris Jones (WINDOWS); Bharat Shah (NT); Joe Peterson; Will Poole; Brian Valentine; Anoop Gupta (RESEARCH)
Subject: Windows Usability Systematic degradation flame

I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don’t drive usability issues.

Let me give you my experience from yesterday.

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying – where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

This struck me as completely odd. Why should I have to go somewhere else and do a scan to download moviemaker?

So I went to Windows update. Windows Update decides I need to download a bunch of controls. (Not) just once but multiple times where I get to see weird dialog boxes.

Doesn’t Windows update know some key to talk to Windows?

Then I did the scan. This took quite some time and I was told it was critical for me to download 17megs of stuff.

This is after I was told we were doing delta patches to things but instead just to get 6 things that are labeled in the SCARIEST possible way I had to download 17meg.

So I did the download. That part was fast. Then it wanted to do an install. This took 6 minutes and the machine was so slow I couldn’t use it for anything else during this time.

What the heck is going on during those 6 minutes? That is crazy. This is after the download was finished.

Then it told me to reboot my machine. Why should I do that? I reboot every night — why should I reboot at that time?

So I did the reboot because it INSISTED on it. Of course that meant completely getting rid of all my Outlook state.

So I got back up and running and went to Windows Updale again. I forgot why I was in Windows Update at all since all I wanted was to get Moviemaker.

So I went back to Microsoft.com and looked at the instructions. I have to click on a folder called WindowsXP. Why should I do that? Windows Update knows I am on Windows XP.

What does it mean to have to click on that folder? So I get a bunch of confusing stuff but sure enough one of them is Moviemaker.

So I do the download. The download is fast but the Install takes many minutes. Amazing how slow this thing is.

At some point I get told I need to go get Windows Media Series 9 to download.

So I decide I will go do that. This time I get dialogs saying things like “Open” or “Save”. No guidance in the instructions which to do. I have no clue which to do.

The download is fast and the install takes 7 minutes for this thing.

So now I think I am going to have Moviemaker. I go to my add/remove programs place to make sure it is there.

It is not there.

What is there? The following garbage is there. Microsoft Autoupdate Exclusive test package, Microsoft Autoupdate Reboot test package, Microsoft Autoupdate testpackage1. Microsoft AUtoupdate testpackage2, Microsoft Autoupdate Test package3.

Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one sane place but now it is all crapped up.

But that is just the start of the crap. Later I have listed things like Windows XP Hotfix see Q329048 for more information. What is Q329048? Why are these series of patches listed here? Some of the patches just things like Q810655 instead of saying see Q329048 for more information.

What an absolute mess.

Moviemaker is just not there at all.

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind. I thought we had reached a low with Windows Network places or the messages I get when I try to use 802.11. (don’t you just love that root certificate message?)

When I really get to use the stuff I am sure I will have more feedback.

When Todd asked Bill Gates about the e-mail last week while conducting an interview, Bill answered:

“There’s not a day that I don’t send a piece of e-mail … like that piece of e-mail. That’s my job.”

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Navigation Part 1: How to structure content?

by admin on 23. Jun, 2008 in Information Architecture, Usability

In this series I will talk about different topics regarding navigation I have been asked over the last years.

Part 1: How to structure content
Part 2: How many navigation points
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

First of all you need to define all the content:

your target group wants to know
is important for your business to be communicated

Then the crucial question is what will your target group be looking for? What are their expectations? Are there structures they are familiar with because all of the competitors are following a similar pattern?

There are several ways to structure content – By:

topic, genre, product groups
target group
activity
search patterns

1) Topic, genre, product group navigation
As the title implies – this makes mainly sense when you are selling products or services which can be grouped logically.

2) Target group navigation
This one is very helpful when you offer information that is of interest to particular target groups and the all need to find information fast and directly. You often see this on websites of major banks with navigation points such as:
Private Banking | Business Banking | Press | Investors | Jobs
Sometimes it is very helpful to offer this kind of entry on the homepage in case your main navigation is structured by topic. You see this rather often on university sites. See the two examples below:

3) Activity based navigation
This one is more prominent in software where often activities are more prominent than categories since users want to fulfil certain tasks.

4) Navigation based on search patterns
In case people might look in different ways for a product this navigational structure is suitable. It basically means that for example products in a gift store are searchable by price, by category and by gender.

Sometimes combinations of the above are the best approach. However, always make sure to label the categories precisely with a short verb and noun and avoid jargon and long labels.

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Usability and e-commerce Part 6: Shopping basket

by admin on 02. May, 2008 in Usability

Access to the shopping basket
The shopping basket link or summary should show at least the current sum of products bought. Ideally the customer can see the number of items, product name, price, additional costs such as VAT or shipping/handling fees. Some companies even show the delivery time.

The shopping basket page
Ideally a thumbnail picture of the product is displayed and a short product description, which are both linked back to the product page. (This is helpful, in case the customer comes back at a later point in time and wants to easily review his order). The page needs to summarize:

The cost per product
The VAT per product
The shipping/handling fee
The total payable fee

The user also needs to be informed of shipping time and links to warranty and exchange policy need to be available.
usability, shopping basket
The customer also needs to be able to delete a product or change the number of products.

Also make sure that the customer has both options: to continue shopping and to check out. This is missing in the Tchibo examle.

This was the last part of our 6 part Usability and e-commerce series.

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Usability and e-commerce Part 4: Search

by admin on 15. Apr, 2008 in Usability

Having a powerful search engine within your site might be the best investment of your money.

The most difficult task is to define the technical requirements your search engine needs to fulfil. Once you have decided on those, 3 major points for the design of your search interface are:

Place the search clearly visible and offer the search entry field on every page.
Make the general search interface as simple as possible. You might want to add an additional filter option such as availability, gender or product category.
Don’t go overboard with defining the detailed search. Studies show, that not too many people ever use it.

And what are people looking for in the result page. 5 points

1) Inform the users of what they typed into the search field.
2) How many results were produced
3) The results should have a clear title and a short summary
4) Show where the result is placed within the site (URL)
5) Let the customer filter the results (i.e. from cheapest to most expensive)

e-bay for example lets you filter the search results, shows an image and a title and in addtion even offers the option to save the search criteria.

Usability and e-commerce: e-bay search results

Check out the entire series:
Part 1) Navigation and homepage
Part 2) Product overview
Part 3) Product detail page
Part 4) Search

To come:
Part 5) Check out process
Part 6) The shopping basket

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Older Entries »

Zeit Online Talk – Das iPad ist da

ONLINE-MARKETING MANAGER DIPLOMLEHRGANG

Navigation Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle

Navigation Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation

Navigation Part 2: How many navigation points?

Bill Gates on usability: His personal Windows’ experience

Navigation Part 1: How to structure content?

Usability and e-commerce Part 6: Shopping basket

Usability and e-commerce Part 4: Search

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