Tag Archives: 2013

Jan 02 2014
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Insight, Planning

100th Post: Year 2013 in Review

This is my 100th post on this blog.   Tennis clap. Or even Nolia clap, if you are really excited about the fact.   If you want to read my point-of-view about this year´s digital trends, I recommend reading these predictions.   I started this blog for one simple reason: I wanted some channel where to express myself verbally about (marketing) subjects that tickle my interest. I used to blog in Finnish to the biggest marketing & advertising magazine, but stopped it immediately when I moved to Singapore in 2012. It would have felt odd to blog in Finnish weekly when you are living abroad. So it was also naturally to switch the language to my second one, English.

This year I was asked to write a regular column (once every third month) in the biggest business daily in Finland. It has been great to write in Finnish again and surprisingly I also always get feedback from those columns, although they are only published in offline format. Maybe print is not dead after all. In terms of written output, I am still more of a digital guy, so I regard this as my main channel for verbal expression. Also because I can write here as often or seldom as I want. Also there are no size restrictions and I can have as long-winding introductions as I want (which might be a bad thing as well).

I do not stress too much about writing these posts. Sometimes I write daily, sometimes there is even a month break. Last year I wrote 52 posts: exactly on steady weekly pace. I do not worry that much about views or comments either. Blogging for me is one method of working and thinking. When you have to condense certain topic (like Google Search Algorithm changes) to blog format it automatically sharpens your thinking. Planning is not only research, but more about finding and presenting insights influenced by research. This blog is one tool to do the research, find and present different insights and opinions. Hopefully also in a format which is interesting for readers.

Luckily I am not the only who is reading this blog and the most popular posts have gotten thousands of views last year:
The Most Read Blog Posts
Read them below:
1. Rethinking the Advertising Agency Team Structure
2. #Lufthansafail: Why You Cannot Separate Customer Service and Social Media?
3. The Seven Characteristics of a Great Concept
4. Craft Your Presentation like FBI Interrogation
5. Psycho Marketing 101

Expect for the Lufthansa-post, the top five list comprises of timeless content (three of them actually written in 2012) and some of them are my own favorites as well. It is interesting to analyze what kind of post strikes a chord with your readers. For example, I do not know why FBI interrogation techniques and marketing of Psycho movie are more popular than critical analysis of selfies. I liked the latter way more, but eventually the audience decides the value of every post. The most popular post was not a surprise though. I have talked about the subject and that particular post with many people from our industry, and it feels that I have been onto something with it. Not yet entirely sure what.

This year I will continue to write when I feel like it and about the things I feel passionate about. Thanks for everyone who has read these rants thus far. There will be plenty more. Stay tuned and Happy New Year to everyone!

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Jan 17 2013
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Advertising, Business, Digital Strategy, Social Media, Strategy

Do You Still Want to Hear About Social Media Trends 2013?

Although everyone and their mother has already given their point of view about current social media trends, here are couple of more predictions.

Good folks at Kurio (Finnish Digital Marketing Think Tank) asked me and 17 other Finnish “social media experts”(stated by the report, I prefer to just be “the planner guy with funny glasses”) about social media trends in 2013 and conducted interesting study about the results. They identified nine emerging trends in social media for the year 2013. The report is in Finnish, but the main trends can be read below. All the finnish-speakers should definitely download the report below.

Big Social Media Themes for 2013  (my comments in italics):

1. 2013 is the year of Mobile (this has been my favourite prediction for at least five years. The main difference is that this year I am actually believing it)
2. Multichannel story-telling is the way to create modern phenomena (Or put it this way: If your marketing activity is not multi-channel/channel-agnostic/holistic/360/add your favourite buzzword by nature, it will be doomed to fail)
3. Lack of human resources is the main constraint in social media (The problem is two-folded, there is definitely lack of people actually working with social media. But there is actually even bigger talent problem: there are lots of “social media experts”, “community managers” but not enough actual strategic thinking about what we should do with and in social media. Social media without strategic thinking behind it is irrelevant at best and purely dangerous at worst.)
4. Big Data (Like the report also points out: we have lots of data & information, but do we have talent, resources and capabilities to turn that information to action?)
5. Content: Interesting, current and value-adding (Which starts the discussion about what is the good content? I still believe that good content is either 1)useful 2)funny 3)on some rare instances both)
6. Picture tells more than 2013 words (Despite the revolt against Instagram, people will rather share more pictures online than less in 2013)
7. Social cannot be just a digital or marketing function, but should be thought holistically (Definitely true, but also the most difficult to achieve. On some instances to make the change requires totally new management, who understands the possibilities of digital and social media. On other instances it requires adequate mix of sticks and carrots to ensure the competitive advantage in digital age)
8. Social media channels are starting to resemble more bought media (The pressure to monetize is already showing with different social networks, especially with Facebook)
9. Users are more and more critical towards marketing activities in social media (You might fool a customer once, but not twice. The opportunity to fool once has already passed)

Download the report (in Finnish).

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