LouisJvR

Louis is the Johannesburg manager of web marketing firm World Wide Creative. Louis is also known as the ‘Case Study Guy’ with an encyclopaedic knowledge of research resources to support the strategic initiatives he is involved in. In between organising Heavy Chef Sessions in the Gauteng region, Louis happens to have a mean sidestep on the rugby field. With his silky skills, dashing good looks, Colgate smile and cunning wit, Louis is the high school quarterback of the World Wide Creative marketing team.

Finding Creative Ideas To Increase Your Mobile Marketing Conversion Rate Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by LouisJvR April 20, 2011

Whenever I consult to companies about the new tools of marketing – specifically referring to mobile and social media – the topic of conversion rates come up 9 out 10 times. In other words, how can businesses translate views/visits (in digital terms) into an action, pre-defined by your company like for example ‘sign-up for our newsletter’, and thus measured as a conversion point? Here is my 4 step plan to finding creative ideas to increase your mobile marketing conversion rate. Read Further
Is the mobile web only for kids and geeks? Posted in Mobile Marketing, Concocted by LouisJvR January 19, 2011 3 comments

A recent study by marketing research company Pew Internet found that social networking site usage grew 88% among Internet users aged 55-64, and the 65 and older group’s social networking presence grew 100% during 2010. A great deal of this upward trend has been attributed to a marked increase in mobile usage amongst this demographic. Indeed the demographics around the mobile web is fragmenting by the day. Read Further
How to get your message across in 140 characters on Twitter Posted in Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR January 5, 2011 2 comments

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

- William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946)

Professor William Strunk Jr, author of the first editions of The Elements of Style* (1918), was one of the first to publish a writing guide to English usage. His objective was to focus on a few essentials relating to the rules of usage and principles of composition. His statement “vigorous writing is concise” rings as true today, whether in writing a novel or getting your message across in 140 characters**.

<end of excerpt>

Thus, here are 10 lessons in writing for Twitter – inspired by an academic from the nineteen hundreds:

1. Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal tweets.

2. Omit needless words (same goes for use of excessive punctuation marks!!!!!!!).

3. Drop the adjectives.

4. If you are indecisive or unsure of what to tweet, rather say nothing.

5. Use complete words, find shorter synonyms or at the very least recognisable abbreviations. DO NOT use text message lingo when tweeting. EVR.

6. Do not break your tweet in 2.

7. When asking a question, choose either rhetoric or open-ended questions as they are more conducive for generating feedback tweets.

8. Have purpose when tweeting. Know to whom your tweet is meant for and what you are expecting in response to that tweet (if at all). If you want someone to click on a link, tell them so accordingly

9. When referencing a link in your tweet, make use of url shorteners to help you make the most of 140 characters.

10. Lastly, a point I never get tired of hearing – to borrow from The Cluetrain Manifesto’s 95 Theses: “Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.” Read your tweets out loud before posting. Do they sound uncontrived?

So, now over to you – what do you find works well when composing a tweet?

*you can read the complete version of Strunk Jr’s The Elements of Style (1918) here.

**have you ever asked yourself the question: Why 140 Characters? Check it out: http://www.140characters.com/2008/11/13/hello-world/

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

- William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946) Read Further
5 Twitter No-No’s: Tips from the ANCYL saga Posted in Online Reputation Management, Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR November 26, 2010 3 comments

A few weeks back, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) expressed concern about fake Julius Malema accounts on Twitter tweeting misleading messages. The ANCYL’s militant tone of voice in conveying this concern however made for some nice headline-grabbing soundbites. Soundbites that lead to a barrage of responses from journalists, commentators and the Twitter community alike.

But, taking a step back for a second and cutting through the ANCYL’s talent for their creative choice of words, their concern is valid. And one that many a person or organisation has flagged before. This the very same reason why Twitter introduced Account Verification in 2009: a lawsuit was filed against Twitter by the manager of a well-know baseball team in the US back then (details of the case can be found here).

In fact there are a number of cases where Twitter was asked (read: threatened) to shut down fake Twitter accounts:

· Kanye West posted a rant on his blog saying: “Hey Twitter, take the so called Kanye West Twitter down now.”

· Ewan McGregor was considering legal action to remove a fake Twitter account that had attracted 20,000 followers

· Actor/musician Vincent Gallo ordered Twitter to find and shut down fake accounts

· BP asked Twitter to enforce a disclaimer on fake BP Twitter account @BPGlobalPR

The list goes on.

However, as the ANCYL has learned (or not), there are correct ways of dealing with impersonators and then there are the No-No’s that can potentially even exacerbate the problem.

Here are 5 Twitter No-No’s when faced with a fake Twitter account:

TIP #1: Be confrontational, aggressive, threatening in trying to resolve the problem

TIP #2: Stand on a soapbox and rant to the whole world

TIP #3: Failure to acknowledge your ignorance of the nature of the technology and community

TIP #4: Stereotype and paint all Twitter users with the same brush

TIP #5: Failure to setup your own Twitter profile (even if it is only a placeholder profile)

To the last point, by saying that you should create your own official profile, I’m not saying you should now start using Twitter. Take Tiger Woods for example: he (or more likely, his communications team) setup a Tiger Woods Twitter profile back in mid-2009 which, barring 3 tweets promoting his website, stayed dormant for a year and a half. And until recently served its purpose as a placeholder for Tiger on Twitter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Bottomline, if fake accounts are your concern it would be worth your while to at the very least have your own profile to inform the general public of, as well as point Twitter to when flagging your concerns with the company. It just makes for good practical sense.

A few weeks back, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) expressed concern about fake Julius Malema accounts on Twitter tweeting misleading messages. The ANCYL’s militant tone of voice in conveying this concern however made for some nice headline-grabbing soundbites. Soundbites that lead to a barrage of responses from journalists, commentators and the Twitter community alike. Read Further
Community Management is not content syndication Posted in Community Management, Concocted by LouisJvR September 7, 2010 5 comments

It is so very easy to fall in the trap of using your online channels as conveyor belts for your content.

The distinction between community management and content syndication seems obvious, I know, but in my experience it is a case of it becoming habit: Content. Check. Publish. Check. Share. Check. Smile and wave. Check.

Read Further
How do I build an online community? Posted in Community Management, Concocted by LouisJvR September 3, 2010 3 comments

This months’ focus on Online Community at The Heavy Chef Project as proved to highlight some really exciting opportunities for businesses in terms of building profitable relationships with their customers and stakeholders. However, it has also opened-up a lot of questions – particularly around the question: “Ok, so what now?”

A good starting point is to realise that there are in fact 3 Type of Communities you can “build” online:

1. BUILD: This is where you create your own network/platform for people to join, for example Reebok’s GoRunEasy [Key differentiator: You built it. You set the rules. You control it.]

2. RENT: This is where you create your own presence on an established network/platform, for example Lady Gaga’s Facebook Page [Key differentiator: You attract community. You set some rules, but you do not control it. The network does.]

3. JOIN: This is where you identify an established community and then be part of that network, for example Star Wars: The Expanded Universe Forum [Key differentiatior: You are part of the community. You follow the rules. You have zero control.]

So, if you decide to go the actual BUILD route, here are the 7 STEPS IN BUILDING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY:

STEP #1: Define your objectives and be very clear in what your expectations are from this endeavour.

STEP #2: Decide on what profile of people you are attracting to your community and then spend a great deal of time to find out their motivations for potentially joining and interacting within your community

STEP #3: Think about the potential barriers of your typical community member. How tech savvy are they? What devices are they using to connect online? What is the level of internet connectivity they have?

STEP #4: Have clarity in your call to action. Plan your community function, layout and creative so that it aligns your objectives with the motivations of your community members.

STEP #5: Focus on balancing technical soundness with creative execution.

STEP #6: Realise that if you build it, they in fact will not come. How will you attract members to your newly built online community?

STEP #7: Be part of your own community. Interact relentlessly.

This months’ focus on Community Management at The Heavy Chef Project has proved to highlight some really exciting opportunities for businesses in terms of building profitable relationships with their customers and stakeholders.

However, it has also opened-up a lot of questions – particularly around the question: “Ok, that’s nice, so what now?”

Read Further
Are PR agencies the best people to be looking after your online reputation management (ORM)? Posted in Online Reputation Management, Concocted by LouisJvR July 26, 2010

For the last few months The Heavy Chef Project has been hard at work demystifying online reputation management (ORM) to marketers – and with great success I might add.

And with our Heavy Chef Events on this particular topic around the corner, we’ve been noticing increased queries around the role of PR agencies in assisting with the management of brands in the online space? A relevant question indeed.

UNDERSTANDING PR AGENCIES EXPERTISE

At it’s core Public Relations (PR) agencies focus on building relationships; now if that is true, one has to admit in a world where relationships and networks are increasingly empowered through the power of the web, there has to be a very prominent role for PR Agencies to play in particularly managing brand relations online.

Furthermore, PR agencies skills can be found in:

Clear understanding of clients business (incl. tone and style of a message)

Ability to craft and spread a message through a mix of media

Extended media networks

Management of crises

More skills can be added to this list for sure; clearly a nice alignment with ORM can be seen.

THE BAD NEWS

Unfortunately, the above-mentioned skill-set does seem to be true mainly in theory. The general sentiment that I’ve picked up is that PR agencies are stuck in the old mindset of sending out press releases to mainstream media based on a rationale of stats and demographics – and particularly applying this same method of communicating to the online space. Essentially, as Valeria Maltoni puts it “PR is having a hard time letting go of the pitch”.

THE TIE-IN WITH ORM

ORM’s success lies partly in choosing the right technology to pick-up mentions and conversations around your brand. However, the biggest distinguishing factor in optimising ORM for your brand lies in what you do with those mentions and conversations. With that in mind, I believe PR agencies can have a huge role to play in looking after your ORM – but only if they stay true to their understanding and belief in relationship building.

For the last few months The Heavy Chef Project team has been hard at work demystifying online reputation management (ORM) to marketers – and with great success I might add judging by interest from our readers.

And with our Heavy Chef Events on this particular topic around the corner, we’ve been noticing increased queries around the role of PR agencies in assisting with the management of brands in the online space? A relevant question indeed.

Read Further
Online Reputation Management Tools: The good, the bad and the ugly Posted in Online Reputation Management, Concocted by LouisJvR May 27, 2010 3 comments

The concept is pretty simple:

Business is about relationships. Relationships is about people.

People talk. Thus, businesses (need/want to) listen.

The proposition is easy to get: the ability to “listen-in” on consumers in their unique spaces has huge amount of value for business – whether in sales, customer service, product development or strategy.

Read Further
Augmented Reality Marketing Case Study: Education Posted in Augmented Reality, Concocted by LouisJvR April 28, 2010

Imagine this:

You are a student. You are studying for Physics final exams.

You decided to switch on your PC/laptop and stand in front of your webcam.

You hold-up a piece of paper (provided to you by the teacher/downloaded and printed from the web) to the webcam and what you see in front of you is an interactive, 3-dimensional representation of a rollercoaster – explaining to you the laws of Newton… Read Further
Top Social Media Sites: Age Breakdown Posted in Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR January 7, 2010

The Nielsen Company recently released research results on the age breakdown of members on 3 of the largest social networks around: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Read Further
5 Ways South African Consumers will use the Internet in 2010 Posted in Digital Strategy, Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR December 4, 2009 5 comments

It’s that time of the year again where every digital marketing expert/guru/genius/yoda/messiah will shout from the hilltops on what they think the digital marketing trends for 2010 will be.

(do a search on 2010 digital marketing trends and you’ll get the picture)

A lot of noise indeed and often lacking context I believe… Read Further
My formula for creating online community Posted in Branding Online, Digital Strategy, Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR November 16, 2009 2 comments

(*reposted from my personal blog http://www.louisjvr.com)

The term online community is something that’s thrown around a lot these days… and legitimately so.

Read Further
Golf Case Study: Integrating Twitter & other social media tools with your value offerings Posted in Branding Online, Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR September 26, 2009

(this is a re-post from my Posterous blog)

A month or two ago www.pga.com showed the world just how effectively social media can be integrated with your value offerings.

First some context, at the recent PGA Championship, people were on the edge of their seats as they watched Tiger Woods and Y.E. Yang battle it out for the coveted trophy (surprisingly, Yang won eventually!) – however a huge contingent was following the action online.

Where PGA.com came to the party, the provided their visitors with:

Live online video streaming (not just ‘highlight’ clips, LIVE streaming of the entire play-off)

Shot for shot commentary and related news updates relevant to event

However where PGA.com really came to the party was giving users the ability to chat live, as event were unfolding, on PGA.com via their favourite social networking tools – Twitter, Facebook and MySpace (MySpace? This still relevant? ).

So, how it worked, basically you logged in through PGA.com using your preferred social networking profile and then posted your status updates or tweets on an aggregated page. Simple and easy to use (screenshot below).

From a user’s point of view, you can imagine the appeal – you’re into what’s happening between Tiger and Yang and can now interact with the event in any number of ways – watch on TV, watch online, connect with other fans, share your thoughts with your friends/followers. Just many touch points, all adding to your golfing experience.

But, the real kick of it, the ROI for PGA.com:

Online advertising – needless to say, the streaming and live chat platforms had its own sponsors and advertising on its pages

TV commercials – live streaming didn’t cut commercials, so if you were watching, commercials were no different then watching it on TV

Database – you had to be part of PGA.com’s community, this provided them with loads of demographical info on its viewers

Viral – User updates were pollinated across their specific social networking profile i.e. if you tweeted on PGA.com, your Twitter followers was able to see it

Measurable – what duration a person was logged on to PGA.com, how many updates they posted, how much was viewed, how many clicks etc etc

In the not too distant future, I imagine PGA.com or any other socially integrated site out there would be able to profile you (based on your social networking information) and then show advertising/promotions that is most suited to your profile.

For example, in a previous status update you mentioned you and the wife are house hunting and you both are sooo excited. So, you’ve used your social networking profile to login to a specific site and presto!, you see an advertisement: ‘Properties for Sale in (insert your region)”… talk about targeted advertising.

This is where the world is heading.

All very exciting and well done to PGA.com for adding to golf fans golfing experience.

As a side note, getting users to log in to your site via their social networking profiles is a trend that uber-analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, refers to as The Era of Social Colonization – as Jeremiah puts it:

“Gone are the days of isolated websites – all becoming part of a greater, integrated social web; web technologies will focus on making web users online identities central and portable i.e. visitors to your site will bring their identities with them”

I did a more detailed write-up of Jeremiah’s analysis on my blog LouisJvR.com if you’re interested > The Future of the Social Web – Take it Seriously

(thanks to http://socialnomics.net for inspiring this post (here)!)

A month or two ago www.pga.com showed the world just how effectively social media can be integrated with your value offerings.

First some context, at the recent PGA Championship, people were on the edge of their seats as they watched Tiger Woods and Y.E. Yang battle it out for the coveted trophy (surprisingly, Yang won eventually!) – however a huge contingent was following the action online. Read Further
Thinking about Silver Surfers Online Posted in Digital Strategy, Concocted by LouisJvR September 11, 2009 1 comment

In a recent chat with a client of ours at World Wide Creative, we got into an interesting discussion around ’seniors’ (that is those people +-60 years and older) and their level of activity on the web and their value to marketers.

So, I did a bit of digging around and found some interesting learnings…. in fact over the last 3 years or so this market, dubbed the “Silver Surfers“*, has become quite a hot topic of discussion… Read Further
Creating New Worlds: Comcast Town Posted in Digital Strategy, Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR August 25, 2009

At one of our previous Heavy Chef events in Cape Town, Justin Gomes (FoxP2 Ad Agency) in his talk on “Creativity And Its Power To Transform Business”, told the story of George Lucas and Star Wars, and the importance of creating new worlds…

So, when I stumbled across Comcast Town, I was reminded of Justin’s words of wisdom.

Read Further
Kevin Spacey Explains Twitter to David Letterman Posted in Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR August 24, 2009 4 comments

Classic.

Kevin Spacey (yes, THE Kevin Spacey) being very practical in educating David Letterman on Twitter. Sending a tweet (via @KevinSpacey) while live on The Late Show with David Letterman:

Clip below (04:23)…

Read Further
Twitter in South Africa: Investigating the Hype Posted in Branding Online, Digital Strategy, Social Media, Twitter, Concocted by LouisJvR August 19, 2009 3 comments
The hype is there, no doubt.

But I think it’s time to put a stake in the ground and do some research into Twitter’s pervasiveness in South Africa… this is what I could find:
1. According to research company, Sysomos, South African Twitter users make up 0.85% of total Twitter users (that is the 10th largest usership in the world!)
2. According to Nielsen Wire Twitter receives an estimate 55 million visits per month (7 mil unique visits)
Based on this, I can make an assumption that SA Twitter users generate 467,500 visits per month (59,500 unique visits).

Read Further
Weather.com’s mobi site shows potential in mobile web Posted in Mobile Marketing, Website Usability, Concocted by LouisJvR August 17, 2009

Always a hot topic: ‘Mobi-sites’

We know just about every person in this world owns a handset. We know the majority of mobile devices can access the web. But the question still comes up over-and-over again, how many people actually use their handsets to access the web?

Read Further
Have you seen the new FNB.co.za? Posted in Website Design, Concocted by LouisJvR July 20, 2009 1 comment

As banking websites go, they aren’t really built to excite.

In fact I often wonder if they’re built to transact. It doesn’t seem as much, considering their failure (in my opinion) to find even a swift of balance between creative design and the user-experience.

That being said, FNB has changed my perception. Read Further
Mayo Clinic – A Practical Case Study on Using Social Media Posted in Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR June 24, 2009

An excellent case study for using social media as a marketing and communications tool for non-sexy brands – like Mayo Clinic, a leading medical/surgical clinic based in the US.

This interview by Guy Kawasaki with Lee Aase, social media manager at Mayo Clinic, shows how they make in-depth health and medical news content available directly to patients and interested consumers in order to encourage feedback, dialog, and sharing of information. Read Further
Facebook Facts on a Platter Posted in Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR June 10, 2009

If you’re a facts-junky like me, you’ll just love this site – www.allfacebook.com

Loads and loads of resources on (yep, you guessed it) all things Facebook, including stats on most popular FB Fan Pages*, Apps & FB Connect usage (size + growth). Read Further
Create Unusually Simple & Surprisingly Powerful Products Posted in Digital Strategy, Website Design, Concocted by LouisJvR June 4, 2009 4 comments

At World Wide Creative we promise 2 things when creating digital strategies for our clients – Profitability and Creativity.

I’m wondering if we should add ‘Elegance’ to that pledge?

Guy Kawasaki recently interviewed Matt May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, about tips to pursue elegance. Read Further
The Future of the Social Web – Take it Seriously Posted in Digital Strategy, Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR May 28, 2009

**Article republished from World Wide Creative’s Johannesburg Manager, Louis J v Rensburg’s Ka-Pow! blog.

soial web

Yesterday I wet your appetite with this excerpt from Forrester Research’s latest analyst report on The Future of the Social Web…

“…not just social networks, but every brand site will become social — whether you include these features, or visitors bring them along.” Read Further
Net Prophet 2009: All the Talks, Slides & Pretty Faces Posted in Digital Strategy, Videos, Concocted by LouisJvR May 26, 2009

Ok, so I heard that the Net Prophet 2009 conference at the beginning of this month rocked. Brilliant!

So, what about our not-so-lucky folk (like me) who weren’t able to attend? Read Further
Forrester Research Says Social Media Sucks Posted in Social Media, Concocted by LouisJvR May 12, 2009

Yesterday, I tweeted the following: “When @jbernoff says you better stop thinking of the Social Web as ‘media’ – you better listen!”

This tweet referred to Josh Bernoff (one of Forrester Research’s bigwig-cum-analysts)’s post: “Why Social Media Sucks” on Ad Age Digital Next’s blog. Read Further

Finding Creative Ideas To Increase Your Mobile Marketing Conversion Rate

LouisJvR

The Heavy Chef: March 2012: Alan Knott-Craig Jr: How to Build a Social Network

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The Heavy Chef: March 2012: Alan Knott-Craig Jr: How to Build a Social Network

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