Kulturklubben.

Good morning! Fell asleep aroun
midnight so now I am really tired! 5 1/2 hours sleep is too little for me!

I have started to listen to a new podcast radio program now that my colleague Tim recommended. "Kulturklubben". So far, I really like it :) Since I work a lot with commumication and PR it is very inspiring and interesting. They discuss up to date topics within these fields. 

Image.

Petter showed me this video yesterday. When your company is active on social media, it is important to think about what kind of image you want to have, and also if that image fits for the target group you have chosen for your business. With this video, Dollar Shave Club feels like a friend , a buddy you want to hang out with. And I think it works for them, and for their business purpose. And for their intended target group. However, for some companies I don't think the consumers would appreciate this kind of communication/image. Or what do you think?

If you want to know more about Dollar Shave Club, follow this link: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/

LUND

Today, I went to Lund and spent the afternoon with Petter. We started working with a Facebook strategy for his and Stefan's company Sparfabriken, and also discussed some other important issues regarding the business, marketing and communication. It is very important to have a plan, a strategy, when having a Facebook page, You can't just create a page - you must communicate, interact, be creative :)

 I just wonder, how much value do media put on referencing nowadays? Do they think it is OK to steal info from others and present it as their own fact?

Tomorrow I had planned to attend a sales course that Promoters AB organises, but they called tonight and told me it has been cancelled. So I guess I will stay home, working with the article and other research instead.

Another job! :)

Today I got a new job! :) I will be responsible for communication and especially social media activities for eFinance Nordic AB. I am super excited! I will continue my work for Nina as well, since I really enjoy it, meet many nice people, get a bigger network, and learn a lot. I actually think it is good for me to work with different things, since I become more productive that way :)

Today I also interviewed Linus Zackrisson, who is an expert in job searching and especially LinkedIn (and knows a lot about other social media channels also). It went very well! I think it can be a very good article of that information I got! And also some inside info about how recruiters use social media to find their candidates ;)

Now, I have started to think about something... we'll see what happens with that.

Happy girl! And it's friday! And we're having guests :)

Marketing, according to me.

Sometimes (too often) I meet people who think that the only purpose with marketing is to persue consumers into buying things,even if they don't want or need them. For me, that is really not the case, and I hope other marketers agree with me. I actually don't think that works anymore. Consumers are smart, and they can share information and experiences with each other easier than ever before.

Marketing, for me, is about identifying a segment (a target group) who could benefit from your products and/or services, and to create a good marketing and communications strategy so these consumers find you and feel that your offerings can create some kind of value for them. Consumers' perceived value is very important. Today's communication possibilities make consumers very powerful and influencing. If you look for hotels, you always read reviews that other guests have written right? The same with restaurants.  

I would never work for a company who sold something that I did not believe could create value for the consumers for example. Or for a company with products/services I don't believe can live up to the promises and expectations that are created with marketing and communications activities. A brand is a promise. A promise to the consumers that your products and/services will live up to the expectations you create with your activities. That is important :)

Social media communication.

In June, I graduated from Umeå School of Business and Economics with marketing as my specialisation. My degree project was about Fair Trade organisations and their communication with consumers on social media sites. I discovered some interesting issues. The following is one of them:

Fair Trade orgs and consumers are at totally different levels when it comes to social media communication. There is a big gap between supply and demand of information. Consumers ask much questions about ethics and want proof that the Fair Trade System really works. Fair Trade orgs almost never provide answers, and especially not good answers, to these questions. Most questions answered are about technical issues on Fair Trade orgs' websites. Questions about ethical problems and such things are almost never answered. This creates a problem. Other consumers see that these questions aren't answered and it leads to negative word-of-mouth. Why can't they provide answers to these important questions? Don't they know the answers? Do they know anything about the supply chain and ethical standards at all? Does it work at all? 

Fair Trade orgs (All ethically oriented orgs - or all orgs) should really start taking social media and consumers' questions more seriously. If consumers don't receive answers, they will think Fair Trade don't know the answers. And then the whole idea with Fair Trade falls. 

A fair chance to know it's fair? 

Social Media.

Doing research and preparing questions for the interview I will conduct tomorrow. I will meet Anna, who is the owner of the company Gourmetbudet. Haven't really decided what I will focus the interview on, but have some ideas. I have to get really early tomorrow since I will meet Anna in Malmö...

Carl is at work now. I try to work from here. Working with social media means you are kind of always online at all these sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc). The job requires constant communication and networking. It is fun, but it is also difficult to separare work from private activities. Is it a difference really? It feels like the people I work with now are all in the same situation; we post/tweet/communicate both job and private stuff throughout the day. Constantly mixing it. It's not like you update work stuff during the day and private stuff in the evening. Maybe that's how it is supposed to be for us?