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I got inspired yesterday. Jonas Bauer, CEO at Vasaloppet, visited the popular breakfast club in Kungsbacka yesterday to tell us the story on why/how a ski race got to be so much for than just a single event. The event inspires thousands of volunteers to get involved, more than 7 000 fans on the Facebook, and a leader who talks strategically and passionately about all events, actions and communication plans. A big High5 from my heart. Go Go!!

Here is a glimpse of one of Västsvenska Handelskammarens events for members in one of their business networks at Liseberg yesterday broadcasted through Bambuser. Guests on stage were Anna Mannheimer and Peter Apelgren interviewed by Johan Trouvé. The subject in focus was “Interaction between the culture and businesses, is it necessary?”

Should one show what happens in an exclusive members network at a business event? Or should it stay off limits for non-members? Or could it be used for recruitement/marketing purposes? What do you think?

It is with great pleasure that we present Awoque’s new social site.

In the spirit of being social, we have discussed, posted and engaged with peers, partners and clients to get their valuable input into developing our new online presence. Today, we are extremely proud to present our new social site.  A space that accurately reflects our mission, personality and passion for working with social networking/media.

Awoque’s three strategic objectives: to enlighten, develop and transform business through social media have also been essential in the new strategy for our web and digital channels. In parallel with the web process, we have developed a richer graphical profile. One that consists of key graphic elements that communicate our visual identity.

Finally, our special thanks goes to the Raket Reklambyrå team for designing and developing the social site.

Our best,
The Awoque Team

What is more powerful eyeballs or engagement? At a coffee store last week in Göteborg’s Central Station I pondered this, as people were tapping away on their tablets or smart phones. While, just across from the cafe was a large, rotating, advertising display, competing for audience attention.

Traditional marketing such as television and print relies on “eyeballs” to get the message across with no emphasis on the consumer. This makes traditional marketing one-sided and flat to younger generations. Unlike, social media which is about “engaging” with your potential customer. Social Media gives your company it’s voice or personality enabling new and existing customers to interact with your organisation on a more personal level. Social channels such as Facebook and Twitter allow people the opportunity to voice their opinions about your services or products in a casual manner.

With the percentage upon which people act on traditional or forced marketing estimated to be in the 1-2% range. It is easy to see why more and more companies are becoming interested in social media. Especially, when you factor in the rapid take-up of tablets and smart-phones.

So who are you according to class of 2011 the band geek, the Jock or perhaps the paper bag lunch kid?

Personally I’m a combination of the English geek, the Prep, the Gossipgirl, the Artkid and the Jock. Flowtown have created a great and funny infographic about the social media landscape in 2011.

If you want to better understand your companies personality traits and how to make them work through social media, give us a call.

The past few years Facebook (and other channels) for businesses, have more or less been the domain of marketing departments. However, customer support managers and their teams are also getting involved.

For companies looking to harness social media, channels such as Facebook and Twitter can serve as an alternate customer support channel, providing customers with access to customer cervices (Live Chat, Click to Call, etc), frequently asked questions,product reviews, customer groups, store locations, etc.

Today a number of companies around the world are using, or switching to social channels to provide better customer and after sales support/experiences. As we are based in Sweden, we’d like to acknowledge a few companies we think are doing a good job.

SEB
SEB is a Swedish based bank that uses Facebook to extend their customer support and they do it very well. They have a team of dedicated staff monitoring and answering customer queries. It is fast becoming the support channel of choice for their socially savvy customers.

SEB Facebook Support

Binero

Binero, is a web hotel company based in Kista that has extended their customer support to Twitter. Binero answer any question, no matter what it is. They are quick at responding, will call you back if you leave your number and the service is available 7 days week (open times are posted on their Twitter account). You can also see the people who answer your questions in the Tweetologer.

Binero Twitter Support

SJ
SJ is Sweden’s state run train company, which is using Facebook to imprrove their customer service.

O.k, if you live in Sweden you are probably shocked to see SJ in this list. True the company has had serious issues. However, I have placed them in the list as an example of a company facing their issues head on. Most companies are afraid of negative comments but SJ are using social media to answer customer complaints. Hopefully, SJ not only respond to complaints but act on them too.

SJ Facebook Support

On another note, it is also very important for companies to consider how social media support services integrates into their existing customer support processes, in order to avoid inefficiencies and increased costs.

If you want to understand how social media can be used to enhance your customer support services give us a call.

I was one of fifty bloggers invited to Lane Bryant Bloggers conference during Full Figured Fashion week in New York. It is no understatement to say that I was very excited to meet all my fellow bloggers/friends from other countries and they all looked fabulous of course!

At the fashion conference, I was eager to find out more about Lane Bryant’s and their collection for fall 2011. However, I was also very interested to see how Lane Bryant would communicate with their key influencer’s because a) it’s part of my job at Awoque and b) I like to think that my fashion blog(BeyondSizes) for plus size girls is somewhat influential.

Lane Bryant began in the early 1900′s and have been making clothes for a long time, so it’s true that they know what they are doing. As a brand they are constantly trying to improve their clothing lines for the plus sized girls. I like that and High 5 to them.

First up was Robert Rutkauskas, Director Trend and Color, followed by David Albow, Senior Design Director of Sportswear. They presented the up coming collection for the fall season and all got a good lesson in clothes fitting. We then had the pleasure of listening to Gill Heer, the Senior Designer and Director for Intimate Apparel. Gill, introduced the upcoming fall Cacique collection inspired by pin up style.

During the day Lane Bryant revealed some interesting information. The best news for me personally was that Lane Bryant will begin to ship their clothes internationally in September 2011. The event finished with a nice lunch, which also gave us a chance to mingled with the presenters and my fellow bloggers.

It was a good, professional event but Lane Bryant could have gotten so much more out of it. As a company Lane Bryant could have gotten information from their audience of key influencers that could be useful in social media, in future designs, marketing and importantly get insight into how to connect and engage with the plus size community.

So, if you have an upcoming event think about how you can use it to obtain valuable information for your brand, product and services through your fans?

If you want to more on how to use social media at your next event, give us a call.

As we are coming off the vacation period (here in Europe anyway), I thought it would be fun to catch up with some social media statistics. So take a look at “The World of Social Media in 2011 – All The Statistics, Facts and Figures” with social media stats updated for 2011, a fun video put together by the folks at Omobono.

There is now 152 million blogs and 77% of UK consumers would use information from blogs to influence their purchasing decision.

Time to re-think your stance on social media? Give us a call.

Earlier this year Stall Rustorp a company that sells horse riding products online, contacted Awoque to help market their web and e-commerce site through social media.

Stall Rustorp, is located in the beautiful Swedish countryside approx. six kilometers from Trollhättan and they are passionate about horses and their well-being. The first challenge we had to address was that their website and online store did not communicate this at all. Stall Rustorp, desperately needed a new image and a more user-friendly online strategy to get their message across.

In order to deliver against the brief, Awoque undertook a comprehensive analysis of Stall Rustorp’s business and we reached out to the online horse riding community, valuable key influencers and fans. The result was concrete ideas (and input) on how to get key messages across, a better understanding of the community and their social media channels of choice.

This valuable information was used in the redesign of Stall Rustorp’s entire web and e-commerce site. The new design not only gives Stall Rustorp a modern and fresh look but it also reflects the values of the horse riding community. Another key item was to move Stall Rustorp to a blog friendly platform to promote much more engagement with customers and fans.

“The goal for Stall Rustorp was to create a modern, user-friendly website, whilst making ourselves more available through social media. Awoque has not only helped us create these conditions but pinpointed what needed to be done and made it happen. We now have a very beautiful web site that appeals to our customers and a social media strategy to engage with our fans. We are extremely happy and believe that we have a bright social future.” says Johan Söderlund, CEO. Stall Rustorp.

We too believe that Stall Rustorps has a very bright social future, they have the tools, a new web/e-commerce site that gets across a simple but powerful key message – their love of horses; and a community of passionate fans to engage with.

#High5

From the numerous seminars, presentations and lectures we have given on and around social media; we find that a lot of organisations are seeking the holy grail of social media – the fast track”Silver Bullet” to success.

The secret to successful social media is not difficult, but the work required to get there can be. This is an area that most companies have difficulties getting to grips with. This and the fact that social media costs.

Today, social media is inherently seen as the big four: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube, which take approximately 5 minutes to set-up and are free. If you were working with new media/website development at the beginning of web 1.0 in the mid 90′s this will sound familiar, “Websites are free and my cousin can design one – job done!

The “Silver Bullet”:
To get the most out of online, Web 2.0, activities, you must invest time and resources into understanding your organisation’s “why” to be able to develop a smart social strategy, to achieve set goals such as: engaging and listening to your fans, R&D, project collaboration, recruiting quality people, building your brand, driving sales, and serving your clients (through customer support).

Awoqued Social Organisations

Stop looking for the “Silver Bullet and let Awoque fast track your social media initiatives.