Increasingly people are watching TV while tapping away on their laptop or smart phone; and typically they are engaging with friends on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Google Buzz. Naturally conversations turn towards what is happening on the box and very quickly self-forming groups emerge of people commenting online about TV programmes. This has the effect of drawing others towards these TV programmes, and so the conversation grows and viewership of the programmes grows.

Last night was a great example of it here in Ireland where the Late Late Show “trended” worldwide on Twitter. This means that throughout the world more people were talking about the Late Late Show on Twitter than any other topic. Tweeters included the phrase #latelate to their tweets to show that they were taking part in the open converastion about the programme.

This way of watching TV is not new. We always chat with our family and housemates about what’s on the box. But the new technologies have made it really easy for hundreds of people located anywhere to engage in the backchat. In my house last night we had fun chatting directly about the show, but also reading and interacting with others online.

As usual, I particularly enjoyed Headrambles unique take on things which included some gems :

“Shoulda gone to the dentist. Less painful. #latelate“

“Had to leave the room. Missed Logan singing. There IS a god! #latelate“

“I’m voting for song 6 #latelate” (There were only 5 entries)

“To the people of the world who are wondering what #latelate is – you have missed NOTHING.”

“The only original thing about that lot was that John Waters has lost some more hair. #latelate“

“Someone please shoot Dana [and Logan] [and Whelan] #LateLate“

The Late Late Show trended last night, but there are many other popular TV programmes that regularly take over the Twitter-streams including; Frontline #frontline, Primetime #primetime, X Facto #xfactor, Glee #glee, Greys Anatomy #greysanatomy and sports such as Rugby #rugby, GAA #gaa and Boxing #boxing.

Plenty of opportunity here for creative-types to tap in to a new type of captive audience.

If you think you missed anything from last night tune into the still ongoing conversation on Twitter or here is the winning entry – if you must

It is of course the products and services that we develop that satisfy our customers’ needs, and the efficiency with which we do this that determines whether we are profitable or not. This marketing agenda is everyone’s, but in particular is the remit of the business owner or CEO.

The CEO delegates certain of his responsibilities to different functions within his business… and this is where the rot starts for marketers. The marketing guys are given the remit to do the market research, feeding the results back to the other parts of the business. What do our customers think of us, how is our brand perceived, how do we fare in relation to our competitors? They also have responsiblity for communicating the product benefits and brand messages back out to customers.

Nike's staff are told to Just Do It!

But there’s something missing here. That is, everything that happens between the data coming in from customers and the messages going back out to them – none of this is the remit of the marketing people. They have influence on what happens but no control. The other functions in an organisation see the marketing guys as the pink and fluffy guys who “do the ads” so their suggestions about product or service improvement are not taken particularly seriously.

Impotent marketers meanwhile are left frustrated since they can’t deliver on the things they know their customers need. So they spend time creating messages that seek to differentiate their products or services in ways that often have nothing to do with their products or services. They create whole new worlds of attachment to brands that have nothing to do with the products or services they sell. Nike’s “Just Do It” message is ridiculously detached from the clothing they sell which was stitched together in cheap-labour factories throughout Asia.

Marketing has already fallen on its own sword when we judge a company by its clever ads rather than the clever products it makes.

Marketers have a choice today. Stick to the knitting and re-brand yourselves as the Research and Advertising Team, so that everyone is clear on your role within the organisation. Or, shift your remit to include ownership for the entire customer relationship. Now this might sound great, but be warned that it involves spending lots of time understanding the more gritty parts of how your business works, including service, process, product, technology, capabilities, resourcing, costs and profitability,.

Either way, it is time to lay Marketing to rest.

The context for my slides is a sharing of some of my own insights from my time working with insurers FBD, No Nonsense and Vhi over the past number of years. I hope you find this useful. Please note that the sound quality is not great, so apologies about that.

Martin McAleese and me at the launch of Your Country Your Call

Your Country Your Call, the brainchild of Martin McAleese the president’s husband, is essentially a competition to come up with the next big thing that will positively impact on our country’s future. A website has been established to allow people from anywhere in the world to submit short proposals for things they believe could “game changing” for Ireland.

The proposals are not for new business initiatives, but for new country initiatives. When I think about the kinds of things that we could compare this with I’m thinking of the IFSC in Dublin, Airport Duty Free first implemented in Shannon, or indeed the proposed Global Cultural University which Dermot Desmond is currently exploring.

The carrot here for people to submit proposals is to be part of the story of Ireland – to be able to tell your grandchildren that you were a major part of what Ireland became in the early part of the new millenium. There is also a prize of €100,000 – no strings attached.

The two winning proposals will each receive funding of €500,000 and be supported by a range of experts from across relevant industries, coupled with assured legislative changes as required. The proposal winners are welcome to participate in the implementation of the proposal but they will not receive any other remuneration other than the first €100,000.

So that’s €100,000 to write a few words down on a piece of paper with some great ideas for Ireland. Not bad.

An exciting potential of this initiative is the possibilities of creating new synergies of innovative and thoughtful people collaborating to achieve something truly worthwhile for Ireland. We had talked here on this blog about the need for an innovation network in Ireland. This is what you were looking for. Sure there is a defined time-limit on this, but I am hopeful that something more permanent may emerge.

President Mary McAleese is the patron of this iniative:

This is going to be big so do join in to be part of something historic. Visit the Your Country Your Call website to find out more.

Caelen King of RevaHealth published an excellent case study on Tuesday outlining how they reduced the bounce rate on key landing pages by 6% by tweaking the layout of the content. RevaHealth is a business directory specialising in businesses in the medical sector. Customers come to their website in order to find information about medical services in their area. By understanding the different expectations of customers coming from Google versus other pages on their own website, RevaHealth learned that they needed to offer a different customer experience in each scenario. The pages are now tweaked dynamically based on where the customer has come from. As a result, not only did the bouce rate decrease by 6%, but the conversion rate increased by 14%. Nice work.

RevaHealth's optimised webpage with improved conversions

In what was a good week for discussion about improving conversions, Barry Hand brought to our attention how the official Vancouver Olympics store increased revenue by using “split” or “A/B” testing. This type of testing sees you offering two different versions of a page or website to different cohorts of customers. Analysis of any differences in behaviours then clearly shows what elements of the design of each page works better. One version of the site, the one they went with in the end, had 12% less bounces; a conversion rate that was 0.6% better; and an overall order value that was 5% better.

Critical in both of these examples is the understanding that improving page design to provide better customer experience can have a real and immediate impact on your bottom line, AND the need to have appropriate metrics and measurement tools in place.

The idea behind the event is to share and discuss insights into what traditional bricks and mortar businesses need to do in order to develop successful web strategies. I’m working on my slide pack and these are the key things that I think businesses need to consider:

• New marketplace dynamics
• Distribution / channel strategies
• Customers behaviours and expectations online
• Online pricing strategies
• The process is the product
• Trust
• Usability
• Customer ratings and reviews
• Email marketing
• Online advertising
• Search marketing
• New dynamics in display advertising
• Integration with offline media
• Social media
• Mobile
• Analytics

Any obvious omissions?

I believe that there are still a small number of tickets available for this event. You can book your tickets directly from the Sales Institute website.

This is not surprising given the perceived lack of accountability in Irish public and corporate life; but there is perhaps a strong collateral effect on other businesses as a result of the banking sector’s failures. Trust in all corporate messaging, including their websites, is at rock bottom. Confidence in online systems has probably also been affected of late as a result of the privacy and data protection issues associated with lost and stolen laptops and website breaches.

Here are some things that I believe can help to rebuild trust and confidence online, in particular when it comes to asking customers to submit their personal and payment details online:

UPDATE: You’ll find a completed version of this list over on Bloggertone – a collaborative blogging platform – click here to read the full list.

1. 3rd Party Security Seals or Certificates, such as the Verisign logo, are important in reassuring customers that any data input is securely protected by a recognised independent vendor. Make sure that the seals are visible, clickable and present from early on in the sales process.

2. Phone numbers and contact details should be clearly visible. Some websites actually hide these when all the research indicates that the majority of people won’t purchase on website they are not familiar with unless they can easily find and get a response from such contact details.

3. Make sure there are no surprises such as terms and conditions that were not visible up-front, hidden charges that don’t appear until the payment screen, or unclear delivery costs. We don’t like surprises and don’t trust websites that use them to get more cash sneakily out of our wallets.

4. Provide product ratings and reviews, since we are more likely to trust what other customers say more than what your literature says about the products you sell. We spend less than 1% of our time actually making the purchase, and the rest is spent researching and finding out what others think.

5. Get blogging. Employees are the most trusted source of information (in Ireland at least) on a company. Get your employees out in front of your customers by having them write company blogs with personality. They are believable and will help to provide a more human, and hence trustworthy, face to your business.

6. Rank well in Google. According to the Edelman survey, Google and other search engines are more trusted as sources of information than company websites. Searchers use Google results to help inform their decision-making process. If a website appears on the first page of a search results then there is an assumption that if “independent” Google rates it, it must be okay.

7. Implement a professional and functional design. Don’t scrimp on the graphic design. Think about it. Would you be less likely to purchase from a salesman in a shabby suit with stains on his tie? Don’t make it too “slick” either as very few of us are sold on hyperbole (except Apple customers of course!).

8. Eliminate errors as there is nothing that will undermine confidence in a site more than technical errors. If these guys cannot get some basics right, how do they expect me to give them my credit card? I’m including spelling mistakes in here – a pet hate of mine, but smacks of lack of attention to detail on the smaller issues, so once again why would I trust you with the bigger things?

9. Clearly display the returns policy. No one likes the hassle of having to return items, but there is an inevitability about it that all online sellers need to be clear about. It will give me lots of confidence if you highlight to me what the steps are in case I need to send an item back.

10. Provide comprehensive product information. This is especially relevant for clothing and used goods. The more information – including descriptions, specifications, imagery, video and even 360 degree views -  that you provide the more likely I will be able to decide that this is the right product for me. Scant information doesn’t help me make a decision and at worst could lead me to think that you’re trying to hide something.

11. Engage with negative feedback on social media and discussion forums. We are all using these as sources of information and there are opportunities for businesses to address customer complaints and turn them into positives by being seen to be responsive. Damien has an excellent post on how transparency and responsiveness can really help to rebuild trust when an online crisis happens.

12. Build offline awareness since customers increasingly rely on multiple sources of information to support purchase decisions. While we are certainly less trusting of traditional advertising; features and articles in traditional media are still seen as reliable. Advertising is not dead and, together with general awareness in the media, can help to both build visitor numbers to your website and increase conversion rates.

13….

Okay. I’ve run out of steam. Blame the “Non Drowsy” Sudafed that kept me up all night. What else should I include in this list? Help me get to 20, leave a comment and I’ll update the list.

The Internet has changed dramatically over the past few years. When I completed a course in Multimedia Systems in Trinity College 12 years ago, I thought that I would end up creating virtual worlds for people to inhabit. Instead we are still living in the real world (thankfully), but it has been overlaid with myriad digitally facilitated conversations and data units. The digital world is like an invisible but richly decorated tapestry covering the entire planet which anyone can view and contribute to with just a few finger taps on a keyboard or screen. We are at the dawn of a new world that creates endless opportunities for anyone with even the basic tools to access the digital stratosphere.

In my time working as a virtual insurance salesman (the worst kind!) I put a lot of effort into trying to demonstrate to people on the outside that the website represented not just a large faceless institution, but an organisation with people who genuinely have their customers’ interests at heart. Every member of the web team focused on being absolutely customer-focused in everything they did; developing online product propositions and processes that gave customers what they wanted in the manner they wanted it. We engaged with social media as the tool that would allow us to have real conversations with our real customers. We constantly listened to our customers through the range of practices and applications available to us, and changed what we did in order to improve on the service we offered. And we realised that this approach was a key ingredient in the formula for success online.

Personally, I have become conscious that whether it is within large organisations, small businesses, universities, local communities or worldwide networks; each of us is continually seeking to connect with people who share our interests or who have the expertise to meet a specific need. Word of mouth has been complemented by social media in the digital age in helping us find others to connect with. There are many online resources that facilitate these connections, and yet there isn’t one place to go that brings it all together.

So I was particularly curious when Gary approached me about a fledgling Irish venture called Weedle which is setting out to create “new opportunities” for people around the globe by developing a platform that connects people with skills with those that need them. The platform will take a number of the best features of the social web and combine them with some new concepts. At the heart of the platform is a next-generation search algorithm developed in conjunction with the world’s leading experts in the semantic web, based here in Ireland, to create a truly unique and useful online service.

Iain, and the team already in place in Weedle, are passionate about the opportunities such a service can create for people everywhere. For me, this is a great opportunity to be involved in something that seeks to bring people together from anywhere in the world in relationships that are mutually beneficial. My role will be to help make sure that the platform does just that, efficiently and effectively, for all members of the Weedle community.

I will be starting with Weedle in mid-February. I fully intend to keep my own personal blog going here and I hope you will continue to stop by occasionally for a chat.

Internet speeds in Ireland, while they have increased slightly, are still “substantially below the fasts speeds available to customers in other OECD countries” according to the report. Furthermore, “businesses in many other countries can also procure significantly faster services for the prices charged in Ireland”.

The fastest home broadband in the country of just 20 mb/s will only become available to 35% this year with the rollout of UPC cable services. However the cost of this service is the same as the average cost of a 50 mb/s service across the OECD countries.

We are “3-5 years behind our competitor countries” in terms of the rollout of infrastructure that is capable of supporting our needs into the futures.

The criticism is very clear. We have a poor service at rip-off prices.

So what’s to be done?

The report suggests that regulation governing Eircom should be relaxed to incentivise them to invest further in infrastructure. Currently they are limited to earning a mere 10% return on investment. Would it not be reasonable to  increase this to 12-13% on the basis of a more extensive rollout of a high bandwidth network?

The report also recommends that regulation which limits co-investment by a number of operators in infrastructure be “lightened or removed”. So currently, if  BT and Vodafone seek to come together to jointly build a single infrastructure which both can use in the future, the regulation currently in place is not conducive. There are obvious economies of scale in allowing competitors work together to invest in better service.

Since more and more broadband is being accessed via mobile and wireless spectrum there is a clear call that with the switch-off on analogue TV planned for 2012, that the released spectrum be made available to broadband services as a priority. Worryingly, there is a clear indication in the report that the government doesn’t actually believe the 2012 deadline will be met.

A final recommendation made in the report is that the State should take an even greater role in infrastructure development. It cites the success of the rollout of MAN’s in certain regional towns where the speed of access provided by the new competitors exceeds that of Eircom. Ironically the government which sold its broadband infrastructure with Eircom six years ago is now seeking to build a brand new infrastructure based on other State assets such as the electricity network.

Perhaps it is time for the government to step in and relieve the ineffective incumbent of their responsibilities and take back control of such a critical national asset.

As I’ve already said more than once, we in the developed world find ourselves in an environment literally saturated with moving and interactive images.

They’re the dominant means by which we increasingly learn about, understand, and hopefully begin to make sense of the world.

In this new learning environment, mass participation in creating, sharing and reusing images has taken hold on a quite extraordinary scale.

Our task is surely to harness these opportunities in addressing the many longer-term challenges we as a global and Digital Society now face.

And with these ‘long-term’ objectives in mind, allow me finish with a bit of ‘tough love’, by re-stating what I see as the crucial the lessons we, living here in Ireland, ought to have absorbed during these past thirty years in considering what makes for a successful society, in an ever-more difficult  world.

Firstly, like it or not, getting education right is the whole ball of wax.

Secondly, and at risk of repeating myself, no education system can be better than the teachers it employs, and the standards it demands of them.

Thirdly, teacher training in a digital age has to be viewed as an entirely non-negotiable and continuing process.

The commitment of Governments and individual head teachers to the best possible quality of teacher training, along with regular, preferably annual, time out for professional development, must be absolute.

Fourthly, there needs to be an undisputed global acceptance of the importance of the education of women.

Educated women are the fulcrum around which can be built educated and healthy families – and those families will invariably be smaller, and better cared for.

There is no magic in any of this.

Fifth: this country enjoyed an early and inspired start due to the courage and foresight of Donogh O’Malley who, in the mid-sixties, when it was thoroughly unfashionable, laid the foundations for a strong public focus on education.

His tragic early death was another in Ireland’s history of all too often losing the best of its leaders before they’re able to complete the goals they’ve set themselves.

But it was largely thanks to his imagination that this country was able to take an early lead in encouraging its young people to embrace what was at the time not just new, but largely untried technology.

The gamble paid off, and a well educated returning diaspora had a lot to do with promoting twenty years of unparalleled growth.

But I’d argue that those early successes were insufficiently built upon; to the point at which public expenditure on education, as a percentage of GDP – was allowed to drift downwards – at the very moment it should have been going up – exponentially!

A minimum of seven percent of total GDP is the figure the Government should set and hold to – all other areas of Public Expenditure, including health, must be allocated by the Cabinet in such a way as to make that figure as quickly achievable as possible.

A world class education system will, over time, deliver a world class health service – the reverse can never be possible.

Sixth, and last – although I could go on – young people learn and teachers teach best in environments that they respect, and which accord with what they see and admire in the best of what they see around them.

The physical infrastructure of many of the primary and secondary schools in Ireland should be a cause for national shame.

And when I speak of infrastructure I most specifically include every aspect of connectivity, and its complementary hardware and software.

Choices were made to spend billions  of euros  on buildings in the private and public sector that now lie either empty, under used or simply not needed.

It’s my personal view that had some fraction of that sum been committed to refurbishing the quality of the schools and classrooms in this country the nation would be far better placed to dig itself out of the hole that all that accumulated debt and waste has helped create.

The good news is that there are really excellent people in this country who understand that education at every level is both the cause and the consequence of any possibility of national renewal.

For too long Ireland relied on the good offices of the Church and the largesse of Europe to address and solve many of these problems.

I came here this morning to argue that, for good or ill, those days are over, and it’s now down to a simple test of national will to invest in the future; to rediscover those things for which this country has rightly been celebrated.

Learning, Culture, and a unique sense of community and place that the world has in the past, and please God will once again, come to admire – and possibly even envy.