Online business driving economic growth
“The single market – getting Europe’s SMEs online”, an event organised by Google last Tuesday, gathered a wide range of people to talk about the role of European SMEs in economic growth. Representatives from the European Commission, MEPs, EU trade associations, NGOs, the media, entrepreneurs, consultancies and more traditional companies were present to discuss opportunities and obstacles of an online Single Market.
SMEs are the engine of the economy and the Internet is a powerful tool for them to leverage for expansion. 15 “success stories” of online companies from 15 different European countries showcased how the Internet helped them to start or to grow dramatically. With 2.5 billion Internet users globally and 5 billion mobile phone users, there are huge opportunities for business. The disruption of the Internet is clearly a myth as numbers show that for every job lost there are 2.6 new positions created in the digital economy. As the Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani stated yesterday, online SMEs grow twice as fast as other companies, thus driving economic growth. The European Union fully supports them and put the digital economy at the heart of its strategy. “Our goal is to double the amount of commerce online by 2015,” Tajani said.
However, online business is scattered and very sensitive to competition. And the amazing resource that the Internet is can still be seen as too technical or too expensive by entrepreneurs. That is why Google launched the initiative “Getting business online” to spread all the benefits of going online. Some entrepreneurs present at the conference confirmed how Google AdWords campaigns have helped them to find their target audience and increase sales.
We are still far from an online Single Market though. Entrepreneurs and the traditional business services companies that accompany them – postal and telecommunications companies – agreed that there are still strong barriers to more e-commerce in other, sometimes neighbouring, European countries. Those obstacles include: taxation and payment systems, consumer rights legislation, freight and delivery costs.
According to the entrepreneurs at the event, the recipe for an online business success story is to find first THE niche market where there is no offer yet, thus no competition, and where consumers tend to go online to search for what they cannot find ‘IRL’ (in real life). And the second most important key to growth is targeted marketing: getting to the right audience online to be able to sell. However good an idea is, if it is not made public, it will not sell. Hence the importance of a good integrated communications strategy, which can be difficult for entrepreneurs who often have to do so many things at the same time to launch their business. Finally, online businesses cannot avoid Social Media as part of their communications strategy, as it is now a key channel for reaching online prospects.
Consultant/Account Manager –Food & Nutrition Practice
We are looking for a talented person with international experience – exceptional consultancy, sensitive client handling and strategic development skills plus expertise in the agriculture and food & nutrition sector. As a Consultant/Account Manager, you will need to have a proven track record in corporate communications programs for large multinational corporations.
The ability to juggle a client portfolio and demonstrate strong people and business management is key. You are ready to lead, with a high level of responsibility, several accounts (multinational corporations in agriculture and food & nutrition) to more effective ways of communicating with their different stakeholders. You are regarded by the client as a trusted advisor.
You have experience in a B2B agency environment and you are fluent in Dutch and English. Effectiveness and client satisfaction are the criteria by which you will measure your success.
Responsibilities:
- Responsible for developing strong client relationships, directing business at the strategic levels, building overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of client accounts.
- Is an effective mentor, motivates, and serves as a role model for other team members (Art Directors, Designers, Quality Controllers, Consultants etc).
- Day-to-day focal point for assurance of client satisfaction. Delivers client requests both proactively and reactively.
- Manages visual identity programs, annual report & sustainability report projects, internal communication programs & sustainability communication programs.
- Develops project proposals, client presentations and other materials in a timely and high quality fashion.
- Identifies areas for business growth potential.
- Provides quality control, determine workflow assignments and deadlines.
- Last but not least manages project forecasts and budgets including post calculation and preparation for monthly invoicing.
Required Skills:
- You have experience in a Corporate B-to-B Marketing, Corporate Communications or Creative Services discipline.
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in one of the following areas: business, marketing, communications or languages.
- Demonstrated understanding of Corporate Reporting, Corporate Branding, Creative Services and Sustainability Communications.
- Demonstrated excellence in written and oral communications, including outstanding presentation skills.
- Language skills: English & Dutch.
Please send your application to febe.boone@porternovelli.be
Tags: 5 tips for Effective Coaching
Heard at the Monster* Year Event: “Coaching people is about putting focus on the 8’s, not on the 4’s”
By Corneel Maes & Sylva De Craecker
Monster had a full room at its 2011 Year Event (#MYE11) in Amsterdam yesterday. The first speaker set the tone for the whole afternoon. Spot on. Right on target. Just as one would expect from a top sporting professional. Marc Lammers, coach of the Dutch women’s hockey team, simply owned the audience of senior Human Resources professionals right from his very opening sentence. What struck us most is that there is so much similarity between guiding a sports team towards a golden medal at the Olympics and coaching employees to run the extra mile for better performance. And you know what? When you think about it, it’s all quite recognizable, quite understandable, so simple and straightforward.
So how can an HR coach improve the performance of his team members by applying some of the learnings that brought Marc Lammers and “his girls” to the top?
- Coaching is something you don’t do on your own. You need the support of other specialists. Because good coaching only comes with experience.
- Understanding the processes and measuring them is the key to success. It helps you keep your feet firmly on the ground and focus on what really matters to improve performance.
- When working towards improvement, make sure the team feels involved. Make them contribute to formulating the strategy. It’s all about creating an experience, a common commitment, together owning the plan for where the team is going.
- Focus on the strengths of your team members, not on their weaknesses. Motivate them to excel in what they are already good at. Think about how to take the 8’s in their assessments to a 10, rather than spending time and energy on getting the 4’s to a 6 and maybe never getting there.
- Innovate, think out of the box, dare to try completely new things based on insights, research, measurement and expert advice from different disciplines. And anticipate the natural resilience against new things by engaging the team in the process.
By applying these straightforward techniques, Marc Lammers succeeded in elevating his team beyond the ever-close-second disappointment. Why don’t we start applying some of these techniques into our own working environment? Would be a great new year’s resolution!
* Monster is a client of Porter Novelli
Signed by two new Marc Lammers fans:
Corneel Maes & Sylva De Craecker
Off the rails
I always expect a train to be on time. I don’t know why: trains are usually late. Somehow you think you are better off by train than by car. So when my colleague Molly Verbeeck and I had to go to Amsterdam for the gala of the European Excellence Awards last week, we decided we would go by Thalys: quick, easy and we could get some work done in the meantime. The train left on time – as we expected. But after about an hour, we came to a stand-still. Five minutes later, we were informed via the speakers that something got stuck under the train. We started making silly jokes (I will not repeat them, because they were quite rude and I am only rude amongst friends and colleagues). The crew said they were going to perform a check-up. OK. We could live with that, they were communicating and trying to fix the problem, let’s be confident (communication in 3 languages by the way, not bad). Another 20 minutes later, the voice re-appeared (well, 2 voices really, one for French and Dutch, and one for English). The Dutch voice announced that “rescue teams were on their way”. Huh? I couldn’t help but see an image of a bomb under the train that was about to explode, and I just wanted to get out. Luckily, I also speak English and French, and when the message was repeated in English, I understood that the person speaking Dutch was really not fluent in Dutch and hence didn’t make himself very clear. In fact, he mixed up the words and made it sound very dramatic. The message in English and French was a lot less negative than in Dutch. So I calmed down. Half an hour later however, “The Voice” spoke again and said they would “evacuate” the train. What the hell? So do we get off now in the middle of nowhere? But the doors did not open. Then the lights went out for a couple of minutes. Now THAT was scary. Luckily, a few minutes later (when the lights were on again) the train started moving. We drove into Rotterdam station at a terribly slow pace, where we were “evacuated” and put on another “normal” train. We finally arrived in Amsterdam, two hours later than planned. Bummerrrrr.
So we were terribly late, and that was no fun, but as a communications professional, I was shocked. Communication is everything. A few simple sentences, correctly delivered by the Thalys crew, would have made a big difference. Do not try to speak the language if you are unable to do so, especially in times of uncertainty. Miscommunication can lead to panic situations. It was good they did try to communicate, but trying is not good enough. So dear people at Thalys: please make sure your personnel knows the standard communication procedures. Give them a communications training, or prepare some simple statements. They shouldn’t go into detail, they should just say what they need to say. Correctly. In three languages. How hard can that be?
10 Ways to ruin your Brand’s Reputation with Twitter
On Twitter, 140 characters make up a message. That’s not much and some businesses, especially small to medium-sized ones, still think Twitter is a no-go. They say it’s too short, too uncontrollable and too time-consuming.
At first glance, Twitter might indeed not seem an ideal communication tool, but in just a couple of years it has proved the world that sometimes “short” is powerful. From its genesis as a basic online SMS service, it has evolved into a world-encompassing communication tool; Twitter users generate more than 200 million tweets per day, and the microsite often beats the most sturdy news platsforms in the world with speed and accuracy. And don’t forget that close to 750 million searches are performed on Twitter every single day, making it a toup-four search engine.
Communicating in 140 characters can be extremely tricky, and when done in an unconsidered or trigger-happy way, a lot of damage to brand and reputation can be done in a heartbeat. Here are 10 ways that brands risk ruining their reputation on Twitter and, ultimately, across their marketplace:
1. You have the wrong handle. A good Twitter name should be short, catchy, simple and recognizable, and refer to your brand.
2. You’re nobody except an egg on a blue background. If you do not tell people who you are and what you stand for, you’ll never reap ROI. Use your profile to show what it is you do and what you stand for. Include your location and website, and remember to use the C3 rule: be catchy, concise and complete. Also know that the default Twitter background with the impersonal “egghead” avatar is not the road to success. Dress up the bride. Stand out. Be sparkling, inventive, inviting.
3. You’re a robot or a zombie. Communicating from a corporate pedestal and hiding behind a shiny logo gets you nowhere. People want to interact with people, not with a brand. This is the engagement part of social media; So mention in the profile who is tweeting on behalf of your brand. You’ll be amazed how much more interaction is triggered by having real people represent your brand.
4. You’re selling. If you only communicate about your beloved product all the time, people will unfollow you faster than you can press “send.” People are not interested in your sales talk or marketing language. They are interested in finding useful content, hearing smart viewpoints and getting helpful tips.
5. You’re boring. People follow you because they think you might share good information with them, or because they want to build a relationship with you or your brand. So give ‘em what you want. As a rule of thumb, divide your tweets in three buckets, one-third for conversing with people, one-third for spreading great content that others brought to you and one-third for bringing great original content to the platform. This optimal mix will allow you to boost followers, connect and engage.
6. You’re shy. Staying in your corner will not win any business or Twitter goodwill. Growing a Twitter account is hard work, and it requires commitment and a willingness to connect. The easiest way to get followers is to follow people. So search for and follow relevant accounts. So search for and follow relevant accounts. If you find someone interesting, check out who he or she is following and add some of these folks to your lists too.
7. You follow spambots and prostitutes. Tell me who you follow and I will tell you who you are, so be careful. When people start following you, it’s common courtesy to follow them back. That’s how a relationship gets started. Be smart about it though. Make sure you filter out the spammers, spambots, prostitutes and random bizarre people.
8. You don’t keep your house clean. Once in a month, do some housekeeping. Look to see if you’re following the right people back and if you answered all messages. Decide whether or not to keep people on your follow list if they are not following you. Ask yourself if the accounts you do follow are relevant in your Twitter stream. If not, unfollow them. Also, accounts that haven’t tweeted in 90 days are usually stone dead, so unfollow.
9. You’re rude. Yes, you have the right to disagree with other people and have your own opinion. What you don’t have is a reason to be rude or impolite. Deal with the message, not with the messenger, and disagree in a pleasant style.
10. You’re lazy. Remember that point earlier about unfollowing accounts that are dead? You’ll be unfollowed if you aren’t a regular tweeter. And remember that once you starte engaging, you’re in it for the long run and should never stop. Your social capital builds with every single tweet.
BONUS TIP: never tweet when angry, drunk, in love, upset, confused or high on emotion. What you put out there cannot be taken back.
Originally published in PRNews’ Digital PR Guidebook, by Danny Devriendt
Tomorrow starts with Chemistry
Porter Novelli organised a three-day event for Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council ) ‘Tomorrow Starts With Chemistry’, in the framework of the International Year of Chemistry 2011.
The event included a series of workshops as well as an exhibition designed to draw attention to the wide use of chemistry in our everyday lives and the role that it will play in solving some of tomorrow’s societal challenges, especially mobility, housing and water. It was held at the historical Palais des Académies in Brussels and was visited by business leaders, EU and Belgian decision-makers, schools, and the general public.
The exhibition displayed the spectacular Solar Impulse plane, interactive demonstrations and breath-taking experiments such as the quick dry paint demonstration and 3D holograms of the mobility of the future. An Awards ceremony was organised to congratulate the winners of the 2011 Xperimania competition jointly organised by Cefic and European Schoolnet. They were selected out of entries submitted from 65 different schools, in 16 different EU countries. The interactive XperiLAB bus (parked outside the museum) held sessions for invited Brussels-based schools. A ‘EU Class of Chemistry’ also took place for a group of more than 200 Brussels-based students representing 27 nationalities, addressed by Dr. Andrea Sella, a chemistry lecturer at the University College London and a regular guest of the BBC Series “The Story of Science”.
Workshop sessions brought together scientists, entrepreneurs and EU policy makers to discuss different topics like the Creative Economy, Innovation for Europe, Plastics shaping tomorrow’s mobility or “European Women: Innovating for Smart, Sustainable & Inclusive Growth”.
The project included event management, graphic design, advertising, media relations, and an extensive social media campaign. For more information, visit www.tomorrowstartswithchemistry.eu
Wanted: (Junior) Consultant with experience in finance sector
Porter Novelli Brussels is hiring and Account Executive/(junior) Consultant. Account Executives plan and execute client activities in a timely and proactive manner under the direction of an Account Director or a Senior Consultant. Account Executives play an active role in coordinating and implementing daily account activities on behalf of the client.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, developing and editing high quality written materials including press releases, fact sheets, backgrounders, Q & A’s, website content and general client correspondence; being an ongoing contact on the client’s behalf to the media; coordinating and executing events; ensuring program deadlines are met while handling multiple projects; developing and maintaining Belgian and/or European media relations.
The ideal candidate should have:
- Strong written and verbal skills (Dutch/French/English)
- Proven ability to effectively organize and manage multiple responsibilities
- Strong understanding of public relations concepts, tactics and media relations
- Efficiency in word processing, database management and online research
- Demonstrated ability to work well with others in both team and independent environments
- Core competencies: customer-focused; flexible; efficient; pro-active; a team player
- A good understanding of social media strategies, social media protocol and the ability to monitor social media networks for potential opportunities
- Two to three years of communications experience required, preferably in the financial or banking sector
- Higher education, preferably in Communications or PR related discipline
We offer :
- An exciting job in an energetic, professional and fun environment
- Interesting and challenging assignments
- Career prospects
- Competitive salary
Candidates can send their CV to Febe Boone (febe.boone@porternovelli.be)
Tomorrow starts with chemistry
Porter Novelli were faced a particularly challenging location in which to organise an expo entitled “Tomorrow Starts with Chemistry”. The three-day event, being organised for the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry, is being held at one of the oldest and most traditional venues in Brussels, the Palais des Académies. It is a beautiful setting but it is also home to a large number of sculptures, busts and other ornate artefacts which cannot be moved. The solution was to make some of the statues come alive and act as narrators. The Porter Novelli Brussels team includes (left to right) Consultant Catherine De Vulder, Account Manager Daphné Martin, and Consultant Céline Mercier. The famous chemists are Alfred Nobel, Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin (seated), Marie Curie and Irène Curie. The exhibition is being staged from November 21 to 23.
Mark it in your agenda if you want to be surprised by what the world of chemistry has to offer in the future!
More info can be found on www.tomorrowstartswithchemistry.eu
Trusting Privacy settings is Bungee jumping without a rope…
Bull. Here is some advice from a grumpy old timer: turn it off. Set the privacy filters of all your social networks to the lowest protection. Throw those pictures and tutti quanti wide in the open. Let the entire Facebook community gaze at your holiday pictures; invite everyone into your Google+ circles, and get those tweets out in the open. Have a blast! Privacy was a myth of the 20th century…
Turning the privacy settings off will free you of that false sense of protection. It will make you think four times before posting. It will make you think if you really want your boss to see you without your tiny black bikini on an alcohol generous just-amongst-friends night. It will make you stop trusting your friends.
Because, trust me, friends cannot be trusted. The virtual ones I mean. These thousands of Twitter followers, these hundreds of Facebook people…. They are connections, not friends. And even at least one of your friends likely copy posts that privacy protected picture of you to someone else. If some people cannot keep a secret safe, than certainly not your pictures, most intimate thoughts… or wild frivolous fantasies.
So… turn those privacy settings off online, throw the curtains wide open! But, tighten your security settings offline. I have iron social media guidelines with my friends: on when the picture taking stops during that hot barbeque. And what happens with inappropriate taggers. If people do not want to be cast out of my social circle, they need to adhere to those rules. No pictures after dessert, no wild tagging… no exceptions. My way, or the highway. And yes, I check daily to see if everyone complies!
Trying to fix that crazy picture or sharp ranting is like trying to knit a sweater for a dead squirrel: it’s plain useless.
Have fun, offline and online… but let no-one check your rope for you. Only you can… 
The new K.I.S.S: keep it social, stupid!
Originally published in DMix Magazine (November 2011) www.dmix.be
Anything people do online leaves traces, can be tracked, captured, analyzed, stored, compared, morphed, pivoted endlessly in bulky spreadsheets and rendered in attractively colored pie charts. The live data of online visits, behavior and conversation gives brands and companies a coherent feedback that can impact their sales, product development, customer service and business intelligence big time, if used wisely.
When Gartner put out figures that more than 75% of Western customers are heavily influenced by their social networks in their purchase decision cycle, most marketers spontaneously started drooling all over their keyboards. There is data. Tons of it. But where is it? Who owns it? How can you use it and what exactly is it that you need?
Facebook is a continent
The first data you encounter are fairly staggering numbers: 750 million Facebook users, 200 million Twitter users, 7 million Foursquare users…So what are you waiting for? You should be updating all kind of statuses out there. But every marketer knows: it’s not because there are millions of people out there, using a shiny thing, that your customer is using it. It’s not because an online media platform is heavily popular, that it is used by your buyers and that it is even remotely interesting for you. There is no such thing as one size fits all.
So now that the cold sweat of data everywhere and multimillion user platforms evaporated, we can get to work. Start with the obvious:
Where is everyone?
Who are our customers? When are they online? Where are they online? What are they talking about? What tools do they use? Who are they connected to? Who do they interact with? Who influences that community?
Good marcom agencies, analysts (Forrester, Altimeter, etc) or data crunchers can help you determine that. This narrows down your playfield to something concrete and useful.
Data is in the cloud
As marketers and communicators we’re so used to have our data in fat, heavy, protected SQL databases on a turbo powered, bulletproofed and shiny server in an air conditioned IT room. We want to be able to caress our precious, and feel better at night knowing it is live backed up on a secret data center in Timbuktu. Get over it. Most of the new data is in the cloud. There is tons of data online. Keep it there. Get over the fact that while you will own less data, you will be able to use way more relevant data going forward…cloud based live data.
What Facebook cooks, you eat
Let’s take a look at Facebook. Facebook knows, bluntly, everything about your target group. Who they are, where they live, who they are connected to, what info they click on, when are they online, are they single, do they have kids, etc. Your agency is the ideal interlocutor to work together with Facebook. Go real detailed: you want your ad to pop up on every single account, owned by a music loving 17-year old from Ghent, online after 10pm? Facebook can help you do just that.
What Twitter shakes, you drink
Twitters data feed is equally impressive: giving the possibility to target on gender, location, age, profile, type of user, influence level, reach…you name it. You can use free software to help you through the weeds (just type what you’re looking for in Google’s toolbar, and some freeware will pop up). Sharing content through Twitter using smart short links (bit.ly etc) gives you direct info on click through rates and reach. Trending topics pop up in a heartbeat.
Who has Klout in the Cloud?
To determine who is influential online, you need to set some parameters: influential on what, calculated on what axis? Reach? Popularity? Credibility? Here again, a good agency can help you identify your key influencers based on rock hard data. If you want a quick glance, Klout.com can give you a quick indication (and no more than that).
The cocktail effect
A plethora of tools, ranging from Netvibes keyword dashboards, Radian 6 mentions, Crimson Hexagon sentiment analysis and tutti quanti can give you all kinds of data on what people are saying when they talk about your brands. Mind you: you will need a trained analyst to sift through the data. Here at Porter Novelli, we have several on file. Hope your agency does as well.
Keep it social
Do not go and file that data. Don’t lock it away: use it. On the spot. If your conversation tracker detects someone needs info, act upon it. Become part of the conversation. Become a data driven net influencer, as a brand.
Data just became active. It became a datastream, rather than a database. You’re either in…or out.
- You too! Tx! @kathyvanlooy: #FF my other great PR twollegues @princess_misia @dannydevriendt @CharlottCatt @lrburge @steventweet1 #pnid #pr lrburge (Lauren Burge)
- Back @ ya!RT @kathyvanlooy: #FF my other great PR twollegues @princess_misia @dannydevriendt @CharlottCatt @lrburge @steventweet1 #pnid #pr CharlottCatt (Charlotte Catteeuw)
- Glad folks are addressing fake user reviews. Can they start with Yelp? Had worst Chinese food ever in Merced, CA! http://t.co/fNR0ZNNa #pnid smeekim (Soon Mee Kim)
- Communicators who bring in the outside-in perspective, are more likely to protect the reputation and manage the risks. #crisispr #pnid fjaempeters (Frank Peters)
- #FF my other great PR twollegues @princess_misia @dannydevriendt @CharlottCatt @lrburge @steventweet1 #pnid #pr kathyvanlooy (Kathy Van Looy)
- RT @dannydevriendt: Facebook goes politics ;-) -- Facebook's COO Tells Europe, 'It's The Economy, Stupid' http://t.co/OztdEJbR #pnid PN_DCG (Porter Novelli EMEA)
- Facebook goes politics ;-) -- Facebook's COO Tells Europe, 'It's The Economy, Stupid' http://t.co/OztdEJbR #pnid dannydevriendt (Danny Devriendt)
- 1000s Of Journalists Now Use Facebook Subscribe, And That’s Bad For Twitter http://t.co/M46Mj6Es #pnid dannydevriendt (Danny Devriendt)
- RT @PN_ATX @Luminex Tapping the immune system’s secrets http://t.co/f7MwGcT8 - Great coverage from Stanford Medicine #client #pnid #biotech TeleclipNews (TeleclipNewsMonitor)
- MT @Luminex Tapping the immune system’s secrets http://t.co/9dOja13z - Great coverage from Stanford Medicine #client #pnid #biotech PN_ATX (Porter Novelli ATX)
- I say NO to SOPA/PIPA!!!Today is the day where many websites will or already have blacked out against SOPA and PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act), acts that will affect how we use the internet! Not only in the US, but the bill will have a global effect: The Guardian says “(…) everything on the internet will be […]