Burson-Marsteller Crossmedia

27. Juli 2010

New websites for Burson-Marsteller EMEA

The websites for Burson-Marsteller worldwide have been refreshed and modernized recently, forming a wider and more detailed overview of the company. During this modernization process, we in Europe also reviewed our websites and at the end of last year, we began a re-development process which took into account our desire to share details of our evidence-based communications strategy and to provide a central point through which our various information channels could be collated. I’ve written a blog post on the Swiss Burson-Marsteller website, which goes into more details:

• New websites for Burson-Marsteller EMEA

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10. Mai 2010

Stellenangebot: Leiter/in Crossmedia Team (100%)

Für unseren Geschäftsbereich Crossmedia in Bern suchen wir per 1. August oder nach Vereinbarung eine/n

Leiter/in Crossmedia Team (100%)

In dieser Funktion führen Sie ein Team von Berater/innen, Grafiker/innen und Webentwickler/innen, welche auf crossmediale Kommunikation spezialisiert sind. Sie entwickeln und realisieren gemeinsam mit Ihrem Team und den Beratenden aus den unterschiedlichen Burson-Marsteller – Geschäftsfeldern integrierte Kommunikationskonzepte und –kampagnen, welche von Webseiten über on- und offline Werbekampagnen, Broschüren und Social Media Marketing die ganze Klaviatur crossmedialer Kommunikation bespielen. Sie sind dafür verantwortlich, dass das Crossmedia Team alle internen wie externen Kunden vom Briefing bis zur Kampagnenevaluation optimal berät und bedient. Unterstützt werden Sie dabei von mir. Mein Hauptfokus wird sich nach Ihrem Stellenantritt auf die Leitung der EMEA Digital Practice verschieben.

Sie verfügen über einen Hochschulabschluss sowie mindestens 6 Jahre Agenturerfahrung, optimalerweise sowohl auf Werbe-, PR- als auch auf Webagentur-Seite. Sie kennen sich mit „klassischen“ Kreativprozessen aus und fühlen sich in der Online-, insbesondere der Social Media Landschaft, zu Hause. Sie sind eine motivierte und engagierte, lösungsorientierte sowie teamfähige Persönlichkeit mit hoher Leistungsbereitschaft und ausgeprägtem Beratungsgeschick. Zudem verstehen Sie es, unterschiedliche Ansprüche und Erwartungshaltungen unter einen Hut zu bringen. Sie sind stilsicher in Deutsch und verfügen über sehr gute Englischkenntnisse.

Wir bieten Ihnen eine tolle Herausforderung mit interessantem Entwicklungspotenzial im äusserst spannenden Agenturumfeld.

Haben wir Ihr Interesse geweckt? Dann freuen wir uns auf Ihre Bewerbungsunterlagen.

Burson-Marsteller AG
Corina Haselmann
Grubenstrasse 40
Postfach
8045 Zürich
Tel. 044 455 84 00
corina.haselmann(at)bm.com

oder per Mail an mich daniel.joerg(at)bm.com

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1. März 2010

79% der Fortune 100 Unternehmen nutzen Social Media

Unsere Kollegen von Burson-Marsteller Global haben eine neue Studie zur Nutzung von Social Media durch die globalen Firmen des Fortune 100 Index publiziert. Die Studie ist die erste in Burson Marsteller’s Research-Serie zum Thema evidenzbasierte Kommunikation.

Im Folgenden die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse:

1) Im Schnitt nutzen 79% der globalen Fortune 100 Unternehmen mindestens eine Social Media Plattform. Die europäischen Unternehmen haben hier knapp die Nase vorne.

2) 20% der globalen Unternehmen im Fortune 100 Index nutzen sowohl Facebook, Twitter, YouTube wie auch einen Corporate Blog. Vor allem US-amerikanische sowie Unternehmen aus Asien und der Pazifikregion setzen auf mehrere Plattformen gleichzeitig.

3) Die beliebteste Social Media Plattform der Fortune 100 Unternehmen ist Twitter, gefolgt von Facebook und YouTube. Corporate Blogs sind nicht mehr so beliebt.

4) Wie auch schon unsere eigene SMI Studie in der Schweiz gezeigt hat, nutzen jedoch noch nicht alle auf Social Media präsenten Firmen das Dialogpotenzial dieser Plattformen aus. Im internationalen Vergleich führen Firmen aus den USA und dem asiatisch-pazifischen Raum häufiger echte Konversationen auf Social Media Plattformen, als dies Firmen aus Europa tun.

Die gesamten Ergebnisse der Studie sind in dieser Präsentation zusammengefasst:

Die US Kollegen haben zudem ein White Paper der Studie erstellt, das man hier downloaden kann. Neben den wichtigsten Ergebnissen der Fortune 100 Studie enthält das Paper spannende Insights zum Stand der Corporate Social Media in Ländern wie China, Brasilien und Japan sowie einen nützlichen Kurzleitfaden für eine evidenzbasierte Herangehensweise an Social Media für Firmen und Marken.

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11. Februar 2010

Web project honoured by Anthrazit magazine

One of the projects we worked on during 2009 was for the Swiss National Science Foundation, when their flagship education website Gene ABC was re-launched. We at Burson-Marsteller have been responsible for the project for many years, with a team of editors and client representatives working to make the original website one of the most successful educational resources on the subject of gene technology for kids between the ages of 12 and 16, in German, French and Italian.

When we developed the concept for the re-launch of the website, which took place during 2009, the key parameters for all of us were to ensure that the website remained highly visible at Google (maintaining the third place spot when searching for the word “gene“) and that the entertaining and highly useful nature of the website was retained. Where the previous website, developed in the late 1990s, had used simple animated graphics to provide a welcoming and fun environment for students, the new version features the original graphic elements translated into video format, with audio narration, to allow the large quantities of information to more easily be consumed by website visitors.

We developed the screen design as well as the technical, video and content concepts from the start of the re-launch project, worked with technical partner !frappant to set up the website on a TYPO3 content management system, filmed the German, French and Italian language videos with actors, while working together with local film company roja-media to produce the final animated “lessons”. The website can now be maintained by the editors directly, allowing sections like Question of the Month to be updated directly.

The project is one of which we’re particularly proud, particularly given that the popularity of the website has been maintained amongst the wide range of existing “fans” who have been using gene-abc.ch for many years as a learning tool. Both we and our client were delighted to find out earlier this week that the website has received a place in the annual awards given by Anthrazit magazine here in Switzerland for the “Best 200 Swiss Websites of the Year“.

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2. Februar 2010

Why blog?

Most companies these days have a website to show their company information, yet as our Social Media Study showed, remarkably few of them (in our example, companies from the Swiss Market Index) have taken the plunge to begin using their websites, or the opportunities offered by social networks, to open up communications channels with their current and potential customers. Even if making the step into communities such as Facebook and Twitter is a step too far for a traditional company, there is one way which a company can easily, quickly, and usually inexpensively increase its online profile.

Most people who use the internet on any kind of regular basis, or who read newspapers, watch television or listen to the radio, will by now know what a blog is. While the term “blog” has only reached the mainstream in recent years, when social media networks boomed and began drawing more attention to the medium, the concept of such an information channel has been around for many years.

“A blog is a waste of time for our company”

Companies and individuals have been giving website visitors, customers and friends regular updates online about what they’re doing for years, albeit (in the case of companies) through “the news section” of their websites. What everyone now calls a “blog” is, in basic terms, a website or a section of a website featuring news, published in chronological order and usually displayed in reverse order. There is no difference between this logic and the logic of a traditional “news page”.

Could the reason why so many business managers are reticent when considering a blog for their company be that they are unclear about what exactly “blog” means?

One potential difference between a blog and a news page is the content: many blogs have traditionally been run by individuals to tell their friends and family the minutae of their daily life, share links to funny videos or pictures, or talk about their hobbies. This is probably the historic reason why many companies see blogs as flippant or irrelevant for a business. However, change the wording and refer to it as a “news channel” or “news section”, and the perception changes. Companies begin wanting to share information about their business and the website, using a simple editorial system which anyone in the company can learn quickly and easily. In effect, they want to write blog posts, albeit in a formal or more serious way.

Some technical experts would perhaps argue that there are differences between a blog and a news page: tags, commenting, “favouriting”, trackbacks, social media sharing tools, RSS and so on. But essentially, all of these individual features are ones which could very simply be added to the traditional news section of a website, were the programmer or technician takes the time and effort to add them… or even better, ensure that they’re included when the website is launched for the first time.

Increase your website traffic

I was asked recently why a website was seeing declining visitor statistics after its launch, when the site owner had spent a lot of time and money on building the site, and when the people who were visiting the site all gave glowing feedback on the content. There were two simple answers: none of the content had changed after the initial launch and there was no way for visitors to interact. If you’re in the same situation with your website, take a moment to step back and think like a site visitor. You’ve visited once and read all of the information on the website. Now what?

Make search engines love your website

Adding a blog or regular news section to a website is a good way to gain more attention for the rest of the website content. Add a regularly updated blog to a website and you’ll see traffic start to pick up. Search engines will love your website more, because each time they come back, they’ll see that your website is being updated. When the a search engine sees that information is current and up-to-date, it’ll usually give it higher rating than a website which is older: search at Google for “social media smi” and you’ll see that our article from January is placed at the top of the list; higher than many older social media and SMI reports.

Can I just set up a blog at a different web address and see how I get on? I’ve heard that a web address like blog.mycompany.ch might be cool…

Yes, of course you can… but first consider what the aim of the blog is. By placing a blog within your main website, you’ll increase the chances of visitors clicking through to further information on the rest of the website when they’ve read the blog post.

See how I linked our Social Media Study earlier in this blog post? That’s to encourage visitors (and search engines!) to continue reading other information on the website. Google groups results from the same website together, so a search for Burson-Marsteller returns our own websites very prominently, even above online encyclopedia Wikipedia (which usually gains many top spots in search engine result pages due to its relevance and the fact that it is so up-to-date). By placing the blog section within the main website, you’ll also probably save money on design work, hosting costs and technical considerations, as your current website layout will probably allow for a blog layout without too many modifications.

Placing a blog at a separate web address and giving it a different look and feel can be beneficial in terms of flexiblilty and will give you the chance to launch the blog without having to re-design or develop your main company website. While these benefits may make the blog successful, you should first consider how you want to connect the blog to your main website, and what effect diverting potential visitors to a separate website may have.

Automatically gain more visibility in social networks

By adding a section to a company website containing regular updates, you’ll increase the traffic to your website. People will come back to see what’s new, begin building a relationship with the company by following what’s happening, and even potentially share articles with their friends. One of the major aspects of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter is that people use them to share information: often a recommendation of an article (or “blog post”) to their friends and family. This usually happens when an article is useful and well written, containing information which is useful and which people think their friends might find useful.

But tread carefully: simply using your online presence to push sales literature or self-promotional news is a quick way to fail in social networks. Publish news about the company, sure: but aim to write things which your readers will find useful even if they don’t buy your product or service. The use of online channels is the modern equivalent of handing out free coffee or newspapers to commuters in a train station. By making a little investment in terms of time – perhaps half an hour a week for a short update or a couple of hours for a longer one – you’ll gain a good perception for your company. Word of mouth will start to spread and you’ll steadily start to gain more visitors to your website. When you start looking for new employees, candidates will be able to see for themselves how the company has been developing in real time, without having to refer to a standardized piece of text in the “about us” section. A blog is the perfect place to show the nature and ethos of the company in a transparent and regularly updated way.

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Burson-Marsteller Crossmedia has a great deal of technical and creative experience in implementing blogs and content management systems at all levels, as well as a large network of international specialists in the field of communications and public relations. If you’d like to find out more about our services, get in touch and let us know how we can help.

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