You Must Keep up with your Consumers Online: Three Need to Know Tips!

A massive 73% of adults in the UK accessed the Internet every single day in 2013. A further 82% of these UK Internet users performed purchases online, outlined by Office of National Statistics. 

With internet usage set to increase exponentially and retailers moving further away from their physical stores and online, there is desperate demand to act NOW and get in front of your consumers in the online world. 

My previous post discussed the increasing urgency and demand for speed within the online world and the every growing need for speed online.

Below are three vital tips to keep up to speed with your consumers online: 

1. Be in the Right Places: 

It is all well saying 'We're online!', however if you're not in the right places online then your efforts are almost all wasted. You must perform detailed research into your target audience's online behaviours. Where are they talking? Who are they talking to? What are they talking about? When are they online? Once you have answered these questions you will have a better idea as to how to be in the right place and get amongst the conversation between your target audience.

2. 24/7 Online Support: 

I am a strong believer that there is no 'down-time' in online activity. Instead the deciding factor is how consumer centric your brand or organisation are. If you are a large, global consumer facing brand, the need to be online 24/7 is vitally important. As previously discussed, the need to be at your consumer's every beckon call with urgency and precision is paramount. 

3. Seamless Connection between On & Off-line:

It is all well and good saying that everyone is online and you need to be there in order to succeed. However, as the initial statistics disclose, NOT all of us are online and certainly NOT all of us are making every single purchase decision online. So, a happy medium needs to be adopted, again steaming back to really having an understanding of your target audience's online and offline behaviour. Once you have established this solid research base, and like the majority of brands and organisation, you have both on and offline audiences, there needs to be consistency and a seamless approach to marketing and communication efforts. As a consumer myself I admire the ability to swap and change between on and offline, ordering online but going into the store to pick items up from real people, Tesco have this mastered with the Click & Collect initiative. 

The above points lead me back to the close of my previous post. Could all three points be better executed by an algorithm? 

Algorithms could address the 'Where?' question, but means of assessing and sorting through masses of user's online behaviours. 
Algorithms could most defiantly provide 24/7 support online, they do not require rest or sleep or a cup of tea every hour, like us humans! 

However, the personal touch that is brought through with the use of real people in real time, can this be replicated using algorithms? 

If is a very interesting debate, one that formed one of the original questions that lead me to the construction of this blog. 

In my next post I will aim to tackle this question more directly, Can algorithms provide a genuine substitute for real human interaction and marketing as we know it today? 

@Gemma_Clarkson

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The Need for Speed in the Online World

Like everything in life, we want things bigger, faster, lighter, slimmer, and just generally BETTER.
In this post I will be discussing the FASTER aspect of our human demands.

The same is true about the majority of processes we undertake in our everyday lives, things are generally better if they are done more efficiently, and ideally finished yesterday! 

From cars to dinner and from shopping to weight loss, things are just better if they’re done with haste.

Processes that were once enjoyed at great length, like going on a weekend shopping trip, are long gone. This is now far too time consuming and pointless. Instead of spending hours debating what to buy little Timmy for Christmas as you scale every shelf in Hamleys, decisions are made in breakneck speed at the click of one button. And before you know it, your item is being flown to you via a small computer controlled drone (it’s destination and route probably determined by an algorithm) direct to your doorstep within minutes. This isn’t so unbelievable, Amazon are already there with Prime Air! 

Our need for speed has never been so urgent. With technology speeding up every single process we perform; it is now, more than ever before, paramount that we keep up.

As suggested in my previous post, algorithms act as a catalyst to the majority of processes. 

Using an example of how algorithms have acted as a catalyst for an everyday process, I will use the example of searching for a restaurant in London. 
Before Google, I would have probably asked a few of my friends if they could request anywhere or keep my eye out in the Metro for any good reviews.
Today, in my Google dominated world, searching for the latest restaurant that will cater for sophisticated dietary needs as well as my culinary preferences, has never been easier. Through a simple statement entered into Google, 'Newly opened restaurants in London, suitable for celiacs, serving Asian and Italian infusion.' This statement generated a mass of potential results, 1,320,000 to be exact! 

But how will algorithms continue to make this process even faster and more seamless? I feel that this process could be tapped into more effectively by organisations, in this example restaurants. 

As consumers we are now asking questions to our our peers, or anyone who will listen, via Twitter. 
I envisage the creation of algorithms that scour the Twitter-sphere searching for questions such as, 'Need to find a newly opened restaurant in London! Any ideas?', once these questions or statement have been identified, the algorithm will then assess the individual user's profile as well as the material they have shared to date, following the gathering of all this vital information that will then be able to feedback to the user with a suggested restaurant that will specifically cater to their very personal needs, wants and desires. as well as informations and offers relevant to that specific consumer.  

Many organisations have large teams of social media support staff dedicated to monitoring social conversations to locate these specific mentions that will aid in their marketing efforts, similar to that of the previously outlined process. However, the manually operated human process takes a large amount of time, dedication and resource. 

So, in answer to my concerns and questions around how algorithms are threatening our jobs and some of the processes that are executed by humans, could be achieved FASTER and more efficiently through the use of specific algorithms. 

So, will this bold suggestion be actualised in our ever growing and all encompassing demand for faster results and our very NOW culture? 

Stay tuned for more Algo-Marketing musings from me! My next post will host some key suggestions on how you can keep up with your all important consumers online. 

@Gemma_Clarkson

Algorithms 101: What is an Algorithm?

I am a true digital native, spending my entire working day on the Internet or using the web in some way or another. My personal life is extremely similar, whether I am emailing my friends and family, following the news on Twitter, even posting my latest culinary exploits on Instagram or asking Google endless questions regarding every aspect of my life.

Digital Native

noun

• a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and so familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age:the digital tools that are reshaping our economy make more sense to young digital natives than to members of older generations

So, you would have thought I would understand exactly what an algorithm is and how exactly they work. Well, up until very recently I was just as baffled as you! During my search, yes starting with Google (of course!), I started to get a better understanding of what exactly an algorithm is and actually how all-encompassing and fundamental algorithms are in my life. 

So this post will convey, what I feel are the 3 key elements to help you understand the basics of algorithms.

1. Algorithms, the bottom line

While trying to get my head around these fundamental things called ‘Algorithms’, I was swamped by the mass of terminology and ‘gumff’ that came with it. In order to overcome this hurdle and get my, visually driven, brain around this concept I started to think of algorithms as a simple feedback look.

Well, an algorithm in its simplest form is a set of instructions aimed at solving a specific problem. Psudocode allows us common folk (non-computer programmers) to read these instructions.

2. Where Algorithms are found

When we initially think of algorithms, we think of computers (well I do). However this is not the only place that algorithms can be found, ‘we’, as humans, also function using a series of algorithms. This Ted-Ed video on algorithms helped me get my head around how human use algorithms, in a very nice illustration using the basic process of counting how many people are in a room.

A computer programme (if you can even begin to get your head around that) is a series of complex and interwoven algorithms. These algorithms are dealing with multiple different processes happening at any one given time, driving a variety of processes. 

Computer programmes are responsible for every ‘click’, every ‘scroll’ and every ‘mouse movement’ we do. Providing governance for all processes that are involved in presenting a perfectly seamless computer screen to the end user.

3. Algorithms vs. Human processes

An algorithm is a set of instructions aimed at solving a problem, via a step-by-step process. As previously discussed humans use algorithms to perform a whole host of different tasks. 

Like any journey or process, there are many different route to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’, some routes require you to go via ‘C’, or even pass ‘Go’ to collect £200.

Well, with this in mind it is no surprising that I am posing the question, ‘One day will there be algorithms to replace the processes we manually execute as humans in our everyday lives?’

Why would there not be? If anything algorithms are quicker, more accurate and don’t need to take a tea break. What more could you ask for in an employee?

So, I will be using this blog to answer some of the very key and poignant questions I have, specifically around how algorithms are going to shape the world of marketing as we know it today.

So, stay tuned for some more intellectually tantalising ‘Algo-Marketing’ topics as well as my attempt to answer some of the questions that puzzle me about how the world is evolving through the ever expanding and dominating digital and online universe.  

@Gemma_Clarkson