Digital philosophy – Veronica Stenberg

6 things you can do to help someone find a new job

Veronica — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 06:04:31 +0000

In the midst of the current situation navigating both worldly unrest and a global pandemic where people have lost jobs and loved ones. We can all help and pitch in to make the world a better place, not just keeping distance and wearing a face mask (and please vote carefully and use your vote). For all the people who lost their jobs – we can all help and support them towards finding a new position and meaning in this weird time.

With Linkedin being one option where you can easily support other people – two of the tips are literally effortless and can be done in less than a second.

Even the smallest gesture can have a big impact on someone. We all have more power than we think (in my opinion).

1: Like and share posts that are done on Linkedin and other social platforms of people looking for a new job or have braved it and started their own companies.

2: Endorse skills of people of whom you have worked with on Linkedin.

3: Recommend people you know and have worked with to any positions you may hear about within your network. Both on Linkedin and IRL. Just comment with the persons name if you see a post on Linkedin that you think may be a good fit for the request.

4: Pass on any tips of open positions to people you know are looking for a job that you think may be of a great fit for it.

5: If you work at a company and have the mandate and need to hire but can’t hire fulltime – look for options to take on someone on hours or part-time on a temporary basis.

6: Most importantly take the time to ask what their biggest challenge is and ask how you can help someone who is looking for a new opportunity after being made redundant.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie

Veronica — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 13:21:45 +0000

This is probably the non-fiction book that’s had the biggest impact on me for a while. I’ve seen, heard and followed smaller snippets of Cambridge Analytica’s crimes for a while. However, I had no idea how deep this went and the extent of the horrible crimes against both humanity and democracy that this company was (still is?!) participating in and enabling.

Of course, from a perspective of data analysis and data integration for modern marketing, this is a book that is a horrible receipt on how you as a marketer today, can create data-driven, highly customized communication towards potential customers, to persuade them to buy your product or service with extraordinary results – done right. That is a side note. It’s not why you should read this book.

This book is about identifying systems, psychological warfare and seeing the burning building that the majority of the population are trapped inside and in some cases are addicted to. A building that can manipulate the people inside it by using their own behaviour against them. And how data can be misused by the people with enough money to create a world that they want to see.

Attention and data is the new oil of the world, and who controls that, can control the world. As we seen here in the west with Brexit and the election of Trump. Platforms like Facebook can further enhance the segregation between people, a stark contrast to the “community” they claim to be and offer their users. (Users is a term that only technology companies and drug dealers use for their customers, that irony is not lost on me…)

Facebook makes an average of $30 from each American on their platform alone, that’s 170 million times 30. Which ends up with $510 000 000 for the American market. One of the features with Facebook is that you can target people very precisely and use data to find similar people. A function that is the other side of creating echo chambers for people on the platform. To show the users more of what drives engagement – not challenging world views or feeding into curiosity or further development.

The same tools and tactics that deceived people in the UK and the US have been utilized in Africa. While reading the book I had to put it down after reading page 149 and gather myself. Where it was revealed that in project ads placed on Google Ads drove traffic to a website with propaganda videos with real torture and murder of people to sway opinions in an election.

It does not get better from there in terms of what Cambridge Analytica and their customers are capable of. But all the more important to read on and educate oneself of the full scope of this.

This book and the information in it is important. It’s well written and easy to read with references and analogies that will help anyone understand what is happening here. This is not a technical book that is hard to understand, it’s an easy well written and a highly educational book written in an interesting way and use of language. If you read one book this year, please make it this one to understand the depth of manipulation of systems and laws that people with enough money can get away with.

Marketers have a responsibility, we are contributing to our requests for data and for technology towards this type of world. We are in my opinion in a position of power as we contribute with money that we buy advertising/attention/engagement for. What we choose to do with that money places us in a position of power.

I work in the digital industry, in some projects touching these aspects of “crafting customer experiences” that drive revenue. Using the same technology and functions as being used to both manipulate and in some cases drive violent behaviour. True, all things can be misused but the most horrible realisation is that it’s being misused daily and that no-one is being held responsible for the crimes that have been committed. Boris Johnson is Primeminister of the UK. Facebook is thriving and at the end of the day – everyone got away and in some instances even got to rule the country.

It’s all to twisted to be true. But it’s not only true this is our reality today.

This book left me with questions that I’m grappling to answer. As I’m a pro-human, pro-democracy and pro-people making well-informed decisions.

How can we as marketers contribute towards a digital world where peoples privacy is respected?
How can we contribute towards turning this around?
How can I contribute towards driving change in this area? in redistributing the power to the people?

I used to think that the internet was magic, filled with possibilities only – now the dark side was revealed to me and it’s a monster.

A new era and new normal

Veronica — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 06:23:58 +0000

I don’t think that the world will look quite the same after Covid-19, if it will be an after in that regard. With that, I mean that we might even have to learn how to live with Covid-19 or other diseases in our lives going forward.

Being all philosophical over a strong cup of coffee, there are areas that I think we will, may or I hope that we will see an increased importance on going forward.

Increased speed of digitalization

This pandemic showed several flaws in our current system, digitalization was one of them. Certain companies or functions in our society is not up to par when it comes to digitalization, or having digital tools, workflows or services in place to be able to operate properly. They’ve been forced to perform a shift during a very challenging time.

When it comes to the business model, many companies used their creativity and identified ways to create digital experiences of their service offerings to stay afloat. Or part of them. With that, I foresee that this pandemic is a catalyst for increasing the speed of digitalization from every aspect of running a business or any other type of organisation.

Increased focus on sustainability

Once we have got Covid-19 under control there will be an increased focus on sustainability. With the planet becoming warmer, unacceptable treatment of animals (that has led to several diseases, not just Covid-19) the deforestation of the rainforest and so forth. I think and hope that these types of subjects get increased focus moving forward. Not only from the general public (aka the consumer), I think this is a key component and aspect of any business. Not only from a brand value perspective, but it’s also going to affect and must be part of everything from the manufacturing process, the environmental impact of packaging to how energy efficient your headquarters are. We will have to take sustainability into account in every detail of a business.

Compassion and community

I believe and hope that we will keep this increased compassion for our fellow humans and the increased focus on our community. That through this pandemic and the pain and strain that is has caused us as humans. That we will now understand how important compassion for one another is.

The increased importance of living your best life

I suspect we may see a shift in priorities. Do we really want to toil away our lives in the same way as before? I think that people want to find alternative ways of living that reduce stress and improves the way of living. With an increased focus in mental wellbeing, family and experiences that enrich our lives beyond money or possessions.

We might even see a shift in the urbanisation due to increased possibilities to work remotely. That less people want to move to the larger cities and that there is a wave to move out to more rural areas.

Behaviour changes and attitudes towards both digital and news

With an increased focus on sustainability, a shift in values I foresee that a wish to reduce time spent on devices, social media and other digital platforms will spread. It already started pre-Covid with the rise of initiatives such as the Light Phone and the expansion of groups opting out of social media.

I think we all want to spend our time (life) wisely and still expect seamless digital experiences and services when we do choose to engage in the digital world.

I also suspect that how we consume news and media will change after the incessant coverage of Covid-19 of various media outlets. It has done nothing for our mental well-being.

Photo by Kenrick Mills on Unsplash

Modern marketing rule No 10: Increased focus on customer retention

Veronica — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 04:12:59 +0000

If your business relies heavily on acquiring new customers to survive and not is a newly started business something is terribly amiss.

Not only is this a costly and fragile setup to rely heavily on new customer acquisitions, but it’s also associated with another risk – customers talk to each other. Customer reviews are during this day and age crucial for building trust and credibility for a business and brand.

Your CRM is the heart of this and the engine that will make it possible to get the insight you need to follow up on key metrics such as; customer lifetime value, customer churn and customer activity.

As a rule of thumb, you need to find the balance between customer acquisition costs and customer lifetime value between different customer segments. Average CPA and CPL is just that, an average number. You need to dig deeper to discover the patterns behind various channels, customers CPA and evaluate if an initial higher CPA can be worth it if the customer in question is highly likely to be a customer for longer or spend more etc.

Customer retention is both crafting experiences through value and services and a numbers game.

Modern marketing rule No9: Rethink the marketing mix

Veronica — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 04:10:52 +0000

Being customer-centric put new demands on your marketing and communication. We live in an attention economy where everyone is fighting for a very precious resource from potential customers, attention. A useful tool to navigate this new challenge is personas and customer journey mapping.

That means that the core of your marketing activities now is required to be planned in an entirely different way.

You now need to have a solid foundation of always-on media and activities in your marketing mix and work with campaigns on top of your always on activities. The campaigns are now required to be more intelligent and that why we see the development of data-driven marketing technologies.

Relying heavily on campaigns to build revenue for your business is a very fragile tactic as the attention span decreases and more brands fight for the same space, it becomes a way of practice “artificial breathing” to drive sales and brand awareness. Whereas the always-on activities ensure a steady flow of new sales from an existing need from the customers.

You need to find that mix that is just right for your business, audience and context. There is no silver bullet here.

Modern marketing rule No8: Curate immediate actionable insights for your team

Veronica — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 04:07:36 +0000

Your strategy should answer why you are doing a specific activity, towards whom, and what the definition of success is. You should always have one primary KPI to evaluate everything your company does in terms of marketing. No matter if it’s on or offline.

You need to build and empower both culture and organization towards cultivating the right data and evaluating daily how specific activity is contributing towards the bottom line, solving a challenge or making your customers happier. Whatever the specific goal may be that is associated with that activity.

You need a team that can answer why an activity was successful, not only that the activity was successful. This is achieved by combining great tools with curious and creative people.

Effective tools such as an automatic tags on URLs, dashboards with filters that enables marketers to ask questions and get answers without having to utilize a data scientist or other supporting staff.

Easy, effective, immediate – enable a data-driven organisation that can act today, not a couple of months after activity was launched. That’s how you gain market shares.

Modern marketing rule No7: Incremental changes have long term business impact

Veronica — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 04:38:08 +0000

Small changes over a longer period of time will take your business further than big changes performed slowly and seldom. This because of the business landscape that changes ever so often. You need to set-up an organisation with cross-functional teams to be able to work across disciplines and processes that support experiments. Both in ad messaging to the actual conversion funnel on your website. But also beyond and with that I mean you need a culture with an experimental mindset where you create small experiments across the entire organisation. Pilot projects that become proof of concept before large investments and gather key insights for a more smooth implementation. No matter the subject, from new services to products.

Modern marketing rule No 6: Your content matters

Veronica — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 04:34:24 +0000

You need to craft relevant content that is valuable for your customers in various stages of their journey towards making a purchase decision and beyond.

You need to be multidisciplinary and be able to adapt towards where and what your customer is both doing and preferring to enhance their experience with your brand.

The demands in this attention economy are that your content should be relevant, delivered at the right time, be of service, tell the story of your brand and nurture relationships with your customers.

Content can be anything and everything, from product copy to a podcast, to a useful magazine to a guest post and video.

The one who decides what medium to use is your customer. What do they like? What is useful for them? How do they like to be inspired? How can you use content to serve them?

Modern marketing rule No5: Embrace technology to increase effectiveness and free up resources

Veronica — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 04:29:54 +0000

Today’s context requires companies to be both nimble and agile. Larger companies are having a hard time adapting due to patched up, old systems that are deeply ingrained in the organization and their company cultures.

Having the right tech as a tool to facilitate your marketing and customer experiences will give your business a competitive advantage, not just in terms of enabling various types of functionality. It will also save you time through automation and free up resources that can focus on more intelligent work. Work that involves creativity, strategy, insight and problem-solving.

Your competitors will have a hard time to gain on you if you have a positive, creative and agile team that is focused on your customer and the business goals.

Modern marketing rule No4: Use the data you have to craft better customer experiences

Veronica — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 04:26:20 +0000

The data should be put to good use in the marketing of your business. It enables you to put the right message in front of the right person at the exact right moment along their journey towards a purchase and beyond. However, contrary to popular belief you do not have to have an advanced CRM to achieve the first step towards more relevant marketing.

Well thought out retargeting with relevant messages, based on the previous behaviour from browsing history and search data will enable your business to go a long way. There are just a few brands that really utilize this in a personal way and usually, the examples we notice are both sloppy and lazy. Not to mention totally devoid of any creative thinking at all and usually from an inside perspective rather customer-centric. There is still huge potential here and you do not need to be a big brand to capitalize on it.

Once you earn your customers trust for their data you utilise it to craft better customer experiences with your brand and create additional value to the customer in their interactions with your business. Think beyond just marketing.

On that note, you need to ensure you own your own customer data while working both with suppliers and platforms where you are at their mercy in terms of Facebook or even any agreements with suppliers that help you handle the Google 360 suite.