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First dot-London web addresses go live

Businesses in the capital will be able to reserve a .London web address from today

The much-anticipated web extension, .London will open for registrations today, giving brands, businesses and charities the opportunity to associate their name with the iconic city brand.

More than 100,000 firms have already registered their interest, and today marks the start of a three-month period during which Londoners will be given priority in reserving a new .London web address. Trademark holders will also be given priority during the period.

The London Symphony Orchestra, West Ham United Football Club, Fortnum and Mason, Meantime Brewery, Metro Bank and TechHub are among the first companies to launch websites using the new domain.

“The arrival of .London is a major milestone in the long history of the UK’s capital, building a new home for the city online," said Jan Corstens, worldwide project partner at ICANN's Trademark Clearinghouse and Partner at Deloitte.
 

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"With a whole host of new web extensions currently launching on the Internet, .London is certainly one of the most anticipated arrivals – where businesses, organisations and individuals who want to associate themselves more closely with London online will soon have the opportunity to do so.

"Be it a small London café or one of the capital’s prominent sports clubs, a dot London web address offers a stronger online connection to the London community surfing the web."




Easyspace Domain The arrival of .London is part of a huge expansion of the internet which will see ICANN, the global internet body, release more than 1,000 new internet domains as alternatives to .com, .org and .net. It has been hailed as the biggest change to the internet since the advent of the World Wide Web.
The Dot London registry is a subsidiary of London & Partners, the Mayor’s official promotional organisation for London.
Dot London is working with CentralNic internet registry service to distribute .London addresses via the website: ww.buydomains.london The price for a .London domain name starts at £49.95.
"We want Dot London to become the Internet address of choice for businesses and individuals with a connection to the capital,” said Alex Kinchin-Smith, director of Dot London, "so it is important for us to be working with CentralNic which is based here in London and understands the benefits a Dot London domain name can bring."



Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/10793813/First-dot-London-web-addresses-go-live.html

6 tips for managing a social media crisis

Social media campaigns, especially if they are interactive and allows users to post their own content, are fun and good for brand-building.

But they also open up opportunities for posts that hurt brand image and which could easily go viral.

Lorna Lennon, managing director of boutique crisis consultancy Bailiwick, shares six top tips on how to prevent and manage crises in a social media campaign.

Since 2002, her consultancy has been advising clients in luxury retail, logistics, industry, healthcare and finance in Hong Kong and Paris.

1. Develop a contingency plan before you launch the campaign.

Before creating, say, a Facebook contest, brands need to consider what could happen, who could post inflammatory content and why.

“Marketers and their PR consultants need to prepare a contingency plan, which includes stakeholder mapping, clear message strategy, on-hand trained spokesperson,” said Lennon.

2. Avoid posting content that puts the brand on a pedestal without being able to back it up.

“Setting a brand on a pedestal unless squeaky clean is an open invitation for criticism,” said Lennon.

This applies particularly to social media pages managed in the long run with regular posts.

One example is publicizing sustainable production methods on social media that could be easily disproved by an NGO.

Lennon said, “Environmentalists, animal rights groups, anti-abortionists, for instance, snowball Facebook pages to divert attention to their agenda.”

The quality of a company’s internal communications could also come into play.  If a company posts best practices that a union or group of employees could refute, or unrealistic corporate values seen as untrue by current or former employees, that could spark a crisis too.

 3. Establish a set of clear house rules and stand by them.

“A brand needs clear house rules on acceptable content and conduct. Then, moderate. House rules should also cover discriminatory content. If discriminatory content is posted, the brand can pull the commentary because the user is not respecting its house rules,” said Lennon.

In the case of grey areas, where it’s unclear whether a post adheres to house rules or not, Lennon says brand protection is the bottom line.

4. If a campaign spirals out of control, base decision-making on real-time social media monitoring.

Monitor social media for the number of comments, real-time sentiments, profiling and geographic and social media spread.

Lennon said, “As a result, the team can determine how to handle the incident and reach out to engage, side-track, divert or pull a campaign.”

5. When responding to undesirable posts, avoid blatantly lying, mounting a high horse or threatening legal action.

“Google never forgets and years later, with a few search words, an issue can re-surface,” said Lennon.

But reaching out to provide an apology or using a self-depreciative, wry sense of humour could help appease those using social media to vent grievances about the brand.

 6. Prepare by learning from previous examples of crisis management by competitors or other brands in the same sector.

Lennon said, “Social media monitoring is a must to quickly pick up early warning signals and should include monitoring a brand’s peers and their handling of sensitive issues.”

Source: http://www.marketing-interactive.com/six-tips-managing-social-media-crisis/

How Affluent Consumers Approach Social and How to Reach Them

The key to social success is knowing who your target audience is and tailoring your strategy to them. This approach should also extend to your customer care team. We’ve demonstrated how important social care is to the average consumer in the past, but did you know that it’s also what your wealthiest customers want as well?

According to The Economist Group, 57 percent among those earning more than $200,000, and 56 percent among those earning $150,000 to $200,000 use social media for customer care. This is compared to 43 percent for an average social media user. In fact, the wealthiest consumers even prefer social care to phone or in-person customer service.

The publication goes on to note that despite this compelling evidence, many luxury brands either avoid social care or don’t take it seriously enough. With nearly 90 percent of affluent Internet users actively using social media, it’s no longer a question whether the luxury market should adopt social care practices. It’s a necessity.

Understanding the Customer

As we said before, a successful social campaign starts with knowing your customer. You need to invest in understanding the needs and motivations of your target audience. Social media has opened the door to a new world of fans and customers. The key to success here is knowing how to acknowledge and appeal to both.

While the average consumer’s top reason for following a brand is to receive deals and discounts, affluent customers follow based on a pre-existing affinity and desire to be kept informed about the brand. So while you get to focus less on entertaining the latter, you still need to provide them with something of value — even if it isn’t a coupon or sale.

This means being able to narrowly target your different audiences and how to leverage social media on your behalf. Create individual strategies to target specific consumer segments based on how they behave online, and identify which social platforms offer the best fit for your goals. Personalization is a big draw right now, so use social’s various customization features to your advantage.

Challenges Faced by Luxury Brands

In the past, communications between luxury brands and consumers were made through traditional media channels, such as television or print. This helped to create an air of exclusivity or prestige for those brands. Social media, on the other hand, evened the playing field by giving consumers more access to both information and products previously unavailable to them. As a result, now non-luxury consumers can influence the success or failure of luxury brands.

One of the many challenges faced by luxury brands is creating an immersive online experience that meets brand standards as well as consumer expectations without diluting your exclusivity or prestige. Because of this, luxury brands require a more sophisticated social presence than other brands. In some cases this might mean devoting more resources to making social media a priority or larger part of your marketing strategy.

Best Practices

Over the years, we’ve seen more luxury brands take center stage across social platforms and succeed. The Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels Group, for instance, has fully committed to social care. The brand has devoted the resources, both financial and human, to create and maintain a powerful social media presence. The company is active on both Twitter and Facebook, and has structured its social strategy to mimic what it offers consumers in person — courtesy, dedication, and exceptional service.

Your presence on the web is an extension of your brand, so make sure that the aesthetics and functionality are consistent with your offline image. Affluent customers expect to have the same experience with your brand online as off. While your goal shouldn’t be to recreate your in-store experience online, you’ll want to build on it. Tiffany & C0. sets a great standard for luxury brands transitioning from an in-store experience to the social sphere. Everything about its social presence is elegant and effortless.

Most important, consumers expect a quick response to customer support inquiries online. The attention to detail in your online experience won’t mean a thing if your customers click away unhappy. Make sure that your social care team is given the resources necessary to succeed. Customer relationship management is critical and if your team isn’t prepared, your brand image can suffer. And with more eyes on you than ever before, social care is a vital aspect of your marketing strategy that shouldn’t be ignored.

[Image credit: JD Hancock, Bailey Weaver, David Marcel]

Source: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-affluent-consumers-approach-social-and-luxury-brands-reach-them/