The latest trends in communications

Anyone interested in the latest trends in terms of mobile and social media communications would have been happy to join the sophisticated audience from the BITKOM Congress, organized between 26 and 27 November in Berlin, on Karl-Marx Allee. 

Big billboards on Karl-Marx-Allee

Even though Germany faces a lot of problems with accepting the new technologies - for instance, the e-wallets are not openly accepted - the engine of the European economy cannot stay behind and thus, little by little, with the help of a smart and well organized lobby, the change of mentality is on the way. The main advantage of not being the first to follow the trends could be that one may still have the last word in improving the previous techniques and strategies that were followed almost blindly at the beginning. 

For the moment, Germany is trying to develop the research tools for constant social innovation. There are a lot of changes ahead and it will be not easy to endeavor what the final results will look like. The speed of the transmission of information equals the speed of light a scenario that makes almost impossible the categorization of the data. 

The press conference

One of the most used word I've heard during my hours spent at the BITKOM Congress was: sharing (not necessarily only on Facebook). Sharing while taking care of the privacy considerations; sharing if you want to grow both as an individual and as company (JP Rangaswami); sharing because you do not have any other choice; sharing in a smart way, by using the social media tools and the mobile technologies in order to reach your potential and current audience and customers. Even though not all companies and sectors do need an impressive amount of data (banking, financial and the government sectors are the most exposed to it) almost all domains of activity will need to change at a certain extent their information culture. New skills are needed at all levels of decision. 

As Germany is the country of Siemens and other forefront companies in the world of technology and communications, the references to mobile communication was often used as the best tool to address the overall reservations for an open data policy. The challenges and opportunities for innovation are impressive and we are just at the beginning of the journey (Annette Zimmermann, from Gartner Research). 

When you are in Berlin, do what Berliners do and from the agenda couldn't miss a presentation about the 'legendary' local start-up culture (Joel Kaczmarek, from Gruenderszene), with a funny introduction in the daily life of a startuper. I hope that many of the serious, black-suited participants realized that irony should be included as a main quality of a startuper in Berlin and therefore, they will be kind and nice with anyone asking them their generous financial support. 

The Congress was located at the legendary Kosmos, the DDR's once best kino

Overall, the Trend Kongress offered a good picture of the state-of-arts of the German communications.  A lot of meticulous work ahead till the next Congress.

Online PR for German companies

Good news for you, online media addicts. The next months will mean more work but with many spectacular results for your clients - and your bank account!

Very often, I expressed my unhappiness with the low outreach of German companies via online media tools. The situation is not one of the best in Europe, but it seems that it will not stay for too long. According to an interesting study Zukunft der Unternehmenskommunikation in the coming months we may assist to a lot of interesting changes.

For instance, according to the study, social media communication will increase its presence into the branding and communication strategies of German companies with over 82%. Nowadays, the average use is of 48% of the daily PR activities. Content marketing is also expecting to increase with around 75%. Currently, the media and the public are influenced mostly by e-mail newsletters and the information distributed via press portals. Regarding this latest tool, I must recognized that I was not too keen to use it and preferred instead to communicate directly with the media. However, each time I used one of those free or charge press portals, I got unexpected results. Probably, a matter of checking the identity and the prestige of the company sending the media, as the membership to a press portal supposes the confirmation of some identity details of the sender. 

The research published by PR Gateway mentions that the social media tools - together with media monitoring services and online press release services - contribute to the increase of efficiency of the PR work, with a minimal investment of time. I could not agree less. 

The study is based on a researched made during August and September 2012, among 313 German companies covering domains such as IT, consulting and pharma industry. 

With such good news for the next 12 months, I can't wait to check permanently how I will help my German and non-German customers to increase their presence in the online realm. 

Using LinkedIn endorsements

For a couple of minutes the last week, I've played with the new LinkedIn feature: the endorsements. Using them outlines the importance of including in your network especially people about whom you know something, or preferably you met in the real life. 

You have the possibility to confirm certain qualities listen as skills on the LinkedIn profile. Those endorsing you certify that you are genuine and what you say is exactly what you are. Thus, it is very important that you have in your network business partners, collaborators or former and current employers. Plus, many of those you endorse will be keen to do the same with you and thus, each member of LinkedIn confirms your professional qualities. The next time a head hunter will be interested in recruiting, checking the credentials will be very helpful to have a cleared profile of a potential candidate. 

If more features will be introduced, the possibilities of fake profiles will be strictly limited. And last but not least, you have the chance to increase the relations with the people from your network, but also to check their activity. Some may be inactive for months or even years and thus, you better eliminate them and add people that may add content to your network. The result of my 30 minutes of working hard to endorse people from my network was that for the next seven days I received a lot of endorsements and got in touch with some interesting people from my list of contacts.

Happy endorsing!

What's in a picture

Once again, I want to focus on the importance of having a picture for your profile, this time for your presence on the professional social networking sites. 

As I needed to work intensively for expanding my network lately, I spent a lot of time on Xing - Germany's favorite network - and LinkedIn. I neglected a lot those two professional places so I wanted to get in touch with some of the members of my networks, events and potential new clients. One of my main problem was to recognize some of the people of my networks that did not have any picture.

Even though when you are looking to hire or network, you are interested in the level of professional achievement and the immediate experience, but you may also need to have an eye contact. Not necessarily a bad looking person has less chances to get a new job or a new project, but it is equally important to know how the person looks like as a proof of her/his authenticity. I need to know which is the person with such and such experience as maybe I can meet him/her on one of the conferences we are supposed to participate together. 

Thus, you have a picture, you have credibility and wish my contacts without picture read this post and will help me to network better with them. 

Weekend reading: Hubspot on Written Guide Styles

An interesting lecture for all those interested in writing, from Hubspot. And how can you dare to do not be interested in writing when the written word is what can make the big difference for your brand, business project and any other business related project?