Social Media for Business in Denmark

Denmark, as measured by the per capita use of online social media, is the world's second most "Facebooked" nation (Iceland is first).  While Danes use Facebook in many ways, Danish companies are in the early stages of tapping online tools and platforms to manage and measure their marketing.  At Klean we offer a number of ways to help your company make sense of social media and how to use it to achieve your business goals.  The challenge for the marketing manager is to do more with less.  You need to be where your customer is.  That means being present not just in Facebook and Google, but on mobile phones, video, apps, your customers' word-of-mouth, and the relevant offline channels.

Expert Team Ready to Help

At Klean we have a team ready to work with you.  The head of our social media practice is Andreas Johanssen who brings a wealth of experience from consulting with leading Danish companies such as Danske Bank, Novo Nordisk, Arla, and DBU.  Here he speaks on Børsen TV about the future of the corporate website.

Before coming to Denmark, I led the digital marketing agency for Coremetrics®, an IBM Company.  I had the benefit to work with some of Coremetrics' 2000 global customers using a state-of-the-art enterprise marketing optimization platform.  These sophisticated systems allow you to see all of your marketing channels--search, social media, television, brick-and-mortar stores etc--in one interface.  

While being able to demonstrate and document results are crucial, there is more to marketing than measurement tools.  Every organization has an organizational culture, processes, and politics.  Andreas and I will work for you to help you win support for your projects and document your success.  From social media policy documents to budget proposals to key performance indicator frameworks, we are committed to your success.

Klean in the News:  Børsen
In addition to Børsen TV, you can read some interesting articles from Denmark's leading business newspaper, Børsen, where Klean is featured in a discussion about Facebook vs. Google.  The following articles are translated from the Danish.  You can read the original in PDF format here.

Børsen 25 May 2010
Facebook hunts for supremacy on the Web

The social networking service that has taken Danes by storm, now has its tentacles so far out that users can live their entire internet lives on Facebook's platform

By Peter Møller Christensen

The social networking service Facebook, which now has attracted half of all Danes, has such a strong grip that many of these users that they will spend virtually all their Internet time on Facebook.

"Facebook has managed to replicate many of Google's services, and perhaps the the Google era is already over."

Strongly characterizing the situation is internet and marketing analyst Roslyn Layton, who notes now daily visits to the social media platform  Facebook outnumber that to the search engine Google.

Roslyn Layton has for many years been based in Silicon Valley in California, but has now moved to Denmark where she is works with the web analytics and advisory firm Klean A / S. She has followed these developments closely.

"Today, Facebook users can live their internet lives on Facebook. As Facebook's platform is so comprehensive users need not go to other other websites or search engines," she says.

She notes that part of the alliance with Microsoft allows Facebook to use the search engine Bing for  internet queries within the Facebook framework.

In October 2007 Microsoft made an investment of $240 million, ensuring a stake of 1.6 percent in Facebook. This represented a valuation of $15 billion at the time, but now perhaps $80 billion.

The search function is just one of the many areas that Roslyn Layton highlights in how Facebook can now meet the needs oInternet users.

Furthermore Facebook is forging new revenue models such as games in addition to advertising.  "For a company such as Google, it makes 97% of its revenue by selling ads, the paid search results from users' queries,"," says the marketing analyst.

Facebook offers an interactive way to to communicate with "friends" and its new Titan email service may render traditional email obsolete,  an area where Google has foot its foot in the door with Gmail.

A New Marketing Channel

According to Roslyn Layton consumer products companies are becoming aware of the possibility  of creating real e-commerce stores in the Facebook sphere. Electronics retailer Best Buy has really exercised the option. It promotes its stores as well as products and offerings.

In Denmark, one example is the Wupti-Stampede from television advertising on e-commerce store that sells electronics and appliances, and today has close to 200,000 fans on Facebook. This comical figure is a thief who attempts to steal the merchandise but in finding such great deals in the Wupti store, he decides to pay the retail price.

"And for those who do not have the resources to develop their own Facebook-customized store, there are now free and low cost ways to set up a web shop with a just a few clicks," said Layton.

"The real upside in Facebook is for B2B companies, however, where business is built on relationships often with a long lead time and sales cycle," say Roslyn Layton.

On a purely entertainment level, there is the whole game universe, which is becoming a key economic factor for the social networking service. The emergence of games where Facebook users can compete against each other is one of the main reasons users come to Facebook

Gaming represents one of the most active areas of Facebook with continuous innovation.  Users can  have the opportunity to expand and upgrade their game play by purchasing enhancement through Facebook Credits.


Potential for new currency
■ Internet Money

By Peter Møller Christensen

Although it lies just around the corner, there may be some resistance to virtual money systems used in different social communities on the Internet.

"There is talk about some kind of underground economy, which is not subjected to any authority control, which is not paid tax or VAT. But there is still a long way to go before one or more of these internet currencies become of global importance for the world economy, "says Professor Jan Damsgaard, Centre for Applied Information and Communication Technology at the Copenhagen Business School.

"To the extent that there is a knowledge-based economy where intellectual abilities that will be paid for virtually, is, in principle, plausible with Facebook-credits, "says Damsgaard.

For example, he notes the payment method from Second Life,  Linden dollars, which has has been used for philanthropic activities such as used to donations to shelters in India.

Remember to pay tax
"There was a large sign posted in Second Life that read, 'Remember to pay taxes'. There was an economy there that seemed to avoid too much scrutiny," says Damsgaard.

There is also a long way to the development of Facebook Credits, he notes, and so far, there appears to be no external authority which can intervene.

At the same time he emphasizes that the economy in the very out-stretched, network-based interactions among users dwarfs the computer game world.  World of Warcraft alone is many times greater than the size of Facebook money.

'World of Warcraft is a subscription game with a monthly fee, which generates one half a billion dollars per month. The Facebook universe is invaluable through the purchase recommendations that users give each other," he says.

Damsgaard highlights the fact that the main source of purchasing decisions are still based on recommendations from friends and family.


Facebook overtakes Google in U.S.

Google for a number of years has been unconditional number one search engine and website for the world's internet traffic, but recently the company found themselves relegated to a second-place position in the important U.S. market.

According to figures from Hitwise, Google was overtaken by Facebook in the week 6th-13th March, with Facebook accounting for 7.07 percent  of all U.S. visits, while the equivalent figure for Google was 7.03 percent.

In many countries, Google still has a first place position, while Facebook, according to Alexa.com, has conquered second place ahead of the Google-owned YouTube, Yahoo and Microsoft-owned Live.com.