It’s late Friday, but not too late for Friday5, the weekly mini blog. Today with a great client: WhyCommunicate?

ONE: Your company is called WhyCommunicate? So let me ask you: Why Communicate?

We set up WhyCommunicate? six years ago.  We wanted to create a company where everything was about communication.  We found that people were worrying about the technology instead of what they were trying to achieve.  We wanted to set up a business and a name that wouldn’t ‘age’ with the introduction of new methods and technologies.  Instead, we created a business that would change with the online market.  Comminication is key – it doesn’t matter what method we use, it matters how.  Now, everyone is worrying about PPC and SEO, but it’s really about what you’re saying.

TWO: You offer a huge range of work. What should a business do first when they want to run their marketing online?

WhyCommunicate focuses on search an social media.  The first thing is understanding the customers business and their drivers.  By understanding the business more effectively, we can understand the drivers behind that.  Major brands don’t understand what their business are from a brand perspective and what differentiates them from other organisations.

THREE: What was the most interesting project you have worked on?

One of our most recent projects is using Facebook to do advantage demographic profiling as part of a larger campaign.  With the API, we can find age group affinity to the brand and the products and services that they’re offering. Marketing directors believe that everyone searches the way we do, however, this isn’t always the case.  We ran a continuous testing campaign to isolate down target groups. We then can roll out a much bigger campaign that is targeted towards specific people.  This process is known as “the marketers dream”.  We can also identify trends by county or by city.

FOUR: You are specialized in SEO and Facebook advertising. What do you think about the new social network service Google+?

Everyone is very used to Facebook and since Google+ doesn’t work like Facebook, it’s been confusing for a lot of people. But once the early adopters have gone through, will there still be people left?  Will it be a MAC- PC situation?  I think that the jury is still out.  Officially, Google+ isn’t accepting business profiles.  They have had the advantage to look at what has worked or hasn’t worked with Facebook.  There are 100 social media platforms already, and there will be successes and failures.  From an SEO perspective, there’s only benefit at the moment.

FIVE: What was the most important change in online marketing you’ve seen in the past 5 years?

The arrival of social media in a more mainstream context.  What is more interesting is that while there is a lot of information looking at social media case studies, there are few companies that really understand how social media works.  There are a lot of organisations out there who want to offer this service. However, measuring social media still seems to be a problem.  Social media is completely separate from online marketing and should be treated that way.  A lot of people don’t understand it and are afraid to take the first step.  The budget holders are not 22-year-olds, they are 45-year-olds who may be struggling to understand how social media can benefit a business.  The messaging needs to be simpler.

BONUS: What is the biggest current trend in online marketing?

I would turn that around and say: what’s the biggest issue? Attribution and measuring attribution.  We can see examples of social media driving sales.  Unless you have a clear attribution funnel, then it won’t take off. As an example, we’ve been doing some work with B2B brands doing advertising on LinkedIn. We’ve been driving consumers to the LinkedIn page.  We’ve seen a rise in the number of organisations doing brand searches.  From an anlaytics perspective, we can identify businesses that have been visiting their website.

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To take part in next weeks Friday5 send an email to: andreas@blurgroup.com