Saturday, February 21, 2015

Digital Business Models 2015

It is the middle of February, 2015 and I have just finished one of my projects: Digital Business Models. The project was launched by two Laurea teachers : Iikka Kurkela and Anna Ikonen. Although there is no exam in this project, I believed that I myself as well as other students did feel that we have learned a lot from this course. Therefore, this blog was born with a purpose of sharing my own experiences and knowledge which I personally gained through Digital Business Models.

As its name tells, the main topic of the project is about Digital Business and project goals are designed  to introduce Digital Business models, strategies, tools... for both entrepreneurship and student personal purposes. The project prolonged in three weeks with total five classes at school. Each week, project themes are different and students need to read through pre-reading materials (mostly are online articles) in order to join class activities actively.

In the first week, the theme is Digital strategy.

1. Hubspot
With any business, both start-ups and traditional businesses, awareness of their appearance and probability in digital world. This is the time for useful digital tools which enable any business to test and evaluate their own media: whether the structure of the interface is visibly good-looking and stunning in customers' eyes, whether all necessary information is presented, whether all the links connected to information aimed to customers... A typical of the list twenty five website graders was introduced through class: Hubspot. With Hubspot, your website grade, evaluation, along with suggestion for improvement will be presented for free. I myself do feel interested with this tool.

2. "Quality is the best business plan." (Matthew Luhn, Pixar 2014)
In any case, customers do have their own voice, especially in the digital world. With the internet speed nowadays (more than two million Google searches in a minute), customers 'reviews, feedbacks, recommendations,... spreads faster than ever. That means if your product or service quality is not as good as your marketing or maybe your customer service is poor...then your business image will go down soon with no doubt.

3. Customer touchpoint management
The term of "customer touchpoint" is very well-known in business world. It can be seen as the key to your business's success or failure. This moment can be interpreted as a cyclic process from Knowing > Trust > Try > Buy > Repeat > Refer. Managing your customer touchpoint can also help to stand out your business advantages: what make your business value unique in customers' mind?

4. Personal Branding
"This lecture is a practically useful for students," I personally recommend. Why? No one can deny the power of internet these days and if any business can use it as an economical marketing means then you can also utilize internet/ social media to prove your skills and work experiences. Your online presence will be the most persuasive evidence in your career.

There are a few tips that I think they should be shared:

Number 1: Every information that you decided to put online should be considered carefully.
Number 2: Be aware of your value. What makes you different from others?
Number 3: Be creative to deliver your value. It is advised to influence influencers. By this way, your spreading speed will be much higher than you thought.
Number 4: Utilize social media (for example: Facebook and LinkedIn)

Number 5: Get your QR code ( a quick response for your text, web address, email, phone number...)



The second week: The new media, sales and marketing

As the development of internet, online marketing potentials were recognized by many businesses. They started invest more on digital marketing. At first, they moved from Paid media (traditional advertising-print, television...) to their Own media (their own website, fanpage...). By time, the power of word of mouth will turn their Own media into Earned media through online recommendations such as Facebook comments, Twitter, blog...

In comparison with traditional marketing, online marketing helps increase the presence of Moment of Truth throughout customer buying process. Moreover, the benefits that online marketing brings to business are more than convenience, scale, management... In class, there were a lot of activities that you can tell a list of online marketing advantages. Besides, two practical cases were also mentioned: Media Planet and Klaus Haapniemi.


The third week: Web pages, social media and search engines

When coming to the world of online marketing, it is essential to know how to build your Owned media effectively.  Below, there are five key points for everyone:

Number 1 : Listen to customers. Every business exist due to the need of customers, therefore, remember to collect and analyze your system of customer information.
Number 2: Update your website usually. It helps customer follow your business easier and increase the interaction between both.
Number 3: Make the content sharable. It is the key of your online marketing success. If customers can not share the information then it is not only make customers bored but also damage your potential customers and further, your future profit.
Number 4: Activate. Any conversation with customers needs goals. When you have your goal, it is simple to find the solution, the suitable way to communicate with customers.
Number 5: Measure. After any process, it is important to evaluate your work to find any point needed to correct and develop.

With digital business, customer service becomes vital than you ever thought. As customers 'attitudes cannot be observed directly but only through online data collected, taking care of customers' feelings make them feel more special and satisfied. It is a part of the stage adding value to your product or service. There are many ways of customer service online, however, most of them are being used incorrectly, for example: spam emails. These things needed to be concerned more, try to do relevant marketing, otherwise, your customers may feel annoyed with your business.

Due to the fact that Google becomes one the most popular online searching tool, your business needs to be found on Google in order to be well-known in digital world. To be found on the SEO (search engine optimization), it is essential to think about more devices/ means accessing to your website. Your website needs clear names (title, headlines...), data content, URL structure, links to other websites...

So, final point, what do you think about digital humanism? What impacts will affect the human resource in digital business? There are two ideas about that I want to share:

Number 1: They have to be familiar and quick-adapted to the high tech and its development. Requirement skills may changed, focusing on computer skills...

Number 2: They may not be too hard-working but they need to know how to finish task smartly.


All in all, these writing above are what I gained after the course. Without any exam, they go into mind and stay there lively. I also hope that this blog post can somehow makes you, readers have general ideas about Digital business model. Last words, I want to say thank you with two of my teachers Anna and Iikka for this beneficial and interesting project.