Featured2 - The Social Media Professor

Elon Musk Flips the Twitter Coin

November 16, 2022 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Trying to make sense of all that is going on at Twitter under Elon Musk, Abby Little of Chapman University’s The Panther Podcast reached out to me for an interview. Thanks Abby for the conversation in which we discuss Twitter use cases, its business model moving from a reliance on advertising toward subscriptions such as Twitter Blue or Fintech transaction fees, Elon Musk’s innovation process, impersonations and trolling, content moderation, and the future of the platform. Spoiler alert, Elon Musk will either turn out to be the best or the worst thing to ever happen to Twitter!

During the first few weeks under the ownership of Elon Musk, Twitter has been a constant in the news in spite of the midterm elections, war in Ukraine, and other world events. Mr Musk himself continues to communicate via the platform that he so clearly enjoys and in spite of his super-user status, he doesn’t show any intentions of holding back the punches. By contrast, he goes after senators as well as his own employees in a non-apologetic and confrontational manner.

News are also leaking out from frustrated employees who share any email that is sent by Mr Musk as well as audio recordings of what he says at all-hands meetings. Most recently, he has demanded employees commit to working “extremely hardcore” meaning “long hours at high intensity”

At least the continued Twitter journey is unlikely to be uneventful. Also, in spite of all the negative news surrounding the “honeymoon” phase of Musk’s Twitter reign, it would be premature to discount the possibility that he eventually could turn this platform into something quite powerful. Yet, it could also crash and burn and turn into a case study of could-have-beens, should-have-beens. A coin flip indeed.

Again, take a listen to the podcast interview in which I address:

Twitter use cases
Twitter’s advertising business and alternative business models
Elon Musk’s innovation process
Impersonations and trolling
Twitter Content moderation
The layoffs at Twitter
The Twitter Blue subscription plan

The Core Premise of BeReal

August 5, 2022 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

The premise of countering the stylized, staged, manicured, perfectionist, big-time influencer post is sustainable, but the idea of taking a photo in a random two-minute time slot could get old.
Niklas Myhr quote on BeReal in Time, August 4, 2022

The explosive growth of emerging social media platform BeReal has naturally caught media's attention as it tries to understand what the fuzz is all about. In this regard, The Wall Street Journal and Time have reached out to The Social Media Professor for interviews about the essence of BeReal. Our discussions have primarily dealt with three issues:

What makes BeReal special?
What makes people leave other platforms?
Is BeReal here to stay?

What makes BeReal special?

Gen Z (or Generation Z representing the cohort born between 1997 and 2012) is the age demographic that has most enthusiastically adopted BeReal. What seems to attract these young users is that BeReal offers a low-pressure environment where it is okay to share rather mundane pictures of what you are up to at a random time each day, even if nothing exciting is happening in your life at that time.

Creative constraints

BeReal chose to include some constraints in the creation process, which has leveled the playing field between casual users and full-time creators. Creators are limited to sharing only one snapshot a day, using both the front and the back camera to capture more of your surroundings. Also, unless you want your post to be flagged as being “late”, you need to share your photo during a specific and randomly assigned 2-minute period.

Having our Goldendoodle Simona nearby provides for good BeReal postings

With this time constraint, BeReal effectively reduces the time creators have at their disposal to set up, take, and share a photo. Users can also not simply upload old photos from their phone as this would defeat the purpose of BeReal which is to capture what is going on at a very specific time.

Other limitations include the lack of editing options, so creators cannot work on filters to create the “perfect” image. This lack of filtering options harkens back to 2013, when the #nofilter hashtag started trending on Instagram as a reaction to the overuse of filters. Even if filters are still available on Instagram, this was perhaps a precursor of apps like BeReal, which speaks to the preference of many users who find it refreshing to share and see pictures in their raw, authentic, and original forms.

Forced participation

One noteworthy aspect of BeReal is that it forces you to share an update yourself before you can see anything of what is going on with others. This ensures that everyone on the platform participates in contrast to other platforms on which many users have become passive observers of what others share.

What makes people leave other platforms?

Is the growth of BeReal connected to the growing dissatisfaction users report on other platforms such as Meta's Facebook and Instagram? Instagram, in particular, has been in the spotlight recently as they have introduced changes to mimic the increasingly dominant TikTok, such as by featuring more video content via so-called Reels and by introducing recommended content by people you are not connected with.

While the simultaneous growth of BeReal could be coincidental, the timing is curious and speaks in favor of this being the perfect storm when a platform like BeReal becomes a refreshing alternative where users, at least for a moment, can stay connected with their friends in a more authentic manner.

Attacking some trees at the summer cabin

Even before the TikTok-inspired changes with Reels, Instagram was beginning to face issues of content feeds being overly saturated with content by professional influencers and ads. Many regular users have become more hesitant to share updates of themselves, self-disqualifying their lives and photos as not sufficiently interesting or good-looking.

As more users become passive lurkers rather than active participants, the user experience on Instagram has become more similar to watching Netflix on your sofa. And by watching an Instagram feed where others present picture-perfect lives, the experience has not always been a happy one. For example, even Instagram's own research show that female teen depression on Instagram is real.

Still, it is essential to remember that people flocking to BeReal for a few minutes each day doesn't necessarily mean they abandon other stalwarts in the business as my Gen Z daughter Selma pointed out. Rather, at least for the time being, BeReal represents a complement to existing offerings rather than as a replacement.

Is BeReal here to stay?

On the island of Utö in the Stockholm Archipelago

The Business Model of BeReal

What business model can make BeReal sustainable from a business perspective? With increasing investments in the platform, that question will likely become more acute as months go by. Still, the most viable options for monetization are not likely to be implemented in the near future:

Allowing for advertisements would be risky as many users likely fled to BeReal as other platforms had too many ads whereas BeReal represents a more genuine, authentic experience. That being said, if BeReal would go for advertisements, the best approach would be for them to curate or steer advertising partners toward ads doubling down on “realness”. Less-than-perfect photos and illustrations of a behind-the-scenes nature can show people that companies are human too. Some brands have already begun experimenting with an organic presence on BeReal in the hopes that the authenticity shines through. Yet, this avenue is not necessarily novel as many brands have now done similar work for years trying to be authentic such as via Instagram Stories.
Charging a subscription fee doesn't sound realistic at this point as the feature set is too limited. Perhaps a subscription for power users could be on the horizon, but the idea of big-time influencers on the platform runs counter to the essence of what BeReal is all about.
Merchandising could be an option through which BeReal could capitalize on at least some of the traction it currently has, even if the risk is that users feel that BeReal would be selling out if they were to start selling t-shirts on being real.

Diversification is yet another option where BeReal could serve as a marketing vehicle to promote other products and services. The risk here would be if these offerings would be presented in such a way that these would become just as intrusive to the user experience as ads by other companies. But while they have the momentum, BeReal certainly has the opportunity to try a number of things. For example, I would not be surprised if they managed to host events, conferences, or meetups of “real people” around the world. Or they could host a concert with “real artists” performing unplugged in regular clothing with no makeup. Lady Gaga appearing as Real Gaga, wouldn't that be a thing?
Looking for mergers & acquisitions is another possibility, as partnering up with someone else or allowing yourself to be acquired could provide the desired combination of the ability to attract an audience with commercialization options. Perhaps Airbnb sees the potential fit of having BeReal help them further enhance its already impressive online community of “real people”?

Is BeReal a fad?

Regardless of the business model implications, another issue is whether BeReal is a fad or a platform that can sustain its momentum and continue its growth for the foreseeable future.

Though the number of downloads is a good measure of an app’s success, that data doesn’t predict whether the app has staying power
Niklas Myhr quoted in The Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2022

Whether authenticity online is attainable at scale or even desirable is debatable as other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have struggled in this regard. A decade ago, you would be hard-pressed to see a single presentation on social media not emphasizing the importance of being “authentic” (and yes, this includes presentations by the author of this article…).

Sharing the view from Chapman University's Faculty Atheneaum

Yet, the core premise of BeReal is that it is supposed to capture people's everyday lives in a more realistic, authentic manner. However, that doesn't necessarily have to be implemented via random, 2-minute windows during which you snap a photo. The novelty of this particular approach is likely to wear off sooner rather than later.

Still, there are other ways in which BeReal can capture the realness of people's lives. After all, it is not called RealPhotos, so obvious extensions to the current model would be to invite people to share real video, audio, or text snippets based on specific prompts. All would serve the purpose of getting the bulk of people sharing what they are up to right now.

Having experimented with BeReal myself, I can identify with the joy of getting that BeReal notification just at the time when you were up to something unusual or fun in some other way. Or, at least I have often been able to find our dog Simona as a go-to participant in my BeReals!

Still, BeReal is supposed to provide a more realistic view of someone's life in that it captures your average moment rather than just the highlight of your day. One can only hope that apps like BeReal can inspire youth to lead more interesting lives in that it gets them outdoors, socializing with other people, finding scenic viewpoints, and engaging in more exciting activities.

Or, perhaps even better, apps like BeReal can make people feel better about themselves as they see that others are not always having the best times of their lives on an everyday basis. Nor are they looking fabulous every day. In this regard, BeReal deserves credit if the platform can serve as an important reminder that you don't necessarily have to look perfect every day. Instead, you can simply be yourself and that is fine enough.

My rock star brother David Myhr trying to look like a regular guy

But given that BeReal is beginning to spread to older age brackets, the risk is that many users will find themselves at the very same spot such as at a desk at work during most of the BeReal's random notification times. Pictures over time may become very similar to yesterday's post.

It could also be less than ideal to get a 2-minute countdown notification during inopportune times while you drive, sit in class, or are busy at work. Myself, I had the notification alert go off while proctoring my students' final exam. It quickly became obvious that many of my students recognized BeReal's distinctive notification sound as they smiled at me.

Quoted in The Wall Street Journal on Twitter’s Edit Button

April 7, 2022 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Twitter certainly got some attention this week after it became known that Elon Musk with a 9.2% stake now is the platform's largest shareholder. He also launched a Twitter Poll asking whether an edit button should be made available on Twitter just like on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The proponents of an edit button won out with an overwhelming 75% to 25% margin and Twitter quickly made it clear both that the idea wasn't new, far from it, but also that they are in the development of a edit button for subscribers of Twitter's Blue plan.

In the early days of Twitter, it made sense that Twitter didn’t allow for an edit button given that tweets for most were seen as rather ephemeral in nature as they were fleeting by as short snippets in their never-ending timelines. Technically, the tweets would still be up on the profiles of users if you sought them out but the thinking was that if they needed to edit short statements, they might as well delete it and post a new tweet.

Today, a stronger case can be made for an edit button. First, tweets can now be longer, 280 vs 140 characters previously, and many users also post longer stories by replying to their own tweets so users and get a series of statements from you in one fell swoop by browsing through a thread of tweets. Second, the algorithmic feed used today means that some tweets will surface at the top of your feed as you log in regardless of whether it was the most recent tweet or not.

The algorithmic rankings are at least partially based on the engagement that a tweet gets. Therefore, users who have gained a lot of attention, retweets, and interesting comments on a tweet are reluctant to delete the whole shebang for only a minor edit. The concern that likely has held Twitter back from the addition of an edit button is that some people may fundamentally change the nature of the message contained in a tweet and this is the aspect that Dalvin Brown of The Wall Street Journal highlighted with my quote:

Quote in The Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2022

As the article points out, that concern has at least partially been addressed by platforms such as Facebook by including a label on a tweet making it clear that it has been edited. Facebook has faced related challenges in the past such as when a Facebook Group gathered thousands of members say for a noble charitable cause as people could wake up the next day only to learn that they now were members of a controversial hate group after a group administrator changed the name of the group. Same thing with Facebook Events. Now, you are able to make tweaks to an event you create but primarily in the early stages before you get too much traction.

Regardless of your take on the edit button, all the attention on Twitter seems to have had an immediate positive impact not only on the stock price but also on the publics interest in actually using the platform more. I think I will give it another shot to be more active there. Perhaps I'll even try to get my Chapman University students excited about Twitter and see if magic happens, so see you there where I can be found at @NiklasMyhr!

In Memoriam: Dr. Clas Wihlborg

March 16, 2021 by Niklas Myhr 16 Comments

I hate to share the sad news that my dear friend and Chapman University colleague Clas Wihlborg recently passed away in a heart attack during a walk, 73 years young. Clas was predeceased by his daughter Emma who died at the age of 21 in 2011 and leaves behind his wife of 41 years Lavinia (Lee) Wohlfert of Laguna Niguel, California, and three sisters with families in Sweden. A devastating loss also for our family, Chapman colleagues, former students, research collaborators, and a large international network of friends inside and outside of academia.

I just spoke with Lee who obviously is shaken and heartbroken as they still had many plans for the future such as finally making it to Yosemite. She welcomed that I share this update as she would only be comforted if people honored Clas for the great man that he was. If you have a favorite memory of Clas, big or small, feel free to share that in the comments below or in a private message to me or to Rita in the Dean’s office as we will compile all recollections from various sources to share with Lee in some form.

Clas was still energetic and excited last week when he drove by to personally deliver the two hair gels I had asked him to buy at H&M in Malmö, Sweden. That is the way he was, always happy to help out whether it be driving Selma to the airport, proctor an exam for me, empty my mailbox, etc, etc.

He was frustrated that our MBA Travel Course “Business in Scandinavia” that we co-founded in 2010 understandably now had to be canceled for the second summer in a row due to Covid but we looked forward to many future adventures together. Thanks to Clas’s network, we were able to set up meetings with very senior executives of all the Scandinavian central banks, many large corporations, academic institutions, etc.

Clas didn’t worry too much about things but rather kept his inner child alive to enjoy the moment and was never far away from a good laughter. During our travels, a highlight every summer was when Clas delivered an inimitable rendition of Jimi Hendrix’ “Purple Haze” in a live karaoke session at Restaurant Noel’s in Stockholm accompanied by my brother David Myhr. Students’ jaws would also drop when they learned all the things Clas had experienced such as seeing all the celebs at Studio 54 during its hey day in NYC while accompanying Lee who then wrote for People Magazine. Or that he bumped into Cassius Clay (later known as Mohammad Ali) in a restaurant in London in the 1960’s!

At Mikkeler Brewery in Copenhagen with Business in Scandinavia 2019

Clas Wihlborg and David Myhr — Clas Wihlborg singing with David Myhr

I conclude with a brief bio of Clas: Clas Wihlborg joined the Argyros School faculty in 2008 and held Fletcher Jones Chair in International Business. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics at Princeton University and has been a prolific author in International Finance, Institutions, and Law and Economics. He has held faculty positions in Finance and International Business at New York University, University of Southern California, Göteborg University in Sweden, University West in Sweden (Högskolan Väst), and the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark, where he was Director for the Center for Law, Economics and Financial Institutions (LEFIC). Clas served on the European Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University in Sweden. At the Argyros School, Clas founded the Chapman Conference on Money and Finance and co-founded and organized for several years the MBA Travel Course Business in Scandinavia.

Thank you Clas for all the good memories, we will miss you dearly, and say hi to Emma!

Sincerely / Niklas

Professor Clas Wihlborg and Niklas Myhr, Chapman University — One of many Scandinavia travel course planning sessions at Starbucks on Chapman's campus

At Russian restaurant Saslik in Helsinki with Business in Scandinavia 2016

Performance Marketing and Google Tag Manager with Jon Rognerud

April 11, 2019 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Jon Rognerud, Chapman University, Niklas Myhr, Performance Marketing — With Jon Rognerud on the Attallah Piazza at Chapman University

Students in my Digital Marketing class got a great opportunity to learn about performance marketing with Google Tag Manager when Jon Rognerud, Founder and CEO of Chaosmap.com came to Chapman University for an engaging guest lecture.

Jon is a fellow Scandinavian who left his homeland of Norway to make it in the US as a musician. While he still plays jazz, Jon Rognerud turned to technology to make a living. He got into software and web development at online giants such as Yahoo! and eventually branched out on his own entrepreneurial journey.

Work on Copywriting before setting up your Digital Marketing

Jon Rognerud founded Chaosmap.com when he discovered that many businesses don't have their digital backends set up appropriately. Worse, he often finds that businesses don't even know what message they have, what market they are serving, and what offer they are going to present. Absent clarity in these areas, no technology solution can save you.

To work on your messaging, Jon Rognerud told my students to go back and read the direct marketing classic Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz to learn some fundamentals of great copywriting.

While Breakthrough Advertising was published the same year as The Beatles came out with its Revolver album (1966), Jon argues that its principles are still highly relevant in today's digital era and can help you set up your online presence in a more effective manner.

Content Marketing to Build Audiences

The main problem Jon sees is that businesses prematurely rush to generate traffic to online sales pages when they instead could be directing traffic to valuable, educational resources to more patiently build trust and nurture their prospects.

ABA = Always Build Audiences!
– Jon Rognerud

In this regard, Jon Rognerud has also been inspired by thought leaders in content marketing and he referenced another former guest speaker in my class, Mr. Robert Rose, Chief Strategy Adviser of the Content Marketing Institute.

The key is to not hard sell to an unwilling audience but rather to provide a good customer experience by offering content people want when they want it in the format they want it.

Jon Rognerud shared some inspirational tips on how to consistently create content and before class, I set him up in a library study room so he could create his daily podcast episode that was simulcast live out on Facebook and YouTube. Subscribe to his podcast here or check out the YouTube version of his Chapman episode below:

Clear Your Digital Chaos with Google Tag Manager

When Jon Rognerud audits the backend of clients' websites, he often encounters a jumbled mess of different code snippets from a large number of applications analyzing various aspects of online performance. This can slow down your website due to the high number of different scripts that needs to run every time someone enters your website.

Each individual tool also offers only a very limited view of overall performance of your online presence. Furthermore, this type of setup is often cumbersome to maintain and risk having scripts that are losing connection when you update your website, etc.

In 2012, Google came out with a solution to this problem in the form of Google Tag Manager and Jon Rognerud finds it surprising that most businesses he encounters are not using it yet. To him, it is simply a no-brainer as Google Tag Manager provides a one-stop shopping solution for measuring and analyzing your digital marketing performance.

Simply put, you can input the identifiers and scripts from a number of different applications into Google Tag Manager and then keep them all up to date inside one interface. Examples of scripts that Jon highlighted that could be unified into Google Tag Manager include Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Email Marketing.

Jon Rognerud on his Chapman Experience

Before leaving the Chapman campus, I thanked Jon Rognerud and asked him to summarize what he had been sharing with my Digital Marketing students. Here is what he had to say:

Jon Rognerud on his Chapman University Experience

Keynote Speaker at Public Sector Digital Transformation Conference

October 13, 2017 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Anna Bellman Niklas Myhr — Stage Selfie with Anna Bellman, Master of Ceremony

Got the opportunity to serve as a keynote speaker in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 700 public sector executives at a major digital transformation conference (eFörvaltningsdagarna & Publikom) at Stockholm International Fairs (Stockholmsmässan) in Sweden. I shared my perspectives on digital transformation with a specific focus on social media and digital communication strategies.

While I respect that many public sector executives are unlikely to jump all over the latest social media platforms and tactics, I was impressed by the curiosity shown both during my talk and in many subsequent discussions with attendees. Many of them also agreed with me that many of the same principles that apply to businesses also are relevant in the public sector such as the value of being faster than ever before with your communications such as in the following situations.

Social Media for Crisis Management

Niklas Myhr, #EFDagarna, #Publikom, Keynote speaker, digital transformation — Photo by Rikard Hällberg, Företags TV

A few years back, I worked with Orange County Government and their social media activities. One thing I remember one of their executives mention is that they strived to build a following on social media so that they would have established alternative modes of communications with the public before the big earthquake hits. That is, if you wait until a crisis situation to occur before you engage on social media, you may not have anyone finding your messages.

I also showcased the impressive efforts by various fire departments and other first responders in Orange County during the Canyon Fire 2 brushfire. Anaheim Fire & Rescue, for example, demonstrated their ability to use Twitter for continuous sharing of real-time updates with the latest news on mandatory evacuations, emergency shelters, where to bring your horses and other animals, as well as the status of their efforts to contain the fire itself.

Newsjacking and Fake News

Another reason why public sector executives may benefit from getting their updates out on various social networks in an expedient manner is that if they are not doing that, they will be more exposed to the threat by various fake news campaigns. For example, during the Las Vegas massacre, it didn't take long before fake news began appearing claiming that the event never actually occurred but was merely a conspiracy to force tougher laws on gun control. Therefore, it could be more important than before for public sector officials to get quickly get an official version of an emerging story out there to at least provide some counterbalance to various sources of fake news.

Focus on Customer Experience

Niklas Myhr, the social media professor, #efdagarna, #publikom — Photo by Patrik Koc Strömberg

Outside of crisis situations, more and more public sector executives are beginning to consider their citizenship as customers and are following the lead of the business world in trying to provide as much of a seamless customer experience as possible in dealing with various government institutions. I shared how I expect that my upcoming book The Social Customer Journey would be important in this regard. For example, the public sector would serve their citizens better by providing more options than before in terms of how you communicate with a government office. Also, that the institution is able to better serve what is needed, when it is needed, and not too much redundant information that isn't needed for the transaction in question.

Audience Interaction

One of the best parts of speaking at events is chatting with people afterwards to learn about their challenges and this conference was no exception. Se below for some people I met even including a nice testimonial by a happy attendee Lars-Erik Andersson, IT Director of Knivsta & Heby Municipalities:

Photo credits: Thanks for some of the pics by Patrik Koc Strömberg, Christina Nordström, and by Rikard Hällberg (Företags TV).

Isabella Ljungdahl och Niklas Myhr — With Isabella Ljungdahl of Hexanova Events

Niklas Myhr Helena Renström — Helena Renström from the City of Skellefteå

With Sune Lindström and Ola Lidström from City of Piteå

Niklas Myhr Anna Kelly Eva Sartorius — With Anna Kelly & Eva Sartorius

Swedish Tech Musketeer to Build Mega Battery Factory

May 17, 2017 by Niklas Myhr 1 Comment

Peter Carlsson, Helena Kristersson, Ingela Carlsson & Niklas Myhr

[Update: On June 12, 2019, Northvolt announced that they have raised the capital required to build “Europe's first homegrown gigafactories for lithium-ion batteries”!]

In the midst of final exam week, I enjoyed a brief visit to Silicon Valley to learn more about the exciting tech startup Northvolt from its CEO, Peter Carlsson, the proud dad of Chapman University student Amanda. The event was hosted by the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley/San Francisco and by Silicon Vikings in a beautiful office space generously shared by global supply chain specialists Elementum.

Peter Carlsson, with a past as the Chief Purchasing Officer at Tesla where he spent four years reporting directly to Elon Musk, shared the plans of Northvolt to build a mega-sized, lithium-ion battery factory to be located either in Sweden or Finland. He explained how such a factory would play an important role in our world's much-needed transformation from a reliance on fossil fuels to one in which we can live on and efficiently preserve green and renewable energy.

Electrification of society

Peter admitted that it may still be a couple of decades before we regularly commute 500 km via an electrically-powered, self-flying aircraft ordered via an Uber-like interface but technically, that would be quite doable already today, he argued! Complying with regulations, however, would be another matter that could take a long time to resolve.

One bright spot in the transformation to green energy sources is the mining industry in which companies are willing to pay two or three times the regular price to buy an electric excavator. What many people don't realize is that mining companies actually spend enormous amounts of resources transporting exhaust fumes out of the mines in order to create a safe working environment. By using electric excavators instead, they could simply focus on transporting whatever treasures that they are digging for instead.

A Vertically Integrated Supply Chain for Battery Production

Whereas many companies are outsourcing many of the things that they previously used to do themselves in order to focus on their core competencies, Northvolt is choosing a different direction. In their aim to build the largest European mega battery factory, they also want to secure the access to as many of the necessary raw materials as possible either with direct ownership or at least via strong European supplier partnerships. Peter Carlsson emphasized the benefits of operating in Europe and in Scandinavia in particular thanks to its relative political stability compared to many other places where mining is done.

The Location of the Battery Plant

In collaboration with Business Sweden, Northvolt is currently undergoing an extensive screening process in order to identify where the best location of its factory should be. They had hoped to have a list of twenty cities to consider. They got forty! Even now, Peter shared, new cities and even new countries are approaching him to try to be added to their consideration set. However, Northvolt recently declared that they had narrowed the number of possible locations to a short list of eight Swedish cities and two Finnish ones, all of which fulfilled a number of criteria.

In selecting the winner, factors they weigh include the access to reliable energy supply, industrial-zoned land availability, logistical concerns, access to a skilled workforce, university collaboration opportunities, and the degree to which the city could attract foreign expert engineers to move to and live in the area long-term with their families. The plan is to move quickly to get down to only two final candidates.

Why build only one mega factory?

Given that my hometown of Piteå is not on the shortlist, my unsolicited vote that I shared with Peter went to Luleå even if Skellefteå would be a close second. I am confident that either of these two great cities would deliver if they were to be selected and I even proposed to Peter to build two, not “just” one mega factory given that they predict that Europe's demand will be calling for seven such mega factories around year 2025. His response was that he didn't want to risk being accused of suffering from hubris given that the magnitude of this project is large enough as it is proposing the development of one mega factory which will require about 4 billion Euro in investment.

I wish Peter and Northvolt the best of luck and his family a nice transition in their move from Palo Alto to Stockholm. I am also very much looking forward to visiting their Stockholm headquarters this summer with my Chapman University MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia!

SACC-SF-SV team Lucas Eriksson, Tina Bragfeldt, Helena Kristersson, Marcus Oldby & Sofie Birkfeldt

Creative Digital Experiences from Cold, Curiosity and Courage

November 18, 2016 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Daniel Ilić, North Kingdom at Chapman University 1 — Daniel Ilić, North Kingdom

Always happy to see examples of a symbiosis between my old world of Sweden and my new world of California. Such was the case when I had the honor of hosting a representative of the fascinating digital creative agency success factory North Kingdom in my Internet/Social Media Marketing class at Chapman University. During an enlightening presentation, Daniel Ilić, who heads up the US operation and serves as the Executive Creative Director and Partner of North Kingdom, shone a light on what makes up their culture and explained how it helps them produce world-class digital content and experiences for top brands such as Disney, Google, Beats by Dre, Netflix, Lucasfilm, UFC, Toyota, Volvo, LG Electronics, McDonald's, and Lego. During Daniel's presentation, some themes of the North Kingdom culture emerged and they were very consistent with the picture painted by Daniel's predecessor in the US, Mr. Jakob Nylund, who helped prepare our Business in Scandinavia MBA travel group what a Scandinavian business culture is all about a couple of years ago.

A Frozen Land Breeds Remarkable Creativity

North Kingdom was founded in the city of Skellefteå in Västerbotten County up in northern Sweden. During the long, cold, and dark winters, not everyone could play for Skellefteå AIK, the team that has completely dominated Swedish elite hockey over the last decade. Nor could everyone achieve international pop success like legendary Skellefteå bands The Wannadies, This Perfect Day, or The Drowners (all contemporaries by the way of my brother David Myhr‘s band The Merrymakers). Left over were some childhood friends who bonded in the Skellefteå AIK youth soccer team before forming North Kingdom where they eventually found an outlet for their own form of creativity in helping international brands create unique digital experiences.

Just like my own hometown of Piteå in Norrbotten County an hour north, Skellefteå is part of what is now marketed as Swedish Lapland as creative entrepreneurs have turned ice cold winters from a liability to a treasure. You can achieve global awareness and attract international visitors with the icy offerings such as the ICEHOTEL, northern lights, dogsledding, igloo weekends, or with Japanese-style “Yukigassen” snowball fights. Even Facebook found that frozen is golden as they established its first major data center up in the city of Luleå partially thanks to the fact that the cold climate reduces the costs of cooling the data server halls. Now other international brands such as BMW Group has also found its way to “The Node Pole” at the Fortlax Data Center in Piteå founded by my friend Anders Berglund.

By still having the bulk of their operations based up in Skellefteå, North Kingdom, mainly serving international clients, always comes in as an outsider and thereby is in a better position to see things differently than people inside a bubble would. “A nomad's perspective is always different” as Daniel expressed it.

Daniel Ilić also stressed that the winter darkness gives you creative opportunities simply because the mere thought that a small company up in arctic Sweden could compete and do business with global brands is so absurd that it spurs people up there in the cold darkness to come up with some really crazy ideas and to experiment with studid things that sometimes turn out to be quite remarkable. And that, remarkability, is exactly what is in short supply in an age when being different is a requirement to catch the attention of people in an ocean of sameness. “Safe is risky,” and bad or even bizarre ideas are what you need to get your ideas to spread as Seth Godin emphasized in a TED Talk.

Cultural Traits of Curiosity and Courage

I specifically asked Daniel Ilić to share not only some digital communication insights and expertise but also to teach my students at least two words of Swedish. The two words he chose, “nyfikenhet” (curiosity) and “mod” (courage) turned out to perfectly capture the essence of the cultural traits that beyond the cold climate help explain why this small Swedish firm of North Kingdom has been able to acheive such astounding and award-winning success at the Cannes Lions Festival, etc.

Nobody gets hired by North Kingdom unless they can demonstrate an insatiable curiosity, i.e., they are motivated by their “nyfikenhet” constantly searching for new insights, inspiration, and knowledge and then people share what they have learned by teaching others. Teaching is highly valued and one of the founders, David Eriksson, is a former High School teacher.

Curiosity also helps North Kingdom learn from the customers with more intent by listening more carefully and trying to understand what their real issues are. Sometimes, this means speaking to the customers for hours on the phone mainly letting the client let off some steam about what is going on in their worlds.

When it comes to courage or “mod,” Daniel means that staff get emboldened by an extremely supportive team spirit that characterizes North Kingdom. People feel that they can stretch the envelope with out-of-the-box ideas as discussed above as they work collaboratively in teams getting instant feedback and where they constantly spur each other on. Gone are the days when creative agency work was done in siloed departments of single-area specialists and North Kingdom seems to have found the formula for team-based success.

Scandinavian Hours and Vacation

Finally, Daniel Ilić, explained how he worked hard to maintain a Swedish managerial style even as he heads up the US subsidiary. For example, if he finds someone working in the office at 6:30 pm, he kicks them out asking them what they are still doing there, that they should be going home and that he should join them on the way out! Similarly, the Swedish minimum vacations of five or six weeks are also “enforced” 🙂 In the end, healthy and happy employees are better and more creative employees. Which reminds me, I should go to bed now, so good night!

Social Content Marketing Talk and Master Class in Gothenburg

January 26, 2016 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr, Social Content Marketing keynote, KNTNT — Niklas Myhr keynote on Social Content Marketing at KNTNT

Enjoyed quite the whirlwind day yesterday when I paid a visit to Gothenburg on Sweden’s “left coast” and had a busy program together with my good friends and hospitable local hosts Pia and Thomas of KNTNT. Under the heading Social Content Marketing, I spoke to a full house of 180 attendees for a breakfast talk and then taught a full-day Content Marketing Master Class to a high-caliber group of marketing communications managers, consultants, and executives.

Digital Success Principles with Frida Boisen

I was also very pleased that we were able to bring in two intriguing guest appearances. Leading Swedish social media expert Frida Boisen shared perspectives on how content can catch fire on social media and she particularly stressed the importance of bringing in the emotional element of communication for people to care. This and more can be found in her best-selling book Digital Succé, check it out 🙂

Content Marketing Success with Mark W Schaefer

Mark Schaefer, Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Gothenburg, Niklas Myhr — Mark Schaefer guest in Content Marketing Master Class

In the afternoon Swedish time, international content marketing thought leader Mark W. Schaefer joined us for a virtual session from Knoxville, Tennessee, during which he shared the thesis he presents in his groundbreaking book The Content Code. He stressed the importance of nurturing your so-called Alpha Audience, the relatively few followers you have who are regularly sharing your content. In fact, Mark Schaefer suggests that may be doomed if you do not start worrying more about taking good care of these ambassadors as their trust and ambassadorship may be the most valuable asset you have as competition for attention will only get worse. He cited an estimate that by year 2020, the amount of content will go up another five times from today's already crowded web.

Social Media Marketing vs. Content Marketing

KNTNT Radio podcast, Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Niklas Myhr — KNTNT Radio podcast interview by Thomas Barregren and Pia Tegborg

It is not surprising that it is challenging to discuss the interrelationship between social media marketing and content marketing as both terms are relatively undefined and are also undergoing changes in terms of how they are understood over time. That being said, social media marketing encompasses communications across a wide variety of social networks and stresses the interactive nature of communications amongst a group of people whereas content marketing takes as its point of departure a piece of content that should fulfill a number of criteria such as adding value and driving profitable customer action, albeit indirectly. This is the definition of content marketing that I used in my presentation:

“Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

– Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketers becoming Professors

One aspect of content marketing that many struggle with is the extent to which they can talk about their own products and solutions in their content. While I am not going so far as saying that you are not allowed to mention your own product in your content marketing, the most effective content marketers seem to stay away from it to the largest extent possible. As a marketing professor, I have noted how content marketers are communicating and behaving more and more as professors these days as they are adding value to prospective and existing customers by teaching them ways to solve their problems irrespective of specific product purchases. It is best illustrated by the quote by Jon Ferrara of Nimble when he said:

If you teach people to fish, they’ll figure out you sell fishing poles.

– Jon Ferrara

During the day, I covered four areas in which social media marketing and content marketing are interdependent and discussed how each can benefit from the other:

Social Content Marketing

Listening on Social Media for Content Marketing Ideas. What are the questions they ask on social media? On what platforms do they search for information? What are their frustrations?
Connecting to an audience suitable to your business using relevant content. By offering content that is particularly valuable to your target market, you can both attract the right type of audience to connect with you and identify themselves such as giving you their email address at the same time as you may even repel the wrong type of audience that sees little interest in the content that you offer.
With recent Chapman University grad Filip Westlander, his girlfriend Josefine Berglund, and my cousin Per Ericson

Engaging. How can you get your followers to not only consume but also share your content on their social media platforms?
Creating. How can you motivate your followers to contribute their content for you to use on your platforms?

So, have you wondered about the relationship between social media marketing and content marketing? I am curious to learn about your thoughts and experiences so please let me know in the comments below!

Frida Boisen guest in Content Marketing Master Class, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — Frida Boisen's guest lecture during my Content Marketing Master Class

The Myhr Family, Piteå, Sweden, KNTNT, Niklas Myhr — The Myhr Family back in the Piteå days (me with blue pants)

With KNTNT team Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, Fabian Sörqvist — Thanks to the KNTNT team of Thomas Barregren, Pia Tegborg, and Fabian Sörqvist

4 Keys to Preparing a Successful Keynote Presentation

March 7, 2015 by Niklas Myhr Leave a Comment

Niklas Myhr The Social Media Professor Professional Speaker In recent years, I have been invited to speak on developments in social media and digital marketing in front of many audiences outside my regular classrooms. I very much enjoy these opportunities and it also forces me to stay up-to-date to be relevant out there in the “real world” which I believe benefits my regular students as well. By interacting with audiences not only during a talk but also before and after taking the stage, I develop new relationships and get a chance to learn from their experiences and insights in their industries and professions.

One of the keys to a successful keynote presentation is obviously how you prepare before the actual event and so far I have been fortunate to rate amongst the best speakers at various events and even as the best one out of 75 speakers at the Swedish Web Days in 2013. In this blog post, I will highlight a few pointers that have worked out for me:

Interview the organizers in depth. The first step is to schedule a session with the organizers to ask them about their agenda and their objectives with the event to ensure that your talk falls in line with the overall theme and their possible change agenda if it is a company-specific event. During this conversation you should also take the opportunity to ask as many questions as you can about the expected audience such as where they come from, what companies they work for, what headaches they have, how old they are, what they are likely familiar with related to your topic, etc. One of the easiest things which is yet appreciated is to customize your presentation to at least talk about the location or the company you're at, such as if you have any prior experiences with them. This can often be light-hearted and you can reference events such as when I went to Gothenburg to attend a David Bowie concert.
Learn about the industry and context of the audience on your own via contacts and online research. I have been exposed to a big variety of contexts as I have spoken for companies big and small, to for-profit companies, to non-profit organizations, to government agencies, to city governments, to executives, to marketing professionals, to small business owners, to Swedish moms, etc. While audiences share some characteristics across the board in terms of what they want out of a keynote presentation, they can also vary widely in some respects.
Learn about the other speakers. Another thing that you can do is to ask and inquire about the other speakers on the program to understand more than what is often publicly available on an event website. Then you can learn how your presentation fits in the overall scheme of things. You can check out the other speakers on YouTube, their blogs, books, etc., in order to ensure that you maximize the value that you provide in your part while building upon what the participants will learn from the others. You can also ask the organizers if they have seeded any particular talking points to the other speakers that may be different from the ones that you have been assigned.
Network with the other speakers. Potentially you could also reach out to the other speakers beforehand and express an interest in seeing them in connection with the event. You could simply network with them beforehand via social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Also, some organizers of big events invite speakers to informal dinners or get-togethers the night before the event and this is usually both enjoyable and a great opportunity to network with professional speakers that may help you land your next gig. Just remember to try to help them first 🙂 This can also make you relax a little bit because the next day when you get up on stage, you could have some new friends on your side that could have been more intimidating to have in the room had you not gotten a chance to speak with them beforehand.

Good luck with your own speaking and please let me know if you have any other tips!