FridayNightListeners - April 2024

Friday, April 5: Feargal Sharkey - You Little Thief

Friday, April 12: Tom Astor - International Airport, Frankfurt am Main

Friday, April 19: Apache 207 - Roller

Friday, April 26: Blondie - Call Me

Dear #FridayNightListeners,

Welcome to the 5th Newsletter in 2024, featuring all the posts of the series in April. Two German songs that could perhaps not be more contrasting in terms of style - framed by two icons of the international music scene. It was once again varied, just as the weather in April was literally very moody.

By the way: You can still vote for your favourite on the poll!

Enjoy!

Friday, April 5:

This post was about content creation on LinkedIn respectively the fact that content is often more or less repeated, in no fewer cases copied from one another. Are people too lazy? Too less creative? But when it comes to content, there is another common mistake or lets say, a wrong approach. People think merely of their own posts, their own content. Whereby "wrong" is perhaps the wrong word, egocentric is maybe better. Or at least limited. Too many still think about what to post alone - and forget about comments. Comments are usually a much more effective tool - in combination with your own posts, the effect increases many times over.

There are several reasons for this: LinkedIn has an interest in users staying on the platform for as long as possible. And therefore also dwell in "discussions" or "conversations". Imagine if there were only posts without comments. It would be extremely boring. Therefore, a member with many comments is ranked higher. But apart from that, you can easily attract the attention of authors and other commentators. With your own post, you start from scratch to get attention. The important thing is that your comments should be valuable, introducing a new aspect to the discussion, providing a counterpoint or something similar. "Great read, thanks for sharing" does little for the author, commentator or community. I generally recommend to comment in a meaningful way on around 5 to 10 other posts for each of an own posts. You also should avoid "hi-jacking", although it is certainly permissible from time to time if it simply fits well and helps the understanding / topic. But be cautious: if it happens too often, it steals attention and people may say to you: You Little Thief.

Friday, April 12:

In 1984 - the year of the inauguration of Runway West, which for well-known reasons was not very festive - Frankfurt Airport recorded a passenger volume of around 19 million; air freight in tons amounted to around 770,000. The number of flight movements was just over 225,000. In 2023, almost 40 years later, passenger numbers have more than tripled (59 million), the factor for volume of cargo (1.9 million) is 2.5. The number of movements (i.e. take-offs and landings) is almost twice as high (430,000). The increase in passengers corresponded to growth of 21.3 percent compared to the previous year. Impressive, isn't it? But only apparently - because compared to the pre-crisis level from 2019 (70 million), the number of passengers was still 15.9 percent lower.

But the airport is preparing for future growth: The new Terminal 3, the size of 25 soccer pitches, is currently being built at the airport and will offer space for 25 million travelers, when fully expanded. The construction of the new terminal is divided into several construction phases. The first construction phase with the main terminal building started in 2015; the terminal is currently scheduled to open in 2026. Operator Fraport is investing around 4 billion euros in the ongoing expansion. This makes Terminal 3 the largest privately financed infrastructure project in Europe, as part of the International Airport, Frankfurt am Main.

Friday, April 19:

The most famous scooter brand in the world is without any doubt: Vespa by Piaggio. And no brand is able to activate so many riders: The Vespa World Days, the annual meeting of Vespa clubs from all over the world, took place at the end of April; on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the founding of Piaggio, in the city where the Vespa was born and where it has been manufactured continuously since 1946: Pontedera in the province of Pisa.

It was a record-breaking event, with an estimated number of more than 30,000 Vespisti attending, including around 20,000 scooters not only from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, as it is traditional, but also from far-flung countries: Australia, Hong Kong, Mexico, Argentina, the Philippines, the United States, Canada and Colombia. The huge scooter parade broke all records: more than 15,000 Vespa scooters started in Pontedera and wound their way around the Valdera hills, forming a 16 km long, colorful serpentine. The Vespa World Days 2025 will take place in the Spanish city of Gijón in Asturias. Perhaps the B196 will also be recognized abroad by then - then I could attend. By the way: Do you also ride a Roller?

Friday, April 26:

The post was about how procurement can also use social media for its own purposes. Of course, you could also say that it is pull marketing in the direction of suppliers - by communicating accordingly, you specifically attract the sellers to you. As a marketer, you tend to concentrate on brand and/or sales, but of course you also buy, be it agency services, software, advertising space, advertising material and much more.

But what exactly is procurement? Generally speaking: Procurement comprises the processes for acquiring goods and services that a company requires directly or indirectly to produce its services. A task that is usually carried out jointly with the respective specialist department and the procurement specialists - the larger the company, the more important procurement certainly becomes.

The procurement processes can be summarized under the process name "Source to Pay". This process can be divided into the two sub-processes "Source to Contract" (strategic procurement function) and "Procure to Pay" (operative purchasing). As you can see, it is more complex than it first appears, but its worth to optimise your processes; professional procurement can create many advantages for companies: Cost savings, quality improvements, efficiency gains, risk management, innovation, sustainability. Are you already using social media as a procurement department to say to vendors: "Call me"?

As always: Thank you for listening and engaging during April! The next #FridayNightListeners post is planned for Friday, April 17, 5pm (CEST) - stay tuned!

P.S.1 The #FridayNightListeners archive

P.S.2 The #FridayNightListeners Newsletter

P.S.3 The #FridayNightListeners playlist on spotify