He also didn't get (doesn't approve of) twitter or facebook until I explained how said small artisan business could build up a great follower, customer or advocate base by using both intelligently and with integrity. Of which he approved. By the time the coffees arrived I had a social media convert :-)
So, here is a link to the blog post and the wider site - enjoy the read!
http://www.brassagency.com/blog/digital-marketing/radar-on-digital-marketing
image via flickr under CC : http://www.flickr.com/photos/frants/
PODCASTS:
I've got a lot of commute time but as I drive I can't read (book, phone, laptop etc) or stare out the window (that would be just plain dangerous). But I can quell some of that it's-all-moving-really-fast-must-keep-up feeling everyone in marketing surely has with new tech / media / platform announcements coming out on a daily basis.
So I listen to podcasts.
Here are my current listens, all digital marketing related and hopefully helpful to you, if you don't know some of them already?
I listen to these for a mix of pure geek, entertaining, business-focussed and international perspective reasons.
And if you have some you would like to recommend - PLEASE let me know! cheers
Diggnation
BBC Digital planet
FT digital business
SiteVisibility : Internet Marketing
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http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2010/06/24/14429-do-agencies-still-need-suits-join-the-debate/
There will be lots of reasons for and against given - and whatever your start or end position , questioning received wisdom is always a good thing.
My view is Yes, course they bloody do. For lots of reasons, unless you are a micro business (freelance or couple of folk specialising in a niche area of creative services). Or are a team of creative / coders / writers who also like to do all thier own business development, proposal writing, assett chasing, amends confirming, budget planning, strategy writing, cross-media architecture, client retention etc each and every evening after a day of concepting or creating stuff.
And yes I know the difference between PMing and 'Suits" but both are necessary if you want to service a client above and beyond the freelance/ micro team reactive level. Let the creative / tech experts I've always loved working with get on with being just that.
And at the end of last week the NMA also navel gazed with the question (I'm paraphrasing) "do brands really have to do social media?". The implication being its all a bit of emperor's new clothes that they are being bullied into admiring or trying on.
Have a read yourself and see what you think.
My view is that specific platforms / services may rise and fall (e.g. 2nd life, as the article cites) but the social / connected world (that’s going to be all of us, The World, not a niche audience) is not going back in the box.
If you / your brand are not at least considering the optimal way to use social media then others will step around you and engage instead.
e.g. its not viable to stick to 50 more years of shouting from the sidelines. Okay I'm generalising about broadcast, print media to make a point. I respect broadcast media, DM, SP , PR .. - all part 'of the mix'.
As is social media, which incorporates / is them all.
And those clients who do engage in this 'new fangled wizardry' and with the most thought-through / authentic / honest / engaging / adaptive approach etc will last longer and do better.
And in a constantly evolving space it’s going to be an ongoing journey.. test and learn etc..
but you can’t put it down as a ‘fad’ or cite some technology blind alleys as a reason to not engage, at all.
FFS.
photo under Creative Commons from fishbwl:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishbwl/2952036795/
Or ignore the growing case studies of success that are cropping up in the public (connected) domain.
Actually, you only have to look at the NMA / ReputationOnline portal to see some case studies re social media success from the recent Cannes International advertising awards.
here's some of my hastily snapped shots from the day.
More will be added by others here on flickr
Ally Manock, also one of the judges has write up and a nice slideshow on her blog here:
http://www.digital-diva.co.uk/post/711490014/sh-awards-judging
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Here are my current 'what's exciting' developments, in no particular order:
1. "Watson, you have control" could just be four very prophetic words for the near future.
Watson is an natural language querying system / artificial intelligence engine created by IBM.
It was recently pitted against humans in the USA Jeopardy! game show. And did really really well.
And then (it's still a baby in AI terms so is learning) also really badly. No doubt that will change soon and the implications for HCI and Search technology will be massive.
Watson challenge here (or embedded below):
2. Another fast developing area of Human Computer Interaction is that of interface control. Goodbye Mouse, Hello Hands.
Here's a talk John Underkoffler did at TED earlier this year - now input devices are ... us.
No need for a physical mediating mouse or keyboard. And no need for a touch screen in the future (depending on the environment / context).
And here's gesture interface at play with the Microsoft Kinect technology and XBox 360 :
3. Augmented Reality
I haven't caught up with what's new with AR in the last few weeks but I did spot this , what looks to be a useful application for Wimbledon.
I also heard that there's an AR app for Glastonbury, though not sure you want to spinning your iphone around in the mud / squashed by thousands of others / stoned out your box / drunk on cider ... ;-)
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/06/imb_seer_the_wimbledon_app.html
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Forced Viral doesn't sit well with me personally (I'd prefer to edit / write my one tweet to share it) but this ebook / paperback (your choice) has some great insight and is a good 101 for some , a refresher for others and definitely a conversation piece for all.
After my initial, is-this-a-spoof? suspicion, I got some good things from it and I liked the style
my reaction is in the stylee of the book :-)
Get the 'awesomness' from the guys here:
Oh My God What Happened ..
and the Engage book is at:
Enagage
Coca-Cola UK recently announced that they are going to put more budget in supporting those spaces where consumers are and less into their own web properties (property says it all, e.g. owned versus social spaces)..
Albeit still supporting and refreshing (excuse the pun) www.coca-cola.co.uk.
And Pepsi turn business angel to get ahead of Coke in a social media space race by announcing that they are looking for the next big social tech platform.
They are working with Mashable, some of their agency partners and Venture Capital firm Highland Partners to discern and then nurture the most promising tech start-ups.
As they say on the site: “PepsiCo10 is a unique opportunity to accelerate your business—to share your ideas and solutions with some of the best brand marketers and media consultants in the business and venture capitalists and angel investors keen to support the next big idea in media, communications and technology.”
They launched the initiative at http://internetweekny.com/
I think Coke’s approach is spot on but this kind of gets Pepsi ahead of the curve with Coke, in that they should be in prime position to highlight and then influence (and earn from?) the next killer service before Coke then start to use it.
In the meantime, Kellogg’s (UK) swim in the opposite direction and say that they don’t (yet) feel social media is the right space for them: http://www.wallblog.co.uk/2010/06/11/fmcg-brands-not-even-sure-they-should-be-in-social-media/
I think though, that that’s a comment on the advice / strategic proposals they have (or haven’t) had to date from their agency’s? I’m not casting any kind of aspersions here by the way – it’s a concern for us all when a big brand says it doesn’t feel agencies are explaining what digital is about or how best to use it.
Re: Kelloggs specifically though - I remember reading (I’ll go and validate this) that Special-K had successful social media activity in the USA?
And Quaker Oats (a PepsiCo brand) used social media for its 'go human go' campaign last year.
What I don't have are any stats to see how successful these were.. memo to me: get stats.
thanks to Ally Manock for the nod on the coca-cola story
]]>Its a straightforward service to use - you can use your flavors.me page as a hub to connect to about a dozen or more online accounts you may have : facebook, flickr, twitter ... also RSS for any blogs you write.
It doesn't cost anything for the base options - after that it's $20 annually. Which I went for, as I think this could be a useful thing. I may use it for signature sign offs on my personal email and also for some new MOO cards..
I've got a Google profile but this is a lot slicker and nicer looking and feels more hub like.
Dreadful name though, imho.
Incidentally, I chose not to add my facebook feed as for me that's definitely more of a 'closed' space.
The Kno is a dual screen tablet aimed at the student market.
My first reaction was that it looks a bit cumbersome - but thinking about it a bit more it could actually be a go-er.
That's because the Kno, although heavier than (say) an ipad, is still a lot lighter than 2 or 3 (or more?) big textbooks plus the netbook that a student will lug around during their academic career.
And it tries to mimic 'real life' in that the double page spread is a natural way to read text books.
Being web enabled enriches the learning experience also.
It also has lots of note taking / memo / browsing functionaly built in, to make academic books dynamic 'live' things.
To balance that though - coming out relatively 'late' on the back of the huge amount of spend on getting the ipad and other mono-screen devices into market, is not the best of timing for these guys.
Students may not see the high price tag (much higher than netbooks or even the ipad) as a good trade-off for the conveience of shedding paper books.
But In terms of understanding the market / mindset of the student audience, the founders of the business Osman Rashid and Babur Habib are well placed , they have experience on the textbook content arena : I think I'm right in saying they setup the textbook rental business chegg.com.
shameless plug disclaimer : If the guys at Kno read this and want to send over a sample from the States .. I have kids old enough to make use of it as beta testers ;-)
Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.
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