Those of you with whom I've discussed social Web strategy, or even helped define and execute it, will know my analogy of the social Web with the social life of a typical city. For example, the Facebooks, MySpaces and Bebo's are the mega night clubs on the ring road. The blogs and small forums are the pubs and bars on the high street. The likes of Ning are the market stalls or local fair rides. The tweeting of Twitter is the chitter chatter in passing and over the garden fence.
And this isn't analogy for analogy's sake, this is a great way to orientate social Web newbies to the norms and expectations of social media, applications and services.
Take the example of participating for the first time in a Facebook group, or a business forum, or blog meme. Enough to make the most confident of net newbies hesitate. Yet no-one enters a room buzzing with people they don't know and starts gobbing off immediately before assessing the etiquette and the tone of the conversation, so why do that online? Social media newbies just need to look out for the analogous sort of things to which they are so naturally accustomed offline.
Offline - is drinking from the bottle acceptable? Online - is proper punctuation and spelling expected?
Offline - who's got gravitas, attracting people around them? Online - whose point of view is attracting the most comment, the most feedback and interaction?
Offline - how blunt or subtle does one need to be in getting your point over? Online - ditto.
Offline - what's the tipping policy? Online - to whom is it good form to show appreciation, and how do others do it?
Offline - how much time do you need to listen to the vibe before being able to contribute approriately? Online - ditto, listen!
This week's post from David Meerman Scott conveys the same kind of approach. To David, social media is a cocktail party. Now that's a lovely way to look at life.
Best regards, Philip and the Marcom Professional team.
IAB UK debate outcome says Mobile ‘provides value for money’
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
Unfortunately as I have been “ɹÇpun uÊop” all week (I have a raft of posts pending on the Australian market), I missed out on attending the IAB debate on mobile advertising held in London this week.
A review on the event from the IAB website is provided below. Looks like a great event - and further evidence that mobile should be on everyone’s integrated plans.
As analysts picked over the implications of Alistair Darling’s latest Budget, mobile marketers convened at the IAB offices last night to debate whether mobile offered a viable marketing solution in these troubled economic times. More...
What's Caught the PR Warrior's Eye This Week?
by Trevor Young PR Warrior of Parkyoung
Plenty of stuff for the PR Warrior to get excited about this week. Here's a snapshot: Twitter Forces PR Pros to Get to the Point (Journalistics Blog)Jeremy Porter explains the 'love-in' both journalists and PR people are having with Twitter.
The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines (Copyblogger)Still on Twitter, Brian Clark celebrates the "triumphant return of the short headline" and provides some handy hints in doing more with less.
Why All Corporate PR Droids Should be Shot (Stilgherrian)An enlightening blog post highlighting the scourge of corporate waffle-speak and why those who perpetrate it should be, errr, shot. More...
Value based remuneration for agencies
by Rebecca Caroe of Creative Agency Secrets
Image via Wikipedia
Well a major brand is rocking the over-the-line (OTL) boat - Coke 'suggests' that agencies get rewarded based on value . Traditionally, defining the value of an assignment has been the job of the agency, which tells its client how many people and how much time it'll need to accomplish a given project. Under its new model, Coke will determine the value of assignments based on a range of factors including the work's strategic importance, the talent involved and whether other agencies could duplicate the work — More...
Sky+ Owners Suddenly Feeling Less Smug
by Chris Applegate of Outside Line
News coming over from the US suggests that TV advertisers are beginning to fight back in their battle against the PVR, with Tivo announcing they’re selling “banner space” targeted at those people who fast-forward through the advertising breaks on their pre-recorded programs.
You might remember the tech community guffawing when CEO of Turner Broadcasting said “anytime you skip a commercial you’re actually stealing the programming” back in 2002, and it’s surprising it’s taken those involved so long to get their act together. More...
Thoughts on new media in the Dominican Republic
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
I've enjoyed an incredible four days in the Dominican Republic, learning a great deal about new media in this quickly developing economy.
In this blog post, I provide some ideas for government, politics and industry and some thoughts for the future based on my discussions with dozens of people.
On Thursday I spoke at FUNGLODE, an NGO think tank in Santo Domingo, to a packed house of business and government leaders, but it was the enthusiasm of the young people in the audience, especially marketing and PR students that made the event a pleasure. More...
Nine out of ten people won't use Twitter - exactly what you want
by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology
Twitter users are small fry as far as the internet is concerned. In spite of mega media coverage, 19 out of every 20 people still don't use Twitter. According to the latest figures collected by eMarketer, only around 3% of US internet users are Twitter users as well. Even with all the current hype and endless column inches about Twitter - it has passed most internet users by.
And the growth predictions don't look that good either. The past year has seen Twitter usage grow by an amazing 1,381% according to Nielsen. More...
Fijian bloggers plug gap left by censored media
by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications
Political upheaval in Fiji triggered by the repeal of the constitution has seen foreign journalists sent home and state censors placed in the editorial offices of all publishers.
The country’s media is not allowed to report news that is critical of the ruling regime. Publishers initially responded by publishing blank pages (image via Jachin Sheehy’s Flickr stream) until closure threats resulted in state reporting.
News led blogs such as Coup and a Half, Fijigirl, Fiji Uncensored, Intelligensiya and Tears for Fiji are currently the only way of sharing uncensored news and have taken the place of the media. More...
Twitter: Acquisition vs. Retention
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
Credit
Seems that even the shiniest applications on the Web also face the same growing pains as any product, no matter where it resides on the adoption bell curve.
While many widely speculated the total number of new users who were introduced to Twitter as a result of the now infamous race to 1,000,000 followers, we do know that the number seems to hover between 500,000 and 1.2 million. When compared to the estimated existing user base of ~5 million heading into the race, the final number represents a significant spike in visibility, trials, and subsequent adoption. More...
Book review: PR and the Social Web
by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications
Rob Brown’s (@robbrown) book PR and the Social Web is published tomorrow. We got hold of an early copy and have passed it around the office. Nick Bishop, who heads our corporate team, has posted a review on his blog. Here are the highlights. Rob Brown’s ‘Public relations and the Social Web’ is incredibly well-timed. It’s also incredibly well written. But it is a book for the converted or those willing to be converted and probably not for those uninterested in social media. More...
With mobile it’s personal - marketers must respect customer information
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
Here is a lesson in how not to use mobile as a channel. I just had an experience that proves to me that some companies still don’t get the personal nature of mobile, and the overarching need to ask PERMISSION to engage.
I won’t name the company concerned because they have removed my mobile number from their database and apologised, but the experience is worth sharing as a reminder to companies using mobile as a channel to think very carefully about how they handle private data supplied by customers. More...
The battle between the suits and the creatives is back on
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
I caught an interesting article in today’s Financial Times by John Gapper titled “Madison Avenue feels the squeeze“.
In the article, John looks at how the battle between the “suits” (account execs) and the creatives (the ones who craft the campaigns) seems to be back on.
Quoting from the article, John says
“Four decades later, the face-off between the people in suits – this time in media planning agencies – and the creatives is back again. Now, it is fuelled by recession rather than growth, and the internet rather than television – More...
Social media is a cocktail party
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
I'm fond of thinking of the Web as a city.
Seeing the Web as a city helps make sense of each aspect of online life and how we create and interact.
Corporate sites are the storefronts on main street peddling wares. Craigslist is like the bulletin board at the entrance of the corner store; Ebay, a garage sale; Amazon, a bookstore replete with patrons anxious to give you their two cents. Mainstream media sites like The New York Times online are the newspapers of the city. Chatrooms and forums are the pubs and salons of the online world. More...
