Being Loic

Here is a fascinating video that demonstrates the two big problems with social media – time and complexity. Loic is demonstrating what it takes to be a social media citizen – and if being a social media citizen means being Loic – we can forget engagement with social media ever being a mass activity. This is because being Loic requires a lot of time and a lot of geekiness – and there is no way we can expect Average Citizen to do the things Loic does in the way he currently does them. Take a look.

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Four thoughts about Facebook

Number One: Facebook is not a social network – it is a facilitator of social networking, an important distinction.

Number Two: To understand Facebook best – and therefore how to use it – think about where it came from and what it was designed to do, its optimum state. Continue reading →

Social media: four simple things every organisation needs to do

Responding to the whole social media thing is not easy. On the one hand, it can seem can seem big and intimidating, demanding a whole re-think of the way an organisation communicates. Yet on the other, some of the easier or more accessible things that could be done, such as starting to put information on YouTube, creating a Facebook page or a blog just don’t seem to generate the interest or numbers that are going to shift the needle or start to compare with the effectiveness and reach of your current marketing and communications. Continue reading →

Conversation with Michael Skapinker

I came across this article by Michael Skapinker on FT.com the other day. I had actually heard about it on the day of its publication, but it had come up in a discussion at the London Social Media Club about relationships between PR and bloggers and it didn’t really register. However, as is the way in highly networked social media, it came back to me in a slightly different guise via Constantin Basturea’s useful del.icio.us PR Digest as a post from Melvin Yuan. Continue reading →

The three horsemen of social media

A while ago I was asked to write a thoughtpiece to go on the website of a new consulting company, atz communications, on what social media is and why it is important. The piece had to be limited to 450 words. Trying to condense such a big subject into 450 words was a refreshing challenge (here is the piece). However, over time, I have distilled it even further. I think it serves as a useful reminder of the underlying dynamics that make social media so revolutionary – even if, and when, we all grow tired of Facebook. Continue reading →

Links to previous posts

Here are the links to some of my stuff posted or published previously

  • The future isn’t what it used to be – a (rather lengthy) piece I have written that is an attempt to focus on the bigger picture of the world of social media. It does this by making ten semi-serious predictions of what the marketing and communications world could look like in five to ten years time.
  • A brand manager’s social media manifesto – something I submitted to Hugh Macleod’s Gaping Void blog as part of his campaign to collect manifestos. He posted it!
  • The future of advertising – a prediction that the agency world will break apart and re-form around specialists and aggregators
  • PR is dead – a build on the post about advertising – essentially a piece on the future of PR, but with a more controversial title
  • The Curve of Common Sense – some thoughts about mediation in social media
  • Clusters, worms and Facebook – a look at the future of social networks and content