The future of Social Media; how conversation and behaviour is changing

February 13, 2009 | 3 Comments

I was asked to give a talk on this at Use8’s recent conference on Social Media. I am not claiming to have all the answers as I don’t believe we ever will have, but a few of you have asked to see it so here you go. Most of my slides are just images, so if you view it through Slideshare, I have inserted notes so the presentation will make more sense.

The future of Social Media; how conversation and behaviour is changing
View more presentations from Jamie Coomber. (tags: socialmedia social)

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Conference, Social Interaction, Thought pieces, Youth 

Conversations, they are a changing

October 23, 2008 | 3 Comments

lastminutecom_new_branding_bigger

Let’s face it, those who have been on Twitter for over a year or so would have seen that it has changed dramatically.  I started to recognise this shift when I no longer felt I should openly voice my opinion on someones stupidity, or comment on the brand who will never in a million years actually care what I am saying about them.  I used to think of it as my club; a place where I felt safe and could play with my little community.  As the year has progressed I have found myself having to mind my p’s and q’s, something that I can barely muster the energy for on the annual trip to my see my parents (”Hi Dad”, I know you read this).

I’m not complaining about this shift but what’s changed?  Firstly, the advertising world have started to recognise that there are actually some pretty influential people here, and these people could be used to start talking about a new produce or service (”Hello, and thank you for acting like humans on Twitter”).  Secondly, the clever PR people have realised that this is a new medium where people can actually influence opinion and so, they have come to join the party (”chin chin, and could some of you please try to keep the self promotion down a bit, we’re trying to concentrate”).  Lastly though and by far my favourite of the changes, the brands themselves have joined in the party.  Now, some of them have embraced the experience like Lastminute.com, who after falling to initial criticism from the Twitter community for being faceless, admitted the service is being manned by people within their marketing department, and that personal profiles were being created as we speak.  Nice, I like your approach and haven’t you got some wonderful product development suggestions from the community?  From the best practice post you would have seen my distaste for the brands who have read about Twitter and have ploughed their way into the service before actually observing how the community use the service.  Anyone who observes Twitter, will see that it is built around community.  A community who shares, inspires and befriends one another based on similar industries or interests through 140 character conversations.  I would really like to see more brands take note of Lastminute’s approach and actually engage with their audience.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Community, Social Interaction, Thought pieces 

Social media best practice

October 1, 2008 | 6 Comments

twitter-brand

I have been tagged by Neil in the `Best practices in Social Media‘ meme (thanks Neil).  As Neil quite rightly points out, Social Media is not a channel but an approach.  A channel insinuates a one to one dialiogue which granted, many companies who enter the world of social media do try this approach.  Have a look at some brands Twitter profiles.  Notice how many have a lot of users following their updates but don’t actually follow user updates themselves?  This is a prime example of not understanding the game before joining in.  Don’t you rember trying to do that when you were at school?  The other kids didn’t want you to join in did they? Do you see where i’m going with this?  My best practice: Understand the medium before forcing your way in uninvited.

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Brand, Social Interaction, Thought pieces 

Spinvox saves my relationships

September 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment

spinvox

I hate voicemails in quite a strong way.  When I want to pick up a message it doesn’t always go through the first time so I have to hang up and redial.  When I do get through I have to listen to the woman with a plum in her mouth, talk about how many messages I have, which message she is going to hit me with first, and then when it was sent.  I am a product of the digital age, I am notorious for having a short attention span so it is unfair to expect me to answer every voicemail when this is the ritual I have to go through.  I had been seeing Mr James Whatley (Whatleydude) twittering about a company he works for called Spinvox and decided to see what he actually did for a living to justify being on Twitter more than I am (props BTW).  Spinvox takes your voicemail messages, turns them into text messages and delivers them directly to your phone as a text message.  Golden!  I tend to go to a lot of conferences and it’s so annoying when people leave voicemails during the day and are then put out when I don’t answer them immediately, so having them converted into text message that can easily be accessed if going to save a lot of my relationships.  I think one of the great things that Spinvox has done is to really focus on their brand by employing someone specifically to promote the service across various social media, establishing a relationship with those who are most likely to take up the service before it hits the mainstream.  Thanks James :)

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Mobile, Social Interaction, Technology 

When a brand just get’s it #2

September 2, 2008 | 6 Comments

fusions

Last week I wrote this post explaining how EA had monitored what was being said about them online (namely a video posted on YouTube) and answered it with an even more entertaining piece of content which was golden.  This stirred up some good feelings from you all about brands who actually listen to what is being said about them by us humble (dare I say it) consumers.  Yesterday I had another of those wonderful touchy, feely experiences that came from a blog post I wrote back in March called `Do brands feel my love?‘  I described how although I wouldn’t neccessarily buy Becks beer as i am not a big fan of the taste, I love the brand because of the Becks Fusions experiences they create therefore I love what the brand stands for.  I questioned if the love I feel for the brand, counted to them as a company even though I am not what they would class as a typical consumer.

Well, I can tell you that the answer is yes.  Yesterday Becks contacted me and said that they were searching the internet to see what people had been saying about the Fusions events they create.  (Firstly, brownie points for listening to what is being said).  They have invited me to their Fusions event this weekend to join them in the VIP area and the after party, as they do actually value me as a consumer.  Now Massive Attack are playing who are one of my favourite bands so naturally I am going to be thrilled a the prospect of seeing them, but a company taking the time to not only listen to what is being said about their brand, engage with their audience and then offer an experience that money can’t buy is bloody fantastic and is something that I harp on to all marketers when I talk to them about how to approach that myth that is `social media’.  I am heading to Manchester on Saturday to the event so I will update you on my time when I get back, but can we please start to see more brands listening to what consumers really think and invite them into a two-way conversation?

Posted by Jamie Coomber | Filed Under Blog, Brand, Events, Social Interaction 

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