A bad day at Social Media’s Black Rock.

From the Facebook-ing (and, now, strangely silent) Spanish Train Driver, to Twitter declining to stand up against social bullying, to the Wikileaks soldier likely to spend the rest of his days behind bars, it’s been a bad July for our burgeoning social media channels. The reputation management teams must be working overtime!

Has The Pinterest Bubble Burst?

Now the hype has died down, are brands still making the most of Pinterest?

A few months back, the blogosphere was so tightly packed with tales of Pinterest, there wasn’t enough room to swing the proverbial cat. Since then, we’ve all had a little time to cool down and reflect, and we’re not so sure this pinning thing is going to pose a long-term threat to the big boys.

Granted, social networks are hardly elitist by nature. But the fact that Pinterest requires you to be invited 'unto its domain' is sure to partly undermine the inclusivity that we link to the ‘social brand’. Then again, does this approach make PInterest more exclusive and - dare we say - exotic, than its all-inclusive rivals? If so, how could this affect the way brands and readers interact?

Unlike on Facebook or Twitter, where bashing out a dose of semi-corporate goodness is quickly becoming an art form, we’re not sure there’s a good way to ‘Pin’ something well. A nice picture could just as easily go viral via the usual suspects than on Pinterest, so why the extra channel? And if it’s not nice enough, why bother pinning it?

Perhaps the best way for brands to use Pinterest is to simply get creative. Unbound by character limits, users are free to enjoy the glorious serendipity provided by Pinterest. Who knows which Pinboards you’ll stumble across? Peugeot have certainly raised the bar with their interactive jigsaw puzzle. So is there a case for “build it, and they will come”?

There are clearly pros and cons when it comes to Pinterest. They may not bring forth the revolutions like its predecessors have, and longevity could prove to be an issue. But for now, it seems to be where the highly engaged consumers are, so it may also need to be where the brands are.

Posted by Idealogy

Do you need Facebook or Twitter? pt.2

The You Tube Example

Understanding your Internet audience is one of the hardest things to do. While in the business world there is a lot of structure and business models that can work each and every time, in social media your work is always reflexive. This of course has some similarities with the principles of marketing and PR, but you’ll find there isn’t time to spend a month looking at figures, trying to work out how to improve your next mail out AND it means that traditional marketing techniques can fail!

It’s the here and now that dictates the break-neck speed in which you need to react, interact and direct your activities, as well as something more than a transparent offer.

Twitter – redefining ‘Social Kudos’

Twitter - the micro blogging tool that stormed the digital world all that time ago, and yes, in the digital world, years are like centuries, so it was an age ago…

I like Twitter. There are some seriously talented people on there and a wealth of information to be found, as long as you have the time to read it. If you’re not on Twitter then you’re missing out, especially if you have ‘niche hobbies’ or other passionate interests. It’s a useful personal interest tool but it is also a powerful business development mechanism - as long as it’s used in the right way! This brings me neatly to my topic: following vs. followers.

Don’t forget your birthday cakes you TWIT

Did you celebrate? Did you remember? Did you even know?

It was the 5th birthday of Social Networking game-changer Twitter this week, and I’ll bet you didn’t even have a party, did you?

Rude.

Truth be told, neither did we, it didn’t seem important enough really.

The importance of Self – or, why we need to keep social networking in perspective

Remember how we all used to value ‘me-time’? How we craved a long, leisurely soak in the bath, with the door locked and, for company, all we had were our personal concerns for the effects of Aloe Vera salts on our skin. Remember the last time you said, “Tonight, I’m going to catch up on my correspondence!”

Oh, how the pendulum has swung the other way. Social networking has become de rigueur – and if you are unsure what that means, just hook up to Wikipedia, the social encyclopaedia, where it says "necessary according to etiquette, common sense, protocol or fashion." In other words, if you’re not on, you’re out!

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Bebo, Blogger, Google Buzz, Linkedin, and Windows Messenger – the list is seemingly endless. The drain on our personal time and the gain to our self-importance knows no end. So, what do we do in the mornings, when we wake up and consider the potential for the new day? Do we go and brew a refreshing mug of mint tea and stare wistfully at the dawn, the miracle of each morning? Do we sit in the garden and make a list of the projects, the possibilities for the next stage of our personal journey?

No! We log on.

We measure our personal value by how many ‘friends’ have posted messages on our wall overnight. We bask in the glow of forgotten school friends emerging from the mists of time to request space in our unique white noise laden universe. And with every message, each reminder of our past glories, or invitation to name a friends new pet iguana, our regard for our personal reputation ramps up another notch. Again, with the benefit of Wikipedia’s ill regulated, knowledge for the masses platform, it’s easy to access the marker – Self Importance: Excessively high regard for one's own importance or station; conceit.

So there it is; the final word on the matter. Conceit. It’s all we have as a measure for our personally engineered self-image. An image framed by the number of friends we can claim, the amount of photographs that we are ‘tagged’ in, the number of secrets we have blatantly trumpeted to the best friend of our son’s third, and now ex-girlfriends’, family’s Latvian relative who recently spent 3 days in London having been diverted to Stanstead when a cheap flight to Riga was cancelled due to fog! How did they get my name? Who cares? We’re happy to share!

So, it’s time to get some perspective. Time to kick out against the cult of the individual. Time to rediscover all the things that time ‘spent on-line’ have consigned to the list of “if I’ve got time’ – like actually talking to people and rekindling relationships and taking in the joys of the setting sun rather than staring at a screen saver.

But let’s not over react – social networking does have a place. It’s great to have conversations with daughters who long ago moved overseas, so staying in touch tends to be expensive and intermittent. It’s good to keep in contact with people you might not want to spend an evening with, but happy to keep at arms length through the magic of the internet.

But is it really the indicator of our own self-engineered status. I suspect not. If you want to find out, switch off a few of your ‘must-have’ accounts. Several interesting things will happen. The sun will still shine. The birds will still sing. And people will still try to get in touch with you.

If they don’t, were they worthy of taking up a valuable part of your day in the first place?

Now, that’s self-importance!


Posted by Simon Dover