blending the mix

Really good piece calling for an improved level of honesty when it comes to leaving comments on blogs.

Blog posts have always been susceptible to negative comments - a company with a blog should welcome and embrace them really but this article drives to the core of what is fundamentally wrong with many client’s understanding of social media.

The social media specialist is often mocked for claiming to have insight into social media tools and communities that rely on nothing more than common sense - and to some extent, this is true but as George points out, clients who decide, without counsel, to leave anonymous comments on blogs when criticised are only likely to open themselves up for further criticism.

Whether a client has a blog or not, whether they twitter or not is largely irrelevant. If you or your client are going to get involved by doing something as simple as leaving a comment on a blog,  be honest, say who you are and what your point of view is.

As I often say, you will often be credited with at least being there and listening.

Climate denial ‘astroturfers’ should stop hiding behind pseudonyms | Environment | guardian.co.uk

This is one of the most exciting events I have seen. I received this invitation to attend the Pepsi Brandhack. Main problem is I’m in the UK, the brandhack is in the US…shame.

The UK would benefit from something like this - and I don’t just mean because it will give a voice to some of the smaller agencies over here (who are bloody good at what the do but who perhaps don’t get considered alongside the big-boys), but because I think we have some of the most switched-on, creative people in the world here - and it would be a great opportunity to give these places a voice.

Something similar exists in Headbox a community where brands can solicit feedback (and ideas) from a variety fo members who meet that brand’s audience demographic (the 440ml can of Tango for example).

Made by Many, a fab digital/social media consultancy carried out a similar exercise for Amnesty International, getting the help of social media fan boys and girls to help shape their ideas.

As social technologies mature, we are clearly moving to a more collaborative way of working with customers.

Far removed from internal design and build, brands are clearly now looking to not only engage with their audiences but include them as part of the design process - thereby ensuring that what they deliver (and therefore the brand experience) remains consistent with the brand message and experience but also totally in line with what the customer expects of them.

Dell Ideastorm and My Starbucks Ideas are early-stage customer collaboration tools that still require the brand to deliver something at the end but this form of collaboration is still one way, not entirely two-way innovation - you send us an idea, we will do it.

The opportunities to embrace an entirely collaborative consumer experience are utterly immense. The potential for loyalty where the brand entwines itself with its customers for product development, marketing (should it ever be called that in this next phase!) and even HR (as BestBuy recently did last week!) put the customer truly at the heart of the business.

More to come on this one I think…

brandhack, the next web, social media, pepsi

please ignore (i know it won’t be difficult!)

So, a LITTLE later than expected (apologies to all involved!), I am please to announce that the winner of the ticket is Kate Matlock.

All entries were allocated a number (both on twitter and comments left here and a number was drawn at random – and Kate’s came out.

Kate, I’ll let the guys know to expect you and look forward to seeing you there. Kate, i’ll also drop you an email in a second too!

Cool stuff I was readingMay 29th toJune 30th:

• Where is Everyone? - Articles - Baekdal.com -
• Who wants to go to Travelling Geeks â�� FOR FREE? -      I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to this Sundayâ��s Travelling Geeks even on Sunday 5th July in London. My travel arrangements are
• The best use of Augmented Reality to date - A couple of weeks ago I posted about how good BMWâ��s new ads were with their inclusion of augmented reality to promote the new Z4. All well and good you might
• The Twitterverse visualised â�� pick your weapon - Iâ��ve been threatening to post something for a while now on the elements of a â��properâ�� Twitter strategy. Which, amongst the plethora of tools, should you
• My Pertuity entry - My entry to the Fuelmyblog Pertuity Direct Kindle competition

   I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to this Sunday’s Travelling Geeks even on Sunday 5th July in London. My travel arrangements are all falling in to place and then, the good folk at Firefly Comms (Mike in particular!) agreed to let me offer a FREE ticket on my blog. Ok, so at £20, the tickets aren’t exactly expensive, but free is free right?!

To enter the competition, all you need to do is:

1. Leave a comment in the comments below

OR

2. RT the competition on Twitter.

3. Be available to attend the event this Sunday, 5th July.

For those that haven’t heard of Travelling Geeks:

The mission of Travelling Geeks is to collaborate with technology innovators and influencers in various regions of the world, then share what we’ve learned through blogging, video, podcasts, social media tools and meet-ups.

Our hope is that we can inform, educate and connect on behalf of innovators who are changing the world with like-minded people on the planet. Trips are funded by sponsorships from corporations and governments.

The idea behind the UK trip is:

to spotlight innovative uses of new technologies in Great Britain, especially by little-known companies or in new initiatives, and how those innovations may improve people’s lives. Bloggers will explore how edge innovation and thought leadership in Great Britain compare with what’s taking place in Silicon Valley

Oh…and check out who the Travelling Geeks are:

• Robert Scoblw, @scobleizer
• Craig Newmark, @craignewmark
• Sarah Lacy, @sarahcuda
• Howard Reingold, @hrheingold
• Meghan Asha, @meghan
• JD Lasica, @jdlasica
• Tom Foremski, @tomforemski
• Sarah Austen, @pop17
• Susan Bratton, @susanbratton
• Jeff Saperstein, Creatingregionalwealth.com
• Renee Blodgett,  @MagicSauceMedia
• Jim "Call Me Sky" Schuyler, @jimsky7

Tjis is going to be a seriously well-attended event, but all you need to do is 1 or 2 above and I’ll announce the winner on Friday (your name will be on the door so you don’t need to worry about tickets etc.)

Good luck!

Here is a video of the Apple app wall filmed at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2009

It is a visualization of live downloads of the 20,000 most popular iPhone apps from the App Store.

Amazing stuff!

Chip Barm » Blog Archive » App Wall

Fab Idea. Tweet the hashtag #ukhols, your age, sex, the first half of your postcode and where you are going this year.

You should see your tweet appear on the map within a few minutes.
#ukhols Map

A spectacular clothing pass-along!

UNIQLO PARKA STYLE 1000 | TOKYO FASHION MAP

Barry Judge