one part truth, two parts mixer

I'mma let you finish

A lifetime ago, when #IPASocial was almost a trending topic, I spotted this comment by Crispin Heath's on Amelia's principle:

"One of the most interesting things I noted from the recent developers presentation of Google Wave was that they have built in functionality that allows you to start generating a response before the person you're communicating with has actually finished their reply.

This effectively replicates one of the least useful characteristics of human communication i.e. a speedy response rather than a considered one, that takes into account what has been communicated, not what you think is going to be communicated."

Reminded me of this quote that I really liked in Herd:

Just one of things that you never really thought about, but when someone points out creates a little spark.

Herds and wom

Since IPA Social, I've been thinking thinking a lot about how we are still trying to use social media to do broadcast marketing. Hell, I'll admit that I've (misguidedly) used the word 'advocate' in a presentation. Then I picked up Herd last night for the first time in weeks and realised that that Mark Earls had articulated what I was thinking about quite neatly:

More conversation

Will wrote a really good post last night about being anti-social (you can read it here). I've been thinking a lot about social media bandwagon recently, and whether sometimes we should be advising not to get on (despite shooting ourselves in the foot fees-wise). Anyway, back to Willsy (am I allowed to call you that?). It was a good post because it generated good comments, from which two points really struck me.

Firstly, Katy made a really good point about there being another way to be social, and something that is actually key for most to all companies/brands. That is listening, rather than talking. I quote: "A brand who listens to me is being a damn sight more social, because being social is about two-way exchange. Being social isn't about social media, it's about social behaviour".

You don't have to have a Twitter account (with 7 followers that all work in the marketing department), but you should be searching Twitter to see what people are saying about your brand.

Secondly, Michael Gross made the point that "I would be even more radical and say that a lot of the stuff that social media gurus suggest during those conferences can be actually dangerous for a lot of brands". This is particularly relevant in the luxury arena: "I don't want [luxury brands] to talk to me, they don't want to talk to me - that's part of the whole deal, that is what makes them extremely admirable, holy and unreachable".

Social is as social does

Repost from Run on Toast

The IPA Social discussion last night was a massive improvement on January's report launch, in which I seem to remember resorting to drawing funny faces in Jamie's Moleskine. Well done to the lovely Jamie, Katy, Mark, Neil and all the rest of the gang for starting the right kind of discussion about social media. If I came away with one thing yesterday it is that it is still uncharted territories and everyone is finding their feet, working out what works and learning from each other. Just as importantly, I have lots of ideas, questions and *cards* from interesting people.

What follows is a collection of thoughts, in no particular order, in the spirit of being part of the conversation:

Measurement
There was a lot of talk about justifying the value of social media, defining its ROI in order to keep clients happy and prove effectiveness. Amelia Torode spoke about work they are doing with the IAB to assess the importance of social activity on the Meerkat work, and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to seeing it if Amelia makes it public. On the subject of the Meerkat, Debbie and I were talking this morning about whether there is a way of measuring the impact of social media on the longevity of the campaign. You can't discount the role of TV in driving the massive numbers that VCCP have delivered for Compare The Market, but if it had been TV-only would it have had the same mileage?

Sitting it out
I rather foolishly nominated myself to host a conversation rather late in the day despite wanting to get involved in the conversation that Amelia was hosting. Bless Katy for joining me and a girl from the IPA (sorry, forgotten your name) in a discussion about whether there were brands that shouldn't get involved in social media. A couple of points:

• Some brands, e.g. Apple, don't use social media to no detriment (I know they are a very peculiar case study, but I'm just saying...)
• A lot of brands want to use social media for the sake of it, jumping on the bandwagon, what Katy called the 'e.g. Facebook' brief
• If there isn't a role for social media, there's no point doing it
• Are you a brand I actually want to speak to socially?
• You might be better off spending that money on improving customer service (lots of successful case studies of brands using social in this space)

Responsibility
We then swiftly went and joined Nick's conversation - I think the title was about which discipline was best placed to manage social. An interesting point was raised about whether responsibility for social should sit with the client or the agency. And actually, is the marketing department (a dept concerned with selling) the best placed to manage that relationship. Maybe customer service is a better bet?

Dirty words
Someone asked a question towards the end about whether 'campaign was such a bad thing?' (UPDATE: It was Nicola Davies - thanks Amelia!). She made the point that they are involving, participatory and rewarding, and actually sometimes you don't want an ongoing conversation with a brand, which I thought it was a good reality check.

Anyway, lots to think about. Disappointed that there wasn't more participation in the mexican wave, but looking forward to the forthcoming conversation and the next meeting.

P.S. Best quote: 'Fabergé eggs? I eat them for breakfast' - Aleksandr Orlov.

Free lunches

As you will know I was offered a free lunch on Pizza Express earlier this week. So was Anjali (who very kindly tagged me) but what interested me was that in her post she very nobly justified to her readers why she was taking the free meal, whereas I sort of insinuated that it was my divine right and was just up for the free meal.

Anyway, what interested me was that one of her reasons was that she liked the food. Which got me a-wondering, is there anyone I would actually turn down? Seeing as I haven't eaten high street fast food for over 10 years (apart from the occasional omlette and chips at Wimpy or veggie burger at Nando's) I wouldn't even consider courtship from McDonald's, Subway, Pizza Hut or Burger King, no matter how much they'd told me they'd changed. But who else?

Would I be comfortable promoting a brand like Primark, who have a dubious record regarding how their clothes are made. I actually do buy clothes from Primark (I can enlighten you with the reasons why next time we go for a pint), but I wouldn't be comfortable aligning myself with them publicly. What do you do if you're a brand that noone wants to stand next to?

Light lunches

In my past life as journalist I can't say that I was that much of a puff merchant, but freebies were quite a nice perk. Every now and then this blog gives me a taste of that. From a work point of view, it's always interesting to see what brands are prepared to put on the table. So, this month it's 'Leggera month' at Pizza Express. If you didn't know, these are those pizzas with a hole in the middle, around 500 calories, space for dessert.

So a couple of weeks ago I was invited to the Holborn restaurant to meet other bloggers and make my own pizza:

Sadly there was a bit of mix up and Jenny ended up with my Tabasco-covered pizza. I also learnt that making pizza is quite hard. They also introduced some new Leggera flavours, but they were all meat/fish so I couldn't have a go. But given by the state of the plates at the end, I take it they were tasty.

Interestingly, a couple of days before I went to Pizza Express I read a post by Willem which revealed that Pizza Express take a cut of staff tips that are given on card. The representatives from Pizza Express were quite happy to answer my questions, saying that unlike their competitors who top up wages with tips, they pay above minimum wage and only take the processing fee out of card tips. Apparently they have ridiculous retention rates for staff as well. But nevertheless, mental note: always tip in cash.

Anyway, as part of Leggera month I get to do a sort of free pizza meme thing. I can tag my dream bloggers table and  we all get to go for lunch for free. So... Amanda, 90sguy, Sam, Whatleydude, Charlie - who's free for lunch next week?

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

I only check into Facebook once a day to play a Scrabble move against Chicks, who works downstairs in production. However came across an app from New York Fries on Livre de visage today. It bought me some joy. Haven't had a chance to play the AR bit yet, but will do when I get home tonight.
These are fortunes of some of my friends as read by Gary Coleman in a cup of fries:
Charlie:

Jeremy:

Laura:

And some will probably end up being true, as in the case of Will:

Cheers Johnny for the link

Why I still love twitter

Things like this never fail to make me smile.

Facebook redeems itself

All is forgiven because you introduced English (Pirate) as a language.

For someone who takes International Talk Like a Pirate day quite seriously, thisis quite possibly the best thing that has happened.. today.

The future of publishing...

...is Rio Ferdinand. Only joking, but format-wise his magazine #5 is actually quite good. I'm sure that what he's doing is nothing new, but all the digital versions of magazines I've seen before have just been, well just that: a digital version of a magazine faithful to the 2D constraints of print. Wow, page turns are animated.

#5's actual pages animate, but more importantly it has embedded video and audio. A major problem that the culture magazine sector is facing is why would you want to read about something when you can experience it through video? I think it's been lazy of the print media to just offer digital subscriptions with no value add when the technology is there to make. It's not a distant future where people download magazines to their smartphones, and surely video and audio is better suited than words?

Jeez, if Rio Ferdinand can do it then surely so can the publishers?