Jan 15
by Mark Carroll
Alex Proud wrote a piece on the Telegraph website about the Shoreditchification of London. This paragraph pretty much sums up what he means by the term:
“You find a previously unnoticed urban neighbourhood, ideally one that’s a bit down on its luck. Pioneer hipsters move in and coolhunters ensure it starts trending on Twitter. A year later, the mainstream media notices and, for the next 12 months, the neighbourhood is byword for urban cool. Soon property prices soar pushing the original residents out, the bankers (always a trailing indicator) begin to move in and a Foxtons opens. Finally, the New York Times runs a piece in which it “discovers” the area and the cycle is complete. The last hipsters move on and find a new neighbourhood to play with.”
Now if we swap ‘urban neighbourhood’ for {social platform} or {tech trend} I think this description could still remain true. (more…)
Dec 30
by Mark Carroll
2013 is coming to a close, and we wouldn’t be a blog of no-nonsense social media without ‘best of 2013′ post.
We can be honest though, we’ve been lazy as the job has already been done for us by each of the social spaces themselves, and they all do it so nicely we’ll let you just enjoy them at your own leisure. Just so that this isn’t viewed as too much if a cop out we have at least gone through them an placed them in order of our favourites.
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Dec 19
by Mark Carroll
The shift from mouse and keyboard to touchable screens doesn’t just impact the devices our audiences spend their time in front of, it also changes the way they read and consume content – we’re now in a feed based culture.
The below is a quick look at the shift in consumption and some tips to help your content stand out in a variety of feeds.
Dec 03
by Mark Carroll
Real world anti social behavior is punishable by administrating an ASBO. There’s not an online equivalent but you can’t live your online life going around sharing things willy-nilly thinking there aren’t unwritten rules to this game. Below are 5 common social mistakes you should really try and avoid:
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Nov 28
by Mark Carroll
A majority of us spend our days in offices surrounded by the same people. If one day you turn up with a snazzy new haircut, those closest to you will probably notice. They won’t care but they’ll notice. That’s because they’re used to you. Babs in finance, up on the third floor who you might only get a fleeting glance from every third Tuesday in the corridor on the way to lunch probably won’t notice your haircut, she only just about knows your face and hasn’t had the chance to learn your name yet. You could have changed hairstyles 5 times in the last two weeks and Babs would be none the wiser.
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I don’t care that your Twitter profile has thousands of followers or if your Facebook fan page has thousands of fans. Until you can show the value of those users they are just meaningless numbers.
Social media marketing is full of metrics that can impress clients such as follower count, but until they are put in context they mean absolutely nothing. If your Twitter account has 1000 followers that may seem good, but when you some research and find that all of your competitors have at least 3,000 followers, the sheen wears off. (more…)
Social currency is a term that is gaining popularity in the social media community, but as a concept it is not a new idea. Social currency simply refers to the value that information has when it is shared between individuals, something has a good social currency if people want to continue to share it. (more…)
Social media is no longer new territory. Gone are the days where we are impressed by a brand interacting with users in social spaces. Social Media is tried and tested, with case studies from Starbucks, Dell, Wallmart and many other huge brand names.
Now attempting to create a social media campaign is outdated. Now is the age of integration. Creating any element of a campaign in isolation is not only the sign of a poor strategy, but it’s a wasted opportunity.
Social media should now be considered in the brainstorming sessions of fully integrated campaigns, and no longer reserved just for seeding or tacked on to the end of a larger campaign.
Just like any other medium, social media works better as part of a fully integrated offline and online strategic approach to campaigns, with each element complimenting and amplifying each other.
Just having a Twitter a page doesn’t cut it anymore. Having an isolated social media campaign is a stupid idea.
A handy set of guidelines to help to navigate the social media ocean without being a dick
Contrary to popular belief it is not a good idea just to jump in to social media. It’s not important to “just be there” – you need to know why you are there. You need to have a clear understanding of what you want to put into your online presence, and what you want to get out. In other words you need to have a clear strategy for your online activity. (more…)
One of the biggest problems to face social media marketing is that due to it being a relatively new area there is little in the way of “text book” theories. That’s not to say that there aren’t books on the subject, there are hundreds. But, whilst many share similar ideas, the field just isn’t as developed as traditional marketing.
As such, the industry tends to suffer from buzzword mentality, jumping from one buzzword theory to the next. One term in particular that has stuck is community marketing, upon which many other loosely developed theories have been built. In fact, the term has become fundamental to how many in the social media industry think about their work and sells it in to clients. “You need to engage your community!” self pronounced social media experts (read social media douchebags) decry, probably because someone writing for Mashable has told them so. (more…)
