Media Aces - UK

The beginning of this week saw the return of the Media140 conference to London. This time, the conference focussed on brands and the "real-time web" (predominantly Twitter).

There has been some excellent coverage from speakers and audience alike, so I thought it prudent to round them up, below:

• Kristian Carter of Crazy Epic makes a number of interesting points on the amount of money that Red Bull [Flickr pic on marketing model] has spent on brand experience and engagement, and whether it has represented value for money to Generation Y.
• Drew Benvie of 33 Digital produces a short post making a reference to a point which he made in his session, and was subsequently picked up by the audience through Twitter: "most brands don’t have a strong culture or personality and that this leads to a social media ecosystem full of fake personality and hence full of fail."
• Lloyd Davis talks about the lack of wifi provision, which was promised, but never fully delivered. It can’t be that difficult to provide (a) sufficient power sockets for a laptop-powered audience and (b) destruction-tested wifi, in (c) central London… can it?
• Adam Tinworth has written a comprehensive set of notes - well worth reading.
• Dan Leach paints a mixed picture - a good event, but more brands would have really made it. He specifically refers to David McCandless [Flickr pic] who perked everyone up towards the end of the afternoon, with his excellent - and highly visual - presentation, using samples from his Information is Beautiful blog and book.
• George has written the event up in two PDFs, covering the keynote from Tom Bedecarre [Flickr pic] and a verbatim writeup of the panel session.
• There are plenty of great photos from the event at Flickr.

[Update - new writeup from Gordon Macmillan on BR]

[Update - now with relevant Flickr pix above]

Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK
 

I was recently invited to attend an event run by Channel 4’s 4ip fund. Entitled Recasting the Net, it was about how the Internet can drive, shape and influence democracy and the democratic process within the UK’s electoral system and public services.

Many truly excellent projects were demonstrated and discussed, and it’s great to see that not only is the UK starting to make considerable headway in using digital and social media to "open up" the democratic process, but that many of these projects are supported by 4ip, a fund whose aim - "Rethinking public service media" is a noble one, particularly as its parent organisation is in itself, a public corporation owned by the UK Government.

This event touched on many points and issues regarding how public service digital media is created, delivered, shared, and offered - and how transparent this process is. One particular point that interested me was around co-creation - and how those in the public sector, and those providing skills, services and strategy to the public sector - could get together, for mutual benefit - and, ultimately, the benefit of a wider group of citizens. The Internet creates a fantastic bond between people interested in greater public accountability, and public organisations (willingly or otherwise) seeking greater engagement.

I later reflected on how applicable this would be across other sectors. Companies across all sectors churn out masses of data - and content - each day. Much of it is clearly commercially confidential, but some of it isn’t. So, what’s preventing the private sector from opening up, and working in a co-creation context with people willing to take their "stuff" and add further, greater meaning to it? Think of what you could do with some of the data coming out of our public networks (substations, telco etc). Wouldn’t you like an Iphone app that told you when your power was to be cut off, so you could make alternative arrangements for your freezer? That sort of quick, easy, development for shared benefit would come out of co-creation.

One of Google’s more well-known facts is that it lets its developers spend 20 per cent of their time on projects which they feel passionate about. That time helped to deliver Google Adsense. Is there room for companies to carve out employee time to work with a community of developers on projects with a shared, mutually-beneficial aim?

Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK

"Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services." This quote from Jim Jansen, as part of a press release from Penn State University on brands and Twitter, underlines an interesting phenomenon - the mutually-advantageous point to which brands and customers enter into an agreed online space for dialogue.

Twitter is one example of how these spaces are developing, but it doesn’t make it a panacea. Which is more important, the brand or its leadership? How does brand personality shape context and dialogue?

The press release goes on to make an interesting point about corporate use of Twitter: that there is a rich source of dialogue and feedback on brands and products coming out of Twitter. While that’s true, it will be interesting how the theories covering blogs and power laws - such as Clay Shirky’s - adapt to microblogging, and whether the simplistic model of weighing value and volume (followers and influence) will apply. As such, the simplistic comparison of whether we will see another Dell Hell derived through Twitter simply doesn’t apply, as the entire ecosystem is different - the way in which conversations are generated, developed, and how influence, power and authority passes through them.

What we might get, however, is a more instantaneous reflection of brands and brand experiences - exactly the sort of thing that microblogging is designed to engender. The converse of this point, however, is to remember the long tail - where a large number of physically unrelated conversations have a greater cumulative volume than, say, the top 10 (in any given rank). That makes it potentially harder for brands to identify where the nuggets are, how problems can be resolved quickly after they are surfaced, and how to continue potentially valuable dialogue long after the initial contact has been made.

All in all, microblogging is a complex area for corporates, and is not one that can be universally solved by a Twitter "brand feed". In a similar way that consumer understanding of brands is multi-layered, an equally multi-layered strategy must apply from companies and brands to microblogging - one that involves honest, two-way dialogue with the right mix of brand and human personality.

Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK

We’ve all seen people still wearing their work pass, doing their weekly shop. While it’s tempting to stop them and either (a) ask them to take it off or (b) confuse them by calling them by their first name and saying hello, it does represent an interesting phenomenon.

When does being an employee start and end? The rush of people "leaving the factory gates" is obviously no more, as homeworking, flexible hours and a more fluid approach to meetings and work locations make the boundaries less clear. These environmental concerns are equally interesting in digital media.

Personal representations of corporate values are, of course, deeply engrained into policy. Acceptable use policies, business practice guidelines, and brand values allow a very clear context and frame for how employees should refer to their employer and its products and strategy. There’s often a given format for a signature file, which makes these literal references universal.

Employee behavour outside of work time is a much more challenging topic.

Does employee attitude to work change when on their netbook on the sofa, rather than in front of a monitor on their desk? If so, how, and how "free" do they feel when talking about their employer / brand?

There are many examples of companies not seeing this one through. Just search for "facebook employee sacked" and you’ll see plenty of rather gruesome evidence. However, it’s not particularly difficult to overcome.

The right guidance - with the right context built around that guidance - can often play a major role. Employees often value the interest of employers in terms of what references they should be making in social media, outside of work. It helps employees by "understanding the frame" - the types of references to make and the contextual and environmental decisions to make when making them. The key is to work with a voluntary group of employees to co-develop the guidance (in fact, this is an ideal use for an internal wiki).

We’ll be talking more about employees, social media and brands in coming months at Media Aces UK, and I’m very interested in any thoughts, questions, or even case studies that you would like to share.

Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK

The autumn is going to see a flurry of activity from Media Aces. The launch of Media Aces France in Paris this week brought together a sizeable amount of people with an interest or involvement in corporate social media. I’d like to take this opportunity to turn to the UK.

The UK has a flourishing social media environment. London was recently hailed by Evan WIlliams as the biggest user of Twitter; there are many agencies with a social media offering, in consultancy and/or practice; and if you go around the UK, you will see a plethora of hyperlocal social media activities, often supported by the public sector.

Corporates are key to the ongoing development of social media in the UK. We need a strong corporate understanding of social media to build brands; to target audiences, some of which may be otherwise hard to reach; and to improve the reputation of corporates (so that, to graduates, they "get this stuff". There are countless more reasons.)

A pleasing point about the corporate social media space in the UK is that there is a thriving relationship with agencies, ensuring that both parties play to each other’s strengths in order to co-develop an understanding of where brands and audiences can go.

The whole concept of "brands and social media" is central to the development of Media Aces UK, and I hope that you will join me as we develop the community over coming months.

Paul Squires
Founder, Media Aces UK