Jenita's Digital Tumblr

The family dynamic as we know it keeps changing

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:41:36 +0000

The family dynamic as we know it keeps changing:

I already feel like an old timer when I say things like “when I was a kid all I wanted to do was ride my bike and explore the outdoors”. I have younger siblings who grew up with a bit more technology than I did, and just a few years difference made their childhood a different experience. I cannot imagine what it must be like to grow up now when technology is part of the family dynamic. Interesting times.

Worth holding on to data like this - as a marketer it’s so important to keep up with consumers lifestyle.

You can always rely on Disney to tell a great story… and...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:33:51 +0000

You can always rely on Disney to tell a great story… and sometimes you can bring it into the real world.

Talented guy sings his views of the After Ever After.

On a more professional note - YouTube is a hub of public speech as well as a platform to create your own entertainment. Gotta love that.

I don't think it is entirely right to say peerindex and other influence measures are about community. For example Obama and Bieber massive influence is not a community factor but a mass event over a large number of communities and community segments. Technically it is about the odds over time that someone someone does will influence someone else. In Twitter this could be action upon a huge mass users who have no shared community

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:12:33 +0000

Hi Rhooker - you actually raise a very valid point which I have failed to address. The Twitter-verse can sometimes be confused with a community when in fact it is more of a nation of diverse cultures and interests, isn’t it.

I do however believe that understanding influence - by topic - as suggested by influence platforms much like Peer Influence, Kred or Klout that we are able to find a door into desired communities for ourselves or the brands you or I so diligently work on.

Hi Jenita, Glad to see that you'll be attending the London Bloggers Meetup next week! We're very excited to be the sponsor and I'm sure the speakers and discussion about the 'Death of Prose' will be very interesting. I hope you'll take the time to visit our website and download 'NuffnangX' before the event as I and my colleagues, Jean-Luc, Kelly and Ming, would love to hear your thoughts and feedback in person. Look forward to meeting you and have a good week, Arya (arya@nuffnangx)

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:08:50 +0000

Hiya Arya - thanks for getting in touch. I do love attending the #SMLondon Meet Ups and I’m certain that ‘Death of Prose’ will be another debated topic for the twitter-audience to have fun with.

Will add your download to my ‘Pocket’ and I look forward to meeting you and your team in person. Jenita

Whoever shouts the loudest - does not get more influence.

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:02:00 +0000

Last night I attended another of the Link Humans Social Media London Meet Up which aims to bring together obsessive social media nerds like myself. Each month there is a different speaker who is influential in their field of social expertise. In this instance the topic was social influence itself. This is a tough concept to articulate and who better to do it than a social influence indexing platform like Peer Index.

If you followed the #smlondon tag you would have seen several aggressive tactics used by those attending. Don’t look at me - I did my usual tweets to cover the event but it soon became a grilling session which I had not prepared myself for.

The analyst expert on the algorithms behind Peer Index @craig_hughes_ and @fhuszar attempted to define influence in a way that it is not.

My tweet sparked many questions in the room on Twitter but not out loud - at first. Trust was the main concern. Does trust define social influence? I think it plays a part however behind the social handles on Twitter, how much do you really know about those that you follow? Are they really experts because they mention #specific tags in all their tweets? I think not. You take what you agree or disagree with and run with it. It’s only fair that a tool like Peer Index measures ‘popularity’ of tweets and associate them in topic groups.

I put my twitter handle in Peer Index and found it interesting that social media was only second on the list. I’m more influential in news and media because it’s those tweets which receive the most attention and reach. The case is that we are all influential but in different areas because we enter different conversations. Instead of squabbling about how to define influence, I wanted to understand my influence better - more importantly how I enhance it.

The key point brought up by @fhuszar was that it’s about altering opinions.

But what does this mean for brands? How do you become influential in a desired topic… on purpose? In all cases ‘social’ I believe it’s understanding the system of measurement - data can give you real insight, but if you understand how your data is measured then it is a lot more useful to you. Once you understand how an influential topic works you can surely exploit it by mimicking its behaviour. In this instance it would be understanding desired communities’ conversation - but having something real to contribute to the conversation.

The power goes back to the community. They decide whether or not to amplify your content. If you have the community on board with what you are doing and saying (be it true or not) then you can achieve social influence.

A prime but painful example at #SMLondon was when @craig_hughes_ brought up the not so distant Starbucks Tax evasion scandal. The problem arose when an innocent viewer decided to speak up instead of Tweet his views about the power of media - not social media. The newspapers, magazines and news on the television did bring the Starbucks tax… loophole to light but what really powered up this debate was the social conversation around it. This was one of those situations where you realise you cannot doubt the power of social - as much as you doubt it at times. Unfortunately this particular discussion got ramped over by those who were getting finicky about tax laws and not social influence of the example in question.

Despite the several tweeters on my tail that night, I did enjoy myself. Fair enough I think the @Kred marketing tweets were a cheap shot - but I sure did have fun really playing with the concept of influence and what it means. And now I endeavor to get cracking at improving mine!

You can tell a true nerd by the way their eyes light up at the...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 08:41:08 +0000

You can tell a true nerd by the way their eyes light up at the sight of graphs and percentage symbols. Alas I am one of them. Gosh I do loath trawling through data, but what comes out of that gruelling pain up the tuckas is, mostly, totally worth it!

Today is like Christmas for me - the latest Social Media Revolution video for 2012 has finally released and both the data and the insight are illuminating. After watching it I realised that every year I think we’ve hit the plateau as in ‘this is social media’ and then realise WAIT it’s ever changing. It’s interesting to see how the way in which we use different channels has changed and how there is always a niche area that is yet to be discovered with new channels that have entered the scene.

Lesson today kids - it’s far from over… don’t sit still fellow nerds. Keep looking because it keeps changing. At least I like to think that is rather exciting.

Think with Google

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 08:51:11 +0000

There is a mountain of information available if you go looking for it. Now more than ever we can support our gut feeling with some facts. Personally I’m one of those people who are irked by swooping generalisations… but only because I know that if you care about something enough, you will go looking for it.

Think with Google is like a library but with modern books. Everything you need to equip yourself with valuable insights to make informed decisions.

Today I read some thoughts by a decorated art director, Andrew Keller, about branding in the digital age. I think a lot of people see it as a separate thing, when really it’s all part of the same patchwork quilt. Consumers can access information faster and want a more personalised connection. Has the consumer ever been wrong ;)

“Consumer expectations for engagement are 24/7, so if you aren’t talking, you’re either out of business or hiding something.”

And everyone rushes to create a Facebook page that is beautiful, inspiring blah blah blah and then what? Everyone is in such a rush to be part of it, the digital age, but then they panic. Everything in life makes a lot more sense if you think about it first, plan and then execute. Sure you need to have the ability to be reactive, but more importantly you need to have an angle, otherwise you’ll fall short of a personality. First ask yourself, is your brand ready to be a real person.

Enjoy the read. Well worth it.

http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/forum/articles/brand-new-with-andrew-keller/#utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=oct-newsletter-brief&utm_source=kellera

Toothpaste For Dinner comic: the creative process Everyone is...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:37:49 +0000

Toothpaste For Dinner comic: the creative process

Everyone is having the - THAT IS SO TRUE - moment when they read this :)

I broke my apple heart

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:02:00 +0100

Less than a week since I ended my long term relationship and obsession with Apple for the bigger and more dynamic Samsung Galaxy S3, the little brother is announced. Oh I knew it was coming but not as soon as November. Seriously! Can’t I be happy for two minutes before you tell me my phone is… chubby… or is it big boned or perhaps full figured. I guess not. I think I surprised a few people by selecting the rather large phone but the main points were:

# I hated that Apple went narrow. I like bigger screens and I cannot lie and you other brothers can’t deny… you get the point.

# Samsung proved to be more innovative than Apple for a change. NFC technology and the fact that I can customise my experience.

# I hated that Apple gave Google the ‘finger’ mostly by chucking Google Maps for a fancy map system that does not work.

So I did it. I chose the S3. Am I happy. Yes. The only thing I can be negative about is that the S3 is a little too big. There I said it. I admit it. I am a tiny bit annoyed that I missed out on the ‘little brother’ but I do realise it’s really two kids fighting on the playground.

I’m just happy to be on Android and NOT Blackberry.

Further reading : Samsung officially announces the Galaxy S3 Mini, 4″ screen, 1GHz processor and NFC http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2012/10/11/samsung-officially-announces-the-galaxy-s3-mini-4-screen-1ghz-processor-and-nfc/

“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:17:20 +0100

“People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”

Why isn’t Simon Sinek famous yet?

This magnificent line is illustrated very clearly in his TED Talk. I love TED Talks because they inspire you to think and act differently. I’m pretty certain that if they put all the people who have been really inspring on TED Talk in one room… that crazy stuff would happen. Maybe the iPhone 6… chuckle chuckle. (It seems that everyone is unsatisfied by the latest mobile device by Apple which has failed to shock and surprise as they normally do.)

Here are some of the finer points from this video:

Start with WHY.
Why is it so important to attract those who BELIEVE what you believe? Sharing a belief is more important than sharing a benefit / a product etc.
People do what THEY believe. What do you believe?
The product you sell is only the proof of what you believe.
It’s the “I have a DREAM” speech not the I have a plan speech.

It’s a fantastic talk and totally worth watching. Be warned tho. When you start watching TED Talks… you can’t stop.

Conversations on the 'Third Screen'

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:31:00 +0100

Arriving home we are all welcomed by a different picture, but most would include dinner and / or a television. More recently this includes, referred to at this years Mobile Engage conference in London as the, ‘third screen’. Simply speaking i’m referring to a Smartphone or a Tablet device, which has become increasingly part of our ‘chill out’ time after a long day at the office.

My housemate, a TV news journalist, is more addicted to her tablet than her Smartphone. Her conversations don’t end when she gets home. They continue over her tablet. It’s like she never left the office and joins the population with her discussions over Twitter / Facebook etc.

You can find discussions about almost every single channel or program on television. One Saturday morning I tested this while watching Saturday Kitchen on the BBC channel. In this instance I was keeping an eye on Twitter, and it was overwhelming to see the amount of discussions generated over scrambled eggs. The same can be said for a lot of other topics, programs and interests. There is a conversation for everyone.

Marketers and Brands have become aware of these conversations that are happening with them, without them, against them, for them and around them. Some are immediately reacting and others are asking questions. Can we become part of that conversation. Are we interrupting that conversation. Can we add value to that conversation. Can we measure this conversation. Can we learn from this conversation.

These re all very valid questions. What are you going to do about it?

Twitter is changing up the rules... for who?

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:55:54 +0100

Twitter makes it really simple for brands and marketers alike to communicate with fans without asking for anything. Their open API has made it a pleasure to imagine and activate innovative real time campaigns that can be instantly measured with strong insights. This is not a comparison between Twitter and… erm… other social channels, however the recent announcement about changes to this open API has given developers, marketers and their clients a little scare. Many of the apps that we know and love to activate, measure or enhance our marketing campaigns may be at risk.

Calm down to a panic. Defined changes include the following:

required authentication on every API endpoint
a new per-endpoint rate-limiting methodology
changes to our Developer Rules of the Road, especially around applications that are traditional Twitter clients.

To read more visit: https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter-api

Their decision to change the way they do things will affect a lot of developers and has caused an online uproar using #OccupyTwitter hashtag in protest. Developers are demanding that Twitter keep the ecosystem open, work with developers and not against them and let the community use the Twitter API as they want to. Maybe Twitter have been too light handed in the use of their API in the past, and they’ve finally decided to take back what is theirs. Good for them.

They’ve eloquently illustrated what they’re comfortable with (quadrants on the left and bottom right) and not comfortable with (top right) in this diagram.

Essentially the argument that Twitter holds is that they want to prevent third party apps replicating their service in a different form. Apps like ‘Tweetbot’ and ‘Ecofon’ have been named and shamed in this instance.

Is Twitter starting something that will eventually make it impossible for marketers to run campaigns, similar to Facebook and their necessity to Facebook app everything? Or is Twitter just clamping down on the Twitter wanna-bees? Time will tell.

My First Summer Party @ the World Of INITIALS.

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 16:10:00 +0100

Since entering the World of INITIALS I’ve had various exciting experiences with the interesting characters who live here. When whispers began about an illusive summer party, my ears pricked up with interest, and I began the hunt for information. The indulgently self proclaimed ‘Social Committee’ were tight lipped and did not let any information slip, no matter the amount of pints and cocktails consumed.

As the date came nearer we received multiple spammers, ahem, I mean informative emails, which hinted at class trips, canteen breakfasts and a school bus. Unfortunately the weather in this country is unreliable to say the least and the weather chose to mess with the minds of the ‘social committee’. They were quite savvy and immediately activated plan B – the wet plan!

When I entered INITIALS HQ on the 11^th of July there was a distinct buzz, possibly because the office looked like the candy version of Willy Wonka’s factory. After detaching eye balls and limbs from laptops and tablets we managed to get everyone en route to All Star Lanes in Brick Lane. We quickly weeded out the bowling weaklings and made them pose in grotesque adolecent versions of themselves as the rest battled it out intensively showing us their skills proving they should stick to what they know.

The funniest part of the evening was watching everyone attempt the feat of speaking intelligbly about marketing best practices under the influence of a selection of colourful cocktail concoctions.

If you really want to see it all including other ‘Social Committee endeavours’… you have been warned… visit our Facebook page.

The Mental Shift - Heavy to Lightweight

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 09:30:27 +0100

The Mental Shift - Heavy to Lightweight:

A New Creative Canvas

This man knows what he is talking about. Currently I can only find this video on Facebook on the #FacebookStudio brand page. This is not the first Video I’ve seen from this Irishman and it’s not the first time he’s blown me away with his thoughts and insights.

In this video he covers some amazing trends or mental shifts in Marketing:

1. The web is being rebuilt around people.

2. The amount of information we can access is increasing exponentially.

3. All this information will be everywhere.

Something Paul Adams continues to address in his talks is how we build relationships. He believes that we process relationships with people and brands in the same way.

What really resonates with me is that we build relationships, very slowly, through many lightweight interactions.

I think about this every time I work on a project where people just want to say what they need to say, instead of thinking about how to say it. Do we just want to interrupt people rudely with this sponsored message, or do we want to build relationships and connect with people.

These kinds of concepts should not just be nodded at in approval, but embraced in what we do everyday as marketers.

The Big Question For Marketers This may not be the trendiest...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:33:35 +0100

The Big Question For Marketers

This may not be the trendiest social media news you’ve heard today, but this video poses a very valid question to any marketer.

The question is:

“Are we the baddies?”

Next time you think of some amazing campaign that will generate clicks shares and all the likes, ask yourself this question, myself included! Not only will it make you laugh, but it’ll make you think.

For now I’ll just laugh!

Growth and value of a Social Business

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:27:00 +0000

Social business promotes the collaboration of the internal workforce to benefit and connect with their customers.

A large majority of a company’s workforce has a lot of expertise and value to offer their clients. The problem is connecting the customer who would benefit from this base of expertise.

Not so long ago I saw several frantic posts about companies crafting social media policies to help lock down the use of social networks during office hours.

Stuart McRae from IBM presented their case study and explained how they generated social community guidelines as well as promoted the use of social media, particularly blogging. They made a conscience decision to make their business social and encourage expertise to go through the right channels. This has grown to a point where internal staff is able to crowd source their expertise and collaborate no matter where they are based or where they are on the corporate ladder.

What this did was not only enable their internal work force to learn from each other, but make use of the social channels to build their online presence within their area of expertise. How was this effective? When customers were looking for information, they found this socially active work force / community directly accessible.

The question raised during this keynote presentation was the concern of brand protection. I wish I had the exact quoted response from Lee Bryan (Dachis Group Europe) because it was quite comedic, but he illustrated a strong logical point. A businesses already trusts their employees when it comes to dealing with their clients either on the phone, email or during those long lunch meetings outside the office that you are not privy to. That and the fact that you can’t control employees thoughts, actions or… erm… body parts. Point taken. It’s takes a little trust.

Social or digital media should be seen for what it is, a marketing channel or tool available to assist internal and external marketing strategies.

This post is key notes taken from the TFM&A expo key presentations.

To see what notes I’ll be adding from other events I’ve attended visit my ‘Events for Social Wisdom’ post board.

Events for Social Wisdom

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Recently I’ve attended several events all offering social and digital media gems portrayed as trade secrets. The truth is that if you work in this ever changing and growing industry, you probably already have a firm understanding of how this rodeo runs. So why do I go? Because I think that you never stop learning, and you get great insights of how others understand and use digital platforms for brands.

I thought that to benefit my friends, colleagues and other like-minded digital souls I’d outline some key findings from these recent expeditions.

Due to continuous commitments it has taken me some time to get my act together and put some relevant posts together to share the interesting insights I found. What I hope to cover in my next posts are:

1. TFM&A Growth and value of Social Business

2. TFM&A Digital Content Planning and Promotion

3. Silverpop Email Marketing Growth and Relevance

4. London Bloggers Meetup Why Marketers Should Love Bloggers

Why do Videos go Viral? Who better to ask than the man who...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Why do Videos go Viral?

Who better to ask than the man who watches You Tube videos for a living!?! Kevin Allocca is You Tube’s Trend Manager, and it’s fantastic to get this insight from him. Yes, he has not told us anything that we’ve not heard or seen before, but he sure hits the nail on the head.

We’ve all made assumptions based on what we think makes a video go viral. What we learn here is quite logical.

1. Taste Makers

2. Communities / Participation

3. Unexpectedness

Kevin gave us four examples, which we’ve all wondered about. You have probably watched at least one of these examples several times.

The reason why you would have watched one of these silly videos more than once is to understand why you were watching the video in the first place.

After you will reprimand yourself for adding another view to the growing 4 million plus views already there!

I speak from experience - I hate you annoying Friday song! Didn’t stop me from watching it every Friday for months, and then sharing it with the Twitter-verse more than once. Yes I’m ashamed. Sorry.

But how does this benefit a brand? Would a brand create an annoying cat video, or a meme based on a day of the week? Hopefully not. However we can take the lessons learned and apply the formula to our thinking when discussing video.

‘Taste Makers’ sure sounds a lot like PR. Sharing does not just happen, a well thought out distribution or promotion strategy is key.

‘Communities / Participation’ we can relate to engaging with a relevant target audience. If you talk to the right people, they’ll naturally want to interact.

Lastly ‘Unexpectedness’ is probably the most difficult to recreate within a marketing strategy. However one could compare it to a great piece of communication. They are tough to find, but when you get it right, you could have a campaign with legs. The word we could be looking for is creativity.

Now these are just some top-level thoughts. There is no formula to guarantee virility, but there is no harm in attempting to understand its source.

Welcome to the Facebook Timeline There have been whispers in the...

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:11:44 +0000

Welcome to the Facebook Timeline

There have been whispers in the wind about the timeline for months now. Some decided to happily ditch the old Facebook and use the developer version, while others already began to complain changes. It’s true that many just don’t enjoy change, but I sincerely hope that in this case everyone will see the light.

The new Facebook will give profiles more personality and character, and make it far more simpler for you to access your history. In case you have not been exposed to a timeline just yet, the timeline presents a way to digitally document your entire life, from birth to present, via wall posts, photos, announcements and events. Consider it a neatly organised social scrapbook with a visually pleasing interface.

There were various reasons for the hold up, but numero uno was privacy issues. Some have claimed that by encouraging users to fill the profile from birth, that the company had ulterior motives to capture more data. Another issues was that this could potentially encourage identity theft.

Personally I believe that privacy is the duty of each individual social user, and if you choose to hang out your dirty laundry, you only have yourself to blame. That however is just an opinion.

Back to the positive news! It has finally been released to the public, starting with New Zealand of all places, which means that within a few days we’ll all have flashy new pages to get obsessed about. I’ve been using the new timeline for two months now, and it has been a positive transition. If like me you can’t wait for the natural transition, then enable it yourself now. If you are far more concerned about privacy issues, then check out how you can take control of your privacy and more.

Love Infographics - Love Tools This infographic is a valuable...

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:41:00 +0000

Love Infographics - Love Tools

This infographic is a valuable resource, particularly for designers, but also for those who work in industries where you need designers. Understanding common tools that are used, and what they are for, can help you in the production or planning capacity.

It’s also interesting to think that there are also 3 tools in my personal tool kit that I could not live without on a day to day basis. Here is a small list - maybe you might like some?

Podio - The most simple and versatile Project Management I’ve ever used.

Hoot Suite - Helps me keep read, filter, schedule, monitor and make the most out of tweets.

Google - I love all the tools that Google provides, including analytics (new real time data is blowing my mind), webmaster tools, mail, maps and YouTube.