cut out and keep

Geeks make friends too

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:43:16 +0000

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/good_bloggers_make_good_neighbors_new_survey_shows.php

I missed this piece when it appeared on ReadWriteWeb last week, so I’m grateful to @geetarchurchy for sharing. It goes to show that as the Internet becomes more conversational and social, so do the people using it. Despite the geek stereotype, we’re all social animals after all.

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Touching me...touching you....

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:35:55 +0000

via 10gui.com

Nice video on touchscreen GUIs. Not as dull as I make it sound, I promise…and the sound track is strangely compelling somehow.

Courtesy of @dommarkham

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Discipline and blogging

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:35:53 +0000

Nice piece from Chris Brogan about the opportunities blogging presents and the discipline needed to take advantage of them. I’d certainly benefit from keeping these in mind! http://www.chrisbrogan.com/discipline-and-the-bloggers-opportunity/

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Discovering and analysing influence online

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:04:20 +0000

via slideshare.net

I had a great time at Social Media Monitoring ‘09 today, an excellent range of speakers and some fascinating conversations.

Thanks to @lbrynleyjones for organisation. Here’s a copy of the presentation I gave on analysing influence. Hope it makes interesting reading.

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T-Mobile staff sold personal data

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:00:17 +0000

Who can you trust? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/uk_news/8364421.stm

Daniel J Edelman Ltd a company registered in England with company number 924113 and its registered office at Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT, United Kingdom

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Community relations and influencer engagement

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:36:32 +0000

In 2003, Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) announced plans to build an advanced high-security laboratory to study virulent biological agents. Stakeholders expected the lab to conduct groundbreaking research leading to public health and counterterrorism advances that would combat weaponized versions of Ebola, tularemia, anthrax, and other lethal diseases. At first, the project was widely hailed as a boon to national security, to the region’s standing as a biotech leader, and to Boston’s economy.

And then suddenly the tide turned. Known officially as the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, the facility was sited near BUMC at the junction of Boston’s residential South End and Roxbury neighborhoods. The more residents heard about the kinds of substances their new neighbor would handle, the less eager they were to have the building in their midst. How secure would it be? What if something got out? Wouldn’t the lab be a high-profile target for terrorists? If it was as safe as proponents claimed, why couldn’t it be built in an affluent suburb like Brookline, Newton, or Wellesley?

In no small part, online activism drove powerful community opposition. A single-issue website, stopthebiolab.org, quickly galvanized a community of staunch resistance. Established organizations devoted to the environment, public health, and social justice (the Conservation Law Foundation, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and Boston Mobilization, among others) used their websites to amplify the message. Lawsuits were filed, and in no time the lab went from slam dunk to slog. The facility’s opening has been delayed by a federal court order for further environmental safety studies. Research may never be permitted on the most dangerous substances the lab was built to study.

Businesses and other institutions have long practiced “community outreach” to nurture positive, cooperative relationships between themselves and the public. Before the internet, firms had far more time to methodically monitor and respond to community activity. With the rise of social media, that luxury has vanished, leaving a community-management vacuum in dire need of fresh skills, adaptive tactics, and a coherent strategy. In fact, in today’s hyperconnected world, a company’s community has few geographical barriers; it comprises all customers and interested parties, not just local neighbors. This article, based on our research examining social media engagement at more than two dozen firms, describes the changes wrought by social media platforms and shows how your company can make the most of this brave new world.

What’s Different About New Communities?

IT-enabled collaborative tools such as social networks, wikis, and blogs greatly increase a community’s speed of formation and magnify its impact and reach. New communities come together and disperse quickly and are often led by different people at different moments. And mobile interfaces keep groups on the alert, ready to drum up information or break into action.

Communities vary widely in their purpose and membership—and in their tone, which can range from friendly and collaborative to ardently hostile. The importance of sorting out which is which—and then deciding whether and how to engage—makes the discipline of managing them a delicate and highly strategic internal capability.

Many of the social media communities we cite come from the health care industry, where participation is robust and influential. A report from Manhattan Research suggests that more than 60 million Americans are consumers of “health 2.0” resources. They read or contribute to blogs, wikis, social networks, and other peer-produced efforts, using Google as the de facto starting point. The lessons we extract here apply to online communities in other knowledge-driven fields, such as law (Divorce360), finance (Wikinvest, Marketocracy), publishing (Wikipedia, the Huffington Post), and R&D (InnoCentive, IdeaStorm).

With social media, we’ve moved beyond the era of stand-alone, static webpages. Today’s communities actively post and vet information. Users increasingly treat these venues as their first stop in gathering data and forming an opinion. A recent Pew study found that nearly 40% of Americans say they have doubted a medical professional’s opinion or diagnosis because it conflicted with information they’d found online. If users put that much faith in what they learn on the internet, what will they be willing to believe if members of a social media forum start trashing your organization? And are you prepared to handle it when it happens?

via hbr.harvardbusiness.org

If you work in PR and you’re involved in social media, then this article is worth a read. It won’t necessarily tell you anything new, but what’s interesting is the perspective it gives on the way agencies tend to approach social media.

The PR-centric approach of identifying and engaging “influencers” can be effective, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The examples given in this article point to a subtly different approach focused on convening and motivating communities to act around a common interest. Influence then becomes contextual – it’s determined by what we do in a given situation with a particular community of people, rather than who we are.

This of course makes measurement trickier as it becomes difficult to apply an absolute set of criteria to gauge the influence of a community or individual. But I think it makes for more honest, accurate and meaningful measures as a result. It means judging the success of your activity according to business objectives, rather than media outputs.

Again, not necessarily a great revelation, but interesting to see different approaches presented in contrast.

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Accountability vs. profitability in social media

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:11:26 +0000

via slideshare.net

I gave this presentation at Social Media in Business 2009…and have shamefully only just got round to sharing it online.

It’s my take on how social media changes the game in business, and how to navigate the risks to realise the opportunities.

I hope it makes interesting viewing!

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Holy Venn diagrams Batman!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:21:26 +0000

via clusterflock.org

Courtesy of @djlazarides

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Telly smackdown - Simon Cowell vs. Fiona Bruce

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:06:09 +0000

I don’t watch a great deal of TV, but I must admit I’m a sucker for a costume drama. I think it’s the eternal English student in me. So on Sunday night I was relaxing on the sofa, hopping through the channels before Jane Austin’s Emma started, when I came across ITV’s second helping of The X-Factor for the weekend.

The Beeb caused a bit of a stir recently when they decided to pitch Strictly Come Dancing against the almighty X-Factor on Saturday night, so what are they throwing in to the ring against the Sunday night edition I wondered? Maybe a hard-hitting crime drama? A bit of edgy investigative reporting? Possibly an extra edition of The Wall? (easily the best show on the box at the moment) Nope, they went for The Antiques Roadshow.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against The Antiques Roadshow, but it’s not exactly up there in the high-tension stakes with the X-factor. I mean, you don’t see the bloke who does fine china running off-set in tears because he can’t cope with the emotional intensity of telling Mavis from Dagenham that the Royal Doulton tea-set she flogged a kidney to buy in 1964 is actually a dodgy Chinese knock off, do you?

So, to help out I’ve been thinking about some ways that Auntie could spice up “The Roadshow” (see? sounds sexier already) so that it’s fit to take on Cowell and his airbrushed cohorts.

1. Sudden death knockout: Some of those experts have got a bit too cosy in their regular Sunday night gig. So to shake things up a bit each episode ends with a phone in where the public gets to vote one of ‘em off. The twist being that as the closing credits role we get to see said expert be the unfortunate victim as an antique torture device is put through its paces.

2. Sob story: Every punter needs a sob story. Just turning up with your figurine of the Churchill dog only to find out that it’s limited edition handcrafted by Damien Hurst and worth ½ a million just doesn’t cut it. We want drama, we want tears…”I’m hear for my pet gerbil Fiona, Gerry loved scrabbling around on this old Persian rug…before the Dyson got him.”

3. Everyone knows the best part about X-Factor is the early rounds. You know, the bit where Simon Cowell mercilessly exploits the really self-delusional people who passionately believe they’re the next Michael Jackson, God rest his soul, but have less chance of holding a half decent note than I have… and believe me, that’s bad. Let’s do the same for Antiques Roadshow and wheel out a few of the crap antiques as well… “this painting of the dogs playing snooker, Fiona… I’m telling you, it’s got Constable written all over it.”

That’s three suggestions from me. Can anyone thing of any others? In messing about with the design on this blog I seem to have lost the function to enable comments. So while I work out how to fix it, mail or tweet me with any ideas and I’ll post them here…with full credit of course.

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Net set for language shake-up

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:16:32 +0000

Domains written in non-latin based languages to be sanctioned. Will be interesting to see if this shifts the balance of power away from the English language online.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/technology/8326241.stm Daniel J Edelman Ltd a company registered in England with company number 924113 and its registered office at Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT, United Kingdom

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"Check out my YouTube hits"

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:29:48 +0100

Not mine…Jeff Dunham’s

The picture’s a bit grainy but you can just about read it - American comedian Jeff Dunham is using his YouTube viewing figures as an endorsement in press ads for his forthcoming London show.

It certainly makes a change from using review quotes to build credibility. And its clever too - I might just take a look at him online and see if he’s worth going to watch. Daniel J Edelman Ltd a company registered in England with company number 924113 and its registered office at Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT, United Kingdom

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The trouble with press offices

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:35:19 +0100

Yesterday Jenni Russell, The Guardian and Times journalist, came in to Edelman to talk about her experiences as a comment writer. She claimed never to have worked with PR people, let alone to have set foot inside a PR agency, so well done to her for making it across the threshold!

Her reluctance to work with the PR industry seems to stem from some rocky experiences trying to work with government press offices. I’ve no doubt that Number 10 and the various departments run their media operations like well-oiled machines, at least most of the time. But it struck me that they simply aren’t geared-up to deliver what comment writers need.

Whether for public or private sector organisations, press offices are generally organised and structured to serve news writers - people who need the facts of a story quickly to meet a tight deadline. It’s all about the swift, efficient flow of information. For a comment writer – whether they’re a journalist, blogger or whomever – the needs are very different. Comment writers depend on gaining insight into a story, looking behind the immediate facts to understand the issues surrounding it and the motivations of the people involved. It’s only possible to get this kind of appreciation by building a genuine relationship with the people who have a stake in the story (the government minister, the business exec. etc.), which is difficult for a traditional press office operation to facilitate.

Don’t get me wrong, press offices have a very valuable role to play in communication and I’ve played a part in some pretty good ones myself, but in a media environment where news is so immediate and accessible, and quality comment and opinion increasingly valuable commodities, I see the role, remit and reach of the press office inside organisations needing to change.

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The deepest bin in the world

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:59:23 +0100

Another one from those cheeky chappies at www.thefuntheory.com

Courtesy of Mark Pinsent

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Quote of the day

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:47:57 +0100

“CEOs need to engage critics - it’s even possible there is a justifiable gripe that the CEO needs to be made aware of. I can’t promise I’ll win a critic round but I’ll never stop trying and I’ll become better informed in the process.” - Don Elgie, CEO Creston (quoted in the Financial Times)

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