Speaking: Social TV Conference

My slides are up –

However, as per usual, I would whole-heartedly recommend you click through to the presentation’s main slideshare page so that you’re able read the accompanying slide notes (that provide more of an in-depth look at the points I was making along the way).

While you’re there, I would also impress upon you to look at the presentations from Tiffany St James, Mat Locke, and Dan Paton. Dealing with stats, history, and an ace MTV case study respectively.

All in all, Social TV Conference London was a really good event. Second screen entertainment is definitely one of the more nascent areas of the social media industry today and there is some amazing work going on right now.

Why not have a poke around the conference website and see what nuggets you can find…

Your comments, as ever, are welcome.

 

New Year, New Choices: Speaking

Yes, that’s right: SPEAKING.

The Conversation Prism, by Brian Solis

At the tail end of last year (and after much deliberation; is it poncy, is it not?) I added a ‘Speaking’ tab to my blog. First, to record all the speaking engagements that I am lucky enough to get/give and second, to serve as a way for folk to not only see the way I work, but also get in touch should they wish to book me.

Last year topped out at three different presentations and talks, and given that 2011’s end number was six, I really don’t think this is good enough.

After reviewing last year’s fairly lacklustre efforts I decided that this year, 2013, I’m going to proactively hunt down new speaking opportunities and get back into the swing of things again. The best thing is, my new responsibilities at Ogilvy now allow me the freedom to pursue this goal, which means I can make the time where appropriate. Brilliant.

Saying it is one thing, but doing it is another – a bit like running, really; you just need to put the effort in. Which is why, after only three weeks gone in the year, there are four slots already on the horizon!

The two I can tell you about?

January 22nd
Tomorrow I’m speaking at the SocialTV conference. The speaker line up looks great and, after my post last year about how hard TV-based social media integration is failing, I believe I’m being pitched in to add a bit of realism to the proceedings. I can’t wait!

January 24th
Then on Thursday, I’m one of the speakers at the SalesForce Social Success Mic-Up. This time speaking about social media trends looking forward into 2013. I made some predictions in August last year and for this sessions I’ll be building on those and trying to see what else we can see coming ’round the corner.

Two confirmed, and two under discussion. If the latter come in, I’ve already beaten last year’s score. Perfect.

It’s amazing what you can achieve when you set yourself a goal like that.

Who’d a thunk it?

 

__________________________

Additional reading: being a better speaker, by Terence Eden

 

Bowie vs Marketing

This is perfect –

“We live in an age when distraction is everywhere, consumers are multi-screening – and multi-screening is actually an acceptable verb – and the industry assumes that to get what marketing departments call cut-through or mind-share for music you have to bombard people: artists are supposed to be in a constant dialogue with their fans, via Twitter or blogs or Facebook. It’s a timely reminder that mystique is a valuable commodity. You can perhaps give people more by giving them less.”

— Tim Ingham, Editor of Music Week

The above quote is taken from ‘The inside story of how David Bowie made The Next Day‘ which features in today’s Guardian.

Explaining (in quite fantastic detail) how exactly, in an age of cameraphones and gossip websites and social media, Bowie’s album remained under wraps for two whole years before appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, last Tuesday – it is a great read.

Screen Shot 2013-01-12 at 10.52.39

It seems we could all learn a thing or two from Mr Bowie.

the pressure of immediacy

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

Mobile phone and the Japanese 2

— Image via cocoarmani

First, I want you to apply the following quote from this Fjord iPad post to all modern smart phones –

It may seem like a small change, but a generation which has instant access, quite literally, at its fingertips, will be a quite different generation to that which did not. We used to consider that someone was erudite if they had spent a number of years accumulating knowledge and expertise which they could deploy at the precise moment which it was required.
.
Given that this information is all now on hand, people will come to rely more on an ability to recall data from the system. Ability to focus, and knowledge of the best places to look, will become the most important facets to consider. These are fundamental changes.

The key word/sentence I’m going to zero in on this time is ‘the ability to focus‘.

We’re losing it. 

Second, I want you to think of that thing where you’re talking at the pub and someone says: ‘Oh did you see that thing today? Oh my God it was soooo funny! You haven’t seen it? No, I’ll pull it up.’

Not only is it massively anti-social (we’ll come back to that), but also – in the time that it takes you to reach for your phone and start googling for ‘IKEA Monkey’ or whatever, the conversation has undoubtedly moved on and no one is actually that interested come sharing time. Forget it. Move on. Leave it.

It doesn’t matter.

These two notes are what, to my mind at least, drive the ill-perceived pressure of immediacy. As in, just because we can look up just about anything on the glass screens in our pockets doesn’t necessarily mean that we should. The pressure to know something immediately is balderdash. It is fallacy, claptrap, and poppycock. It is a make-believe blanket of self-made suffocation that we have placed upon our own social and professional situations that really has no need to exist at all.

So what do we do? 

  1. At dinner, play the phone stacking game. I have and it works.
  2. At work, create a digital hat stand for meeting rooms.
  3. At your desk, invest in an NFC-enabled on/off mat for your phone.
  4. At the pub, focus on your friends.
  5. At home, unplug your WiFi; break habits.

Why?

Two quotes for you –

‘If we learn to disconnect in order to connect with ourselves, the impact will be amazing’
– Arianna Huffington

‘I wish I’d spent more time on the internet’
– Nobody on their deathbed, ever.

 

Stop. Think. Breathe.

Stay in the moment.

The pressure of immediacy does not exist. 

 

On Facebook? I can see your private messages UPDATED: No I can’t.

But it’s probably worth hiding those old posts anyway…

———————–  UPDATE ———————–

So it’s looking like these posts weren’t Private Messages after all. Back in the old days of Facebook, say between 2007 and 2009, the layout was quite different and, instead of sending each other messages and having to deal with Timelines et al, we used to have the option to write wall-to-wall.

We weren’t all as social-media-savvy back then and believe it or not, your Mum, your boss and all your co-workers weren’t as up to speed either…

Hence the openness of all those wall posts. Major panic subsiding, minor panic still worth cleaning up…

———————————————-

This is happening right now…

Here’s a grab I took before hiding the relevant issues.

The best possible fix is to hit the SETTINGS icon at the top right and hit ‘HIDE FROM WALL’

So far, TechCrunch have picked it up with others following.

If you don’t want people to see your private messages on Facebook, do this now.

 

 

 

Google bought Wildfire: Mind. Blown.

For $250m apparently. The mind boggles…

WF G

So what does this actually mean?

And why is it such a big deal?!

Well, as I explained to some friends earlier:

“They – Wildfire – are a preferred developer for Facebook and have probably built every amazing branded Facebook app you’ve ever used or heard of. Google BUYING them not only gives the big G access to a whole host of Facebook data, but is also a HUGE strategical move that is just mind-blowing in its scale and ambition. 

Google just walked into Facebook’s yard, picked up their ball, players and goals, and casually walked back home.”

Gaining preferred developer status is no easy task and Wildfire have been knocking out big brand Facebook apps/games/sweepstakes now for a good four years. Since March 2012 in fact, Wildfire have been the (self-proclaimed) ‘biggest social marketing company in the world’.

In 2011, Wildfire saw revenue growth of over 300% and surpassed a total of 13,000 paying customers, including 30 of the top 50 global brands. This makes us the largest social media marketing software company in the world.

Our platform has been used to power over 200,000 marketing campaigns throughout the world. Going global required some expansion, though, so we’ve grown our team to over 300 employees (from 2 in 2008). We put offices in London, Paris, Munich, and Singapore, which helped grow our international business by 500%, and now more than 24% of Wildfire’s revenue comes from outside the U.S.

That’s some impressive work.

I’ve seen presentations from Wildfire: everything from Polaroid and Lady Gaga to Virgin Atlantic and Vodka, there’s hardly any major brand out there that hasn’t been touched by these guys. Seriously, their customer list is immense.

And, try as they might to reposition themselves as a ‘social marketing company’, Wildfire are (or were) a Facebook company.

And now they’re owned by Google.

I’ll say it again:

And now they’re owned by Google.

— —

My immediate instinct is to yell: HOLY HELL! FACEBOOK ARE GOING TO PISSED!

But then I think more…

I think about how Wildfire also have deep YouTube integration, and I think about the cool stuff they’re doing (or were doing) with LinkedIn and Twitter too.

And you know what I do then?

I think about Google+

What does Google+ need more than anything right now?

  1. Big brands
  2. Big brand promotions
  3. Big brand promotions that deliver user engagement

Y’see, no matter what the numbers say, Google+ just doesn’t cut it right now. Not for brands, not for users, not for anyone. Wildfire can bring all those folks to the party, and more.

Don’t count on Wildfire (as we know it at least) to burn for much longer though, I mean it’s not like Google have a history of killing off a whole bunch of products – right?

Right.

 

Google just bought Wildfire.

Mind. Blown.