Alan Munro's Blog

hello Alan

I found this a really interesting post - but it left me with a question - how do these multitude of miniscule conversations work for businesses/brands? How many brands would you be willing to let this deeply in to your life - for that matter - how could the brands expect you to have time in your life to engage with them in this frequent chatter.

The key is personal interest - getting value out of the conversations in whatever form (knowledge, entertainment, access to discounts, etc) - this is great when it is a social quid-pro-quo - traded little gems with your mates, etc - but how does a brand get in on this act? Even massive entertainment brands such as Apple (and the evil meister Jobs) can only offer a certain amount of 'value' and communicate 'so' often - and what's to say that this is enough value, or regular enough contact to actually establish it as one of your mates?

I'm not really in to Social Media at the minute - I haven't got time to tweet, trawl for old friends, post videos and all that - I've got two nippers under 6 and I'm lucky if I can my bum on the sofa before 9.30 - so perhaps I'm just an outsider looking in and scratching my head - but, without deriding the social value of these tools (Mrs gotnoteef likes a bit of facebook), I always struggle to see a real commercial angle.

Please don't write me off as a luddite - I'm here to be enlightened...

I think brands can successfully use social media but they will have to work very hard at it and they'll need very different skills than have served them in the past. And I do think that people have time to engage with the people and brands that interest them or that they find useful.

I look at my own usage of Twitter and I pick up a lot of useful stuff from the people that I follow while I've learned to skim pretty quickly through the tweets to get to the stuff that interests me. I also think you have to accept with Twitter that it's a bit random and you won't slavishly follow all of it. You don't have to let every brand deeply into your life, just a little is enough for some.

The thing that interests me though is the connectivity - how many different ways there are to keep in touch with people and companies and how quickly ideas can spread. The tools of our trade are changing fast and they're creating incredible opportunities to carry our ideas out into the world.

Hello Gotnoteef and Alan

Totally agree that social media is very different to the other marketing/advertising routes that brands use - it works so much better when it's not broadcast but engagement - so that does mean investing in having lots of little conversations. tictoc (the digital agency I work for) held an event on exactly how brands can use social media last week (in conjunction with the Marketing Industry Network), and the presentations from brands as diverse as Carphone Warehouse, Wiggly Wigglers and Whyte & Mackay were enlightening - CPW use Twitter to offer customer service, so if you go on Twitter and moan about a problem you're having, more than likely @guyatcarphone will contact you and try to help you out. Wiggly Wigglers are using Facebook, Twitter and vod and podcasting to build a community out there of people who are also interesting in green-living (rural living/ environmental living) and the people within that community then become advocates for the brand. As a Wiggly-follower (on FB and Twitter), I can see how it works really well - and Wiggly Wigglers is then top of my mind if I need to buy something for my garden. And Whyte & Mackay used Twitter to run a kind of 'hunt the whisky man' competition - again, it worked well to get involvement and good PR. As a big M&S fan, I'm happy to follow M&S on Twitter and hear about their Deal of the Day (though so far I've not bought any items featured) and if I was thinking about buying something from Dell I'd probably follow the DellUKOutlet and see if I could get a discount, but the brands I love best are those where I get a sense of personality. @DogsTrust does it brilliantly for charities, and @Wiggled for Wiggly Wigglers and @ASOS are also doing it brilliantly. As Kyle from Blether Media said - social media is about conversations, and if people talked at you the way most advertising does, you'd want to punch them in the face. The challenge for brands is to move into these new ways of communicating (less broadcast, more engagement). The feedback from those doing it is that it doesn't have to take a massive amount of time. See the tictoc blog for a fuller report on the event (www.tictocfamily.com/blog)

Interesting you mention Whyte & Mackay, Kate. I used to work on their account years ago and they could not have been more old fashioned. Having said that, I've started following Richard Paterson (their master blender) @the_nose on Twitter and he is going for it big time on Twitter with all his usual style. To me, he's a fine example of how big companies can successfully use Twitter because he is interesting in his own right, passionate about what he does and empowered by his company to engage with people.

feck it - I'm gonna have to have a go aren't I.

Mr Munro, you might be gaining a new follower. Kate, thanks for the input and links.

Be warned though - if this starts taking over my life I'll be back for the folks that forced my hand.

Thanks again.

My dog ate a bar of chocolate.

An inebriated elephant just walked over my flowerbed.

Transcendental billing will make grass grow taller.

This is my experience of Twitter. It is so unfocussed and irrelevant I get bored very quickly and move on. I was happy to abandon it altogether until I heard about the Iranian elections, and how the power of an interactive texting kit can  bring down a government or a UK Furniture store.

Twitter to me is like dynamite. Handle with care.

do you also struggle to see how brands can commercialise the service?

I appreciate relationship building - I work in DM - but this does strike me (as Alan says above) as more of a random act, rather than a concerted effort to engage with punters and achieve mutual long-term value.

Do I care if the Bacon buttie wagon on the Business Park in Middlesex uses HP and not Daddies and Dave, marketing matey a Brand B thinks it's an abomination - does he want to talk about it? Do I?

Kate put forward some examples of companies who are making 'social' work for them. She mentions Dell using tweets effectively to sell their 'outlet' machines - good for all concerned, but how often do people buy big-tickets items like PCs - isn't this more of a brand buy-in/lured by the deal, rather than the result of ongoing relationships built through tweets.

I see how Wiggly Wigglers are gaining ground in punters minds for all things outdoor/gardening/eco-related by being a valuable info resource / thought leader - but could Audi/Clarks/L'Oreal/a.n.other big brand own an area of general interest like this? Are there enough 'interests' to go around.

Your posts elsewhere are always solid Kevin - I'd be v. interested to hear your thoughts on twitter, facebook and the various other social-shakers.

Again - not a luddite, just keen to learn - fill my empty head!

Gotnoteef, I'm looking forward to seeing your tweets.

Kevin, I do take the point about much of the nonsense that gets posted on Twitter. I think the personal stuff is fine to an extent because it gives you a little insight into each individual. On the 'useful' side, I do pick up a lot of information from the people I follow and for brands, I can see it being very influential in the right hands.

Overall, I think social media has to fit into most brand's strategy somewhere, whether it's playing a supporting role or it's their main activity. Ignoring it is not an option.