The Engaging Brand

7 Wonders of the Social Technology World

1. I wonder...mobile marketing maybe growing but we need to think of it less as related to a phone and more of accessing on the go, no matter how?
2. I wonder...how much big data will help marketing? Because the more focused advertising is, the more intrusive it feels.....is personalised, too personal?
3. I wonder...how we can redefine intellectual property to cope with the sharing of social media. If we don't, how do inventors, artists and the like get recompensed for their skill?
4. I wonder...whether the birth of 3D printing will bring home manufacture to the masses?
5. I wonder...if the way we view history will change. If Google decides our search results, if wikipedia is our source of information.....what happens to the emotive, personal aspect of passing stories down the family?
6. I wonder....whether in 5 years we will be using the distinction between online world and real world...or whether augmented reality will merge the two worlds?
7. I wonder....if we can start linking data, the building blocks of the web - the semantic web, whether we will soon be able to link thoughts and have them captured and sorted for us by Google....the semantic brain?

Podcast 394 - Video Games and Gamification

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Chris Bateman, a philosopher, game designer and author, joins Anna Farmery to discuss the effect of video games on society and how video gaming is changing human behaviour. Chris who works in the digital games industry and runs International Hobo, a leading creative consultancy in the field of market-oriented game design, narrative and player satisfaction services has just written a book called Imaginary Games and we discuss

• Are video games art and why from an intellectual property point of view it is important to protect it?
• At what point do video games becomes 'real' and how the real world boundaries are becoming blurred with the online world?
• Are gamers part of the game, are people the same when you are socialising with friends as well as playing a video game?
• Does the game influence the real person, are games influencing us like parents used to?
• Is the story really important to gamers or is it about achievement of points?
• Is the art of the game inspiring the story or the story itself?
• What is the cognitive effect of games - how come youngsters don't need to know the rules in games and yet need to be 'told what to do' in education?
• How people take different roles in different aspects of their life?
• Should education take a more gaming approach to learning?
• The psychology of gamification and how you can undermine motivation by gamification
• What do humans want out of gamification? Do humans have an inert desire to play?
• Is motivation gender or age related in gamification?
• How to engage women through gamification from a marketing angle?
• The role of loyalty cards in marketing?

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

How you can listen to The Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

A Reason To Behave Badly At Work This Week

One of my favourite leadership quotes is

"Remember, well behaved people seldom make history"

It always makes me smile, I wish I could remember who said it! Now before you all get excited  I am not encouraging bad behaviour! - but I love the idea that conformity to the norm does not necessarily bring success.

When you think of businesses, or successful leaders, they have that ability to play within certain boundaries however at the same time they manage to think differently. They work at the edge of the boundary, even redefining the boundary for the future...

They don't ask what the market wants, or what would be safe to show the boss...No...they think how could we make this successful, what if we did this......etc and not find reasons or problems that could prevent it from happening. They play angels advocate not devils advocate!

So this week...see if you can make history..see if you can behave as someone who wants to make history!

Work at the boundary...because the middle is not just already taken...it is crowded!

It's not about networks, it's about networking

We keep hearing that the world is networked through the Internet, people are networked through connections, data is connected to humanity through the world wide web......

Networks are a wonderful way of sharing and collaborating....but they can be big, they can be complicated and they can be deceptive. There is what I call a connected paradox

Deceptive because it can give you the impression that the world is fully connected...because it COULD be...

But in reality people still connect with people they know. If we are to really harness the power of social media, if companies are truly committed to helping society with a new kind of social capitalism then we need to ensure that networking is more than a mirroring of real world social connections.

So what can we do to make networking good for society?

• Connect and share with someone you don't know
• Try and connect someone inside your circle to someone they don't know but that would benefit from their skill or knowledge
• Commit to renewing your RSS feeds, twitter streams, facebook pages are constantly changing to embellish your view on the world
• Connect with someone outside of your country and look for a way you can help bring the world closer together

5 Trends Driving Social Business

In my humble opinion there are 5 trends which are driving us to look at a new social business model

1. Globalisation has meant that competition comes from everywhere, location is no longer a barrier....great for consumer choice but that means they are less likely to 'settle for the best they can get"
2. Banking Crisis has dented the public perception of institutions and hierarchy. The power of the individual voice is now much more evident, from Occupy Protests to Middle East Uprisings to crowdsourced initiatives.
3. Social Media has given a taste of working with business, but once the consumer has the taste of being listened to...just like Oliver Twist ...they want more!
4. Technological advances such as 3D printing are opening up the possibility of a self manufacture...this combined with social media, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing is bringing democracy to capitalism.
5. Self Belief is growing. People are less worried by new technology, they are more willing to change phones, computers, suppliers.....they are used to researching...and linked with (2) they have a growing feeling that they can't do any worse!

It is not the time to think ...aagh social media is on the wane...firstly it isn't! ...and secondly that was one step of the evolution to a truly social business.

The question is.....not whether the consumer is ready for what we have to offer...but are we ready for what the consumer is about to demand!

3D Printing - Catalyst for New Social Business Model?

Social media has been great for connecting, business networking, conversations.....but in a sense it has taken us away from the real world. It is in essence the exchange of bits and data. Words can be very emotive but they still lack that physical world attribute of touch, taste or smell.

That is why I believe social media will merge into a new social business model. My PhD is looking at how 3D printing can be a catalyst for a new social model.

Instead of transfering "bits and data" we will have the ability to transfer real objects. We can design something for someone else to print out...we can send a photo of our family table, and someone can print it out wherever they are....

This social aspect of being able to share real world items, allows the sharing to become even more emotive, even more.....well, human.

Social media has brought the world closer in terms of connecting but social business will bring the world closer in terms of physical items.

It's an exciting time to be alive.....a time when distance doesn't stop sharing of ideas or even things...

Podcast 393 - Effective Communication in a Virtual World

This week's The Engaging Brand podcast covering social media, business ideas and brand marketing tips, is ready to download.

Debra Benton is a powerful speaker/consultant/author who has been in business successfully for over 30 years having founded Benton Management Resources in 1976 and today she joins Anna Farmery  to talk about being an effective Virtual Executive. We discuss communication skills in

• Does the same way of communicating with people work online and offline
• Why online can often be better than an initial face to face meeting for business networking
• Is online better for quantity rather than quality of communication?
• Is your online social media presence part of the communication process
• How honesty is like beauty......in the eye of the beholder!
• How to be honest in your business communications
• Has the thought gone out of writing....the danger of putting time in to the communication tools rather than the writing skills
• Have words increased in value  - and in this refected in training within a business
• The importance of body language in social networking
• How 2-3 hrs preparation is required for an hour's business meeting! 
• How no is a complete sentence but it is not a complete answer...how to learn to say no...properly online.
• A lesson from Brittany Spears......and how to turn a no into a positive.
• Why video is the best business networking tool
• As a business executive you should always see yourself as online.....and visible to the world

I love to hear your thoughts so email me, anna@theengagingbrand.com, join me on twitter, leave a message at The Engaging Brand Fan Page or join me on to discuss it on Google+

How you can listen to The Engaging Brand

1) You can listen on your PC now without downloading any software just click hear to listen to the latest marketing podcast

2) You can subscribe to the show via iTunes or

3) If you use a different podcatcher then you can subscribe using the following RSS Feed

When sharing on social media, isn't really sharing!

I love a dessert...more than a starter....so when I am with someone who doesn't order one, then grabs a spoon and digs in to mine....saying "You don't mind if we share...well, i feel obliged to say of course not, whilst thinking...we are NOT sharing...you are TAKING"

I often sense that with how business sees social media. Saying your sharing isn't the same as two people CHOOSING to share because both parties want to....

Sharing needs two sides with one connected aim

Sharing needs a desire to share an experience

Sharing needs an emotional element

The question a brand, a business, a personal brand needs to ask is this

Am I talking about sharing more than emotionally committing to sharing?

Could You Win An Olympic Gold?

With the Olympics now looming large I am reminded of the motto

"Citius, Altius, Fortius, which is Latin for "Faster, Higher, Stronger"

Now this makes sense for athletes but doesn't it also make sense for business, for leadership, for social media?

To engage consumers, to engage employees we need to build strategies around faster, higher, stronger...

Faster - by removing anything that makes it difficult to work with us. If there is 3 clicks to a sale on the web...make it two....if there is a 40 minute wait on your customer service line, develop a twitter stream like BT Care (They gained me as a customer based on being able to use their twitter line rather than sat waiting for Virgin to answer)

Higher - by telling the truth but creating that truth to be aspirational. Think Nike +. It helps you achieve more!

Stronger - by accepting feedback and using it to create a true customer interface. By testing new things without the fear of failure, by demanding excellence in all we do

 

New Social Media Definition of Mass Market

Social media has connected the world in a way that our forefathers could never have imagined.

It has expanded the market for small businesses and global brands alike, allowing you to talk to a mass audience.

When something as big as this happens you can normally rely on life to throw a couple of pebbles in, to keep you honest.

• As the potential audience has become mass - the need to have a clear understanding of who your customer is, becomes even more important......like the land grab of previous centuries you need to find a patch of land on which you entertain like minded people.
• As the potential audience becomes mass.....customisation has increased...as customisation has increased true mass personalisation becomes the next frontier...maybe through 3D printing.

So these two little pebbles creates social marketing ripples....BUT if you identify that niche audience and start to work with that audience.....then together you and the market creates the value.

The worse thing you can do is to be everything to everybody.....that will fail.

The best thing you can be...is to be everything to somebody...that will spread socially.