I have just returned from an, as always, very interesting talk by Greg Williams of Wired UK.
The presentation looked to highlight the top 10 trends as seen by Wired; this is not about fads or noise but genuine innovations that are, and will sculpt both industry and consumerism.
1) Rise of the mobile
USA has 76% penetration vs. India 5% and China 29%
2) SoloMo – Social local mobile
http://badoo.com/
http://www.google.com/wallet/
3) The data economy
An iPhone has more computer power than Apollo 11 had.
4) Social design
Building around people and not products (The Roost!)
http://www.trippy.com/
5) Privacy
Facebook, the world’s biggest spread sheet – Amber Case (Cyborg Anthropologist)
http://suicidemachine.org/
6 Health
http://www.nike.com/fuelband/
http://www.moodscope.com/about/how-it-works/how-does-moodscope-work
7) Consumerisation
Consumer expectations exceed corporate IT systems
8 ) 3D printing
9) Collaborative consumerism
https://www.whipcar.com/join-whipcar?gclid=COa2wJHBhLACFQ8htAodyGTzkg
http://www.taskrabbit.com/
10) Finance revolution
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/credit-card-reader
The Future is here – it is all about serving human needs.
Have you come across any trends/technologies that have changed your day to day – we’d love to hear about them here.
@simonjohn9
On Monday, in New York, I was lucky enough to catch up with Veronica Chan of Gojee, to chat about the state of the blogosphere in the USA. As Director of Content, Veronica is focused on what her audience is interested in to sustainably build out the content strategy for the company.
Veronica Chan of Gojee
Gojee is like StumbleUpon for Foodies. The aim of the site is to allow everyday cooks to tap into a massive selection of recipes submitted by personally selected bloggers; it means that users can search by their favourite ingredients and find new exciting recipes as submitted by their favourite bloggers.
What was interesting was the way in which Veronica and Gojee have approached the recruitment and relationships with the bloggers. Similar to the way in which we approach this space, it has all been about personal one-on-one correspondence. Veronica herself knows and talks to each of the bloggers on a regular basis “adding a face to the brand”.
Veronica has found herself becoming friends with many of the bloggers, further building trust and transparency in the working relationship that they have forged.
As discussed in a previous post, there has always been a tricky relationship between bloggers and brands/agencies. This is not only the case in the UK but also in the US where some bloggers have had their fingers burnt either as a result of the lack of openness about what has been expected or through the prescriptive brief that they have been given. Gojee’s model relies on their relationships and therefore they have taken the time to invest in building an exclusive network – even though when they first set out they were trying to sell in an idea as the site wasn’t even live.
It has been a credit to their success that they have now built up a community that is considered exclusive amongst the food blogging community and have a growing of 390K users from all around the world. Membership, and the ability to upload new recipes to the site, is by invite only.
It was a great morning spent with Veronica, made even better by some cheeky celeb spotting…
@simonjohn9
Blogging is a way of life – it is personal in its motivations and approach.
At Roost Online we are interested in finding out what makes bloggers tick and what they see as valuable in working alongside brands. We know that this varies across sectors, interests and locations, even within the UK geographical access to events and cities means that a blogger has to respond differently to requests based on where they live/work.
We have long since know that the US blogosphere again is very different to that of the UK in terms of that it seems to have found a more commercial positioning as a result of being more established. We have now run several campaigns outside of the UK, but our thirst for insight is such that this week our Strategy Director, Simon, is off to New York to go and meet some bloggers and brands to understand a little more about what they want from a ‘relationship’.
If you are New York based and want to get in touch for a coffee, please give Simon a shout on http://twitter.com/blog_community
On Saturday Roost Online attended #BlogCampUK, run by journalist and blogger Sally Whittle and the team behind the Tots100 – it was the first time BlogCamp ran over a full day.
Each of the sessions were inspirational with an informal and relaxed approach, offering constructive debate and practical advice for all parties.
Photo courtesy of Tots100 & Sally Whittle
While the second part of the day was more focused on the relationship between blogger & Public Relations’ consultants (PRs), we chose to attend the whole day as the agenda looked to cover many aspects that affect blogging success, and we wanted to get the chance to chat to as many attendees as possible and put faces to some names we’ve been chatting to over the past 12 months. We felt this was as important as any discussions around ‘the relationship’.
The agenda for BlogCampUK included:
- Basic and advanced SEO techniques led by Lee Smallwood
- Tutorial on making video blogs using Windows Movie Maker
- Taking great photos on a digital camera
- Editing photos using free and simple online tools
- Setting up your own self-hosted WordPress blog
- How to be a snark (and get away with it) led by Stuart Heritage
- Using your blog to develop e-courses and online workshops
- Working with brands beyond advertising and sponsored posts
- How to write reviews without selling out
Bloggers and their content
We have always looked at blogging from a word of mouth perspective with our clients in mind. Content needs to be created by people who are genuinely interested in the subject at hand – this is the value that clients want to see and the only way a true and valuable consumer/brand relationship can be developed.
In order for us to make sure that we match up brands/products/information opportunities with bloggers we need to first understand how they personally like to blog; What is it that excites them? Where are knowledge gaps (if any) and how they want us to approach them? The nature of the day really gave us a great insight into many of these questions and the personalities behind many of the blogs we’ve come across (it was an anthropologist’s heaven).
It is important that we match these personalities with the brands that will appeal to them and also look to help bloggers with any digital understanding. After all, the better their content, the better the value exchange (the mutual understanding between a brand and the bloggers) for any brand – and the greater the experience for any readers.
We set up The Roost (our blog community) to build relationships with bloggers.
Manned (womenned!) by Carli on a daily and nightly basis, The Roost is our way of showing commitment to the blogging community with which we work. It is our intention to make sure that we know the right bloggers before a brief comes in, this means that we can get to know what bloggers do and don’t have an interest in, and which brand opportunities might be a good fit. It allows us to talk personally about bloggers in any client pitch, but it also means that we aren’t losing time once we win new clients building relevant relationships.
The Roost allows for a private space where we can further co-create projects ‘offline’. Who better to give advice about what your peers might want to hear than bloggers themselves…
Social Communications vs. PR
The final session of the day focused on the relationship between ‘PRs’ and bloggers – a constructive session where both sides were allowed to air their thoughts.
The panel delved into the much discussed ‘grey areas’ of blogger outreach by agencies and acknowledged that the industry has changed and adapted quickly in the past 10 years, aligning with the new media landscape. Such have been the changes that sometimes the traditional infrastructure is yet to catch up with itself resulting in intermittent errors in judgement, and ‘opportunities’ pitched to bloggers in a way which can rile and sometimes infuriate.
The floor seemed surprised to hear the suggestion that agencies are open to being contacted directly by bloggers, with a view to offering their services as writers and consultants. Many agencies however are not well structured to work in this way and we’d love to hear more from bloggers as to whether you’ve found this approach fruitful in working with PR’s to deliver content you’re truly passionate about?
While much of the session focused on the issue of ‘nofollows’ and the transparency of the relationship (which I will be dedicating another post to) I want to finish off with my thoughts on the difference between a PR agency and the way in which Roost approaches this space.
It’s not our business model to receive a press release from a client which we then send out to a blogger hoping for it to be re-posted on their blog with links. For Roost Online this doesn’t constitute genuine word of mouth content. Instead each and every client brief of ours needs to get all parties excited, and that requires buy in to the opportunity. The opportunity needs to represent value tailored to the individual’s blog, lifestyle and current interests. For us, a review post alone, based on pre-defined terms, no matter the subject, doesn’t meet the value potential the blogger’s insight, feedback and genuine word of mouth represents. From a syndication perspective, we absolutely appreciate the role of the PR to select relevant blogs and place articles but these placements don’t necessarily equate relationships.
A deeper, brand ambassador or advocate relationship built up over time, based on mutual understanding and benefits is of far greater value thus how we look to work with the blogging community.
For Roost, Social Communications is about forging these long term relationships between brands and bloggers. We like to work on three to six month campaigns where the value exchange is going to maintain the interest of all parties (this is not about paying for content!).
We are very much looking forward to the next Blog Camp, maybe next time we can even squeeze a seat on the panel!? @SallyWhittle…;)
Follow us @ https://twitter.com/#!/blog_community
Join The Roost – http://theroostblogcommunity.com/
Here are some of the blogs from attendees – maybe this should be a who’s who of who was listening to the SEO session…
Purple Mum - Blog Camp UK – the good, the bad and the cake.
Not Even A Bag Sugar- return from Blogcamp
Stressy Mummy – Mummy went to blogcamp
D’log – Blocamp UK 2012 report
Mum on the brink – Blogcamp UK 2012 Birmingham – branding, photography, SEO, working with PR’s
Nelly’s Cupcakes – Blogcamp UK 2012
Angela This is life – Blog Camp UK
Mary Poppins – My Day at Blog Camp UK
Rosie Scribble – BlogCamp UK – No scandal to report
Hello, I’m Frankie the newest addition to the communities team. With a background in journalism, PR and Corporate Social Responsibility I’ve joined Roost as a Community Strategist.
When I tell people about my new role a lot of them ask, ‘what does a community strategist do?’. This question is understandable; community management roles have only really developed in the past few years and are far removed from being dentists or accountants.
The question is a difficult one to answer because the role itself can vary from day to day but in its simplest terms it involves building up and engaging with online communities – the brand’s fans, followers and critics – be that on Twitter, Facebook or the latest flavour of the month Pinterest. This activity will follow a specific strategy, which will have been planned and developed by the team.
Social networks provide a place for a two-way dialogue between brand and customer and it is the job of the Community Strategist to fit comfortably in both those worlds. This involves championing the brand its products and events to the audience and encouraging conversation and debate to an online community or audience. Then acting as an advocate of that community by listening to and monitoring what it is saying then feeding it back to the brand.
As a relatively new role the exact definition of a Community Strategist is undefined but as a growing position it will continue to develop and evolve and is definitely one people will start to take more notice of. I am very excited to see how my role will develop as I sink my teeth into some of the exciting projects lined up at Roost.
@frankieholloway
So here is a quick run down of our favourite digital pranks from the last week…
1. Google Maps turns into an 8-bit Nintendo game (Google)
Google always do some of the best April Fools pranks and this was no different. The YouTube video featured a very life-like Mario-kart style map and a Japanese family using it with delight. How can this not exist?
2. The introduction of bubbly tax (Daily Mail)
Yes times are still easy for some. But the party crowd might just have fallen for this prank the Daily Mail tried to pull. Who else still can afford Moet on a weekly basis anyway ?
3. Conan O Brien buys Mashable (Mashable)
What does a comedian do when he is sick of the news online not being regulated to one website? He decides to buy Mashable for $3500 and fire the CEO. Just kidding. Mashable just tries to parody the information overload that people face now on the web. The video is amusing and includes O’Brien’s dry humour that is what makes this April fools prank successful.
4. West Jet airlines announces child free flights
Imagine you were on a flight with no screaming child in sight. We really wish this was real. The YouTube ‘commercial’ for West Jet makes us desperately want to believe that there would be such a thing.
5. Rock Band becomes a board game
Technology can take a simple game and make it more interactive. But what if it was the other way around? We get to see the funny side of this in Rock Band’s ‘board game’.
6. Arsenal football club to launch perfume (The Sun)
Would you like to buy the perfume that had the smell of a football stadium? No we wouldn’t either. But some crazed football fan just might have believed this.
7. The World’s Smallest Laptop (Sony)
Just for today Sony beat Apple in having a more innovative product. With the youtube video it showed that the laptop was portable, easy and accessible for your child. An April Fools prank that had a great idea and brilliant acting.
Agree? Why not let us know your all time favourites…
Have you seen the new Weight Watchers campaign? You might have seen the £15 million, over three-minute-long new advert which launched the brand’s new look on the 1st January, taking advantage of New Year motivations to rid ourselves of the extra mince-pie pounds. It features the single “Do it Our Way (Play)” written and sung by Alesha Dixon (considered a controversial choice for the brand, but no matter) backed up by a group of 180 real Weight Watchers members who have lost a total of 422 stone between them. The song’s lyrics are based on the real experiences of the people who feature in the ad, and a selection of them sing a line or two as the video pans continuously through one long shot so that each participant has some time in the limelight. It’s great fun and is a wonderful example of a co-created and community driven piece of content drawing on the contributions of real Weight Watchers members, which is bound to have a positive impact on engagement on their social network profiles and an increase in sign-ups. The community will feel recognised and valued by the brand as it reasserts its membership as being comprised of real people with real stories.
As we build up to the launch of our own blogger community we notice some parallels between Weight Watchers’ aims and ours – their ad reflects the sense of community, group support and shared interest that underlies the whole Weight Watchers programme. Our aim is to create similar communities of individuals with shared interests who enter into a value exchange with brands, communicating with and supporting one another along the way.
But Weight Watchers has an entirely new approach to go along with its new advert. The weight loss system has been re-packaged as a game – we are now urged to “Play Weight Watchers” as it has become “The Game You Play to Lose Weight”. This trendy gamification aspect to the campaign will surely draw in new members as watching your weight becomes a fun challenge rather than an obligatory and boring New Year’s resolution. This is along the lines of many other health apps available on smartphones – Weight Watchers also introduced mobile apps and online tools along with their new ProPoints system last year. It remains to be seen how long the novelty will last, but it’s certain to be a smart move to validate the identities of their existing community members, and increase engagement and WOM from existing and prospective participants.
Watch the video below:
How does your use of social media change when you leave university? I graduated from Durham last June, and having recently spent some time with Roost doing Work Experience I have observed several differences between student and graduate use of Facebook. Or at least, how your use of Facebook ought to be different once you leave university.
As an introduction to university life, the Durham student website simply stated ‘Durham University students = Facebook addicts’. This is very true. The average student uses Facebook for unadulterated self-promotion. Your wall needs to resemble that of an E-list celebrity; posts saying you’ve attended VIP nights, you and your equally E-list aspiring friends appearing in clubs’ own (branded) photos, and ‘personal’ wall posts from the university’s biggest socialites. Students work all hours of the night to cultivate this image, blissfully unaware of how such content will be perceived and used in the future.
Facebook arrived in my final year at school and was instantly blocked on all computers. Although not actively discouraged from using it, the amount of scare-mongering from school was enough to make us think twice about signing up. We were told that employers, universities and schools had special access to view everything on your profile, regardless of your privacy settings. They could even read your private messages. Only in the last week have I discovered this is not true. Still, it worked – although I defied school and joined in the scramble for friends, I have always been overly cautious about what I post and what appears on my Facebook profile.
Despite now knowing that Facebook is not an evil big brother, the fear that once content is out there it never goes away still looms. There is a regular stream of scandalous stories from the press and from friends about people being sacked or not getting jobs based on the content of their Facebook profile. Those once sought-after accolades of sociability and hedonism are now the very thing which graduates are trying to purge from their profiles. Viewing your profile through the eyes of a potential or current employer should make you nervous, even if you never achieved such E-list stardom at university. The image the graduate needs to promote and the image the student aspires to attain are so incongruous that I know some who are considering having two accounts (not wanting to let go of that hard-earned student profile), or starting afresh. Google+ with its circles seems to be the way to avoid this clash of interests, but none of my peers have heard of it.
Never was the beneficial, professional use of social media encouraged, or even explained at either at school or university. Facebook was only ever viewed negatively by the authorities as a brilliant means of procrastination. Which it is. But not in any of my numerous meetings with careers advisers were the benefits of a ‘healthy’ Facebook profile pointed out, or LinkedIn mentioned as a useful networking tool. Being at Roost has shown me how crucial it is that all your social media is entirely presentable to an employer, or at least carefully safeguarded by your privacy settings. The most surprising thing is how many graduates have open profiles with their non-degree achievements on view for all employers to see. Maybe this is why students are finding it so hard to get a job these days.
https://twitter.com/#!/Katenmullins
^KM
What do you get when you cross a traditional fairy tale with a Giraffe and a Facebook community of parents knee-deep in Christmas cheer?
…Presenting “Geoffrey and the Beanstalk”, a co-created Christmas panto featuring everyone’s favourite Giraffe – Geoffrey the Toys R Us mascot.
We asked the Facebook community to give their suggestions for all elements of the panto, from casting to wardrobe and script.
Fan of the Toys R Us UK Facebook page gave us their best ideas, and those selected can see their name in lights… well, bold italics anyway.
Maybe next year we can put the panto on for real with our blogging community taking to the stage?
This year Roost aim to bring anthropological ways of thinking and methods to the forefront of their service offering. Having insight into the thinking and lives of communities that goes beyond numbers and figures is undoubtedly invaluable when building lasting relationships and vibrant communities with bloggers from across the UK, USA, Asia and Africa.
In this vein we are in the initial stages of planning a more anthropologically-focused approach to apply to each of our existing blogger and social media communities, and we hope that in future this approach will be used to shed light on further groups and demographics that are interesting for our future and potential clients. We believe that each community that we create or maintain for our clients is different – each of these online spaces is a separate cultural environment in which varying value systems operate and relationships exist. The key to maximising engagement and benefit from each community is to take the time and effort to understand them fully.
We will be utilising some of the most important anthropological methodological principles when investigating these communities to produce micro-ethnographies – compact studies of each community. We will immerse ourselves within group spaces to observe them and understand them “from the inside” (within their particular context). Equally important will be our conversation with the bloggers and fans themselves - to gain qualitative insight into their viewpoint and experience.
The key elements to our approach in studying each community will be the following:
- Who are the people in our communities? Here we will be looking at demographics, social technographics (the way that they create or interact with online content), which online spaces they spend most time in
- What do they value? We want to find out what they engage with, how, and most importantly, why? What are the things that get them excited and compel them to engage?
- How do they view their role within the community? What are their relationships with others and brands based on and how can we strengthen our relationship with them?
- Finally we will present a resulting strategy for brands engaging with these communities.
We strive to create meaningful relationships between brands and bloggers, who are key to creating positive word-of-mouth and leading consumer engagement. We really appreciate the bloggers we already work with and can’t wait to further develop our vision with them and expand our communities. We are also looking forward to providing an even better offering for our clients through this strategy – giving them a deeper insight and understanding of their online fans.
We hope that clients and bloggers alike will be excited by our plans for 2012 – we can’t wait!