HAYLEY’s DiGiTaL DoOBy

I always spam our office every day with links of stuff I find which I think is cool, innovative or inspiring.  So I decided to round them up in a weekly Digital Dooby instead of a trickle of spam (ew trickling Spam…not a nice thought).

So I thought I’d spread the love even more and share it with you too!  So here it is … a few links to digital stuff I like. Me, me, me.

Sharpies ‘Uncap what’s Inside
Fun site effectively using social media and tapping into the recession ‘make, do and mend’ trend. Really liked their idea for customising sandwich bags!

Sharpie 'Uncap what's inside'

We make stories
Penguin kids site to encourage kids to learn about story telling:

Creativity doesn’t need a big budget
Made on a $0 budget with the directors in one country and the band in another this music video is pretty nifty.  Makes you think how you can come up with some really cool ideas, even when you have a lot of constraints.  Streeetches the imagination.

Sour music video

Webdesign and projects checklists
Inspiration about usability, design, briefs etc to help finesse your work….:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/29/45-incredibly-useful-web-design-checklists-and-questionnaires/

Mash-up inspiration
Lots of examples of Google maps mash-ups to inspire e.g seinfeld maps, michael Jackson tribute map, wikipedia on Google maps.

Hmm so far, not so good Woolworths

Further to my last post about Woolies, it seems that despite them embracing social media, what they are delivering is still quite an old school approach.

Users of the Woolworths site have been encouraged to post suggestions on the ‘Your Questions’ section of the site.  They almost always seem to recieve the   robotic answer ‘I’m afraid it’s too early to say whether we will be stocking these’ – so far.  Hmm not very satisfying for the person who has posted and not a very encouraging approach.

A current theme in social media for brands, is quite rightly, about social media being just that – social: a conversation, a two-way conversation, requiring input from both sides and valuable input.  So far, it seems either a badly planned or missed opportunity for Woolworths.  The audience could quite easily switch off from being these Über-exuberant Woolies fans (didn’t we used to call them brand advocates. Or aren’t they simply word-of-mouth champions?).

In my opinion brands need to get involved and own their social media space, but only where there is a strategy in place to start with.  It needs planning.  Not just doing.  There are many ways a brand can approach social media, but a half-hearted attempt at any of them is worse than doing nothing at all.

For example, Woolworths could have chosen to take the approach that they would use the site for stimulus for discussion, but that they would not actually take part in that discussion.  Not until they were ready. Unfortunately, by creating a question and answer page, they have also created the expectation of reactive listening.  You expect you will get an answer and a satisfactory one at that.

I really liked Fallon’s blog post about Twitter which makes a similar point about Twitter and having a clear, well-planned strategy in place, before brands engage.

http://www.woolworthsblog.co.uk/your-questions/

Long live the painful teenage years

Remember being an awkward tweenager? When talking to someone of the opposite sex was possibly one of the most gut-wrenching painful experiences ever (unless you were the cocky over confident kid everyone secretly hated)?  Or how talking to new people could be a bit scary.  You do remember.  Ah good.  And you grew up?  So, you got through those painful experiences and you learnt from them. You became more confident with each galling or confidence boostingly good face to face experience. And it was no longer a trauma.  It was just life.

But what what about kids of today?  How much face-to-face embarrassment do they have to go through?  I just read that over two-thirds (67%) of teenagers spend the majority of their browsing time on social networks.  The majority.  Added to that 15% of tweenies say instant messaging services are their main use of the web. Along with this, according to Adage, the 50% who own them  spend another chunk of their time with their heads burried in the latest apps on their mobilephones.  So what will become of their social skills? with So how will they get learn from painful social experience, if they don’t have to have them?  If they can just avoid them by having them online?

Instant gratification is a key driver in modern society, causing mass production, disposable everything and general impatience.  So, what will be the effects of instant communication gratification? Yes, I just made that up and it’s not brilliant.  But you get the idea – that without having to go through painful interactions, kids might never learn how to communicate properly?  Dun-dun-dun!  Or will they?

I suppose like everything the effects will be subtle.  Computer games were heralded as the last potential cause of major social breakdown.  And because of computer games (and fear of crime and other media propaganda) kids do indeed play outside less, and do play on computer games more.  But now they play online with their friends remotely.  Perhaps, a new modality of friendship and a new modality of communication.

I’m waffling, but I don’t care, it’s my blog.  But I’d love to hear how people think social networks have affected their kids behaviour and social skills.  Do you think it is a bad thing?  Or are they helping them connect with new people and forming wider social groups?  Do they seem to be shallow relationships?  Do you think this will help or hinder them in later life?

Cool uses of Twitter API

To be honest Twitter talk is doing my head in.  But I can’t seem to escape it.  I also can’t seem to escape it as I am interested to see how it will develop.  Dam you Twitter.

Indeed, it might not be Twitter itself that in the end is useful/decent but the stuff developed off the back of it and ideas it generates?

So on that note, I have been thinking about the Twitter API and some of the random sites that are popping up which are using it:

1. Bit like I feel fine: Twistori.Location based tracking:
2. Location based tracking: twitterearth
3. Random: My Tiny Jesus

Some bizarre uses of the API but perhaps food for thought in terms of tracking terms (brings tag clouds to mind ) and new ways of displaying information to facilitate, for example search. E.g. You could track the term ‘MyBrand’ and see what is being said and put this on your site.   I can see this being particularly applicable to a campaign.  For example you could get people to Twitter a certain word, and they would see this pop-up on your site and in return they get a discount….sorry really lame idea….but no time to think now…get your cells working!

Social Media Monitoring Tools and how to use them

Since I’ve become interested in Social Media, it’s been a task for me to figure out how to manage all the information and conversation which I am interested in.  My aim was to cut through the massive amounts of noise and clutter and only hear the conversation about the brand/keyword/client/industry which I need to.

So how do you do that?  Well, to get you started here is my basic (101) step-by-step guide: social media monitoring tools (and also for online ‘noise’ generally)

Step 1 –Delicious account (the toolbox for all your tools)
Firstly, I’d set up a delicious account.  That way you can bookmark all the sites (‘tools’) you use to monitor the online ‘noise’.  Use short tags – more like categories – so you can easily find what you are looking for on your return.  So a tag like Social Media Tools is pretty foolproof.   So now you have the delicious account to reference your tools you can start setting these up.  So….

Step 2 – Set up an RSS feed reader account (subscribed blog ‘noise’)
An RSS feed reader will allow you to track multiple blogs or websites that have an RSS feed.  (You click on the little square orange button – have a look at the top right of this page).

I would recommend two readers: Netvibes and Google reader.

Google reader has just been up-dated and now allows you to put your RSS feeds into folders, just like Netvibes, so it’s easier to manage and separate your feeds.  Net vibes also allows you to save widgets etc and has other functionality.  But Google is integrated with all your other Google accounts e.g. gmail etc.  So it’s personal preference.

It’s a good idea to break your feeds manageable chunks such as by topic, client or keyword.

Step 3 – Technorati (blog ‘noise’)
I’d set up a Technorati account.  It allows you to search against keywords across all blogs and listen to the ‘noise’, rather than just the ones you have subscribed to in your feed reader.  Excellent for tapping into new conversations.

Step 4 – Twitter  (twitter ‘noise’)

Read my other posts on Twitter if you aren’t already sold.  Then use the search function, tucked away at the very bottom of the page.  Put in your search term e.g. social media, your client name etc and then monitor what the ‘noise’ is.  You can then RSS feed this search result into your reader (Step 1) and track it on a daily basis automatically.

Step 5 – Google Alerts (general online ‘noise’)
Then there is another Google tool that allows you to monitor the ‘noise’ more generally across the web – Google alerts.  This also you to enter a search terms and it allows you to monitor the noise as regularly as you wish – once a day, week etc.  A new tool I have found is also Pipes.  It’s still in Beta and I tried to search against to terms I am interested in: Honda, Insight; however it could not create results when I know there is ‘noise’ happening.  However against Honda it delivered the goods. So maybe one to watch as I’ve heard it is potentially more powerful than Google alerts.

The result

As someone who is potentially interested in social media and the online conversations, once you’ve set these tools up you are ready to ‘listen’ what is being said about you, your client, your industry or your company.  I think these tools pretty much cover all the basis at the moment.  Unless you are more interested in specific forums e.g. Facebook.  For a general overview this is a great starting point.

It may seem overwhelming at first but pretty much all news things are. Once you are used to using the tools, you can put in a diary reminder to just skim read them say once or twice a day and it becomes second nature.  Then how much you react to the conversation is up to you.

So that’s my (101) basics in social media monitoring tools.  Any more suggestions?

Who to follow on twitter?

Found this interesting list of the top twitterers.  Could be a good place to start if you are new to twitter and want to find some interesting people to follow: http://www.twitterholic.com/.

Now, the only thing missing is some info about what kind of things they are twittering about e.g. digital, news, techy etc.  I’m sure it must exist out there?

Twitter….what’s the @bl**dy point?!

I have to admit, I did nearly give up with Twitter.  I thought it was a geek world full of self-indulgent Facebook feeds.  But what kept me going, was not only characteristic sheer pigheadedness but also the fact that it’s full of early adopters (yes geeks) who tend to be the type of people who talk about the industry stuff I want to know first.  And the more I’ve started using it the more benefits I can see.

So I’m sold….can I take you to the Twitter-side?

1.    It’s not Facebook status feeds – Twitter is not full of self-indulgent Facebook-esque feeds.  It’s all about knowledge sharing – so for you that means industry and brand knowledge building.

2.    Keeps you ahead of the competition – by following the leading commentators and ordinary folk alike people are actively sharing industry information and news before it hits the regular media in nice dinky bite size pieces and links. Which makes you look clever  in front of your clients and colleagues when you share a nice ‘new’ idea.

3.    Networking – you don’t have to be mates with someone to stalk them now!  Twitter allows you to follow who you like and it’s up to them if they want to follow you back or just ignore your noise – but quite often people will return the favour and engage in dialogue.

4.    Profile raising – if enough people start following you and your ramblings, you can go from zero to hero and you’ll be a keynote speaker at FOWA in no time.

5.    Easier than you thought  – If you down load a Twitter firefox add on – it makes it really simple and quick to up-date and follow feeds.  No more logging into a distracting web page all the time. Try this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081

What more can twitter do for your brand?

6.    Brands can engage in a real two-way conversation with their customers – brands have the potential to listen to the buzz about their brand in the Twitter-sphere, simply by searching for their keywords and thus actively and instantly respond to their consumers and react instantly.

7.    Build a reputation for your brand by following potential customers and journalists that write about your space.

8.    Lead generation.

One question though that still remains as to how do I know who is interesting and worth following?  Time is money and all that and I don’t want to listen to people waffling all day (I have Facebook for that).  I’m currently trialling MrTweet…so watch this space on my thoughts. http://mrtweet.net/

But so far for me it has been a bit of random luck finding people. One simple way Twitter could make spreading the word much faster is by making it easier to search for people and for categories.  So far it’s been a bit of a treasure hunt.  Although I hear there might be progress http://blog.twitter.com/2008/07/finding-perfect-match.html.

So to get you started – here’s some Twitter voices we are following who we think have something good to say about digital or do digital good:
@BBCdigital
@BarrackObama
@russelldavies
@kevinrose
@BrandRepublic

You got any better twitterers to share?