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What You Need to Know about Google+ [VIDEO]
– July 4, 2011
Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Social Media Manifesto”
Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Social Media Manifesto” paraphrased from his Inc 500/5000 keynote in 2011. Great advice for brands…
Featured Articles
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Top 100 People in Social Media from “Follow Me, I’m Right Behind You”
Today I’m publishing a list of, in my opinion, the Top 100 People in Social Media. It’s from my forthcoming book about people who have done amazing things and have helped…
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6 Things I’ve Learnt This Week
by Jeremy Waite 29th October 2011
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Why the UK Riots Made Me Fall Out of Love with Adidas
Social media wasn’t responsible for the riots, people were (but brands didn’t help)…
Sex, Brands & Rock'n'Roll by Jeremy Waite
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You are Never Alone (Privacy is a Trap)…
– May 22, 2011
Some of my friends seem suspicious of my day job, (running social media campaigns for Phones 4u) citing the privacy debate as a reason to dislike social media. I understand their frustrations and whilst Facebook hasn’t done itself any favours improving their attitude towards privacy, maybe we are too precious about our privacy?
I read a great article on PSFK which stated that our attitudes to privacy are riven with what psychologists call cognitive dissonance, which is a fancy term for our ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time. We claim to value privacy highly, yet increasingly behave, especially in our online lives, as though we didn’t.
This dichotomy has had me thinking for a while which side of the fence I should be straddling, both personally and professionally, but a recent quote I read in Wired magazine really got me thinking…
“Privacy is important but it can also be a trap. Privacy can be very isolating. We can come to believe that we are terminally unique, that ordinary details of our lives and our bodies are fundamentally embarrassing, when in fact they are quite normal.
When we share, we come to see that we are not unique, that there are lots of people just like us, that our concerns are shared by others. We communicate. We allow ourselves to be changed. We allow others to hear is. We join the human race“. Anne B @wired.co.uk
My son is 14 and doesn’t really have a problem with privacy as he has grown up with Facebook and realises that his social graph is open and available. It doesn’t phase him at all – yet those of us over 25 have grown up with the fear of identity theft and privacy concerns. The fact is that kids my sons age have on average 110 friends – yet people over 25 have more than 300 friends. What does that say about privacy and our willingness to share? It probably means that we’ve invited to many people we only brushed passed in a pub, instead of only connecting with real friends. No wonder I keep getting invited to join so many weird groups…
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Are Facebook’s Sponsored Stories Un-Ethical?
– May 4, 2011
AllFacebook reported yesterday that the new advertising model (which Facebook call “Sponsored Stories” because they refuse to classify them as advertising), have a 46% higher click-through-rate than other more mainstream forms of Facebook advertising. I’ve used sponsored stories as an ad mechanic recently and found them highly successful – but I do have deeper concerns about the ethics behind them and their sustainability.
My friend Gary Vaynerchuk calls social media, “Word of mouth on steroids.” Facebook have now figured out how to sell that at a premium…
What sponsored stories essentially do is allow brands to capture your “likes” and then re-sell them to your friends without your permission.
Sponsored stories are the controversial advertisements which turn a user’s content into an actual advertisement. However, Facebook is not calling them “ads.” If you like Starbucks coffee, Starbucks can buy that like and post it as a “story” (not an advert), saying James likes Starbucks – click here to like it too, on the basis that his recommendation will increase the liklihood of getting your attention. They are certainly more expensive than other forms on on-line ads, but they sure do work.
A recent campaign I did using sponsored stories captured over 15,000 “likes”, compared to an almost identical campaign 3 weeks earlier which returned less than 4,000 likes with the same budget.
My issue really though is around ethics. Is it OK for Facebook to buy your word-of-mouth recommendation and then sell it at a premium to brands to engage with YOUR friends, WITHOUT your permission? If social media is as Gary says “word of mouth on steroids” which makes it the one thing that separates social media from traditional advertising, then surely this form of stealthy sales is going to be very short-lived as customers get savvy to it?
What Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" look like
Don’t misunderstand me, as a social media marketer myself I want to run with whatever mechanic is going to give me the best return for my budget – but this blog allows me to be slightly more philosophical than I am in my day job. If you give a testimonial to endorse a brand, that brands asks your permission. To use your name to advertise a product to your friends that you’ve liked – Facebook DON’T need your permission. They don’t even ask for it. Is that acceptable, or just something that we’ve come to accept in our privacy-less social media world?
You can read more about sponsored stories here but I’d certainly love to hear your thoughts. Get in touch with me at jeremywaite@me.com or drop me a line in the comments below.
“How to make the most of Sponsored Stories” by AllFacebook.com
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Facebook Now Outranks Television in the UK [Infographic]
– May 4, 2011
eXpansys recently conducted a survey of 3,000 people in the UK, which amongst other things found that we spend an average of two and a half hours using Facebook every day, compared to just two hours watching TV. You can read more about the survey results on the Expansys Facebook blog post but have a look at this cool infographic below to see how social network sites are growing.
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How Much Are You REALLY Worth? (Empire Avenue Think They Have the Answer…)
– April 23, 2011
Empire Avenue : The Social Media Exchange
Empire Avenue is the Social Media Exchange, where you can buy and sell shares in any social media profile, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone! All using a virtual currency and all for free!
Click to have a look at Empire Avenue
For years now we’ve been fascinated as much by celebrities as by celebrity pop culture itself… I was brought up watching people who my mum and dad told me were ‘genuine’ celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne and Chuck Norris (obviously). But as I started to take notice of brands in the 90’s, I watched Nike help Michael Jordan to revolutionise the way that we experience celebrities. Ever since that ground-breaking endorsement deal which gave us Mike’s first pair of Air Jordan’s in 1985, the media have enabled brands to turn people into celebrities faster than ever.
And then before you knew it, Simon Cowell found a way to re-invent what ‘celebrity’ means to us. Our Saturday nights have never been the same. Seeing the hunger that we have for stardom, it’s no surprise that music mogul Simon Cowell’s business model is now based upon the value of his artists’ personal brands, not their music. I read last week that he is now worth an estimated $254m. Not bad for a music guy who figured out how to trade off the celebrity aspirations of the general public. Years ago there were just celebrities – now, largely as a result of X-Factor style TV shows, we’ve got A,B and C list celebrities.
The BBC's Bafta Award-winning Celebrity Trading Website
It wasn’t actually that long ago that we were fascinated with sites like CelebDaq and HSW which helped us live out our celebrity obsessions. Celebrity trading sites like these let us all pretend to be Gordon Gekko, trading on the fluctuating daily value of rock stars, actors and athletes. What I’ve noticed recently though is that we have moved out of a celebrity driven culture and into a social one – people are more interested in YOU!
I was recently looking to do a business deal with an English guy called Charlie McDonnell. Many of you won’t even have heard of him, but he started filming a personal video diary a few years ago. He’s now got the most subscribed YouTube channel in the UK with almost 1 million subscribers. Not bad for a 20 year old boy-next-door who has never been ‘officially’ famous. Social media has made ‘celebrity’ accessible to everyone. Less than 10 years ago – this would never have been possible.
So while thousands of wannabe musicians and athletes are still looking for their 15 minutes of fame, Canadian start-up Empire Avenue have recognised that we are in the dawn of a new era. A social era. Celebrities are out. People like you and me are in!
Real people are now more interesting than celebrities.
Social media has provided us all with a platform on which we all have a certain level of influence. Whatever you choose to use that influence for is up to you. Maybe you just want to engage with your 130* friends or maybe you’re trying to become an internet celebrity like Charlie. *(130 friends is average number of friends across its 610m users according to Facebook). Whichever it is – the thing is that your level of influence has a value, and once you understand that – it’s not hard to see why a site like Empire Avenue is being hailed as the ‘next big thing’.
Step up Empire Avenue…
Launched in Feb 2010, Empire Avenue (Twitter profile @empireave) is the perfect example of social media meeting the increasing importance of personal branding. It’s a trading site for people to buy and sell shares in your personal brand, rather than in stocks or shares. Yes – you ARE a brand (sorry!) and that brand has a value. The more time you spend building your personal brand (or social profile), the more valuable your brand becomes. What is a little bit un-nerving though is that people want to trade on the value of you brand. I’ve only been on the site for 24 hours and 18 people have chosen to buy virtual shares in me already. Weird.
Hook up your social media accounts to an Empire Avenue profile you’ll soon see how much your brand is worth (you can even start trading on other people’s brands straight away) – but let me warn you – it’s incredibly addictive!
So there you go… We can all be (local) celebrities because we’re ALL “worth it”. Thanks L’Oreal… We knew it all along!
Further Reading!
Marketing guru Seth Godin wrote a great article last year about ordinary people becoming famous, but it was Tom Peters who prophesied called it 10 years ago with his book Brand You. (Tom and Seth both inspired me to write a book about personal brands myself).
There’s a little mini-video here (which is a little cheesy) with EmpireAve founder Duleepa Wijayawardhana that explains more.
You can also read a little bit more here of the commercial aspirations behind Empire Avenue.
Customer Service – How much is a person worth? By Empire Avenue CEO “Dup”. @dups
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Oh, we just knew Facebook didn’t care about privacy! After all its maneuverings to get us to open up, the social-networking behemoth is expected to go public itself sometime this year. Here, a look at the numbers propelling its estimated $50 billion valuation. | Typography by Julie Teninbaum.
The Real Numbers Behind Facebook’s $50bn Valuation
– April 18, 2011
Oh, we just knew Facebook didn’t care about privacy! After all its maneuverings to get us to open up, the social-networking behemoth is expected to go public itself sometime this year. Here, a look at the numbers propelling its estimated $50 billion valuation. | Typography by Julie Teninbaum.
Infographic: The Business of Facebook
Facebook has 610,736,920 MEMBER PROFILES. That’s one for every ELEVEN people on the planet.
Based on page views and users, Facebook is the NO. 2 site in the U.S., behind Google and ahead of YouTube and Yahoo.
EVERY 60 SECONDS ON FACEBOOK, USERS send 230,000 messages, update 95,000 statuses, write 80,000 wall posts, tag 65,000 photos, share 50,000 links—and affirm or disparage them all with half a million comments.
65% of surveyed teens admit to being “FRIENDS” with their PARENTS though 16% said it was a precondition for joining the site. More than 38% of teens have ignored a friend request from Mom or Dad.
Each month, the average user creates 90 pieces of content and spends 6 hours, 2 minutes ,and 59 seconds on the site.
Zynga, Facebook’s biggest app developer, has 19 games that attract 275 MILLION users a month, sabotaging about a kajillion hours of productivity. (Damn you, CityVille!)
Analysts estimate that Facebook pulled in $1.86 BILLION in advertising in 2010. That’s expected to grow 118% this year, to $4 billion.
Facebook takes a 30% cut of all revenue generated through its virtual currency, Facebook Credits. Virtual goods for sale on the site make up an estimated $835 MILLION market.
AMERICANS make up 24% of users, followed by Indonesians (6%), Brits (5%), and Turks (4%).
Brands with the MOST fans on Facebook: Coca-Cola (21.6 million),Starbucks (19 million), Oreo (16.2 million), Disney (15.6 million), and Red Bull (14.7 million).
A version of this article appears in the April 2011 issue of Fast Company.
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The Best April Fools Day Ads of 2011 by Phones 4u & BMW
– April 1, 2011
It’s about that time again when we look to the press to see how much of a sense of humour our favourite brands have. BMW have a long traditional of print ads on April 1st, but this year Phones 4u have run a rather provocative campaign of their own. Phones 4u are promising a FREE Mankini with the purchase of each android phone, to commemorate the Royal wedding – or more specifically, the Royal Stag do!!! “Protect your crown jewels!” Nice…
As usual, the BMW press office have also excelled themselves…
‘MARQUE THE OCCASION.To celebrate the forthcoming wedding of HRH Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton, a very special Royal Edition of the BMW M3 Coupe will be available at BMW dealerships throughout the country from today, and for this month only. The majestic Royal edition is available in three colours – Regal Red, Bridal White and Imperial Blue. It is resplendently upholstered in Windsor White Dakota leather and adorned with our commemorative ‘Will’ emblem.
For more information, call 0800 777 120 or contact pauline.yourlegg@bmw.co.uk
Royal Edition M3 - April Fools Day Ad : BMW 2011
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Nobody Cares When You Were Established
– March 20, 2011
I was walking down The Strand in London yesterday on my way to a design exhibition at Somerset House (was very good – check it out here!), when I noticed I was near number 216. There are lots of impressive shops and buildings on The Stand, so why should 216 be any different I hear you ask…?
Well… once named by our very own Prime Minister Disraeli as “The finest street in Europe”, The Stand also hosts the oldest tea shop in the world. But more than that, as it was established in the 1700′s and has occupied that same address ever since, it is also makes this address the oldest rate payer in London. More importantly for me as a marketer is that Twinings has had their logo above the door since 1787, making it the oldest company logo that has been in continuous use in the world.
History lesson over – but it reminded me of a tweet I wrote recently….
The thing is, nobody cares when you were established anymore. When I worked as a designer for my dads printing business, we used to take pride in the fact that we were established in 1972. Companies do it all the time don’t they – Kelloggs was established in 1906, but who really cares?
These days is far more important to be relevant. Traditions and heritage can build brands and contribute to great stories, but all customers care about is what you can do for them right now. I work for the large mobile phone retailer Phones 4u and we market almost exclusively to 16-24′s. Do you think they care whether we were established in the 80′s or how successful we are? Not at all – they want a good deal on their mobile and they want to find a way to afford the sexiest new handset. In telecoms, being an established business probably does you more harm than good. Just ask BT.
We all want brands that we can trust, but in today’s attention economy we just want brands to understand us and give us what we want. I think the same goes for people. I love that I work with so many young people, many of whom are the most talented marketers and designers I’ve ever worked with. What makes them special is that they don’t all have amazing CV’s. They don’t need to have. They are relevant, they understand our customers and they are full of ideas. I doesn’t matter one bit that they don’t have 10 years experience marketing telecoms brands.
Ideas and relevance beats experience every time…
