Two ears and one mouth

I have to confess that part of the reason it has taken me so long to get back on top of my work post paternity leave is due to being in listening mode a seminars. In fact, the air in London has been rich with social media conferences during April.

30th March was the social Media Summit (#smsummit). A very consumer focused event, with presentations from some brilliant creatives we can overlook this. The most notable presentation from me was from doctors.net. I think these kinds of closed user group communities, like mallowstreet.com in my own sector are the future of b2b digital marketing in regulated industries.

5th April The Financial Services Forum had a bash at tackling how to establish the business case for social media (#socialmediavalue). A noble endeavour, but sadly, as they failed to differentiate consumer from B2B marketing this didn’t really match its billing. I think the metrics and values are wildly different so all the retail banking examples were wasted on me.

7th April and we moved from the West End to Canary Wharf to the Finextra bash at stunning event space in Thomson Reuters offices. An impressive venue and an event with a global line up to match. Content was based on a much more strategic approach than the previous events, but they had an earnest bash at separating tackling social media in B2B. The business case being a recurring theme for this event too.

12th April and my final outing for some time to come was a private breakfast function hosted by JLA at the venerable RIBA offices at Portland Place with Josh Spier (@joshspear), Alex Hunter (@cubedweller) and David Rowan (@irowan). Take away from this bash, a big smile. I wish I could bottle these 3 guys and release a little of their understanding of all things social into my colleagues atmosphere to absorb painlessly.

Back to work

I am pleased to say that I am back to wok after paternity leave, and finally back on top things. Rosie was born on 1st March and in a very short time has put the whole family into orbit around her and created more love than I ever thought was possible.

Within 30 minutes of being back at my desk, I had a call from my boss at the airport informing me I was being “offloaded” in order that he could expand his team. Predictably, with hindsight, my most successful projects have been redistributed and I been provided the opportunity to do lots of exciting new things.

Actually, just between you and I, I’m quite excited about re energising my marketing neural pathway that has been neglected over the past few years, in particular the links to my branding sweet spot. Wherever that may have been archived.

I have been a little old fashioned about my view on branding in B2B marketing for too long; holding on to the view that its role is primarily for generating and nurturing sales opportunities in the form of leads. However, the digital aspects of branding that have exploded more recently have helped me do 180 degrees on this, and the new challenge is about how we aggregate individual’s brands into a common corporate identity with a consistent and engaging tone of voice.

You Tube keeps you warm

I hate to start with a cliché, but we really can learn from our children. Let me illustrate how this has hit home for me through the use of You Tube. It started when we had a couple families around to our home to join us welcome in 2011 on New Years Eve.

The boys decamped to one room to follow the aged old tradition of shooting the bad guys. Before I was a child it was with toy soldiers, in my childhood it was with Action Man and now it’s using the paddles of an X Box. The girls headed to the largest empty room to start planning a dance routine to latest Olly Murs album (2010 Runner up for the UK’s X Factor).

During the great tidy up the next day I found that the CD player that the girls were using was broken. Using all the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes I asked my daughter how the dancing had gone and to my surprise she was full of how they had learned a new routine. And how did she play the CD I enquired? “Oh we couldn’t get that to work its broken. We just logged on to You Tube and followed the dance routines there.”

Fast forward a month to one of the last precious weekends before we have a screaming baby in the house, and I came home from work Friday to find the radiator had mysteriously fallen off the wall in my son’s room. Don’t get me started, I have a stream of consciousness on that little gem, but we’re not here to explore the father son dynamic of family life.

Following a ram raid on B&Q for extra strength raw plugs, I drained and re hung the radiator and after proudly packing my tools away tried not to think too much about it. The following morning when we needed our central heating system it started making noises like my wife’s stomach after a curry. Loathed to pay for an emergency plumber I spent half an hour staring the big thing that holds the hot water in the cupboard that keeps the towels warm neither me or the kids were starting to smell any sweeter.

So with the sweet sound of my wife’s nagging ringing in my ears I headed to my new source of how to do everything, You Tube. A charming man with a Yorkshire accent helped me discover I have a combi boiler, how to check it’s water pressure, how to increase it’s water pressure, and most importantly by combing all of this new knowledge - how to stop the nagging ringing in my ears and stop us all from smelling.

Crowd sourced economic policy

Who’s a clever boy then?
No sooner had I posted a missive to put the economy into the correct perspective and another to put it squarely back on the right course; that clever clogs George Osborne has set about doing some crowd sourcing for more ideas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/04/chancellor-crowdsources-budget-ideas-george-osborne

I’m not going to make a political point about not having a clue, as I think he has the right idea. More Government should be run like this. Go the pub with your mates, get the old economic creative juices flowing and before you sober up, pop them in an email to Her Majesty’s Treasury.
I have, we’ll see just how sensible an idea it is. Roll on 23rd March.