I thought it might be useful if I scratched the surface on the recent social media events I have attended, and demonstrate I was listening.
27 April 2011
Below the surface of B2B social media
I thought it might be useful if I scratched the surface on the recent social media events I have attended, and demonstrate I was listening.
21 April 2011
Two ears and one mouth
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
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 Wherever that may have been archived.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.
09 February 2011
You Tube keeps you warm
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.