Social media is no different

Really enjoyed David Meerman Scott’s post on “Learning from the 3M Post-It Note debacle: Social media ethics defined”. At the end he offers five social media guidelines that I thought would be worth sharing here as well.

Read them, and you’ll probably find like I did, that they are rather common sense. And probably of more interest is the way the relate to the ethics of ‘real world’ marketing. In the real world:

• a company wouldn’t get away with pretending to be something they’re not
• a company wouldn’t get away (these days) with blatantly lying about their product or service
• an employee wouldn’t disclose confidential company information in an email to their friends

So why do companies and individuals think that the rules are different online? Although the internet may seem quite a inconspicuous place – the amount of tracking that now goes on means that it won’t be long before the truth comes out.

Companies should just stop trying to be ‘tricky’ about marketing online and just do as they usually do. People say the rules are different – I believe they are very much the same.

David Meerman Scott’s Social Media Guidelines:

1. Transparency
–Never pretend to be someone you are not

2. Privacy
–Unless given permission, don’t blog about something disclosed to you

3. Disclosure
–Disclose anything people might consider a conflict of interest

4. Truthfulness
–Don’t lie

5. Credit
–Give credit to bloggers (and other sources) whose material you have used in your blog

Six keys to maximising Gen Y marketing success

Fastline newsletter, which is an ad industry publication here in New Zealand, highlighted some research conducted by Adshel into the lives of New Zealand’s Gen Y’s today. The prime outtake of the research was that Gen Y’s like to live highly mobile lives, mainly revolving around social activities in ‘the third place’ (locations outside of the home and school/work environment).

I don’t think I can disagree with that…

What was interesting was Adshel’s “six keys to maximising marketing success”, namely:

1. Become part of their ‘third place’

2. Acknowledge their understanding of media

3. Talk with them not at them

4. Be true to the brand

5. Communication is a two-way street

6. Help them navigate the sea of information

Very interesting. In my mind I think they have a few good points here about how I would like to be marketed to.

What do you think? Is connecting with Gen Y more difficult than just following these six key points?

An apple a day

We all know the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. And whether fact or an old wives’ tale, apples are bloody tasty things to eat.

Now, I’m proposing a new way of thinking of an apple a day. Food for thought? Absolutely.

Consider thinking of an apple as a nice, round, juicy piece of knowledge or an experience. Something that you can really sink your teeth into. Something that you didn’t know before, or something you did that really made you go - ”yum!”

Today my apple was found in a visit to Te Papa National Museum in the Blood, Earth, Fire exhibition. Here I watched a short film titled My Place.

“‘My Place’ introduces striking and beautiful places around the country where people will show you the place that is most important to them – their place!”

Doesn’t sound overly life changing, but in fact it really made me understand that passion exists in many forms and many pastimes. And for many people this passion is connected to the land. Luckily in New Zealand we have many naturally inspirational places (which probably makes finding apples quite easy). I left wondering where “my place” could be…

What tomorrow’s apple might be – I don’t know. But I’m keen to get out of the office and find one.

(Note: I recommend your apples are not work related experiences or knowledge. Let them be connected to your hobbies, interests or just daily life beyond work).

And because apples are best when fresh and crispy – make sure you pick them from different “branches” and in different “seasons” - that’s places, people or encounters.

Make sense?

With these apples you’ll get more than just clean teeth after eating (or is that an old wives’ tale too?)

Crunch.

 

Michael Albert “Sir Real Red Apple Man”, 1994

Making ratings really mean something

Facebook is on to something with its “thumbs up, thumbs down” rating function.

thanks robbweb2k for this image (oh and I guess Facebook)

I’d consider myself a pretty difficult person to engage with in terms of online ads. I’m not much for clicking through but lately I have been engaged, to some extent, by clicking on a thumbs rating for many of the ads on Facebook. 

I did a bit of a search on Facebook to try and find out where this data goes to but had not luck. I assume however that it’s given to the ad buyer to help them understand their audience better and the whether their messaging is engaging or not.

As far as I’ve seen Facebook is the only website to have this feature. Why? Imagine how much more valuable online advertising would be if you could collect direct feedback from the people you are trying to reach at the very point they engage with your ad.

It’s only a matter of time, surely.

On architecture…

Some developers build to make money

Other developers build to make a name for themselves

Which is the most inspiring?