15 / 04 / 2013
3 principles of realtime interaction in an Always On culture
It’s remarkable how quickly the Always On culture has established. It’s insinuated itself within our lives to the point people often remark they cannot remember what they did or how they coped before it. Social and Mobile are, of course, at the heart of its meteoric rise. The adoption of both as ‘must-haves’ in our lives has changed the way we, as individuals, behave.
As a consequence it has also changed our expectations. Urgency and immediacy are the expected norm. Like much in modern life we want things now. The big difference is that the new channels have given the consumer a voice. The relationship between brands and people has changed. The message – controlled by the brand – has now become a conversation, with the individual exerting more influence than perhaps is comfortable for brands. Brands need the individual. They must work together in collaboration. And that’s not the future, that’s now.
Shifting the approach
So, if the behaviour of the comsumer has changed, has your brand adapted and followed suit? Sadly, brands are often hippos to the consumers’ gazelle when it comes to changing behaviour. Look at mobile: consumer use has reached a hygiene level and many brands are still discussing the need for a mobile-friendly site.
What’s needed is a shift in thinking from top to bottom through your organisation. We can’t keep doing things the old way.
08 / 03 / 2013
Our Future Technology: It’s Child’s Play
Me: what did you do at school today?
Son: Learned about the world using Google Earth.
I really hadn’t expected that answer.
So after dinner we took a trip up and around the top of Mount Everest.
Ain’t technology awesome.
18 / 12 / 2012
Smile! You’re Feeding the Facebook Machine
Yesterday Instagram revealed that as of January 16th, it will have the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification.
This disturbs me.
I’ve been a fan of Instagram for a long time, though not a prolific user. I admire their journey, how they built this incredibly popular tool and network with just a handful of staff.
The day they sold to Facebook, I had mixed feelings. On one hand, the founders got their big payday, the pay-off for all the hard work they put in. Can’t blame them. On the other hand, I had a sense of dread that Facebook were about to royally fuck it up.
Guess what? I think that just happened.
I’m a believer that a company can’t create a community. You can *faciliate* a community, by giving common-minded individuals a platform and the tools to connect. But you can’t force them to talk to each other; you can’t make them share their personal stuff.
For every Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, there are thousands of empty social network platforms that just didn’t take off or thrive (jury is still out on G+). All those successful platforms worked only in part due to the technology and tools. It’s the users that have made them successful.
Today, I think the community of Instagram users are feeling a little betrayed. Today is the day they realised they are in fact the product.
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16 / 11 / 2012
Challenging your routines for performance optimisation
When we do something for long enough, we start to find ourselves falling into routines. It’s how we get through the day, the week, life, without having to over-analyse everything. The problem is those routines aren’t always for the best. We take shortcuts, connect dots where they shouldn’t be connected and hold on to conventions.
We believe what we’re doing is right. It only backfires when we’re completely wrong. Most of the time we don’t really notice, as the consequences are either too small or we don’t know what we’re missing.
In business though, it can make the difference being bad, good or even great at your job. You can continue to move along being average, getting average results for your average company or you can stop and question what you’re doing.
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18 / 07 / 2012
10 Things Die Hard Will Teach You About SEO
The following post is from guest SEO contributor Gary Elliott. Follow Gary on Twitter and Google+
We all know the film Die Hard. It’s the iconic 1988 action movie starring Bruce Willis, where an international band of terrorists hijack an entire Los Angeles office building and get their asses handed to them by a seemingly unstoppable, quick-witted John McClane.
Now, I’ve watched Die Hard more times than I care to admit to, but just recently, I realised SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and Die Hard have a lot in common.
Here are 10 of the similarities I spotted. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
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