Human beings are communal by nature.  If you ask a group of people about their interests and how they spend their free time, most will say hanging out with friends and family. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen digital communities prosper in the last decade. What is perhaps more surprising is the low number of brands that have really recognised this trend and effectively created a prospering community and ongoing brand experience.

Traditionally marketers have defined brand experience as live events where consumers get a direct hands-on experience of the brand. Such as sampling at a station, giving consumers the opportunity to try something new at a branded event or interacting with the brand at big mainstream events like festivals. These experiences are still important today. But they are part of a bigger picture for marketers trying to create compelling brand experiences. Read More »

I saw someone tweeting yesterday asking if anyone had ever retweeted a link without looking at what they were sharing. Hands up, I know I have done it and I’m sure many others do it to.

Here is a timely reminder why it is a really bad habit.

The Globe & Mail reports that the Palestinian envoy to Canada has been recalled to the West Bank after tweeting a link to a video that included a hateful rant against Jews. Read More »

Contrary to popular belief, having a large number of Twitter followers doesn’t mean squat in terms of mentions and retweets, according to the boffins at the Max Planck Institute.

A new study, titled “The Million Follower Fallacy,” revealed data suggesting that hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers doesn’t necessarily grant unquestioned influence. Read More »

LinkedIn is launching a new professional tool called Classmates, which is all about staying in touch with your fellow graduates and finding out more easily what your alumni are up to, where they work and where they live. Friends Reunited on a business network anyone?

LinkedIn has also announced the launch of a new service called Talent Pipeline that focuses on helping recruitment firms find and place those loooking for jobs.

Read More »

A really interesting talk here given by Genevieve Bell, who leads a group of anthropologists at chip firm Intel, who was speaking at the the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this week and gave a great talk about what would happen if “data were a person”.

Her talk, called, naturally enough, ‘The Secret Life of Data’ looks at some of the different stories and secrets that exist within data. Read More »

We created The Phantom Clickerist because we wanted to experiment with creating children’s content specifically for the iPad with totally original characters and storyline with unique interactions fully integrated into each page. The result is, we hope, a beautifully illustrated, amazingly interactive experience for parents and children.

The market it still very young and people are still trying different ideas. How could we produce a product that makes the most of the iPad? Read More »

Great infographic here on how the efforts of Londoners to find a new job are changing via social media. It is no surprise that many of us are using social media to plot our next move. What’s interesting is that employers are so far behind and that recruitment teams are really still based in the sales culture of the past.

The message is clear: advertisers need to get on board and start meeting the social media demand. That is where the market and some of the best candidates are. Oddly though men almost twice as many men use social networks to find a job than women Read More »

After seeing two demonstrations of Google Voice Search in two weeks (one successful, one not so – presenter to phone: “Where is the beach?” Phone to presenter: “Where is the b****?”) it seems the battle has been joined between Google and Apple (Siri).

Only it seems like Siri is, for the time being at least, the fluffer for Google Search with Siri becoming a simple interface between user and Google. It could even be that Siri drives Google searches on the iPhone, which must make Google happy. Read More »

Interesting video here from the presentation that 4chan founder Christopher Poole gave at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco yesterday. He argued that the big social networks (okay Facebook and Google) have got “identity wrong” in how they tie users to one identity on the web.

He aruges that web users should have a choice about whether they want to stay anonymous or use their real identitiy. Read More »

UberMedia, owner of Twitter apps, Echofon and UberSocial, has thrown it’s hat into the ring with the launch of it’s own social network, Chime.in, an amalgam Reddit and Facebook, based around interests.

The “interest-network“ (UberMedia’s preferred moniker) allows users to post relevant links, like videos or photos, based around specific headings, like photography, or the New York Yankees. Other users can discuss and comment on the links, as well as “like” (seriously) the ones most significant to the community. Read More »