December 2008

Over the past week I have been exposed to countless top 10 lists for social media such as 2009 predictions, best apps, communities, twitter tools etc… so I decided that “if I can not beat them, I’d join them.”

My very own list however is a Top 6 list of UK bloggers I’ll be following with an attentive eye in 2009.  The criteria for my Top 6 list is based upon the following methodology:

1. UK bloggers only.  Sorry to disappoint all the US bloggers but there is so much exposure on US bloggers that I wanted to champion bloggers from my own back yard.  Those bloggers whom I’d probably have more chance of bumping into at events, conferences and maybe even having a beer with during the course of 2009.

2. Blog focus must be marketing, online pr and social media as this is my main interest and forms the basis of my career, passion and blog. 

3. Taking the blog focus further, the blog posts themselves must also be thought leading, thought provoking and insightful - something to get the old grey matter going.

So, without further ado, I’m delighted to share with you the…

Top 6 UK bloggers I’ll be following in 2009

Simon Collister - Simon’s blog is largely influenced by UK politics due to his research background in political communications.  With the attention on the economy and a possible UK election in early 2009, Simon’s interpretation of social media and online pr used by government parties will be interesting to follow.

David Cushman - In my opinion David is a true evangelist of social media.  His passion for cultural change and the 8th mass media (us) resonates in every post, whilst at the same time giving confidence to people like myself practising social media.  David will support my thinking throughout 2009.

Alan Moore & Tomi Ahonen - Communities Dominate Brands is the brain tap of engagement marketing expert Alan Moore and mobile marketing expert Tomi Ahonen.  The reason for following this blog is two fold. 1. Their posts are intellectual, covering social anthropology, philosophy and history. 2. I personally believe that mobile marketing will see an increase in 2009, so Alan and Tomi will give some good strategic insight.

Neville Hobson - Quite simply Neville presents, produces and promotes some of the best podcast interviews with leading pr, marketing and social media practitioners from around the globe.  Neville is certain to come up with many gems throughout 2009 taking my blog experience from visual to audio, giving the eyes a rest and the ears a social media massage.

John Dodds - I have only recently been following John Dodds, but all posts read so far have been insightful and intelligently written with a pure marketing focus.  Make Marketing History is refreshing reading amongst a heavy social media blog list.  John’s thinking and blog style I liken to Godin’s; very precise and “hey I think like that too”. 

Mark Earls - Mark’s blog ‘Herd’ looks at human behaviour and challenges our assumptions.  He is also not afraid to put his point of view across in his posts which I value.  Mark, back in the autumn of 2008 read my report on social network marketing too.  Herd the book (written by Mark) is on my must read list as I’ve done Tribes so may start using the word Herd as the standard for 2009.

Right that’s it, over to you…

I’d love to hear your top 6 UK bloggers or the one’s you’ll be watching via the old trusty RSS reader in 2009.

Tagged as: alanmoore, Blogs, davidcushman, johndodds, markearls, marketing, nevillehobson, onlinepr, socialmedia, tomchapman, tomiahonen

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Mat Morrison aka @Mediaczar recently carried out some quantitative analysis based upon Stephen Waddington’s Top 50 UK PR people on Twitter by Twitter influence.  As a result of the analysis he produced a list of people who are followed by at least 10 of the Top 50 UK PR Tweeple.
Whilst scrolling through the list I suddenly saw my name there ‘TomChapman’.
Based on the stats, I personally have 21 of the Top 50 UK PR Tweeple following me and my tweets on Twitter, and I share this position with Guy Kawasaki!

I was totally shocked and surprised by these findings but delighted at the same time.  So to all those who are following me from the Top 50 - Thank You and I look forward to following you, communicating, discussing, participating and engaging in some great tweets.

@TomChapman

Tagged as: guykawasaki, matmorrison, mediaczar, onlinepr, stats, tomchapman, top50, tweeple, Twitter

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Having become a heavy Twitter user these past few months I can now classify myself as an individual within a tribe.  The Twitter tribe I belong to consists of groups of individuals such as myself who share a common interest (Twitter) and unite to form a parallel social universe.  
In my own case I’m interested in following those with a shared passion for social media and our universe is supported by rituals, for example sharing links to blog posts, pages etc… in the form of TinyUrls, retweeting ‘tweets’ that we identify with as well as asking questions and responding to others.

Decline in the use of social network sites such as Facebook
Like myself, using Twitter I’m sure has now become a habit for many.  Not only do I regularly tweet throughout the day but in an evening I regularly use Twitter and enjoy doing so because I’m learning, engaging, participating all at the same time with like minded people.
I have seen the stats of my use of social network sites such as Facebook rapidly decline.  I rarely login to check what is going on with my friends and family on Facebook, not because I’m not interested, but because I want to spend my time engaging and interacting with like minded individuals (people like me) in my own parallel universe on Twitter.  
My very close friends and family would be bored to tears listening to talk about social media marketing and engagement marketing, but with my Twitter tribe we can all tweet for hours about a subject we feel passionate about.   So is the Twitter tribe starting to replace a certain role once provided by my family and friends via Facebook?

The inner workings of the tribe
Taking this further can the Twitter social universe that I’m a part of be defined as a church where we all congregate to celebrate what we are most passionate about, which for myself is social media?  I’m not going to use the word ‘cult’ to associate this to my tribe as there are negative connotations associated with the word, however the behaviour displayed by some Twitter consumers comes very close to that of a cult.

Twitter could be seen as a place of worship of icons that we admire within the social media world where many individuals are increasingly likely to conform to the influences of their peers.
These icons for me such as @jowyang, @ChrisBrogan, @ScottMonty are evangelists of social media whom represent both a career and passion for many.  
It is not uncommon when these icons reply to followers they feel that they have been blessed, which further encourages their need to particpate in the tribe, continuing their journey on Twitter enlightenment!
Many tweets I have witnessed publically declare they “cannot believe that @Scobelizer has replied”directly to them or that @StephenFry “just tweeted me back” - but this is just one part of the enjoyment of using Twitter, other Twit fun includes building up your social graph, discovering great content, tools and research.  

One tweet I have used to sum up Twitter that has been retweeted by many who also identify with my sentiment is:  ”I cannot believe how addictive twitter can be - it is voyeuristic as well as participatory.” 

Come and Join me in my social universe at: http://www.twitter.com/tomchapman

Tagged as: chris brogan, facebook, jeremiah owyang, Micro-blogging, scott monty, Social Media, Tribe, Twitter

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Yesterday I was contacted by Kirsty Stephenson from Childsifoundation via Twitter asking if I could give them some quick advice on their social media activities.  

Childsifoundation is a charity aiming to build a home for abandoned children in Uganda and their business strategy is purely collaboration which is the perfect fit for Web 2.0 harnessing the power of the community and crowdsourcing.  They already use Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and have a great blog.  Their strategy at the moment is outreach and increasing word of mouth marketing for the charity before they move onto asking for money donations.

I immediately replied to their request to give some advice on the use of widgets as part of their social media activity for the first step.  Below is the e-mail I sent:

Hi Kirsty,

With regard to your Facebook group the first thing you should really look to do is create a ‘widget’ and place it on your profile page.

Widgets simply allow consumers to grab and share your social ad at the same time promoting your charity and encourages word of mouth marketing.

This can not only be shared amongst your Facebook group but can also be shared with other major social networking sites increasing your reach and seeding content further.

Earlier this year I interviewed Ted Hunt from innocent drinks who used this form of social advertising to promote their buy 1 grow 1 tree campaign: http://grow.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

A widget is essentially a ‘pin badge’ for your supporters web pages, profiles, blogs etc… and increases the virality of the campaign.  This is a perfect fit not only for your charity’s business strategy as it is focussed on word of mouth marketing as you want to spreading the word via communities, but it also continues engagement simply by updating the content within the widget such as week by week progress reports of your charity’s activities.

Because you already have video content you can make this immediately into a widget, but ensure that the video gets its message across in 20 secs max as attention span of consumers will not go beyond this.

You can also create a variety of widgets for example another widget would include a the list of charitable things that you want users to do, so they can quickly view this list and click on what needs to be donated - as a result you increase your reach.

Take a look at the following ‘In Widget’ example at http://www.clearspring.com/services/widgetmedia/gallery

You can transform your ‘Get Involved’ list into a dynamic list that users can click on and find out more.  Your ‘Get Involved’ page is a really engaging page as consumers can interact as see if there is anything they can help with or contact their friends if they know someone else with the skills to assist. Engagement is the key to social media.

Place this widget on your blog too as your blog is the launch pad for all other social media activity and visitors will be able to grab and share this application at any time.  You can also track where your widget has been shared so you can monitor your campaign performance and reach.

You can then use this widget as a donating tool later on when you move onto the next stage of your strategy.

Set up an account and create your social widgets over at http://www.clearspring.com/ it is very simple to use and effective.

Hope this helps you out at this stage.

Best regards,

Tom.

Tagged as: charity, childsifoundation, clearspring, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing, facebook, Flickr, Social Advertising, social media strategy, Tom Chapman, Twitter, Widgets, YouTube

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