Stuart Glendinning Hall

Customers + social networking = value/recession

Stuart — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:51:18 +0000

During a recession social applications such as communities, social networking sites and word-of-mouth marketing will prove worthwhile because they depend not on a diminishing ad budget, but on an abundant resource: customers, so says the new Awareness report which in turn quotes Forrester Research:

“Conventional wisdom says that experimental media get cut in tough economic times. But social applications like communities, social networking sites, and word-of-mouth marketing are proving themselves, and they depend on an abundant resource — your customers — rather than a scarce one — advertising dollars. In a recession, social applications with measurable results will pay off.” (Forrester Research, Strategies for Interactive Marketing In A Recession, February 2008)

Note: it’s the measurable results that count!

Using dependencies in agile project style management

Stuart — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:56:28 +0000

It occurred to me that a basic effor/time saving principle of agile project management is that you don’t try to plan everything up front, because you don’t need to!

The fact that for example getting a site live ready by a certain date requires a change to the URL pointing means you only need to worry about it when you get close to the event, as each event is connected in reality to another (’one thing leads to another’ to slice the folk wisdom). Call it ‘managing complexity’ if you like.

Social networking – good for small business?

Stuart — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:45:15 +0000

The internet is a “giant cocktail party”, according to business expert Seth Godin. Here, he gives his take on whether sites like Twitter and Facebook matter to your business (clue: a lot of networking on the web is low value; help yourself by helping others = good networking). Watch other videos with Seth Godin and Tom Peters in Inside the Entrepreneurial Mind: New Perspectives on Business.

Blogging or sharing?

Stuart — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:02:18 +0000

Which generic term for services like Twitter do you prefer?

“‘Microblogging’ is the industry standard term for applications like Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku, but many see it as inaccurate and too ‘inside baseball’. We prefer ‘microsharing’ which reflects the nature a little more accurately, and isn’t as off-putting to ‘non web2.0′” (Laura Fitton, of Pistachio Consulting).

I hear that in the UK Plurk are expanding activities with the hire of as senior engagement manager (from a software development background), working with clients like the Guardian. Wonder how he/she deal with the significant cultural issues which lie behind web 2.0 adoption?

Perhaps that’s more of an Enterprise 2.0 concern:

“One has to remember though that even if Enterprise 2.0 technologies such as the ones listed above provide for rapid and agile collaboration and empowerment, there has to be a cultural openness to this within an enterprise for it to truly be successful. So it’s not only about aligning the technology with the business, but aligning the culture with the technology that now becomes the challenge.” (The Future Value Business Blog).

Certainly in conversation with an industry insider yesterday (nice offices near the College of Arms in London) that cultural adoption issue, rather than the technology, was the prime concern of her clients. So in that light too, the language used does help. Not sure if either ‘microblogging’ or ‘microsharing’ are that user friendly in that context?

A small example of how what’s obvious to one person ain’t necessarily obvious to another, from a recent Twitter of conversation of mine with Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research in Social Computing. BHO? It’s obvious when you know;-)

jowyang twitter 12 November

Yesterday’s lunch with Peter Fenton (Benchmark VC) we discussed how: FDR used
Radio, JFK used TV, Obama (BHO) used WWW to win elections about 24 hours
ago from web

stuartgh twitter

@jowyang BHO? about 23 hours ago from web in reply to jowyang

jowyang’s reply

@stuartgh Not sure what “BHO” is? Barack Hussein Obama, even his
name is far different than any before about 23 hours ago from web in reply to stuartgh

Richard gets naked

Stuart — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:08:09 +0000

Love the video, dig the tune..’Business Stripped Bare’. You can follow Richard on Twitter too.

FT’s new look (beta) website

Stuart — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:19:32 +0000

: Financial Times website re-design

The new Financial Times re-design, pretty neat if you’re asking me. Click on the above image to be taken to the test site, where you can mouse over the numbers to see key features of the new design.

Just. Use. Youtube.

Stuart — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:36:22 +0000

Love this practical blog from Delib on the merits of using Youtube, who many moons ago I shared a coffee with in Covent Garden:

It’s becoming a bit of a mantra round here, but time and again we’re telling clients to use Youtube for their video content, unless they’ve got a genuine reason for not doing (such as wanting to restrict the content to a small group). Not making use of a channel that is a) free and b) has a massive existing user base just seems like utter madness.

Of course, Youtube in a way is a bit shorthand for A. N. Other free video service (we sometimes use Vimeo for projects instead for various reasons), but the point remains the same.

So, very interesting to see this flagged up by Paul Canning, that Barack Obama has received $46,893,000 of free advertising through Youtube so far. Whilst it’s not worth trying to translate that into a UK value given the current economic climate, it’s clear that there’s a massive potential for free engagement and free value add from the use of popular free sites generally by the government sector at all levels.

The software is there, you just need to know how to use it properly. (SH: Easier said than done when’s it’s new, and you’re not in complete control over it?)

Read Paul’s full blog post on this here

Search the net + raise 5 cents for Dr. King’s Memorial

Stuart — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:28:42 +0000

Did you know that you could support Dr. King’s dream with every Internet search you do? The Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation has now made this possible with the creation of the MLK Toolbar! Every time you perform a search using the MLK toolbar, five cents will be donated to the Foundation.

If it sounds easy, that’s because it is! Download your MLK toolbar today. The toolbar is easy to install and is safe and secure: no spyware, pop-ups or adware. You can also invite friends once it’s installed.

How the very best web 2.0 people think

Stuart — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:15:48 +0000

While web 2.0 senior positions often appear slanted towards technical expertise, I believe there’s a strong argument for clients to consider people who’s strengths are grounded in a deep understanding of how web 2.0, online communities and social networking works, as this is what brings in the business. IT skills come second to that.

IT people get the technology but making that pay in the web 2.0 world is a lot tougher, partly because traditionally IT culture is often ‘object-orientated’ rather than user-centred. Online community development requires the skills of IT management, but crucially the very best people possess a different mindset. This is because it involves working *with* customers at every level in a fully collaborative approach, so that the end web 2.0 product achieves the user-centric result aligned fully with business objectives. Matching means to ends to achieved the desired results requires this end-to-end understanding. And it is something I’ve worked hard to achieve myself.

James I was a wise fool

Stuart — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:17:33 +0000

“Two years earlier, the Economist invited readers finally to relieve James I of his title, and nominate the wisest fool of the past 50 years. Maybe, as we take a gulp, and look at the world after the apocalypse, we should look wider than the markets. What’s the wisdom guiding the crowds? If the crowd got its recognition in 2006, what will help it avoid becoming a fool by 2060?” (Demos, 3 November)

Hmm, this is about info overload and how individuals/mass deal with it.

Thus my responses in creative/choaotic fashion are taken from recent ‘tweets’:

wonder if the credit crunch recession will inspire any positive change in ppl’s mindset? less ‘groupthink’, more ‘i can do’?! Go Palin!
too much information? stand back, try a little intuition. don’t drink from the fire hydrant, just catch the drip-drops!
my fav word of the credit crunchy moment: *immanent* but also like distinction between ‘bkgrd’ & ‘foregrd’ in probability. Innit?!