Comments on: The death of corporate websites: Top 10 ways they will change

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:57:00 +0000

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By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:21:00 +0000

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By: Responding to digital disruption of traditional communications: three planks to ODI’s digital strategy (Part 1) « on think tanks

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:02:29 +0000

[...] They’re becoming less important as more and more communication takes place on other platforms. I’m not the only person to have talked about the ‘death of the corporate website’ as other websites become more [...]

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:37:00 +0000

Hi,

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Once you join, you’ll be able to connect with the We First Page, along with people you care about and other things that interest you.

Thanks,
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By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Tue, 10 May 2011 21:48:00 +0000

Having trouble viewing this email? Try it [1]in your browser.
Links:
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We First book launch

Hello!
Simon here. I hope all is well. I’m really excited this month because, after
three years of work, the launch of the We First book is only four weeks
away. So I wanted to explain a little about why I wrote We First and its
purpose.

We First is not an idea anyone can own. It exists in the collective and is
merely there to serve as a platform on which to celebrate all those people
who are making an effort to serve the interests of others as well as
themselves. These include brands doing CSR initiatives or cause marketing,
non-profits and foundations, social entrepreneurs, government and NGO
efforts, and every regular person that is consciously thinking about the
social impact of what they buy or sell every day.

My hope with the book is that we can all work together to shift the
conversation in the private sector about the responsibility that we all have
to contribute to building a better world. Obviously, launching a book is a
community effort and I’ll be looking for your help in the next month to
amplify the We First message so we can convert this conversation into
substantive change.

It’s my firm belief that if we make enough noise we’ll look back in five
years time and see a dramatic change in the way companies and customers work
together to scale positive social change.

I invite you to preorder your copy of [2]We First now at wefirstbook.com.
Here are a few things that you will get out of it.
Links:
2. http://www.wefirstbook.com?utm_source=We+First+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76f4f7ad1e-We_First_Newsletter_May_06_2011&utm_medium=email

• How to shift our thinking and behavior to better serve the interests of
others and ourselves.
• How brands and customers work together to have a positive impact through
the things we buy every day.
• How companies can make money from social media by building communities
that drive profits.
• How customers can think and act in ways that is both good for them and the
planet.
• How companies and customers integrate purpose into profit to create change
that is sustainable.
• How we reengineer the way we do business to leave a better world for our
kids.

As you can see, We First is perfect for you, your boss or colleague,
marketing specialists, a graduating student, a mom and anyone who
contributes or works with causes and non-profits. I so appreciate your help
in sharing the message. Together we can improve the lives of millions of
others and our own.

We First book tour and Broadcastr

Over the next few weeks I’ll be traveling a lot talking about the We First
message. One of the ways I’ll stay in touch is by using Broadcastr, a great
new app that lets you geo-tag audio about what you’re up to and then share
it across social networks. The app also lets you take a walk around while
stories about your surroundings stream into your headphones automatically
based on your GPS location. So it makes social media hyper local. Look out
for these tweets and check out Broadcastr for yourself as it’s a great tool
for brands and regular people to enjoy. Here’s where you can download the
app for free and a link to listen to my book tour updates:

Download the free app for iPhone here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/broadcastr/id423169367?mt=8&ls=1&utm_source=We+First+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76f4f7ad1e-We_First_Newsletter_May_06_2011&utm_medium=email
And for Android here:
[4]https://market.android.com/details?id=com.electricliterature.broadcastr&f&utm_source=We+First+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76f4f7ad1e-We_First_Newsletter_May_06_2011&utm_medium=email
eature=search_result
Or visit this link to hear Simon’s updates on the Web:
http://beta.broadcastr.com/Echo.html?author=SimonMainwaring&utm_source=We+First+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76f4f7ad1e-We_First_Newsletter_May_06_2011&utm_medium=email
Links:
4. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.electricliterature.broadcastr&feature=search_result&utm_source=We+First+Newsletter&utm_campaign=76f4f7ad1e-We_First_Newsletter_May_06_2011&utm_medium=email

Using social media to build your brand

Social media allows you and your community to work together to help build
your brand, increase your profits, and have a positive impact in the world.
But this can only be done if you build a genuine relationship with your
community through authentic and consistent engagement. With that in mind,
let’s look at a few insider tips specific to two popular platforms, Facebook
and Twitter.

_Top five Don’ts for Facebook:_
1. Don’t participate if you do not intend to invest time and energy into
long-term relationships with your fans.
2. Don’t participate if you are not willing or capable of moderating the
conversations you start on a daily basis.
3. Don’t measure success by the number of fans or followers you have, but
rather, how deeply they are engaged.
4. Don’t treat social media like direct mail where you simply talk about
yourself tirelessly in shorter sound bites.
5. When you make a mistake, don’t get defensive or self-righteous, but
rather, accept responsibility, apologize and do what you can to make up for
it.

_Top 5 Dos for Facebook_
1. Do bring consistent creativity to your Facebook ‘Like’ page to inspire
engagement.
2. Do respond to negative comments in order to turn a brand critic into a
brand advocate.
3. Do recognize your brand loyalists and reach out to them to build them
into brand ambassadors.
4. Do keep up to date with the latest applications and plug-ins that add new
dimension to your ‘Like’ page.
5. Do recognize that your are effectively bidding for people’s attention in
an overcrowded marketplace and that their time deserves to be rewarded.

_Top 5 Don’ts for Twitter_
1. Don’t buy followers. It’s a waste of time and money.
2. Don’t spam your audience with constant messages about yourself.
3. Don’t forget to bring some humor and wit to your communications so that
people want to read what you share.
4. Don’t forget to retweet what your followers share.
5. Don’t forget to be interesting. You must demonstrate your passion for
your topic.

_Top 5 Do’s for Twitter_
1. Do engage with a follower when they reach out to you with a question or
information.
2. Do post between eight and ten times a day and spend the rest of your time
on engagement.
3. Do share photos, video links and text messages to inspire interest.
4. Do stay consistently engaged to avoid community attrition.
5. Do monitor your tone carefully, because it only takes 140 characters to
undo all your good work.

Overarching all these pointers is a necessity for your brand to be clearly
defined, to know its core values, and to demonstrate those consistently.
Social media tools are not an end in themselves, but rather another way to
connect with people emotionally to generate word of mouth advertising. If
your brand is clearly defined and your core values consistently on display,
your community will reward your engagement by promoting your brand for you.

Thanks for being a part of the We First community and I hope you enjoyed the
newsletter. Look out for a big announcement in next month’s issue!

A struggling economy, a world in crisis and new social technology has left
brands scrambling for profits and consumers desperate for change. What if we
could achieve both? What if brands and consumers could partner using social
media to build communities, profits and a better world? That’s the promise
of a We First world.
Simon Mainwaring is an author, blogger, speaker and founder and CEO of We
First, a social branding consultancy. A former Nike creative at Wieden &
Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy,
he is a member of the GMI Digital Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the
Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, AdAge’s Power150 and is
an Expert Blogger for _Fast Company_.

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By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:06:00 +0000

Welcome to We First! When you consider Wikileaks, protests in Egypt, the
Pepsi Refresh Project, and the online outcry against the BP oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico, it’s easy to see how influential social technology is
becoming in our political, business, social and personal lives.

The We First site will feature:
• The latest social technologies across mobile, social, and gaming
platforms.
• Creative uses of social media by business, non-profits and government.
• Fresh strategies for how companies use social media to build brand
communities, profits and positive impact.
• Step-by-step plans for how to use emerging technologies to maximize your
return on investment.

So click NOW and check out our new We First Website!
[2]www.wefirstbranding.com
Links:
2. http://wefirstbranding.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c2c11b3d1aa1cbebf73b8730a&id=66db3054e0&e=f8ba4054af

You can also PRE-ORDER copies of We First at [3]www.wefirstbook.com for
yourself and others interested in this message. It explains how brands and
consumers use social media to build communities, profits and a better world.
Links:
3. http://wefirstbranding.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c2c11b3d1aa1cbebf73b8730a&id=70e5cc05ac&e=f8ba4054af

Thanks in advance for joining the We First community and we look forward to
collaborating.

In friendship,

[4]Simon Mainwaring
Founder/CEO We First
Links:
4. http://wefirstbranding.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c2c11b3d1aa1cbebf73b8730a&id=15c26e6fae&e=f8ba4054af

Simon Mainwaring is an author, blogger, speaker and founder and CEO of We
First, a social branding consultancy. A former Nike creative at Wieden &
Kennedy, Portland, and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy,
he is a member of the GMI Digital Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the
Center for Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School, AdAge’s Power150 and is
an Expert Blogger for Fast Company.

What people are saying about We First “In the most important business book
since Freakonomics, Simon Mainwaring’s transformational opus illustrates
that doing good and doing well go hand-in-hand for 21st century
corporations. A groundbreaking approach to marketing, We First teaches
brands how to tap into a world of 600 million friends and billions of daily
personal news feeds by making an impact one person at a time.” _Jay Samit_
Former EVP Sony Corporation of America

“Few understand the power of brands and consumers better than Simon
Mainwaring. In We First he presents a truly compelling vision of how to
transform that power to the benefit of society and the good of
capitalism.” Jeff Jarvis
Author of What Would Google Do?

“We First is a critical resource for corporate leaders and will inspire
consumers, individually and collectively, to recognize their inherent
strength. It is an invaluable blueprint for building this new societal
structure we so urgently need.” Philip Seib Professor & Director, Center
on Public Diplomacy,
USC Annenberg School

“We First is as prescient as it is visionary – a must read for marketers and
consumers intent on creating a prosperous future for all.” Rishad
Tobaccowala
Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer for VivaKi, Publicis Groupe

“Mainwaring is an inspiring leader that truly understands the dynamics in
play in the new world of business, online consumer behavior, and how they
can collaborate to rethink and rework paths to true global renewal.” _Brian
Solis Author of _Engage
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By: The death of the sports club website? «

The death of the sports club website? « — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:19:57 +0000

[...] websites is on the rise. Articles such as “The death of the brand website?” and “The death of the corporate website” are good examples of [...]

By: Simon Mainwaring

Simon Mainwaring — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:53:00 +0000

Thanks for your insights Marc-Olivier, and a pleasure to meet you. I think
that if brands want to bring consumers back to their websites they need to
turn them inside out. Instead of hubs for brands, they need to be recast as
gathering places for customer communities.That simple shift will
dramatically affect the content and how it’s organized.

Perhaps the best way to describe it is that a brand’s online HQ needs to
become a place where customers live rather than a museum they get to visit.
Obviously the carpets will get dirty and you can’t necessarily control who
comes through the door all the time, but you know it will be full of life
and conversation.

A good starting point would be to work with customers and say if we were to
build you a site, what would it look like. Them, the experience they expect
would be driven by what they want to do there, who visits and what interests
they share.

Plus it would be built in a way that can accommodate organic changes in
technology, conversation or guests. In my mind brand websites need to think
of themselves as storytelling platforms that engage consumers in
conversation and activities rather than monuments to themselves.

I hope that helps and a pleasure to meet you. Simon

By: Marc-Oliver

Marc-Oliver — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:43:00 +0000

Some great thoughts and ideas, Simon. I am currently writing on an article for the uxmag.com about the (declining) value of official brand portals – aka “homepages” (here is an abstract/pitch: http://www.rosetta-orbit.com/abstract_article_dilemma_websites.html).

Within the last couple of months I talked to many people, website owners, designers, content managers etc. (spec. in the ski resort industry) about their website strategy and noticed that many of them just don’t know what to do with it anymore. On the other hand are the users. They are getting more and more sophisticated in using other devices, app-like services and interfaces. Ultimately, they want brands to become useful “tools, partners, services, etc.” in their daily lives. Most branded websites can’t compete with those new demands and desires, that’s why they look, feel and behave so draggy. Also, the user wants to be seen as an individual – not just as a visitor or personae. Brand portals don’t provide these options – Social Media Platforms and Mobile Services do. This is the mental model, that the new web experiences (social, mobile, context related, etc.) implemented into the users behavior. A “classic website” has no place in that model.

Visiting traditional branded websites became equally to visiting a dentist: “official and unpleasant”.

Now, Simon, what do you think, makes people coming back to sites? If they do – what’s the most common experience they expect?

Thanks for some thoughts.

Regards and sunny wishes from Quebec.
Marc-Olivier

By: The death of corporate websites:Top 10 ways they will change | CRBNL Creative Studio

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:14:58 +0000

[...] continue reading this post in its original blog, it’s a must read for all of you out there. Enjoy! var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; [...]