Simon Mainwaring is a branding consultant, advertising creative director, blogger and speaker.
From the category archives:
by Simon on August 30, 2010 · View Comments
One of the most common mistakes brands make is the goal they set for themselves once they engage with social media. “How do we reach 1 million followers in 12 months” or “What’s the fastest way to get to 200,000 Facebook fans?”
Brands do this for several reasons. They are competitive – as they have to be. [...]
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by Simon on August 19, 2010 · View Comments
in Brands, Community, Consumers, FOURSQUARE, Facebook, Social networking
Yesterday Facebook announced its much anticipated entry into the location based services. Unlike Google Places which is a search tool, Facebook Places is a check-in service focused on social interaction. You simply use your phone to tell people where you are, who you are with and find out others nearby. This then can also be [...]
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by Simon on August 17, 2010 · View Comments
in Brands, Community, Economy, GENERAL, Social media, Social networking, Values
I wanted to share with you this video of a speech by Nicolas Christakis from the Harvard Dept. of Sociology, on the shaping powers of social networks. He does a wonderful job of explaining stastically the forces and dynamics that drive social networks. In this case he uses the case of obesity to demonstrate how [...]
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by Simon on August 9, 2010 · View Comments
There is no shortage of posts explaining how critical it is for brands to leverage social media, build a community and lead with a listening ear. I have written several myself. Yet the distraction of new technology – breathlessly hyped online – continues to lead many brands to believe that social media tools are an [...]
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When it comes to making the world a better place, corporations are often accused of apathy (the flip-side of blind self-interest). But if consumers are truly committed to social change, they must answer the same challenge. That’s why I think SocialVest is such as smart idea. It makes giving almost effortless removing yet another barrier [...]
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by Simon on July 19, 2010 · View Comments
in Advertising, Brands, Community, Social media, Twitter, Viral
There is no shortage of great posts written on the deserved and phenomenal success of the Old Spice social media campaign that followed their hilarious TV. But apart from a good laugh or ten, what can we get from this great demonstration of the marriage between traditional and social media. More importantly, what do we have [...]
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by Simon on July 6, 2010 · View Comments
Large and small brands are now embracing social media as a means to reach their customers but many still make easily avoidable mistakes. For instance, many persist in seeing these tools as an end in themselves rather than an extension of traditional media that has always been social in nature (whether it’s television, print or radio). [...]
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by Simon on June 27, 2010 · View Comments
This week I spoke at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and one of the things I stressed in my social media seminar was the fact that “Technology is teaching us to be human again’. The two winners of the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix — the Nike/Livestrong Chalkbot campaign and the VW ‘Fun Theory’ fun campaign [...]
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