Social

September 7, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

BP’s handling of the Deepwater Horizon disaster demonstrates a lack of understanding as to how technology has changed the consumer marketplace. Their PR efforts have effectively pitted traditional media (such as TV and newspaper ads) against social media (such as the Boycott BP page on Facebook that has received close to a million ‘Likes’ or the […]

August 30, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

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 …

August 27, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

One of the most encouraging and exciting applications of social gaming is the ability to leverage its massive popularity to generate contributions to causes and humanitarian crises. We saw this in January this year when Zynga created limited edition items in FarmVille, FishVille, Mafia Wars and Zynga Poker that were purchased by users from 47 …

August 17, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwbX4HUOdE8&feature=related 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 …

August 11, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

Nestle’s PR disaster over palm oil harvesting continues to damage the brand. Despite the fact that Nestle dropped the palm oil harvesters responsible for the deforestation that threatened the survival of orangutans, a company called Sinar Mas, it’s Nestle’s handling of the issue on Facebook that keeps backfiring. The most recent issue is the fact …

August 9, 2010 by Simon Mainwaring

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 …