We First

September 4, 2012 by Simon Mainwaring

With each passing day political parties and citizens, business leaders and employees, and brands and consumers, have an increasing array of media outlets through which to share and access personal information. As such, it’s more important than ever to own and manage your reputation before another person or institution defines it for you. This is […]

August 22, 2012 by Simon Mainwaring

There are certain mainstays of social media community-building – creating content that commands or arrests the viewer’s attention, engaging them around some action or contribution motivated by shared values, and finally, rewarding them in some way that earns the participant social capital or recognition. Yet, in most cases, that’s where it ends and where the […]

July 31, 2012 by Simon Mainwaring

I had a special moment in London last week that I wanted to share. Five years ago when I started writing We First, I had no idea what I was doing or if it would amount to anything. When it came to writing the Epilogue, I went up to a friend’s house and locked myself […]

July 23, 2012 by Simon Mainwaring

McDonald’s Canada recently used social media to provide answers to very tough questions from their customers. They did this in two ways, both of which are instructive of how a brand becomes more open, transparent and accountable. Firstly, they set up a website through which they will answer all customer questions. Not by an auto-response […]

July 18, 2012 by Simon Mainwaring

A powerful intersection of messaging and meaning is transforming the marketing landscape. As consumers demand greater social responsibility, transparency and accountability from brands, brands are making increasingly earnest efforts to be more meaningful to their customers lives on the basis of the good they do. But this is not without its perils. Commanding consumer attention […]