Simon Mainwaring

We First provides consulting and training to help companies tell the story of their good work in ways that build their business

Posts

 
January 24, 2011

How brands sell customers using something that isn’t there

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The New York Times featured an article this week on Barnes & Noble’s use of a special iPhone app that allowed Brooklyn Decker, Esquire’s sexiest woman alive, to appear in the store aisles. Ms. Decker wasn’t actually there but by using GPS technology developed by GoldRun customers could see her in various poses in over […]

The New York Times featured an article this week on Barnes & Noble’s use of a special iPhone app that allowed Brooklyn Decker, Esquire’s sexiest woman alive, to appear in the store aisles. Ms. Decker wasn’t actually there but by using GPS technology developed by GoldRun customers could see her in various poses in over …

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January 20, 2011

In social media who get to ask the questions?

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I’ve written a lot about the need for listening on the part of brands if they want to engage consumers. Brian Solis wrote a great post yesterday on whether brands have any answers even if they do. Valerie Maltoni wrote a really insightful post about the three types of listening that are critical to brands. …

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January 18, 2011

SwipeGood: Social change through little change at all

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The need to scale positive social change is immediate and pressing. Too many men, women and children around the world are suffering, often needlessly, because they’re not getting the help they need. At the other end of the prosperity equation, donations to worthy causes suffer from the high costs of marketing, donor fatigue and successive …

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January 17, 2011

How brands rediscover the lost art of conversation

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Brands and consumers are now in dynamic conversation. Of that there is no doubt. The polarity of the conversation has shifted too as social tools have allowed consumers to become producers, publishers, distributors and curators of content that impacts brand narratives. The onus then falls on brands to adjust and respond in meaningful and effective …

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January 13, 2011

The two faces of social media

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Last week the New York Times reported on the possibility of cheating in the Pepsi Refresh fundraising competition for non-profits. Pepsi assured participants that the most rigorous technology to ensure the integrity of the process, but as with all technology that is by its very nature neutral, abuse is always a possibility. Still, the suggestion …

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January 10, 2011

Brands must be community celebrants, not celebrities

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With the never-ending stream of new social technologies, apps and platforms rolling out every day, its easy to get lost in the minutiae of social media. Yet for there to be effective change, especially within large, top-down, hierarchical institutions, a company must have an over-arching understanding of the new role it has to play. If …

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