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

 
August 31, 2009

What I lost when I found you: Life after social media.

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Last week’s post about digital intimacy generated some great debate about how our lives have been changed by social media. It seems appropriate to look back and have some fun with what we might have lost on the way: I miss losing touch with you. I miss the challenge of trying to distil the last […]

Last week’s post about digital intimacy generated some great debate about how our lives have been changed by social media. It seems appropriate to look back and have some fun with what we might have lost on the way: I miss losing touch with you. I miss the challenge of trying to distil the last …

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August 25, 2009

Seeing through other’s eyes: Social media and compassion

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There’s no doubt social media makes the world smaller – friends and family across the country and around the globe are only a click away. There’s also no doubt that as frontrunners like twitter and facebook monetize their business plans, social media will prove to be a goldmine for those left standing. What is often …

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August 19, 2009

Anti-Social Media: What digital intimacy means for consumers and brands

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The chart above does a handy job of breaking down the various choices available to us for communication. On the one hand, its easy to interpret this variety of choice as freedom, and equally easy to imagine that such freedom enriches our lives. On the other hand, the choices above (most of which did not …

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August 11, 2009

Angry twitter, clever friendfeed: A lesson in creating desire

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The acquisition of friendfeed by facebook was more than the latest battle in the war for social networking supremacy. It was a timeless lesson in creating desire. The strategic positioning of friendfeed made their brand more than desirable. It was irresistable. Here’s a few reasons why and how they did it: KNOW WHO YOUR BOSS …

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August 6, 2009

Ten things the JK Wedding taught us about social media

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Now that the confetti has settled, and that wedding video has been consigned to the ‘one hit wonder’ file of Internet history (complete with its own parody below), it seems appropriate to consider what might be learned from such a startling sensation. Content that resonates so loudly across culture and the internet (12 million views …

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July 29, 2009

Prius ‘Harmony’: What Toyota did differently to expand its audience, brand and sales

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I recently worked as a writer on the new Prius ‘Harmony” campaign for Saatchi & Saatchi, LA (led by Mike McKay and Andrew Christou – full list of credits below). While the ads are on television a lot, there are less visible aspects to the campaign that – from a marketing point of view – …

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