OH MY

As previously mentioned fashion and social media have been getting firmly acquainted over the last year or so. And Burberry have to be the one of the best high fashion brands pushing the limits on technology and fashion.

Being a bit of a geek and also a girl who loves fashion, Art Of The Trench is probably my favourite social project to date. Joining forces with The Sartorialist and giving control over to fans was a risk that Burberry took and it paid off. And today they push the boundaries again streaming their show to private audiences in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Tokyo in 3D.

The backlash on fashion bloggers has begun, and perhaps there is some truth in what they are saying but I think Burberrys Creative Director Christopher Bailey makes the most important point

“It’s important that we give bloggers the respect that they deserve. They have a very articulate way of expressing their opinion. The difference between bloggers and traditional press is bloggers are often talking directly to a final consumer.”

It will be interesting to see how many press accreditations are given to bloggers next year, or perhaps how many of these bloggers will be fully fledged journalists by this point. The future of traditional journalism continues to blur as does the once exclusive fashion world.

Ahhh Social Media how you stir debate. I went along to the netimperative Social Media panel last night and it got me all raring and ready to write (it’s been a while).

So, last night the main topics brought to the panel: How can we measure ROI? Is it a fad that will disappear and what’s the next big thing?

Now firstly I have to admit that I sat in my seat, beer in hand, rather frustrated by some of the questions. It still seems that people are referring to Twitter or Facebook or Bebo as the social media, rather than the platforms that facilitate it.

Secondly measuring social media is like measuring PR, because after all, it’s pretty much the same thing but in a new real time environment. Digital marketing services like Search and Display grew so quickly because of its ability to track and measure every stage of engagement. It’s this mentality that Marketers are trying to apply to ‘social media’ – it isn’t possible and isn’t what social media is about. Of course we can measure how many comments a blog post has, how often users engage with the content and who is saying what and where, but its highly unlikely we will ever be able to say 25 people commented on this blog post, about this product and then 15 of them bought the product. Social media, online PR (whatever we want to call it) isn’t about returning investment. Its function is completely different.

Social media also isn’t anything new. People have been talking online for years. It’s the Advertising industry that has created this name since it was catapulted into the media after the success of Facebook, Twitter and the growth of the blogosphere.

The Web, when first created offered every person with access the opportunity to say what they wanted, when they wanted, and how. The only thing that has changed is the software and platforms that have enabled this conversation to happen much more easily. And because of this, blogging, Facebooking, and Tweeting are all activities that anyone can now partake in without needing development or design knowledge.

This is all great news for the Webs utopian democratic vision; unfortunately it’s us, the advertisers, who are trying to monetise this. Which means it’s our responsibility to nurture it and help facilitate it in a way that is useful, and unobtrusive.

There is no doubt in my mind that social media isn’t going away. It’s our responsibility (without sounding like a complete wanker) as advertisers to use social media platforms in the right way, on the right people and at the right time. Again and again we hear that we need to be useful, and it is all a big cliché – but it’s a cliché for a reason. Social media in many ways works the same way PR does. Looking after brand values and anticipating and preparing for the backlash. Digital is a new challenge because of the real-time nature, but his just makes it more exciting. Things are changing and businesses have to accept they cannot have full control anymore – it’s about responding to this in the right way.

A friend was borrowing my laptop yesterday and said:

“…I’m just gonna check how my digital social life is looking’

Firstly, it made me laugh! Brilliant! Then it got me thinking about online personality and the ability to create any persona you like.

The Web makes it possible for anyone to create personality, image and style. More and more people are sharing their emotions, thoughts and personal details online and unusual as this may seem, to some people it’s increasingly becoming the norm. I wonder if or when it will ever just be our real life and we wont make a distinction between what we present online and what we are and what we are doing offline. When will we get sick of the double life and what effect is it going to have on our real happiness (whatever that is).

I wrote my dissertation at university about how young people might use the Web and questioned whether they would utilise the democratic potential and tools the Web offers us to fuel political change and opinion or whether the tools and applications available to us would enhance our voyeuristic and narcissistic tendencies.

Of course there are strong arguments for both (probably stronger for the latter) but that simple statement ‘just checking my digital social life’ struck a cord that day and i’m sure its something i will be revisiting.

I went to the IAB’s social media seminar last week. It was really interesting to hear other industry professional insights.

My favourite points and what I took away from the seminar were

Let your customers do the talking for you

Mothers Meeting

Social media is about conversation. When people buy something they usually like to do some research and talk about it with people they trust and know already own it. The Web is the perfect place for this.

Problem: The company and brand can only have limited control online about the product and what people say about it. The consumer loves it because they can get real opinions and feedback in various formats from blogs to forums.

Solution: If a company lets discourse about its products take place on its site it will increase user trust. It’s daunting to give user content precedence on their official site but this kind of action demonstrates a confidence in the product and brand. This the consumer is more like to buy the product and build a better relationship with the brand.

And

Listen to what people are saying

Are You Listening

Promoting a new product or coming up with one that consumer’s want is difficult, especially if there are already lots of other similar products on the market. So sometimes listening to what people are saying instead of trying to tell them what they want can lead you to the perfect campaign. Just like the Wispa campaign that Publicis took to Cadbury. after finding all the Facebook groups who wanted the chocolate bar back.

My Twitter is pretty quiet these days. So is my mobile. The way my friends and I use Twitter has changed dramatically. This change got me thinking about why I started using it in the first place and not just Twitter but Blogging too.

You may have noticed my distinct lack of posts recently and that is mainly due to what I term as ‘Bloggers Block’ in other words I’m struggling to write anything that seems original relevant and makes any grammatical sense.
And just as this was swimming around my head I click on Chris Brogans post and realise that I finally have a subject to go on about. Thanks!

So Twitter, Plurk, Facebook , Tumblr, the list goes on. It seems like Social Media is the new Web 2.O the latest Industry buzz word but what does this mean for the platforms? Brogan makes a brilliant point. We can do our jobs, meet our friends and generally live our lives without Twitter, Facebook and the rest of those social platforms so the question I’m asking myself again and have been wondering since Twitter got oh so quiet is why do I use them?

I don’t Blog, Twitter and all that jazz because I have to its becasue I enjoy it and I like finding new ways to communicate, explore and expand the Webs potential. Now these tools have become the new industry buzz its inevitable that more and more advertising campaigns will adopt the ‘social’ thing I just hope that the platforms core purpose is the reason they are used instead of just because its there.