middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Hi there. I think I forgot to say on here, but did on Twitter - I’ve been mostly offline over the past few days and am about to go on holiday - hence the abnormal quietness on the blog front.

So this isn’t just a brief announcement, I’d like to join in the groundswell and recommend “Groundswell” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff - a great book looking at ‘winning in a world transformed by social technologies’. The best bit for me? It’s rammed with case studies and stats that provide some ways of looking at ROI and installing confidence in engaging with social media (all that stuff that companies like and need if they don’t necessarily see it for themselves as active participants).

There’s a blog here about the book and you can of course buy it in all good bookshops (I actually picked it up at Terminal 3 at Heathrow). Oh and here’s why you should buy it (according to the authors):

Ten Things You’ll Only Find In Groundswell

1. Rock-solid credibility. Groundswell is based on facts and experience from analysts who have advised more than 100 business clients on social technology strategy.

2. Breadth. Groundswell includes chapters for managers and executives in research, marketing, sales, support, and development.

3. Case studies and examples. Groundswell cites 65 corporate examples including 25 full case studies in a variety of industries and countries around the world.

4. Data. Groundswell features data from Forrester research consumer surveys in the US, six Asian countries, and seven European countries. Try out our profile tool.

5. Web resources. Groundswell’s Web site includes links to sites in the book and notes. Plus Josh and Charlene’s long-running and popular blog.

6. Visionary advice. The book includes actionable strategic and tactical advice for managers in every chapter. The last three chapters boldly describe how the Groundswell will transform your company and your future.

7. Focus on ROI. Every case in the book focuses on the specific business return from social strategy, including three ROI calculation templates.

8. Great writing. Groundswell is written in a personal, engaging style that makes it very easy to read. It tastes good, and it’s good for you, too.

9. Prominent authors. Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff, and Forrester Research are the acknowledged social technology experts, quoted in national media more than any other source on this growing trend.

10. A community of people like you. Groundswell’s discussion forum connects you to other social technology strategists throughout the world.

Yesterday I spoke to Anthony about PR FAIL and again, it made me ask myself if I was being too harsh with this post and setting up PR FAIL. I thought about it for a while and then decided, nope, I’m not - I’m just trying to make it easier for people to face up to some of the really basic mistakes that are being made all around the web and the current (and unchanged in most cases) perception most people have when it comes to PR on the web and engagement with bloggers.

Then, as it happens - later on in the day - this popped up in my Twitter stream via Whatleydude (who also wrote a great post recently on o2, CPW and evangelists) - a great post full of insight (and a whole load of reality) from top blogger Vero (aka Canadian Girl), positioned as an open letter to PR agencies to try and help things change for the better.

Here’s the summary Do’s and Don’ts’ that end a blunt, honest post about how PR people engage with bloggers, complete with real life examples. You should head on over there and share your experiences. Together we can all change this - just as you encourage all the brands you work with to listen to the conversations on the web, now is the time for the PR industry to listen and CHANGE.

Personally, I think it boils down to two words: Be Human. Over to Vero . . . . . .

Do…

- Have a Twitter account or personal blog where we can find out about the real you.
- Have a product geek or evangelist we can speak to and quiz without getting the canned marketing answers (Carphone Warehouse and O2, I’m looking at you, guys. You could have definitely done with a public-facing real-person on the days surrounding the iPhone launch.)
- Participate in events in an altruistic way every so often. We’ll get to know each other, and it’s bound to be good for your karma.
- Put some chili in your cornflakes; By that, I mean, have genuine energy and passion about your client’s product. If you don’t get up in the morning loving your job, maybe you need to find something else to do.

Don’t…

- Try to buy our participation to your event. Telling me you’ll pay £150 to show up on Thursday morning with a video camera for a “secret launch” isn’t social media, it’s cheap labour and fake hype.
- Send us a stock press release with an intro that betrays you’ve never even looked at our blogs
- Always play it so safe that we’d rather read the back of the cereal packet than your press release. Have some balls, and hey, have some fun!
- Don’t run with scissors Be afraid of asking a couple of bloggers for a pint to bounce some ideas. Most of them will be happy to help you out!

As for PR FAIL, it’s a ’see what happens’ thing as I said at the time - so make sure you keep sharing your experiences by using the tag ‘prfail’ or ‘uselesspr’ in any Tweets about some of the bad experiences you have. And let’s ’see what happens’ . . . . will things change?

PS I’ve now sorted out the feed after I found out Feedblendr had gone offline, so I had to set up a Twummize feed and everything should be working properly again now, aside from the del.icio.us integration.

UPDATE 22/7 - Lloyd has blogged about this and reminded people that ‘we don’t have to write anything’. Valid point and makes it even more important to bring value to the conversation and be interesting.

Just a thought, but what if you could plug in your 3G USB dongle (Mine’s a Vodafone Pebble thingy) into an Apple Airport Express? Would be very useful indeed. Maybe you can do it already?! (Surely it’s all in the software, though I’m sure there is a really obvious reason why it couldn’t happen)

That also got me thinking about lots of other things that could, should and will happen. As hardware gets more and more connected and connectable, things like X10 get more mainstream and Maplin keeps on having sales - then who knows what we’re going to come up with. And I’m not just talking about brands/companies. I mean us, the geeks, the ones tinkering with things and doing all that stuff that voids warranties, infringes copyright and breaks new boundaries.

There’s so much right (and wrong) with this, which reminds me, I need to finish Zelda.

This (from Will) just tickled me. An alternative to those logo-fests at the beginning of your next presentation perhaps? If I was a super fast moving cunning brand I’d quickly build an app that lets people upload their own profile pictures into it and re-save with their own face on the Tron Guy body.

Here’s the guy himself talking on Current about memes and how he became one. I think he may be stuck in a recurring meme loop.

Update 7/7 - looks as though Sir TBL has already shared a few thoughts.

Sir Tim Berners Lee is in town tomorrow and ahead of his speech, the guys at Nesta have been asking people for their thoughts on hopes and fears for the web of the future. I’m sure Sir TBL will share some of his own tomorrow, but in the meantime here’s the results of what everyone said.

Hopes:

Fears:

If like me you didn’t sort out going in time (like me, grrrr), there will be a live webcast somewhere near here, which I’m hoping will be on a par with the 2gether08 one - which really was rather good indeed.

I love it when little bits of ‘human’ appear in the midst of all the 1’s and 0’s of the web. For the second time now I just spotted the tiny ‘Get some sleep’ message from Google and it made me smile. It’s so small it looks a bit funny (I put the red thing on), but those little touches are great and more and more ‘human’ is beginning to break out of the sign up pages and 404 messages and into bigger things on the web these days. More to come on this and for now, I’m going to listen to Google and ZZZZ.

Uh oh. So awesome, I just reached for my credit card of the future. Waiting for iPhones to be used as turntables at some point this Summer and loads more impossibly cool stuff like this. Bring. It. On.

Final Product // ATTIGO TT from Scott Hobbs on Vimeo.

UPDATE - Just looked more closely and it looks like Mac OS X in action, using touchscreens with the software action running on the side.

[Via here, source of much goodness]

Random one this one. middledigit has ended up on the shortlist for the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards in the Web 2.0 and Business blogs category - alongside Techcrunch UK (yes, Techcrunch UK!!!), Roo Reynolds, UK Web Focus and a few other blogs that I should no doubt be reading. I think I nominated myself as one of those throw away things you do to see what happens and now I’m a little surprised to find out I’m on the shortlist.

Not entirely certain what to say, other than go and vote for Mike/Techcrunch UK or another blog that I think is far more deserving than I am! You can of course vote for me if you like, but I’d urge you to think strongly about the competition. Whilst this week has seen me being particularly chuffed at the Twitter poll being referenced over at the Guardian, I think I’m a little bit off being suitable to be shortlisted alongside some of those other bloggers in the category.

Thank you for shortlisting me though Computer Weekly - just not really sure what to do, other than whack the badge up there on the right and see what happens.

Wow. That’s the way to do it. How to be at a conference but not be at a conference - live broadcasting of 2gether08. More of this please!