Author Archive

Agency Twittering Tips

Adam Abu-Nab - August 9th, 2010

With there being a myriad of Rubber related Twitters (6/7!), Rubber Republic now hitting 5000 followers (woooo) and @TeamRubber also finally inducting itself onto Twitter, I thought it a good time to skim through some of the intricacies that make a talk-able agency Twitter (the sort of stuff that’s difficult to convey without coming across as terrifically nerdy).

Checking for freshness

Using Topsy.com pre-tweet will allow you to track the existing tweets of a URL to see if it’s past its share-by date. This will also allow you to see how influential people have tweeted it and to adjust the copy of your tweet to show a different insight which is more interesting and spreadable to build on the previous tweets. It’s also likely that within your niche you’re not going to get retweeted if something has already been tweeted over 500 times – so what remix can you bring to that tweet? Sometimes it’s something that should instead be married to the insight of a lengthy blog post, which then makes it more shareable than just an old link. Think about how increasingly you can be a step ahead of your favourite sources that tweet – who are they retweeting? Follow them/their sources and who they retweet and so on.

Keeping it on brand

Acclimatising yourself with the past tweets is a good start to make sure you remain relevant to your followers that have kept on following, but firstly being interesting outside of tweets that just communicate company culture earn your right to then gradually do so.

More than anything the brand becomes the sum of all the agency’s…….

Personality

Your followers will want to see an agency that has a consistent personality if they are to choose to follow it over individuals or indeed over just a twitterfeed of its blog posts. Too many cooks can spoil the broth if they are not singing from the same hymn sheet (double cliche all the way). When reppin’ a company’s voice in the social internet being apprehensive about being ‘too’ cavalier can turn you towards news-line tweeting and this can be a big undoing (you could say tweeting is like any good creative work that needs that bit of boldness to spread on the web). Just don’t overstep the boundary in trying to be insightful or funny so that your CSR becomes an issue!

Sacrificing your own tweets

You know that really brilliant tweet you have that you could tweet from your personal account? Yeah, it sucks, but if you’re PR’ing your agency it’ll have to come through its twitter first 99% of the time. Exception being when you specifically want to curate the interestingness of your agency’s folk every now and then.

Adding to the retweet

Credit a source on Twitter for a great link but always add to their tweet unless they’ve put it so goddamn well it’s hard to beat. Mindless retweeting has become as common as the like. It’s the thought that you add which is spreadable and meaningful about your agency brand, not the clicking of a button.

Rubberversary

Adam Abu-Nab - August 27th, 2009

Thank you all for my new nerd friend from Threadless – we’ve had some water-cooler moments already, I tell you…..

photo Rubberversary

Social Media Reduces Employee Productivity By 55%

Adam Abu-Nab - August 11th, 2009

In the latest statistics released by comscore That sofa sure does look attractive now. If you have a sofa in the office, make sure you don’t put these on it. More over at Mashable.

socialpillows2 Social Media Reduces Employee Productivity By 55%

Did you clock how the first three cushions are positioned to spell “fit”? Sure you did. Oh such jestful geek pornery.

Rubber Republic talking at Rushes Soho Shorts festival

Adam Abu-Nab - July 28th, 2009

Our Matt Golding is talking at two events at Rushes Soho Shorts festival tomorrow.

One is the Encounters Contentertainment talk (Soho Film Lab, 13:00) which is a private event invite only for ad industry creative directors chaired by Colin Marrs, editor of digital at Campaign (see above flyer).

The other is a public event on the future of short film at Apple Store Regent Street from 5pm – 7pm.

Details:

CONTENTERTAINMENT ‘30 SEC LATER DEBATE’ (Vicky, Matt, Irfon & Adam)
12am – meet at the Soho Film Lab, 8-14 Meard Street, London W1F 0EQ
http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=529623&y=181041&z=0&sv=W1F+0EQ&st=2&pc=W1F+0EQ&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf
1pm – start
3pm – finish

APPLE iStore ‘The Future of Film’ (Matt speaking, Irfon chairing)
4.30 – meet up at the Apple iStore, 235 Regent Street, London W1B 2ET
http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/map/
5.00 – start
7.00 – finish
It’s outlined on the Apple website – http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/

GENERAL MAP
See the map on page 71 of the Soho Shorts brochure – http://quicktime.rushes.co.uk/2009_rssf_web.pdf

Being Media Week’s Team of the Week

Adam Abu-Nab - July 6th, 2009

There are a few acronyms I could use (”WTF, OMG, LOL”) to describe Rubber Republic’s feature in Media Week, but best refrain having read it. Though it may also read as Meme of the Week to some, I think it’s piquantly witty and a fitting snapshot of viral batter Rubber culture.

Rubber Republic - Media Week

Sky News Cameras Hit Rubber Republic’s London Office

Adam Abu-Nab - May 1st, 2009

dsc 0181c Sky News Cameras Hit Rubber Republics London Office

Barely freshly shaven from his appearance on the BBC Today programme, Matt was kindly invited to talk a few things viral in front of Sky News cameras yesterday. It was through fortune in our safe office surroundings that he was spared the tomfoolery of background dancers (see video – poor Saatchi & Saatchi!).

This was all in aid of T-Mobile’s latest 7000 person “Hey Jude” singing flash mob in Trafalgar Square (with token popstar Pink plunked in the middle). Through press attention and popstar power alone it’s being talked about to buggery, yet you can’t beat the authenticity of the original which made us all smile and share somewhat.




Talking aMap with The Drum

Adam Abu-Nab - March 25th, 2009

Chris has tried his hand at journalism and written a marvellous feature for The Drum magazine. You can read it in full here.

Why people share stuff and that meme thing

Adam Abu-Nab - March 23rd, 2009

I’d like to highlight some useful Henry Jenkins research (via whatconsumesme). Rather than tackling tedious definitions of ‘viral’, Henry explains the various motives behind why people spread media:

- They are doing so because the brand expresses something about themselves or their community.

- They are doing so because the brand message serves some valued social function.

- They are doing so because the entertainment content gives expressive form to some deeply held perception or feeling about the world.

- They are doing so because individual responses to such content helps them determine who does or does not belong in their community.

On this it’s also worth talking about emotional currency. We spread media in seconds via Twitter or email and we mustn’t forget that we often do so for the selfish reason of how something makes us immediately feel. Dosh Dosh wrote an interesting article back in July which in some depth discussed the emotional reasons behind spreading media, be it joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust. The truth is the ‘key’ to spreadable media falls in murky depths, somewhere between combining emotional engagement, an individual’s perceptual/communal reasoning for spreading media and brand messaging. The further we move away from the idea that spreadable media is “dancing kittens on boobies” the better. It comes from a lot of people falsely believing spreadable media cannot operate in niches. It’s growing out of teenage bedrooms and the potential advertising has to be a positive force in the world in enabling worthwhile conversations is being realised.

Another problematic myth is a held perception that meme is integral to viral, so where does it fall into all of this? Debunking the idea that content should be internet memetic, Jenkins adds:

“Talking about memes and viral media places an emphasis on the replication of the original idea, which fails to consider the everyday reality of communication — that ideas get transformed, repurposed, or distorted as they pass from hand to hand, a process which has been accelerated as we move into network culture.”

A very useful addition to existing remix culture discussions.

Jenkins also talks about the “human agency” in cultures, inherently describing them as something we collectively create. Letting people mess with your content builds brand culture, giving people a stake in its spread and ensures its sustainable awesomeness. Ad-vacate to advocate.

SXSW: Championing Social Media

Adam Abu-Nab - March 22nd, 2009

I wanted to pick out some thoughts from one panel at SXSW concerning ROI in social media campaigns, otherwise seen pinging around the blogosphere:

“My Boss Doesn’t Get It: Championing Social Media To The Man

We all know that social media is the best thing since sliced bread, right? Then why is it so hard to explain the value of social media to people who don’t get it? Join our panelists, who have successfully championed social media initiatives, for a discussion of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to selling social media to your boss or clients. This panel is sponsored by Small World Lab.”

Panelists:

Miles Sims VP of Product Mgmt,   Small World Labs

Peter Kim Sr Partner,   Dachis Corporation

Michael Wilson Founder/CEO,   Small World Labs

Rebecca Caroe Sales & Business Dev Expert,   CreativeAgencySecrets.com

Christian Caldwell Web Interaction and Usability Specialist,   Small World Labs/American Heart Association

(info taken from the SXSW site)

It was interesting to hear Christian Caldwell note that reach is the most important metric whilst stressing there are no standard measurements of ROI in social media – they must be formulated around your individual company. I must admit that I did come out a little dissapointed as I was perhaps wrongly looking for more examples in practice of how the panelists succesfully negotiated the ROI issue for a particular social media channel. Yet esteemed ex-Forrester analyst Peter Kim is right when he notes that ROI is based on too many assumptions and from the marketer’s point of view it remains a formulaic science.

It comes down to the continuing fragmentation of social media driving too much complexity. The number of media channels available to marketers, agencies and consumers keep on growing and then the platforms you may have established some measurement for evolve (one example might be Facebook – conversations have now shifted to status updates). Proliferation of choice offers marketers new opportunities, such as social networks, mobile, and branded entertainment, yet each of these has its own success metrics and dynamics, making comparison and the calculation of ROI near impossible.

However, the panel did offer tips for a succesful social media campaign:

- Plan

- Measure and report results to ensure acknowledgement

- Build culture and seed it

- Articulate the metrics to set expectation

- Define what you plan to achieve up front

Some more SXSW reflections from blogs afar:

- Peter Kim, Reflections on SXSW ‘09

- Nathan McDonald, SXSW Interactive Highlights
- Jackie Huba, 18 cool things at SXSW
- Rachel Happe, SXSW ‘09 retrospective
- Alora Chistiakoff, Highlights from SXSW 2009
- Mack Collier, SXSW Recap – The Sessions
- Jeff Beckham, SXSW Scorecard
- Aaron Strout, Overheard: I Survived SXSW ‘09 and Lived To Talk About It
- Marc Berry, 2,584 words on SXSW Interactive 2009
- Mike Stopford, SXSW Interactive 2009 – Reflections

Building Strong Online Communities @ SXSW

Adam Abu-Nab - March 17th, 2009

PREAMBLE TO THE DISCUSSION:

PRESENTERS

* Ken Fisher – Ars Technica
* Alexis Ohanian – reddit.com
* Drew Curtis – Fark.com
* Erin Kotecki Vest – BlogHer Inc

DESCRIPTION

Many start blogs and social networking sites, but few build vibrant, self-sustaining communities. This panel explores some of the most successful ventures that grew independently and continue to grow today. Lessons learned, plans for the future will be discussed along with some best practices for those who seek to develop true communities.

TYRANNY OF THE WILL OF THE MINORITY

Drew Curtis coined “the tyranny of the will of the minority” to explain how the few in a community will try to dictate the tone and topic of the discussion to the majority. This drew a small hallelujah from me as my experiences in forums have reflected this.  Interestingly, Alexis Ohanian later stressed the importance of trying to understand the voice of a sometimes often barely audible “silent majority”.

MODERATION

It was interesting to hear Alexis mention that comments need to be moderated in context of a greater discussion and not judged in an isolated moderation queue.

COMMUNITY IS A HOUSE PARTY

Drew Curtis believes in managing his Fark community like a house party. Come for fun but abuse the decor and you’re out.

BAD COMMUNITY MANAGERS

They tell rather than ask
They don’t inform the community of coming updates
Interestingly, they listen to the community TOO much

GOOD COMMUNITY MANAGERS

Have patience, level-headedness, calmness, handle users with grace, multi-task – Erin calls them the “calm multi-tasker”.

AVOID A GHOST TOWN

If you’re making a community don’t make forums look like a ghost town with too many sub-forums as this will dilute content.

USER ANONYMITY

Drew Curtis says “if you can’t say something with your name attached then go to hell”.