Warm fuzzies and blurred boundaries

Crashing head-long in to the world of Social Media is a rocky-rollercoaster of an experience which is presenting itself with a gamut of encounters and quandaries.

First encounter is the warm-fuzzies.  Twitter, especially is a great way to connect, socialise, network and yes, do business.  How can this not fill a BlackBerry trigger-happy geek with glee?

Second encounter and poser of quandary is one on which I’d like to dwell – blurred boundaries.  Since my ungraceful entrance to the Twittersphere, the boundaries of my social and work life have been somewhat smudged.  12 months ago I didn’t expect to be networking with a glass of wine in hand and Xfactor on the Telly, but I am*.  Why, because I can. Social Media is making interaction immediate, spontaneous and perhaps a little unwieldy.

I think perhaps that the blurring I am experiencing will be a big driver towards the development of personal brand.  I know that there’s lots of material on the subject, but I may well interject my thoughts from time to time.  How will companies adapt to accomodate the prospect of personal brands within their own branded organisation?  Personally I think that the shift towards humanising and personalising business will be a very powerful and potent shift in modern business.

There is also an element of transparency that I am loving about Social Media.  It is hard to conceal from people what you are doing (if you really want to get stuck in) and who you are doing it for.  This is making working as an invisible partner or supplier much more difficult and perhaps this a really positive challenge.  Perhaps we will see an end to discrete outsourcing and a shift towards companies being much more up-front about working collaboratively?  I would love to see this shift dawn as a realisation that collaborative working is not a dirty word or taboo subject but a powerful business dynamic with a myriad of benefits.

*OK, I’ve just read that sentence back – There’s an awful lot wrong with it.  I also realise that red-wine may become a recurring theme in my blog.

Great Service

Today I had lunch in one of those pubs where they virtually pay you to eat a burger – you know the sort.  I don’t think you ever get great service at these places and in our local one, you often get treated with disdain, which I find really funny.  I think there’s a general attitude that goes something like, “you should be grateful that the food and beer is so cheap, don’t expect service or courtesy too!”. 

Today though, was the final straw; my gourmet(!) burger arrived and I realised that I had no ketchup.  I asked a passing bartender/chef/cleaner/doorman for some and he pointed me to the opposite side of the pub.  So I had to walk all the way to the other side to get it myself.  It’s not that I’m that lazy, but I really felt that it would have cost nothing for the guy to say “sorry sir, I shall get you some now”.  The moral of the story is this;  yes, I really am this grumpy and no, good service doesn’t cost a penny.

I don’t want to get all deep and meaningful here, but can’t we learn some good lessons about business from everyday mundane episodes?

Hello world!

This is my first blog and already I’m cheating.  The clever and helpful people at Word Press have assumed that I’d love to entitle my first blog “Hello world” and I have to give them credit – I couldn’t think of anything better myself so have kept the default title –  I guess it’s an apt start.  So, Hello world!

There seem to be an awful lot of people jumping on the viral marketing bandwagon lately.  I’m a bit of a cynic at heart and think that you should take leaps in online technology with a pinch of salt.  So it’s not that I’m slow on the uptake with Twitter, Facebook and the rest, rather I  think you should adopt the best types of marketing (online or offline) for your business and one size definitely does not fit all.  There’s no substitute for being measured and intelligent rather than trying to be down with the kids. 

I guess I’m trying to say that it’s important for your business to say “Hello world” in meaningful, powerful and appropriate ways – by running a Creative Agency I help people do that and it’s fun.

Some arse asked me to follow him on Twitter today.  He was a typical old-school business coach hawking a cacky and archaic business coaching book that we might have used here to keep the window open when it was hot last week (where is the sunshine?) – his message wasn’t right for the medium – he forced the issue that he had something to say and I switched off.

I think it’s really important to have something to say and something to give.  So here’s my blog I hope that I can give some genuinely useful ramblings and I’m glad that you’ve read this far.  I also make no apology, that from time to time, I will be giving some shameless plugs to the Graphic Design and Website Design Agency Brighter Creative.