Having been transcribed by Nic and his French mother tongue, my answers seem a little elongated in places, but I thoroughly enjoyed our chat – largely because I got to bang my ‘co-creation’ drum again. I”m very excited to share some of the work we’re doing with General Mills in this area soon.

Read the full piece here (and forgive the scary photo – it’s a reference to the last question )

Of course, I signed up myself; first for research, then for experimentation (I set up the collaborative We hearts nails board with some of my friends and it’s still one of my most followed/repinned) – then things snowballed and I continued for the sheer fun of it.

Since then, Pinterest has come on leaps and bounds. And after building a very passionate community of pinners organically in the UK – the company is now officially launching here in the same way it did in the US, by getting 300 passionate bloggers to talk about why they love the site over the next 30 days. I’m super excited to be part of its journey, and as day two of #pinitforwarduk, this is my post for the day.

From planning my wedding (cliche, but totally useful) to drooling over sexy neon installations – like my personal favourite board below ‘I dream in neon‘ - I find a strange sense of calm in collecting and organising things I love in one place.

Like every good ‘pass it forward’ campaign should, my job is also to introduce tomorrow’s blogger – Kate Wyver, whose beautiful blog Style Is Always Fashionable is like a micro Pinterest site all to itself! She’s studying for her A-levels at the moment, looks like she loves Friends as much as me – and owns a Canon 1100D called Bernard.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about with all this Pinterest malarky, it’s really simple and the best thing to do is sign up to try it for yourself. Make sure you pop by and say hello from time to time

This video is insane though and I can’t stop watching it. CAN’T. STOP.

They’re on tour this year, with international gigs, UK festivals and a few selected O2 venues announced for starters.

Tickets are now on pre-sale, and honestly, the Jaxx are one of the most amazing bands I’ve ever seen (five times). Go go go!

Check out the full podcast here.

You can read the full piece here, but the key for me is my ‘what’s will we see in the next 12-18 months’ question.

I’m obsessing over influencer co-creation at the moment (collaborating with bloggers or those with social influence on projects rather than traditional ‘pitching’), and this week it’s been front of mind – both for me looking at how to better work alongside the people we want to get on our team, and what clients are asking us to do.

Exciting times.

Second, how great are web profiles from Instagram?!

Our task is to to talk about the next stage of social media (no biggie). I’m keen to hear the views of the group on this one; and share our thoughts from TMW on real time marketing, community management moving in-house and content becoming more than just writing for a brand-owned entity.

I’m assuming this is part of an attempt to profile and add colour to those who take advantage of PeerPerks, to be able to show brands just what they’re buying into. It’s a great idea to do this kind of activity to support the demographic data Peer Index already has at its fingertips.

You can read mine, and everybody else’s, here.

Aarti summarised the 20 minute chat I had with her into the succinct comment below, but the jist of it (which Rick Wion, director of social media at McDonald’s, seems to agree with) is that in an ideal world, community management should be managed internally (whether that’s a point person or someone physically doing the platform moderation) with the support of an agency providing input into reactive design, content creation and best practice.

“I had been writing about people to taking community management in-house for more than two years before joining TMW because I expected [the industry] to be more advanced. Yet, the demand from clients to have us manage their communities has just begun and we’ve seen a tremendous spike just in the last 10 months. For companies, like Nike, taking social media all in-house makes sense. But many companies are still asking questions like: ‘What is the best platform? What will I say? How will I support this?’ When a client does not have the internal resources or the knowledge of best practices, it makes sense to give community management to a trusted agency.”

Of course, that’s not always possible – and there’s a wide array of maturity in terms of knowledge from brand to brand – but this is the best way to approach it to ensure that tone of voice is true, but that you’re learning from a team that can share learnings from multiple industries and accounts.

You can read the full article here.

Set out to highlight women doing great things in the industry  - I was thrilled to be one of the 27 finalists.

My biggest, and most positive, takeaway was the huge emphasis on mentorship, being a role model and retaining work/life balance. These are three of the things I value most in a working environment, and a great thing to see being promoted as key to success.

You can read more about the awards here (and sign up for the IPA newsletter in the process).

Image via the whole internet

Hints of Lily Allen’s filthy mouth and Kate Nash’s ‘London’ accent all slapped on top of something that sounds like a Roisin Murphy backing track.

She’s got a cuter-than-punch pixie chop, ginger hair and loads of freckles as well. All in all, bloody lovely.

Follow her on Twitter for updates, or else check out her website.

The first – that of measurement – is the holy grail for anyone working in this space. Still. Rolling out ‘it’s all about being human’ or ‘you can engage with your audience on a completely different level’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Yes, these two points are relevant when you’re looking at the value of investment in social – but that’s totally different to working out the return.

I noticed that during one particular session, there was a definite lack of footfall in the room in comparison to other panels on different topics. Were we approaching this from too broad an angle? Are people only interested in panels that provide three-step approaches to finding a definite answer, and anything else isn’t worth it?

I’ve thought on this several times, and have come to the conclusion that yes – part of the entire psychology of attending an event in to be able to walk away, report back to your office and provide clear steps to implement what you’ve seen. That way you’re able to prove that attending was worthwhile. For social it’s not quite that simple. Of course, this is also pleasing proof that levels of awareness are such that broader topics aren’t as useful as they used to be – people are now fully on board with the idea of social, its value, what can be done – and are starting to look for more specific advice. How can I link up my email database with social following to provide better, more appropriate communication? What type of social functionality should I be including within my website? Is social commerce worth  investing in? How should I structure my social profiles taking masterbrand and local markets into consideration? I could go on.

Returning the issue of providing direct guidance on measurements. The reason why panels to do with this topic still have such vague titles is that there’s no shared opinion when it comes to ROI within social. Agencies, trade bodies, brands; we all approach it from different ways. There are no industry standards; there are no ‘must do’ tactics (despite what the most vocal within our industry might say). There’s best practice, yes, but there’s no universally recognised way of working out what social media can really get you for your money.

You could argue that there are other areas that suffer the same fate, but social is (still) new kid on the block – with more people claiming they have the answer than any other. With so many people selling the Emperor new clothes, chaos reigns supreme.

When you get down to it. There’s really two ways of looking at the value of social.

The first is the most simplistic – whereby you consider the ROI of marketing investment. You look at how much you spend on marketing, and you set this off against; sales (very difficult and often producing not very impressive numbers), interaction (are people talking about us and therefore are we creating brand awareness) or slightly more complex comparisons where you take a focus group of social ‘fans’ (on Facebook, Twitter etc), compare their likelihood to purchase a product and such – then align with standard brand-tracking so that the data holds up in the context of other disciplines.

There’s enough to disagree about right there, but it’s actually the second method where things come unstuck. The bigger picture means looking at the entire spectrum of gains that include (among others) enhanced business intelligence, improved reputation, more effective management of the customer experience, the ability to link and amplify real-world events, improved business performance and more rapid NPD. In this case, both financial and non-financial gains come into play, and you start getting into complex, company-specific econometric modelling.

And that’s the crux of it. It’s unlikely that you’ll come up with an answer to this in an hour. What you can do with that time is assess the various approaches and then return to base to decide whether they’re suitable for your business, what kind of data they’ll provide you and what you can do with it. Whichever method you choose, when it comes to assessing the value OR return of social activity; there aren’t any shortcuts.

Image via Brain Traffic.

Sky put on one hell of a bash at The Box in Soho, complete with sickly-sweet raspberry cocktails that were described as being ‘kind of like Vodka Collins’ but tasted more like strawberry Fruit Pastilles (yum).

We sat, we waited, while delicious bites were brought out (too nice to let get away it seemed, as people scrambled across the room to eat more of them). Very nice parmesan crisp with beef tartare, if you ever need a steer.

Ahead of the showing, we heard from Elaine Pyke, Director of Sky Atlantic HD. She gave us a rousing intro, pointing to Girls being one of the ‘most seminal comedy dramas of this decade, if not ever’ before Dunham herself appeared on screen with a message recorded just for us.

We then settled down to watch, and I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Having all but devoured Season one in almost one sitting, we were lucky to have only had a four week gap inbetween the new series – largely because for the first time it was showing in the UK on the same day as the US.

Just an awkwardly honest (as you’d expect from a Judd Apatow project), just as funny, with the main four characters displaying all of the same traits that made us love and relate to them.

My only criticism is that while controversy around the lack of ethnic variety in the cast is answered by Dunham from the start, and the scenes between Hannah, her new bit (played by Community’s Donald Glover) and Elijah, are amusing – that storyline seems a little forced. But hey, give it time.

I’m also a sucker for the INCREDIBLE soundtrack. They say music can destroy or lift film and TV to a higher level. Girls’ producers have done an amazing job, with Robyn’s ‘Dancing on my Own’ perfectly capturing the vibe of the series, and becoming an instant addition to every twenty-something women’s playlist everywhere (despite it being released two whole years earlier than the show). Check out the full tracklisting, it’s truly a great mix of electro, guitar and moody female vocal.

Missed it? Catch up today before episode two tomorrow, showing on Sky Atlantic HD at 10pm.

I chatted with Kiron from Synthesio about uses for monitoring tech, ownership of social and case studies galore.

…

1. What are your recommended top 3 best uses for social media monitoring? Why should brands listen to social media?

- To assist with content strategy; both taking themes that people naturally talk about and using them to inform your content calendar, as well as review how well new ideas have gone down within a community.
- Crisis management; especially if you’re working with a large community, you need to know when something’s gone wrong and you need to know in real time
- Highlight key influencers, reviewing the most active/passionate and then reaching out to them appropriately

2. Who do you feel should ‘own’ social media monitoring in business / which departments (if any) have owned it in social media monitoring companies you’ve worked for?

It’s tricky, because there are so many  approaches to this question. I’ve worked for PR agencies who ‘own’ it, I’ve used it as a content editor and within publishing roles. Really, anyone can own it, but whoever is managing a community on a day to day basis needs to have access to social monitoring – and more importantly be able to interpret the data appropriately. That’s the crux; access.

3. What’s your most hated social media buzzword?

Less buzzword, more annoying descriptor; anything in the social media guru/ninja camp. It’s that cringe-worthy narcissism that makes me die a little bit inside.

4. What’s your favorite example/use case of ROI in social media listening?

I quite like the ‘mission control’ approach of Gatorade, Dell, Nokia and the like. While it’s not ROI as such, it’s about raising awareness of a brand’s own social activity internally – which is really valuable. Plus, in many of these cases, social teams use these rooms packed with screens and charts to measure what’s being said online in real time, so it’s a reputation management exercise as well.

5. What do you feel are the biggest challenges with social media listening solutions right now, and what would you love to see as the next big innovation(s) in listening?

Two main things; a lack of Facebook integration and differentiation between tools. The former is just something we’ve all got to live with, but on the last point – it’s impossible to really tell the key differences between tools. Since the technology develops so quickly, it’s actually quite difficult to gauge whether you’re using the best solution unless you invest heavily in constantly reviewing them. We all do it of course, but the need is so much greater for listening tools than with any other social technology.

She wanted to celebrate appearing on the list, saying that when she reads about women working in the digital media industry it’s usually about the lack of female talent or speculation on how we can encourage more women into the industry.

“Personally, I feel that this angle is a bit doom and gloom and I’m not even 100 percent sold on the fact that there are hardly any women working in digital media – even so, how can we encourage more women into digital when we pursue the lack of talent angle?  It’s not very inspiring!

Thinking about it further, as a women working in digital, I have never felt underrepresented or that I’m not as influential as my male counterparts.  Right, OK, I’m in a pretty unique position with my doctorate in social media but over the years I have been in contact with creative, influential and inspiring women.”

Needless to say, I agree. The few questions she asked are below…

• Your career journey: I’ve had an unusual mixture of roles throughout my career, starting in tech PR, moving into journalism, doing a bit of client-side work and now returning to a creative agency. The skills required to do my job are a total mixture of all of these, and without that awareness of relationship-building, editorial and in-house ­ I wouldn’t be able to do what I¹m doing now.
• Do you think that being female has impacted upon your career progression? Not at all. While many within the industry seem fairly focused on the issue, I’ve been much more interested in getting on with things and just doing a good job. That said, I haven’t had children yet, so perhaps that’ll change my views ­ but if anything my age has been more problematic.
• In general, do you think there is a male bias in the digital media industry? Not really, it’s just the case that SO many of the most vocal thought leaders are men. That isn’t necessarily a reflection of the industry itself. We’re a near 50/50 split here for instance; and many of my peers work in similar environments.
• Do you do anything to attract more female talent to your organisation? Not specifically. I hire people with the right skills, regardless of their gender ­ and that’s something we do at TMW across the board.

I’m hoping to line up on timing for Japan’s Winter Lights Festival. So. Beautiful.

My view is one of caution; as per the below:

“We were promised that consumers would be shopping from their favourite programmes via their remote, yet very little has materialised.

Vikki Chowney, head of community at creative influence agency TMW, notes that the medium is still in its infancy. ‘Like most new technology, not all consumers will respond to it. There is no doubt that the idea of an interactive hot spot is more exciting to marketers than consumers,’ she adds.

Spyro Korsanos, chief executive of digital ad specialist Mediasyndicator, warns that marketers must also remember that consumers have distinct mindsets – they either want to shop or are in a frame of mind for content consumption. ‘The probability of consumers wanting to purchase products straightaway while watching shoppable ads is questionable, so, emphasis needs to be placed on branding and encouraging user engagement in an ad context. This ensures that these types of ads make a long-standing impact after initial exposure, by being relevant to the consumer at every stage of their buying cycle’, he adds.

This is not to say that there are not substantial success stories already. Fashion brand Jaeger enabled consumers to ‘shop the catwalk’ with fully shoppable videos. Jaeger claims these had a click-through rate of 13% and drove a 300% increase in basket size.

Could this translate to an FMCG brand? ‘The excitement for a consumer spending £1.50 on an FMCG product isn’t the same as the high-ticket items at Burberry or Jaeger,’ admits Chowney. However, she points to the role of coupons or incentives as an engagement driver.

The age of convenience

As consumers demand products faster and more efficiently, enabling them to shop in their own environments is key. Clare Cryer, managing director of Integer London, the promotional, retail and shopper marketing arm of TBWA\UK, says that, as it develops, shoppable content will become far more intuitive. ‘Amazon has become a top five retailer because of convenience and the fact it is trusted,’she says.

Cryer believes that in the long term, brands’ bricks-and-mortar stores could, in effect, become ‘dark stores’ existing only to fulfil online orders. ‘Currently only 6% of Tesco’s sales come from Tesco.com, but that is increasing 20% year on year, which is why it is so focused on it,’ she adds. In short, business models are changing irrevocably.

The long game

The phenomenal growth of mobile is beginning to make its mark on retail purchase patterns. Just as McDonald’s enjoys its infamous ‘fourth meal opportunity’ (when post-pub consumers pile in for some additional calories), online retailers are reporting shopping spikes at unusual hours. Armed with their smartphones, consumers are no longer at the mercy of shops’ opening hours.

Does the notion of shopping within content, whether music videos, online content or TV, fulfil a natural human desire, or even fit within existing consumer behaviour, though? The growth of ‘second screening’, where more people use their mobiles and tablets to shop for what they see on screen, suggests there is consumer demand.

‘If 10 years ago you saw that brands were investing millions in social messaging, you might have questioned whether that level of sharing via social networks was natural behaviour,’ explains Chowney. ‘There is so much focus on content marketing by brands it is inevitable that shoppable content will continue to be a focus, but it will be at least five years before it becomes a natural consumer behaviour,’ she adds.”

Full article, complete with case studies, here.

Based on data sourced by the agency’s own discovery tool, Mappr, analysts Simtan Bacha and Lisa Brooker crafted the lovely looking thing below.

While interactive visualisations like this might look nice (and massage the egos of London’s social community), these kinds of mapping activities can add real value to those wanting to spot clusters of influence and connectivity.

Not to mention the fact that people without a data mindset respond far better to visuals. I actually wrote a piece for Econsultancy last year based on research from Google’s Enterprise division and Vanson Bourne about the same issue. Back then, 90% of 250 marketing managers in the transport, finance, public sector and retail industries said that they are using, or have plans to use, mapping and geospatial technology as part of their marketing strategy.

Thanks to Jez Hughes for flagging.