Yesterday, one of my colleagues asked me what my favourite thing about digital was. It’s a tough one, I actually love everything (or almost) but I still said if I had to choose it would probably be social media. You can’t really take it out of digital solely, at least I think it’s part of a bigger whole – and also because I don’t really like the buzz word. Still, I think one of the most fascinating aspects of the digital space is that people have the same opinions about brands and things they had before, but now they can address the entire world standing on their virtual cardboard box, not just a couple of passers-by a Sunday morning on Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.
And a LOT of people have really worthwhile things to say, may it be smart, witty, insightful, funny, informative… You name it. Whatever the topic, from politics to marketing via technology, fly fishing, or thimbles (Not so sure there are that many people talking about thimbles but I just thought of Eddie Izzard). People listen, and well, if you’re reading this you pretty much know the gist.
Bit of a long introduction, but I came across the Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog a couple of weeks ago. Sony Ericsson is the main client of the agency I work for, so definitely interesting from that perspective. Really good blog (Granted, you do have to be interested in mobile/technology in the first place), and this is someone with a pretty consequent voice: 478 Authority on Technorati (Whatever you think of it), and over 1000 readers at the moment.
I checked my Netvibes earlier and saw a post titled “Someone needs a wake up call…“. It obviously drew my attention. Really interesting and very detailed post of all the thoughts and (pretty constructive) criticism the author currently has for Sony Ericsson. Whatever one thinks of social media, this is definitely something a brand should listen to, because this is one of their most important advocates talking. You can imagine if he takes the time out to write such a long post, how many Sony Ericsson users have already given up long ago and gone to buy an LG/iPhone/Nokia/Random other handset..?
You may be already doing this, but if you’re working in digital/marketing/related perhaps the brand(s) you’re working on have similar strong advocates and it might be worth making sure they’re being listened to.
Research reports are interesting and useful, but mostly collating the opinions of 500 to about 2000 people, and who knows in what circumstances they were asked the questions. Here we have one person (And a few contributors), actively listened to by over a thousand people and in all likelihood a bunch of other followers. It’s pretty daunting to think about. I like it!
And I know what I’ll be answering if someone asks me why they should be spending money and effort into their digital communications.
PS: I checked, there are blogs about thimbles. Well, they’re mostly about knitting but still. Most of them also have more authority than this blog does ;o)
