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John V Willshire, profile picture
Uploaded byJohn V Willshire
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Are Brands Fracking The Social Web?

The document discusses the evolving relationship between brands and the social web, highlighting challenges in communication and marketing strategies. It critiques the tendency of brands to 'frack' the social web for attention, risking authenticity and engagement with communities. The author advocates for a dialogical approach to communication that emphasizes cooperation and complexity over traditional, dialectic marketing tactics.

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6th March 2013 are brands http://rivetin.gs/gasland fracking the social web? john v willshire http://smithery.co @willsh
thoughts on marketing, the social web and collaboration, prepared for... https://plus.google.com/+WeareSquared
this is not a standard “what’s the social web” talk
hopefully it’ll give you interesting ideas to talk to each other about
I’ve also left lots of rabbit holes... http://rivetin.gs/sennett
here’s a great thing from Monday...
greenpeace home page - 4th March 2013
nobody went to knutsford see it, of course
but the social web means they didn’t have to
those who go it’s one of the classic those social web who strategies know
it made me think about fracking and not just in the way it was supposed to
“Fracking is an aggressive, invasive technique for extracting valuable raw materials out of hard to reach places” phil adams, Blonde digital (and Chemical Engineer grad) http://rivetin.gs/storyfracking
attention is the most valuable raw material there is
are brands fracking the social web?
some context...
I’ve been inadvertently writing this talk for the last five years...
today, i run Smithery http://rivetin.gs/smithery
the process and product of a generalist studio for marketing & product innovation
the smithery principle
before this, I worked at PHD Media for seven years as “the excitable scottish innovation one”
i wrote this in 2009... ...which just became a stick that social and advertising zealots used to beat each other with... (sorry) http://rivetin.gs/bonfires
maybe this is the start of this talk, back in 2008... my IPA Excellence diploma thesis http://rivetin.gs/communis
if nothing else, it’s an object lesson in how quickly social web examples date...
“I believe that the future of brand communications lies in finding a way to become part of communities, and communicate with them in a way that is shared, participatory and reciprocal” me, five years ago http://rivetin.gs/communis
that sounds really annoying
yep, really annoying.
“Our challenge is that people really don’t care” martin Weigel, W+K http://rivetin.gs/realpeople http://rivetin.gs/hownowtofail
so... maybe brands and the social web don’t mix?
what do you mean by... brands?
how can brands be social?
“ we use the word ‘brand’... We’re careless in the way ...when we mean company, product, service, idea, strategic advertising.... ” Mark earls http://rivetin.gs/bnard
see, It all gets a bit... complicated
We need to talk about talking
I’ve been reading a lot of Richard Sennett lately http://rivetin.gs/sennett
working well cooperation The Craftsman together with “cities” 2008 2012 to follow... three books about the skills people need to sustain everyday life http://rivetin.gs/craftsman
the latest book, ‘together’ is about cooperation “an exchange in which the participants benefit from the encounter” http://rivetin.gs/together
it contains a very useful way to think about conversation
“when we speak about communication skills, we focus on how to make a clear presentation, to present what we think or feel...” Richard sennett, Together
ahem
conversation is about listening marketing folks get that now ( well, for the most part )
but more important than just listening is listening well
“ listening carefully produces conversations of two sorts... the dialectic and the dialogic ” Richard sennett, Together
what the f*** does that mean?
dialectic from work of german philosopher GWF Hegel the interaction and resolution between multiple ideas http://rivetin.gs/hegel
dialectic “the verbal play of opposites should gradually build up to a synthesis; the aim is to come eventually to a common understanding” Richard sennett, Together
C g b AD fAD Cb AD Gf AD bA CD Fe Ge A b C D E F G H dialectic wants consensus
C g b AD fAD ...no matter how good that consensus is http://rivetin.gs/camel
it’s telling that very few crowdsourced “winners” are around for long
dialogic from work of russian philosopher Mikhail Baktin “A discussion that does not resolve itself by finding common ground...” Richard sennett, Together http://rivetin.gs/bakhtin
“through the process of exchange people may become more aware of their own views and expand their understanding of one another” Richard sennett, Together http://rivetin.gs/enlightenment
AC E in dialogic G b H conversation, ideologies coexist F D
AC E they G b H constantly interact and inform F D each other
AC E each ideology G b H can hold more salience in certain F D circumstances
AC E changes can be G b H made if a strategy does not have the F D desired effect
remind you of anything?
this might not just apply to “conversation”
what if there are dialectic and dialogic structures & cultures too?
are traditional marketing structures likely to be more dialectic?
are social web platforms and companies more dialogic in nature?
it would help explain the culture clash
“if we’re used to seeing the world through a centralized lens, dencentralized organizations don’t make much sense” http://rivetin.gs/starfish
brands aren’t fracking the social web
but there’s a definite cultural divide at play
competition cooperation simplicity complexity Compression fragmentation certainty experimentation
not either / or a line along which many truths lie
big telly clients are dying!
c l o s ed
though to be fair, it’s hard to sell shoes, furniture, books, clothes, entertainment, cameras, tellys and stationery on the high street nowadays
isn’t it?
big brand telly stuff works!
"...to have achieved these results is testimony to the strength of the John Lewis brand and the commitment of all our partners to give outstanding service." Andy Street, Jan 2013
social media changes brands forever!
social media burns my eyes
Kingsmill ‘Sandwich confessions’
wow... that makes “scrunch or fold” look classy...
big telly clients social media changes are dying! brands forever! big brand telly social media stuff works! burns my eyes
http://rivetin.gs/nilofer
keep accepting more than one idea is true
what happens when cultures merge?
social web companies are heading over here
where the money is
they want to create safe, attractive places for brands to place ads http://rivetin.gs/youradhere
it’s not necessarily a good thing
it can destroy why the thing was good in the first place
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads” ” Jeff Hammerbacher
http://finalbullet.com/
It can undermine the spirit of the social web
“There's a little meme I've been hearing recently. Columnists repeating it, "Don't read the bottom half of the internet"...” rob manual http://rivetin.gs/bottomhalf
it can mean closing down the social web
when eyeballs become dollar signs, things get ugly
“we've abandoned core values that used to be fundamental to the web world” Anil Dash, “The web we lost” http://rivetin.gs/thewebwelost
i fear the day when you look on ifttt and there’s only one channel http://ifttt.com
marketing must head this way head this way a lot more
if we’d still like a decent social web in ten years that is
how?
let’s start from the dialectic position