Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

The Moment I Knew Facebook Was Here For Good

The moment I knew Facebook was here for good and was also going to be massively influential was during a conversation last year with my friend Mark.  Now Mark is a very successful builder from Bolton who couldn't care less about the blogosphere, the plannersphere or any other web-o-sphere and despite my efforts to explain over many lively pints of ale, he has no idea what I do for a living.  So when Mark briefly mentioned that he was on Facebook because, 'all my mates are,'  I knew Zuckerberg's vision was no longer a dream - whatever you think of the man or his inexplicable love of shower shoes.  However, possibly because of the very reason that Mark has signed up - ie ubiquity - Facebook is viewed with suspicion by geeks and the digerati in a way that Google is not.  But FB is just powering on regardless.  In this article, Wired magazine's Fred Vogelstein reported on the ambitions that Zuckerberg holds and the genuine challenge it represents for Messrs Brin and Page.  Which can be summarised as, 'searching people, not pages'.  Do you sometimes scratch your head at Google results and wish you could just ask your friends what they think?  That's what Facebook is looking to do.  And now it's making real cash and plenty of it, exploding the notion that there's no money in the social web.  Largely thanks to its souped-up...

The Need For Speed

I’ve recently found myself perusing the day-to-day differences between the marketing industry when I started my career in 1992 and today.  And I think it boils down to one word – speed.  As a college newbie I remember coming to terms with the fact that much of my account executive job was managing paperwork between the agency team and the client.  From months before the campaign, through the launch, during the programme and at the end of the activity.  Proposals, updates, status reports and analysis documents were constantly ping-ponged backwards and forwards.  Sometime quickly, sometimes very slowly.  But back then quickly meant on a weekly basis.  These papertrails underwrote the activity of the marketing industry.  Activity that was gathered, prepared, nurtured, planned – often in excruciating detail – before being launched into the market.   However, today’s markets are faster.  Which means marketing needs to be faster.  Including the systems and processes that keep the wheels turning.  So what’s driving this need for speed?  A while back Johnnie pointed out to me that customers now have the technological advantage over companies. Anyone who boots up their corporate laptop and then goes to make a cup of tea while the processor sorts through a million security patches and firewall protocols, will understand this.  Compared to the ease with which individuals can draw upon free web power or download new applications, corporations are technically hamstrung.  Which can lead to a disconnection with customers.  ‘We no longer feel we are immersed in our customers’ world,’ a manager from a mega FMCG company told me, frustrated by his IT department's refusal to let his PC access social networking sites.  But turbo-charging the speed at which the marketing industry works isn’t a trivial fix.  Go-faster stripes aren’t enough.  Corporations and brands still...